#287
287. Another end (2)
from that,
Time passed again.
“…”
I looked up.
gray sky. It was midday, but the light was hard to find. If it weren’t for the magic lights installed all over the ecliptic, it would be like night.
Currently, the number of floors to climb is 87.
The subjugation of the Red Beauty King Rantia ended on the 85th floor.
Even in the midst of losing his reason, he annoyed us with all sorts of deceptive magic, hallucinations, and reality manipulation, but he fell to his knees before the wheel of the Taoneer raid.
Rantia was sucked into the hole and suffered more damage than Stenberg. We just beat the half-dead boss.
And the climb continued.
After the 80th floor, Amkena no longer uploaded clear videos to Mewtube.
Not only did I not get much attention, but the comment section was plastered with all sorts of profanity and insults. Recently, I also stopped looking at Amkena’s Mutube channel.
‘I’ve endured a lot in three years.’
It was a time when most PC games were thinking about shutting down the server.
As it was a popular game with 100 million users in its heyday, the fall was steep.
When entering official cafes and game galleries, it was common to engage in keyboard battles between core users who played steadfastly and those who criticized the game.
An unstable server that bounces several times a day, severe lag and bugs, a balance between heroes that doesn’t fit at all, and a dead end system that disappears once you die. Even the luck factor that the difficulty of the mission is different for each account. What was once an advantage is now a disadvantage, holding back the game.
The stock price of Mobius, one of the world’s leading conglomerates, hit the lower limit in an instant, resulting in hundreds and hundreds of billions of losses, and the store’s sales rankings fell day by day.
By the time I return to Earth… … The game of pick me up may have already disappeared.
Well, it doesn’t matter, even if the service doesn’t end, I have no intention of holding on to Pick Me Up anymore. If I receive a cell phone, I decided to delete the app right away.
‘This is not a place for me to be.’
I brushed the top of my head with my hand.
The gray snow that had piled up in her hair poured down.
The skies of Taoneer were not enough to lose their light, and at intervals of several days they began pouring ashes like snow.
“……Weird.”
Jenna shook her head.
Her gaze reached every corner of the ruined ecliptic as soon as it was destroyed.
Covered in ashes, ruins that couldn’t even be called buildings, and beggar-like people dressed in rags. There is no hope in their eyes.
“They said that you can save Taonier if you clear the mission, but why does it become like this more and more?
“It may have been a lie. I never believed in sweet words like that from the beginning.”
Belquist chuckled.
“A lie? Then what are we for…”
“To survive. The mission is not useless at all. Even if this place perishes, the waiting room will remain. Wouldn’t it be fine to live there?”
“But! There’s no guarantee that that place will last forever!”
“At least I think it’s safer than here. I think this place is already over.”
Belquist’s eyes turned to the alley.
The corpses of mercenaries were piled up there.
There was neither time nor manpower to bury them. I will gather them all together and burn them.
According to Freea, every week a new hole opens and debris pours in.
Even after processing the fragments and closing the hole with the dimension sword, the hole soon reopened.
Countless enemies poured in from the larger hole.
It was a one-sided defense that made it impossible to even think of a counterattack. Most of the 10,000 mercenaries have already died.
‘now… … .’
No refugees come from outside.
Without the ability to contain the fragments that leave the ecliptic, enemies will already be swarming in all provinces of Taonier. It was safe to say that there were no survivors except for those who remained here.
“Everything… a lie?”
Jenna’s eyes twitched.
She, who was always cheerful, lost her self-control this time.
“The forest I lived in…”
“It must be gone. Don’t have any regrets.”
“That’s it! Brother, say something. This isn’t it. If it ends like this, what the hell did you go through all that hard work for? I’m going home…”
I opened my mouth.
“Calm down. We’re still on the mission. An enemy might appear.”
“that…….”
Jenna gave me a blank look.
“Brother, it seems that something has changed. The brother I used to know…”
“…”
I had nothing more to say.
Turning my head away from Jenna, I saw the wreckage of a collapsed two-story house.
Someone was standing in front of the split door.
<Han Israat.>
doggish.
<Are you running away too? I did my best for you I did my duty until the day I died.>
Since the 80th floor was over, I’ve been seeing empty things.
<Traitor. Creepy. coward.>
“Shut up.”
muttered in a low voice.
The bloodied Edith looked at me and smiled.
As I waved my hand away, her image dissipated into afterimages.
‘I’m going crazy.’
I am extremely cold.
It’s just a matter of making a rational decision.
But why are you bothering me so much?
“Belquist, stay with Jenna. I’m going to see Fria.”
“Aren’t you going with me?”
“Give me a sense. It’s easy to fall behind in this state.”
“Well, yes.”
Jenna lowers her head.
Except for the first fight, he had never wavered as he had gone through many bloody battles.
That guy lost control.
‘yet… … The mission is not over.’
Right now, I was in the middle of the 87th floor.
Although it is a search type, you do not know what variables will arise.
I went to the command camp with my hand on the scabbard. Bodies strewn by the roadside and beggars lying with dead eyes. I’m tired of seeing this now.
thud! thud! thud!
The sound of hammer hitting.
In the front yard of the command camp, on top of the ruins of the imperial palace, a small airship was being built.
This was the last airship left for the princess. The rest of the air force was completely sunk in the large-scale defense of the 86th floor.
It was natural. 10,000 units of debris crashed.
That ship, the only one left, wasn’t being built anew, it was more like repairing an airship that had preserved its original form.
flutter.
When I opened the tent and went in, Freea was looking at the map.
She heard footsteps and looked this way. She had a haggard expression, but a soft eye smile was imprinted on her face.
“You’re here, Han. You worked hard in the last battle. If it wasn’t for your help, this place would have fallen.”
“Where is Yoshu?”
Freea didn’t say anything.
just smiling sadly
“Is he dead?”
“He was a brave warrior. He fought with honor and left.”
It seems that Yoshu died along with the princess’s flagship when it was sunk.
This is about to get out of here. I wish you well this time too. This was the boy’s will. Right after that, he went on a mission to the 86th floor, and Yoshu fought and died. leaving nothing behind.
“So, what is the airship outside?”
“It’s a Taoni’s sword. It’s the name Yoshu wanted.”
“Taoni’s sword?”
Freea nodded.
And he spoke in a serious tone.
“Han, I think calmly, if the next hole opens… we won’t be able to stop them.”
“Perhaps.”
I decided not to have clumsy optimism.
If an attack of the same scale comes next time, the imperial capital will surely fall. The princess army had already suffered damage close to annihilation. Thus, if the imperial capital fell, Taonier was effectively finished.
“I am…….”
Freea looked at me with hard eyes.
“I plan to ride the sword of Taonier and rush into the hole with the rest of my troops.”
“A hole? Where do you mean the fragments come in?”
“That’s right. If you use the power of the dimension sword, entry won’t be impossible at all.”
Are you insane
Don’t you know what happened to Stenberg and Rantia, who were sucked into the hole?
More than that, this idiot would have looked with me. The ‘boundary’ at the end of the hole, the infinite hell where hundreds of millions of trillions of chaos are infested.
“Even if we stay like this, we will be annihilated. In that case, wouldn’t it be me to advance to the end? Perhaps. I wonder if I can find a way with the sword my brother left behind.”
“If that was possible, he would have tried it himself.”
“Shouldn’t we try to struggle as far as we can? It’s too bad that it ended like this.”
Freea folded the map on the table.
“What if it fails?”
Took.
Freea placed a large leather pouch on the table.
The string at the entrance came loose. The bag contained a lot of bright blue powder.
“Han, this is a special powder called ‘Goddess Breath’.”
I knew it as soon as I saw it.
This powder… … .
“It’s poisonous.”
“You’ve figured it out. If you inhale just one pill, you’ll die right away. But there’s an interesting feature to this. Do you know what it is?”
Freea smiled.
“Those who are poisoned by the breath of the goddess feel no pain. On the contrary, right before they die, they have happy dreams and close their eyes as if they were sleeping. I plan to sprinkle this powder all over the ecliptic before sortie.”
“…”
“Now all the food to be distributed has run out. Even if we block the next attack, we don’t know how many people will survive. If so, isn’t it my duty as the royal family to give the people a final rest?”
Are you thinking of ending it yourself?
Well, if you get hit by shrapnel, even if you die, you won’t die gracefully. Either it becomes a corpse and is revived, or it is changed into a disfigured form and is ruined. Either way, die in endless pain.
But, this… … .
“……Are you okay?”
“Shouldn’t it be fine?”
Freea tied the strap on her pocket.
said afterwards.
“This is the last fight between me and Taonier. My older brother will be infinitely lacking, but I think I did my best. And, this is also the last fight between you and me.”
Freea put the pouch under the table.
She continued to speak with a calm expression, as if saying good-bye in the morning.
“Next will be the last mission. Whatever we do, please take care of yourself. Shouldn’t we return to your house safely?”
“……under.”
transcend destiny.
In the end, was it a funny bullshit?
My mouth opened automatically.
“If this is the case, why did you come back? Why didn’t you stay there? If it was going to end like this.
“I swore.”
said Pria.
“I will create a world where my brother can live in peace. Until I keep that promise, I will not go anywhere. This is my promise that I cannot break.”
“It’s not like that…”
“No, Han.”
“…?”
“I have no regrets. My fight was not meaningless. Everything from the beginning, from the moment I met you until the end, everything was meaningful.”
It was an incomprehensible statement.
However, Freea’s eyes were perfectly calm.
No despair or discouragement was visible.
“It’s time for the adjutant to come in soon. Now, Han. The conversation ends here. It was a pleasure to talk to you again.”
As soon as Freea finished speaking, the tent opened and a mercenary entered.
Freea welcomed the mercenary with a tired face. The two immediately started talking about the airship being repaired.
“…”
It has meaning.
No matter how many times I think about it, I still don’t understand.
All I could do was to remain calm and walk away.
