Seoul Dragon - Chapter 77

Hangyeol opened her eyes.

It had been a week since she awakened from her mutation.

During that week, her daily life had changed drastically.

"......Haam."

She let out a yawn.

Covering her mouth with small hands that she couldn't have imagined having before her mutation, she opened her eyes drowsily.

At the same time, the area above her head brightened as a halo appeared.

The symbol of an angel.

And also, the reason why she, who had been so active before, now had to shut herself away in her room.

"Ah, I can't go out today either......"

Hangyeol let out a sigh.

The reason she was restraining herself from outdoor activities was simple.

She was an 'Angel-type' mutant.

And in South Korea, there were countless Protestant and Catholic believers.

What would they say if they saw Hangyeol?

Oh, the Lord's messenger has come.

Wouldn't they say that and try to use her?

Just imagining it was horrifying, and Hangyeol felt nausea rising from within.

"This damn...... ah, wo...... damn."

In this situation, she couldn't even lament freely. Really, it was terrible.

At first, the fact that she could fly was purely enjoyable.

But the moment she faced reality, she realized that all the daily life she had enjoyed when she was male had crumbled.

Only then could she truly understand what Seohyun had said before.

How precious the everyday life she had taken for granted was.

If only she had been an Oni-type mutant like Taehoon.

If she had been a mutant with no connection to religion, she wouldn't have felt this much stress.

But she was a mutant very closely connected to religion.

If she were discovered, they might suddenly ask her out of nowhere to come to the Vatican.

'......That absolutely cannot happen.'

It wasn't that she had no interest in the Vatican. Hangyeol was quite a faithful Catholic believer.

Of course, being faithful meant faithful within normal bounds.

It meant she wasn't the type of fanatic who would ignore reason for religion.

So she only had 'interest' in the Vatican.

She had no desire whatsoever to live there.

At that moment, Hangyeol felt an intense headache.

"Uggghhh......!"

A headache as if knowledge was being forcibly shoved into her head.

Her vision went dark, and some form appeared before her eyes.

It was a fearsome figure covered in eyes and wings, wreathed in flames.

And the moment she met those eyes, Hangyeol couldn't help but recall a certain passage from Revelation.

'Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings.'

'Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."'

"This damn......!"

The word "crazy" wouldn't even come out, so "damn" popped out instead, but Hangyeol was genuinely shocked.

Because she realized what kind of being's mutant form she was.

Seraphim.

The highest-ranking angel who serves God.

Hangyeol was dumbfounded.

How had she become such an exalted being?

'Isn't this stronger than Seohyun?'

That thought occurred to her, but she shook her head.

No. When she became an angel, she had definitely felt something from Seohyun.

An tremendous sense of intimidation she had never felt before.

That was clearly an emotion that could be called fear.

What exactly was Seohyun's true identity?

If even she, who had become an angel, felt fear, what kind of 'dragon' was the one Seohyun had mutated into?

Perhaps it wasn't a simple dragon.

However, even after learning such an tremendous fact, nothing particularly changed.

'Let's just live quietly like a dead mouse for the time being.'

It was a fact only she knew anyway, and she had completely lost any desire to go outside for the time being.

'I should take a leave of absence.'

In a different sense from Taehoon, she seriously considered taking a leave of absence from university.

I had a dream.

I was aware that I was currently dreaming.

Otherwise, such a cruel scene wouldn't appear before my eyes.

The ground was cracked and split.

It seemed to be the aftermath of a harsh battle. Moreover, blood flowing from countless corpses was forming rivers.

The forms of the corpses were varied.

There were human ones, and there were those of other races.

The blood of the races we had mutated into was certainly mixed in this flowing crimson river.

Why am I having such a dream?

Such a vivid dream.

Looking at the tragic scene before my eyes, I somehow felt tears coming.

It was strange.

Certainly, since becoming a dragon, I had never felt such passionate emotional turbulence.

Why would I shed tears seeing this scene?

Even when I saw that horrible scene that happened in America, I was just shocked and that was it - I didn't feel sad.

Why am I so sad?

The moment I thought that, the scene changed.

I saw a landscape of fertile and brilliant fields, the complete opposite of the desolate land I had just seen.

And in the center of those fields, I saw the World Tree I had seen in America.

That place, full of unknown flowers and grass, was a location that could indeed be called paradise.

All the life there had gathered together, harmoniously becoming members of paradise.

But I knew.

That this beautiful paradise was the very battlefield I had just seen in its tragic state.

What had happened?

Before me, a book fell.

I picked up the book and turned the pages.

It was someone's memory.

At the same time, it was a record of the world unfolding before my eyes.

In the beginning, there was a dragon.

The dragon born from chaos watched as the chaos covering the world gradually became structured and stabilized.

And as evidence of that stability, the World Tree took root in the earth.

Thus the world began.

The dragon watched countless lives being born from the roots of the World Tree.

And seeing those countless lives, I couldn't help but laugh hollowly.

Because those lives were beings that appeared in myths and legends on Earth.

Those lives familiar to me seemed terribly beautiful to the dragon.

The dragon harbored a wish that this world originating from the World Tree would continue forever and unchanging.

At the same time, the dragon appointed itself as the guardian protecting the World Tree and its surroundings.

Declaring that it would not stand for anyone who would harm this paradise.

But...... the countless lives originating from the World Tree's roots suffered from a strange yearning.

A strange yearning to escape from this cradle-like paradise.

They advocated for the dismantling of paradise and wanted to live freely.

Even though the dragon had threatened not to stand for it, they couldn't give up their strange yearning and eventually burned the World Tree.

The dragon raged and declared it would severely punish them, but the World Tree stopped the dragon.

Because it was the World Tree that had created them that way.

The World Tree only asked the dragon.

Just to watch. To watch how the lives originating from the World Tree would live.

The dragon couldn't abandon the World Tree's request, so it thoroughly observed.

However, it entrusted one seed left behind when the World Tree perished to the World Tree's first children.

High Elves.

They feared the supreme dragon, but at the same time harbored a passion to revive their mother, so they preserved the World Tree's seed.

Hoping that someday the World Tree's seed would sprout again.

However, the day when the World Tree's seed would sprout again did not come.

Because there was war.

The lives that had escaped paradise and tasted freedom considered only their own race supreme, and fought each other.

Endless war began.

But the dragon did not intervene.

Because the World Tree had asked it to watch their rise and fall.

And eventually, even the High Elves who had been preserving the World Tree's seed died, and the World Tree's seed burned.

The World Tree could no longer sprout, and only then did the dragon raise its crouched body.

Because the lives had crossed the final line.

At the very least, they should not have burned the World Tree.

Because the World Tree's request was the shackle that bound the dragon.

And the dragon, freed from such shackles, sought to bring judgment upon the lives that had ruined paradise.

The dragon thus became the world's calamity.

When the dragon breathed out, the entire earth burst into flames.

When the dragon called the clouds, the entire sky turned black and life could not face the sun.

When the dragon commanded death, all life perished.

However, such actions were too much of a burden even for the dragon.

The dragon eventually ran out of strength.

Having destroyed all life, the dragon finally breathed its last breath and wished.

To see the paradise it had once seen again.

For the World Tree to show itself once more.

That in that place at least, they would not hate each other or fight.

That it could protect at least that place.

That was the dragon's last memory.

I opened my eyes and let out the breath I had been holding.

"Haah......"

The dream was a dream, yet it wasn't a dream.

It was the record of a world.

Why had it unfolded before my eyes?

The reason was simple.

Because the being I had mutated into was that very dragon.

It was absurd.

It felt like watching a movie...... but I realized it wasn't simply a movie or something imaginary, but something that had actually existed.

Only then did I understand why mutation began from the World Tree.

Why the phenomenon of mutation occurred.

Because the phenomenon of mutation originated from the dragon's wish.

Also, I realized why, despite possessing such tremendous power, I wasn't savage, and why my mind stabilized immediately.

Because the dragon wasn't fundamentally a savage being, but rather was a guardian dragon that had sought to protect paradise.

Actually, rather than a simple dragon, it seemed more appropriate to call it a god.

And while glimpsing this memory, there was one fact I learned.

The fact that mutation wouldn't end with this.

Not all the races in my memory had appeared yet.

Probably, mutation wouldn't stop until all of them appeared.

......What a mess.

I let out a sigh. Somehow, I felt like my workload kept increasing.

Will I even be able to graduate?