The Heavenly Demon extended his hand. Not a hand made of Aura, but his own ordinary arm, stretched out plainly.
As if inviting a handshake.
"Will you not stand with me?"
"…"
I could not say anything. The more I came to know the Heavenly Demon, the less I could understand him.
"Is my strength truly necessary?"
The Heavenly Demon is strong. He had no choice but to be strong, given what he had endured.
Having seen his memories, having seen what the Heavenly Demon at his peak was capable of, I could tell. I had grown much stronger, but I was still no match for the Heavenly Demon.
At this point in time, I couldn't say for certain… but as time passed, the Heavenly Demon's strength would surely reach the heavens.
It was only because the Heavenly Demon's goal went beyond touching the heavens—it was to shatter them—that he was still accumulating power.
"I have no intention of doing so, but even if I were to take that hand, what would change? There is nothing more unsettling than joining hands with one who has no need of me."
—It is needed.
Saying this, the Heavenly Demon continued in a calm voice.
—And that is only natural, for you, Sword Demon, are the rival chosen by heaven to oppose this one.
"…Rival?"
"That's right. Just as the Spirit Beasts' desperate flailing for survival once led to their destruction, and I was chosen as the one to oppose them, so too have you been chosen as my opponent."
"By whom… no, I suppose there's no need to ask."
The regression was still functioning, though no one was left to observe it. A mechanism that only knew how to run forward, never knowing when to stop—it must have made this judgment.
If I were to return to the past and defeat the Heavenly Demon, I would be the only one with that possibility.
Just as the Heavenly Demon, lacking in Martial Talent but with an unbreakable will, had managed to bring down the Spirit Beasts, so too did the device believe my sword had the best chance of reaching the Heavenly Demon's heart.
"In other words, unless it's you, Sword Demon, no one can stop me."
"If there's only one opponent… it would be more efficient to win them over than to fight them."
"Exactly. Above all, if you are like me, you will eventually reach the same conclusion. If we join forces, we join forces—there is no reason for us to fight each other."
"Well. There is a reason."
"You've seen it a few times now—it's not as though you, Sword Demon, have never joined hands with this one. It couldn't be called a firm alliance, but we managed to work together well enough."
"…"
"Ah, I see. So there are still those you hold dear. In that case, I will gladly give up the Central Plains of this life. There are plenty of places for people to live besides the Central Plains."
"What?"
The reason I had resolved to oppose the Heavenly Demon, to treat him as an opponent I would one day bring down, was one thing alone: he would destroy the Central Plains.
And Tang So-wol, Seol Ri-hyang, Seomun Hwa-rin. Beyond them, the new bonds I had formed. Wasn't everything they held dear rooted in the Central Plains?
It was too late to run. Already, I had accumulated more ties and promises than I could hold in both arms.
In the end, the only path left to me was to bring down the Heavenly Demon.
…But what if the Heavenly Demon never actually touched the Central Plains? If that were the case, was there really any reason to treat him as an enemy?
-Why so troubled? Ah, is once not enough? If necessary, I can wait until you are satisfied. Of course, on the condition that you do not neglect your martial arts training in the meantime.
"How would I ever know when I'd be satisfied? You can't just make promises like that."
-It doesn't matter when you are satisfied. After all, we have more time than we could ever waste.
"…"
Unlike me, who had not even lived a hundred years even counting my life before the regression, the Heavenly Demon must have endured a span of time so vast that counting it was meaningless.
After all, wasn't it only after nearly a thousand regressions that he had touched demonic arts and attained the enlightenment of the Harmony Realm?
After that, I went through several more regressions until I was able to slaughter every last Spirit Beast, and even then the regressions didn't stop, so I lived a wandering life for several hundred cycles.
At this point, a few more regressions probably meant nothing to me.
More than anything… if I too were to undergo infinite regressions like the Heavenly Demon, I couldn't guarantee how long I would continue to cherish the bonds I have now.
Though I could share a portion of my memories, in the end, the Tang So-wol before the regression and the Tang So-wol after are different people.
I had merely allowed my heart to open once more to another person who looked exactly like her.
I would surely fall for her again in the next cycle. But what about the one after that? And the one after that? After dozens of cycles had passed?
Unlike the Heavenly Demon, I was confident I wouldn't become so consumed by my goal that I confused what truly mattered.
But as for holding in my heart once more a woman who couldn't remember the decades we had spent together… I couldn't be sure.
As the Heavenly Demon said, there would come a day when I would decide this was enough, and bury only the memories in my heart.
But even so.
"I cannot cut down those who bear the same face, the same voice, the same personality, even knowing they are different people."
That is how I keep the line I have drawn for myself. If I failed to hold that line, I would soon forget even why I had taken up the sword in the first place.
Seol Ri-hyang had stepped back half a pace, as if leaving the choice to me. I took her hand and pulled her close.
Even after hundreds, thousands of years pass, there are memories one never wishes to forget.
The memory of being loved by someone for the first time, for instance.
"So I must decline."
I cannot understand this.
The Heavenly Demon furrowed his brow as if genuinely puzzled. He looked back and forth between me and Seol Ri-hyang before continuing.
"No one will die."
"What do you mean…?"
I flinched. I hadn't expected this from someone who had already destroyed the world single-handedly, killing every person and Spirit Beast in sight, repeating that cycle over and over again.
The Heavenly Demon paid no mind to my reaction and kept speaking.
"No matter how much karma you build up, it all becomes nothing. Even if you kill them with your own hands, close your eyes for a moment and open them again—they'll be back to life."
"Everything you cling to now, Sword Demon, is a kind of dream, an illusion. The only truth is the day you shatter this false sky."
"If you're alive at the end, then no one ever died. Now that you've experienced even a fraction of my memories, you should be able to understand what that means."
"…You're insane."
So what he's saying is—since people can come back to life anyway, what matters isn't what happened along the way, but whether you're alive at the end.
"The result matters more than the process."
"The process is the result."
My opinion and the Heavenly Demon's ran parallel, never meeting.
This was the conclusion I'd reached after seeing the Heavenly Demon's memories and having a brief but meaningful exchange.
"At the very least, the current me cannot accept your way, Heavenly Demon."
What a pity. In the past, I might have been pleased by this turn of events, but not anymore.
The Heavenly Demon's eyes, which had been utterly expressionless and hard as stone, curved with a hint of expectation.
"Sword Demon. Do you know what it means to be my great rival?"
"Not in the slightest."
"If I die by your sword, I will likely die for good."
"What a ridiculous thing to say…"
"It means I will reach a complete death, unable to regress any further."
"What?"
"Of course, even I don't know exactly how it will happen. It could end cleanly with a single death like an ordinary person, or perhaps I'll be sealed away in one of the times I've passed through, or it could be some other method that neither you, Sword Demon, nor I have even considered."
But what was certain was that, by whatever means, I could grant the Heavenly Demon a definitive death.
The Heavenly Demon told me in a calm voice that I was the fact of his death.
"…Why would you tell me something like that?"
"So that you will know."
"What do you mean?"
"That I may have an end, but you, Sword Demon, do not."
With those words, the Heavenly Demon withdrew the hand he had extended. Instead, his other hand flew toward me. I reflexively drew my sword and swung it, but—
Swish.
The sword and the hand passed through each other, as if they could not interfere with one another.
But unlike my sword, which merely split the empty air, the Heavenly Demon's gesture began to push back the darkness that filled the surroundings.
The black curtain lifted, and in an instant, everything around us turned white. And then.
"…Did we come back?"
"…Seems like it?"
At my muttering, Seol Ri-hyang looked around and nodded.
That's right. Before we knew it, we had escaped from the memory and returned to reality.
Just in case, I examined the ring fragment still clutched in my hand.
"Nothing's left."
"Yeah. I guess it's just an ordinary ring now."
Seol Ri-hyang clutched the ring, split in half, as if it were precious. It had been slightly altered by the Heavenly Demon's hand, but… it was fundamentally her mother's keepsake, wasn't it?
She had plenty of bad memories with her father, Seol Du-ho, and it had ended with her being betrayed and cut off from him, but her mother's side was apparently different.
When I tried to hand her the other half, Seol Ri-hyang shook her head and gave it back to me.
"Wasn't it something important?"
"It is, right? Mom was good to me."
"Then why won't you take it?"
"Because it's something important, that's why."
I blinked, unable to make sense of her words, and Seol Ri-hyang continued with a soft smile.
"You keep it, Cheon Hwi. You must never lose it, alright? It's Mother's keepsake."
"Huh?"
"But instead…"
With those words, Seol Ri-hyang lifted my hand and lightly pressed her lips to it.
Smack.
"Return it to me after you defeat the Heavenly Demon. Combine them into one and use it for our marriage. …Just as my mother did for me, I'll pass it down to my own daughter."
"That's not a difficult condition."
"And after that… let's think about it together. At first, the regression seemed like a wonderful thing, but after seeing the Heavenly Demon's memories, I changed my mind. If you had to regress infinitely like the Heavenly Demon, Cheon Hwi, it would surely be hard on you."
"But you're saying that if we think about it together, we'll find an answer."
"Right. The information the Heavenly Demon gathered by bashing its head against the ground all this time. Now we know some of it too. So even if it's hard for me or the other sisters this time, next time, or the time after that… at least before you completely lose your mind, Cheon Hwi, something will come of it."
"So that's what you were worried about. I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm fine."
"Huh?"
Was it because we were talking about the Heavenly Demon's regression rather than mine? Or… was it because my regression was different from the Heavenly Demon's?
While speaking of the Heavenly Demon's regression, the seal felt tight yet oddly loose at the same time, so I could voice the next words without much hedging.
"The Heavenly Demon, at the moment the world faced complete annihilation, discovered that the connection to the heavens, which he had thought severed, would be restored. Through this, he realized that the heavens had not fully withdrawn their gaze, nor was the connection entirely absent."
"Right? So you thought that if you kept building your strength, one day you'd be able to reach it."
"That's enough."
"…Huh?"
"They say the heavens are heartless. Because the laws of nature hold no personal sentiment, existing wholly on their own. …But that doesn't mean they're foolish."
One could speculate on who left behind the remedy of regression and for what reason, but any certain path to knowing was gone.
Yet there was also something I had come to know for certain through the Heavenly Demon's memories.
The Fortuitous Encounter of regression is granted only to those who can overturn the predetermined future through regression.
Then who judges that? No, in truth, the identity of the judge matters little.
What matters is that there exists a power capable of judging according to clear standards.
The connection to the heavens, which I thought had been severed completely, still remains faintly. And the power that selects regressors has taken note of the Heavenly Demon as a failed case.
Just as the Heavenly Demon judged that if I were him, I would grant him rest, I too realized something upon seeing that my regression is clearly distinct from his.
Even if my regression were also an endless infinite regression, it would not become the same kind of infinite regression as the Heavenly Demon's.
There's no way I would repeat the same mistake. He must have arranged some kind of improvement.
Of course, that method might not sit well with me. If that were the case…
"Well. If it comes down to it, we can just cut it down."
"Cut what? Surely not the sky?"
"That's right."
"That's not as easy as you make it sound! To do that, you'd need to build up power through something like Defying Heaven, right?"
"That's only because the Heavenly Demon lacked talent."
"…Huh?"
"No matter how you look at it, a thousand times to reach the Harmony Realm isn't excessive."
I only needed one.
This crossed a razor-thin line, a single word that the seal had kept me from saying.
But Seol Ri-hyang understood instantly, her mouth falling open.
"So you're saying… the Heavenly Demon had to commit all sorts of atrocities and go through countless regressions just to barely accomplish something you, Cheon Hwi, can do right away?"
"Correct."
"And your basis for that is that the Heavenly Demon's Martial Talent was pathetic, but you're a genius?"
"You understood correctly."
At my words, Seol Ri-hyang let out a breath that was somewhere between a hollow laugh and a sigh.
"Cheon Hwi. You're genuinely insane."
"But isn't it the truth?"
Heavenly Demon. You have no talent.