#116 What I Want to Protect.
Krreung......
Furball glanced around left and right, bewildered. The world he saw was no cozy nest—it was an entirely new realm. A lush, verdant mountain, so dense and brilliantly beautiful it took the breath away. The whole world shimmered green, pulsing with its innate power, and Furball sat right at its heart.
Suddenly, he looked beside him at the enormous—no, colossal—white tiger standing there. Its magnificent white mane fluttered long in the fresh breeze, entrancing. Each strand of fur gleamed so radiantly it seemed woven from pure white light. Gazing up at the sky, a brilliant full moon bathed this wondrous world in its glow.
Beautiful, he thought.
The tiger resembled a guardian deity. Protector of this beautiful, radiant realm. Yet its majestic, noble eyes brimmed with worry, the emotion palpable. It stared down at the thick gray mist cloaking the mountain's base. Beyond that fog, shadows of the monsters Furball had once glimpsed flickered ominously.
Krreung...
As Furball growled softly at him, the tiger's gaze turned his way.
[And you are?]
Did it hear Furball's voice?
[I am......]
The tiger replied.
[I am the Guardian of the West.]
Its voice resonated directly in his mind—warm and gentle. Furball knew someone with just such a voice. The most precious person in his life, who always called to him that way.
[I am a being who protects.]
The tiger asked,
[Do you, too, have something you wish to protect?]
Something to protect.
Furball didn't hesitate for a second. Now, he had so many things he wanted to safeguard. He nodded without delay.
For a moment, Furball thought he saw the tiger smile faintly.
[Then that is enough.]
Its voice seemed to echo softly.
[Perhaps this, too, is a fate woven since ancient times.]
Kang-ho dreamed as well.
A dream? No, perhaps this was no mere dream.
What he saw was Earth's precious home—his current house. Standing atop the log cabin roof in Cheorwon, Kang-ho gazed toward the horizon. Cracks split the sky with a deafening rumble, revealing a familiar scene.
Gates tore open everywhere, recreating the Daybreak of fifty years ago.
But these invaders were different from before.
Thud—
Thud—
Thud—
One by one, massive, grotesque creatures emerged.
Kang-ho felt he'd seen them somewhere before.
The Demon Realm!
A glimpse of the world beyond the Demon Realm! The bizarre monsters that had loomed as shadows there!
Their eyes locked directly onto Kang-ho.
Furball's eyes snapped open. He was back in his familiar nest. Staring blankly into space, he tilted his head and rose.
"Awake, my Furball?"
A soft voice reached him. Furball panted, turning to see its source. Kang-ho held Seol-a in his arms, smiling warmly at him.
Furball stared fixedly at Kang-ho and Seol-a, eyes wide open. Those big eyes froze, gazing at them intently for a long while.
The most precious beings in the world were right here.
[Do you, too, have something you wish to protect?]
The voice from the dream flashed through his mind.
Krreung.
Furball answered.
'I do.'
Kang-ho looked straight at Han Su-hwa. Her expression was grim. He tilted his head slightly, pondering, then spoke.
"Hey."
"......Yes."
"That, uh, name...... I've been thinking hard about it."
One of his recent worries had been naming her little one. He'd finally settled on something after much deliberation, and was about to share it when he sensed a presence outside the window.
"......?"
Kirin stood there. He and Han Su-hwa nodded to each other.
"Something's wrong in the Murim world."
"Wrong?"
At Kang-ho's question, she nodded and explained slowly.
"The call from the Northern Fantasy Realm keeps coming."
The Northern Fantasy Realm—a world where Murim's fantasy beasts gathered. Bingryong the Ice Dragon and Kirin were two of the four sacred beasts guarding it: Phoenix and the tortoise called Suwanggwi.
As she described what she'd seen, Kang-ho's face hardened.
Beings from beyond the world.
They were stirring again.
As Kang-ho sank into thought, she continued.
"Also......"
She bit her lip slightly.
[The Murim world has its own Four Guardians. In the past, four colossal beings protected their respective domains—immensely powerful deities.]
Kirin spoke in her stead.
[And the last one...... the Guardian of the West seems to have perished recently as well.]
"Guardians are utterly unlike other fantasy beasts. They wield bizarre, unique powers. Legends say they've existed since the world's creation."
Kang-ho listened silently.
"They awaken when the world is in peril, fulfilling their roles. With the final Guardian gone...... it means a colossal catastrophe has befallen the Murim world."
She closed her eyes briefly.
"We......"
Opening them, resolve burned in her gaze.
"Can't ignore the call."
Kang-ho stared at her and Kirin. Her power had nearly recovered, but Kirin's situation was dire. With his horn shattered, he hadn't fully regained his strength.
Kang-ho spoke lowly.
"If you go, you'll die."
"......!"
[......]
Kirin and Han Su-hwa nodded firmly.
Kang-ho murmured, watching them.
"I see."
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over him. Everyone walks toward death eventually, knowing it. He'd tread that path countless times, watching comrades vanish one by one.
Noble, Kang-ho thought.
"I, I have a favor to ask."
"What is it?"
"If I don't return...... could you look after our child?"
Kang-ho didn't answer. He'd agonized endlessly over naming that child. He didn't want to leave that soft, adorable little one motherless after giving it a name himself.
He glanced out the window. The day was exceptionally clear. Sunlight poured down, the world flowing from spring to summer.
It reminded him of a summer fifty years ago. The sun-baked earth had felt like hellfire when he'd first slain a demon. Amid Cheorwon's fallen comrades—the first friends he'd made—only he survived. Standing among their corpses, staring at the filthily clear sky.
Demons. To Kang-ho, they were objects of hatred.
And perhaps that cataclysm would strike this world again.
What stood at the pinnacle of it all? Why?
As questions swirled and faded in his mind, a welcome face opened the door.
"Ah, you're both here."
A towering 2-meter frame, brown hair and eyes—Carron.
"Carron."
He spoke cheerfully, as if masking something.
"It's been a while—you look even younger."
"Yeah, ended up that way somehow."
"......"
Carron flinched, realizing he meant it literally. Shaking his head, he glanced at Bingryong and Kirin.
"And these are...?"
"From the Murim world."
"Murim......"
Carron let out a thoughtful hum and wry chuckle—not the reaction of a first-timer.
"Then this speeds things up. I came to discuss Murim anyway. But......"
He shook his head again.
"This house just keeps filling with jaw-dropping guests day by day."
"Tell me about it."
After brief chat, Carron sighed deeply.
"What's wrong?"
"Just back from China."
"You went there?"
Carron met Kang-ho's eyes squarely. Kang-ho saw fear in them—an rarity. World Rank 3, bearer of the Seat's Gauntlet—a top-tier powerhouse on Earth.
Kang-ho narrowed his eyes.
"What are you afraid of?"
"......"
Carron spoke slowly.
"You know about Paewangmun."
Kang-ho nodded lightly. The infamous sect dominating eastern China—its leaders Zhang Wei and Xiao Shin had met their end here.
"Paewangmun's remnants were wiped out days ago. China's clamping down on info sharing. Media might take days—or longer—to report."
"......?"
Strange. Kang-ho asked,
"Even without Zhang Wei and Xiao Shin, they had plenty of Chinese rankers, right? Was it war?"
Paewangmun controlled eastern China. Even leaderless, it teemed with elites. Total annihilation wasn't ordinary.
"I heard secretly and scouted their base......"
Carron pulled out his smartphone. The photo showed a familiar sight to Kang-ho: monsters everywhere, eyes blazing with murderous intent, slain. Even A-rank disaster-class among them. Their eyes overflowed with rage and bloodlust. And crawling over their bodies—pure demonic energy.
Or was it even "demonic" anymore? Kang-ho questioned the term.
He knew who commanded these monsters.
Carron nodded lowly.
"As you suspected."
"......"
"Demons."
"You found one?"
Carron nodded gravely.
"Managed to kill it with the arriving Southern Jeongdo Alliance. But a demon appearing again after fifty years...... perhaps......"
Kang-ho closed his eyes briefly.
So it came to this.
Opening them, his face was coldly set.
"Location?"
"Shandong Province, Mount Tai."
Suddenly, Kirin startled. Mount Tai in Shandong—the land where he'd crash-landed, indebted to Zhang Wei!
"A survivor saw it. Said it tore through the sky, flung out from an unseen world."
"What happened to the witness?"
"He glimpsed something through the rift. Rambled incoherently, mind shattered. Then......"
Carron swallowed hard.
"......went mad."