Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: This World's Happy Ending, Conquest of the 7th Subordinate (2)
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4.
Emotional support AI.
Shu, Shurubiel is still online.
What? Interpretation protocol?
Aieha, Idel bichia Prbicia Sirblliona, Orbiozio Tarhye Londell.
Ah…… Got it.
Hold on a sec. Ugh, Dragon Tongue interpretation is tough……
[Mom, I'll be swallowing the Abyss. Until dawn comes.]
[I can do it.]
In, interpretation data processing……
[But can you promise me, Mom? Someday, someday, you'll definitely come find me?]
5.
“This situation! That situation! I've never once nitpicked about any of it! You've always come, no matter when or where. Always! Haven't you?”
That's right……
At Do Ye-jin's shout, Shin Tae-yeop let out a momentary groan.
- I won't abandon you. None of the people here will.
That moment of death.
The moment when every death was certain.
That gentle smile of his, like the dawn.
- If I win, won't I be able to achieve all of it?
Silence flowed once more.
Then Do Ye-jin shot up from her seat in frustration.
“Even if no one comes. Even if the <Association> stays silent, I'm going.”
A momentary hush.
Soon the Association members began to murmur.
“……Yeah. It was like that from Muak-dong onward. That guy…….”
“……He was at the forefront of the subordinate hunt in Gyonam-dong too.”
“……When we broke through the [Maze Zone], he came straight to us.”
In that instant, someone stood up.
“I'll go too.”
It was Park Ji-won, who had been sitting next to Do Ye-jin.
“You're right…… Brother Baek-jun never nitpicked about situations.”
“Everyone. Let's just let the kids do as they please. They still don't know shit about the Nightmare Zone because they're still──”
Goh Hoon tried to bolster his argument again.
“──I'll go too.”
But someone stood from the executive seats: Lee Seong-mi.
“Ye-jin's right. We owe Baek-jun so much. It's time to pay it back.”
That was the signal.
“I'll go too.”
“I'm going.”
“Me too.”
“We'll go too.”
One by one.
One more. Then another.
The next moment, every Association member stood up in unison.
“Have you all lost your minds?”
Excluding the 2nd Hunting Squad members who hadn't stood and Shin Tae-yeop.
“You all know what the Nightmare Zone is like…… Do you really want to fall behind that badly?”
“If saving the Lead Uncle is crazy……”
Shin Tae-yeop retorted as he stood last.
“Then we'll choose crazy over sane, whatever.”
6.
“So that this old, weary soul can greet the dawn…….”
I gazed at Paul in silence for a moment.
「LOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…….」
The dragons' dirge.
That melody rose mournfully into the air, then shattered pitifully around that time.
9:55 PM.
The dirge for the final dragon was reaching its end.
“If that's the only repayment I can offer…… gladly…….”
A world where death is mercy.
I thought about how this world could be so pitiable.
“Thank you…… Truly.”
Paul spread his arms wide.
His gaunt, skeletal frame was fully exposed.
──Chaang!
From his back, the Dawn Sword emerged with a sorrowful wail.
My stomach churned as if it were collapsing.
With a heavy heart, I aimed the blade's tip at Paul.
“The one who should be grateful is me…… Elder.”
I glanced at Jeong Ha-kyeong.
The regression level from earlier was holding steady.
“Then let me hear that gratitude.”
“…….”
“I'm ready. Or rather, I've been ready since decades ago.”
Zing…… The Dawn Sword wailed softly.
The dragons' dirge faded into echoes.
“Hurry. The battle will start soon. No time, right?”
I tightened my grip on the hilt.
The scent of sunlight rose from the dawn blade.
That blade tip…… pierced through the emaciated boy's body…… his soul.
“Yes…… An important warning…… I nearly forgot…….”
As my body shuddered,
Paul placed his hand on the dawn blade and forced his mouth open.
“If my guess is right…… the final wall you must overcome…… is surely the former elite sorcerer…… now the Apostle of the Abyss…….”
The dawn's bloodlight spread through his body. I asked.
“……Strong?”
“Strong…… Physically…… mentally…… Among the elites, he was the only one who could tug-of-war with the Absolute Gods…….”
“Back when he was human……?”
“Yes…… Even before becoming an Apostle…….”
Impossible to believe.
I couldn't even twitch against a single Star Messenger in my current state.
“Always keep it in mind…… Strive harder for growth…….”
The bloodlight now crept up to his chin.
“The one who defeated Berkenxia's former master…… was none other than ‘him’…….”
The next moment.
The bloodlight surged to his crown……
“If it's you…… You can reach it…… The happy ending of the whole world…….”
……The boy's body lost form, crumbling into countless specks of light that scattered quietly.
──Clack.
And in that spot.
A single obsidian in the shape of a flame fell.
Paul's blood crystal.
I swallowed my grief and picked it up.
[Legendary Consumable Acquired: Blood Crystal of the Black Flame Apostle]
My hand trembled holding the blood crystal.
- The happy ending of the whole world that I couldn't reach……
Remembering the warmth of hope Paul left behind…… The final human tremor felt as the blade pierced his flesh.
The next moment, I lifted my head from the blood crystal.
The [Master of the Broken Dawn] remembered what he had said to Shin Tae-yeop.
- In this pitiable world, do you know what true mourning is?
Remembering the wills of the dead.
And advancing forward in their stead.
So I must advance.
I would advance. Toward this world's happy ending.
Finally, 10:15 PM.
The ice dragons' dirge ended.
25 minutes until Jeong Ha-kyeong's death.
「Albeross…… Our preparations are complete, Proxy.」
The blizzard stopped like a ghost.
Complete silence blanketed the world.
“Wait a moment.”
「Belber…… Once ready, proceed to the center of O-mang-seong.」
The center of O-mang-seong.
The entrance to the [Bottom of the World]. It was a plaza about 50 meters in radius.
I nodded.
Finally, I clasped Jeong Ha-kyeong's hand tightly.
“Wait for me, Ha-kyeong.”
I'll definitely come back.
Swallowing those last words, I strode to the center of O-mang-seong.
At the same moment, the ground shook.
The ice dragons descended one by one, drawing a pentagram at O-mang-seong's core.
“Preparations complete. Let's go.”
The ice dragons opened their maws in unison.
Pure white breaths erupted from those maws.
……Zuzuzuzuzuzuzuzu……
They twisted together above my head, at O-mang-seong's center.
In that instant, I witnessed something wondrous.
The ground swelled like waves.
The next moment, it turned viscous like mucus, then began flowing downward.
Suddenly, a 50-meter-wide hole opened in the earth.
So that's why…… It's called the [Bottom of the World].
This is the entrance.
I entrusted my body to the waterfall of mucus. The ice dragons spread their wings one by one and leaped into the hole.
I held my breath in the waterfall.
Speed slowed, but the fall continued.
How many seconds passed?
Around 5 seconds in, my body exited the mucus waterfall.
Air rushed in as I landed in the underground cavern with a splat.
Splat……?
Before the ice dragons landed, I looked around.
Abyss everywhere.
Foul stench stinging my nose, world's dregs rising to my ankles.
And at the center.
A dragon with its head buried in the Abyss, throat undulating.
- Beyond the holy city…… My son is in the land of the Abyss.
Why was it.
That Xerenia's tears surfaced in my mind then.
- Swallowing the Abyss even now, to keep a promise from his youth.
That…… Ice Dragon Skesari.
Truly horrific form. Completely unlike the clone.
- But the Abyss crushes even a noble dragon's spirit. That child has become a being of the Abyss.
This is the Abyss's corrosion.
Body soaked in murky blue-black.
Wings like tattered rags…… An eerie presence emanated from its entire form.
Knowing the circumstances.
My chest, the stigmata on my hand, ached as if tearing.
Skesari.
Even becoming like this.
You've been keeping your promise to your mother……?
- To my child, now……
Now I know.
I know it down to my bones.
- ……Grant rest, the rest of light.
That only death…… Is the happy ending I can give this world.
- Will you heed my plea?
It would be the same this time.
Granting Skesari rest…… Means killing Skesari.
「Skesari.」
10:20 PM.
Then the first ice dragon spoke.
「Our father and the world's last dragon.」
The second followed.
「We, your five kin, have come to fulfill our promise.」
The remaining ice dragons spoke in turn.
「To the final dragon's mission.」
「May you now find the rest of light.」
Then the Abyss dragon.
Slowly lifted its head from the Abyss…… Murky blue-black light gleamed in its dragon eyes.
「CRUISYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
A ferocious roar erupted.
Not the clear roar of the clone. Dull and viscous. Like the Abyss itself.
“……Kuhap!”
The savage intent in that roar.
The intent crashed over me like overwhelming shock…… But I thrust the Dawn Sword forward, blocking the intangible force.
- Normal Ending starts with the strongest crowd control.
All patterns.
Paul had explained them.
- Right after blocking it, charge straight ahead.
My knees trembled.
Even after blocking, this much…… Muttering that, I kicked off the ground.
Leg strength amplification at 90%.
In the instant the Abyss ground surged from the impact. My body shot to Skesari's snout.
But subordinates are strong beings.
As if reading it, it raised a foreleg to crush me.
- No need to worry.
The reason I was bold then.
- You're on the Normal Ending route now.
「RHUIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
In that moment, one ice dragon charged.
- Thanks to the stigmata, you can focus solely on attacking in phase 1.
- Because the stigmata blocks the cold?
- No.
It bit into Skesari's descending forepaw, spewing cold breath and roaring.
- Because the ice dragons will fight alongside you against Ice Dragon Skesari.
Idel Rijianu. Fairana Ei, Aieah? Yurishia, Yurishiaana Pilmis dea Idel Coumios?
[Apostle, Paul Lead's Blood Crystal]
[Description Summary]
- 1: Obsidian shaped like a flame.
- 2: Labelhein of the Black Flame Star. Remnant of the apostle chosen by that absolute monarch.
[Usage Method]
- By shattering the blood crystal.
Use the power dwelling in this raw stone, the unique technique 《Monster Flame World Annihilation》.
[Unique Technique: 《Monster Flame World Annihilation》]
- Uses the absolute authority of Black Flame Star Labelhein.
- Usable times: (1)
Paul, once a young educator.
For his own wish, he desired the destruction of a world.
But upon realizing that world's essence, Paul chose to forsake his wish.
This world.
Had given him so much.
In the midst of the gods' games.
He chose to remain human until the very end.