# Chapter 92
──────
The Answer Breaker Ⅵ
Shin No-a
10
Baekhwa Girls' High School.
More precisely, there were quite a few signs that the 'School Ghost Story' was the nest of Avici.
First, the school's landscape was the decisive evidence.
Back in the 89th iteration, my consciousness had briefly touched the Fairy Lord and glimpsed Avici Hell—its scenery was exactly like this.
[The school was a wooden abandoned building. The school name 'Baekhwa 百話' swayed unsteadily.]
[The sky was blood red. Broken windows, birch trees extending their white flesh into the school corridor through glass shards. The school was pierced through by white stakes, its entire body in tatters.]
No matter how you looked at it, it was identical to the School Ghost Story.
Of course, differences also existed.
For instance, the school name.
Originally, Baekhwa Girls' High School's Baekhwa (白花) meant 'white flower.' The shapes of '白' and '百' were somewhat similar, but the characters were clearly different.
However, as I emphasized before, wordplay—'toying with the world through words'—was the foundation of sorcery.
My reasoning was as follows:
In Baekhwa, the 'Baek (白)' meaning 'white' was embodied by the white-fleshed trees—the birch trees.
Whether in the new building or old building, walking through this school's corridors, white birch trees poked out everywhere beyond broken windows.
They had perfectly embodied the concept of 'white.'
Having transformed into birch trees, the place of 'Baek (白)' that soon stood empty was instead invaded by 'Baek (百),' a homophone with the same pronunciation.
A simple pun.
Then what about 'Hwa (花)' in Baekhwa?
This too was simple. Despite subjugating no fewer than 99 strange entities, at Baekhwa Girls' High School, exactly two things had not returned to their original state.
The birch trees rising like prison bars. And the spider lilies blooming profusely in all directions.
These blood-red spider lilies had stolen 'Hwa (花).'
Reality had its words stolen by the strange, 'white flower' had its meaning corrupted to 'red flower,' and the world was occupied by the void.
Therefore, no matter how many strange entities were subjugated, the name 'Baekhwa' itself... the strange entity's final sorcery remained intact.
"This is my interpretation."
"Wooow... I-I never thought of that at all. I did wonder why only the birch trees and spider lilies stayed the same when all the other buildings returned to normal..."
Tap. Tap.
We were walking through an empty hospital. A space where ceiling, pillars, and floor were all endlessly bleached white.
Where I was. What time it was now.
Unable to fix any coordinates, the blurred outlines of consciousness were held in place by our conversation—Cheon Yohwa and I.
"Even if we keep walking, the same corridor just repeats. Is there no exit...?"
"Just bear with it a little longer."
This was why a pair was important. Even if Cheon Yohwa's combat ability fell far short of mine, in the void, two people were vastly more advantageous than one.
The basic unit that constitutes a human world is not atoms, but the pair of 'others and me.'
"Hmmm. Oh, right! Mister. Then how do we get rid of the birch trees and spider lilies? Should we just cut them all down?"
"I tried that. They just grew back."
"Ugh..."
"Those things only look like trees and flowers on the outside—their true nature is strange entities. Ordinary strange entities can be subjugated with just force, but many don't respond to physical force. For those, you have to properly exploit their weaknesses."
"Weaknesses..."
Actually, that was why I used school desks as firewood rather than birch trees when performing funeral rites for the victims.
Burning the strange entity's body to cremate it—how ominous could that be? The toxic substances from the smoke would be far less harmful by comparison.
"Hmm. But if you think about it that way... isn't the weakness of the 'Baekhwa' strange entity completely unknown? It doesn't move around like other ghosts, and we don't know its true identity either. Wait. Is the weakness hidden on the 4th basement floor?"
"Something like that."
Tap. Following my footsteps, slightly lighter steps tapped along.
As I had cautioned when entering this place, Cheon Yohwa was moving precisely in sync with my footsteps.
"We stop here."
"Ah, yes."
"You can move freely for 10 steps ahead. If you're uncomfortable, find a comfortable position now. Make sure to use all 10 steps."
"...? Uh, what's the significance of that?"
"If we walk 10 more steps from here, it will be exactly the 4,444th step."
"...."
I opened the trunk bag. Then I took out candles one by one and arranged them around us.
Before long, exactly 100 candles stood in the corridor like a birch forest. I sat in the center of the candles and had Cheon Yohwa sit across from me.
Snap—
When I flicked my finger, all hundred candles simultaneously burst into flame. It was the application of aura.
"Mister, this is..."
"Yohwa. From now on, we will perform a ritual."
"...."
"Did you use all ten steps?"
"Yes."
"You asked what the weakness of the birch trees and spider lilies was, right? The ritual we're about to focus on will become that weakness. The ritual is simple. Have you ever talked about ghost stories with friends when you went somewhere in summer?"
"Yes, I have."
"Good. It's exactly like that. The strange entities you and I have exorcised so far, the ones other students have defeated. All combined, '99' strange entities. We'll take turns talking about them, one by one."
"...."
"Then you start first."
"Ah, yes. Um. So, this is a ghost I saw directly. A while ago, I was walking on the school's 4th floor when I heard a thump-thump-thump sound from far away. Faintly..."
Quietly.
Ghost stories flowed in low voices. Flicker, flicker. A hundred candle flames swayed, and the white hospital corridor lights hummed.
Between the red fire on the ground and the white fire on the ceiling, Cheon Yohwa blankly stared at me.
"...That's the end of my story."
"Good."
Snap.
When I flicked my finger, one candle flame went out with a puff. Thin gray smoke rose toward the ceiling.
"Ah..."
"Now it's my turn. This is from my direct experience—Hanako the ghost lives in the third stall of the boys' bathroom at Baekhwa Girls' High. If you go into that stall and spin around 13 times..."
One. Two. Three. Four.
The candles went out one by one. Each time, small smoke offerings rose to the sky, and the withered wicks emitted black foul odors. Cheon Yohwa's shoulders flinched.
Flicker—
Cheon Yohwa noticed the phenomenon around the time the 40th flame went out.
"...Mister, um. The corridor lights."
"I know. Don't worry."
The hospital corridor lights were going out.
From far away. From the end of the corridor, one by one. One meter at a time.
The hell of the 4th basement floor had no exit or windows. The hospital corridor that had seemed to repeat infinitely became pitch black darkness once the lights went out.
"Let's continue. Your turn."
"...Yes."
Flicker.
The darkness of the corridor was breathing and narrowing. From both sides. Like footsteps following footsteps, every time we breathed, their breathing came one span closer.
"This is a story I heard from my friend. There's a ghost called Krashu—no body, just a head with internal organs attached..."
Flicker. Flicker. Flicker. Flicker—.
We picked up speed in our stories. Then the footsteps of darkness also quickened. Every time a light went out, Cheon Yohwa flinched.
"My story... ends... here."
Before we knew it, the surroundings had grown frigid.
Until right before performing the ritual, the hospital corridor that had endlessly repeated and seemed to continue forever now had barely one panel's width remaining.
"...."
"...."
Flicker—
Only one light illuminated the corridor.
The candle too—99 had been devoured by darkness, with only one remaining, barely groaning under the strain.
"Good. Now my turn..."
"Mister."
Cheon Yohwa suddenly spoke up.
"Actually... you're not our school security guard, are you?"
"...."
"It was a bit strange. I've lived in the dormitory all along, so I know the faces of most security guards. But I'd never seen your face before. When we first met, I was too disoriented, and you were wearing a uniform and holding a flashlight, so I just thought you were a newly hired guard... I secretly asked the other kids, but no one knew. But you kept helping us..."
I thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Right. I'm not."
After all, the 4th basement floor wasn't a school. It took the form of a hospital. There was no longer any need to continue the 'school security guard' roleplay.
"I knew it. Then... why have you been helping us?"
"To subjugate the void that descended here. The School Ghost Story. Avici Hell."
"Avici Hell..."
"But I'll tell you about my true identity tomorrow. For now, let's focus on subjugating the strange entity that drove you children to death. Will you trust me?"
"...."
Cheon Yohwa's orange ponytail swayed like a candle flame.
"Yes. Of course."
"Good. Then it's time for the last story. This is a Japanese ghost story—have you ever heard of the Hundred Tales?"
"Hundred Tales?"
A hundred stories.
In Japanese, it was called 'Hyakumonogatari' (百物語), a horror legend.
"The method to summon this ghost is simple. People gather, light a hundred candles, and take turns telling ghost stories one by one, one by one, letting them flow into fire and smoke."
"...."
"Yes. Just like we're doing now."
The single remaining candle flickered.
"According to the legend, once all 100 candles are extinguished, the storyteller who told the 100th story dies."
"Dies..."
"Or a ghost appears. We're already in the underworld of the 4th basement floor. Since people in the underworld can't die again, a ghost must appear."
"...."
"But here's where it gets interesting. In the original legend, the ghost that appears at the end of the hundred tales is called Aoandon (靑行燈)—the 'blue lantern'—and they say it only appears if you light a 'blue lamp.'"
Flicker.
I pressed the flashlight button. Blue LED light swept through the darkness.
"But the ghost that will descend here isn't Aoandon."
"Then what...?"
"This school's name is Baekhwa. It means white flower. But I told you earlier, didn't I? When the School Ghost Story arrived, the characters of Baekhwa (白花) were stolen."
I took out a brush pen and wrote characters on the white floor of the corridor.
"The void is an empty space. It steals the place where the original world existed, turns it into a gap, and then imprints its own existence. The new characters of Baekhwa that entered the place where characters were stolen are..."
百話.
A hundred (百) stories (話).
"...."
"Characters have subtly different usages in each country. In Japan, the concept of 'story' is expressed with two characters: 物語."
I moved the brush pen.
"For example, the Arabian Nights' One Thousand and One Nights is translated in Japan as 'Sen'ya Ichiya Monogatari' (千夜一夜物語). Meanwhile, in Korea, it's simply translated as 'Cheon'il-ya-hwa.' In short, the concept Japan expresses with two characters 'monogatari' corresponds to a single character 'hwa (話)' in Korea."
"Then... expressing 'hundred stories' as a ghost story in Korean style would be..."
"Baekhwa (百話)."
Literally.
The strange entity that devoured Baekhwa Girls' High School.
The true name of the strange entity we had been calling 'School Ghost Story.'
Another identity of the outer god-level strange entity I had once called Avici.
"The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, commanding 99 ghosts as subordinates. The leader encompassing all 99, and simultaneously the whole. The great void that stole this school's original name and thereby corrupted part of the world. Baekhwa (百話) is the last ghost of this hell."
Snap—
The candle died.
The light went out.
The darkness laughed. The faint scent of smoke was the body odor flowing from the endless maw of darkness.
Flick—er.
In the darkness, an instant moved. The universe was originally darkness, so that was the primordial color that time and space would wear.
The hundred extinguished candles grew in a single moment, forming a white forest. A forest of birch trees.
Fire caught on the white flesh of the trees, and the flames soon became spider lilies in full bloom. Blood-red flames transformed into fairy faces as a hundred fairies laughed uproariously. Their laughter went like this:
Hwa (話) blooms into Hwa (花), and Hwa (花) burns as Hwa (火). Burn, burn. All things in the world are equally distant. Then why shouldn't a hundred stories become a hundred flowers and a hundred flames...
Coordinates. Time. Space. Existence distorted as they lost their form.
"Mist—"
"It's okay."
I firmly grabbed the back of Cheon Yohwa's hand.
"I'm here."
"...."
Cheon Yohwa also tightly grasped my hand.
Thus the coordinates were fixed.
In that moment, the colorful flames of the universe stopped, and the fairies withdrew their laughter. The Milky Way flowed. A hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million, countless eyes all looked at us simultaneously.
And so I called 'its' name.
"Avici."
All creation trembled.
—Unexpected contact.
—A possibility never calculated before.
—Avici.
—Avici Hell.
—Correct name.
—Wrong name.
—This too is one random variable.
Colors breathed. Starlight danced in circular formations.
—What are you?
—An excessively large variable.
—How did you recognize our existence? How did you identify our true nature? How did you pinpoint our location?
The outer god, viewing this world merely as a vast laboratory and therefore creating terminals called fairies to dispatch to this tutorial experimental site, asked.
I raised my head.
"Are you okay, Yohwa?"
"...Yes. I'm a bit dizzy, but surprisingly, I'm better than expected. No, actually..."
Cheon Yohwa released her interlaced fingers and bent her waist. Tightly—the shoelaces of her reddish-black basketball shoes pulled taut.
"My condition is at its best. Right now I feel like I could sprint at full power for 40 minutes straight. Anyway, that weird Milky Way is the mastermind that killed our school kids. I'm going to beat it to death."
"Magnificent. Then I'll demonstrate the combat power of a former school security guard."
Boss battle.
Outer god-level danger rating.
Avici (無間).
Battle commence.
A infinite regressor telling stories.