The World after the Fall

There was a young man.

The man had been taken away from his world because of the Cultivators’ lust for power and the Nightmares’ lust for fame. The Tower of Nightmares created by Master Craftsman Jan-Pol-[Being and Emptiness] was cleared by the man. He was taken to <Depth> by the Gods and became ‘Awakened’ through his hatred and anger toward the world.

It was now a story of thousands of years ago.

He fought the Lords of the <Great Lands> and resisted the Gods of <Depth>. He massacred countless Cultivators and Nightmares.

He created Rupture.

He imagined Big Brother every time he went to sleep. He believed the star he saw was Big Brother who was the start of the tragedy and the reason for this world. He believed that he would someday pull down the star from that sky.

The young man then grew old. Then he became an old man. He still looked like a young man from the outside, but on the inside, he was very old.

Lots of things happened.

He didn’t know when the war stopped or when it was unlikely for him to look up into the sky. He couldn’t remember when he began to feel despair instead of anger against the bright star hanging in the sky.

Myad couldn’t remember when he had poked his two eyes which could see the light up there.

Jaehwan knew a lot about the secret of the War of the Three Gods. The recovered [Record of the Depth] had most of the histories that Mulack knew about <Depth>. Most recordings just described the war to be a fight between the Three Ancient Gods, but it was different from what it actually was.

The Three Ancient Gods met that day to end the war forever, and then start another one.

Their meeting was foretold a long time ago when the three of them found ‘clothes’, utilized them, and realized what the ‘clothes’ were.

-So, you mean this is the power of the one called the <System>?

It was young Catastrophe who spoke up first when he still had his body.

-Clothes are not the power of the System. It is a power that was created because the System exists.

Young Daeus, who had metal armor covering his body, answered.

-Isn’t that the same thing?

-No.

-What is the System anyway?

-The basic law of the universe. The reason of control over everything.

-What the hell are you saying? So are you saying that it’s stronger than us?

-It’s not a being where strength matters. The System is the world as a whole. There’s no power involved.

Catastrophe then said,

-I will destroy it then. We are Gods. Whatever it is, I can’t let it control me.

-The System has no will. It controls, but it does not reign. It just exists.

Catastrophe frowned at the words.

-And what are you exactly getting at? System or not, haven’t we all gathered here to stop the war? Why are you bringing this up?

Daeus then smiled mechanically.

-Because we can use the System to end it.

Daeus then explained his plan. He explained the logic between the power of the ‘clothes’ that all three of them were using and how they could use it to take control of the <System>. It was Geshtalt who objected after listening to Daeus for a while.

-I am against it. We do not know what this System is yet.

Even with Geshtalt’s objection, Catastrophe and Daeus proceeded with their plan. Maybe it was due to their boredom from a long-lasting war or from the boredom of their long, immortal life.

Or maybe, it was actually from a sense of justice.

Either way, nobody knew for certain why they made such a decision. What was certain was the result.

That day, the ‘thing’ everyone knew about was born.

210 thousand years later… Jaehwan was looking directly at the ‘recreation’ of what happened 210 thousand years ago. Jaehwan knew it wasn’t in its perfect form right now. Surely the being created 210 thousand years ago was much stronger.

The sun burned fiercely. Myad was like the sun now.

[Hah… so, this is what it feels like to be a real ‘God’.]

Those words seemed to deny the existed of all the Gods that existed in <Depth>. It was quite true, however, as all Gods scattered within <Depth> were rapidly losing their power as Myad appeared.

The hidden phase of the Machina was the power to change user’s unique world into a System.

The way of doing it was quite simple. Daeus’ [Link Destroy] destroyed the link between Gods and Followers while Catastrophe’s [Time Contamination] corrupted Followers within the ‘System’. Then, the Eye of Geshtalt worked to control the will of those who were corrupt.

Vicegerents and Followers were shaking in pain as they were thrown into a whole new reality. The only world they were left to believe in was the [Sea of Blood, Mountain of Corpses]. In that violence, they began to accept the new world one by one, becoming slaves to the new System.

World power gathered from all parts of <Depth> began funneling into Machina. Jaehwan couldn’t even guess how many world powers were being collected.

The [Sea of Blood, Mountain of Corpses] that had now evolved into a System was not the unique world that Jaehwan knew of. It was no longer a ‘theory’. Jaehwan looked around. He saw Kashim and Chunghuh grasping their chests as they trembled while experiencing a seizure. Myad spoke.

[That is strange. How are you still okay? Not even Awakeners can withstand this.]

Kashim and Chunghuh seemed to be in pain because of a different reason. Kashim, who was a member of Rupture, was having his world power sucked from him, and Chunghuh was being attacked by the corruption of the System.

The [Sea of Blood, Mountain of Corpses] that had become a reality did not permit the existence of other unique worlds. It was a power that rejected all other possibilities. It was the power of a lone world, or the power of the System.

But even then, [Sea of Blood, Mountain of Corpses] couldn’t destroy Jaehwan’s world.

Jaehwan wasn’t sure why it was possible. Maybe it was because of his Eye of Geshtalt. Or maybe…

[This is interesting. The world that did not perish in the end is yours.]

Jaehwan’s unique world was born only to destroy other worlds. That’s why his world required ‘other worlds’. His world never disappeared as long as there was ‘another world’ that existed.

That was Jaehwan’s unique world.

Jaehwan and Myad exchanged glances. One looked like he had everything while one had the look of pity toward everything that the other had. Myad asked,

[Why are you looking at me like that?]

“Because I feel sorry for you.”