Chapter 01

Gray ash drifted through the air like snow.
The grand hall of the magnificent palace burned fiercely amid flames more splendid still.
The Royal Guards who should have been defending the hall already lay bleeding on the ground.
Another corpse landed atop them.

Thud-

After tossing aside the body clad in an ornate dragon robe, Kang Jun-gyeong raised the severed head and met the corpse’s still-open eyes.

“It’s over now. Wait for me in Hell. I’ll be joining you soon enough, and when I do, I’ll finish tearing you apart.”

He tossed the head onto the pile of corpses as well, then stood atop the steps before the grand hall and gazed silently down at his sword.
The sword his wife had given him before he left for his previous war.
Mukhwa (墨花).¹
A wistful light entered his eyes as his fingertips traced the characters engraved above the hilt.
He raised the sword high above the head of the stone lion at the edge of the steps.

CRACK!

The blade punched through the stone lion’s head and buried itself deep in the ground.

“Rest in peace, Seol-hui. I will make Mukhwa your gravestone.”

It was a funeral for his wife, who had been unjustly driven to take her own life.
Releasing the hilt, he picked up another sword lying on the ground.
The Royal Guards would be swarming in soon.

A gust of wind swept through and fanned the flames consuming the grand hall.
With it came distant battle cries.

“Waaaaaah-!”

Royal Guards flooded the palace court below the grand hall along with the roar.
Sword in hand, Kang Jun-gyeong quietly watched them.
Then his brow twitched.
Mixed among the armored Royal Guards and their gleaming blades were enormous, green-skinned monsters.
Only when he saw them did he realize that none of this was real.

“…So I was already in Hell.”

Avici Hell.
His own hell, repeating itself without end.
He had been standing in the middle of it all along.

He had not realized it when he left his ruined home and cut down the Royal Guards as he climbed the steps toward the grand hall, nor when he entered and came face-to-face with his wife’s death, nor when he turned that enormous hall into her coffin and set it ablaze, nor even when he dragged out the king’s severed head and corpse and tossed them carelessly onto the pile of bodies.

“Damn it.”

He bit his lip and raised his sword as he looked down at them.
In his previous life, this was where he had chosen to take his own life.
Perhaps that was why he had become trapped in this endlessly repeating Avici Hell.

This was his hell.
And perhaps his wife Seol-hui, who had searched for him even in her final moments before choosing death, was suffering in a hell of her own.
The thought made his heart feel as though it were being torn apart.
He poured that anguish into a roar and charged toward the Royal Guards filling the court below.

“RAAAAAAGH!!!”

A rain of arrows poured down, blackening the sky.
He kept running, swinging his sword to knock the falling arrows aside.

Then,
the rain of arrows froze in midair as though pinned there for display. The charging Royal Guards stopped dead, and even the wind feeding the flames of the grand hall fell utterly still.

[…Enough. Are you not tired of this yet?]

Time itself stopped with the low, resonant voice.
Only Kang Jun-gyeong remained free within this unnatural stillness.

His eyebrow twitched.
Rather than panic, he raised his head toward the overwhelming presence he could feel in the sky.
There stood a colossal figure that seemed to be darkness given form.
Bloodstained weapons filled his four hands, while curved horns rose from his head as though threatening to pierce the heavens.
It was Heavenly King Chiwoo, the legendary progenitor of war, ruler of Hell, and punisher of all Heaven.

“An uninvited guest.”

Jun-gyeong did not lower his sword.
Instead, he lifted his chin and met Heavenly King Chiwoo’s blazing gaze head-on.

“Have you come to interrupt Seol-hui’s funeral?”

Before him stood the lord of Hell’s myriad deities and the ruler of this realm.
The sheer divine might emanating from him cracked the ground before the grand hall like a spiderweb, yet Jun-gyeong did not so much as blink.
After enduring death tens of thousands of times, fear was an emotion that had long since evaporated from him.

[Were a thousand years of repeated death and suffering not hell enough for you?]

Heavenly King Chiwoo descended to the ground.
Then he began walking toward Jun-gyeong.
With each step, the frozen Royal Guards crumbled like dust, turning into pale ash that scattered through the air.

[Or have you hardened so thoroughly that nothing can reach you anymore?]

Pale pink flowers blossomed around Heavenly King Chiwoo.
Their petals rose into the sky on the wind.
They were peach blossoms, his wife’s favorite.
A drifting peach blossom petal brushed across Jun-gyeong’s cheek.
For once, it was not the coppery stink of blood or the acrid smoke of the burning hall that had assaulted him for a thousand years. Instead, the faint, wistful fragrance he remembered from his wife’s skin touched his nose.

Jun-gyeong’s eyes trembled ever so slightly.
Before he knew it, Heavenly King Chiwoo was standing directly before him.
The shadow cast by his enormous divine form swallowed Jun-gyeong whole.

[…Can you smell the flowers? Can you smell the woman you have yearned for so desperately?]

Heavenly King Chiwoo reached out and caught one of the petals drifting through the air.
Between the god’s fingers, the red petal burned away and became black ash.

[A thousand years. Enough time for any human soul to have worn away into dust. Yet here you remain, still holding her funeral amid these false flames. Do you truly believe there is any meaning left in it?]

Jun-gyeong lowered the tip of his sword and met his eyes.
The fragrance had shaken him only for an instant.
His gaze returned to that of the cold and merciless martial god he had once been.

“I don’t care whether this place is false or real. A thousand years or ten thousand, this is the only connection to her I have been allowed. Move. There are still heads left for me to cut off.”

Heavenly King Chiwoo let out a low laugh.
At the sound of that laughter, the roof tiles of the great hall shrieked as they crumbled and fell..

[What do you gain by cutting them down again and again? Within this endless cycle, all you receive is the same loss repeated without end. Kang Jun-gyeong. Do you truly think this place itself is your hell? You could have entered the cycle of reincarnation, yet you chose to imprison yourself in Avici Hell. Why? Do you not realize that your own obsession is what makes your hell stronger?]

One of Chiwoo’s four hands slowly pointed toward Jun-gyeong’s chest, directly over his heart.

[What is it that holds your heart captive?]
“Move your hand.”

Heavenly King Chiwoo gave a faint chuckle.

[Very well. One who rejected the path of reincarnation by his own choice. Because you could not bear to lose those memories, I presume. Is that what humans call lingering attachment?]

Kang Jun-gyeong’s brow twisted deeply.
He knew it as well.
It was an empty wish. A futile dream.
But Jun-gyeong had no desire to live another life without Seol-hui.
No. To him, a life lived after forgetting her was no life at all.

[Then I shall give you an opportunity. A chance to begin again while retaining every memory you possess now.]
“…What?”
[The boundaries of the mortal realm have collapsed. The threads of causality have become tangled, and the screams of the mortal world now reverberate all the way to Heaven.]

Heavenly King Chiwoo smiled brightly.

[And in that mortal realm, your wife, Seol-hui, is alive.]
“…Good.”

Yes. That was all.
She had escaped the cruel cycle of Hell, passed through reincarnation, and been born again into the mortal world.
But what of it?
Even if he met her again, what could possibly come of it?
Seol-hui had another life of her own to live, and if he entered reincarnation as well, he would have to live his new life with no memory of the one before.
Their connection had ended with their previous lives.
That was precisely why he had chosen this hell for himself.

“Whatever connection existed between her and me ended in our previous lives. That is why I chose this hell for myself. So move.”

The light in Heavenly King Chiwoo’s eyes flared violently.
The hand among his four that held a bloodstained sword slowly lifted the tip of Jun-gyeong’s chin.
Even before the crushing divine might radiating from his fingertips, Jun-gyeong did not avert his eyes.

[Your attachment was fierce enough to sustain you for a thousand years, but every human soul has its limits. Look, Kang Jun-gyeong. Are the characters upon your Mukhwa not already beginning to fade?]

Jun-gyeong’s gaze snapped instinctively toward Mukhwa’s hilt, protruding from the stone lion.
Just as Chiwoo had said, the outlines of the engraved characters were beginning to blur.

[As causality in the mortal realm twists out of shape, this Avici Hell is collapsing as well. Remaining here will no longer allow your soul to preserve those memories intact.]
“Th-Then…”
[Yes. Even the memories of the woman you cling to so desperately will wear away until not a trace remains. In the end, you will forget her entirely, become nothing but an empty shell, and vanish.]

Jun-gyeong’s breathing grew ragged.
For the first time, the eyes of the martial god who had not so much as blinked in the face of a thousand years of suffering shook violently.
Forgetting Seol-hui.
To him, that was a terror worse than the annihilation of his very existence.
Jun-gyeong clenched his teeth.
A desperate yearning surged through him, as though his chest were being torn apart.
His lips slowly parted.

“…What do I have to do?”

Heavenly King Chiwoo answered quietly.

[It is simple. Descend into the mortal realm and eliminate the monsters that have crossed between dimensions, along with the evil spirits of Earth corrupted by them. Then aid humans and souls who have suffered unjustly and cleanse yourself of your karmic sins. Do so, and the veil cast over you by the karmic sins of your previous life will gradually be lifted.]
“…Veil?”

One corner of Heavenly King Chiwoo’s mouth curled upward in a strange smile.

[Yes. Once that veil is lifted, the day will come when you may see the woman you have longed for even in your dreams.]

A dense killing intent began to rise in Jun-gyeong’s eyes.

“Did you just say I can see her?”
[Yes. To reunite with her. Was that not the life you dreamed of?]
“You mean… that’s possible?”
[However, until the veil of causality has been completely lifted, you will not recognize her even if she stands directly before your eyes.]

Jun-gyeong raised his eyes, now brimming with killing intent, toward Heavenly King Chiwoo.
Heavenly King Chiwoo smiled lightly and continued.

[I shall grant you the power to break demons and the Dokkaebi Eyes, which can see both spirits and souls. They are the eyes by which a messenger of death may distinguish humans from ghosts. Eliminate the monsters and save the souls. Remove the veil.]
“I like how straightforward that is.”
[Then go.]

Heavenly King Chiwoo swept a hand through the air.
Jun-gyeong’s vision flashed white.
As his consciousness sank into darkness, he felt a searing brand being stamped into his back.
At the same time, her peach-blossom fragrance brushed past his nose.

[The contract is sealed.]

With those final words, Heavenly King Chiwoo split open space itself and stepped into the light.

“But shouldn’t you at least have sent him down with a weapon?”

The voice belonged to Amitabha Tathagata, so clear that merely hearing it seemed to sharpen the mind.
Lucifer, whose voice was deep, rich, and strangely seductive, agreed.

“A fair point. As Amitabha says, it does seem you sent him down there without any preparation.”
“I might expect that from the Tathagata, but not from you, Lucifer. We just sent a prisoner from Avici Hell, the deepest reaches of Hell itself, down into the mortal realm. Do you honestly think we could simply hand him something on his way out?”

At Heavenly King Chiwoo’s reverberating words, King Yama, guide and judge of souls, and Michael both nodded as though conceding the point.
Gabriel, however, who governed Heaven alongside the Tathagata, disagreed.

“I know that. I’m just worried whether he can actually complete the mission with nothing more than a pair of eyes that can see ghosts.”

Heavenly King Chiwoo remained unmoved.

“Do not worry. He is a martial god. And neither the Dokkaebi Eyes nor the Ghost Mask are so worthless that they deserve such contempt. We need only watch and see how powerful a martial god becomes once he awakens the power to break demons.”
“Isn’t that exactly why we should be worried?”
“Gabriel. Say what you mean. Picking a halfhearted fight won’t help us right now.”

Gabriel took a sip of the crystal-clear tea before answering.

“Martial god, warrior, war master. In other words, that man specializes in war. Armies against armies. But this mission isn’t a war, is it? It’s more like a special operation, and a solo one at that.”

At her words, King Yama and Michael nodded again.

“She has a point.”

Lucifer nodded as well and looked toward Heavenly King Chiwoo.
Heavenly King Chiwoo frowned.

“I’ve already thought of…”
“Then would you mind if I lent him a little help?”

A cheerful voice cut in before he could finish.
Every eye turned toward the newcomer.
Necros, the otherworldly god dispatched for this affair and Harmonizer of Souls, continued under their collective gaze.

“We have a system of our own.”
“A system?”
“Yes. A system in the literal sense. Humans in the mortal realm adapt fastest to intuitive rules presented through things like status windows and systems. It should be a great help to him. After all, the fate of our dimension is in his hands as well, so we ought to make sure that help actually counts.”

All the gods nodded at his words.
Then they turned their eyes toward the mirror reflecting the world Jun-gyeong had crossed into, the mortal realm.