Mirror World: Destined Return

The Palace of Madness, which should have been filled with celebratory noises around this time, was deathly silent.

“Uhuhuhu? He’s really dead! By the looks of it, he was beaten pretty one-sidedly!” said Scite Amor as she splashed around the puddle of blood in the middle of the party hall. A bat that looked as if it were made of rubies rested on her shoulder.

“Keheh! S-stupid Demens. W-what good is it if you’re a World Ranker? N-nothing matters if you’re dead,” an old man in a tuxedo mocked Demens as he stuttered.

He was Semita Sigillum, a vampire with only a few strands of white hair remaining on his head. His anxious red eyes were darting around.

“Huuu, how unartistic,” mumbled Erzsebet Melos, the tall woman who carefully lifted the hem of her white dress to not get blood on it.

“Bwehe! How ignorant but bold! Cheon Seong-Hwi, was it? A human, right?” asked a man with curly white hair and colorful clothes.

Motusch Rabies trembled as he replied, “T-that is correct, D-Duke Berto Motus—”

Berto punched Motusch, turning him into a puddle of blood. “Stop stuttering! Bwehe! One stutterer is more than enough. Right, Brother Semita?” he asked as his ferocious eyes shifted to Semita.

“Keheh...” Semita expressed timidly, avoiding Berto’s eyes by looking down.

Haema Sanguis walked toward the center of the party hall in silence, his long white hair fluttering, and examined the traces of the battle.

“Cheon Seong-Hwi... I have heard the name before. Grawamen,” Haema called.

“Yes, he is the human suspected of negotiating with Keter instead of us during the Lumber the World Tree quest,” reported Grawamen Dirae, a bald and scrawny man with disgusting scabs oozing with pus all over his body.

“Yes, I remember now. I had notified Scourgify to attempt a negotiation with Keter in secret. The nutrients absorbed by the World Tree were quite enticing,” Haema mumbled.

He had taken an interest in the World Tree ever since Lapsus, the Seventh Fiend, revealed the secret about the tree during the racial conference. A tree that absorbed nutrients had many similarities with his tendencies.

Haema extended his right arm, and the blood that had been scattered throughout the party hall rose.

[Activating Race Skill: Blood Drain.]

The blood was condensed into a ball, which was absorbed into Haema’s hand. His red eyes turned even redder, and the blood inside began to slosh.

“Someone took most of Demens’s blood,” he remarked.

“Keheh? D-Demens’s blood? W-who?”

“Bwehe! Only one of us would do something like that! Scite, I believe you arrived here first, right?” Berto said, staring at Scite through his sunglasses.

“It wasn’t me! I would be insane to take the Rabies pureblood! Only Demens can control that!” Scite shouted.

“Let us see who the culprit is,” Haema said as he activated a skill.

[Activating Race Skill: Blood Memory.]

Haema forcibly brought out the memories within the blood of the Rabies bloodline kin that had mixed with his blood.

“AHHHHH!”

“Cough! W-who the hell is he?!”

“He is on par with Marquis Demens!”

The situation during the battle was replicated from various views through the memories of several people.

“That man is Cheon Seong-Hwi,” Haema mumbled, locking onto the human fighting Demens in third-person view.

He had black hair and eyes, many wings resembling those of a fairy, and a golden crown floating over his head. Just then, a scene replayed that made Haema’s eyes widen.

“HAAAAAHHH!”

Demens fired a crescent slash of blood at the human using Blood Control, but the human named Cheon Seong-Hwi did not dodge. Rather, he accelerated toward the slash and brought his hands forward. The moment that the human’s hands touched the blood slash, it corroded and turned into powder.

“Could it... be?”

The blood circulated even faster inside Haema’s blood vessels. He could instinctively tell that the human had used the skill he had desperately desired. The replaying memories also showed the shield of blood Demens created corroding.

Haema thought with absolute certainty, That is Rust of Ruin!

He had paid astronomical amounts of causality to comb through the Akashic Records to find information about a skill that would become the strongest and the most devastating in his hands. He then discovered knowledge of a skill known as Rust of Ruin.

Haema opened too many S-rank cubes to count to obtain the skill, but in the end, he never managed to obtain it. He later paid causality to find out that someone else had already obtained the skill.

Cheon Seong-Hwi! It was him! He was the one who obtained Rust of Ruin before me! Haema shouted inwardly, his eyes blazing with aspiration. He has what I need!

The two treasures he was aiming for had fallen into his hands. He could no longer care less about the death of Demens Rabies.

Haema turned around, his black silk cape fluttering, as he commanded his brothers and sisters, “Find the human named Cheon Seong-Hwi! He must be captured alive, no matter what! Mobilize the entirety of Consanguineus, if you must!”

***

Pwoooo! What do you think you’re doing?! Get off of me!

Bulgasal ran around with its short and stumpy legs, and the fairy Echo was riding on Bulgasal’s back while holding onto its flappy ears.

“Ya—hoo! Yaaa—hoo! Second Knight, Second Knight! Look at me!”

“Stay still, both of you. You’re being distracting,” Seong-Hwi said.

Pwoo! Daddy, you meanie! She started it first! Bulgasal trumpeted, dissatisfied by Seong-Hwi’s scolding.

“Hehehe! Okay, Second Knight!” Echo said, smiling brightly as she flew over to Seong-Hwi to sit on his shoulder and kiss his cheek.

I finally have someone who answers me! Echo thought.

She loved her Second Knight to death. Considering the time she had spent in the darkness, hearing only her echoes, this situation felt like a dream come true.

Hehe! I’m not lonely anymore! My Second Knight is with me!

Seong-Hwi could feel the warmth of Echo’s golden gaze on him.

Pwoooo! You thief! Daddy is my daddy! Bulgasal shouted as it turned its trunk into a chain whip and wrapped Echo with it, but Echo only giggled as she was dragged away, thinking Bulgasal wanted to play.

“Huuu, don’t pay attention to them,” Seong-Hwi said as he turned to the table.

Gerard, members of the intelligence division, including Ma Sang-Sik, and Tae-Jin’s party, excluding Choi Hee-Gyeong, were at the table.

“Congratulations on becoming a World Ranker, tsar,” Ilia Volok said respectfully as he blushed, clicking his feet together.

He seriously killed Demens Rabies! SS is a god now. He is the savior—the tsar! Ilia thought, his eyes sparkling with envy and respect.

“Tsar? Since when were you Russian?” Gerard asked Seong-Hwi as he snorted.

Ilia frowned. “Who is this old French frog? How dare you speak to the tsar with such disrespect? Shall I teach him a lesson, tsar?” Ilia asked for Seong-Hwi’s consent.

Seong-Hwi shook his head. “Forget it. He’s Gerard D’Armont, a poisonous frog.”

The members of the intelligence division stepped back from Gerard after learning his identity.

“Gerard... D’Armont?”

“Gasp! The White Devil!”

“The Gerard D’Armont of the Montpellier Massacre?!”

Gerard’s ranking had been on a continuous decline since he had not been active for a long time, but his name, written in blood, remained in the ranking.

“The Montpellier Massacre, huh?” Gerard mumbled as if reminiscing and turned to look at Wang Chen, who was smiling as he examined the changes to his body. “Lucky bastard... He became a Daywalker after not even a day since becoming a Canis.”

Wang Chen would never understand the agony of porphyria, the retribution for becoming a Canis.

As long as he keeps his promise... I will be the same! Gerard thought, staring intently at Seong-Hwi, who seemed to be in thought.

He had believed it was impossible his entire life. However, now that a precedent known as Wang Chen existed, Gerard’s desire to become a Daywalker blazed intensely.

If I become a Daywalker... I would like to go on a walk with Lady Jurie.

As Gerard was immersed in his thoughts, Seong-Hwi turned to the intelligence division members and said, “Did you say you found the cask storage in the central ancient castle’s basement?”

“We are almost certain,” Etxeberria replied.

“Almost?” Seong-Hwi said in dissatisfaction.

Carly complained, “We managed to infiltrate the entrance, but further infiltration was far too difficult.”

“She’s right. My stealth skill may work against the Cani, but it won’t fool the high-status aristocrats,” agreed Roger, who possessed the Mimic Octopus D Weapon.

“If you only managed to infiltrate the entrance, how are you certain that it is the cask storage?” Seong-Hwi asked.

“Well...”

“Better to see it for yourself,” Sang-Sik said as he stepped forward and grabbed his Zippo Lighter of Memories.

[Activating Unique Skill: Crime Scene.]

Sang-Sik lit the lighter, and the fire distorted to play the events at the crime scene. Thousands of silhouettes, each made of fire, were kneeling while restrained. Those who appeared to be vampires walked between them and divided them into groups of children, men, and women. Just then, a bizarre device that resembled a sea anemone was wheeled in.

“What are those?” Seong-Hwi asked.

“Just... watch,” Etxeberria hesitantly replied.

A giant storage tank was situated in the center. Dozens of hoses were stretched out above the tank, and there were as many poles as the hoses around the tank.

The vampires dragged the humans toward the device and placed them in front of the poles. They restrained the humans with the chains attached to the poles and mercilessly inserted pipes that were attached to the glass tank into their arms.

“Could it... be?” Tae-Jin mumbled with a stiff expression.

Wang Chen, Hector, and Gerard also frowned. Dozens of humans were forced to stand attached to the device that resembled a sea anemone, and the pipes sucked the blood from their arteries, gathering inside the glass tank. Silence filled the room after Sang-Sik closed the Zippo lighter.

“T-those motherfuckers!”

“Their actions are unforgivable!”

“We have to contact the Sēmen!”

“Why would they help us? We should ask for assistance from Underground instead.”

“Those filthy mosquitoes!”

Fury toward the vampires exuded from everyone in the room, and Seong-Hwi was no exception.

I see... So, this is how they did it, he thought.

Seong-Hwi knew that the vampires used humans like livestock, but he didn’t know exactly how because of Blood Castle’s reclusiveness. This was no different from a farm—a chicken farm where farmers trapped chickens in coops and had them lay eggs daily.

“YOU!” Hector suddenly charged at Seong-Hwi and lifted him by his collar. “WE COULD HAVE SAVED THEM BACK THEN! WE COULD HAVE SAVED THEM BACK IN LUNATIC!”

They had the chance to rescue over ten thousand humans in Clan Blood Cross’s supply warehouse when the clansmen were put to sleep. However, the man before him had used them as bait instead of rescuing them.

“YOU’RE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO DEFEAT DEMENS RABIES, SO YOU WOULD’VE BEEN MORE THAN CAPABLE OF SAVING ALL OF THEM!”

“I was able to defeat Demens Rabies because I didn’t save them,” Seong-Hwi replied.

“What? That’s the last thing the Second Son of humanity should be saying!” Hector shouted.

Seong-Hwi, still dangling by the collar, said apathetically, “None of us are children. Rather, as Baptists, you all should have understood once we obtained the Teleport Rock. There is no such thing as the best option in this world; only the worst and less-worse. You are bound to win some and lose some.”

“Y-YOU!” Hector shouted, his expression filled with hatred for Seong-Hwi.

He threw a punch at Seong-Hwi, who could have dodged, but didn’t.

Seong-Hwi licked the blood off his torn lip and asked, “Have you cooled down?”

“Enough of that attitude!”

“What attitude?”

“That fucking attitude!” Hector shouted, his pale face boiling red.

Seong-Hwi smirked and thought, I knew this day would come one day.

He knew that the path for personal growth would one day diverge from the path for humanity’s betterment. He had consoled himself that the two paths were the same. He needed many things: entry into the world ranking, Karma, heightening of his caliber, enhancement of his star’s magnitude, and more.

To do that, Seong-Hwi needed to kill Demens Rabies, and to do that, he needed to use Clan Blood Cross. Hence, he did not rescue the ten thousand humans in Lunatic when he could have. As a result, he killed Demens and obtained what he needed, but the ten thousand people were reduced to chickens in coops.

“Would you condemn me if I said I chose the lesser evil for the greater good?” Seong-Hwi asked.

Everyone in the room remained silent. Seong-Hwi stared at his own reflection in their eyes. It felt as if several versions of himself were surrounding him.

How ironic, he thought.

Seong-Hwi wanted to grasp both his and humanity’s destinies. However, what if that required sacrifices from humanity? Would he do nothing and let go, or tell himself that it was necessary and move forward?

I can’t go back to those days of us understanding each other as we hunted Dark Humans anymore, Hector, Seong-Hwi thought as he stared apathetically at Hector, who glared at him with hostility.

He had put on a crown. It was so heavy that he couldn’t even turn his head toward trivial matters. If he did, his neck would break, unable to bear the weight of the crown.

I suppose I’m... a bit frustrated.

Seong-Hwi knew what others thought of him: cold-hearted, an egoist, a psychopath, and so much more. He wanted to spit at the people who saw him as such and say this.

“Yeah, I’m always the villain. What a bunch of saints.” Seong-Hwi took Hector’s hands off his collar and straightened his clothes. “That’s enough infighting. It looks like we have guests.”

***

Men have on the whole spoken of love with so much emphasis and adoration because they have hitherto always had so little of it.

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn of Day[1]

1. I’m guessing this is the quote. ☜

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