Prologue
People ask whether even vengeance eventually fades before time.
20 years, 30 years, 50 years, and 100 years.
They ask how human hatred could possibly retain its form across such long years.
What a ridiculous thing to say.
To me, time was not a cure that brought oblivion. If anything, it was a blacksmith that tempered my vengeance harder.
Six regressions. More than 100 years.
In endless despair, my hatred for that bastard was not diluted. Instead, it was refined into its purest form.
The rage of my first life fed on the helplessness of my second. The sense of betrayal from my third burned with the despair of my fourth as its oil.
Repeated failure burned away every trace of pity or forgiveness from my vengeance.
To me, vengeance was not a simple emotion.
And now that my seventh life had begun, that flame was once again exceeding its limits.
Until, once more, everything was turned to ash.
***
Chapter 1. The Sixth Ash
The world was collapsing.
No. Rather than collapsing, the world was being dismantled.
The Nakdong River Special Defense Zone, called the final line of defense. It was nothing more than a colossal stage for someone’s amusement.
“Aaaaagh-!”
A scream. It belonged to Yu Han-gyeol, an S-rank Hunter. The man once called the strongest tanker in South Korea was tearing at his own head as tears of blood streamed down his face.
His eyes had shattered like broken pieces of glass, and black foam spilled from his mouth.
“Captain! Please come to your senses!”
His adjutant shouted desperately and charged in, but what returned was a fist.
CRUNCH—!
With a dull rupture, the adjutant’s body flew dozens of meters and slammed into a wall.
“Ha… haha… kh… khaaaa-!”
From Yu Han-gyeol’s mouth burst the hollow cry of a man whose reason had collapsed.
Song Ji-hu stared at the entire scene without expression.
‘…It’s started again.’
There was neither anger nor sorrow in the low murmur. It was simply another ending that had repeated itself six times.
At the center of the battlefield, atop a ruined high-rise, the Abyssal Monarch who had directed every tragedy stood motionless against the torn sky.
The bastard, clad in black formal wear as if imitating a human, looked down on this hell and swept his hand through the air with a satisfied smile, like a conductor awaiting the climax of an opera.
“Ah, how beautiful….”
His voice echoed not in the ears, but inside the skull.
“The despair of the moment when firm conviction collapses and one turns a blade on the comrade one trusted most. What a pure, rich emotion it is.”
Song Ji-hu’s fingertips trembled at the sight of the Abyssal Monarch shuddering all over, as if savoring delicacies from mountains and seas.
“Graaagh-!”
Another person collapsed with a death cry full of pain. Lightning struck down, and flames exploded. Screams, then screams again, rang out.
“Ji-hu….”
A voice soaked in blood. Im Jae-hyeok staggered to his feet, using his shield as a cane.
“Run… away.”
The man who had been the first to reach out to him, a comrade who had been like an older brother. His shield was broken, and blood was pouring from his abdomen.
“You, at least… have to live.”
Song Ji-hu gave no answer, though he felt the despair in his voice.
“If I… if only I’d been a little stronger…!”
Tears of self-reproach ran from Im Jae-hyeok’s eyes.
“It isn’t your fault, brother….”
Song Ji-hu opened his mouth for the first time. His voice was as dry as a desert.
“We were… that bastard’s pieces from the very beginning.”
Im Jae-hyeok’s face twisted. It was an expression of incomprehension. Song Ji-hu did not explain any further. There was no time to explain, and no meaning in it.
BOOM!
One building collapsed with an explosion. Dust billowed up, and another scream burst from within it.
Song Ji-hu slowly raised his head and looked at the Abyssal Monarch, who was wearing a thoroughly satisfied smile.
“Now, then.”
The Monarch clapped elegantly, as if introducing an actor onstage.
“It is time to taste the ripest fruit first.”
The moment he stretched out his hand, Song Ji-hu felt the blood throughout his body turn cold at the word fruit.
A sensation in which one’s very existence was violated, one he could never grow used to even after enduring it six times.
Yu Han-gyeol’s body, which had been screaming inhumanly, rose into the air. His mouth split open at an angle that should not have been able to form even a scream, and from within it, a dazzlingly bright ‘something’ began to be dragged out.
A face twisted in pain, screaming, yet howling without sound. It was a soul in the shape of Yu Han-gyeol’s face, an ego (Ego) in which emotion and ability had been condensed.
“Ah… As expected, the Ego of an S-rank stained with pain and despair smells different from the very first note.”
The Monarch’s voice was filled with the ecstasy of gluttony.
“The pride and conviction built over a lifetime, and even the wretched despair of the final moment. What a perfect flavor.”
The mass of Ego was sucked toward the Monarch. He swallowed it in a single bite. The sound of the soul being broken and split apart inside the bastard’s mouth was horrifying enough to raise gooseflesh.
GRIND-
A chilling sound came from Song Ji-hu’s molars. Because he had clenched his fist too hard, his nails dug into his palm, tearing the flesh, and blood flowed down.
“Next….”
The Monarch’s gaze turned toward the other S-rank Hunters.
“No!”
Someone shouted, but resistance was meaningless. With each scream, souls were pulled free, and the process of them disappearing into the Monarch’s mouth repeated like a machine.
“Hmm, this one has a thick aftertaste of mana, so the finish is bitter. This one has quite a strong taste of loyalty… Oh, and this one is mixed with betrayal, making it very stimulating.”
He savored the taste of each soul one by one, like a wine sommelier. Pain that did not end even in death. A fate in which they became the bastard’s nourishment and were toyed with forever.
‘Ah. I’ve… watched this six times.’
The sight of his comrades’ souls being harvested one by one. The way they resisted until the end, only to collapse. And the dreadful fate of becoming their enemy’s nourishment even after death, bound for all eternity.
Six lives, no less. He had gathered S-rank Hunters. Trained them. Devised strategies. Collected artifacts. Cleared dungeons and raised levels. In every regression, he had tried a slightly different method.
But the result was always the same.
Total annihilation.
And a soul harvest.
And at last, the Monarch’s gaze touched Im Jae-hyeok.
“No!”
Song Ji-hu screamed and stepped in front of Im Jae-hyeok, but the Monarch flung him aside with nothing more than a flick of one finger.
“Ji… Ji-hu… I’m sorry….”
The last tear fell from Im Jae-hyeok’s eyes. Until the very moment his soul was pulled out, his gaze was fixed on Song Ji-hu.
“Mmm… The taste of this blazing friendship. Truly excellent. Today’s finest dish.”
Song Ji-hu watched from where he had been slammed into the ground as even his last comrade vanished.
There was no sorrow.
There was no rage.
Only a nothingness as cold and empty as the universe filled his heart.
“Now, this is the final feast,”
The Monarch descended in front of Song Ji-hu.
“Only you remain now, my little farmer.”
“…Farmer?”
“Yes, farmer.”
The Monarch laughed as if amused.
“You farmed splendidly across six lives. You found the finest seeds, raised them with such care, and presented them before me when they were at their most delicious. All of this is thanks to you.”
Song Ji-hu’s empty eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck them.
“You bastard….”
“So that is the face of someone who still did not know. How innocent.”
The Monarch seized his chin and forced him to meet his eyes. Within those eyes, Song Ji-hu saw the past six lives flash by like a revolving lantern.
“I knew of your regression from the very beginning, and I allowed it.”
“……!”
Song Ji-hu’s breathing grew ragged.
“The power to turn back time belongs to the domain of gods. How could a mere mortal like you exercise it as he pleases? I merely saw the potential in your soul and prepared a small stage for you. Until you harvested the finest souls and brought them to me.”
The Monarch stroked his head like a pet.
“This life’s harvest was also most satisfying. You raised them very well.”
A beastlike groan burst from Song Ji-hu’s mouth. The previous six struggles had not been the heroic saga of saving the world.
They had merely been the most humiliating stretch of husbandry: tending the final boss’s soul farm.
“But listen, farmer. What I truly anticipate is your soul. Its taste, aged through six cycles of despair, will surely become the finest delicacy, surpassing every soul.”
His voice dug into Song Ji-hu’s mind like a devil’s whisper.
“Not yet. It is not ripe enough yet. Despair a little more, suffer a little more, struggle a little more, and at the moment all hope crumbles, that will be when I come to taste you.”
“Shut up….”
“Then I shall see you in your final life. My most beloved farmer.”
When the Monarch left, humming, to harvest the remaining souls.
“What rare souls will you offer me in the next life, I wonder? I look forward to it. Or… will you give up like this?”
By instinct, Song Ji-hu drew the regression item bound to his soul, the ‘Soul Revolver.’
The faces of the comrades who had stood with him in his first life passed through his mind. Last Sunset. Even that name had become a thing of the distant past.
And this was both the keepsake and relic that the leader of Last Sunset had left to Song Ji-hu at the cost of his own life and soul.
Six chambers.
When this revolver had first been bound to his soul, six bullets had filled it.
Every time he turned back a life, one bullet disappeared.
And now, only one bullet remained.
“Never….”
The moment Song Ji-hu placed his finger on the trigger, a very faint vibration rang out inside his chest.
When he reached inside his clothes, he felt the hard touch of metal, vibrating hotly.
“A compass?”
It was a small, old compass made of brass.
The old compass Im Jae-hyeok had handed him just before the battle, calling it a lucky charm.
“You’re the only one who’ll see how this ends. We all know it. We have almost no chance of winning.”
“….”
“Even so, we’re going to fight. Because you’re our hope. You have to survive until the end.”
His final words rang in Song Ji-hu’s ears.
And the moment Song Ji-hu took the compass in his hand, he realized it.
“Ah….”
This compass was the single ‘variable’ that had never existed once across his last six lives, across 100 years.
He had spent four of his six lives with Im Jae-hyeok, but Im Jae-hyeok had never once handed him this compass. Then where in the world had it come from?
VMMMM-!
The compass emitted a hot light and vibrated violently. That light seeped into Song Ji-hu’s empty soul and engraved messages within it.
[Opening coordinates to the mental world.]
[Proceeding to the origin.]
[Purifying the source of contamination.]
Song Ji-hu’s eyes snapped open.
The reason the Hunters collapsed under the bastard’s mental attacks was that the more they faced him, the more their traumas were amplified, causing their Egos to crumble.
Then conversely, what if he entered the origin of those traumas and healed them?
What if their Egos were strengthened?
What if they could block the Monarch’s mental attacks?
‘A chance… opens up. Definitely.’
Song Ji-hu’s hand trembled. But this time, it was not from despair.
Hope.
Real hope, felt for the first time in 100 years.
The compass resonated with the Soul Revolver, then melted into his soul as if being engraved there.
He felt as though he knew what he had to do.
Song Ji-hu staggered to his feet even as he poured blood.
“Abyssal Monarch.”
His voice was low and cold, but inside it, a spark of hope taking root for the first time was burning.
The Monarch stopped harvesting souls and turned to Song Ji-hu with interest.
“Oh? Do you still have something left to say?”
Song Ji-hu hooked his finger around the revolver’s trigger.
“Six times.”
He pressed the revolver to his own temple.
“Seven times.”
The smile vanished from the Monarch’s lips.
“Until the moment your bastard heart bursts and turns to ash.”
In Song Ji-hu’s eyes, killing intent condensed from six turns of hatred exploded.
“I won’t stop. Never. I’ll challenge you to the very end.”
BANG-!
Amid the terrible agony of the soul bullet tearing through his temple, Song Ji-hu recalled his comrades’ final faces.
‘This time… for certain.’
His consciousness went dark.