Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: How the Rank 1 Hero Protects the World
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This time, Lee Woo-yeon moved faster than me.
He pulled out a mana supplement and downed it, then cast a teleportation spell inside the subway station.
A massive magic circle unfurled.
It was a pitiful sight, but Lee Woo-yeon had just unleashed several large-scale spells during the first and second monster waves to take down the Lich.
No matter how you looked at it, he was pushing himself too hard.
Sure enough, blood trickled from between his lips.
Even so, the magic circle kept expanding, beginning to envelop everyone who had collapsed inside the station.
I shouted.
“What are you trying to do?!”
“Out—first!”
That was all Lee Woo-yeon could manage. His gritted teeth were trembling.
Damn it, anger surged through me.
Why wasn’t I any good at magic!
In any case, Lee Woo-yeon’s judgment was right. We had to get out of this station, even if it meant pushing it a bit.
Whatever was happening, if the subway station collapsed, hundreds of people here would be buried alive.
Of course, Lee Woo-yeon and I could probably survive being buried, but the people who’d had their life force drained by the Lich’s Energy Drain needed immediate treatment.
“I beseech thee.”
Standing at the center of the vast magic circle, Lee Woo-yeon plunged his sword into the ground.
Not a spell incantation like Hellfire from before, but this time, an incantation rang out.
The language used by mages not for rigid formulas, but to manifest magic engraved directly into their souls.
“Carry us to where this heart reaches.”
The next moment, Lee Woo-yeon, me, and the others were standing in the middle of Gangnam Station’s intersection.
The first thing that entered our view outside was the clear, transparent sky where the zone restriction had lifted.
Beneath that sky lay monster corpses, mangled human bodies, and traces of the destroyed streets.
In the distance, ambulance sirens and the growing murmur of crowds approached.
The surrounding scenery suggested the crisis was over, at least. The vibrations we’d felt earlier had stopped.
“Thank goodness…… Doesn’t seem like an earthquake.”
Lee Woo-yeon sighed in relief after checking the situation.
The people’s faces, illuminated by sunlight, didn’t look as bad as expected.
Still, I didn’t let my guard down. With a boss monster and a sudden Dungeon Break, anything could happen.
Lee Woo-yeon pulled out his phone and showed that it was working again.
“The zone’s definitely lifted. I can hear people.”
“Then what the hell was that just now…….”
I started to ask, but Lee Woo-yeon nudged my side with his elbow.
Turning around, he pointed to the sky with his index finger.
What? We already confirmed the zone’s lifted. What am I supposed to……
Looking up at the sky, I fell silent.
- !&@*@#%#$ Chaotic Er♤r Occurred ※♠
- Separated ○● →←↑↓ Capt$ured
- Accident Due to Overlapping Duplication Occurrence
- Inevit^&*able Occurrence Conflicts with Fate’s Limits
“What the hell is that?!”
Bizarre messages floated transparently in one corner of the sky.
Not the usual golden public announcement text, nor the white text only I could see. These were transparent messages, as if see-through to the sky behind them.
Is that supposed to be a message right now?
No, it wasn’t.
Those weren’t messages meant for players.
Lee Woo-yeon wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve and frowned at the floating text.
He cleared his throat and said.
“That thing…… looks like…….”
But his attempt ended in miserable failure.
Unable to continue, Lee Woo-yeon drove his sword into the ground and dropped to one knee. His internal injuries must have been severe.
I rushed to his side.
“Potions?! Don’t you have any?”
Lee Woo-yeon shook his head. Come to think of it, during the wait between the first and second monster waves, he’d been distributing potions while organizing hunter teams.
“No, even so! You have to save some for yourself!”
I thought he was a sly fox, but turns out he was a dumb bear instead.
Lee Woo-yeon coughed up blood onto the ground. Helpless, I patted the stubborn bear’s back a couple times.
But at that moment.
- Warning! Warning! Warning!
- Due to the action of Fate
The possibility of the Final Trial emerging
- Warning! ※※ did not ※※※※ the emergence of ※※
Deemed invalid difficulty, canceled
Midway cancellation impossible
The messages in the air began flashing wildly. Lee Woo-yeon, leaning on his sword, startled at the flashing and stood up.
I jumped back a step in surprise at his sudden movement, instinctively looking up…….
And that’s when I saw it.
Like clouds blocking the sun’s light, a shadow that seemed to snuff out all hope flickered ominously, covering the messages.
It gazed down at the street, the world…… no, at me, with lava-like eyes.
An enormous something blotted out the sky, impossible to gauge with a single glance. Just blocking the sunlight made it an incomprehensible ‘black thing.’
But I knew that looking closer revealed reptilian scales covering its body, and a pair of transparently thin butterfly wings flapping.
It was the ominous black dragon.
A groan escaped my lips like a sigh, naming it.
“Optatio……!”
The true angel heralding humanity’s destruction was descending upon this land.
I was instantly thrown into chaos.
Why was Optatio here? In Tartarus, I’d clearly defeated it with my comrades and seen the system message acknowledging its defeat.
So why?!
Reflexively, I reached for my sword. But in the next moment, I realized the sword at my waist was gone.
“Inventory……!”
I tried to shout like lightning, but no voice came out.
No, that wasn’t accurate.
Not just my voice—every sound in the world was swept into a vacuum, leaving utter silence.
Glancing around, no one was there.
Before I knew it, I realized I stood alone in darkness.
A space without light or sound.
Where the hell am I?
No matter how I looked around, nothing was visible. I moved my hands and feet, but nothing touched or grasped.
Dozens, hundreds…… no, thousands of times.
How far had I moved? How much time had passed? Was time even passing?
Had I actually moved?
Maybe I just thought I did without moving at all. Or from the start…… did I even have limbs? Am I even alive right now?
It was a space too lonely to be alone in.
“I…….”
How long had it been since I last spoke?
I forgot what I even meant to say and stopped in place.
An overwhelming void filled the space.
……What was I doing? What was I trying to do? Was there something I was trying to do? Was it something I had to do?
“………….”
If I just let go like this, remember nothing, stop suffering, and give up everything, it’d surely be easier.
I was satisfied with that hard-won conclusion. Yeah, this is what I wanted.
Lena.
But in that lonely darkness, a voice burned brightly like a flame, waking me.
The illusion before my eyes took the form of a beautiful woman. My friend, with long blonde hair braided and draped down.
“Ariadne……?”
The moment I faced her and called her name, the deathly silence surrounding me vanished.
Noisy like fireworks exploding, dazzling with life’s vibrancy.
Ah, so it was all a dream. The eternal loneliness washed away in an instant.
Must be the aftereffects of some illusion magic during the dungeon clear……
“Ah, Ariadne……!”
I was dreaming, you see, but as I started to say that, an angry-faced Ariadne slapped my mouth first.
Caught off guard by the sudden hit, I clutched my mouth.
“What was that for! It hurts!”
“I told you. Lena’s heart can’t find its path, so demons keep coming.”
“……And?”
“So I’m giving you guidance.”
“Since when do priests guide by slapping people?”
Feeling wronged, I said that, and Ariadne slapped my mouth again. When infused with holy power, it really hurts—no exaggeration!
“Hey, you little……!”
“So find your path already, Lena.”
Ariadne smiled as she pushed my shoulder with her hand.
This time, with no force behind it, I was strangely pushed back helplessly.
One step. Just one step, but afterward, there was no ground to step on.
Why are you doing this to me? I tried to ask.
“We’ll be fine.”
Blood-soaked Ariadne smiled. Behind her loomed a mountain of corpses.
What’s fine? I screamed, but my voice didn’t reach her.
Light faded from her eyes. A rusted sword pierced her heart.
“Don’t worry about me and hurry…….”
- Friction-torn rift has been repaired.
- The world has re-recognized Player: Wandering Pilgrim.
“……Snap out of it!”
Someone was shaking me.
Opening my eyes, the first thing in my view was Lee Woo-yeon’s face.
He shook me desperately, but relaxed with relief when I opened my eyes.
“You okay? What happened?”
I stared blankly at his face.
Right, it was Lee Woo-yeon. That ridiculous fire fox who descended from the sky with wings from the start……
Huh?
I snapped to attention in an instant. My mind cleared as if I’d never been confused.
“What do you mean? What about you…….”
Didn’t Optatio, the Final Dragon, appear here on Earth just now? As I started to ask, I froze.
Lee Woo-yeon eyed me suspiciously.
“Internal injuries messing with you? You just collapsed.”
His face was far too calm for having witnessed such a catastrophe…… and if Optatio had really appeared, there’s no way I’d still be alive after passing out.
So where did the illusion start and end?
I staggered to my feet. Lee Woo-yeon panicked and supported me.
The system messages in the air before my standing eyes were pristine, as if the error never happened.
But their content was bizarre.
- You have witnessed the Final Herald that destroyed the world.
- Special achievement accomplished! Fragment of the already-destroyed world granted as reward.
I read the message slowly.
Read it, read it again, and again.
After understanding, I wished I hadn’t.
Destroyed, it said.
What got destroyed? No way, Tartarus?
No, that couldn’t be. Even thinking that, anxiety bloomed in a corner of my heart.
Because what I’d just experienced wasn’t normal.
Eternal darkness, Ariadne’s voice waking me from it, her strangely injured form.
Nothing added up.
“……Hah.”
I exhaled.
Honestly, I’d returned to Korea without knowing why and lost everything I’d built over the past ten years.
It felt utterly hollow.
But…… it was okay.
Because I’d protected Tartarus.
My duty was done, I thought.
If my work was finished, who cared if my stats vanished? If needed, I could rebuild slowly from now.
Sure, the system pulled some ranking nonsense, but I could endure that.
I’d had leeway. Thinking I’d protected the world from that cruel thing called the system—fate.
But the system showed me the world I thought I’d saved, my people dying.
As if saying my work wasn’t done.
“Damn it.”
I slapped my cheek.
Not satisfied, I slapped again, and as the daze lingered, went for a third when Lee Woo-yeon startled and grabbed my hand.
Having forgotten his presence, I jumped too.
“What are you doing?”
I couldn’t answer.
What should I say?
That there was a world I’d tried to protect for ten years, thought I’d saved, but somehow it was destroyed?
Or that if the system had a form, I’d tear it to shreds right now?
No, none of that.
“……What else.”
Following Ariadne’s guidance, I grinned shamelessly.
“No matter how that damned system tries to despair me, it doesn’t matter.”
That wasn’t what mattered to me.
What mattered was always, what could I do.
The answer was set.
I clenched my fist. The sword at my waist felt heavy.
Just wait a bit longer, guys.
No matter what, I’ll come save you.