… Thud!
The earth trembles.
The heart trembles.
A wavering melody.
Within it, the heart resounds.
'......'
Kim Jangcheol closed his eyes and thought.
The music he now hears. The sound of instruments. The harmonies. It's beautiful. Yet sorrowful.
Sorrowful?
Why?
He doesn't know.
Each note flowing along the rhythm feels steeped in blood and tears. It feels like a desperate cry, like vomiting blood, declaring they will never back down, that they will achieve what they so longed for.
That's why it's heartbreaking.
'Even if you cry out like that... I can't yield.'
He could feel it.
What lies at the end of this music.
What the performers of this melody desire.
Only one thing.
His death.
To become a sacrifice.
To hand everything over.
They infused the melody with that single, desperate will. It was binding his entire being.
And that made it all the more heartbreaking.
'Even if you insist like that... I can't give it up.'
Suddenly, he became afraid.
What they wanted—his death.
Yes.
He didn't want to die.
Dying is terrifying.
That's why he lied.
After he arrived here, from the very first moment he fell into this place, he lied to everyone. Shamelessly. Casually. Because he didn't want to die. Because he wanted to survive. To everyone, he said—
Let's stop the war.
Let's halt the invasion.
Let's live by cultivating the land instead.
Honestly, back then, he didn't have any grand ideals or resolve.
He was just trying to get through the crisis right in front of him.
Truly, that was all he had in mind.
He hadn't really thought about how others might feel, what might happen to them.
And yet...
'Since when did it become like this?'
Those he once saw only as members of the demon race.
Those he once considered grotesque and frightening.
And yet, before he knew it, they began to follow him. They became his responsibility. They became the ones he had to carry.
Since when did the demons of this abandoned land become so precious to him? How did it come to this, that he led them with such effort?
And how did it happen that he now worried so deeply about their future?
'...Worried…?'
Yes.
Worried.
Responsible.
It's the price of the lie he told. The burden he took on after inciting everyone and leading them this far.
'Now, everyone...'
They can't survive without him. He made them that way.
But if he disappears?
If he succumbs to the will carried in that melody, if he kneels and surrenders his heart, sacrifices his life?
If he dies here?
If that becomes reality?
'Everyone in this land… will die.'
Everyone who followed him.
All who live in this abandoned land.
Will meet a tragic end.
By whose hand?
By Aged Kimchi's.
It's the natural outcome.
Without him, the harvest will fail. Everyone will starve.
Just like before.
They'll devour each other again, chew the flesh of family and friends just to survive in agony.
At the end of that hunger and suffering, they'll ultimately make a sorrowful choice.
'The invasion of the human world...'
That would be the only option. The only way to break the bitter cycle of starvation. The only means to end the pain of wretched hunger.
So they'll invade the human realm, and briefly forget their hunger. And that act will summon Aged Kimchi.
The hero, Aged Kimchi, who will awaken to the mission he once turned away from.
'That...'
He didn't want that.
He hoped that would never happen.
Everyone has started to live earnestly now. They were cultivating the land, sweating, learning what it meant to live a fulfilling life. They had begun to feel it.
They had begun to see hope in the future, to dream.
So...
'I...'
Can't die here.
Not for everyone's sake.
Not for those who believe in me.
To take responsibility for what I've done. And for the future they each dream of. I absolutely cannot, here, like this—die.
… Thud!
It was the moment Kim Jangcheol opened his eyes just slightly.
A great will awakened within him. A will called responsibility rose up. It began to face head-on the will of the three vassals that had flowed through the melody to bind his whole body.
… Boom!
Without any warning.
Without any sign.
A tremendous recoil surged back along the melody. It struck the three vassals.
"......!"
Largo opened his eyes wide. Veloce of the blue eyes nearly dropped the bow of his violin. And Andante, the youthful-faced one, was just as startled.
They thought—
'...What was that?'
'Just now, that was...'
'Something... tremendous…'
Was it coincidence?
Or inevitability?
Or perhaps, just a delusion?
The three vassals quickly corrected their disrupted performance. And once again, they infused their will into the melody. They moved the trombone slide, drew the violin bow, plucked the harp strings.
And they prayed.
For the wish they had held for 300 years.
The resolve they had swallowed like bile in the sealed prison, countless times.
To break their lady's seal. No matter what, to return the power of melody to their lord. So that they might aid their lord's vengeance and great conquest.
They infused the melody with the will they had sworn, time and again, while holding back tears of blood.
It was then.
Thoom—!
"...!"
No sooner had they sent forth their will than an even greater backlash surged back along the melody. It struck the bodies, the insides, of the three vassals.
'What is this...?!'
This was no illusion.
It was certainly not confusion, either.
This was clearly...
'…Resistance?'
Veloce ground his teeth. Resistance? To their will? How dare he? He couldn't believe it. It was absurd.
But there was no choice but to believe it.
…Boom!
"...Kgh!"
Blood trickled from Andante's lips. A backlash of shocking intensity. A reflux of mana. A feeling like her entire insides had been flipped.
'Is resistance of this level… even possible?'
Andante was genuinely horrified.
Such resistance.
Such repulsion.
Never before had anything like this happened.
No being had ever resisted the Marionette Elegy of her and her siblings in this way.
That had been common sense, truth, and law. Yet today, that common sense, truth, and law were being shattered.
Brutally.
Crash—!
"......!"
Now they understood.
A will so vast.
A will of a scale that exceeded all expectations.
That was what this man, this Credos, possessed. The current generation's Demon King.
'Is that… really possible?'
Could any being truly surpass their long-cherished vow, their desperate wish to restore their lord's power? What kind of will could possibly overwhelm the seething will they had nurtured over 300 years?
They couldn't imagine it.
Couldn't even guess.
But now, they were certain.
Boom—!
"…Gah!"
Largo groaned.
Veloce dropped to his knees.
Andante gasped for breath.
The three vassals had to admit it.
'Our will… has been overwhelmed? By his will?'
Shock?
Such a feeling was now a luxury.
What followed was fear. Genuine terror. To witness their will shattered and crushed right before their eyes.
To see their melody, the power of the Marionette Elegy, rebound and bind them instead—
'...We, we have to stop playing…'
'But…'
'We can't stop our hands...!'
They had to cut the connection with that monstrous man. To do that, the performance had to stop.
But… they couldn't!
Even though they didn't want to, their hands moved on their own. The melody, now warped by suffering, continued. And the more it continued, the stronger the connection to Kim Jangcheol grew. So much so, that it could no longer be undone. It would only end when one side died—a bond that dreadful.
'Guh… gaaa!'
All the while, the overpowering backlash battered the insides of the three vassals. The mana reflux continued without end.
With each surge, fatal damage built up inside them. Their eyes began to roll back white. Thick, dark blood gushed from their open mouths.
Even so, the performance did not stop.
The one most shocked by this was none other than their lady, Artanis.
'...…'
What was happening?
What was going on?
She had been waiting, listening to her vassals' performance, waiting for Kim Jangcheol's body to be fully bound by the melody.
She had intended to strike the final blow the moment the music reached its conclusion and his movements halted.
Because when the melody bound both performer and listener, killing one could risk the death of the other as well.
So she waited.
For the performance to end.
For the chain of melody binding them to dissolve, for the three vassals to be safe, for that perfect moment when only Kim Jangcheol would be slumped in the echo of the tune.
She had waited.
'But now…'
This is what she saw.
The music was wildly distorted, the three vassals playing through sheer agony, vomiting blood.
And she, the Witch of Melody, immediately understood the cause of it all.
'Could it be… this man…'
Credos.
Was his will truly this immense?
Was it strong enough to completely overpower the will of the three vassals?
'.......'
She couldn't believe it.
But she had to.
Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to resolve this situation.
—All of you, can you see my question?
Her gesture grew desperate. She cast an urgent question toward the three vassals.
But there was no reply.
Their eyes still rolled white, their bodies convulsing, blood pouring out as they barely kept the broken performance going.
They were walking steadily toward death.
'....'
Artanis realized.
There was no time.
Five minutes at most.
If she didn't stop the performance before then, all three vassals would die.
And the only way to stop it…
'...…'
She couldn't take away or destroy their instruments. Doing so would cause a violent surge of mana reflux. The vassals wouldn't survive that.
She couldn't subdue or kill Credos, either. That too would trigger a backlash.
Then the only option left…
'I must… sing the melody's power myself.'
Overlay the broken performance with harmony, guide it toward a proper tune, and calm the collision between wills.
That was the only way to save the vassals.
'.......'
Could she do it?
Maybe.
She probably could.
Even with her mouth sealed by the seal artifact, she could sing once. But doing so would mean she'd never be able to break the seal.
'......'
Never break the seal?
She would have to accept that?
Forever?
For life?
'......'
She didn't want that.
More than death, she hated that.
But if she didn't...
What about her vassals?
'......'
Only now did Artanis realize, with brutal clarity, what kind of situation she was in.
A brutal choice.
Let the three vassals die, extract Credos' heart, and fulfill the long-awaited release from the seal.
Or sing the melody from within the seal, save the vassals, and live forever trapped by the seal artifact.
'I...'
There was no time to hesitate.
No room for delay.
A life-or-death choice.
Before this merciless decision, she shut her eyes tight. And made her decision. She stepped toward Kim Jangcheol, reaching out her hand with resolve.