When I opened my eyes, what was unfolding was a vast sea that filled the horizon.
In the vast sea, a boat was floating leisurely in the waves.
The only people on the ship were faces I knew well.
Su-young Han, Hyun-woo Choi, Do-hoon Ahn, and, surprisingly, Cass Lyle in the form of a woman.
And I stood in front of them.
“therefore.”
Ahn Do-hoon spoke to me, not me.
Judging by the way they talk and the way they talk, they seem to be very friendly.
“You mean there’s a seal underneath this?”
“okay.”
I nodded my head, not me.
I was watching them having a conversation from above.
“Under here is the seal of Venus. And it’s slowly collapsing. We need to put this wedge in as soon as possible.”
Cass Lyle, this time in the form of a woman, said.
“You will have to go down at least 6,000 meters to get to the seal. I don’t know if Ji-hyeok will be able to withstand the water pressure with your abilities, and even if he does, he’ll have to fight the minions guarding the seal in a place where he can’t see an inch ahead… .”
“You said that, but in the end, did you prepare everything? I know everything.”
“Are you serious? When things go wrong, it’s you who dies. If that happens, you won’t even be able to retrieve the body.”
“Yes, Mom. I am listening.”
“… ha.”
Cass Lyle sighed and began to pull out several items.
Ahn Do-hoon spit in the sea and was approaching another me with Han Soo-young.
He was spraying something on my body as if tossing it, and Han Soo-young was muttering something with her eyes closed.
… okay.
I remember seeing that.
Among the eight, Ahn Do-hoon was the most outstanding paladin in boosting the strength of his teammates.
Cass Lyle was also good at making all kinds of potions and tools using excellent alchemy.
But looking down at that figure, that wasn’t the first thought that came to mind.
Seal of Venus.
It originally had to be at the bottom of the deep, deep sea.
Even in the original work, it was mentioned several times that the seal of Venus was in the deep sea.
But not in my world.
Yes, I remember now.
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Once again, it was not only the seal of Venus.
Lee Myung-joon or Nam Hyeon-hwa, who should have died originally.
Eight people who can never fight together in the same place.
There were also minor but innumerable differences from the original.
and… .
“Your sister is also one of the biggest differences from the original you are talking about.”
A familiar voice was heard.
Right next to me, Yeeun Lee was approaching me.
It was not difficult for me to notice that she was not the Yeeun Lee I knew, but the World Tree that had borrowed her image.
“To be honest, these things are due to your choices, but in the case of your sister, your will is not at all included, so it can be said that it is a bigger difference.”
“What the hell is this?”
The world tree glanced at me and looked down.
“One of the other worlds. One of the many worlds my roots have touched. And the world in which you may be who you are today.”
At her words, I looked down too.
I could see people looking at me worriedly as I went into the sea before I knew it.
“… Surely you said I came from another world.”
“Did you say I am the tree that connects the world to the world. It’s not a big deal to find out.”
“Then why did you say you have to show me this?”
The World Tree was silent for a moment.
I then asked her.
“Ariman, is it because of him again?”
she replied
“That’s true in a way and wrong in a way.”
The World Tree slowly turned his head and looked at me.
“It is undoubtedly true that I signed a contract with Ariman. However, the content of that contract was only to let him know that there was an existence like you if there was a being from another world like you. However, to show a different world like this now is my will, which has nothing to do with my contract with Ariman.”
She and her eyes were twinkling in a different color from Yeeun’s eyes.
I looked at her and asked again.
“… Then let me ask you one more time. Why are you showing me this?”
“Well.”
The world tree looked like he didn’t want to talk much.
“Maybe it’s time to end it now, maybe it’s because, like I said before, my cute little boy loves you, and maybe it’s because you can call me my kid too.”
She muttered as if singing a song and waved her hands loudly.
Then the sea and the ship below disappeared, and this time the figure of me and my companions navigating through the deep forest appeared.
“And maybe… It could be because I kept looking at this image, or it could be because I wanted to cheer for it with pity… .”
She waved her hand once more, saying whichever one would be better.
“Ariman told me not to tell anyone except myself the contents of the contract. But I am telling you this now.”
“… … .”
“Why?”
She waved her hand again.
Another me, another world appears.
“I hope you understand the meaning of this.”
With those words, she slowly started waving her hands this time.
Following her gestures, a branch of the world tree that appeared out of nowhere slowly began to wrap around my body.
“Don’t rebel or do anything for nothing. It hurts if you stab it wrong.”
“Where are you stabbing? !?”
I could barely stand the scream that seemed to explode in an instant.
As he reached out and fumbled, thick branches of trees were lodged all the way down his head and back to his spine.
The world tree just reaches out to me.
“Not good either. You will have to be a little more patient.”
He just stroked his hair with those words.
In the form of Yeeun Lee, she stroked my hair a few times and naturally grabbed my hair with both hands like flowing water.
“I will give you one last gift.”
With those words, she slowly and carefully touched my forehead and kissed me lightly.
[The skill ‘Guardian of the World Tree’ is forcibly activated!]
[Skill ‘Guarding the World Tree’ has achieved certain conditions!]
[The skill ‘Guarding the World Tree’ has grown to ‘Guarding the World Tree’!]
“Good luck.”
it’s my child
At the end of those words, her figure began to slowly dissipate like leaves blown by the wind.
It wasn’t just the world tree.
The whole world under my feet began to scatter likewise.
After that, the branches that had been locked in the body also started to gradually scatter along with the owner… .
[You can feel the power of the World Tree unfolding.]
[If an unqualified person is exposed to power, their existence will be scattered and wander forever in the countless worlds rooted by the World Tree.]
[You are eligible for the skill ‘Protection of the World Tree’!]
[You are under the power of the World Tree.]
[You will feel and see countless worlds with your body.]
[Cas Lyle’s Awakening Condition has been achieved!]
[Awakening Conditions – After defeating the Seven Evils with numerous names, Cass Lyle must absorb his core.]
[You have satisfied the awakening conditions for a total of 6 people.]
[You are under the power of the World Tree.]
[Ahn Do-hoon’s awakening condition has been achieved!]
[Awakening Conditions – You must make a noble sacrifice for your comrades and experience the miracle of resurrection.]
[You have satisfied the awakening conditions for a total of 7 people.]
[You are under the power of the World Tree.]
Finally, a notification window that the quest information was updated came to mind.
[quest]
— origin
[Explanation]
― You must perform the duties assigned to you.
Because those who fail to fulfill their duties and duties are not worthy of existence.
― Your steps so far will tell you what your existence is and what your duty is.
To go further, don’t forget that your title is ‘one who goes against the flow of the world’.
— ???
[Reward on Success]
— ???
[Condition]
― A playable character that has met more than half of the awakening conditions [7/8]
(* The higher the number, the more hidden information will be unlocked.)
― Important information will be unlocked when certain character’s awakening conditions are met. [2/3]
… The world was just full of light.
* * *
Yoo Ji-hyuk could feel his vision shake as a huge energy spreads out.
At first he thought he was just staggering, but it was only later that he realized that the ground, Antarctica, was really shaking.
“What is this… .”
He let out a rough breath and muttered hard with both hands on the ground.
The sensation of being literally scratching his head couldn’t help him.
In his mind, a lot of events in the world that he would not have been able to go through were vividly coming to mind.
“nice… .”
He could hear Minerva and Sbangali shouting in his ears, but he couldn’t come to his senses.
It was because he was forced to undergo what he would not have been able to endure, not only humans, but even Minerva, the most powerful being he knew.
If it hadn’t been for the protection of the World Tree, it was a pain that would have truly died.
As he endured the pain, he realized that someone was approaching him.
He lifted his head somehow, thinking that they were his colleagues who had heard the commotion.
red hair.
It was Han Soo-young.
“Sooyoung, you… .”
He looked up intently at Han Soo-young, who was standing right in front of him.
There was something strange about her appearance.
For some reason, with an ominous feeling, he tried to get up, but his body didn’t listen, as if it had belonged to someone else.
He just kept staggering and struggling.
Meanwhile, something fell out of his arms and rolled to the ground.
The guide’s crystal, which had the power to warn of an impending threat, had already become hazy.
“… Finally, the time has come.”
As she muttered, she quietly pulled out a dagger from her arms.
It was the dagger that he received from Hyeon-Hwa Nam, and Sbangali and Minerva, who saw it, were terribly surprised.
[Hey, crazy… !]
[That’s… !]
It was because the dagger she was holding had the energy of Yoo Ji-hyeok and the power of the Seven Evil Orders.
It’s also very powerful.
The power of the other Seven Devils was nothing less than a deadly poison and could be called a weakness.
It was a fact known to everyone present.
“I actually knew it before I read the book.”
Saying so, she slowly knelt down on one knee.
Minerva and Svengali tried to get out somehow, but somehow they couldn’t do it their way.
[No, no… !]
Eventually, even his voice faded, but all his nerves were directed only to the woman in front of him.
“That this world was a world in a game to you.”
“what… .”
Her confession made him realize at least a little what it feels like to see the world fall apart.
“That I am the main character in this world, that is, in the game.”
“… swimming.”
“And Jihyuk said you were a manure stone, a wedge, an irregular, a rebellion against the rules… Or I knew I was going against the flow of the world.”
She slowly raised her dagger and pointed it at him.
“Jihyuk knows you well.”
In her mind, a prophecy that she had uttered in the past, another future herself, came to mind.
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One day you will eventually kill Yoo Ji-hyuk with your own hands.
She knew everything from the beginning.
It was because he knew everything.
“One of them must die at the hands of the other. And now that I’ve come this far, I can’t put it off any longer.”
“… … .”
“It is in this book.”
Han Soo-young smiled bitterly and took a book out of her arms.
It was a book I could not read, a book that only she was entitled to.
“It was in this book. We must exclude beings that are like wedges that destroy this world. The Seven Evil Bells exist to stop such people, and if you can’t… Everything will come back.”
With a bang, she dropped the book on the floor.
“The other one said the same. i’m gonna kill you Otherwise… .”
She stopped talking for a moment and shook her head.
“And above all else, I can feel it myself. It’s the first time since I met you.”
“… … .”
“And Jihyuk knew you all from the beginning, didn’t you?”
At her words, Yoo Ji-hyuk slowly lowered his head.
It was as she said.
As she said, he was also noticing to some extent.
But he didn’t want to believe it, so he just pretended he didn’t know anything, as he had been doing until now, and that has now come back to him as a result.
Ignorance and deceit were sins, and there was a price to be paid for sin.
“Yoo Ji-hyuk.”
i have to kill you
she whispered quietly.
I couldn’t resist that voice, and I had no intention of rebelling.
The surface of the crystal, which was rolling on the ground, gradually began to crack.
“okay.”
He nodded quietly.
“… okay.”
He just responded that way.
Seeing his preparedness, she fixed the dagger and grabbed it.
she smiled a little
“okay.”
Han Soo-young immediately raised the dagger upside down and held it in Yoo Ji-hyuk’s hand.
Prepared for the pain to come, he raised his head as if he could not understand the English language and looked at her.
“Sooyoung, what are you doing… .”
“If not.”
She said still smiling.
“Jihyuk, you just have to kill me.”
“Hey, Han Soo-young… ! may you… !”
he cried in an urgent voice.
“No way, Sooyoung. no! There must be another way, so… !”
Han Soo-young firmly grasped Yoo Ji-hyeok’s hand, who was panicking and was about to pull out his arm.
There were only two options before her.
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Or kill him himself.
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Or he kills himself.
… So, from the beginning, she had only one choice to choose from.
“hi.”
She smiled brightly.
He couldn’t laugh.
* * *
A notification window pops up.
“finally.”
In the notification window, a sentence was written that the last eight people met the awakening condition.
Seeing this, Ariman simply trembled and muttered in a voice full of joy.
“Finally, finally… !”
In the meantime, the hood he had been covering was removed, revealing his face.
His face, which should have been nothing in the first place, was quite ordinary, and if I had to pick a peculiar thing, he had that of a man with sharp eyes.
* * *
Ariman.
It is a term that symbolizes absolute evil and fundamental darkness in the ancient mythology of Zoroastrianism.
It is the same concept as Angra Mainyu, which is also called all evil in the world, or is also called Ahriman.
He is said to be the devil of demons and the creator of smoke, darkness, disease, and all evil.
However, despite the name of the source of all evil in this world, he is also only a creation, and is destined to be defeated and disappear in the end.
As mentioned earlier, his symbols include death and darkness, disease and smoke, and just as goats symbolize Western demons, there are also animals that symbolize him in Ariman as well.
Animals that harm humans, such as lions, wolves, and scorpions, all symbolize Ahriman, and the most representative animal that symbolizes him is… .
it’s a snake
Wait So Is Ariman The Mc?