The pain of being separated from her soul while still alive was more terrible than death. It felt like her intestines were pouring out of her and she was unable to come to her senses from the terrible, painful sensation.

  But even in the midst of this, she was furious at the fact that the other party had broken his promise to guarantee her life. 

  However, Ji Sang-Hee couldn’t even protest. By the time she came back to her senses, her body and soul had already separated, and the only thing that a spirit without a body was allowed to do was wail an unbearable scream. 

  But even that soon became impossible. The spirit was allowed a gray hazy mist as her body, but that became blurry and her body seemed to be sucked into something with a woosh. 

  At that moment, everything went dark and all sounds disappeared. And soon, she was completely cut off from the world. 

  There was nothing to see and nothing to hear. However, her mind remained very clear. But that only made it more terrifying. 

  She had no idea what the hell happened to her.

  Nothing was clear. Everything was blurry. She felt nothing with her five senses and she couldn’t even feel the passage of time.

  It was truly a terrible experience. 

  It was as if her existence, ‘I’ was breaking down, and if she stayed in this state for a bit longer, it felt like she would go crazy. 

  Thankfully, this horrific experience ended before she really went crazy. 

  Woosh. 

  Once again, her soul was sucked somewhere. This time, it was much bigger and more vast than the previous one.

  And in that place, there was a being who had settled there first.

  “It’s you?”
From someplace, a somewhat flippant voice came, and before she could even look for the owner of the voice, something whitish poured into existence in front of her.

  A stranger, who must be in his mid-20s, stared at her. 

  Ji Sang-Hee cried out in desperation.

  She asked the man, “Where the hell is this place? What the hell happened to me?”
“Ah. Ah.”
But the only thing that came out of her mouth was an unsightly moan that could have been croaked by an animal. 

  “Aieeee!”
No matter how hard she tried, as if her tongue was paralyzed, she couldn’t make the words come out properly. 

  “Everyone’s like that at first after becoming a spirit. So don’t be too shocked. It’ll be fine after a while.”
Just like he said, after a while, Ji Sang-Hee was able to speak, albeit a bit slurred. 

  “Where the hell is this? And who are you?”
“Just like I heard, you sure are rude.”
The man clicked his tongue once, then spoke bluntly.

  “Where is this? It’s the Holy Sword Balmung, no. It’s the inside of the Holy Sword Joon-Min.”
“What?”
If it was the Holy Sword Balmung, then it was a name she knew as well. She just couldn’t understand why Balmung’s name was coming up here. And what the hell was a Joon-Min sword? Her head was hurting. 

  “And I’m Park Joon-Min. At one point in time, I was doing quite well, but in the end, I’m just a Hero of misfortune who’s trapped inside a sword.”
Even after Park Joon-Min identified himself as a Hero, Ji Sang-Hee could not come back to her senses. She had no idea why the Hero and the Holy Sword had suddenly appeared. 

  “You’re really stupid, aren’t you? Well, I guess that’s how you had the guts to touch Hyung-nim’s family in such a way.”
Park Joon-Min spoke with a smirk.

  “Listen up, I’m only going to tell you this once, you reckless girl.”
Ji Sang-Hee did not like Park Joon-Min’s attitude, but she persevered and waited for him to continue. Unfortunately, right now, he was the only person in front of her who could explain the situation to her. 

  “Your soul is sealed inside the Holy Sword. As Hyung-nim would put it, you’ve been banished.”
Park Joon-Min clicked his tongue when he saw that she still couldn’t understand.

  “Tsk, you should have just asked him to kill you. Where do you think this is?”
“No! There’s no way!” 
It was a reaction that was beyond delayed, but she ran desperately somewhere.

  “Hey! Stop! I’m telling you, stop!”
Despite his urgent shout, she didn’t stop. And it was as stupid of a decision as provoking the Dragon Lord’s Contractor.

  “We’re not alone here!”
By the time she realized what the other beings in the Holy Sword that Park Joon-Min had been talking about were, it was too late.

  “Ah…”
The darkness raised its body with horrendous sluggishness. It looked at her and flicked its greedy tongue. She froze like a frog in front of a snake, and she couldn’t move at all. 

  “Damn it! They woke up again because of you!”
If Park Joon-Min hadn’t belatedly grabbed her by the nape of her neck, then she would have been swallowed by the darkness on the spot. 

  “W, what the hell is that…”
She could swear that she had never seen anything more terrifying than that in her life. She was completely terrified by the darkness that seemed to be made out of all the malice in the entire world. 

  “Fragment of Chaos. That’s the bad-tempered roommate you’ll have to see for the rest of your life.”
Ji Sang-Hee completely lost her spirit at Park Joon-Min’s answer. 

  ***

  As if stuffing her into it, Kim Seon-Hyeok sealed Ji Sang-Hee’s soul into the Holy Sword. He had locked her up in a prison from which even the Fragment of Chaos could not escape until he himself released the seals.

  Unless the Holy Sword broke, she would suffer forever. That was the verdict he had given to those who touched his family.

  It wasn’t intentional, but it was a bonus that the talkative Park Joon-Min was now happy that he had a conversation partner.

  “What are you going to do with that?”
When Han Jin-Hee continued to follow him, he wondered if there was anything she wanted. And sure enough, Han Jin-Hee was looking at Crone’s Life Vessel with sparkling eyes. It seemed like she was coveting the energy that the Heaven-Defying Seeker possessed.

  However, Kim Seon-Hyeok had no intentions of doing her any more favors.

  “What do you mean?”
Simultaneously with the short answer, he clenched his fist. With just that, the Seeker’s precious origin was destroyed.

  “Ah, what a waste.”
It seemed like she wasn’t interested if it wasn’t a full Life Vessel because Han Jin-Hee looked terribly disappointed by the energy that was emitting from the badly shrunken heart. 

  However, contrary to her uninterested expression, she didn’t forget to greedily devour the energy that was spreading out everywhere. 

  Kim Seon-Hyeok turned around when he saw the Reaper disappearing into the shadows again after eating. 

  “You’re leaving?”
“My job here is done.”
Han Jin-Hee smacked her lips at his resolute answer. 

  “Call me more often. I’ll always welcome people who trade like you.”
Kim Seon-Hyeok waved carelessly at Han Jin-Hee’s farewell that sounded just like a salesperson’s as he got on top of Edda. 

  “Let’s go home.”
***

  There were no more headaches that felt like he was being stabbed with needles nor did he feel the helplessness that had weighed him down to the ground like wet cotton. As if it had never existed in the first place, the curse had disappeared without a sound.

  “Your Imperial Majesty?”
Ophelia got up from her seat instead of responding

  “Today’s meeting ends here.”
The nobles looked puzzled at her abrupt announcement for the meeting to end. But she left the conference room without paying them any heed. 

  After leaving the conference room, she immediately went towards her beloved little prince and checked his condition. Although he had recovered to some degree after absorbing the Eternal Flower, his appearance had still been sickly. Now, there were no signs of any sickness on the prince’s face.

  Instead, he looked healthier than he looked before the curse. It seemed that now that the curse, which had continuously been sapping away the prince’s life, was lifted, the effects of accepting the Eternal Flower were finally showing. 

  “The Grand Duke has done it.”
After checking that the curse on Victorius had completely disappeared, Ophelia sighed in relief.

  It finally felt like everything was back to normal.

  No, there was one more thing that hadn’t fully normalized yet - her husband who had left the house. Her husband had never come back on time. There was no way that he would return properly this time. It was clear that he would be caught up in an unexpected incident and was wandering around in the wrong location somewhere else. 

  However, her expectations were wrong and unexpectedly, a miracle(?) occurred.

  “The Indomitable Grand Duke has returned, Your Imperial Majesty!”
Not long after the curse was completely lifted, the Indomitable Grand Duke, who had left the Imperial Capital, returned. He was returning much earlier than expected. Ophelia headed towards the square.

  “Ophelia.”
The anger he had shown as he left the Imperial Capital was no longer visible. He was looking at her with a worried face as usual. 

  Seeing him like that, Ophelia gave him a small nod.

  “Ah…”
He had looked nervous, but at that, he belatedly began smiling brightly. As if in response to his smile, the corners of her eyes crinkled. 

  The restored peace was truly sweet. Kim Seon-Hyeok enjoyed the sweetness as he spent time with his family. However, he never forgot the existence of the other Transcendentals for a single moment.

  Edda and his dragons were obviously incomparable to the others. However, it was unreasonable for him to judge the dangers of the Transcendentals simply by their strength. 

  Hadn’t the Heaven-Defying Seeker of Tao threaten his family by using his cursed power and his origin to deflect death?

  There was no law saying that there would be no one else among the other Transcendental Beings who had powers similar to that of the Heaven-Defying Seeker of Tao. And if there were any amongst them who harbor the same useless ambition, then there was a high possibility of dangerous things happening to his family in the future. 

  He already had the answer and he had the determination. All that was left was to put his idea into action. 

  “Go.”
Since his head had been full of thoughts about the Transcendentals, naturally, it would show. Ophelia patted him on the back.

  “Ophelia?”
“I don’t need any other promise. It’s enough as long as you promise to come back safely.”
Kim Seon-Heok hesitated for a moment at her words, before nodding his head. 

  “I will definitely come back safely.”
That was the end of Ophelia’s plea and she didn’t say anything more. Kim Seon-Hyeok left the Imperial Capital immediately the next day.

  A few days later, a voice resounded across the continent. 

  [In one month, I will wait in the ruins of the Great Temple, There will be no exceptions.]

  It was neither a sharp threat nor a sweet coaxing. Kim Seon-Hyeok spoke bluntly.

  However, the effect of his words couldn’t be compared to any intimidation or coaxing.

  On that day, the Transcendentals who had been scattered across the continent began to move in unison. East and West, South and North. All of them might have started in different places, but their destinations were all the same. 

  They were all heading towards the location of the Great Temple; a place that had been ruined in the battle between the Dragon Lord and the Fragments of Chaos. It wasn’t just the Transcendentals and their Companions who were heading towards the ruins of the Great Temple. 

  Among those in transit were the Adjusters in charge of the East, West, North, and South of the continent. Julian was one of them.

  Feeling the massive energy that was gathering from all directions, Julian looked towards the location of the Great War with a hard face.

  In that location was the man who had once been the Lord and Master she was supposed to have served but had become her deadly enemy through a curious twist of fate, and now, was a target that had to be observed according to the will of the world. 

  “What on earth are you thinking, sir?”