Chapter 369: I’ve Regained Consciousness (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 369: I’ve Regained Consciousness (1)
Alon stared blankly at the sky.
Before he knew the truth, it had been a place filled only with the Milky Way, but now, countless eyes had crowded into that space.
They varied in size and shape.
However, there were thousands, tens of thousands of "eyes" that were unmistakably eyes.
Looking up at them in silence, Alon let out a hollow laugh despite himself.
‘…So that’s what it was?’
The first thing that came to mind was Psychedelia.
The game that had allowed him to roughly know what would happen in this world.
The game that had given him the knowledge to save the children who would become the Five Great Sins.
Of course, Alon didn't perceive this world as a game.
He had realized long ago that this place wasn't just a world inside a game made of zeros and ones.
Even the biggest fool would have realized that.
However, what he recalled was the ending of Psychedelia.
As the playable character, Elivan, the ending that appeared every time he defeated all the Sins and cleared Psychedelia was always different.
It was only natural.
Depending on how one controlled Elivan, there were countless branching paths for the ending.
Sometimes, even after dealing with all the Sins, the Allied Forces would be weakened, and the Empire would invade.
Similarly, even if one reached the end, the infamy the player had accumulated along the way would come back to haunt them, leading to an unhappy ending.
He had seen many other endings for Elivan across various classes.
And among them, there were, of course, those called "Happy Endings."
Endings where none of the companions Elivan had bonded with died.
Endings where, miraculously, the influence of the Allied Forces remained intact, and the Empire did not invade.
To any player, it was a happy ending.
Yet, all those many endings had one thing in common.
It was the phrase that appeared at the very end.
Whether it was a bad ending.
Or a happy ending.
The phrase that appeared before the player never changed.
[You alone have escaped destruction.]
It was a sentence that many players had once questioned, interpreted, or complained about.
Other users had speculated that it was a teaser for a sequel.
Of course, Alon had also been slightly interested back then.
He had searched for it on the internet.
He had checked wikis that gathered information.
However, in the end, everything was just speculation or interpretation without any official word, so he had soon lost interest.
But at this very moment, Alon finally understood the meaning of that ending phrase.
The end of Psychedelia was not the end.
No matter what kind of ending Elivan met, that was merely the result of stopping the Sins.
It did not show what happened afterward.
That was why the phrase existed.
You alone have escaped destruction.
"Ha."
Having pieced together the puzzle of a truth he hadn't particularly wanted to know, Alon let out a dry laugh.
The innumerable eyes above the blue night were still looking down at him.
He felt countless gazes.
At the same time, he felt emotions.
And then.
Woooooom—!
A massive noise began to ring out.
It wasn't the sound of a magic circle.
It wasn't the sound of any machine.
It wasn't a resonance.
It was, quite literally, a bizarre noise produced by the world itself.
However, that sound instantly devoured the emotions of those present.
Soldiers were consumed by terror.
Knights trembled with fear.
Mages alternated between tension and resignation.
And then.
Snap—
With a very small sound, as if something had been severed.
The Milky Way visible to everyone.
The eyes visible to Alon—
No, to a select few.
They began to fall toward the earth.
"…Wow."
The soldiers marveled.
Stained with terror, their hearts were stolen by the Milky Way pouring down like rain.
However, Alon was different.
[̆■■҇■■■■҇■■]
[A҇AAAAAA҇AAAA͛͋͞─̈̍̽̅̌͝─͆̂͝─̒̇̈́̉͞─̛̔̒͊̅͊─̐̓̀̃̕─̛͆̍͒─̛̋̏́͂͛─҇͛̌̔]
[Rot҇RotRotRotRotRot҇Rot]
[K҇rr҇rrrrr͡]
The first things to reach Alon's ears were those bone-chillingly grotesque sounds.
[Kill҇KillKill҇Kill]
[KillthegodonearthandI҇̽̍͛̒]
[This҇timewithoutfail҇̽̍͛̒]
Next were voices like meaningless curses.
Murmurs filled with thick regret and rage, directed at no one in particular.
And finally, what he heard was:
—[I҇canfinallysee҇you҇̽̍͛̒]
—[Show҇meonce҇more]
—[Finallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinally—]
A story that Alon's mind could not comprehend.
"…Why?"
Alon blurted out the question instinctively.
Because he hadn't expected the things up there to fall right this moment.
However.
[Because we were holding them back.]
The Burdened One spoke softly, as if to resolve Alon's doubt.
[I'll leave the rest to you.]
With those final words, he vanished completely.
Alon stared at the empty space where he had disappeared after giving only a half-finished answer.
"…Huh?"
Suddenly, his vision shook dizzily.
He was puzzled for a moment, but he soon realized.
He simply hadn't felt it because of the shocking situation.
His body was not normal.
Though his physical form had recovered to some extent through the Divinity of the Primordial Elf.
There were still many wounds left all over his body.
The two hands he used to wipe his face were smeared with blood that had flowed from his eyes and nose.
Alon stared blankly down at the bloodstains.
"…I should, rest for a bit."
With those words, he simply closed his eyes.
The voices calling him from behind.
[́̍̌͐̔̕─́̈́̉̇͞─҇̇̒̽̌̚─̔͗͋͠─̄͒̇̎̕─̛̾̽͒─̛̒̆͛̎─҇͂̒─̇̅͠]̏̀̏̈́̋͠
And the bizarre voices coming from the falling meteor shower faded into the distance.
* * *
When was it?
The moment his consciousness returned naturally.
"…."
Alon had finally woken up.
And he was immediately told several things.
First, he had been unconscious for nearly two weeks.
And second.
The news that Elivan, who he thought had perished along with The Burdened One, was alive.
Of course, being alive didn't mean he was in a state where Alon could ask him anything immediately.
They said Elivan had emerged from the void right after The Burdened One disappeared, but he had been in a coma ever since.
Even so, Alon felt inwardly relieved.
At the very least, Alon hadn't wanted him to die.
…And as long as Elivan was alive, he would be able to ask him someday.
The meaning of the words he had said to Alon at the very end.
‘Father… huh.’
Alon had no idea why Elivan had used such a title.
Of course, Alon had looked after him since he was very young.
But honestly, it wasn't to the extent that he should be called "Father."
Did he really want to call him Father just for that much?
Alon thought for a moment but soon dismissed it.
Elivan's eyes seemed to hold something more than that.
The more he thought about it, the more Alon's chest felt tight.
In fact, there were many other things he was curious about.
How the aftermath was handled.
If the children were all okay.
What happened right after those countless eyes fell.
There were a thousand things he wanted to know.
Someone might ask:
If you want to know, why don't you just ask?
That was true.
If he was curious, he could just ask.
Everyone was gathered in Alon's room right now.
People who could answer every single one of his questions.
But the reason Alon didn't ask.
More accurately, the reason he couldn't ask.
It was because Alon had only regained his consciousness.
Yes, only his consciousness.
Regrettably, Alon's current state was one where he couldn't move his body.
He was essentially in a vegetative state.
Will I never be able to wake up like this?
He felt a brief moment of fear after regaining consciousness, but Alon soon cast those worries aside.
He quickly realized why he couldn't move.
‘…I wonder how much longer it’ll take before I can move.’
Alon contemplated his own physical body.
No matter how he looked at it, it wasn't normal.
It was disastrous.
To the point where he wondered if natural recovery was even possible.
Nevertheless, his body was steadily recovering.
He didn't know why.
He was recovering even though he wasn't using the Divinity of the Primordial Elf.
Anyway, at this rate.
It seemed he would be able to open his eyes in a few days.
Furthermore, thanks to Line's prediction.
He was able to know exactly how long it would take to wake up.
The only problem was.
"…To be honest, there's a high probability that there will be problems with his memory."
““…….””
There was something a bit… off about her prediction.
"Godfather used an excessive amount of power this time."
"B-but then, shouldn't there be a problem with his Mana Hole or something?"
"Fortunately, there's no problem with the Mana Hole. However, the control mechanism that managed that nonsensical amount of mana most likely suffered some damage."
"T-then."
"Don't worry too much. In the worst-case scenario, it'll just be something like short-term amnesia. Well, if it goes beyond that…."
"If it goes beyond that?"
"Let's stop there. Honestly, I don't think it'll go that far. Hmm—but if such a thing does happen, it would be good to tell him many stories and memories of what has happened until now, right?"
"Past events and memories?"
"Yes. Even in this state, the subconscious is sometimes awake. If we talk about memories in advance, there's a chance his memory will return."
"Oh…."
"However, don't include useless stories in those memories. His memory might return incorrectly."
"Incorrectly?"
"He might end up remembering things differently from reality, exactly as we told him."
Line's words rang out calmly in the room where everyone was gathered.
A moment of silence hung in the air.
"T-that's true."
"Then we can't have that."
"We have to be thorough…."
"Right. We just need to tell the Marquis exactly how things were."
"Then, from now on, whenever we have time, we can start telling him memories bit by bit."
Soon, one by one, they all added a determined word and left the room.
And so, late at night.
"Teacher."
Yutia came to visit.
"…Hmm, where should I start?"
She sat down and, in an incredibly calm voice.
"This is a story from when I was eight years old…."
She began to pull out memories.
"…Seolrang is saying some strange things about her actual age being over 2,000 years, but at that time, I was definitely eight years old when I was saved by you, Teacher."
About memories—
"Exchanging letters with you was truly enjoyable. Oh, by the way, I'm telling you this just in case, but Seolrang's words are not the truth, okay? My age being over 2,000. How could a human live that long?"
…These are stories about memories, right?
Alon broke into a cold sweat at the strangely distorted subject of the story.
…For some reason, he felt that even if he could open his eyes right now, he shouldn't.