Chapter: 331
My apostle.
I couldn’t help but frown at what the World Tree said to me.
‘Apostle?’
What does that mean? An apostle.
Are you sure what you’re saying to me is right?
“What does that mean?”
[It’s nice to meet you here.]
A ray of hope is contained in the empty and hollow voice.
The World Tree spoke to me as if it was having fun.
‘Why is everyone…’
Even when I hear that, my expression doesn’t change.
Everyone did it.
Everyone who met me seemed to express joy in their voices, as if they found me interesting, or as if my existence brought about some welcomed change.
‘Damn it.’
None of those things were pleasant stories to me.
The fact that beings I don’t know are welcoming me means, after all, that there’s something about me.
I pushed those feelings aside.
I asked the World Tree.
“Do you know who I am?”
Judging by its reaction, I wondered if it might know I had regressed.
The World Tree, having heard my words, remained silent.
Crack-
Slowly, the branches moved and showed their reactions.
[Apostle.]
“Why do you keep calling me an apostle? What is that?”
[I don’t know you, but you know me.]
I questioned what the tree was saying.
The World Tree doesn’t know me.
I know the World Tree.
The latter made some sense.
But I don’t quite get what the former means.
Even though I know the World Tree, it claims it doesn’t know me?
“What does that mean?”
[You must have gone back in time, Apostle.]
“…!”
I swallowed my breath at the words of the World Tree.
How did you notice?
‘Was it a lie that you didn’t remember?’
It just rolled off its tongue like it was nothing.
My pupils shook.
I wondered if the tree might remember. Really, does this tree even remember?
[Are you curious about how I know?]
“…”
[Don’t be so surprised; I don’t know how you lived in the past.]
“Then how do you know?”
Thud.
A tree root popping out of the ground pointed right at me.
To be exact, it was pointing towards my chest.
[Because I can feel the traces of what I gave you.]
Only after hearing what the World Tree said did it dawn on me how the tree noticed me.
‘Is this a trace of a past life?’
I gently brushed my chest, thinking about the traces that the tree had left on me.
[I don’t remember giving it to you, but it’s definitely the stigmata I gave you.]
Memories surged back.
At the time, I accepted it in order to survive somehow.
And…
-You’ve got a lot of baggage.
Later, when I met Cheonma, it pointed it out.
I thought that Cheonma had erased it.
Could it be something that couldn’t be erased?
[Seems like it tried to erase it, but everything layered over the soul cannot be completely wiped away.]
“… Can you read my mind?”
[No way! How could I, a mere ancient tree, do something like that?]
For something like that, I felt like I could read its inner thoughts.
It was quite an uneasy feeling.
It mentioned it was layered over the soul.
Now, that’s just lousy.
Even if it’s said that time has been turned back.
It means there’s no escaping the soul, right?
“… I came here because I had something to ask.”
Putting that aside, I had to ask.
There were so many things I wanted to ask.
There was so much I needed to know.
That was ultimately why I had to come to this world.
Because there were countless things I wanted to ask this tree.
Indeed, can this old tree tell me its stories?
[Question, what is it that made you come to me?]
The voice echoed.
It was the same as when we first met.
An unfamiliar resonance.
I tried to endure it and asked the fellow what it meant.
“Are you the one who made me regress?”
It’s a miracle that I went back in time.
I know that such a miracle won’t come to me easily.
Aside from what Yeonilcheon said, there’s definitely a reason for the regression I experienced.
If someone were to intervene in this matter.
The first thing that came to mind was this tree.
“You… saved me and sent me back to the past?”
Turning back time is, in common sense, almost impossible.
If someone were to use that power on me.
It would have to be something absolutely extraordinary.
When I think about it that way.
The tree in front of me is definitely not an ordinary thing.
It was the first being I had to suspect.
One.
[Apostle, that wasn’t me.]
The World Tree claimed that it didn’t do that.
[Turning back time is to accumulate unimaginable karma in one’s soul. It’s something beyond the power of a mere tree like me.]
“A single tree cannot speak. It cannot grow to be as big as you.”
[Whatever it was, the miracle you experienced meant that it wasn’t something I did.]
I was about to blurt out, “How can you believe that?”
But I knew it would be a pointless argument, so I kept my mouth shut.
“It wasn’t you who made me regress…”
[Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of strength left. It’s impossible.]
It’s impossible because there’s nothing left.
Are you saying that it was possible because it originally existed?
[Apostle.]
A gust of wind blew for a moment.
[I don’t know what happened to you.]
A voice full of sadness grated on my ears. A voice that seemed to regard me with pity.
I didn’t like it at all.
“Why do you keep calling me an apostle? What the hell is an apostle?”
[You received my stigmata, which signifies that both my past and future selected you. Therefore, you are my apostle.]
“How do I know that meeting you is the future?”
[Didn’t you come here now to meet me a little earlier?]
“…”
[I am glad. After enduring for so long, I have finally found someone who will give me the stigmata.]
A long time.
It’s almost like I said that back then too.
“You… what on earth are you?”
[Didn’t I tell you?]
I didn’t hear much about how to return to the original world.
How this world is different from the outside.
That’s all I heard.
‘He just rotted away after speaking; what else could I have heard?’
The World Tree conveyed a few words to me before, just like Jang Seon-yeon’s body earlier.
It turned to dust and disappeared.
The image of that colossal tree gently swaying in the wind and vanishing will never fade from my memory.
[I say I am selfless.]
“I already know that.”
[The fifth World Tree that has come down to the world.]
[I am the master of this world.]
“Master…”
No matter how I squint, this world is already ruined and rotting.
“Are you saying that you are the god of this world?”
[There was a time when I was called that. Judging from your question, I realize that I didn’t get to explain anything to you.]
“I wouldn’t have had time to do it. You vanished right away.”
[… Vanished… Yes.]
The World Tree’s response to my words was gloomy.
It was a voice that made the listener feel ice cold inside.
[It looks like I don’t have much time left.]
“… If you look at it by standards, it shouldn’t be that short, right?”
A few years here.
When I recall that a day in the outside world equals a few years here…
I fell here in my previous life just before reaching the age of majority.
If I consider that calculation, the World Tree must still have been left with countless hours.
Yet.
[The time that humans experience is but a moment. Though it may be long for you, it is not that long for me.]
Apparently, the World Tree doesn’t find this to be a very welcoming story.
[So, it’s a good thing. The apostle personally came to find me.]
“That damn apostle, apostle. It’s so annoying; why am I your apostle?”
I don’t even believe in gods.
The time for believing such things has passed.
“You said that to me.”
It’s a flame that will burn the karma piled up in this world.
I’m not so sure about this world.
But I knew there were a lot of tangled issues back where I lived.
“There’s a lot I don’t know.”
Even after regressing, it’s embarrassing to admit that there are so many truths I don’t know.
Yet everyone pretends as if they don’t know and tries to sleep soundly.
It feels disgusting because I sense that I’m intertwined with those troublesome truths in some way.
Even if I’m not directly involved.
It bothers me to think that people who shouldn’t be unhappy seem to be caught up in it.
“So, tell me where to start. What do you know?”
[…]
The World Tree didn’t say a word after hearing my words.
It was a truly uncomfortable silence.
After a while,
Crack-
A root popped out of the ground, bending behind me.
It felt as if it was telling me to sit on top of it.
[Sit down.]
After hearing that, I sat down carefully.
[Apostle. Do you know about the master?]
“Master?”
This is part of what the World Tree itself mentioned.
He claimed that he is the master of this world.
[Yes, master. The master is the essence of the world. He is the essence itself.]
“Speak in simpler terms.”
[It has its own meaning. The world exists because there is a master. And the master exists so the world can exist.]
“What…?”
[If there’s one point of difference, it’s that if the world disappears, the master vanishes as well; however, the world doesn’t collapse just because the master disappears.]
I couldn’t comprehend what the World Tree was telling me.
Regardless of the meaning behind it,
I couldn’t figure out why he was sharing this information right now.
“…Why are you talking about this now?”
About regression, about Blood Demon and Heavenly Horse.
Along with the disaster that Yeonilcheon discussed before.
The identity of the red sphere known as a seed, hidden in the depths of the realm of the swarm.
I have a mountain of questions to ask.
Why are we suddenly chatting about something so random?
[Speaking of the master of this world, to clarify, it does not mean the master of the world.]
“Then. Does it imply there’s something else?”
[To be precise… it’s the master of life.]
“Life?”
[Yes, looking at the master of all life on this land, he is called the master of the world. It means that because the world exists, and there is a master, life can breathe and thrive.]
“So… what does that relate to the current discussion?”
[What do you think would happen if the master were to disappear from the world?]
At the World Tree’s words,
I briefly felt a flicker of clarity amid the haze.
[The disappearance of the master equates to the death of all living things.]
“What…?”
I swallowed my breath at the words of the World Tree.
“What do you mean by that? All life will disappear?”
The world and the master.
Regardless of whether it’s a predetermined fate,
It’s an incomprehensible story.
Clearly, the World Tree standing before me had given me a stigmata or something in my previous life and then vanished after leaving a few words.
Nonetheless, the monsters in this world didn’t disappear.
If life truly had vanished, as the World Tree suggested, that would already be contradictory.
Moreover,
‘…There wasn’t even a master in this world from the start…!’
As I turned my thoughts, something came to mind.
When I stared at the World Tree with somewhat surprised eyes,
It responded by saying:
[When the master dies, the life forms on the land don’t suddenly vanish. Normally, no new life would be born. Gradually, the living beings would approach extinction.]
“Life cannot be born?”
[If it were normal, yes.]
Master.
The Master of the world.
What a strange thing to say.
If it’s claimed that living things need a master of the world to be born and survive.
“…In our world, there’s no master. How is that possible?”
In the world I inhabit, I’ve never encountered a being known as the master.
If there’s no master,
That means it’s impossible for life to either come about or endure.
Yet, the world was functioning just fine.
Is there a master I’m unaware of?
As I pondered that question,
[We call that a crack.]
The World Tree spoke to me.
“Crack?”
[It’s something that diverges from the established principles of the world, so it would be accurate to call it a crack.]
In a world where there’s no master,
Life is breathing and being born.
Does that mean that the world I inhabit now is operating against the principles of reality?
“Is that a problem?”
[If the world lacks a master, then it becomes an illogical situation, so we must create a master to adjust it.]
“They’re creating a master.”
[That is why I am referred to as the Fifth World Tree.]
Because he is the fifth master that has come down to this land.
This means he himself is saying he is the Fifth World Tree.
“…So, does that mean everything will be fine if we simply wait for the master to emerge?”
Eventually, the master will show up.
If we just wait until then, won’t there be any significant issues?
While I was coming to that conclusion,
[Apostle, as I mentioned before, all life birthed on earth belongs to the master.]
The World Tree amended that with a different statement.
“So…”
[If there are life forms living on a land without a master, and you aim to bring forth a new life form on that land, do you know what the first step is?]
“To establish a new master… what must be done?”
In the moment that I frowned and expressed my confusion,
The World Tree spoke up.
[That.]
[To begin, all life breathing on that land must be erased. Only then can a new master be planted.]
It was a truly harrowing tale.
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