Chapter 2: The Reincarnator Regresses
"Aaaaaaagh!"
"M-My arm...!"
"Save me! Please save meeeee!"
Screams echoed from every direction.
Smoke from burning flesh mixed with the stench of blood and stabbed into my nose.
Hell.
The place where I stood right now was hell itself manifested in the mortal world.
Sssssss!
I looked down at my body as the flames of hell burned through it.
And I finally realized that my painfully stubborn second life was coming to an end.
Twenty days ago...
The Righteous Alliance had raised the banner of Demon Extermination and launched an attack on the headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
After dozens of days of fighting without distinction between day and night, the Righteous Alliance finally reached the central temple where the Cult Leader resided.
They were certain of their victory.
Soon, the Cult Leader's head would fall.
The Demonic Cult would finally meet its complete end.
But that confidence had been a foolish mistake.
Cornered with nowhere left to run, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult chose...
Mutual destruction.
The cult's secret art and eternal taboo...
the Myriad Tribulation Flame.
The moment it was activated, everything was swallowed by flames of annihilation.
Every living creature was evaporating within the fires of hell without even leaving behind a corpse.
No.
To be precise...
Those abandoned by the Righteous Alliance were disappearing.
The Righteous Alliance... those cowardly bastards.
The leaders of the Righteous Alliance had already calculated the possibility that the Demonic Cult might use the Myriad Tribulation Flame.
The moment their army entered the cult's headquarters, the first thing they did was pull their proper disciples away from the front lines.
In their place, they sent people like me.
Experiment subjects.
Assassins secretly brainwashed and trained by the Shadow Corps.
The Shadow Corps was a disgrace that could never be allowed to appear in the glorious history of the Righteous Alliance.
And the fate of something that needed to be erased was obvious.
We were meant to be burned away like trash inside the Myriad Tribulation Flame.
When the Righteous Alliance ordered us to walk willingly toward our deaths...
we had no choice but to obey.
Choice itself had disappeared long ago.
From the moment we were forced to consume the Soul-Scattering Pill, which controlled both mind and soul, all we could do was walk into the fire like insects following orders.
Was it because of the horrific pain of our flesh burning?
Or because the Myriad Tribulation Flame was said to burn even the soul?
The moment those flames swallowed us, fragments of consciousness that had long since vanished began to return.
The restraints binding our minds through the Soul-Scattering Pill shattered.
Only at the final moment before death...
did the insects regain their souls.
And what awaited those insects after regaining their souls...
was even greater suffering.
"Aaaaaaaaagh!!"
"H-Hot... my eyes... my eyes!"
"Save me... please save meeee!"
Everyone around me was dying.
The people who had suffered alongside me in that dark underground prison.
The people who had endured each painful day with nothing more than a glance at one another.
As I stared at them in despair...
"...Un...cle...."
A familiar voice came through the flames.
I turned my head.
A small figure was engulfed in fire.
Half of the child's face had already melted away, making it impossible to distinguish his eyes, nose, or mouth.
Yet I recognized him instantly.
"...Uncle Mujin... it's hot... I'm scared...."
That voice.
It belonged to Jihoo, the child who had always followed me around calling me Uncle.
He had been kidnapped by the Shadow Corps at a young age and used as an experiment subject.
Now that fragile little life was being twisted apart and devoured by the flames.
A memory suddenly surfaced in my mind.
A corner of the underground prison where even light couldn't reach.
One night, Jihoo had been burning with fever after a poison experiment.
His tiny hands had tightly gripped mine as his body trembled.
Uncle, someday... we'll be able to go back outside again, right?
That child...
who had never abandoned hope even in hell...
was now calling for me while swallowing screams inside the flames.
Pieces of melted flesh fell from his face.
Yet his remaining eye still looked toward me.
I forced myself upright inside the flames consuming my entire body.
The fire burrowed into my flesh.
Every breath burned my lungs.
Yet I couldn't stop myself from taking one more step toward him.
"...Jihoo... Uncle's right here..."
But I was too late.
Before my hand could reach him, a massive wave of fire swallowed his entire body.
Not even the faintest outline remained.
Jihoo turned into gray ash and vanished into the air.
"Ah..."
My legs gave out.
I collapsed on the spot.
The despair was too great.
I no longer had the will to stand.
And even at that very moment, the Myriad Tribulation Flame continued swallowing more victims.
"...S-Save... me...."
"...Mother... I want... to see...."
"...I don't... want to die... I'm still...."
The screams and cries of the dying became thousands of blades stabbing into my ears.
In front of me.
Beside me.
Behind me.
And in the center of that hell...
I alone remained alive.
I wanted to escape from this endless agony.
I wanted death to come as quickly as possible.
But...
...This damned regeneration still refuses to let me go.
My regenerative ability struggled stubbornly even inside the Myriad Tribulation Flame, which supposedly destroyed everything.
It hurt.
My flesh melted.
My muscles liquefied.
My organs burned away one by one.
Amid agony and despair beyond anything I could endure, all I could do was follow my instincts and scream.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!"
I prayed for the suffering to end.
I wanted every part of me to disappear into the flames.
But my heart was still beating.
My cells were still repairing themselves.
I want to die... but I can't....
As if some malicious god of fate were laughing at me...
my body continued desperately struggling to survive even against those monstrous flames.
Yet even an insect's struggle eventually had to end.
Before the eternal flames of the Myriad Tribulation Flame, my regeneration slowly began to weaken.
Yes.
I was finally dying.
Every individual cell was torn apart and burned as death approached.
Is this cursed life finally ending?
I let go of everything.
As the flames swallowed me, only one wish remained.
Please... just let this pain end.
Then...
A calm voice came from between the flames.
"Do not think your deaths are meaningless. Consider it an honor that your lives became kindling for the light of the righteous path."
Even through the unbearable pain, I instinctively raised my head.
A figure appeared in my melting vision.
There was one person within the flames of hell who still radiated the vitality of the living.
Moyong Cheonhwi.
Leader of the Righteous Alliance.
The greatest martial artist under heaven.
But to me, his name represented hatred rather than respect.
He was the man who created the Shadow Corps.
The man who sent countless experiment subjects into hell.
The person responsible for dragging me into this nightmare.
Even the Myriad Tribulation Flame couldn't bring Moyong Cheonhwi down.
The flames couldn't burn his flesh.
