Golden Branch (5)

Hearing that one phrase, an immense sense of incongruity stabbed at my brain, as if I were experiencing déjà vu. It was strange. Everything was strange. Pawin and Prukaise were running with all their might, to the point where the ground was crumbling. But nothing around them had changed.

Where were they going? No, were they even going forward? The fragments of thought swirling within my unconsciousness cracked wide open because of Aileen’s koan.

“…”

Thought inevitably led to action. The two of them stopped walking immediately.

The ground, which had been collapsing as if following them, was frozen in place, shattered like time had stopped. When they stepped backward, the collapsed and vanished ground returned and was restored.

Time reversal? Space manipulation? A hallucination spell? Random thoughts and suspicions mixed haphazardly, but no suitable answer emerged. They just stared blankly into the air, or looked around front and back with disbelieving faces. It didn’t take long for them to realize that these were meaningless actions.

Prukaise closed his eyes with a resigned expression. He stiffened his neck and mentally flipped off the damn magician who was quietly observing this spectacle.

-J-Just a moment. What’s going on? This doesn’t make sense! My dad’s horn blocks all magical energy! E-Even if this really was a hallucination spell, we wouldn’t even be able to communicate, right?

Aileen spewed out words incoherently to try and explain the situation, but the sentences that didn’t provide answers were just a meaningless string of words. Of course, they couldn’t be of any help to them.

Then Pawin swallowed hard and muttered.

“…There’s a landmark I remember. Not long after we started, we passed a stone that glowed green. It must have been destroyed by the shockwave, but if we go back, the landmarks we passed will be restored. So…….”

Leaving Prukaise, who had closed his eyes with a blank expression, behind, he stepped backward. Pawin watched the restoring ground with a face full of tension.

Then he whispered as if delivering a verdict.

“……It’s there, yo.”

He realized a new fact. They were constantly circling the same section. They had passed the uniquely memorable stone repeatedly, infinitely, without even realizing it.

Prukaise gritted his teeth. So hard that he could taste the faint metallic tang of blood. The air he exhaled, panting, swirled in his mouth, spreading the scent of blood.

Prukaise opened his eyes. The gloomy sky was visible. The cursed black sky, filled with Saint Iron mist that tore everything apart and devoid of even a single ray of light, was strangely devoid of Demons.

He shouted towards the empty sky where he couldn’t feel a single gaze.

“Why don’t you stop playing around and come out?”

At that moment, he felt gazes splitting in multiple directions. Prukaise and Pawin realized that it resembled the creepy obsession that had been following them until now. It existed from all angles, but the gazes were not directed at them. Only one. They poured down on the man held in their arms.

Tuk. Tuduk. Sharp fragments fell on their cheeks. It was a dark red shard of glass. The glass that grazed their cheeks drew a clear blood-red diagonal line as it fell to the ground, but they didn’t dare lower their heads.

The sky split. They wore blank expressions as they caught the fragments of the world pouring down on their faces.

Pawin.

Pawin Angrid.

Knew what that was.

A little while ago, not long after the Holy War began, when he visited Eastern Lushellini. Pawin remembered Yujin in a dress. He remembered her spending time indifferently watching the priests who were loudly shouting in the streets.

-Remember the Red Mist of the North! Who was it that split the sky and overturned the earth back then!

For some reason, he remembered the speech he had heard back then word for word. No, all the scenes from back then flashed back vividly. And then to the next scene. The conversation with Yujin. The words she had uttered while looking at the people who were caught up in vain hope and followed the Holy War.

‘I can’t let people die trapped in illusions.’

Soon, the answer came with a faint smile.

‘I am the illusion.’

Pawin hurriedly reached into his arms and took out a jewel.

Illusion.

The rainbow-colored jewel given by the girl who was like an illusion. The incomprehensible power that shattered the world, then condensed and refined it into a jewel. He clearly remembered that scene.

“You still have the jewel I gave you, I see.”

The world shattered. The girl who descended through the zigzagging cracks looked very different. The girl who had been biting her lips in depression and panic was nowhere to be seen, and a girl with an expression as if she had made up her mind, but was lost in a sense of loss from losing something.

“Don’t worry. I said I’d remarry Hairak when we got back, right? No, no. That’s not enough. I’ll make it like it never happened in the first place. Have you ever imagined it? Pawin, a world where you didn’t become an Inquisitor and had a normal wedding… that kind of world.”

And on the left, with a large curled horn.

A Demon.

* * *

“Yujin.”

“Want to know a fun fact? My real name is Hajin. Yujin is just a name I made up to sound cool. Even Shuriel-nim doesn’t know that. Well, you’ll forget it all anyway.”

Deleize flapped his wings threateningly. Even though he received power from me, if Pawin used his full power, his head would be smashed, but he was showing off for no reason.

I glared at him and came down to the ground. Pawin and Prukaise gritted their teeth when they saw the huge horn attached to the left side of my head. They had expressions that said, “So you were corrupted after all.”

I didn’t feel like making excuses. I wasn’t stupid enough to be corrupted by magical energy.

No, maybe I was corrupted a long time ago. I had that thought, but I didn’t want to take it back either. Everyone would forget it anyway.

Finding them was a piece of cake. I had the power to manipulate the world, so how could I not track them? There were some difficulties in controlling the power, but I quickly adapted and wielded the power like my own limbs.

If the theory is perfect, it won’t fail. The power, close to certainty, manifested as I wished and bound them.

Shuriel-nim… was unconscious. He wasn’t dead. His body was still full of disgusting divine power. What was unique was the constantly flickering horn. I didn’t even have time to express my joy at finding Shuriel-nim, and I spoke in a rather cold tone.

“Aileen. It’s you. You’re the one who took Shuriel-nim.”

-J-Just a moment! Please, please listen to me!

“My beloved daughter, I will keep my promise. Don’t worry. But I can’t forgive that disgusting tree root for interfering in this.”

-J-Jusssst a moooooomeeeeeent-

Chijijik. I reached out my hand towards the air, grabbed it tightly, and twisted it. Aileen’s last words became a torn and twisted scream that scattered. I didn’t actually make these strange noises. I just cut off the communication.

“You can’t break the habit of mass-producing slaves and you lay your hands on my daughter. If I had a little more power, I would have burned that senile tree to the ground.”

I’m sorry to Aileen, but I don’t like the World Tree.

“Are you going to kill them?”

Then Prukaise spoke with sharp eyes. It wasn’t the cowardice he took out of fear. It was a voice that felt like he would rather die than beg you.

I quietly walked forward and caressed Prukaise’s cheek.

“Thank you for protecting Shuriel-nim. But you didn’t have to do this… I can do resurrection magic too, you know.”

“Bullshit.”

“I don’t know if you know about reconstruction. As long as the brain is intact, I can somehow save them. The Holy Empire calls this necromancy… but what can I do? They’re ignorant. I’m the only one who can handle this power besides Shuriel-nim. Or maybe it’s a trick to sell potions and blessings.”

“…Shut up. I don’t want to hear that kind of talk from a traitor.”

“A traitor?”

I tilted my head and chuckled.

“Would you like to see this?”

When I flicked my finger, a blue line was drawn out. It was blue Mana, which could never be seen in a Demonized person, someone who had been corrupted by magical energy.

“H-How?”

“I paid the price, but it can’t be helped. It’s worth it for the sake of our world.”

Leaving the two of them in confusion, I approached the one I had dreamed of. I gently placed him on the ground with telekinesis, then changed the space. A fluffy bed cover. Soft lighting. A space just for the two of us.

In the blink of an eye. The world changed without any prior action. Pawin’s eyes widened at the drastically changed space as if he were dreaming.

Sight, touch, smell. Everything felt real.

“W-Where is this…”

“It’s the Eastern Cathedral. It’s familiar, right? If you’re an Executor, you’ve been here at least once. Would you like to go outside?”

Pawin nodded with suspicious eyes. It was quite impressive that he was able to maintain his composure even in this situation.

What she saw ‘outside’ was a lively street. Children playing in the bright sunlight, old men sitting on street chairs leisurely reading newspapers, a bustling marketplace with the savory smell of bread…… It was a drastically different scene from the chaotic East and West after the Holy War began.

“…Where is this.”

“I told you, it’s the East.”

“…The last time I saw the East, it didn’t look like this.”

I chuckled and waved my hand. It meant to get out. I didn’t feel like explaining it. In short, this isn’t a hallucination. It’s a newly created, fragmentary world. A simulated world that only works within their range of perception.

“Are you going to trap us in a hallucination?”

“Does it look like a hallucination spell? You can think of it that way. There’s no way for you to escape. And… in a few hours, you’ll even forget that you met me.”

“What-“

• Hwik.

I waved my hand. Kung. The door opened, and Pawin and Prukaise, grabbed by the scruff of their necks by an invisible hand, were dragged out and kicked out in a pose that could only be seen in cartoons. And then, the sound of Kung echoed again. The door closed.

Now.

Only Shuriel-nim and I were left.

“Haa… I’ve been looking forward to this day so much…….”

Shuriel-nim was breathing softly as if he had fallen asleep when I laid him on the bed. The accumulated wounds and fatigue from the continuous battles were embedded in his soul, putting him to sleep.

“Don’t worry, I’ll heal you……”

I climbed on top of his body and rubbed my face against his. The divine power collided violently with the horn, but even this pain was exciting to me. And this was the only way I could feel pain.

“Haa… Haeuh…”

I had already thrown away the unnecessary clothes a long time ago. I put the unnecessarily large breasts on his chest and rubbed them back and forth, and breast milk with a pure white and sweet smell dripped out.

I felt guilty for satisfying my desires by using the sleeping Shuriel-nim, but when I recalled his irresponsible actions, I started to rationalize, saying it couldn’t be helped, just this once.

“You told me to be careful, but, heu, aah. You used the Hero’s power. Ha, euk.”

I hugged his neck and rubbed my face against his. I wrapped my legs around his calves and squeezed him so hard that breast milk burst out.

Interestingly, when I sexually stimulated my lower body and upper body, a long rod rose up, raising the cloth.