Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 495 – Final Chapter (2)

“It was all me.”

The flowing tears cannot be contained.

-Sob… You… You…

-Swoosh! Woong woong woong woong!

Countless memories flooded in through Mok Gyeong-un’s palm touching Cheong-ryeong’s cheek.

Her red eyes, shedding tears, wavered.

Memories were being painted before her eyes.

-‘Why do you entrust this to me, a mere human vessel?’

-…

-It’s not mere. Isn’t it shining even more brightly?

‘You…’

[Someone once said, it shines brighter because it’s short. We can live like that too, can’t we?]

Her brightly smiling face.

That was my everything.

Born as the Demon King, virtually immortal, I longed for a human life that was fleeting yet shone brighter than anyone else’s.

-Swish swish swish swish!

The black flame was gradually getting smaller.

It was dying out.

-It truly… was long and arduous.

‘Stop. There’s no need to completely dissolve your will into me like this. No, why are you trying to disappear?’

-I’m not disappearing.

‘You!’

-There’s no need… to think… like that. I am… you. You are… me. In the end… we are one.

As the black flame reduced to the size of a finger, even the voice was gradually becoming fainter.

‘Stop! Stop it. Didn’t you want to meet her? Didn’t you want to speak to her every moment you awoke?’

I could understand because all the memories had been assimilated.

In those few moments of awakening, he repeated the same words dozens, hundreds, thousands of times in his mind.

[I missed you so much. My one and only bride.]

Yet, he never uttered these words aloud.

I knew well why he did this.

It was to leave no lingering attachment.

If even a hair’s breadth of attachment remained, he might want to give up on assimilating with me, the human vessel.

-The beautiful… and… shining story… of So-wol… and me… ended… then. Now… it’s the story… of Cheong-ryeong… and you.

The dying ember.

In the ember, he depicted his meeting with her in a flash.

And he recalled his bride, who was so beautiful, for the last time.

-She was beautiful… So beautiful, like a single red peony.

-Whoosh!

The ember thus extinguished and scattered like a heat haze.

As the memories contained in the thoughts were engraved as if unfolding before her eyes, Cheong-ryeong shed tears even more sorrowfully.

‘I knew. You knew.’

A hundred years ago, after breathing her last, she became a vengeful spirit, fixated only on revenge.

To her, who was desolate and filled only with darkness, Mortal started as someone in a similar position of shared suffering, but before she knew it, he became a ray of light, and gradually, she came to hold him in her heart.

She thought she would never hold anyone in her heart again.

But she couldn’t hide that emotion.

That’s why you became Mortal as a human, not your former self.

[…Yes. We’ll be together. Even if it’s just for a fleeting moment.]

Now I think I understand why he said such words.

He truly regretted it.

All those moments.

[The shining story of So-wol and me has come to an end.]

Yet, you left without leaving even a trace of lingering attachment, holding in your heart the brief but beautiful sparkle of our time together.

No, you became one with him.

His voice from that time faintly echoes in my ears.

[I missed you so much. My one and only bride.]

-Aaaaah!

Cheong-ryeong wailed sorrowfully and tightly embraced Mok Gyeong-un.

I missed you so much.

Just once… even if it’s just for a moment, I thought I’d be willing to disappear forever if I could see you just once.

-Grip!

She embraced him tightly as if he might disappear somewhere.

But at some point,

-Swish swish swish swish swish!

Her spirit body tried to pass through Mok Gyeong-un’s body.

‘!?’

Mok Gyeong-un’s pupils shook.

Although her spirit body had become faint due to the depletion of spirit power, he thought there was still some left, but her spirit power was rapidly being exhausted.

“Cheong-ryeong?”

-Ah… I… Why…

-Creep creep!

He could feel spell power.

Then, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes caught sight of Mok Gan, no, Bi Yong-heon, forming a hand seal with one hand.

The surrounding area for dozens of jang was filled with his spell power,

-Ugh… Ma-Master.

Guard Go Chan, who had tried to move Wi So-yeon’s body, which was the soul, groaned in pain as his spirit body became faint.

The spirit power of the vengeful spirits was being rapidly depleted due to the wall created by spell power.

-Whoosh!

Intense light flowed from Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

At that moment, Bi Yong-heon’s face, who was chanting a spell while forming a hand seal, contorted in pain, and fresh blood spurted from his mouth.

-Puh!

This was because he had been struck in the heart by the mind’s sword, the Sword Intent.

Mok Gyeong-un’s mind’s sword, having regained his original memories and become stronger in will than anyone else, was incomparably stronger than before.

However,

“Cough cough!..”

He endured the pain of his heart being torn apart and continued to chant the spell.

Bi Yong-heon’s face was contorted with pain, but his eyes were filled with anger and madness.

-Swish swish swish swish!

“Cheong-ryeong!”

It was useless to try to hold her with spell power.

Cheong-ryeong’s body, which had become faint to the point of disappearing completely, passed through Mok Gyeong-un’s arms and fell downwards.

-Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Soldier! Fight! Split! Formation!

As Mok Gyeong-un chanted the spell along with the hand seals of the Nine Word Revival Technique, four pillars appeared around the falling Cheong-ryeong, creating surfaces that contained her.

This was the Four Peaks Linking Technique.

-Grr!

-Whoosh!

Mok Gyeong-un’s form reached in front of Bi Yong-heon in the blink of an eye.

Nevertheless, Bi Yong-heon continued to chant the spell without even thinking of blocking or avoiding.

His eyes, filled with madness, were saying:

‘If I can’t have her, I won’t let anyone else have her either.’

Even if that meant Cheong-ryeong’s eternal annihilation.

-Whoosh! Shudder!

In response to his unceasing madness, Mok Gyeong-un split Bi Yong-heon’s body in half with a single stroke filled with tremendous killing intent.

-Slash! Crack!

Only when he was cut in half did Bi Yong-heon’s mouth stop uttering spells.

-Slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash!

As if this wasn’t enough, Mok Gyeong-un instantly created hundreds of trajectories, annihilating Bi Yong-heon’s body without leaving a single piece.

Still not satisfied, Mok Gyeong-un was about to fly towards the falling Cheong-ryeong.

But then,

-Swish swish swish swish swish!

Something faint was visible in the blood scattering like dust.

It was a vengeful spirit.

As Bi Yong-heon, his face still full of scars, appeared as a vengeful spirit, Mok Gyeong-un grabbed the neck of his spirit as if pleased.

-Grab!

He had decided to annihilate even his soul, preventing him from entering the cycle of reincarnation.

Then, as if trying to resist, the vengeful spirit Bi Yong-heon reached out his hand towards Mok Gyeong-un’s face.

To this,

“Disappear.”

-Whoosh!

Bi Yong-heon’s spirit body began to scatter due to demonic energy and spell power.

But the expression of Bi Yong-heon, who had just reached out his hand towards him with an angry face, was different from before.

It was a face as if he had let go of everything.

At that moment, Bi Yong-heon’s unconscious thoughts flowed in through his spirit body.

-Slash! Slash!

[Stop. Please… stop.]

Bi Yong-heon was suffering as he created self-inflicted wounds, cutting his own face with a dagger.

He was trying to stab the eye on his forehead with the dagger, but having lost control of his body, he ended up cutting his face.

[Please… Please…]

The incoming thoughts of that guy.

They were miserable memories of trying to take his own life or trying to remove that guy whenever he briefly escaped Mok Gan’s control over the past hundred years.

He constantly fought between the inherent madness and reason within himself.

However, all those results were nothing but the encroachment of madness.

-Swish swish swish swish swish!

Having read these thoughts, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes became strange.

So you too were unable to escape from madness due to Mok Gan’s control.

But the reason he pretended to attack him without any explanation even after escaping that control when he became a vengeful spirit was,

[I must be annihilated. I must disappear as evil until the very end.]

His thoughts wished for his own annihilation.

It was because only by disappearing as the root of evil until the end could he completely wash away her resentment.

-Swish swish swish swish swish!

As if knowing that Mok Gyeong-un had read his thoughts, the scattering and disappearing vengeful spirit Bi Yong-heon shook his head with a subtle look.

It seemed as if he was asking not to tell her anything.

And so, the vengeful spirit Bi Yong-heon completely scattered and even his spirit body was annihilated.

Even if he tried to do something for her at the very end, Mok Gyeong-un felt no sympathy for him.

After all, all that madness had originated from him.

-Whoosh!

Mok Gyeong-un moved the Four Peaks Linking Technique to the ground, dispelled it, and then checked on Cheong-ryeong.

Having become completely faint and on the verge of disappearing, she spoke with difficulty.

-Bi… Bi Yong-heon?

“He…”

At her question, Mok Gyeong-un was about to say that he had annihilated him but then hesitated.

Her spirit body was already on the verge of disappearing.

If he were to inform her of the annihilation of Bi Yong-heon, who could be considered the subject of her resentment, what would happen?

If she were to attain enlightenment like this, the worst situation could occur.

Wi So-yeon, who could be considered her soul, had already escaped even the cycle of reincarnation, so she could be annihilated just like that.

‘What should I do?’

He who had been unhindered in everything, at this moment, couldn’t decide anything.

She had already exhausted most of her spirit power and was on the verge of disappearing.

He couldn’t take risks in this state.

-Haa… Haa… Master.

At that moment, Guard Go Chan, who had protected Wi So-yeon’s body until the end despite facing the crisis of his spirit body being annihilated, approached.

Seeing Wi So-yeon being carried on Go Chan’s back, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes wavered even more.

‘……..’

It was because he recalled the conversation he had with Wicked Granny Cheol Suryeon when he obtained the forbidden technique that could unite soul and spirit.

[Is it possible to make the spirit the main subject and unite it with the soul using the forbidden technique?]

[The spirit as the main subject? Do you think that’s possible? The spirit is like a strong thought from one’s lifetime. It scatters and is washed away on earth when the soul goes through the process of reincarnation. In the end, the soul becomes the subject of reincarnation.]

[…Then what happens when the soul and spirit become one? Is everything related to the spirit completely washed away?]

[Yes. That’s the principle.]

-Grip!

Strength entered Mok Gyeong-un’s clenched fist.

-Drip!

His nails dug into his flesh, and blood flowed.

At the end of their journey, they had come to know each other’s existence, so why did it have to end like this?

It would be right to unite her soul and spirit to allow her to live, but if that happens, due to the cycle of reincarnation, everything of Cheong-ryeong, the spirit, would be washed away.

She would no longer be Cheong-ryeong he knew, but her previous life.

-Swoosh!

At that moment, despite being unable to make contact due to her faint spirit body, Cheong-ryeong reached out her hand towards Mok Gyeong-un’s clenched fist.

With a look as if she knew everything, she moved her lips, saying it was alright, and smiled with tears in her eyes.