Chapter 305: Ragnarok (10) (1) |
I looked around the room.
In front of the desk where Tel sat, a large round table was placed.
There were exactly thirty-two chairs. It seemed the directors had held meetings here about the main matters of the game.
“Why don’t you just sit anywhere?”
Tel put both legs up on the desk.
At the end of her white legs, black shoes were worn.
I closed my eyes and then opened them.
The presence of the entire conference room was revealed.
Not just what could be seen, but everything hidden as well.
The number of directors I had taken care of was not even twenty.
That meant nearly ten divinities were still remaining somewhere here.
But their presence was nowhere to be felt.
If those who should have been here had vanished, there was only one possibility.
I looked at Tel, who was grinning in front of me.
“You ate them all, didn’t you.”
“Yeah. I went to the trouble of giving them executive seats, but they were useless at their jobs. No need to keep them alive.”
Tel smiled.
Twitch. Black veins pulsed along her neck.
“…Haa.”
She seemed to be in considerable pain, as Tel furrowed her brows.
‘So that’s why she stalled for time.’
Rather than attacking with her subordinates, she had intended to face me after devouring them.
She must’ve needed time to digest. But it was reckless. I could tell right away that she was not in a normal state. The veins showing all over her skin twisted ominously.
‘Even if she’s a top-tier divinity…’
There’s a limit to how much interference power one can absorb.
Her power isn’t infinite. Stronger than the others, no doubt, but the limit is clear.
She can stop the server’s time and intervene in various ways, but she doesn’t fully control the system. She just clings onto it. And even that requires a huge cost.
“You were really strong, you know. I didn’t think my guys would get crushed like bugs. I was impressed. Back when we first met, you were just some kid good at games. Time sure flies.”
I drew the Dragonscale Sword.
And walked toward Tel, who was babbling leisurely.
“/oki. You’re going to act like this to the very end?”
“……”
“By the time tonight ends, one of us will be dead. And a new era will begin. Who will be the victor? You, who surpassed the limits of your kind? Or me, the god above gods?”
Bang!
I slammed my foot into the floor.
The Dragonscale Sword, thrust out like an awl, shot toward Tel’s heart.
“Really, this is why I don’t like impatient men.”
Tel snapped her fingers.
The round table spun and flipped, and the magic circle engraved on the wall lit up.
Crackle! Bzzzzzt!
Hundreds of thousands of tons of gravitational energy.
I stopped my step.
“Of course you didn’t die. I poured in the interference power of three directors. You should’ve died without even leaving a corpse. Monster… you really are a monster.”
“…Tel.”
“What do I have to do to kill you? Blow your head off? Pierce your heart? Or should I chop you into pieces? No, even that won’t kill you, right?”
Tel smiled slyly.
I reached out my right hand and began to tear away the restraints of the interference power that had spread like spiderwebs.
Just as Tel said.
In exchange for sacrificing my humanity, I was losing the concept of “death.”
I had already become a being higher in grade than her. This petty trap didn’t hinder me in the slightest. If given just a bit of time, I was confident I could dismantle it completely.
‘Ten minutes.’
Crack! Crackle!
The magic circle that enveloped the room was gradually fading.
“Whiiew.”
Tel whistled.
Then she got up from the chair and walked toward me.
“O you who transcended fate.”
“……”
“Your end will be more miserable than mine.”
Tel’s hand brushed along my neck.
“You will continue an eternal battle in endless time. No one will remember you. Forgotten, unable to feel anything, you’ll fade away as a ghost. Is that truly… the ending you desired?”
Hoo—
Tel blew sweet breath into my ear.
“Are they really worth saving, even with such sacrifice? They hate, resent, envy, and kill each other. They’re just bugs.”
“……”
“What if you chose differently? We could bring about a far greater ending. You and I—together, we could even fight the Reapers beyond the boundary. We could save Townia, save Niflheimr, save this Möbius. We actually want the same thing. So why fight? Isn’t it foolish? Think a little more rationally.”
“……”
“Protecting Möbius… that was my little sister’s wish.”
Tel stepped back.
“I have the power to revive this world. You have the strength to fight them. So then…”
“Tel.”
“Mm?”
“Nice last words.”
Crack!
I stepped forward.
Part of the binding magic circle ripped apart.
「Fine.」
Tel clutched her face.
From between her fingers, a gloomy laugh slipped out.
「So that’s how it’s going to be.」
Crackle!
I stepped forward again.
With a flash of light, half the magic circle disappeared.
“None of them satisfied me. That old man—he backed out after I built the company and laid the foundation. Those lackeys who just bowed and clung. The underlings who only wanted to mooch.”
Tel looked to the side.
“You’re no different.”
Vwoom.
A dimensional gate opened in the corner of the conference room, and someone stepped out.
A girl in a pure white funeral robe.
‘Icar.’
The server computer of Pick Me Up.
She had definitely been in charge of suppressing the fragments at the boundary.
“Un… ni…?”
Icar’s gaze turned to Tel.
Soon, her unfocused eyes gleamed like obsidian.
“Unni!”
Icar ran toward Tel, a big smile on her face.
‘…She should’ve lost her self-awareness.’
“I tried so hard… for you…!”
Blood sprayed from Icar’s chest.
“Ah…”
Tel withdrew her hand from Icar’s chest.
In her palm, a black heart pulsed.
“Useless girl.”
Thump.
Icar’s body collapsed.
Polluted blood began to spread from her corpse.
“Ahaha!”
Tel crushed Icar’s heart.
Forced synthesis. A black shimmer surged into Tel’s entire body.
“Are you insane?”
“No, I’m perfectly sane. Totally fine.”
“Icar… wasn’t she your little sister?”
“Sister? This thing?”
Tel sneered as she looked down at Icar.
The girl’s corpse was dissolving into dark crimson mist.
“She sacrificed herself without being asked, dumped the impossible on me. What? Bring Möbius back? Selfish. Because of her… because of this b****, I…! All those long years…!”
Wham!
Tel kicked Icar.
The small body rolled and hit the desk.
“Kukuk… uhuhuhu… ahahahah!”
Tel clutched her stomach and burst into laughter.
‘She’s corrupted.’
There had been signs all along.
Even when I first met her, her blood had been pitch black.
Clear evidence of corruption.
She must have been fighting fragments long before Pick Me Up was even created.
And lost her sanity in the process. There had once been a minimal sense of purpose—reviving Möbius—but it seemed even that was gone now.
‘She’s completely snapped.’
Absorbing multiple divinities must have worsened her symptoms.
She was consumed by madness far beyond my expectations.
“Without Icar…”
“Yeah. They’ll come flooding in soon. Let them come. Let them come as much as they want! I was planning to wipe everything clean anyway. Too many incompetents. I don’t need any of them. I can do it alone. I… I…”
Tel wiped the blood from her cheek.
A mad smile carved itself on her lips.
「I will become the One True God… and revive it all!」
“……”
「Hehe… hehahahaha!」
Tel leapt backward.
Clang!
The giant glass window behind the chairman’s room shattered into pieces.
I reached out my hand.
The binding magic circle was torn apart instantly.
The wrecked view of the chairman’s room came into full sight.
The girl was vanishing with her eyes wide open.
I approached Icar and closed her eyes.
“You did well.”
I'm currently Translating the following novels: Pick Me Up! | A Frontline Soldier Awakened as a Gamer In The War! | The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player. If you want to support me and read more chapters please subscribe to my Patreon!