Ch.18060. Original Creator RedLake (2)

And then he smiled gently.

I opened my mouth to speak, but too many thoughts rushed in at once, leaving me speechless.

So all I could manage was a single word.

“Arel…?”

Red Lake.

Arel, another name hidden within the original author’s name. The man before me smiled gently as he heard me say it.

“Yes. Your assumption is correct.”

Just as I had suspected. The original author, Red Lake, was Arel, the god of Ailetan.

“Then the remaining letters in ‘Red Lake’ after removing Arel’s name are…”

[R.E.D.L.A.K.E]

Rearranging those letters:

[A.R.E.L.E.] with [D.K.] remaining.

‘Wait. Red Lake, no, Arel clearly called me…’

The god of Ailetan had addressed me as the Key of Darkness.

‘The Key of Darkness. Could it be…’

In English, that would be “The Key of Darkness.”

So the abbreviation would be K.D.

Simply reversing D and K. I immediately understood the meaning.

“That’s right. Key of Darkness. The original author, Red Lake. That name calls both you and me simultaneously.”

That statement I couldn’t immediately comprehend.

‘I’m a co-author with Arel…?’

But I have no memory of writing the novel “The Academy’s All-Purpose Hunter.”

“Indeed. Even I only remembered everything upon meeting you again. It’s natural you don’t know yet.”

Arel continued with these cryptic words.

But now, in this colorless space, I began to perceive him more clearly.

And when I looked at his face again, I was shocked.

“Why… do you have my face…?”

It was true. Arel standing before me had the same face as mine.

No, similar yet slightly different.

Except for the women who loved me, I had always been told I had a vague impression since my days as Ains.

So while I might have seemed decent enough, most people found me unremarkable. Simply put, I had an ordinary appearance.

But the man before me—no, Arel—was different.

Though he had the same face as mine, it was the kind of face one would instinctively call handsome.

No, it went beyond mere handsomeness.

‘It should be my face, and yet…’

Yet that face was clearly recognized as me. Rather than divine, it seemed like a devil’s trick.

At that moment, as if reading my thoughts, Arel smiled gently.

“There’s nothing strange about it. You are me, and I am you. The reason Earth’s people thought you looked unremarkable is because they were Ayel’s creations, not mine.”

I still couldn’t understand what he was saying. He continued:

“The face of a god from another world… my brother’s creations couldn’t easily recognize it.”

But I hastily pondered his words.

‘I am Arel, and Arel is me?’

It was impossible to accept.

Yet Arel was speaking of me as if I were himself. If his words were true,

It would explain why Arel standing before me had my face. And why people on Earth often said my impression was vague.

And why both my name and Arel’s were hidden within the original author’s name, Red Lake.

But that explanation was far from sufficient.

Sensing my inner thoughts, Arel smiled again and said:

“You must want to know many things.”

“More importantly, what about my companions…?”

“This space where you and I exist is a void—inside your unconscious. Time doesn’t flow here. You are still with them.”

At least my companions were safe. That being the case, I had mountains of questions for Arel.

“Then tell me! Why am I you?”

The most pressing question came out first.

Arel answered immediately.

“You are my avatar.”

***

I froze at Arel’s words.

‘An avatar? Could it be…’

Gods and humans exist in different worlds.

Gods originate from the so-called divine realm or celestial world, a realm far superior to reality.

Thus, superior beings like gods cannot directly manifest in the mortal realm.

Instead, a god who appears in the form of a creation, matching the lower world’s standards—that is an avatar.

Arel nodded, immediately reading my thoughts.

“The concept of avatar you’re thinking of is almost identical to what I just mentioned.”

If what Arel was saying was true, I understood his earlier words.

I am his avatar. Therefore, I am Arel. Arel is me.

“But ‘almost identical’ means…”

“Yes. It means there is a slight difference.”

And for the first time since I entered this place, his expression, which had been consistently showing a gentle smile, darkened.

“I didn’t create you simply because I needed a human body. Although I did want a human form, the more fundamental reason is that you can do what I cannot.”

At that moment, I was puzzled.

‘Something the creator Arel cannot do?’

As the creator of Ailetan, perhaps he had restrictions preventing him from interfering with Earth, created by Ayel.

But I immediately rejected that thought.

‘Still, Arini, an Earthling, used Ayel’s divine power even in Ailetan. And…’

Above all, I, as Arel’s avatar, had been active on Earth. So the assumption that the two worlds couldn’t interfere with each other was wrong.

“Your thinking is correct.”

Arel confirmed this fact.

When I showed a confused expression, Arel quickly answered.

“My divine authority as a god is the right of creation. But I do not possess the right of destruction. Or rather, it’s not that I don’t have it, but that I cannot use it.”

He approached me, raising one hand.

“The right of destruction. That is an authority only you possess, as my avatar and the Key of Darkness.”

Then, an immense light spread from him.

As that light enveloped me, certain memories began to seep into my mind.

They were memories of Arel himself.

I began to receive an enormous will that human perception or consciousness could not reach.

‘This is… the divine realm.’

As if temporarily reaching the celestial world, bright light spread everywhere.

And an awareness beyond the horizon of thought, something human intelligence couldn’t comprehend, seeped into me.

From that transcendent intuition,

I immediately understood about the god named Arel.

‘Arel. The emotion that Arel as a god holds for his creations…’

And that emotion was the beginning of everything.

The god of Earth, Ayel. The cause of the tragedy that made Arel, who should have been a monotheistic god like Ayel, lose most of his divinity.

‘Compassion… compassion for his creations.’

Yes. Arel as a creator loved his creations too much.

Humans are beings of incomparably lower rank than gods. They merely had potential for the distant future.

In primitive times, Arel couldn’t bear to watch his creations suffer from the harsh natural world.

So Arel distributed his divine power to five divine beasts.

The Vermilion Bird, the Azure Dragon, the Black Tortoise, and the White Tiger.

By dividing his immense divinity, Arel’s power as a god was greatly diminished.

But his compassion for his creations made him accept even the decline of his own power with joy.

Thus, the ancient empire of Ailetan, with the power of these divine beasts, enjoyed prosperity incomparable to Earth’s humanity.

Up to this point, the story wasn’t much different from what I had heard about Ayel from Seohwa.

‘Wait? Five divine beasts?’

Arel nodded.

“Yes. You should immediately know what the fifth divine beast is.”

Arel was right. I answered immediately.

“The Red Dragon.”

“Correct. The Red Dragon, the fifth divine beast, was blinded by the divine power it possessed.”

Arel’s memories began to flow into me again.

Once a divine beast, the Red Dragon became corrupted by its immense power. And it wanted to become more than just a divine beast.

It wanted to become a new god, surpassing even its creator, Arel.

“That Red Dragon ended the era of human prosperity.”

But the Red Dragon couldn’t face the other four divine beasts with its power alone.

So the Red Dragon strengthened its divinity in a new way.

“Rather than being worshipped as a divine beast, it created fear among humans as an evil god.”

And the Red Dragon began to attack humans with its power.

The destructive disasters created by the divine beast’s power instantly created enormous fear among humans.

“That fear was also worship of an evil god. As a result, the Red Dragon’s power grew incomparably greater than the other divine beasts. It gained the power of an evil god, just as it wanted.”

After that, the history of Ailetan was exactly as I knew it.

The endless battle with the evil god. Transcendents like Yu Jahyun or the Western Continent’s hero appeared to seal the resurrected Red Dragon.

But the Red Dragon continuously revived, creating crises for Ailetan.

“And over those long years, the power of the divine beasts was forgotten, and the Red Dragon’s power grew stronger.”

The Red Dragon not only increased its power through fear but also strengthened its divinity by killing the descendants of other divine beasts.

As a result, the divinity of Arel, the master of the divine beasts, disappeared even more.

‘So that’s why the current situation…’

I was momentarily speechless. And I felt an unbearable anger.

The culprit behind all this was right in front of me.

‘If only that Arel hadn’t distributed his power to his creations…’

But even as I felt this anger, I was sharing and understanding Arel’s emotions.

Because I myself was Arel.

Clearly, I had a separate self as an avatar. But the moment I shared consciousness with him, I felt it.

I am Arel. So what he did was also part of me.

An avatar merely loses the memory of being a god temporarily. I couldn’t deny at all that he was me.

‘Damn it…’

So now I could understand. Why I had been so angry at the deaths of innocent people.

And though I made various excuses to myself,

Why I risked my life to save Arini when she almost died in the terrorist attack.

Not to mention why I intervened in matters I didn’t need to when attending Ains.

Why I was willing to sacrifice my life to resolve everything with this sense of justice.

It was because that immense compassion that Arel possessed remained intact in me, his avatar.

‘No. Still… I’m different from Arel.’

I instinctively understood. Arel had compassion even for the Red Dragon.

Though clearly evil, he couldn’t bring himself to eliminate his own creation.

“That’s right. You, Lee Minsu, are me, but you cannot fully understand my emotions. No, that’s natural. Destruction… I couldn’t destroy what I created, in my foolishness… To take responsibility for that, I created you as my avatar. You are my mirror. You are me and yet a different being from me.”

Once again, with divine intuition, I understood everything about Arel.

In the end, the Red Dragon had to be destroyed. But Arel, with too much compassion for his creations, couldn’t bring himself to eliminate even the Red Dragon.

So the being he created was me, Arel’s avatar.

As the Key of Darkness, I possessed the authority of destruction instead of Arel’s authority of creation.

Arel nodded with sad eyes.

“Yes. You… you will be able to destroy that Red Dragon.”

I recalled my past life at that moment. Yu Jahyun.

The one who destroyed the Red Dragon that had revived with immense power once more. The reason it was possible was because Yu Jahyun was also Arel’s avatar.

‘But this doesn’t explain everything.’

I still hadn’t heard from Arel about the biggest truth I needed to know.

The original work “The Academy’s All-Purpose Hunter.”

And the numerous regressions I experienced as Lee Minsu.

Being a god’s avatar alone couldn’t explain those memories.

“No. You already know all the truth. It was something you did yourself.”

At that moment.

With Arel’s words, a terrible headache began to surge.

Simultaneously, numerous memories I had forgotten began to return.

And then, I came to know the complete truth about this world.