372. The End of the Zervallua Raid
372. The End of the Zervallua Raid
***
Cheon Ryuhwa could not understand Zervallua, not even at the very end.
At times its expression twisted like that of a vicious murderer, and at other times it held an innocence as if it knew nothing of the world.
Its attitude and behavior shifted so much that one could forget it had originally been a demonic creature,
and even now, at the threshold of death, Zervallua's ruby-like eyes held an emotion impossible to describe.
Cheon Ryuhwa had barely managed to block the enormous, explosive energy Zervallua unleashed at the end.
She was drifting through the air like a severed thread shot loose. Within that, she realized something was off. Even now, while blocking the energy, she had taken damage that was by no means small.
The sensation that her entire body had been completely wrecked was vivid, yet she felt no pain.
At the same time, far away, she could see them hurling themselves toward her with all kinds of shouts.
But as the distance widened in real time, she only glanced at them for a moment before turning her head without regret.
She looked up at the sky of a world steeped in deep darkness.
"..."
Everything was over now, and before long this consciousness would sink away.
The memories now engraved upon this soul would be passed on to its original owner as they were, so there was nothing to feel regretful about. And yet a faint breath escaped her.
What was that inexplicable space, and for what reason had she concealed herself?
Everything was riddled with questions.
The cult's information network could not uncover any news of Rin.
If so, then no one in the world could come close to finding Rin. The fact that she had hidden herself so thoroughly weighed on her mind.
'What kind of situation could she be in to hide herself away to that extent?'
In the past, she had gained a tremendous enlightenment thanks to her.
At the time, she had nothing to give in return for that enlightenment, so she had ended up handing over a fragment of her soul. But she had never thought that alone was enough to repay her.
For a martial artist, enlightenment was worth more than receiving one's life. How could the price of enlightenment that reached the absolute realm possibly be paid with a mere fragment of a soul?
Afterward, she had continued searching for Rin's whereabouts. But Rin had hidden herself as if she had truly vanished from the world. And now, appearing like this through Rin's request was all there was.
Only now, after resolving that request, did she feel a sense of dissonance.
The world entering her vision looked somehow different, and many other things felt strange as well.
But those questions lasted only a moment. Knowing that she must gradually fade away, she straightened her body and descended to the ground.
......
As a gentle breeze blew, the silver-haired woman swept back her wildly fluttering hair and froze for an instant. Then she looked at the hand that had just swept back her hair.
Along with the flawless white hand entering her vision, she became conscious of the action she had just taken.
As if drawn across her own sight, the image of a silver-haired woman sweeping back her hair flickered past. Cheon Ryuhwa let out a hollow laugh.
It was an action she would never have taken normally. It was an action the owner of this body would have taken.
'Is this soul gradually assimilating?'
The longer Descent is sustained using a soul, the more inevitable the aftereffects upon that existence. The more influence is exerted, the more one becomes dyed by the other, just as the saying goes that one who stays near ink becomes black.
She had used Descent so rarely that she could count the times on one hand, and only recently had she begun using it in succession, appearing in this body.
That was why she had not realized it.
The fact that I was being influenced by someone else.
Unconsciously mimicking the actions another person would have taken felt deeply strange.
It could not be called a sense of sameness, nor did it feel like a sense of difference. It was an oddity that existed somewhere in between.
As she felt them slowly drawing closer to her within that strangeness, she slowly closed her eyes.
It was now time to return this body to its original owner.
***
The death of Zervallua.
It was proven by the quest completion notification and the appearance of the raid rewards. The darkened world vanished like an illusion, and a lavish backdrop emerged, wrapped in brilliant light.
And within that splendid space where the brilliant light lingered, there now stood three women, each possessing a different beauty.
It was the space for confirming the rewards at the end of the long, long raid.
...
...Rin.
......Serin!
At the voices that kept reaching her, Serin blinked dazedly before coming to her senses. When she turned her gaze, she saw the two women.
"Serin...?"
"Rin. Are you okay?"
When Sua and Yujeong spoke with concern at Serin's clearly strange appearance, Serin pulled herself together and smiled faintly.
"I'm okay. I'm just a little tired right now... I think that's all."
Even as she answered, her head kept feeling like it was floating.
There was no pain to feel, but something else—something inexplicable—kept placing a burden on her body.
Seeing Serin like that, Sua shook her head.
"How about we meet tomorrow and settle the raid rewards instead? No matter how I look at it, your condition seems really bad right now. I think we should wrap this up quickly here. What do you think, Yujeong?"
When Sua asked for her opinion, Yujeong nodded lightly.
"I'm fine with that too. The project's already finished, and the rewards can be settled tomorrow... that's fine."
Yujeong, trailing off at the end of her words, gave Rin a peculiar look, but she didn't say anything more.
To Yujeong as well, Serin's current condition seemed far from normal. Her state was too poor to ask about past events, and she didn't want to burden the woman she liked.
Serin hurriedly shook her head at the two of them, but—
Ding!
—Accumulated user fatigue has been detected. Your Another World connection will end in 10 seconds.
At the notification that appeared at the edge of her vision, Serin could no longer say anything.
"...I'm sorry, but a forced logout notification just appeared. I think we'll have to meet tomorrow and continue with the rewards and everything else. I'm sorry."
At Serin's genuinely apologetic expression, Sua and Yujeong shook their heads repeatedly, then saw her off with words telling her to rest well.
As Serin turned into light and vanished, the two remaining women naturally faced each other.
Both of their eyes held complicated emotions.
They each had far too many questions, but the very person who could resolve those questions had left.
As they exchanged glances for a moment, Sua spoke up with a deliberately bright tone.
"Yujeong, you really worked hard today. Shall we meet tomorrow and continue with the settlement and our talk?"
At her suggestion to set aside the questions filling both of them for now, Yujeong hesitated slightly before nodding.
"...Yes. Let's do that, then. Plea, you worked hard today too."
With those words, the two women also left the space, and the splendid space tinged with brilliant light shattered and vanished in an instant.
***
"I'm seriously exhausted. So tired."
Sua, having climbed out of the capsule, pressed her hands over her eyes and muttered dazedly. When she glanced outside, complete darkness had swallowed the world, pitch-black beyond measure.
Then, picking up the smartphone on her desk, Sua felt a deep sense of regret.
"Haa... I really wanted to know..."
Her voice, continuing after a heavy sigh, was full of lingering attachment.
That was how many questions filled Sua's head right now.
She desperately wanted to resolve those questions immediately, but when she recalled Serin's appearance from just moments ago, she shook her head and tried to cast off that regret.
'Right. Let's just hold out until tomorrow.'
She couldn't throw a tantrum now or go bother Serin like last time.
Throughout their conversation after the raid ended, Serin had looked dazed and clearly strange. The signs of exhaustion had been obvious too.
How bad must it have been for a forced logout to appear mid-session?
Reassuring herself like that, Sua left the room and headed to the living room, slowly taking out a bottle of water.
About to drink it right away, she instead pressed the cold bottle against her cheek for no particular reason.
Once the cold fully registered on her cheek, the sensation jolted her awake, and she was able to shake off at least some of the lingering attachment filling her heart.
Gulp.
After that, she drank the water and threw herself dazedly onto the living room sofa.
"Haa..."
Even as she sank into the deeply cushioning sofa, a dazed sigh escaped her.
Raids really were exhausting once they were over.
And when a raid so difficult it could be suspected of being a bug ended, that exhaustion seemed twice as bad as any other raid.
"Serin's stamina is really weak too, though she hides it... I wonder if she's really okay right now..."
She knew Serin's stamina was weak from the short length of her streams and from watching her broadcasts, so she worried even more.
And yet Serin had gone through such an absurd raid...
Then, suddenly, she wondered what the raid rewards would be like.
When Serin vanished due to the forced logout, I hadn't settled the rewards either.
Yujeong hadn't either, so the rewards had gone unconfirmed by anyone who cleared the raid.
"...I'm curious."
I muttered dazedly, and a dazed laugh escaped me.
At the very least, considering that difficulty, wouldn't there be incredible rewards?
I found myself looking forward to checking the rewards together tomorrow. Rather than doing it while everyone was exhausted, looking forward to it and checking each other's rewards together seemed like it would be pretty fun.
"...Come to think of it, it's pretty amazing."
The system that allowed raid rewards to be settled later.
It was a system that had been updated because quite a few people, like Serin, saw forced logout messages due to fatigue after experiencing actual Another World raids. Raids were content that demanded that much stamina, and many people actually complained of fatigue.
So while the system was set to prevent forced logouts during raids,
the reason rewards were divided by each phase was also to accommodate people with weak stamina.
Meaning it was fine to stop partway through.
Dazedly bringing the water to my lips again, I checked the time.
—10:37 p.m.
It had been about ten minutes since I disconnected.
"...Would it be okay to send a BaTalk message by now?"
The words slipped out for no particular reason.
If it was just a message asking if she was okay.
I had no intention of asking questions to someone who was tired.
'Right, just asking how she's doing... Serin would answer that much.'
And so Sua fiddled with her smartphone.