Ch.352352. Resolution (5)

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“I was just watching to see what you were trying to do.”

Seonhwaryun thought this with a wry smile.

This space he was currently falling through was a place he was somewhat familiar with.

The mental world.

A place where human consciousness is materialized and projected.

However, walking around in someone else’s mental space was a first even for him. Originally, such a feat should only be possible for transcendent beings with otherworldly powers.

“It’s not like I get many chances to enter places like this…”

It would be surprising if people knew there was a human somewhere in the world who walked through such places as if they were their own backyard.

Darwood Campbell, for instance.

Of course, even he had wandered around for quite some time when he first entered, as the Boy King’s mental world was terribly complex.

He grimaced as he looked around.

An inverted sky, ground rising upward, multicolored energies rippling in all directions.

Deceit, malice, resentment, despair, obstinacy, delusion.

These things covered everything like colored threads, like spider webs woven into fabric.

It was suffocating.

The grudges that Valkarsus Allan Armada, the Boy King, had accumulated over half an eternity were so intense that even Seonhwaryun, a sorcerer of ancient experience, could feel their weight.

“…”

Seonhwaryun made an unpleasant face as he caught his breath.

He already knew the rules of the mental world. Everything flows according to the will of the person who is the master of this place.

Physical laws and phenomena have little meaning in this space.

It’s only natural that even he would feel such sensations.

“How annoying.”

However,

Of course, that only applies to ordinary people who have never reached such a level.

“Let’s see…”

He whistled as he removed several ritual tools from his body.

As the melodic tune with rhythm and cadence flowed from his mouth, the ritual tools began to resonate with each other.

Funny thing is.

Despite the countless evil deeds he had committed throughout his life, his mental state when concentrating on casting spells was so pure that it could be described as noble.

-Great beast.

-Resentful evil spirit.

-Retreat from the mountain.

-Flow according to natural order.

Purification.

Exorcism.

The old emotions dissolving nearby were swept away cleanly with his incantation.

Though not as effective as the Holy Knight’s power to erase all abilities, sorcerers are particularly effective against these types of energies.

One could say they have a natural compatibility.

‘Ah, now I remember.’

Looking around like this, memories were coming back.

He was definitely the king of a place where he sacrificed an entire nation for something.

‘…Why did I vaporize an entire country again?’

But that, he absolutely could not remember.

During the countless eons Seonhwaryun had lived through, that didn’t even amount to a hair’s breadth of the evil he had committed.

“Wasn’t it to forge ritual tools?”

The voice came to him around that time.

Seonhwaryun let out a small laugh as he heard the voice resonating through the space.

“Ah, was that it?”

“Those numerous ritual tools you carry on your body—weren’t they all forged using the souls and flesh of others as vessels?”

“That’s right.”

“…”

“What?”

“Well. Do you have nothing to say about that?”

The still indifferent voice continued.

“If you’re weak, it’s only natural to be preyed upon. Should I have some sentiment about that?”

“…”

Yes.

This is the kind of person he is.

A man born and raised under the law of the strong, survival of the fittest. A man who believes those born weak have no value in living.

Therefore.

From the moment he set foot in this space, he was already a walking corpse.

“When you’re alone in a place like this, you come to realize quite a few things.”

With those words, changes immediately occurred in the surroundings.

Around him, where there had been only darkness after Seonhwaryun had cleared away all the energies.

Suddenly, something revealed itself.

Eyes.

One became two, two became four, four became sixteen…

The eyes, multiplying like they were propagating, soon filled the entire visible background.

It was like someone had plucked only the eyes from human faces, magnified them dozens of times, and spread them all around.

“What are you—”

But such petty tricks should be ineffective, as the energy of spirits is naturally weak against a sorcerer.

Thinking this, Seonhwaryun tried to raise his ritual tools again.

Until he realized that the ‘phenomenon’ he was facing was somewhat different from what he thought, he had honestly been looking down on it.

“…?”

His movement froze.

A kind of ‘prohibition’ that couldn’t be defended against even with his purified mind gripped his consciousness.

“Actually, when I was asked to come up with a way to kill you with one strike, I was quite troubled. After all, you are Seonhwaryun the Millennial Sorcerer. The most powerful sorcerer and word mage in history.”

While saying this.

“—!”

Seonhwaryun fell to his knees as his heart seemed to freeze.

The sensation of someone reaching into his chest and squeezing his heart. He couldn’t breathe, and his vision blurred.

“That was your first murder. You killed your master who was trying to guide you away from the wrong path, correct?”

“…You, what—”

“Don’t speak. The second one will come soon.”

Without time to catch his breath, an explosive pain carved into his mind.

His head was crushed, brain matter flowing, and that terrible sensation was etched into his nerves as if time had slowed down for millennia.

“The second person you killed was an ordinary person on whom you ‘experimented’ with your first word magic. Isn’t that right?”

“—Ugh—!”

As Seonhwaryun barely held back his nausea, Valkarsus’s calm words fell.

“To quote Darwood, he said he could make me return exactly what I experienced. He certainly kept his promise, that man.”

The dictionary definition of revenge is to return to someone exactly what they did to you.

So, this is the method Valkarsus chose.

This is a revenge only the Boy King could execute—one who remembers every death from his unwanted path of killing for vengeance.

The most primal punishment that can be inflicted on someone who treats both death and life as trivial before the logic of power.

“Millennial Sorcerer Seonhwaryun. As your leisurely attitude suggests, your arrogance is not without basis.”

In terms of accumulated power, this man could be called the strongest among living mortals. Even the saints might not be in the same league.

Moreover, it’s true that spirits are at an absolute disadvantage against him in terms of compatibility.

But.

That’s why what Valkarsus chose.

Was not to punish Seonhwaryun directly.

“It’s not me who’s killing you. It’s the ‘karma’ you’ve accumulated until now.”

The technique Valkarsus implemented, drawing only the most basic strokes of alchemy, was ironically the ‘exploration of the inner self’—the most fundamental practice in sorcery.

Originally, it would be a technique to refine one’s mind to be more noble, to accumulate virtue and energy. The first step to understanding principles and making the world a better place.

It’s truly a demonic talent to instantly fabricate a mental state that should only be attainable through diligently cultivating such things, while he himself grew rapidly through all sorts of ‘shortcuts’ and ‘evil deeds’.

So much so that if he believed he had the talent to do great things, it would be hard to refute.

But.

“The ‘essence’ you face after so long seems a bit painful. How does it feel to confront the memories of murder you’ve forgotten?”

“—Shut… up…!”

No matter how talented the greatest sorcerer in history might be at artificially purifying his mind, he cannot escape confronting his own ‘origin’.

To Seonhwaryun, writhing in the agony of death, Valkarsus’s merciless voice echoed through his mental world.

“About… 200 years left.”

The duration of pain varies from a few tens of seconds for the short ones to several months for the longer ones.

200 years, or 73,000 days, or 1,752,000 hours, or 105,120,000 minutes…

Toward the word mage who would writhe under the weight of all the deaths he had experienced during that time.

“You wanted to do great things, word mage?”

Valkarsus made his declaration calmly.

The taste of revenge was neither sweet nor bitter.

Only the relief of completing a task hundreds of years in the making was present in his voice.

“You wanted to be remembered in history? You wanted to carve your name into the world in the grandest way?”

This.

Is similar to what Darwood had said to the Pope before.

Those who harbor the most grand and infinite dreams often exit the stage most fleetingly.

“—You should have been a proper person first.”

With those words.

Tens of millions of deaths began to consume Seonhwaryun’s mind.

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