Chapter 662
Chapter 662
‘Fist Demon of Mount Hua Damho.’
Zeon silently repeated his name.
For some reason, it was a name that carried a deep resonance and weight.
Strangely enough, he could understand just how arduous the path Damho had walked must have been.
At that moment, Jin Geumho, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
"You said you came from a place where Mount Hua is?"
"You know of it?"
"I do, but surely..."
An expression of disbelief crossed Jin Geumho's face without him realizing it. Seeing his reaction, Zeon looked puzzled.
"What is it?"
"Before the Great Cataclysm, there was a mountain in China called Mount Hua. Are you... from the past?"
At Jin Geumho's words, Damho's eyes wavered for the first time.
"You're saying Mount Hua was the name of a place in this world?"
"That's right. I heard it was one of the mountains the people of Pre-Cataclysm China held sacred. Along with Mount Tai and Mount Song, it was one of the Five Great Mountains."
"Mount Tai, Mount Song, the Five Great Mountains... nostalgic names. It seems the Mount Hua you speak of is the same Mount Hua that was my home. Then... does that mean my world disappeared long ago?"
Damho's voice sank heavily.
The despair in his voice made the air inside the prison seem to plunge below freezing, sending chills through everyone present.
"I brought down five worlds with these hands just to return home... and now you're telling me the place I was trying to return to no longer exists..."
Damho looked down at his two fists.
They were fists stained with the blood of countless beings.
Not only human blood, but the blood of things that were not human as well.
He felt anger toward himself, wondering what all those lives had been spilled for.
Rumble!
At that instant, the special metal walls of the solitary cell were torn apart like sheets of paper.
The surrounding energy was reacting to the fluctuations in Damho's emotions.
It was a sight unlike anything they had ever seen.
Even Jin Geumho and the Numbers were greatly shocked.
Zeon stopped him.
"Please calm yourself for a moment."
"My apologies. My emotions got the better of me."
"No. I understand. I would have reacted the same way. But I think there's something we need to consider."
"What do you mean?"
"Would you give me a little time? Someone I know may be able to answer your question."
"There is such a person?"
"As it happens, they're not far from here. Will you come with me?"
"No. I'll stay here."
"Won't it be uncomfortable?"
"It's warmer and more comfortable than any place I've stayed until now. I like it."
"I understand. If that's your wish..."
Zeon did not press him a second time.
As Damho lay down on the narrow cot, he said,
"I'll get some sleep while you bring that person."
"Very well."
As soon as Zeon stepped outside, Jin Geumho quietly asked,
"What are you planning to do?"
"Exactly what I told him. I'll bring someone who can answer his question."
"There's someone like that in Neo Seoul?"
"Yes. One person."
A being who had accumulated more knowledge than any human.
---
"Hm?"
The moment Zeon entered Tesserina's lair, he frowned.
A completely unexpected figure emerged from the underground level.
It was a giant well over five meters tall.
Despite his pale complexion and the dragon scales covering his body being cracked and broken in many places, the figure still radiated overwhelming presence.
It was Nigel.
"Lord Nigel? How are you here?"
"A great deal has happened."
"What?"
"I'll be staying here for a while to recover. Ask Tesserina for the details."
"Ah... yes."
Apparently displeased that Zeon had seen him in such a weakened state, Nigel closed the door and descended underground again.
Just then, Tesserina appeared.
"Oh, you're here?"
"What about Lord Nigel?"
"So you've seen him. It looks like he lost his battle against Reikas."
"He fought him?"
"Yes. He came here badly wounded."
"So Reikas won."
"The situation has become much worse."
"Haa... Things were already complicated enough."
Seeing Zeon rub his forehead, Tesserina looked at him curiously.
"What happened?"
"We can talk about Lord Nigel later. Right now, could you come with me somewhere?"
"Where?"
"I'll explain on the way."
"All right."
Since she had nothing pressing to do, Tesserina readily followed him.
On the way to the prison, Zeon gave her a summary of Damho's story.
"So you're saying that man claims he came from the past?"
"Is that impossible?"
"Not impossible. Just extremely unlikely. I think I'll have to speak with him directly to know for sure."
Tesserina looked toward the prison with eyes full of anticipation.
Dragons were beings possessed of limitless intellectual curiosity.
One of their greatest joys was exploring all the principles of the world to satisfy that thirst for knowledge.
Though she was no longer a perfect dragon, her desire for knowledge remained unchanged.
After passing through the heavily guarded security, Tesserina finally came face to face with Damho in his solitary cell.
Sensing their presence, Damho opened his eyes and looked at her.
The moment their eyes met, Tesserina felt as though her heart had dropped.
His gaze was that intense.
Damho spoke first.
"You are not human."
"How can you tell?"
"I can feel the immense presence of your soul."
"A human can sense something like that?"
Disbelief appeared on Tesserina's face.
To perceive another's rank and the magnitude of their soul, one had to possess a corresponding level themselves.
Which meant that the man before her possessed a realm great enough to read her soul.
Tesserina immediately changed her attitude.
To be honest, before coming here she had only half believed the story that Damho came from the past.
Among humans were many who exaggerated themselves or came to believe the lies they had invented.
At the very least, Damho did not seem to be one of those people.
Tesserina said,
"Will you tell me everything about yourself?"
"It will take quite a while."
"Not several days, surely."
"I suppose not..."
Damho nodded.
After briefly searching through his memories, he calmly began recounting his past.
"I spent my childhood in the Mount Hua Sect. After I became an orphan, my master, Daoist Hyunso, took me in."
A faint smile appeared on Damho's lips as he recalled the past.
It had been the happiest period of his life, and simply remembering it filled him with happiness.
His story continued.
How he had learned martial arts.
What path he had walked.
Tesserina and Zeon listened intently.
Both of them became absorbed in his story.
‘This is truly his own story.’
When someone fabricated a tale this vast, flaws were bound to appear.
But there wasn't the slightest inconsistency in Damho's story, and every detail was vividly described.
There was no doubt he was speaking of things he had personally experienced, not imagined.
Tesserina listened even more carefully.
Damho's story continued throughout the night.
He was a man of few words who spoke only when necessary.
But after countless years of struggle, he needed someone to talk to, and Tesserina and Zeon were perfect listeners who did not dismiss a single word he said.
Because of that, Damho ended up telling them even the things he had originally intended to keep to himself.
Tesserina said with a grave expression,
"So you're saying you traveled through a place called the Six Realms?"
"More accurately, the Five Realms. I only experienced five worlds."
"The Six Realms or the Five Realms... it's hard to believe. But..."
Tesserina deeply furrowed her brow.
Damho said he had come here after passing through the world known as the Six Realms.
It was a completely separate world, different from both Earth and Kurayan.
A hellish world filled with nothing but conflict.
There, Damho had fought countless battles.
He fought.
And fought again.
He fought things that resembled humans.
He fought beings of monstrous forms.
After surviving countless battles, Damho said he had crossed five worlds.
It was such an absurd story that no one could be blamed for dismissing it as fantasy.
Yet both Tesserina and Zeon believed him.
His words carried that much sincerity.
More than anything, there was no reason for someone as powerful as Damho to lie.
If he wished, he could tear this solitary cell apart and walk out in an instant.
Elder Go, who had personally faced Damho, had said it himself.
Even if every member of the Numbers were mobilized, they could not guarantee victory.
A man with enough power to take whatever he wanted had no reason to spin such an elaborate lie.
Damho continued,
"I killed the king of the fifth world. I believed killing him would allow me to return to Mount Hua. But when I opened my eyes again, I found myself here instead. That was several years ago."
When Damho awoke in the desert, he fell into despair.
Even after killing the king of the fifth world, he still had not returned to his own world.
So he wandered.
Alone through the desert.
As he wandered, he encountered many people living lives worse than beasts.
In this desolate world ruled by magical beasts, there were very few who lived truly human lives.
Occasionally he came across colonies with thousands or even tens of thousands of inhabitants.
But even their lives were far from prosperous.
Conflicts and wars between the colonies were frequent.
He did not know the reason, but those colonies hated one another.
Disgusted by what he saw, Damho simply kept walking east.
"Then I found the lighthouse you made. At that moment, I felt something like the pull of fate. That's how I ended up here."
"You've been through a great deal."
"You believe me?"
"I have no reason not to. Yes. I believe you."
Zeon answered firmly.
Had this been before the Great Cataclysm, he probably would not have believed Damho's story.
Back then, common sense still existed.
But after the Great Cataclysm, common sense had disappeared.
A colossal dragon over three kilometers long had destroyed the world, and dragons, magical beasts, and Awakened now roamed it.
Common sense had already collapsed.
So the existence of someone from another timeline was no longer strange at all.
A faint smile suddenly appeared on Damho's lips.
"Thank you."
It was the first time he had ever told anyone about his past.
More than that, he had never expected someone to believe his story so completely.
Had their positions been reversed, he himself would not have believed such a tale so easily.
It was that unbelievable.
Even to Damho, who had lived through it.
Because of that, he had often wondered whether he was trapped in a dream.
But everything had been real.
No matter how much he denied or rejected it, the hellish reality in which he lived never changed.
That was why Zeon's simple words—’I believe you’—meant so much to him.
Tesserina asked with a puzzled expression,
"But didn't you say the place you entered was called the Six Realms? Six hellish worlds. Then why did you only experience five?"
Damho's answer was simple.
"I believe this place is the end of the Six Realms. The final hell."