Chapter 431: The Savior Ω V |
The Savior Ω V
"Oh, you're here?"
"Oh, you're here?"
The 6th station.
That place was a flower garden.
A place where only the rustling of falling petals could be heard. The Garden of Fallen Flowers, where even in death the fragrance remained.
And the Dang Flower Garden, where Dang Seo-rin had spent time with her family.
Two landscapes overlapped.
"..."
The sixth layer of the heart. Now there was only one layer left until the dream within a dream's deepest layer.
If this place, which had no choice but to be thoroughly steeped in the Void Poison, resembled reality, that would have been more cause for concern.
"...Dang Seo-rin?"
But the scenery before my eyes seemed to transcend the simple dimension of "the space is bizarre."
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
Seo-rin, no.
Two Seo-rins answered simultaneously.
The situation was as follows. Different versions of Seo-rin were reflected on my right and left retinas respectively, cunningly overlapping at the center.
"A bit bewildering, right? I feel the same."
The Seo-rin on the right was tending to violets drooping their heads in the Garden of Fallen Flowers.
The navy blue shadow cast by the sunlight from the glass window caressed the withered and twisted petals, and that had now become the violet's new color.
"A bit bewildering, right? I feel the same."
The Seo-rin on the left was caressing a corpse pierced through by tree branches in the Dang Flower Garden.
The collapsed ceiling of the building. Starlight poured down endlessly. Seo-rin seemed to be holding a funeral service with the Milky Way of the night sky.
"..."
Overlapping yet not overlapping.
I could immediately understand what these two layers of scenery existing simultaneously meant.
"Seo-rin as a human. And... Seo-rin as Hecate coexisting."
"Right."
"Right."
The violet cast a shadow, and the corpse dripped blood.
""Originally, eliminating Hecate and leaving only human Seo-rin would be the route Oh Dok-seo has chosen until now.""
""But that brat, when it came down to the very end, I guess she changed her mind this time.""
""She's saying you should be the one to have the choice, isn't she?""
A hollow laugh escaped me.
"That's really... such a Dok-seo thing to do."
Seo-rin also giggled.
""Really, isn't she way too fourth-dimensional? Sometimes when I talk with her, I end up tilting my head like 'Huh?' 'Did I mishear something?'""
"Ahaha."
I laughed along with Seo-rin, but how could I not grasp Dok-seo's true feelings?
Placing one of my connections at each staircase descending into the dream within a dream.
This held meaning beyond simply handing over the choice to me.
'It must be a gift for me.'
That's right.
This current situation was truly like a dream for me as a regressor.
No matter how carefully I had crafted armor to protect my mental state, how could I not be affected at all while experiencing my memories with companions resetting with each regression?
I thought it foolish to develop the habit of digging into unavoidable sadness.
So I had simply applied ointment repeatedly to prevent flesh from forming over the wounded spots.
"I roughly get yours and Dok-seo's idea. In short, it's a golden axe silver axe operation."
""Hm?""
"Now I decide whether the Seo-rin I truly loved was the personality inherited by the Outer God Hecate, or the human Seo-rin. Then I just need to take one of their hands after making that decision, right?"
""Ahahaha. You got it!""
Day and night mingled in midair.
""Actually, Dok-seo was the first to come up with the idea, but I thought what would be the point? No matter how much I thought about it, I could only see the ending where you'd choose both of us.""
"A cliché from folktales."
""I'm confident, you know. Whether I'm an anomaly or not, I'm confident you'll see me as Seo-rin exactly as I am.""
It was well-founded confidence.
Because the path we had walked, the countless cycles, the log of conversations we had shared, all provided the basis for her confidence.
"Then you'll understand this too."
I smiled.
"Seo-rin. Actually, the choice doesn't lie with me, it lies with you."
""Huh?""
Seo-rin tilted her head.
""What do you mean?""
"Seo-rin."
I looked at the Seo-rin on the right.
Still completely human, contaminated by the memories of an Outer God but not yet united with the Outer God.
I looked at the Seo-rin who was still alive on June 17th.
"Those memories you feel you've regained now are actually the past of some Outer God that replaced your soul."
"..."
"You don't need to unconditionally consider that as your life. No. It wouldn't be strange if you found it unpleasant instead."
"..."
"The massacre of your entire family was planned by a being called Go Yuri. You were forced to make a wish. And by the anomaly that responded to that wish, your life was completely mortgaged."
I spoke calmly to her eyes, taking care not to mix in any exaggeration.
"You have the right to reject this future, this past, all of it as belonging to someone else and not yourself."
"..."
Then I turned my head.
The Seo-rin on the left.
Still completely an Outer God, who had foreseen the end of being demoted to a human, but precisely because of that, could refuse that conclusion.
I looked at Hecate, who had not lost her name even on June 17th.
"Seo-rin."
"...Yeah."
"Guild Leader."
"...Yeah."
Hecate hesitantly opened her mouth.
"...Vice Guild Leader."
"Well. I don't know what it feels like for an Outer God to transform into a human. For someone who only responds to wishes to become the wish itself is a bit too abstract for a Homo sapiens like me."
"Ahaha. What are you saying? And you're more anomaly-like than any anomaly."
"Wow. Then Samcheon World was ultimately an anomaly organization after all. The Guild Leader, the Vice Guild Leader. No, thinking about it, isn't Ji-won also the priestess of Leviathan?"
"Whoa. That guild dominated the Korean peninsula? And even our rival Baekhwa is the same? Korea's done for, seriously."
We laughed side by side.
"You can still refuse."
"..."
"From your perspective as a former Outer God, humans might be nothing but utterly insignificant creatures. Even if you refuse, I have no right to stop that choice."
"Why?"
"In the end, I'm Go Yuri's accomplice. I'm one of the culprits who dragged you as an Outer God down to earth."
"..."
She closed her mouth.
I waited until the silence melted into day and night. Only then did I ask the sun and moon.
"Will you accept being an anomaly?"
First to the sun placed on the left.
"Will you accept being human?"
Then to the moon placed on the right.
"...I, uhm, I."
Seo-rin, dyed in the sun's shadow, opened her lips.
"I don't think it's a particularly important question. After all, why. People's cells all get replaced, right? Anomaly or whatever, if it's my personality then it's me."
Treating an anomaly like mere cells?
No, well, cancer cells are still cells. It wasn't wrong, so a laugh escaped me unintentionally.
Seo-rin looked straight at me.
"If I deny these memories, I'll lose all the traces I walked with you, the traces I would have walked. I don't want that."
That was the human's answer.
I nodded and looked at the other side.
"..."
Hecate, soaked in the starlight of the night sky, opened her lips.
"What you said about humans being insignificant creatures compared to an Outer God's authority. You're wrong."
A smile hung on her lips, hehe.
"An Outer God has nothing but themselves. Most humans are like that too, but... at least the life I've lived and ended up living was different."
Hecate reached out her hand.
Squeeze. My left hand was grasped.
"Undertaker! I'm truly glad I got to know you as a human being!"
"..."
"I'm sorry for dying first. Thank you for keeping my promise every time. Every day, for trying to be by my side... thank you. You are..."
Squeeze. My right hand was grasped.
"Go Yuir."
"Undertaker."
The left and right Seo-rins, which had been separated with a slight gap, simultaneously pulled me toward them.
""You have always been like magic to me!""
The sun and moon overlapped.
The rotten and crumbling fallen flowers accepted the crimson and bloomed fully, and the tree branches that had only corpses hanging on them were embroidered with petals and blossomed in full.
"When the latecomers come down, I'll follow along."
With a smile. Holding the earliest blooming flower that a human could produce, Seo-rin whispered right before my eyes.
It was a song that always flowed in my heart.
"By the way, I think Ha-yul is really pretty! Oh, but Oh Dok-seo is a bit… Sim Ah-ryeon too."
Time limit.
20 seconds.
"When today is all over, let's talk!"
Dive.
And.
To the next stage.
"..."
It was quiet.
The 7th station.
The terminal station.
Although time and space should have been mixed up more arbitrarily here than anywhere else, what spread around me was just the Tower of Babel plaza wrapped in silence.
"Hmm?"
Clang.
Noh Do-hwa, who had been working on something with tools, turned around.
Black eyes that weren't hidden even by deep dark circles scanned my face.
"You're here? You're ridiculously late..."
"Director Noh Do-hwa."
"Well, you'd call me that. Though it's a bit awkward since I in this current cycle haven't actually founded the National Road Management Corps or anything..."
"Where did the other raid members go? How about the Sword Marquess old man? Seo Gyu?"
Thump.
I approached her while looking around.
"And why is Director Noh Do-hwa standing guard on the most dangerous seventh layer?"
"It's difficult to answer when you throw multiple questions at once. You bastard."
"..."
It is Do-hwa alright.
"First, the other members are over there, peacefully knocked out inside the Tower of Babel, so rest assured..."
Clang.
Do-hwa hammered at her work.
"As for your next question. I don't understand it myself either, but it seems I have a trait that doesn't get contaminated by the Void Poison even if you drop me here in the dream within a dream..."
"What?"
"You didn't know? Well. Since this is the latest information we obtained while going in and out of here, it makes sense you'd be slow on the update..."
The corner of Do-hwa's mouth twisted.
"Oh Dok-seo said something. Ah. Apparently the very fact that I've never been corrupted throughout all cycles is considered like a trait in itself, so I don't seem to be affected by the dream within a dream..."
"Whoa."
An exclamation flowed from my mouth. I was genuinely surprised, for what it's worth.
Do-hwa continued hammering while speaking.
"Thanks to that, whether it's the sixth or seventh layer. I'm perfectly fine no matter how long I stay in the dream within a dream. So Team Leader Yu Ji-won, who has similar immunity like me, is in charge of the entrance to the passage, and I'm in charge of the exit..."
Thinking about it…
In the regression alliance that was almost entirely bustling with Outer Gods or priestesses of Outer Gods, Do-hwa had always performed the role of anchor.
And Do-hwa had never once betrayed her own humanity.
'...If there's something that doesn't change even while thousands of worlds repeat, then that's already no different from a law. She became a law that doesn't crumble even when entering the deepest void.'
It was truly a remarkable achievement.
But if I expressed my respect, only non-combustible trash would be discharged from Do-hwa's facial muscles, so I changed the subject.
"What have you been making since earlier?"
"Ah, this... Heu."
Do-hwa grabbed the work and showed it to me.
There were two things that looked like arms, two things that looked like legs, and one thing that looked like a head attached to it.
In short, it was a doll.
"It's you..."
?
"What?"
"You. You. Your alias is Undertaker and your real name is... what was it again? Anyway, both your alias and real name are fucked up."
"That's personal insult??"
"I've had my entire life insulted, so isn't this level of statement permissible? You bastard."
"No, anyway. Me? This doll?"
I had no choice but to look at her with a face containing 100% pure bewilderment.
"There's even not just one doll but two, three, four, five, six, seven... No. Really, how many are there? Why are there so many dolls?"
"It's a commission from Ms. Oh Dok-seo..."
Dok-seo?
"When this quest ends successfully, your body will be split into at least five or six pieces, so before that happens, she told me to use doll clone jutsu in advance to make Undertakers..."
"..."
"So I made them. Collaborating with your daughter Puppeteer. Well, there's still the ontological contemplation of whether this is really the Undertaker or not. Don't worry though. If I cut off the limbs prettily and attach them, it'll work..."
"What??"
"My ability is prosthetic production, isn't it? Originally it's an ability to replace lost limbs, but apparently the opposite is also possible. If I attach arms, legs, limbs, necks, and heads one by one to connect them, I can make them become the real 'that person'..."
I couldn't recover from the shock.
"Ah, no. Wait. There's too much to point out here. First of all, my legs? My legs are two. I'm not a centipede."
"I know that..."
"To replace all the legs of the dolls placed here with my real legs, I'd have to evolve into a human centipede, so by what means are you going to fill up all the materials!"
"Sim Ah-ryeon..."
Flinch.
"If you cut it off, get healed and it grows back, then cut it off again, get healed and it grows back, isn't that enough..."
Silence.
"No. Limbs aside. What about the brain?"
My earnest rebuttal.
"The head? No matter how amazing Ah-ryeon's healing ability is, regenerating even after the head is blown off is really not easy."
"Goodness. Who's extracting the head all at once? I'm not an idiot."
"Whaaat?"
"You just cut off the brain a little bit, heal it, cut it off a little bit again, heal it, and slowly do defragmentation..."
Silence.
"...Did Dok-seo devise this operation?"
"Ah, yes. She was spouting it with such a confident face like 'I saw it! The only happy ending I found!'..."
"Dok-seo!"
I cried out.
I could feel the gratitude and respect for Oh Dok-seo that had built up in my heart melting away like ice cream in Daegu during summer.
"So..."
Do-hwa smiled.
"Where shall we start cutting..."
"..."
"Arms? Legs? Or if your habit is to eat the bad stuff first when eating curry, should I start with the head..."
"..."
"Well, but rest assured. At least there's no doll for me."
Do-hwa whispered as if murmuring.
Cold sweat wouldn't stop running down the back of my neck.
"There's still some time left before the kids come down from upstairs anyway. I'll cut as prettily as possible, so you decide which part to cut first..."
"..."
Alias, Undertaker.
Real name, Go Yuir.
Perhaps Go/Yu/ir.
It was the greatest crisis of my life.
It was the moment I realized that for someone with many lifetimes, the greatest crisis of a lifetime also becomes many, a fact I didn't particularly want to realize.
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