“Ah, there you are. I’ve been looking for you for quite some time.”
“……”
The woman’s voice could sound clear, ominous, or noble, depending on how one heard it.
Lee Taeseong realized that his right hand, gripping Shisan Hyulhae, was trembling slightly.
The moment he faced that thing, his instincts screamed at him.
Leave this place.
That is dangerous.
DangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerousDangerous.
Lee Taeseong, who had risen from the lowest prey to the highest predator, had keener danger detection abilities than anyone else.
‘That thing—it’s not something I can consume yet.’
He could see no outcome.
No hunger surged within him.
Instead, he felt an overwhelming disgust at its very presence.
He knew that it wasn’t ‘real.’ It was merely an illusion created by the entity known as “The Voice of the Mind.”
But a question arose.
‘Is it really not real? How can something radiate such an overwhelming presence and still be an illusion?’
Even in the fragments of his memory, that woman had been watching him. As if she was aware of his existence.
‘Is that… even possible?’
Danger.
Even knowing that it was an illusion created by the entity’s unique properties, his instincts as prey sounded the alarm.
Oh Haeyoung had already lost consciousness.
Her eyes, now showing only the whites, filled with terror. Her entire body trembled uncontrollably, and saliva dribbled from her lips.
It had done nothing. It had merely walked forward.
It had merely appeared in this space.
Yet, its mere presence alone had shattered a Gamma-grade administrator.
Struggling, Lee Taeseong finally forced himself to speak.
He knew he had to leave this place immediately, but no possible method came to mind.
“……You followed me all the way here?”
“Yes. You’re quite fascinating, after all. It’s been a while since I had such an enjoyable outing.”
“…….”
“So, this is the space you refer to as being created by an ‘entity’? It seems to be manifesting the intruder’s mental world… In that case, I must be a fictional existence born from your memories as well. Hohoho.”
‘That thing’ had first appeared in this space a hundred years ago.
Back then, rather than confronting it, Lee Taeseong had chosen to flee without hesitation.
He had no second thoughts.
The unsettling feeling exuded by its presence was beyond description.
Fortunately, due to the entity’s nature, the interior space constantly shifted, allowing him to escape.
But now, it had reappeared here.
‘That thing’ fully understood the nature of this space.
And that fact filled Lee Taesung with disgust.
Even Han Yugwang had taken a hundred years to recognize that he was merely an illusion.
Yet, from the very moment it appeared, that thing had seemed to know everything.
‘Is this… fear?’
Lee Taeseong confronted his emotions with calm detachment.
For the first time in a long while, he was feeling fear.
That mysterious existence loomed over him with an indescribable terror.
And he did not deny it.
“We’ve met a few times before, haven’t we? Though it seems I was the only one aware of it.”
He knew that avoiding this wouldn’t solve anything.
“Judging from your reaction, it seems you do remember… Hmm, why are you acting so stiff? I have so much I want to talk to you about.”
Click. Click.
With every step she took, the sound of her heels echoed through his mind.
It felt as if countless insects were digging into his brain.
A distortion of existence. What is that thing?
Was it really like this when I saw it in my memories?
Pain. Pain. Pain.
It’s just an illusion, yet facing it directly makes my brain—
BurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurn.
Before he realized it, Lee Taeseong’s body was trembling more violently than ever before.
He let go of Shisan Hyulhae and grabbed his other shaking hand to steady himself.
“……”
He clenched his lips tightly, enduring the sensation of dozens of insects eating his brain.
Then, he summoned the energy lying deep within him.
Fire Qi Cold Qi, Demon Qi, Poison Qi—
And the True Qi he had accumulated all this time.
All of it fused together and erupted from his body in a violent surge.
BOOM!
A dense black aura swirled around him, distorting the space with its sheer force. His crimson eyes gleamed with a piercing radiance.
He picked up the Shisan Hyulhae that had fallen to the ground.
Responding to his energy, the sword let out a resonant hum.
Ziiing!
A blood-red aura surged from the blade, dyeing the surroundings in crimson.
Behind Lee Taeseong, mountains of corpses and an ocean of blood took shape.
“Hoo…”
Only then was he able to truly face the presence before him.
The woman in the red dress observed him with intrigue.
Though her face was partially hidden by a fan, he was certain she was smiling.
“Oh my… An ordinary human would have gouged out their own eyes or hanged themselves by now. But you—you’re different, aren’t you? See? My eye for talent is impeccable. While the other fools waste their time floundering, I manage to find such dazzling gems.”
[510 years have passed……]
“How noisy.”
Thud.
As the woman in the red dress tapped the ground with her umbrella, the ‘Voice of the Mind’ fell silent.
Lee Taeseong asked,
“Are you not an illusion?”
“An illusion? Hmm… Technically, I was created by this entity’s characteristics.”
“Then how can you exert this level of influence?”
“Oh? Are you curious?”
Her voice was captivating—so much so that it would have made most men’s hearts race just by listening.
But to Lee Taeseong, it was nothing but repulsive, loathsome, and filled with dread.
“Aren’t you curious about something else? ■■■ Lee Taeseong, or should I call you ■■■ ■■? Well, I suppose you wouldn’t remember anything in your current state, so it’s meaningless.”
“What are you?”
“My, how bold.”
“…….”
Lee Taeseong’s gaze was fixed on the woman’s fan.
“You caused quite a commotion in the Aokigahara Sea of Trees, didn’t you? You even destroyed all the gifts I had prepared. Sniff, sniff. My heart hurts. Why is everyone always so strict with me…?”
Before the woman could even finish speaking—
Lee Taeseong stepped forward and swung his sword at an incredible speed. The sheer force of the explosive movement tore through the muscles in his arm.
Swish!
The lightning-fast sword strike shot toward the woman, but she effortlessly neutralized the attack with a light flick of her fan.
But that wasn’t what mattered.
When she moved the fan, her mouth was revealed.
“You saw it?”
Inside her grotesquely swollen five mouths were rows of hideous, razor-sharp fangs, like those of a beast… And within them, pinkish lumps resembling human brains were tangled together like the roots of a massive tree.
Even someone as mentally resilient as Lee Taeseong instinctively withdrew for a moment.
From her mouth flowed an incomprehensible voice.
“Ahh, you saw it. You saw it. I really didn’t want to show you…”
It was not a sound a human vocal cord could produce.
The woman abruptly flicked away her fan and stretched open her monstrous mouth.
“Since you’ve already seen it… take a look inside as well.”
Her mouth grew larger and larger, until eventually, the entire space they were standing in was being sucked into her wide mouth.
Lee Taeseong hastily drove his sword, Sisan Hyulhae, into the ground.
Slash!
‘There’s no time.’
From the very beginning, he had judged that killing that thing was impossible.
He had merely prolonged the encounter to gather as much information as possible for the future.
‘I’ll give it a try.’
He recalled his battle against Ryomen Sukuna—
The moment he had torn apart space itself and summoned a colossal beast’s forelimb.
‘I’ll cut it. I’ll slice through space itself.’
There was once a man who wielded his sword daily until he finally cut down the peak of a mountain.
A man who ruled the world with a single blade.
‘I can do it.’
If he, who had grasped the essence of the sword, could cut through a mountain, then surely, he could sever even this space.
He had to believe it. Without belief, he could not cut. If he doubted, he would not succeed.
Believe. He had to believe.
In himself. In his own existence. In Lee Taeseong.
‘I will condense all the power within me into a single point and sever space itself.’
At some point, a gray blade had appeared in his grasp—
Hoirang (Gray Wolf).
Lee Taeseong imbued the blade, now dyed in an grayish colour, with his will and slashed diagonally.
‘If I can’t cut it, it will devour me instead.’
The divine sword, forged from the fangs of Taegorang (The Primordial Wolf), roared as if resonating with its master’s intent.
──────
A gray wolf darted swiftly like flash of light, opening its ferocious jaws and greedily devouring the space in which they stood.
Crunch. Crackle.
The darkness that had surrounded them dissipated, and the space they had been in slowly began to collapse.
Lifting Oh Haeyoung onto his shoulder, Lee Taeseong walked toward the crumbling boundary of the space.
Step. Step.
The woman in the crimson dress covered her mouth with her fan, as if disappointed, and murmured softly.
“See you next time, Mr. Lee Taeseong.”
Having escaped from the “Voice of the Mind,” Lee Taeseong collapsed onto the floor of the isolation chamber.
“Haa… haa…”
He wiped away the sweat dripping down as he gasped for breath. His hands were still trembling.
Staring up at the ceiling, he muttered under his breath.
“That crazy bitch…”
When he glanced to the side, he saw that Oh Haeyoung was sleeping soundly. Now free from the woman’s presence, he no longer seemed to be suffering.
Struggling to lift his heavy upper body, Lee Taeseong leaned against the wall, lost in thought.
‘She knew about me. She seemed aware of my power and my past. Just who is she? Could she be… a deity?’
Just then—
The door to the isolation chamber opened, and a man stepped inside.
“You must have encountered some filth from the outside, Administrator Lee Taeseong.”
The man’s name was Lee Han. The 12th Apostle of the Tree and South Korea’s one and only Apostle.
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