The island was burning.
Flames swallowed the trees, the sky glowed red, and the ground cracked open as if the world itself was dying. Atom kept running through the smoke, heart pounding, every breath sharp and heavy.
He didn't look back.
He couldn't.
The whole island would vanish soon.
Moments before the fire began…
The villagers stood in the soft morning light, dazed but alive.
"We… we're alive," someone whispered.
"But what was that?" another muttered, eyes wide. Confusion spread like a second storm. None of them understood a single thing happening around them.
"Hey—look!" a man shouted.
Every head turned toward the mountain of Nori.
A massive cloud of explosive energy had wrapped around it like a glowing cocoon.
"What is that…?"
They watched, frozen, as the explosion shook the earth.
A burst of heat slammed into them—
and the mountain ignited.
The fire roared to life, towering into the sky.
Panic shattered the villagers. They began screaming, running, stumbling toward the open sea and now that the wall trapping them was gone.
"The mountain… it's burning!"
"Grab the children!"
"Grandpa, hurry!" a young boy cried, clutching his grandfather's hand as they waded into the water.
The old man breathed heavily, trying to calm the boy.
"We just need to reach the boats… stay close."
Through the chaos, the grandson noticed something.
A figure sprinting out of the smoke—dodging falling trees, leaping over burning debris—running straight toward the shore.
Then, without hesitation, the figure jumped into the sea with a heavy splash.
"Who is he…?" the boy whispered, unable to look away.
The old man narrowed his eyes.
He didn't know it yet…
But the one who leaped into the sea
was the boy's only hope of surviving what would come next.
The fire behind him roared like a living dragon, chasing him down the burning coastline. It snapped at his heels as if ready to swallow him whole.
And as he ran, memories flooded back..
the beginning of everything.
I remember when it all started…
It was earlier that very day, when the villagers whispered that the Blasphemous had entered their land. People were excited, almost happy. Because. They wanted to kill him, to prove their strength… and I was no different.
But everything changed the moment I saw him.
I watched with my own eyes as he killed my neighbor—
no, he obliterated him.
His body didn't fall. It burst, like someone smashing a mosquito with their bare hand.
That image carved itself into my mind.
His bones, his blood, the sound… I can still hear it.
And in that single moment, all my courage vanished.
I didn't want to fight the Blasphemous anymore.
I didn't even want to look at him.
He wasn't human.
He was something else.
Something cruel… something terrifying.
So I gave up the foolish idea of killing him.
But then I heard the king had declared war on him. And all I could think was, The king is done for.
There's no way he can kill that monster.
That bursting body…
that sound…
I imagined the same fate waiting for the king.
And for some reason
I felt relieved.
If the Blasphemous killed the king… wouldn't that be better for all of us?
Later, when I spoke to my grandpa, he said he felt something strange in the air. Something wrong. And when everyone decided to escape the island, the sudden shift in the environment confirmed it.
Is this because of the Blasphemous?
I accepted it without question.
But the moment we reached the island's edge… something inside me changed.
I realized I wanted to meet him—
the Blasphemous.
And if I ever stood before him,
if he ever looked at me—
I would beg him, scream at him, cry if I had to…
"Kill the king!"
And the moment the boy saw him—
that man, the Blasphemous—plunging into the sea to escape the flames,
something inside him shifted.
"The fear is gone," he whispered.
"I… I don't fear him anymore."
Without hesitation, he swam toward the man struggling in the water. He offered his shoulder, supporting him as the villagers pushed farther into the sea, away from the hungry fire devouring their island.
Some were burned, some were injured…
but most survived.
The ocean carried them gently, like a final mercy.
Far above, in the smoke-choked sky, someone pointed with a trembling hand.
"Look… something's floating!"
"It's a chariot…?"
"It's flying!"
Atom lifted his head from the waves, eyes narrowing.
A golden chariot with the winged horse glided across the sky, heading straight toward the distant castle. Its aura was radiant, powerful, unmistakable.
He knew who it was.
Lord Supreme.
But just as the divine chariot neared the castle ruins—
it stopped.
A blinding light bloomed in front of them.
And then—
BOOM!
The explosion swallowed them.
"It exploded!"
Voices rose from the sea as the villagers witnessed the blast tearing through the sky.
But the explosion didn't harm the divine chariot.
It simply passed through the flames as if they were nothing, continuing its path toward the king's castle.
For Lord Supreme, meeting the king mattered more than any danger.
He rushed forward, untouched, unstoppable.
Beneath them, the survivors drifted on the open ocean, helpless as their home burned behind them. The island that had raised them was dying… sinking into fire.
Atom checked his sister gently. Her eyes fluttered open.
"Don't look," he whispered, placing a hand over her forehead.
Then.
He began the chant.
"Lord Almighty: Ume."
A sudden force surged beneath their feet.
"Eh?"
"What's happening?"
"We're… we're moving upwards!"
The sea pushed them—lifting them upward.
Water flattened beneath their feet like a solid floor.
They weren't sinking.
They weren't swimming.
They were standing on the sea.
One villager took a step—
and didn't fall.
"We can… walk?"
The ocean itself had become their path forward, guided by Atom's mantra—
their only lifeline as the island vanished behind them.
Ana hid behind her brother, gripping the back of his cloak. She refused to look at anyone—her small body trembling from everything she had witnessed.
Atom immediately understood.
Without a word, he lifted his cloak and wrapped her inside it, shielding her from the world.
"Don't worry," he whispered softly, holding her close.
"I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."
The elders and villagers watched from a distance
and at their front stood the boy and his grandfather.
The boy's eyes widened when he saw Atom the Blasphemous. Standing right before him. His heart thumped loudly. He wanted to speak, to tell Atom something important, even if his voice was shaking.
He stepped forward.
"Stay there."
Atom's voice was calm, but firm.
"I don't want anyone coming near my sister."
The elder grabbed his grandson's wrist, trying to hold him back. But the boy couldn't stop. He had to say it. He had to let the words out.
He took another step.
"Stay there," Atom repeated, still gentle but unmovable.
"But… listen to me," the boy said, breath unsteady.
"I want to tell you something. If you want to win, you need to lis—"
"Stay there."
Atom cut him off again, voice steady as a blade.
His eyes didn't show anger—
only a warning.
A boundary no one was allowed to cross.
The elder held his grandson back.
"You shouldn't," he warned quietly.
"But Grandpa… he can help us," the boy insisted, voice trembling with hope.
"I know," the elder replied, eyes fixed on Atom.
"He can help… but he won't. He's a blasphemous. Someone like him will never help people like us."
He spoke with certainty, as if he had already accepted the truth long ago.
Atom didn't even try to soften the blow.
"He's right," Atom said as he turned away. "I don't care about any of you. Just leave—"
"Then why?"
The boy's voice suddenly rose, cutting through Atom's words.
"Why did you save us?"
Atom didn't answer. He simply walked past them, pulling Ana gently along by the hand, ignoring the question completely.
The boy shouted again, desperate:
"It's here! The thing you're looking for—It's here!"
Atom didn't slow down.
"The Soul of the God! It's here!"
Atom froze.
Slowly… he turned back.
The boy lowered his voice, staring right into Atom's eyes.
"It's true. The Soul of the God is here."
Atom's expression didn't change.
"What if it's fake?" he asked calmly.
"I don't know if it's fake," the boy admitted.
"But the king… he's ruled this island for more than thirty years. And he's been hiding something from everyone."
Atom narrowed his eyes.
"Then how do you know?"
The boy swallowed hard.
He had the answer—
but saying it might change everything.
"Because my father told me."
The boy finally revealed the secret he had carried for years.
"When I was a child… they took my father and mother to the mines in the Mountain of Nori. They were forced to work there—slaves to the king. I was left behind with my grandpa."
His voice wavered, but he didn't stop.
"One night, my father escaped. He came home covered in wounds… terrified. And he told me one thing:
'The king has found the God's Soul.'
That was the last thing he ever said to me."
The boy lowered his gaze, hands trembling.
"I didn't know what to do with that secret. I was just a child. I kept waiting… thinking he would come back." he took a shaky breath.
"But yesterday… I sneaked into the Mountain of Nori. I wanted to see my parents."
His throat tightened.
"And I found them already dead."
The elder closed his eyes in pain.
"But that's not all," the boy continued, voice turning hollow.
"I heard something else. Something worse."
He looked straight at Atom.
'The king is planning to explode the entire island.'
"That's when I told Grandpa," he said. "We decided to run… to escape before everything ended. And after seeing today's fire, I'm sure of one thing."
The boy hesitated—
but Atom spoke the conclusion for him.
The sea fell silent around them, as if nature itself had stopped to listen.
"The king found out that the entire island… is the Soul of the God."