210 thousand years ago, when the Three Ancient Gods perished, spirits became Lost Ones and had to find a way to survive on their own.
Some searched for a new God to follow, while others chose to die in order to follow their former Gods. Some were even given a second chance to assist .
However, most of them stayed without doing anything. They had no will to follow , nor did they want to seek out a new God, but they also didnât choose to die.
They moved into the Great Forest and became monsters without minds.
This was the story in the legends.
But from my own experience, this legend was different from the truth.
Within the Great Forest, there were Followers who still stood by the world even after losing their God. They were Followers who watched their world fall with their own eyes but still hung onto it. When I saw them, I felt something wasnât right.
Why?
Those who had lost their Gods-
Seem so happy?
Mulack Armelt â Record of the Depths
Episode â The Great Forest
Jaehwan was panting in the middle of a hill. He felt bitter. It had been a while since he had trouble breathing like this, it meant that his spirit had been severely damaged.
He took in a long, deep breath and continued climbing again. It became steeper from time to time, and sometimes even hard to climb without any tools, but Jaehwan did not stop.
ââŚJaehwan, are we there yet?â Runald asked from behind. He, too, was panting heavily. Jaehwan did not answer and kept moving. He then felt the ground shaking, it meant the âentranceâ was near.
Jaehwan then positioned himself by a close hiding spot. It was a signal to rendezvous. Runald then asked again as he reached Jaehwan.
âAre you really going into the Great Forest?â
âYeah.â
âBut why⌠That place is the most dangerousâŚâ
âThat was her last wish.â
Jaehwan quickly responded as he did not want to prolong the conversation. However, he soon realized that he had made a mistake. Runald shook at the words âlast wishâ. It seemed he was thinking about the authenticity of what Jaehwan said. Jaehwan regretted blurting that out.
âThat⌠was real.â
Jaehwan never thought that the word ârealâ would have such cruelty when spoken out loud.
âSheâs⌠sheâs reallyâŚâ
Jaehwan did not know how to calm a crying child. He did not know how to weep together either.
âDonât cry.â
He used [Suspicion] on everyone and [Understood] everything. But he couldnât sympathize with this childâs feeling. He couldnât even guess the gravity of the loss the boy faced.
To Jaehwan, Runald was even more difficult than Catastrophe.
All he could do was watch him shed tears.
âSo⌠in you⌠sheâsâŚâ
Jaehwan looked up to the sky. It was a clear blue sky, not knowing one bit of the disaster that had befallen them. Jaehwan regretted saying what he had heard.
Just like then, and now.
Regret always came after.
[Hey! Get it together!]
It was minutes after the first attack from Machina, that Jaehwan came back to his senses. He felt pain all over his body and found that he was covered by dirt, holding a small boy. It was Runald.
âWhat is going onâŚâ
Heavy stones were pushing down on him. He tried to move, but he couldnât. The damage his spirit had sustained was too severe for him to use his world power. And then-
[HEY! Wake up!]
With that voice, light shone through the rocks. Jaehwan felt a force pulling him and Runald out of the dirt. With the feeling of the cold ground beneath him, he was pulled out back into the world.
[We have to run now! Get up!]
The voice was coming from the small Gigantes body. Jaehwan asked, ââŚAndersen?â
As he heard Andersenâs voice coming from Xâs body, Jaehwan quickly remembered what had happened.
ââŚYeah⌠I was attacked by him.â
X unleashed the âDestruction of Linkageâ and the Vicegerents all collapsing as their links to the Gods were forcefully disconnected. Then, Myad subdued all the Vicegerents and Jaehwan, before pulling out the core from X. He then walked up to the Machina of Daeus powered it with the core. After that came the giant explosion.
Jaehwan felt his head spin from everything that happened. Then, the anger kicked in.
âMyad, that bastardâŚâ
It was because he was swept by Yoonhwan. Everything had been very suspicious from the beginning, but he trusted Myad. No- he did not trust him. It wasnât due to Jaehwan trusting Myad that led to this event. He lacked information and everything was against him. And the result was the worst possible outcome.
âBut why are you in there?â Jaehwan asked and Andersen shrugged. Jaehwan could actually âseeâ Andersen shrugging as she was inside Xâs body.
[âŚI think this happened when the [Link Destroy] was activated.]
âWasnât it supposed to cut the link between Gods and Vicegerents?â Jaehwan asked as he thought about what he heard before he fainted. Frankly, Jaehwan and Andersen relationship wasnât of a God and Vicegerent. Andersen was absorbed into Jaehwanâs world with her mind intact, and was a bit of a [Part] after all.
[Yeah, thatâs what I thought it was also. âŚBut I donât know what happened there.]
There was no way to know what exactly the power did, other than the dead Daeus at this point. Whatever the case, the power had divided Jaehwan and Andersen, and she was removed from Jaehwan.
[This guy was lying around at that point soâŚ]
And then Andersen went into the empty Xâs body. Jaehwan decided to leave it at that for the moment.
The explosions were still happening around, but increasing in scale.
[The 3rd World Federation is fighting against the forces of high-ranking Gods.]
It seemed easy to understand what had happened then.
âThe followers of those high-ranking Gods had also come in large numbers.â
There was no way that the high-ranking Gods would stay put when their Vicegerents were killed. They sent their Followers to the place and now the war had begun. But Myad wasnât alone either.