Season 2 Chapter 565: Side Story Chapter 1

Season 2 Chapter 565: Side Story Chapter 1

Season 2 Chapter 565

Side Story Chapter 1

Bottomless Pit.

This place, known as the hell without a bottom, was indeed a space where only darkness existed.

In the midst of it, Min Ha-rin remained silent.

‘.......’

Come to think of it, there’s a contradiction in that expression just now.

Min Ha-rin, without a body, wasn’t ‘being silent,’ but rather, ‘had no choice but to be silent,’ as if she had an option.

Of course, this fact didn’t make her feel particularly stifled, nor did the sudden loss of her body lead to panic.

─It felt like being submerged in the pitch-black depths of the ocean.

Pressure.

The pressure, which gradually increased in intensity, initially caressed her entire body gently like a touch of life, but at some point, it changed its nature. It was like being caught in the grip of a ferocious giant. A feeling of her whole body being crushed.

Of course, all these thoughts were illusions. As reiterated, Min Ha-rin currently had no body.

Thus, in this situation, she wouldn’t feel the stifling sensation that anyone would typically experience, nor would the growing intensity of it lead to madness.

Min Ha-rin remained calm and composed despite the unprecedented anomaly she was experiencing for the first time in her life.

...In the short term, it might not be a bad thing.

But thinking long-term.

‘Indeed. It’s not a good situation.’

Min Ha-rin had no choice but to admit that fact honestly.

In the state where her mind and body were separated, the darkness spreading in the space was corroding her mind. The good news was that the speed was extremely slow, but the bad news was that it had never stopped even once.

At this rate, someday, inevitably.

Min Ha-rin’s mind would be eroded by the darkness.

‘My self will be annihilated.’

[Stopping the act of thinking] and remaining in that state forever. It’s a fate far more miserable than biological death.

Of course, there is a solution to overcome this life-and-death crisis.

That’s why it’s troubling.

‘Emotions.......’

Emotions are necessary.

It’s an ironic thing.

The reason she was able to find a solution in this situation was because she lacked emotions. She could maintain her composure, allowing her to think coolly about other possibilities.

However, to be completely liberated from this state, emotions are needed instead.......

Drawing out emotions, igniting them like fireworks.

The mental explosion that occurs then is the only way to drive out or block the erosion of the darkness.

‘If I don’t awaken my emotions, I’ll die here.’

Indeed.

No matter how many times she thought about it, it wasn’t a good situation.

The current situation was forcing Min Ha-rin to make a choice.

Could it be the first time?

That she felt she must retrieve the emotions she had abandoned of her own will.

‘It’s not all bad.’

The Bottomless Pit was also the best training place for Min Ha-rin.

Time flowed much slower than outside, and it was quiet.

Moreover, due to the special situation where her body had disappeared, she might be able to grasp a clue to move on to the next stage.

A clue to becoming a Transcendent.

‘One by one, one by one.’

She would have to slowly figure it out.

Min Ha-rin does not tire.

Even if there were a hundred million doors spread out in parallel, and only one of them was the real door, she would not feel despair.

She would simply open and check each one, one by one.

Whether it was the first door she opened or the hundred millionth, the time spent and the level of concentration would be constant.

So, there’s no need to worry. The speed of the darkness’s erosion is extremely slow.

Min Ha-rin believed that she could find the answer in time.

* * *

Time passed.

If estimated with fairly good precision of internal time, it would have been decades.

And the situation was still not good.

‘.......’

Correction.

It wasn’t just not good; it had worsened compared to before.

Min Ha-rin had no body. Naturally, she didn’t need sleep, nor would she lose consciousness. Yet, even in such a state, her consciousness had already been cut off several times.

She knew what those signs meant. It was evidence that the darkness’s erosion had progressed much deeper than Min Ha-rin had anticipated.

Since then, whenever she lost consciousness and woke up again, a certain thought would suddenly cross her mind.

Here.

Dying alone in a place where there’s nothing.

She had even abandoned her emotions to fulfill her mission, making such a deal meaningless.

No. That’s not all.

─Was Lukas Trowman really this significant to me?

All he had achieved, built, and possessed in his life. The things he had fought for or inherited.

Was restoring Lukas’s lost honor so important to him that he would throw all that away?

No.

That wasn’t it.

In some ways, Peran’s journey might have resembled a form of ascetic practice.

He paid as much attention to his inner self as he did to observing the ‘outside’, and at some point, he was finally able to face the childish initial intentions he had long ignored.

‘At first, it was just an excuse.’

Since birth, he lacked nothing and easily obtained whatever he wanted or desired. Eventually, the praise and admiration of others started sounding like noise.

Around that time, he met Frey Blake at the academy.

For the first time, he thought he had met a man equal to him and felt drawn to him.

─But what happened after that?

Later, he realized that the guy, Frey, wasn’t looking at him.

Now he acknowledges that.

Frey was only thinking about fighting the Demigods and never stopped to achieve that.

And in the ensuing war against the Demigods, Peran wasn’t called. The most intense battle in history proceeded without Peran and reached its conclusion.

...He understood.

The power Peran had at that time was less than that of an ant compared to the Demigods he had to fight against. It was a relief if he wasn’t a hindrance.

But even so.

“I wished he had called me.”

He muttered softly.

When everyone had forgotten Frey Blake and Lukas Trowman,

When he was the only one who remembered his traces,

Peran believed that this time, he had been chosen by fate.

To save his only friend? No. There was no such noble idea.

Peran was still a child. The trauma of a wounded pride had become a lifelong scar, and without even being able to rein in the emotions that burst forth from it, he had recklessly tried to overcome it by sacrificing his life first—a fool.

He simply wanted to be equal.

He wanted to stand proudly next to the legendary figure.

Not to become a being like him,

But to become someone who could stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

However...

‘It’s far away.’

He couldn’t even imagine what kind of scenery that person was looking at now.

Was it really possible?

Was there something in this world that was simply unattainable?

Peran looked up at the sky with a frustrated heart.

And as if destined, he witnessed a strange sight.

─Something was falling from the sky.

Of course, it wasn’t unusual for things to fly across the teal night sky of this peculiar planet, but as he focused more and looked directly, he couldn’t help but be astonished.

It was a creature he had never seen on this planet before.

A being with a torso, two long legs, two arms, and a protruding neck. A face the size of a palm with all the facial features.

In other words, it was a human.

And that wasn’t all.

“......!”

His entire body stiffened.

Fear rushed in without any warning. Peran’s whole body trembled like an aspen tree, and his pupils shook violently. The fear was so overwhelming that his thoughts couldn’t function properly, making him feel like he might faint at any moment.

Boom!

While Peran was frozen, that human-like being completed its fall.

It almost crashed into the ground like a meteorite, so calling it a collision might be more accurate.

Only then was Peran able to shake off the fear.

In an instant, his entire body was drenched in sweat. Peran adjusted his disheveled clothes and looked toward the place where it had landed.

Somewhere in this village, and unfortunately, very close.

“.......”

He needed to check it out.

But recalling the fear he had just experienced, he couldn’t easily move his feet.

Smack!

It was a terribly crude shock therapy, but he slapped his own cheek hard. He couldn’t think of a better way. He hit himself so hard that the inside of his mouth tore, and blood flowed, but thanks to that, his stiff body loosened a bit.

Peran headed toward the landing site and soon found the fallen figure easily.

“...Cough.”

Alive.

Despite falling from such a great height, that person was alive.

And in good shape.

Maintaining his tension, Peran spoke up.

“...Are you alright?”

“.......”

The moment that person raised his head after, Peran’s face stiffened.