(EP-347.1) #4
347 – Spider #4
Bael said.
“This world reshapes itself once every thousand years. New rules emerge. A great upheaval occurs, resolving what has accumulated over time.”
It seemed like this would be a long story.
I remained on guard, wary that Bael might be trying to deceive or manipulate me.
But regardless of my caution, she continued speaking.
“This world was originally a realm of fairies and giant beasts. The latter roamed freely, while the fairies and spirits sang of the world in every little pond.”
Bael moved his hand through the air as if wiping a chalkboard clean. Then, over the bright afternoon tea setting, new images overlaid.
There was a giant deer and squirrel that towered over. They drank from clear springs, where tiny fairies waded, their voices bubbling with chatter.
I understood that this was a glimpse of a distant past, a time when the world did not yet belong to humans.
“But even this world met its twilight.”
Swish, swish.
With a wave of Bael’s hand, the tranquil spring turned crimson. The surroundings burned, screams of the fairies echoed, and the bodies of dying beasts piled onto the ground one by one.
The chaos resembled war. The scorching heat, acrid smoke, and metallic stench of blood felt vividly real.
I scowled, wanting to look away from the carnage. That’s when Bael said.
“I know you don’t want to see it. But you should. Because this is exactly what you are about to bring upon the world.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I thought Queen Aira was the key. But watching the world through her, I realized—the final fragment is you.”
“The final fragment?”
Incomprehensible concepts kept pouring out. Each question I asked only seemed to birth two more, like the mythical serpent whose severed heads grew back in pairs.
Perhaps this, too, was part of Bael’s scheme.
After luring me to a meaningless riddle, she'll sink her teeth into my throat the moment I let my guard down.
She was the traitor who betrayed Solomon, after all. There was no reason to believe she wouldn’t do the same to me. Not that there was ever any trust between us to begin with.
To take control of this conversation, I spoke coldly on purpose.
“Your words are too vague and convoluted. Explain it in a way I can understand.”
Bael let out a small sigh.
With another wave of her hand, the sweltering heat of war disappeared, and the peaceful tea party setting returned.
“After the nymph died, Solomon began researching life and death. Eventually, he came to a realization—no one can overcome death. And that applies not just to people, but to eras as well.”
The death of an era.
According to Bael, Demon King Solomon’s research led him to understand that just like humans and animals, the world itself had a lifespan—that one day, even an era would meet its end.
The lifespan of an era was approximately one thousand years.
And roughly every thousand years, the world would undergo a massive upheaval.
“So, that war you showed me earlier....”
“Yes, now you’re starting to understand. A thousand years ago, this world belonged to the fairies. But then, something completely foreign disrupted that order. And now, that foreign concept is called a God.”
“You mean the Gwangyeom God?”
An image of a divine statue holding a lantern in one hand and a handful of salt in the other flashed through my mind. In this world, the only god was the ruler of light and salt, the Gwangyeom God. All others were heretics.
Bael nodded.
“Yes. The Gwangyeom God is undoubtedly a divine existence. But back in the age of fairies, a sole God and the magic he bestowed did not exist. An external concept entered this world and changed it. You could even say it corrupted it.”
“…….”
This story….
I heard something like this before. Wasn’t it said that the fall of the fairies and the great spirits began when humans awakened to mana?
As worship shifted away from the fairies and spirits, they lost their power and dwindled into obscurity. In their place, the church's God and the mages rose to prominence.
“This millennium has undoubtedly belonged to the Church. But now, that time is nearly over. This era will soon come to an end.”
“So, what you’re saying is…”
The world changes every thousand years. And now, that thousand-year cycle was upon us again?
If Bael's words were true, it could explain why the wall collapsed and the shadow army invaded. Of course, that didn't happen. It won't happen.
“But I stopped it. Aira wasn't executed, and the wall didn't collapse.”
Bael shook her head.
“No, you didn’t stop it. You defeated me in the end, didn’t you?”
So, my final spell worked.
“Yes, I am dying. And as I die, I’m speaking to you. All I have left is the time it takes to finish this cup of tea. But that’s more than enough.”
Suk-.
Bael pulled something from under the table and held it towards me.
“This is what you’ve been wondering about.”
“This is….”
It was a book bound in brown leather.
As I flipped through the pages, I saw notes on materials and magical formulas for creating something.
I couldn’t fully grasp its meaning with just a surface reading, but the scattered notes and numerous revisions showed that someone had spent a long time researching and refining it.
“Solomon created me, Bael, and in the end, he created a human. We were all just stepping stones for that final creation. You probably know who that human is.”
A human.
A human created by Solomon.
Only one name came to mind.
“Isaiah.”
“Correct. He is Solomon’s perfect replica. A flawless copy, imbued with the soul and memories of the king from his days of virtue. Now do you understand why Solomon and the Draco family researched soul splitting together?”
Soul split. The art of placing a soul into a vessel.
A technique meant to return the souls of the dead to the body.
But I had heard that Solomon failed to revive the nymph. So in the end, did he split his own soul and transfer it into a new vessel?
Isaiah wasn’t the Demon King’s son after all.
Solomon never had a wife. He never even kept a woman close enough to bear his child.
The mystery behind the sudden appearance of a son—it made sense now.
“By dividing his soul, his power weakened drastically. And in the end, the Demon King, reduced to a mere shell, fell at the hands of the heroes.”