“I can fulfill your two conditions, Lord Bafor.” Seong-Hwi looked into Bafor’s eyes and continued, “The Elixir and Holy Force.”

“Very well. I can entertain the minuscule possibility that you possess the extremely rare Elixir. However... Holy Force? Do you take me for a fool?” Bafor said as he shook his head.

Holy Force was the angels’ secondary force. On top of that, the angels were the only unified race among all the races in the Mirror World. In other words, every angel was a member of Orbis and was unconditionally loyal to the Second Lord, the God of Heaven, Creo. They were impossible to recruit, cooperate with, or negotiate with. They simply existed to act as the God of Heaven’s tools; one couldn’t even call them individuals.

“Are you saying you have an angel friend?” Bafor asked.

“No. I can use Holy Force,” Seong-Hwi replied.

“That’s even more unbelievable.”

Bafor’s distrust was natural.

The negotiation will begin only after I show him that I have all the cards, Seong-Hwi thought.

What he wanted wasn’t a plea for help, but a negotiation between equals. Iridescent wings sprouted from Seong-Hwi’s back.

[Operating Wings of Evolution.]

[Nine Wings.]

“Allow me to show you indirect proof,” he said.

The hexagonal pattern simultaneously became typhoon patterns, and the wings were dyed red.

[Converting Destiny Force to Battle Force.]

[00:00:33]

[00:00:32]

...

Seong-Hwi clenched his fists, and Battle Force, the red aura that instinctively enhanced one’s fighting spirit, enveloped his fist.

He asked, “Do you recognize this?”

“Could this be... Battle Force?” Bafor mumbled in shock as he stared at the red aura on Seong-Hwi’s fist.

The aura was faint, weaker than the Battle Force of an average orc warrior. However, the fact that the one who emitted the aura was a human, a race that did not possess a secondary force, was unchanged.

[Terminating conversion.]

[Battle Force enters dormancy for 120 hours.]

The Wings of Evolution returned to their original form.

“I can steal the secondary forces of other races and use them as if they were my own,” Seong-Hwi said.

“That’s... unbelievable!”

It had been a while since Bafor had been truly shocked. He knew many World Rankers with odd abilities, but none could use the secondary forces of other races. It was like heating shizteel in a blast furnace to turn it into janateel.

“W-what about Holy Force?! Can you use it?” Bafor asked.

“I can.”

“Prove it!”

Seong-Hwi smiled in silence, noticing the change in Bafor’s attitude. He could no longer feel the immense pressure.

He said inwardly, We’re... more or less equals now.

Seong-Hwi did not mean in terms of power. He could never defeat Bafor in his current state. He had endlessly sprinted to reach an equal footing with the Steel King. He could feel that he was truly human from his assertive use of worldly wisdom.

He said excessively delicately, “This ability has a restriction. Once I use a race’s secondary force, I cannot use it again for five days. Considering the patient...”

Bafor immediately understood what Seong-Hwi meant. He was asking if Bafor was okay with not being able to treat Lilar for five days.

If that human can use Holy Force... Bafor trailed off in his thoughts, his eyes shining with hope.

He wouldn’t have to betray his people and save Lilar in the process. It was the best of both worlds.

“What do you want in exchange?” Bafor asked.

Seong-Hwi smiled and answered, “A few things, none of which are unreasonable. I can say one thing for certain: it will be far more beneficial for you and the dwarves to negotiate with me than the angels.”

***

Bafor opened a heavy brass door.

“This way,” he said.

His attitude toward Seong-Hwi had become much more cautious, like a patient’s family member waiting for the doctor to give them the news. There was a bed in the room and a dwarf woman lying on it.

“Gurgh... Urgh...”

She was reduced to skin and bones, and her hair was deathly white. She constantly sweated and groaned as she clenched her chest. Seong-Hwi’s heart pounded intensely once he saw the dwarf woman.

What’s happening? he wondered.

It was not a fluttering feeling like love. It was much heavier—a strange sense of belonging. It was like meeting a long-lost friend by coincidence. His instincts were whispering to him that there was something about that dwarf woman.

Someone beside the bed said, “Lord Bafor?”

He was a young dwarf with dark brown hair and beard.

“How is Lilar doing, Yadir?” Bafor asked hastily.

The dwarf standing beside the bed was Yadir, the dwarf who brought the Primordial Dish from the Golden Iron Palace during the artisan exam. He was the first warrior sworn to protect the priestess.

“Not good. She pushed herself too hard for the Ferrum Festival,” Yadir answered worryingly. Just then, he noticed Seong-Hwi. “A human?”

Bafor waved his hand to stop Yadir as he was about to reach for his ax at his waist.

“This human is Cheon Seong-Hwi. He has come to solve Lilar’s problem.”

“Lady Lilar’s... problem?” Yadir mumbled as he stared at Seong-Hwi, his eyes filled with distrust.

He couldn’t believe the weak-looking human could treat Lilar when no other skill could. Seong-Hwi ignored Yadir’s gaze and approached the bed.

He wondered, What’s going on? What about this dwarf is pulling me toward her?

The strange sense of familiarity remained. Rather, their connection felt like it was getting stronger the closer they got.

“Lilar has reached her limit,” Bafor said miserably as he swept back the struggling Lilar’s hair. “She will be in grave danger if we don’t do something as soon as possible.”

“The Elixir is an omnipotent panacea that can remove any debuff, treat any illness, heal any injury, and lift any curse. Why do you need Holy Force?” Seong-Hwi asked.

Bafor momentarily hesitated, then answered, “That’s because... what Lilar is suffering from is not an ordinary illness or curse.”

“Cough! Cough! Hurgh!”

Lilar suddenly began to convulse. Seong-Hwi noticed something grey bubbling from her open mouth.

“Yadir!” Bafor shouted as he held Lilar down by her shoulders.

“Yes, my Lord!”

Yadir grabbed the rusted steel dish on a shelf and sprinted toward them. It was the Primordial Dish. He poured water into the dish and carefully poured it into Lilar’s open mouth.

“Kurgh! Urgh! Guh...”

The boiling grey aura inside Lilar’s mouth subsided, and she stopped convulsing as if she had lost consciousness.

“That was...” Seong-Hwi trailed off as his eyes sank, realizing what the grey aura was.

“Yes, it is what you’re thinking. Lilar has been... corrupted by Chaos Mana.”

***

Bafor and Seong-Hwi left the room and went into the hallway, closing the door behind them to let Lilar rest.

“Please explain everything so I can prepare for any possible situation,” Seong-Hwi said.

“Very well. First, the Chaos Mana corrupting Lilar is no ordinary Chaos Mana,” Bafor answered.

“No ordinary Chaos Mana?”

“Do you know what a Bachtasha-rank Chaos is?”

“Bachtasha?” Seong-Hwi asked as his brows furrowed.

He had never heard of such a Chaos rank even in his decade in the Mirror World in his past life.

Bafor nodded and explained, “The Second Fiend, Curiositas, also named this rank. In the demon language, it means undefinable.”

“Bachtasha... Undefinable...” Seong-Hwi mumbled.

The Chaos ranking system he knew, from lowest to highest, was Shen, Lapang, Segal, Adora, Uluhatu, Hispar, and Lang. Lang-rank Chaos were terrifying monsters that could undergo a Tertiary Transformation, and Seong-Hwi had only met one during his ninth year in the Mirror World in his past life.

“It’s natural for humans not to know. You’ve only just begun reclaiming the fourth zone, correct?” Bafor asked.

“That’s right.”

“But you at least know what nescius means, right?”

Seong-Hwi nodded and replied, “It means uncharted zone.”

“Exactly. In other words, the inner zones. The Mirror World has only been reclaimed up to the seventh zone, and only a select few have been to the eighth zone... Only the World Rankers could even dare to enter it.”

“Then the ninth zone and up would be the current nescius.”

Seong-Hwi recalled his past life. The Mirror World residents headed to the center, all hostile to one another, to obtain the Master Stone. As a result, they reclaimed the eighth zone, and there had been rumors of powerful individuals entering the ninth zone.

But that’s almost ten years from now. The eighth zone is the highest at the moment, Seong-Hwi thought.

Bafor nodded and said sorrowfully, “The Chaos that injected Chaos Mana inside Lilar is... a Bachtasha-rank Chaos from the nescius.”

He closed his eyes and recalled the day when his misfortune began.

***

The subterraneans’ Race Stone was taken by the Chaos, turning every subterranean into Chaos monsters. The Sēmen immediately organized a subjugation team, and all races attacked the subterranean Chaos monsters who had become the mortal enemy of every race.

An all-out war filled with bloodshed took place in Subterra for one year. The war was named the Subterranean War and ended when Bafor killed the Subterranean King, Tellus, first in the subterranean ranking and thirty-fifth in the World Ranking at the time.

Tellus and Bafor were irreplaceable blood brothers, but Tellus had changed once he became a Chaos monster. Bafor, after killing his best friend, returned to Ferrum in exhaustion and headed to the Iron Shrine to meet his beloved daughter.

“KYAAAH!”

Just then, he heard his daughter’s scream echoing throughout the Golden Iron Palace. Bafor sprinted to the Iron Shrine.

“What in the—”

He was met with a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The three hundred dwarf warriors protecting the priestess were dead, and his daughter, Lilar, was captured by a formless entity.

— Yo! You arrived faster than I expected.

The unsettling, jelly-like entity waved at him. It was completely black, but a diamond dust-like substance shone like starlight inside. It was like an extraterrestrial being—a pudding made of outer space.

“Bastard! Get away from Lilar!” Bafor shouted.

— Ahaha! You killed our comrade, Tellus, didn’t you? He could’ve become as almighty as me.

The formless entity trembled. It had no mouth but was speaking through vibrations.

— No, that’s a bit of a stretch. Hahah! Tellus was just bait that had served its purpose. My true objective was to find this dwarf. The vessel that protects the Mineral Stone!

“Wha... How did you...”

Bafor’s eyes widened. Only he and Lilar knew she held the Mineral Stone.

— Don’t you know that if two or more people know, it’s no longer a secret? Hahah!

The entity moved its jelly-like body and engulfed Lilar.

“Lilar!” Bafor shouted as he ran to his daughter.

However, he was too late. The entity went inside Lilar through her mouth and disappeared.

“Grrrk!” Lilar grunted.

“Lilar! Get a hold of yourself! Lilar!”

Bafor, unable to attack his convulsing daughter, shook her by her shoulders. Just then, an unsettling energy surged from Lilar—it was the grey Chaos Mana.

“This is—”

— Aha! It’s well-protected! It will take time to dye it, but time is all I have. Well, then... see you... later... Daddy!

Bafor felt chills because the entity’s voice had become the same as Lilar’s.

“N-NOOOOOOOO!”

He realized that Lilar had been corrupted. Not only that, but it was a direct corruption of a Bachtasha-rank Chaos melting into her body.

***

“So, you’re saying... inside Lilar is a Chaos monster... and an unprecedented Bachtasha-rank Chaos, at that?” Seong-Hwi asked.

“Exactly,” Bafor answered, having revealed everything except that Lilar held the dwarves’ Race Stone.

If time passes and Lilar becomes a Chaos monster, the Mineral Stone will also be corrupted by Chaos Mana. Then every dwarf will become a Chaos monster, just like what happened with the subterraneans, he said inwardly.

He had not told Seong-Hwi, but this was one of the reasons that Bafor tried to get the angels’ help despite knowing the thorny path it would put the dwarves on. He believed becoming the angels’ subordinate race would be far better than becoming one of the Chaos.

“That is why we need Holy Force, because it has the power to reject everything.” Bafor swept his face down with his hand and continued, “I tried everything for my daughter. I even invited someone with an S-rank healing skill, but even he couldn’t treat Lilar.”

“Then...”

“The one who failed said that there is no hope for Lilar without the angels’ Holy Force.”

“Why is that?”

“I told you. Holy Force has the power to reject everything.” Bafor grabbed Seong-Hwi’s shoulders and continued, “Holy Force is a highly reclusive power. The power of severance, isolation, and rejection! It is the complete opposite of Demon Force, which devours anything and everything.”

Seong-Hwi more or less understood what Bafor meant because he had experience using both powers.

He thought, I only used the recoil generated from combining Holy Force and Demon Force, but I get the reason now.

“If you can use Holy Force, you should be able to pull out the Chaos inside Lilar with the power of rejection!” Bafor shouted.

“Then the Elixir must be... to heal Lilar’s body that would be damaged in that process,” Seong-Hwi surmised.

“That’s right. The Chaos has already become one with Lilar. Having her drink the Elixir now would be meaningless. She must drink it after they have been separated.”

Seong-Hwi realized his role at last: to use Holy Force to separate the parasitic Chaos from Lilar.

Is it possible? he wondered.

The Chaos was a Bachtasha, a rank he had never even heard of. The massive army formed by the Union had faced immense casualties to defeat the Lang-rank Chaos encountered in the sixth zone.

My Destiny Force is ranked A(25). Once I convert it all to Holy Force...

The cogs in his head turned restlessly, but accurate calculations were impossible as long as the unknown Bachtasha-rank Chaos was one of the variables. As he weighed the cost, benefit, success, and failure, the voice of an old knight echoed inside his head.

“Sancho Panza! Have you already forgotten? Charge, and charge again!”

Seong-Hwi smiled and thought, Why did I even go through such struggles if I’m not going to be up to the challenge? As long as I have come this far, there is only one answer.

Destiny was weak to the brave and strong to the cowardly. He wouldn’t think about failure. He would succeed no matter what and obtain everything Bafor had promised him. The security of his people and his personal growth depended on it. There was no reason not to charge.

What more could I lose but my life?

He was not afraid of death. There were far more terrifying things in this world than death, mainly the regret of those who failed to try. Don Quixote did not regret. There was no regret in those who always did their best.

It’s do or die.

“I will do it,” Seong-Hwi declared.

“Please... Please save my daughter,” Bafor begged as he gripped Seong-Hwi’s shoulders strongly.

Seong-Hwi felt Bafor’s emotions through his grip. He felt odd as he stared at the red-eyed Bafor, the Steel King, thirty-fifth in the World Ranking, one of the most powerful individuals he had met so far.

Such an individual is... begging an inferior race like me.

Bafor did not exude any aura typical of the powerful. He was simply begging for his daughter to be saved.

Is this... what a parent is like? Seong-Hwi wondered as the memory of the snowy day and the moment of indefinite waiting flashed in his mind.

He sighed as he chased the memory away and said, “Huuu, I will do my best. However... who will use the Elixir?”

The Elixir was the embodiment of both hope and despair. Using it cost one life.

Just then, Yadir came out into the hallway from Lilar’s room and said, “I will. That is the duty of the survivor.”