Chapter 235: It’s Over (5)
“That’s right, you two who follow the will of Lynin. I’m already dead. I remained only to leave a will. Oh dear, there’s only one minute left. I must bid farewell now.”
He took a cloak out of his pocket (it seems to be a magic item) and covered his somewhat disfigured body before speaking.
“Silvan is still unconscious. Please cooperate with Risel and stop Referndi. After that, do what you want to do, and since I have a will, listen to it from Risel later. Levidian, Lucy, Al, Joey, Namia, it was a short time, but I enjoyed it in many ways. Many hardships will come to you in your future lives, but you will overcome them wisely. And Aila.”
“I’ll allow it this time. Speak.”
“Thank you for helping me have a fun time. Just in case, but even if you go back, please don’t blame yourself too much.”
“Why would I do that? To my dad.”
“That’s a relief. Then, Risel.”
He reached out from the gap in his cloak. I switched my grip on the sword and held his hand with my right hand.
“I’m glad you’re the last one. This world will be yours from now on. I hope you finally meet a happy death this time.”
I shook his hand and said words that didn’t suit a dying man.
“Have a good trip.”
He opened his eyes wide and tried to say something with a smile. If it weren’t for the sharp voice that came from the air.
“This is why you can’t trust anyone! Burning Thunder!”
My vision was dyed red with exploding lightning. A red color like the current sky. I instinctively closed my eyes. I thought someone must have screamed, but everything was buried under the sound of angry thunder.
Kwajajajajajajaja—!
When I opened my eyes, the air was filled with the acrid smell of burning flesh. And everyone except me, Artshever, and Namia had collapsed with burns.
Oh my god!
“I’ll kill you all! I’ll get rid of you! And this world, I’ll destroy it! No one looked at me, no one faced me! This world, just break!”
I gritted my teeth and looked at Namia. With the tools she has, she can heal everyone.
“Namia, please!”
She nodded and chanted a holy spell for healing. Artshever, who was safe because he was holding my hand, pulled my hand to get my attention. Why?
“There’s no time. Risel, take those.”
“Those are……? Your skills?”
Bluish lumps that escaped from his body. There were at least hundreds of them, and more were still being added. He wants me to take these?
Artshever nodded.
“Those were originally mine, but they are yours, split from you. You can take them if you want. Use them to stop Referndi…… Ugh! Cough! Cough!”
He coughed and lowered his head.
It seems like time is up.
“You, Ugh! You’ve made your decision. So, that decision, Cough! Continue it! Don’t worry…… Cough! ……because when it’s your time to die…… everything will find its place…… Cough! ……so.”
“But if that happens, I…… I could become you.”
He coughed up blood and shouted.
“That won’t happen! Are you going to do it, or not!”
I bit my lip at the truth that was without a single speck of dust.
Referndi is in the middle of creating a magic that will surely wipe us out. It must be the same magic she used when she fought Lucy before.
There’s not much time to choose. Namia’s healing seemed to take quite a while.
I made up my mind.
“Namia, take the people and get out! You can do it, right? I’ll take care of Referndi!”
“But…… Alright. Ru Ikellainin.”
After a brief moment of conflict, she chanted a holy prayer, and in the next moment, she and the people turned into light and disappeared as if they had never been there.
I asked Artshever.
“How do I do it? Huh?!”
He slumped, and I supported him. Leaning against me like that, he quietly burned the flame that was about to disappear.
“Wish for it strongly. Then everything will be yours…… Haha, it’s getting dark. I’m not used to it…… The moment of death is…… lonely. As expected, dying is…… so, cold…… The last moment, in someone’s arms…… I’m glad……”
“Artshever? Hey! Artshever!”
I shook his body. But his hand, limp towards the ground, and his lifeless body only swayed at my touch. He no longer opened his eyes, spoke, or breathed.
He went on an eternal journey.
That long, long, arduous life, filled with a terrible love-hate relationship with the world, ended with such a quiet ending.
“Damn you……! I don’t like you until the very end……!”
His last words were that he was lonely!
He was glad to be in someone’s arms! Damn it!
If he was a villain, he should have died like a villain!
Leaving like a clown leaving the stage, that clown bastard!
I laid him down quietly. In the end, even at the very end, he got a death equal to all other deaths.
Should I congratulate him?
I closed his half-open eyes. What’s frustrating is that he was still smiling.
Was it a satisfying death?
Since he got what he wanted so much……
“I’ll think about it later. As you said, I’ll think of you at least once later.”
I made a promise to myself and looked at Referndi, who was casting magic. The sense of danger I felt before, from the bottom of my instincts, reared its head.
This is not human power. Complete annihilation awaits you, leaving not even a fragment behind.
Run away.
I gritted my teeth.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
I’m not running away. This time, I’m not running away.
At that moment, the last skill escaped from Artshever’s body. There were over sixteen hundred bluish lumps floating in the air, just by simple calculation.
He said if I wished for it strongly…… it would be mine?
I planted my sword at my feet. Brandione was deeply embedded, and it didn’t fall even when I let go.
In front of it, I spread my arms.
“I wish for it!”
I sent my wish up, mixed with my voice. I longed for all of that to be mine.
I need strength. I decided to save this world.
I need the strength to achieve that!
I can’t fail after coming this far!
I wished for it.
“Come to me―!”
I won against myself!
No one else can defeat me!
I will decide my own ending!
***
The last thing she saw was Risel and the other Risel shaking hands, and then a red light covering everything.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in the outer courtyard of the Imperial Palace.
“What is this……? What happened?”
Turning her head, she saw the others who had collapsed like her opening their eyes and getting up. And on one side, she saw Namia treating Joey’s wounds. Namia’s Essential Light was emitting a bright light, healing the giant’s wounds.
Levidian soon realized the situation.
One person was missing.
“Risel!”
“He’s fighting.”
Namia, who had finished treating Joey, said simply. Levidian wanted to shout that it wasn’t a matter to be spoken of so simply, but in her urgency, only short words came out.
“Why!”
Namia could tell that Levidian’s words contained a lot of meaning. Why does he have to fight, why didn’t you help him.
She thought for a moment and answered briefly.
“We became a burden to him, and he wanted it.”
The people who suddenly became injured would definitely be a burden. So he must have wanted to fight alone.
Levidian understood everything and lowered her head. It was because of his bad habit of always taking on hardships alone.
Then the rest of the people came to their senses.
“Oh, damn it, I got hit again. I was going to pay her back this time. Huh? Where’s Risel?”
“He’s not here? Oh no! Don’t tell me!”
At Aila’s scream-like words, Lucy quickly turned his head. However, he could only see that even with his best efforts, he couldn’t see the fight going on inside the Imperial Palace.
He understood the situation much faster than Levidian.
“Damn it! He doesn’t even have the power to fight magic without Brandione!”
“That’s not necessarily true……”
Namia tried to express a negative opinion to Lucy’s outburst. Because he had watched the conversation between Risel and Artshever until the very end.
But her words were cut short, not because she thought Lucy’s outburst was right, nor because she thought she shouldn’t talk about the conversation between Risel and Artshever.
It was because the Imperial Palace started to collapse, and she thought she should build a holy spell.
Clang! Crack! Rumble! Crash! Thud!
The high tower of the Imperial Palace collapses. The roof of the building caved in, and cracks appeared like broken glass as the entire Imperial Palace showed signs of collapse.
Lucy looked at the scene and, hearing Namia building a holy spell, quickly started to cast his own magic.
“This damn it! Fight quietly!”
Aila jumped up and started to gather people closer together. Silvan, who was only half conscious, was startled when Aila approached and quickly summoned shadows, but when she silently pointed to the Imperial Palace, he nodded.
Kaboom! Boom! Rumble!
The collapse clearly started from the inside. The pillars and walls that supported the upper floors from the inside collapsed, and the structure, unable to withstand the load, collapsed, causing a chain reaction of collapses due to the impact.
What kind of fight is going on inside?
A fierce battle that would destroy the Imperial Palace, it’s only natural that people wouldn’t understand.
When the collapse reached its peak, a pillar of white light stretched towards the sky.
Seeeeeeng—!
At first, it was just a thick pillar, but it grew stronger like an explosion, engulfing the collapsing debris and gradually thickening.
Then Namia’s holy spell and Lucy’s magic were activated. Soon, a barrier was manifested to protect the area from the collapse, falling rocks, vibrations, and impacts.
“May the God protect his young followers!”
“Protection Field!”
If someone had seen it, they would have applauded. As soon as the protective barrier was manifested, the Imperial Palace collapsed as a whole.
Kwaggagaga—!
A waterfall of stones, a torrent of stones, a vortex of stones. The collapse, which didn’t exist in natural phenomena and couldn’t even be named, continued endlessly within the white light, accompanied by a huge cloud of dust.
People all covered their eyes from the approaching dust storm.
So they couldn’t see the red lump escaping through the pillar of light, and the streak of light that fell, as if to destroy the detached palace.
When people opened their eyes again, and when the dust cloud cleared with Lucy’s magic, they could see the blue sky.
“The sky……!”
It was Joey’s first words after regaining consciousness.
The sky shone down on the people on the ground with the light it should have.
Everyone there felt it instinctively.
Risel succeeded.
At that moment, Levidian’s face turned pale.
“Risel! Risel―!”
Before anyone could say anything, she got up and started climbing the ruins of the collapsed Imperial Palace. The last time she saw him, Risel was in no condition to fight a battle like this.
The collapsed ruins of the Imperial Palace consisted of huge rocks, exposed wood, and fragments of pillars. It seemed like even the underground had completely collapsed.
No one inside could have survived.
“Risel!”
She didn’t feel this despair even when she was cursed by Silvan in the past. Her anxiety, the all-too-likely anxiety, gave her an unknown strength and at the same time made her cry out his name desperately.
“Risel! Risel―! Answer me! Risel!”
‘He’ll be alive. He won’t be dead. Now that a new era is finally about to begin, he won’t be dead!’
She can’t imagine a world without him.
Because of him, she found meaning in this world. To the extent that she never thought that one person could change the way she looked at the world so much……
He is already her everything. If she loses him here, she loses everything.
“Risel―!”
She shouted.
“Ibi.”
She heard it.
It was a low voice, but it came from nearby. She hurriedly turned her head and eventually found the owner of the voice behind her on the left.
The blood flowing from his forehead covered half of his face. He was leaning against the wall with his bare hands, his sword nowhere to be seen, and his white hair was covered in dust, making him look like Aila. One eye was closed, but the other was open, a blue eye, and he was smiling.
He smiled and said to his lover.
“It’s over.”
She wiped away the tears that had unknowingly gathered in her eyes. And she smiled.
She ran to him, calling his name.
“Risel!”
On top of the ruins, what should be called the ruins of the collapsed Imperial Palace.
Even though his body was covered in blood.
Risel was able to embrace Ibi.
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