Thus, the woman’s endless cycle of life began anew.
Gathering the guardian trees of the four races to create a small sapling.
Returning to her hometown to plant the tree.
And in return, being stoned and burned at the stake.
“Fall…”
Watching the woman’s journey of meaningless sacrifice, the Demon King was now pleading.
“Fall, I say!”
The woman no longer even glanced in the Demon King’s direction.
She simply continued repeating her life in silence.
“Why won’t you break? Why won’t you give up?”It was the Demon King who couldn’t bear it.
“Just why…?!”
Since leaping down from his constellation and becoming an intermediary.
The Demon King had never once failed to corrupt his targets.
He had tempted countless lives and watched their souls be defiled in the muck. Observing all those tragedies up close was the Demon King’s pleasure and reason for existence.
Even the most noble souls eventually broke in the face of endless trials.
No matter how great their intentions or how long they climbed the dizzying heights of the mountain, everyone eventually stumbled and fell into the valley of corruption.
The Demon King enjoyed watching that fall. The higher and more treacherous the mountain of asceticism they built, the sweeter the fall.
But what about this woman? What about this insignificant creature?
Despite being as small and insignificant as an ant. Wasn’t she endlessly moving a task dozens of times larger than herself up the hill, even as she was crushed?
“…”
The woman planted the tree.
She devoted her life to planting the tree that would end her life. Endlessly, repeatedly.
…
Though the woman didn’t know it, this act was not actually meaningless.
The tree had already taken root.
The guardian tree of the races had a structure with its trunk in this world and its roots in the spirit realm.
Even if time was turned back, since it was connected to the spirit realm which was detached from the flow of time, Everblack’s roots could continue to grow.
The tree was planted repeatedly, layering on top, and the combined roots expanded endlessly into the spirit realm below. With each iteration, Everblack grew slightly larger and stronger.
Thus, by the time the woman had been stoned and burned countless times by humans.
The human tree was able to extend roots larger and stronger than any other tree all the way to the bottom of the spirit realm.
And finally, that moment came.
The moment when the woman’s soul would be completely shattered.
“…”
A summer day. The hut.
The woman opened her eyes and sensed it.
That her soul had reached its limit. That this would be the final iteration.
Gathering her fragmented consciousness, as the woman left the hut to embark on her final journey.
“Mom?”
She encountered her son.
For some reason, the son’s eyes were trembling more than usual.
“…”
Though countless words echoed within her, wanting to be said, she held them back.
The woman quietly embraced her son, then whispered in as gentle a tone as possible.
“Never forget that mommy always loves you.”
And the son quietly watched his mother’s departing back.
The back of his mother, heading towards where she needed to go, even as she staggered and swayed.
…
Decades later.
The woman, who had now forgotten even how to walk, leaned on a cane and returned to her hometown, almost crawling.
‘The tree…’
Only those words remained in the broken woman’s mind, like a mission.
‘Must plant… the tree…’
And at the moment the woman collapsed forward, dropping her cane.
Someone embraced her tightly.
When the woman raised her blurry eyes to look…
“Welcome back, mother.”
Her son, now also a full-fledged old man, was waiting there.
No, not just her son.
The children her son had borne, and the children those children had borne…
They all stood there together with resolute expressions, waiting for her.
Since this had never happened in her past lives, the woman was bewildered.
“Here, mother. This way.”
As he supported the woman and moved her to the hut.
The son explained calmly.
“Actually, I’ve had a sense of déjà vu since I was young. I often felt like this world had repeated several times. Not just me, but my son too. And my grandson.”
“…”
“Then I discovered the research and journals you left here, mother. And only then could I understand everything.”
Because they were born as vessels to carry the curse.
All the descendants of the clan possessed the talent for ‘time’, and had felt déjà vu in the repeating world.
The son explained awkwardly.
“I understood what you’ve been doing all this time, mother.”
“…”
“What a grueling battle you’ve been fighting alone all this time, mother.”
After seating the woman, who now lacked the strength to even move a finger, in a chair.
The son smiled gently.
“Don’t bear it alone anymore.”
“…”
“We’re family, aren’t we?”
The woman looked around at her son, grandchildren, and grown family surrounding her.
The son carefully took the thorn tree sapling that was clutched in the woman’s hand.
Then, he took the sapling to the spot where the woman had always repeatedly planted it. The grandchildren had already dug and softened the soil in preparation.
“No, if you plant that tree…”
The woman stammered in a trembling voice.
“You, your children, all of us… will be burned and stoned…”
“It’s alright.”
The son did not hesitate.
“Now we’ll share the pain together.”
The woman’s children planted the sapling.
As the sapling merged with the roots already extending into the spirit realm, the thorn tree drew up magical power. The overflowing magical power gushed out like a fountain, pouring into the world.
With his back to the bright magical light, the son smiled at the woman.
“We’re connected, together.”
The surging magical power settled into the children’s bodies.
The first thing the son did, as the first in human history to accept and wield magical power, was to use the purest magic drawn up from the spirit realm to…
Extract the curse pooled in his mother’s soul and have it settle within himself.
Click, click, click.
The gray magical power that had dwelled within the woman swirled and transferred to the son’s body.
“Urgh…!”
However.
The karma (業) that curse had accumulated by the woman’s generation had become too large and bloated. Too much for the son to bear alone.
“Demon King!”
The son, who was already aware of the Demon King’s existence, shouted.
“Let our clan’s curse… flow without stagnating!”
“…”
“Connect our clan down to future generations. Let us bear this curse even if that’s what it takes.”
The Demon King quietly looked down at the woman’s son and his children, who were heading towards hell of their own accord.
“Even if that’s what it takes, grant my mother peace.”
“…”
After a moment of anguished silence.
“I am a demon who grants wishes. The master of the monkey’s paw.”
Even though he had found new sacrificial lambs, for some reason the Demon King’s voice did not sound very excited.
“I will grant your wish. From your generation onwards, your clan shall be connected down to the distant future.”
He simply stated calmly.
“Though the curse will only manifest in one person per generation, you must all share in the entire process together. You will be confined together without afterlife or reincarnation after death.”
“…”
“You must watch with open eyes and suffer together eternally through all the journeys as your descendants regress and suffer. That is your ‘connection’.”
“That’s fine.”
The son smiled with difficulty.
“If the price for illuminating the world is misfortune, then at least sharing in that misfortune together… is what it means to be human.”
The curse spreads.
The curse connects.
Beyond the son, to his child. And to the young child held in that child’s arms…
The woman, watching what was happening before her eyes, spoke with difficulty.
“My son, why… I tried so hard not to pass on this curse…”
“It’s alright, mother.”
The son placed his hand on the thorn tree that had begun to grow large.
“This magical lighthouse showed us the future.”
“The future…?”
“Yes.”
The son whispered with a bright smile.
“In the distant future, a child will be born who will finally break this curse.”
The village became noisy in the distance.
An angry mob began gathering and heading towards the hut. The son calmly nodded.
“A child who will not only break the curse, but change this world itself… that discriminates and enslaves based on power and race.”
While telling such a dream-like story, the son gently grasped his mother’s hand.
“They will surely be born.”
The woman and her son were burned at the stake together.
They died burning together amidst a hail of stones. They died being pointed at and called witches, monsters, a cursed clan.
But the mother and son were not afraid. The two held hands and looked at each other affectionately as they perished.
The rest of the clan had successfully escaped the village beforehand.
Now they must wander the world eternally, living as the witch’s successors.
Connected to each other by the curse of regression.
“…”
The Demon King stood in the middle of the execution grounds, looking down at the two corpses that had become ashes.
The woman’s soul would have been freed from the bonds of the curse.
A suppressed voice flowed from between the Demon King’s teeth.
“This time, I have been defeated.”
In the end, the Demon King failed to corrupt her.
She did not pass on the curse to future generations by her own hand, nor did she destroy the world with resentment.
She simply chose to quietly perish alone.
It was none other than her children who saved her from annihilation. The seeds she had sown in the world.
It was the first uncorrupted, noble will he had ever witnessed, and the first defeat he had ever experienced in his life.
“Your soul has slipped through my fingers, still pure. But do you think I’ll give up like this?”
The Demon King clenched his fist made of shadows.
“I will surely find you again.”
Whether in the afterlife, reincarnated, or wherever she may be…
The Demon King resolved to find her soul once more.
“And this time… this time for sure!”
The Demon King vowed.
“I will corrupt you without fail…!”
The only soul he failed to corrupt.
The only soul that defeated him.
The black thorn tree she had bloomed was raising its branches over the world. The magical power that gushed out like a fountain began bestowing its grace upon all humans.
…
…
…
And a thousand years passed.
Present day.
Lake Kingdom, 10th Zone. King’s Castle.
“That person died as a witch!”
The Demon King roared at me.
“She died miserably in a curse, her whole body burning as she was stoned!”
“…”
“The disgusting humans of that village, which would come to be called the Lake Kingdom, called her a monster! She was recorded as the first monster vanquished by the Lake Kingdom!”
The Demon King pointed at the empty glass sphere. That facility where all the nightmares of the Lake Kingdom were once collected.
“And that woman was not found anywhere in the afterlife, and the Lake Kingdom bastards sealed the monster they vanquished within nightmares at a national level! Isn’t it natural that she would be trapped in here!”
“…”
“But you say she was revered as a goddess, not a monster? That’s impossible! It can’t be! How could…”
“That is.”
I let out a soft sigh.
“One of the cruelties humans possess.”
“…!”
“The one they called a witch, pointed fingers at, stoned, and burned to death… they revered as a god when it suited their needs.”
I calmly relayed the story I heard from the goddess.
“She was enshrined as the racial deity of humanity, and took on the role of eternally supplying warmth to humanity’s guardian tree.”
“Supplying… warmth?”
“Yes.”
A racial deity is, in the end.
Just a cog put forward for the survival of that race.
“Since Everblack was an artificially created guardian tree, its roots lacked the ability to sustain themselves in the spirit realm. They gradually froze and died.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Fuel was needed to supply warmth to the tree. And the collective unconscious of the human race found a sacrificial lamb.”
The witch who first planted this tree.
Unable to find peace even after death, recorded as the first monster vanquished by humanity, and the first to be sealed within nightmares.
They associated her with the ‘goddess’ of folk beliefs and elevated her to the racial deity of humanity.
And she willingly took on that role.
“She felt that since she was the one who planted the tree, it was her responsibility to maintain it as well. She is still warming Everblack at the cost of burning her own existence.”
“…”
“Eternally, at the bottom of the spirit realm.”
I added.
“Without anyone knowing of her existence.”
What she is burning is, literally, herself. Her very existence.
Naturally, she cannot be perceived by anyone. Because she has already burned everything and become a ‘non-existent being’. Because she is using even her future possibilities as fuel, burning them all away.
She became the object of the abstract concept of a ‘goddess’, but without fully receiving that glory or praise…
She was such a foolish person, making unconditional sacrifices.
“In life she transmitted the light of magic, and in death she maintains that light… she has become such a device.”
The Demon King lamented.
“What a… what a foolish, stupid woman. Even if she sacrifices to the very end… even if she remains noble, what exactly is left for herself…”
I nodded slightly.
“I am her descendant. One who inherited the curse of regression. That is why I alone could perceive her.”
“…”
“And now. I depart for the spirit realm. To save the goddess.”
The Demon King glared at me fiercely.
“Player, what is it that you desire?”
“…”
“You said you would save her. But exactly how do you intend to save her? And saving her is not your ultimate goal either.”
“…”
“Tell me. What is it that you truly seek?”
After taking a deep breath.
“My true goal is.”
Finally-
I declared.
“To annihilate this tragedy called Apocalypse Calamity, the system itself.”
“…!”
“In other words.”
Crossing my arms, I raised the corners of my mouth.
“I intend to rebel against you Outer Gods, against this entire universe.”
–TL Notes–
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