The World after the Fall

[You took longer than I thought. I expected you to come 16 times earlier than this.]

Jaehwan had only seen Sirwen, but he knew exactly what Nightmares looked like. They had a small pair of horns on their heads and small wings on their back, but they looked just like humans otherwise. The being in front of him was definitely a Nightmare.

Nightmare Mulack Armelt.

One of the 13 Master Craftsmen, and the being who created the Tower of Remorse. He was here.

[Haha, haven’t you looked enough? Or do I have something on my face?]

Even with Mulack’s words, Jaehwan couldn’t take his eyes off him. Jaehwan recognized the presence however. Mulack wasn’t just a Nightmare. He was now something beyond a Nightmare.

[I know you must have a lot of questions.]

“Are you Big Brother?”

[Big Brother? OH! Big Brother…]

As if he had forgotten that word for a long time, Mulack laughed.

[I didn’t think you would be curious about that. Didn’t you come through the ‘Fall of time’ to get here?]

“I asked if you are Big Brother.”

[Haha… so you haven’t changed even though you came all the way here. It’s about time you lose your stubbornness…]

Mulack narrowed his eyes.

[Well, I guess acquiring understanding beyond that of a normal being doesn’t get you all that you need to know.]

Mulack then turned away from Jaehwan and began to wander around the corridor.

[Big Brother… yes. That’s the name that’s been used recently.]

A coldness then struck. Jaehwan asked, “…Are there other names?”

[Of course, there are many names. Big Brother, Invisible Hand, God of Gods, The Beginning One…. You know all this, don’t you?]

Jaehwan wasn’t sure why Mulack insisted that he knew all of it, but it seemed like the Nightmare was going to say it anyway so Jaehwan decided to listen first.

[Big Brother was created 210 thousand years ago. But it existed long before that.]

Mulack then turned to the corner of the corridor. There was the tank Jaehwan had been looking at. It was the tank that contained Daeus. Mulack reached out and touched the surface. Daeus’ eye opened instantly. Before Jaehwan could put his hand on his sword, some kind of music began filling the air. Then, there was a screen in the air where the voice had come from.

-That power is dangerous. It is not something we can control.

It wasn’t Daeus’ voice. Jaehwan had a heard voice very similar to this one in the Forest of Madness.

‘Ra-hamad.’

However, the being on the screen wasn’t Ra-hamad.

-No, we must use it. Only we have the right to wield the power.

Catastrophe’s voice came after, and Jaehwan soon confirmed that the voice was Geshtalt’s. He then realized what the image was about.

-Let’s start.

With Daeus’ mechanical voice, the world powers of the Three Ancient God gathered together. Jaehwan watched the powerful conversion of world powers. The Three Gods were resonating with each other.

‘Three God War.’

It was certainly the war that he saw in the [Record of the Depth]. Powerful world power began to resonate with each other and began to create a reality. It was a much larger world entering reality than what Myad tried to do.

It was the lone world that the Three Gods wanted, and the name of salvation to end all wars.

<System>

Jaehwan bit his lips. If he had a choice, he would have asked if that was the best decision. But he couldn’t ask that question 210 thousand years later.

The light stormed on the screen. World power that gathered became a pillar of light that penetrated the sky of <Depth>. It was the light of a new world. Jaehwan could see how excited the Three Gods were because of such an achievement.

But they did not know that something was coming down from the destroyed skies above, something that they had brought down was going to ruin their plan.

Jaehwan then saw the one, the thing coming down from the sky. It contained dark, terrifying energy. It was too late when the Three Gods realized something wasn’t right. The darkness completely swept Daeus’ Machina which was standing in the center of the light.

‘That’s…’

Jaehwan glared at the darkness that looked very familiar. It was certain. It was the space that he had spent almost an eternity in.

-W-what’s going on…!!

Catastrophe and Gesthalt screamed in panic, and then there was a loud scream. It was an agonized scream worth billions of years.

Then came an explosion. It was not a physical explosion, but the explosion of a being. Jaehwan had seen such explosions countless times within the darkness. It was like a big bang of consciousness, an explosion that gave birth to new laws and the truth of a universe.

Jaehwan did not know what the explosion was since the voice inside did not allow him to go any closer. But if it wasn’t for the voice, Jaehwan would have been the same as Daeus.

It was a bit after the explosion died that Catastrophe’s voice came back.

-Daeus? What’s going on?

Within the destroyed Machina, Daeus walked out from it. There was a sense of a being that was more than a being in the lenses of Daeus’ machine.

-I see. So it was all pointless.

A fight broke out. There was no reason for it. Daeus started attacking Catastrophe and Geshtalt all of a sudden and they had to fight back. But they were no match against Daeus who had become a new being. Jaehwan then remembered Ra-hamad’s story as he saw Geshtalt being ripped apart and Catastrophe being kicked out of <Depth>.

The Three God War wasn’t a fight between the Three Ancient Gods.

Ra-hamad mentioned that it was wrong as it wasn’t an actual war between the Three Gods. In a deeper sense, it was correct however. Jaehwan finally realized what Ra-hamad had meant.

‘That is not Daeus.’

Daeus had become something entirely different after coming out from the darkness. He had become something totally different.

After Daeus finished his work, he flew up to the sky of <Depth> and disappeared. The video ended there. Jaehwan felt chill crawl up his back. It wasn’t because of the story. Daeus’ eye was closing back again and Mulack asked,

[How was it?]

“…”

[It’s probably your first time witnessing another being that ‘Transcended’. How is it compared to when you ‘Transcended’?]

Jaehwan wasn’t sure what Mulack was talking about.

[Daeus was lucky. He didn’t need to come through the ‘Fall of time’ like you and me due to the Big Bang of world power. But of course, he too would have come across the same amount of pain…]

Many thoughts were rushing past Jaehwan’s head.

[But he’s still the luckiest of us all. Haha.]

Daeus was considered a dead God within <Depth>, a God that was known to have perished completely in the Three God War. However, Jaehwan now realized that it was different.

Daeus died and became Big Brother.

Maybe that wasn’t all that surprising as Jaehwan had expected as much. He was surprised about something else.

“Mulack.”

[Yes?]

“What is that ‘darkness’?”

[…What do you mean?]

“The ‘darkness’ that appeared in Daeus’ memory. That’s the same space that I walked past.”

[Oh, you mean the ‘Fall of time’. Yes, you are right. That led him to ‘Transcendence’.]

“And what is that? Tell me. This… what is this place? What were you doing all this time?”

And then, Mulack’s face distorted weirdly. His friendly face turned to something ominous and it soon disappeared.

[…Are you asking because you really don’t know?]

Jaehwan felt fear for a short moment as he met Mulack’s eyes. It was the strongest fear he had ever felt in his entire life. An expression of a human looking at disgusting insect — that was what Mulack had on his face.

[Haha… you must be joking. That is strange. There’s no way you cannot know if you came here… Didn’t you get all your answers through ‘Transcendence’?]

It was after a slight second that Mulack found his friendliness. He grinned at Jaehwan.

[….I see! So you wanted to play ‘a being game’!]

Mulack’s face brightened instantly.

[Well well, you are a trickster! Good. I’ll play along… what should I do? Oh, how about this? Let’s play a version of ‘Demon embracing the hero that came up to the top of Tree of Imagery to stop the world from its doom’?]

And the corridor began to change shape. It began to destroy itself and was creating an entirely new background. So this was the déjà vu he felt. This place was similar to the 100th floor of the Tower of Nightmares, only much bigger.

Within a giant circular space, there were screens all over. It showed the Cultivation sites of the [Remote Regions] of the <Great Lands>, <Chaos>, and even <Depth>.

[Well, you must know if you’ve seen it all this time.]

Jaehwan now realized what this place was. This was like the eye that saw everything.

[Welcome, new Big Brother. To the Nest of the Tree of Imagery, <Panopticon>.]