Once the location was pinpointed, reaching it was not difficult for Hans.
This held true even in this extreme environment, a place far worse than hell.
He flew swiftly towards the detected life signal, looking down at the land as he went.
The scenery that flashed by was all too similar.
collapsed ruined buildings,
desolate barren land...
'This is truly a destroyed world.'
The end of a dimension. He had encountered worlds facing crises many times before, but this was the first time he had witnessed one completely obliterated. Even the Ganghwan System, which was on the brink of ruin after losing Dragon Core and Devore, had at least held the possibility of revival until recently.
'If all life in an entire dimension was wiped out at once... just how many people died?'
Even Hans, who prided himself on being the King of Death, couldn't easily estimate. If any souls of the victims or their last thoughts remained, they had all withered away. It was impossible to find any corpses left in good condition, as if they had melted away within their own bodies.
'But one thing is certain: at least hundreds of millions of people must have lost their lives because of this.'
And that's assuming it was limited to humanity. Considering that all life forms in the dimension, including plants and animals, had been annihilated...
'Just what is the Lord of the Heaven-turn society after? Why is he doing this?'
Cosiyas was likely not the only world destroyed in this manner. Under the guise of spreading mysteries on Earth, there must be more than a few worlds that have disappeared without a trace. What is he trying to gain by accumulating such immense evil karma?
I arrived
With these thoughts, he reached his destination in an instant and slowly looked around. I needed to be more focused on this search to find out what was going on. This place was not much different from others. It was likely once a slum, with piles of ruined shacks and tattered clothes scattered everywhere, presumably worn by humans in their lives.
'Is this it?'
Hans descended to the ground and walked towards the ruins of one of the shacks. With a light wave of his hand, he delicately released his magical energy.
Kugugu—
At the same time, various debris rose into the air. The remnants, floating as if in zero gravity, scattered, and something within them was drawn towards him.
[Found it.]
Hans stared silently at what was approaching him. The being that had led him here, the one that still emitted a faint spark of life even at this moment. A translucent blue crystal, with a sleeping girl in her early teens curled up like a fetus, clutching something in both hands.
She was dreaming. A long dream of unknown origin or end.
-"#%@—!!"
She turned at the sound calling to her,
but there was no one there. As always, only pitch-black darkness greeted her, darkness she couldn't see an inch through.
She curled up again, burying her face in her knees.
Her head would only hurt if she tried to think,
she planned to just pass the time as usual.
She had forgotten who she was,
why she was doing this, and how time was passing.
-"#%@—!!"
But this time, something was different.
The voice, which usually disappeared quickly if she ignored it, echoed in her head again.
And it was louder than before.
Her hands gripped her temples.
Her mind started to feel numb when she heard that voice
she tried to think of something,
but... the sharp pain that followed stopped her instantly.
'No.'
She didn't want to be in pain.
She just wanted to forget everything and fall asleep like this, to be deeply asleep in a world without pain or suffering.
Alone...
as usual...
'Alone?'
The motion of her hand gripping her head suddenly stopped. A stronger pain tormented her next, but she gritted her teeth and endured it because she was already focused on a single thought. During this time, her mind gradually began to awaken as the voice continued.
'No. I don't want to be alone. I... I...!'
And the next moment, at the familiar voice that shook her head.
-"Lamu—!!"
"Big Brother!"
She opened her eyes and lifted her upper body.
"...Huh?"
She was in a clean room she had never seen before, wrapped in a soft blanket she had never imagined would exist. She blinked and tilted her head.
"What is this... Where am I...?"
She couldn't sort out her thoughts due to the sudden change in her situation.
she looked around with a bewildered expression.
The luxurious interior was something she, who was born in a dump and lived her entire life in ruins, couldn't even dream of.
As she looked around, fascinated, her eyes suddenly fixed on a certain spot.
"Ah!"
Beyond the large window on one side of the room, a world unfolded that she could only have imagined after seeing it in a storybook.
"No way...."
It was the first time she had seen it with her own eyes, but she knew it instinctively. It felt so clean and transparent, a thing she had only heard about in stories.
The 'blue sky.'
"Ah, you're awake."
As she was just staring out the window, a strange man's voice came from the door behind her.
"...Who are you?"
She looked at him very cautiously, holding her blanket tightly. Her mind was still a mess, and she couldn't organize her thoughts, but it was clear that the current situation was not normal.
Her words contained complicated questions:
who the other person was,
what he wanted
and...
why was she here.
"Ah, me?"
He seemed to understand her feelings. The man came into the room with a tray of water, placed it on the table next to the bed, and scratched his chin. He seemed to be thinking for a moment but then shrugged with a smile.
"Well, the details are complicated, so let's take it one step at a time. First of all, I'm..."
He had a clean-skinned suit made of rare and high-quality fabric, glasses said to be for high-end exclusive use, and a robust physique rarely found in a world where food was hard to come by. A type of man she had never seen in her short life said with a sincere smile:
"...call me 'Hun.'"
It was the first self-introduction she had ever heard in her life.
Hun closed the door and left the girl to rest, letting out a short sigh.
"I can't believe it came to this."
He slowly walked around the room and began to carefully look at where everything was. Although he was the owner by name, this was his first time visiting the house in person, so it was a necessary task.
"But it's a good thing I prepared it in advance. It's never wrong to have everything prepared ahead of time, after all."
This house was a secret hideout he had prepared separately. Compared to the well-fortified main house on the outskirts of Seoul, it was nothing, but it was a reasonable two-story house with a small garden and everything else he needed.
'And this will be the home base for my new avatar,
'Hun.'
-Name: Hun
-Common Traits: 「Mind Hub」 「Persona」 「Great Spirit」 「Super Recovery」 「Bright Scenery Index」 「Supernatural Strength」 「Nervousness」 「Visiting」 「Xenoglossy」 「Sturdiness」 「Underwater Breathing」 「Subspace Storage」 「Limit Break」 「Mimicry」
-Individual Trait: 「Mental Sensitivity」
-Special Notes: The thirteenth avatar of Hansung Hyun. You can connect your thoughts with others using "Mental Sensitivity."
He scratched the back of his head once and collapsed onto the living room sofa. Then, he closed his eyes and began to look back on the past along with his future plans.
'After Hans discovered the crystal with the child in it...'
Hans tried various things with the crystal he had obtained. If he wanted to get information, wouldn't he have to wake up the person inside and talk to him? However, the task was bound to be difficult from the start.
'If I touch it carelessly, the child inside could be in trouble.'
The crystal was a type of life-support device, one that had sustained her life to the very end in the environment of a destroyed world. However, if he broke the crystal and forcibly took the girl out, she could be exposed to a hostile environment...
'I can't take that risk.'
Hans wasn't even sure if he could fully block it. That terrible environment was created when the laws that constituted the world were distorted. It wasn't a problem for Hans, who was an Undead, but in order to protect an indigenous person who was bound by the laws of the world, he needed to prepare to the extent of going against them.
While trying various methods and looking for a solution, he realized one thing. For some reason, it seemed the crystal containing the girl could be moved to another dimension.
After that, it was all smooth sailing. In the safe environment of Earth, he didn't have to be overly cautious. What followed after taking the girl out of the crystal was the treatment with 'Sacred Power of Saint Heinrich' using 'Individual Projection.' The blue crystal wasn't perfect and was so weak that it seemed like she could suffocate at any moment, so he tried to give her first aid...
That's when he found out.
The girl's survival wasn't simply due to the crystal.
'Her physical condition was very similar to the 'Dragon Child' of the Ganghwan System. There was an intervention from a Diety.
'She was the one. The countermeasure against destruction prepared by the main God of the Cosiyas dimension. Unlike the Dragon Child, who was a passive means, she was prepared as a dagger to actively strike down the enemy.'
With the main God, who was on the verge of defeat, taking action personally, the potential she held was beyond imagination.
Unlike the Dragon Child, whose power was dispersed among many people, the remaining power would have been concentrated.
But that was the end of it.
The world couldn't hold on until the girl broke out of her shell and grew, and in the end, it abandoned her and was completely destroyed. A failed world. Potential that withered without being able to bloom. In the end, she was destined to die alone in a world that even its main God had abandoned.
But now, that's okay.
'Does that mean she's in my hands?'
The corner of Hun's mouth twitched. Her very existence was an enemy born to oppose the Lord of the Heaven-turn society. It was like a lottery ticket where the winner had already been decided. How could he just leave something like that on the ground?
"Wow, it looks like I'm going to be a sudden babysitter. It'll take some time for her to adapt to a completely different world."
He thought about entrusting her to the organizations he managed, such as the clan, but he couldn't leave such a gem in someone else's hands. Above all, his own care was essential for her to grow properly.
'If I hadn't made a new avatar with good timing, I might have considered managing her directly...'
In that sense, you could say it was destiny that the 『Unique Skill Enhancement』, which he thought would be activated soon, had moved on to the next stage. No matter how strong his body became, it was always advantageous to choose an option with little to no risk. He'd have to see how things went later.
'Besides, the work I'm doing on Earth is so big that I needed an avatar to manage it. You could say it's both business and pleasure. I can always deploy him elsewhere if needed.'
He shrugged and got up from the sofa. He had been giving her time alone out of consideration for her inevitable confusion, but he had no intention of leaving her like that forever.
'There are a lot of things I want to ask. If I want to use my time as efficiently as possible, I should at least prepare in advance.'
For the sake of revenge against the Lord of the Heaven-turn society.
For the sake of 'our' ambitions.
***
In a glamorous, smoky interior.
"...The distortion has grown even larger."
The Oracle, who had been holding a hookah and looking at the universe with blurry eyes, frowned. From her experience so far, there was only one kind of power that could do something like this.
"Is it the Masquerade again...? What the hell have you done?"
The plan to shake up Korea, which was presumed to be their base, was progressing in stages. It took time to be careful not to cause a great ripple in the causality, but some operations had already entered the implementation stage a long time ago. However, in this situation, ripples began to appear as if a large rock had been dropped into a lake...
"...This is ominous. I hope there are no major problems."
She nervously bit the cigarette she had in her mouth.
Unbeknownst to her...
she had revealed her true feelings
—which were not befitting of a prophet.