Chapter 178
Chapter 178
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 178
Chapter Title: This World Must Perish, Loss of Humanity (5)
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8.
“Shalletum. I have been awaiting your command.”
Hyunwol Shrine.
An ancient temple built in the trade city of <Reltaron>.
“Spare me the empty formalities. Time is short.”
It was renowned as the largest and most beautiful site of the Fairy Orthodox Church, the Moonlight Faith.
“Prepare to let me see my master at once.”
And so, a heavyweight from the Moonlight Faith had been stationed here—the elderly high priest before my eyes, Aigon.
“As Shalletum wills…… Shall I send an eagle to inform His Majesty of Shalletum’s return?”
How could this be.
For Aigon, the second-in-command of the Moonlight Faith, to humble himself like this.
Just what was Valerin’s true identity?
“To Baldemar? No, never mind. He surely…… won’t be able to meet anyway.”
Valerin left those cryptic words and beckoned to Park Hyun-su.
“Come. My master, Lloyd Sutton, awaits you.”
Park Hyun-su nodded gravely and followed Valerin into the temple’s shadows.
“Shalletum’s companions, this way please.”
Two young fairy priests guided us to the lounge.
“Then, please rest comfortably. We’ll bring food and drink.”
It was a stark reminder of Valerin’s influence. For them to show no hostility toward us humans.
“Wow…… Hyunwol Shrine’s reception room?”
Race: fairy.
Class: cleric.
To enter a holy site accessible only to those of the highest rank in that state.
The interior, adorned with the fairies’ signature elegance, was breathtaking.
Four statues lined the outer walls.
They were the [Exalted Ones] worshipped by the Moonlight Faith. The goddesses of the moon.
Pale Moon, Maxensia.
Noble Moon, Zyeannir.
Poignant Moon, Tersia.
Radiant Moon, Meian.
The fifth moon, Helena.
She had sacrificed herself to seal the abyss in the sacred tree of the saints and perished, or so the legend went.
My gaze suddenly lingered on Tersia’s statue. The goddess said to embrace all with love.
“Something…… she looks like someone.”
Uncannily like Charlotte.
Just my imagination? And to think the [Exalted Ones] actually existed?
- Someday, I want to go searching for the [Exalted Ones] myself.
A while back.
Before Jeong Cheol became Edelweiss, he’d said that.
“Lo~ id~”
I shook my head bitterly, then deliberately shouted as if to be heard.
“Lo~ id~ Sut~ ton~!”
“…….”
“Ah~ I~ reall~ y~ miss~ you~ too~!”
“Ugh…… C-can you keep it down?”
“Why?”
“D-don’t you know where we are? This is where the [Exalted Ones] first descended to this land—the holy site!”
“How can I stay quiet! Don’t you even know who Lloyd is, sis?”
I shot to my feet, and Michelle answered with a flustered look.
“The, the first clear player? Ugh…… I know that much……!”
“Yeah! The first! The very first clear! The one who completed the first攻略 guide—Lloyd!”
After that, he’d vanished like a ghost from [For the Princess].
But how?
For Lloyd Sutton, once a player, to be Valerin’s master……? And now meeting with Park Hyun-su?
“Ugh~ I wanna meet him too~ Ugh~ ugh~ oh shit~!”
“Ugh…… C-can you…… not imitate that……?”
Ha…… Maybe I should quit joking around.
I slumped back into my seat and crossed my arms.
“Don’t you think it’s weird no matter how you look at it? What’s Valerin’s deal?”
“…….”
“He wields myth-grade magic like it’s nothing, knows all about the battle royale.”
I glanced sideways at Amber as I spoke, pretending nonchalance.
To Amber, the three-tailed fox sipping tea demurely just across from us.
“What if…… Valerin’s a player too?”
Amber quietly set down her teacup and shook her head.
“To the fairies, Valerin is called Shalletum. You’ve heard it too, I’m sure.”
Right.
All the fairies called Valerin by that special name. Charlotte answered for me.
“An ancient fairy word meaning guardian, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. But…… our kin call him this out of reverence.”
“……?”
“Halbazwer.”
Halbazwer?
“What’s that? Why won’t you tell me?”
Amber stared long into her teacup before revealing its meaning.
“It means time traveler.”
Silence fell abruptly.
Time traveler…… a person who travels through time…… how?
“You’ve all seen Valerin’s necklace, right?”
“That jade necklace?”
“Yes. It’s a treasure left by the [Exalted Ones] to the Knight of Mirrors, Liam—a fragment of Verkensia.”
Knight of Mirrors, Liam?
At those words, Michelle and I gasped involuntarily.
“No way.”
“N-no way.”
Even newbies knew that name.
The fairy hero most revered in [For the Princess].
“Ugh…… Even the human hero, holy knight Sharilion…… had to yield to Liam……?”
In that distant mythic age.
The Lords of the Abyss.
The legendary being who sealed away all the [Forgotten Kings] and brought peace to this land.
“Verkensia…… ugh…… that’s the legendary holy sword Liam wielded……?”
Even now, it was embedded in the Mirror Temple of <Tarkiritten>. On its pedestal, these words were engraved.
A hero in the past.
A hero in the present.
A hero in the future as well.
The fairies.
Still prayed and hoped for the second coming of their messiah, Liam.
“How……? How did he get that fragment……?”
As Charlotte pressed, Amber shook her head.
“He didn’t steal it. The sword in the temple is just an empty shell.”
“What……?”
“The stone Valerin holds is the true core of Verkensia.”
“……!”
“But Valerin was not the chosen successor…… so he couldn’t connect it to the sword.”
Which meant……?
A chill seeped into my mind.
Park Hyun-su…… was the successor?
To that legendary sword…… an unrealized item no player had ever wielded……?
“W-wait a sec…… ugh…… time traveler…… what does that even…… mean?”
“Not future sight? Like precognition.”
One of the [Forgotten Kings] had that ability too. Amber refuted my glib guess.
“No, Valerin travels not just to the future, but the past as well.”
“What?”
“That’s how he endured all five apocalypses that struck this world.”
“How on earth……?”
“That power is called the power of regression. Only the [Exalted Ones] would know how it works.”
I found myself feeling a strange pity for Valerin and Amber.
Was that why?
Why Valerin gave off such a vibe so eerily like Jeong Cheol’s.
No matter what he did.
The despair of being unable to save the world.
Was that sorrow from despair why he always seemed so listless?
And Amber.
Her madness in [For the Princess]…… it was grief over losing Valerin……
“Wait a minute.”
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Valerin told me…… the lesson he gave me yesterday would be the last.”
Amber nodded, her eyes laced with resignation.
“Which means…… Valerin today……?”
Shiiiiiieeeeeek—
It happened right then.
The great chaos exploded in an instant.
───Kwaaaaaaaaang!
The thunderous roar of a stone building collapsing.
And…… a gale strong enough to shatter the lounge windows of Hyunwol Shrine.
What the hell…… what is that?
Beyond the windows, the central prayer hall…… had completely crumbled. Crushed by a massive boulder from the sky.
Catapult? A catapult?
My blood ran cold in an instant. Humanity had no spare strength to attack the fairies now.
Which meant……?
Jeong Cheol.
I shot to my feet and pointed at Amber.
“Amber, Charlotte—go get Valerin and Uncle!”
“What……?”
“S-something…… I can feel it. I know it.”
A presence crushing down on every muscle in my body…….
For some reason, I knew right away.
This was Elite Sorcerer—Jeong Cheol’s.
“I’ll hold it off as best I can, so hurry!”
“It’s dangerous! What are you saying!”
“He and I are super close! He won’t kill me!”
Jeong Cheol wouldn’t kill me.
That conviction gave me the courage to rush out of the lounge.
“……S-save…… aaack!”
“……P-prieests, high priest!”
“……Y-you bastard! Do you know where this is──── guh!”
Death cries echoing from all directions.
What…… what…… the hairs on my body stood on end.
Why…… why do this?
The world turned to hell in a heartbeat…… no, a living nightmare.
The undead would pounce on the living, tear into their flesh, and the victims would rise as undead to attack the rest.
“Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehehehehehehe!”
“Uhu huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhihiheehehehehehe!”
Gleaming dark blue glow in their eyes, utterly chilling.
The outbreak of soul plague……
Seeing this confirmed it. The undead were manifestations of abyssal power.
“Over there…… look at the walls……!”
“Sis? Why’d you follow me!”
“I-I’m close to Jeong Cheol too……! He won’t kill me…… ugh…… h-hoping…… anyway…… look at that!”
In this world.
I had to doubt my own eyes.
Boulders and arrows from catapults rained down like a storm on the walls.
“H-how…… how with no warning at all……?”
<Reltaron> was famous not just for its walls, but its vast network of watchtowers around the city.
“No alarms went off……!”
The only one who could explain this madness was Jeong Cheol. I just ran toward the screams.
Central Hyunwol Shrine.
Straight to the [Garden of the Moon].
“Haa…… haa…… haa…….”
Maybe from the meteor-like boulder. A dust cloud still hung thick in the air.
“Bro…… you don’t mean you’re in there?”
I panted as I shouted.
And prayed desperately. Please…… don’t let it be Jeong Cheol emerging from there.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
But.
From within the dust.
The man who stepped out…… wore dragon plate armor blazing with flames.
“You…… Shin Tae-yeop?”
Yes. That was.
The moment Jeong Cheol appeared before me as a horrific reality.
“I thought Richard killed you, but good thing you’re not.”
Cold, emotionless tone.
If anything, Jeong Cheol’s gaze lingered longer on Michelle than me.
“Michelle? How…… are you alive? You were definitely…… with Richard too…….”
Jeong Cheol’s appearance itself wasn’t the horror. The problem was.
“Can you…… see all this?”
“What?”
“All of…… this…… bro did this……? No way…… right?”
Jeong Cheol sighed as if my question was ridiculous.
“If I did all this, is there a problem?”
Something inside me shattered in that instant.
“What problem……? Then this isn’t a problem?”
“No.”
“You knew, bro! No, you’ve known since we met back then! Right?”
“…….”
“This is the real world! You’ve known since we reunited at that tavern! Right?!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs, my heart tearing apart.
A brief silence.
Jeong Cheol finally murmured softly.
“So what?”
“What……?”
“So what if this is the real world? Does anything change? To end this battle royale──”
It happened right then.
Shouts erupted from all sides as knights in moonlit armor charged at Jeong Cheol.
“Ugh…… the Moonlight Holy Knights…… guardians of Hyunwol Shrine?”
If there was a worst-case scenario in a siege of a fairy city, it’d be these elite NPC defenders.
But Jeong Cheol.
The moment he gripped the hilt of the greatsword on his back—the man-sized [Holy Sword: Sharilion].
“───Shut up!”
Clank──────
Five holy knights shredded into chunks in an instant, spraying blood far and wide.
─────Splash!
What…… the…… how……?
Terror gripped me.
True terror began to set in.
This…… it’s like time itself stopped……?
“Guh…… aaah…… aaaaaah……!”
One holy knight got unlucky.
Not dead, but alive with his lower half gone, gurgling blood.
“Bro, no, don’t……”
Jeong Cheol stomped on the knight’s heart. Without a second’s hesitation.
“……Sto…………p……………….”
The crack of ribs shattering.
The squelch of something bursting.
“Why not?”
Jeong Cheol looked up and glared at me.
“Shin Tae-yeop.”
In that moment.
I felt intangible worms gnawing at my bones…… pure terror.
“I told you before.”
The gleam in his eyes…… was dark blue. Just like the undead’s.
“To grant my wish.”
The Jeong Cheol I met again.
Was no longer Jeong Cheol.
Nor human.
Valerin was right. The Jeong Cheol before me now was a monster on the verge of losing all humanity.
“This world must perish.”