#25 Night of the Great Battle (5)
#25 Night of the Great Battle (5)
The first to sense the killing intent was Agail, whose mana had already seeped into every corner of the space. Mid-incantation, he spotted the Wolf howling from the far end of the corridor.
'A beast?'
No—a monster.
A creature wearing the guise of a great Wolf, its face a white skull—a Skull Wolf.
'Right. There was one of those, wasn't there.'
It must have broken free of its cage during the chaos. No matter. In this place, under the absolute dominion of his own mana, it would scarcely be able to move. He had no time to waste on a lone Skull Wolf. He dismissed it from his thoughts and resumed his chant.
"Ești pierdut. Nu există cale de întoarcere—"
The will woven into Agail's words steadily hardened into magic.
He wasn't given to sentimentality, but a faint irritation lingered—the organization he had built had been undone so pointlessly. They must have been biding their time, waiting for a moment when he was absent.
'Anella.'
Things had grown complicated because of her. Agail's brow furrowed.
Surely the Imitation Elixir had not been taken from him... but the fact that Derek was dead left a distinctly foul aftertaste.
'If I kill my sister here.'
Would Mother grieve? Unlikely. He was on the verge of completing the spell, with so little magic remaining—
"———."
He felt a spine-chilling presence at his back, blazing with the intent to kill.
***
As if shattering the silence of dawn, the ceiling caved in.
When the dust settled, a robed man descended slowly down a stair of violet light. The overwhelming mana radiating from him—it possessed weight in and of itself.
'Pressure.'
A colossal magical force pronounced judgment: kneel. Even as I resisted and hauled my own mana up to meet it, I felt on the verge of being crushed.
'Agail.'
Agail Morest.
Before I knew it, the interior of the hideout had been swallowed by an impenetrable darkness that hid everything an inch ahead.
[Dark Vision (F) Lv.7 proficiency at maximum. Dark Vision (F) Lv.7 → Dark Vision (F) Lv.8]
He must have noticed my gaze, because his eyes met mine. For the briefest instant, a glance that felt like it was passing over me. A cold look, as if I were vermin beneath his notice.
'......!'
The pressure was crushing.
This was nothing like the Illusion Realm. Mana infused with will cannot simply be shed.
Crrk—I gritted my teeth and endured. As I remembered the hidden space beyond the lab—the horror of the breeding pens—a flame reignited in my cooling chest.
I tore the scroll I'd taken from underground. A thin haze of light bled out.
Derek and Agail. The human refuse of the Blind Spot. I glared at him, seething with a fury I could feel in my own bones, vowing I would not let a single one escape—vowing I would kill every last one of them.
'Agail!'
I poured the power of the spell scroll into a leap through space, emerging just behind him. The instant Agail turned his head, I slammed my jaws shut, stretched to their absolute limit.
"—Ngh!"
The pressure pinning my body slowed my movements. The metallic taste of blood flooding my mouth was exquisite. He stared at me, dumbfounded, his wrist simply gone.
The Wolf did not hesitate, did not stop. Embers flared alongside a Gust.
And in that same instant, Agail raised his hand.
Mana swirled—its target, needless to say, was the Wolf.
The moment our eyes met, Agail roared.
"Dormi pentru totdeauna în minciuni—!"
Sleep forever in falsehood—!
The final spell, at last fully incanted. A five-section chant. Magic that, in and of itself, was called a miracle. The same Grand Magic Hong Yuri had once wielded. But this one, worked in violet mana rather than Crimson, reached straight into the mind and projected another World around the Wolf.
Agail clutched his devoured wrist and said icily,
"Trash like you..."
...carries far too much coin for the road to the afterlife. His brow still knit tight, Agail downed a potion and let out a breath.
"An undeserved death."
It was magic never meant to be squandered on a mere monster.
But in that moment, Agail understood that he might—perhaps—have died.
Had he been even a heartbeat slower, that might truly have been the case. Agail twisted his lips into a crooked sneer.
"Lumea din oglindă. Nu te vei întoarce—"
He began to chant once more.
***
"Don't touch it. That's Alpha's ability."
"Alpha? The Skull Wolf you've been hunting?"
"We believe it is its skill."
Anella was dumbfounded. A mere monster possessed a skill like this?
The blazing black flames spread greedily, slowly consuming the space itself.
Soon, the mana blanketing the area shuddered violently.
'Alpha, is it?'
An unexpected opening. If the mana shuddered, it meant Agail's concentration had been broken.
"I'm starting to see a little."
His eyes were adapting to the dark. He couldn't light the flames, but elsewhere, Anella's light reached far enough.
"This fire does not go out easily. We'll find a way back."
"What about Agail?"
"Ngh... he's straight ahead from here."
Clutching at her wound, Eun Ja-rim pointed forward. The largest laboratory... the central laboratory.
"You detected him?"
"Just now. For a split second, when his mana surged. We have to hurry!"
The corridor ahead was engulfed in black flame. That had kept the mana from flooding in, but there was no crossing through here. Team Leader Gu turned his head.
"That way, then."
"We're going around?"
When she asked if they had the time for that, he nodded.
"If I were easy prey, I wouldn't have stepped forward. It has that much intelligence."
"Ha... intelligence?"
Leaving Anella, who was muttering as though she couldn't believe it, behind, Gu Jin-ha sprinted toward the right-side corridor—only to find a repulsive monster sloshing there.
"A chimera? No, something different."
"It looks like something that crawled out of a toilet."
A vast, shapeless mass, as if someone had taken a slime and made it sticky and grotesque, choked the passageway.
"To think he posted a Keeper."
Thorough, just as you would expect of a Square heir. The mass filling the corridor. A strange sense of déjà vu struck him. The Team Leader looked down at his rapier and sighed.
'This isn't what it's meant for.'
He could destroy it if he let loose his full power, but... his eyes met Eun Ja-rim's, as though she had read his mind.
"Go."
"Will you be all right?"
Instead of answering, she raised her spear.
The Disciple of the Spear Saint, heir of the Spear Immortal. As the mana born from her at last saturated the spear, she thrust it forward in a stance that bordered not on completion, but on perfection.
"Suliță pentru a-l ucide pe diavol!"
The spear had already left her hand, yet along with her incantation, its mana swelled without end. When it finally met the mucus monster, it pierced straight through without a sound.
"Spear of Demon Annihilation—!"
The instant Eun Ja-rim shouted at the top of her lungs, light rippled. When the radiance that had illuminated everything faded, the monster that had blocked the corridor was gone without a trace.
"You live up to your reputation."
Unlike a deeply impressed Gu Jin-ha, Anella could barely contain her shock.
"What...!"
It was absurd.
The spell and the incantation did not match. That was precisely why she could not believe it.
As a mage of the Square, she understood exactly how senseless that was. This was no simple eruption of mana. It was not magic realized through a precisely calculated incantation and formula using mana as a medium. It was as if the mana had simply obeyed her will—as though it must be so.
A preposterous impossibility, utterly divorced from all common sense.
"Go."
Eun Ja-rim's expression twisted as she dropped to one knee. The wound she had barely kept suppressed was spreading, beginning to rot.
"We'll be back shortly."
Taking the horrified Anella with him, Gu Jin-ha vanished beyond the haze of violet mana, thick as mist.
***
I had a dream, viciously vivid. But I couldn't remember what it was about.
"This makes no sense."
I sat up in bed. My back was clammy with cold sweat. Disgusted, I washed up quickly and sat down in front of the computer. I tapped the power button with my toe, and the decrepit old machine whirred noisily to life. I watched NewTube for a bit, then immediately booted up a game.
"Wasn't I in my promotion match...?"
I logged in to find the promotion match was already over and my score had tanked. Why? Did someone play on my account? I checked my phone just in case, but no one had asked to borrow it.
"The hell. Fuck."
I checked the match history. It said I had abandoned the game.
Since when did I ever abandon a match? I let out a baffled laugh. I went straight to the website and filed a ticket, which left me feeling a little deflated.
"Pisses me off."
I didn't feel like playing anymore. I was browsing the internet, watching a new video from some lunatic NewTuber in a red mask, when a reply came back.
[Regarding your inquiry...]
It said I really had done it. So what, do I have amnesia now? Early-onset dementia? Irritably, I shut off the internet and threw myself onto the bed.
'Guess I'll catch up on some backlog.'
I opened a novel site and pulled up my favorites list. While I was reading through it, an alert popped up for a novel I had notifications turned on for.
"Oh."
It was one I'd been following for a long time.
"It ended?"
Chapter 462 (End).
Seemed a little rushed. They'll probably do side stories. Whatever. I didn't think much of it and tapped on the final chapter.
[I died, and the World met its End. (End)]
'Are my eyes blurry?'
I rubbed my eyelids, but nothing changed. Which meant this was real.
"What happened to beating the final boss and getting a happy ending?"
Feeling like I'd been sucker-punched, I opened the comments. The author had left one.
[If you don't like the ending, change it yourself.]
"What kind of bullshit is that?"
Then the app crashed.
"Unbelievable."
Incredulous, I went back in. The novel that had been 462 chapters long was gone. All that remained was a short fifty-chapter story.
"Ah, fuck."
Are they joking? Is this not blatant reader deception? Ready to fire off a 5,700-character rant, I hit the first chapter. But at some point, I was just staring blankly, reading.
"......."
It was a story about a man.
A story about a man who wrote a 5,700-character comment and then was pulled into the novel and became a monster.
"Frustrating."
At times, he acted so frustratingly it was incomprehensible.
"Like an idiot."
Sometimes he was so frustrating he was just outright idiotic.
There was even a female character whose actions made me wonder if the writer had thrown out any sense of narrative cause-and-effect and decided to make her act like a complete brat.
[Never seen a real genuine retard bitch like this.]
Normally, I would've dropped it.
'Count yourself lucky.'
Out of fondness for what I'd read so far, I just left a comment and hit the next chapter.
"More frustrating plot twists here?"
He almost got killed by the same crazy bitch from the original.
I chugged some cider from the fridge. It was the kind of frustrating that left a film in your throat. The protagonist was frustrating and stupid. Where would you even find an idiot like that? And yet... for some reason, I kept reading. Was it inertia? Loyalty? I don't know. I just. I just kept reading.
"......."
Next chapter. Next chapter after that.
'What is this.'
I don't know.
Honestly, the content was nothing special. Just a dime-a-dozen novel. A completely different story that shared only the world-building, to the point you'd wonder why it even had to be a remake. Not the story of the original protagonist's journey, but someone else's story.
"......."
I read on in a daze and ended up finishing all fifty chapters. Before I knew it, dusk was falling outside the window.
"It ends here."
Cutting it off here. Insane cliffhanger. I was staring blankly at the sunset, steeped in the afterglow, when my vision blurred.
'......?'
Something dripped down. I touched my cheek, thinking no way—but no way was right.
"Ridiculous."
At this point, it's just absurd. My phone buzzed again. An alert that the novel I'd been reading had updated.
'Oh. A bonus chapter?'
Unfortunately, it was just a notice. Baiting people should have limits... but the title felt oddly familiar.
[Choose]
Choose? As if possessed, I tapped the newly posted notice.
[Whether to advance, or whether to halt.]
A question the novel had posed again and again.
Words that had sometimes pulled the protagonist to his feet, sometimes offered counsel, sometimes served as a guide.
"They've really gone all in on the concept."
Crazy author bastard.
I snickered and closed the app. But the phone in my hand vanished.
"Huh?"
Where... where did it go?
I searched for a long time and couldn't find it. I was pissed off, but the rims of my eyes kept reddening. The single tear that had fallen earlier was now streaming steadily down.
"Ah, shit. This is embarrassing."
I don't think I ever cried like this even when my senior chewed me out... It flowed, and flowed. Then something began to boil up from inside.
"Fuck."
Today was strange.
Inexplicable things kept happening. And then, as if to crown it all, a voice spoke.
[Whether to advance, or whether to halt.]
I tried my best to think I'd misheard and ignored it, but goosebumps erupted all over my body. I was standing there, frozen, when I flinched at another sound.
"Kyurrrruk. Kyurrrruk!"
I turned my head and saw a creature I'd never seen before, flattened against the window, staring intently at me.
'What. What is that.'
Not a snake. Not a bird, either. A bizarre creature with a long, serpentine body and wings. It was smacking the window with its tail as if it were sulking.
"Kyurrruruk! Kyurrrururuk!"
As if I'd open it. I went to the fridge to see if there was anything to eat. I hastily mixed some tuna into rice and threw it in the microwave.
'Tasteless.'
Normally I ate it just fine, but for some reason it felt stifling.
'I feel like I'm forgetting something.'
My head feels foggy. But no matter how hard I thought, I couldn't recall what I was forgetting.
'What is it? What am I forgetting?'
My throat tightened.
Alongside a whining voice, I thought I heard a calm voice. In that moment, my heart surged. Something was boiling up inside me.
I ate my meal half-heartedly and came back to my room. The creature was still stuck to the window.
"What are you?"
When I walked over to get a better look, it wagged its tail as if it were glad to see me.
'Like a puppy.'
It didn't look harmful. After hesitating for a long moment, I finally opened the window. It flew in as if it had been waiting and started tearing around the room however it pleased.
"Hey! Hey!"
The room filled with a luminous powder. Then it came up to me.
"...What?"
It spread its wings as if asking to be held. What am I, crazy? I ignored it and turned my head. It stuck itself to the back of my skull.
"You little—!"
Then it slipped inside and vanished.
"Huh?"
It went into my head. But it didn't hurt. No—somehow, I even felt a sense of peace.
'Should I go to the hospital tomorrow?'
I must be seeing hallucinations. I really am losing it. I sighed and threw myself onto the bed. It crumbled with a crash.
"Fuck, I'm serious!"
Nothing's going right. I tried to push myself up, but my arm felt wrong. Where my arm should've been, there was a paw.
"What... is this?"
A foreleg. The great black foreleg of a beast was planted on my ruined bed.
My form had changed without my noticing. A massive monstrous Wolf with a white skull and black fur. Inside the skull, the fairy dragon tilted its head as if to ask what was wrong.
'What I'd been forgetting.'
The memory surfaced.
The consciousness I had forgotten rose up.
As the déjà vu swelled—everything began to slowly distort. The world shook as if an earthquake had struck, and at last, it began to collapse.
At the same time, the thing that had been simmering and boiling inside erupted like a volcano.
'.......'
Despair. Rage. Disappointment. Doubt. Guilt and powerlessness. And bitterness.
"Ah."
Those were the emotions the man who became a monster had felt—yes. They were the very emotions I was feeling right now.
[Choose.]
A voice echoed from the empty air. I stared up at it blankly.
[Whether to advance, or whether to halt.]
The man—no, I had always made the same choice. And surely this time would be no different.
[Then advance.]
But how? How was I supposed to escape this elaborately crafted false world?
[An illusion is a false World seen by the weak.]
The voice changed.
It was different from before.
It was not the System. It was the voice of 'someones.'
A voice full of regret. Full of remorse, as though they had failed to achieve something.
[Overcome yourself, and at last, see the truth.]
The fairy dragon swept the tip of its tail across the skull.
It let out a whine. Let's get out of here—quick. It said it didn't want to stay here any longer.
'Ah. Right.'
I let out an empty laugh.
The way to shatter this illusion—
[Self-Discipline (克己) : 4 → 10]
And the world collapsed.
***
A collapsed world, a vanished Wolf.
He looked around the empty mental World where no one else remained and murmured quietly.
[...I will wait.]
In a future not far from now. Until you come to find me.