The rich sensation vanished. I felt the hard texture under my feet and thought I had finally reached the ground. It was dark when I fell. But as I reached the ground, the surroundings began to change gradually.
Blood, red blood, flowed from all directions.
Like wounds on paper, the blood droplets clotted here and there.
This was a square room. The dungeon floor could barely pass for a thirty-square-meter room. Blood didn’t stop on the walls and ceiling. Soon, blood droplets collected on the ceiling.
I recalled water droplets on the ceiling of a bathhouse. It used to give me shivers to think that steam could turn into droplets and accidentally fall on me. Let alone blood droplets.
“Like a cursed shit…”
Darkness gradually filled with blood. The blood rose up to my ankles. The sticky sensation and the smell of blood disgusted me. I searched frantically for Dalbi. But I couldn’t see his white fur. I realized I was facing a demon. This eerie room was all the work of a demon. I calmly transformed Lamelstar into a sword, ready for an ambush.
Clang!
It was when the blood rose up to my knees. A door appeared on the wall of the square room. Beyond the door, I could hear faint, unpleasant music. Follow, follow. I recognized this unpleasant sound. I had heard it in a shabby amusement park in the neighborhood.
Thud!
The door closed.
In that moment, the square room changed instantly. Like a dream, the surroundings twisted, and in the blink of an eye, I was standing in front of an old amusement park, with peeling paint and rust on the merry-go-round.
The old horses were spinning to the unpleasant music. Inside one of the carriages was him. The clown with the red nose. Right in front of me, appearing like that.
He was the demon. I didn’t know what power he possessed, but he recreated the nightmares of my childhood. I had been afraid of clowns until I was fourteen. Even excluding the fact that he was a lunatic who tried to kidnap me, a clown with a grotesque makeup and a red nose was simply repulsive.
“Don’t play tricks.”
I ran and killed the clown. Unlike when I was a child, I could resist now.
I slashed the clown and smashed the merry-go-round. The clown laughed even as his head was being chopped off. In return, I chopped off his head into pieces.
The blood he spilled coalesced again, transforming into an old woman wearing glasses. It was the ‘Principal.’ Looking around, the amusement park had turned into a ‘facility.’ Yes, I was scared back then.
But now, I wasn’t afraid of her. I swung the sword and cut her throat.
Then the blood didn’t disappear and continued to change forms. Ridiculous, a ‘red mask.’ Since then, there have been persistent tormenting spirits. Still, they weren’t scary.
Later on, genuine and substantial horrors emerged. The green monster that first caused me deep trauma, the interdimensional madman who slaughtered everyone in the search party except me, and the traitor who, believing in love, tried to sell me to an otherworldly merchant.
I killed them all.
Those who once frightened me the most were no longer scary.
“I see you now, you bastard.”
The more I faced my fears.
And the more I overcame them.
I gradually began to see him.
—
The Apostle of Chilak.
Among them, Balram caused fear.
He delves into human emotions, dominating the emotion of fear.
Balram’s domination is unavoidable, and fear cannot be hidden.
But occasionally there were those who overcame fear. ‘Form’ of fear, born from experiences directly experienced by humans. Those who overcome fear have conquered the fear ingrained in their lives.
But the fear Balram worships transcends individual conquests, regulating the fears of all things. The types of fear were diverse. Even ‘gods’ who obtained enlightenment have fears. Fear of being devoured, fear of starving to death, fear of loss, inferiority, loneliness, ignorance.
The form of fear is not just the surface of the sea. The deeper, the deeper the fundamental fear lurks.
Balram pitied souls trembling in fear. Realizing that humans, even if they were gods, felt fear, he revealed his true form. A demon with sixteen tentacles, Balram blinked his external eyes and met the human’s eyes.
Those who met Balram’s eyes found their souls sucked away without exception. Those who had reached the deepest fears of the ocean, Balram extended a hundred teeth eagerly toward the tempting prey.
“Beautiful eyes.”
Before devouring their souls, he savored the fears etched in human eyes.
For millennia, he considered noble eyes more than any soul he had consumed.
“Fear… It shines brilliantly, intertwined with terror.”
Balram’s boiling appetite vanished. He continued to gaze into their eyes. Sixteen tentacles pressing against the human body suddenly halted.
He closed his hundred-toothed mouth. He simply watched the human eyes. Beyond the fear and terror embedded in them. Something, something that tantalized him, lay beyond.
Suddenly, Balram realized.
“Is that fear?”
It wasn’t the fear humans felt.
“No, that’s not the fear of others. That’s my fear.”
The fear embedded in human eyes wasn’t his own. Balram realized belatedly that the bright eyes were merely mirrors reflecting his own fear.
As the demon who worshipped fear shattered his own fear, the black sea’s deluge swallowed him. Fear felt fear. It was like fire refusing to burn, water refusing to flow, wind refusing to blow. As fear lost its foundation, his body began to crumble into nothingness.
Thud!
The demon without a foundation was terribly weak. The messenger of Chilaks, the one who swung the sword, ‘they,’ cut down the pathetic apostle. Cantavia, regaining his senses, wiped off Balram’s saliva and stood up.
“Lamelstar.”
His sword.
Pierces fear.
“F*ucking piece of shit”
Balram, who worshipped fear.
Ironically trapped in fear.
“It was a horror movie, you bastard.”
The apostle of Chilaks, Balram, who had reigned in fear for thousands of years, died in vain.
***
Maybe.
He was probably a demon dealing with fear or something like that.
Come to think of it, there probably isn’t another human who has experienced ‘fear’ as frequently as I have. Since childhood, I’ve seen a lot with these eyes. While ordinary people may not know, I couldn’t help but know things I didn’t want to know.
Fear is a virus. Just like antibodies are created to fight off viruses, I, who have experienced countless fears since childhood, have a higher immunity to fear.
That doesn’t mean I became reckless. Because I know fear better than anyone else, I tried to avoid frightening situations themselves. But even so, I found myself deeply entangled with my siblings.
Well, my siblings don’t come out like jesters ‘targeted by fear’ anymore, so I guess I’m not afraid of them now either.
“Shit bastard.”
Is this guy supposed to be a Apostle of Chilak?
Looks like a giant octopus with multiple legs. But despite appearances, it’s weak.
When it suddenly slithers closer and wraps its body around, you’d think, “Ah, screwed.”
But when I met its eyes, it cowered in fear and easily allowed the attack.
Probably not what Wooshas referred to as the “Apostle of Chilak.” A major demon wouldn’t be this pathetic.
Kii-
Let’s kill the demon.
The door opened by itself.
Beyond it lies Hell.
Well, too late to worry about that now.
Without hesitation, I crossed the threshold.
“What’s this place?”
A devilish abode!
Suddenly, Dalbi appeared by my side, looking angry, then licked my finger.
—
The Apostles of Chilak dared to punish foolish humans who dared to invade the cradle, creating their own “rooms” to invite them.
—
Melissa.
She’s the queen of the demon realm and the leader of the 28 constellations.
The 28 constellations are the greatest beasts in the tri-dimensional world.
Leading each of the 7 constellations.
From each number to its respective counterpart, from the second to the fourth, from the fifth to the wall, from the rule to the third, from the order to the true.
She became the leader of all the beasts in the tri-dimensional world.
The queen’s power is enough to threaten even the gods.
“Ghost walker, feast to your heart’s content.”
Countless bizarre beasts tear apart the disciples of gluttony.
The demon’s magic is but a qualification.
Melissa is the great leader of the 28 constellations.
—
Asura Field.
In the battleground where the king of Asura fought with the deity, corpses formed mountains.
The lone Asura left in the Asura Field is called the “full-body war god.”
The disciples who worship anger are nothing but prey to ghosts.
Even the six great ghost warriors couldn’t stop his stride.
—
There is a desperate demon in the rain.
The torn head throbs with red brains.
“Please, kill me. Please….”
That demon is the demon of enlightenment.
The queen of foolish beings spreading ignorance.
“It’s still far, child.”
The queen pleads earnestly.
Please, don’t take me anymore.
But the faded wings do not retract.
Dozens of feathers pierce the demon’s brain.
The demon screams, and the angel smiles.
—
Upon leaving the room, the first thing I saw was hundreds of demons being “slaughtered,” and twins “slaughtering” them. This place, lined with “temples” reminiscent of the old Demon stronghold, is probably what they call Hell. But… demons being slaughtered and screaming here, what’s this about?
“Chilak’s gonna cry.”
I was about to join the battle, but the overwhelming battle ended quickly. The demons’ blood stained the ground. Just after killing the terrifying demon, I felt a slight chill. Approaching my siblings who calmly slaughtered the demons, I asked,
“You guys come here often?”
As if on a picnic.
“Where is this?”
Wooshas replied,
“The end of Demon stronghold, Hell.”
“Really, Hell?”
“The Demon stronghold doesn’t pass through the ‘gateway.’ Most ends are blocked, but this one was open.”
Wooshas explained. Unlike the surface, there’s not just “one Hell” here.
This is Hell ruled by the Apostles of Chilak. Metaphorically, it’s a city of demons.
You can only get here through the open Demon stronghold, and it’s considered a small world in itself.
I slowly looked around. The sky was as red as blood, and the ground was crimson. The wind was humid, and hundreds of demons (formerly) could be seen. With only temples, large and small, lining up, the desolate city truly looks like Hell.
“So where are these Apostles of Chilak? You’ve already killed them all?”
Melissa replied,
“Yeah. You killed one too.”
“What? That Shit guy was an Apostle of Chilak?”
Just hearing Wooshas’ explanation.
I thought he was a powerful demon who had wielded the empire for decades with the Azhibita religion. Guess being scared stiff is a bad habit after all.
Wooshas pointed to the largest temple built in the demon city.
“What you want is over there, Cantavia.”
