Chapter 525 – Room 207, Gate Room – Fourth Trial: ‘Fallen King’ (11)
– Han Kain
“What does this look like, a piece of a mirror? What on earth—”
— Tiiing!
The eerie sound made us both widen our eyes in tension at the same moment.
“Eh? An ambush?”
And then, a heavy silence fell.
“…”
It certainly felt like something terrible was about to happen, but—
Nothing happened.
“What the heck? I thought some demon would pop out or something! So, nothing happens at all?”
When I tilted my head and glanced behind, I saw Minah still struggling on the floor.
It seemed she got caught up in the bizarre magic Hong Go-hak unleashed just before his body got taken.
“I’ll wake up Minah.”
I prepared to nudge her awake—
“…”
For the first time, a strange sensation hit me.
Because my voice had been the only one I heard.
Even though Hong Go-hak was out of it, there was ‘another me’ who should have responded.
Realizing the ominous feeling too late, I turned around again—
Suddenly, a lightning bolt of understanding struck my brain!
“What in the world…!”
With the second sentence of the grimoire, I broke free from the constraint of ‘uniqueness.’
This didn’t mean that ‘me’ and ‘that’ were truly different.
It was a relationship that wasn’t quite one but not two, either.
If I had to make an analogy, it was like the loosely connected left and right hemispheres of the brain starting to think independently.
While ‘independent thinking’ was important, being ‘loosely connected’ was even more critical.
But at that moment, the connection between ‘that’ and me snapped.
“Huh!”
In an instant, overwhelming information flooded in.
Just before the connection between him and me broke, the incomprehensible experience he had ‘alone’ came rushing in!
Therefore, this was the last shared consciousness between ‘us.’
An infinitely lofty upper realm.
At the center, there sat one who had fallen into an endless torment.
Between the truth and that being, there was only a single step separating them.
And standing before it was another me.
Before long, a great hand gently touched the other me.
What just happened?
The ‘me’ that kept its distance was fine, but ‘that’ who directly touched the mirror got caught by a transcendent being like a prisoner?
In that process, did the connection with me completely disappear?
“…”
I gasped.
If even that loose connection was gone, then neither of us is an ‘us’ anymore!
And then ‘he’ opened his eyes.
“Could it be that Hong Go-hak himself was a trap?”
“You…!”
“The opponent was aiming for this from the very beginning. As I went through the trial, it would eventually be revealed that ‘I’ am Horus. At that point, the apostate would be afraid of being wiped out and have no choice but to act out.”
“…”
“Of course, Hong Go-hak will die by my hands. The opponent did not expect Hong Go-hak to deal a significant blow to me. They just hoped that the process of punishing Hong Go-hak would create a variable like the mirror shard. Just like now.”
I agreed with the analysis of the situation, but what mattered right now was not the already doomed Hong Go-hak.
The emergence of ‘another me’ that retained my memories and ego, but with the connection severed?
What a terrifying variable!
Just as I was about to summon the grimoire again, a bizarre phenomenon I hadn’t experienced since obtaining the Book of Incarnation in Room 102 surfaced.
— Crackle!
The grimoire trembled like a living creature, appearing out of thin air.
As if to say, ‘I don’t know who the owner is!’
In this desolate park, an existence with gloomy eyes gazed at me.
The grimoire fluttering in the middle ground between us.
Amidst the boiling tension, the opponent spoke.
“I hate you. More than anyone else in this world… I despise you.”
His tone was bland, devoid of emotion.
But that’s exactly why it felt so sincere.
In truth, there was no need to convey it.
Because I felt the same way.
“Likewise.”
“We have overcome uniqueness. But why do I hate you?”
“…”
Overcoming uniqueness with the second sentence didn’t merely mean acquiring superpowers.
The inheritance, the Book of Incarnation, fundamentally modified ‘our’ very minds.
Thus, ideally, even if our minds were duplicated, there shouldn’t be a reason to hate each other this much.
“It’s not a natural hatred. It’s the curse bestowed on those who couldn’t become Buddhas.”
“…”
Not a natural feeling.
It was the ominous curse imposed by the incomprehensible existence beyond the mirror.
Despite realizing this fact, we couldn’t avoid the clash.
— Crackle!
Once again, the grimoire trembled.
The foolish book unable to decide who the owner was offered power to both of us.
As if the victor would be declared the true owner!
*
– ???
Now, a memory so faded it’s almost gone.
In the Gate Room on the first floor, I fought for control of the mindscape against the witch ‘Arima.’
When the battle began, I felt fear.
After all, the witch had trained in dark magic for at least several decades, while I had just gotten the grimoire less than a week ago as a novice.
Amazingly, I was the victor.
Similar encounters occurred in Room 205.
The opponent back then was a ‘phantom,’ but he was a creature so powerful he could not be compared to Arima.
Having reached the level of playing with human minds after hundreds of years of honing the art of separation.
The outcome was the same.
No, it was even more shocking.
After just one clash, the phantom accepted that he couldn’t handle me and thoroughly surrendered.
Considering it humbly, those victories were perhaps due to the differences between me, Arima, and the phantom being less significant than the gap between the Book of Incarnation and dark magic or the phantom art.
The Book of Incarnation crafted by a draconic progenitor manipulating the cosmos, born not from birth but from his effort of pouring out his heart!
Compared to that, magic or martial skills created by a merely intelligent human were just party tricks.
When the performance of a tool is overwhelmingly good, it often compensates for the difference in the user’s skills.
So, what if both parties use the same tool?
The more exceptional person wins!
— Crackle!
An invisible blood battle for dominion over mind and body.
I projected my power to reclaim ‘my body’ while the ‘thing left in my body’ repeated meaningless resistance.
An unfathomable power contest beyond human perception unfolded.
The opponent’s frontlines crumbled after the first clash, and during the second clash, they had to continue retreating.
As the third clash erupted, the opponent began to moan, unable to endure it.
“Is only three times enough? The skill gap is too severe!”
I couldn’t help but smile.
Once I break free from this cumbersome old man’s body and return to my real self, it would be done!
The thing remaining in my body spoke hesitantly.
“How… can you be… so….”
“Why? Is the skill gap too wide?”
“…”
“Accept it. If you were stronger, I would have disappeared instead. One of us was bound to vanish anyway, right?”
“…”
I approached the opponent, who wore a look of futility.
Of course, I was always ready to respond in case of any last-minute attempts at struggle—
— Ziiing!
As I sensed a ‘strange feeling’ that was neither sight nor sound detect the distortion of space, I immediately rolled back.
Immediately afterward, an incomprehensible killing blow flew toward the exact spot I had just been in.
“…”
After evading, what I felt was not surprise or anger, but disappointment.
‘She’ was supposed to be my ally; why was she attacking me?
The reason was clear.
Since I was inhabiting Hong Go-hak’s body, she deemed me a fake.
I wasn’t the fake.
The one remaining in ‘Han Kain’s body’ wasn’t a fake either.
After all, we had just been one until moments ago, and the great sculptor’s hand merely gifted me a new breath.
Thus, if I took back ‘Han Kain’s body,’ I could persuade her.
As I took another step forward, the ‘thing left in the body’ muttered as if it had given up.
“In a way, this is fortunate.”
“…”
“For reasons I don’t understand, you’re extraordinarily strong. I felt it in the fight a moment ago and realized that while dodging Aria’s spatial slice. You might be right to devour me and solve this room….”
I am stronger than the opponent.
Since the essence of two human minds split, there shouldn’t fundamentally be a difference between us, but…
I am overwhelmingly stronger.
Therefore, this was not normal.
“…”
When I realized this fact, I paused.
*
– Han Kain
I accepted the defeat.
Though the fight ended in an instant, I knew I could never win even if I fought again.
Although we used the same grimoire, the difference in performance was unbelievably vast.
To put it in a joking way, if I was Homo sapiens, the opponent felt like they were Homo godpiens.
The brainpower difference felt like at least 30%.
Not to mention, they even dodged Aria’s ‘spatial slice’ attack.
How could one evade an attack from a non-convex polyhedron that you cannot see or hear?
It was evidently a new sensing ability that couldn’t even be explained by my occasionally manifested extrasensory perception.
At this point, it makes sense to give up.
The opponent is, what to say, more like Han Kain Mk 2.
…
A little embarrassed, but I was secretly pleased when Aria took my side instead of that thing in the end.
Now, shall I come up with an impressive last word?
When a man goes, he should leave a glorious remark behind, shouldn’t he?
“A life without regrets—”
“This was the opponent’s plot.”
“… Huh?”
‘That’ didn’t approach me any closer.
“Swallowing your mind and stealing your body was the enemy’s plan!”
“What are you talking about—”
When I looked up, I was greatly startled.
An indescribable despair shadowed the opponent’s face.
“Why am I stronger than you?”
“What—”
“Why? We split the same person, and I’m like this strong?”
“…”
“It’s because we are not the same. The monster beyond the curtain, the one who couldn’t become a Buddha, has empowered me to overtake you!”
I was breathless.
“I thought I won. I thought if I reclaimed that body, the real me would be victorious.”
“You….”
“This isn’t a path to victory. It’s the opposite. Are you real, and am I real? No! You can’t win thinking like that. There can only be one real!”
At that moment, I couldn’t follow the flow of the conversation.
The opponent seemed to be denying the very enlightenment we obtained through the Book of Incarnation.
Then he suddenly leaped up and grabbed my shoulder as if pleading earnestly.
“Remember this. The opponent can distort you. Overcoming uniqueness is your greatest strength, but in this trial, it’s also your weakness.”
From some point on, he stopped using the word ‘we.’
“There’s certainly a larger mirror. This will happen again. You will be split again and again.”
The future that both I and ‘he’ perceived through insight.
“Will we fight every time? The stronger one wins? Isn’t it absurd that splitting the same person means one side is clearly stronger? No! That side is merely distorted.”
When torn apart, we must not fight.
If we compete with strength, the one who has ‘greater power’ from that being beyond the mirror will emerge victorious.
“Listen carefully. Right now, I’m persuading you while also persuading ‘another me’ that will someday be born.”
“… Go on.”
“When the mirror shines, the coin is flipped. If lucky, you will be in Han Kain’s body. How fortunate.”
“…”
“If you’re unlucky, you’ll be in the body of a strange person. The moment you wake up, you’ll think. The moment you gain the second sentence of the grimoire, there’s no such thing as a fake. I’m real, and that’s also real. It’s just about stealing Han Kain’s body.”
“…”
“You shouldn’t think like that. It leads to inevitable defeat. The victor should always be ‘you.’”
I couldn’t believe it.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t comprehend his words; I couldn’t accept that the opponent had embraced this reasoning!
Soon, he approached Minah, who was gasping behind us.
He looked earnestly at Minah with sympathy, grabbed the gun she was tightly holding, and shot me another glance.
“So, Han Kain, remember this.”
“…”
“When the coin is flipped, the non-real one commits suicide.”
“You….”
“That’s how you win. Do you understand?”
— Bang!
Once again, only one Han Kain remained in Room 207.
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