Chapter 100 - Episode Another. A Kind of Fall (2)
Chapter 100: Episode Another. A Kind of Fall (2)
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After Jaehwan left, no new king was chosen in 《Chaos》.
Cayman, the Outer Chief Administrator of 《Carpe Diem》, Yulhen, the Chief Internal Administrator, and every Horn Lord had refused to elect a new king.
A king who neither reigned nor ruled, yet brought freedom to Chaos.
To ensure they would not forget him, the people left the throne permanently vacant.
Some people in 《Chaos》 even called him the Sole King.
“...Isn’t Sole King what we call Catastrophe?”
“Here, Sole King means ‘that person’ now.”
Over the past three months, 《Chaos》 had undergone enormous changes, both within and beyond its borders.
As 《Carpe Diem》, the heart of Chaos, prospered, factions hostile to 《Carpe Diem》 began to emerge along the outskirts.
They were members of hostile factions, former subordinates of the twelve-zone Lords. After dying in the 《Great Realm》, those subordinates had arrived here.
Mino, who had been listening to the story, asked in alarm.
“Isn’t that bad? How are we supposed to beat the Lords’ subordinates? They must be at least Fourth Adapters.”
“We can beat them now.”
Mino only understood that confidence after seeing the Tower of Awakening Jaehwan had left behind.
The tower bore the same name as this fortress. Countless people came and went from it, repeating grueling training.
“Hey, that isn’t how you do a Stab! Look, you have to stab this hard!”
Many residents of 《Chaos》 no longer walked the path of Adaptation. They had turned their backs on the System and gained a new power in return.
「Awakening」.
It was the final gift the departed king had left for 《Chaos》.
Watching hundreds train their Stabs to enter the Tower of Awakening, Mino asked,
“So we can fight even a ninth Adapter now...?”
“Yeah.”
The fifth and sixth Adaptations had already seemed unimaginably far away, yet now they were talking about the ninth.
Mino could not even begin to grasp the power contained in that number. As she carefully counted on her fingers, Claire continued.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean we can stop every Adapter. It’s too early to relax. The ninth is only the beginning. The 《Great Realm》 has plenty of Lords at the Warlord rank who surpass the ninth. Some have even been crossing over lately.”
After Jaehwan destroyed the 《Palace of Rebirth》 and carried out the 「Lord Massacre」 against more than a hundred Lords, the ninth zone where the Black Shadow Strategist had once been became the 《Great Realm》’ largest battlefield.
Not a moment passed without bloodshed. Because of that, hundreds, even thousands of dead crossed into 《Chaos》 every day.
The war had grown so fierce that many Warlord-class Adapters were among them.
“What Adaptation are Warlord-class Adapters?”
“The tenth or eleventh.”
“...Just how strong are they?”
“I heard they can destroy a mountain with one blow.”
“Good god...”
Mino’s face went pale.
“What if they come after this place? We can’t stop someone at the tenth or eleventh rank.”
“That’s right. It would be impossible with human strength alone.”
Mino hesitated at those words. Claire sounded far too calm for someone talking about the impossible.
Impossible with human strength alone.
It sounded as though they were borrowing the power of something other than humans.
Come to think of it, something was strange.
If three months had passed since Jaehwan left, quite a few Warlord-class Lords should have invaded this place by now. How had they stopped the invasions so far?
Perhaps noticing her curiosity, Claire spoke.
“You know that Lord-class Adapters appear at different Summoning Grounds when they die, right?”
“...Yeah.”
The saying that only the lucky ones succeed did not apply only to the 《Great Realm》. Not in life, nor after death. There was no place fair to everyone.
“I heard their souls are summoned to the 《Palace of Rebirth》.”
The process after death itself differed for powerful high-rank Adapters. Lord-class Adapters in particular were supposed to be born in the 《Palace of Rebirth》 the moment they died.
Mino pressed her.
“So what about it?”
“Well, it’s a little complicated... The Factory Masters of the 「Strange Factory」 adjusted that Summoning Ground this time. So its location changed.”
They changed the location of a Summoning Ground?
Was that even possible?
No, more importantly...
“It changed? To where?”
“Here.”
“...Huh?”
“When Lords die, they resurrect here in 《Carpe Diem》.”
Mino struggled to understand what that meant. A moment later, she screamed.
“...Here?”
“Yeah.”
Claire’s calm answer made Mino look as though she was about to faint.
“You said we can’t stop Warlord-class Adapters! Then why would you make them resurrect inside the fortress?”
Claire did not look flustered at all.
“Well, to be exact, they do not resurrect here. They resurrect over there, deep inside.”
Claire pointed toward the fortress’s interior, to its deepest reaches.
* * *
The deepest part of the fortress, 《Carpe Diem》.
A brilliant light rose from the Summoning Ground, and a naked man appeared with a grimace. He looked confused for a moment, then made a small cut on his fingertip. Only then did his expression turn certain.
“...Fuck. So I really died.”
He was the Black Dog Lord, a Warlord of the ninth zone.
“I told you, being loyal like a dog gets you nowhere.”
Startled by the voice beside him, the Black Dog Lord turned around. Looking closer, he recognized one of the ninth zone’s Warlords, someone who had fought at his side across the battlefield until just moments ago.
“What the hell, Jake? You died too?”
“How could I survive when Black Dog died?”
The Lord’s expression twisted at the words Black Dog.
There had been a time when that title was glorious. He had lived as a Warlord of the ninth zone for four hundred years. He fought and fought for Darkness, only to be discarded like a dog in the end.
...Maybe I should join the fifth zone next time.
As he wallowed in misery, Warlord Jake spoke.
“Putting that aside, where are we?”
“I have no idea either.”
The Black Dog Lord muttered as he looked around at the pitch-black darkness. He did not recognize this place.
“I heard the dead go to the 《Palace of Rebirth》.”
“Does this look like that place to you?”
The Black Dog Lord nodded.
“Looks like the rumor that the 《Palace of Rebirth》 was destroyed was true after all.”
There had been such rumors lately. A terrifying faction had appeared in Chaos and destroyed the Palace of Rebirth. They said that faction possessed enough power to threaten Lieutenant Generals and low-grade Warlords.
The Black Dog Lord did not believe it, of course.
Chaos was still Chaos.
A place where those who could not even become Lords strutted around like they were the strongest. Those people destroyed the Palace of Rebirth? Ridiculous.
The Lords probably fought among themselves and destroyed it. They said the Fruit was almost gone too.
The Black Dog Lord stretched and smacked his lips.
“It’s been a while since I died. Should I rest and loosen up a little? Maybe sample some Chaos women too.”
Since he was dead anyway, the Black Dog Lord decided to make the best of it. He turned to the side and muttered,
“Hey, Jake, what are you going to do no-”
The Black Dog Lord could not finish his sentence.
Jake’s face, which had been right beside him, was gone.
Jake’s body, truly missing everything above the neck, dropped to its knees as silver light poured from it like a waterfall.
“...Jake?”
A chill ran from his head to his toes. The Black Dog Lord could not move.
What was this? What kind of being could do this without making a sound?
[Another insect has come.]
A grotesque voice echoed from within the darkness.
It carried an overwhelming presence that had reached divinity, a rank that transcended existence.
[Burst.]
That was the last sound the Black Dog Lord heard.
* * *
A week after leaving the hospital room, Mino made a small decision.
Claire looked up at her with worry written across her face.
“You’re really going in?”
“Yeah.”
“You could die after going insane. Were you even listening to me?”
Even at Claire’s sharp tone, Mino only shrugged. Her gaze was fixed on the Tower of Awakening.
“I don’t care.”
It was not high enough to pierce the sky, nor wide enough to contain the world. Compared to the other Towers of Nightmares, it looked small and shabby.
Even so, Mino felt a strange sense of relief as she looked at it.
She heard the inside of the tower was hell. The utmost pain a human could experience awaited within.
Yet the faces of those entering the tower were never dark.
“I want to know too.”
She did not say what she wanted to know, but Claire understood anyway.
“Fine. Go, then. Damn girl...”
Claire turned away, breathing out sharply. Mino smiled faintly as she watched Claire’s back tremble.
Thank you, Auntie.
One step at a time.
Mino joined the line of people entering the tower and moved forward. As she walked, she slipped a hand into her pocket.
She felt a hard stone.
She knew what it was.
A Return Stone.
The stone had been clutched in her hand when she woke in the hospital room.
According to Claire, he had come to the hospital room himself on the day he left for the 「Strange Factory」. He had placed the stone in her hand before leaving.
She quietly savored the hard, cold feel of it. Then the brief memories she shared with him passed through her mind one by one.
Remembering them made Mino feel a little strange.
Why did he save 《Chaos》?
The more she thought about it, the less she understood.
The Jaehwan she knew was indifferent and cold. He showed a human side at times, but fundamentally, he did not like other people much.
Yet he saved this world. A world of the dead with whom he had no connection at all...
Then Mino remembered the words she had muttered just before losing consciousness. The words that had ultimately become the last thing she said to him.
“Please don’t give up on this world.”
...No way.
She shook her head and kept walking. As the tower entrance drew close, Mino began to understand the expressions of the people walking toward it.
A sensation that felt a little ticklish, yet made her heart swell at the same time. Hope that she might be able to do something was slowly blooming inside her.
A quiet laugh escaped her.
A man who wanted to destroy the world had left hope behind in this world. What an ironic thing.
Then, a little later, another thought came to her.
No, perhaps... this was also a kind of destruction.
As she felt her body sink into the tower, Mino looked up at the bright sky of 《Chaos》.
Somewhere above that sky, somewhere in the 《Abyss》, he would be there. With the same expression and the same way of speaking, fighting against the world.
Will I one day be able to see a world like yours, too?
She did not know whether the world he envisioned held salvation or not. Still, she quietly imagined what that world looked like.
Strangely, in her imagination, that world took the form of a small tree.
A tree with lonely branches stripped of leaves, and solitary roots with no ground to rely on.
Even so, Mino did not feel lonely when she thought of that world.
Because even if everyone in the world betrayed it, there was one person who would protect it to the very end.
A world protected by one man.
Its name was The World After the Fall.
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