[So, I wondered how you managed to co this far, and now I understand. Were you the chosen one of this generation?]
Logos extended his hand towards Yu-hyun.
From that movent, one could feel an arrogance as vast as the universe, as though looking down upon him.
And a strange magical power was instilled in it, one that made creations revere him as their creator.
[Now, chosen one. If you’ve gathered all of the Codex, hand it over to . And in return, I shall grant you the opportunity to cross into the next universe. You, and no other, shall be the first to set foot in the new universe, enjoying that honor.]
“How many tis… have you restarted the universe this way?”
[Hmm?]
“Tearing the Codex apart, scattering its fragnts, and making beings of the lower and mixed realms collect them all.”
When all those fragnts gathered and ford a complete page,
Logos would offer a proposal to the final holder.
To announce the end of this era and simultaneously grant the opportunity to move to the next universe.
“Have you repeated this countless tis… erasing innocent lives along the way?”
[Ho.]
Logos’s reaction was calm as he watched Yu-hyun express his anger towards him.
In fact, he seed to have taken a certain interest in Yu-hyun.
[To think you’d dare show hostility toward . It’s not that I’ve never encountered such beings before, but one as outright and unyielding as you… that’s a first.]
“Is that so? It’s a sha I’m not the first.”
[No, you are the first.]
Indeed, many had shown hostility to the creator when facing him.
However, most of them bowed their heads and knelt the mont they encountered the presence of Logos.
Only Yu-hyun, facing Logos, stood firm, glaring without bowing.
[So, child, showing such enmity towards , do you intend to stand against ?]
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have co this far.”
[You ca all this way to defy ? How amusing.]
A re creation, a human, declared his intent to resist him.
For the creator, for Logos, who held the power to determine the beginning and end of this world, it could be infuriating to think he’d been so insolently mocked. 𝑅
Yet Logos laughed, as if he found the event itself entertaining.
“Is this funny to you?”
[How could it not be amusing? At the end of countless simulations, a turning point I’d never witnessed has appeared. It’s only natural I’d be delighted. At least it won’t change as emptily as before.]
“You talk about this whole process as if it’s a ga.”
[If that’s how it sounded, then I comnd you for perceiving it accurately.]
Logos laughed even as he faced an unforeseen variable because he was certain he could control and suppress it.
“What exactly is your goal? Why have you restarted the universe so many tis? Do you have any idea how many lives have perished by your hand?”
[Lives? What a foolish question.]
Logos brushed his formless white chin with his hand.
[What’s wrong with harvesting what was created from the seeds I sowed?]
“What?”
[Don’t you humans do the sa thing? You plant seeds, then harvest the fruit when it ripens. You even trim branches to yield better fruit or discard underdeveloped ones.]
“What… what are you talking about…?”
[In other words, I an this: to , all life in this universe is nothing more than fruit for harvesting—no more, no less.]
Snap.
At those words, Yu-hyun felt sothing snap in his mind.
Perhaps it was the sound of a fruit’s stem breaking as it fell from a tree.
Grinding his teeth, he asked with desperate restraint.
“What is it… that you’re trying to achieve with all this?”
[What do I seek? It’s obvious, isn’t it? A story.]
“A… story?”
[Yes. Not just any story. An ultimate story.]
An ultimate story.
Logos openly expressed what he desired.
[The ultimate story. A story that contains the essence of every tale in the world.]
“What… what does that even an?”
[Just as I said. The ultimate story is a story anyone can proudly declare as the best.]
Not all stories are the sa.
The preferences of readers, the intentions of writers, and the genres of works differ.
Gender.
Generations.
Culture.
Race.
Ideology.
Due to countless auxiliary elents, the branches of stories have split and multiplied like the branches of a tree.
What might be the greatest story to one person could be the worst to another.
Even a story loved by many could be detested by so.
[An absolute tric, free from any inherent, environntal factors. That’s what ultimate ans. The ultimate story I am crafting will be a masterpiece that satisfies all the myriad beings of the world for eternity.]
The ultimate story Logos aid to create. It was contained in the Codex, the Book of Genesis.
The most conclusive form one could reach at the end of diverse stories.
A masterpiece that anyone could be satisfied with, without any room for preferences or dislikes.
A story free from dispute.
That was Logos’s purpose in repeating the universe countless tis.
[I can’t write everything by myself. So, I chose a thod. One page per universe. Whenever a new universe began, I would tear a page from the next one.]
Thus, the torn fragnts scattered throughout the universe.
Golden pieces of paper, fragnts of the Codex.
The fragnts would absorb and devour various stories, consuming the stories contained in other fragnts they encountered.
As the fragnts gathered and gathered, they beca pieces.
And as the pieces gathered and gathered, they completed a page.
A single fruit to be harvested from this universe.
One page per universe.
The letters composing that page were the vast events unfolding within that universe.
And the flow those words ford represented the journey from the beginning to the end of a world.
[Once the fruit ripens, I harvest it. The fruit becos nourishnt and is absorbed into the primordial book, the Codex. Thus, the Codex has absorbed all the stories from the repeated universes over the ages.]
When all of that finally ca together to complete a single book,
the ultimate story Logos desired would finally be born.
[A wearyingly long span of ti has passed. There were even monts when I thought this process might be aningless, that it might be endless. But seeing you, I realize that was my misunderstanding. You are the anomaly born between the crevices of stories and the ‘unexpected' that every story needs.]
That was why Logos felt joy as he looked at Yu-hyun.
This era’s fruit was more nutritious than any other he had seen thus far.
The countless efforts and arduous journey one person had made to reach this point.
To Logos, it was nothing more than a desirable elent to be plucked.
“You…!”
Yu-hyun’s pupils narrowed, his gaze filled with murderous intent toward Logos.
He wanted to wield his sword against him right then and there, but since only his consciousness had arrived, he couldn’t muster the strength to fight.
For now, all he could do was glare at him.
[Such intense hostility. Indeed, the unexpected, I suppose.]
“Don’t call an ‘unexpected’!”
[You don’t decide that. It’s decided by . As the manager of this great tree called a book, that is my role.]
Logos turned his back on Yu-hyun as if he had finished his business.
[Since you refused to hand over the Codex page, I understand you wish to oppose . In that case, I shall use every ans to take the page you possess.]
“Judging by the fact you can’t take it right now, it seems that for a creator, your powers are quite limited.”
[I won’t deny it. It’s not as though I can do everything myself. So, I’ll simply have others do what I cannot.]
The six Great Armies to face the Allied Forces.
The Tellers to conceal information.
The Foundation and Elohim to enforce judgnt.
[If you wish to confront , I’ll indulge you. Use everything you have to oppose . But you’ll soon realize how futile your resistance is.]
“Just you wait. I will kill you.”
[If you can, co and find . I’ll be waiting in the deepest part of the Foundation.]
Begone.
With a light wave of Logos’s hand, as though he were finished, Yu-hyun’s consciousness faded from the white space.
“Hah!”
“Hyung?! Hyung! Are you okay?”
“Young-min?”
“What just happened? You were holding a fragnt, then your eyes lost focus, and suddenly you started gasping for breath.”
Yu-hyun realized he was back in reality. Although he thought he’d spoken with Logos at length, only an instant had passed here.
“Phew. Thanks for worrying. I’m fine. I just… solidified my purpose.”
“Well then…”
“You should get plenty of rest too. The upcoming battle won’t give us a chance to rest.”
“…Understood.”
Recognizing the seriousness of the final battle approaching, Yoo Young-min nodded with a hardened expression.
Yet, his concern over Yu-hyun’s strange behavior lingered; even as he departed, he cast glances back at him.
‘Is hyung hiding what he went through from ?’
While feeling a bit hurt and disappointed, Yoo Young-min guessed that Yu-hyun must have a reason for not sharing.
‘Right. I shouldn’t worry about him. What’s important is the impending great war.’
He needed to rally his subordinates, preparing them ntally. He was no longer rely the youngest collector of White Flower Managent but Yoo Young-min, the rcenary King who led his own
group.
Left alone, Yu-hyun thought he shouldn’t remain idle.
Even though knowing Logos’s purpose didn’t change what he had to do, he still needed to be fully prepared.
‘He said he’d be waiting in the deepest part of the Foundation.’
Where Logos usually resided had always been a mystery, but he’d hidden within the true body of the Foundation, nestled within the dinsional rift.
‘No, he wasn’t really hiding. He simply had no need to. He waited there, endlessly, watching for the mont the fruit would ripen.’
Once he harvested that fruit, all beings in the universe would be erased.
They’d turn into the foundation for the next universe, with only a select few chosen ones remaining.
“Damn bastard.”
A rare mutter escaped Yu-hyun’s lips.
The words Logos had said lingered in his mind, echoing persistently.
The entire path he’d traveled was sumd up to Logos as nothing more than ‘unexpected.’
He had already sensed hints of that sentint from the system notifications, presud to have been created by Logos.
All the ordeals he’d endured to create a single story in the ntal Realm were dismissed as a single line of bland, monotonous text.
Logos had cut off a significant portion of human emotion and restraint, leaving only irrational madness in pursuit of his goal.
That was the kind of being Yu-hyun was up against.
Sighing deeply to calm himself, Yu-hyun activated Descartes’s power.
His body in reality blurred as he shifted to the land of illusions, the Wandering World.
Using it as a stepping stone, Yu-hyun reached one of the buildings in Old Town.
Now that he could perfectly control the power of fragnts, it took him less than ten seconds to cross from the plains outside the city to the inside.
Yu-hyun lightly knocked on the door before him.
“I’m coming in.”
There was no reply from inside, but he could sense the person was awake, not asleep.
Yu-hyun opened the door and entered.
In the room, which felt a little barren, a woman sat demurely on the bed against one wall, waiting for him.
“Hye-rim.”
“….”
Kang Hye-rim stared blankly at Yu-hyun.
She neither ran to him like a child nor calmly greeted him.
Yu-hyun brought a chair nearby and sat in front of her.
“You’ve been well, I hope? I tried to co back quickly, but I ended up being quite late.”
“….”
“A great war is coming. Not only us but also every living being in this universe will have their fate decided in this war. With so many vested interests involved, those who can fight will most certainly join. And…”
Countless lives would be lost.
Far surpassing even the apocalypse that struck Earth.
“Still, we must fight. Those who can wield a sword must raise it. This is our final duty as those who live in this world.”
More than re words, his tone carried a weight of conviction. From the story Satan had passed to him, he saw a glimpse of the man he once was.
He fought against Logos to avoid death but eventually compromised to protect his cherished comrades.
The emotions of fear he’d felt back then and the regrets that followed.
In truth, he wished Kang Hye-rim, Kwon Jia, Seo Sumin, Yoo Young-min, and everyone else he knew didn’t have to fight.
There was no way for everyone to survive. In war, so would surely die. And he couldn’t bear to see his loved ones perish.
But he couldn’t force his own will on others for his own desires.
“Hye-rim, what do you want to do?”
“….”
He noticed Kang Hye-rim flinch. Yu-hyun gazed at her intently.
He had already realized she’d regained her ability to speak. He didn’t ntion it, knowing full well.
They both bore guilt towards each other.
“…You don’t have to answer right now. Just by tomorrow morning, please.”
Realizing it wasn’t the right ti, Yu-hyun rose to his feet.
Ah. Unconsciously, Kang Hye-rim reached out to him, but he was already out of reach, having turned away.
The door closed, and silence filled the room.
Alone, her gaze remained fixed on the spot where Yu-hyun had left.
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