Chapter 34: The Light of Loneliness and the Wrath of the Valkyrie

HunterNet was in chaos.

[What is this?]

Who turned off the circuit breaker?

(Short video)

(The world, once bright, is now completely covered in black. Even fluorescent lights and the sun have no meaning.)

I’m in Busan, but I can’t even see my hand in front of my face.

But how do we use the community now?

The system messages are still visible though.

Even though there’s a light source, it’s pitch dark. Can this be scientifically explained?

I can’t see anything.

I’m in a cafe, but even with fluorescent lights, it’s pitch dark. What’s going on?

I’m fine, this is a lie.

Where do you live? Not abroad?

I live in Seoul.

[South Korea is the only place with this anomaly.]

Is this Korea?

Did some world boss suddenly appear?

Judging by how hot the topic is, it seems like the whole country, except for Seoul, is dark.

This kind of thing can only be explained by a world boss showing up.

Hunter Association, those bastards are really going too far.

This isn’t the first time, it’s happened twice already.

Hunter’s hard-earned money spent buying expensive forecasting equipment from abroad, and they do this?

Korea needs to just switch to a guild system.

If they can’t even predict when a world boss is coming, they should just quit.

That’s the right call.

[But if a world boss really did show up…]

Who’s going to deal with it?

( big question marks)

You know, right? Korea is safe.

‘That person’ is here, after all.

Oh, you know?

The light will fix everything.

Maybe Zz will show up again?

There couldn’t possibly be a disaster bigger than a world boss.

As the Blood Demon was being offered as a sacrifice, he looked back on the trajectory of his life.

Suddenly, a memory surfaced from his time in the Central Plains.

Looking up at the collapsed sky, life felt fleeting, like the small marks left by a cartwheel on the dirt.

“As the Grand Master of the Blood Sect, I’ve lived for over a thousand years, engraving my existence into this land, yet when compared to the flow of time, it feels but a fleeting moment.”

“…Master.”

“Even so, I can’t simply call all of this meaningless or futile.”

A time when all things end.

What meaning is there in the League, the Martial Arts Alliance, or the Imperial family?

What remains is only instinct.

Hunger, fear, and the endless thirst for survival.

As bad things continuously piled up, the common people turned to religious salvation.

Ironically.

As the world met its end, the Blood Sect reached its golden age.

Perhaps the people had realized.

That their souls and bodies were being used by the Sect Leader.

However, in a world of destruction, if the only thing one can hold on to is such deceptive faith, then anyone would make the same choice.

“Master…”

“Please, lead us.”

“O light in this cursed world.”

However.

Even the Blood Demon…

The End of the World

Before the end of the world, he was but an ordinary man.

The salvation and rest the people longed for were not in his hands.

“When true chaos arrives, the horrors cannot be described in words.”

“The sky is already dead, so we must do what we can.”

“I hope my blood and the magic of the underworld will be decisive in averting this catastrophe.”

“Master, please save us.”

In a chaotic world, the hearts of those desperately clinging to straws were filled with urgency.

No matter how illusory and cruel it seemed, the people standing before him did not want to face their end empty-handed.

The disciples of the Blood Sect willingly embraced their pain and, clinging to a faint light of hope, desperately sought salvation.

They cried for salvation, but their hands, reaching out in desperation, were tragically near the Blood Demon.

Because of this, the Blood Demon could gather all the essence of the Thousand-Year Blood Sect and prepare for a grand scheme.

“Wealth and fame are futile before death. ”

“But if there is even a shred of belief, it will become the strength to sustain that futility. ”

“Sacrifice all that you have and trust only in me.”

“Blood Sect, long live! Long live!”

A ritual stained with blood and offerings, a fanatic fervor reminiscent of ancient sorcery filled the sanctuary.

Countless disciples of the Blood Sect, lost in an ecstatic trance,

offered their own bodies and even the blood and flesh of their loved ones to the Blood Demon.

In a world on the brink of destruction, now, under the pretense of annihilation, this sect’s prosperity covered the land.

Ironically, the Blood Sect reached its golden age just as the world faced its downfall.

The Blood Demon surpassed the realm of mere mortals and achieved the legendary stage of life and death, breaking through the walls of the transcendent.

He was truly invincible.

The strongest existence in martial history, worthy of the title of the greatest demon of all ages.

However, even so, before the end of the world, he was powerless.

Thus, he had no choice but to flee.

“My entire cultivation, everything I have built, will crumble when the grand scheme unfolds, but I will try to survive alone.”

Blood Demon Martial Arts
Final Secret Technique
Blood Realm’s Reversal

A final martial art imbued with the essence of the Blood Sect, drawing all the evil spirits of the Central Plains together.

Finally.

With his sinister power, he split time and space, and when the boundaries between dimensions collapsed, the end arrived.

As the Blood Demon entered another world, he witnessed the destruction of the world he had known.

The world folded in half, and amid the swallowing of the universe, something indescribable was born.

The sky remained still, as though in reverence, and time seemed to move around that existence by completely different laws.

“What… what is that?!”

With every breath he took in front of it, the Blood Demon felt himself becoming smaller.

Soon after, the Blood Demon arrived on Earth, becoming the worst villain running a blood tube operation.

He regained lost power, one step at a time, but all in vain.

In the end, after all this, the Blood Demon faced the Mother of All.

The Mother of All Things

The tentacles stretched infinitely, enough to block out the sky, and the endless intelligence of darkness could intertwine the whole world.

The Mother of All Things was not a singular entity.

From the darkness, thousands of faces emerged.

These faces laughed, cried, and endlessly rippled, writhing together as if they were one body.

“My child, do not fear. Now, you shall be with me.”

The disciples of the Blood Sect, within the embrace of the ‘Mother,’ were no longer individual humans.

They moved in grotesque unison, their eyes hollow, but within them, a strange smile formed as they gazed at the Blood Demon.

Illusions, joy, and a cruel happiness somewhere within.

Their expressions were filled with a chilling satisfaction, as if the long-awaited moment had finally arrived.

“You’ve come at last.”

“Let us become one.”

“We are finally becoming complete.”

They spoke in the same voice, yet it carried countless echoes, reverberating in the Blood Demon’s soul.

The order of the world seemed to twist from its very foundation.

As the sky split and the manifestation of the Maitreya took place, the world was engulfed in a strange stillness.

The form of the Maitreya seemed to possess a depth that could swallow everything, like an endless abyss.

This darkness held neither heat nor cold, but an infinite warmth, evoking a feeling of love and awe that rose inexplicably in everyone’s hearts.

The Master of the White Lotus Sect kneeled and raised his voice in worship.

“The Maitreya has finally descended! Purify this chaotic world and grant us salvation!”

His voice was a mixture of reverence and madness.

The manifestation of the Maitreya was the final resort for the Master of the White Lotus Sect, the goal of his life.

For he knew the secret of the world.

“This world will perish. So, we must call forth the Maitreya.”

” Even if our bodies disappear, our souls will find eternal rest in the Mother’s embrace.”

” At the end of the world, only the Maitreya is the last path we must follow.”

The Mother of All Things would embrace everything without distinction and make it ‘us.’

This, the Master of the White Lotus Sect firmly believed, was the path humanity should follow.

Even if people spread rumors about the White Lotus Sect being a villainous cult, eventually, they would realize that this was true salvation.

“The nameless ones who always interfered with the White Lotus Sect’s events must have known this truth as well.”

Thus, those who uncovered the world’s truth prepared for the end in their own ways.

For example.

The Blood Demon, in his quest to restore his lost power and cross the world once again,

operated a blood tube business, while the White Lotus Sect, through countless human sacrifices,

sought the manifestation of the Mother of All Things.

However, the Mother of All Things paid no attention to the Master of the White Lotus Sect’s cries.

The entity simply watched the tiny angels before it, silently.

“What is this?”

Lee Yooshin, the president of the Korean Hunter Association,

felt a terrifying fear in the face of the overwhelming form before her.

The essence of its existence pierced her mind, threatening to destroy both her body and soul.

It was as if she had crossed an unmanageable taboo, the price of which was now being paid.

“Even the World Boss has never made me feel like this… Why is Zz so calm? Isn’t she scared?”

Wasn’t this being of a completely different magnitude than the usual monsters?

Instinctively, she grabbed her lower abdomen with one hand.

She felt her bladder reacting against her will, and her legs went numb, her strength draining.

If she didn’t keep herself together, she felt like she might scream at any moment.

“What… what is this… How can such a creature exist?”

She didn’t even have time to look around, but she noticed Cheonma and Cheonmalove.

They had already collapsed after seeing the writhing form of the celestial body.

Lee Yooshin almost thought it might be a blessing that they were unconscious.

The Unfathomable Being

The entity before me had a bizarre appearance that was impossible to comprehend with human reason.

Its form was so overwhelming that it could shatter one’s mind, and it seemed that it would be better to fall asleep than to go mad.

In the midst of this.

The pure white angel stood silently, frozen in place.

Just by standing still, the boundary between light and darkness was drawn.

“Hmm. It suddenly got dark.”

Angel mode.

When I summoned the halo and wings, light would burst forth regardless of my will.

The way the light spread out seemed like a living creature.

As my breath and heartbeat naturally spread, it pushed the darkness away.

From where I stood, the light flowed outward, and its reach seemed to extend all the way to the outskirts of Seoul.

At the boundary of this light, a deep, dark darkness wriggled.

‘Why are they staring at me like this?’

[The constellation, the Mother of All Things, is watching you.]

I didn’t feel like turning my head, and there was no real reason to avoid it, so I met its gaze.

Its eyes were like an abyss, seemingly attempting to pierce through me and understand everything about me.

I slowly tilted my head, holding onto my teddy bear tightly.

‘I know there are many faces, but it’s strangely like we’re having a staring contest. How is this even possible?’

I didn’t really care about how a person looked, and I generally respected that.

But, I had to admit, it was definitely strange.

Well, it wasn’t a big deal.

‘I don’t know why this being appeared out of nowhere, but once this is over, I’ll be able to bring the owner of the house back and sleep properly.’

As the world was enveloped in darkness, the temperature dropped sharply.

It was probably because even the sunlight was being blocked.

It wasn’t ideal for sleeping, and I couldn’t help but think that this entity was somewhat of a nuisance.

Should I act now?

As I was contemplating, the entity spoke.

“My child… How interesting.”

I froze at those words.

How could it find this interesting? What did it mean?

I had never heard that phrase before.

After all, I was a complete outcast.

I had no ability to entertain anyone.

Ssssss.

The tentacles of the Mother of All Things slowly approached me.

Its movements didn’t feel threatening but rather resembled the curious approach of an animal.

‘…What is this? It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to fight, more like it wants to observe. ‘

‘There’s no number above its head, so I can’t tell if it’s a good or bad act.’

Is this something bad?

‘I’m not sure.’

So I just let it be.

Holding my teddy bear, I lethargically watched the actions of the Mother of All Things, just like any other day.

Tentacles and darkness surrounded me.

The hems of my clothes slightly rolled up as they slid across my skin.

I could tell it was cold, but there didn’t seem to be any malicious intent.

Then, the smooth movement casually passed by my chest.

Squish. Squish.

Strange Sensation

The sensation passing over my skin was peculiar.

Every time it passed, there was a gentle trembling.

It wasn’t an intentional reaction.

Even when the tentacles passed over the curve of my chest, no emotions arose from the small shivers or movements it caused.

There was no excitement, fear, or anger; I was still indifferent.

Whatever this was, whatever meaning it had, it didn’t matter to me.

I simply let it pass by.

“Hmm. So you’re trying to study me.”

“Yes. Though I have shared love with countless beings, I have never encountered something like you. ”

“I wish to ask, why do you emit light? Is it to burn the dark world, or is it merely to protect?”

Suddenly?

I didn’t understand the meaning.

“Light? I just do. There’s no special reason. Honestly, is emitting light really that important?”

“……I see. You emit light simply because you exist. Without reason or purpose, just by being.”

The voice of the Mother of All Things was soft.

But there was an unknown emotion within it.

I couldn’t quite grasp what the emotion was.

The voice paused for a moment.

Then it slowly resumed.

“You’ve never been loved, have you?”

“Love?”

“Your light comforts others and drives away the darkness, but… you’ve never felt warmth yourself, have you?”

“Well… I’m not sure. Is that really important? I’m just living well, sleeping soundly.”

But despite my answer, the Mother of All Things didn’t laugh.

The many faces gradually took on a more serious expression.

“You are light born in loneliness. No one has embraced you, no one has held you.”

” You exist for the world, child, but the world does not understand you.”

“…So, do you really have to explain me like that?”

Is this the conclusion of all that fiddling around and observation?

But the Mother of All Things didn’t stop.

Her voice became warmer and softer.

“If no one embraces you, then I will. I will become one with you and share with you the love I possess. Your light need not be alone anymore.”

I felt the tentacles slowly spreading out, moving closer to embrace me.

“What should I do? Is it really trying to embrace me?”

“It’s fine. You don’t yet know what love is. So, let’s discover it together. I, the Mother, will save you.”

Even though I was powerless, becoming one with the tentacles felt… a bit much…

At that moment.

BAM!

With a burst of light, a familiar voice echoed from somewhere.

“How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you!”

A figure appeared, armed in golden armor—the Valkyrie from the heavens.

It was Kiriel, my obsessive little dog.

Her eyes were rolled back in fury.

It was a miracle she wasn’t frothing at the mouth.

“How dare this lowly creature!”

Kiriel was engulfed by an unprecedented rage.

She believed that the one who should claim the master’s heart was herself.

Only someone who truly understood her master’s emotions and stood by their side could be worthy, not some being like this.

Protecting the master was the most sacred act in the world.

She had stood by her master’s past and present, and would continue to do so in the future.

There was no room for filth to interfere.

Kiriel drew her sword.

Her heart was filled with an absolute obsession and protective instinct for her master.

“Die!”

The golden-haired, golden-eyed knight, with an enchanting appearance,

swung her sword against the tentacles that seemed capable of engulfing the world.