## Chapter 993 – Unknown Power

심마(心魔). *Simma*.

The devil within the heart.

Fear, terror, regret, hatred, inferiority, weakness—all the things that break the heart or shatter the spirit are collectively called *simma*.

—Pachichik.

As I faced this *simma*, the pitch-black space began to transform.

Like oil spreading on water, creating ominous rainbow-colored patterns, the dark space morphed into something utterly bizarre.

“To me.”

What unfolded was a space nearing infinity. On the ground, as vast as the space itself, were countless manhole covers, arranged in a perfectly regular grid. Just within sight, there were hundreds of thousands.

A scale beyond imagination.

The ground was riddled with just as many holes, all covered by these lids.

“I didn’t expect to find such shitty *simma* here.”

I said, looking at the Bogeyman standing before me. That’s when I understood the purpose of the covers on the ground.

“As you know, everyone has fears.”

—Deureuk.

The Bogeyman, answering my words, bent down and opened a lid.

—Kkaaaaaaaaak!!!!

A horrific scream erupted, as if the lid of hell itself had been opened. The Bogeyman pulled out steel tongs, like drawing a sword, and thrust them into the screaming hole.

What he pulled out with those tongs was…

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!!!!”

The soul of a screaming child.

One of the children’s souls the Bogeyman had collected.

The crimson thing writhed and screamed, desperately trying to escape the tongs, but it couldn’t. The Bogeyman was that kind of being—he never let go of a child he caught.

“…”

The Bogeyman looked at the child with gleeful eyes, then…

—Jjeok.

He opened his massive, shark-like maw wide. Hideous, vicious teeth were embedded not only in his gums but also in his tongue. Without hesitation, the Bogeyman shoved the child inside.

—Deopseok.

Do you know the fate of fruit in a grinder?

—Jureuk.

Crimson blood flowed from the corners of his closed lips, and the screaming stopped.

—Eujeok, eujeok.

An unpleasant sound echoed.

Finally, after finishing his dirty meal and swallowing the blood-soaked lump of flesh, he smiled at me again.

“Isn’t that right? Everyone has fears. Even you, who pretends to be brave, are no different.”
“Bullshit.”

Not worth listening to.

“I am brave, you bastard.”

The Heavenly Demon has no fear.

“I have no fear.”
“Ha.”

He scoffed at my answer. His fur stood on end, and his muscular body trembled. I had no idea what he found so amusing, but he buried his head and chuckled.

“I am your *simma*.”

Soon, after finishing his laughter, he raised his head and continued.

“Your deepest heart.”

My deepest heart.

“I am your fear.”
“So what?”
“Lies don’t work on me… You can tell by looking at this background.”

—Tuktuk.

He tapped another manhole cover with his foot.
…I nodded.

“Yeah.”

Certainly.

This seemed to be my fear.

“It seems certain.”

I looked at the ground again.

The infinite space, and the holes and covers filling it.

This was the ultimate fear I had carried since I was a child.

In childhood, parents created the Bogeyman, a figure of terror, to easily control their children. To children who couldn’t distinguish truth from lies, their parents’ words were absolute, and the Bogeyman descended into the world, feeding on the ignorant children’s false beliefs and fears.

If you lie, the Bogeyman will take you.
If you don’t listen to your parents, the Bogeyman will take you.
If you do bad things, you’ll be taken by the Bogeyman.

If the Bogeyman takes you.
If you’re taken by the Bogeyman.

Never.

You can never return.

Your soul will be eternally bound to him. The hell ruled by the Bogeyman is a black space with infinite holes like a honeycomb. Using his tongs and sack to harvest the souls of ignorant and pitiful children, he throws the kidnapped child into a hole and closes the lid.

The closed lid never opens.

Forever in a narrow, dark, silent, black void. Forever trapped, facing ultimate fear while maintaining consciousness.

The only time it opens is when the Bogeyman opens the lid to taste the soul of a child, ripened by fear and despair.

Parents created this demon with evil words, instilling primal fear in their children. As a result, the children became soulless lumps of meat, trying to obey their parents in everything. Because their souls had already been taken by the Bogeyman. Because they had succumbed to fear.

In those days, such things were encouraged. Living according to their parents’ wishes, studying as their parents told them to, entering good universities, or becoming high-ranking officials—such trends were encouraged.

But.

I didn’t want to have my soul taken.
My soul is only mine.

My precious thing that cannot be taken by anyone. Even parents cannot control my soul. I will never be caught by the Bogeyman.

So I had always lived running away from the Bogeyman.

That was the kind of child I was.

“Bad child… disobedient child… liar… troublemaker Kim Katteu…?”

His eyes widened as he spoke in a chilling voice.

“How does it feel to finally be caught by this old Bogeyman after a long childhood…?”

This was the space I had faced in nightmares since I was a child. In my nightmares, I would run madly, only to be caught by him and trapped in a hole forever. Ah. I tried so hard to run and run, but I’ve ended up reaching this place.

That is.

“It’s fucked up.”

So exhilarating.

“It was fucked up back then, but it’s even more fucked up now.”

I burst out laughing.

“But it’s just funny.”

I had been trying to run away, and as a result, I had forgotten. I was now facing it in the form of *simma*.

But what about this scenery?

It doesn’t move me at all.

The murderously ugly Bogeyman, the ominous holes that eternally bind the souls of cursed children. And the tongs and sack that sever souls, and whatever else.

I’m not afraid at all.

It’s almost laughable.
This is just a funny joke.

“You are just a symbol of dirty authority and control.”

Really, the parents of that era were incompetent. They were so incompetent that they even created such a terrible being to control their children to their liking.

What are you teaching the children?

Children who encounter such terrible stories can never grow into normal beings. It’s a far-fetched story, but those who go astray are no different from having their souls taken by this Bogeyman.

Fear ultimately feeds on fear, and is born and grows.

Just like a young child grows up to be an adult.
The fear that has not been properly excised also grows with them.

“And now, it’s too late to be afraid of something like this, because I’ve become too strong. In the end, overcoming fear is about absolute power. No matter how afraid I was in the past, if I create power, I can overcome it. That is who I, Kim Katteu, am.”

I pointed at the Bogeyman and rebuked him.

“Don’t you think so, Bogeyman?”

As I said that.

“Keuha… Keuhaha…! Keuhahahahahahaha!!!!”

The Bogeyman roared with laughter.

—Jjakjjakjjakjjakjjak!!!
—Jjakjjakjjakjjakjjak!!!
—Jjakjjakjjakjjakjjak!!!

As he laughed wildly and clapped madly, —Puhwaaaak!!—all the closed lids flew into the sky, and the souls of the bound children poked their heads out.

—Wahahahahahahahahaha!!!
—Wahahahahahahahahaha!!!
—Wahahahahahahahahaha!!!

The liberated children, driven mad by their liberation, screamed and laughed.

—Sareureuk.

Soon, they all turned into smoke and scattered.

“…Ah, that’s right. That’s also right.”

—Ttaak.

The Bogeyman, stopping his laughter, was enveloped in a curtain of children’s smoke, emitting red light, and snapped his fingers.

“Excellent. Very excellent. Truly, you are more excellent than anything I could imagine, Kim Katteu.”

—Charak.

Was it because he snapped his fingers?
The background changed again.

The countless holes disappeared. The infinite space also shrank. What appeared was a wilderness. A vast, empty field appeared. It was so empty that the horizon was visible, and so empty that there was nothing, and the earth was red.

—Paaat.

At that moment, a divine aura of light surged from behind him.

—Hwaaaaaaaak!!!

It was a very small fragment of the ancient god absorbed into me. I don’t know how much of his fragments the god puts in when creating a Valkyrie, but anyway, that very small fragment shone as brightly as the sun, illuminating the space with light.

The Bogeyman stood with his back to the sun, his coat fluttering.

“As expected. Just as I’ve always seen. You’ve grown up very well, Kim Katteu.”

Always seen?

“…Always seen?”
“Of course. I’ve always seen.”

—Kkeolkkeolkkeol.

He laughed, as if something was very amusing.

“What are you talking about?”
“Kim Katteu. I am you.”

That thing is me.

“Your heart. Your *simma*. That’s why I’ve never been separated from you for a single moment. Because people and their hearts and minds cannot be separated.”
“What does that…”

Somehow, his words began to make sense.

“Haven’t you always experienced me? This ‘*simma*’?”
“*Simma*.”
“Yes, *simma*. I was always with you.”

*Simma*.

Fear.

“…”

I had been plagued by countless *simma* until now.
When I was driven mad by fear, when I witnessed something terrible.

I had always been plagued by powerful and terrible *simma* at such times.

“Behold, the black people suffering in the sugarcane fields. Behold, the tens of millions of Congolese blacks massacred for failing to meet their rubber quotas.”

Sugarcane fields.
Innocent black people being massacred.

Countless sugarcane and rubber trees began to rise in the empty wilderness.

“Eueueueuk…!”
“Kkeueueueuk, kkeueueueueueuk!!”
“Geuwoooo…!”
“Kahaaaaaaaaaaaak…!”

Under those symbols of hateful imperialism, the innocent black people who had been sacrificed and enslaved by them crawled up from digging in the ground. Those who crawled up began to do the things that the evil and wicked imperialists had forced them to do for their entire lives.

“Isn’t it truly terrible, Kim Katteu?”

As he said.

It is a terrible and cruel sight.

A terrible atrocity that must never happen again.
The Western imperialists were not human.

“You have always been plagued by me, *simma*.”
“…That’s right.”

This sight.

My *simma*.

No.

These things are also my *simma*.

The *simma* I have always felt.

“But you have always overcome these *simma* and gained enlightenment. No matter what terrible enemy you faced, no matter what powerful enemy you faced. Kim Katteu has become stronger by overcoming both those physical extreme situations and the mental *simma* state.”
“Ah.”

That’s right.

In the end, *simma* is my barrier.

I had continued to feel them, but at the same time, I had continued to break them and gain great enlightenment. Sword energy, sword flames, and other powers must have all originated from that.

“Of course.”

I looked at the wilderness once more.

—An empty space.

Everything had disappeared.

Everything except the sun of divinity burning behind him had disappeared.

“*Simma* cannot suppress my enlightenment and growth. Rather, it was a grateful existence that showed me my limits and barriers.”

Barriers and limits are there to be broken.

I’m grateful that it tells me where they are.

That’s how I’ve lived.

“Yes, that’s how you’ve lived.”

—Puhhehe…

The Bogeyman laughed.

“Many people fail to overcome *simma* and perish, but your bizarre mental strength has always overcome me wonderfully whenever you face me.”

Breaking the limits of mental strength and releasing more mana.

“What? Bizarre mental strength?”
“Don’t you know it yourself? From some point on, your mind became bizarre. Didn’t even you know that it was different from ordinary people?”

Instant answer.

“That’s because I am the Heavenly Demon.”

It’s because I’m the Heavenly Demon.

“The mind of the Heavenly Demon is like that. It’s different from the me before.”
“As expected… as expected!!! As expected, as expected!!! What a wonderful mental strength and power!!!!!”

—Kuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

The Bogeyman roared.

The space reverberated.

“So.”

I looked for my sword to cut that thing down.

“Where is Vugal?”

Where is Vugal, my true friend and comrade?

—…

Suddenly, the Bogeyman’s roar stopped.

“…Vugal is not here.”

And then, in a very serious voice.
Sending me eyes of the bottomless abyss whose end cannot be known.

“Vugal must not be.”

He tells me to abandon Vugal.

“Kim Katteu.”

This bastard.

“Abandon Vugal.”