The World's Greatest is Dead

What first came into view was a blurred sky. Or maybe not. It did not seem to be the sky. Ripples. At a glance, it looked like water flowing slowly.

—Save me.

—Please, save me......!

—I don’t want to die in a place like this......!!!

—Mom....... Mom, I’m cold.......

—Kyaaaaaak!!!

All sorts of screams and chaotic sounds stabbed into my ears one after another.

Glub.

From the sensation around my mouth, I realized this place was underwater.

And yet, I had no great problem breathing.

What is this?

What kind of situation was this? I looked around with hazy eyes. Pale white hands were circling around me.

What had happened right before this? Even that memory was blurry. Ah, right.

The sea god.

I remembered grappling with the spirit beast and being dragged into the water.

And then—

Something.

Had burned, I think? Flames appeared, burned the sea god, and removed it just like that.

Then I reached for the spirit pill that remained there.

And came here?

Judging by the sequence, that seemed to be right. Then—

......What is this place now?

Was it a dream-vision? No, it did not seem to be a dream-vision. It did not feel that way. Quiet and still. At a glance, it looked like a dream-vision, but the sensation was not something I could take that way.

Saaaah.

I felt something unpleasant. When I looked around, the pale white hands were approaching as if to coil around me.

Water ghosts. Vicious evil ghosts who had drowned in the sea were trying to wind themselves around me.

I did not like this much. Just as I tried to rise slightly and escape—

[Interesting.]

I heard a voice. When I looked in its direction, someone was floating above, looking down at me.

An ink-black martial uniform. Pale skin and red light in his eyes.

Heavenly Demon.

It was the Heavenly Demon.

[Now you call me without hesitation. What an insolent brat.]

I thought this wasn’t a dream-vision, but is it?

[Similar, but different. This is not your mindscape domain...... To be precise, it is inside a petty ghost. Inside the soul of that fool you caught.]

The sea god’s mindscape domain. That meant I had entered it. Was that possible?

Keeeeee.

The pale white hands still reached toward me, but in the end, they could not touch me. Because they had begun hesitating, as if frightened.

If I had to guess the reason, it was probably because of the existence in front of me. I was thinking that when—

[Do you truly think so?]

The Heavenly Demon looked at me with an incredulous expression and spoke.

[My existence cannot exert any influence. What power could a frail soul wrapped around the Divine Sword possibly have?]

Frail? What nonsense. If that man was frail, then who in the world was strong?

Yoo Cheongil? Other than that man, I did not think there was anyone.

[This is purely because of your presence. Did you not feel it?]

......Not really. I have not done anything in particular.

Just in case, I checked the state of my soul, but what I had locked down was still firmly locked.

It had loosened slightly because of the matter with Peng Doyeon, but that much had no effect.

If anything had an effect—

The karma that built up when I subdued that god.

That seemed like the only possible problem, but even that...... I had thought it was not enough to worry about.

Did some problem arise?

Maybe it had. It was not as if there were only one or two problems with this body.

I forced myself to ignore the uneasy feeling.

So what exactly happened?

Why had I come here? When I asked in doubt, the Heavenly Demon looked at me and tilted his head slightly.

[Do you truly not know?]

Yes. I have no idea at all.

Nothing came to mind. It was not a point where I could think of anything in particular.

What was the issue? If there was a problem—

That flame.

The blue spark. The thing that had swallowed the sea god came to mind.

[Yes. That is it.]

The Heavenly Demon spoke to me as if that was the correct answer. That was the answer? That flame?

What is that?

It was something I had seen for the first time. I wondered if it was a power I had used, but...... since the phenomenon itself had appeared for the first time, I could not know. I had too little information.

[Karmic fire.]

The Heavenly Demon answered my question. Karmic fire? It was a familiar term. Was he saying that was the name of the blue flame?

[That which burns petty ghosts and reduces lawless souls to ash. It is not in the realm of energy, but in the realm of soul energy, and yet you have obtained it.]

......What exactly have I obtained, and how?

Even if he said I had obtained it, I did not know the method. Was such a thing even possible?

A flame that burns gods.

If it was not in the realm of energy, but in the realm of soul energy, then it meant it affected soul-forms, not living creatures.

......Hmm.

Could I use it? The instant I wondered that, a reaction came.

Fwoosh.

At the same time my chest itched, flame burned in my hand. Blue flame.

So this was karmic fire. The moment I looked at it with fascination—

Kyaaaaaaaaa—!

Hiiiiiiiaaaah!!

Screams rang out around me. The pale white hands immediately drew away from me. The evil ghosts had become thoroughly frightened after seeing the karmic fire.

Interesting.

I put slightly more force into it. The flame grew stronger. As it grew in size, the distance they kept from me also increased.

It was certain. The evil ghosts hated this flame.

And that was not all.

Swaaaaaaaa—!!!

Hm?

The water all around was being drawn into me. It was not entering through my mouth or nose, but immediately seeping into my dantian like energy.

This is—

Then it piled up as energy.

[It is the energy of the spirit pill. Absorb it completely. It is precious, so it would be best to obtain as much of it as possible.]

I had no time to react to those words. The rushing energy instantly increased in both speed and volume.

Ghk.

It felt like I was going to overflow. I could not come to my senses, so I immediately took a posture. Though I was underwater, it was not difficult to do so.

I sat cross-legged and focused on my breathing. It was vast and countless in quantity. That much energy rushed in, then rushed in again.

Ghk.

If I lost focus even slightly, I felt like I would immediately fall apart.

I steadied my anxiety and struggled not to let go as much as possible.

I endured and endured like that for a long while. How many minutes had passed with me grinding my teeth?

Whoooooooosh—!!!

The energy that had been rampaging as if it would suck me in gradually calmed.

Its quantity decreased, and its speed slowed.

When I finally had enough room to open my eyes—

Ah.

All that water had disappeared.

What remained was a space that might have been a field, or perhaps a hill.

Floating in the sky, I looked down at the ground.

A vast landscape entered my eyes. Was this the mindscape domain of a god?

Before I could even express surprise at that—

[Now open your eyes.]

[You have obtained everything there is to obtain.]

The Heavenly Demon spoke.

Whoosh—!!

And my consciousness inside the domain escaped outside.

*****

“Cough!”

I opened my eyes and let out a dry cough.

“Kh...... kuhuk.”

I spat a bucketful of water onto the floor. I was dizzy. As I staggered and raised my upper body—

“Bang Seongyeon! Are you all right?”

A worried voice reached me.

“......Yes.”

It was Peng Dojun. He supported me.

“Good thing you came back alive. You weren’t coming to your senses, so I thought you’d died!”

“......What happened?”

“What do you mean, what happened? You fell underwater, so I pulled you out. Thanks to you, I went for a swim for the first time in a while.”

“......”

Looking closely, Peng Dojun’s body was wet. Just as he said, it seemed he had jumped into the river to save me.

“Are you coming around? What about that monster?”

“......It is fine. The monster is probably dead.”

“Oh. Looks like you managed to deal with it. But I didn’t see that huge bastard’s corpse anywhere. Did you collect the spirit pill?”

“......I did not have the leisure.”

I had obtained the spirit pill. I had also absorbed its energy, but it seemed right not to show that.

“Cough.”

I spat out the rest of the water. With a sigh, I leaned back against the boat’s railing and lay there. At that moment, people appeared from the boat.

Yu Yeon, Poison Dragon, and Cloud Dragon.

“......What happened?”

“What in the world is this all of a sudden......?”

Poison Dragon and Cloud Dragon seemed flustered by the abrupt situation, and Yu Yeon seemed to have gone to reassure the women.

“......It is roughly all resolved.”

Explaining was bothersome, so I waved my hand vaguely.

“Ah.”

Then something occurred to me. Now that I thought about it, there was one problem.

“......Hey.”

“Yes?”

I quietly called Poison Dragon. Then Poison Dragon seemed to sense something ominous, because he made a reluctant expression.

“Do you know how to steer a boat?”

“......A boat...... you mean?”

“Yes, a boat.”

“Why a boat......?”

Now that the situation was over, there was a problem.

“I killed the captain, so I do not know who is supposed to steer the boat.”

“......”

Namely, we were in the middle of the river, and with the captain dead, there was no one left who could steer the boat.

Only now did I notice the biggest problem. Ah, what should I do about this? While I turned the matter over in my head with an uneasy feeling—

“......But in that case, would it not be enough to catch that man again?”

Peng Dojun asked.

“He fell into the river anyway, and I doubt someone called a captain cannot swim. Should I go find him and drag him back even now?”

Since he probably had not fled very far anyway, could we not just catch him and bring him back? At those words, I shook my head.

“No. It will not work even if you do.”

“What? Why? If it is hard for you, I can go catch him right now......”

“......No. It is already too late anyway.”

Bring the captain back? Not a chance.

The sea god was dead. Then the water ghosts that had been suppressed in the river must have been released. And if the person they resented most had fallen into the river, what would have happened?

What else would happen?

It had probably already begun.

It was obvious without even looking.

*****

“Kuhuk...... hah.”

An elderly man swam through the river like mad. Then he looked back. The boat could be seen far in the distance.

Where had the sea god they served gone? He did not know. Had that man truly hunted it? That existence?

Impossible.

Even if he was Moon Hero, he could kill that monster? The captain clenched his teeth.

He had to run. If he was caught like this, he would be killed.

No. No.

He had to return to the village at once. Though this was the center of the river, he had lived here for decades.

He knew that if he swam a little farther, he would reach the forest. His stamina had dropped somewhat, but he could make it.

I have to live.

The only thought filling him was the desire to live. If the sea god had truly died, then that was actually for the best. He no longer needed to offer sacrifices to that monster.

He would return to the village and live quietly, as if he were dead. Or else he would pack his things and flee just like that.

The captain ground his teeth and was about to swim madly.

Grab—!

“Kh!?”

Suddenly, his body was pulled into the river.

“Grrk! Kh!”

What was this? The captain’s eyes rolled. Was there waterweed? Something had suddenly begun pulling on his foot.

“Gurgle!”

His breathing was blocked. The captain looked back to break free. He tried to cut the waterweed with the sickle at his waist and escape.

“......!”

The instant he looked back, the captain’s body stiffened.

It was not waterweed.

It was hands.

Pale white hands, and the faces of women with veins standing out.

Hundreds of women filled with malice and resentment were pulling him by the feet.

Ah...... aah......

Crushed by fear, the captain could not do a thing.

Then the pale white hands reached out and covered his face.

That was his end.

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