He pulled back his sword and took a step forward. His shoulder tensed as he thrust forward. It was just one thrust. In that very instant, the world turned upside down. Did the ground become the sky? Did the sky become the ground? Did left become right? Or was it the other way around? No, the world turned inside out. Like pushing a hand into a stuffed animal and taking out the stuffing, the world poured out from the spot where the Sword Emperor’s sword struck.
Spring arrived. Within spring, summer burst forth. Before summer could reach the world’s edge, autumn exploded. From autumn’s core, winter emerged, then spring, summer, and autumn returned. A mandala of greenery, leaves, flowers, fruit, grain, fallen leaves, and bare branches spun like a storm. I recognized this attack.
“This is the technique…” I muttered.
This is the technique you used against Teacher.
“Yes…”
Yes, it’s the technique I used to deliver the final blow.
“Now I see…”
Now I see what the technique is truly like.
“Do you…”
Do you just see it?
“That…”
That isn’t all.
Some words were spoken aloud, others were left unsaid, yet the Sword Emperor and I understood the words we exchanged.
“Ah…”
Time. Time after time. A strike made from countless layers of time slowly flew toward me, not slicing through space. Perhaps it was more apt to describe the strike as a sphere. It was impossible not to be overwhelmed by this beautiful attack.
“This is…”
This wasn’t just the Mind Sword or firing the outer aura he had drawn in.
“Your world…!”
This was the Sword Emperor’s holy ground, his life.
[The Flower Field of Roaring Thunderclaps has unlocked.]
His life engulfed me. Countless images flashed before my eyes.
—He existed in the beginning.
—Nothing else existed.
—Year of Sword.
—Month of Sword.
—Day of Sword.
—Hour of Sword.
—Minute of Sword.
—Second of Sword.
—The moment they aligned like meshed gears…
—Oh! It’s done!
—He’s finally forged!
—The Sword of Beginning!
—Our wait.
—Our regret.
—Our hunger.
—Our thirst.
—This world.
—It exists only for you.
—All humans besides you are mere phantoms.
—I.
—Alone.
—What is it?
—Why are you in so much agony?
—So.
—Much.
—Much.
—Much.
—Much.
—Much.
—Much!
—Why are you in so much agony?
My Demigod Eyes, which occasionally awakened after glimpsing the Tower master’s life, showed me the Sword Emperor’s life from his attack.
“You…”
My voice was barely audible.
You were born alone. Created.
“You…”
You wanted a brother because you felt lonely. You didn’t want to be alone. You sought someone you could fight without holding back, someone to whom you could pour out your everything. Then you met your teacher, who taught you that you weren’t special at all. Are you…
“Are you…”
—He realized he wasn’t lonely.
“Sword Emperor, are you happy?”
“Yes, I am!” the Sword Emperor shouted. “I was artificially created! I knew how to run before I could walk. I received bows before I could shake hands. It was a shitty life!”
“Sword Emperor.”
“But!”
If the sun had vocal cords, this was how it would sound. The Sword Emperor’s voice was bright.
“My life has been freaking happy! I accept my life, my encounters, and my farewells! I accept them all!”
“Ah.”
“Heavenly Netherdemon!” the Sword Emperor yelled, still in his sword-thrusting stance. “What about you?”
“I—”
“Did you laugh?” Did you love? Did you live? Are you happy?”
“I—”
“I know you did because I’ve been with you all along! But you haven’t done as much as I have!”
The man who had climbed the Tower with me laughed confidently.
“Sword Emperor.”
“Accept my life! Feel it! Look up to it!”
I laughed. “That is—”
I pointed the dagger at myself, feeling the duct tape on my skin. Though I had just wrapped it moments ago, it had already frayed and burned, I could feel it in my palm. The mandala sphere—the Sword Emperor’s strike—was flying toward me.
Demonic Heaven Arts.
Advanced Ninth Form:
Self-Determination Death.
I twisted the dagger sideways and pierced my heart, not hurting my ribs. Blood flowed out, trickling down my wrist slower than a snail crawling down a window on a rainy day. The blood soaked my sleeve and then dripped onto a flower at my feet.
The Sword Emperor faltered. “You.”
The flower that drank my blood began to wither.
“You.”
“I…” I trailed off.
—He realized he wasn’t lonely.
“I fled to the Tower.”
“Gong-Ja.”
“I had no parents. I respected my orphanage director, but back then, I was too young to genuinely see him as my father. I couldn’t call him or ask for help. I…”
I laughed dryly, thinking of the Black Witch. She was a strong and noble person. On her own, she dealt with people inside and outside the Tower. Even she had set foot in the Tower because she had nowhere else to go. She…
“I fled here,” I said.
The Sword Star crossed my mind. Some had given up on all their possessions and entered the Tower for a new challenge. The Black Witch wasn’t one of these people, and neither was I.
“I had nowhere to go.”
Wherever I went, I felt unwanted. Amid people laughing and talking on streets where everyone had a place to go and return to, I seemed to be the only one wandering. The city flooding with light didn’t seem to want me, nor did the planet suffering from fever.
“So I came here.”
Fittingly, I didn’t have parents. Perhaps that was a sign.
“Unlike you.”
While his world forged him, my world abandoned me. Everyone who had shaped him was his parent, but I was an orphan abandoned by my parents.
“Like you, I… ”
That was why we had come here and left the worlds we grew up in.
“Gong-Ja.”
“Mr. Sword Emperor.”
My blood slowly flowed down, soaking my feet. It spread along the shadows and withered everything it touched, putting them to rest.
“You aren’t satisfied, are you?” I asked.
The Sword Emperor faltered once more. I smiled, curling my lips with my dagger still piercing my heart.
“I am—” he said.
“You aren’t…”
—He realized he wasn’t lonely.
“You aren’t satisfied!” I yelled.
—He realized he wasn’t lonely.
Just as I had believed that Teacher desired to no longer live but wavered every time I woke up…
—He realized…
… he was the same.
“You are…”
You’re satisfied, but you also aren’t. You could be satisfied with what you have. That’s what you want. That makes me…
“Ahaha.”
For some reason, Bambolina flashed through my mind. That blond guy truly believed the world and everyone in it were beautiful. That eternal boy walked around with a bright, clear smile. Even he wanted something more because he was human. Everyone was just a person. The Sword Emperor was also a person, so I…
“I will… I’ll give you the satisfaction you desire!”
He laughed like a beast. “If you can…”
If you can, then try.
“I can!” I yelled back.
[The Garden of Withered Flowers has been unlocked.]
From my heart, I spread my shadow, which moved in waves. The whirlpool in my heart swallowed the bright sun. My holy ground, a place for tired souls, ate away the Sword Emperor’s flower field.
“Ha.”
The Sword Emperor laughed like a dragon taking a deep breath.
“Ahaha.”
I laughed as if I wanted to keep quiet.
“Hahaha.”
“Ahahahaha.”
“Hahahahahaha.”
“Ahahahahahahaha!”
The mandala of time that the Sword Emperor had fired scattered. Spring, summer, autumn, winter, and then spring—everything came undone and spilled out. The vigorous torrent of time folded its wings within a world that had stopped.
The Sword Emperor lunged forward. “You may have stopped it.”
I also charged toward him. “But that won’t be enough to end this fight!”
My dagger and his greatsword clashed.
“Good!”
“Yes, good!” I shouted with a laugh.
Clang!
“Good! It’s good! Aaaah!” The Sword Emperor guffawed.
“Yes, very exciting!”
Clang!
“Not bad, Heavenly Netherdemon!”
“I can say the same about you, Sword of Beginning!”
Shadows overflowing from my heart shot toward the Sword Emperor. As if he were gripping a dragon’s neck, he gathered light in one hand and blocked the blow, swinging his sword down right afterward.
Clang!
I barely parried the blow with my dagger. Spinning in the air, I struck down toward his nape. Even that was blocked, so I laughed. The Sword Emperor joined in on the laughter.
“I’m not alone!”
He laughed louder.
“I’m not special!”
His laughter carried real joy. The Sword Emperor raised his greatsword and swung it. A lightning bolt followed.
“I’m ordinary!”
"Yes, Sword of the Beginning! ”
To him, I…
“And I! Am not! Inadequate!”
I swung my dagger.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Sword Emperor parried my attacks, holding his greatsword at a slanted angle. I closed in on him like a wolf biting down on its prey’s neck, refusing to let go.
“I’m not inadequate.”
I—
“I wasn’t born wrong!”
I now…
“I have a place to return to!”
“Yes, you do! Hell yeah, you do!” the Sword Emperor answered with a laugh.
“Like you.”
“Like you!”
Clang!
Our weapons clashed, and our eyes met before they fell.
“So, I—”
“We!”
Light and shadow mixed and vanished with a clang. My dagger and his greatsword clashed and got stuck in the floating keyhole.
We shouted at the same time, “Even if we live, it’s okay!”
The world broke apart.
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1. Image. ☜
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