Chapter 436: The Savior Ω X |
The Savior Ω X
"Now I'm not afraid of anything!"
Heavenly Demon Dok-seo declared.
"Because I'm not alone!"
Some strike team members seemed moved upon hearing that line.
They probably understood it at face value as 'not alone = having other comrades.'
"..."
On the other hand, some awakeners who knew the original source of that line, including myself (especially the Japanese archipelago strike team members who had expertise in magical girls), had subtle expressions.
Since they possessed sufficient knowledge and culture, they couldn't help but wonder, 'What? Does she want to get her head smashed in?'
Really, Dok-seo wasn't alone.
You crazy priestess!
Clang—
A voice degraded by speakers rang out.
It was a sound coming from the laptop Dok-seo was holding under her arm.
Soon, from the laptop screen, a tiny dot-mass dwarf girl jumped, and wouldn't you know it, her body rapidly grew to the size of a real person in the blink of an eye.
Please, stop piling up clichés already, I'm begging you! Do you even know how hard I'm working on repair construction to clean up after you?!
The identity of the white-haired girl raging with nearly fainting fury was... why hide it.
The Admin of the Infinite Metagame, who had once trampled the world and made anomalies tremble, was there.
"Wow."
Yo-hwa nodded as if pleased.
"Who do we have here? If it isn't the loser of the previous era."
It was an unavoidable greeting method since her interlaced fingers were still fixed to her twin sister, but even in a different situation, it didn't seem like the greeting would have been particularly polite.
The Admin frowned at the rudeness of those words and actions.
Huh? The shame of an Outer God who wagged its tail to mere humans should shut up.
"Gasp! Fact violence hurts so much. But it's kind of a shame... If only it hadn't come from someone who cast 'I'll give you all my authority and dignity, just spare me' to mere humans, it would have hurt more."
...
"This side joined early and got the authentic human certification mark attached nice and bright, right? That side kept throwing in every last penny until the very end and signed the surrender document, right? Now when the subjugation is over, at best you'll be a blue checkmark VTuber, right?"
...
"Kekekekeke!"
At the miraculous roast battle, the Admin's shoulders trembled violently.
At least it was fortunate that red flesh tentacles were rushing in from all directions.
The noise was so loud, and the strike team members were busy reorganizing their formation, relying on the barrier the Heavenly Demon had deployed.
Dok-seo shouted.
"Hey! Admin! The output's not enough!"
Haa. Really, how did I end up with my fate mortgaged to such an un-priestess-like priestess...
"Shut up and do something about the tentacles! They're all tough with special effects attached!"
Yes yes, I understand.
The relationship between the two had a different color from what I was used to seeing.
I could infer the reason.
'Well, yeah. Those two broke through new routes while sharing joys and sorrows for over thousands of cycles.'
From Dok-seo's perspective, who had to run around alone to prevent the tragedy of June 17th, the Outer God trapped in the laptop must have been her first companion.
Originally, the modifier 'companion' could never have applied... but the Admin had also undergone considerable humanization through me.
If they'd faced countless hardships and deaths together, they couldn't help but develop into a close relationship.
'There are also stories I don't know. Even in this place I can call my own divine realm.'
Of course.
There were also stories I did know.
"Samcheon World."
Seo-rin raised her broom.
"We won't finish if we only defend. We'll pave the way first. Everyone, follow me."
"Yes!"
The Samcheon World strike team members formed a formation in unison and kicked off into the sky.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
Countless tentacles sharply changed course. To intercept the witches of Samcheon World.
If they lost focus even slightly, they'd be buried under the tentacles' wave attacks and die, but the witches' flight didn't stop.
Dizzyingly, yet with movements trained through countless practices and actual combat, the witches of Samcheon drew geometric contrails.
Even if the opponent was a reincarnator who had repeated billions of lifetimes, the mission given to humanity's front line was fundamentally the same.
When fighting against Ten Legs, when shooting down Meteor Shower.
Pioneer the sky first.
"What are you all doing!"
Below the sky being scored with cracks by the witches, Yo-hwa, who had been directing the circle dance of corpses on the ground, shouted.
"Move together with Dok-seo and advance! Use the barrier as a shield to march forward! Aah, seriously. Unni! Don't do this here and move with me!"
"Ah. I'm a rear support type strategist..."
"Hurry!"
Baekwha Girls' High marched forward.
If each witch of Samcheon was a pilot embroidering the night sky with starlight, the warriors of Baekwha were legionnaires advancing with shields at the front like Roman soldiers.
Sky and ground.
Both sides split the red flesh in half to face it. Humanity's forces tightened more and more toward the horizon where the Outer God had taken position.
'They're fighting well.'
They weren't forces to be treated as mere extras in the first place. Hadn't they too temporarily regained memories of their past lives?
'Humanity's greatest veterans.'
My life as a regressor guaranteed it.
Throughout the countless regressions I'd experienced, not once had I insisted on a method of clearing 'alone' by 'solo running.'
'Perhaps for this very moment...'
I raised them.
'Was everything inevitable.'
When defending Busan. When occupying Sejong. When recapturing Seoul. When securing Pyongyang. When protecting Sinuiju.
"It's more doable than I thought! We can do this!"
"Whoa, what was that just now? There was nothing in the air but suddenly axes appeared."
"Time stop, you idiot! The Saintess said so!"
"If you're slower than the broom bastards, you'll die by my hands!"
These people had always been together on the front lines where I stood.
Therefore, they couldn't help but be the strongest army.
Ah—aa—a—
The conductor of the witches sang.
The cape flowing from Seo-rin's shoulders sparkled like the Milky Way.
The night sky burning by consuming lifespan.
—Ah—a—aaa—
That night sky's starlight would never fade.
Before anyone knew it, a few flower stems were wrapped around Seo-rin's body. Each time she created a chorus alone, black violets burst into bloom.
They were branches of the World Tree raised by Ah-ryeon.
A—aa—aa—
As much lifespan as was burned, the World Tree immediately returned that lifespan.
Literally a 'theoretically strongest' combination.
Though Seo-rin had once come to hate plants more than anyone, she was in fact an awakener who created the most exquisite harmony with the World Tree.
Aaaa—aaa—
Sky.
Her song didn't break off, and it was enough to turn the cosmos that had been covered in red flesh back into humanity's night sky.
The witches giggled with joy at the night sky their goddess had spread and raced even faster.
"Teacher!"
"Sunbae, we're roughly picking off and eliminating all the dangerous authorities!"
Ground.
On the surface, the corpses of humans who had met death countless times were dying again, dragging the red flesh's authorities as companions down to the underworld.
Just moments ago, the tentacles' numbers had rivaled the Sands of the Ganges, but they successively exploded, bursting blood everywhere.
The remaining offensive of the red flesh was half blocked by the Saintess, and the other half blocked by Dok-seo.
The gap created by half and half—between ground and sky, and therefore on the earth, humans advanced.
"Mr. Matiz."
Sea.
Ji-won vomited out a seven-colored sea.
"Please go ahead. I'll support you."
Once there was a girl who had wished for the world to simply sink without a word.
However, now at this moment, the sea spreading from her fingertips didn't submerge the humans advancing toward the horizon but instead raised them up.
Everywhere became thick with boundless aura.
The song pouring down from the night sky blessed them, and the aura spreading up from the sea permeated them.
"Embalmer! This is our chance!"
From the left, the Sword Star ran while shouting.
"Don't worry about the flank."
From the right, the Sword Marquess recited.
"No matter what happens, this master will see you to the front of that monster."
I nodded.
And ran.
Each time my steps met the aura spread to the horizon, ripples flowed.
The most joyful treading on duckweed to cross water.
Though I might not be the only one who had reached this state, the luxury of running across the Milky Way reflecting the night sky was entirely as if mine alone.
'If I cut down that reincarnator, this miracle too will surely shatter like a midsummer night's dream.'
The scenery passed me by in an instant.
A certain magical girl who unfolded her umbrella and deployed her magic while crying out meow. A certain awakener roaring a lion's roar to encourage comrades nearby.
'Someday even these memories will all become hazy, and when we meet on a journey to some remote village, perhaps only a sense of déjà vu wondering who they were will remain.'
A certain younger one who built up muscles but was neither a dealer nor a tank but a supporter. A certain child creating puppet threads to slaughter the red flesh obstructing my path.
'Even if lonely, it's not a terribly lonely thing.'
It was the reason they were alive.
'If life is a single dream.'
When waking from the dream one day.
'I shall answer that it was not a nightmare.'
A long day's dream.
The long dream of a certain day of the week.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
Before I knew it, the red flesh had arrived right before my nose. Looking back, crossing one horizon had also been but a moment.
Crash!
Even driven to this point, did the reincarnator of countless eons truly have one final move?
A tentacle broke through even the assistance of the Saintess and Dok-seo and struck to pierce my heart.
'Yuri.'
I blocked that strike. Unable to withstand the pressure, the sword, Do-hwa, shattered in my grip.
But it didn't matter.
A certain blacksmith forged swords for me every time the world was reborn.
In valleys where all the craftsmen had died and disappeared, I always received swords as gifts.
Those gifts, linked to the number of times I'd met death, now formed a mountain of swords and forest of blades on this path.
I ran.
Discarding the broken sword, I newly pulled out one blade from among the swords embedded in my heart.
'Did you call me greedy?'
The red flesh's death throes didn't cease.
Swords broke. Broke again. The monstrous grip born from wounds that had completely destroyed certain lives surged like waves many times to crush me.
It was the reason a person needs a staff to cross a stream, and the reason the sword of Do-hwa transformed into a staff was placed in my hands.
'If greed is permitted to me.'
The red flesh that had lurked on the left, risen from the shadows aiming for a perfect opportunity, was blocked by Emit Schopenhauer.
'I only hope this world is not a nightmare for you either.'
The end of the tentacle that had tried to catch my death with its own suicide by bursting itself on the right was cut down by Hong Bi-cheong.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
I ran until the very end.
When sky, earth, and sea rippled.
I swung one blade.
——————...!
A scream.
The red flesh convulsed bizarrely. It struggled desperately to somehow scoop up the collapsing flesh, but the slash drawn there wouldn't heal.
The untimely death that became the void itself by looking into the void more deeply than anyone.
The old nightmare was crumbling.
I reached out my hand into the pouring blood. Firmly. There was a sensation wrapping around my fingertips.
"—Ah."
There, a girl with pink hair wore an expression like she was about to cry at any moment, her wrist caught by me.
One human surrounded by all these nightmares.
Now that the nightmares she could never escape from with just her own struggles were vomiting blood and washing away.
The hair that had been dyed pink was slowly, from the ends, returning to its original black color.
"Go Yuri."
Regression. Reincarnation.
There is a destiny by those names.
"You were the one who noisily woke me up every morning and whatnot."
Since a person's life is a journey leading to death, living each time inevitably means dying each time.
There was also someone who ultimately couldn't prevent destruction on that journey and finally let go of themselves.
"This time it's my turn to speak."
"Ah..."
"We slept in too late. You too. Me too."
Pulling her wrist.
I embraced the existence who had died with me and would eventually die with me.
"The night has ended now."
"..."
Go Yuri's expression crumbled.
And soon leaned that crumbling onto me.
"...Yes."
With a person's weight and a person's warmth, she let her voice flow from within my embrace.
"Yes… Yuir."
Reincarnator.
Alias. Someone's family. Someone's younger sister. Someone's daughter. Salvation. Wound. Despair. Hope. Nightmare.
Rank. Outer God.
Subjugation complete.
"You were always the sun to me."
And then…
“My own, very own sun.”
Someone's epilogue had begun.
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