#54 Truth
#54 Truth
Wolf closed his eyes after reading every document. There were two or three people with the same name, but there was no mistaking it.
"So, are you planning to leave?"
"...Probably."
He had already thought about his plans. He intended to visit the Phantom Realm and then head to the Square to prevent the Phantom Butterfly from being recruited by the Prodigal Sons, but first, he needed to meet the System. In case something changed...
"......Will you come back?"
...That was the plan. Unless the future changed, that is. Wolf countered Kang Tae-jun's question with one of his own.
"You won't stop me?"
"A promise is a promise."
Trust had been proven... The implication was clear: there would be no suspicion. Wolf nodded. Even if circumstances brought him back to Dawn, it seemed there would be no issues.
"Do you think it will take long?"
"Hard to say..."
It could be quick, or it could take a while. Wolf opened a subspace and stored Kang Tae-jun's documents, then retrieved the elixir. After Wolf gave notice, Kang Tae-jun acknowledged it briefly and said his goodbyes without rising from his seat.
"......The groundwork is in progress, so feel free to return whenever."
It wasn't like he was marching off to die... Wolf let out a dry chuckle but nodded, and soon, only Kang Tae-jun remained in the room.
***
On the rooftop, Wolf, gazing down at the night view, called out the Fairy Dragon's name.
"Perry."
"Kyuuu?"
As Perry approached with obvious interest, Wolf's form began to shift. His size swelled until, finally, he transformed into a massive Wolf. The Black Demon Wolf—the Swallower. Wreathed in a writhing black mist, the Demon Wolf descended upon Dawn's Bam.
"Let's go."
Perry, feeling a rush of familiarity at the sight of Wolf's true form after so long, flew over and nuzzled his cheek. The Fairy Dragon clung to him affectionately before settling atop his head, folding its wings as if finally at ease. Its tail swayed gently, brushing against Wolf's head like a soft caress. Wolf leaped high into the air, and shrouded in black mist, the two vanished.
―When someone else hurriedly opened the rooftop door sometime later, no one was left.
***
Racing through the Bam, the black mist descended upon a columbarium. Wolf entered and scanned the area, then let out a breath that sounded almost like a sigh of relief.
"―――."
Wolf squeezed his eyes shut at the name inscribed on an urn. He had thought it was a possibility. Still...
"Kyuuu~?"
Perry chirped quizzically. Wolf stroked the little creature and shook his head, signaling it was nothing.
"......"
Because now, he felt he understood a little more of the full story. Suddenly, Perry jumped in surprise, startled. The patterns adorning Wolf's entire body were glowing. It was the unknown known as Karma—the very foundation of the entity known as the System. The glowing patterns soon subsided, and the alarmed Perry settled back onto Wolf's head... But when Wolf didn't move, a confused Perry tilted its head, realizing his eyes were unfocused.
"Kyu?"
***
An empty, hollow World— No, it wasn't empty; it was full. Filled with the indescribable something he had glimpsed from time to time. Wolf had come to realize at some point that this was Karma.
―In this space of nothingness, only Karma existed in abundance.
Even when the World changed so abruptly, Wolf didn't panic. It had been the same when he met the Queen. And since it was the System who had told him to seek it out, he figured this was a possibility. And then there was the sole glimmer of light in this pitch-black World.
[I have been waiting.]
A voice reached him. At the sound of the voice that had guided him so many times before, Wolf let out the breath he had been holding.
"System... No, Dan Se-hyeok."
That was the name of the protagonist in the novel. The System didn't confirm it, but it didn't deny it either.
"―Why are you dead?"
That was the first question that came to mind. The protagonist of the novel's World... why was he dead? And before that, why had he become this unknowable entity called the System? Questions linked to more questions, an endless chain looping in his mind. The cluster of light, the System, spoke as if posing a riddle.
[Because I am a mirror.]
I frowned at the sudden remark. Not because I couldn't grasp its meaning, but because I had grasped it. The first thing the word "mirror" brought to mind was the Phantom Realm. More specifically, the words of the Queen, its master.
'Yes. I know. That Destruction, no, The End, will soon arrive here as well.'
―I hadn't found the hint in those words. I hadn't realized the meaning behind the Queen's subtle clue that Destruction and The End were separate things. But it wasn't just that.
"...Was it all a misunderstanding?"
[It was. The World you are in is different from the World I was in.]
February 2071. The moment Dan Se-hyeok graduated from the Academy and the story began in earnest. The starting point of the original work. But... such things held no meaning anymore. No, they were made meaningless. Because the World I was in was not the novel's World where Dan Se-hyeok had been active. The Queen's phrase 'here as well' had referred not just to the Phantom Realm, but to the entire World.
"Mirror... A parallel world."
Countless mirrors reflecting each other. A mirror-image connecting World to World. It meant that Dan Se-hyeok's World and my World existed as parallel realities.
[Even mirrors reflecting each other are not all identical. Because in that World, I am dead.]
―A gap in time. The protagonist's death. Time hadn't been rewound; I had been in an infinitely similar yet different World. At that truth, I let out a hollow laugh.
[Rewinding time is impossible for anyone. Unless one is a god.]
And the Queen had said that gods do not exist. Rewinding time was impossible. To do so, one would have to move the entire World. An existence surpassing the entire World. As the System said, impossible unless you were a god.
"Then what the hell are you. No, before that, I..."
With every answer, more questions flooded in. Why had you become the System? Why was I summoned to this World...?
[Because you alone showed sincerity.]
"......"
[More sincerely than anyone. You were genuinely furious and angry at a World that met an irrational ending. And so, I trusted you. I believed you could lead it to a proper ending. That you could move forward without stopping.]
"...Then you were the author, too."
That first-person account from the protagonist's perspective was a record of Dan Se-hyeok's life. Meaning he had left that record behind as a novel... A despondent laugh escaped me. I had struggled so desperately to return... how many times had I brushed past death? How many life-or-death crises had I barely survived in this damned World? And now he was telling me the System had dragged me here all along—the very thing that had guided me......
[......]
No, I had known. I just didn't want to believe it. The longest sigh I'd ever heaved slipped out.
"Was that why?"
[...Because I was about to crumble. I wouldn't have held on much longer.]
"......"
My teeth ground together at the definitive statement. The most miserable part was that it was true. I'd been dancing in the palm of its hand, and if I hadn't been, I would have crumbled.
"If only I had been human..."
No, if I had been, could I have ever been so desperate? Getting this far would have been impossible. I understood that. The System said nothing, just observed its surroundings. Even this power called Karma, which seemed infinite, had its limits. Perhaps, bringing me here... was the best it could do. From the System's perspective, that is.
'What about mine?'
I had crossed the line of death and abandoned my identity as a human. I was dropped into a World that had nothing to do with me by someone else's will, for the absurd reason of preventing destruction. Feeling exhausted and crumbling was the natural outcome. To stop that, the System had kept talking to me, propping me up. ―In fact, the frequency of those talks had noticeably dropped after I met Perry.
The influx of emotions and memories, however, had only gotten worse.
[...You are free to be angry. I will accept any blame. For within these shackles, you alone have that right. Because you are our last Hope.]
The System pleaded with me not to give up, to keep moving forward. I squeezed my eyes shut at the words, but reality wasn't going to change. To survive, I had to make a choice every single time. I had thrown away my life by another's will to stand here... A twisted smile forced its way onto my lips.
"I'll keep moving forward. Even if you hadn't said so."
Because that's the only choice I have left.
"But not in the way you want."
It would be the way I wanted, not yours. Because I also wished for this World not to end. No, because it had already become that way for me.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I have no intention of being your puppet."
Under countless, meaningless gazes, I snarled.
"I'm saying this so all of you can hear...!"
The inhabitants of the parallel worlds—now worlds that had met their end. Remnants whose very egos were blurred, left behind as mere Karma. Within the emotions and memories flowing in from 'The Lost Ones,' I glimpsed the truth.
[I died, and the World met The End (完)]
Dan Se-hyeok had succeeded in stopping the Destruction, but he couldn't stop The End. The Destruction Probability had been an instruction: stop the Destruction as he had done, in a World without him. That was why it only ever dropped through my own actions. Faced with all the truths, I made a clear declaration.
"Destruction and The End. I will stop them both. So―"
At that declaration of will, the World slowly began to brighten.
[Willpower 15 → 30]
Willpower (克己) was the determination to push forward without giving up, even in irrational circumstances. Drawn by the will of the Wolf who had overcome himself, the Lost Ones began to open their eyes.
[Destruction Probability 86.27% → 86.12%]
[Acquired 0.15% Karma.]
―The awakened Karma belongs to the Wolf. Bathed in countless gazes, Wolf faced the sole light that had not lost its ego and made a firm declaration to 'all those watching him.'
"―Don't interfere with me any more than you already have."
In that moment, the World trembled.
***
'―――!'
As his pure, unyielding will surged forth, Heukrin shuddered violently. An unadulterated, pure emotion, free of the Lost Ones' interference. The same emotion he had felt only once before enveloped him again. He wanted to devour that emotion, even just once. If the Hope of the Lost Ones were to fall...? If an even greater despair caused that firm resolve to collapse and made him lean on Heukrin instead...? Just imagining it sent a wave of ecstasy through him and he swallowed hard.
***
"...Finally."
The time she had been waiting for had come. He hadn't given up, and he had chosen to move forward. The Hope didn't extinguish; it blazed even fiercer. Just once. The Girl who had witnessed that battle firsthand smiled.
"―――♪."
She realized she had absently been humming to herself. The beautiful melody echoed through a place wholly unsuited to it, a place teeming with the Plague.