Hwaran Fahrenheit walked aimlessly.
Even though it was the plains of the North Sea where a chilling cold penetrated even thick blankets, Hwaran, who possessed an Innate Magic Dao, did not feel the cold. For she could convert the magical power wrapped around her body into heat at any time.
But what was this coldness piercing into Hwaran's heart?
Perhaps it was because she had realized it.
That the Eternal Flame could never be reached as a flame.
An eternally burning flame cannot exist. Not even with magic. Fahrenheit only realized that truth after burning down her entire family's territory. A flame exists to consume something, and because of that, it can be hot.
Therefore, Hwaran turned her gaze to the sky. The sun floating in that distant universe. She resolved to obtain that Eternal Flame, far beyond even the Floating Star.
However, if everything went as one wished, why would the world be so difficult?
The branch of study was different. The flame she had pursued all her life belonged to Fahrenheit, and to Hwaran, far removed from the Eternal Flame. Hwaran reached out her hand toward the distant flower, but it had sprouted from a completely different branch from the beginning. To reach it, she had to retrace the branch she had passed and grow anew from the start.
Otherwise, she had no choice but to rely on a low probability and leap down to snatch it in one go.
'I obtained the Demon God Hall, and tried to reach the Demon God. I eventually succeeded, but... it was too much.'
The Demon God became the charge of Elisha Celsius, but even if Hwaran had obtained it, it would have been difficult. Upon examination, condensation and compression, the delicate manipulation of mighty power, were crucial to obtaining the Eternal Flame. It did not suit Hwaran, who handled the properties of emission and explosion.
'To think the path I walked while looking at the brightest light was the longest detour. I can't even turn back now. I've come too far.'
The Innate Magic Dao is the manifestation of the mind's eye. Hwaran Fahrenheit had already built her own world through endless effort and study. Completely destroying it and rebuilding it was worse than starting anew from the beginning.
'An impossible task even with the Demon God. In the end, if I don't even have the Demon God... what can I do now?'
As she walked aimlessly, she felt hot. Perhaps her Innate Magic Dao, which protected her from the cold, overreacted to her emotions. Hwaran threw off the magical power draped over her body along with her coat.
But it was still hot.
Even the hottest day in the Fahrenheit territory was weather where people would freeze to death in the south. Even though Hwaran possessed an Innate Magic Dao, she maintained the temperature around her body closer to cold than to heat.
But now. Even while having discarded her Innate Magic Dao, the air around Hwaran was filled with hot and humid air.
Not only the air. The surrounding landscape had changed at some point. Unlike the wide and shallow grass, a forest blooming with all sorts of rare flowers and strange grasses surrounded Hwaran.
"...What phenomenon is this? A space anomaly?"
Has Elisha Celsius already clung to her? To eliminate her as a future threat, did she imprison her using the Demon God's space anomaly?
But bringing her here was a mistake. There was plenty of material to burn around. Hwaran instantly took control of all the rare flora and finished preparing to burn them. As her magical power penetrated, the thickets, turned into firewood in an instant, trembled.
And, as if they were alive, they absorbed plenty of water into their bodies.
The plants rejected their fate as firewood and fled. Hwaran surveyed her surroundings at this inexplicable situation. Then, a peculiar girl came into her field of vision.
"Oh, Sovereign. Another lost soul has drifted into Wuling."
It was a girl leaning on a wooden staff much taller than herself. Contrary to her youthful appearance, an atmosphere resembling an ancient tree emanated from her. Her leaf-like green hair and deep eyes, like the knots of an old tree, seemed to be engraved with the rings of distant ages.
Hwaran Fahrenheit was a member of the Demon God Hall. Seeing her impression and abilities, she immediately realized who she was.
"The Demon God Nebida...?"
What she held in her hand was not so much a relic of the Demon God... but an artifact of the Demon God herself, the Magnetic World Tree, a sapling of the burnt World Tree. A rubber-like impression and the power to control vegetation. It was the Demon God Nebida. She looked younger than she had heard, but for such a mystical being, a slightly altered appearance was no problem at all.
Nebida stared blankly at the Red Tower Master and asked.
"Lost one. Do you seek a place to stay? Or are you wandering on an unreachable path?"
"Even if I tell you, you wouldn't know. You are fundamentally different from your Demon God. No one has reached the end of this path."
Hwaran replied coldly, but the gaze returned was warm, gentle, and full of compassion. It seemed as if she pitied Hwaran.
"Perhaps I do not. However, The Sovereign is already there."
"The Sovereign..."
"Walk straight along that path. You will reach The Sovereign."
The thickets and branches slowly parted. The path forward lay in unknown darkness. There was no reason to walk a suspicious path, but there was no reason not to walk it either. Because she had nowhere to return to, nor a way to return.
That must be how Hwaran arrived at Wuling. Hwaran kept walking.
Walking the path through the thicket, pushing through leaves and stems, what she saw as she headed toward the light visible in the distance was.
The King of Humans, with an old man's neck hanging from her waist.
She knew it the moment she saw her. She is the King of Humans. The spokesperson for all humans, a conceptual existence wielding the power of the beast called humanity.
The Demon God? The Demon God is certainly a great existence that has comprehended this great nature. An absolute concept that knows and utilizes the principles of the world.
That Demon God is also human.
If the Demon God is knowledge that has ultimately stepped into the realm of knowing.
What kind of existence is the King of Humans?
First, the King of Humans, seen through Hwaran's eyes, appeared as an irresistibly beautiful, cheerful, and sparkling existence. Like the starlight she saw when she looked up at the sky in the distant past, the King of Humans drew all gazes like a dot stamped in the darkness.
"Welcome! It's been a while, you who only lost the 'path'!"
As the King of Humans spoke with delight, Hwaran asked back even amidst her bewilderment.
"Path...? What does that mean?"
"To reach Wuling, you must walk aimlessly. There are only two kinds of people who do that. Those who have lost their destination, and those who have a destination but have lost the way to get there. You are the latter. Those who have lost their destination do not come to where I am!"
Hwaran still had a goal. It was just that the means and hope to achieve that goal had disappeared. That was why she was still walking even after arriving at Wuling. That was why she reached the King of Humans.
Because she is the destination of humans without a destination.
Then. Can the King of Humans fulfill Hwaran's dream? Hwaran
"Can the King of Humans reach the Eternal Flame?"
The King of Humans tilted her head and answered.
"Care to explain?"
Hwaran explained to the King of Humans.
It might be easy if explained simply. Matter collapse energy generated through powerful gravity. But it contains no truth or knowledge. Even if it feels great, it's actually nothing. Rather, reciting a poem might be a more accurate explanation. What does it matter? Both merely appeal to human emotions, equally unable to contain truth.
If the other party were a layman in magic, Hwaran might have casually explained it with poetic language and moved on. An explanation for a fool only needs to stimulate the imagination.
However, the other party was the King of Humans. Hwaran explained everything she knew.
Magic. Magic circles. Magic formulas. Design, balance, error, threshold. Bizarre numbers no one could understand. The limits Hwaran had discovered.
She explained the trial and error she had undergone to reach the Eternal Flame for a full five hours, and presented her guesses as to what was needed and what was lacking. The King of Humans listened to Hwaran's explanation with twinkling eyes of interest, and sometimes asked questions that even surprised Hwaran.
Why was she explaining this? Hwaran didn't know either. But the King of Humans was learning everything. Like a sponge absorbing water, the King of Humans, who had understood all of Hwaran's research and knowledge, jumped up with delight.
"Yeah. I got it!"
It must be the truth. The brilliance and comprehension she showed easily surpassed even Hwaran. Nothing changed, and Hwaran still wouldn't be able to obtain the Eternal Flame. But Hwaran decided to be satisfied with the fact that she had engraved her footprint on the King of Humans.
"Although you may not be able to realize the Eternal Flame, please at least leave a clue."
"Realize? I'll try!"
That was an act of vastly underestimating the King of Humans.
The King of Humans alchemized a small iron ball and lightly grasped it. Then, she applied force and crushed it.
Creak, creak.
There have been many cases of iron crushing humans to death, but the opposite had never happened. Until now. Now, iron experienced the rare event of being crushed to death in a human's hand.
Iron was being murdered within the grasp of the King of Humans. Crunch, crunch. Friction and compression, collapse and explosion occurred in the smallest area. The iron became infinitely small before the King of Humans.
No matter how much she was the King of Humans, she was a living creature. With flesh and blood, she shouldn't be able to crush iron unscathed.
Hwaran saw the surrounding space distorting and found the cause.
"Space anomaly..."
A space anomaly that only Demon Kings and Demon Gods had accomplished. It was being realized in the grip of a single person. Wind and flames screamed from the distorted space and were sucked in.
"A space anomaly alone is not enough. To reach the Eternal Flame you designed, the burning matter itself must be artificially converted. Also, the core, melted by gravity compression, must be moved delicately. You have to use alchemy and even earth arts!"
The matter changes, but since it cannot be controlled by gravity anomaly alone, she even uses alchemy. And she also utilizes the knowledge of the planet, which inevitably resembles it because it was created by gravity.
Three Demon Gods harmonize. As if they were one from the beginning. No, the truth was one from the beginning, and perhaps humans just saw it divided into three.
UlFRblVJeEt0R01oWGZFZXFXMGFSeHAyTXVaengxbFp1OGR6c3VaTWFVK013QlJnMXYvczB6QnhKNmhMQnN5cQ
Hwaran watched that grip as if possessed. She tried to capture everything in her eyes, even though she couldn't see what mystery was being performed within that pitch-black grip where light surged but never spilled out.
A moment of endless waiting. The King of Humans revealed the inside of her secretive grip. Even though she was still compressing it, just revealing it raised the room's temperature by nearly 100 degrees. The ornamental plants caught fire on their own without anything being done to them.
Hwaran's reaction gloves ignited. Using her Innate Magic Dao in reverse, it protected her by absorbing heat and burning it. Just by facing a cosmic power, her magical power and Innate Magic Dao were being whittled away.
But Hwaran couldn't even think of running away and stared at that ominous and mad flame.
Within the flame, pitch-black eyes crushed the space.
Inside the surging flame, a pitch-black void could be seen. Even while spewing ultra-hot flames, it greedily chewed and swallowed the most important source of the flame. That flame was merely the crumbs shed by the void as it chewed. Even those crumbs would easily destroy this world, though.
With the surroundings collapsing, there was no way Hwaran would be fine. Even as her eyeballs burned, Hwaran stared straight at the source of the flame. The moment those black eyes met Hwaran, it was eternally seared into her retina and took away all light.
There was no time even to scream. Hwaran reached out her hand toward that flame... That moment.
With a whoosh, the Eternal Flame went out like a candle.