“Tell me, who’s the ant now, my Deity?”

Ye Weibai’s words were a spark, light as ash, landing on Aerin’s heart-lake, yet they raised a tidal inferno; her breath hitched; a muscle in her cheek twitched.

Her face looked calm, yet in those violet-burning eyes, a streak of feral fire flashed like a meteor.

In that instant, the Deity’s gaze held a sky of stars winking, beings turning to ash and rising again, the threads of fate and cause snapping, then knotting back.

In that instant, she wanted to burn this broken [World] to cinders.

Ordinary people didn’t notice, but those watching with eyes or spirit felt life and death pass through them, clear and direct.

Great fear rolled over them like an icy hand kneading every inch of flesh, then it snapped away.

As data-streams cascaded down her pupils, she cooled; the boil of killing intent, something she herself hadn’t noticed, guttered out; her face smoothed blank again.

She let a thin breath slip.

“Really.”

“You almost fooled me.”

“Maybe I can’t kill you.” “Aerin” looked at Ye Weibai, her voice warmed. “But I can make you kill me.”

Her fingertip withdrew from his brow but didn’t leave his skin.

An irresistible force poured from that finger into him.

In a breath, it stole his body’s reins.

Under Aerin’s control, he moved against himself.

In Ye Weibai’s trembling pupils, his hand rose.

It pushed through a purple halo like fog and closed on Aerin’s pale, slender neck.

“I can also take us both down together.”

“Aerin” spoke, and her hand clamped Ye Weibai’s throat.

Beneath a sky stained purple, the [Hero King] and the [Demon King] looked like a quarreling couple in a street brawl, hands on each other’s necks.

Magic carried the scene to the whole world, live.

No one expected the [World]’s two peaks—the [Hero King] and [Demon King]… the [Deity] and the [Peak of Humanity]—to end up strangling each other.

So bedraggled. So undignified. It almost begged a laugh.

But nobody could laugh.

Anyone could see they stood at the last brink.

The whole [World] fell silent.

People waited for the ending and hungered for it.

That ending might have come not long ago—in the last [Cycle].

Mutual destruction—the best ending, perhaps.

People wished it in their hearts.

At least—at least go down together.

As long as the [Demon King] dies, then the [Hero King]’s death is worth it.

[Sacrifice] is inevitable, isn’t it?

“Feel it?”

“Aerin” looked at Ye, her sense of superiority coiling back like smoke.

“That thickening, suffocating [Atmosphere]. The [World] you want to protect is praying, ‘please hurry up and die.’”

“You try to press me with [Atmosphere]. Before absolute power, even [Atmosphere] kneels.”

She spoke lightly, the corner of her mouth lifting to a subtle arc, a careless detail.

Even the Deity didn’t notice it, yet it was there—[Its] first smile.

Seeing that smile, Ye Weibai’s lips curved too, warm and clear.

His face was all blood, yet eased brows and bright eyes let you taste the joy rising from his core.

[It] caught its breath.

That smile again.

Irritation broke like a matchflare in her chest.

She should have already won.

She only had to puppet Ye to kill her, and in that same instant kill him.

The game should have ended here.

Before absolute power, any scheme is a paper kite.

He can’t not understand.

So why that smile?

Every time he smiled like that, this man did something that stunned her and left her disheveled.

What now?

The Deity computed at speed and still failed to notice this.

In the past, she never cared for such trifles.

The right move was simple and clean—snap his neck.

Without knowing, she was changing.

That change began the moment she met Ye Weibai.

It brewed like fermenting wine.

When she fell from the sky and entered Aerin, a long-buried mechanism clicked, and the change showed its face.

She couldn’t help shouting, “What are you smiling at?”

“Plenty of reasons.” Ye coughed blood.

“First, I’m not here to protect the [World]. I can’t even protect myself. What [World] would I protect?”

“All this—what for? I thought you, my Deity, would know.”

He smiled weakly, as if he didn’t feel her right hand tighten and choke him.

“I thought I did it for [Fun].”

Whether from hypoxia or memory, Ye’s eyes went distant.

“But after I split off my future self, we spoke briefly. I learned maybe it is [Fun], but not only that.”

What he spoke of wasn’t just this [World].

He meant several worlds he had walked before, even the girls from the world before life.

He’d thought the driver was simple.

Save some people.

Drag Rin, Die, Philia out of black marshes.

Pay with his own skin.

Because he found it [Fun].

In practice, he acted by that star.

People with a principle don’t get lost.

But days ago, after he spoke with his future self, he understood.

Deep inside, in the roots of his soul, lurked something secret, sly, and unsettling.

That was what nudged his path for real.

[Fun] might just be the shiny bait that thing dangled.

Ye Weibai truly wanted to know what it was.

He sensed, faintly, that all he’d suffered—why [Misfortune] chose him, why he met “Wei,” why he walked world after world—was tied to it.

That thing isn’t two neat letters called “fate.”

It must be deliberate, even man-made, or Deity-made, placed in his life.

No matter how bright his mind, with too little data and too little compute, he couldn’t part the fog.

So when he told [It], disappointed, “Even you don’t know? That’s a shame,” he meant it.

He didn’t expect [It] to find truth.

Though a Deity, [It] was jailed in this [World].

Still, scraps of proof would have been nice.

That earnestness only angered [It].

“Enough.”

[Its] voice went cold as iron water.

She—[It]—had had enough.

[It] decided to end the farce now.

[It] shouldn’t waste time playing with a human.

It should have ended long ago.

When [It] found this era’s [Demon King] strange, [It] should have struck hard and ended the [Cycle].

Then [It] wouldn’t be so cornered.

But fine, [It] thought, there’s still time.

“No.”

The golden-haired boy shook his head.

“Too late.”

Startled, [It] heard words that froze the bones.

“You’re going to die.”

He said it like he’d seen her death, so certain.

“Wha—”

“Haven’t noticed?” Ye smiled.

“You’re already living inside a prison. You’re not getting out.”

A flicker like a shadow crossed “Aerin’s” face—fear.

She pulled back her hands.

Her fingers trembled.

She snapped her fingers, cautious, like testing glass.

Vmmm—!

A piercing tone burst from inside her and swept sky and earth.

As if countless chains coiled within “Aerin.”

They shackled something that thrashed like a beast.

The world-heard screech was chains grinding to sparks.

And that something was none other than—[It], the Deity of this [World].

This body was Aerin’s.

[It] had only entered the maiden and taken the helm.

[It] should come and go at will.

Then, when Ye died and she died, [It] would slip free and return to the [Z] World Layer.

She tried just now and found—she couldn’t.

She couldn’t leave Aerin’s body.

“How can this be?!” Panic crept across [Its] face.

“What is it? What bound me?!”

Her spirit sense flooded Aerin, sifting every drop of blood and every thread of muscle.

[It] found nothing.

“Impossible! Something can bind me? No—impossible!”

“This [World] has nothing else that can bind you,” Ye said.

He didn’t finish before [It] punched his gut, and he coughed a mouthful of blood.

“Talk.” [Its] knuckles pressed to his heart. “Or I’ll kill you.”

“My Deity, you’ve forgotten again,” Ye coughed, still smiling. “You can’t kill me.”

[It] clenched its fist and trembled all over.

“But don’t worry.” Ye’s tone gentled.

He looked into the violet-fire eyes of the purple-haired girl.

His gaze was for a child who’d spilled her milk—soft, patient.

“I’ll tell you.”

“Only you can bind you.”

“A Deity can slip in and out at a whim. But a human can’t.”

“Wha—”

[It] had guessed and still refused to believe.

Ye spelled it out. “Because you’ve become human.”

Boom—!

Terrible power burst from that small fist.

It punched through Ye’s organs and shook the sky.

Shards of heaven whirled like shattered glass.

The force was so vicious the Ye glued to the world’s barrier coughed blood and fell.

“What did you say!!” Her hand shot out and nailed Ye’s throat, hanging him in the air.

“What leashed you,” Ye’s face knotted with pain, yet his tone held no hate, only drift, “are the seven emotions and six desires.”

“That’s—” Ye’s gaze slid back down the river of time.

No, the river wasn’t long.

Only days.

But too much had happened; it felt like centuries.

...

...

…

W-what?>

...

"Does it hurt, Aerin? ... Your only kin is gone."

"M-Master Bai—why is this—if I were stronger, so much stronger! He wouldn’t—he wouldn’t have died!"

"Remember. This is—[Sorrow]."

...

"Did you taste it?"

"Master Bai… this is…"

"This is [Hope]."

...

"This is—[Despair]."

...

"This is—[Fear]."

...

"This is—"

"Enough. Master Bai, enough."

"…"

"I don’t understand—Master Bai, I don’t understand—why I have to learn these things."

"…"

"Why—why do I have to suffer all this? I don’t get it, not at all!"

"Because—

if you’re human, you live through them, my dear Aerin."

...

...

Arrogance, delight, sorrow, hope, despair, fear—feelings that rise like tides and fall like leaves, and every living soul must cross them.

"Nonsense!" Her right hand clenched like a steel trap; Ye Weibai’s breath broke like a winded bellows. She barked, "These petty things come to anyone—why would it be different this time—"

Before entering Aerin, she had run the numbers. How could human cravings stain a Deity?

"Because—" Ye Weibai paused; a dusk fell across his face like drifting ash.

He knew that once he spoke, the water would spill and never return to the riverbed.

From the first chapter, he’d pushed the tale toward an unknown end. As stars wheeled and the sun bled into moonrise, that end took shape in his mind—yet his hand faltered over the board.

Since he first guessed the truth, his face stayed calm as still water, but every choice he made was a storm of questions grinding him like stone.

"Are you listening too?" Ye Weibai suddenly said.

"Wha—?"

"Aerin." His voice slowed, gentle as evening rain. "You’re listening too, aren’t you?"

"What?" The "Aerin" wearing her skin felt a prickle of omen, but human seven passions muddied her crystal math. She had to parse the scene before she could break the game, and now—the hateful human before her held the only thread.

"Then listen well, Aerin. Your last lesson." Ye spoke softly, like every time he sat with her beneath quiet lamps. "It’s nothing new. Just a single line—a line I truly want to say—"

The boy smiled. "It’s enough already. Being human is hard, so—"

With every word he loosed, the "Aerin" inside felt panic thicken like thorns knitting in her throat. Her calculations seized like a rusted gear, until she caught something—no, saw something—so terrible it froze starlight in her eyes.

"No—!!!" She screamed, a cuckoo wailing through night fog.

Too late. Ye Weibai had already said it.

"Don’t force yourself to be human, Aerin."

...

...

Aerin had been watching all along.

In that timber cabin, when Ye murmured, "You became the [Demon King]," a wave burst into her body like black surf and seized her limbs. She became—the [Demon King].

She could see, and hear, and even… feel everything that followed.

But her body was no longer hers.

She watched herself fight her most beloved Master Bai, then watched his sword pierce her heart. As dying pain rang like a bell, she thought—maybe this is a good end. She had not become the [Hero King], but she at least helped save the World. She helped Master Bai. She did not… disappoint.

Only, the thought of dying and never seeing him again stuck needles through her heart, one by one.

What came next turned her world to mist.

A force more terrible than the [Demon King] flooded her and stole the reins in a single breath.

Inside that storm, she could feel clearly—she had become immeasurably strong. Stronger than the [Demon King] by countless folds. Stronger than Master Bai… by countless folds.

She beat Master Bai stained-red with ease, shattered him with ease. She could kill him with ease.

And all Aerin wanted was to die at once. If dying could stop these hands, she would die without a blink.

But she was only a witness, forced to watch the wheel grind.

She watched him spit blood like scarlet rain. Watched him hurled into the sky. Watched her own fist nail him to the World’s Barrier. Watched her fingers choke his throat.

She couldn’t close her eyes, couldn’t cup her ears, couldn’t stop the drumbeat of bone and flesh pounding through her knuckles.

She wanted to scream till the mountains cracked, to sob till rivers emptied—none of it would come.

Her five senses went gray like ash fields; only the color of blood and the crack of bones stayed bright as lightning. She was near breaking.

Then she heard Master Bai call her name.

"Aerin."

—Master Bai…?

"It’s enough."

—Enough? What’s enough?

"Being human is hard."

—Yes… being human is truly hard.

"Don’t force it. So—"

—So…?

"Don’t force yourself to be human, Aerin."

—Wha…t?

—Don’t force being human.

She turned the words over, numb as snow, and then she froze.

Boom—!

A thousand past scenes lit like sun and moon rising from fog. Lights dim and radiant, tender and quick, braided into one river—her "childhood." Those blurred frames, for some reason, grew clear enough to touch, unfurling before her eyes like silk.

She "saw" mountains and great rivers. She "saw" the sun and the stars burn. She "saw" herself streak like a meteor across the sky, and swim through a thick red ocean without taking a single drop.

The scenes were too strange—no child should meet such vistas—yet she was calmer then than now. Cool as ice. Empty of all emotion.

Frame after frame flickered past—countless rises and falls, deaths and returns, hopes and despairs, fears and silences—but never once did she see… herself.

The reel didn’t spin at random. It began with a pitch-black storm, rain like ink. From that rain she learned a meaning, and then time flowed backward. One scene, then the scene before it, peeling time like bark. More and more. Earlier and earlier.

Her drifting heart grew steady, like a lake under moon.

Aerin felt a truth settle in, and Lustrous’s words rang in her mind—"We are the same."

Yes. We are the same, Aerin said.

At last, the final star in the dark rose slow. Ancient beyond age, a dead star dredged from the deepest trench of memory. It was ready to burst into light now.

"No, wait." Aerin lifted a hand to shade its rise, pleading. "Let me see him once more."

The dead star paused, as if it heard.

The golden-haired girl looked outward toward Master Bai.

At that moment, Ye Weibai’s lips softened into a faint, clear smile, like sunlight through leaves.

Aerin smiled back—bright as summer flowers, lonely as fireworks fading in night.

They "met eyes" and smiled.

"Thank you, Master Bai." She imagined cupping Ye’s cheek with her palm; her voice was a silent petal. "No matter what, it’s good that it’s you."

Then Aerin turned, resolute, to the last picture.

Hum—

Ripples spread across the frame, and drew Aerin into them.

For a moment, she truly merged with the scene.

First came cold and dark, a cave without stars. Then a heavy voice—familiar as hearth wood. Her father’s voice from memory.

With crisp birdsong chiming like silver, light trickled into Aerin’s eyes.

She "looked up" and saw her father—the tall man whose face had always been fog—now sharp as carved gold.

A man in memory—bold stride, golden eyes bright, his whole body streaming light and hope.

So unlike Old John, decades later—dim twin pupils, age and rot, winter in his bones.

And yet—though unlike, still—

"It was you, after all—the one who stayed by me like a shadow," Aerin whispered, reaching to embrace the father long dead, the old man who had hidden his name and never left—Old John.

By her ear, her father’s voice rang, brimming with joy—

"Good. A fine divine sword. Since you were born with my son, Allen. Then your name shall be—

[Aerin]."

"Thank you for the name, my Swordmaster."

In the vision and in the world, Aerin spoke softly in unison.

...

...

"Impossible!!!"

The "Aerin" strangling Ye Weibai recoiled and let go, as if she’d touched a blade’s edge.

Her mind plunged into chaos. Not only were human passions flooding her sanctum, her divinity itself was wavering. And this trap—set sixteen years ago?!

"Aerin is that damned man’s sword?! No. No way. I’ve watched him, always!"

Ye Weibai drew a slow breath, then straightened his collar like smoothing ripples, and looked at her with a sorrow that fell like dusk. "No. You forgot the black rain that fell three days and nights, sixteen years ago. A scar on the World from the [Hero King] and his wife—the [Demon King]—dying together."

"Impossible! Their power alone couldn’t blind my sight!"

"Right. Which is why this game wasn’t sixteen years. It was thousands." Ye sighed, eyes going far and old as mountains. "Since a millennium ago, the ‘pieces’ you never bothered to see were resisting in the dark. Each one stored their power before the final battle, bequeathed it to the next Hero King, and walked into death at peace. That rain—that was their strength. It only blinded you for a heartbeat. But a heartbeat was enough, wasn’t it?"

The "Aerin" eyes narrowed to pinpoints, then trembled, then her whole body shook like a reed in storm. Ye watched with cold calm and said, "It’s begun."

The last judgment fell. What Ye had placed within Aerin—fear, joy, despair, sorrow, arrogance—woke one by one as she awakened. As [It] tried to burn away humanity, those seeds rose like a virus and ate [Its] divinity.

"No."

Bang!

Her right hand exploded, and the violet flame of godhood scattered like fireflies. Human passions were eroding her calculation; as the math failed, the Deity’s strength guttered.

She no longer held the right to be a Deity.

"No, no."

Before the words finished, the violet flames on her left hand and both legs burst and went dark. Her power fell like a cliff.

"No, no, no! I will not—will not die here! I am a Deity—how could I die here?!!"

"Aerin" roared, and a gale tore from her body. She shot upward like a cannon shell.

Even halved, a half-Deity could end a world. She broke through the [X] and [Y] world layers like paper and surged into [Y], still climbing.

"I won’t die! As long as I reach the [Z] world layer! Once I tear free of this damned sword, I’ll come back and hunt you down, one by one—the ones you love, everything you care about—I’ll kill them, one by one!!!"

But something stood in her path.

Ye Weibai.

"Courting death! Courting death! Courting death! Courting death! Courting death! Courting death! Courting death! Courting death! Courting death!"

"Aerin" wore a snarl carved by cruelty. She could forgive anyone—except this one person.

"How arrogant! You think you can face me now?! If I weren't pressed for time, I'd crush you with a flick!"

"You still dare stand in front of me—you're begging to die!!!"

"Ah. So much chatter."

Softly spoken. Ye Weibai hovered in midair. His long hair burned gold; his white-platinum robes drifted like cloud. Loose strands fluttered; his lids half-lowered, hiding twin golden irises. His hands rested behind his back.

"Come. I'm waiting for you to kill me."

The posture was so familiar. Easy. Like a lesson day with Aerin.

"Die—die die die die die die die die!!!"

The roar rolled like thunder. "Aerin" was utterly provoked. Fire blazed through her mind. She would charge and smash this arrogant human into dust.

But in the next breath, a black afterimage swelled across her sight.

Anyone who’d watched their daily lessons knew what it was. A teaching ruler.

A black ruler.

Ye Weibai brought it down like he had a thousand times on Aerin’s head—unhurried, effortless, almost casual.

Yet—why couldn’t I dodge? Aerin couldn’t dodge. Why can’t even I dodge? How could a mere ruler—

"How could it be—this strong."

[It]'s voice went dull, cut off by the clear, ringing sound of a blade sliding home.

"Because it was never a ruler," Ye Weibai said softly, eyes on the sword now one with its sheath. "It’s a scabbard."

A sword can't outrun its own scabbard. That’s just common sense.

Aerin had imprisoned [It] inside her body. Ye Weibai returned Aerin to the scabbard.

What came next was simple.

Destroy the sword, and all this clamor would end.

Countless [Cycles], countless slaughters, countless [Sacrifice] and [Salvation], countless [Hero Kings] and [Demon Kings]—all of it could end here.

But Ye Weibai didn’t. He stroked the long sword with a gentleness like moonlight, then set it at his waist. He stepped, solemn and sure, toward the barrier of [Y] and [Z].

He moved as if wading into water and passed with ease through the world-wall no one had crossed for millennia.

He reached the [Z] World Layer.

The [Z] World Layer looked like a fusion of the [Y] and [Z] World Layers. Sky melted into earth; oceans swallowed mountains; colors collided like a storm of glass.

None of it slowed Ye Weibai. He kept walking upward, and upward, until he stood at the far edge of that sky.

Then he stepped forward—

and arrived at

a lonely island.

Shoreline and sand, a dense forest breathing green. River-wind brushed the coast; grains of sand lifted like sparks. Tree shadows swayed. The sunset rained a warmth neither hot nor cold—just right.

He stepped through the water, climbed onto shore, and slipped into the thicket.

He followed a treaded path. He parted branches, brushed off falling leaves, and came to a small wooden cabin.

It was identical to the cabin in the Demon King’s den within Witchwood Forest.

Ye Weibai’s gaze held no surprise.

He walked up through dapples of light, took the steps, and knocked gently.

"Someone."

The cold voice rang out. He knew that voice.

He said nothing. He pushed the door open.

A girl with ash-gray hair and eyes like a starless night looked up at him.

She was strikingly beautiful. Yet in those pupils lay no warmth, no life, no hope—dead stars sealed in glass.

She wore a white dress and sat in a chair, cradling a teardrop diamond.

She saw a stranger on this remote island and didn’t flinch. She greeted him like a familiar.

"It’s you."

As she spoke, gray motes spun within the diamond, then scattered on the wind into Ye Weibai’s body. The gold glow cloaking him rinsed away, revealing his original black tousled hair and stark black-and-white eyes.

"Deity?" The girl tilted her head.

Ye Weibai shook his head.

"Demon King?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I’m Stardust," the girl said. "The second [Hero King]."

She called herself Stardust—the same name as that little girl who bore the vanishing [Misfortune]. Look closely, and the faces were nearly the same. No—this Stardust looked like that little girl a few years older.

"Hello, Stardust." Ye Weibai’s expression stayed calm.

"Hello, Demon King." She paused. Her face showed no warmth. "Thank you for coming all this way. It must've been hard."

"It’s fine."

"No." She stood. "I know. You crossed space and [Time]. That’s very, very hard. Because it’s so hard—please—by all means—kill me."

Ye Weibai was quiet for a moment. "As you wish. I’m very good at killing you. Maybe better than anyone."

"That’s wonderful. I can finally die."

She bloomed into a smile, a jewel-bright smile. It was so beautiful, yet drenched in the gray gloom of [Misfortune]. The clash made it blaze all the brighter.

At the same time, a tear opened at the corner of her eye.

A single tear, honest and helpless, heavy with despair.

…

…

"Origin of the World"—

He watched a girl step off a boat. She staggered a few steps, then collapsed onto the beach like a broken wave.

He forgot caution and sprinted out.

"Ah—ah."

He scooped her up. He wanted to speak, but since leaving home he'd spent over ten years without a conversation. He had forgotten language like one forgets a season.

He laughed at himself.

His gaze fixed. He saw the pendant on her chest—a star and a moon, the moon missing a corner like a bitten fruit.

This pendant—this is—?!

His heart trembled. He picked it up. Before he could speak, a chill bloomed in his chest.

A blade pierced his heart.

Squelch—

The blade slid back out.

Blood sprayed across the girl’s face. She was terrified, yet brave and furious. "Give my father back! Damn [Demon King]—pay for my [Father]’s life!"

Ah… so that’s it. So that’s how it is…

So I’ve already been killed by the [Demon King]? Killed by the [Demon King] I imagined?

And then I became the [Demon King]?

Fine. Fine.

Blood poured out in heavy sheets. Life ebbed like tide. Through the blur, the girl's ash-gray hair, sticky with blood, filled his vision. The thought that surfaced was—

My daughter is so beautiful. I want to stroke her hair.

…

…

"Origin of the Apocalypse"—

"If this [World] truly has a [Deity]—"

A girl weeping blood knelt on the ground. She cradled the teardrop diamond that fell from the sky. Gray motes rose and fell inside it like dust in dawn light.

"Deity, please hear my wish."

"I want—to destroy this [World]."

"Or—at least—destroy me."

…

…

"As you wish."

…

…

End of volume.