Chapter 837: The First Flame (2)
His eyes were stained red.
His gaze crossed the glassy wall and found me. Relief, joy, and fear all surged up at once. Had he realized that the twenty–six-year-old Han Yuhyun had left, and that he alone remained? Had he safely recovered the memories he had lost?
“Yuhyun! Come back now!”
Let’s go home together. You and me.
Yuhyun’s eyes blinked slowly. Then blue flames began to rise.
Clear, pure, vivid blue flames.
They forced their way through the black crystal and spilled outward. The Gardener seemed startled; one of his forelegs twitched slightly.
The blue fire began devouring the crystal.
It worked. Of course it worked. The flames swelled higher and higher, rolling outward in waves—
“Yuhyun…?”
My little brother’s fingertips.
Blue.
They were turning into flame.
His hand, his arm, his legs, his whole body.
In an instant, he became blue fire.
The black crystal vanished. My brother inside it vanished. Everything was swallowed. Nothing remained but a transparent, impossibly clear blue flame…
“…Yuhyun! Han Yuhyun!”
“Han Yujin!”
“Mister!”
I shook off the hands that grabbed me. I tried to run without thinking, without looking, without caring. But water blocked my way. I pounded against it. Cold droplets splashed up onto my face. Even with Gyeol’s help, I could not break through that solid wall.
“Yuhyun!!”
“Mister! It’s too dangerous!”
The transparent water clouded over, cutting off my view as if it were trying to cover my eyes.
“I can’t put that fire out, not even with my water!”
Drops rolled down. Steam, raised by the heat, formed layers like clouds. At some point, the strength had gone out of my legs. Yerim’s voice sounded distant, helpless and panicked. People kept speaking around me, but I could barely hear them.
The blue fire continued to spread.
It looked like a brilliant blue flower blooming wide over the little island. Even the Gardener’s hard shell slowly began to warp. A few butterflies lifted into the air, but they could not escape the island. They disappeared as if swallowed by the flames.
The fire swayed, dancing.
Unlike what Yerim had said, it did not look dangerous at all. It looked as though, if I reached out, it would simply wrap around me with warmth.
But my brother was nowhere inside it.
Fwoooosh—
A dragon of fire I had once seen before soared up into the sky.
It was Iryn, fully grown.
He drifted gently over the blue flames, circling them in soft, flowing arcs.
None of it felt real. I felt dazed, like someone who had woken from an afternoon nap but had only barely managed to open his eyes.
– Dad!
A child’s voice came faintly.
I blinked with effort, but my body would not move properly. I did not want to look away from the wavering blue flames.
– Daaad!
Thump. Something bumped into my back.
I barely turned my head. The yellow car and Seol, sitting on top of it, were looking at me. Gyeol, having changed into a Fairy Dragonkin, was quietly talking with Yerim about something.
– A big bug ate him.
“…What?”
– It’s a dream where you become what you want to be!
Byeol hopped once, and her form changed. She became a round ball of fur and tumbled into my arms. Yerim returned to her original appearance as well, and Gyeol became a young Fairy Dragonkin again. Up in the sky, Belare shrank and began to fall, and Noah hurriedly caught her.
– That was fun!
Byeol laughed with little squeaky sounds. Gyeol’s power still remained inside me, but it would not last long. The dream was ending now. Park Hayul’s flower came closer too.
– Yujin-hyung, the kids will wake up soon.
“Mister! I’ll come right back in! So…”
Yerim bit her lower lip, looking like she was on the verge of tears. Her expression said she had no idea what she was supposed to say. The others could not easily speak either.
I turned my head again.
I looked at the fire.
My sense of reality slowly returned, sharp and painful, like a blade pressing into flesh.
– Pretty!
Byeol said, waving her front paws toward the blue flames.
Inside that fire, the Gardener was still holding on. But even I could see his shell weakening little by little.
That bastard, at least. I would—
“…Ah.”
My eyes suddenly widened.
I opened my status window in a rush. The list of keyword targets.
[Han Yuhyun (S)]
Right.
It had not appeared.
The message window for Final Recompense had not appeared.
“…He’s alive.”
“Mister?”
I shot to my feet. The beautiful, rippling blue flames filled my vision.
“It’s Yuhyun. My brother. No matter what form he takes.”
He had only abandoned the shape of a human.
He was still Yuhyun.
My brother was still there.
“What are you talking about, Mister!”
“Hyung-nim, are you saying that fire is… Han Yuhyun?”
“Yes. That’s my brother.”
I answered with absolute certainty.
Yuhyun was waiting for me.
I handed Byeol to Seol. I stroked Seol’s head, then smiled at Gyeol as he came toward me.
“Dad’s going to go see Uncle.”
– Okay!
Byeol nodded. Gyeol’s eyes trembled with worry.
“I’ll be fine. Really.”
Of course I would be fine.
I was only going to bring my brother back.
I stepped toward the blue fire.
“But, Mister!”
“I’m really fine, Yerim. That fire is Yuhyun, and Yuhyun would never hurt me.”
“I… I know that, but…”
“If it gets dangerous, we’ll bring him back right away.”
Hyunah said it to Yerim. Seong Hyunjae and Chief Song were watching me silently as well. Noah brought out his wings.
As I walked toward the island covered in fire, Peace followed me.
– Kkeung.
But as we drew closer to the blue flames, he hesitated, as though the heat was too much for him. I gestured for Peace to go back. Even Peace, with his powerful fire resistance, could not approach beyond a certain point. Neither could anyone else. Even a Transcendent would not be able to endure it.
But to me, it was softly warm.
I reached out toward the flames stretching my way. The blue fire did not harm me. It wrapped around my hand with a gentle heat.
“Yuhyun.”
It really is you.
My brother was here.
Right here, beside me.
It was hot.
For the first time since becoming a Transcendent, the Gardener felt pain.
The heat of the blue fire was melting even the hard shell that had blocked every power it had ever faced. The Gardener’s unchanging essence clashed against the fire that devoured all things, and the black outer carapace warped, regenerated, warped again.
‘It’s hot.’
The Gardener’s shell was holding.
But it could not completely stop the heat from seeping inside.
The Gardener looked at the humans through senses in place of eyes that did not exist. He sensed the being this fire loved, the only one it loved.
The Gardener shuddered.
Fire never goes out.
Not until it has devoured everything it touches.
Eventually, it would burn away even his unchanging essence, and then it would swallow the Gardener himself.
The Gardener’s legs, warped by flame, scraped against the ground.
It would end here.
Like this.
With the pseudo-origin right in front of him.
Just before he could take what he wanted into his hands.
Like this.
‘Hot. Hot!’
The insect’s legs moved sluggishly. He could not even walk properly, only twitch in place. He could not run. Every World Tree he was connected to existed outside this world. Now that he had lost most of the garden, he no longer had enough power to leave this world. He could not dig into the ground and hide either; everything was water. Little of his territory remained, and the entirety of that small island was enveloped in flames.
An insect that had survived by parasitizing World Trees, by clinging to plants.
An insect that could do nothing alone.
The Gardener looked at the one beloved by the fire that was tormenting him.
Han Yujin.
‘You ruined everything.’
He had lost.
The insect would burn to death here. He would vanish into nothing, empty and meaningless.
The Gardener stopped moving.
‘I will not go alone.’
Once the shell melted away, he would detonate the ancient power stored within him. It would be an explosion that reached Han Yujin, of course, and the other humans around him, and the dream world, and even the world they were protecting.
Everything would be swept away.
The Gardener gave up resisting.
The fire melted the shell that had remained unchanged for a length of time close to eternity. Cracks began to form in the tightly sealed outer covering.
And through them—
– It’s a dream where you become what you want to be!
A small whisper seeped in.
The sparkle that had only circled outside, unable to cross the shell, now slipped through along the path the fire had made.
‘…This is.’
Light that set stopped time flowing again.
Light that guided one toward the future one desired.
The Gardener faltered.
At that moment, Han Yujin stood. He began walking toward the sea of fire no one else could approach.
‘…The nurturer.’
The blue flame touched Han Yujin’s fingertips.
He stood directly before the Gardener.
The Gardener was not Han Yujin’s child. But at that moment, the light made by Han Yujin’s child had reached him. Through the widening cracks, the nurturer’s power seeped in as well.
‘I…’
He hated that human.
He hated this entire situation.
But the beginning of all that hatred had been—
‘I.’
A dream where one became what one wanted to be.
Would resentment toward others remain in someone who had obtained what he longed for? There would be no reason to hate. No need to be angry. If he truly took hold of what he wanted.
Right now, he could kill Han Yujin.
He could sweep away every last one of the people who had ruined the garden.
But another path had appeared before the Gardener.
A path brought by fire.
A glittering path of light.
Instead of detonating his own power in revenge, the Gardener chose the newly opened path.
Craaaaaack—
The Gardener’s back shell split lengthwise.
The fire surged higher. The inextinguishable flame had already burrowed inside him; death could not be avoided.
Even so, at the end—
The blue fire melted the old shell and devoured it.
From within, wings spread.
Wings that had been folded and folded again, crushed into tight wrinkles, opened wide in the heat. Blue as flame, they beat with force.
The Gardener’s body shot into the sky.
A bright blue sea spread out below.
Beyond it rose a city, mountains, plains, forests, and rivers.
He was no longer thirsty.
No longer hungry.
He was an independent, free being.
Every connection to the World Tree–type Transcendents was severed. Everything that had bound him through those long years remained below as an empty husk, vanishing into the flames.
Blue fire gathered at the tips of his long, great wings.
Slowly, it began crawling upward, devouring them.
Even so, he felt no pain.
Instead, he was elated.
He was happy.
He was proud of these beautiful wings that could carry him anywhere. Proud of clear eyes that could look at the clouds. Proud of ears brushed by the sound of wind, of legs that moved with supple grace, of a soft body.
All of it was precious.
All of it was lovely.
– I.
Even if he had devoured countless World Trees, even if he had eaten Transcendents, even if he had created a small world, even if he had obtained the pseudo-origin.
Even then, the Gardener would not have been satisfied.
Because all he had done was take what belonged to others.
From the beginning, he had not wanted to become something else. He had wanted to remain himself and still be able to be satisfied with himself.
He had wanted growth that was truly his own.
Whatever ending might be waiting for him—
he wanted to move forward as himself.
The Gardener began a flight destined to fall.
Yuhyun!
The voice rippled like something heard in a dream.
It was faint, buried beneath layer after layer of obstruction, so faint it was almost impossible to understand. But Han Yuhyun soon remembered the owner of that voice.
Hyung.
His brother was calling him.
The moment he thought he had to answer, another self surfaced in his mind.
Was the one Hyung was calling truly “me”?
He hesitated.
He wavered.
Who was Han Yuhyun?
Who was Han Yujin’s little brother?
Hyung…
I.
Han Yuhyun could not answer Han Yujin’s call.
He was Han Yuhyun, and yet he was not Han Yuhyun.
The consciousness that had faintly awakened began sinking once more, down into that darkness, deep and black.
“Han Yuhyun.”
Someone who was not his brother called him.
A being just like him seeped into Han Yuhyun.
The watch.
The watch he had prepared for Han Yujin.
The gift he had forgotten completely came back to him.
“Wake up.”
The flat voice continued.
Han Yuhyun looked at Han Yuhyun.
A face a little taller than him, a little older than him, looked back at Han Yuhyun.
“I disappeared.”
The fragment of the twenty–six-year-old Han Yuhyun, the one that had flowed in with the memory orb, spoke.
“Now there is only one Han Yuhyun. You.”
Han Yuhyun felt the trace of his other self.
His senses perceived what lay beyond the crystal. Something beside his brother.
A fire that was only a trace.
“…You.”
“I went back to Hyung.”
He had returned to Han Yujin’s side and met his end beside Han Yujin.
His voice held no regrets.
The twenty–six-year-old Han Yuhyun had achieved what he wanted.
“So now it’s your turn.”
“I…”
“Stay beside Hyung and protect him.”
Han Yuhyun opened his eyes.
Beyond the wall like black glass, he saw Han Yujin.
His brother was calling him.
At the same time, he felt a dangerous being behind him.
‘…The Gardener.’
Although he had been asleep the whole time, Han Yuhyun grasped the situation quickly.
The Transcendent standing near Han Yujin.
Even the Transcendent with powerful water abilities had failed to finish off the Gardener.
His brother had looked at him desperately.
His brother had made it here in the end.
No matter what happened, he would never give up. Somehow, he would try to save his little brother.
Even if he had to hurt himself to do it.
The back of his hand, his wrist, his entire arm burned hot.
– Young fire.
A fragment of the First Flame whispered to him.
– Your essence is fire that devours all things.
Flames began to rise.
Blue, clear, transparent fire.
– Your fire will devour even you.
That was complete fire.
Blue Flame.
Not a flame that consumed his own life, but a blue flame perfected as the very form of his existence.
Melting and devouring the black crystal, Han Yuhyun bloomed.
–TL Notes–
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