# 287
287. Another end (2)
Time has passed
since then .
“…”
I looked up.
gray sky. It was midday, but it was hard to find the light. If it weren’t for the magic lights installed all over the ecliptic, it would be like night.
Currently, the number of floors to climb is 87.
The subjugation of the Red Beauty King Rantia ended on the 85th floor.
Even in the midst of losing his mind, he annoyed us with all sorts of seductive magic and hallucinatory reality manipulation, but he fell to his knees before the wheels of the Taonier raid.
Rantia was sucked into the hole and suffered more damage than Stenberg. We just beat the half-dead boss.
And the climb continued.
After the 80th floor, Amkena no longer uploaded clear videos to Mewtube.
Not only did I not get much attention, but the comment section was plastered with all sorts of profanity and insults. Recently, I also stopped looking at Amkena’s mutube channel.
‘I’ve endured a lot in three years.’
It was a time when most PC games were thinking about shutting down the server.
It was a popular game with 100 million users in its heyday, so the fall was steep.
When entering official cafes and game galleries, it was common to engage in keyboard battles between core users who played steadfastly and those who criticized the game.
An unstable server that bounces several times a day, severe lag and bugs, a balance between heroes that doesn’t fit at all, and a dead end system that disappears as it is once it dies. Even the luck factor that the difficulty of the mission is different for each account. What was once an advantage is now a disadvantage, holding back the game.
The stock price of Mobius, one of the world’s leading conglomerates, hit the lower limit in an instant, resulting in hundreds of billions of losses, and the store’s sales ranking fell day by day.
By the time I get back to Earth… the game of pick me up may have already died.
It doesn’t matter, even if the service doesn’t end, I have no intention of holding on to Pick Me Up anymore. If I receive a cell phone, I decided to delete the app right away.
‘This is not a place for me.’
I brushed the top of my head with my hand.
The gray snow that had piled up in her hair poured down.
The skies of Taoneer were not enough to lose their light, and at intervals of several days they began to pour ashes like snow.
“…Weird.”
Jenna shook her head.
Her gaze reached every corner of the ruined ecliptic as soon as it was destroyed.
Covered in ashes, ruins that cannot be called buildings, and beggar-like people dressed in rags. There is no hope in their eyes.
“I’m sure you said you could save Taonier by clearing the mission, but why does it become more and more like this? You also killed a big bird and a red-tailed monster like Stenberg or something. But why is it like this?”
“It may have been a lie. I never believed in sweet words like that from the beginning.”
Belquist chuckled.
“Lies? Then what are we for…”
“To survive. The mission is not useless at all. Even if this place perishes, the waiting room will remain. Shouldn’t we just live there?”
“But! There’s no guarantee that that place will last forever!”
“At least I think it’s safer than here. I think this place is already over.”
Belquist’s eyes turned to the alley.
The corpses of mercenaries were piled up there.
There was neither time nor manpower to bury them. I will gather them all together and burn them.
According to Freea, a new hole opens every week or so, and debris pours in.
Even after processing the fragments and closing the hole with the dimension sword, the hole reopened soon after.
Countless enemies poured in from the larger hole.
It was a one-sided defense that made it impossible to even think of a counterattack. Most of the 10,000 mercenaries have already died.
‘Now…’
Refugees from outside are not coming.
Without the ability to contain the fragments leaving the ecliptic, enemies would already be swarming in all provinces of Taonier. It was safe to say that there were no survivors except for those who remained here.
“Everything… a lie?”
Jenna’s eyes twitched.
She, who was always cheerful, lost her self-control this time.
“The forest I used to live in…”
“It must be gone. Don’t have regrets.”
“That’s it! Oppa, say something. This isn’t it. If it ends like this, what the hell did you go through all that hard work for? I want to go home…” I opened my mouth
.
“Calm down. We’re still on the mission. An enemy might appear.”
“That’s…”
Jenna looked at me blankly.
“Oppa, it seems that something has changed. The oppa I used to know…” ”
…”
There was nothing more to say.
When I turned my head away from Jenna, I saw the wreckage of a collapsed two-story house.
Someone was standing in front of the split door.
[Han Israt.]
Like a dog.
[Are you running away too? I did my best for you I did my duty until I died.]
Since the 80th floor was over, I’ve been seeing empty things.
[betrayer. Creepy. Coward.]
“Shut up.”
muttered in a low voice.
The bloodied Edith looked at me and smiled.
As I waved my hand away, her image dissipated into afterimages.
‘I’m going crazy.’
I am extremely cold.
It’s just a matter of making a rational decision.
But why are you bothering me so much?
“Belquist, stay with Jenna. I’m going to see Fria.”
“Aren’t you going with me?”
“Give me a sense. It’s easy to get lost in this state.”
“Well, yes.”
Jenna lowers her head.
Except for the first fight, he had never been shaken as he had gone through many bloody battles.
That guy lost control.
‘The mission isn’t over yet…’
Right now, I was in the middle of the 87th floor.
Although it is a search type, you do not know what variables will arise.
I went to the command camp with my hand on the scabbard. Bodies strewn by the roadside and beggars lying with dead eyes. I’m tired of seeing this now.
thud! thud! thud!
The sound of hammer hitting.
A small airship was being built on top of the ruins that used to be the imperial palace in the front yard of the command camp.
This was the last airship left for the princess. The rest of the air force was completely sunk in the large-scale defense of the 86th floor.
It was natural. 10,000 units of debris crashed.
That ship, the only one left, wasn’t built anew, it was close to repairing an airship that had preserved its original form.
flutter.
When I opened the tent and entered, Fria was looking at the map.
She heard footsteps and looked this way. He had a haggard expression, but a soft eye smile was imprinted on his face.
“You’re here, Han. You worked hard in the last battle. If it wasn’t for your help, this place would have fallen.”
“Where is Joshu?”
Freea didn’t say anything.
just smiling sadly
“Is he dead?”
“He was a brave warrior. He fought with honor and left.”
Yoshu seems to have died with the princess’s flagship when it was sunk.
This is outrageous. I wish you well this time too. This was the boy’s will. Right after that, he went on a mission to the 86th floor, and Yoshu fought and died. leaving nothing behind.
“So, what’s the airship out there?”
“It’s a Taoni’s sword. It’s the name Yoshu wanted.”
“Taoni’s sword?”
Freea nodded.
And he spoke in a serious tone.
“Han, on my cool side, if the next hole opens…we won’t be able to stop them.”
“Perhaps.”
I decided not to have clumsy optimism.
If an attack of the same scale comes next time, the imperial capital will surely fall. The princess army had already suffered damage close to annihilation. Thus, if the imperial capital fell, it would practically be the end of Taoni.
“I…”
Fria looked at me with hard eyes.
“I plan to ride the sword of Taonier and rush into the hole with the rest of my troops.”
“A hole? Where do you mean the fragments come in?”
“That’s right. If you use the power of the dimension sword, entry won’t be impossible at all.”
Are you insane
Don’t you know what happened to Stenberg and Rantia, who were sucked into the hole?
More than that this idiot would have seen with me. The ‘boundary’ at the end of the hole, the endless hell infested with hundreds of millions of trillions of chaos.
“Even if we stay like this, we will be annihilated. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be me to advance to the end? I don’t know if I can find a way with the sword my brother left behind.”
“If that was possible, he would have tried it himself.”
“Shouldn’t we try to struggle as far as we can? It’s too bad it ended like this.”
Freea folded the map on the table.
“What if it fails?”
Took.
Freea placed a large leather pouch on the table.
The string at the entrance came loose. The bag contained a lot of bright blue powder.
“Han, this is a special powder called ‘Goddess Breath’.”
I knew it as soon as I saw it.
This powder is…
“very poisonous.”
“You’ve figured it out. If you inhale just one pill, you’ll die right away. But there’s an interesting feature to this. Do you know what it is?”
Freea smiled.
“Those who are poisoned by the breath of the goddess do not feel any pain. On the contrary, right before they die, they have happy dreams and close their eyes as if they were sleeping. I plan to sprinkle this powder all over the ecliptic before sortie.”
“…”
“Now all the food to be distributed has run out. Even if we block the next attack, how many people will survive is unknown. Then, isn’t it my duty as the royal family to give the people a final rest?”
Are you thinking of ending it yourself?
Well, if you get hit by shrapnel, you can’t die gracefully even if you die. Become a corpse and come back to life, or change into a disgraceful form and be ruined. Either way, die in endless pain.
But this…
“…Are you okay?”
“Shouldn’t it be fine?”
Freea tied the strap on her pocket.
said afterwards.
“This is the last fight between me and Taonier. It will be infinitely lacking for my older brother, but I think I did my best. And, this is also the last fight between you and me.”
Freea put the pouch under the table.
She continued to speak in a calm voice, as if saying good-bye to the morning, with an unshakable expression on her face.
“Next will be the last mission. Whatever we do, please take care of yourself. Shouldn’t we return to your house safely?”
“…under.”
transcend destiny.
Was it a funny dog after all?
My mouth opened automatically.
“If you’re going to do this, why did you come back? Why didn’t you stay there? If it was going to end like this. There’s nothing. Is it because of the petty pride of the royal family or something? Or…” “I swore.
”
said Pria.
“I will create a world where my younger brother can live in peace. Until I keep that promise, I will not go anywhere. This is my promise that I cannot break.”
“It’s not that kind of poetry…”
“No, Han.”
“…?”
“I have no regrets My fight wasn’t meaningless. Everything from the beginning, from meeting you until now until the end was all meaningful.”
It was an incomprehensible statement.
However, Freea’s eyes were perfectly calm.
There was no despair or discouragement in her eyes.
“Soon It’s time for the adjutant to come in. Come on, Han. The conversation ends here. It was a pleasure to talk to you again.”
As soon as Freea had finished speaking, the tent opened and a mercenary entered.
Freea greeted the tired-looking mercenary. The two immediately talked about the airship being repaired. We started talking.
“…”
It makes sense.
No matter how many times I think about it, I can’t understand it.
All I could do was to remain calm and leave the place.
