Trap (15)**
“Thanks to your devotion, I was able to capture a great evil spirit.”
“No. I only did what I had to do.”
Just now.
My body trembles, perhaps because I saw Kali’s soul being sucked into the deep abyss.
The fear of death, which I had never thought of as particularly frightening, now overwhelms me.
It’s not the fear of ‘the end’.
It’s the fear that the end may not come.
Even if I die, my life will not end if I am dragged to the underworld.
It means that I will have to suffer for an eternity.
‘Then what kind of punishment will I receive?’
I became afraid of what would happen after death.
The sins I have committed are not one or two.
Even the sins I committed in a single turn were numerous, and I repeated them 12 times······.
Perhaps the weight of the sins engraved on my soul is enormous.
When I step onto the flames of karma, won’t the flames rise like wildfire on dry firewood?
“You’re afraid. Are you afraid of me?”
“Yes. You, the underworld······.”
“Why?”
“Death is something that even a god cannot avoid. So I, too, will die someday and go to the underworld.”
“Do you want to come to the underworld?”
“Yes? That’s not it······.”
“If that’s not it, then you have no business coming to the underworld. As long as you don’t commit sins in your future life.”
“······?”
I felt a question and looked up for a moment.
Then I quickly lowered my eyes again, overwhelmed by the dizzying darkness that filled my vision.
What does this mean?
I’m not going to the underworld?
“E, excuse me, but may I ask why? There must be a lot of evil deeds piled up in my history, so why······.”
“They are certainly evil deeds. You have deceived countless people and inflicted wounds that cannot be washed away.”
You?
Something was strange about what he said.
But since he said he was not familiar with human language, I let it go without arguing.
“As you said. Does that mean that my evil deeds are not fit to be judged in the underworld?”
“No. Originally, you should have been overwhelmed by the pain of having your heart torn apart for decades without rest, adding up all the wounds you inflicted.”
“······.”
I think that’s right too.
I used the underworld god to deal with the Four Heavenly Kings.
It would be fair for me to be judged by the underworld as well.
However, the words that followed from the underworld god’s mouth were unexpected.
“However, that doesn’t apply to you, except for you. They call it an exception, don’t they?”
“What do you mean?”
“Isn’t your history broken? History is originally supposed to flow continuously without stopping. I, the King of Hell, am also just a mortal who cannot escape that great flow. So I have no way to deal with you who have a broken history. However, in your case, the story is different.”
“······?”
The story was beyond my comprehension.
Who are ‘you’ and who is ‘you’?
From the context, it seems like ‘you’ is referring to me······.
From now on, I give up trying to understand.
I’ll just listen.
“What do you think is the condition for the remission of evil deeds?”
“Do you also grant remission?”
“If there is no remission, will those who have sinned once sin endlessly? I don’t want that.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand at all······. May I ask what the conditions for the remission of evil deeds are?”
“You are clever but also foolish. There are two conditions. The sinner’s repentance. And the forgiveness of the one who was harmed. Fortunately, you met both conditions just before I arrived. So rest assured that your evil deeds, which have continued from your closed history, have been forgiven. I, the innocent, do not want to live my whole life in fear because I have seen too much of the underworld.”
My evil deeds have been forgiven······.
That evil deed must be referring to the time I deceived and betrayed Jill, Julia, and Yerina.
But I repented for it (although it doesn’t seem enough yet).
I met all three of them and received their forgiveness.
This is the result of facing my karma.
Now, when I die, I will not be dragged to the underworld and will be able to rest in peace.”Thank you. Thank you. Thank you······.”
-Oh my. It’s starting to break down-
“Ah, huh? What······.”
I only realized it after hearing the sound of Myunggyeshin clicking his tongue.
The fact that blood was flowing from my eyes, ears, and mouth.
A sudden sense of weakness washed over my body, and my legs gave out.
I fell to my knees and continued to bleed profusely.
If Mijung had been next to me, she would have swallowed her saliva, thinking it was a feast.
Suddenly, my right hand felt empty.
My hand was just skimming the abyss enveloped in darkness.
-Didn’t he say there was another evil spirit?-
“Yes······ Yes······.”
I thought I had gotten a little used to Myunggyeshin’s voice.
It seems that I was only numb to the pain, and the damage was accumulating little by little.
I answered with difficulty, spitting out blood.
-It seems that it will be difficult to talk to you any longer-
“It’s okay······. I’m fine with dying······ Please finish off the remaining evil spirit······.”
-Do you really want to die like this? If you desperately desire such a death, I will grant it-
“······.”
-I don’t think so. Even though the way mortals are born and live their lives cannot be determined, shouldn’t they at least decide how they die? The way you die is up to you. I will open the passage and return. I have entrusted part of the underworld to you, so it would be better to borrow his power in the future. Well, I hope you have good luck in the future-
With that said.
The pitch-black darkness receded, and the pressure that seemed to crush my body also disappeared.
At that moment, the system window appeared before my eyes.
[Achievement Unlocked]
[The First Judge of the Underworld, Facing the King of Hell and Surviving!]
By the way, the conditions for this achievement are ridiculous.
It’s not ‘facing the King of Hell’, but ‘facing and surviving’.
I think I would have died 100% if I didn’t have the ‘Enhanced Mentality’ trait, so it’s a little creepy.
“Ah······.”
Maybe I still haven’t escaped death.
As the darkness receded and the surrounding scenery became visible.
I lost consciousness with Mijung’s worried face running towards me as my last sight.
[As a reward, ‘Familiar with Death······
The system window that appeared at that time, I couldn’t finish reading it because I lost consciousness.
“This is······.”
This was definitely Elvengard.
My sense of time and space was distorted because I had been trapped in the darkness for quite a long time.
At least I remember everything about what I was doing and why.
However, I was quite surprised by the sight that unfolded before my eyes.
“Snowfield?”
Look around here.
Look around there.
There was nothing but a field covered in snow.
A cold snowstorm relentlessly swept over me as if it would knock me down.
The sky was covered with dark clouds, and it was very gloomy.
One thing is for sure.
This is a scene that I don’t remember at all.
Did I lose my memory in the meantime?
Did I lose my memory of getting here because I looked directly at Myunggyeshin?
As all sorts of thoughts crossed my mind.
Looking around 360 degrees, I found the only place where light was shining.
“Huff······ Huff······.”
I walked through the snowfield as if possessed.
For some reason, my outfit was the same as when I was in Elvengard, so the snow was cold and stinging on my bare skin.
For the time being, I was so obsessed with the compulsion to head towards the light that I didn’t have time to think about anything else.
“A flower?”
A place where sunlight was shining through the dark clouds.
There, a single flower was revealed in the middle of the white snowfield.
After removing the snow piled on the petals, I confirmed that it was a red camellia.
But aren’t camellias flowers that grow on trees, not in fields?
I tilted my head in question for a moment.
I noticed that there were other flowers in front of it.
One was a blue cyclamen.
“Huh? Cyclamen?”
This is strange.
How do I know the name of the flower cyclamen?
I don’t remember having a hobby of collecting flowers.Something felt off, but I heard a voice that sounded groggy and as if it was saying that this wasn’t that important, so I decided to just let it go.
Another one was a black rose.
This one had thorns that were sharply protruding, so I had to give up on touching it after I got a cut on my hand.
And the last one was a yellow jasmine.
The four flowers were blooming out of nowhere in the empty snowfield, receiving the light that was shining down.
I looked down at them blankly for a moment, and then I felt a presence and quickly turned around.
“Who······!”
“It’s me. Hades.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t make that stupid expression. Didn’t I tell you earlier? I told you that I would give you a part of me, the King of the Underworld, and a part of the Underworld and leave. That’s me.”
My body stiffened at the appearance of the long-bearded old man in black robes.
However, that was just because I was surprised by the fact that a person had suddenly appeared in this snowfield.
I didn’t feel any pressure or other oppressive force weighing down on my body.
“You can rest assured. This small amount of power won’t have any effect on someone like you who has trained their mind well.”
“Yes······. But does the fact that you, Hades, have appeared mean that this is inside my mind?”
“You can understand it that way. Magicians call it the soul, and sorcerers call it the mind, but neither of those are accurate expressions. If you call it the soul, it’s a place that disappears when the physical body dies, and if you call it the mind, it’s a place where a physical form exists. It’s quite difficult to find an accurate corresponding word in human language······. If I had to express it, I would call it the world inside you.”
“The world inside me?”
“Yes. All intelligent beings have a world in their hearts. Most mortals die without even knowing that the world exists······, but occasionally, once in a few hundred thousand years, there is someone who notices its existence and even sets foot in their inner world. In your case, you were already prepared to enter your inner world, but you couldn’t do it yet, so I brought you in myself because I was impatient.”
I came to my senses after hearing those words.
My mind, which had been hazy, cleared up, and my vision became clear.
Only then did I understand this strange sight.
The endlessly stretching snowfield.
And even the flowers that shouldn’t be blooming here.
Until just now, I had been in a daze as if I was in a dream, so I had just accepted it as it was.
But this was my inner world, a world that I had created, so this strange sight could be produced.
“Thank you.”
“Stop thanking me. This is really nothing. If I had left you alone, you would have broken through within 100 years anyway.”
“······.”
The old man in black robes waved his hand as if to say that 100 years was nothing.
As expected of a god, his sense of time seemed to be very different from mine.
“So······. What should I do here?”
“I didn’t bring you here to do anything. You fainted, so this was the only place where I could talk to you properly.”
“Ah······.”
“My main body returned because it felt like it would kill you if it stayed any longer, but I left the passage open. Right now, I’m receiving an enormous amount of manpower from my main body in the Underworld through that passage. So before the passage closes, make contact with the last remaining evil spirit. Then I will return to the Underworld with that evil spirit through the passage. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
So, if I take this old man to Luna, he will embrace Luna’s spirit and fly to the Underworld with her.
I understood perfectly.
I thought that he was an irresponsible god who would just leave me and give up on Luna until he left, but he was a god who was surprisingly reliable after death.
“There’s one thing you shouldn’t forget. I’m inside you right now. So I can hear everything you’re thinking.”
“Oops.”
“You’re the first mortal to think of me like this. It’s very interesting. It’s as if you’re treating me like a mere character in a story.”
“······!”
I felt a sudden chill.
The old man in black robes stared at me, or rather, inside me, for a moment.
Then he turned around, laughing heartily.
“It’s about time we left this place. You will wake up from your unconscious state now. It seems like there is someone who wants to save your life urgently.”
“Wa, wait, Hades! I have one more question! You said that this place is ‘the world inside me’? What is this place for? What do these flowers mean?””You will find out about that on your own. Any more help would only harm you… I…”
The old man in black robes spoke more and more.
The surrounding snowy landscape gradually turned white.
My vision was filled with white light.
And as the light gradually faded, I felt my vision clearing.
“Eugene!”
“Cough!”
Mijung looked down at me, sobbing.
I turned my head and coughed up blood, and with my trembling limbs, I barely managed to get up.
I felt like I had been unconscious for about 5 minutes…
I felt a little dizzy because of the heavy bleeding, and my internal organs, including my heart, felt a little weak.
But my life was not yet in danger.
I stroked Mijung’s head with my bloody hand and stood up on both legs.
“I’m… not going to die, am I?”
From Noble mtl dot com
“Not yet.”
“Boo hoo.”
Mijung hugged me, crying.
As I hugged her and patted her back, I looked up.
“I was worried you wouldn’t wake up. It’s chaos right now.”
“What?”
A forest engulfed in flames came into my view.
It was a huge fire that made the Great Fire of Elvengard look like ‘nothing’.
What on earth happened in the 5 minutes I was out?