The World after the Fall

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 should’ve listened to me from the beginning and we wouldn’t have been caught here like this.]

“…”

[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 didn’t want you to do this! I’m pretty sure they’re 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.]

“You don’t have eyes.”

[Bah! It’s a metaphor! Don’t 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 off…. How can you not know when everyone else knows?! You should’ve just moved to the <Great Lands> just like I told you to back then, and you would’ve been the most powerful Lord there by now! You could’ve finished the war in the <Great Lands> and live a lavish, luxurious life there! Now look what you’ve become! You are…]

Jaehwan yawned as he listened to the sword go on and on and thought about what its name was.

‘Beastlain.’

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, ‘Gentleman of Mischief’? 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.

[….What? What are you laughing at?]

“Nothing.”

Jaehwan expected this when his sword began to evolve after he smashed his way out of the tower, and when Meikal from <Twilight’s Fall> 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.

“You haven’t changed a bit.”

[I haven’t changed a bit?! You’re the one who ended my career! Look at what I’ve become!]

If he heard this the second he got out of the tower, he would’ve destroyed the sword immediately. However, Jaehwan had changed and he still liked the sword.

“But hasn’t it been quite fun?”

[FUN? FUN you say?! What are you…]

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 was….]

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 can’t just describe it as fun. How rude of you to say that…]

Yet, it seemed that Beastlain was thinking of what he had experienced. ‘Fun’ didn’t seem to fit how he felt, perhaps it was more ‘astonishing’. 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 ‘Public Cultivator’ 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 hadn’t 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.

“Hey.”

Beastlain came back from his thoughts and shook his sword body.

“Do you think I should still start the ‘real game’?”

Beastlain did not answer. He just vibrated and refused to answer. Jaehwan then remembered Myad telling Jaehwan to be cautious of ‘time’. To think that this demon could change… It seemed that ‘time’ really was terrifying.

There was nothing that was permanent in the world.

No. Maybe there was something that didn’t change after all.

[So, Jaehwan. Why are you trying to meet Big Brother anyway? Justice? Ethics? Ugh, don’t tell me that that’s the only reason you want to meet him? Let’s not fall into a cliché here, alright?]

Jaehwan frowned with his eyes closed as he heard Beastlain’s lecture. He had gone on for five hours straight.

[Justice won’t 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! It’s an illusion! It’s all created by humans! Ideas that were all created by human perspectives!]