“What do you think a god is?”

At the fool’s question, I lowered my gaze.

The air had settled thick and heavy. The building around us was dull-colored.

I answered while looking at the cracked wall, shattered and split all the way through.

“I don’t know.”

At first, it had been a question.

Now I had already arrived at my own answer.

“Things that pretend to be detached, only to end up pitifully foolish in the end?”

Long before the life I had lived, I already knew that beings called gods were not simply noble or great.

If anything, they could be more instinctive than beasts.

Or even more stupid than humans.

So I did not revere them.

I did not place them on some lofty pedestal.

Why would I?

Even now, one of them was crouching before nothing more than a human being.

“A mere human...”

At my words, the one before me let out a hollow laugh.

An old man-shaped something smiled.

“You who look down even on the sublime. You are wasted on a thing as lowly as humanity.”

“What nonsense.”

I curled the corner of my mouth upward.

“If I say I’m human, who are you to decide otherwise?”

By whose authority?

Sorry, but I was human.

From the moment I was born.

And I would remain one until the moment I died.

“Do you not desire immortality?”

“What are you talking about?”

Where had immortality come from all of a sudden?

“Do you think ceasing to be human means you gain eternal life? That’s arrogance.”

It was also a ridiculous delusion.

“Even if the body is cast aside and only the mind drifts on, you can’t call that immortality. There’s nothing emptier than that.”

“If the soul endures, the body does not matter. You, of all people, should know that the essence lies in the soul.”

“That’s exactly why it shouldn’t be done.”

If the essence truly lay in the soul, then all the more reason.

“Even if you keep a soul that’s been forcibly altered like that alive, do you think the thoughts and values I wanted to keep would remain the same? I don’t.”

“That concern applies only to those whose lives are finite.”

“Exactly. Which is why they shouldn’t become infinite.”

Even if one abandoned a finite life and chose an endless one—

“There would be no meaning in that endless thing they gained.”

Because human beings, by nature—

“Are only valuable because they live with death in mind.”

“...”

At my words, the old man fell silent.

Beyond that gaze, one that looked deep and yet somehow shallow, I saw myself.

A self whose soul had already been torn apart and was on the verge of vanishing completely.

“To live with death in mind gives value... What a wretched thing to say.”

“Oh, come on.”

I smiled when I heard that.

“You’ve got it wrong. You should call it radiant.”

“Hah.”

In the end, the old man laughed again.

“...Yes. Radiant.”

Then his eyes changed within the collapsing ruin.

“And so, you who chose radiance—godslayer who looked beyond infinity and sought another kind of worth. What is the ideal world you desire?”

An ideal world.

At that question, I answered without hesitation.

There had never been any need to think about it.

It was something I had decided long ago.

“A peaceful life.”

A calm one.

A safe one.

A life where I would no longer have to see troublesome things, and no longer have to stick my nose into matters I had no wish to meddle in.

That was what I wanted.

“...Hahahaha...”

Hearing that, the old man laughed into the silence.

“An impossible dream.”

“...That’s harsh.”

It was the plainest, simplest wish in the world, and yet he crushed it that decisively.

I swallowed the sigh that almost came out.

Rumble—!

The debris began to fall in earnest.

As the whole place started to break apart, I ran a hand through my hair.

“I can’t deny it.”

That it was an impossible dream.

Damn it all, I couldn’t deny that.

*****

WOOOOONG—!!!

—Khk!

At the violent tremor, Bow Ghost’s spirit form shook.

Pain flashed across her face.

No—before pain, it was probably bewilderment.

—What is this...!

“Why would you go wandering around in spirit form like that? That’s dangerous.”

Did she have any idea how risky out-of-body projection was?

Or maybe—

“Did you just never expect I could do something like this?”

That was probably closer to the truth.

If she had expected it, she never would have shown up this way.

—What in the world... are you...?

“It’s nothing special. If you’d come here in person, I couldn’t have done it. But when it’s a spirit form, reaching the soul is easy.”

It was called baleful force.

You could call it a curse—something people with spiritual energy launched by packing it full of resentment and malice.

If you mishandled it, it could affect even those who had no spiritual energy at all.

And the reverse was true too.

You could use it like this on people who did.

Soul to soul.

That was the force I had fired.

I don’t usually use baleful force much.

It wasn’t the sort of power you wanted to rely on.

The very act of hurling a curse loaded karma onto you, and there was never anything good about using it recklessly.

That was why I generally avoided it.

Still, this was one of those times.

Right now, I needed it.

...Though there is one thing bothering me.

Just how far above the ordinary was someone like Bow Ghost?

If she turned out to be beyond what I expected, this was a gamble.

From what I could see, though, that didn’t seem likely.

[Hahahahaha...!]

The Heavenly Demon’s laughter rang out.

The Divine Sword at my waist trembled.

[I didn’t expect this. Truly remarkable. To think even I would fail to see it....]

His voice was full of admiration.

It irritated me more than it should have, the way it rippled against my ear.

[I never imagined you were capable of this much. How did you hide it all this time?]

How else?

I just hid it.

From my past life right up to now.

There’s nothing good about having high spiritual energy.

Evil ghosts, spirit-form manifestations, immortals, even higher gods—they all took interest.

That was what my body and soul were like.

A damned body that could draw the attention of beings people called sublime.

—Khk... Ngh...!

Bow Ghost resisted.

It looked like she was trying to push back against the baleful force I had fired into her, but—

“That won’t work.”

Crackle—!

—...!!!

Her spirit form shook even harder.

“It’s useless. I’ve already gotten in.”

—What...!

“The baleful force has already burrowed into your soul. If you wanted to throw off a curse like this, you had to stop it before it got close.”

Out-of-body projection meant showing up in the world as your soul itself.

That was exactly why I had called it dangerous.

It meant direct interference with the soul was possible, and once that happened, resisting it became difficult.

—Ugh...!!

“You could do it if you really wanted to—”

Difficult didn’t mean impossible.

If she insisted, she probably could manage it.

But—

Only if her control is better than mine.

If she was better than me at both firing baleful force and managing it after the fact, then yes, it could be done.

But—

No chance.

I was sure of it.

Bow Ghost’s spiritual strength was impressive.

But even so.

It only went that far.

By the time I had flooded her spirit form with enough baleful force to make it shake apart—

—What... are you?

Bow Ghost’s expression was completely different now from what it had been at the start.

What was I?

It had been a while since I’d been asked that.

For a moment, I almost had to think about it.

Then again, maybe I didn’t need to.

“You already know.”

My identity had been all over the place for a while now.

There wasn’t much left to explain.

“I am Yoo Cheongil’s inheritor.”

The Young Sect Leader of the Azure Moon Sect.

“The Hero of Henan.”

The one they called Moon Hero.

“And the youngest son of the Bang Family.”

—That is not what I am asking...

“That also means I don’t need to answer anything beyond that. And this is a warning.”

Creak.

The ring over my heart shifted.

It was getting dangerous.

If I loosened it any further—

The gods will notice.

Those lofty beings might realize I was here.

That would be a real problem.

Click.

I sealed my soul again and forced the spiritual energy back down.

At the same time—

“Take this as a warning not to meddle with me in this field again.”

I stopped firing the baleful force.

Or rather, I didn’t stop it.

I shoved it all the way in.

Then her spirit form twisted as it shook—

Pop—!!!

And vanished from in front of me.

“That should do it, right?”

I dusted off my hand.

It had been a while since I’d done that, and it left my head spinning a little.

The spirit form disappearing wasn’t the issue.

I had only released what I was holding, so it should have returned to the original body.

At this level, though, there was a good chance—

“Her real body took some damage too.”

Bow Ghost’s condition probably wasn’t going to be pretty.

*****

“Cough—!!”

“Master...!?”

Bow Ghost, who had been sitting there with her eyes closed, snapped back to herself and immediately spat out blood.

At the spray that burst from her lips with the cough, the old man at her side jolted in alarm.

“What is this...!”

“...Kh.”

Bow Ghost narrowed her lovely eyes and bit down on her lip.

The blood staining the corner of her mouth was strangely seductive, but there was nothing beautiful in what had risen into her gaze.

“This...!”

Anger flared.

Then what swallowed that anger was confusion.

“...How?”

How had he forced her back?

And not only that—

“Kh...!”

At the pain that shot through her, Bow Ghost quickly checked her own arm.

Something black had surfaced along the pale skin.

It looked almost like writing.

“This is...!”

The old man’s eyes widened at the sight of it.

Without divine sight, it was something he could never have seen.

And it was close to a curse.

“Master, how did this—”

“What a vicious bastard.”

Bow Ghost let out a hollow laugh after confirming the curse.

It was a curse made of baleful force.

And worse—

“...My soul isn’t damaged.”

She had been struck by that much baleful force, yet her soul had suffered no damage.

The shock had been inflicted only on ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) her body.

That was impossible unless the other side had controlled it deliberately.

The real problem was—

“...He controlled it?”

Not only had he adjusted baleful force aimed at the soul so that only the body suffered—

He had bound a curse to her while letting the soul itself slip past untouched.

What kind of absurdity was that?

Something like that...

shouldn’t be possible.

It was completely outside Bow Ghost’s common sense.

She hurriedly examined her arm.

She tried to read the curse bound there, but—

What is this?

She couldn’t even read it.

The characters were unlike anything she had ever seen.

They were neither words from the Central Plains nor words from outside the martial world.

What was this?

She first tried to unravel the curse by force, but—

Wooooong.

“...!”

At the touch of something vast and distant, Bow Ghost froze.

In front of her was a wall.

She had tried to inspect the curse, and instead a massive wall had risen to meet her.

Looking more closely, it seemed to be made of threads.

Threads tied tight enough that they could never be undone.

Those threads had gathered and become a wall.

The instant she saw it, her breath caught.

The emotion rising all the way to her throat was something Bow Ghost could not easily define.

If she absolutely had to reduce it to one word—

The sublime.

That was the feeling one had when standing before something that could never be overcome.

The instant that thought formed, Bow Ghost’s vision returned.

“...Ngh....”

“Master... what happened...?”

When the old man—the Death King—asked her with a worried expression—

“His name was Bang Seongyeon, wasn’t it?”

Bow Ghost spoke, her eyes shining with something sharp.

Cold sweat already covered her forehead.

“Yes. But what in the world did that child—”

“Send word to the North Sea and the Cult.”

“...!”

At Bow Ghost’s words, the Death King recoiled in shock.

The North Sea was one thing, but the Cult too?

Before he could say anything, Bow Ghost slowly pushed herself to her feet.

“...It seems I need to seek an audience with a god.”

The thing that had to be done had become clear.

And more urgently than anything else.