Chapter 91: The End of the Great Tragedy. Sharing a Drink (1)
Chapter 91: The End of the Great Tragedy. Sharing a Drink (1)
“Dad. You can bring the Thunder God back now.”
She whispered.
In the pitch-black darkness. On a night somewhere along a twisted timeline.
The moon, constantly shifting its phase, signaled that we were still within the range of the Otherworld Erosion. We were moving toward a timeline where someone occupied the highest seat.
Whose time was it?
The Thunder God had already fallen, and I was the only one here.
Only me, clutching the Thunder God whose head had been destroyed, staring up at the sky.
Only me, staring at the sky amidst a mountain of corpses.
Then, who was it that spoke to me?
Black Slime began to ooze from within the scorched sand.
It slowly formed a puddle, drawing a perfect circle.
Pop.
With a clear, resonant sound, Linshua emerged from the mud. She appeared as a silhouetted figure of earth, draped in Black Slime.
The only things shining from her mud-soaked form were her purple eyes, spinning frantically.
“…Linshua?”
I pushed aside the emotions that had sunk deep into my heart and greeted my daughter as warmly as possible.
I didn't want to feel that her actions were what led to this conclusion.
I quietly laid the Thunder God’s remains between my legs and turned my back to shield her from Linshua’s sight before speaking.
“Go home and rest. Today must have been hard for you. When everything is finished… let’s pick a day and go somewhere fun together.”
Yes, hadn't Linshua done all this for me?
A child who should be living in the light had been submerged in this darkness because of my stubbornness. There was no need to show her anything darker.
“Let’s go, Linshua. The Society will handle the cleanup—”
Despite my attempt to stop her, Linshua approached with light steps across the beach and looked into my face.
“Dad. Are you crying?”
“…Even dads cry when they’re sad.”
I leaned forward, pretending to embrace the Thunder God, hiding the severed section of her neck where blood was still flowing.
It was the simple logic that children shouldn't see cruel things. Seeing myself act this way even in such a situation made me realize, almost to a cruel degree, how cold-blooded I could be.
Regardless, I couldn't hide what was streaming from my eyes.
“That’s why! I can make Dad stop crying! Leave it to me!”
“…”
It seemed I hadn't misheard her.
“Linshua, did you say you can save the Thunder God?”
I spoke in as calm a tone as possible. To her. To this girl who possessed a unique view of life. I did it to ensure I wouldn't get angry.
I slowly hid the corpse behind me and stroked Linshua’s slightly sticky hair.
“Even if the memories carry over, the body is the same, and the personality is identical… that’s still a different person, Linshua.”
Yes. They are never the same person.
“Just as Yumil and I are different, a Thunder God created that way would be a different entity from the original. I appreciate the thought, though.”
Perhaps because I had calmed myself while speaking, the tears stopped, and my heart settled.
Like so many incidents before, I would carry this in my heart and move forward. I would never forget, but to maintain my sanity, I would tuck it away into the deep darkness.
Just as I was about to nudge Linshua’s back to send her away with that resolve—
“Huh? It’s not like that. Her essence is still…”
She reached out and pointed into the air.
Toward a place in the dark void where, to my eyes, there was nothing.
“Since it’s still there like that, she’s the original Thunder God ajumma!”
I felt no falsehood from Linshua. Her face and aura were filled with a joy that suggested what she said was only natural.
Having said that, Linshua began to converse with something in the void.
“The metal rod is a gift the friends pooled their money to make? It was made by grinding the bones of an O-Rank Monster?”
It was a vivid conversation, as if something were truly there. From that dialogue, information I couldn't fathom began to flow out.
“….”
It was all too sudden. Events were moving far too fast. Yet, for some reason, I could understand.
That this was a natural progression.
Once I understood that, my thoughts began to connect. Amidst the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions within me, a single crystallization emerged.
My. Desire.
“Linshua.”
“Yeah?”
She turned her head with a bright smile. Linshua, running innocently across the beach, was the only light shining in this pitch-black night.
Watching her, I spoke.
“What do I have to do to save the Thunder God?”
I made my choice.
Despite my grave resolve, she responded without even looking at me, busy digging into the sand.
“Huh? Dad, you don’t have to do anything special. I just asked because there are a few things I thought you might dislike!”
“What are they?”
“Well, first, if she comes back to life, the Thunder God ajumma will become a Mutant like the other ajusshis, and…”
Was there more?
“Ah! Found it!”
Cutting herself off, Linshua discovered something in the sand and pulled it out.
A pitch-black, round orb. The thing the Thunder God had spat out.
Holding it, Linshua scurried over to me and held it up before my eyes.
“It’s pretty how it sparkles, right, Dad? Even I can’t make this! It’s very precious!”
Regardless of the heavy atmosphere, she prattled on in her own world.
The reason I felt no repulsion was likely because Linshua was my daughter.
“If we use this, we can create a new body and bring her back as a Mutant! Her essence is still over there, and there are plenty of materials! It’s just…”
At the end of her rambling, childlike explanation—repeating what she’d already said—Linshua’s expression clouded over.
“I won’t get angry, so tell me.”
I gently lowered Linshua’s raised hand and stroked her head.
Perhaps calmed by the gesture, she spoke.
“If I bring her back normally, she’ll be taken away again. So, she has to be connected to me, Dad.”
Linshua spoke with a serious expression and voice.
“Could you explain in more detail?”
“Ugh… well, you see.”
Linshua grabbed her head and shook it back and forth. It looked cute, but I couldn't just let it slide. This was important, so I needed a clear answer.
“A Familiar. Yeah. Like the Familiars I saw in games, she has to become my direct subordinate! We’ll share thoughts, share words, and she won’t be able to lie properly in front of me. Not as a friend, but as a subordinate…”
So that was it. No wonder she was dragging her feet.
It seemed Linshua was more concerned about reviving her as a subordinate rather than a friend, more so than her becoming a Mutant.
“Can you give me a moment to think?”
“Okay. But you have to decide fast. The Modifier will be here soon. Once that happens, even my power won’t be able to bring her back.”
The Modifier? What was that now? I followed Linshua’s gaze as she stared off somewhere.
Then, I felt it.
Something filling the purple sky, attempting to distort the world.
Though invisible to the eye, my sharply honed senses told me something was there. It was something that could only be perceived by those capable of recognizing a reality that absolutely should not exist.
Something even I hadn't noticed until Linshua pointed it out was now heading this way, slowly peeling away the black mud clinging to the sky.
“Are you the one holding it back, Linshua?”
“Yeah. So hurry. If the essence is taken by that thing, it’ll be irreversible. It’s coming to collect the price for the borrowed power.”
How did Linshua know such things? As a parent, should I have a talk with her? Amidst the myriad of questions and thoughts mixed with such strange concerns—
I began to solidify my decision.
A brief moment of contemplation.
When I made up my mind and turned back to Linshua, I saw a small child trembling with anxiety.
As if worried about what she had said, she was fidgeting, rolling the orb between her hands and watching my expression. I opened my arms and pulled her into a hug.
How silly. To be unable to speak because of a worry like that.
As I patted Linshua’s back, I also calmed my own heart. If Linshua was reacting so intensely, I couldn't afford to lose my composure.
Still holding Linshua, I spoke.
“It’s okay with me, so tell the Thunder God.”
From here on, it was pure stubbornness.
My pure desire, unrelated to justice or anything of the sort. It might even be a blunder that didn't suit my brand of justice.
I had to apologize to the Thunder God in advance.
That for the sake of my own desire, I was going to do something she might not want.
“You probably wouldn't want to be brought back as a Mutant.”
Especially not her, after what she’d suffered through her fall.
“And you’d hate being bound by someone’s shackles.”
Especially her, who was freer than anyone.
If it were her—who hated excuses, hated justifications, and hated dressed-up goodness.
If our positions were reversed, she wouldn't do this. She would let me die quietly, even if she suffered from regret for ten years.
But because I couldn't do that.
“I don’t want you to leave my side. No matter what method I have to use.”
The moment I finished speaking.
CRASH.
The sky tore open, and something invisible reached its hand toward us.
“I’ll leave this part to you.”
“I’ll do it perfectly!”
I stroked the head of the delighted Linshua and leapt toward The Modifier.
Leaping toward the sky doesn't mean one can reach the night firmament, yet I jumped with the absolute belief that I could. And I came face-to-face with it.
A massive entity using the purple night sky as its body, dressed in the power of the black Otherworld, reaching out with undulating hands.
The Modifier. Is that, too, an existence at The End of the Story?
If so.
The thought sparked a competitive fire I couldn't suppress, and I couldn't stop myself from laughing.
I never imagined I’d be fighting it this soon.
The Root of all this.
The beginning of the nightmare.
The villain who shattered the world.
Pure evil.
The Inverse Phase of justice.
It was right there before my eyes.
Though I felt its absurd strength the moment we faced off, strangely, I didn't feel like I would lose.
The Pry Bar wouldn't do.
‘To stop that thing—’
Following the inner voice, I switched weapons. I knew this wasn't an act for the sake of justice.
This wasn't the place to swing The Hammer of justice; it was a place where I should swing the Pry Bar of my own stubbornness.
Even so, for now.
Click.
I discarded the Pry Bar and gripped The Hammer. The darkness enveloping my body vanished, and the bright white Magical Girl outfit began to cover me.
Feeling the weight of the heavy Hammer at my fingertips.
“Sorry, but lend me your strength.”
I made a request to the partner who had been with me for a long time.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Perhaps my request was heard.
The Hammer began to transform, greedily devouring my mana.
The cloth unwinding from the handle coiled around my hand, ensuring I could never let go.
The rear of The Hammer generated numerous afterburners, swelling in size.
Unlike its usual transformations, it changed while emitting excessive heat and steam.
Into a form meant to pierce the entity before me—an entity that shouldn't exist in reality.
As if this form were the correct one to strike it down, even though I hadn't consciously pictured it.
The resulting form of The Hammer was truly bizarre.
The elegance and shine it usually maintained, even in its strangest transformations, were nowhere to be found.
Instead, a massive pile-driver spear remained, looking as if it had been cobbled together from Scrap Metal.
Valves protruding from the surface hissed with steam, dangling wires spat sparks, and the afterburners pointed in so many different directions it was doubtful they’d even fire properly. Most importantly, the central pile was a wretched sight, with armor torn away in places, exposing its internals.
It was a weapon of such disastrous form that it seemed impossible for it to function, yet I gripped it and twisted my torso.
ROOOOOOAR.
The numerous afterburners ignited their respective flames.
The massive, uncontrolled energy surging in every direction made it impossible to maintain a normal trajectory, but I forced it into alignment with raw strength, guiding the pile toward The Enemy.
The moment the pile reached the foe.
I spoke.
“Don’t ignore me.”
I slammed the pile into The Modifier, which had been ignoring me and reaching for Linshua and the Thunder God.
【力 (Power) shall not reach the guest of wonder.】
CRUNCH.
“Got you.”
The pile transfixed the essence of the thing as it babbled nonsense.
Though weak, there was a distinct sensation of impact.
And for the first time, it reacted to me.
As if flustered, its entire body began to rotate.
【What. Is. This.】
A sentence structure I’d heard somewhere before.
Right, the words I felt when I looked into Linshua’s eyes babbled just like that.
It seems Linshua has some connection to these guys. As her father, I’ll have to have a long talk with her later.
“Get lost, you piece of trash.”
I waved my hand at the thing as it shattered into the darkness of the night sky, a massive hole torn through its body.
【時 (Time)! Veil. Covenant. Response. True self.】
It was still babbling something, but I couldn't understand the meaning.
I could sense its fluster through the nuance, but I had no idea what it was actually saying.
Leaving behind the final moments of the entity that had vanished far too anticlimactically for such an entrance, I landed back on the beach.
I saw two women.
One who had regained her yellow color and looked beautiful now that she had aged again. And beside her, the small, black Linshua, looking tiny by comparison.
“How does it feel to be back among the living?”
“It feels gross. Get lost.”
My bad.