Wish
It was the swamp of the mind.
But something had changed from before.
A single shaft of light—radiance—was shining through.
Only one slender beam had been added, and yet this place was no longer cold, no longer lonely, no longer dark.
"Where are you going?"
I called out to the figure walking far ahead of me.
Even so, he did not stop.
He simply kept walking toward the light, silent and unhurried.
"You bastard. If you leave like this, what am I supposed to do?"
We had completed each other by being together.
Alone, I never would have reached this far.
Freeing myself from the Gods of Calamity and Disaster, climbing the Tower of the War God, conquering the other Randolph—all of it had been thanks to him.
And so, at last, I could fully exist.
The one who had stayed by my side without a word.
The one who had never given up swinging his sword.
"Wilhelm!"
…Because Wilhelm had been there, I could be here now.
Thud.
I took a step, and my foot sank into the deep, sucking mire.
I forced another step forward.
One more. Then another.
But I could not advance as easily as I wished.
No matter how far I pushed, there was almost no progress at all.
Damn it.
I bit my lip.
Wilhelm walked freely, yet I remained mired in the sludge.
I was thrashing, drowning in the swamp.
At this rate I would never reach him.
The reason for the difference was painfully clear.
The living and the dead.
We were beings who inhabited different worlds.
That was why we could not meet, could not draw near.
And yet—
"Come with me!"
…I want to be with you, Wilhelm.
Being with you was good.
Selfish as it was, this time I truly wanted to run toward the end together.
Not only the sword, not only the conversations we shared while holding blades—
But the trivial talk of everyday life. Sharing a meal now and then. Drinking tea. Gossiping about someone, or praising them, or pouring out the worries of loving someone.
Agonizing over nothing important, empathizing with each other's troubles, laughing together in easy conversation.
"You are my…"
…I had wanted that kind of relationship.
And the world had a name for such a bond.
A word that came easily to others, yet was truly difficult for me to say.
"My one and only friend…!"
Friend.
I stretched out my hand.
But I was sinking into the swamp.
The mire that had already swallowed me to the waist surged past my chest, over my shoulders, and at last claimed my head.
And I understood.
This swamp was the boundary that divided the living world from the afterlife.
I was going under.
After sinking without end, I would return once more to reality.
I would never face Wilhelm again.
Like this, forever…
Thud!
Then it happened.
Someone seized the hand I had outstretched.
And as he hauled my upper body up out of the swamp—
"…We cannot be together."
He spoke.
Wilhelm spoke.
Whoooosh!
At once the light behind him blazed even more fiercely.
It was the light that called Wilhelm home.
Looking closer, I saw two goddesses standing within it.
"I return to the goddesses' embrace."
Back to where he had originally belonged.
He would find rest in the goddesses' arms.
I could say nothing more.
I could not ignore the will of someone who longed for rest.
"I have already been saved. So do not look at me with those eyes."
Those eyes?
What kind of eyes was I making?
And was this truly all right?
Ending like this?
Was he calling this ending salvation?
"Of the time we spent together, I have no regrets."
Thud!
Then he released my hand.
As if this was not a place where I belonged.
Watching me sink back into the swamp, Wilhelm quietly spoke his final words.
"You bastard… my friend."
Rumble!
The tower shook.
And in that same instant, everyone understood.
…That it was over.
The Champion of the Tower of the War God has changed from Randolph to Wilhelm.
All curses of the Tower of the War God are purified.
Wilhelm had won!
Every spectator raised both hands.
"Wilhelm…!"
"Has won!!"
"Long live!!!"
They roared his name in celebration.
Everything he had walked and achieved had kindled fire in their hearts.
His victory felt like their own.
And yet—
"Where did Wilhelm go?"
"Then is Randolph dead?"
The victor was nowhere to be seen.
Neither was the defeated Randolph.
They had vanished as if evaporated.
No matter how hard anyone searched, they were nowhere in the tower.
And while everyone was still wondering—
"…This is unexpected."
One man murmured under his breath.
The one who had stood alongside Swordmaster Laktusha and Ant King Fermon.
The Dark Elf Lord.
Collecting the corpses of Laktusha and Fermon, he spoke.
"I thought 'he' would finally intervene…"
From the beginning he had never cared about conquering the tower.
Following the Black King's orders to seek Baal and the Fragment of Ruin had been outside his interest all along.
The Erased One.
The forgotten existence.
The blue bird who called himself the Operator.
He had expected that being—who desired only the ruin of Heaven—to intervene.
For all that he designed everything, the moment Wilhelm appeared he pulled out.
The Gods of Calamity and Disaster.
It had been the Erased One who set both of them in motion.
Otherwise those two Chief Gods, who had cowered like cowards locked inside the Rift, would never have suddenly involved themselves in the tower's affairs.
Only the Erased One knew of the Rift hidden within the Tower of the War God, and only he could stride into it without hesitation.
He had planned to reopen the gap through Randolph's body and summon himself once more.
Yet the moment Wilhelm appeared, he hid.
Even the two Chief Gods of Calamity and Disaster had switched tracks toward fusion.
Nothing had gone as expected.
From beginning to end, because of the one who had upended the entire board—Wilhelm.
"…Looks like I'll have to enlarge the board."
The Dark Elf Lord considered it seriously.
To find the Erased One again, he would have no choice but to raise the stakes.
A method came to him at once.
I'll erase the Goddess Sect.
Erase the Goddess Sect, and he would have no choice but to appear.
The blue bird—the Erased One—was closely bound to the two goddesses.
Besides, the plan was already underway.
Leaving the Tower of the War God for a place empty of people, he quietly closed his eyes.
At the same time—
Logged out.
Logging in as MintChocoIsDelicious (4).
The Empire.
Deep within the vast imperial palace, inside a room of dazzling splendor.
"…"
A man stood before a mirror.
The one who wore a golden mask.
The highest-ranking officer who led the Death God Religion.
Slowly, gazing into the glass, he removed the mask.
"…"
His expression hardened.
And beyond the mask was a face that was somehow familiar.
"Wilhelm."
The face of the man who had just conquered the Tower of the War God.
Why was the one who had vanished after conquering the tower here in the Empire?
And wearing a golden mask, no less.
"I am the real one. You… are nothing but a fake who imitates me."
The fake driven from the palace in childhood.
The counterfeit who had worn the same face.
That counterfeit had been Wilhelm.
And so, ever since childhood, he had never removed the mask.
Because a being with the same face as his own had been walking free outside.
That deep-seated disgust and hatred.
An irritation beyond measure had always risen in him.
"…There is no place for you here."
He scowled and put the mask back on.
It was his own face, yet he truly could not stand the sight of it.
But this face was the symbol of the Empire.
Proof that he carried the Emperor's blood.
Gazing slowly outward, he spoke.
"Please… I beg and beg again—do not return. Even if you do, the salvation you sought will not be waiting for you."
Serengeti cried out.
…Knight King.
My one and only lord.
Leaving only me behind—where are you going?
—Serengeti! You must protect the Captain!
—Our Round Table exists solely for the Knight King!
—We're counting on you, our little one!
—Don't cry, you brat! A man shouldn't— …ah, sorry. Were you a woman?
Voices rose for an instant.
Those who had already passed on.
Knights who had died and vanished.
All of them dead, leaving Serengeti alone.
And so Serengeti cried out.
Why.
For what reason!
We had only just reunited—why leave me alone again?
In that fleeting moment—
—You are not alone.
—Your king lives.
—So live, and deliver the message.
Someone's voice reached her once more.
Not the knights.
Not the Knight King either.
It was a memory.
Serengeti's sealed memory surfaced.
After she had taken Wilhelm's curse in his place,
after he had been slain by the Demon King—
Someone had helped Serengeti escape the Demon King's castle.
And then said:
—Revive the Round Table.
—Call them from the Sanctuary of Honor.
—They wait upon the boundary of death and life for nothing but their king's summons!
You…
Through blurred vision, Serengeti seemed to have asked.
She was certain she had put the question into words: Who are you?
And he had smiled as he answered.
—I like fishing.
—Sometimes I catch people in danger like you, and sometimes I catch unexpected things from countless boundaries.
—Someday, on some sea, or at some boundary, we will meet again.
—So be sure to tell my 'Savior'—your king.
It felt as though I had been dreaming for a long time.
I had been running without end.
Toward some unknown place, running with foolish, single-minded effort.
How far did I mean to go?
At the end of all that running, was there truly an end?
I did not know.
But one thing was certain.
I could not stop.
I must not stop.
To fulfill a dream.
To achieve the one single wish that was mine.
Of course, at first I had no wish at all.
I had begun because someone said they would grant a wish, yet I myself never knew what I wanted.
Even when I stood at the peak under the name Phantom.
Even when I was summoned into Pangenia as a possessed body, I had nothing that could be called a concrete dream.
But now I did.
A wish I wanted to fulfill had taken shape.
Ah.
Yes—right now I am running toward that wish.
I am running toward you.
I may never arrive. But if I keep running without giving up—
Someday I will certainly reach it.
"Awake, are you?"
…A voice pulled me back to consciousness.
No—I had already been waking little by little.
Blurred vision.
Ugh.
The fierce sunlight made me scowl without thinking.
I pushed myself up, shook my head once, and only then did the surroundings come into focus.
Where is this?
Not the tower.
It was nothing like the view I had seen from the summit of the Tower of the War God.
A lavish room.
An air that felt somehow familiar.
The Empire, then.
This was the Empire.
And the imperial palace.
I could not help but be baffled.
Why was I here?
Come to think of it, someone had called me.
So I turned my head farther to the side—
"Coming around a bit now?"
…And there, as expected, was a familiar face.
Raiga was there.
The reason I had not recognized the voice from the start was that it had changed so drastically I could not believe it belonged to the same person.
A voice cracked and split a thousand ways—I had not been able to identify it as Raiga with any certainty.
And that state was not limited to his voice alone.
A deathly pale complexion.
A gaunt face and half-dead eyes.
Looking for all the world like a corpse, Raiga was watching me.