People’s bodies decayed so quickly—the three men learned this for the first time.

“D*mn it, it’s not working.”

Yupheon gritted his teeth and slumped down before her corpse.

They had tried numerous times to resurrect her, but the body that had already begun to decay could not hold her soul.

Rather, as a reaction to their attempts, her body was gradually crumbling.

“Jella……”

Cail whispered in a faint voice while gathering the crumbling pieces of her.

“……”

Niel, feeling as if the decay of her body was entirely his fault, closed his eyes tightly and reopened them, suffering.

That man had captured her soul, and the other man had stolen the god’s breath.

But he…

He who had made such a commotion about preventing her death… couldn’t even preserve her corpse properly…

Niel painfully clenched both fists.

Even his original purpose of taking her soul to another dimension had become impossible.

Cail Aleret, who had contracted with the dragon, had bound her soul to the earth to hold onto it, but the moment that binding power was released, her soul would flee to the spirit realm.

If it weren’t for that man, he who had arrived too late, would have hopelessly bid farewell to her soul and wouldn’t even have been able to hope for her resurrection.

In the end, all of this was because he was too late.

If only he had hurried just one day. Just one day…

Belated regret washed over him, but there was nothing he could do.

Niel despaired and suffered in the helplessness of not being able to save her.

And the other two men were not much different.

“It’s no use, it’s impossible, no matter what we do, Jella won’t open her eyes again……”

Yupheon, who had ultimately failed to breathe the god’s breath into her body, muttered in a voice soaked with despair.

They were reaching their limit.

If they tried any more, they wouldn’t even be able to preserve her remaining corpse and would destroy it.

Yupheon, who had been painfully grinding his teeth, suddenly turned to Cail.

More precisely, to the dragon Helasio floating around Cail.

“So… Jella’s death is all because of that dragon……”

With that gloomy murmur, the three men’s bleak gazes converged on Helasio.

Helasio jumped up and pleaded his innocence.

[W-why is it my fault! I’m wronged! It’s the fault of the god who sealed me in Shunaibel’s heart and the first emperor!]

“……”

“……”

“……”

The three men stared at Helasio and slowly rose to their feet.

Helasio instinctively felt that his life would be in danger if they couldn’t revive Jella now.

[W-w-w-wait! Th-there’s one more way!]

Helasio blurted out whatever came to mind to survive the three men.

[Jella’s body! There’s another one in a different dimension, so if we bring that…]

The moment he said it aloud, he thought ‘oops.’ It was actually a taboo that broke the rules of this world.

“What do you mean by that?”

Yupheon frowned and asked.

[W-well, before Jella’s soul came to this world, she had a body in another dimension.]

Helasio tried to answer calmly while suppressing the eerie feeling.

The reason Yuria could come to this world was because twenty years ago, Jella’s soul had crossed from another dimension to this world through an unknown phenomenon, creating a passage between dimensions.

So if one could cross dimensions at the precise moment just before the soul separated from Jella’s body in that world, they could bring her healthy, undecayed body to this side.

And with that body, they could resurrect her again.

Helasio explained enthusiastically to the three men who were listening quietly.

“How do we cross dimensions?”

[Well… we need a few things.]

But when asked about the most important method, Helasio hesitated and trailed off.

[To open a dimension, we need many lives and an object from that dimension…]

The god’s heart that Yupheon had stolen contained the power of countless lives.

So the former wasn’t a problem, but there was no way to obtain an object from the dimension they needed to cross to.

As Yupheon and Cail were about to despair again at this fact.

“So, Jella’s body is in that dimension where Yuria came from?”

Niel, who had been silent all along, suddenly asked.

[Huh? Yeah, well…]

Helasio was nodding half-heartedly, thinking what did it matter since they couldn’t cross dimensions anyway, when:

“…I have it. An object from that dimension.”

Niel took out a pen that no longer produced ink from his pocket.

It was an object from another world that he had extorted from Yuria to open the door to dimensions.

“…!”

“…!”

Yupheon and Cail raised their heads abruptly.

As the two men were arguing over who should cross dimensions, Helasio intervened.

[Cail, you need to hold Jella’s soul here. The moment you cross dimensions, the power binding Jella’s soul will disappear.]

After dissuading Cail, Helasio quickly looked over Yupheon’s body and said:

[And you… have already become a being bound to this dimension. You can’t leave.]

Niel, who had been watching the situation with his arms folded obliquely, slowly opened his mouth.

“Then there’s only one person who can go.”

From the beginning, he had no intention of yielding to the two men.

Finding her physical body was rightfully the task of someone who had neither captured her soul nor stolen the god’s breath.

In the end, it was decided that Niel would cross dimensions to bring back Jella’s body.

Yupheon split the god’s heart into three pieces and handed one piece to Niel.

A piece of the god’s heart that Yupheon had given was raised in Niel’s hand.

The god’s heart that Yupheon had split took the form of a rattling red jewel.

As he was staring at it absently, Helasio flew toward him.

[It won’t be easy. You have to find the exact moment.]

“……”

[It might take quite a long time, and it could be dangerous if you exhaust all your life force before meeting Jella. You might even be trapped in the dimension and never return.]

“……”

As Niel nodded without answering.

The dragon’s fidgeting movements, as if checking his reaction, were noticeable.

“Do you have something else to say?”

[Actually… crossing dimensions breaks the taboo of the world. Because it uses people’s life force.]

Helasio said carefully.

[I don’t know what the price for breaking the taboo will be. But you will certainly pay it. That’s the law of the universe.]

Niel smiled at those words.

He already knew that much.

It was something he had been prepared for since he first decided to take her and cross dimensions.

And there were already two men before him who had broken taboos.

Yupheon Arne, who had killed a god.

Cail Aleret, who had made a contract with a dragon.

Well then, what did it matter if there was one more man who broke a taboo for her?

So Niel crossed dimensions.

And there, he met Jella again.

On a spring day when cherry blossoms fell like flower rain.

He encountered her with long, black, straight hair.

“Ah……”

A soft m*an escaped between his teeth.

That was the first meeting between Niel and Kim Ga-eul.

At the same time, it was a rapturous and beautiful memory of a day he would never forget for a long time, perhaps forever.

***

“…I had to save you.”

Niel confessed in a voice that sounded as if his throat was completely blocked.

“Your physical body was already decaying and couldn’t be saved. So I crossed dimensions to find a healthy body that hadn’t decayed.”

Yet his expression remained calm…

‘Why do I feel like this man is crying?’

Jella thought as she stared at Niel with blank eyes.

A brief silence flowed between them.

After a while, she spoke first.

“So, you brought Kim Ga-eul’s body here?”

“……”

Instead of answering, Niel nodded with a faint smile.

“Then perhaps……”

She hesitated and trailed off.

It was when her mind was in confused turmoil.

-So you’re saying my heart is already gone!

Arne’s soul, which had squeezed through the gap in her weakened mind, burst out in anger.

-This man is no longer needed! Stop wasting time and go to the other one quickly!

“Ah……”

In that moment, a purple light glimmered in her eyes again.

“Right. This isn’t the time, I need to find the heart quickly……”

Jella suddenly began looking around.

“Jella?”

Niel, who noticed her condition, carefully grabbed her, but was soon pushed away.

“Ugh……”

Niel’s body, pushed by a force imbued with magic, fell to the floor.

Jella ran straight to the window and leaped out.

“Jella!”

Niel, who had belatedly gotten up, tried to catch her, but she had already jumped down and disappeared.

“…This is serious.”

Niel, left alone in the room, muttered as he looked down from the window.

Now that she knew the god’s heart was no longer with him, there were only two places she could go.

Judging from her urgency just now, she had most likely headed to Yupheon Arne.

That man’s whereabouts were clear, and his possession of the heart was certain.

Unlike him, who had exhausted all his pieces, Yupheon still had the largest piece of the god’s heart intact within his body.

The problem was that the man was half-insane and obsessed with her.

‘If she asks, he’s the type of man who would really cut open his chest and give her his heart…’

That fox-like man would seize the opportunity of her confusion to readily offer his heart and hope to receive her love, if only for a fleeting moment.

He didn’t care if that man lost his heart and came to harm, but he couldn’t bear to see that.

Niel straightened his clothes and went out into the corridor.

The servants jumped in surprise at the nail marks visible on his skin through the torn shirt, but Niel ignored them lightly and said:

“Send soldiers to the Grand Temple where Yupheon Arne is right now.”

“What? The G-Grand Temple? But……”

Cutting off the knight with the troubled face, Niel commanded in a resolute voice:

“And find the whereabouts of Sir Cail Aleret.”