MB Prologue

Within the deep, deep darkness, Mago came to see the man after he had already been living there for 2,800 years. To be more specific, it was after he had shaken this world twenty-eight times in an attempt to break it.

“Are you still doing things like this?”

The goddess’s white feet were floating above the black ground. Her navy blue eyes were looking down at the man covered in dust.

Tall like a column, wide shoulders, long, black hair covering his eyes. His lips were pressed shut. Wearing hemp clothing, his feet were deep within the soil. The white light shone down on this man.

“And you are still as angry as usual.”

He could not tell if the goddess’s melodic voice was teasing him or showing him pity. The man did not look at her or give her a response. His hair had grown long and unkempt over the years, so his face was not visible. However, Mago remembered how handsome he was. His particular personality. His fierce eyes.

For gods, time was futile.

However, just the same, there was no medicine for it.

For them, time was like poison and a disease.

“You are still as foolish as ever.”

Mago said the same words she had told him 2,800 years ago. And just like before, he gave no reply. His personality would not have changed either. Of course, if he had changed, he would not be the Mujang she knew.

The goddess looked at the ground. She did not see any water. The ground was dry and filled with dust and bones. She could not tell if the bones belonged to human or beast. How had this place looked like before? She couldn’t even remember.

“I told you to find the yaksu¹. Did I ever tell you to destroy the underworld?”

He did not answer her.

However, she could feel his eyes glaring at her from between the strands of hair. Her noble, naked body held not a speck of dirt. The cloth surrounding her body was as thin and as beautiful as the petals of a white lotus flower. Precious jewels from the heavens glimmered in her braided hair. Light seemed to exude from her body, completely illuminating her surroundings. Because of this, the things that were hidden, the things that were not seen, and the things that could not be seen were all revealed.

Everything was broken. Everything had collapsed. As if the ground and the sky had been destroyed, they swelled and shrank. The destructive force disappeared, and only the aftershocks were left. Within this space, a bloodthirsty aura seeped out of Mujang’s entire body.

Mago’s pomegranate lips trembled. Whether one was human or a god, one could not help but feel caught up in this realization.

“The way for you to find the fountain is already by your side, but you still continue to do such foolish things.”

The way was already by his side?

The man finally pulled back his murderous aura. He had already lifted and dropped Mount Dongdae twenty-eight times in order to find this fountain. He had turned the underworld upside-down in his search, but he could not figure out where this fountain was. But the way to find it was by his side? What bullshit was this?

“Tell me so that I can understand.”

He spoke up in a cold voice. It had been a long time since Mago had heard Mujang’s voice. And he wasn’t even speaking to her in a formal tone. Mago’s smile deepened.

She drew a little closer to him. The silvery gray eyes she remembered were glaring at her from between the strands of hair. They were like shards of ice. They reminded her of the eyes of a cold-blooded demon. She looked into his eyes and whispered.

“The solution has been by your side for nine years.”

Nine years? What did she mean by nine years? The edge of his lips twisted in confusion. Mago’s smile deepened once more.

“Bring me the child that is born between you and that girl. Then I will give you the yaksu.”

What? What nonsense was she talking about now?

“A child? Have you gone senile, you granny?”

Despite Mujang’s hopeless words, Mago silently stepped back and floated back up into the air. 

“Then just lift Mount Dongdae and drop it again. See if that works.”

“If you’re here to spew nonsense, then just get lost.”

He let out a fierce growl, but Mago’s smile did not go away. No, it seemed to grow even brighter in anticipation. She was the one with the most beautiful face in the whole world, but she was also the most cold-hearted and cruel.

“Your firstborn, Mujang. Give that child to me. A child born between a human and a god is as rare as this godforsaken world. To think that you didn’t even see this opportunity even when it was right under your nose… How disappointing. If you just give me that child, I will find you your yaksu…”

Her body grew a bit faint as she floated even higher.

“…And you can return to the heavens. The thing you have been desperately wishing for…”

The goddess’s voice now grew dim along with the fading light. Then her body shattered into little balls of light like fireflies and flew up.

“Bullshit.”

Mujang swept his hair back as he murmured.

She had appeared before him for the first time in 2,800 years, and all she had to say to him was to give her a child he didn’t have. She was definitely messing with him.

After he had been confined to this dreadful world, no one from the heavenly world had come to visit him. He had lifted and dropped the underworld twenty-eight times in order to find that damned yaksu, but no one had reacted at all.

No matter how strong he was, he did not have the power to destroy the underworld. If he could, they would not have confined him here in the first place.

“What? My firstborn? Is she crazy?”

A child? And not just a child, but a child born from a human and a god? There was no way a human was living here. Especially not a woman. And not for nine years…

Suddenly, Mujang froze.

Nine years…?

He turned his head and looked back. Within the thick darkness, the faint lights of goblin fire flickered. There was only one human that had appeared in this place nine years ago, and it was that rascal. But didn’t that guy say he was a man?

“Bari…”

Mujang called out the name in a gloomy voice and turned around.