episode_0145

46. Looking at the collapsing tower (5)

Finally, we meet the ‘Goddess of Death, Thanatos.’

She was slowly approaching me. With a ‘thud, thud’ sound, the pure white stars beneath her feet turned black and then disappeared beneath the surface of the water.

I slowly approached her. With a ‘thud, thud’ sound, the pure white stars beneath my feet began to shine brighter and rise above the water’s surface, and began to circle around me.

Me and her, who show completely different phenomena.

At that sight, she laughed and then gathered her long, disheveled hair into a bundle and looked at me.

” It seems like Gaia really took after her mother. Well, is it because the Patruna you ate was the child who ‘almost’ took after her mother? What do you think? ”

” If someone hears that I eat them, they’ll misunderstand. I just inherited it from Patruna. Thoth, Vulcan, other gods, and… the goddess Gaia. ”

The moment I finished speaking, there was a ‘Kwaaang!’ sound next to me, and a huge black scythe was stuck in there.

A weapon worthy of her who rules over death. She, Thanatos, glares at me with a distorted expression.

” Hahahaha! Don’t make me laugh! How dare you say your mother’s name so easily? You weren’t even a god in the first place! You just took everything away. ”

” How many times do I have to tell you that I didn’t steal it… ”

” Shut up! You humans were ungrateful from the beginning! In the era when we were with God, we offered sacrifices to God in order to hear His words.

As their civilization developed, they began to think of the times they spent with the gods as nothing more than a fairy tale.

And soon after, I only believed in the saints and sages who inherited the power of the gods, and no longer… I didn’t believe in God. No, I only remembered him as a being that I could call upon when I needed him! ”

Thanatos retrieved the scythe next to him and shook off the dirt on it. He seemed to think about something for a moment before continuing his story.

” In the first place, the existence of God… can only exist if there is faith. Because faith has gradually disappeared… Because you humans no longer believe in God!!!

Mother… Goddess Gaia grew weaker and weaker and eventually left this world… It’s all… It’s all… because of you… humans…!

So… as the goddess of death, I will save you who stole her from me… with death. ”

After Thanatos finished speaking, there was no life in his eyes, and what was filled in his eyes was… nothing but arrogance, hatred, and madness that he was right.

” Is that all you want to say? Are you… really crazy? ”

” It doesn’t matter what you say. This is the only path for me…! ”

I took a long breath and looked at her.

She stiffens as if she is being stared at, and moves her body this way and that, while being consumed by madness.

I could tell by looking past her tightly shut lips and into her emptiness-filled eyes.

That talking to her any longer would not lead to a proper conversation.

He took a deep breath, pulled out his sword, and spoke to her.

” Yeah, that’s too bad. I… tried to grant Gaia’s request that remained in the illusion of memories you showed me, but I can’t help it if it turns out like this. ”

” Huh! No matter how much you say that, I have no intention of being with you guys anymore! ”

” Okay, let’s end it. ”

With those words, Thanatos disappeared from my sight.

He held the swords firmly in both hands and lifted the sword in his right hand. The sword and sickle clashed with a ‘kkirik’ sound, illuminating the dark room.

*****

The two of us aiming for each other’s necks while shouting, ‘Chaeng, Chaeaeng! ‘

Thanatos and I came out of a space as black as space and swung our weapons to kill each other.

When I swing my sword, stars spread out along with pure white flames, decorating the dark room, and when Thanatos swings his scythe, a black curtain unfolds, swallowing up the flames and beginning to extinguish the light of the stars spreading across the room.

He swings his scythe, weaves the sword, and starts to pull it away. It’s clear that he’s using his head to get the sword out of my hand, but instead, I’m slightly pulled to create an opening for him, and when I release my strength, his scythe stabs the ground with a ‘thud’.

However, as if he had learned the movements of the fragments scattered across the world during his time fighting other gods, he quickly changed the position of his hand holding the scythe, stepped back slightly, and then kicked the pole of the scythe away with his foot, retrieving it.

” You’re doing quite… well? For someone who hasn’t been a god for very long. ”

” Is that a compliment? ”

” Huh! ”

Thanatos swings her scythe into the air. A black curtain unfolds along the path of her swing, and demons flow out from there.

” Sorry, but I have a lot to do. I have to go to the devout believers who want me. ”

The word ‘devout believer’ brought to mind Oh Hyuk-jin.

‘Surely, that guy said that, right? Their new god is coming down. I had a rough idea, but I never thought I’d hear it from him directly.’

” Then go play with our cute kids, you idiot~ ”

As she tried to create a door to the curtain by drawing a scythe in another place other than the one where the demons came out, I snapped my fingers and destroyed the demons and the door she had created in front of me.

” Sorry, but it’s rejected. I’ll have to be a little more patient with you. ”

” Tsk…! What a annoying… power. ”

” Thanks for the compliment. Let me ask you a question. How do you reach the believers? ”

Thanatos smiled bitterly at my words.

” Well? Do I really need to tell you that? ”

” Unlike me, you cannot reveal yourself unless you make a brief appearance like other gods. That is why you appeared in other worlds in the form of fragments. ”

” Well, you were the one who destroyed one of my fragments, right? So? ”

” From what I’ve heard so far, there’s only one way. It’s to descend using a ‘vessel’ like mine. What do you think? ”

Thanatos opened his eyes wide, then closed them and gave me a big smile.

And then immediately change your expression

” That’s right. I couldn’t make a ‘vessel’ like the other guys. So I tried to make you my vessel, but that Patruna bitch stopped me.

Well, it doesn’t matter. I was just trying to tease you and those guys. I already found a vessel for me to descend into before that. ”

” That’s right… Mr. Doosik’s daughter, the girl named ‘Ho Ryeong’? ”

” Hoo~ What, you know that much? That’s right. The ability that child possesses is the ability to change fate. Of all the abilities Gaia has given to you humans, it’s the most… close to a god. ”

” So… you targeted that child and used Oh Hyuk-jin to tell Mr. Du-sik… that his daughter was dead…? ”

” Well? I told you to get your hands on that child. It wasn’t me who told you how to do it. If you got your hands on the bowl that ‘way’, then it was that ‘human”s’ fault. Right? ”

I was so angry at her for talking so indifferently, with a look of contempt, as if she had done nothing wrong.

Because the story is that both Oh Hyuk-jin and Thanatos eventually cut the bond between a father and a daughter who cherished each other for their own benefit.

” Yeah, I got it. Oh Hyuk-jin and you were the same. ”

” How dare you… say I’m the same as a human? ”

” Yeah, it’s the same. They both lost something precious, and they both took someone else’s precious thing for their own benefit. Whether they’re gods or humans, they really acted the same way. Right? ”

Thanatos, as if he had nothing more to say, grabbed his scythe and swung it wildly, but I used the sword in my left hand to link the scythe and sword together and pulled her towards me, sending the blow flying.

” Damn it…! ”

With a ‘Phew!’ sound, the sword in my right hand stabbed into the chest of the woman who was approaching me.

” This is the end. And I’m going to finish off those people who are waiting for you… ”

” Really… Do you think I just ran into you without doing anything? ”

Thanatos approached me with a mad smile, then swallowed the sword embedded in his chest while emitting black smoke.

” No matter what… even if you do that…! ”

As I lit the ‘Holy Fire’ from the sword still stuck in her chest and burned the smoke she was emitting, she continued to laugh even as she burned, and I began to speak.

” Anyway… in order to descend… I have to abandon my current body. I just need my soul! You didn’t know that, right? Right? That means… ‘I’ am already where the vessel is. ”

” What…? ”

” Until recently, I was constantly adjusting the vessel so that it wouldn’t break against my soul, and all that was left was a key to awaken the vessel, so I got that key and awakened the vessel. ”

The bowl is the horn… it speaks of the child and the key to awaken the child…

” Hey, wait… No way…! ”

” I’ll let you win this time. I’m the ‘big sister’ and I’m giving in. Got it? ”

” Who is… Sister…! ”

As I pushed her away, pulling out the sword stuck in her chest, she fell to the floor with a ‘slap’ sound.

” Hahaha! With this… With this… I can finally save this world from death! ”

Even as her body burned to ashes, her laughter continued unceasingly, but it finally stopped when she turned to ashes and sank into the water.

I thought I had it over, but from the moment I faced her… my defeat was already certain.

Even before returning to this world… Thanatos, who had planned to make Ho-ryeong, the daughter of Uncle Do-sik, his own vessel through Oh Hyuk-jin…

It seems that from that moment on, she was ready to throw away her body to get me out of here, at this moment.

” Haa, but still… For now, ownership of the tower… is back to me. ”

I waved my hand and was able to pass through the room where I had fought her a moment ago and come to a room with a chest that could give me the tower’s reward, and as I touched the stone tablet, I was able to learn how to modify the tower’s function.

However, the tower of Namsan had already been contaminated by Thanatos for a long time, so the only way was to destroy it.

As I opened the door leading outside the tower and went out, the tower began to collapse with a ‘kukukung’ sound, and I headed towards where Hyunseok and everyone else were.

As if they had all been waiting for me there, they came around me as soon as I appeared and we watched the tower crumble away.

*****

I looked at the collapsing tower and thought.

Gaia’s request, the fight against Thanatos, the relationship between Oh Hyuk-jin, Uncle Doo-sik, and a child named Ho-ryeong.

As for Gaia… if we solve the last two… it will probably solve itself.

So… what’s left is… meeting Oh Hyuk-jin and finishing the story with Uncle Du-sik and his wife.

The other one is… a command. To stop Thanatos from descending into this world through that child’s body.

There are only those two.