A cold wind swept across the ridge, carrying the metallic smell of dust and ancient stone. The boy sat slumped against a boulder, eyelids drooping, his breath warm in the chilling air. The woman's faint, half-translucent form hovered beside him, flickering whenever the wind grew too sharp.
She crossed her arms, huffed softly, and said,
"That's the end of the story about how this world works or our body works… but there's still more thing left to talk. But I know you would figure it out by yourself."
The boy let out a long yawn, head bobbing forward.
"What now? You talk exactly like that old man which I met on the path. My brain feels cooked… and I'm sleepy."
She punched him hard. The crack of impact echoed off the cave walls.
"Stay awake." Her brows tightened, the faint glow beneath her skin pulsing with irritation. "Do you want to hear why I ended up in that state?"
He rubbed the sore spot, blinking back tears. "I just assumed you died a long time ago… or someone killed you. You know, people say when someone dies with unfulfilled will, they turn into a demon. Or maybe someone took your corpse and forced it into—"
Another punch.
"Stop imagining nonsense."
He lifted both hands defensively.
"Hey! You're literally a soul. How are you punching me?"
This time she hit him five times in rapid succession, each blow fueled by a strange, swirling prana drawn from the air around them. The boy staggered back against the stone, coughing.
He exhaled sharply.
"…Ah. So you're borrowing prana from the surroundings to hit me."
A reluctant smile tugged at her lips.
"Looks like you have at least a few functioning neurons."
The boy squinted at her, shoulders trembling with mock sadness.
"I might not have a body right now, but I'm not brainless. Don't cry, I understand your tragic… floating existence."
Her eye twitched.
"Are you mocking me?"
"No, encouraging you."
She threw another punch, but he dodged it for once, stepping aside with a tiny, triumphant grin.
"See? You're finally learning from my words."
She didn't hesitate. She grabbed him by the head, dragged him down, and pummeled him until dust rose in small clouds.
"Don't talk so much," she muttered, catching her breath. "Beating you also drains my strength too. Now stand up. We're going inside the cave."
The boy pushed himself up, brushing dirt from his hair. But his gaze drifted upward, toward the sky where a massive stone gateway hovered like a scar in the heavens. Purple cracks pulsed across its edges, leaking faint strands of ghostly light.
He frowned.
"…Why is it still open?"
The woman followed his gaze, and for a moment her ghostly form flickered harder, as if some unseen force was tugging at her. She curled her fists. "Let's go. Something's wrong."
Even though they could see the gate plainly, they felt something else, a gaze, ancient and weightless, watching them through it. It was like the gate itself had begun to stare back.
Then—
A conch sound burst through the air.
It was half-laughter, half-scream; divine in resonance yet soaked in something demonic. The mountains trembled. Stone dust drifted from the ceiling. The boy covered his ears but the sound drilled straight into his bones. From the horizon, two different clouds coloured in streaks of yellow and blood-red surged toward that gate place. They screeched not only like beasts, but also like laws being torn apart.
The woman's eyes widened. "Now I remember… those clouds are Laws. Don't ask anything about them. You're too weak to even stand in their presence."
The boy's lips parted.
"Laws? As in—"
"Don't." Her voice hardened. "They cannot withstand the gate's opening. Being forced to come near it wounds them… and a wounded Law awakens violently."
The clouds shrieked again, curling inward like something was ripping them open from inside.
She whispered, almost to herself,
"…The last time the gate opened… millions of years ago…"
The boy's breathing quickened.
"What happened back then?"
She clenched her jaw.
"You don't need to know. Not yet. The more you learn, the faster karmic blossoms will crawl up your spine and devour your future. Just remember this, everything, all of this chaos, happened because the gate is open."
The clouds paused mid-air, trembling like living nerves. Slowly, very slowly, they started retreating.
"Good… They're withdrawing," she breathed. "We should stop watching. If we stare too long, it might stare back again."
She turned, stepping toward the cave entrance. But the boy stayed frozen in there. He asked "Sister…" She paused. "What is it?" He swallowed, eyes fixed on something behind her. "Sister… what is that?"
She frowned, confused. She turned to face the cave entrance again, nothing was there. Empty stone, jagged shadows, cold air. Then she felt something and slowly, slowly turned back to him.
As she turned fully now, her breath stopped in her throat. An eye was rising from the horizon.
A colossal eye, so vast its veins branched like entire galaxies, constellations pulsing inside the iris like drifting cosmic dust. Its pupil was a devouring abyss, wide enough to swallow continents.
The woman grabbed his shoulder instinctively in some thought. Before either could speak, the eye blinked, a slow, dreadful closing, like a universe folding shut. Then it vanished.
Just a blank patch of sky trembling as if wounded. But the silence didn't last. The sky tore apart.
A face forced its way through the rent in the sky, pushing reality aside as though it were thin cloth. It tilted sideways, shadow spilling across the sea and land. His flesh looked half-formed, half-decayed, molten rock fused with rivers of lava, cracked skin hardened into jagged black plates. Smoke rose from exposed wounds as if the sins of epochs still burned beneath.
All the clouds fled in terror, all except the two streaks of red and yellow Law-clouds, which remained trembling in the air. The woman's body flickered. She instinctively stepped behind the boy.
Her voice was tight, strained. "Get ready… use your power any moment. I can't endure that thing's gaze. Its eye burns like yours does in your other form, except this one… this one could erase mountains."
Strands of the giant's hair, long, ashen, and swaying like smoke, fell over its face, hiding part of its molten features. As the creature entered fully through the sky fissure, the world went dark. Clouds swirled into a vortex of black and ocean-blue, twisting into spirals large enough to swallow valleys.
From the sea, enormous water columns rose like pillars trying to hold up the collapsing sky. They surged toward the intruder in violent eruptions, crashing into one another as though competing for the right to attack first.
Rocks tore free from mountainsides, flung across the sky like arrows fired by the earth itself. The red and yellow clouds screamed, their screech sharper and more savage than before. The sea raged. Huge waves twisted into serpentine forms, racing toward the sky-tearing face.
A roar erupted from the depths. Something ancient, primal, burst from the water, a demonic Kun Peng, but not like the myths depict. Its wings were cracked obsidian, dripping with abyssal slime; its body was stitched with scar-like fissures glowing faintly blue. It flew upward with a cry.
The Kun Peng opened its enormous beak and unleashed a beam. The burning-faced titan opened his mouth in response. A deep, ancient sound poured out, a command written in the language of destruction.
The two attacks collided. Reality rippled.
A ring of silence expanded outward, freezing wind, freezing waves, freezing even the woman's flickering hair in mid-motion. The boom that followed didn't come from the collision. Both the Kun Peng and the titan, staring across at each other. Then the creature moved.
Its voice echoed like ancient stone grinding through oceans. "…Benevolent Law… permit me to search this plane." Each word made the mountains shudder. "I sense a god-blood here. I have come for the one worthy. Allow me to take him."
The red and yellow Law-clouds surged forward, their forms curling like serpents ready to strike. Their voices layered over each other, cold and merciless. "Your presence is no longer tolerated. Speak one more word and we will unmake you, body, soul, memory."
The titan lowered his lava-cracked brows. "I understand your threat… I will obey. But answer me something."
Heat shimmered around him, bending the air. "Are you here to protect the heretic… or to kill him or, you don't know his existence and the pact? This plane is forsaken. Those emerging from it are—"
The clouds suddenly froze mid-motion. A violent pressure burst downward toward the woman and the boy, like a gust made of invisible blades.
The Laws spoke in a single unified tone: "Even a heretic falls under protection. We do not permit killing without judgment. Law applies equally to all."
The titan's jaw tightened. His molten teeth glowed. "Are you siding with god-killers now? With the ones who birthed you?" A harsh growl tore from his throat. "I will see every Law from this wretched place erased."
The Laws vibrated violently. "Do not force us to break the ancient accord. Withdraw. Or be destroyed." The titan sneered. "Pitiful things… you dare threaten me?"
Suddenly the eye atop his forehead, flared. A red beam erupted forward, so sharp it felt like a scream made into light. It tore through the Laws, ripping the sky behind them like cloth soaked in blood. The sea parted instantly under the falling attack. A canyon opened in the ocean, the water split cleanly down the middle.
The Kun Peng, caught in the path, was severed from shoulder to tail in one merciless slice.
For a moment its body drifted apart, two halves sliding away like butchered meat. but then a surge of ghostly energy stitched it back together, shoving its organs, bones, and wings into place in a grotesque rebuilding.
It gave a weak roar and sank back into the sea's depths, vanishing beneath the waves.
The molten-faced titan stared at the ocean split in half, then at the trembling Laws retreating into the sky's wound. A low, cruel chuckle vibrated from deep within his cracked throat.
"See?" he said, voice echoing like boulders grinding underwater. "This is what happens when you go against the gods."
Then his burning eyes drifted downward, and landed on them.
The woman didn't even have time to put up a barrier. An invisible weight slammed down on her with such force that her knees smashed into the stone. Her ghostly form flickered violently, as though one breath away from being torn apart.
The pressure also intensified as time goes. But then—
A ring of light rose behind the boy's back. It spun slowly. Its presence pushed back the crushing force, freeing the woman from the invisible grip.
The titan narrowed his eyes. "A heretic… and a reincarnator. I never thought I'd find both after a million years." His charred lips peeled back in a hungry grin. "So, you killed him and stole his god-blood. You helped that murderer end her life. And now you think you'll walk away?"
The titan continued, tone dropping into a mock sympathy. "I am being reasonable. Hand over that god-blood and I will let you die without pain. That blood is wasted on something like you." The boy exhaled lightly, as if the titan's threats bored him.
"Another dog of Heaven."
The titan's molten beard crackled. "Impudence! How dare a worm insult Heaven? Very well—go die."
A red beam, as harsh as the wrath of a star, shot down from the titan's forehead-eye, slicing through the clouds.
The boy didn't flinch.
He reached out and plucked a drifting petal from the air; and flicked it upward.
The beam shattered on impact. Where the light broke, dozens of shifting beasts formed, dragons, wolves, serpents made of fractured radiance. They surged toward the boy with murderous roars.
Boy simply raised his hand. One by one, the beasts unravelled into petals again. They drifted down like soft snowfall and returned to his palm.
The titan paused.
"Hunh… I'm sorry, fate-less one," he said, genuine regret bleeding into his tone. "But for the sake of the future, you must die. Allow me to cleanse this world of a pest."
The boy exhaled and closed his eyes, his form began to grow, shoulders widening, arms lengthening, the faint echo of his other self emerging but then he stopped. His body shrank back instantly, returning to its usual small, fragile shape. The woman grabbed his arm. "What happened? Why did you stop?"
The boy didn't answer at first. He only stared toward the cliff, lips curling into a small, almost relieved smile.
"He came."
Even the Kun Peng, still bleeding from its wounds beneath the sea, poked its head above the surface. Its ancient eyes locked on the same distant point as if recognizing an unforgiving predator.
A beautiful, ancient, holy, second conch sound rolled across the world. The Laws shuddered. Their unified voice echoed like a commandment carved into the sky: "Be cautious. Even the gods you serve could not defeat him."
A thin beam of blue-white light descended from somewhere beyond the broken horizon. It struck the ground beside the boy, tracing a line across the stone, almost as if marking territory. The boy said quietly, "Let's move. Don't worry… he's here."
Though she didn't understand who "he" was, the woman nodded quickly, her instincts screaming that hesitation meant death.
They both leapt across shattered stones, racing toward the cave entrance.
But before they reached the mouth of the cavern, a massive red blast shot downward, faster than thought. Something blurred above his head. The hat, the one resting atop the sword until now, shot forward like a summoned guardian. It expanded, expanding and expanding until it dwarfed even the wounded Kun Peng. Shadows rippled across its surface like ancient seals awakening.
It absorbed the entire blast. The Laws recoiled in visible mockery, drifting backward as if trying not to be caught near whatever force had awakened the hat. The titan snarled. "Who are you to obstruct the path of gods?"
Far below, the Kun Peng dove into the sea with a graceful, almost reverent leap, vanishing beneath the waves. The sky shuddered. From somewhere beyond the storm-warped horizon, a voice older than bone, older than any god written in scripture, rippled through the world.
"You dare harm him… in my presence? A mere ant …"
The sky trembled with thunder. A cold, merciless laughter rang that split the clouds apart.
The boy felt the vibration run through his bones. Before he could turn, his sword and hat leapt upward with a tearing shua sound.
They rose like two streaks of divine light.
And then they grew. The sword elongated into a line of silver so bright it cut the color out of the sky. The hat expanded like a shadow blooming open, edges glowing with ancient runes.
Both streaked toward the titan. In a single flash—
The sword cleaved down from above, splitting through the molten titan's third eye and carving a straight line down his head, nearly slicing him in half.
At the same instant, the hat spun once and its invisible force shredded both of the titan's physical eyes, reducing them to dripping craters of lava and ruined divinity.
The titan roared. A sound like mountains collapsing into oceans. His voice cracked through the broken sky, full of agony and disbelief. "You… you again… still alive… aaah—my eyes—my divinity—IT'S LEAVING ME—!"
Lava gushed from the empty sockets, falling in thick streams that hissed as they struck the sea.
He thrashed, grabbing at his face as though trying to hold his melting power from leaking out.
"I WILL RETURN! I WILL KILL YOU! YOU, YOU DARE PUT YOUR FAITH IN HIM AGAIN—! BOTH OF YOU MUST DIE—"
A voice whispered across the world like a blade drawn across the throat of fate itself: "Do you wish to suffer her fate as well? Are you so eager to die?"
The titan froze mid-scream.
His molten body stopped shaking.
He lowered himself slowly, trembling like a child caught before a merciless judge.
"W–wait, wait! Do not kill me - !" he begged, voice cracking.
"I - I swore to Heaven with lotus as heart - I will not speak a word - I found no one - I saw nothing - please… forgive my arrogance… Sage… forgive me for failing to recognize you…"
He closed what remained of his eyes and then he fled. Neither the woman nor the boy could see whether he bled, or burned, or simply dissolved. For a moment, the world fell into silence.
The broken sea slowly knitted itself back. The torn clouds stitched their wounds. The sky peeled shut like a scar fading.
Meanwhile, the boy and woman reached the foot of the colossal gate, now half-buried under jagged rocks fallen from the earlier quake. The boy paused and turned toward the cliff again, a small smile tugging at his lips. The woman followed his gaze instinctively.
The fog over the distant ridge parted. A faint silhouette stepped forward, a being wrapped in soft, ancient light, as though the world itself bowed around his presence.
He raised a hand in a gesture of farewell.
And in a calm, age-weathered voice, he spoke:
"May your path be blessed by your own karma.
Beware of humans.
Protect yourself always."
The mist swallowed him again.
And just like that—
the world returned to its ordinary shape.
Waves rolled as if nothing had happened.
Wind carried the smell of wet stone and burnt earth.
The last echoes of thunder faded into the dusk.
Now they stood before the cave gate, buried under a heavy wall of fallen stone.
The boy exhaled.
"Do we break it… or move it?"
The woman's glow flickered like a candle in the wind.
"Whichever you prefer. I… don't have the strength left to help. A small part of me is all that remains now." He nodded and placed both hands on the largest boulder. He pushed. Once. Twice. Five times. Nothing moved. Not even a tremble.
He stepped back, catching his breath. He closed his eyes. He raised his index finger toward the sky. The sword and hat, still glowing from the earlier battle, descended through the clouds like heavenly weapons returning to their master.
They fell toward him.
The hat arrived first, spinning in a slow, precise cone that aimed directly at the boulder. Its edges gleamed like crescent moons catching fire.
It touched the stone, and made a cracks spider-webbed across its surface.
Then the sword followed. A single downward stroke. The entire rock wall shattered, exploding outward into dust that drifted away like scattering sand. When the dust finally settled, the sword and hat gently lowered themselves into the cave's shadow, vanishing inside like obedient guardians returning to their place.
The last light of the setting sun spilled across the horizon, a final, thin crimson line stretching like a cut across the sky before darkness swallowed everything.
The boy watched her bow once, simple, quiet, almost too gentle for the echoing cavern, and step past the thin curtain of shadow that hung over the entrance. The moment her foot crossed, her outline dissolved. Darkness swallowed her in a single inhaling motion.
The chamber ahead of him was pitch-black, like the hollowed-out stomach of a dead mountain. No sound. No wind. Just stillness.
Outside, through the jagged mouth of the cavern, he could see the world shifting. The moon was rising, its glow trembling across the river that curled below the cliffs. The water shimmered in wavering sheets of light, as if greeting him with ghostly hands. He stepped deeper and spoke into the dark. "...How long has it been in here?"
A voice drifted back, her voice, but softer, sweeter, a touch more distant than before. "Four years," she answered. "And evening has already arrived outside. Less than twelve hours remain for me."
He froze. His breath stumbled. "Four years...? But it was only four days outside last time. Why is it—" "In this place," she said, "time flows the way a river wishes. Sometimes it rushes, sometimes it stalls. Here... one day means one year. And once you walk deeper, even that changes."
The darkness carried her words like ripples. He swallowed and looked up. Through a wide, circular opening carved high into the stone wall, the moon poured in a silver beam that sliced the chamber diagonally. Dust rose in the path of the light, turning it into drifting galaxies. The beam struck something near the far wall—a tree.
A tree inside a cave.
Its branches were thin and elegant, almost skeletal, fully white as though carved from frozen moonlight. Small crystalline leaves clung to it. The leaves scattered the light around the chamber, forming shifting patterns on the stone floor. The whole cave slowly brightened, blooming in metallic silver.
A faint footstep behind him. "Turn around," she said. He did and saw she was walking toward him, an incense stick glowing faintly between her fingers. The smoke danced around her like pale ribbons, rising and dispersing into the dimness.
"Look forward," she said. His eyes shifted past her shoulder. There, half-hidden in the center of the chamber, sat a great Buddha idol carved in ancient stone. Its face was worn smooth by time, its lips curved in a faint and sorrowful calm. The rising moonlight fell behind it, casting the idol's silhouette like a giant shadow over the floor. The Buddha's broad back blocked most of the moonbeam, only the edges escaped, forming a luminous outline around the statue's shape.
Near its feet, incense burned in clay bowls, filling the air with a dense, woody scent
And above the Buddha's shoulder, for a fleeting heartbeat, the boy saw it, Disks. Many of them.
Like polished halos made of thin golden light, each spinning at a different speed, some small as bracelets, some wide as shields. They rotated silently, disappearing and reappearing behind faint drifting dust, like celestial mechanisms hidden behind a veil.
His breath caught. He leaned forward without realizing. She noticed his expression and let out a small, understanding smile. "He said," she began, placing the incense at the idol's feet, "that anyone who walks here will glimpse something behind this statue. Something only they are meant to see. And whatever they see, or whatever they think they saw, becomes their path."
She lowered her head slightly. "As for me... I don't know what waits for me. I've never seen anything behind him."
He moved closer and bowed before the statue. The light trembled on his skin, making it look pale and foreign. He pressed his palms together and bowed.
When he lifted his head again, he looked at her without blinking. For that single moment, he couldn't breathe. Her body was no longer the same as when she entered. What he saw now felt like something struggling between illusion and reality. Her robes now looked ethereal, layered like flowing mist. The fabric shimmered as though woven from moon water. Her outline flickered faintly, as if the shadows were trying to claim her but couldn't.
She lowered herself into a seiza posture before the idol. The moonlight slid across her cheeks, illuminating her eyes with a soft yet haunting gleam.
She looked unreal. A maiden carved from night. A being sculpted by moonlight and silence.
A single crystalline leaf fell from the moon-tree, drifting silently between them
To be Continued...