The separated personalities were not just filled with killing intent.
While killing intent was classified as the most high-risk, many other personalities existed.
Misery.
Anger.
Despair.
And destruction.
If there was one thing they all had in common, it was that they posed a serious threat to my humanity.
These were emotions I had been forced to embrace to grow stronger and to survive.
However, they had remained as remnants—monstrous urges that wanted me to stop being human.
If I had embraced them all back then, I would have become a monster.
A devil worse than the Demon King, killing every living thing on the Gritia Continent.
That was why I had no choice but to separate my personalities.
To remain human, I had to discard human emotions.
The result was an eroded emotional state, like that of a machine.
It was only natural.
Since I had discarded my emotions, I could not feel them.
From the moment I separated my personalities, I was not truly human.
I was merely a doll pretending to be human in the minimal ways required.
But now, I was accepting those emotions.
Those remnants of feelings that had been sealed and separated for so long.
Of course, it was no easy task.
“Gah!”
The killing intent began to constrict my body.
‘Kill!’
The desire to kill someone.
‘Destroy everything!’
The urge to purify my anxiety by destroying it.
‘I’m anxious.’
‘It’s dangerous!’
Various emotions like anxiety, fear, and misery swirled within me.
It was to be expected.
I was absorbing every emotion that had been sealed away.
I hadn’t realized it while they were locked in the depths of my subconscious, but governing such feelings was difficult.
However.
‘I must do it.’
In an incomplete state with a divided personality, I could not defeat Leon.
He was the Creator God.
Even if his divinity could not exercise its full power due to the destruction of Asgard, the divinity he had accumulated over time resided in his body.
In essence, a monster—an existence beyond the reach of the human realm—had been born.
Therefore, as a final means to defeat him, I entered meditation to become my complete self.
***
“Phew…”
I controlled the emotions in my heart through deep breathing.
In truth, absorbing all those personalities, including the killing intent, did not take very long.
Time within the subconscious was shorter than a fleeting moment.
In at most twenty or thirty minutes, I had succeeded in merging all the personalities into one.
The problem was how to handle this merged persona.
Currently, various emotions were fighting within me, each asserting its own domain.
Even though I had absorbed them, they had not become a single, cohesive whole.
A process of fusing them into one was necessary.
But that could not be easy.
They had been separated for a long time.
Fusing them again and accepting them fully was an arduous task.
It was like trying to mix oil and water.
However.
‘I must do it.’
If I could not merge these completely, the match against Leon would be decided before it even began.
And so I observed my inner self.
Although they had all been defeated and absorbed by me, their remnants still resisted mixing.
I hadn’t noticed when they were separated, but the repulsive force was immense.
It felt like a spring that bounced back harder the more you pressed it.
Therefore, instead of forcing it, I tried to soothe the energy.
I coaxed it to merge slowly, guiding it toward a single point, but…
-Vrrrrm!
The result was the same.
If I tried to absorb it by force, it resisted.
If I tried to guide it gently, it fled elsewhere like a stubborn child.
‘I see.’
In that moment, I realized something.
Absorbing them as one and soothing them were not the paths I should take.
I had been choosing the difficult path when an easier one existed.
‘If you cannot become one with me, then vanish!’
I destroyed each personality and energy that was forming its own territory.
Destroying the personalities I had worked so hard to gather?
No.
That was not complete destruction.
Creation is accompanied by destruction.
Only after destruction can something new be born.
After destroying everything—every personality within me.
-Vrum, vrrrrm!
New personalities were born.
They did not possess the same intense resistance as the personalities that had been separated in the past.
They were covered in pure white, like newborn babies.
-Swoosh!
I absorbed them.
Only then did they accept me without any resistance or defiance, and finally…
‘Ah—’
After a long time of being incomplete, I finally became one whole.
***
In a quiet spot on the outskirts of Seoul, a massive crowd had gathered in a field that was usually deserted.
It was understandable.
Today, the match of the century was set to take place here.
A duel that could be said to hold the fate of Earth in the balance.
It was the day Kim Si-won of the Order of Victory and Leon of the Church of Creation would face each other.
“…..”
Leon, who had arrived early, was waiting in the arena.
Surrounding him were many people.
“O God of Creation!”
“We do not doubt your victory!”
“Please, spread your greatness to the entire world!”
Members of the Church of Creation stood in formation.
Not only were there people from the United States, Russia, China, and Japan—countries where the church had been designated as the national religion due to its active missionary work—but many South Koreans were there as well.
In contrast, the Order of Victory was small in number.
It was a very humble scene, one that stood in stark contrast to the other side.
It was inevitable.
They had once boasted the greatest influence, but now they had lost everything to the Church of Creation.
They had still held considerable power in South Korea at one point, but no longer.
As South Korea chose the Church of Creation over the Order of Victory, the gap grew wider.
Furthermore…
“Is he not here yet?”
“But why?”
“Could it be…?”
Anxiety began to spread among the followers of the Order of Victory.
Less than five minutes remained until 1:00 PM, the time set by both parties.
The opposing side had been waiting for an hour, but the protagonist himself, Kim Si-won, had yet to show his face.
Under these circumstances, one thought prevailed.
‘He hasn’t run away, has he?’
If that happened, it really was the end.
Kim Si-won’s flight would be the decisive blow that collapsed everything the Order of Victory still clung to.
“Hey now!”
Someone stepped forward to address that anxiety.
It was Minister Kim Chaun.
A man who followed Kim Si-won and the Order of Victory more than anyone else, he could no longer stay silent.
“Master Kim Si-won is not the kind of person to run away from a situation like this. Everyone, trust him and wait. He is surely coming with a perfect plan to land a blow on that arrogant Church of Creation.”
It was a provocation directed at the opponent.
Of course…
Under the sharp gazes of Leon and his followers, the minister quickly retreated.
“Ouch…”
He let out a groan like a scream and hurried back to his seat, but even if the man was frivolous and moved according to interest, his loyalty was genuine.
The same went for Hosik Jeong.
Although he held the position of the President of South Korea, he attended this event as a member of the Order of Victory.
He was cheering for Kim Si-won with a heart more desperate than anyone’s.
‘How much I’ve nurtured this. I can’t let it all be undone now.’
It wasn’t just ambition.
Through Kim Si-won’s active cooperation, he had finally been able to create the government he had envisioned.
Of course, most people had chosen emigration and the Church of Creation, but some still remained.
In a way, it was a relief.
The ones who would leave had left, and only the core remained.
Protecting them and forming the government of South Korea with them.
That was Hosik Jeong’s earnest wish.
But to achieve that dream, they had to win this match.
‘It will be a disaster if the world falls to them.’
He had already received information through Kim Si-won.
Salmora.
The former Plague Legion Commander was behind all of this.
He had been told that if his wicked plan succeeded, the entire Earth vanishing would be a simple matter.
It was a somewhat absurd story, but he believed it.
Not a single word Kim Si-won had said so far had turned out to be false.
Therefore, he hoped this match would reset the tilted scales—or better yet, overturn them.
Only then would all the things Kim Si-won feared be prevented.
Time passed indifferently.
“The time… has come.”
Leon, who had been standing tall and silent, finally spoke.
He had muttered it softly, but his voice was heard clearly by everyone in the arena.
“In the end, he is not coming?”
The promised hour had arrived.
Yet Kim Si-won did not show himself.
“If the opponent does not arrive, my victory is automatic—”
Just as he was about to declare victory.
“No.”
A voice interrupted him.
Who dared?
Leon turned his head toward the source of the voice.
“…What?!”
Leon, who rarely showed emotion, widened his eyes.
It was inevitable.
Someone was standing directly in front of him.
It was Kim Si-won, the man he had promised to fight.
But since when?
‘I didn’t sense him.’
Surprisingly, even a great existence like Leon had not sensed Kim Si-won’s presence.
Just when had he arrived?
No.
The aura felt as if he had been assimilated into nature itself.
It proved that he had been here the entire time.
That was the…
“Realm of Harmony?!”
The Realm of Harmony.
A supreme state of becoming one with nature.
That was a domain that only he, the Creator God, should be able to reach.
But why was a mere human like Kim Si-won there?
“Agony. When all of that vanished, harmony found me.”
Agony.
All types of worldly distractions.
Humans can never truly discard them.
The very essence of being human is being a creature born from such cluttered thoughts.
But now, Kim Si-won had shaken off that agony.
That meant…
“You have achieved One Mind!”
Leon let out a small exclamation of admiration.
By casting off all agony and achieving One Mind, he could finally immerse himself in the Realm of Harmony.
Kim Si-won was human, yet he was not.
He had reached a supreme domain while in a human body, reborn as a truly mysterious existence.
“…Impressive.”
Leon had to admit it.
Until not long ago, he had dismissed this as a human’s desperate struggle.
He thought that no matter how much a human struggled, they could never look upon his supreme domain.
But what was this?
The man stood before him, having reached the realm only a Creator God could touch.
This meant the opponent had reached the same level and was looking at the same point as him.
“Initially, I thought I’d just have a bit of fun and end it, but the story changes now.”
Finally, he took his stance, and in his hand…
“Clack—”
-Vrrrrm!
He held an axe that emitted a profound vibration.
“Initially, I intended to face you bare-handed, but the story changes now.”
It was the Pangu Axe.
Along with Ea, the Sword of Genesis, it was a primordial axe that could split heaven and earth and had carved through chaos.
Of course, it was different from Ea.
Because it was a primordial unique weapon, it was a weapon that could be used continuously without consuming life force.
In other words, Leon was now an existence who could repeatedly launch attacks like the one that destroyed Asgard, which he had previously achieved only by sacrificing an immense amount of life force.
“That level of yours is commendable, but the fact that you will die here remains unchanged.” Leon spoke with confidence.
Kim Si-won, staring quietly at the Pangu Axe in Leon’s hand, simply held his ground without saying a word.