“The last wave?”

“Yes.”

“What does the last wave mean?”

She looked at me. Her eyes were a clear blue, not the eyes of a modern person but closer to those of a beast. Eyes that barely distinguished between human and beast, eyes that made no distinction between humans and the sea.

I said,

“I can understand all of your sounds.”

“…….”

“From the second wave to the five hundred and eighty-first wave, all of it. The sounds you make, I can hear them.”

It meant ‘I can interpret all the languages of the warriors you command.’ Yes. I could have said that. But I spoke with her sounds. I wanted to speak.

Like a village that had been destroyed long ago, swept away by a tsunami without leaving even ruins behind, with pronunciations and words that left no trace or footprint. I reminisced about destruction and now spoke with a sound that only two people in the world could exchange.

“You don’t have to wander in search of a village. You don’t have to go to a big village. I am your last wave, and this is the last village in the world.”

“…….”

She looked at me. Her clear blue eyes were without even a ripple. Suspicion, doubt, astonishment, panic, a person’s emotions are usually imprinted in their eyes like fingerprints. Her eyes had no fingerprints.

“Are you a god?”

“I want to be your god.”

From a short distance away, the sound of The Wand of Ages taking a breath could be heard. But she did not look away. I, too, did not avert my gaze from her eyes.

“Tell me your wish.”

“Wish?”

“Yes. You can go anywhere. To which village do you want to go? This is a very big village. All the villages are here. I will take you to the place you wish to go.”

“…….”

She blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. Like waves that rush to the shore and then recede, her eyelids fluttered.

“Teach me the spell to trap sounds.”

“Yes.”

I turned my head.

“Could you bring me some ink?”

“…….”

The Wand of Ages bit his lip. A wizard who was proficient in all spells, the greatest magician in the tower, had his eyebrows trembling. The one who brought the ink bottle instead of such a magician was [The Lady Who Walks the Mirage].

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

“But why ink? Death King.”

The lady carefully looked up at my face.

“Wouldn’t it be more convenient to bring paper and a pen?”

“It would be unfamiliar to you. Someone who has never held something like a pencil before will find it hard to write. But if you write with your bare hands, you will quickly get used to it. That’s why it’s easier to just dip your fingertips in ink and write on the ground.”

The lady listened to all my words. Slowly, after listening, she nodded once.

“That’s right.”

Again.

“That makes sense.”

Her voice echoed softly.

[Announcing the results of the majority vote.]

[Death King 2 votes, Abstain 0 votes, The Wand of Ages 3 votes.]

I think I heard the sound of waves from somewhere.

“What is this?”

“Ink. It’s black water.”

“Does it hurt?”

“It doesn’t hurt. I will teach you the spell with this.”

I crouched down on the floor. She also hunched down. The pillars surrounded us and watched silently. We did not pay attention to them, making the white stone floor our own canvas.

ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅔ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ. (ED: Vowels like that of English but of Korean alphabet)

“With this, you can trap sounds.”

I wrote on the floor. The tip of my finger turned black. A black line was drawn on the floor. Watching the sight of black waves drawn on the white sea, she looked down clearly.

“You try it too.”

“Yes.”

Her fingertip turned black.

Half a day passed.

A day passed.

A whole day passed.

Her nails turned black, her fingers turned black, and her palms turned black. Lines were drawn on the floor, and in the white sea, endless black waves crashed. The pillars watched us without moving.

The conference hall was spacious. The canvas was almost infinite. Crouched down, we slowly changed positions, expanding the black waves by a palm’s width.

Every wave she drew in the sea had fingerprints standing out.

Three days passed. Maybe four. In the depths of the underground where time was meaningless, only the expanding sea marks around us proved our time.

If you looked closely, ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅔ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ were all wooden planks. Shipwrecked pieces drifted back and forth in the sea. She was writing characters. Splash. She knew the waterways of the black sea, so with a splash, splash, she rowed with her fingers.

“Do you understand now?”

“Yes.”

So, I am listening to the sound of the waves.

“I understand.”

I asked the lady to get me a clay tablet. Whose surface was soft as it had not yet hardened.

“…….”

Looking at the clay tablet in front of her, she blinked. That was her tension. This was her ‘somewhere.’ Her homeland had sunk into the sea, many villages had submerged, and it was the island she had gone searching for.

Facing the small island.

She rowed.

『I love the sea.』

A wave crashed.

『We love the sea.』

A ripple surged.

『Because the waves shed tears.』

Fingerprints.

『We also shed tears.』

Gradually.

『Still, I love the sea.』

Blue eyes looked up at me.

“Am I dead?”

I nodded, letting her know she had arrived at the island village.

“Yes. Do you want to live?”

“People.”

She said.

“I have killed many people.”

“I can’t live anymore. Too many people have died. I’m sorry. I can’t live any longer.”

She looked at me.

Waves crashed in her sea-like eyes.

“Thank you.”

I think I heard the sound of waves from somewhere.

“Thank you.”

[You are seeking a follower.]

[The first wave will become your follower.]

And then.

The wave calmed down.

“…….”

Only black letters remained on the floor. Among the shipwrecked pieces, the first wave subsided. Like her departed homeland, the person who fell into the sea disappeared by sinking. For the first time, she could stop breathing in the sea she loved.

“…….”

The pillars said nothing.

“……Why.”

Only after a long while, maybe just for a brief moment, The Wand of Ages opened her lips and let out a voice between his clenched teeth.

“Why didn’t you assign her to a heaven floor?”

“I don’t assign. I only listened to where she wanted to go. Heaven is a place one wishes to go. The wave to the island she wanted to go to.”

I held the clay tablet with both hands.

The place that became someone’s small island, I tightly embraced it.

And wrapped it with aura. Before my water overflowed and soaked the fine beaches of the island village.

So that people do not burn people.

If I am a flame, may I be a flame that burns only for the voices of people.

“So, it’s done.”

“…….”

The Wand of Ages bit his lip.

[Announcing the results of the majority vote.]

[Death King 2 votes, Abstain 1 vote, The Wand of Ages 2 votes.]

There was still much noise.

Hundreds.

The noises summoned by the wizard filled the vast conference hall.

I gave my body to each of those people remaining as noise.

The noises gnawed at my life.

[Announcing the results of the majority vote.]

[Death King 2 votes, Abstain 2 votes, The Wand of Ages 1 vote.]

They gnawed at my life, and I reaped theirs, summoning their lives here just as I did for the first wave.

And then I spoke.

“Where, where is this? Where am I exactly?”

Someone panicked.

It was a merchant who had lived his life selling furs.

He died from an attack by a nomadic tribe while on a trade route. The merchant felt wronged. He was willing to pay the price for his life. His life being taken meant nothing to the nomadic tribe. But those fools didn’t understand even this simple logic.

Why a sword instead of money? Why not trade with him?

Why is the world so cruel?

“……Who are you?”

Someone was wary.

It was a holy knight who had spent his life on battlefields.

He died hoping for a god to appear until the very end. The knight cried out. If there were a god in this world, it would descend in the most terrible and miserable places. He only roamed the most horrific and miserable battlefields, believing that someday, if a god did not appear, he would go to an even more terrible place, and then to the hell of hells, believing that eventually, they would appear.

Is it still not enough? Is it still not tragic enough for a god to reach out?

Why can’t the world be saved?

“I don’t want to die! Please…… save me. I can’t die yet!”

Someone begged.

Many people did.

Those who died of starvation due to drought, those who suffocated from fires, those who switched their children with others in the village to eat human flesh during consecutive years of famine and ended up setting the village on fire, only to be axed by a villager, those who were suddenly strangled upon waking to find a neighbor looking down at them.

Why,

And people silenced their voices.

Why is the world so.

“It’s okay.”

To those who had an island they wanted to go to, I said so.

“If you want to leave the world behind, it’s okay to do so.”

It really was okay.

“You can go to another world that you don’t have to leave behind.”

I asked them directly.

“Where do you want to go?”

The merchant wanted to go to Gold Heaven. He wished to breathe in a world bright with gold, not under the irrational shadow of foolish blades.

The knight wanted to go to Sound Heaven. He believed that if everything from a handful of wheat grains to a bundle of leaves sings, then everything must have a god. He cried saying he wanted to laugh in a world where he does not have to search for god.

[Announcing the results of the majority vote.]

[Death King 3 votes, Abstain 1 vote, The Wand of Ages 1 vote.]

As the last procedure.

[I activate the skill.]

I shared my gold with them.

+

[Earth Bone Dragon’s Skull]

Rank: SSS+

Effect: Preserves the memories of the living. Preserved memories are kept in a ‘box.’ This box can only be destroyed by the owner of this skill.

As long as the box is not destroyed, you can produce the body of a person with the same memories any number of times. The body can wander the world, accumulating new memories, and these experiences can be ‘updated’ back into the box, of course, if you permit!

Even if the body of the person is destroyed, the box remains unharmed. Bestow the privilege of immortality to those around you.

+

This was how I revived the hundred ghosts.

Just as I breathed life into Sylvia Evanail and Estelle, the Four Demon Lords, the children of Infernal Heavens, and Yoo Soo-ha.

[The Earth Dragon’s Box is activated.]

[The Earth Dragon’s Box is completed.]

I provided bodies for the noises that had become my hundred ghosts.

“You have now chosen a world to live in.”

The Returner’s Clockwork Watch.

I lived through their traumas and collected their memories.

Hundred Ghosts Reincarnation.

I gathered their memories and summoned them.

Earth Bone Dragon’s Skull.

I gave them memories and bodies if they wished.

“It’s because you wanted to live that you have become part of the world.”

The conference hall was quiet.

There were no more growling noises.

Hundreds of gazes, hundreds of breaths were looking at me.

Looking around at those looking at me, I too looked back and said,

“Please live in a world you can love.”

“…….”

“If you want to abandon it, please tell me. I will listen. If you want to go somewhere, tell me. I will listen. But now, everything you’ve chosen, every word, every contempt, and every love is yours. Take life. Take responsibility for what you have loved. Then, I will take responsibility for the inevitable deaths.”

I said,

“I wish you all the best of luck.”

A white light enveloped them.

Everyone had departed for the islands they wished to go to.

[Announcing the results of the majority vote.]

[Death King 4 votes, Abstain 1 vote, The Wand of Ages 0 votes.]

The conference hall became silent.

“…….”

The Wand of Ages hung his head. He did not lift his bowed head. The pillars quietly, without a word, turned their gaze to their master.

Thud.

The Tower Master stood up and walked towards me.

“Kim Gong-ja ssi.”

The Tower Master took my left hand and caressed the back of it.

“Death King.”

“Yes.”

“You will gain authority. You will be able to bestow blessings. Undeniably, you will become a complete constellation.”

Purple eyes looked up at me.

“From this moment, you will be known as the [Sky That Gathers Screams].”

A voice was heard.

[Announcing the results of the majority vote.]

[Death King 5 votes, Abstain 0 votes, The Wand of Ages 0 votes.]

[‘Lord of Manseng’ blesses ‘The Sky That Gathers Screams’.]

From now on, that was my name.

*****