It would be a lie if he said he wasn't worried about his father's safety, but the people he had to protect weren't limited to just his father. He went around the world once more to clean up any newly generated monsters while searching for his father's figure and any records of him, but Ilhan decided to give up after finding nothing.
"He should be fine. If it's his faint presence, I'm sure of it!"
"That makes me sad too, so let's not talk about faint presences, okay?"
The next destination was Ya'umin, where his mother should be. So he immediately...
"Hm?"
Yu IlHan, who was checking the Record skill, suddenly tilted his head. Liera's head tilted along with his.
"What is it, IlHan?"
"No, the world Mother was definitely..."
The name of the world Kim YeSeul had been to was Ya'umin. If he acquired any object related to her, he could extract her records and head to Ya'umin, and he had done so beforehand.
"Then you just need to go, don't you?"
"Well, the thing is."
The problem was that there were records of two worlds.
After hearing that, Liera asked with her mouth wide open.
"Two?"
"Two."
One was definitely a world called Ya'umin. He could find records of other people from Earth having been there. The problem was the remaining one – there were no records of anyone else other than Kim YeSeul having been there. That was definitely strange.
"...Why are your parents so extraordinary?"
"That's what I want to ask, you ex-angel. Just how hard did you screw up your work such that my mother has been to two worlds?"
"There's no way that's possible. I've said this before, but one person was assigned only one world. If we could send a person to two worlds, there's no reason for you to be dropped out on Earth anyway."
Yu IlHan sighed a lot and thought about it before finally coming to a conclusion.
"We can only go to both of them."
"Where are we going first then?"
"Ya'umin. Because I feel like mother won't be there."
"I also think that."
The two's gazes met, and they shrugged. Yu IlHan activated warp as soon as he was ready.
Ya'umin was a world that developed very slowly, and although the time it had taken to come into contact with mana was hundreds of years longer than Earth's, it had experienced only two Great Cataclysms. Tens of people from Earth were living relatively peaceful lives alongside the world's residents.
"There, a troll is going your way!"
"Don't let it go, get it! Wait, what are you doing in the trap!"
"I didn't expect anything from that granny anyway. Hold! Hold!"
Take a few hundred years off the development level of Heishia that they had just been to, and it would probably be similar to this scene, give or take a few years.
The civilization was close to that of the Middle Ages, and the administrative system was centred around castles and cities; the majority of the monsters were trapped in dungeons, unable to escape, and the few that did were cleared by active adventurers and mercenaries – This was a peaceful world. Liera was touched upon seeing such a world.
"Yes, this is the ideal world I've dreamed of. I wish Earth was like this too. The Heaven's Army should have been aiming for this!'
"After seeing this, Earth feels like a post-apocalypse setting."
"Hing."
Liera's eyes welled up when she thought about the time she first became an angel. In truth, what she had experienced after becoming an angel was neither clean nor beautiful, and the battle with other higher-existence factions was very annoying and difficult... but even so, the Heaven's Army she had dreamed of was an organization that fought to create these kinds of worlds.
"Does God really exist? What is he thinking? ...Does he not care at all about what happens to humans? ... All these questions aren't allowed to me who chose one while abandoning all the others, right?"
"...."
Yu IlHan silently grabbed Liera's hand. In fact, Liera was more important to him than anyone else could be, so he could not say anything to her.
Understanding what he was thinking, Liera also grabbed his hand back. The two stayed still for a moment, watching the humans work together to hunt a troll.
Yu IlHan watched as the party successfully hunted the troll and returned with the remains, then began searching the world for his mother's records. And he found them too easily.
"Ooh, Mom was here until just 3 years ago."
"By 3 years, do you mean?"
"Yep."
The moment Earth had expelled all the other humans.
"Do you know what's more interesting?"
"Every time you say 'interesting,' it is followed by a headache... anyway, go on?"
"When mom first came over to this world, she didn't come from Earth but from another world."
"Is your mother a higher existence?"
"No, she's a lower existence, alright. At least until 3 years ago."
Yu IlHan understood what Liera was trying to ask. However, the 'interesting' bit hadn't appeared yet.
"It looks like she came over here using an artifact, and it seems like that artifact is from none other than the Garden of Sunset."
"By 'that artifact', do you mean?"
"Yup."
Yu IlHan took out the transceiver that Lecidna had left behind and made a small smile.
"It looks like the item is the same one as this."
"..."
Yu IlHan was smiling right now; what would he be thinking on the inside? – Liera couldn't hide her worry and asked him.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to look for mom. Find her, and ask her."
"Ask her... then what?"
"...*Sigh*. It will be a pain if mom's cooperating with the Garden of Sunset for real."
The Garden of Sunset were a really annoying bunch. He didn't know what they were doing, nor how they planned to carry it out. He never thought his mother would be caught up in the workings of higher-existence factions, and it was a painful surprise for him.
"IlHan, as you know, just because someone is in a faction doesn't mean that all of them have the same mindset. Look at Erta and me, for example; we were both from the Heaven's Army. Perhaps the member of the Garden of Sunset your mother has met might be a good guy."
"I hope so. ...Anyway, I hope she's safe."
Yu IlHan looked at all the beings and records of the world Ya'umin before he left, but he could not find any more traces of those belonging to the Garden of Sunset. Although he did acquire some records, that was it. The member of the Garden of Sunset who led Kim YeSeul to this world did nothing special and left. It was as if that guy's objective was to solely bring her here.
"Okay, then let's go to the second world."
"Yeah."
Yu IlHan resolved himself and activated the Warp skill again. The skill activated successfully, bringing them to a new world.
That place, in one word, was 'chaos'.
[New wanderers have come.]
[Oh my, you're right. Were these people lost in their path too?]
[Wait, I feel a familiar aura from one child.]
The world they arrived on had no distinction between the sky and the ground, the sea and the land, or life and death. This kind of world would neither progress nor regress. It just cycled endlessly, and halted endlessly!
[From where did you come?]
Ones with fluid bodies that glowed half-translucently, by Earthen standards, these beings would be called 'spirits' or 'elementals' – they flew over to the two and asked. Yu IlHan looked at the world glowing in countless colours and spoke in a low voice.
"I'm Yu IlHan. I'm from Earth. Is the person by the name 'Kim YeSeul' In this place?"
[So that's it. He is YeSeul's son.]
[He is full of chaos. Oh my, he has the blood of the Garden of Sunset on him as well.]
[Moreover, he's still a lower existence.]
[Quite an interesting being. I'll answer you. YeSeul is indeed here.]
More spirits flew over and played pranks as they circled Yu IlHan and Liera. Yu IlHan first activated the Record skill to absorb all the information about his surroundings. As all of them were records he had come into contact with for the first time, the skill rose by about 5 levels at once.
[He's looking through us.]
[He is the Fifth.]
[He is the one that shall become the Fifth God.]
Yu IlHan couldn't hold back and ended up asking them.
"I think you mean that I'll make the fifth higher existence faction, but why do you judge it as so?"
[The succubus that is with you shall kindly answer if you ask her.]
"What!? Oh, you have her thought-soul!"
"Ah, yeah, I do, but...."
He did indeed possess the thought-soul of a succubus, if they were referring to the one who still annoyed him even after her death. Perhaps by mastering Death Collector, he could acquire quite a substantial portion of the soul. However, he had buried it somewhere deep in his consciousness because he didn't want to face it.
[Garden of Sunset, Heaven's Army, Army of Brilliant Light, Destruction Demon Army.]
[The four transcenders have formed a balance, but you shall become the fifth.]
[You who have fulfilled all the requirements; requirements too numerous to list.]
[The balance will crumble, and there will be a huge war.]
"I do want to become a higher existence, but... a war you say."
Yu IlHan shrugged his shoulders. He only wanted to live in peace. It was just that if the previous him would have been satisfied with living alone peacefully, the current him had just a little more people within the boundaries of his fences.
"But doesn't that mean that it's pretty much guaranteed that IlHan can become a higher existence? I'm a little reassured now!"
"Good, Liera. I'll learn from your positive attitude and let go of all my worries from now on."
He wasn't the type to hesitate to walk forward because of fear of an obstacle. Whether it was a war or the fifth faction, he only had to think about it when the time came. Yu IlHan decided to put an end to his thoughts there.
Right now, what was important was not that, but his mother, Kim YeSeul.
[The skill Record has reached level 62.]
"Found her. Let's go."
"Ah, okay."
[May the blessing of the chaos be with you.]
[YeSeul has stopped along with the world. Please take her out with you.]
The spirits didn't follow him and threw words that sounded like both a curse and a blessing. Yu IlHan did not reply to them and hurried on his way.
The size of this world was difficult to grasp, and it was also very hard to differentiate between paths and non-paths. The two crossed the skies as if walking on land, and when they lost track of time, they could finally arrive at the place where the distinction between matter was evident.
"Ah, that place."
"Yes."
There was Yu IlHan's mother, Kim YeSeul. She was sitting on top of a rock, staring at the water's surface while controlling her mana, and, according to the movements of her mana, the bubbles on the surface moved at different speeds.
"Oh my."
However, the moment Kim YeSeul noticed Yu IlHan and Liera, the water bubbles lost their force and fell to the water's surface.
"I was found."
"I'm glad that you're safe. Mom."
Looking at Kim YeSeul, who looked as if she had aged about five years, Yu IlHan gave a bitter smile. People say that the more you know, the more you see, and it seemed true. Before, he thought that his mother was not 4th class yet, but looking at things now, that was an absurd statement.
"My son, you've become tremendously stronger in the meantime."
"Were you in this state the whole time?"
"Well, apparently so.... My growth stopped a long time ago. After that, I keep hitting loops like this."
Kim YeSeul gave an awkward smile and shrugged. Yu IlHan could only smile in return.
She was a 4th class at level 299.