746

 [Chapter 191]

[Soul-Returning Ceremony (2)]

A world of white.

Shin Yeon-su stood there.

Do you desire power?

Yes, I desire power.

It was a strange voice.

A voice that resonated as if combining many people's voices.

Shin Yeon-su answered without hesitation.

What do you wish for?

Please resurrect my brother.

Do you truly wish for that?

There is a price for everything.

To obtain what you desire, you must stake something of equal value.

Are you confident you can bear it?

The voice warned.

Shin Yeon-su's answer was already decided.

No matter what price I must pay, please save my brother.

I'm prepared for any price.

She hadn't activated her gift without knowing that.

─Very well, I shall grant your wish.

The myriad things of the universe, or the world will.

The voice responded.

☆

Mana drained from her entire body.

An overwhelming sense of exhaustion came over her.

Shin Yeon-su collapsed on the spot.

"Huff, huff... De-Deputy Leader... How is, how is my brother?"

She didn't even have the strength to move her body.

With her head bowed deeply.

Shin Yeon-su called out to the Deputy Leader standing beside her.

"Ho-oh. So this is the world will. Countless egos forming into one, creating a perfect ego without joy, anger, sorrow or pleasure... Just like a machine."

"De-Deputy Leader..."

"Well, the world will could change the world if it wanted, but there was a reason it's been unresponsive until now. Forming the totality of countless egos paradoxically made it unable to have any specific will. So..."

"Huff, ugh...!"

"The gift holder of gives direction to the will that's like chaos and makes it change the world. In a way, the holder of could be said to be a messenger representing the world will or someone executing the program called world will."

"Huff, huff..."

"Anyway, it's a shame. I heard the embodied the principles of nature after activating , so I was expecting... Is it impossible for me to embody it even though I can glimpse the principles?"

What a shame, what a shame.

If I had stayed there a little longer, I feel like I could have learned something.

The old man clicked his tongue.

"If anything was gained... My ability to sense mana dissolved in the air increased slightly compared to before."

Because he was inside the world will.

He must have become able to easily confirm the mana forming its remnants.

Unfortunately, it was an ability not very useful to the old man at this point.

"If I had experienced this when I was young, I would have achieved faster growth than now... But I don't need such things anymore, hmm."

The Deputy Leader leaned on his cane.

Only then did he try to check inside the coffin as Shin Yeon-su requested.

Looking inside the coffin.

The Deputy Leader split his lips.

"Yeon-su."

"..."

"It seems we succeeded."

The experiment was successful.

Warmth was returning to Sindorim's body, and color was returning to his face.

The Deputy Leader informed Shin Yeon-su.

She raised her head.

"Re-Really...?"

"Yes, really."

Although it was regrettable he couldn't learn more details about .

Shin Yeon-su is alive.

It means he can learn about as much as he wants from now on.

The Deputy Leader, Armageddon, chuckled and helped her approach the coffin.

"Brother, brother...!"

Shin Yeon-su reaching out to Sindorim.

Feeling her brother's warmth, she burst into tears.

Right after─

─Twitch

Sindorim's body suddenly moved.

Starting with that, his body began to convulse continuously.

He was trying to wake up.

A smile spread on Shin Yeon-su's face.

And finally─

"─Oh, brother! Ah, thank goodness. I'm really so glad. You really came back to life..."

""...""

Sindorim opened his eyes.

Shin Yeon-su looked at Sindorim's face, almost entering the coffin.

She touched Sindorim's face.

She made him look at her.

Creak creak

Because his joints had been stiff for so long.

The sound of Sindorim trying to move his body was heard.

A very strange sound.

Shin Yeon-su liked even that.

She was delighted to see Sindorim moving his body on his own.

Soon Sindorim opened his mouth.

"Ye-Yeon-su..."

"Brother! Are you surprised by what's happening? Let me explain how this happened..."

Painfully raising his upper body.

Sindorim speaks haltingly.

He looked bewildered.

It was understandable.

The situation must be incomprehensible.

That's what Shin Yeon-su thought.

But her thoughts were off the mark.

Sindorim suddenly─

─Grip!

"Br-Brother... Why are you so strong... It seems like the limit isn't set on your brain yet since you just resurrected, please loosen your grip... It hurts too much."

"Yeon-su..."

Sindorim grabbed Shin Yeon-su's shoulders.

He grabbed her so strongly that she ended up screaming.

Nevertheless, Sindorim paid no attention to her scream.

Then he said.

"It's still not enough."

"...What?"

"Still, not, enough..."

"..."

What's not enough?

Shin Yeon-su couldn't speak.

She discovered Sindorim's face turning pale.

He's dying again.

She realized that and froze.

W-Why?

The magic was perfect...

The soul and vessel were all prepared.

But something was lacking, causing the soul to try to leave the body.

Shin Yeon-su thought and thought.

The answer to her worry came from Sindorim.

He spat it out.

"─Your soul is not enough."

"...What?"

"Your, soul... is not, enough..."

Soul, what does he mean?

Shin Yeon-su repeated in her mind.

Sindorim's eyes flashed ominously.

He lunged forward.

"...Ugh...cough...! Br-Brother...!!"

"NotEnoughNotEnoughNotEnoughNotEnoughIdon'tevenknowwhoIamrightnow.IneedtotakeyourmemoriestoconfirmwhoIam."

"...!!"

Sindorim chokes her neck.

Suddenly choked by him, Shin Yeon-su couldn't make any response.

She couldn't move her body due to the aftereffects of activating .

She couldn't even think that her own brother would choke her.

Only then did she realize.

Ah, my soul wasn't enough.

She did find Sindorim's thoughts among the thoughts dissolved in the world will.

But those were residual thoughts.

Not the 'whole'.

So while using that as the core, a 'part' to add to it was needed.

Shin Yeon-su tried to supplement that with memories closely related to that soul.

So she prepared Sindorim's body and his belongings.

"NotEnoughNotEnoughNotEnough...!!"

"Cough...!"

"GivemeyoursoulGivemeyoursoulthatholdsmemories!!!"

Nevertheless, that wasn't enough to create the identity of 'Sindorim'.

So Sindorim is now instinctively targeting Shin Yeon-su's soul to make up for the lacking 'memories'.

Because the memories engraved in her soul would be the 'part' with the highest density among existing ones.

Ah... so that's how it is.

Looking at her brother with reddened eyes.

Shin Yeon-su understood everything.

She painfully reached out her hand.

She embraced Sindorim.

Yes, I'll give it to you.

Just as brother sacrificed for me, now it's my turn to sacrifice for brother.

In exchange for her soul.

If only she could save Sindorim.

She would gladly give it.

This is the price of .

Having understood everything, she quietly gave her soul to him.

For her, it was enough to have seen him alive once before dying.

Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!

Crunch!

Crack!

A transparent form resembling her rose from her body.

Sindorim quickly snatched it and hastily stuffed it into his mouth as if possessed.

And he chewed it like food.

He didn't seem to hear the screams of his younger sister's soul.

He was just focused on complementing his own soul.

"─Ho-oh, so that's how it was. The sacrifice offered wasn't just simple mediums but also the soul of a living person closely related to the deceased in life as material."

How interesting, how interesting.

The Deputy Leader had a question here.

If so, the deceased supplements their soul with the living person's memories.

In the end, doesn't the deceased's identity depend on the memories held by the living person?

In other words─

"─What exactly is that..."

He didn't fully possess the soul he had in life.

That is not Sindorim.

Isn't it just a being defined by 'Shin Yeon-su's memories', wearing the shell of Sindorim's soul?

" isn't perfect. Well, it's understandable since egos that think resurrection is possible and egos that don't coexist simultaneously among the egos constituting the world will."

The soul is truly profound.

The old man thought as if it were someone else's business.

☆

activated.

People seemed bewildered as the world was dyed white.

But Eun-ha, who had experienced several times, could quickly grasp the situation.

Someone activated .

Eun-ha clicked his tongue.

If there was a holder of the gift in the hall, he could have used Wubo to disrupt that person's concentration.

But the holder of the gift wasn't in the hall.

He could guess who it was.

─It's Shin Yeon-su.

Shin Yeon-su also possessed like Sindorim.

Or I was mistaken.

Shin Yeon-su, saint of the Mana Religion.

She had just demonstrated magic and left the hall.

Eun-ha's intuition was clearly telling him it was her.

But it was hard to believe that both Sindorim and Shin Yeon-su possessed .

Can it really be called a coincidence?

But there was no time for such thoughts.

"Pa pa! Peep peep!"

"Damn it..."

The dead are resurrecting.

Eun-ha witnessed signs of it.

An anomaly was occurring from where the dazzling light burst forth.

Whooooosh!!

Fierce winds swept through the hall.

Mana activated enough to be visible to the naked eye surged violently.

Then it began reacting to the mementos people were holding.

Ugh...urrrgh....

Guh...guuuuuh....

The magic Shin Yeon-su used earlier summoned the thoughts of the dead.

Those forcibly activated by rushed to the mediums.

Soon the mediums enveloped in mana.

An unrealistic scene unfolded.

Objects made of mana changed the material constituting themselves.

""""...""""

Squirming, swelling, melting.

They changed their forms individually and were reborn into human-like forms.

Forms like humans burned by fire.

Those with indistinct features showed mouths towards the people holding the mementos.

"Mo...m..."

"...Ch-Changsik?"

"I'm hungry..."

"Ch-Changsik!"

"Want...to eat...apple..."

""""...!!""""

They imitated the deceased.

People were shocked.

And what they showed next was 'acceptance'.

Their faces brightened.

"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! My son...! My baby, my baby has come back to life!!"

"Ah... Dar...ling..."

"Ugh..."

"Is, is it really you? My goodness..."

They gradually transform to be closer to humans.

Now they had no choice but to believe.

The deceased had come back to life.

They approached the deceased, happy no matter what form they took.

And─

─Crunch!

Crunch crunch!

Those things bit into people.

A mother running to embrace her child's corpse had her nape bitten by her child.

Blood spurted.

Nevertheless, the child's mother finally embraced the child tightly.

She whispered.

"─It's okay, don't cry. Changsik..."

"Guh...ugh..."

"Mommy is fine as long as Changsik can live."

""""...""""

People attacked by the dead.

They subconsciously accepted the reason they were attacked.

So they offered their bodies.

Rather, they comforted them, worried they might be sad if they fully resurrected and realized they had killed them.

"No, this isn't... I didn't wish for this...Aaaaah!!"

Of course, not everyone accepted.

Some people noticed they were different from the people they knew.

But they couldn't do anything.

The power of the dead was strong.

It was to a degree that ordinary people couldn't detach them.

They had no choice but to be eaten.

Such a situation was occurring throughout the entire hall.

[─Hey hey! What the hell is this!? What should we do!?]

The players belatedly move.

Eun-ha received telepathy from Jin Parang.

Looking in the direction the telepathy came from, Jin Parang and Kim Min-ji were trying to detach a dead person clinging to someone.

At the same time, they seemed to be arguing with the person the dead was clinging to.

"You bastards! Get off! How dare you point swords at our child!? Huh!? Are you even human!?"

"No! Don't touch them! Leave them alone, I said!"

It was understandable.

To the believers, these weren't monsters but their precious people.

Most believed without doubt that they were people.

So it was a situation where the two or the players had no choice but to conflict with the believers.

But if they waste time like this, the situation will worsen further.

Don't hesitate, respond.

Just kill them.

Eun-ha, who climbed onto the railing, signaled to them with his eyes.

Then he dropped down to the hall below to demonstrate personally.

Familiar Transformation

Phoenix Cloak

Landing while wearing the cloak of flames.

Eun-ha detached the dead, the ghouls, that were closest.

Then he immediately raised flames.

Kyaaaaaaah!!

"Hey! What are you doing! Put out the fire quickly! Put it out, I said! What if they die again like that!!!"

A believer clung to him.

But just an ordinary person.

Eun-ha lightly pushed them away.

Why is it taking so long for them to burn?

Then he stomped on the burning ghoul in front of that person.

Soon the ghoul turned to ashes and disappeared.

He didn't care whether the believer wailed at the ghoul turned to ashes.

Snap! Snap!

Not stopping there.

Eun-ha snapped his fingers.

He accurately burned only the ghouls around, targeting them precisely.

"No! No! Don't kill theeeem!!"

"These people really..."

He had carefully targeted only the ghouls to avoid harming people.

But people who lost their reason rushed to the ghouls.

They didn't mind getting burned.

And─

─Crunch!

They were eaten just like that.

Eun-ha quietly spat out curses and had no choice but to adjust the flames.

He saved people still alive while kicking away ghouls rushing at him.

Fortunately, most were insignificant.

But there were also ghouls that had eaten many people in the short time since they appeared.

Those weren't easy opponents.

─Wubo

Sensing a presence behind him.

Eun-ha immediately stomped the ground.

A large ghoul fell where he had been.

 "Food."

"..."

"Give me food. I said give me food, fooooood!!"

The ghoul's muscles twitched.

Its form immediately disappeared.

This is a troublesome one.

I've only heard about them, but experiencing it directly is no joke.

Ghouls with their brain limits released.

They would get stronger as they ate living people and fully exert their physical abilities.

Eun-ha didn't bother trying to find the one that disappeared before his eyes.

As soon as it was caught in his detection net─

─Wubo

Boom!!

Eun-ha quickly dodged.

And he appeared behind the ghoul that had punched the floor.

He swung his sword extended behind his shoulder.

Blaze Crusher

He beheaded the ghoul.

He immediately stomped on the ghoul's head.

The organ moving these guys is the head.

If you don't destroy the head, they won't die and will keep attacking.

Beings that aren't even monsters.

Monsters that don't even feel pain.

What moves them isn't the heart that produces mana, but the head where the soul is thought to reside in mana studies.

"─Attack the head!! These guys' weakness is the head!!"

The situation was chaotic.

It was uncertain whether these many people would listen no matter what he shouted.

Nevertheless, Eun-ha shouted.

Right then─

"─Woof woof woof rowl rowl!!"

"Human."

"Hungryhungryhungryhungry..."

As time gradually passed.

The ghouls also started to gain intelligence to grasp the situation.

They focused on targeting Eun-ha.

Especially the fast ones rushed at Eun-ha in groups.

Eun-ha tried to distance himself from them while kicking away a dog-like ghoul.

There was timely support.

─Earth Dragon's Scales

Rocks shot up from the ground.

Rocks shooting up from all directions soon curved to form a protective formation around Eun-ha.

The rushing ghouls were blocked by the rock barrier.

Thanks to this, Eun-ha could comfortably activate magic.

Flame Thorn

Through the stem-like rocks shooting up.

Eun-ha fired bullets orbiting the coldly blooming winter.

The flame bullets pierced through them.

Ghouls that burned from the head disappeared.

He turned to look at the person who cast the protection magic on him.

"Samra Clan Lord, thank you."

"It didn't seem like you needed my help anyway."

"Still, thank you."

Samra Clan Lord Chong Eun-ju.

She had jumped down to the hall following Eun-ha at almost the same time and provided support.

Even Chong Eun-ju, who didn't welcome Eun-ha, seemed to want to cooperate in this situation.

"From what I saw earlier, you seem to know something about these guys... What exactly is going on here?"

"As you can see, someone caused a ghoul terror attack."

"Who that is... I think I can guess without asking."

"Right?"

Soon their gazes turned to the same place.

Near the altar.

The Mana Religion leader was there.

"This is the miracle of the Mana God! The Mana God has fulfilled your wishes and resurrected the dead people!"

Even with this disaster, he was speaking contentedly.

The leader was saying something.

He didn't seem to see the people being killed by ghouls.

"Then we should capture that person first and ask for details."

"Since he's the leader, he should be able to control the believers too."

Even just in the National Assembly building, the hall was in an uproar due to ghouls.

The outside must be worse than this.

Especially if ghouls escape the district, the uproar will grow uncontrollably.

Right now they're just eating people and recovering energy.

After they recover energy, they'll be able to infect other people to turn them into ghouls.

The situation needed to be calmed quickly.

So they capture the leader who has the authority to control Mana Religion believers.

The two's thoughts aligned.

They tried to approach the leader on the altar.

It was right then.

"Long live the Mana Religion! Long live! Long live! Long long live! The Mana God is great! Everyone, do not fear death! Death is no different from finding rest in the embrace of the Mana God...cough...ugh...th-this...mo-monster..."

""...""

A ghoul leaped like a grasshopper and tore the leader's side.

As if he never thought he would be attacked.

Bewilderment clouded the leader's face.

"N-No...don't co-cough ugh..."

The leader died.

Ghouls swarmed and tore apart the leader's corpse.

The chaos grew uncontrollably.