I’m not fully prepared for transcendence yet, but I can’t let this opportunity slip away.
“Nameless, engrave this in your eyes.”
“Wait, wait a minute….”
I close my ears to ignore Nameless’s incessant chatter.
I close my eyes to focus solely on myself.
I hold a perfectly straight posture so that Nameless can see and learn.
“Shh—”
I take a breath while gripping the wooden sword.
Soon, an immense amount of magic begins to gather around me, and a fierce wind starts to blow.
This isn’t pure energy; it’s magic that needs filtering. So, I concentrate even harder than usual.
I raise the wooden sword and draw it back.
I step my left leg forward a fraction.
I pull my right leg back five paces.
I expand the muscles that support my weight.
“Huff….”
After settling into my stance, I exhale.
Soon, the massive amount of magic gathered around me transforms into pure energy and bursts forth.
As it does, the rough wind begins to flow opposite to me, and all the impurities around me start losing their footing.
I adjust my shoulders slightly.
I don’t obstruct my naturally rotating waist.
[KU-GUNG!]
The building beneath my feet shatters.
But it’s not over yet.
This isn’t enough.
Cowardly acts that merely steal others’ karma can never be justified.
I must do my utmost and show respect.
[KWANG!]
Before long, the building supporting my feet begins to collapse completely.
Even without a stable ground, my posture remains unchanged. I stand tall.
As the building falls apart, rough gusts of nature’s wind surge against my body.
The wind blows fiercely, trying to destabilize my stance even a little.
My brow furrows.
With so many distractions interfering, my energy begins to waver.
But I take no action.
I simply let it pass by.
I think to myself that this too will eventually end.
Time, which had stopped, begins to flow again.
“Is it over already?”
I pull my sword with a crooked smile.
[KU-GUGUGUGU!]
The ground begins to tremble as if an earthquake struck at my center.
It feels like a fierce storm is raging, whipping my hair and clothes violently.
Energy accumulates around me, layer upon layer, to the extreme.
Soon, a thick dark energy erupts like a roar.
[Even if the sky doesn’t fall,]
[I cannot shatter that shell.]
[I cannot dig into its insides.]
With my left leg, I scrape the ground, twisting my waist.
Naturally, my right leg faces forward, my shoulders twist, and my right arm extends.
The sword, touching the heavens, begins to stretch forward, drawing a graceful line.
[I seek not the heavens,]
[But the karma of the wicked who commit vile deeds.]
[I pray that a mere mortal’s sword may reach the sky.]
I kick off with my right foot, stepping into the air.
My body starts getting pushed back by the wind, so I expand the muscles in my left leg to hold my ground.
Then, my body twists.
My right arm holding the sword, my shoulder and waist follow suit, drawing a tidy straight line.
“Huff-!”
The sword extends.
[Divine Slaying Sword Technique, Fifth Form.]
A mere human’s sword moves forward to pierce the body of a demon, laden with countless sins.
[KANG!]
The blade meets the crystal but cannot penetrate its wall, stopping short.
Yet, I smile with satisfaction.
The energy enveloping the sword begins to fulfill its role, seeping through the shattered crystal.
[Absorb the Sky.]
Soon, the karma of the wicked pours into me.
In ecstasy, I open my eyes.
“Ha!”
The sky begins to reveal itself to me.
*
Nameless let out a whisper as he gazed at the countless paintings unfolding before him.
“What is all this?”
Rising from his seat, Nameless took a step to examine the murals.
The numerous branches of the paintings gradually decreased in number, guiding him to just two lines.
Among them, the upper paintings were familiar.
“Master….”
Nameless began to walk along the pictures.
Inside was none other than Cheon Ha-rang.
He instinctively realized, “These are my eyes.”
The way he saw his master, the way he perceived the world was laid before him.
Nameless walked to the right, slowly observing the paintings.
Among them, the rightmost painting showed his master, Cheon Ha-rang, performing an unfamiliar sword technique, reaching toward the sky.
An image he didn’t recognize.
Perhaps, “The master must be doing something outside this place,” he could only guess.
“Indeed, my master is amazing.”
It left him wondering why she had taken him under her wing.
Here he was, trapped in such a place.
Nameless, with a self-deprecating smile, began to take more steps.
As he did, the images began to shift.
His master playfully teasing him.
His master caught sneaking strawberries.
His master flustered in front of many people.
His master laughing, embarrassed, appearing anxious, sorrowful, angry, and pained.
“Ah.”
Nameless gained a small realization.
His master’s eyes were always directed toward him.
“I wasn’t the only one looking.”
“My feelings weren’t unique.”
Swallowing a hint of disappointment, Nameless continued to step forward, observing the paintings.
Then, he began to see the end.
From beyond his master, a scene of the sky falling was captured in the painting.
“This day….”
The day he first saw his master.
With a smile, Nameless stared at that painting for a long moment before shifting his feet.
From here on would be important.
‘The paintings split into two paths.’
Nameless began to look at the paintings of his own life without his master.
And in those pictures, crimson paints dominated.
At first.
He saw Jackal, looking up at him with terrified eyes.
He had reached the Demon King’s castle. And when he held his sword, the devoted Lili gazed at him.
Then, scenes of his blood relatives losing their lives spread before him.
Next, he saw the noble who killed his kin, kneeling in the dirt, weeping.
The red paint stained more.
The Hero arrived there.
He looked bewildered. But he only gnawed at his lips in resentment.
He said nothing to him.
Maybe he couldn’t deduce who the culprit was.
In the next image, for some reason, the Hero and the Saint looked on with gloomy expressions.
The following paintings were all the same.
Always the Hero and the Saint appeared, their eyes filled with deep despair.
Occasionally, people stained with crimson paint appeared, but he never separated from them.
Did he become their companion here as well?
Nameless furrowed his brow at the unbearable ache in his heart as he beheld the paintings.
It felt unpleasant.
He still hadn’t met his master.
When would that happen?
Nameless moved forward in search of his master.
There were still many paintings left.
*
How long had he walked? At a certain moment, not a speck of red ever left the paintings.
And the Saint, who had always smiled, was now shedding tears.
The once-mighty Hero knelt down.
Before him stood a massive horned man.
‘That guy.’
The man he’d seen in his master’s painting.
It seemed to represent the Hero, the Saint, and his ultimate goal.
He presumed it to be the Demon King.
In the next painting, the Hero had slain that man, wearing a smile stained with tears.
From the shape of his lips, it seemed to say, ‘Finally, it’s over.’
But that smile didn’t last long.
His hand pierced Lucius’s heart.
Nameless furrowed his brow.
‘Did he kill the Hero?’
No, it must have been the man who had taken over this vision who did it.
“Tsk.”
But this event didn’t happen.
He hadn’t committed such an act.
And in his memory, the Hero and Saint always smiled, defeating their enemies.
“Next….”
Nameless stepped forward.
The subsequent paintings were incredibly dull.
He was always sitting somewhere, and the scenery in his view never changed.
“…Is this the end?”
As that question arose in Nameless’s mind.
The changes began.
His field of vision began to rise, and he started moving toward a place similar to this gallery of paintings.
And there, he saw a painting of his master.
“What on earth?”
Nameless was puzzled.
Surely, the paintings he was viewing were the past of the Nameless one.
But now, the painting he saw seemed to be his own past, didn’t it?
‘How is this possible…?’
Before Nameless could resolve his confusion, the left hand of the Nameless one reached out longingly toward it, and his vision began to shift rapidly.
The image revealed him desiring transcendence, just as his master had.
His power must have been sufficient; he just needed to train to accumulate karma.
And the results of that training began to surface.
In the painting, the sky became visible.
The Nameless one seemed to have reached there, starting to do something.
He found a little girl in that place.
And reaching toward the girl, she began to transform into a form he had once known, falling into the abyss.
“What is… this?”
Nameless’s mind was flooded with questions.
