Chapter 157. One Seeking a Pure White Utopia.
I listened to Park Hanna's words and paused to think. Countless beings I'd encountered on Titan flickered through my mind. There had been many who wielded different powers and abilities, but I couldn't recall a single one whose eyes had gleamed violet.
I also recalled the countless battles and moments of survival I'd endured. There had been times when I'd chosen to kill, over and over. But the notion of growing stronger because of someone's death struck me as strange.
"Growing stronger by killing people..."
I formed a hypothesis—that he had used the karma gained from killing people to fuel something. But even that felt a little off. If that had been the case from the start, he would never have saved anyone at all.
I listened as the two of them shared every last detail they knew about Lee Jong-hyun. While we were still taking in each other's accounts, a sudden commotion erupted at the village entrance.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear—he had come. And astonishingly, he had come alone, without any followers. I glanced at the two women, deliberating, but the deliberation was brief.
"The bastard's outside. I'm going out for a bit—would you like to come with me?"
The women fell into a momentary hesitation. It was clear they were afraid of coming face-to-face with Lee Jong-hyun.
"Honestly, I don't want to go... I'm afraid of facing him..."
I was about to go alone when they continued speaking.
"But if we don't settle this with him once and for all, we'll have to keep living in fear."
They said they would come, determined to have a final reckoning with him. Kim Jimin, standing beside her, nodded at her friend's answer and spoke.
"She's right. We can't just run because we're scared. We have to end this, here and now."
In the end, the four of us left the building and headed toward the village entrance. There stood Lee Jong-hyun, surrounded by villagers, his hands raised above his head.
"You came all the way here alone—have you finally lost your mind?"
"Those women are traitors who have cast aside grace. They must receive just punishment."
I could feel Park Hanna's heart hammering wildly, so fiercely that even I could sense it. Filled with indignation, she shouted at him, her voice quavering with emotion.
"We are not traitors...! We're not falling for your revolting act anymore, pretending to be good!"
Lee Jong-hyun stared back at them expressionlessly and answered.
"Hah... If you will not accept just punishment, then I shall take the necessary measures myself."
In that instant, Lee Jong-hyun's eyes sharpened. He suddenly drew a short blade from inside his coat and hurled it at them.
— Ting! Ting!
The sheer audacity of attacking right in front of me was beyond belief. I closed the distance at a speed he couldn't even perceive and seized him by the throat.
"Have you lost your mind?"
"Guuhk... kuh-kuh..."
"Was it really so important that you'd track them down, risk your life, and try to eliminate them?"
"The more I judge the heretics... the more I grow...!"
"You're insane..."
Because someone's values differed from his own, he branded them a heretic and regarded them with an abhorrence that bordered on insanity.
"You've been completely devoured by madness."
Just as Park Hanna had described, the bastard's eyes shifted to violet, and an ominous aura began to roil. His pupils were glazed with lunacy, and his face twisted into a grotesque mask, equal parts laughter and rage. The convictions he had once shouted about equality had now been completely corrupted.
Still dangling in the air with my grip around his neck, he stopped thrashing and looked me straight in the eye. His entire demeanor changed, as if he had become a completely different person.
No—he was a different person.
"Who are you?"
"Fools who cannot comprehend justice..."
"I won't ask twice."
I tightened my grip on his throat.
"Guh-hurk...! I am the chosen one, here to purify this filthy world... Once the world is purified, a door of pure white will open in the sky..."
For a split second—less than a single breath—I debated whether to kill him right then and there. In that instant, his body turned translucent and vanished. The situation left me dumbfounded. Not because he had escaped, but because of the last words he had spat out.
"..."
"Commander, you don't mean..."
"They're here. Somewhere on Earth."
But I kept repeating in my head that it couldn't be. I had annihilated every last one of them. I was certain of it.
'Is this the System's influence as well?'
"Muster every member of the company. Right now."
— Boom!
Cassius channeled his mana into a single stomp, and his aura surged outward from the ground in every direction. From that moment, it took less than five minutes for all the company members to assemble.
The massive mobilization caused the village officers to come rushing out as well, trying to gauge the situation.
"It's not confirmed, but a seeker of the Pure White Utopia has appeared."
"...!"
"We have no concrete facts yet—whether the bastard was influenced by the System, or whether they have truly resurfaced. We are heading to Suwon immediately."
At my command, the company members moved in perfect unison, gathering their weapons and a few belongings before assembling outside. Cassius took command, assigning each person a mission suited to their particular talents.
"Representative, what in the world is going on!?"
"A seeker of the Pure White Utopia..."
It was Terion whose eyes flew wide open at my words.
"Is it true—they've appeared?"
"Nothing's confirmed yet. But I saw a bastard who was spouting the exact same words they always had on their lips."
"Then the one who came from Suwon..."
"Yes."
"Representative, Sir Terion—what on earth is going on?"
"Extremists... who hold a twisted version of equality as their highest value."
In the past, there had been those who operated under the banner of 'equality.' They were a thorn in the side of the nobility and the powerful, but they had received considerable support from the common people. Yet their version of equality was horribly twisted. They abhorred inequality and denied everything born of the class system.
In accordance with their convictions, they sought to overthrow even the national regime itself. They displayed the madness of seizing all the property of the wealthy and burning it to ashes. But at first, their radical ideas drew only mockery from the people.
After all, resistances dreaming of revolution against the tyranny of the nobility had always existed. People assumed they were no different from the resistance groups of the past.
No matter how powerful they were, a single faction toppling a nation was thought to be impossible. But the mockery did not last long. An incident occurred that threatened a considerably mighty kingdom. Early on, the unthinkable happened—the nation's entire economic system collapsed.
And before long, every last noble and member of the royal family in that kingdom was beheaded, without exception. Regardless of age.
Over time, the madness enacted in the name of equality began to grow more and more extreme. Under the pretext of denying inequality, they resolved to erase everything in society deemed an aristocratic element.
And that decision finally manifested in its most brutal form.
"Their blood carries the filthy stain of nobility!"
They indiscriminately hunted down and savagely eliminated anyone with even a trace of noble blood. From that day forward, people began to suspect one another's bloodlines. Fear consumed them, and it soon led to mass slaughter.
As the slaughter was carried out, their blades did not distinguish between children and adults. They mercilessly stabbed infants to death—infants too young to walk, who could only babble. There was also an incident in which a village maiden was burned alive in the middle of the town square for the simple reason that, as a commoner, she had loved a nobleman.
Their hunt continued through every village, every city. They stormed into every house, demanding to know people's birth and lineage. The moment someone said, 'Noble blood runs in them,' they were killed en masse—without ever verifying the truth.
At one point, people were dragged out into the street and made to stand in lines. Their faces were filled with terror, despair, and bitter injustice. A young girl wailed, throwing herself at the feet of the mob and begging.
"We are just poor people! We've never even seen a noble, I swear!"
But to the extremists, it was nothing more than an excuse.
"If your blood bears the stain of nobility, then you are equally guilty."
With those words, the mob advanced, and the girl and her family vanished without offering a single shred of resistance. They could not even scream.
Another time, an ordinary commoner father endured countless stab wounds to protect his children from them. He held on—but it was all in vain.
Someone wished for it to stop, but the situation had already reached a point of no return. The name of 'equality' no longer symbolized hope. Those who cried out and prayed to the gods died cursing the gods who would not hear their prayers.
Attempts to flee across the borders were equally futile. Neighboring nations sealed their borders tight, fearing the flames might spread to their own lands.
Of course, movements to stop this did arise among the surrounding nations, but no one was willing to act hastily. Eliminating those who had already seized control of the country would require a massive, state-level military intervention. And for that very reason, no one could easily step in.
Should anyone send an army to suppress them, it would not be a simple war—it would become a pointless war of attrition.
There was too much to lose compared to the victory to be won in war. Even if they won the battle, they would still suffer devastating losses.
But the bigger problem lay in what would follow.
Once a nation's military strength and resources were exhausted and weakened, it was only a matter of time before rival nations moved to fill the void. No matter how close the alliance, in the end, a nation prioritized its own interests above all else.
If a nation showed itself worn down from depleted resources, the surrounding powers would never let that opportunity slip.
In the end, rather than eliminate the maddened faction, they chose silence out of fear that they might weaken their own countries.
Every nation knew the truth. That someone had to step forward to solve this problem. But the price was far too great, and no nation wanted to pay it. To step forward and solve this problem meant that what followed would not be the joy of victory, but years of reconstruction and an endless competitive struggle.
After repeated agonizing deliberation, the nations arrived at a single decision.
Instead of stepping forward themselves and bearing the bloodshed, they would entrust the matter to mercenary companies.