Chapter 255: The Pitch-Black Queen
Chapter 255: The Pitch-Black Queen
Having finished her piece, The Queen spread her hands wide. It was as if she were inviting me to choose.
Drip.
My vision turned red.
Since this was already a world of Black and White, the only change was the white areas being stained crimson.
It was a signal announcing my impending death.
A time limit on the choice, then.
I didn't need something like this.
My heart began to thud with an irregular rhythm.
With every beat, my consciousness flickered.
The continuity of time felt dubious.
But I had to say what needed to be said.
"Cut the... bullshit... You're the one who has to compensate for all of this."
I placed a hand over my throbbing chest.
I forced my feet to move toward The Queen, who stood so close, yet felt so unimaginably far away.
"We... came to this world because you invited us..."
Cough.
The taste of blood filled my mouth.
No, I couldn't actually taste it.
Had my sense of taste already failed?
I could only tell there was something soft and squishy in my mouth.
Swallowing the "mud," I opened my lips.
"We were the ones caught up in your plan, the ones who suffered. Everyone. All of us."
One step.
Another step.
Feeling my body breaking down, I stood before her.
"So, give it all back. Everything."
I spat the words at her along with a mouthful of blood, but she merely smiled as she spoke.
"I'll tell you one thing. Everyone at 'The End' is a sociopath. Whether they’re friendly toward you or hostile."
She answered a question I hadn't even asked.
"Because 'The End' has no end, they are beings obsessed with stimulation. Beings who cannot connect with others. Beings who cannot understand others. Those who hang their lives on a single obsession. Just as Hyeon is obsessed with salvation. Just as Dam is obsessed with a flavor no one has ever tasted. Just as In, out of a paradoxical hatred for the concept of magic, spread a magic system that utilizes the physical body. Just as Ma finds pleasure in the ruin of stories created by others."
As she spoke, my pain momentarily vanished.
As if this wasn't the time for a choice.
As if my time limit hadn't truly arrived.
"That is why they crave stories. The stimulation of events they haven't experienced, the unpredictable outbursts. However, because their tastes differ, their actions vary—whether they act as a Planner, a Narrator, a Modifier, or a Spectator. That is the classification of 'The End' that you know. In reality, no such distinctions exist among those at The End. But it was well-made, wasn't it?"
She then folded her hands.
As if to signal that the time for choosing was not yet here.
"Now. This was originally part of the information I would have given you only after you made a choice. And yet, I've laid it all out now. Why do you think I did that?"
"...Because it amuses you."
You disgusting pleasure-addict.
No, all of you addicts.
I finally understood what those things at "The End" were thinking when they did these things.
There was no guarantee this was the truth.
But at least regarding that entity...
"Yes, correct. There is something I want to tell you, and this is the prerequisite knowledge needed to understand it."
Beaming, she continued to speak, her expression visible despite her lack of a face.
"Personally, I consider myself closer to a Narrator or a Planner. After all, I didn't swallow a world just because I wanted to see animals and fairies frolicking; I created it myself, didn't I?"
I wondered if the residents of the Magic Kingdom knew that their world was created for such a trivial reason.
"And I laid the foundation for the story to find a new Guardian Corps this time. Of course, I made adjustments because I was told the Guardians couldn't possibly turn out that way, but I built the grand framework."
Snap.
She flicked her fingers.
The Black and White world brightened.
* * *
"This place is..."
I looked around the new location; it was a dark, reddish place.
A black sky and crimson earth.
And red clouds.
It was a place I had seen recently.
Recalling the past trauma, I felt sick and tried to turn my head, but my vision rotated rapidly.
It was as if I existed only as a point of view, without a body.
Then, a sight I never could have imagined entered my field of vision.
Myself.
The giant Un-ho standing beside me.
Lieutenant General Par, with a purple giant at their back.
A familiar scene.
In that vision, I turned my head and said something to Un-ho.
No.
This can't be.
Stop, you idiot.
That's not what you should choose there.
Go forward.
Fight your enemy.
Right now, you're...
To Un-ho...
I wanted to scream, but I could do nothing.
All I could do was watch.
Watch a determined future.
Just as I was about to look away from everything, unable to bear it.
"FIGHT!"
Par’s roar signaled the beginning of The End.
While I was unable to react, my gaze fixed elsewhere.
Un-ho stepped in front of me.
Now, Un-ho will be blown apart.
And I will go berserk.
From a perspective I wanted to turn away from but couldn't, I watched him, wanting to weep tears of blood but having no eyes to shed them.
I braced myself to witness Un-ho’s death, something I hadn't seen before.
However.
Crunch.
At the same time a headache split my skull.
"Move, you idiot!"
The voice was clearly mine, but an unfamiliar tone echoed through the crater.
Un-ho, who had blocked my path, was sent flying.
Splat.
A sound like a bursting watermelon echoed.
What had burst?
Who had burst?
It was obvious.
My head had burst.
Something had changed.
"...Poyo?"
A voice I could no longer hear rang out.
A white, long-haired fur ball tilted its head.
It stared at the blue corpse lying there, its head gone.
"...Lee Ha-ram?"
The voice was bewildered.
"...Hey. Lee Ha-ram. Wake up. You don't... die from something like this... do you?"
Gradually. Gradually.
The voice grew smaller.
With hands stained red with blood, it shook my body.
How much time had passed?
"...Ha... Hahahaha."
Un-ho began to laugh.
With a sorrowful voice.
With a twisted voice.
"Lieutenant General... Par?"
Then, he rotated his neck a full three hundred and sixty degrees to look at Par.
"... %#^Blood %#Resonance...!"
Par muttered something in response.
"Lieutenant General. Par?"
Un-ho’s surface began to collapse.
The white fur turned into a swirling mist that enveloped Un-ho.
And upon the revealed pink flesh...
Countless eyes and mouths sprouted.
"Enemy. Kill. Slay. Revenge. Blood. Flesh."
Those mouths incessantly babbled, announcing the entity's presence.
Then, Un-ho’s form crumbled.
All that remained was a slurry of rotten flesh covered in countless eyes and mouths.
It looked as if he had rotted away and vanished from the world.
"...Ancestral Regression... too fast..."
Lieutenant General Par watched in panic.
They immediately charged and swung their fist.
Boom.
That fist was blocked by something that sprouted from the flesh.
A crushed arm of a twin-tailed Magical Girl, made of gray, slimy flesh, covered in countless eyes and mouths.
"...Lieutenant General... Par?"
From the countless mouths, at countless slightly different timings, the same words were uttered.
"...Where is... Lee Ha-ram?"
As it spoke, the eyes attached to it scanned the surroundings.
Soon, they turned toward my corpse.
"...It's a lie... right?"
The voice spoke, trembling and overlapping.
"...A prayer. A prayer. A prayer to The Queen. Must save him. Save. Save. Sacrifice. Corpse. Flesh. Right in front of me..."
"I pray to The Queen."
"We pray."
"Before the death of my half."
"Kyahahahaha."
Each mouth began to sing like a madman.
And then.
"Die. Lieutenant General Par."
Boom.
A swollen arm of flesh struck Lieutenant General Par.
Par’s purple giant didn't react to the fist, but it soon moved quickly as if terrified, escaping the range where the fist fell.
"...The Power of the Glutton..."
Perhaps because of the impact, Par’s voice regained some sanity.
Torn marks were visible all over Par’s giant.
And the missing pieces were soon found.
The mouths of the flesh Magical Girl were chewing, tearing away the purple light.
"...Sacrifice... for the prayer..."
And so, the battle began.
A truly horrific clash.
Between a monstrous Magical Girl and a purple giant made of bone and blood.
In a world made of blood and flesh, they carved pieces out of themselves.
The sight was indescribable.
It was a battle I couldn't understand.
Just as I was watching in a daze.
"Ronia. Now."
Lina's voice echoed from across the sky.
At the same time.
White light raced across the red sky.
Countless geometric patterns and unknown characters appeared.
A massive cube formed from them.
It plummeted into the crater.
"...So this is how it was."
"Lee Ha-ram... must be saved..."
The movements of the two slowed.
As if their actions until now had been an illusion.
They were left in a state of utter helplessness.
In that situation, four entities appeared in the sky.
Lina, expressionless as usual.
A Waiter in neat attire, muttering while holding something square and rotating.
Finally, a fairy presumed to be Ronia, eyes closed and mouth open with a Magic Circle spread before her, and the pig Ronia sitting on the fairy's head, reaching toward the Magic Circle.
In that situation, Lina descended to the earth and looked down at the flesh Magical Girl and Par.
Then, she spoke.
"Are you coming to your senses now? How was your first experience with a Prohibition?"
"..."
"..."
However, the two entities could only gasp for breath.
"Well, I'll take that as it being difficult. UN_1D-12. It seems you've succeeded in controlling it. But you still have a long way to go. Keep striving. And UN_1-10. I didn't think you'd be able to handle it to this extent on your first try. As expected of the talent The Queen has her eye on."
UN_1-10.
I had heard that before.
That was definitely Un-ho’s...
"...Save... Lee Ha-ram..."
"Regrettably, that is impossible for me. However, The Queen said, 'This is merely a performance, so do not worry about that.' So, do not worry and rest peacefully for now."
"Is that... so... Then... I'll sleep for a bit..."
Was that the last of his strength?
The flesh Magical Girl.
Un-ho closed his eyes just like that.
Lieutenant General Par also sucked the purple giant back into their body, gasped for breath, and soon closed their eyes.
Simultaneously, the world regained its color.
"Resonance phenomenon confirmed. UN_1D-12. Control successful. UN_1-10. Awakening through blood resonance. High resistance to Prohibition. Returning now."
After saying that to the air, Lina floated my corpse, Un-ho, and Par into the sky and vanished into the distance.
* * *
My vision flickered.
Once again, the pain throughout my body screamed of death.
I faced The Queen.
"...What was... that just now?"
"The original scenario I devised. The one where you half-died."
"...Then, did I die back then?"
"No? Normally, you would have regenerated on your own after that. Par at that time had no means to annihilate you. There's no guarantee that the essence dies just because regeneration isn't happening, right? Though, it would have been very painful and had a negative impact on your mind."
"Hahahaha."
Only laughter came out.
So, did I lose Un-ho because I tried to run away?
Even as I was self-deprecating like that, it didn't seem to matter to The Queen.
"Look. The grand Magic Circle Captain Ronia prepared, the foreshadowing of Par’s blood, the revelation of Un-ho’s identity. It was all a scenario that existed. A story with a beginning, middle, and end. But then you did something nonsensical, and it suddenly turned into a blood-soaked splatter movie. You Irregular."
Right. A pretty positive ending.
Except for me.
And I was the one who had to endure it.
In the end, I had strayed far away because of my own mistake.
Onto a distant path, completely different from the one someone had suggested I take.
With my hands stained in blood.
"Ah, for the record, that information was the reward for your head bursting and for making it this far. But I got angry because it all went sideways. You probably don't understand. But don't try to. This is just the kind of beings we are."
She continued to chatter.
Regardless of my condition.
Regardless of my feelings.
"Still, it wasn't bad. The original scenario was a bit boring. Too orthodox, you could say. There needs to be some tyranny like this. Unexpected situations are fun, aren't they? So, I'm giving a chance to the annoying being who completely ruined my scenario."
The Queen opened both hands.
Her left hand, where countless videos flowed.
Her right hand, where a video of Un-ho flowed.
As if telling me to choose.
"Now. It's time to choose."
I stood before her, staggering.
Unable to even feel proper sensations.
With a trembling hand, I grabbed her right hand.
"I didn't expect this. Didn't you come all this way for the other? Is the existence called Un-ho worth betraying the corpses you've piled up until now?"
...Shut up.
"...No, Un-ho isn't worth that much."
Even I would be light compared to the mountain of corpses I've built.
Therefore.
While still holding The Queen's right hand, I grabbed her left hand as well.
"Give me. Both."