Chapter 210 - Episode 28. Rupture (4)
Chapter 210: Episode 28. Rupture (4)
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It had already been three months since the negotiations between the 「Rupture」 and the Great Lords.
Three months. A long time, or a short one.
Regardless, those three months had been horrific for the 《Abyss》 and for all those who lived within it.
Yoonhwan had been staring silently at the sky over Fifth Site, Ragnarok, when a voice beside him made him turn.
“Company Commander.”
A dignified middle-aged man stood there. It was the Company’s aide.
Yoonhwan looked at him blankly and murmured to himself.
‘Company Commander.’
The title still felt strange.
Yoonhwan’s recent massive promotion had been possible because of the 「Rupture」’s unique rank structure. A higher Awakening stage meant a higher rank. After overcoming the 〈Great Disappearance Simulation〉 and becoming a third-stage Awakened One in one stroke, Yoonhwan had been assigned as Company Commander of the 「Rupture」’s Twenty-Fourth Company.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
The one who had spoken was Adel, his aide.
Adel was a second-stage Awakened One who had joined Yoonhwan in this Abyss Conquest War as a member of the 「Rupture」.
“Just the same thing I always think about.”
Yoonhwan continued, still unused to how naturally the informal speech came out.
“How long this will keep going.”
“It should not be much longer now.”
Yoonhwan looked down at the countless souls scattered around them.
They had once been Followers of Ragnarok, the Fifth Site. They had possessed the power to summon lightning and split the sea, but now they were destined to become nutrients for the 《Tree of Illusion》.
“Sa-save me...”
A few souls that still clung to life stretched their hands toward Yoonhwan.
Eyes soaked in fear.
Without realizing it, Yoonhwan started to reach toward one of them, then stopped.
Thud!
The 「Rupture」’s elite troops, who had been searching the battlefield, cut off the surviving soul’s breath. Silver tendrils shot upward with a hiss, and the soul’s trembling hand slowly fell toward the ground.
Yoonhwan could not take his eyes off the path that hand traced.
Then thunder rang out somewhere in the distance. Perhaps it was announcing that the end of this war was near.
“The Great Lords sure are making a racket.”
At the heart of Ragnarok, the remaining gods were fighting while unleashing their Settings without restraint.
Two Great Lords and one Division Commander had been deployed to the fiercest battlefield.
Their enemy was one of the Eight Divine Thrones.
The ruler of Fifth Site, Ragnarok.
The God of Time, Chronos.
Having descended through a Vicegerent, Chronos displayed terrifying martial might as he rewound time across the area again and again. The zone within several kilometers warped and returned to normal repeatedly, and enormous explosions erupted one after another as World Force collided with World Force.
It was an incredible battle.
Still, no matter how powerful Chronos was, he was alone. The Eight Divine Thrones were generally said to be stronger than the Great Lords, but even they could not handle two or more Great Lords at once.
This time, a Division Commander of the 「Rupture」 had joined the fight as well.
In the distance, a fortress was collapsing.
The Forest Giant, Great Lord Illiones’s Skill, shattered Chronos’s Sanctuary. Then Gram, wielded by Great Lord Siegfried, erased Chronos’s control-type Settings. Fifth Division Commander Mirel slipped through the opening and struck Chronos with a devastating blow.
Chronos let out a scream like something being torn apart.
That famed member of the Eight Divine Thrones had fallen to his knees.
Adel murmured in open admiration.
“What is even more surprising is that this makes three already. Perhaps conquering the Abyss is truly possible.”
Over the past three months, Yoonhwan had watched massive Sites fall.
Beginning with Third Site, Tropical Night, from which the God of Flames Ignis was absent, the 「Rupture」 had defeated Fourth Site, Syndrome, ruled by the God of Pestilence, Pest. Then they had arrived here, at Fifth Site, Ragnarok.
“By now, they should have begun attacking Second Site, Naraka, too. I heard it is quite difficult because the Dragon God Droyan is there.”
“Droyan, the god who uses the Black Flame Dragon Setting?”
“That is right. The First and Second Division Commanders went together. The First Division Commander said even he would have difficulty alone.”
Even now, Yoonhwan remembered the First Division Commander who had appeared at the negotiating table three months earlier.
The 「Rupture」’s First Division Commander.
Buddha, the God of Reincarnation.
Buddha was one of the Eight Divine Thrones, powerful enough to subdue two Great Lords alone. He could threaten even Jerome of Darkness, known as the strongest Great Lord.
With Buddha’s arrival, the negotiations three months ago had turned completely around. Every item had been concluded largely in the 「Rupture」’s favor.
“Come to think of it, Company Commander, you served as the secretary during those negotiations.”
“I did.”
Yoonhwan recalled the terms from that day.
The 「Rupture」 had presented three main demands.
First, an alliance between the 《Great Realm》 and the 「Rupture」.
Second, the Great Lords’ support for the Abyss War.
Third, that the Great Lords remain silent if the 「Rupture」 invades 《Big Brother》.
Adel’s expression changed slightly after hearing Yoonhwan’s explanation.
“I knew about the alliance with the Great Lords, but I did not expect the condition demanding their silence when fighting 《Big Brother》. Did the Great Lords accept that?”
“That was the condition that started the negotiations.”
“I cannot imagine the Great Lords willingly betraying their master.”
“They had conditions of their own.”
After a moment of thought, Yoonhwan decided to tell Adel everything that had been discussed that day.
It was not a decision others would easily understand. Even if Adel was his aide, leaking all the terms as the negotiations’ secretary violated the principles of confidentiality.
Even so, Yoonhwan impulsively felt that he had to tell him. It felt as though speaking of this to Adel might create an important turning point for Yoonhwan himself.
Perhaps he had not been wrong.
After some time had passed, Adel spoke in a heavy voice once Yoonhwan had finished.
“So that was the negotiation.”
The calmness in Adel’s voice made Yoonhwan tense without realizing it. He felt like a child waiting for a teacher to grade his work.
“To provide Fruits regularly. To turn a blind eye to the construction of the 《Palace of Rebirth》. To help clean up 《Chaos》. Broadly speaking, those were the core of the Great Lords’ proposal. There was also an additional discussion regarding cultivation.”
“That is right.”
Even as he explained it again, Yoonhwan found the terms impossible to understand.
For example, he did not understand the items involving the Fruits or the 《Palace of Rebirth》 well enough to grasp them properly.
Adel seemed different.
“This is serious. It means the 「Rupture」 will stand by and watch what happens in 《Chaos》 from now on. Frankly, that differs greatly from the path the 「Rupture」 has followed until now. If the negotiations truly went through as you say, the 「Rupture」 may no longer be able to claim it fights for humanity.”
“The final item shocked me more.”
“The clause related to cultivation.”
“Yes.”
Setting everything else aside, there was one term Yoonhwan could never accept.
It was the final item in the negotiations between the Great Lords and the 「Rupture」, the one concerning cultivation.
All 「Products」 harvested through cultivation in the future would be divided equally between the 「Rupture」 and the 《Great Realm》.
Fine. Let them ally with those damned Great Lords to defeat whatever 《Big Brother》 was. Let them accept the Great Lords’ bizarre demands and regularly provide Fruits so those bastards could continue their damned war in the 《Great Realm》.
But what was this supposed to mean?
They would divide up the 「Products」? Didn't that mean they were condoning cultivation?
“Kim Yoonhwan. I know what you are thinking. But look further ahead. Think about what we must do if we are to defeat 《Big Brother》 and eliminate the Great Lords.”
“But, Division Commander!”
“The 「Rupture」 cannot end as merely the ‘Rupture.’ We must always accept small sacrifices to bring about great change. With a little compromise, we can create great change.”
Yoonhwan hated himself for cowardly kneeling before that calm voice.
After hearing everything, Adel nodded.
“I see.”
Members of the 「Rupture」 were leading prisoners away. They were Lost Ones who had abandoned their gods and surrendered. Followers trembling in fear of death and terror of being plundered.
Yoonhwan looked at them and spoke.
“For the past three months, I have thought about it every single day.”
“...”
“I believed I was doing the right thing. I believed that everything would eventually return to what it should be. I believed that if I waited and waited, a just ending would someday come.”
“I see.”
“Then I had this thought just now.”
A fallen prisoner was being trampled by soldiers. Both hands, stretched out as if begging for help, shook pitifully.
Yoonhwan looked at those hands.
“What if this is all there is to the ending I have been waiting for?”
“...”
“What if, as long as scenes like this exist, a just ending can never come?”
For a moment, Yoonhwan held some hope.
If it was Adel, this old aide who had noticed how the 「Rupture」 had lost its humanity, perhaps he would agree with Yoonhwan at least a little.
“You are mistaken, Company Commander. The ‘ending’ has not come yet.”
“What?”
“Once 《Big Brother》 falls, everything will surely be resolved.”
Yoonhwan opened his mouth slightly, then shut it again.
A deep sense of disappointment rose within him.
So this man thought that way too.
Yoonhwan suppressed the resistance surging inside him and asked, “Will 《Big Brother》 revive the souls that have died? Will it make all the wounds people have suffered disappear as though they never happened?”
“Perhaps. If we defeat 《Big Brother》 and reach the 「First Nightmare」, we will be able to control everything in this world. Perhaps even time.”
“Time?”
“Yes.”
Adel looked toward the battle at the distant fortress.
Chronos’s Sanctuary, which had rewound time again and again, was crumbling.
“Even the Eight Divine Thrones can only control time on that scale, but it will be different at the end of the 《Tree of Illusion》. We might be able to turn back all time and recover everything we have lost.”
Turn back time?
Unpleasant memories from the Tower of Nightmares flashed through Yoonhwan’s mind.
Yoonhwan clenched his teeth and shouted, “That will not solve anything. Even if we can turn back time, even if the wounds people suffered become as though they never happened, that does not mean those wounds truly never existed. That time was real, even if no one remembers it.”
“...”
“Do you understand what I mean? I mean, I...”
Yoonhwan’s words became incoherent and trailed off.
The emotions welling up inside him had numbed his tongue.
“So that is what you think, Company Commander.”
For some reason, the calmness in Adel’s voice felt different from before.
Adel took out a cigarette and lit it.
“When I first joined the 「Rupture」, I thought much the same way. I thought perhaps the 「Rupture」 was the only organization that could change this world’s System.”
“You used the past tense. Does that mean you no longer think that way?”
“That is right.”
“Then why are you still...?”
“Are you asking why I have remained with the 「Rupture」?”
Yoonhwan closed his mouth. Even with their hierarchy, the question felt rude.
“I have been here for too long.”
For a moment, Adel looked like an old beast that had spent far too many years locked inside a zoo cage.
“I have spent seven hundred years in the 「Rupture」. I have seen many things during that time, and lost many things as well. I watched things I once cherished change. I watched, and watched, and watched the things worthy of being called human disappear.”
Seven hundred years.
Yoonhwan swallowed at that distant length of time.
Any member of the 「Rupture」 would know what had happened seven hundred years ago. Adel, standing before him, was a survivor of the 〈Great Disappearance〉.
“Perhaps I could have changed. If it had been before those things disappeared. If it had been before time swept me along and I gave up on all of it.”
“No. It is not too late. You are still...”
Yoonhwan stopped himself.
He realized how irresponsible those words were, how thoughtless and clumsy that comfort would be.
Yoonhwan knew nothing of Adel’s seven hundred years. He knew nothing of the pain or sorrow Adel had endured.
Adel smiled faintly.
“You sound like my friend.”
“Your friend?”
“A friend I cherished. The last friend I could still speak with. That friend said the same thing. That it was not too late for me, and that I should go with her.”
Yoonhwan carefully asked, “Where is that friend now...?”
“She left the 「Rupture」 not long ago. She left to find her own path. It was an admirable thing.”
Yoonhwan felt his heart sink coldly.
There was no such thing as “leaving” the 「Rupture」. To leave the 「Rupture」 meant only death.
Yet Adel’s use of “left” did not mean death.
That meant his friend was still alive.
And Yoonhwan knew of one woman who had left the 「Rupture」 alive.
“Both my friend and you have been kind enough to tell me it isn’t too late, Company Commander. But I know myself best. It’s already too late for me.”
Adel paused for breath after saying that.
Then he added one more thing.
“But perhaps it is not too late for someone else.”
A terrible silence fell.
Yoonhwan asked in a trembling voice, “Are you... telling me to leave the 「Rupture」?”
“Did I say such a thing?”
Yoonhwan looked around.
Members of the 「Rupture」 were searching the battlefield everywhere. Prisoners were still being trampled beneath their feet. Hands reaching toward Yoonhwan were ruthlessly crushed. Silver light burst into the air.
Yoonhwan asked in a trembling voice, “You too? Will you come with me...?”
“Oh dear. Can you not do anything alone?”
Yoonhwan closed his mouth.
Could he go? Could he pass through all those countless 「Rupture」 soldiers and reach the place he wanted to go?
No, did he even know where he wanted to go?
Yoonhwan slowly turned his back on Adel.
Then he carefully took one step.
Another step. Then one more.
It was frightening. Terrifying.
No matter how absurd this world was, it frightened him to move away from the world he had believed in.
Even so.
Despite how tightly he clenched his fists, his feet did not move easily. In the end, Yoonhwan’s body slowly turned back toward Adel.
Miserably. Cowardly.
Yet as his body turned halfway around, an image surfaced before Yoonhwan’s eyes.
Someone’s back.
Yoonhwan stood with his body awkwardly twisted and stared blankly at that back.
He felt as though he might cry.
It was the back of the man he had once trusted and followed more than anyone. The man who had never retreated before hardship and had protected his Allies.
Without realizing it, Yoonhwan walked toward that back.
Like a drunk man, or a madman, he staggered onward toward it.
How long had he walked like that?
When he came to his senses, Yoonhwan realized he had already taken dozens of steps.
A few members glanced at him.
Yoonhwan looked down at a prisoner lying amid the silver light. A hand that had stretched toward him, only to be trampled in the end.
Yoonhwan stared at it, then slowly knelt and gently took the prisoner’s hand.
Everyone on the battlefield watched.
Adel’s voice came from behind him.
“Company Commander. In return for telling me those secrets, I will tell you this. My ‘friend’ went to Seventh Site.”
The prisoner with closed eyes dissolved into silver light.
Yoonhwan rose to his feet. Then he began walking again.
This time, there was not the slightest hesitation in his steps.
Without looking back, Yoonhwan said, “Farewell, Adel.”
Only Adel realized that Yoonhwan had shifted into a more formal tone.
Adel nodded.
“Travel safely.”
“I hope we may meet again someday.”
“I hope not. We will be enemies when that time comes.”
Yoonhwan resumed walking.
His friend’s back was no longer visible. Yet even without seeing it, Yoonhwan now knew where he needed to go. It felt as if he could see the path his friend had taken first, stretching across the distant battlefield.
Could he meet that bastard again?
Yoonhwan shook his head as he walked.
He began retracing the path his old friend had taken, one step at a time.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion