Chapter 331: Apostle. (2)

My Apostle.

At what the World Tree said to me, I had to frown without even realizing it.

‘Apostle?’

What could it mean? An Apostle?

Was it really talking to me?

“What do you mean by that?”

[It is a joy to meet you like this.]

A ray of hope was contained in the voice that had been empty and hollow.

The World Tree was speaking to me, as if it were happy.

‘Why is everyone.’

Even while listening to that, my frown didn’t think of smoothing out.

Everyone was like that.

Those who met me, without exception, put emotions as if they were happy into their voices, or.

As if they were interested, or.

They showed a reaction as if welcoming the change due to my existence.

‘Damn it.’

Each and every one of those things was not a welcome story to me.

That beings I couldn’t understand welcomed me.

Ultimately, it meant there was something about me.

I erased such feelings.

I asked the World Tree.

“Do you know who I am?”

Judging by its reaction, I wondered if it knew that I had regressed.

Hearing my words, the World Tree remained silent, but.

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Slowly, its branches moved, showing a reaction.

[Apostle.]

“Why do you keep calling me Apostle? What is that?”

[I do not know you, but you know me.]

At its words, I harbored a question.

The World Tree does not know me, but.

I know the World Tree.

The latter is understandable, but.

I don’t quite understand what the former means.

Even while knowing that I know the World Tree.

Yet it itself doesn’t know me?

“What do you mean by that?”

[It seems you have traveled back through time, Apostle.]

“…!”

At the World Tree’s words, I swallowed a gasp.

How did it realize?

‘Was it a lie that I couldn’t remember?’

It was a statement uttered so casually.

My eyes wavered.

I had thought perhaps it might remember, but.

Truly, did this tree too have memories?

[You are curious about how I know, are you?]

“…”

[Do not be so surprised, because I do not know how you lived in the past time.]

“Then how do you know?”

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A tree root that burst out from the floor pointed directly at me.

More precisely, it was pointing towards my chest.

[It is because I can feel the trace I gave from you.]

Only after hearing what the World Tree said.

I seemed to vaguely understand how the tree noticed me.

‘Is it a trace from my past life?’

Lightly stroking my chest, I recall.

The traces that tree planted in me.

[Although I did not give you memories, that is definitely the holy mark I gave you.]

Memories surface.

At that time, I had accepted it in order to somehow survive.

And.

-You are adorned with something trivial.

Later, the Heavenly Demon I encountered mentioned while looking at me.

Furthermore, I thought the Heavenly Demon had erased it.

Was it something he couldn’t erase?

[It seems you tried to erase it, but you could not erase all of what was overlaid on your soul.]

“…Are you reading even my inner thoughts?”

[How could that be? How could I, who am merely a giant old tree, perform such an act?]

For someone like that, I felt like my inner thoughts were being read one by one.

It’s quite an unpleasant feeling.

Overlaid on the soul, you say.

That’s really shitty.

Even if I traveled back through time.

It meant the soul couldn’t be helped.

“…I came because there’s something I want to ask.”

Putting that aside, I had to ask.

I had too many things I wanted to ask, and.

I also needed to know too many things.

The reason I had to come to this world somehow, ultimately.

Was because there were mountains of things I had to ask after meeting this tree.

Indeed, could this old tree tell me stories about it?

[A question, what made you so curious that you sought me out?]

The voice echoes.

Even when I first met it, it was like that, but.

It was an unfamiliar resonance.

Enduring that with effort, I asked the entity questions.

“Did you regress me? Is it you?”

Traveling back through time to come to the past is like a miracle, but.

I know such a miracle would not easily come for me.

Leaving aside what Yeon Ilcheon said, that there was definitely a reason for the regression I experienced.

If someone intervened in such a matter.

The first thing I could think of was only this tree.

“Did you… save me and send me back to the past?”

To turn back time.

Logically speaking, it is close to impossible, but.

If another person had used such power on me.

They must have been an absolutely not ordinary being.

When I thought up to that point.

The tree in front of me was definitely not an ordinary being, so.

It was the first being I had to suspect.

However.

[Apostle. That matter, it was not I who did it.]

The World Tree stated it was not something it did itself.

[Traveling back through time is an act of piling up unimaginable sins in the soul, and. It is beyond the power I, who am merely an old tree, can wield.]

“An old tree like you cannot speak. You cannot grow your size as big as you either.”

[Whatever it may be, it means the miracle you experienced was not an act I performed.]

I was about to utter the words, “How could I believe that?”

Knowing it would become a meaningless argument, I closed my mouth.

“So you didn’t regress me… that means it wasn’t you.”

[Unfortunately. I do not have such power remaining, so it is an impossible story.]

That it is impossible because it is not remaining.

Does that mean it was possible originally?

[Apostle.]

Suddenly, the wind blew.

[I do not know what happened to you.]

The voice full of sadness makes my ears uncomfortable.

A voice that seemed to be sad, looking at me.

I did not like it at all.

“Why do you keep calling me Apostle? What exactly is an Apostle?”

[Since you received my holy mark, it must mean that to you it is the past, and the future me chose you. If so, you are my Apostle.]

“How do you know that meeting you is the future?”

[Did you not come now to meet me at a slightly earlier time?]

“…”

[I am happy. For after enduring such a long time, I have finally met the one to give the holy mark to.]

A long time.

Back then too, you spoke like that.

“You… what exactly is your identity?”

[Did I not tell you?]

I did not hear that many words.

How to return to the original world, and.

How this world is different from the outside.

I had only heard that much.

‘After speaking for a short while, it rotted and disappeared on its own, so what more could I have heard?’

After conveying a few words to me, the World Tree, just like Jang Seon-yeon’s body did earlier.

Turned into dust and disappeared.

The sight of that giant old tree slowly fluttering in the wind and disappearing.

Will not be forgotten even after a lifetime passes.

[I am called Mu-a.]

“I already know that.”

[The fifth World Tree that descended upon the world, and.

[I am the master of this world.]

“Master…”

No matter how I look at it, it’s a world that has already collapsed and become rotten.

“Are you saying you are the god of this world?”

[There were times when I was called that. Seeing as you ask that, it seems I didn’t tell you anything.]

“You wouldn’t have had time to tell me. Because you disappeared right away.”

[…Disappeared… Right.]

Hearing my words, the World Tree’s reply was somber.

It was a voice that made the listener feel ice filling their insides.

[For me, it seems there isn’t much time left.]

“…If you consider the standard, it wouldn’t be that short, would it?”

The few years here.

When I recall that the few years here were one day in the outside world.

I, in my past life, fell here around the time I passed my majority, so.

If we follow that calculation method.

Countless time must have remained for the World Tree.

However.

[The time humans experience is merely a fleeting moment. Therefore, even if it is long for you, for me, it is not that long a time.]

The World Tree does not seem to be very happy about the story.

[So it must be more fortunate. Because the Apostle sought me out directly.]

“That damned Apostle, Apostle. It’s annoyingly loud, why am I your Apostle?”

I don’t even believe in gods or anything like that.

The time to believe such things has passed.

“You told me something, didn’t you.

You said I was the flame to burn the sins piled up in the world.”

I don’t know about this world, but.

I knew there were many tangled things in the place I lived.

“I don’t know many things.”

Even after regressing, that there are more truths I don’t know is a shameful thing, and.

Trying to pretend not to know all of it and sleep soundly.

It feels like I’m somehow entangled with those damn truths, and my mood is foul.

Even if I wasn’t entangled.

It felt unsettling that people who shouldn’t be unhappy seemed to be entangled, even that.

“So, tell me where to start unraveling. What do you know?”

[…]

Hearing my words, the World Tree did not utter any words at all.

It was truly an uncomfortable silence.

After a moment passed like that.

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A root burst out from the ground and bent behind me.

It was a posture as if telling me to sit on it.

[Sit.]

Hearing its words, I carefully sat on it.

[Apostle. Do you know about being a master?]

“Master?”

It was a story from the words the World Tree itself spoke.

That it was itself, the master of this world.

[Yes, the master. The master is the essence of the world, and it is itself.]

“Explain it in a way I can understand.”

[It means itself. Because the world exists, there is a master. And because there is a master, the world can exist.]

“What…”

[If there’s a slight difference, it’s that if the world disappears, the master also disappears, but even if the master disappears, the world does not collapse.]

I could not understand the story the World Tree was telling.

Leaving aside what it meant.

I could not know why it was telling this story now.

“…Why are you talking about that now?”

About regression. The Blood Demon and the Heavenly Demon.

And.

Along with the disaster Yeon Ilcheon mentioned.

In the hidden domain of the Nine States, deep within the front lines.

Even the identity of the red sphere, called the Seed.

I have mountains of things to ask, but.

I don’t know why you’re suddenly telling completely unrelated stories.

[The term ‘master of this world,’ you see. More precisely, it is not the master of the world.]

“Then. Is there another meaning?”

[More precisely… it is the master of life.]

“Life?”

[Yes, seeing the master of all life residing on this land, it is called the master of the world. The world exists, and because there is a master there, it means life can breathe and live.]

“So. What does that have to do with the current story?”

[If the master of the world disappears, what do you think will happen?]

At the World Tree’s words.

A misconception arose, as if something that was blurry suddenly became clear.

[The disappearance of the master is the same as all life reaching death.]

“What…?”

At the World Tree’s words, I swallowed a gasp.

“What does that mean? That all life disappears.”

The world and the master, and.

Leaving aside that it is a set fate.

It is an incomprehensible story.

Clearly, the World Tree in front of me now, after conveying the holy mark or something else to me in my past life, disappeared after leaving a few words.

Nevertheless, the monsters in this world did not disappear.

If, as the World Tree said, life should have disappeared, it already becomes a contradictory story.

Furthermore.

‘…In the first place, in this world, there isn’t even a master or anything…!’

In the moment I turned my thoughts, something surfaced.

As I looked at the World Tree with somewhat surprised eyes.

The World Tree uttered words as if reacting to this.

[Even if the master dies, the life forms that were on that land do not suddenly disappear. Normally, it just prevents other life from being born. Gradually, the life forms are bound to reach destruction.]

“Life cannot be born?”

[If it were according to the original way, that would be the case.]

Master.

The master of the world.

It’s a strange statement.

If it is said that the master of the world is needed for life forms to be born and live.

“…In our world, there is no master. So how is that possible?”

In the world I live in, I had never heard of the existence called a master even once.

If a master does not exist.

It means life cannot be born or happen in the first place.

The current world was running just fine.

Is there perhaps a master I don’t know?

As such a question flashed through my mind.

[We call that a rift.]

The World Tree tells me.

“A rift?”

[It deviates from the principles set by the world, so calling it a rift would be correct.

In a world where a master does not exist.

Life forms are breathing and being born.

The world I am living in now, then does that mean it is operating differently from the world’s principles?

“Does that become a problem?”

[If there is no master in the world, it is a situation that deviates from principles, so a master must be created to match it.]

“You create a master.”

[The reason I am called the fifth World Tree is because of that.]

Because it is the master who descended upon this land for the fifth time.

That it itself is saying it is the fifth World Tree.

“…Then, if we just wait for a master to be born, isn’t that saying there’s no problem?”

Anyway, a master will appear, so.

If we just wait until then, there won’t be a big problem, isn’t that so?

As I gave such an answer.

[Apostle. I told you, but life born on the land belongs to the master.]

As if correcting me, the World Tree brings up another story.

“So.”

[On land without a master, life forms are living, and.

If you are going to give birth to new life forms on that land.

Do you know what must be done first?]

“To establish a new master… What must be done?”

As I expressed my doubt and frowned.

The World Tree speaks.

[That is.

[First, you must erase all life breathing on that land. Only then can you plant a new master.]

It was truly a terrible story.