Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint - Chapter 608



Forest fires start from a small spark – 6

The first saint spoke to me. A very universal order was necessary and it would never change. She appealed to me earnestly, as if trying to convince me.

I thought I said it because I was the king of men. I thought it came from a desire for recognition to brag about my achievements… but it seems that wasn’t the case.

“You want me to be your yardstick. To give you guidelines on how to act in the future.”

“Yeah! That’s it!”

“What will become of me if I become the yardstick?”

“Uh… I need to think about it a bit…”

My sister was holding my head and groaning, then she said something as if a good idea just occurred to her.

“Would you like to come inside me?”

“No, I don’t like it.”

You’re telling me to abandon my physical body and enter the imaginary world? You’re essentially dying. Are you willing to do it?

“I’m not dying! You can feel everything I see, hear, and feel!”

“At this age, living with my older sister is a bit much. It’s really cramped.”

“Don’t be narrow-minded! I often hear people say I’m generous!”

“I like to walk with my own legs and see with my own eyes. I feel suffocated when I only see what others show me.”

“Okay.”

The older sister, whose speech was muddled, suggested a little cautiously.

“Then, even though it’s a little uncomfortable, would you like to stand next to me? You’ll be free to move around on your own two feet, but I’ll risk losing you.”

“Do we have to be together?”

“Then. You are the yardstick. Just as you should always carry a compass with you, even if you don’t take it out often, I should carry you with me too!”

“A life tied to an older sister. It must be hell for a younger sibling.”

“Hell doesn’t take your convenience. It doesn’t cherish or care for you, and it doesn’t make such sweet suggestions. That’s why it’s wrong to compare my sister to hell!”

Well, I guess the devil in hell wouldn’t be the pretty older sister who buys you food and treats you kindly.

The second one is a bit more appealing. It means that you can watch the world under your older sister’s protection and give her advice here and there. It would also be fun to wield absolute power.

“no.”

But I don’t like it. I rejected my sister’s offer outright. My sister’s expression became a little awkward.

“I don’t like this, I don’t like that. It’s really hard to please my little brother.”

“I’m your younger sibling. Please understand my whining.”

“Please understand that I don’t understand you. Let me ask you. Why don’t you like it?”

As you thought, it’s true that I took sides. Among the military, I took Abi, among the nations, I took Peru, and among the principalities, I took Tyr.

But I always put them on opposite sides, and let the winds blow against each other.

“A game with a predetermined outcome is no fun.”

Then my older sister asked back, seemingly surprised.

“Games? Do you do that?”

“It’s fun. You should try it too, sister.”

“You say games with a predetermined outcome aren’t fun? You can read minds.”

Well, I do have a huge advantage over others. But the outcome isn’t set in stone.

“Sister, do you know how I won so many games?”

“Since you asked me to ask, I’ll ask. How did you win?”

“Because I played that many games.”

If you win all the time, your opponent won’t fight you. You have to lose occasionally. And losing isn’t that hard.

“The flipped cards can smile at your opponent, and the game can change with a sudden change. You can even receive a hand that you can’t win even if you come back from the dead. I’ve lost countless times even though I can read my opponent’s moves. If I were to calculate the winning percentage, it would be around 60%.”

“I’m not very good at it, even though I like it.”

“60% is good enough. And that’s the only way I can get into the next round. I’m not looking for someone who wins all the time.”

There are times when I win and times when I lose. There are many things that don’t go my way. But when I win, I’m happy, and when I lose, I just shake it off and move on to the next game.

“I want everyone to sit at the game board. It’s not fair, and even if the stakes are different, you have to be an opponent in the game. I can’t decide which wind is right or wrong. That’s the game to decide.”

Whether this is right or that is right changes from time to time. Even my judgment, which reads people’s minds, is wrong 40% of the time. It can’t be right if the winning rate is 60%.

I lose sometimes too. But losing isn’t wrong. It’s just that my playstyle wasn’t right for this game.

So, there is no need to set a correct answer that does not exist.

“The answer is something you find as you go. You keep going forward. As long as you have an opponent, you have to keep competing.”

That’s why I won’t take the side of order. I won’t stand by my sister and judge the world by my own judgment.

I’ll just keep playing the game.

My older sister looked at me with a slightly disappointed look. It was as if she was looking at a younger sibling who was not listening. I don’t really have a younger sibling and I don’t have an older sister either, but somehow I felt like I could understand their feelings.

“Is that your conclusion?”

“huh.”

If what you need is a standard, then you should follow that standard. If this is the conclusion I have reached, then you should follow it too.

However, there are still remaining issues.

“Then, who will be my opponent?”

My sister is special.

Among the beast kings who are beings of ideas, the king of the human race who has encompassed the continent and reached the throne of the demon god is special. He cannot even judge right from wrong. Because his sister’s actions will soon become law and truth.

So I don’t even know if I exist.

“When I listen to you, you talk as if everything in the world will go your way. Does life seem that easy? Huh, that’s ridiculous. I’ll deal with it.”

You can’t always fight a winning battle. People always have to clash with each other’s desires to find the answer.

That’s what I said, and it applies to me too.

“… You? You, weak and ordinary?”

“I’ll show you an example. Follow me.”

Since I was the only one who could handle my sister, I grabbed her hand and led her.

***

Nevida’s hand was rough and strong. Shay barely escaped the chamber after experiencing five near-death experiences. Shay, who had shaken off his celestial wings and soared into the sky, looked down at Nevida and gasped.

‘Nevida is a demon and can use its power in battle. It is extremely powerful, but… it does have its weaknesses! Nevida lacks mobility!’

The tree is firmly rooted and holds its ground. Nevida is the same. Her strength comes from the earth and the trees, and the empty sky is not easily accessible.

That’s why Shay was able to survive so many encounters with Nebida. If he saved his life with the Cheonbankyung and escaped into the sky, it would be difficult for Nebida to chase him.

Nevida moved along the Origin Tree. It was as if the Origin Tree itself was grabbing her and pulling her up. It was incredibly fast, but it was still no match for flying. Shay thought as she got far enough away.

‘The Druids should have infiltrated the dungeon floor by now. We need to get their attention. I can’t guarantee they’ll succeed, but if Nevida goes, they’ll definitely fail!’

Shay, determined, shouted at Nevida.

“Let’s watch together. Who will be the next king of humans!”

“You can’t do that.”

Despite the countless threats to the Tree of Origin, Nevida stared straight at Shay without a care in the world, as if no other threat mattered but Shay.

“You’re so proud of being in heaven. How long do you think you’ll be able to protect me?”

Nevida grabbed the small world tree with both hands and brought it to the Origin Tree. Roots quickly grew out of the cross-section of the small world tree and dug deep into the Origin Tree.

“The sky is originally empty and hollow. It can only watch over you and neglect you, not help you. Therefore, the gods of heaven are inherently false and empty.”

The appearance of the small world tree changed. Some parts grew, while others withered and fell. It was as if an invisible gardener was pruning them. Shay opened his eyes wide and observed the scene.

‘What is that? That shape….’

The small world tree, with its irregularly shaped shapes… looked just like the Tree of Origin.

The moment Shay realized that, Nevida grabbed the branch of the small world tree in her hand and moved it.

Then something unbelievable happened.

The tree of origin, which is comparable in size to a mountain, does not move in a macroscopic sense. In a microscopic sense, the people living on top of it see branches fluttering in the wind. However, that is only a very small part of the branches that have grown on the tree of origin, which have split off dozens of times. The thick trunk and the large branches extending from it were not large enough to sway even in a storm.

A tree of such origin.

It’s moving.

A huge mass moves. The displaced air makes a whooshing sound. The leaves that cannot keep up with the movement scatter like a bunch of feathers, and the branches that break due to inertia make a sound that can only be heard in a carpenter’s workshop.

“Huh? The eggplant… .”

“Eww!”

“Save me!”

And the screams of the humans who were embroidering it scattered like fallen leaves.

The World Tree was fair. It didn’t care about the well-being of the insects that lived on its leaves. It just moved.

The inhabitants of the shadow of the World Tree would feel wronged. Common sense tells us that the tree does not move. They may have worried that it might fall, but no one would have expected that the tree would move and knock them down.

“this…!”

Shay, who was shocked, ran away desperately. Because of the scale of the situation, the tree of origin seemed to move slowly, but the speed of the branches that were actually approaching was far faster than the speed of sound.

If you touch it, you die. Even if you dodge, you will be swept away by the aftermath. Shay instinctively flew diagonally. As she ran away, exhaling compressed air, countless arms with branches swung in front of her.

An attack that makes you lose your sense of perspective. It seems as if the world itself is attacking. The vortex hanging from the branch distorts space, and the shockwave tears the world apart. Even the wind becomes a giant whip that targets Shay as it moves faster than the speed of sound.

At the last moment, Shay exploded the wind beneath my feet.

“Ugh!”

A huge branch seemed to narrowly miss, then suddenly countless branches grew and flew towards Shay. It seemed as if the forces of Hell were reaching out to grab Shay. Shay cut them all down with a wind-driven slash.

“Ugh! Gasp! Navida, you crazy b*tch…!”

But Shay couldn’t laugh. Before her eyes, countless people were flying away with the leaves. Various screams blew in on the wind and disappeared.

People live on the branches of the World Tree. And those who live off the blessings of the Tree of Origin have paid a very high price for it.

There was no way to save him, and no time to spare. Shay was too late to notice Nevida’s presence, as he was watching the people falling like fallen leaves. Nevida, who had appeared before he knew it, made sharp bamboo shoots grow towards Shay. With dozens of bamboo spears rising, Shay caught the attack with his celestial mirror and dodged and knocked away the bamboo spears in succession, falling down.

“People live up there! You don’t care if people die?!”

“How ridiculous. Do you think I would blink an eye at the deaths of those who live off the trees?”

“Not one or two, but hundreds! They’re all going to die!”

Shay shouted in a state of heightened emotion, but Nevida just looked at Shay calmly.

“Who blocked the water flow to weaken the tree’s energy?”

Shay’s eyes widened.

The ones who blocked the waterway were the druids, including Nenyaph. The Sun Saintess probably also intervened, so that the land could be dried out even more.

“Who gave up on fighting me and flew up to buy time?”

That’s Shada. He flew up into the sky to buy time. There’s not much for Nevida to do here. It was a reasonable choice.

From noble mtl dot com

“Who made this place a battlefield? You came here and did all sorts of tricks. Are you planning to take them hostage?”

I don’t think so. However, even if I planned the operation, I didn’t consider the safety of the inhabitants of the World Tree.

It would be difficult to hold Shay responsible, since even Shay could not have predicted that the Origin Tree itself would be moved. But could we hold Nevida responsible?

Nevida also gave him an answer.

“If that’s true, then take responsibility for it. I don’t mind.”

Anyway, it was just a pun. Nevida muttered and moved the branch to follow Shay. Shay clicked his tongue as he watched Nevida approaching him through the tree.

“Tsk…!”

‘You have to go up. There are people living down there! If you go up, you won’t be able to use much force because the king of humans might get hurt!’

The inhabitants of the shadow of the World Tree mainly live at the bottom. If Shay were to rise further up, it would be reasonable to move the upper branches where no one lives, so that the inhabitants at the bottom would be safe.

Those were the only choices Shay could make.

“I will grant you that meaning.”

It was a great misfortune for Shay to be read by Nevida.

The tree of origin collapsed. Countless branches that had grown to block the sky simultaneously fell down, aiming for Shay. What hung there were the fleshy fruits of beasts.

To Shay, it was like countless battering rams were falling. He caught them all with his rainbow eyes and dodged them with minimal movement. But the bigger problem was behind it.

The Tree of Origin fell, targeting Shay. The branch of the World Tree, engulfed in storm and noise, was a malevolent disaster that fell targeting a single human.

It’s not a scale that can be damaged or blocked. Shay heard the trumpet. To block that, you have no choice but to cut it down!

“Heavenly Sword! Dragon Slash…!”

Spinning his body greatly in the air, Shay increased the size of his angel and unleashed a massive slash.

However, there is no place to step. There is no place for the pedestal that the celestial maiden can stand on. The celestial maiden’s slaughter was huge and powerful, but compared to the tree of origin, it was like an ant in front of an elephant.

The blow left a large gash on the branch, which then swept Shay away.

“Gyah…!”

A dizzying shock shook his entire body. A blow that made him lose his mind for a moment. Shay’s body fell to the ground like a stake.

Shay gritted his teeth as he felt the pain of his entire body breaking apart. He couldn’t let his guard down because of the pain. His opponent was Navi. The absolute ruler of this world. Even a brief moment of writhing in pain was a luxury.

‘No, don’t. You have to come to your senses!’

“That’s enough. It’s over now.”

However, the power gap is clear. No matter how much you try and persuade, it cannot be narrowed.

Nevida gently pulled on the small branch of the World Tree. In response, the branch of the World Tree also bent with a creaking sound.

How much tension is hidden inside it? How much enormous power is dormant inside it.

And when that power is unleashed, what happens?

Nevida laid down a branch,

“…ah.”

Even the Heavenly Mirror can’t react. There’s no need to react. How can you react and respond to the branches of the World Tree chasing you at a speed exceeding the speed of sound?

Shay’s shell was broken.

It was too much of a force for a human to withstand. Even the Heavenly Mirror, which had saved Shay’s life countless times, could not save her.

Cheonbankyung is a qigong engraved on the body. It moves the whole body unconsciously, operates qigong, and reacts to attacks.

Even thoughts are controlled by the Heavenly Mirror unconsciously.

I remained silent and failed to fulfill my duty in the face of the great disaster called Masin.

Shay’s consciousness sank deeper, along with his body.