Subdued Soul Chronicle

“As expected, I can’t.”

Only then did Seol Young say the words in his heart.

“Preparing on your own without anyone knowing, casually laughing and talking until the end, saying goodbye to people who didn’t know anything, and calmly leaving to die… How did you do that? Even if it was eight years ago, and even if you were the Governor then, weren’t you just a year or two older than me then?”

“…”

Zaha just stood there and watched.

He didn’t even know what Seol Young was saying.

Why did he have to bring Zaha this far away from everyone? Why didn’t he say anything when his hand was being encroached, and why create such a situation…?

He couldn’t understand a thing.

Seol Young continued with a trembling voice.

“I saw it through the Memory Projection. The circle… I was able to see everything that happened eight years ago through the eyes of the God of Cataclysm. And I learned it. The secret art that has now disappeared from the world.”

Zaha’s expression seemed to change. He didn’t know if this was just a random spark in the forest.

“Of course, I didn’t really think I would learn it because it’s something people shouldn’t do. However, I wanted to use it if there was no other way.”

“…”

“But after coming this far, the end result is still the same. That is the only sure way, so shouldn’t someone do it? And that person is me. This time, it has to be me.”

Seol Young’s eyes turned to the back, where they left from.

“You want to save them too. You are desperately thinking of a way to not let even a single one of them die. We barely managed to hold the God of Cataclysm back in our world, and I’m afraid that it will all turn into nothing.”

Seol Young turned his gaze back to his hand.

The darkness had now reached his wrist. It started to change quickly and move swiftly. And it was a scary thing to have one’s soul change into something else.

But he had to do this.

Otherwise, he was afraid of giving up halfway. He thought he would inform Zaha about the plan and then ask him to head back.

Eventually, all seven of them would be stranded here and die. Or someone would become the vessel of the evil spirit, and this would all be a waste.

After that, they would regret it later.

Thus, he opted to do this, since there was no other way.

“Even if we suppress the change happening, we had left all the pills back there… Even if I head back, I will change halfway before we even reach that place. I will be the new vessel for the God of Cataclysm to reside in. Then you know what will happen. No one will be able to stop me.”

The words that came from his own mouth sounded scary, but he had to say them.

“Before that, make the choice. First, kill me on the spot with your sword and find a new way if the situation doesn’t improve. Second, let me use my body to use the circle, and the six of you will return safely.”

“…”

“There is no reason to even think about it.”

Zaha looked at Seol Young without saying anything.

The colors pouring from the rippling sky cast countless shadows, and a dark look appeared on Zaha’s face. However, there was no change in his eyes.

He didn’t even ask if Seol Young had lost it. He wasn’t angry or surprised. And then his lips moved

“It’s so like you until the end.”

There was this bittersweet feeling in his voice. And that shook Seol Young’s heart more than anything else.

The feeling of regretting this.

It seemed like he wanted to say something like he didn’t want Seol Young to die or that he didn’t want him to die in a horrible way.

But he suppressed it.

Then Seol Young spoke with an expressionless face.

“I’m not asking for help. Just let me leave here. I will spread the circle, create a tomb, and walk by myself inside to finish everything. I fully understand what I am doing. There are the bone fragments to bind the evil spirit here, so we will never fail.”

“….”

“So just say that I did well. It would be a shameful death for Teacher, my hyungs, and the trainee kids. Pour me a glass of wine every year. Or tell me something. At least for me, to walk with a light heart to my grave…”

“No.”

Zaha cut him off.

“Seol Young-rang, you are out of your mind. No matter how much you beg and threaten me, do you think I will allow you to do that?”

“Then?”

Seol Young asked,

“What will you do if you won’t allow it? There are just two choices. So, will you kill me?”

The wind blew and scattered their hair, and then Zaha opened his mouth with a cold face.

“Remember what you said to me when the peace ritual failed and you collapsed?”

“No.”

Seol Young shook his head.

“What did I say?”

“I told you that you needed to survive for sure.”

“…Me?”

He still didn’t remember it. It was a simple memory of him saying something earnestly before losing consciousness.

“Right.”

Zaha smiled.

“Isn’t it funny? How can someone who is already dead survive? You, who knew better than anyone else, were an idiot for saying such a thing.”

“But…”

Seol Young shook his head again.

“But isn’t it true that you are alive and breathing? Even though you are dead, you got another life….”

“I died then.”

Zaha cut off his words.

The golden light shone thickly in his eyes.

“Didn’t you feel it all through the memory you saw? My breathing stopped, my heart stopped slowly, and my whole body went cold. My presence vanished from the world. And I chose that. Then, should I get compensated, too?”

Seol Young didn’t say anything.

Zaha, feeling the wind, opened his mouth again.

“You know better than anyone else. There are billions of Buddhas in the billions of worlds, and even if all of them were summoned, the dead can’t be brought back to life. The dead need to return to the underworld.”

“But…”

“The only thing stopping me is regret.”

Zaha cut off his words.

“The people who died without a solution in front of my eyes, and the people I had to kill. As I watched them, I questioned it countless times. Why did I have to suffer like this? In some worlds, there are people who live without worries, so why are we the only ones to suffer like this?”

“…”

“Of course, I have been thinking that there is some meaning to all of this. But no. They were all pure disasters. No one did anything wrong, but suddenly, the land cracked, the tsunami hit us, and lightning struck. They were natural disasters that humans couldn’t prevent.”

“….”

“The two of us were trying to stop that, and in spite of all the difficult situations, we somehow found a way, and we tried to make the best choice in each moment. That is what happened.”

Zaha’s eyes turned to Seol Young, and there was a flame burning in her eyes.

“I regret nothing about the things I couldn’t do before I died or the things I never thought to do. It was because I met you and did everything. This time, I wasn’t so lonely or helpless.”

Another dry wind blew in, and he spoke in the midst of it.

“You said one day, ‘If there is death, there will be rebirth, and it means calming down the soul and putting it to sleep.’”

“….”

“Do you understand it now, Seol Young-rang? It wasn’t the God of Cataclysm for whom you had to do the ritual. Your nation is the evil one. And your ritual for peace was successful.”

Seol Young was dumbfounded.

“What do you mean?”

Zaha spoke coldly.

“You move out. I will finish this.”

Seol Young asked in shock,

“How will you end it? The existence of the God of Cataclysm is something we don’t understand. Haven’t we already tried out different methods? No matter what method I use, it doesn’t work.”

“Right.”

“But what do you mean? The only way is that circle!”

He felt his chest tighten from the new nervousness he was feeling, like he was being suffocated. Out of desperation, Seol Young continued,

“I am the only one in this world who would know how to use that unique technique. No one else can use it. Just because you have done it once doesn’t mean you can do it again, and after using that technique once, the process disappears from the mind.”

“Right.”

“Then what can the High Governor do?”

“Well.”

Zaha mumbled with a careless expression.

“It will work out somehow?”

And then he turned.

“Wait!”

Seol Young reached out and tried to grab him. However, his hand, which was infected with darkness, didn’t move like he wanted it to.

Zaha lightly stepped back. The black cloth with a golden design slipped past his fingers.

“I will finish properly what I couldn’t eight years ago.”

He said so with a smile.

“You can trust me this time.”

Black smoke came out.

The moment the smoke hit him, all of a sudden, all the strength went out of his body. Seol Young sat down, and collapsed onto the ground, like his entire body was paralyzed.

‘Demonic qi?’

He thought so, but no.

The demonic qi was just a trick, and the true cause was spiritual qi.

The qi had completely assimilated into Seol Young’s body.

Zaha had put restrictions on him and paralyzed his whole body. Since he was the head of the Sun and Moon Troops, he used their spiritual qi.

Seol Young’s face turned blue.

‘But I came all the way here…’

It was all planned. But then he pretended not to know and lied.

‘What can you even do?!’

Seol Young forcibly used his spiritual qi to relieve the paralysis. He didn’t even think that it would ruin his body.

“Wait! Wait! High Governor!”

The moment the paralysis was lifted, he got up and ran. His immobile body fell and rolled several times, but he didn’t feel any pain.

“WAAAIIIT!”

A black barrier blocked his eyes, and he couldn’t believe it.

‘Heavenly Circle? How…?’

The only thing Zaha learned was one summoning technique and a few miscellaneous spells.

Then how did he use this?

This was a lie.

“High Governor! High Governor! Let’s talk! Wait a minute! And look at my face!”

He tried to walk past the barrier, but he couldn’t do anything now. Seol Young raised his spiritual qi and knocked on the barrier recklessly.

“I was wrong! Do not do this! I won’t say that I am going to do that again…!”

No matter how much he pounded, hit, or tried to tear it, it didn’t budge.

‘Right, I just need to do it quickly.’

Seol Young put his hand in his pocket.

But there was nothing there.

The bone fragments of the evil spirit weren’t there.

‘How…?’

The moment his eyes looked at the barrier, someone summoned a great being from inside. Between the patterns that expanded everywhere, he could see familiar terms.

’Die Together Circle?

Everything felt lost in Seol Young’s eyes.

This cannot be. This was a different technique. Just because he used it once doesn’t mean he can use it again.

‘Lie. It was all a lie.’

But…

An explosion happened inside the black barrier, which blocked his eyes.

There was a collision of two opposing qis, and the end arose from the beginning and the beginning from the end, consuming each other.

“No.”

Seol Young mumbled blankly.

In the dazzling light, he could see the darkness that had reached his upper arm slowly vanish.

“NO!”

An unfamiliar scream that he had never heard before erupted from his mouth.

“THIS HAS TO BE A LIEEEE!!”