A portrait had appeared in Yu Seongun's life one day.

"..."

It had artistic value. A perfectly proportioned body, as though the ideal human had been sculpted into being. A preserved form that would never change. Above all, eyes whose mere existence bewitched people and sent them tumbling into a boundless abyss.

Could he have resisted its spell?

No. He could not.

"..."

Yu Seongun was a Gardener. A Curator. He had lived that way ever since he began serving a Garden, and that would never change. He revered Jio's Portrait, respected it, and held it dear.

But could it also be a person? Was that possible?

"..."

What was a "person," again?

"Mr. Yu Seongun...!!"

"..."

"Hey, fuck, Yu Seongun! What are you doing?!"

"..."

"You fucking bastard!!"

Yu Seongun blinked slowly. His eyes took on the color of a glacier.

"... That's certainly worth thinking about."

For his superior, Bi Sabeol, everything in life fell into two categories: art and not art. Yu Seongun had recently confirmed the addition of a third category, "heroes," but that was none of his concern just now.

Yet Bi Sabeol cherished his guild members as artworks in his collection while still treating them as human beings. Yu Seongun had followed that model. Did that mean seeing people as art, or as humans?

'Or can both coexist?'

Or could they not?

"How troublesome."

Yu Seongun did not particularly welcome changes in himself. A change in him was a change in his Garden, an alteration of the artwork. Whenever he changed, sacrifices great and small inevitably followed.

How much sacrifice would it take this time?

"This is rather unpleasant."

Amid the ear-splitting noise, he readjusted his grip on his spear.

'... You can't freeze the sea.'

Especially not Earth's intensely salty oceans.

They were difficult to freeze, but once they began freezing, they solidified in an instant. Then melted again just as quickly. Yu Seongun decided to consider another approach.

'Fire.'

What if they evaporated it altogether?

'No, that won't work.'

By using hail, this ill-tempered sea had demonstrated that the mermaids could control even the sky. However much seawater they evaporated, it would simply fall again as rain.

'If the monster is the sea itself...'

If neither freezing nor burning worked. If it would ultimately remain water regardless.

'We have to wrest control away.'

Someone else had to devour it, just as those mermaids had done.

"..."

It wasn't that he didn't know how, but Yu Seongun felt a little sorry toward Jeong Youngwon.

"Ah, what am I going to do about this..."

"Yu Seongun, have you snapped out of it?!"

"You're bursting my eardrums. Stand back a little when you talk."

"If we don't freeze this, it'll reach inland! Get a grip and throw your spear!!"

"That's not going to solve anything now."

"Then what do you want us to do, die together?! You absolute bastard!!"

"I'm saying we should think."

"Let someone else do the thinking! You get moving!!"

"Goodness, how uncultured."

Rubbing his nearly deafened ear, Yu Seongun looked at the Hunter he knew.

"Go fetch Hunter Jeong Youngwon."

"What? Why do you need the healer?"

"Bring all the tree-type Hunters, and..."

"Wait, you know this is seawater, right?"

They had already considered having other plants absorb the overflowing seawater. If they could only seize control that way, whatever water was absorbed would no longer pose a threat.

How to restore the seawater they depleted was a problem for later. In the immediate term, at least, the idea held. Unfortunately, the liquid they had to deal with wasn't ordinary water. It was seawater.

"How are plants supposed to drink this?!"

Unless they were truly monstrous, they would wither and die. And there weren't many Hunters who could grow plants that grotesque. Ultimately, plants were still plants.

"Well, sure, if we grow them everywhere we can, we might manage through sheer numbers, but then...!"

"It's frozen."

"What?"

"This is ice. We all froze it together."

Perhaps thanks to the cold-type Hunters firing off skill after skill, more and more of the sea was turning to frigid ice. And Yu Seongun hadn't been able to create this hard ice instantaneously. Freezing it had taken time.

'And I nearly fucking died doing it.'

Freezing something suddenly and quickly didn't make for hard ice. Creating a sturdy glacier like this took time. Things were a little chaotic, but what Yu Seongun was trying to say was...

"The salt should have sunk to the bottom."

It was basic science.

"That's how seawater works."

"What are you talking—no, ah, ah... Ah...? Oh!!"

"Exactly."

Water and salt had different freezing points.

'Water first, then salt.'

So if Yu Seongun was right, while the sea around them froze solid like a vast snowfield, the salt would have sunk below. That was how Earth's oceans worked, at least.

"I didn't put all that effort into freezing it with this in mind, but..."

CRUNCH!!

He pulled out the spear he had driven into the ice.

"If we melt just the top, the flowers should have no trouble drinking it."

"Fuck, you're right."

"Off you go."

"I'll bring them right back."

They needed tree-type Hunters who could grow flowers and trees in an instant, and fire-type Hunters who could melt the upper layer of ice. Fortunately, amid all this misfortune, they had all the personnel they needed right here.

As he sent the messenger off, Yu Seongun thought,

'There's no way that mermaid doesn't know this.'

A physician and scholar who had amassed enough deeds to approach an evil god's stature, producing countless research materials.

'Yet she did nothing while this swarm of humans froze the sea. Which means...'

Yu Seongun clicked his tongue.

"She thinks little of us, does she?"

This was both mercy and a condition. If these intelligent life-forms were too stupid to think of even this, they could all simply die.

'They kept saying Earth was too small to remain Jio's flowerpot. Perhaps they're testing its qualifications before they leave for good, one way or another...'

It was hardly easy to recall such common knowledge in a situation so grueling and chaotic it could drive a person mad, but even that would have seemed pathetic to the mermaids. Yu Seongun's mood turned thoroughly foul.

'... Such arrogance from a butcher who doesn't even understand the value of life.'

Yu Seongun, one of the rare Hunters who didn't hate monsters, ground his teeth.

"Exhausting, isn't it?"

Jio had chosen this flowerpot himself.

How dare they question The Root's choice? Utter blasphemy.

* * *

"Wh-what is this...!!"

The other Hunters were shocked too, but the priests of the Sun were utterly aghast.

"This much of the Sun's energy...!!"

"B-blasphemy! This must not be allowed!!"

"What has this insane monster done...?!"

The presence emanating from the enormous golden tree that wrapped around the vast temple was unmistakably the Sun's. And Earth's priests of the Sun could sense that countless suns were gathered within it.

That deranged monster had been devouring suns.

"..."

"... Fuck..."

An odd gleam entered some of the Hunters' eyes.

'For something created by a monster, this is... far too...'

Divine, wasn't it?

It was so beautiful. Their gazes were drawn helplessly to the enchanting sight.

Warm sunlight shone throughout the temple like falling gold dust, making the gold, silver, and jewels adorning it blaze with blinding brilliance. The Hunters faltered before the dazzling, multicolored light.

'Truly, of the Sun...'

'And this still isn't a Divinity?'

It was a beautiful sight, as though only the Sun's purest and most precious light had been gathered here.

"... Whew..."

Kang Seodam moved Cha Yi-sol behind him.

"Stay among the Hunters."

"Am I no use here?!"

"You're very useful, Brother Cha Yi-sol, but your role is that of a healer."

"B-but if you get hurt...!"

So he did have favorites, despite pretending otherwise.

'Well, if he didn't have even this much preference for particular people, he'd be Black Cloak.'

Cha Yi-sol seemed more eager to protect Kang Seodam than complete strangers or the other priests who had never properly looked after him. To be protected by this tiny child—nothing could be more humiliating.

Kang Seodam hesitated briefly, then spoke firmly once more.

"Cha Yi-sol."

"Oh! Y-yes."

"Get back."

"Understood...!"

They said true quality endured even in decline, and Cha Yi-sol was a precious talent who had never declined at all. Young student though he was, he immediately grasped the severity of the situation and did as Kang Seodam said.

Kang Seodam adjusted his grip on his staff.

'To think the staff he always carried could grow into a tree like that...'

He had seen the mermaid Iser's staff before. A golden staff with an antique elegance, fashioned to mimic the texture of wood. He also knew it had once belonged to Giovanni.

'Is that obsession?'

The mermaids of this dungeon were excessively emotional.

"You seem to have finished talking."

"How remarkably considerate of you."

"I don't wish to cause an uncultured commotion here."

Iser stood barring the way to Seo Jio, who was still bound to the pope's chair. There was something similar about the mermaid's long, straight hair, now turned golden, and Seo Jio's—Giovanni's.

His eyes, however, were pearls of a fiercely vivid blue.

"Let me take him with me."

Veins bulged in Kang Seodam's face.

"You're demanding a sacrifice."

"A sacrifice? No, it's nothing like that. It's progress toward something better."

"Did Hunter Seo Jio agree to this progress?"

"He promised to stay in place of those weak, incompetent humans."

"That's coercion. Utterly barbaric."

"I never expected to hear that from humans."

Iser smiled as he descended the stairs one step at a time.

"I'm quite honest, you see. I wouldn't know how to do anything so barbaric."

"What a remarkable claim."

"Instead, allow me to propose a deal."

"A deal? In this situation?"

"I've been very frail since childhood."

"..."

"Even now, I'm not particularly strong..."

Which was why Iser always resorted to other tricks.

"Let's try a test."

As Iser spread his arms slightly, the golden tree cast down light as bright and sacred as the sun.

"This tree will show them dreams."

"Dreams?"

"They may be dreams, or hallucinations, or fragments of the future or past. That will be decided by you yourselves and these countless suns, within the natural order."

"You're talking nonsense."

"If you wake up unharmed, you may fight me."

"And if we don't wake?"

"You'll become fertilizer for the tree."

"Can we refuse?"

"No."

Grinning, the mermaid put his hands behind his back, then swept one hand out.

"May the Sun's blessing be with you."

And with that, the humans lost consciousness.

"..."

"..."

All except one.

A strange silence settled, like the hush behind the curtain after an actor's performance, and the two creatures' gazes met.

Cha Yi-sol's eyes wavered.

"..."

"... Uh, uh, uh..."

"Cha Yi-sol."

"Why am I not asleep...?"

"Because I know you'd wake up anyway."

"Oh!"

Cha Yi-sol's face brightened in an instant.

"You're talking casually to me!"

"... Yes."

"Does that mean we're friends?"

"You can still say that to me, even now?"

"You didn't knock me out either, Eunha..."

"That's..."

Iser sighed.

"... How did two humans like this end up being born in the same dimension?"

Seo Jio and Cha Yi-sol, that is.

He walked slowly down the stairs. His priestly robes caught the golden light and trailed after him step by step. At last, he carelessly shoved aside the humans collapsed in his path with his foot and stood before Cha Yi-sol.

His face turned stern, as though he were scolding a younger sibling.

"Didn't I tell you to stay somewhere safe?"

"I didn't want to be all alone...!"

"I didn't know you were the type to get lonely."

"You are too."

"..."

For a moment, the mermaid was at a loss for words.

"... Me?"

"Aren't you?"

"... I'm not sure."

"How can you not know?"

"It's been so long since I was with someone."

"Huh? Weren't you with Jio?"

"That's true, but..."

Eunha opened and closed his mouth.

"..."

Then he spoke.

"... You're right. I was lonely."

This cold dungeon was cozy, damp, and quiet.

"So, would you like to talk for a little while?"

"About what?"

"Just... this and that..."

Anything at all.

"I think this will be the last time."

"..."

After a moment, Cha Yi-sol nodded.

"All right."

It wasn't as though he didn't know that the mermaids had committed horrific massacres, or that they were still doing so. They were truly, terribly wicked creatures who had committed indelible sins.

But the person before him now was his friend Eunha. Even if it had all been a lie, they had once been partners...

'Can't I at least hear his last words?'

Because this really was the end.

(To be continued)