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◈ The World After the Fall ◈

Chapter 203: Episode 27. Mad God (5)

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La-Hamad realized that Jaehwan had not come to visit for several weeks. Using the Longevity Clan’s unique calendar, La-Hamad counted the days.

Two months.

Come to think of it, the last two months had been hectic for La-Hamad as well.

Ever since Jaehwan and his Allies had appeared in Mad God’s Forest, Jaehwan had questioned La-Hamad and the other Longevity Clan members whenever he had the chance.

“Does the ‘Mad God’ really exist?”

“Are you the Mad God?”

“Are you Followers of Gestalt?”

“What exactly is Ouroboros?”

Like a child brimming with curiosity about the world, Jaehwan asked them question after question.

Of course, amid all those countless questions, there was only one answer Jaehwan could receive.

Ouroboros.

Every answer began with Ouroboros and ended with Ouroboros.

Then it began again with Ouroboros.

Answers whose causes and effects could not be known. Logic whose causality was as unclear as a snake devouring its own tail. A maxim that could only be fully explained through contradiction.

La-Hamad and the rest of the Longevity Clan could not completely explain Ouroboros either. Ouroboros was not something that could be explained through reason in the first place.

It was a sensation that pierced through one’s entire body in an instant, after countless images, imaginings, intuitions, and realizations.

That was Ouroboros.

La-Hamad had not expected Jaehwan to understand it. Ouroboros was something even Longevity Clan warriors who had repeated Molting for thousands, tens of thousands of years had ultimately failed to reach.

Jaehwan was currently in ‘Purgatory,’ the hottest open-air bath in Mad God’s Forest.

Even a reasonably well-trained Longevity Clan warrior could not endure that place for two full hours.

The very fact that Jaehwan, who had entered Mad God’s Forest only two months ago, had gone inside was close to a miracle.

The more La-Hamad considered it, the more concern began to creep in. Even La-Hamad, a Great Warrior, had difficulty lasting longer than a week in Purgatory.

Jaehwan’s World Power could still be felt, so he probably was not dead.

Jaehwan’s World Power had been stagnant for some time. It neither grew nor weakened, remaining at a steady level.

If it diminished or vanished, La-Hamad intended to rush to Purgatory and pull him out. Yet there had been no change for weeks.

Then a possibility flashed through La-Hamad’s mind.

Could he have completed Molting?

That could not be right. Molting was fundamentally a form of training that could never be completed. It was not training built around an end to begin with.

Then what was this strange feeling?

La-Hamad rose and began walking toward Purgatory. Just then, a young warrior came into view.

The boy whom the Longevity Clan warriors all doted on.

Rumors had spread that he possessed an extraordinary Ouroboros, so there was no one in the Longevity Clan who did not know him now.

La-Hamad raised a hand slightly and called to the boy.

[Greetings.]

Runald happily waved back.

“Ah, Great Warrior-nim!”

The two exchanged greetings. Runald could now speak the Longevity Clan’s language fairly well, so simple communication was no problem.

As La-Hamad looked at Runald’s soul, a thought arose.

A fine soul.

In another ten years, he will become an exceptional warrior.

There were souls like that from time to time. Those with talent overwhelmingly greater than others.

It was not simply a matter of measuring potential. It was difficult to put into words. At most, it could be called Ouroboros-like potential.

“Ah, Jaehwan-nim? I haven’t seen him for the past few weeks either…”

That was Runald’s answer when La-Hamad asked whether he had seen Jaehwan. From his tone, it seemed Runald had not gone near Purgatory recently either.

“We were just heading there ourselves. Would you like to come with us?”

The man walking beside Runald in yellow exfoliating gloves asked.

La-Hamad knew that man’s name as well. He was a scrubber named Karavan.

[Greetings. You are still here?]

“You bet. I scrubbed your back just the other day, didn’t I?”

La-Hamad had seen Vicegerents of the Seven Divine Thrones before. Over the forest’s long history, Vicegerents of the Seven Divine Thrones had occasionally visited to train.

Of course, that had been long ago, and most had given up midway through their training and left…

Runald grabbed La-Hamad’s hand and pulled.

“Come with us, Great Warrior-nim.”

That was how La-Hamad ended up heading toward Purgatory with Runald and Karavan.

Purgatory. A place they could only reach after passing countless open-air baths.

“Wow, it really is hot. We’re still this far from the bath.”

“Why would anyone go in there?”

After walking for some time while listening to their complaints, La-Hamad’s group finally arrived at Purgatory’s entrance.

At Purgatory’s center, Jaehwan floated silently. He sat cross-legged exactly one handspan above the water’s surface without moving in the slightest.

Runald muttered in shock.

“Huh? When did he learn a flight-type Setting?”

Karavan watched Jaehwan with suspicious eyes as well.

La-Hamad directly perceived Jaehwan’s soul with deeply sunken eyes.

It is not a Setting.

La-Hamad observed the graceful movement of the World Power enveloping Jaehwan’s body.

Flying through the air using World Power was not particularly difficult. One could use its repulsion against the ground. Yet sustaining flight through pure World Power alone, and remaining completely still in midair as Jaehwan was doing now, was no easy task.

It was impossible without achieving harmony between the world and the soul.

La-Hamad also used World Power to float into the air.

Runald and Karavan’s eyes widened at the sight of La-Hamad quietly hovering.

After giving them a brief glance, La-Hamad slowly approached Jaehwan.

The World Power Jaehwan gave off appeared to be a little over five hundred million by the gods’ standards of measurement. That alone was an astounding figure, but in the 《Abyss》, it was not difficult to find gods with stronger World Power.

Yet the soul La-Hamad saw in Jaehwan was beyond the level of simply discussing whether his World Power had grown.

Dazzling light flowed from Jaehwan’s naked body.

It was the light of a noble soul that had relentlessly abused itself and repeated countless Moltings.

La-Hamad said in admiration.

“You take off your Clothes remarkably quickly. No one has ever shed their Clothes as quickly as you.”

La-Hamad did not know the meaning of praise. In all the years before this, the only one La-Hamad had said anything resembling praise to was a Dream Demon who had visited the 《Great Forest》 nine hundred years ago.

Yet Jaehwan’s achievement now surpassed even that Dream Demon’s.

Jaehwan slowly opened his eyes and looked at La-Hamad.

For a moment, a strange tension seemed to flow between them. Then that tension turned into sparks.

Jaehwan said, “Let’s have a fight.”

[You are not my match.]

Jaehwan moved without hesitation.

His fist curled in the air rushed toward La-Hamad, sending up a spray of water.

Kwoooooong!

When their World Forces collided in midair, the waters of Purgatory scattered in every direction. A storm of World Power swept through the open-air bath with a thunderous roar.

Caught in the sudden calamity, Runald and Karavan paled and retreated.

Warriors began approaching Purgatory, apparently having sensed the powerful collision of World Power.

[You are still inexperienced.]

La-Hamad rapidly swept a hand through the air, neutralizing Jaehwan’s World Power. The wave of fierce World Power was being subdued by softness. La-Hamad’s release of World Power was astonishingly supple.

The World Power raised by La-Hamad easily seized control of every direction around them, then shook the entire open-air bath as it charged at Jaehwan from all sides.

“Jaehwan-nim, dodge!”

Two billion, three billion, four billion…

Waves of World Power that rose without end shot at Jaehwan as though they would crush his entire body. It was power that the Jaehwan of the past could not have withstood.

Yet Jaehwan did not retreat.

It was not stubbornness or pride. He simply did not retreat because he was confident he could take it.

At the moment of impact, Runald saw Jaehwan’s eyes become covered in a golden torrent.

Kwoooooong!

Water from the open-air bath surged toward the sky as though a waterfall were flowing in reverse. It could not withstand the pressure of the World Power descending in a solid mass.

With help from the warriors, Runald barely escaped Purgatory’s heat.

The ground touched by that heat blackened and burned.

“Jaehwan-nim!”

Runald anxiously looked around the open-air bath. Jaehwan and La-Hamad were hidden behind the barrage of water.

A moment later, the water that had shot into the sky fell back to the ground.

Two figures appeared through the hazy steam.

“Ooh!”

The Longevity Clan warriors let out cries of admiration.

Runald stared with his mouth hanging open as well.

Jaehwan stood calmly in place, while La-Hamad staggered a short distance away. Anyone could see that La-Hamad seemed to have come out worse.

It was unbelievable. Great Warrior La-Hamad had been pushed back?

Runald asked Karavan, “Did Jaehwan-nim win?”

“Looks that way.”

“How? Great Warrior-nim had more World Power.”

“At the last moment, Jaehwan’s World Power surged too. It came close to matching the Great Warrior’s.”

A small bead of silver gathered on La-Hamad’s lips.

La-Hamad wiped it away in midair and spoke.

“Not bad.”

Jaehwan tilted his head. The voice he had just heard had not been in the Longevity Clan’s language.

“You can speak normally too?”

[It seems you have realized Ouroboros.]

“Is this what you call Ouroboros?”

[There are many kinds of Ouroboros.]

Jaehwan wore an expression that said, Here we go again.

“It is time to stop speaking in riddles.”

Jaehwan launched another attack as he continued.

“I would like you to tell me by now. What exactly are you Longevity Clan members, and why are you here?”

Catching Jaehwan’s straight punch, La-Hamad replied.

[You still know only how to ask questions.]

Jaehwan gave a bitter smile.

“You are going to answer Ouroboros anyway, but I asked one last time just in case.”

[Ouroboros.]

Several explosions rang out through the air once more. The thunderous sound was like enormous missiles exploding against each other. Once the explosions ceased, the fight settled into another lull.

Jaehwan spoke again.

“If you will not tell me, I will tell you myself. You do not mind that, do you?”

[…?]

“I am saying I will tell you what I have deduced on my own. Whether you answer is up to you.”

Jaehwan slightly raised both hands, as though he had no intention of fighting anymore. Before La-Hamad could say anything, Jaehwan continued.

“I do not know if you are aware, but I went to the end of this Purgatory a week ago.”

“…”

“There was no ‘Mad God’ there. There was only a short song and a single painting.”

At the end of the open-air bath.

What Jaehwan had found at Purgatory’s terminus was one painting and a verse shaped like song lyrics.

More precisely, it was a painting of a giant snake devouring its own tail, with lyrics written upon it.

Poor Naked God

Where the god has gone,

Only abandoned Clothes remain in abundance

The instant Jaehwan read the lyrics, he realized they were hidden verses from the Naked Song.

And Jaehwan knew who the Naked One in that song was.

This is a song of Gestalt, one of the Ancient Three Gods.

Perhaps the Naked Song had turned the story from the time Gestalt truly lived into lyrics.

Jaehwan turned the words over in his mind and quietly watched the snake surrounding those lyrics.

How long had he stood there?

A violent realization shook Jaehwan’s entire soul.

…

It felt as though a small galaxy had passed straight through his mind. With that sensation, Jaehwan understood one small secret of Ouroboros.

He also understood why the Longevity Clan used the word Ouroboros in place of every answer.

At the end of that understanding, La-Hamad spoke.

[Then you know everything now.]

The voice sounded somehow sad.

When had they arrived? The entire Longevity Clan had gathered at Purgatory.

They stared at Jaehwan with the eyes of prisoners awaiting their final sentence.

Jaehwan looked at them and said, “You once said that you are Gestalt, while also not Gestalt.”

More precisely, that was how the word Ouroboros had been translated.

“You also once said this. ‘We, Gestalt, do not believe in gods.’”

La-Hamad remained silently quiet.

“Come to think of it, that is a very strange thing to say. You possess Gestalt’s Setting, and you even treasure Molting, which seems to be Gestalt’s exclusive possession. Yet you are not Followers of Gestalt, and you do not even believe in gods.”

Runald and Karavan’s expressions changed strangely as they listened.

They had realized it too.

There was a name in this 《Abyss》 for those who did not believe in gods.

Jaehwan quietly studied the Longevity Clan members.

At a glance, they all looked so alike that it was difficult to distinguish them. Their appearances resembled one person split into many.

“You are gods. All of you are gods with the same name.”

Heavy silence settled over the area.

Runald and Karavan’s bodies trembled faintly. They already knew what Jaehwan was about to say.

A being so frightening that its name did not need to be spoken. An ancient god deeply imprinted as the 《Abyss》’s long-standing terror.

Runald murmured in a trembling voice.

“A-Are you truly ‘Gestalt’? Great Warrior-nim, and all the other warriors too…?”

As Runald looked at the countless heads moving as one, a god who was one and yet many, he looked nearly ready to faint.

La-Hamad answered.

[Ouroboros.]

As though interpreting those words, Jaehwan added, “They are certainly Gestalt. But at the same time, they are not Gestalt.”

Runald and Karavan looked even more confused. First he said they were Gestalt, then he said they were not Gestalt. What was that supposed to mean?

That was when one of the warriors spoke.

Poor Naked God

Where the god has gone,

Only abandoned Clothes remain in abundance

The song had no rise or fall, and little rhythm. Yet the rough gaps woven into it made the voice strangely evocative. Its alluring sound seemed to continue without end, one phrase following another as though it might break at any moment.

Why was it?

As they listened, Runald and Karavan pictured a giant snake.

A snake so consumed by terrible loneliness that it gnawed at its own tail.

And countless shed skins breaking away from the snake’s tail.

“Ah.”

“My god. Could it be?”

At the same time, Runald and Karavan reached the same understanding.

That was right. In a sense, Ouroboros was a word that suited them perfectly.

Because Ouroboros itself was their tragedy.

Jaehwan calmly looked at La-Hamad and said, “You are the ‘Clothes’ shed by Gestalt, one of the Ancient Three Gods.”

Footnotes:

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