Even as the world was ending, Kim Songcheol was happy.

It was because he had a complete family for the first time.

He was surprised himself.

When he was with his wife and son, the ending world felt like nothing at all.

An indescribable feeling, as if he could overcome anything, filled him.

The memories from this time are incredibly vivid. It’s like how even if you erase something with an eraser, you can’t erase the indentations on the paper where you pressed down to write.

The moment he first held Sejun.

Heeryeong’s sweat-soaked face.

The first time Sejun walked.

Heeryeong and Sejun walking hand in hand, seen from behind.

The market in Arcadia where Sejun first ate sour fruit.

All those moments remained as indelible traces.

Only then did Kim Songcheol understand what a family was.

He had grown up an orphan, so he didn’t know what family was like.

He had vaguely imagined, ‘If I had a family, it would be like this,’ but experiencing it in reality was vastly different from just seeing it.

A real family was something Kim Songcheol couldn’t have imagined.

Something completely beyond that.

He could guarantee that if he hadn’t started a family, he would never have even felt anything similar.

And the source of all those emotions was happiness and fulfillment.

Kim Songcheol’s daily life during this period could be broadly divided into three categories.

Time spent with family, time spent researching magic, and time spent resolving Earth’s gates.

The three routines were wonderfully balanced.

Sejun grew up healthy, and his magic training was unhindered.

A 9th Circle mage in his late twenties.

It was an unprecedented level even in Arcadia.

The mages of Arcadia said that Kim Songcheol would be the first mage to reach the 10th Circle.

At that time, in all the numerous worlds connected through dungeons, there was no mage who had reached the 10th Circle, nor was there 10th Circle magic.

It was completely uncharted territory.

There were even hopeful rumors that if he could break through to the 10th Circle, he might be able to prevent a global catastrophe.

Kim Songcheol also believed in that to some extent.

I thought that 10th Circle Magic might cause a rupture of nothingness.

So, I accelerated my magic research.

Then one day.

A moment arrived that would completely change Kim Songcheol’s life.

The Day of Great Invasion.

October 5, 2018.

Seven unforgettable numbers.

The beginning of everything was a single call.

It came to Kim Songcheol from Earth.

A very urgent message, asking him to return to Earth as soon as possible, as time was of the essence.

At the time, Kim Songcheol’s family lived in Arcadia, and he was also training magic in Arcadia, so it was no different from his life’s foundation having shifted from Earth to Arcadia.

However, Kim Songcheol was from Earth and a citizen of the Republic of Korea.

Kim Songcheol could not ignore his origins.

What he believed was right was to take responsibility not only for Arcadia but also for Earth.

Kim Songcheol prepared to go to Earth quickly, both to do what he thought was right and to do what he always did.

That preparation included saying goodbye to his family.

“Dad will be back after just one night.”

I vividly remember wiping Sejun’s tears after difficultly persuading him, as he was unusually whiny.

The feel of that soft cheek still seemed to linger on my fingertips.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden, as always, calmly told him to go, and Kim Songcheol left Arcadia after saying goodbye to his family.

Upon arriving on Earth, what awaited Kim Songcheol was an A-rank Gate that had appeared in the center of Seoul.

It was the first A-rank Gate ever created, and monsters were already pouring out.

At that time, only three cities, including Seoul, remained in the Republic of Korea.

If Seoul were to be destroyed, the problem would become serious. Furthermore, since everything outside the walls had become monster territory, people had simply evacuated underground.

Kim Songcheol, deployed in that difficult situation, did his best to minimize damage and stop the monsters.

But the problem was that another A-rank Gate appeared before one gate could even be dealt with.

It was as if they were determined to destroy the city.

Normally, the grade and number of gate appearances would increase in steps, but this time it increased significantly.

Thanks to Kim Songcheol’s efforts, the gate in Seoul was somehow stopped, but other places were also problematic.

Base cities around the world were also being attacked in the same way, and calls for rescue poured in like a flood.

Kim Songcheol truly did his best. In situations where he couldn’t deal with monsters, he rescued survivors, and while the survivors evacuated, he bought time by blocking a massive wave of monsters.

There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t possibly ignore people dying right before his eyes.

Thus, forgetting his promise to Sejun that he would return after one night, Kim Songcheol spent six days on Earth.

On the seventh day after leaving his family, Kim Songcheol finally took a moment to return to Arcadia.

And what awaited him were the cold bodies of the Celestial Spirit Maiden and Sejun.

An A-rank Gate had appeared in the city where the Celestial Spirit Maiden and Sejun were, and the gate unfolded so quickly that they were caught in the battle without time to evacuate.

Considering the Celestial Spirit Maiden’s power, there would have been no major problem evacuating with just Sejun.

However, the problem was not just Sejun.

Before the Celestial Spirit Maiden’s body was found, the last person to witness her testified that the Celestial Spirit Maiden had found a child who had lost their parents and quickly embraced them, then soared into the sky.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden became a completely different person before and after giving birth to Sejun.

If she hadn’t changed, she would have only taken care of Sejun, but she couldn’t ignore the other children.

That change, however, ended up hindering him at a crucial moment.

Having lost his wife and child, Kim Songcheol went completely insane.

He neither ate nor drank.

He just sat there blankly.

He seemed to be just waiting to die.

Everyone expected Kim Songcheol to take his own life, but…

One day, he suddenly came out and began to frantically research magic.

He didn’t even care for Earth. He collected all the magic books that existed in every world and studied them.

After three years passed like that,

Kim Songcheol became the first in all worlds to reach the 10th Circle.

Arcadia called Kim Songcheol the ‘Great Sage’ and praised his achievement, and rumors that the 10th Circle Magic could prevent the apocalypse spread even to Earth.

But what Kim Songcheol wanted was not to prevent the apocalypse.

From the beginning, his goal was only one thing:

to revive his family.

However, the 10th Circle, which he expected to make all miracles possible, was not as great a realm as he had imagined.

While it was an impressive level, it wasn’t enough to perfectly revive the dead.

Naturally, he also lacked the power to stop this pan-universal apocalypse.

Kim Songcheol did not give up.

He began to devote everything to magic once again.

He reached the 11th Circle in his 40s and the 12th Circle in his 50s.

He expanded the magic system, which had only existed up to the 9th Circle, to the 12th Circle.

While it was a tremendous accomplishment if limited to magic, paradoxically, the more accomplishments he achieved, the further Kim Songcheol strayed from his original goal.

This was because the evidence that it was impossible to revive the dead became all too clear.

Just like the law that ‘the speed of light is constant,’ it was impossible to fully revive the dead.

As if it had been decided from the beginning.

What has already been annihilated cannot be restored to its original state.

That was an undeniable truth.

Blocked by the wall of truth, Kim Songcheol was forced to choose an alternative.

In the process of reaching the 12th Circle, Kim Songcheol discovered that there was an endlessly unfolding space within himself.

It was a completely unknown space, and at first, he simply thought it was something everyone possessed.

But while researching to reach the 13th Circle, he realized that this space was not just a space, but ‘The Source’.

He also found out that each person’s Source was different, and that some people had no Source.

Of course, at first, he didn’t call it ‘The Source,’ but as he continued his research, he realized that ‘The Source’ was the most appropriate name.

For The Source was a person’s root and an anchor existing in their deepest part.

Thus, Kim Songcheol once again posed a fundamental question.

If a person has a resource called The Source, could it not be applied to magic?

He began research with that question, but at first, there were no particular results.

However, by chance, upon reaching the 13th Circle, Kim Songcheol’s Source underwent a significant change.

Light burst forth in the space where there had been nothing.

Kim Songcheol, who had been researching The Source for a long time, realized that this light was the light of ‘Creation’.

Like that of the universe’s origin, that light was the primordial light and the power of Creation.

Kim Songcheol, using the power of Creation, created the Celestial Spirit Maiden and Sejun within The Source.

It wasn’t too difficult because he had very clear memories.

Then, he summoned the two to the current reality.

Decades later, the two appeared before Kim Songcheol, looking exactly as they did when they died.

They were bewildered to see an aged Kim Songcheol.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden understood after hearing Kim Songcheol’s explanation, but Sejun could not accept Kim Songcheol as his Father.

After 24 hours, the two scattered as if it were a lie.

Kim Songcheol, already knowing this would happen, simply watched them disappear in vain.

Kim Songcheol is not a god.

Anything was possible within The Source, but after being summoned to the current reality, they could only exist for 24 hours.

It wasn’t true Creation, but a spell with the power of Creation, and it was a way to manifest the Celestial Spirit Maiden and Sejun in their most original forms.

Kim Songcheol had to cling to even that. He began to repeat those 24 hours.

He tried to explain the situation to the Celestial Spirit Maiden and to hear Sejun call him Dad.

He repeated that day hundreds of times.

During that time, the world was pushed to the brink of complete destruction.

Many worlds had already met complete apocalypse, and on Earth, all survivors had gathered in Australia for a final stand.

They were barely holding on, and humanity decided there was no longer any hope.

They began to search for the vanished ‘Great Sage’ Kim Songcheol.

A week after the search party was dispatched.

Kim Songcheol was easily found.

He was living in the city of Arcadia, where he originally resided.

Because he was living in what had become ruins.

The search party asked Kim Songcheol for help.

And Kim Songcheol, after days of careful deliberation, agreed to their request.

There might be countless thoughts and reasons, but if you were to ask Kim Songcheol why he decided to return to Earth, you would probably get this answer:

‘Because it was the right thing to do.’

Kim Songcheol spent countless hours trying to revive his family, but the truly right thing was to overcome his sorrow and use his strength for others.

He always held that thought in a corner of his mind, and when the search party arrived, he instinctively knew the time had come.

He had spent enough time for himself; now it was time to do the right thing.

Kim Songcheol returned to Earth and began to protect the last remaining city for humanity.

Protecting a city was not a difficult task for a 13th Circle Mage.

It seemed as if he could protect this city forever.

However.

One day, a certain entity appeared.

A body that seemed to be made by combining universes.

A colossal size, enough to cover the sky.

He looked down at the city in Australia where the survivors were and said,

[Prove it.]

It was just one word.

Everyone instinctively knew that this being was something that marked the end of this dreadful apocalypse.

And that if there was any hope of escaping this apocalypse, it was this very being.

People called that being ‘the Administrator’.

Kim Songcheol decided that the Administrator had to be eliminated.

Prove it.

Until now, all of humanity had been in a continuous battle. It was clear that he was being told to prove his strength.

Kim Songcheol challenged the Administrator to prove his strength.

But the result was a crushing defeat.

He was completely outmatched.

He had to return without even scratching them.

The thought that he would have died instantly if the Administrator had truly wanted to, never left him.

But he couldn’t assume that such mercy would be shown again.

So what should he do now?

Kim Songcheol naturally began to look for the answer in magic.

However, there was one problem. While ascending to the 13th Circle, Kim Songcheol was feeling a certain limit.

From the 10th Circle to the 13th Circle was an entirely new realm. He had to research and accumulate everything by himself.

That process was never easy, even for Kim Songcheol, who was born for magic, or who was called the Great Sage.

Moreover, the gap with the Administrator was truly immense.

So, Kim Songcheol created a being within his own Source.

He was the ‘Second Kim Songcheol’.