Chapter 163
Chapter 163
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter Title: Beyond the Door
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Even at night, the dark clouds stood out with unusual clarity.
The clouds that had silently gathered to devour the sky pressed down on the city like an ominous portent.
The flames of war encircling the city's outskirts burned hot and dry, but the wind brushing against her skin was cold and damp.
Maybe rain will come soon. She had to find Betty before it did.
She wandered aimlessly in search of Betty. Having lost her way, she simply moved wherever her feet took her.
The first place she found was a rundown slum. The lifeless dirt ground and dead alleys welcomed her.
After darting around aimlessly for a bit without a plan, she realized this was the most remote corner of the city's outskirts.
A barren landscape designed solely for 'survival,' devoid of any trace of daily life. It reminded her of the X District where she had lived.
As she walked between crumbling buildings, a rusted signpost embedded in the ground caught her eye.
Staring at the peeling surface with narrowed eyes, the faint letters 'Z District' emerged.
"...Damn it. No wonder it felt like we were going in circles."
Z District was near X District, tucked away in the farthest corner. She had thought they were heading toward the city center, but apparently, they had just been circling the outskirts.
She glanced around lightly. Scars from magic beasts rampaging everywhere were evident.
The ruins of a pitiful little shelter not even worth calling one. Nearby, emaciated human corpses were strung together on the dirt ground.
Not even sausages. What was the point of tying them up like that?
They must have eaten their fill. Enough to leave them preserved like that.
It was the kind of joke that would make anyone question her humanity if overheard. Luckily, she was the only person here.
"They really gorged themselves messily."
Beyond the human preserves twisted grotesquely together, corpses half-eaten alive lay scattered. Red innards and chunks of flesh splattered across the ground.
She clicked her tongue once and looked away. It was too gruesome to behold.
Even Betty wouldn't be in a place like this. There weren't even buildings tall enough to call rooftops.
No point lingering. Time to go.
As she passed the ruined shelter, the smell of crushed entrails stuck to her shoe soles. An unpleasant sensation.
The second place she found was a residential area.
Unlike Z District, it had been thoroughly destroyed. Traces of battle were everywhere—armed human corpses.
Probably heroes who had been stationed here. Maybe one or two she had flung away were mixed in.
Though the residential area had long fallen and even the corpses were no longer intact, their resistance hadn't been entirely futile; magic beast carcasses lay interspersed among the heroes' bodies.
She slowly surveyed the surroundings. No buildings tall enough for a rooftop here either. There had been, but they were already collapsed.
She compared the debris to the skeletal remains of standing structures, gauging the original height.
"This is..."
Exactly the moderate height Betty would like.
...No way Betty was buried under that rubble.
A chill ran down her spine for no reason.
An ominous thought that crept in unbidden. The fact that it might not just be imagination made her heart race.
Come to think of it, there was no guarantee Betty was safe.
Magic beasts and heroes scattered everywhere, endless slaughter breaking out all around. It wouldn't be strange if Betty had been caught in the chaos.
She dug through the rubble like a mole. Three corpses emerged.
One from a villain-looking man with a rough face. And beside him, a huddled mother and child.
In this hellfire where everything seemed to be perishing, there was no need to watch out for others.
In this apocalyptic scene, had the man tried to assault the mother and daughter?
Or was his face just rough, and the three had been a family clinging to each other until the end?
No one would ever know now.
It was fortunate the worst hadn't happened—no Betty's corpse amid the rubble—but it was too soon to relax.
She had to find Betty as quickly as possible. The anxiety still gripped her throat.
Lifting her head, she saw the beacon of battle rising in the distance.
Flames.
The most dangerous and agonizing light.
The color of anxiety flickering hot enough to suffocate.
Entranced, she followed the firelight.
If the flames marked the most dangerous spot, she had to check there first.
Ignoring Han's puzzled call, she trampled over human and magic beast corpses alike, running toward the blazing flames like a moth to the flame.
Was it the dark clouds? Even the air felt foreboding. Whenever she got this feeling, something bad always happened.
Were they really dark clouds? Or maybe smoke from the fires blanketing the sky. It was dark enough to mistake it for that.
As the light drew nearer, magic beast corpses outnumbered human ones. Previously humans had dominated; now the ratio was reversing.
More magic beast carcasses meant the heroes were starting to band together.
No way Betty had really gotten caught up in it. If so, the heroes wouldn't leave her alone.
Han tried to reassure her, but the inexplicable anxiety wouldn't fade.
Thump, thump—her heart pounded louder. In sync, Han ran alongside her.
Her breath, which had held steady even after hours of running, now grew ragged after just a short sprint.
Finally, the distance to the flames closed. They stopped in the heart of the residential area.
The residential area could be summed up in three letters.
Hell.
Deaths in indescribable forms.
Heroes' corpses crushed or dismembered littered the ground. Beast bites had torn the bodies apart, and massive blunt impacts had smashed upper bodies into building walls entirely.
And atop them, magic beast carcasses over eight meters long elegantly adorned the scene.
Fires blazed everywhere as if battle had raged until moments ago, but no signs of life remained. Only corpses and flames filled the empty streets.
Han. This guy. This damn bastard.
He was starting to talk more.
Was it because she was anxious? Or was he trying to make her anxious?
Damn bastard.
Even as she exchanged pointless banter, her eyes scanned for tall buildings with rooftops.
That one?
No, too short.
Then that one?
Good height, but the railing's too high.
Betty wouldn't like it; she couldn't see the stars properly.
In that case.
The building they arrived at felt fated, neatly wrapped like a gift.
Despite the surrounding devastation, not a single scratch marred it.
As if preserved carefully for someone.
A gift prepared for you—go on, open it—the door gaped invitingly.
-Kiiik.
Poorly oiled hinges screamed a harsh metallic wail.
Unlike the meticulously wrapped exterior, the contents had been neglected. Perfect staging to fan her anxiety.
She slowly ascended the broken, uneven stairs.
The passage was so deathly quiet that her sporadic footsteps startled her.
Han. This guy. This damn bastard.
He had gone silent at some point.
Was he tense because she was? Or saving her reaction for when she opened the gift?
She kept climbing.
The passage remained eerily still, yet something invisible seemed to stir around her.
Finally reaching the rooftop door, she flinched involuntarily.
'...Beyond this door.'
As she reached for it.
The long-silent Han spoke.
"Why?"
What do you know? You're just a hallucination.
She sneered at him.
"Hey. You don't think you're actually Han U-sol's ghost or something, do you?"
He was a hallucination.
What she didn't know, he didn't either. What she knew, he knew too.
He was just a clever illusion chattering accordingly.
A shell acting out changes in attitude based on her situation or mood.
Not a ghost, not anything with self-awareness.
Just that—a mere hallucination.
"Know what?"
"........."
She knew.
From the moment she entered the building. The peaking anxiety had sharpened her senses to the extreme.
With every step. Every footfall on the horrifically quiet stairs heightened her entire body's senses, screaming vividly.
Eyes.
Sounds were buried in silence, but her eyes pierced the darkness, discerning necessary information.
Footprints etched in thick dust, handprints on the railings.
Within hours at most. At least two people had gone up and down these stairs.
Skin.
Faint remnants of mana palpable on her skin.
Even the traces radiated heat.
Violent and passionate mana that stung the skin.
Yet, to someone, it could be a warm guiding light.
If expressed as a color.
Vividly burning red.
Her senses, pushed to the limit, calmly read the properties of traces floating in the air.
Even the vague familiarity within.
As she climbed step by step, the thickening mana density left her no choice but certainty.
There had been a skirmish on the rooftop.
Enough to push remnants down to the building's base. Something so emotional the mana owner couldn't control it.
As floors rose, impatience tightened her throat. Her heartbeat tore through the silence, roaring in her ears. Blood trickled from lips chewed repeatedly.
And now, at the door.
She was certain what lay beyond.
Smell.
Dry dust.
Mingled with.
The scent of flesh burning, skin melting.
Beyond, flames had flared once.
Blood scent.
A foul aroma of death stained with agony.
Beyond, there was a corpse.
He tried to persuade her. Don't open the door.
Until she opened it and checked, it was unknown—so better to leave it as uneasy ambiguity.
A hallucination.
A projection of her anxiety.
A weak illusion suggesting flight over confirming despair.
Whispering cowardice to look away and run again, as always.
She laughed hollowly at him.
"Run? Where to?"
Run where?
This was where she had arrived after running and running.
Even in this worst-case scenario staring her down.
Running again left nowhere else to go.
Besides, it was still just possibility. Until her eyes confirmed it.
Now, rather than run, she needed to pray before checking.
Please, not the worst she feared.
He scared her. If that corpse was the 'worst case' she dreaded, then what?
To that question, she gripped the doorknob with a wistful smile.
"...Beats me. I don't know either."
She applied strength.
The cold metal door, as if awaiting this moment, swung silently wide open.