Chapter 118 - Episode 17. 500 Years of Destruction (5)
Chapter 118: Episode 17. 500 Years of Destruction (5)
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It was Runald who snapped Jaehwan out of his daze as he listened to the prayers.
“Jaehwan-nim, have you ever tried praying?”
Jaehwan thought for a moment. Prayer.
“There was a religious person from another country in the Tower of Nightmares I cleared.”
Runald’s eyes lit up at the unexpected opening.
“They said that, in that person’s homeland, there was a device that recited prayers for you. Even if you did not know the language, turning the device once counted as reciting the prayer once.”
“That is an unusual device.”
Jaehwan had forgotten the religious person’s name. Before dying, they had made a machine resembling a music box and left behind a request.
“After I die, would you wind this machine for me once in a while?”
They had been the last religious person remaining in the 《Tower of Nightmares》. After they died, Jaehwan and Yoonhwan had taken turns winding the music box. Eventually, they installed a Mana circuit in it so it would keep playing forever.
“Perhaps that was a kind of prayer too. Though I do not know whether their god heard it.”
“That is a very interesting story.”
Runald thought for a moment before adding, “But calling that a real prayer...”
“What is a ‘real prayer’?”
“Uh, well...”
As though he had never faced such a difficult question before, Runald began agonizing over it. Jaehwan was not looking at Runald.
「Save meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave me」
He looked here.
「Save meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave me」
He looked there. It was all the same.
Hans, Christian, Marianne. They were all repeating the same prayer.
Jaehwan took in the expressions of those praying. Could that truly be called a prayer?
“This is the eighth floor of the Metaverse I attempted. The passengers who were alive then either all died or fled to other floors.”
Andersen had said she lost all of them five hundred years ago. To die in the Abyss meant that the soul was truly erased.
Jaehwan’s gaze turned to Hans. 「Doubt」 pierced through Hans’s soul.
The inside was empty. A transparent shell of a soul with nothing in it.
Jaehwan spoke.
“Hans.”
“Yes?”
Jaehwan could tell. That soul was not truly understanding his words. It was only answering from implanted “memories.”
Only then did he understand Andersen’s words.
“Who in the world turned you all into Dolls?”
There was not a single living soul here.
“We have waited a long time for this day.”
Marianne, standing before the congregation, was looking at Jaehwan.
“Stranger who carries Andersen-nim within you, would you leave a few words of blessing for everyone here?”
If Andersen were awake, what expression would she be wearing right now?
Jaehwan slowly rose from his seat.
“I am not Andersen. I am Jaehwan.”
He remembered the religious person who had died in the 《Tower of Nightmares》.
Had that person’s god heard the melody from the music box they left behind? If it had, what could it have said?
“You all...”
Even if he said something, what meaning would there be in speaking to a music box?
Jaehwan thought he understood why they kept repeating that prayer. Like the religious person in the 《Tower of Nightmares》, they must have been the same.
“Perhaps even gods can be lonely.”
Gods existed because Followers prayed to them. Perhaps that was why they had prayed without rest for five hundred years. To leave their god in this world. To make others remember. To remember.
“You prayed diligently.”
Hans suddenly made a strange sound. It was like the creak of a broken music box.
“You can stop now.”
Like music boxes that had agreed to stop at the same moment, the villagers in the temple all froze at once. Empty gazes turned toward Jaehwan.
「Save meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave meSave me」
Could Dolls shed tears?
If they could, were those a Doll’s tears? Or the tears of a human who had chosen to become a Doll?
Or perhaps they were an illusion seen by the god who loved those Dolls.
They had lived only while waiting for Andersen to return. And then.
“You came far too late.”
“You did not forget us.”
“You have returned, Andersen-nim.”
They had endured while waiting to be freed from this prayer.
Jaehwan’s hand gripped Dokbul. Runald’s eyes widened in shock.
“Jaehwan-nim?”
One by one, the Dolls closed their eyes, as if they had dreamed of this day for a long time.
At last, the moment their prayers would be answered had come.
Something seized Jaehwan’s right arm. With a tzzzt, World Force suppressed his muscles. Jaehwan narrowed his eyes.
“Andersen.”
[Stop.]
“Free them.”
They had prayed for Andersen for five hundred years, even becoming Dolls for her sake. They deserved to be freed from their faith now.
“Keeping them here is your greed. They are no longer the Followers you remember.”
[If your friend became a Doll like that.]
Andersen added, grinding her teeth.
[Would you still be able to say the same thing?]
If Yoonhwan became a Doll.
For the briefest moment, Jaehwan’s hand faltered.
“If that happened, I would kill him with my own hands.”
World Force clashed with World Force. Yet Jaehwan was the owner of this body, and Dokbul slowly began to slide free.
As the blade of Dokbul, stained with unsettling madness, turned toward the Dolls, Andersen screamed.
[What if there is a way to restore the Dolls to how they were?]
The blade that had been drawing free stopped.
[Would you still kill these Dolls?]
“Is there a way?”
[Perhaps if it is the Creator who made these Dolls...]
Creator.
At that moment, Jaehwan’s 「Doubt」 activated powerfully once more.
Something was ringing an alarm in his ears. The Dolls around him trembled at once.
When he focused more deeply on 「Doubt」, he saw translucent Threads stretching upward from above the Dolls’ heads. All the Threads extended toward one place.
More precisely, the entrance to this temple.
“Who are you?”
Someone was standing there.
The moment Jaehwan turned his head, Andersen’s fury wrapped around his whole body. It was a rage greater than any emotion Jaehwan had ever encountered.
[How did you...?]
Sunlight poured into the temple. A girl had removed her hat, and her blond hair fluttered in the light. Jewel-like eyes watched them.
Jaehwan had seen her face before. In Andersen’s memories. In Vertus’s album at the Waystation.
And in this temple’s hallway.
The girl approached with light steps. Her Gothic dress swayed with every movement, and the crow perched on her shoulder gave a threatening cry.
「We will not forget you. So please do not forget us.」
The girl who had spoken those words as she died.
「Do not worry about us. You must survive, my god.」
That girl now stood before Jaehwan.
Just as he was about to speak, the girl pressed a finger to his lips.
“I know who you are. It took you a very long time.”
Andersen’s former Vicegerent, Rachel Young.
Yet Jaehwan and Andersen both knew clearly. The being before them was not Rachel, but something entirely different.
An emptied shell of a soul. Unsettling black World Force, swollen like a crow’s feathers.
The being curled up inside it was a god.
[How dare you, how dare you...]
“My friend, did you like the gift I prepared?”
[I will kill you.]
Andersen’s World Force manifested regardless of Jaehwan’s will, covering the entire temple.
Sanctuary Manifestation.
The overwhelming power Andersen had displayed a few days ago was stirring once again.
But then.
Rumble.
A force suppressed the Sanctuary Andersen was trying to spread. Black World Force flowed from the girl’s body. That enormous World Pressure prevented another Worldview from manifesting within the temple. It was an oppressive force beyond comparison to Belkain’s Vicegerent on the first floor.
Jaehwan had already encountered a being with this degree of power.
“General.”
The girl’s power clearly rivaled the Generals of the 《Great Realm》.
“Is this all? You have grown much weaker over five hundred years, Andersen.”
[Dammit! Ethan! Why are you...!]
Ethan.
The moment he heard that name, Jaehwan remembered the statues in the temple hallway.
The only god among them with no Vicegerent listed.
“You made the Dolls in this village.”
The girl tilted her head at Jaehwan’s calm words.
“Are you Andersen’s new Vicegerent?”
“Restore them to how they were.”
“You do not seem to be Andersen’s type.”
As if measuring Jaehwan’s power, the girl raised her World Force once more. Her yellow eyes shone brightly.
law-type Setting, 「Crow’s Eye」.
Andersen knew the Setting contained within those eyes.
The unique Setting of the God Without a Vicegerent. An ability that could convert the stats of every Follower and Vicegerent in the world into numerical values.
Ethan Cart’s specialty, created to seek out Vicegerents and Followers with better stats. Countless Vicegerents caught by those eyes had been seized and turned into Dolls.
Yet.
Those eyes were shaking violently.
“What are you?”
Crack.
Silver tears fell from the girl’s eyes as blood vessels burst within them.
“What did you bring here, Andersen?”
As Ethan staggered a step back, Jaehwan took a step forward.
He saw the shamshir hanging at the girl’s waist. Battle marks remained on its scabbard. Scars that only one technique in the world could leave behind.
“So it was you. You blocked my Stab.”
“Stab?”
The girl’s pupils faintly trembled.
“Could that be...?”
[Jaehwan.]
“Andersen, do not interfere this time.”
It seemed the Creator of Dolls did not have friendly intentions toward them. There was no reason to hesitate any longer. If he delayed here, Yoonhwan, who was on the seventh floor, might become a Doll like the villagers.
“I will kill this bastard and go up to the seventh floor.”
The World Force that had been suppressed within Jaehwan’s body burst forth. It slowly pushed back the black World Pressure and claimed more than half the temple. That pure World Force concentrated into Dokbul.
The instantly condensed World Force emitted an explosive light and gathered into a circle.
「World Stab」
A Stab that had pierced through the sixth floor of the Metaverse in a single strike. The tip of Dokbul traced a tiny circle as the number of Stabs accumulated.
One strike, two strikes, three strikes, four strikes.
As Jaehwan’s World Force rose mercilessly, Ethan’s gaze changed.
“I wonder if you can take this one too.”
Dokbul burst into flames.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion