Chapter 78: Purgatory (7)
My legs hurt as if they might snap.
Limping towards the castle gate, I fixed my broken bones with a potion. Perhaps due to dulled senses, I couldn’t smell anything.
“Foolish creature.”
Entering the castle, a voice echoed. A red carpet was laid out from the gate to the central throne. An old man with white hair knelt just below the throne.
“Blind human, did you truly wish to die by coming here?”
His voice carried a tone of lamentation. He clicked his tongue several times as if he found me pitiable.
“Desiring to escape the fate of being a root of the old tree. The threads of fate are annoyingly tangled.”
“...I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“You will never escape the trickery of the old tree in your lifetime.”
The old man raised his voice in a fit of rage.
“I don’t get it.”
“Why do you choose to be a dog of the old tree!”
-Rumble!
The high castle vibrated with the sound, cracks forming in the pillars, and pieces of the ceiling fell.
Without continuing, I scrutinized his face.
“I don’t know what you want to say.”
Could I win in a fight?
My body was completely exhausted.
“The World Tree and all that crap is none of my business.”
But my mind was still clear despite having little of it left.
“I don’t know who you are. I don’t like the World Tree. If I had received any grace from the king, I wouldn’t be here like this.”
“I just... want to live a normal life, damn it.”
My daughter Shiba. And my teacher and master.
Jin Dallae, Sansuyu. Byeol.
I looked at the old man with unfocused eyes. His face, filled with contempt, seemed to hate me. For a brief moment, I saw the look in Alpha’s and Beta’s eyes in the old man’s face.
I really hated that gaze.
Being hated by reality. Not understanding the situation due to ignorance.
Frustrating. It was driving me mad.
“I don’t care about being a lackey. I’m done.”
I let out a defeated sigh.
“Just save my master. If you save them, I’ll give up and leave.”
A dungeon that offered trials.
But what I encountered was not a trial but the truth of the dungeon.
The castle once served a king and was now a purgatory maintained by a single servant waiting for the king.
I wasn’t curious who that king was.
Nor did I want to know why the truth of the dungeon was revealed.
“It’s impossible. I see no need to listen to you.”
A smirk crept across my lips. The tip of the old man’s staff slowly pointed toward me.
The flickering blue magic felt familiar, similar to when I faced the tree demon.
“Half-human who lost even yourself, close your eyes in this place.”
Straightening my bent back, I gathered all my remaining energy.
More, deeper.
Dark magic flickered like a mirage between my body and shoulders.
At the same time, the old man’s magic resonated.
[ Purifying Hell ]
Giant branches spread out from behind the old man in dozens of directions.
Wrapping around the entire castle and flying towards me, they were shadowy and deep, giving an ominous feeling of being sucked in.
But I had no way to escape.
“He said I lost myself.”
I reached out to the purifying hell. The long, torn black shadows wrapped around my arm.
Strange scenes unfolded before my dizzy eyes.
Recalling Cheondo’s words from yesterday morning, I smirked.
“Maybe this phenomenon is because of me.”
Chewing on dried jerky, I looked at Cheondo.
“What do you mean?”
“Perhaps the constraint I placed was too strong.”
I had restrained the existence known as the Celestial Demon, so the dungeon couldn’t handle it. It seemed like it couldn’t provide a trial appropriate for the constraint.
“That makes sense, considering you’re the master.”
“When you came to this world, you said a lot of knowledge was instilled in you.”
“Yes, I think that was what the World Tree was doing to support me.”
“And you manipulated something called a status window to even change your personality.”
Cheondo paused and exhaled smoke again.
“So, the World Tree might also alter your current personality.”
“Yes?”
“The power of the Celestial Demon requires the body and mind to be fully unified. The notion that you, influenced by the World Tree in every aspect, could use the power of the Celestial Demon is absurd.”
It felt like my head was ringing.
My current personality not being my original one?
Cheondo’s almost certain tone left me bewildered.
Surely, her words had merit.
Knowledge. They could even tamper with memories. Changing my personality would be easy for them.
But then, what was I now? Could I define myself? Confusion surged, and my head spun.
Cheondo, seeing my state, reassured me.
“It’s unlikely they completely changed your personality. If that were possible, you wouldn’t have made it this far. That’s why I used the word’ influence.’ Maybe they amplified or diminished some aspects of your personality.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Were you a man capable of raping someone?”
My first encounter with Lee Seyeong. I shook my head repeatedly.
Unless someone was a determined criminal, who could do such a thing?
But there were unavoidable circumstances then.
“That was a situation I couldn’t help.”
“Of course. You want to say it was the result of combining the division director, the lustful demon, and the condition of having to rape the opponent, right?”
I was speechless. Cheondo had taken the words right out of my mouth.
“I told you, didn’t I?”
She shrugged her shoulders and tapped my forehead with her pipe.
“My judgment is precise. And from my perspective, you’re not the kind of person who would do such things without hesitation.”
I rubbed my forehead, now red from the tap.
“Because you’re a coward and call yourself a loser.”
Every word hit me like a dagger to the heart.
“I shouldn’t have told you my story.”
“Ho ho ho. Even without that, you’re one of the few good people. If you ever become twisted, the world would probably have made you that way.”
The Celestial Demon stood up, closing the distance to sit beside me.
“There’s something I need to tell you, as the one who will inherit the Celestial Demon.”
“Yes?”
She spoke.
“It’s time to find the real you.”
Cheondo revealed her plan, and I was wide-eyed at her words.
The plan was extremely dangerous. It seemed like it might kill us both if it went wrong.
“Can I really do it?”
Cheondo replied.
“Have confidence. You are my disciple. And this place is purgatory. The ability of the person who created this dungeon... is precisely what you need to find yourself.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve challenged this place before, so I know.”
I sighed briefly and nodded at Cheondo’s earnest words. Indeed, nothing could be better if such a thing was possible in this desperate situation.
It wouldn’t hurt to try everything.
“Well, sure-”
If I was going to die anyway, it was less regrettable to try and then die.
With these words, my master smiled at me.
Faded memories from the past, a study lamp I had seen once before. Underneath it, a young boy hunched over a desk, his face bearing dark circles, was intently reading a book.
I tilted my head to look at the book the boy was reading.
There were no words written in it. However, the boy seemed to see something in it, muttering something incessantly as if lost in thought.
A name tag pinned to the boy’s chest caught my eye.
[Lee Shiheon]
As the memories returned, I slowly became aware of the dream.
“Purgatory.”
The worst kind of mental manipulation magic that broke people down, it trapped them in their past and eventually led to their demise.
Even if it wasn’t a trial, if the dungeon was created by the king’s servant, I was confident it would have similar abilities to a trial.
It was a half gamble, but in the end, it was successful.
It went as intended.
