Chi-Woo stared at the constellation threaded onto the night sky and felt the altitude quickly drop.
“Here we are.” At Evelyn’s words, the pole-like broom landed on the ground. The place was too small to be considered a highland, but not flat enough to be considered a flatland. Valleys and gentle slopes made up the land, and a mountain stood behind it.
“You can block the god from here. If it isn’t too much, try not to let the enemy reach the mountain at the back, all right?”
“Why not the mountain?”
“Because our troops are camping behind the mountain.” By ‘troops’, it was clear the witch was talking about the Abyss.
“It won’t matter if it was just me, but…Huk Cheong-Ram is also there.”
“Who’s that?”
“…It’s just someone really annoying.” Evelyn furrowed her forehead slightly. Since it appeared like she didn’t want to explain any further, Chi-Woo didn’t ask more questions. But from the way she talked, there seemed to be another high-ranking figure in Abyss who was on equal footing as the witch.
“All you need to know is that those from the deepest below have decided that Huk Cheong-Ram and I have to collaborate to block this attack.” And after a period of silence, Evelyn sighed and stared at Chi-Woo straight-on. “…We needed to collaborate just to fight against their surplus forces rather than their main force. That’s how dangerous the Sernitas are.”
Evelyn said the Abyss was at war with the Sernitas. And soon, there would be a large-scale attack against the entire Abyss. Although the Sernitas was a superpower among the established groups on Liber, the Abyss was also a formidable power, evident in how they were able to resist the Sernitas’ attacks until now. Nonetheless, it was clear the Sernitas was the group with power to spare. And they had recently added another force to their fighting power: Liber’s god; a while ago, they had forced the god to attack the border dividing the Demon Empire and the Abyss.
The fact that the Sernitas had managed to get the Whore of Bably and Huk Cheong-Ram to one location was already a huge feat. With the two main leaders of the Abyss occupied, there would be openings in other areas; and if the Sernitas attacked these openings, they would be able to take the whole nation.
Now that Sernitas had made their move, it was the Abyss’ turn to respond. And thus Chi-Woo’s offer had come at just the perfect timing. If things only went according to plan, they would be able to minimize losses and perhaps even restore the balance that had been distorted by the Demon Empire. There would be huge gains to make. Yet the capricious witch wasn’t so daring. Even while knowing that they should work together to maximize the chances of success, she didn’t plan to fight with Chi-Woo.
“I will go over to the back of the mountain now,” Evelyn fixed her grip on the pole and said. “I don’t know about Huk Cheong-ram…but I know I can fight with you. However, I won’t. I want to preserve my troops’ strength as much as possible.”
“Well, yes. That’s part of the promise.”
“Yes. It was a promise made between you and me. You should be very careful when making a promise, especially with a witch. There’s no retracting it once you make one.”
“Could I trust you to keep your word too?”
“Don’t worry about me. I am different from a human. As soon as I confirm that you have defeated the god, I will fly over next door.”
“How could you say such things? You used to be a human when you were alive.”
“No, you are wrong.” Evelyn shook her head. “I wasn’t human, but a witch.” She lifted her index finger and flicked it at Chi-Woo with a slight curve to her lips. Chi-Woo became captivated by her sweet voice and smile but soon regained his senses to find that he could no longer see the witch. She had disappeared in a blink of an eye, and now, he was really alone. His solitude and the thought of having to do something so unimaginable soon made his heart feel heavy.
“Alone on my way home~” Chi-Woo sang while looking ahead blankly. “Alone in an empty room and bed~” It was suffocating. It felt as if a hot boulder was rolling inside his stomach. And for some time, he heard a constant ringing; he realized it was caused by his nervousness.
“Now that I think about it, she just told me the god was coming soon and didn’t tell me exactly when.” Chi-Woo took deep breaths and stared beyond the endless hills. “I’m only supposed to battle a god… They won’t come with a whole army, right? If that happens, I should run immediately since that goes against our promise.” Chi-Woo began to murmur to calm himself.
Then he sighed deeply as he lamented, “How am I supposed to…?” During the planning stage, he had thought everything would work out well, but now that the reality of the fight was taking form, he was struggling to put the fine pieces together. This was the gap between imagination and reality that he needed to overcome.
“No, let’s have faith.” His user information also said that an existence lower than the level of a demi-god couldn’t escape the effects of his ‘Four Tiger Sword’. A god definitely surpassed a ‘demi-god’, and Chi-Woo would need to drop the god he was fighting to at least a demi-god level for his skills to have any effect. Only then would he be able to make an impact. Thus, he had thought of a way... Although he wasn’t sure if it would actually have an effect.
“If it doesn’t work, I guess I would just die.” From his life inside the cave, Chi-Woo had come to terms with the possibility of his own death. But even though he was determined, he couldn’t become completely detached from his prospects, and he wondered if he might regret his decision when he was staring death in the eyes.
As tangled thoughts whirled in his head, he opened his bag to prepare.
“Huh? Where is it?” He didn’t see his talisman. Did he perhaps leave them somewhere? Right before an important battle? That couldn’t be. He had made sure to bring them… Chi-Woo searched in a panic when a hand lifted a clump of talisman toward his face.
“…What? You.” It was Pyu-pyu—the bun.
“You followed me?”
“Pyu?”
“What did you come here for? I purposefully left you behind,” Chi-Woo said crossly while taking the talisman. Hearing this, the bun formed another limb and crossed its arms. It also raised the top of its head slightly upward as if it was peeved.
“Return when you have the chance. It’s dangerous. You could die.”
But the bun jumped up and collided against Chi-Woo’s chest. Swish, swish! It let out a flurry of punches with its tiny fists, showing its intent to fight.
“Are you saying that you want to fight together?”
“Pyu.”
“…Fine. I suppose we can live or die together,” Chi-Woo sighed and said disgruntledly. “Well, it’s your life. Do what you want with it.” But his heart felt lighter. The fact that he wasn’t alone relieved him slightly.
“Well then, should we try our best to survive?” Chi-Woo took a talisman and walked forward to where the battle would soon take place.
* * *
After separating from Chi-Woo, the witch went over to the mountain like she said she would. Once she was at the peak, she looked below, staring curiously at Chi-Woo as he wandered around and planted some things on the ground. How in the world was Chi-Woo planning to fight a god? An immortal was fundamentally different from a mere mortal like him.
Despite the circumstances on Liber, gods were not beings that could be looked down on. Even Evelyn, who had long escaped the cycle of mortal life, hadn’t reached ultimate eternity yet. She hadn’t even touched the gates of eternity, and thus couldn’t be certain if she could beat a god. While she was deep in thought, Evelyn let out a sigh. She thought she was alone, but an uninvited guest had approached her. Under the glowing moonlight, she saw a haze rising above the campfire. The haze was strangely black; it was not the color of smoke rising from people’s chimneys, but pure darkness that seemed to have absorbed all the light of the world.
The black haze looked down at their surroundings like Evelyn and slowly turned around. It came all the way to face Evelyn. Evelyn tried to ignore it, but eventually clicked her tongue as she felt its piercing gaze. “What.”
—Hum…an…
The sound of a kettle boiling came from the haze. It also sounded metallic, so it was grating to the ears.
—Human…
The haze repeated itself when Evelyn didn’t reply and spoke more clearly than before.
—H.U.M.A.N.
“…”
—Human.
“…Ah, yeah—That’s right, a human.” When the haze spoke for the fourth time, Evelyn couldn’t endure it any longer and interjected with a frown. She went on with a slightly annoyed tone, “So what? Yeah, he’s a human, but he’s not just a normal human. Can’t you also tell by looking at him?” Annoyed, she waved her hands as if she was swatting a fly. However, even then, the haze didn’t move away.
—A…lowly…
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed at the haze’s mocking tone. “Why don’t you stop now?” Curiosity slowly disappeared from her face, and only a chill was left. “It was decided that you and I would join forces, and I respect the decision of the Joint Thirty-Sixth Meeting.” She continued after a pause, “But they only told me to join forces with you. I didn’t hear anything about having to listen to your orders.”
—Hee…Hee…
“Don’t laugh. If it’s necessary, I’ll join forces, but don’t hinder my plans. I won’t hinder yours, either.” Evelyn spoke firmly and stared straight at the haze. “If you bother me more than this, I’m going to go to the Queen and make a formal complaint against you as soon as this is over, and then she’ll make an official protest to your King.
—…
“If you understand me, I sincerely hope you’ll stop ruining my party and kindly fuck off.” At her cold and chilling sword-like words, the haze became quiet. Then, after a while, it spoke.
—…Fucking…bitch…
Evelyn laughed in astonishment as his voice tickled her ears. At the end of her patience, she was about to kindly show her powers to the haze, but she suddenly stopped herself and narrowed her eyes. The haze also flinched and quickly looked to the front. They saw a distant light brightening up the whole world and rising to the sky like a sunrise. This would have been normal if it wasn’t the dead of night.
“…They’re coming,” Evelyn softly muttered, and her eyes gleamed as she saw Chi-Woo still wandering around the hills.
* * *
At the same time, a tall man looked up at the dark sky from a terrace. Even in the dark, his pale skin that made him look like a nobility was noticeable. His eyes staring upwards seemed to have been carved out of the quiet, night sky. Just looking at him gave the impression of someone strong and righteous. But ironically, if someone looked at him a second time, he looked like a burning star in full blaze.
His thick eyebrows made him look slightly tense, but his face remained completely expressionless; Hawa would be considered emotional compared to him. However, there was a slight look of melancholy in his eyes. ‘Nothing.’
He seemed to have gotten fatigued after staring at the sky for long and sat roughly on the chair, tilting his head. ‘There’s no spark.’ For a fire to start, there needed to be a spark first. However, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see anything that remotely resembled a spark or anything that might become a spark.
‘The only thing I was hopeful about was the fifth recruits, but there’s no call from them… I guess I didn’t expect much in the first place.’ His neck seemed to hurt, and he massaged his nape with his hand.
“I can’t stay here any…” He sighed and smacked his lips. ‘…Should I have just been crazy and brought him?’ But as soon as he thought this, he smirked wryly. The thought came to him whenever he was having a difficult time, but he had never carried this thought into action. Even if Liber completely collapsed, that was something he should never do. The man opened his eyes again and looked up at the night sky.
“Ah, I want to eat snacks… What?” A gasp came out of his lips. Among the countless stars in the night sky, an unknown movement caught his eyes. He couldn’t see it just a moment ago. “What is that?” He quickly fixed his posture and got up. He flew to the sky to see it just a little closer and saw a small but extremely beautiful shining star. On the contrary, he also saw a big but unstable and shaking star. These two stars were about to collide.
‘It’s not natural.’ Anyone would think this was a strange sight. A strange phenomenon that could be easily seen by the human eye was a sign that something that should not have happened was going to happen soon. It also meant that someone intervened to forcefully change Liber’s fate. So far, no matter how hard he had worked, he hadn’t been able to do so.
The flow of this planet’s fate was like a full-blown locomotive heading straight for destruction. All he could do was slow it down. “I can’t…believe it.” The man couldn’t believe his eyes as he looked at the northern sky. It was more than the spark he had desperately been searching for.
“A tipping point has formed…?” A forked road had appeared in the sky. Even though it couldn’t be said that Liber’s fate had been turned completely around, there was a path that could lead it away from heading straight to destruction and even shift it to the right track a little. In short, there was a possibility of reprieve. Of course, it was still too premature to discuss the consequences of this sign, but…
“What is…” The man, who could be described with just a single word—legend—in the esteemed Celestial Realm, widened his mouth in shock. “…happening in the north?”
The man was Choi Chi-Hyun. Chi-Woo’s older brother.