TCF 762

# It’s Karma (1)

The rumbling shaking the temple suddenly stopped.

Red light no longer shot out of the sculpture on the wall.

Choi Han's hand holding the sword relaxed. The sword hung down toward the ground.

Tap. Tap.

Cale was picking up the red diary.

There was silence for a moment.

However, during that short instant… Choi Han’s eyes quickly inspected Cale’s condition.

‘…The injury-’

He was certain that he saw the dagger stab deep into Cale’s chest.

There was a large hole on the left side of Cale’s shirt, however, his body underneath was bloodied but fine.

‘…Tattoo.’

Cale had said that the ancient powers become tattooed on your body when you obtain them. He mentioned that he had one such design on his chest over his heart, but that tattoo and a grotesque injury mixed together to look disgusting.

Cale was laughing right now while looking like that.

He was laughing while looking at the sculpture that Choi Han presumed the sealed god was sealed within.

Plop.

Something round rolled over and touched Choi Han’s foot. He looked down to see an orb.

‘…An automatic video recording device?

There was that video recording device earlier too. Why are these automatic video recording devices here?’

Choi Han was confused for a moment before he thought of someone and turned his head.

Cale, the sealed god… And the now dead and disappeared White Star.

Clopeh was quietly moving during this short moment of silence.

The temple shook violently and was destroyed in many places because of the battle.

Clopeh was quickly doing something within this debris.

Choi Han frowned after realizing what Clopeh was doing.

‘…Did he install some automatic video recording devices?

That crazy bastard.’

Choi Han filled with rage. It was because Clopeh's green eyes were sparkling as if they were green leaves covered in morning dew receiving sunlight.

He had a thought at the same time.

‘I need to make sure that the children do not see that.’

Forget the chaos that would ensue if Raon, On, or Hong saw that… the children would be so sad.

He also had another thought.

‘I will need to show it to Eruhaben-nim and his highness though.’

Choi Han had not thought about it until now because of the shocking sight, but he knew that what Cale stabbed his heart with was a dagger. That let him know that Cale had not told them everything until now.

He did tell them that this dagger from the World Tree was the tool to kill the White Star but he had never expected the method to be something like this.

Of course, this method did allow them to delete the White Star from this world easier than expected.

‘…That and this are two different things.’

Choi Han made up his mind to never completely believe the things Cale said from now on. He told himself that he would look into things without Cale knowing if something seemed iffy or it felt as if Cale was hiding something.

He made eye contact with Mary at that moment.

He had no idea what she was thinking, but Mary’s gaze was no joke either.

The fact that such an innocent girl could have this kind of gaze meant that she had received quite the shock.

The two of them looked at each other and nodded their heads before turning away.

Step step.

Cale’s footsteps broke through the silence and echoed in the temple.

He had already put the white half-mask and the diary back in his pocket and was headed toward the wall with the sculpture.

To be more specific, he was headed toward the altar in front of that wall.

“Is it this?”

Cale stopped walking and quietly looked down at the key on top of the altar.

This was the original way to get out of this temple and make it disappear.

This was something Ahn Roh Man, the man from another world, had told them. The person who manages to complete all of the illusion tests gets to the end of the temple, grabs this white key, and returns to the temple door that serves as both the entrance and the exit.

‘I can’t do that.’

Cale had no intentions of using that method.

He showed his true thoughts without any hesitation.

“How…”

He looked into the eyes of the beautiful sculpture on the wall as he asked.

“How can I kill you?”

Smile.

The moment the corners of Cale’s lips curled up…

“Cale-nim!”

Choi Han urgently called out to him while Rosalyn grabbed Mary’s arm and shouted.

“Sit!”

Booooooooooooooooooooooooom—

There was another loud explosion in the temple and the entire thing started shaking again.

However, the strength of the rumbling was completely different from earlier.

The marble floor of the temple bobbed up and down as if they were waves.

It was as if the angry god’s mind was being reflected in here.

“Ugh!”

Cale's body tilted.

‘How the hell am I supposed to maintain my balance when the ground is moving so much?!’

Cale had only been prepared for a rumbling at the same level as before.

‘Does this damn god only know how to make his temple shake?!’

Maybe that was all he could do right now.

‘He’s sealed and he used up a good amount of the despair he gathered from the numerous worlds.’

That proved that he was trying to use the White Star or Cale to do something.

‘I'm sure he's angry since everything he did became useless.’

Cale’s two arms flailed in the air.

‘Fuck!’

Cale lost his balance and his body tilted toward the back.

Choi Han was running toward him in shock. Choi Han then stopped walking.

“Mm.”

"Are you okay, sir?”

Cale could see Clopeh smiling brightly while supporting him. Clopeh was supporting Cale’s back with his shoulder.

Cale almost pushed Clopeh away because the smile on Clopeh’s face was so radiant. It was because he saw the broken automatic video recording device.

‘At least it's bro-hmm?’

Cale saw the two automatic video recording devices in Clopeh's arms.

‘…This punk?’

Clopeh smiled aloofly and nodded his head despite the emotions raging in Cale’s eyes.

“I recorded everything, Cale-nim.”

Cale wanted to smack that mouth.

However, he did not have the time to do that.

“Ugh!”

The Temple floor fluctuated even stronger and was shooting up irregularly now.

Tatap!

There were some light footsteps as Choi Han kicked off the floor and shot forward toward the temple wall.

‘Shit.’

Cale's eyes caught an eerie sight at that moment.

‘…Hands-’

The sculpture on the wall he presumed to be the sealed god…

The numerous hands drawn on the wall underneath the sculpture as if they were supporting it were squirming.

Crack, crack-

They then left the wall and started charging toward Cale and the others.

The wrists that appeared after the hands left the wall expanded without any limits.

‘Ah, this is a bit disgusting.’

The sight of numerous hands reaching out was a bit scary. As Cale subconsciously flinched…

“Ah. Another image of the legend might come out.”

Cale heard Clopeh's voice, pushed him away, and stood up on his own. He then shouted.

“Choi Han!”

Baaaaaang—!

Black aura shot out toward the hands at the same time.

Some of the hands were destroyed but the still numerous remaining hands were still moving forward.

They were heading toward Cale.

Everybody realized that Cale was the target of those hands.

“I will block them.”

Cale heard the GPS-like voice as two robes moved in front of him.

Black threads shot out of Mary's hand and started grasping the hands. Rosalyn's red hair was fluttering and her hands that were full of red mana were raised into the air.

“Choi Han, Miss Rosalyn!”

Cale shouted at that moment.

“The left!”

Mary turned her head to look at Cale. Cale looked more relaxed than she had expected. Mary heard Cale’s voice just as she was about to stop being tense.

His voice was loud and clear.

“Make a hole on the left side!”

Cale’s original plan was to Embrace the sealed god and reseal him so that he could not move.

However, that thought changed at the end.

The sealed god wanted Cale to Embrace him.

The sealed god asked Cale to make a deal with him and to Embrace him so that he could escape from the temple. That was when Cale learned that Embrace was not the perfect solution.

In that case, what could he do?

‘If I can't do it on my own…

If I don’t know the answer…

We just need to think about it together.’

Cale was at least flexible enough to do that.

Furthermore, there wasn’t much the sealed god could do now.

Why?

‘It’s not like he can escape.’

They needed to open the door with this white key for the temple to disappear.

Thinking about it in the opposite direction…

‘This temple has to stay here if we don’t open the door with this key.’

That must mean that…

‘We will escape for now and find a way to take down the sealed god.’

Of course, it was possible to shout that he gave up. But that meant that he would need to go through the tests again.

But Cale would absolutely not do that.

‘I'm sure I'll get an answer if I ask Eruhaben-nim or have Miss Cage ask the God of Death.

Cale believed that if he threatened or annoyed the God of Death, he would spill the beans since he supposedly had a lot of negative feelings toward the sealed god.

And if that doesn’t work…

‘Now that we took down the White Star…’

Now that he completed that small task that he couldn't show the others, there was no need for him to suffer on his own.

They could all take care of things together.

He had many strong allies on the outside.

Rosalyn shouted at that moment.

“Young master Cale! Didn’t you say that attacks don’t work on the temple and that they won't even leave any scratches?”

According to what Ahn Roh Man told them about the temple, any power other than for communication would not leave even a scratch on this temple if used in the illusions.

Basically, that meant that no attacks worked on the temple.

“No, Rosalyn!”

Rosalyn turned toward Choi Han.

“It's breaking right now!”

“Ah.”

Rosalyn realized that she did not notice because it was quite hectic.

The red lights as well as Choi Han, Rosalyn, and Mary’s attacks had crumbled many parts of the temple wall and the interior area.

The damage was pretty small compared to the scale of the attacks they had cast, but at least the temple was breaking.

Rosalyn heard Cale’s calm voice as she realized that fact.

"The sealed god has lost a lot of strength.”

The sealed god had used too much of the power he had gathered in his sealed state because of Cale.

The temple was the prison for the sealed god but also his territory.

“That means that this temple has gotten weaker too.”

“That’s great.”

Rosalyn's red mana moved toward a spot as she said that.

“Choi Han!”

Choi Han, who was already running forward, channeled his black aura as she shouted.

Ooooooooong-

There was a small rumbling as the black yong rose from the shining black aura and opened its jaws.

This fire-like red mana… The black yong charging behind it with its jaws open…

“Mary. You stop the hands.”

“I understand.”

Numerous black threads shot out of Mary’s hand and wrapped around the hands coming out of the wall.

Squeeze.

Mary clenched her fist and the threads became taut and stopped the hands from advancing. Mary’s shoulders shook a bit.

“…Ah.”

Clopeh gasped.

Mary felt a flame behind her. No, it was the aura of a flame imbued with thunderbolts.

Crackle. Crack.

Cale was using his ancient powers again.

Mary realized that and clenched her eyes while Cale was feeling refreshed as he looked down at the fiery thunderbolt in his hand.

‘Wow. My body is in the best condition.

When was the last time it was like this?’

Cale tried to think about a time that he was struggling to recall as he raised the hand holding the fiery thunderbolt.

Choi Han and Rosalyn… The black yong and the red mana crashed into the left wall.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang—!

An extremely loud explosion made Cale squint.

However, he did not miss that opening.

Rosalyn and Choi Han were already preparing their next attacks.

‘This isn't even enough to make a hole in the wall.’

That was why Cale was planning on helping out as well.

Fire, and then the Super Rock, water, he had plenty of powers he could use.

Craaaaaaack-

A faint crack appeared on the wall.

As expected, once was not enough.

“Next!”

Choi Han channeled his aura the moment Rosalyn shouted. Cale was about to help as well.

It was at that moment.

Craaaaaaack-

“Huh?”

Rosalyn flinched.

Craaaack-

Cracks continued to appear on the wall.

This was happening despite them not attacking it at all. The wall kept getting more cracks.

Cale subconsciously mumbled after watching this.

“…Did it go too berserk that the temple is crumbling on its own?”

He wondered if the god used too much of his strength despite being sealed that the temple was overloaded and crumbling.

The moment he had that thought…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He heard some noises.

Cale’s complexion instantly changed. Choi Han shouted.

“Cale-nim, it’s from the outside!”

“…I know, right?”

Craaaaaaack–!

The gap on the wall that had been quickly cracking instantly became too large.

Baaaaang!

The wall crumbled down as a result.

Cale subconsciously started speaking after seeing the thing that came through the wall.

“H, hello-”

The thing that had come through the wall…

“I, it’s been a while… Eruhaben-nim?”

It was a Dragon’s head.

It was a real Dragon’s head and not his head in his polymorphed form.

The Gold Dragon moved his eyes to look at Cale.

He then smiled.

“It wasn’t much. It broke after I slammed my head against it a few times.”

‘I don't think that’s true.’

Cale barely held himself back from saying that.

Eruhaben’s head was no ordinary Dragon’s head.

His head had layers of mana resembling a helmet surrounding it.

Raon, Eruhaben, Mila, Rasheel, and Dodori… It was an omnipotent mana helmet with the different colors of the Dragons all mixed together.

‘…Something like that… Forget this temple; it could probably destroy most things in this world.’

As Cale had that thought…

Shhhhhhh-

Eruhaben stepped back.

A large hole that could easily serve as an exit appeared.

“Human!”

Cale could hear Raon's voice in the distance.

However, his eyes were looking at something else.

“T, that-”

Cale’s voice was shaking and so was his hand.

Eruhaben turned around and looked toward the approaching Raon, On, and Hong before quietly speaking to Cale inside the temple.

“…You.”

Cale blankly stared at the large orb above the temple and the scene of himself, the others, and the inside of the temple visible in it.

Eruhaben looked at him with pity before saying the rest in a shaking voice.

"Cale, is your heart okay?”

“Excuse me?”

“The children did not see it.”

“Then… the others?”

The ancient Dragon polymorphed into his human form before responding calmly but sadly.

“We saw it. All of it.”

Cale felt as if his mind was fading away.

“Cale-nim!”

Choi Han quickly came and supported Cale. He then shouted with shock.

“Cale-nim! Y, your clothes-”

Cale reached his hand and touched his shirt. It was hot.

He put his hand into the inner pocket of his shirt.

His hand landed on a book.

< The Method to Kill Death >

The divine item of the God of Death was slightly shaking while letting out a lot of heat.

It was similar to when the God of Death informed Cale about Choi Han seeing Choi Jung Soo's memories.

The book, the divine item was telling Cale to quickly open it.

As expected, the God of Death was trying to tell Cale about how to get rid of this sealed god.

That was why he must have been waiting for an opening.

He was waiting for the moment Cale was connected to the outside of the temple.

And now… they were connected to the outside thanks to the headbutt from a certain Dragon.

“Motherf……”

Cale subconsciously mumbled to himself.

“This son of a bitch of a god. I will definitely, definitely not let him off.”

Cale’s grudge-filled voice made Mary and the others who were breaking and stopping the hands flinched and look at him.

Cale didn't care and clenched his eyes shut while looking at the expressions on the faces of the approaching children averaging nine-years-old and the others before opening them back.

He then opened the book.