Blood Demon of the Past Life – Chapter 208

Chapter 208: The Third Person （5）

A crack appeared on Kang San’s face.

“…What does that mean?”

The statement just now.

He couldn’t just let it slide.

Whether it was true or false, it was a story he had to hear to the end and judge.

Luca Bellino said,

“As you expected, I’ve destroyed countless worlds and gained countless opportunities. The method was the same every time. Creating a villain that humanity couldn’t handle. If you give someone with the potential to destroy the world that kind of power, all the problems are solved in one fell swoop. But what’s interesting about this world is that it doesn’t always succeed. Quite often, an unexpected hero, whom I thought was nothing, appears and takes care of the villain I painstakingly raised.”

She recalled the past.

Countless moments flashed through her mind.

“You know what? The souls of past lives that missed the chance of revival spend an eternity in a space where nothing exists. Waiting for the chance to be given again, our hearts are filled with evil. So I needed a surefire way. A way to ensure that ten attempts out of ten, a hundred attempts out of a hundred, would result in a chance at revival. And that’s how I came up with the idea of self-destruction . Even if a hero is born, make them fight each other and destroy the world.”

“Don’t tell me the reason you chose me was…”

“Yes. When I confirmed that Peng Mujeong’s afterlife was born as ‘Eric Roberts,’ I searched for the most suitable person to destroy humanity against his influence. And that was you, the afterlife of the Blood Demon Seo Munho. You had the strongest malice compared to any other past life, and I judged that if I led you with goodwill and made you into humanity’s hope, the problems that would arise in the future would surely destroy humanity.”

Her prediction was correct.

But accepting it was a different matter.

Now that he had confirmed the truth, Kang San felt his emotions churning.

“But what do you mean by me becoming Seo Munho? Does that mean there’s a bigger plan that I don’t know about?”

“Of course there is.”

She laughed.

With destruction imminent.

Luca Bellino showed a different approach than before.

“Just because I’ve planted the seeds of evil doesn’t mean it will self-destruct. That’s uncertain and cruel for us. So I’ve taken steps to ensure that conflict will inevitably arise. Haven’t you thought it was strange all this time? Recurring memories, Seo Munho’s senses being engraved in your cells as you experience past lives, and even losing your reason due to Qi Deviation. That’s the groundwork to increase the synchronization rate between you and Seo Munho. So that…”

She blurted out the truth.

“When you face Peng Mujeong, you’ll lose yourself and turn into a demon that will destroy this world.”

✦✦✦✦✦✦

Inside the head.

The puzzle was perfectly assembled.

The stories I’ve heard so far.

The questions that Kang San couldn’t solve.

As they fit together perfectly, a huge picture was finally completed in my head.

‘Luca Bellino’s words might be true.’

Just like she said.

Kang San recently felt his own rapid change.

It started when he dealt with Kim Mu-hyeok. Even though the act of murder was unfamiliar, he committed murder without hesitation under the pretext of eliminating future troubles. It was the same when dealing with Troy Baker and Samuel Pahlsson. The way he talked about murder. That was definitely not like Kang San.

To be precise, it was close to Seo Mun-ho.

He was gradually becoming assimilated.

Becoming numb to murder, Kang San was gradually changing into the ‘final form’ that would destroy this world.

It was the same now.

The sensation of the last Qi Deviation had not completely disappeared, and the remnants of murderous intent still stimulated the senses of his entire body.

That’s why it was even more strange.

The more certain he became of the truth, the less he could understand Luca Bellino’s intention in telling him this story.

“Why? If what you say is true, you’ll be able to achieve your goal soon.”

An illogical change of heart.

He was curious about the reason.

Luca Bellino avoided Kang San’s gaze and looked somewhere beyond the gray space.

“…Ordinary humans, the humans I destroyed, you see. They were weaker than I thought, so they quickly gave up on their current lives. You asked if it was over if you failed the trial? No. At that time, I made a new suggestion to that weak human, and eventually guided them in the direction of self-destruction. The humans who were tested, even though they knew how harmful it was, never once failed to fall for the temptation. But you were different.”

Repeated trials.

He endured every time.

He overcame it and saved people.

Even then, she didn’t think he was different.

She believed that he would eventually be destroyed like other humans, but his actions after learning the truth were shocking.

“Roman Bednar, Troy Baker. Even after hearing the truth through them, you decided to save this world to the end. Even though you realize that Eric Roberts might be Peng Mujeong’s afterlife, even though you don’t know what kind of ending it will lead you to. You existed as a human. Usually around that time, they give up on life out of malice towards me. They’d rather go back to the beginning and take revenge on me, or save the world. They accept the fact that the current point in time is no longer meaningful. Until now, everyone, without a single exception, acted that way.”

The difference between them.

It was one thing.

If before, the past lives of villains were made into heroes in their present lives.

Seo Mun-ho, Kang San’s past life, was actually difficult to clearly define as a villain because his starting point was ambiguous.

Perhaps.

That might have made the difference.

Just as Seo Mun-ho’s foundation was not that of a villain, Kang San maintained his humanity to the end despite numerous hardships.

“You’re different. Even when facing me, you didn’t think about taking revenge on me, but you thought about acting for the greater good, even now?”

A series of situations.

A great ripple ran through Luca Bellino’s heart.

If it had only been a dozen times.

No, if it had been hundreds of times, it would have been an unacceptable emotion.

She now.

“Actually, I’m a little tired. So, it wouldn’t be bad to act differently this time. Even if it means my end.”

Swish.

She raised her finger.

And then.

“I’ll show you. The very first moment when I had to become like this.”

Pang━

A powerful magical power swept Kang San’s spirit somewhere.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

He didn’t even close his eyes.

His vision went dark.

And when his vision returned, he saw a collapsing building and heard a piercing scream.

“Noooo━!”

It was urgent.

Luca Bellino.

She rushed out with a face stained with despair, but she couldn’t stop the disaster unfolding before her eyes.

Koooom!

Kwaaarrrrrrr!

The building collapsed.

To be precise, it was the building where her only daughter, Sophia, was staying.

Luca Bellino was on her way back from carrying out a mission after switching to being a Hunter, and she witnessed a huge monster that appeared from a Link collapsing the building. It didn’t take long for the Hunters who rushed in from all directions to subdue the monster. But at the sight of the collapsed building, nothing else came into Luca Bellino’s view.

“No, no. This, this can’t be.”

She arrived in front of the collapsed debris.

She hurriedly cleared the debris.

She wasn’t that great back then.

Stronger than a human, but not a tremendous Hunter who could sweep away this debris in one go.

“119! Call 119!”

“Everyone, clear this away!”

People came running.

Everyone put in their effort, but even in this era where superpowers existed, concrete debris wasn’t something that could be easily dealt with.

“Ah, sob. Sob.”

Luca Bellino’s face was covered in tears.

Terrible thoughts came to her.

Even though her fingernails were breaking and bleeding from clearing the debris, she didn’t care about such things now.

She hoped her daughter was alive.

She hoped that maybe she wasn’t in the building, that maybe she happened to go out for a walk.

It was a hopeless wish.

Her lovely daughter who always listened to her mother.

There was no way Sophia would disobey Luca Bellino’s words to never go out because it was dangerous.

Kururururung.

“It’s dangerous! Get out of there!”

“Get out of the way━!”

“The building is…”

“I said get out of the way, you son of a bitch!”

She turned to look at the person stopping her.

At her bloodshot eyes, the person flinched and froze.

Whether or not further collapse occurred.

Luca Bellino was in no state to be stopped.

Perhaps her will got through.

With her weak human hands, she discovered a large space under the debris.

The concrete structure hadn’t completely collapsed.

Fortunately, there was a space that could protect the survivors, but that didn’t mean hope either.

“Ahh━.”

Sophia.

She saw her daughter’s body.

Upon discovering it, crushed under the debris and not intact, Luca Bellino felt like her world was completely collapsing.

She lost her hope in life.

The starting point of the disaster.

Her husband died.

In a life where she had no family but herself and Sophia, she had lived with the will to raise Sophia well. But that flame of hope was extinguished. She lost her mind. She stumbled and collapsed, her breathing becoming so rapid that it was unbearable, as if she was hyperventilating.

That’s when it happened.

『Luca Bellino.』

Above the sky.

No, to be precise, above the concrete-covered ceiling.

A pure white light shone down.

Others couldn’t see it, but Luca Bellino clearly witnessed the sight.

『I will give you a chance at revival from now on.』

Her face was stained with tears.

Even if she was crazy.

If that meaning of revival could only save her daughter, she wanted to reach out and grab it with her mangled hands right away.

『So, before that, destroy this world.』

Azmoon.

It was her first encounter with that damned god.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

Crackle━

Time passed.

That offer.

Luca Bellino refused.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t desperate.

It was just that she couldn’t bring herself to accept the word ‘destruction.’

No matter how bleak the world became, Luca Bellino always taught her daughter to be a person who could hold her head high under the sky. That’s why she remained steadfast even after losing her husband. The choice to destroy humanity to save her family, even if it was a chance at revival, was something Luca Bellino couldn’t bear.

That day.

She sobbed.

While regretting her choice countless times, she ultimately didn’t accept it.

And she vowed.

To put an end to this disaster.

Decades have passed since then.

Luca Bellino grew into a hero of humanity and fought to the end to save this world from monsters.

For her who lost her entire family.

A sense of mission was the only driving force that kept her going.

As a result.

『You have failed the test.』

The world was destroyed.

The destruction wasn’t grand.

The world she lived in and the other world beyond the Link were completely assimilated, and in a world where monsters outnumbered humans, there was no room for human habitation. People died every day. The population decreased every year. It became a reality that she had to accept that humans would eventually disappear completely.

Even that was over a decade ago.

Luca Bellino grew old.

The last humans.

In a shelter for less than a thousand remaining humans, Luca Bellino watched the setting sun.

‘Should I have accepted the offer back then?’

Beyond that.

She saw ruins that didn’t allow human footsteps, all over the space where the sunset was cast.

Humanity was over.

Even though she knew she couldn’t live anymore, she couldn’t bring herself to end her own life.

Her husband and daughter.

She couldn’t easily give up this life that she continued for their sake.

That’s when it happened.

“Grandma━.”

It was a child.

The child, who came running with her little legs, looked at Luca Bellino with big eyes that took up half her face.

It’s a funny world.

Even in this world where the air was polluted and food was limited, someone loved and gave birth to a child.

That’s what this child was.

The child sat next to Luca Bellino and looked at the scene that had become ruins together.

“Grandma, do you know what the sea looks like?”

“The sea?”

“Yes.”

She saw the child’s face turn pale.

It was because she ate a poisonous plant.

The children of this world couldn’t live past ten years old.

This child was the same.

As if proving the doomed future, she smiled faintly with a face tinged with death.

“They say the sea is full of water as far as the eye can see. I was just curious. I wanted to see it with my own eyes before I die, but I guess that’s not going to happen, is it?”

It was something she shouldn’t be saying at that age.

The child was aware of her own death.

Suddenly.

Emotions surged up.

Sophia came to her mind.

Her only daughter also had to mature because the world was like this.

If she had been a naive daughter, she would have stopped her mother from going out and wished she was by her side when the building collapsed.

“The sea…”

She was speechless.

That’s when it happened.

The moment she repeated countless times.

The moment she regretted countless times.

『I will give you one last chance at revival.』

Azmoon.

She faced him.

Luca Bellino’s eyes wavered in the pure white light shining from the sky.

『If you become my agent and destroy other worlds, you will gain a new opportunity.』

He was a truly cruel god.

He knew human weakness all too well.

She swallowed her tears.

She couldn’t cry anymore.

She couldn’t be weak anymore.

Luca Bellino smiled brightly at the child.

“I’ll show you. That sea.”