Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: See You Again
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They say the moment you think it's too late is actually the fastest time, but that didn't apply to me at all.
The instant I stepped out of the dormitory, I realized I was trapped in darkness.
The storm had stopped, but standing alone under the clear sky was just Theodore.
〔You must not call it that.〕
A strange whisper that seemed unable to properly grasp sentence structure or speech patterns.
What lingered in my ears wasn't so much words as an extremely artificial form of signal.
It was the kind of unpleasant error that would arise if a being incapable of understanding language tried to communicate using our words.
"Theo. I'll be fine, so..."
Theodore, belatedly realizing the situation, began casting a spell.
It must have been a very short time.
But everything seemed to move in slow motion to me.
Is there a word for this phenomenon—the heightened clarity of consciousness unique to someone on the brink of death?
Theodore's magic took the form of purple-tinged black arrows, plunging down behind me in accordance with the attacker's mental image.
"Run."
I grabbed Theodore's arm (which looked agonizingly slow as he reached out to pull me in) and shoved him away, his eyes widening in panic.
"Don't try anything."
No matter how much military training Theodore had, how could he be pushed back by an ordinary person like me?
Perhaps it was a form of mercy from... whatever had targeted me.
I could only hope Theodore wouldn't speculate on this in any way.
The guardian angel had to remain a guardian angel, not the existence of Ebon.
Not when every attempt to understand Ebon's existence only empowered it.
The shadows grew thicker.
And swallowed me whole.
.
.
.
Time didn't seem to pass at all.
It felt as if my soul had been forcibly ripped from its physical form and scattered across the concept of 'space.'
I was alone in a vast expanse so immense that 'boundless' didn't do it justice, its width unknowable.
A sense of futility and emptiness washed over me in waves, as if the entity known as [Arma Cruise] had meant nothing at all, relentlessly scraping away at my sanity without giving it a moment to build resistance...
Yet my consciousness and thoughts persisted, turning into a curse that left me yearning for another presence in this place.
〔Theo run away ? You all Theo must not be fine.〕
If I said it was words crashing directly into my soul, would that make it easier to explain?
In any case, it was rapidly learning something.
It was clearly in the process of studying to comprehend our worldview, which operated on an entirely different communication system.
I could only watch helplessly and passively as it read my soul, terror frozen in me.
〔I have a proposal.〕
〔Guar, guar, dian, guardian angel, keep promise.〕
〔The price for trying to reverse mortality,〕
〔Tell them you want it back.〕
It was a string of disconnected phrases, but I realized they were pieced together from conversations I—or someone—had once had.
Words spoken to help me until Arthur caught the guardian angel, words I uttered while counterattacking a demon-possessed beast, passages I wrote in a hypnotic state, and words said to summon Judith.
'As expected, the [Guardian Angel] can't create words on its own. It can't engage in higher-dimensional conversation.'
Was it because it only perceived the soul itself, without the unnecessary shell of flesh?
I didn't know the exact reason, but becoming a higher-dimensional being had accelerated my understanding of everything.
It felt like blockages clearing or forgotten memories resurfacing.
I interpreted the higher being's incomprehensible ramblings like this:
"You kept the promise, so you want the price?"
〔Yes.〕
From what I could guess, the guardian angel was demanding the price from when it had disposed of the [Demon-possessed Beast] for me.
What kind of price would an entity that dooms all existence to mortality demand...
Was it really just my single life?
"I have nothing to give you. It was a promise you made on your own. You wouldn't go back on your own word, would you..."
Did the existence of Ebon even comprehend the concept of breaking a promise?
I'd heard that truly divine beings demanded or plundered rewards of a kind low-dimensional humans couldn't comprehend or accept.
Of course, I thought that was just propaganda to chide humans who overreached.
It might sound like a joke, but the existence of Ebon sent a signal as innocently childlike as could be.
〔Bad.〕
An utterly pure entity wielding uncontrollable immense power, satisfying its curiosity about other-dimensional beings through destruction...
Facing this transcendent being one-on-one, the dizzying sensation made me feel like my mind would shatter.
〔Promise〕
〔You made it you made it you made it you made it you made it〕
"Stop."
〔This is never the end!■■! Next time and the next and as long as your soul exists it will continue!〕
Unlike the emotionless utterances so far, this cry carried a sense of anguish.
And so, despite not wanting to, I realized who this wretched, screaming entity was.
Me, at some unknown point in the past or future, utterly defeated by the existence of Ebon.
Was that frantic outburst, like a curse, actually the hollow cry that started all these events?
"I don't remember."
〔Theodore White knows everything〕
"He doesn't know anything. Or more precisely, the current Theodore doesn't know anything."
From our exchange so far—not quite a conversation—what I could glean was that there had been some inexplicable causal contact between me and the guardian angel.
And that this contact had made the guardian angel obsessed with the promise.
The guardian angel was an existence I couldn't even approach, but... well...
Now that things had come to this, a sense of resigned relief mixed in.
"So that really all happened, huh."
Memories surfaced of the days I'd rigorously examined myself, suspecting I might be delusional.
Winter by nature tended to strip away human exhilaration, but this year's had been especially harsh and grueling for me.
But from the recent exchange, if the guardian angel—no, the existence of Ebon—was real, and everything in my dreams had truly happened, and this was a world where total annihilation was foretold...
'As long as my soul exists, this fight continues.'
Now I could finally see hope.
I'd lived a life where dying made more sense than surviving, and now I was back on trial.
Looking back, every day had been about comprehending and contemplating despair.
I still didn't know what life was or how to live it.
I'd endured this far on the single-minded desire to find out.
If there was even a sliver of hope, I'd do what I could until I couldn't.
Inevitably, I decided to push my luck.
"I declare the contract you made with me as a guardian angel null and void. You have no basis to claim it was a formal contract either. I have no memory of it, and you have no proof."
〔……〕
From my brief experience with the existence of Ebon so far (was it really brief?), it was purely and viciously greedy.
Hovering around us, learning our language, repeating actions that seemed like deception while watching us—it all meant it was curious about us.
The problem was that its curiosity bordered on the sadistic pleasure children get from dissecting insects.
'Bite the bait. Give me just a little more time. You have time to spare, don't you?'
Would the guardian angel find my actions even slightly interesting?
If so, maybe I could buy a minute or a second, delaying the oncoming future just a bit.
'Isn't working...'
But the guardian angel didn't respond for a long while after that.
I felt thrown alone again into that vast, solitary space.
But the guardian angel wasn't one to be trifled with.
〔Wrong again this time〕
〔I'll make you remember〕
〔Using your death as collateral〕
〔See you again〕
With that chilling declaration, my consciousness awoke.
As physicality overlaid me once more, I became a lower-dimensional being.
Waking from a near-death state closer to death than life, I found myself lying alone in a dark coffin.
.
.
.
'Did I really die?'
Were all my thoughts so far just the delusions of the dead?
I tried to lift the hand resting lightly on my chest, but it wouldn't budge, as if fixed in place.
Had I failed to guess right in that confrontation, and thus met the death the guardian angel had mercifully postponed?
'I told Theodore he'd be fine.'
In that critical moment, I'd told an outrageous lie.
Guilt burned in my chest.
Theodore, who followed me shedding bloody tears; Judith, who swore to grant any unreasonable request three times; Shirley, who trusted my judgment in a perilous situation on the verge of death.
And Arthur, who had saved me time and again, no matter what.
'No!'
Those anguished faces flashed before my eyes, driving me beyond endurance.
-Clunk!
My arm, which hadn't extended as if blocked, suddenly came free.
Flailing wildly, I instinctively sought something to pull my body up.
There was no time to think how ridiculous I must look thrashing in the darkness.
"Arma Cruise!!"
Oxygen rushed into my obstructed lungs.
I was gasping.
I'd inhaled so much at once that my lungs burned and my throat felt torn.
"Hah, haa! Hah, hah, hah! Kgh..."
The gentle gravity settling over my body, the familiar warmth of someone else's body heat that wasn't mine, the firm strength that had pulled me from wandering lost in the dark back to reality.
Everything felt welcome.
I forced my eyelids open, straining to look straight ahead.
My head spun as if filled with liquid, off-balance, but I had to.
"Theo, dor?"
"You're hyperventilating. Follow me. Hoo— hoo—."
"Hoo, hah, haa, hoo."
Dizziness prevented clear thought.
I weakly followed Theodore's lead.
With each inhale and exhale, my vision sparkled, anxiety and fear swirling.
But breathing was something only the living could do.
I was alive, and I had returned.