‘… Is this a parallel imaginary world?’

It was somewhat una.s.suming as a last-ditch effort to survive, but Woohyuk didn’t let his guard down.

This was because he saw and understood Cruella’s destructive power.

Looking closely at his surroundings, Woohyuk moved his body, which was recently restored with the Power of Resuscitation.

‘This is not the Eeth Continent.’

It was a s.p.a.ce full of frenetic unstable energy and a weird aura.

He was somewhere in the woods, but he couldn’t hear the cry of birds and the wind was not blowing, so it was very quiet.

Furthermore, he had never seen the architectural style of the visible buildings before.

It was similar but subtly different from the Valkyrie Ruins in the Norton Kingdom.

As Woohyuk continued his search…

“Are you really going to put that plan into action, Rafael? There are certainly not a few angels who are against it.”

A familiar voice came from one corner.

‘Leifina?’

She was, up to what he knew, practicing swordsmans.h.i.+p in the training hall.

Woohyuk disappeared using the Earth G.o.d’s Deception Spell and carefully headed to the place where the conversation was taking place.

“But someone needs to correct this faulty system, Pina. A world where everyone’s future is predestined based on hierarchical order, no one but the Creator wants that.”

“…”

A black-haired angel enthusiastically voiced his opinion.

Next to the angel was a G.o.ddess with pink hair who silently dropped her head while standing on the lakesh.o.r.e.

Woohyuk, who saw the two of them, looked startled.

‘Is that angel… me?’

The angel was very similar to himself, except it had white skin like white jade and blue eyes like sapphire.

The same went for the G.o.ddess with pink hair. She looked exactly like Leifina.

As Woohyuk stood dumbfounded and at a loss for words, Rafael started speaking,

“Pina, I know you worry about me. But in this world, we cannot be together. I am the Archangel who carries out the will of the Creator and you are the G.o.ddess of Fate. So…”

“Do you want to say it’s wrong? Did you come here to talk about the unchangeable nature of our relations.h.i.+p?” Pina replied while she stood with her back towards Rafael and her head turned back to look at him with sad eyes.

Rafael was silent for a moment, then shook his head.

“It’s not an excuse. It’s not wrong either. I just came to say goodbye. I wanted to convey my will to you. Even if the other G.o.ds don’t know, I wanted you to know.”

“I know I can’t stop you. Maybe, the plan will succeed, and the day will come when we will be together. But there’s a possibility of failure, so please listen to me.”

“What is it? I will listen.”

Rafael stared at her with a curious expression.

Pina walked to the sh.o.r.e and gently raised her right hand.

Then, the appearance of a burning celestial world appeared on the surface of the lake.

“This is one of the many possibilities in the future. The Creator will design what will actually happen. But that’s not absolute either.”

Although the Creator was the reigning ent.i.ty over the system, he could not do everything at his will.

A typical example of something he couldn’t control directly was the beings of the abyss.

Their power was able to change the system, and the Creator had always felt a sense of crisis from their existence.

In other words, the planned future could be altered and reversed at any time.

Rafael nodded at Pina’s explanation.

“I know that. Our plan, too, is to use the forbidden knowledge to prevent the Creator from interfering with the system more than is necessary.”

“Yes, but the problem is that it’s difficult to achieve that goal in just one attempt.”

Because Pina was the G.o.ddess of Destiny, she knew how detailed the Creator was and how difficult the task at hand was.

Rafael looked surprised as she offered him a bluish potion bottle.

“Are you sure you want to give me the Elixir of Urdarbrunn? If you do this, you too will be held accountable for a.s.sisting and abetting me.”

“I will entrust my future to you. So please come back. Even if you fail a few times, face the challenge again and succeed in your plans…”

Those who drank the Elixir of Urdarbrunn could continue to reincarnate into new beings even if they died.

Of course, the memories of the previous life would be erased, but they could be recovered by coming back to this place and drinking the water from the lake.

This had a profound effect on the Creator’s planned future, as the Creator could not do anything about this loophole.

“Thank you. Your heart… I will take it someday.”

Rafael hugged Pina tightly.

After observing the relations.h.i.+p between the two, Woohyuk fell into shock.

‘What the h.e.l.l is this…’

If what he heard was true, had he been reincarnating until now and pursuing the same end goal?

However, he couldn’t understand why such a scene appeared in Cruella’s imaginary world.

While looking around, Woohyuk found an angel hiding in the distance and watching Rafael and Pina with a stubborn expression.

‘… Was that it?’

The scene seemed to be understandable even if there was no additional explanation.

This was the beginning of all tragedies, a three-way relations.h.i.+p triangle.

Cruella’s reckless decision to take forbidden knowledge and corrupt her own body may have originated from his own past.

Of course, since it was just a hypothesis, Woohyuk decided to watch the scene unfold until the end.

‘It would be dangerous to expose myself and talk to that angel right now.’

The hidden angel had on an angry expression.

After a while, when Cruella left Urdarbrunn, the Lake of Fate, Woohyuk followed her secretly.

“Sob…sob…”

Cruella ran through the forest while a river of tears flowed down her face.

After some time, she arrived at a huge library.

Numerous ancient doc.u.ments were stored in it.

‘The structure is similar to the Ark of Knowledge that Helena referred to.’

As far as he knew, the Ark of Knowledge was made by humanity who inherited the blood of Lilith.

Woohyuk appeared and spoke to Cruella, who was searching through the old doc.u.ments.

“What are you doing here?” Woohyuk asked.

“… Rafael?”

Cruella stepped back in surprise.

The person in front of her looked like Rafael, but no matter how similarly he looked, the being in front of her was a human.

No, she felt demonic energy in him.

“Do you love Rafael?”

“… So you’re not Rafael. You made me feel bad momentarily.”

Cruella showed hostility by laying down the old doc.u.ments and taking a wary stance.

Woohyuk raised his hands to express his intention to talk and then opened his mouth to speak again.

“Actually, you’re half right and half wrong. I’m Rafael who has come back from the future.”

“You are from the future? How do expect me to believe that?”

“Will this be enough?”

Woohyuk pulled out the Lemegeton.

An ancient magic book that contained 72 Demon Kings.

Cruella looked surprised when she saw it.

“Nonsense…”

“I want to hear the truth. So, I need you to tell me everything about Rafael’s plans and what you were trying to do.”

If she knew that he was the reincarnated Rafael, he felt that Cruella would reluctantly cooperate.

As expected, Cruella answered with her head down,

“Rafael is trying to change the system with the angels who want a free world. Using the knowledge of this forbidden library…”

When light and darkness, which have existed since the beginning, became one, the world would face fundamental changes.

It was the Ark of Knowledge that led the world in the right direction.

So, the Ark of Knowledge had long been strictly managed by angels.

Woohyuk nodded at Cruella’s explanation.

“I roughly understand the story of the Ark of Knowledge. Anyway, the plan seems to have failed in the end. Do you have any guesses as to why that happened?”

“… I don’t know. How would I know?”

“Later, you become a fallen angel and create a riot. You didn’t even show an inkling of recognition when you saw me at that time. I think the cause is here. Can I check the doc.u.ments you were viewing for a while?”

No matter how much he thought about it, the Golden Library wasn’t a place where an emotionally wounded woman should come right away after learning of her position in a love triangle.

As Woohyuk pushed her sharply, Cruella trembled with fear and stuttered,

“I… I become… a fallen angel…?”

“It’s because you touched the forbidden knowledge. And this is the Golden Book.”

Woohyuk pulled out the old doc.u.ment that Cruella was looking at from the bookshelf and frowned.

‘This woman tried to change the future to what she wanted.’

Instilling a personal desire into a common cause, for which everyone should join forces, brought a dire result in the future.

Maybe she wanted to be Rafael’s lover.

It became clear to him that she chose to become a fallen angel after touching the forbidden knowledge.

Upon grasping the general situation, Woohyuk s.n.a.t.c.hed Cruella’s wrist.

“It’s your fault that Rafael’s plan failed. To make everyone unhappy just because you were blinded with jealousy is no different than what a witch would do.”

“… No! I never wanted Rafael to be unhappy! If that truly happens, I’ll burn this place down!”

Cruella’s eye became fiery as magical fire sparked from one of her hands.

Woohyuk quickly subdued her and prevented further trouble from happening.

“If you do that, nothing changes. This is just your imaginary world.”

“An imaginary world…?”

“You’re already dying. You’ve lost your loved ones and your own ident.i.ty. You’ve been running away from the truth.”

Woohyuk went on to explain how he defeated her.

Cruella’s body convulsed as she heard his explanation with a shocked look.

“Ugh… black…”

“I will resolve the issue and end your terror. I have no personal feelings in this matter.”

He was not Rafael.

He may have been reincarnated, but he had no memories of his past.

However, the fact that he had a relations.h.i.+p with Leifina from a previous life aroused a subtle feeling within him.

As Woohyuk tried to stab Cruella’s heart with Verserios…

“Stop it.”

A man’s cold voice came from behind.

After confirming the ident.i.ty of the voice, Woohyuk made a confused expression.

‘This presents a bit of trouble.’

Rafael.

The Archangel, his ident.i.ty from a former life, was aiming a spear at Woohyuk with a threatening glance.

“Have you been listening to our conversation?”

“Yes. I honestly don’t believe it, but I’m willing to talk.”

“Actually, that’s the same for me.”

It was naturally difficult for any human to accept this kind of story.

When Woohyuk briefly talked about his past, Rafael looked worried.

“Am I not able to do anything… I feel guilty towards Pina after hearing your words.”

“She is someone I must keep safe and cherish in the real world.”

Woohyuk started to understand why Leifina was given as a hidden reward in the Witch’s Sanctuary.

The Creator was trying to intervene in his future through her.

However, Woohyuk was always ready to crush such a design.

At least there would be no giving up or sitting down on this new path.

After becoming a demon, he would destroy all the absurd systems created by the Creator.

This was so that everyone would no longer suffer from the Creator’s mischiefs.

When Woohyuk released Cruella with a determined expression, Rafael also loosened his attack posture.

“By the way, do you really have no memories of your previous life?”

“If I had any, I wouldn’t have suffered so much. The G.o.ddesses of Fate, who replaced Pina, didn’t leave me with any memories or tips.”

“The Creator will always be watching you. It’s my personal opinion, but listening to you about the current situation, it would be better to seal all 72 Demon Kings first.”

If one could fill all 72 Demon Kings in Lemegeton, one could freely move to the Demon World and obtain a quest to become a demon.

At Rafael’s words, Woohyuk's eyes sparkled.

“A quest to become a demon?”