Chapter 79
Chapter 79 - Cockroach
I opened my eyes.
I could see the red sunset fading.
"... Ah."
Wait a minute. Why am I lying down looking at the sky?
While thinking quietly, suddenly an intense headache struck. At the same time, everything that had happened until now flooded into my head.
"This damn..."
The memory remains intact. I realized this fact and grumbled curses.
I didn't die. The ether I desperately absorbed at the end seems to have saved me after all. Though I thought it might have been too late. I must have passed out from the pain.
'... Was surviving the right choice?'
That was my first doubt.
At the moment of dying, I drank the ether in desperation thinking 'I can't end this so pathetically'. But now that I've survived, it's complicated.
Wouldn't it be more time-efficient to die and restart? Such thoughts kept coming.
'Ah, no... what nonsense is that.'
And getting goosebumps at myself for having such thoughts, I desperately shook my head to deny them.
I have to live. If I can live, I should live even if I have to crawl through a field of dog shit. Are you crazy Park Jeong-yong?
You think dying is easy, you bastard?
―When possessed by Xiongma, one loses fear of death. Whether it's one's own death... or the death of others.
Lucy's voice strikes my ears coldly again.
Feeling like it was reproaching my current complacency, I unconsciously stroked my chest.
"Th-that's right. The Demon King... Lucy!"
And only then did concern for Lucy's safety occur to me.
I jumped up from that spot and immediately started running. Of course, my destination was toward Kern.
Thud thud thud thud! Running at full speed for the first time in a while, I reached a speed that rivaled wild beasts. The sound of wind slashing my cheeks was terrifying.
'This damn... why is it so quiet!'
And approaching near Kern, I sensed it and grumbled inside.
The surroundings are quiet as a mouse. It's awkwardly silent even though it's not completely dark yet.
The sight of Kern grows closer moment by moment. I forcefully suppressed my anxiously pounding heart and entered Kern's city gates.
"What... is this...!"
And I shuddered.
The guards who had been protecting the gate were scattered about in pieces.
Countless people lying around with their arms and legs bent at odd angles. Broken wagons and people were mixed together randomly.
Everything is covered in blood. There's more red from blood than the original color of the stone walls.
"What in the...!"
I passed through the city gate in a daze and entered Kern.
And for a while, I blankly stared at the scene unfolding before my eyes.
"What happened here..."
I muttered unconsciously while walking the streets.
Trees uprooted as if swept up in a storm. Houses shattered to pieces and building debris scattered grotesquely.
And corpses.
Reminiscent of Halcenberg, enormous piles of corpses were stacked everywhere.
There were corpses that remained relatively intact in form. From bodies with limbs torn apart to bodies turned to mush. And there were also things so crushed that it was hard to recognize them as corpses.
'This isn't from the explosion!'
I could tell because I experienced it firsthand.
This wasn't caused by the impact of the white explosion. If caught in that explosion, basically all corpses should disappear without a trace. Just like my previous life's corpse.
At least the people whose forms remained intact died from something after the explosion.
"Ugh... L-Lucy!!"
I quickened my pace. Running at full speed across Kern, I was soon able to reach the front of the inn where we had stayed.
But there, I had to doubt my eyes once again.
'It's gone?'
The inn where we stayed is gone.
No. To be precise, it had vanished. All that remained there was a huge crater and blackened traces of an explosion. Everything around it had cleanly disappeared.
Heat was still rising from the massive hole that must have been at least 100 meters in diameter.
"Insane..."
Incredible destructive power.
What kind of act creates such a huge crater? Was I trying to run away from something like this? While thinking that.
'But at this level...'
I wondered if the explosion was weaker than expected.
The explosive power wasn't even enough to cover all of Kern. In other words, it's not so powerful that you couldn't escape if you fled from Kern.
But my previous self who tried to escape Kern failed 33 times.
What does this mean?
'... The explosion occurred while tracking our group?'
That's the only thing I could think of.
I came to that conclusion while carefully examining the inside of the huge crater.
At some point, I suddenly came to my senses. And hurriedly started searching the surroundings thoroughly.
"Lucy!! Hey Demon King! Answer if you're alive!!"
I frantically ran around everywhere searching through the ruins.
My screams echoed in the crater. The entrance area that wasn't affected by the explosion at least retained some semblance of a village structure. But here there was absolutely nothing.
Thanks to that, finding people wasn't difficult.
'This damn... did she really die?!'
A sense of despair keeps seeping into my body. I forcefully pushed away the negative thoughts.
First, I search. After thoroughly searching all of Kern and not finding anything, then I can despair.
"... Ah."
As I was thoroughly searching around the crater, finally something resembling a person caught my eye.
Without realizing it, my steps came to a halt. After staring intently at it for a while, I staggered over there.
"......"
It was sprawled on the ground.
A headless corpse. There were large and small cuts all over the body, and the limbs were twisted. For a moment I thought it might be the Demon King's, but it wasn't.
Though it was barely recognizable as human, there was a reason I knew who it was.
"...Aran."
There was a transparent baby dragon hovering around the corpse.
I quietly stared at Aran, and Aran stared right back at me before opening its mouth toward the sky.
-Guuuuuu!!!
As Aran let out a sorrowful cry, fierce winds swept in from all directions.
Slash. My cheeks and the back of my hands were cut by the sharp wind and bled. But I didn't run away.
"Oh geez... damn it."
Seeing it writhing in sorrow, I felt somehow comforted, while also feeling the urge to console this pitiful little dragon.
I walked briskly toward Aran with a weak smile.
"Your master is dead. Stop it."
-Kiiiik! Kiaaaaak!!
"From the looks of it, my master seems to be dead too. Looks like we're in the same boat."
-......
"Stop this nonsense and come down. The dead won't come back to life no matter what you do."
That was meant for Aran, but also for myself.
Only then did I give up. My mind finally accepted this wretched situation.
-Kiiiing... Kuuuu....
Aran cried sadly while slowly flapping its wings. After slowly descending, Aran landed on my shoulder and started nuzzling my cheek.
Thud. I sat down right there and quietly looked down at Seolbaek's corpse.
"This... fuck...."
This isn't right.
How did it end up like this? What did I do wrong?
This goddamn cursed world. What do you want from me?
'If I go back to the past....'
Out of habit, my hand went to the sword at my waist. But I stopped abruptly.
I still don't know if Lucy is alive or dead.
If Lucy is dead and has returned to being an egg, the guardian contract would be broken and I won't be able to resurrect. Death might not mean another chance.
Game over. It could be my final death.
"This... f... uck...."
As I realized this fact, my hand on the sword handle started trembling uncontrollably.
I muttered curses to myself as I gently lifted Seolbaek's hand.
Crumble. Her hand crumbled like a sand castle.
All that remained in my hand was a single faded black ring.
"This is...."
The ring.
The ring that Seolbaek had pulled from a random box. The very ring that triggered the second regression point update.
I stared at it blankly. As always, the status window appeared.
[Item Information]
[Name: Forewarning of Isgard]
[Stats: ???]
[Details: Has already summoned the Fragment of Astart. Has lost its function now.]
[Number of possible upgrades: 0]
'What is this?'
Even in my daze, my eyes snapped open.
It changed. This wasn't the description full of question marks that I remembered.
It says it has fulfilled its role and lost its function.
According to the detailed description... it seems to have summoned something called the 'Fragment of Astart'.
Only then did I recall the second regression point update.
"Ah... Aah!!"
I had an epiphany.
Come to think of it, I should have taken this from Seolbaek first.
I had completely forgotten about this ring while focusing only on the last regression point. This ring might have been an even bigger key than a small fry like Zenon.
'Just once more.'
I'm right at the edge now.
If I could have just one more chance.
Then this time, I feel like I could grasp the truth.
"What's the use of thinking about it now?"
In the end, I laughed dejectedly while just patting Aran's head.
This is the result of running around like crazy 34 times.
A city that became ruins worse than Halcenberg.
For some reason, even people who weren't caught in the explosion were all killed.
Seolbaek is dead, and Lucy is dead too.
Unlike my usual self, I tried my best.
After trying my absolute best until death, all that's left is just me alone.
An overwhelming sense of emptiness and loneliness crashed over me like a tidal wave.
"Talking about being an immortal Demon King... and dying so easily."
And what guardian of the immortal Demon King am I? While letting them die so easily.
I smiled self-mockingly while sinking into self-loathing.
"Young man over there. Did you know that woman?"
It was at that moment when an unfamiliar man's voice came from behind me.
I was startled since I hadn't expected to hear a human voice, and reflexively looked back.
There stood a man.
"Are you also from the Immortal Cult?"
Crimson eyes quietly burning with killing intent.
Silver long hair completely dyed red with blood.
Thick beard under jagged scars. And....
"Looking at you, you must be searching for this... the immortal Demon King?"
Lucy. The immortal Demon King.
Lucy was lying limp in the man's arms.
For a moment I couldn't even breathe as I looked back and forth between Lucy and the man. The man who had been quietly observing my reaction curved his lips into a smirk.
"First, assuming you know that black-haired woman, I have a few questions."
"......"
"Was it you who offered her as a sacrifice to activate the Forewarning of Isgard and brought calamity to this land?"
"......"
"I interrogated several cultists who were massacring citizens, but they knew nothing. But you seem different. I have a feeling you know the answer to this situation."
"......"
"Answer me. I'm not a very patient man."
Despite the man's urging, I kept my mouth firmly shut.
I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut. I too couldn't understand the current situation.
Rather, there were things I learned from the man's words.
'Offered as a sacrifice...? A forewarning of Isgard? Causing... catastrophe?'
My eyes gradually widened with realization.
The ring. As expected, the ring was the problem.
That explosion wasn't targeting me, nor the Demon King, nor Seolbaek.
The ring. That ring called the forewarning of Isgard created that white explosion through some kind of effect.
So naturally, I couldn't avoid the explosion.
How could one escape an explosion while carrying its source?
"The right to remain silent, I see. I'll take it all as confirmation."
And as if to prove his self-introduction about lacking patience.
The man slowly laid down the immortal Demon King... Lucy next to Seolbaek, and immediately took a stance to charge at me.
Clang! The dark gauntlet wrapping the man's right hand gleams red with blood.
"All matters concerning witches must be eliminated. In the name of the witch hunter Jeokrang."
Jeokrang. Did he say Jeokrang?
That name gave me a sense of déjà vu.
Somewhere, in the recent past, I felt like I had definitely seen that name....
"Ugh!"
But such thoughts were brief. Soon I reflexively drew my sword against the storm of killing intent that threatened to crush my entire body. The man was gradually approaching from the opposite side with a sneer.
Truly a beast-like smile. A chilling murderous intent lingered.
In that moment, I sensed it.
'I'm going to die.'
It didn't take long for that intuition to become reality.
Just as his form seemed to flicker for a moment, he had already appeared behind me.
Thud! A dull sound of flesh being torn shook my entire body.
"Kuh... ack...!!"
What I see in my final moments of life is the iron gauntlet that pierced through my chest.
And my bright red heart being held in that hand.