Chapter 762: Main Dish

CRRRRRAAAACK......!

A gigantic presence thrashed while bound in chains.

Originally, it would not have been strange if the only remaining chain had shattered from that struggle just now, but.

{Dagger......!}

A single piece of metal wedged between the chain.

That kitchen knife was reinforcing the strength of the chain.

’Legatus’s Dagger is a relic that interferes with the power of the System.‘

As much as that.

Naturally, it could also be used to cut away that seal, but.......

’It is also possible to strengthen the seal.‘

By reinforcing that chain through Legatus’s Dagger.

For a very short time, the seal was strengthened.

And.

The power of the seal that had grown even a little stronger.

The one first suppressed by that sealing power was naturally the side that had been thrashing more fiercely and protruding outward.

Thanks to that.

{What are you thinking!}

Because it had been suppressed by that instinct, the side that had been less affected by the seal.

The old man’s reason, shoved into the boiling cauldron, opened its eyes and was able to open its mouth toward me.

***

{W-what is this all of a sudden. Were you not planning to release the seal?}

The reason that had been suppressed by the strengthened instinct.

The old man, who was no different from its representative, opened his eyes, then looked at the cauldron he had been placed in and shouted in horror.

“Do I look insane enough to do that?”

{Then what exactly are you trying to......!}

“I told you.”

If there was a problem.

It was that even those reasons seemed unable to understand the meaning of what I was doing, and were panicking.

While commanding the countless assistant chefs, I opened my mouth.

“In the end, Mirinae...... the problem that occurred in you happened because you devoured too many stars and immortals in a short period of time, didn’t it.”

The truth was.

When I heard Mirinae’s story from Woojin, I thought it was something rather familiar.

That was only natural.

‘It is similar to abnormal eaters.’

Because I had already seen that sort of thing several times.

‘That world did not have [Chefs].’

When I requested martial arts.

Miho and Seohwan were dumbfounded, asking where there could possibly be martial arts for a chef.

Since their world was one that originated from beasts for whom eating raw meat was natural, a proper chef could not have been born either.

Because of that.

They likely had no understanding of the side effects that would occur when devouring so many beings.

{......It is similar, but a little different.}

Then.

The old man’s soul, shoved into the cauldron, spoke bitterly.

{I knew about what happens when too many beings are devoured. And unlike your world, in this world, that was originally not a strange thing.}

“......?”

{Even my current appearance cannot be said to be ‘wrong.’}

Mirinae’s world was the World of Ten Thousand Beasts.

{Because every life on this land is a beast.}

Because humans have no resistance to mana.

If they devour too many monsters, they themselves become monsters.

That is an abnormal eater.

But their world was a world of beasts.

{From the beginning, devouring one another was the natural order and instinct.}

“.......”

{There was originally only one way for a being born in my world to reach ‘transcendence.’ By devouring countless beasts, to become the existence standing at the peak.}

However.

In the residents of the World of Ten Thousand Beasts I had seen, I did not see the appearance of beasts.

Rather, many of them were more human than most humans.

{But one who reached transcendence as a beast must eventually fight and devour another beast again. Because that is the method of beasts.}

Those who reached transcendence through struggle and predation.

Those who underwent transcendence through that method could not possibly escape that method after transcendence.

{Therefore...... the beasts who reached transcendence in that way had to be devoured by a beast far stronger and older than them.}

In the end.

Powerful beasts had no choice but to be devoured by beasts more powerful than them.

{......I grew tired of devouring my descendants.}

......In the sky of the world called the World of Ten Thousand Beasts.

There was a mighty beast that could devour every beast that reached transcendence.

{Therefore, I hoped that my descendants would escape the limits of being beasts. I created martial arts and spread them upon the ground. By replacing the instinct of beasts that wished to devour others with the competitive spirit of wanting victory, I prepared a way to suppress that instinct.}

They said that they suppressed instinct by training martial arts.

That was a matter in which someone’s definite will had intervened.

And.

At the old man’s words, I thought with a bitter smile.

‘I...... he said.’

A being that had once been the parent of everything in that World of Ten Thousand Beasts.

A being who had grown tired of devouring his descendants and had passed down martial arts.

Its dregs continued speaking.

{Martial arts replaced their fighting spirit, suppressed their instinct, and created reason. Civilization took root, and culture was born. Then beings who accomplished transcendence as beasts no longer appeared. Instead, beings who accomplished transcendence as reason...... ascension, began to appear.}

“.......”

{But just because I passed down martial arts did not mean that I erased their instinct itself as beasts. They merely no longer devoured one another, and there still remained within them the possibility of devouring countless prey and becoming powerful beasts.}

The martial hall’s Master learned martial arts, polished reason, and accomplished transcendence.

But.

{What I ended up overlooking...... was the point that even those who accomplished transcendence through ascension still retained that possibility.}

After that, while devouring countless enemies.

One who had already reached transcendence with the qualification of an immortal also accomplished transcendence as a beast.

Even the Heavenly Emperor had not expected that kind of transcendence would be possible.

An immortal and, at the same time, a beast.

A being that had escaped even the Creator’s expectations had been born.

{Because it possessed powerful reason from the beginning, its transformation into a beast was also delayed. To the point that even I did not notice it in time.......}

Reason trained enough to obtain the qualification for ascension.

To overturn that reason and once again undergo transcendence through the instinct of a beast.

It must have had no choice but to devour that many beings.

Because it devoured that amount of beings in a short period of time.

When it became a beast.

Far too many souls must have remained inside it without even being digested.

......Yes.

“In the end, the problem is those undigested souls, isn’t it.”

{That is, true, but.}

“So.”

Indigestion caused by eating too much, too quickly.

If that was the case.

The thing I had to do was still only one.

“I will help digest them.”

{What does that mean.......}

“To say it a little more accurately.”

Looking at the souls shoved into my cooking tools.

In my head, I continued to bring up recipes.

[Course Meal]

“I will cook the souls that failed to be integrated...... and integrate them into one dish.”

{......Absurd words!}

At those words of mine.

The old man shouted in horror.

{Most of those countless ‘me’s are beings that originated from the stars outside. Do you know what will happen if you integrate them as they are!}

“Well. What will happen?”

{A mind close to a ‘star’ will be born. The mind of an invader who invaded another world!}

Yes.

Among the countless souls Mirinae had devoured, the majority belonged to invaders.

If I ignorantly integrated them as they were, there was a high chance that a mind close to those invaders would be born.

Perhaps it might even be worse than the current state as a beast.

Because right now, at least, the minds of the immortals remained and were suppressing itself.

{Rather...... cut them away.}

The old man tightly closed his eyes and said.

{If you cut away the rest of the souls and leave only the original owner of this body. The martial hall’s Master. Its power may weaken somewhat, but a proper mind will appear. It is close to impossible, but...... what you are doing now is likewise close to impossible. If you are going to do something insane anyway, then that side would rather......!}

“It’s not like I didn’t think of that.”

There was no way I had not thought of that too.

But when I thought of that method.

I suddenly realized one fact.

“I feel sorry saying this to the disciples here, but.”

I said with a bitter smile.

“I don’t know what that martial hall’s Master looks like, or even what that Master’s name is.”

{What does that mean. You have already.......}

“The one who helped me was not the martial hall’s Master, but ‘Mirinae.’”

{......!}

Well.

The countless Mirinae personalities I had met.

There was a high possibility that the real martial hall’s Master was included among them.

But.

What I met was not that martial hall’s Master, but Mirinae.

A being where countless personalities were mixed together, and the very being that helped me.

“If I cut away all the rest, then that will no longer be Mirinae, will it.”

The being I had to help as well.

Had to be that Mirinae.

{Why do you not understand. The being that will be born like that will be a being close to a star...... a being that will likely try to invade even your world!}

“I know.”

{If you know that, then why......!}

“That is why.”

I glared at that old man and said.

“You people have to hold out with everything you have and make sure that does not happen.”

{......What?}

“Do not misunderstand. I owe no debt to the martial hall’s Master. The one I owe is Mirinae, so it is not that person. If there are beings who owe that Master anything.......”

SHRING.

Moving my knife, I pointed at those who had once been immortals.

“That would be you.”

***

That old man.

The one who had once been called the Heavenly Emperor said this.

“Because he possessed powerful reason, his transformation into a beast was delayed, so you did not notice the change?”

However.

As I listened to that story, one taste was being felt in my mouth.

“That’s not it.”

A fishy and bitter taste.

The taste of a guilty conscience and...... lies.

“It’s not that you did not notice...... you deliberately looked away.”

I smiled lightly and looked at the old man.

“You people must have known that the Master was walking a dangerous path. You must have known it was a painful path too. You must have known that some kind of change was happening as well.”

{.......}

“But, because there was no way to win the war except that method. Even while clearly knowing that the Master’s reason was being eroded by other souls, suffering, and twisting grotesquely...... you deliberately looked away.”

I, too, am a being struggling to survive.

If that alone is the only way to survive, then I can understand it.

But.

“Even though you could have shared that danger.”

According to that old man’s words.

The martial hall’s Master would not have been the only one able to devour someone and increase power.

“You said that even those called immortals still had not lost their essence as beasts. Then it should have been fully possible for all the immortals to share the role of devouring the invaders.”

But.

They did not do that.

The reason was simple.

“Because you must have been afraid of the pain you would suffer because of it...... and the changes caused by it.”

{.......}

They were those who had abandoned the earth and risen to the heavens.

Probably.

If they were beings of that level, there must have been a way to survive even after the world was destroyed.

‘[Outer beings] are those who do not belong to any world and wander through the empty universe.’

Even if the World of Ten Thousand Beasts were destroyed.

Those immortals too must have had the option of fleeing ‘outside’ and surviving.

“You became immortals by training martial arts and becoming superior reason, so you would not have wanted to become beasts again now.”

Those who still had a way to survive...... a future ahead of them.

They could not choose the beast’s path, not knowing how it would change them.

Because of that.

‘A being who loved the earth so much that he even refused ascension.’

Onto the martial hall’s Master.

They forced all those roles.

“That is how the beast was born. Am I wrong?”

{......No. You are not wrong.}

The powerful beast born that way.

Devoured everything without even giving them the leisure to escape outside.

{All of it is our karma.}

The birth of this beast.

Was the karma of those who looked away even knowing that danger.

“As I said, I will repay the debt I owe Mirinae. So.......”

For Mirinae.

I will integrate the divided personalities into one.

“You repay it too.”

{What?}

However.

Who takes the initiative of the personality integrated in that way is a separate matter.

Because of that.

“You must be somewhere there!”

The countless souls being cooked by me.

I looked toward them and shouted.

“Your disciples remain on the earth!”

Countless souls looked at me.

“Those who challenged me, a powerful enemy, hoping that at least your end would be honorable, and that their Master could die as a Master!”

The five martial artists.

They stood in my way to protect their Master’s honor.

Those who had already once been defeated by me.

They must have known that fight would not be easy.

“And!”

That was not all.

“Those who said they could not bear to watch their Master, shoved into a seal, meet a death without even being able to resist...... Those who placed hope on a possibility infinitely close to zero, and aimed weapons at the senior and junior siblings they loved beyond measure!”

The two martial arts instructors.

Even though they knew it was something far too close to impossible.

In order to give their Master the final chance to resist the predetermined destruction.

They fought their own senior and junior siblings and sent me here.

“You are not planning to abandon those guys, are you.”

What I am making is a course meal.

But.

“I do the cooking. So!”

Most of that course meal is side dishes.

And.

There is always a separate ‘main dish’ that will become the protagonist of the course meal.

“You take the initiative on your own!”

The ingredients put into the cooking.

Among them, only the single soul that is the freshest and most delicious.

Will have the qualification to become the main dish.