By Zephyria 
The rooftop of the orphanage where Kim Si-baek had disappeared was low. Even though they had kept their distance to avoid eavesdropping on the conversation, the two figures standing face-to-face were visible.
Though he didn’t know what they were discussing, the atmosphere was palpable from the dense magical energy alone—a pressure so thick that even an S-class magical beast could not have ignored it.
“……So Your Excellency’s younger brother really was a Servant of Chaos.”
Beside Gloiuken, who clicked her tongue bitterly, Nasluik bit his lip. Biyendwe was unusually silent.
Soon, an anomaly occurred on the rooftop. Simultaneously with the appearance of the phenomenon known on Earth as an Id Portal, the space on the rooftop vanished, as if it had been severed from this world. Gloiuken furrowed her brow.
“It is similar to magical energy, but far more chaotic and sinister. This is my first time encountering it, but is this not the aura of chaos?”
[Death and beauty affirm it.]
He could feel Biyendwe’s legs trembling slightly; Biyendwe’s mother goddess had once been murdered by chaos.
“Sister, then we must rescue Your Excellency immediately!”
“It is a localized area, but is it not the work of a god? It is impossible with my power.”
Gloiuken sighed and wiped her face. Biyendwe closed his eyes tightly, guessing that the phrase she had omitted was ‘with my power, which serves a young god.’ His sister’s reprimand echoed in his mind: ‘The reason you cannot grow is that your spirit and will are immature.’
Patting the anxious Nasluik on the shoulder, Gloiuken turned her gaze back to the rooftop. It had been revealed that the brother he cherished so much was the Servant of Chaos who had deceived him. She could not even imagine how Kim Si-baek, who must be on the other side of that invisible veil, was feeling.
‘Even if everything is resolved and he returns, I wonder if he will be the same person as before……’
Even if Kim Si-baek returned safely, she had a premonition that he would no longer be able to be with them.
✽ ✽ ✽
That ominous presence, soaring high as if to collapse the waning sky, reminded him of the bird’s-eye view he had witnessed in a vision months ago. In that timeline—which now remained only as a remnant of a past erased by regression—that thing had killed Lee Han-gyeol in an instant. Then, it had spread greedily, dispersing the hatred of chaos.
If he had been on Earth at that time, could he have stopped it? Kim Si-baek hypothesized as he dodged invisible, intangible attacks using only his senses. Even if he had been in a state where he could fully utilize divine power, it likely would have been difficult.
Edokus had at least taken a form that mimicked a human. However, the Apostle of Chaos before his eyes did not possess a physical body that could be defined as a magical beast or a human. The scene he had witnessed in the vision was the same. Dense magical energy, erupting uncontrollably, composed the apostle.
The magical energy overflowing in all directions served as its fangs and claws. With every breath, the sinister air mixing with the oxygen clouded his lungs, and the magical energy spreading everywhere his sight reached blurred his senses.
However, what unsettled Kim Si-baek more was the turmoil within his heart.
‘Why would Un-i……’
It was fine that he had been deceived. There must have been a reason. Though he didn’t know the cause, if it was something that had to be done even by deceiving him, he was willing to be fooled as much as necessary.
But why did it have to be this way?
Why did he drive him toward a cliff’s edge, a one-way path of an irreversible binary choice?
Emotional agitation soon led to a mistake.
“Ugh!”
Beyond his disrupted sensory perception, blades of near-absolute darkness surged. It was only after his own blood splattered that he realized the operation was strikingly similar to Tae-un’s trait.
Darkness, originating from the dark shadows beneath Kim Si-baek’s feet, from the ‘night’ among the fragments that compose the world, and from the Apostle of Chaos, materialized like physical matter and struck. When he defended against the sharp attacks rushing through the air, they attempted to swallow him from behind as if they had been waiting.
Perhaps because he hadn’t completely exuviated from his human form, he was certainly weaker than the overwhelming power he had witnessed in the vision. However, the problem was that this place was Tae-un’s world of mental imagery.
As if to declare that no blind spots existed because this space was his own mental landscape, attacks struck consecutively from the front, back, left, and right. Although Tae-un was the only hostile entity within the Id Portal, Kim Si-baek felt as if he were facing hundreds of enemies surrounding him.
A bitter smile escaped him as he frantically dodged the rushing strikes. When he had seen Tae-un hunt magical beasts with this ability, he had felt only pride, but experiencing it firsthand, he realized just how dangerous this power was.
‘It makes sense that he was so accustomed to manifesting his trait.’
If his guess was correct, Tae-un would have polished his abilities through repeated cycles of time, just as there were countless corpses strewn about.
And now, he used that ability to corner him. To choose between billions of lives, or the single life of Tae-un. The taste of blood spread sharply from the inside of his cheek.
‘You’re saying I have to kill you to save everyone?’
When he had contemplated returning to mak slecht, he only had to place his own fate on the scales, but the scales of choice facing him in reality were cruel.
Everyone—billions of people, including his brother—and one.
It was obvious which way the scales would tip without even needing to weigh them. By taking only a single life, he could save the lives of his family, the people he loved and cherished, and everyone else.
But that one person was his only person.
‘Saving the world.’ A beautiful phrase. He would finally spend precious time with the brother he had only just reunited with. He might have a somewhat awkward greeting with Hyo-ju Agnes, who must have heard the circumstances from his brother. They could visit their mother’s memorial stone together.
The children from the orphanage, the guild members, the connections he had tried not to make but which had formed anyway, and the countless people he didn’t even know—all of them would continue their daily lives just as they had yesterday. Without knowing what had happened, occasionally facing the threat of magical beasts, but living their lives by their own will.
That was the world Kim Si-baek would save. A world without Tae-un. A world created by killing Tae-un.
As if urging the imagination that momentarily clouded his mind, the ground beneath him wavered. The darkness that had flowed to his feet before he knew it attempted to consume him rapidly. Recognizing how this had swallowed magical beasts, Kim Si-baek hurriedly leaped away, but a wound, as if chewed by a steel net, was already carved into his leg.
In a space where only corpses had existed, the scent of a living person’s blood was now spreading. While quickly treating the wound, Kim Si-baek applied strength to the Sonas in his hand. The weapon, imbued with a gentle light, had not tasted a single drop of blood. As if dissatisfied that he still hadn’t launched a single decent attack, the magical energy filling his vision surged.
Despite placing him at a crossroads of choice, Tae-un coerced him. To put genuine strength into the weapon and attack him.
If he attacked Tae-un, wounded him, and ultimately killed him, what would remain? The world where he died would flow peacefully and unchangingly, but Tae-un would not be there. Could he live happily in a world where he killed Tae-un and used his corpse as the price?
‘……There’s no way I could.’
What meaning would a world have if he lost his only person?
Without even enough time to fully heal the wound on his leg, Kim Si-baek swung Sonas. The intangible magical energy that had flown toward him while his attention was focused on the ground was sliced wide open.
Regulating his breath, which was already becoming labored, he closed and then opened his eyes. A single word that had just crossed his mind felt utterly foreign. Happiness. Not someone else’s, but his own happiness.
Though the name of the weapon in his hand was also ‘Happiness,’ Kim Si-baek had never lived longing for his own happiness. His wishes had generally been directed toward others. In his childhood, it was his brother; after that, it was Tae-un; and after going to mak slecht, it was those close to him, including Biyendwe. Protecting them and enjoying life together was enough to satisfy him.
He thought he was satisfied. Until just now.
Even if the people he loved lived happily in a peaceful world obtained by killing Tae-un, he himself would not be happy at all. Conversely, if he died because he couldn’t kill Tae-un, he obviously wouldn’t be happy either.
Both paths presented by Tae-un were paths where Kim Si-baek himself would become miserable. And would he be the only one to become miserable?
181 – MDF (2)