Side Story Chapter 60   - Wedding Ceremony of Blood (5)

“A gift?” Leo tilted his head. He laughed in disbelief. “A gift for the first star… Yes. Giving a star fragment as a gift to your teacher who is also your father-in-law is a generous gift.”

Leo lifted the corners of his mouth. “But I suppose it hasn’t occurred to you that the gift may be the disappearance of his disciple/son-in-law?”

Snap! Leo flicked his fingers. Crash! Suddenly, the entire garden shook. One of the lower gods of Asgard who had been in the middle of fighting the archangels and demon kings had exploded. As a result, it wasn’t just his opponent, an archangel, who was swept away by the explosion, but so was everyone near him. A devastating scene was revealed after the dust cloud settled down.

“The heck?!”

“He can explode a god…?”

“There’s gonna be another explosion! Watch out!”

The problem was that it didn’t stop there. The archangels and demon kings who barely managed to escape from the explosion frantically scattered at the consecutive bursts of light. Crash! Crash! Crash! Boom! Rumble! The gods of light were all bathed in light, causing continuous explosions.

“Ahhhh!”

“What’s wrong with your body?!”

“H-Huh…? What’s wrong with me?!”

“Damn it!”

“D-Don’t run away! Save me before you leave! P-Please…! Ahhhh!”

The onlookers and the invited guests all escaped the palace. The archangels and demon kings who were fighting against Asgard and those on bad relations with Yeon-woo all left. The same went with the One-horned tribe.

While on the run, the guests suspected each other. A few in the group had suddenly exploded like the gods of Asgard. As a result, the damage that was done couldn’t be put in words. It was an utter mess. Everyone doubted each other, and it was a pandemonium where no one was able to bless Yeon-woo’s marriage.

“Pahaha! How is this? I took special care in preparing this for you, who’s called the father of all worlds!” Leo sounded like he was having the time of his life. From what he had investigated, Yeon-woo was very weak toward those he loved.

From when he was a human, Yeon-woo took up the sword for his brother’s revenge, and he even traveled down the path to becoming the Black King to save his family. At the end of all his unprecedented actions were his family and friends… That meant he was going to be the most sensitive to the harm done to his acquaintances. Leo had no way of knowing, but Yeon-woo’s heart was probably being crushed.

Leo was aiming for a time when Yeon-woo would be unsettled. Then, Yeon-woo would finally show his weakness. If the channel that connected the Black King’s manifestation and his true body was shaken turbulently, Leo would be able to see it. At that moment, he would tear into the channel and climb up to beat up the Black King’s true body.

Yeon-woo scanned his surroundings. There was no emotion in his eyes as he looked around himself. Leo thought Yeon-woo was just acting tough, but Yeon-woo then asked, “I suppose you approached the gods in advance?”

“Odin was a great help. Did you know one of the eyes he has is this thing called the Wise Eye? It’s very useful. Suggestions and brainwashing work very well on it. It was useful to shake his soul.” Hehehe. Leo’s laughter became louder.

Yeon-woo turned in another direction. It was where Odin was in the middle of battling the Martial King.

“I thought he was a useless lower god, but he was useful for something like this. When you get the chance, you should try it sometime later. Although I don’t know if you’ll be able to.”

“You’re right. I don’t think I will.”

“Ha! Why? Are you scared?”

“No. All I have to do is rewind it.”

“What?” Leo frowned, not understanding, and a message popped up right in front of him.

[According to the request of the user, the world of the dream is paused!]

Leo squinted to read the message, then flinched. ‘…It paused?’ Leo saw everything around him suddenly freeze except for him, and his heart turned cold. Those who were running away, the explosion of the gods, the dust clouds, the flying pieces of rocks… They were all paused.

It wasn’t that Yeon-woo stopped time with his ability, but the wheel of time itself was stopped. Leo looked at Yeon-woo with disbelief, and Yeon-woo snickered.

[The dream is rewound.]

The moment Yeon-woo twisted his right hand in the air, the world began to reverse. The flying pieces of rock returned to where they had been and became normal tiles again. The expanding dust clouds and heat took human shape again, and those who were swept away by the explosions came back to life.

The scattered guests returned to where they were to congratulate the wedding of Yeon-woo and Edora, and the gods of Asgard were sitting down quietly in the guest area.

The archangels, demon kings, and One-horned tribe no longer rushed around the battlefield. Even Agares and Fenrir were flung outside the wall. And…the rewinding didn’t stop there. Time was spun back and forth until the day before the wedding ceremony, to a month before all the wedding processes took place, to before Yeon-woo proposed to Edora… It continued to spin back before Yeon-woo even arrived at this time period and entered the previous time.

The Tower crumbled, and R'lyeh squirmed then fell back asleep. Then…it became a universe where nothing existed. It was the universe with only darkness and emptiness, the time of the beginning. The rewinding stopped there.

“…!” Leo’s gaze trembled from shock. “That’s impossible. That’s too much laws of causality…”

The reason why Leo decided to pick a fight with Yeon-woo was that, although Yeon-woo was the Black King’s main ego, he wasn’t the Black King. The Black King’s true body was asleep in R'lyeh, which meant there had to be a limit to Yeon-woo’s powers.

If Yeon-woo tried to force the true body to move, the true body would wake up from his dream and the world would be destroyed. Leo thought Yeon-woo’s moves would be limited because trying to go against the real body was going against the laws of causality… But from what he was seeing now, Yeon-woo was so free from the laws of causality that he was able to rewind time back to the very beginning of the wheel of time.

“Sorry, but I didn’t even use laws of causality.” Yeon-woo smirked.

“What do you mean…?!”

“I told you. You’re a wedding present for my teacher.”

Leo straightened his back at the sudden sense of incongruity. He looked around him. It was a universe where everything was dark. Just based on this, it looked like the universe of the beginning, but when he took a closer look, the substances of darkness weren’t the same.

The sides of the dimensions looked like they were being stretched out. It was something that shouldn’t be happening. As long as the law of the Heavenly Demon’s light was active, even the Black King wouldn’t be able to adjust the fixed law’s of the world according to his will since this wasn’t his domain!

‘Domain…!’ Only then did Leo realize why he was feeling a sense of incongruity. This world wasn’t created naturally. It wasn’t the original worldline, nor was it another worldline. It was a dream, a dream that the Black King was simply dreaming because he was bored…

Fwoosh! Leo quickly distanced himself from Yeon-woo. Since he knew he was currently in a trap, the only thing he could do was run away.

“Too slow.” However, Yeon-woo scoffed at Leo and stretched a hand toward him. He didn’t even think to chase after him. This entire world was a temporary stage he created, so why should he do the bothersome act of running?

Swish! The world twisted, and laws moved. Dark substances were gathered into one and transformed into chains that shot toward Leo. Clatter.

“Damn it!” Leo was disbelieving of everything that was going on. He’d confirmed this world was the original several times coming over from the Unreal World. Who would’ve imagined the world he thought was an original was actually a trap? It was something only the Black King would have thought of.

“Don’t come here!” Leo crumpled his face at the chains that followed closely at his heels. Pow, pow, pow! Crash! He punched the air in front of him, and space was twisted and destroyed as the chains were deflected. But the chains started to chase after his weak spot again. Kra, kra, Kra! Swish! Leo frustratedly kicked the chains coming for his ankles and shouted, “Why won’t it open?!”

From a while ago, Leo’d been trying to open a door that led to the Unreal World. But strangely, he couldn’t connect to the outside at all. It felt like he was blocked by something firm.

“Oh, sorry, but you won't be able to return to where you came from. This world is already isolated from the others and is being managed separately.”

That meant this world was pretty much like a closed jail cell.

“Ahhhhhh!”

The longer Leo’s scream went on, the deeper Yeon-woo’s smile became. ‘I knew this method was right. I’ve managed to trap a big fly.’

After capturing Tigris, Yeon-woo became certain the stars would somehow attempt to attack him or the Martial King. Their end goal was to obtain the other star fragments and obtain the omniscience that composed the world to be the one and the only true god of the new world.

So, to catch the big fish, Yeon-woo used himself as bait and began to dream a new dream. While he created a dream that was exactly like the original worldline to attract the stars, he moved in this dream like it was reality.

The Martial King’s resurrection, the meeting between the two families, getting married to Edora… This was a part of the history that was used in the original worldline and a part of the true dream he was dreaming.

In the end, Yeon-woo had managed to catch the lion constellation, so Yeon-woo was in good spirits. One part of him also wondered how he should make this bastard who dared to ruin his wedding, even if it hadn’t been real.

Yeon-woo’s anger wouldn’t be sated simply by capturing Leo. He had to force the star to give up all information by twisting and squeezing his soul. From the way to approach the Unreal World to how to find the bastards… Everything.

“Damn it! Dieeeeee!” The growing amount of chains must’ve been too much for Leo to deal with because he just dashed directly toward Yeon-woo. Based on the veins that popped out of his forehead, it seemed he was resentful at the fact that he was played by Yeon-woo.

Of course, Yeon-woo just scoffed. Did that idiot not even remember how he picked a fight first? It was hilarious how he was acting like the victim.

Clatter! The chains took over Leo like an arrow lying in wait. Leo’s fist was stopped right in front of Yeon-woo. He stiffened and trembled. His fist that wanted to shred Yeon-woo’s face apart shook precariously. But as he was bound by Divine Iron, it was almost impossible for him to activate his holy power.

Leo was already bound in chains like a cocoon, and only one of his eyes could be seen. “You…fucking…bastard…!” Leo’s furious eyes were bloodshot.

“Thank you for the compliment.” With a cold smile, Yeon-woo tightly shut the lock around the chains and opened emptiness.

Clatter. Clank, clank, clank! The emptiness opened wide like a beast going after a delicious meal.

“I’ll have to move you as carefully as possible. I can’t let there be anything wrong with my gift.” Yeon-woo’s smirk finally turned into a smile.

* * *

Tak! Jeong-woo shut the book he was reading and shook his head. His eyes were empty, like those of a dead fish’s. “Who exactly is good and evil here…”

『Bam, bam, babam, bam! In the four beats~? there’s temper, backstabbing, and Yeon-woo~?』Behind Jeong-woo, Shanon was singing at the top of his lungs.