Stillness seeped into the air.

The lake rippled gently.

The scent of grass brushed against my nose.

A warm light, so soft it could be mistaken for sunlight, filtered through the space, accompanied by an inexplicable breeze that continuously tickled my hair.

Nothing particularly remarkable.

If anything, all of it was painfully ordinary.

Even the tree beneath my hand—no different from any other tree—felt utterly mundane.

And yet, amid all this normalcy, the presence of the extraordinary figure before me made me frown.

‘What is this?’

What exactly was I looking at?

Thump.

It was as if my body had stopped functioning. My blood felt sluggish, the flow of energy inside me slowing.

The cause of that sensation—was her.

I locked eyes with her.

Violet-red irises, like the auroras that streaked across the midnight sky.

Flowing white hair cascading down her back, blending into her pale skin.

And that gentle voice that had called out to me just now.

One by one, my mind pieced together each detail, and my frozen body slowly began to ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) respond.

‘How...?’

How was she here?

Had she followed me?

It was possible. Someone like the Lord was an unfathomable existence—if she had ways to appear like this, I wouldn’t be surprised.

But—

‘Just now...’

More than the suspicion, something else in her words had struck a far deeper chord within me.

"My son."

The words she spoke...

There was no way I could mistake their meaning.

"...Mother?"

Cautiously, I spoke the title I had longed to say.

And she smiled.

Then, extending a white, delicate hand, she reached toward my cheek.

Her movements were slow—agonizingly so—but I couldn’t bring myself to push her away.

Finally, her fingertips brushed against my skin.

That was when—

"Ah..."

The moment I felt my mother's touch, I realized something.

There was no sensation.

Not in the sense of warmth or coolness—

I couldn’t feel anything at all.

Which meant—

‘A lingering thought?’

The person before me was not truly alive.

And yet, I knew my mother was still alive elsewhere.

So calling this merely a lingering thought felt... incorrect.

‘Is this also the power of an illusion or a spell?’

It wasn’t simply a hallucination. It had to be one of the two.

Realizing this, I felt disappointment surge inside me.

Because the woman in front of me was a fake.

And then—

"I'm sorry."

The illusion of my mother apologized.

"You look very disappointed."

"...Mother."

"But this was the only way."

Her expression shifted as she spoke.

A sorrowful smile.

It clenched at my chest.

I could barely remember her face anymore.

But that expression—

That one, I could never forget.

It was the same face she had made when she left me behind.

The last face she had ever shown me.

"I won't ask you to understand... But if you're meeting me like this, it means there was no other way."

"...What is this situation?"

What was happening?

Why was my mother’s illusion here?

I couldn't understand, so I voiced the question.

And my mother responded.

"This was the only way for me to speak to you."

"...Speak to me?"

"Yes. And, it’s also thanks to you touching the Divine Tree."

She gestured toward the tree behind me—the Divine Tree.

"And also... it means that child did her part."

"...That child?"

"The one who has been watching over you in my stead."

"...You mean... Shin Noya?"

"That’s right."

"......"

Hearing that, I was momentarily dumbfounded.

Calling Noya a child...

By appearance alone, my mother could easily pass for a young girl—or even a granddaughter.

And yet, she called Noya a child?

"I’m grateful. It seems she has done well."

"No..."

I had countless things I wanted to point out.

But now wasn’t the time.

Because there were far more urgent things I needed to ask.

"Was it you... who summoned me to the Abyss?"

My mother remained silent for a moment, simply looking at me.

She pressed her lips together, as if choosing her words—

And then she spoke.

"Yes."

She confirmed it.

"If you're here, then it means... I was the one who called you."

So it was true.

I had already heard as much.

But I needed to confirm it myself.

I had come to the Abyss because my mother had summoned me.

And if that was the case, there was only one thing left to ask.

"...Why did you call me here?"

Why had she brought me here?

And more than that—

"Am I... truly meant to become a disaster?"

"......"

Just as Shin Noya had said—

Not Cheonma.

Not anyone else.

But me.

Was I the true calamity destined to destroy Zhongyuan?

At my words, my mother’s eyes widened slightly.

Then—

Her expression turned even more bitter than before.

"...So you've reached that point. Unfortunate."

"......"

Those words...

Were far worse than silence.

My fists clenched on their own.

"So it’s true? I really am a disaster?"

Her response implied that I was the being meant to erase all life in Zhongyuan and rebuild it anew.

I had expected this.

After my conversation with Noya, I had understood it was a possibility.

But—

"...Why?"

Even so, I couldn’t fully accept it.

"Why me?"

I didn’t know what kind of expression I was making.

But I knew it must have been twisted with rage.

"...Why the hell is it me? Do you have any idea how I’ve lived?"

I had reunited with my mother, even if it was only her illusion.

But rather than joy, the emotions I had been suppressing for so long came pouring out.

"Damn it—! I...! Do you know what I’ve been through?!"

It had been less than ten years since my regression.

A short time, compared to my past life.

But the things I had done in that time were not few.

At first, I had simply wanted a slightly better life.

I had thought, as long as I could live peacefully—without getting caught up in the disasters of my past—then that would be enough.

That was my first goal.

But as time passed, I realized that if I wanted to protect the people I cared about—

I would have to stop Cheonma myself.

For that, I did many things.

My body had long since rusted and dulled, too worn for ideals and justice.

I abandoned morals, discarded hesitation.

I stained my hands with blood I should never have touched.

I did not seek honor or fame—I used them as mere tools.

Everything I did was for the path forward.

For those who had lived and died for me.

For them, I endured everything to make it this far.

And yet—

"And now you're telling me I’m the disaster?"

I was meant to kill those very people?

"Why...? Why me? If nothing else—"

If nothing else—

"It shouldn’t be me."

"......"

"That doesn’t make any sense."

I remembered the bloodshed Cheonma had brought in my past life.

The air of Zhongyuan had carried the scent of blood.

A time where only screams and despair remained.

Flames burned everything to the ground.

A mother’s wails for her lost child.

A man cradling his wife beneath the ruins of their home, his body turning to ash.

The moon faded, and the stars fell.

The day when countless heroes, who could have illuminated the world, perished—while the vile and the wretched rose in their place.

Blood spilled so freely that it filled the heavens and flooded the earth, turning the world into a sea of crimson.

If someone were to ask me what hell was, I would point to that scene without hesitation.

"Why am I the disaster?"

Cheonma, the one who caused all of this, is not the disaster, but I am?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand.

"...What have I done...?"

To say I had done nothing would be a lie, nothing but arrogance. But compared to what Cheonma had done in my past life, the blood on my hands was nothing more than a drop in the ocean.

And yet, in response to my bitter outburst—

"...I'm sorry."

It was a short apology.

A damn short one.

"Ha..."

A hollow breath escaped me. I let out a quiet laugh.

"I wanted to see you so badly... I never thought it would be like this."

How much had I longed for her?

And just as paradoxically—how much had I wanted to forget her?

To me, my mother was an endless thirst.

Like a jar with a hole at the bottom, forever empty, no matter how much water was poured into it.

I had spent my life parched, desperate to fill that void—

Only to finally meet her again, and hear this.

"...Fucking hell."

I barely swallowed the curse rising to my throat.

"So. The reason you called me here—was it to make me into a disaster?"

I could hear the anger in my own voice. But there was no turning back now.

She had said my soul had been twisted—

That this distortion was what kept my fate as a disaster from fully manifesting.

That when I ate the divine fruit, it restored me to my original state.

And the problem was—

"That divine fruit... it was your doing, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

Following Yarang, eating the divine fruit—

It was all orchestrated by my mother.

"...And twisting my soul in the first place? Was that you too?"

"Yes."

I didn’t bother asking how.

That wasn’t what I needed to know right now.

"Why?"

"You went through all that trouble to suppress it... So why bring me here just to undo it?"

If coming to the Abyss wasn’t some miracle or coincidence, then this, too, had to be her intent.

What the hell did she want from me?

Surely—

"You want me to become the disaster—"

"No."

She cut me off before I could even finish the question.

A different reaction from before.

"...Absolutely not."

"Then—"

"Fate..."

Before I could say more, she interrupted again.

"Fate is like a path you cannot twist or stop. It is a road you must continue walking, because stopping is impossible."

"...What are you saying?"

"The will of the world has seeped into you... It was something that could not be changed, no matter what was done."

Crack.

She reached out and brushed her hand against the Divine Tree.

Unlike when I touched it and felt nothing, her fingers against the bark produced sound.

"So I decided—if I couldn’t stop it, if I couldn’t twist it... then I would hide it."

"Hide it...?"

"Yes. If there was no way to change it, then I would blind the world's eyes to it."

"Blind the world's eyes...?"

What the hell did that mean?

As I frowned, trying to make sense of her words—

"Zhongyuan is an anomaly."

She didn’t stop speaking.

"The moment it overcame an impossible disaster, that became the problem."

She was referring to Cheonma's first massacre—

"It made the impossible, possible. That caught the world's attention... And soon after, it realized something was wrong. Because to overcome an absolute—"

Her gaze met mine.

"—it means someone did what should never have been done."

Something that should never have happened.

And someone who made it happen.

In my mind, I recalled Mua, the one once called the master of Zhongyuan, and Yeon Ilcheon, the one who had returned from death.

"So, the world moved to correct its mistake. It would not allow the same error to happen again."

"...Which is why you were sent to Zhongyuan."

The world would not repeat its mistakes.

It weakened the warriors of Zhongyuan, ensuring they could not resist another disaster.

And then, it cast forth a new calamity.

That calamity was supposed to be my mother—

"And yet, it failed."

She had not become the ruler of Zhongyuan.

She had not descended as a disaster.

And with that failure, the world formulated another plan.

That plan was—

Me.

Everything I had uncovered so far led to that conclusion.

Why me?

If it was me, how exactly would I become a disaster?

I didn’t want to understand.

I refused to understand.

But reality didn’t give a damn about my will.

No matter how much of a fucking nightmare this was, it was still reality.

I clenched my teeth, preparing to speak—

"...You're wrong."

My mother denied me.

"The world did not fail."

"...What?"

It didn’t fail?

"What the hell do you mean?"

"My son, from the very beginning... The world never intended for me to be Zhongyuan’s disaster."

"...But you came."

"Yes, I did. But... I wasn’t sent there as a disaster."

What the hell was she saying?

"The world had no desire to entrust such a role to a master who had already lost their own world. It simply had no other choice—because I was the only one who could briefly move between worlds."

That was what Noya had said.

That because two Lords existed in the Abyss, certain things became possible.

But—

"...Wasn’t that precisely why you could come as a disaster?"

If my mother had come to Zhongyuan as a disaster—

And if she had failed—

Then wasn’t I merely her replacement?

That was what all of this seemed to suggest.

"I did not come to Zhongyuan as a disaster. No... Not as a Lord, but rather—"

She cut herself off.

Her gaze met mine, her usually serene face twisting.

Faint lines formed on her brow, emotions overflowing.

That expression—

The emotions behind it were sorrow.

And guilt.

The moment she made that face, I knew.

I knew that whatever she was about to say—

It would not be something I wanted to hear.

And then—

"...It would be more accurate to say that I came to give birth to a disaster."

She said it.

And for a long while, I couldn’t say anything.

I couldn’t speak at all.

Because what she had just said—

Meant that from the very beginning—

My entire life had been part of the world's design.