Possessing Nothing

“Huh?”

Kim Jonghyun suddenly noticed something unexpected. He didn’t even notice when it happened.

Kyyyyying!

A thin white film of light wound itself around the space near Kim Jonghyun.

‘What is this?’

Kim Jonghyun’s body stopped flying in the sky. Not because he wanted to stop, but the white film served like a boundary and stopped him from moving any further.

It was a barrier that was erected out of thin air in the shape of a cube

“What is this?”

Kim Jonghyun hurriedly unfolded his magic and tried to escape from the unknown barrier

But it was impossible to execute the formula for blink.

Slowly… Kim Jonghyun’s body began to fall down. The white light forming the barrier gradually started to grow darker and darker.

Kim Jonghyun hurriedly activated his Demon Tongue ability.

“Break it.”

But it had no effect. Even the Demon Tongue ability was completely void.

‘This is…’

Kim Jonghyun’s eyes trembled.‘….No way. ‘He hurriedly swept through the air with both hands.

The magic he was preparing to use on Lee Sungmin and escape… was also void.

Kim Jonghyun couldn’t believe it so he tried to re-perform the spell once more from start to finish.

But the spell couldn’t even start. Kim Jonghyun burst into laughter with a vain expression.

“Ha…hahahaha!”

‘Who the hell….? Oh, I don’t have to think about it.’Abel, the Guild Master of the Wizard Guild, was the only one who could perform such heaven-defying wonder.

‘So, where is he?’Kim Jonghyun unfolded a wide-range location searching spell quickly.

But there was no need as the spell failed. Even so, Kim Jonghyun looked down to see an old and frail looking man in a Wizard robe. It was Abel.

The life force felt from him was incredibly weak. He was on death’s door and looked like he would collapse at any moment.

“That’s amazing. Very…… Amazing. I didn’t expect this to happen.”

haaaa…

Kim Jonghyun sighed as the white light grew brighter.

As he fell down from the distant sky, Kim Jonghyun sincerely admired the incredible spell. The spell that Abel had unfolded was a barrier that was likely from the Weiss and was fueled on all of the remaining life force he had left.

All Kim Jonghyun could do was wait for the spell to finish its course.

It looked like just a simple containment spell but Kim Jonghyun knew it wasn’t. There were coordinates being drawn where Abel was at. Whatever was captured within the barrier that Abel had erected, would be unable to use magic within the space, and would be teleported to wherever Abel was connecting the coordinates to.

“Is this the end of my fun?”

Abel’s spell was a spell that expelled all magic within the barrier he had erected and stopped it from manifesting. The spell had already been completed and cast. No matter how abstract and ridiculous Kim Jonghyun’s powers were as a half-devil, Abel’s barrier was being manifested by the transcendent spell knowledge from the Weiss and was supplied on Abel’s remaining life force.

Once the barrier fell, Kim Jonghyun would already have been teleported to the coordinates that Abel had set. Would it have been more fun for him if he knew where he was being teleported to? It was surely to another dimension.

It would be completely different from anything Kim Jonghyun knew in regards to Eria and he would still have his powers intact. But the fact remained that he would no longer be able to have any more fun in Eria.

Kim Jonghyun wondered whether he should just be grateful that he would still be alive. The fact that he was able to leave this situation with his life intact was already quite a blessing considering just how determined Lee Sungmin was to end his life.

Even the thought of going to an entirely new place was something that was fun for Kim Jonghyun.

But even with that, Kim Jonghyun couldn’t help but feel disappointed in the fact he would be leaving Eria with his plans foiled.

Even if others said that Kim Jonghyun had clearly succeeded in creating a Catastrophe here, he was still upset about not being able to do everything he wanted to have his fun.

“Ah.”

Lee Sungmin was seen in the eyes of Kim Jonghyun, who was falling down inside the confines of the barrier. The magic outside of the space that Kim Jonghyun had erected like the pre-cast spells of fire and traps were still active. But those were also being torn apart by Lee Sungmin’s vicious power.

Kim Jonghyun admired Lee Sungmin’s strength.

Kim Jonghyun had only learned magic in his lifetime, so he did not know just how incredible the heights of martial arts truly were. But… seeing Lee Sungmin made him feel inspired to maybe learn some forms of martial arts in the future.

Of course, that was only going to be possible to start in the new world he would be teleported to.

“Okay… if it’s like this…”

Kim Jonghyun’s fingertips started to point towards Lee Sungmin. Kim Jonghyun became like this because he had met Lee Sungmin. Kim Jonghyun was convinced because he learned that Lee Sungmin had already lived in a world in his previous life and was convinced that the Kim Jonghyun was boring in that life. Because of meeting Lee Sungmin…

He learned that the Kim Jonghyun in that life was a quiet and unimportant person. Yes, this life was so full of fun and wonder because Kim Jonghyun wanted to be different from the Kim Jonghyun who was boring and unimportant in Lee Sungmin’s previous life.

“You’re the only one who knows.”

The beginning of Kim Jonghyun’s rise to power and drastic actions were all because of Lee Sungmin. He was the only one who had all the knowledge.

If there was one person who would be the one to end Kim Jonghyun’s life here in Eria, it had to be Lee Sungmin. He would be the one that had the right to Kim Jonghyun’s life.

He didn’t think it would have been bad to die to Lee Sungmin. But… Since it was like this, he had no choice but to engrave his final moments into Lee Sungmin in a different way.

Kim Jonghyun couldn’t even be sure of whether the spell would work or not even if Lee Sungmin and the spell he wanted to cast would be outside the barrier.

The preparations for what Kim Jonghyun wanted to engrave into Lee Sungmin, was far from being ready. There were none in fact. This was something that was spur of the moment.

The souls that were gathered by massacring the population of Germane were already used elsewhere, but there were plenty of souls Kim Jonghyun could use to fuel the spell from the dead members of the Holy Church and the different groups that had gathered for the subjugation.

‘It’s not like I’m going to turn you into a Devil like me anyways.’

If it was the spell of reversion that Kim Jonghyun used to become a half-devil that he wanted to use, then it would require a lot more souls than the amount present. But that wasn’t the spell Kim Jonghyun wanted to use.

But… the reversion was the intent. Kim Jonghyun could not choose what he would turn Lee Sungmin into. It was unsure what Lee Sungmin would become if Kim Jonghyun used this spell, but it didn’t matter what he became. It would surely be something fun.

Kim Jonghyun smiled broadly because he liked the idea he had come up with.

Doing this would surely make Lee Sungmin never be able to forget about Kim Jonghyun. Even if Kim Jonghyun was in another world, Lee Sungmin would never forget who would be the one to turn him into something unknown.

“It’s a little disappointing.”’

Kim Jonghyun’s fingertips aimed at Lee Sungmin.

Kyyyyung.

The black light emitted from his fingertips was faint. It was impossible to escape from the space he was entrapped in or cast a spell within the boundaries of the space, but it was fortunate for Kim Jonghyun that this spell was aimed at a place outside the barrier.

And it was a misfortune for Lee Sungmin.

Pah!

Kim Jonghyun’s body disappeared. Along with the cubical barrier, Kim Jonghyun disappeared from Eria.. And just before Kim Jonghyun disappeared, the reversion spell Kim Jonghyun cast, clearly struck Lee Sungmin.

A thin black ray of light penetrated Lee Sungmin’s body.

“Hup-“

An odd sound came out of Lee Sungmin’s mouth as he took a gasp of breath. His black heart that was beating rapidly, suddenly stopped.

His pounding headache that had been giving Lee Sungmin lots of pain, quickly subsided. The powers of the monster inside of him, completely went silent for that moment.

Lee Sungmin’s body, which was floundering in the air, completely stopped… then slowly began to fall.

[What? Hey- you punk!]

Heoju quickly became flustered and shouted inside hsi shared consciousness with Lee Sungmin. Even Heoju, who had lived for hundreds of years, didn’t know what was happening to Lee Sungmin.

The same was true for Lee Sungmin as he had never encountered or heard of anything similar to what he was feeling at that moment. Inside of his consciousness, Lee Sungmin felt it go completely silent.‘What?’Lee Sungmin was slowly losing his consciousness and as he started to feel like he was watching himself in third person…. He heard an ominous sound from deep within his mind.

Craaaaack… Craaaaack…

There was nothing but the sound of something cracking like an egg. It was coming from deep within his own consciousness, and Lee Sungmin didn’t have anybody there to say what it was. Even still, Lee Sungmin instinctively knew what it was.

The seal was breaking. The seal engraved by Oslo, the Queen of Fairies.‘Why? No way..’Lee Sungmin desperately tried to hold onto his consciousness as he started to feel completely weightless.

It was absurd for Lee Sungmin. Did he use too much of the power that wasn’t his? Did something happen that he wasn’t aware of?

There was no way. Lee Sungmin felt nothing off with his body and consciousness before this. It was just so sudden. He was fighting one moment ago, and all of a sudden the seal just broke without any kind of warning or resistance?

‘Why?’

[What is this bullshit? Why all of a sudden? What the hell!]

Heoju continued to shout in Lee Sungmin’s head. The seal was cleanly smashed and the ominous and foreign power started to creep out in earnest.

Lee Sungmin’s dantian began to overflow with the foreign energies.

It wasn’t just that.

Lee Sungmin’s body began to wriggle and writhe. His muscles were swelling and shrinking back and forth abnormally. His skin was repeatedly torn and regenerated. His blood vessels bulged with stress all across his body. As his fingers started to twitch irregularly, his nails began to grow sharper and longer. The golden eyes of Lee Sungmin, began to glow an ominous purple in the back of his irises.

Kim Jonghyun did not intend to do exactly this when he cast the spell of reversion on Lee Sungmin.

What he wanted to do, before he completely disappeared from the world, was just to change Lee Sungmin’s body into something more powerful and something irreversible so that Lee Sungmin would not forget him.

It didn’t matter what it was.

Becoming a vampire, an elf, a spirit, a fairy…… The spell of reversion was something that changed the species of the target into something completely different from the species they identified with from birth.

However… for Lee Sungmin, he inevitably would become a monster. It was bound to turn out this way. Lee Sungmin was not a human being, but also one at the same time.

His body was actually that of a monster’s already. It was just he was holding out by his mental fortitude in believing he would not turn. But the absolute magical might of the Grimoire completely shattered that belief and started something horrible.

No matter how much Lee Sungmin believed in himself…. Even if he wanted desperately to believe in humanity and not become what he feared…

[This….]

Heoju’s voice was becoming more and more distant.

Lee Sungmin’s consciousness was becoming stuck deeper and deeper into the abyss of his mind.

It was an entirely different experience from the case at the City of Endless Night. At that time, even if the ownership of his body was taken away by the foreign and mostruous entity within his consciousness, it was still actually possible at that time for Lee Sungmin to fight back in his own consciousness because Lee Sungmin’s body had not fully turned into a monster’s.

But not now. The magic of reversion had clearly changed Lee Sungmin to a complete monster.

* * * 

Abel didn’t know what happened.

He sat on his knees, slowly letting go of the strings of consciousness that were moving away as his life was slowly ending.

I succeeded…Abel muttered it in an extremely subdued voice. The spell that had gathered used not only all of his mana at once, but also the last dregs of his life span, had truly succeeded this time in expelling Kim Jonghyun from the world.

It was all he needed to do. Abel could not stop the fate of the Apocalypse that Eria would have to inevitably face, but at least he could hold his head up high as he had stopped the First Catastrophe at least.

Kim Jonghyun would have brought the First Catastrophe, was gone. And it was due to Abel’s hard work.

“That’s enough.”

Abel laughed in joy as he was finally done.

The Weiss floated up in the air next to Abel as it was wrapped in a white light. Although he couldn’t recover the Grimoire from Kim Jonghyun, that might have been a good thing since it was expelled from Eria along with Kim Jonghyun.

As the current owner, Abel, would be dying soon, the Weiss would be going to the next owner. Abel had already chosen the next owner of Weiss prior to coming to Germane as well.

Lloyd, the Tower Master of the Gold Tower was his choice. Although Abel was a little hesitant to pass the Weiss on to Lloyd because Lloyd had the similar characteristics of indecisiveness that Envirus had, Lloyd was different from Envirus. At least Lloyd had a good trait that Abel liked as he was able to see the bigger picture and was willing to make sacrifices when necessary. Abel was curious as to what choices Lloyd would make.

“That’s something we won’t know about till then.”

Abel laughed. He knew that he did not know everything about Lloyd. Still, according to Abel’s judgment, Lloyd was the most suitable figure for Weiss among the prospective owners Abel had chosen. The other fools from the Wizard Guild had ran away and avoided conflict for all of their lives.

‘I’ll stop here.’

Abel couldn’t see well. The Weiss disappeared in the bright light as Abel had his last thoughts.

Lloyd was at the Wudang Sect with the others that had gathered around Geom-Seong. The Weiss shot out in the direction of the Wudang as Abel blinked his eyes slowly.

Abel wanted to prevent the Apocalypse, but this was the limit of what he was able to accomplish. Still… he was satisfied with his work here in expelling Kim Jonghyun.

“I trust you.”’

There was no time to leave a will. Abel recalled Lee Sungmin as his thoughts and mind started to become muddled.

Even if Lee Sungmin had the anxiety of becoming the one to bring the Apocalypse, Abel felt that as long as Lee Sungmin believed… he would not become the one to do so.

From what Abel had seen, at least he had left a strong imprint on Lee Sungmin on what it meant to be desperate to stop Eria from reaching its horrible fate.

‘Is he desperate too?’

Abel swallowed the question he couldn’t bring to ask himself as the last of his life departed from his eyes. Abel’s head, which was kneeling, fell helplessly down.

Thud.contemporary romance

Lee Sungmin’s body also fell to the floor.

Lee Sungmin lay in the middle of a dust cloud that was difficult to see inside of. The golden eyes of Lee Sungmin looked up at the sky with a blank look.

[…Hey!]

The shouts inside of his head were nothing more than white noise that had no owner. Everything in his mind was foreign and blank. 

And

Lee Sungmin slowly raised his body.

Not far away, the Holy Knights and the Priests of the Holy Church came running.

Kim Jonghyun had disappeared under the light. They didn’t know what the hell was going on, but they thought Kim Jonghyun, who was engaged in battle with Lee Sungmin, had disappeared due to Lee Sungmin and the battle might have been finally over.

“Lee Sungmin!”

Listening to their worried voices, Lee Sungmin slowly rose up.

done.co