Terraforming [Complete]
“Did Kaya use up every last Yeokcheon Orb…?”
That was the only way to explain the situation.
Given the nature of the orb series—activated by infusing mana—it wasn't all that strange that the intense mana resonance from the fireball had triggered them. The mana belonged to Kaya, after all, no matter how you sliced it.
“But the Yeokcheon Orb is supposed to enable regression…?”
If Kaya had returned to the time of her first arrival in this world, the future should have changed. Not resulted in her existence simply vanishing like this.
But I had a way to resolve this mystery.
I pulled the last remaining Yeokcheon Orb from my inventory and gripped it in my hand. Then I activated Item Information Check, now at level 2 thanks to the hard mode quest.
Name:Yeokcheon Orb
Type: Consumable
Level: -
Effect: Travel to the past.
Details: A 'perfect' orb created by an elf's lost technique, combining the Yekyung Orb, Monghwan Orb, and another. The original three orbs required return to the original timeline once the time limit expired. This orb eliminates that flaw, enabling true time travel.
* World-bound item. Cannot be registered in the shop!
* Cannot be taken to other worlds!
The description was astonishing. Far beyond my expectations.
“…It enables true time travel? Not just regression?”
This differed greatly from what I knew. Lee Kangin, who had used a Yeokcheon Orb, had regressed rather than time-traveled.
Even so, much remained hidden. But I wasn't too worried. Item Information Check level 2 allowed a once-per-24-hours Detailed Item Information Check. I could get more precise info that way.
“Detailed Item Information Check.”
Name:Yeokcheon Orb
Type: Consumable
Level: -
Effect: Travel to the past.
Details: A 'perfect' orb created by an elf's lost technique, combining the Yekyung Orb, Jeongcheon Orb, and Monghwan Orb. The original three orbs required return to the original timeline once the time limit expired. This orb eliminates that flaw, enabling true time travel.
Additional Info:
One Yeokcheon Orb allows travel roughly 50 months into the past. Stackable usage possible.
Orb synthesis technique usable only by high elf priests.
This orb was made by elves, for elves only.
[Warning!] Non-elf races using the orb may suffer side effects. However, using numerous orbs at once can suppress them. Minimum of 2 Yeokcheon Orbs required to suppress side effects.
* World-bound item. Cannot be registered in the shop!
* Cannot be taken to other worlds!
“Side effects… So that's what happened…!”
The Yeokcheon Orb's time travel effect sends body and soul fully into the past. But when Lee Kangin used one, only his 'soul' carrying memories went back. I'd confirmed his physical abilities had reset to baseline with my own eyes.
This was the side effect of a human using an elf-tailored Yeokcheon Orb. Some backlash had prevented his body from traveling back.
Because he'd used only one.
“But Kaya was different…”
Judging from the current situation, she'd used thousands simultaneously. Suppressing the side effects.
“One orb for roughly 4 years…”
Lee Kangin had said the all-out war with the rebels—his death crisis—was 4 years away. Factoring in the 3 months at the training camp, around 50 months. It fit perfectly timeline-wise.
“Stackable, so a thousand would be 4,000 years… two thousand, 8,000…?”
I recalled the stone pool brimming with Yeokcheon Orbs. Easily over three thousand.
“Did Kaya… go to an unimaginably distant past?”
I descended into the pool filled with orbs. To roughly gauge its depth and count the orbs.
Thud!
“Wh-what? And I spotted writing that had been hidden by the orbs before.
Engraved at the very bottom of the stone pool. The text read smoothly, just like when I'd deciphered the elves' 'last will' in District 6.
(Record Date: Year 119, Month 002, Day 21.)
One day, a plague spread among our forest guardian race. Highly contagious, inevitably fatal once contracted—a most dangerous affliction.
At the same time, a short-eared elf appeared to save us. She was completely immune to the plague devouring us. No symptoms even upon contact with the infected.
She seemed to know of the plague but lacked the technique to cure us. Even sending elves to the past via Yeokcheon Orbs multiple times failed to halt its spread.
The short-eared elf said her race had many with the technology to cure it.
Our doomed race staked everything on that hope. We gathered all Yeokcheon Orbs made before the city—save one that failed to arrive—here.
If you reading this possess that technology… we earnestly plead that you use these orbs to come to us.
Current date: Year 119, Month 002, Day 21. Each orb exceeds 50 months. This concerns one race's fate.
Even without healing ability, if the orbs tempt you, take some—but please spread word to those with medical tech.
To whoever will save our elves in the distant future.
From the priest of a now-extinct race.
“Hm… In summary…”
A plague hit the elves, their tech couldn't solve it, so they prepared thousands of past-travel orbs, waiting for someone from the future with a cure?
“…That's why there were thousands of Yeokcheon Orbs here.”
The stone floor inscription didn't end there. Something new was engraved beside it. I read on.
(Addition. Year 123, Month 071, Day 00.)
Do humans' emotions flip without reason? For some reason, the short-eared elf leading this plan desperately wept in despair upon seeing the countless Yeokcheon Orbs gathered at the temple atop the 'highest mountain.'
She never explained her grief to the end. Merely repeated 'I'm sorry' hundreds, thousands of times.
The short-eared elf's lifespan was far shorter than we'd anticipated. She passed into rest shedding tears to the last.
We mourn Natalia Kaya, who strove for us until the end.
“Mourn Natalia Kaya…?”
It was Kaya. The 'short-eared elf' was Kaya.
Chills raced across my skin. I felt the tangled mysteries unravel like a thread.
And the reason the elf village had perished eons ago… was the flu Kaya brought.
The flu she'd caught from a trainee while instructing at the Northern Training Camp.
Kaya was the origin of the plague that spread among the elves.
The savior the elves awaited was, in truth…
“Hoo… Unlike Earthlings who built antibodies over generations fighting the flu, it's natural elves would find it fatal…”
A common tale in fantasy novels. Dimension travelers spreading disease, wiping out natives.
A horrific tragedy.
Just as Chris and I had become each other's cause and effect, so too had the elves and Kaya.
The elves prepared thousands of Yeokcheon Orbs to survive the plague; Kaya used them to travel to the distant past, bringing the plague to the elves.
“…”
Was this mere conjecture? Delusion?
One more way to confirm. I stepped forward to turn inference into fact.
Step. Step.
Thousands of elf bones. I wove through them, heading deeper inward.
And at the deepest point…
Name: Human Remains
Type: Miscellaneous
Level: -
Effect: -
Details: Remains of a human who died an immeasurably long time ago.
I found a single set of human remains.
* The reason Kaya apologized to the elves was simple. She couldn't confess she was the plague's source. Fearing death, she couldn't accept abandonment—surviving alone in a monster-infested forest. A life without speaking to another soul. So she averted her eyes from one race's doom. Even that she couldn't fully manage, ending in a life crushed by guilt.
“…You're the same as ever.”
I'm satisfied. Better she lived unhappily than happily.
Thousands of elves? None of my concern.
Lee Kangin nearby turned at my mutter.
“Huh? Me?”
“Not you. Anyway, did you settle things properly with that guy? Y'know, the one you exchanged names with when the training camp was attacked… What was his name?”
“Joseph Diskin. We settled it.”
“Your face says you won.”
“Obviously.”
“…Nice. I'm gonna take a short walk.”
“Huh? Do whatever. No need to ask my permission.”
Step, step.
I walked slowly, organizing my thoughts.
Had my involvement already deviated the story far from canon? Probably. Given the rare events I'd faced, my Terraforming likely forged an original tale.
'Then how did canon Lee Kangin get the regression orb?'
In my world, Kaya's time travel let him claim it. How in canon?
Step, step.
“…Pointless to dwell.”
Not that curious anyway. With the serialization ended, even the author might not know.
Maybe I'd replaced his role, or he chanced upon a dropped orb. Canon elves might've survived the plague.
“What's important… is I'm done. Kugh…! Hoo.”
A sense of relief washed over me; I stretched grandly.
Everything was finished. Gerard was dead, Lee Kangin tied off his fates, all mysteries resolved.
I was certain now was time to conclude Terraforming.
Human territory would expand. Someday, skyscrapers like Earth's. Surviving elves might turn up.
But… maybe not our generation's role. The temple abandoned too long, no native hints around.
As a webnovel-loving reader, I believe endings deserve applause. Dragging it out becomes bland daily life. Pity for readers and creator alike.
[Terraforming]
Current Completion: 121%
Death Count: 0 (Perfect!)
Happy End. Clean plot resolution.
Conclude the novel?
[Yes/No]
“Yes.”
Novel conclusion is irreversible.
Reconsider before deciding!
Truly conclude?
[Yes/No]
Conclusion isn't the end. Not parting from Chris or bonds forged here.
The epilogue remains.
Thus, I pressed conclude without hesitation.
Novel successfully concluded.
With the familiar system chime, Terraforming reached completion.