The Divine Twilight's Return

Chapter 474: Star, Identity Establishment (12)

Perkwunos took Chang-Sun to a cafe in the Namsan Tower. They could see the entirety of Seoul from their vantage point, but there was no one in the big cafe. There were no employees or tourists.

“I like it here because the view is very liberating,” Perkwunos said as he sat in a chair next to a large window, enjoying Seoul’s scenery. A cup of steaming hot coffee was on top of the table. He offered, “Why don’t you take a seat too?”

Still standing, Chang-Sun glared at Perkwunos and said, “I haven’t gotten the answers to my questions.”

“There’s no need to hurry. I’ll tell you all about it, so sit over there. It’s the best spot in this cafe.”

Chang-Sun felt uneasy because he still had no idea what Perkwunos was trying to do, but Perkwunos had the initiative in this conversation, leaving Chang-Sun no choice but to sit down on the opposite side. As he let out a sigh, a cup of coffee miraculously appeared in front of him.

“It’s made with Colombian Huila Supremo coffee beans. It has a thick chocolate scent and the perfect level of acidity, and it also tastes delicately savory.”

Chang-Sun was dumbfounded, but decided to play along and took a sip. His eyes soon widened, because it was tastier than he had expected.

“How is it? It’s good, right?” Perkwunos chuckled, setting his coffee down on the coaster. “I like traveling around Seoul very much. The Namsan Tower we’re in is good, and the Lotte Tower is also great. The night scenery of those places is magnificent. If you want to enjoy a view of the river, you can go to the Hangang Park. You can also head to the Bukhan Mountain or the Inwang Mountain to enjoy nature. Observing the people of Seoul is also a great way to spend time. You can never feel bored in this place. Do you have a favorite place of your own?”

Chang-Sun remembered a couple of places where he had gone on a date with Cha Ye-Eun, but he just shook his head.

“Anyway, I like this place. Some call it a desolate, suffocating city, but this place is my dearest homeland,” Perkwunos said with a shrug.

“Is that why you changed this place to look like your homeland?” Chang-Sun asked.

“Of course.”

“Is it because you want to remember your homeland?”

“No, It’s not.” Perkwunos slowly turned to look at Chang-Sun, his eyes filled with various emotions. “It’s because I want to go back to my homeland, but I can’t.”

Chang-Sun could see deep nostalgia and regret in Perkwunos’ eyes.

“I never heard that the Original Worldline met <Extinction>,” Chang-Sun murmured.

“The place is still there. It’s the Great Universe’s foundation and center, so there’s no way that <Deus Ex Machina> would let anything happen to it. It’s just... I’m not there.”

Chang-Sun realized that Perkwunos was providing the long-overdue answers in his own way.

“You don’t remember all your 666 lives, do you? You were born as Lee Chang-Sun first and are absorbing the other egos one by one to be whole, going upstream through our timeline, but it’s different for me. I remember every moment as Balor, Tomte, Odin, and...” It took a moment for Perkwunos to go on. “...as Lee Chang-Sun.”

Chang-Sun noticed that Perkwunos became tense every time he spoke the name ‘Lee Chang-Sun’.

“I found out that this sickeningly tiring <Punishment> would come to an end after repeating samsara 666 times, and I’d have true peace,” Perkwunos continued.

Chang-Sun nodded. Even though he did not know exactly what Perkwunos’ life had been like in the Original Worldline, he had a feeling that it could not have been easy. From his first life to his 666th life, Perkwunos must have suffered unimaginably as he failed to escape the cycle of despair and hopelessness. It was only natural for him to seek eternal peace out of sheer fatigue.

“While I was waiting for my eternal peace...I suddenly wondered about something. Even if I was tired and only wanted my peace, what was going to happen to my other selves in different Worldlines?”

Chang-Sun could tell that this was where he had to pay attention. All of his selves across the Worldlines, not just Perkwunos, were receiving the <Punishment> because all of them had the <Mark>.

“...You saw <Extinction>,” Chang-Sun speculated.

“I knew that I wasn’t allowed to have a 667th life, but it wasn’t as if samsara itself was going to end just because my <Punishment> ended. I wondered what would happen afterward,” Perkwunos replied.

He had wondered if he would then be <Released> or receive another <Mark>, but he could not have been more wrong. What awaited him was <Extinction>.

“I... managed to hold on to some of my treasures, and yet... they’ll still be taken from me in the end too...!” Perkwunos’s hand trembled, making the remaining coffee in his cup undulate violently.

Clink, clink!

“That is... the end of my <Punishment>...”

Perkwunos finished speaking with great difficulty, and Chang-Sun nodded with a heavy heart. Chang-Sun only had one reason to stop <Extinction>: It was to protect Ithaca, Ye-Eun, and his family. Without that goal, he could not have endured the Rollback loop, which had repeated over 140 times.

It was the same for Perkwunos. Had the <Punishment> only been meant for him, he could have endured it and suffer alone, but other people who had nothing to do with his <Punishment> were caught up in it as well. The fact that all those people were individuals for whom he would give up his life made it unbearable.

“This isn’t a <Punishment>. It’s a <Curse>,” Perkwunos said.

No word would be more apt to describe what Perkwunos had gone through until now. Chang-Sun could feel Perkwunos’ distress and fury, so he shut his eyes. Silence fell in the cafe for a long time. Since no one was there other than the two, it felt even more suffocating than the time Chang-Sun had crossed the subconscious realm.

“...Is that why you’re here?” Chang-Sun finally asked, breaking the silence.

“Yes, I’m too tired now, so I thought about forgetting everything and holding out here until everything came to an end... But I got too angry and annoyed,” Perkwunos said with a half-smirk.

From Perkwunos’ cold smile, Chang-Sun could tell why he had become a fiend and Cataclysm Celestial.

“What in the world have I done wrong? Yes, I’ve committed a big crime. Still, I think I’ve paid enough for it. In spite of that, there’s been no end to this, as if I haven’t suffered enough. That’s why I decided to tear apart this <Punishment>, <Mark>, and everything related to them,” Perkwunos went on. “That was why I postponed meeting my eternal peace and entered the lowest level of my mind and soul. It was where I could naturally communicate with my other selves in all the Worldlines.”

The lowest level of a subconscious ocean was recorded in Idea, so it never disappeared no matter how many new Worldlines were created afterward. In other words, it was the universe’s lowest level, the ground where the tree named the Great Universe took root.

“That’s how you ended up joining forces with Hsan,” Chang-Sun said.

Perkwunos’ coffee cup was empty now. He nodded and replied, “Many of us in different Worldlines made many attempts and changed accordingly. Some of us became Star Signs or headed to Nyx to become Outer Celestials.”

All those attempts and changes were the Lee Chang-Suns’ struggle to be liberated from the depths of despair.

“It seemed like a good idea. If I observed from the inside and Hsan from the outside, I believed that we would be able to find a way,” Perkwunos continued.

Observing from both Eros and Nyx would certainly create a larger variety of choices, after all.

“Then I’m...” Organizing his thoughts, Chang-Sun slowly said, “...the product of your joint effort.”

“That’s right.”

“How many people have been here?”

“Not a lot,” Perkwunos answered concisely.

“So I’m not the first. Then how did they turn out? ”

“I won’t make any comments.” Perkwunos smiled quietly.

Chang-Sun did not pry any further, as he had heard enough. ‘Aside from me... many alternate versions of me in different Worldlines have encountered similar challenges and met different ends. During their challenges, new kinds of attempts were made too.’

Perkwunos and Hsan were committed to keep throwing their punches until they could destroy this damned <Mark> on their soul and obtain true peace. However, Chang-Sun suddenly could not help but wonder. Perkwunos was trying his best in this place, so what had happened to his body? What condition and environment was it in?

Since Perkwunos had said that he was about to face eternal peace, had he died physically? Had he died in peace, or did he have no one to mourn for him? What kind of fate had Ye-Eun met in the Original Worldline? Would she be sad?

‘I really hope she won't cry in there, not in there...’ Chang-Sun pursed his lips, but there was one question that he could not piece together the answer for.

“What...” Chang-Sun’s voice quivered as he asked, “What in the world is this <Crime> you committed?”

* * *

Tap.

Tap...

Perkwunos had left the cafe so Chang-Sun could organize his thoughts. That was why Chang-Sun was tapping on his coffee cup without any reason.

“...It’s crazy,” he muttered, unable to help but sigh after discovering the whole truth. Everything Perkwunos had said rang in Chang-Sun’s ears.

“You’ve seen the holy icon on the metal gate on your way over here, yes? But it’s no mere icon. It’s an image of a fable.”

That was how Perkwunos explained the image of the serpent opening its mouth wide to eat the [Forbidden Fruit].

“Before I received my <Mark>, I had been the lighthouse keeper who managed the <Fire of Origin>.”

“The lighthouse keeper?” Chang-Sun asked.

“You can think of it as someone who manages or oversees the fire left after the universe’s creation, so it won’t die out.”

Chang-Sun repeated the word ‘lighthouse keeper’ in his mind.

“The <Fire of Origin> isn’t just the fire used to create the universe. It’s the seed of all souls in the Great Universe,” Perkwunos continued.

Chang-Sun remembered a book he had read in the Changgong Library some time ago.

A human soul is originally fire, and it shows and guides a human in a path of truth as their rationality, protecting them from the darkness of ignorance. When a person dies physically, the heat goes up, and their soul’s fire heads to the sky and becomes a star in the night sky. (<The Masks of God> written by Joseph Campbell)

The root of the Great Universe’s laws of nature was the <Fire of Origin>.

“I fell to the temptation of power and knowledge that the fire represented. With its infinite potential, I thought I could become anything. but I didn’t know one thing. Obtaining omnipotence and omniscience didn’t necessarily mean that I would become absolute.”

In the end, the Number of Beast was the <Mark> and <Punishment> that Perkwunos had received for abandoning his duty as the lighthouse keeper.

‘The apple in the fable is the <Fire of Origin>, and the serpent is Perkwunos,’ Chang-Sun thought, understanding why he and Perkwunos were suffering like this.

However, that was why he was still left with an unanswered question. Who could have appointed Perkwunos as the lighthouse keeper and put the <Mark> on him?

“Then let me ask you one more question,” Chang-Sun said.

“What is it?”

“Why is <Deus Ex Machina> not doing anything? He acted as if he knew nothing about us, but there is no way he wouldn’t know, if the lighthouse keeper is such an important person,” Chang-Sun asked, tilting his head in confusion.

<Deus Ex Machina> oversaw the universe’s laws of nature and casualty, so it was odd that he did not know about the <Fire of Origin> No, even aside from that, Chang-Sun’s <Punishment> would badly affect Ye-Eun, the baby sister of <Deus Ex Machina>, so there was no way he would not know about it. And yet...

“He doesn’t know?” Perkwunos laughed dumbfoundedly.“It’s ridiculous.”

The moment he heard Perkwunos’ answer, Chang-Sun felt his heart sink, able to picture the golden machine eyes of <Deus Ex Machina>.

“He’s the one who put the <Mark> on me, so how could he not know?” Perkwunos continued, looking at Chang-Sun in disbelief.

Tick!

Tick!

For some reason, Chang-Sun felt as if he could hear mechanical sounds...