The World After the Fall

Ra-hamad realized Jaehwan had not visited him for the past few weeks already. He calculated how many days had passed.

Two months.

The past two months had been busy, even for Ra-hamad when he recalled everything. After Jaehwan came to the Forest of Madness, Jaehwan had been asking Ra-hamad and the other people various questions.

"The leader that you speak of. Does he really exist?"

"Are you the Mad God?"

"Who are you? Follower of Geshtalt?"

"What is Ouroboros?"

As if he were a baby asking everything about everything, Jaehwan asked a lot of questions. There was only one answer he was able to get from all those questions.

Ouroboros.

Every question and answer started and finished with Ouroboros, and then began with Ouroboros again. It was an answer that did not explain anything. It was an answer where one couldn't tell whether it was the beginning or the end.

In fact, Ra-hamad and the other people had no way of explaining it entirely. Ouroboros was not something that could be explained. It was something that struck at the moment of countless imagination, perception, and awakening. Or something that resembled that feeling. That was Ouroboros.

Ra-hamad never expected Jaehwan to understand. It was something even those who had metamorphosized for thousands of years could not get to.

'I didn't get to pull him out from the water recently.'

Currently, Jaehwan was at the hottest hot spring of the forest. It was the place where highly-trained warriors could barely stand for two hours. It was actually impossible for Jaehwan who had only been here for two months to even try in the first place.

The thought made Ra-hamad become more concerned.

'Did he die already?'

He shook his head.

'No, that's not possible. If he loses consciousness, I can feel it right away.'

There was no way for Ra-hamad, the Great Warrior, to not know of a powerful world power like Jaehwan disappearing. Besides, it was Ra-hamad who had been picking up Jaehwan from the spring for the past two .

'That is strange… the power does show that he is still inside that pool.'

Jaehwan's world power maintained a stable size for a few days. It wasn't possible. Even Ra-hamad could only stay at that pool for maybe a week. That's when something popped up in his mind.

'Did he finish his metamorphosis?'

No, that wasn't possible. Metamorphosis was a training that had no end. It was not meant to end.

But why? What was this feeling?

Ra-hamad began walking toward the pool. It was better to check it out for himself. At that moment, a young warrior appeared. Ra-hamad knew this young warrior who had been very popular amongst the other warriors. There was a rumor that he had huge 'Ouroboros', so Ra-hamad also knew of him.

'I think I saw this young warrior picking him up from the pool before.'

Ra-hamad called to the boy.

[Nas-.]

And Runald waved back.

"Oh, Great Warrior."

They shared a greeting. Runald was now able to speak the Long Living race's language quite a bit, so he had no problem talking with them. Ra-hamad looked at Runald's naked spirit and thought, 'What a great spirit. He will become a powerful warrior in 10 years if he is given the time.'

Spirit that could do such a thing with such talent and potential was hard to describe, but it could only be explained as Ouroboros-ish potential.

Runald answered Ra-hamad's question, "Jaehwan? I haven't seen him for the past few weeks either…"

It seemed that Runald had not visited the pool either.

"We were going there actually. How about you come with us?"

The man who had the scrubbing glove on next to Runald spoke. Ra-hamad knew about him also. He was man named Karavan, the Scrubber.

'Vicegerent of one of the 7 gods.'

Ra-hamad knew that Karavan was a Vicegerent the moment he saw him as one of the 7 Gods had visited this place a long time ago. It was very long, and the man gave up on training.

Runald grabbed Ra-hamad's hand.

"Let's go, Great Warrior."

Ra-hamad then began walking toward the pool with Runald and Karavan. After passing by countless hot springs, they were at the hottest hot spring within the area.

There he was, Jaehwan floating at the center of the spring, sitting down, meditating motionlessly. Runald screamed.

"WHAT?! Since when did he learn a floating Setting?"

"…That's weird. He doesn't have Reinholdt's Long Coat on either," Karavan also added curiously. It was only Ra-hamad who did not speak and looked carefully at Jaehwan's spirit.

'It is not a Setting.'

He was looking into Jaehwan's world power that was moving so vibrantly.

'That is amazing control of the power.'

Actually, flying in the air by using world power wasn't that hard. It just required the use of deflection against the ground. Maintaining it and staying still in the air was not easy.

'A balance between the spirit and the world… it is not possible to do without understanding the world power's characteristics.'

Ra-hamad then floated up with his world power. He felt Runald and Karavan becoming shocked at Ra-hamad floating in the air and moved toward Jaehwan slowly.

Jaehwan's world power that could be felt from the outside wasn't great. Maybe 200 thousand to 300 thousand? It was an easy target for any high-ranking God. But to Ra-hamad's eyes, Jaehwan wasn't just at the level of a high-ranking God. There was beautiful light glowing from Jaehwan's naked body. It was a noble spirit's light that had achieved its state through endless metamorphosis. Ra-hamad asked a question in his language.

You like to take your clothes off quickly. No one's been faster than you.

Ra-hamad was not the type to complement. For the last one thousand years, Ra-hamad only complimented a certain Nightmare who visited them 900 years ago. Jaehwan looked up to Ra-hamad. A weird tension began to grow between them. Jaehwan spoke up.

"Let's fight."

[Nas. Girevia.]

You are not my match yet.

However, Jaehwan did not hesitate. His fist caused the waters to churn as he charged at Ra-hamad.

The two world powers clashing against each other as the power stormed the hot spring. Runald and Karavan jumped back while screaming. There were warriors coming to the hot spring as they felt the clash between world powers.

[Girevinok!]

Not enough!

Ra-hamad quickly waved his hands in the air and nullified Jaehwan's world power. It was an amazing movement. And the counter-attack by Ra-hamad wielded a great amount of world power.

"Jaehwan! Watch out!"