Chapter 27
* * *
At the moment Bing Yeon was persuading Azazel to become his disciple, far away in the Eastern mountain range, an alchemist was searching for the Philosopher's Stone.
"Is this the place...?"
Wolfram was searching for the Secret Cave where it was said the Divine Thief had collected various treasures, hidden behind a waterfall.
She had even used expensive teleport magic stones, heading to this place faster than anyone else.
Her golden hair and expensive robe had become heavy with water, and her panting breath and quickened heartbeat reflected her state of mind.
'Surely, it couldn't have been a lie....'
She shook her head to clear away such doubts. She had even given up on trying to claim the hero for profit to come here.
The probability of the information being false was extremely low. It was just difficult to find the place hidden by the legendary thief known as the Secret Shadow Divine Thief.
Various formation techniques were mixed together, making it undetectable by magic, and yet it couldn't be found by brute force methods either.
"Not here either. Damn it, why are there so many waterfalls...!"
Wolfram cursed while checking each waterfall along the mountain range one by one. Just how well had it been hidden that even magic couldn't help her find it?
She couldn't request help from the Magic Tower either. In this situation, information was priceless.
If the location of the Philosopher's Stone became public knowledge, others might covet it, or restrictions might be placed on its use.
Wolfram knew this more painfully than anyone else.
Because she had grown up in back alleys where hungry babies' cries could be heard and people's voices calling for gods never ceased.
She had risen from having nothing to the position of Golden Pagoda Lord, said to have built a tower of gold.
"...Found it! Footprints on the ceiling!"
Wolfram's eyes widened as she carefully examined the ceiling. Traces so faint they were almost invisible.
Confirming the path someone had walked across the ceiling, she smiled at her finally achieved success and used magic.
"Reverse Gravity."
Pa-at─! As a golden magic circle shone from the tip of Wolfram's staff, she felt weightless and floated into the air.
Then, like a bat, she began walking upside down on the ceiling.
"I wonder how they did this without magic. Eastern people really are mysterious."
Wolfram took steps while imagining the legendary thief, Secret Shadow Divine Thief, that Bing Yeon had mentioned.
Where there were water marks should be safe. Come to think of it, it was stranger that there were no security measures on such a simple path.
As Wolfram walked upside down along the narrow, winding path like an ant tunnel, she couldn't believe her eyes when she reached the open space ahead.
"There really is another space inside the cave..."
The cave, which should have been pitch dark, was bright enough to dazzle the eyes. Night-luminous pearls that gave off their own light were placed throughout, and piles of gold coins reflected their soft radiance into sparkling light.
Covered with countless jewels and gold comparable to an imperial treasury, it looked less like a cave and more like a vault created by the century's greatest architect.
"Wow..."
Wolfram couldn't close her mouth. She had never seen such a sight even in the Golden Magic Tower, said to be built with towers of gold coins.
No matter how wealthy and materialistic a group might be, such an absolute difference made reality hard to believe.
"If I took all this, how much... No. That's not what's important right now!"
Wolfram slapped both her cheeks hard enough to make a sound, trying to maintain her sanity. She had come here solely for the Philosopher's Stone.
Unlike fake gold with too many impurities to refine, this was something that could turn even cheap metals into pure gold.
"Not this... not that either... Where is the Philosopher's Stone?"
Objects that could change the fate of entire kingdoms passed through Wolfram's hands, but she casually pushed them aside while searching for the Philosopher's Stone.
If she had known it would be like this, she should have asked Bing Yeon what it looked like.
To begin with, descriptions of the Philosopher's Stone varied wildly depending on the literature or medium recording it.
Some books said it was red like blood because it was made by grinding up people, while others described it as transparent like water, able to become any substance.
"Not this, not that either..."
Thus Wolfram picked up everything that looked like a stone and tried striking it against the fake gold she had created.
How many attempts had she made, how much time had passed?
"...Is this what you're looking for, Golden Pagoda Lord?"
A clear, pure voice echoed in her ears. A captivating voice like jade beads rolling on a silver tray.
At that voice, Wolfram raised her head to find its source. Then a girl appeared with a soft chuckle.
"Here it is. Here, the Philosopher's Stone. Isn't this what you were looking for?"
Wolfram found the girl's appearance familiar. She had features impossible to forget.
'Were people with white hair and blue eyes common...?'
A girl with pale skin as if Bing Yeon had been made female, hair like snow and ice-cold blue eyes.
Seeing that appearance, Wolfram instinctively stepped back. Though not as intense as Bing Yeon's, a fierce cold that froze her body was rising up to her throat.
"Ahaha, don't run away. I just wanted to see what the 'real' Wolfram looked like."
She was an impossibly powerful being.
Fighting her would mean certain death.
Though wearing human skin and speaking human words, this was 'something' that shouldn't be touched.
"...?"
Shudder,
Wolfram's entire body broke out in goosebumps as she tried to understand the girl's words, but they made absolutely no sense.
Real? Did that mean there were fakes in this world too?
"My name is Bing Seolhwa. Hmm... To put it in terms you'd understand, I suppose I'm like a mother to you?"
Bing Seolhwa smiled brightly at the terrified Wolfram. Though her smile was as bright as the morning sun, it sent chills down one's spine as it contained not even a trace of joy.
Originally, Bing Seolhwa should have been Bing Yeon's half-sister in the original work, the legitimate heir to the Northern Sea Ice Palace bloodline.
She should have been the one with the title of Ice Emperor, but,
"No, calling me the Creator would be more accurate. Though only jointly!"
"...Creator?"
She suddenly told Wolfram to call her Creator or mother.
While Solareon existed as the Main God, she commanded to be called Creator? Looking at Bing Seolhwa, Wolfram judged her to be heresy incarnate.
"Here! This is the Philosopher's Stone you wanted!"
As Wolfram pulled out her staff from her sleeve to protect herself, Bing Seolhwa held up a luminous green stone.
A stone that looked ordinary enough to be mistaken for jade without explanation, yet she clearly called it the Philosopher's Stone.
The moment Wolfram's eyes moved, her gaze slowly dropping downward.
"When you were young, you lived as a pickpocket in the back alleys, dreaming of helping the poor, right?"
Bing Seolhwa recited Wolfram's past while grinning.
"Your father... committed suicide when he couldn't pay back massive debts after his business failed, and your mother worked herself to death trying to raise you alone, didn't she?"
How could she possibly know?
"You, you bastard...!"
While Wolfram wondered if she was under some illusion magic, Bing Seolhwa continued revealing information that only she should have known.
"I regret it too, Wolfram. If I had known the settings Do-hyeon and I created would become reality like this, I would have crafted them more carefully."
Her voice changed to an androgynous, alien tone. Bing Seolhwa's voice had this characteristic of constantly changing.
Sometimes it was soft and elegant, other times it became sharp and deep like a man's voice.
"...What exactly are you?"
"I told you earlier, didn't I? I'm the joint Creator of this world, and your mother."
As Bing Seolhwa took one step closer to Wolfram, something like writhing tentacles could be seen moving in the shadows.
A being beyond human comprehension, a deity of outer space that blasphemed against the gods of the real world.
An Outer God among Outer Gods.
"Or would you prefer 'The Black Female Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young' or 'The Wife of He Who Must Not Be Named'? I'm not sure if the aliases used in this world are the same."
Since mere humans couldn't pronounce the true name of the being called the Mother of All and Earth Mother Goddess, Bing Seolhwa listed all the aliases she knew.
"My exact name is─"
Shub-Niggurath.
Similar to Azazel's case, Seolhwa's body had been inhabited by an Outer God.
* * *
Meanwhile, around the time Bing Seolhwa and Wolfram were facing off, a group of people was leaving a monastery in the Western Regions.
"I cannot accept that junior!"
"I agree. Master, how could you think of accepting someone who raised their sword against you as a disciple?"
Verdandi threatened Azazel with her holy sword while Bi Wol crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks.
Having somehow reached an agreement, they showed their disapproval of accepting Azazel as Bing Yeon's disciple.
Bing Yeon was flying between his disciples to stop the fight, wearing a troubled expression as if caught between sworn enemies.
"Children, but we need Azazel to win at the Dragon Phoenix Branch Meeting..."
He was trying to reduce any possibilities.
In this massive episode where the original protagonists would appear, if there were no children to send to the Dragon Phoenix Branch Meeting in their place, he would miss out on the Ten Thousand Year Ultimate Blood Treasure.
"Cough! Hack...!"
Bing Yeon felt his heart continue to rattle, accompanied by pain as if an ice awl was scraping his lungs.
It was the side effect of trying to use both aura and internal energy to face Azazel. He coughed up blood repeatedly onto the ground, steadying himself.
"Master...!"
"Master!"
"Are you alright?"
At this sight, all three people around him showed shocked expressions and concerned attitudes.
"I'm fine."
Though it was all actually because of Azazel, Bing Yeon tried to pass without blaming her.
Perhaps not disliking this foolish side of him, Azazel attempted to heal him with holy power,
And then,
"I'll heal you... Huh?"
Realizing something was wrong, she let out a short gasp and began probing Bing Yeon's body with her tentacles, trying to discover something.
"Azazel, what exactly..."
"Why do you have these marks?"
Twisted letters formed like black clouds made of intertwined goat hooves and horns.
- I think this world needs to end 'according to the original story', properly. Do-hyeon.
In writing that only those who had contact with Outer Gods could understand,
- From someone who loved your writing dearly.
These words were written on Bing Yeon's back.