The incense, starting from my lungs, spread to the very tips of my fingers and toes, and all the strength drained from my body. My consciousness felt as if it were floating, rising up and away. I didn’t resist, allowing myself to be led, and soon a small, singular light appeared to greet me. And I mean greet me; it was bobbing up and down, dancing in a clear expression of welcome.

It flickered and swayed, moving forward as if beckoning me to follow. I trailed it in silence. It wasn’t long before I saw a space ahead, one that pulsed with a light so intense it seemed to be driving back all the darkness.

Thump, thump.

The small light bobbed again, as if to say, ‘There.’ I followed closely behind it, and the blinding radiance pouring from the space enveloped me.

“…!”

I squeezed my eyes shut against the sudden onslaught of light. I waited. Only after the stinging sensation on my eyelids had faded did I lower the hands I’d thrown up to shield my head, and open my eyes.

When my vision cleared, I was standing in a golden temple.

“…What is this?”

I scanned my surroundings, my eyes wide with shock. Golden pillars holding up the temple glittered on all sides. The ceiling was adorned with a massive, ornate painting of a sun, the kind you’d only expect to see as an illustration in a book of mythology. White flames, held in torches mounted on the walls, burned brightly. I had never seen a white fire before and was staring, slightly mesmerized, when a voice spoke from behind me.

“Hello.”

It was an uncanny sound, a perfect, impossible blend of youth and maturity, of an old man and a young boy, of woman and man.

When?

I hadn’t sensed so much as a whisper of a presence approaching. I spun around to find a familiar-looking boy sitting in a chair I hadn’t seen a moment before. He was at a table, on which a lavish platter of fruit was displayed.

My gaze trembled slightly as I took in the figure who had appeared before me. It was my past self, the one I had seen through Truth Confirmation.

No… looking again, this boy seemed slightly more mature than the one from my memories. Not just physically, but mentally.

This is how it’s going to go?

I had assumed this would be like the ‘True Evil of Humanity’ incident, that I’d merely observe a scene from my past, or perhaps even inhabit my past self for a time. I had never imagined it would be a direct, face-to-face confrontation. I suddenly recalled Geon-joo’s advice—advice I had dismissed, thinking it wouldn’t apply to me.

‘Be careful not to be consumed. When the past life’s will is too strong, I sometimes feel like I’m going to be swept away by that ego, like I’m losing myself. You have to hold on tight when that happens.’

He had said that was the reason he’d suffered from such high fevers while he was unconscious. My guard went up. I stared at the young version of myself. He had the exact same face I’d had in middle school, but the aura he projected was unmistakably different.

A strange, inhuman scent emanated from him. I remembered smelling something similar on the God of Wisdom, but this… this was exponentially stronger. My instincts were screaming at me that this boy was more powerful than the God of Wisdom, more powerful than that whole trio of white-haired gods.

I held his gaze, my body tense. The boy, despite his youthful appearance, looked anything but weak. He let out a sigh of relief.

“There isn’t much time. I’m glad you realized before it ran out.”

“What is this?”

“Are you surprised?”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

His naive counter-question was so absurd I scowled. The boy just laughed.

“You have met your Original Soul.”

“My Original Soul?”

“The origin of all your lives. The first form, born of balance, before the touch of any god. No matter what life you live from now on, no matter how many dozens of times you reincarnate, this is the original soul that lies dormant within. That’s me. Therefore, you are me, and I am you.”

“…What kind of bullshit is that?”

I’d heard about having a past life, but this Original Soul crap was a first. I rubbed my furrowed brow and stepped closer. The boy gestured for me to sit, his eyes crinkling into a smile.

“I understand. If you were brilliant enough to grasp this immediately, it probably wouldn’t have taken you this long to call me out.”

“What did you say, you brat?”

Weren’t you just saying ‘I am you and you are me’? Was he engaging in self-deprecation? The boy clarified that while the soul was the same, the measure of its abilities could differ from life to life.

“The sum of all attributes always remains the same, but how those attributes are distributed leads to different lives. It seems that in this life, ‘I’ was given a healthy mind, but my basic comprehension is… lacking.”

This little shit… So, in conclusion, he was calling me stupid.

I was still reeling from the sudden insult when the boy, chuckling, snapped his fingers. A teacup appeared in the air before me. He cradled his own cup in his hands, then slowly closed his eyes and opened them again.

His thick, full lashes moved with deliberate slowness. The instant his eyes reopened, the entire atmosphere of the temple, the very air I was breathing, shifted. It was a stark, palpable change.

The time for jokes was over. His expression was now devoid of emotion.

“Sa-yoon. Do you know why the snake, who was a god of virtue, fell?”

The question was abrupt, but it wasn’t a topic so difficult I couldn’t answer. I had a vague idea.

“…What, because he was treated like crap and got pissed off, wasn’t it?”

I knew the gist of it: Han Geon-joo, as the snake, had been treated as a low-class god, unbecoming of his true stature, and his pride had been so wounded that he lashed out. I said as much, but the boy shook his head.

“No. He is The Denier. He was born with the mission to deny the laws of a flawed world. The reason he fell was the injustice of the punishment.”

What the hell does that mean?

I must have looked completely lost, because the boy, as if he’d expected it, took a long pause to let me absorb the new information before continuing.

“In short, he fell because he believed it was unfair that the karma of a past life carried over to the next, influencing it. If you build good karma, you should be rewarded in that life. If you commit evil, you should pay the price in that life. That’s what he wanted. After all, it’s common for a reincarnated soul to have no memory of its past.”

“…Isn’t that just common sense?”

It was a perfectly valid point. As I nodded in agreement, the boy set his teacup down and lifted his chin. His posture stiffened, and a high-handed, oppressive aura flowed from him, making it difficult to meet his gaze. I held my breath, waiting.

“I, too, agree with his point, to an extent. But you’ve met me, so you understand, don’t you? In the end, the Original Soul of all life is the same. Therefore, it could be seen as the natural order for the weight of sin to carry over to the next life. The current main gods certainly think so. But what they all overlooked… is that stagnant water is bound to rot.”

The boy turned his head, staring out past the temple walls as if looking at something far away.

“Look at what the world has become. Why has the balance between good and evil tilted so violently? Why do souls fall into depravity so easily? We—all the gods—should have realized it back then, at the moment the snake went rampant. But the old gods were too stubborn, too arrogant, too incapable of self-reflection. And the young snake… he chose the wrong method.”

“…”

“I felt a responsibility for that, which is why I helped him. Even if the ‘me’ back then wasn’t my complete self, the will of my Original Soul must have been present, don’t you think?” he said, with perfect nonchalance, before turning back to me.

“I told you earlier, didn’t I? That all Original Soul are life born from Balance, before the gods ever shaped them. We are all born from Balance, receiving its mantra. When that child recognized the imbalance and resolved to defy the heavens, I was born to overturn the world with him. With the most magnificent power that the purest good could possibly wield.”

The powerful words struck me, ringing in my ears. I awkwardly rubbed my neck. I understood what he was saying, more or less, but I had to wonder why he was telling me, of all people, right now.

Then, the boy smiled, and it was a sad smile.

“Do you know why you became the True Evil of Humanity?”

“Why…” I started to ask, but my eyes wavered. The boy… he had just said he was the purest good. I replayed his words, and a terrible understanding began to dawn.

Until now, I had simply assumed it was because my past self had taken on Han Geon-joo’s karma. But that wasn’t it. No, even if I had taken his sin, that alone wouldn’t have been enough to earn me the title True Evil of Humanity. Han Geon-joo’s past self hadn’t been the “Evil of Mankind.”

Suddenly, I thought I heard the faint sound of an angel’s trumpet. I found myself unconsciously murmuring the lyrics.

…Enter the place where angels blow their trumpets and demons dance… The curse shall be upon the most virtuous… The blessing shall be upon the most…

“…Vicious,” the boy finished for me, the corners of his eyes drooping.

Only then, seeing his expression, was I certain.

That song… it wasn’t created by the gods. It wasn’t just a hymn sung by angels. The first time I’d heard it, the voice that sang it had sounded eerily similar to the boy’s.

As if to confirm my realization, the boy spoke. “That song… was my pronouncement, delivered to the gods. But the fallen gods, in their arrogance, simply believed it referred to the sinners—you and the snake—and sang it themselves.”

The song had been his prophecy. A prophecy that, at that time and even now, the most vicious of all were the main gods.

This catastrophe hadn’t happened simply because humans had become corrupt. It was because they were corrupt—the ones who clung to ancient, broken rules, who punished only the snake even after recognizing the flaws in their own system. Their fall was why the balance had tilted so irreparably.

A hollow laugh escaped me. “So the main gods… they were trying to ‘check’ you. That is, me.”

“Yes. The reason I am the purest good is because I am the one who can restore the horizontal balance, no matter how far it has tipped toward evil. The main gods, their judgment clouded by time and their hearts sick with the fear of losing power, knew that if the balance tilted, I would appear and take their thrones. And so, they made a foolish judgment. Because of it, the balance shattered, and I was left with no choice but to take their thrones.”

The boy, his voice a whisper of sorrow and rage, rose from his chair and came toward me. He reached out, pressing his thumb to my forehead.

“The answer to the question he posed… I leave that to you. Regardless of anything else, you were born with the destiny to lead this war. Do not believe the ‘fate’ the main gods speak of. Only I, and therefore you, know the whole truth. Ponder which side you think is right. And then, decide. How will you change the laws, the natural order? If you do that…”

The boy, who had been speaking with such finality, broke off and smiled, his face radiant.

“I will become the sun.”

His gaze lifted to the ceiling. I followed it, staring at the sun painted there. And then, a realization of the present-day situation hit me, and I couldn’t help but let out a dry, bitter laugh.

The main gods, the mantra of Balance, even the God of Wisdom… I’d been wondering why they all kept singing that ‘sun’ song to me, someone who had no connection to it.

It turned out, the ‘sun’ they were all talking about… it wasn’t me. It was him. My Original Soul.