Chapter 41: (an unknown era) 1,994,999 Years Befor Zero : The bittersweetness of eternity [3]

"What? You want your nose to be more prominent?"

"That’s impossible, Kalula..."

The sound of carving echoed through the area as Van tried to shape a nose from a wooden log as large as himself.

The wooden log already resembled the face of a woman who almost looked like Kalula.

Van carefully carved the details while looking down at the various Polaroid photos of Kalula that he had taken in the past.

Van stood there, staring at Kalula’s face, which was beginning to resemble her real face. Her horns, positioned on top of her head, clearly matched the ones in the photos.

Van scratched his eyebrow with the hand holding the carving tool. His gray eyes occasionally wandered around the area, where the surroundings of the Hell Gate were now filled with wooden statues resembling various people Van had met.

The statues ranged from shapeless pieces of wood to figures that genuinely looked like the people they were based on.

Van sighed as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The aurora above his head had witnessed every second since the moment Van first began carving statues from wooden logs.

It had also clearly witnessed the growth of Van’s golden hair, which now lay scattered in circles across the ground around him. Van himself no longer knew how long his hair had become.

His beard had also reached his stomach, covering more and more of his face until he was becoming difficult to recognize.

The veins on Van’s forehead protruded. He gritted his teeth while scratching his ear.

There was no voice asking him anything, yet he began answering a question that only he could hear.

"Ah, yes, yes... don’t be so impatient. I only rested for a little while."

Van continued carving Kalula’s body, occasionally glancing at the photos scattered messily across the ground around him.

"You know? Maybe this sounds a little rude, but... does your face still look the same as it does in the photos?"

The sound of Van carving the wood seemed to answer the question he had just asked Kalula.

"What? You became much more beautiful? Is that possible?"

Van stared at Kalula’s expressionless wooden face before laughing and covering his mouth.

"How could I believe that? By now, you must have become an old grandmother, right? I’m sure your grandchildren already have children..."

Van turned his head to the right.

There, a completed statue of Elena stood, staring expressionlessly at Van and Kalula.

"Did you hear that? Even Elena agrees with me!"

Van frowned as he stared at Kalula’s wooden face. He stopped carving her body for a moment.

"Then... who are you with?"

Van’s ears twitched as though he were hearing various answers in the middle of an area where there wasn’t even any wind to caress his skin.

"Ahh, the others said you found a nice dragon man..."

Van nodded several times, agreeing with the stories he heard from the statues surrounding him.

"Yeah, sometimes it’s better to live with a good person, right?"

Van began carving Kalula’s body again.

This time, he focused without interruption. He shaped her upper body based on the photograph lying on the ground, occasionally laughing whenever he heard Kalula asking him to carve her wings as well.

However, Van kept refusing because he would have to attach them manually or find a wooden log with a larger diameter.

"Damn... it’s a good thing I made it the same size as your body. Do you want me to make it as small as a miniature, huh? Or only as big as Dorn?"

Van chuckled softly as he smoothly carved Kalula’s lower body.

One eyebrow rose when he suddenly remembered something he had read the previous day.

"By the way... are you the oldest dragon still alive now?"

Van tried to look around. He searched for a book lying not far from him.

It was a book containing the biodata of thousands of people Van had recorded in the past.

He opened the first section while facing Kalula’s nearly finished wooden statue.

"Here... you said the oldest dragon is five thousand years old? Woah... have you already lived for five thousand years? What year is it now?"

Van tried counting on his ten fingers, but even after including all ten of his toes, he was still nowhere near the exact number he was trying to figure out.

He finally gave up.

"Beluga..."

A mound slowly formed on the ground surrounding Van.

From the mound, Beluga slowly emerged, his golden jewelry reflecting the aurora’s light and clinking every time he moved his body.

He swam behind Van, his face expressionless. He simply waited for Van to speak.

Van spoke without looking at Beluga, since he had already resumed carving Kalula’s lower body.

"How many years have I lived?"

Beluga swallowed.

He scratched his wide, protruding forehead with his flipper.

"Is that a request?"

"Yes."

"The payment is one of your eyes."

One of Van’s eyes suddenly went dark.

Warm blood flowed down and covered his cheek.

Van did not scream. His expression did not even change, and he continued carving the wood despite losing part of his vision.

Beluga sighed when he saw that.

"You have lived for five thousand and one years."

Van nodded once before speaking to Kalula’s statue again.

"Did you hear that? It’s already been more than a year! You are definitely the oldest dragon now! Congratulations, even though you’re definitely very old! Hahaha."

Beluga lowered his head after looking at Van.

He had been there long enough to hear every word Van had thrown at the wooden statues around him.

Beluga looked around, searching for the four demons who could not move. Apparently, they were at the edge of the area.

He wanted to approach them, but his body disappeared once Van no longer needed him.

He only looked at Van’s back one last time before finally disappearing completely, leaving Van alone.

The sound of carving wood continued to echo through the area.

Eventually, the sound stopped when Van finished the statue of Kalula, which resembled the one in the photograph.

He smiled faintly.

He simply stood there, staring at it without moving at all, before finally walking away from Kalula’s statue without saying goodbye.

He was now heading toward the Hell Gate.

Along the way, he was repeatedly stopped by several statues, talking to them before finally standing in front of the Hell Gate.

Van raised his head as high as the gate itself, all the way to its peak, where the aurora emerged.

Van chuckled while repeatedly pointing at the Hell Gate.

"Well... you’re the only one left."

Van closed one eye and began measuring every corner of the metal Hell Gate.

He then pinched the air.

A mask appeared in his hand.

He immediately put it on, then pinched the air again, making a sling bag appear. Dozens of cans were inside.

Van put on the sling bag and slowly floated toward the highest part of the Hell Gate.

His hair slowly rose as well until it was completely floating above the ground. Even so, by the time he reached the peak of the Hell Gate, which stood dozens of meters tall, the tips of his hair were still not far from the ground.

Van took out one of the metal cans.

It turned out to be white spray paint.

He shook it for a while before finally spraying it onto the surface of the Hell Gate.

He began covering the entire dozens-of-meters-tall surface of the Hell Gate with dozens of cans of white spray paint.

Van’s golden hair, which was now nearly as long as the Hell Gate itself, continued swaying in the air.

Sometimes it did not touch the ground at all, while other times it had to spread across the ground behind him.

Van then took out other bags containing spray paint in various colors.

He began making all kinds of strange drawings.

Sometimes he stopped to look for inspiration in modern magazines, using them to create murals of various famous figures.

In the end, the Hell Gate had become a wall covered in murals.

And Van had become the artist behind all of it.