Chapter 92
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: Ameris's Night
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Even on this dark night, the surrounding heat and light made it feel anything but hot.
The cathedral's exterior was stone, but its interior was lined with wood.
The torches the men had brought fell to the ground as they turned into ghouls.
Now they blazed fiercely, illuminating the cathedral's interior with scorching light.
Erina muttered under her breath.
"Damn it...! Those rotten bastards are just slipping away!"
According to Erina,
the ghouls that had ravenously devoured Seluna's corpse soon seemed sated and slunk outside.
No longer human, they followed the trail of Selus's spilled blood, drawn by its scent.
Erina had charged after them to stop it.
But someone blocked her path.
"Why do you keep getting in my way! If this goes on, Selus will be next...!"
"Trust me."
Erina stared at me with an expression of utter incomprehension.
Then she collapsed to the ground.
No one—or nothing—left in this temple could still be called human.
'Same goes for the village down there, I bet.'
I turned my head and gazed at the village visible at the foot of the mountain.
Houses burned red in the darkness.
Flames choked the interiors, and where the fire had already consumed everything, only black ash remained.
The blaze spread through the village outskirts, screams echoing through the night.
Those still alive prayed desperately to the gods in their despair, while a few, realizing prayers were futile, took their own lives in madness.
The village had already transformed into a hellscape.
I looked at the burning cathedral.
'Is this what they call divine punishment?'
What a load of crap from the gods.
What Seluna had wanted wasn't punishment—it was salvation.
I started walking down the night path where Selus had fled.
Erina rushed over and grabbed me.
"Siwoo! Didn't Seluna say she was pureblood? Maybe her body could still revive."
"Seluna's not coming back."
"How do you know that, Siwoo! You can't be sure...!"
Maybe not.
If Selus hadn't come out of it unscathed, that is.
I looked at Erina and asked,
"Before Baek Arin and I arrived, didn't Seluna make Selus drink her blood?"
Erina reacted with shock.
"How did you know that, Siwoo?!"
"That's why Seluna's no longer pureblood."
I pushed past Erina and kept moving forward.
"Where are you going, Kim Siwoo!"
Baek Arin ran up, asking as she approached.
Where? Only one place came to mind.
I gazed at her through the darkness and answered softly.
"To Selus."
"Do you know where she is?"
In lieu of a reply, I simply nodded.
She followed silently at my wordless gesture.
"Got it. I'll trust you."
I extended a hand to Erina, who was crouched with puffy, tear-swollen eyes.
"Seluna's dead. But we still have to clear this damned dungeon."
"I know."
Erina rose unsteadily.
I tossed one more line her way.
"Selus is still alive. We'll fulfill Seluna's wish and save Selus. I'll carve the path from here on out—so follow me."
Ghoul Field. Ameris's Night airspace.
Led by major networks, countless broadcasters and reporters swarmed toward the Ghoul Field, scenting a scoop.
Some even ignored warnings and approached via helicopter.
Ghoul Field news was that big a deal.
-This is HBC reporter Lee Se-hee! I'm currently hovering above the provisional S-rank 'Nightmare of the Ghoul Field' incident in the Ghoul Field!
-Yes, that was reporter Lee Se-hee up to this point.
Only HBC was reckless enough to deploy a chopper for close-up exclusive coverage of 'Ameris's Night.'
The nation's eyes were glued to HBC's live feed.
I walked toward where Selus was.
Finding the spot wasn't hard.
No, there wasn't even any need to think about it.
The swamp where Selus's necklace had been.
The direction she'd fled was the same.
Just head that way.
Baek Arin, chatty Erina—everyone walked in silence.
We went on for several minutes.
Or was it dozens? Time blurred.
But the sensation of covering hours' worth of distance in an instant was crystal clear.
This probably wasn't reality either.
Suddenly, the swamp appeared before us.
And in its center stood a figure I instantly recognized.
Bloodstains soaked through her ragged old clothes, now dried stiff.
Four ghouls had followed her blood scent.
Spotting them, Erina shouted as she dashed toward Selus.
"Selus! They're coming your way. It's dangerous!"
I held her back.
"Look again, Erina. There are no ghouls."
"What are you talking about...!"
Ghouls distinguish friend from foe only by light and shadow, thanks to their degenerated eyesight—they kill indiscriminately.
They feel no pain, no heat, no scent.
They avoid fire, but lack the wits to care while tearing into prey.
I told Erina,
"It's an illusion chain."
One conjured by Selus.
By Ameris.
A fake born from regret over what had to be done that way.
"All the ghouls burned to death in the cathedral."
"What does that mean...?"
"In this idiotic play's finale, we play the ghouls."
More precisely, Selus's regret over failing to die to those four ghouls.
That's why she'd summoned our four teams to recreate them.
She wanted to relive the 'Night of Ameris' that happened to her.
Repeating the past where she couldn't die.
Regretting her flight,
resenting her body that denied her death,
all to finally die.
"Right, Ameris?"
Selus—or Ameris—standing in the swamp's midst turned at my words.
Her eyes glowed red yet translucent.
Her skin was whiter than the moonlight reflecting from the sky.
Her fangs sharpened, radiating immense power.
She resembled Seluna.
As she turned, the dungeon clear condition text shifted.
[Chase the girl...]
[CLEAR]
[Proceeding to next phase.]
[Chase the fleeing girl.]
[Recreate the fleeing girl's night.]
"Ameris's Night, huh. I thought it was a classy name."
Ameris regarded me with a dry gaze.
"Is that so? I rather liked it for this body."
The one speaking wasn't Selus.
Eyes devoid of Selus's vibrant spark—endlessly hollow.
Surfaces crystalline, deep, and pure, but depths muddied by eons of undeath.
Not the young Selus's, but Ameris's, who had lived millennia.
Erina, startled by her changed tone and appearance, cried out.
"Selus, why are you standing there? It's dangerous!"
Ameris ignored her completely.
I asked her,
"Ameris. That's probably not your real name, is it?"
Ameris turned to me, her eyes narrowing briefly.
"It is undoubtedly this body's name."
"Like how you gave Seluna her name. Or did Seluna teach you your true one?"
"..."
"Seluna inherited your name, and when she died, you took Ameris's. Ameris's Night—the night of Seluna and Selus."
Ameris screamed, her hollow eyes blazing.
"Yes! That night, I couldn't die. I should have. I desperately wanted to! Just as I gave her my name, this body inherited hers. And tonight, we'll sink together."
I shot back at her impassioned outburst.
"What the hell does that even mean!"
Ameris looked down and replied.
"It's why Seluna taught me the name—and why I inherited it."
Her form was no longer a child's.
"I regret fleeing that night without dying. Seluna wanted us to close our eyes together. She must have. And this body wanted it too."
Her tone and gaze were parched.
But I could tell. She was crying.
Ameris fell silent for a moment.
Then resumed her calm tone.
"Kill me, and you'll escape this place. Will you save me?"
Ameris—no, Selus—demanded I end their story.
Yeah. Time to wrap it up.
I can't let Lee Seong-hyeon claim Ameris's heart.
That would kill me too.
So I have to deal with Ameris first.
But...
Does it have to be by killing her?
I looked at Ameris and asked,
"One thing I want to know. I gave you ice cream, so you owe me that much, right? Ice cream."
Ameris peered down at me.
"That wasn't me. Just something shaped from my memories and the land's residual echoes. All illusions."
I snorted at her words, and she asked irritably,
"What's so funny?"
"You oversee every dungeon. Think I'd miss that?"
This dungeon was her trial ground for death.
No proctor slacks off in their own exam hall.
"Tell me. I'll grant one word."
"You made this dungeon, right?"
"Strange question. I pulled my memories and past forms, manipulated them. Who else recreated the past but me?"
She's making it complicated.
Twisting words around, but the gist is:
Beat her until she cries 'I was wrong,' and the dungeon vanishes.
Ameris here is a gold digger too, huh.
"Time for some proper education. Take it sweet."