Lee Geon's lips curled up as if something had come to mind.
“Right. That idiot bastard, the Universe, is the King of the Void Realm.”
He was the one who made sinners into slaves.
Heilly would have been dragged there as well, by his own karma.
And usually, sinners weighed down by karma are given a choice.
The choice to be sent to the Void Realm.
Or the choice to be immediately annihilated.
But Heilly was dragged away without even that chance. And Asran seemed to have guessed the reason.
‘Well, there’s no way the King of the Void Realm would forgive the child of a taboo.’
He must have jumped at the chance to torment him however he could.
Well, it didn’t matter.
Though it seemed he had hurled terrible insults, calling the King of the Void Realm a moron, an idiot.
“Do not worry about your daughter-in-law. I will bring her back.”
“What?”
Asran looked as if he had a plan.
After all, he knew that even though Heilly’s death had given Lee Geon a way to live, Lee Geon would never accept it.
“I will go to the Void Realm, so you prepare to use the indulgence on your daughter-in-law.”
“…They said not just anyone can go there. Is it possible?”
Asran smiled.
“Do I not have the authority left by my elder brother? I can take your karma in your stead and go there.”
Those who become evil gods choose between slavery (life imprisonment) or annihilation (execution).
And while most choose the latter out of fear of the Void Realm, the story changes if one chooses the former, becoming a slave of the King of the Void Realm.
“Even I can enter and exit the Void Realm. I will smuggle my daughter-in-law out. At least that much I can do.”
The route had diverged slightly from the original plan, but he had intended to go to the Void Realm all along.
Because once Lee Geon saved Heilly and Hugo, he had planned to take on Lee Geon’s karma and die in his stead.
Of course, using this method would mean all three would live, but Heilly would never be able to hold Lee Geon’s hand again.
Unless the rule was erased, she would be cursed again if she got close to him.
But Asran wasn’t calling her his daughter-in-law and drawing a future for nothing.
“Originally, I planned to turn you into a human.”
“!”
If only he weren’t a god, wouldn’t he be able to hold Heilly’s hand, do all sorts of things, even get married and have children?
Simply turning into a human temporarily wouldn’t fool the Universe, but Lee Geon was different.
“Because you are a half-blood with a human. You can abandon the path of a god. Though you’d never be able to return to being a god again.”
That was Asran’s way for everyone to live.
Of course, he himself would live as a slave eternally in a world of eternal pain, but that was a small price to pay for his son’s happiness.
The Universe was no pushover, of course, but Asran had heard things about the internal structure of the Void Realm.
“I’ll just smuggle my daughter-in-law away, avoiding the gaze of the King of the Void Realm….”
But upon hearing those words, Lee Geon scoffed.
“Not necessary.”
“What?”
“I’ll go there. If I don’t use the indulgence, I’ll become an evil god too and go to the Void Realm.”
“What?!”
Lee Geon looked at his bewildered father and casually shook off his hands.
“It’s my mess anyway. If I dump my karma onto you, how am I any different from the bastards I killed?”
“!”
“Don’t make me the one who killed my own father.”
Asran was speechless for a moment, looking at his son in bewilderment.
“…But, Geon.”
“And most of all, that won’t let everyone live.”
“!”
What meaning would there be in living by having your own father die?
It wasn’t something to boast about anywhere.
But even the great Asran tried to dissuade him, flustered.
“If you go to the Void Realm, Heilly can be smuggled out, but you won’t be able to escape!”
There was a skill to smuggle Heilly out. But both of them was impossible.
“Even if you go, it’s not a way for everyone to live….”
“Unless the rule is erased, Heilly will just keep being cursed.”
“Are you going to find and erase the rule? The rule of the Void Realm is different from the rule of the divine realm.”
Even if Lee Geon had managed to create the Universe’s
“To begin with, the Void Realm has no
“Then I’ll just cut off the King of the Void Realm’s head. Oh, nice. That’s easier to understand. Clean.”
“What?! No!”
“It’s the Universe bastard. After causing so much trouble, he should at least remember my face, right? If he can’t remember, I can’t pass it on, can I?”
“?!”
“Ah, killing two birds with one stone then. If I cut off his head face-to-face, maybe he’ll remember? No matter how much of an idiot he is, he’d remember the face of the one who killed him.”
“Geon!!”
Asran grew angry, but Lee Geon’s lips curled up.
“And becoming human is still problematic for now.”
Asran rubbed his forehead tiredly.
“…First of all, I don’t even know if it’s possible, but even if you cut off the Universe’s head, it’s not a way for you to survive….”
“No, there is. Just one.”
“What?”
“A way for everyone to live without a single person dying.”
Lee Geon’s lips lifted as if something had come to mind.
* * *
There was a light.
A very warm light. And the only light shining in this darkness.
The man moved toward it as if drawn.
His head told him not to go, but his body insisted he must.
He didn’t know why, but he felt like he would die if he didn’t go that way.
And how long had he reached toward the light?
“Cough!!”
Hugo spat out his breath as if vomiting it. And he coughed painfully, bracing himself on the ground.
“Damn… what the hell….”
It was agonizing, as if his lungs were filled with water, but soon Hugo realized.
“Huh? Huh?”
He realized he was alive.
“What? Why am I alive?!”
Hugo looked around in bewilderment, patting down his body.
He didn’t know where this was, but it was a space like outer space.
“What is this? What! Is this the Void Realm?!”
But as Hugo looked around, he screamed. Because Lee Geon was right in front of him.
“Ack!!! This is hell!! Gah!”
Hugo got hit once by Lee Geon. Lee Geon clenched his fist, veins bulging.
“You bastard, trying to die??”
“Huh? Huh???”
The bewildered Hugo poked him and pinched his cheek, as if checking if the person in front of him was really Lee Geon.
“Huh? Real Geon? Huh? Huh? Why?”
He was sure he had returned to his original form, dealt with the Cruders, faced his karma, and was annihilated!
“Did I fall into hell with you bastar… Cough!!”
“I saved you, idiot.”
“What?!”
“I used the
“?!”
Lee Geon had resurrected Hugo, who had vanished under his karma.
“Don’t worry about the karma. It’s gone now. So now you can live normally as Hugo Otters.”
At those words, Hugo froze. He wasn’t someone who wouldn’t understand what that meant.
“What have you done!! Why did I die first!!!” Hugo knew.
The whole point was for him to be annihilated forever, bearing the karma.
But if he was revived, then that karma…
“The
Hugo raged, but Lee Geon chuckled.
“I didn’t want to make my nephews orphans after all.”
“……!!”
“The youngest was born, and I couldn’t do anything for them in the end. Even the gifts all got destroyed. I can’t take away their dad too.”
That wasn’t all.
“I thought about it, and you trusted me and waited for 20 years, but it seems I never gave you anything in return.”
“!”
“So live happily with your family. That’s my last gift.”
Hugo lost his words.
Twenty years was nothing. He had already received so much more from Lee Geon than that.
When Hugo couldn’t lift his head from guilt, Lee Geon smacked the back of his head.
“No? Your data was almost gone, so I had a bit of trouble resurrecting you. I worked really hard using my time ability and this and that. Be grateful for the rest of your life.”
“…I….”
Lee Geon smiled as he looked at the tormented Hugo.
“…I’d like to say that and disappear coolly, but don’t worry. I’m not just going to die either. There’s a reason I saved you, too.”
“……!!”
Hugo snapped his head up.
Lee Geon gave a bitter smile.
“Originally, I was just going to use them on you and Heilly, and then disappear heroically… but Heilly made me change my mind.”
When Heilly chose annihilation herself, Lee Geon realized.
It was meaningless unless everyone lived.
“It’s a life Heilly protected. I have to see it through to the end.”
“……!”
“If I take on the karma like this, I’ll become a sinner and can go to the Void Realm.”
“And then you’re going to smuggle Heilly out from there?”
“Well, my father recommended that method and offered to go himself.”
“But?”
Even using that method, the curse wouldn’t be resolved in the end.
“So I’m going to cut off the head of that Universe bastard there and solve the fundamental problem.”
“…Oh, there’s a way like that… What? Whose head are you cutting off???”
“The head of the King of the Void Realm. They say that bastard is the rule itself. Then instead of smuggling and thinking deeply, isn’t it all over if I just cut off his head? The rule itself will cease to exist. No need to worry about future trouble. Easy to understand, right?”
…That was a damnably easy method to understand.
Hugo clutched his face as if about to cry.
He had so much to say, but the words wouldn’t even come out.
‘What kind of confidence made him use the indulgence…!’
Did this guy even realize what he was talking about?!
“It’s the Universe!! The Void Realm is the home of the Cruders too! And besides the Cruders, there are all kinds of monsters and even prisoners surpassing ancient gods….”
“You called me a Calamity God, remember.”
“!”
Lee Geon smiled sharply.
“Monsters, nothing.”
If a being worthy of being called a calamity even to monsters appeared, that would be the end.
In a way, he was the most powerful existence.
But upon realizing Lee Geon’s purpose, Hugo beat his chest.
Let’s say he kills the King of the Void Realm and sends Heilly back to Earth to tie things up neatly.
But.
“How are you going to come back! Even if you kill the King of the Void Realm, how will you get out of there!”
It wasn’t called the Void Realm for nothing.
“You can go there from this side, but you can never come back to this side from there!”
Why did Asran say he could only smuggle Heilly out?
“Say Heilly gets sent to this side by you. Who’s going to send you out!!”
Simply put, it was like falling into a very deep pit.
Even if one person gets pushed over the edge of the pit, what about the other?
“Are you going to die alone and lonely there!”
So he should have used the indulgences on Heilly and Lee Geon, not on himself.
Then even if Lee Geon chose a human life, the two of them could have lived happily.
But Lee Geon smiled.
He smacked Hugo’s shoulder, telling him not to sell himself short.
“Your faith is at 1000%.”
“……!”
Lee Geon looked at Hugo with confidence.
“The gods kept saying it arrogantly, remember? That if there’s a subject who worships a god, if there’s someone who keeps believing, a god can be reborn again and again.”
“……!”
“As long as there’s just one person who doesn’t forget me, I’m a god, so I can reappear.”
Hugo was dumbfounded.
“Don’t you remember getting cursed at for not being able to pass it on all this time?”
“That’s why I’m going to personally go beat up that Universe bastard to make him remember my face, right?”
This time, he was going to carve his own record directly onto the Universe’s face.
And above all, Lee Geon was almost certain.
When the magic gods had summoned
Everyone had forgotten, but Hugo had ultimately remembered him, and as a result, hadn’t he been able to regain his strength and reappear?
And when he killed the
‘Well, if I deal with the Universe, the Void Realm will also vanish. Odds are high I’ll die.’
But with this method, the chance wasn’t 0%.
“Rather than a future where at least one person definitely dies at 0%, I prefer a way where everyone can live, even if it’s just a 1% chance. That way was saving you.”
“Geon.”
“Not a single resident of my territory is allowed to disappear. Who do they think is protecting it? If even one dies, my pride is seriously hurt.”
So if there’s a chance. He bets on the 1% where everyone lives.
And so Lee Geon smiled.
Well, he spoke big, but in truth, Lee Geon was half doubtful too.
In fact, Asran had tried to stop him until the very end.
- Fine. Suppose you choose that method and deal with the King of the Void Realm. On the contrary, you might even grow stronger as a god. But the problem is time.
- Time?
- How many enemies do you think are inside the Void Realm? And why is it called the Void Realm? Your very existence could be erased.
But then Hugo spoke.
“Got it. I’ll keep waiting until you come back. I won’t forget you. So send Heilly, gain power, and then come back.”
Lee Geon gave a bitter smile.
“It might take quite a while. …Even longer than last time.”
“I’ve already waited 20 years. If it gets multiplied from there, so what. I will pay back this debt to you for sure.”
Lee Geon nodded as if he understood.
“If you put it like that, I have no choice. When I return, pay me back first. Oh. I’ll write it down to remember.”
Lee Geon wrote something on his palm with a pen.
Hugo had no idea what he was writing, but seeing him write an incredible amount, he broke into a cold sweat.
But regardless, Lee Geon grinned.
“Next time I appear before you, I’m going to be your bone-breaker.”
Hugo was incredulous.
But he nodded.
“Okay. I’ll pay you back as much as you want. Just come back.”
Lee Geon nodded and pushed Hugo away.
At that moment, karma surged toward Lee Geon. An enormous power enveloped him, and a voice rang out to him.
[Will you choose annihilation, or choose to become a resident of the Void Realm.]
Lee Geon smiled.
“I’m going to cut off your leader’s head.”
With those words, a massive shadow as if sent by the Universe rose from the ground and engulfed Lee Geon.
Lee Geon smiled at the bewildered Hugo.
[Goodbye then.]
Hugo reached out in panic but soon nodded.
And so Lee Geon vanished.
Him, and the small object he had made.
As if they had never existed from the beginning.
(To be continued…)