The Gamer's POV

Two hours later...

——

Leon raised his glass and downed the remaining amber liquid in one sharp swallow.

Then he dropped the glass on the table beside the whiskey bottle. It was nearly empty now, containing only a shallow, golden puddle at the bottom.

For someone who claimed not to drink, he was responsible for almost the entire bottle, having spent the last hour working through it.

He exhaled and leaned back on the leather sofa, then tilted his head back and just stared vacantly at the high ceiling.

He was lost in his thoughts, or rather, it would be more accurate to say that a memory that had always been suppressed was now playing out before his eyes.

With the help of the pendant on the table, the details were clear, and unlike before, the ache he felt in his head whenever this memory surfaced was now somewhat bearable.

He could now see the man shrouded in light.

This man, who looked just like him, was extremely beautiful with long golden hair that cascaded past his shoulders like spun silk, and he was dressed in a long white garment.

A small halo glowed softly, floating just above the man’s hair. And all around him, what looked like golden butterflies fluttered through the air, except they weren’t exactly insects, but rather pure fragments of energy.

After a long moment, this man turned to Kim Min-jun, who stood beside him, and asked, "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes," Kim Min-jun replied without a second thought. Then, he slowly turned to look at his younger brother and continued, "Your realm is the source of all things, and my realm is the end of everything. We have the strongest and most horrific realms out of everyone in the family. We cannot have our realms fall under our brother’s control. If that happens, not even those from the Cradle or Earth will survive."

The younger brother, whom Leon now believed to be himself, turned away to look at the crystal-clear stream in front of them.

After a short moment, he sighed, and his shoulders dropped slightly. "You’ll lose more from this, you know? You never interfere. You just let things play out as they should. Destruction, restoration, death, rebirth... you watch it all happen, you do your job, but you never take a side. Yet this one time you choose to act, you’re going to lose so much."

He turned to look at his brother’s face. "While I’ll be back as me, you’ll be gone forever. This version of you will cease to exist."

Kim Min-jun smiled as he looked back to the stream. Then he shrugged and muttered in a somber voice.

"Well, I’ve lived a long time anyway."

Leon arched a brow.

Then, he suddenly chuckled and looked away. "You have changed, brother."

When Kim Min-jun turned to look at him with a questioning expression, he added, "I remember when I first met you. You were... indifferent. For centuries, you never cared about anything or anyone. You only watched, and observed everything with total detachment. I’m curious. Despite being all-knowing, I can’t seem to fathom what made you change."

Kim Min-jun smiled.

Then he raised his right hand, and as one of Leon’s butterflies settled on his open palm, his gaze softened.

"We are the Constants. Cosmic beings who serve as the very pillars of reality. And even then, before the first living being even existed, we were there. Unlike the rest of our siblings who came later. So of course, you can’t understand...."

The butterfly began to dim and decay, crumbling until it turned into a foul gray sand on Min-jun’s hand.

He paused and looked pensive for a moment before letting the ash drift away. "Maybe, when you finally get reborn as a mortal, stuck between life and death, watching fragile mortals dream and hope, only to die and wither away... maybe then, you will understand what I have spent centuries learning."

...At that moment, Leon drifted out of his head with a loud exhale. He leaned forward and picked up the bottle of whiskey, then turned it upside down to empty the remaining amber liquid into the glass before downing it in one final, sharp swallow.

Then, with a heavy, burning sigh, he dropped the empty glass back onto the table.

Uriel, who was now blind in one eye and had taken her human form, walked over to Leon and sat down on the arm of the sofa beside him.

"It’s crazy."

Leon just turned to stare at her silently.

After a moment, she let out a quiet breath and shook her head. "I still can’t believe it. The entire truth is still so overwhelming, and I can’t seem to wrap my head around the scale of it. But it all makes sense now. The déjà vus, the dreams of your brother coming to seek you, everything."

She paused, as if measuring her words.

"Who would have thought that the brother you were looking for had actually been with us for some time now. That he was actually Cedric."

Leon closed his eyes, leaning back against the cushions.

It really was hard to digest.

Cedric had told them just surface information about the royal family. He told them about the realms. And he also told them the bit of the plan where the two brothers had to kill themselves and destroy their realms, after which they returned to the worlds.

Now, everything made sense.

"Who would have thought you both would be the gods we all worship," Uriel murmured.

Leon let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "That makes me realize that I’m no golden child. I’m this exceptional because I really am royalty."

She turned to look directly into his empty eyes. Leon could tell that she was terrified. Which was not surprising, to be honest, considering she was suddenly tossed into a whole other battle that felt even more dangerous and massive than anything she had ever known, though she made an effort to hide her fear.

"I’m just happy that you’ve finally found some relief," she said, as she gently placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "But I also have to say... the future... is going to be rough, Leon."

He sighed and turned back to the table, staring down at his glass. "There’s no need to state the obvious, dear."