A noisy voice sounded within the quiet darkness. The voice made it seem like they had been waiting for this day, holding back from talking for thousands of years. And surprisingly, the voice was coming from the dark blade that had cracked open.
[So, you shouldâve listened to me from the beginning and we wouldnât have been caught here like this.]
ââŠâ
[Big Brother, my ass! What are you going to do after you destroy the System? Does it give you money? Does it bring back your youth? Or does it even compliment you or something? You already saw all those people! They didnât want you to do this! Iâm pretty sure theyâre all afraid by now. That perverted old man, the half-angel sissy boy⊠They are all probably scared sh*tless of you destroying the world! Oh, but of course I think you might die before you destroy the world though.]
It felt like he was really noisy before, but not a thing had changed since then. Jaehwan regretted talking to it.
[Hah, I really feel sad for you, Jaehwan. I feel like I will cry now. I will shed sad tears.]
âYou donât have eyes.â
[Bah! Itâs a metaphor! Donât you get it? How can a sword cry? For crying out loud!]
The sword shook violently as the voice continued.
[So, back to where we left offâŠ. How can you not know when everyone else knows?! You shouldâve just moved to the just like I told you to back then, and you wouldâve been the most powerful Lord there by now! You couldâve finished the war in the and live a lavish, luxurious life there! Now look what youâve become! You areâŠ]
Jaehwan yawned as he listened to the sword go on and on and thought about what its name was.
âBeastlain.â
Yes. That was his name. The Cultivator that Jaehwan met on the 100th floor of the Tower of Nightmares. He was the one with the head of a lion, wearing a black suit with the nickname, âGentleman of Mischiefâ? Or something like that. However, it was ironic for one who merely had the strength of a 3rd stage Adapter to have such a nickname.
[âŠ.What? What are you laughing at?]
âNothing.â
Jaehwan expected this when his sword began to evolve after he smashed his way out of the tower, and when Meikal from told him that a certain spirit of a higher being had possessed the sword. But he did not have proof back then, and the sword was still a sword.
Jaehwan had fought every battle with this sword. He had it since the beginning, and he was still with it now.
âYou havenât changed a bit.â
[I havenât changed a bit?! Youâre the one who ended my career! Look at what Iâve become!]
If he heard this the second he got out of the tower, he wouldâve destroyed the sword immediately. However, Jaehwan had changed and he still liked the sword.
âBut hasnât it been quite fun?â
[FUN? FUN you say?! What are youâŠ]
Jaehwan knew. This demon had paid enough of a price for his sins. He had faced many dangerous moments together with the sword while making his way here.
[It wasâŠ.]
The voice became quiet. If the sword had eyes, it would probably show complicated feelings.
Fun? Was it fun?
Was that enough to describe all that had happened? The sword vibrated erratically. It might even have been viewed as being hesitant if he was a human.
[You canât just describe it as fun. How rude of you to say thatâŠ]
Yet, it seemed that Beastlain was thinking of what he had experienced. âFunâ didnât seem to fit how he felt, perhaps it was more âastonishingâ. The journey he experienced together with Jaehwan was an astonishing one that he had never experienced before in his 784 years of life as a demon.
No, there was no demon that could have experienced what Beastlain went through
Before he was placed in the sword, he was just an ordinary Cultivator. He was a middle-grade demon, a being that was looked down upon by Lords and Generals. That was Beastlain, the 8,152nd demon. All he could hope for in his life was to become a âPublic Cultivatorâ of Big Brother or become a God through countless Cultivation. And that would only happen if he was lucky since any incident could have killed him.
However, he became a sword and fought against those terrifying Lords.
He killed those Lords that he was so terrified of even mentioning their names, and massacred the Gods he was too scared of talking to.
It was a pleasure he hadnât felt when he lived within the System. Of course, he had to endure the pain of being destroyed first, but it turned out to be astonishing.
It was the pleasure of fighting against the world.
He reached the peak of excitement when he destroyed Lord Gerome. Killing Gerome, who had long oppressed all the Cultivators, was the one moment he would never forget.
Time passed and Jaehwan spoke to the sword that had fallen silent.
âHey.â
Beastlain came back from his thoughts and shook his sword body.
âDo you think I should still start the âreal gameâ?â
Beastlain did not answer. He just vibrated and refused to answer. Jaehwan then remembered Myad telling Jaehwan to be cautious of âtimeâ. To think that this demon could change⊠It seemed that âtimeâ really was terrifying.
There was nothing that was permanent in the world.
No. Maybe there was something that didnât change after all.
Jaehwan frowned with his eyes closed as he heard Beastlainâs lecture. He had gone on for five hours straight.
[Justice wonât feed you! Ethics? Throw that sh*t out in the trash can. All of that is just the result of education! In some worlds, justice is to kill your parents before they get old and suffer, and in other worlds, ethics is where you lend your wife to a friend! Itâs an illusion! Itâs all created by humans! Ideas that were all created by human perspectives!]