Chapter 188

A grimoire that had been returned to its rightful owner from Dreamland, which transcended the boundaries between dreams and reality,

A book of revelations in which all the revelations received by the former Duchess were written in detail,

A book containing the stories of all worldlines written by the one in yellow robes in Carcosa, squeezing himself dry.

The one who had experienced death countless times within the deity's body yet managed to resurrect spoke in a clear voice.

[However, light comes even at the end of long, long darkness.

The black knight discovered white flames covering the capital from afar.

His deity was waiting for the apostle to fall into crisis and request salvation through faithful prayer.]

Leandros unconsciously rose to his feet.

What filled his eyes was,

The scene of the capital below completely frozen white.

[My apostle, cast away your worries. My protection is incomparable to the protection of the deity your adversary serves, for the pure one worships me.]

Voices overlapped.

Aphoom-Zhah had come all the way here, burning the entire kingdom for his sake.

Apostle to apostle. Deity to deity.

[Raise my sword high and march. In the name of the star you serve, I will not permit wounds upon my apostle. Loudly praise my blessing.]

This could not be refused.

Leandros gripped the sword's handle with both hands as if bewitched by something.

The floor that had been crackling suddenly became covered with transparent snowflake crystals.

Those blessed by Aphoom-Zhah marveled at the cozy frost, while beings under the influence of the strange deity creaked and froze.

Russel, who had barely been holding on, blinked his eyes half-buried in snowflakes before bolting upright.

"My body. It suddenly feels light!"

He had been exhausted from charging around and engaging in trials of strength.

Russel, who had been rotating his shoulders here and there due to his suddenly improved physical condition, suddenly remembered Amelia and hurriedly ran over.

But Amelia was also sitting up properly with a bewildered face.

"The bl-blood has stopped. And it f-feels like some unknown vitality is c-circulating."

The frost covering her was tinted pink. Though her clothes were still bloody, Amelia's face looked much better.

At a glance, even the pain seemed to have completely disappeared.

Leandros looked at the owner of the red book with disbelief.

His recitation continued.

[Yurik could not believe it. He had never heard of a mere deity spreading its main body to find an apostle.

But before he could logically explain this phenomenon, one of the apostles charged at him.

This apostle was the bravest of the three.]

"How dare you mock us with strange sculptures!"

As soon as the words ended, Russel charged into the middle of the mud.

Yurik neither retreated nor showed surprise as he blocked Russel's great sword with a sword in one hand.

[The second apostle joined the battle to help him.

This apostle was the most far-seeing of the three.]

When the swords slipped at a precarious point of opposition, a dagger that grazed Yurik's cheek finally created a streak of blood.

Yurik immediately retreated and commanded the life born from mud, but they only froze upon touching the ground due to Aphoom-Zhah's breath.

[The last apostle joined in.

The third apostle, bearing the mission to end everything, knew what he had to do.]

An ice ring formed once more in the sky above.

It was a somewhat smaller ring, with much less power than before.

"You know that the same method doesn't work twice, don't you, Sir?"

Yurik looked up at the celestial ring with sarcasm.

Knowing that Leandros's power had been considerably drained by the first manifestation, Yurik regained his composure.

There was no reason he couldn't avoid attacks that were merely crude close combat.

While deflecting Russel's continuous sword strikes, Yurik added.

"Don't think I'll overlook this too because I favor you, Sir. I was also a bit hurt earlier. I'd prefer to avoid it if possible. Do you understand?"

"Then you'll have no choice but to avoid it."

Leandros, who said this, wiped the blood flowing down his chin.

"If you can, that is."

[The adversary failed to notice.

In the moment of brief conversation, things that had extended from the authority of the deity governing life and death on earth had grasped his ankles.

What now held him were the transgressions and karma he had committed in the past.]

The smile was washed from Yurik's face.

Looking down, hands made of mud were clinging densely to his legs.

Hands scratching with fingernails. Snares whose owners could no longer be identified.

A strange roar echoed from within the ice ring.

It was the greeting of ice meteorites welcoming the enemy caught in the trap.

* * *

Was it over?

The meteorite that descended to earth completely sank the entire surrounding area.

Even the remaining traces of the royal palace were completely blown away, and the monsters made of mud were nowhere to be found.

Only the black mud that had regained stability, quietly bubbling in a completely different manner from before.

What lay beneath his feet was merely leftover debris, so there was no need to worry anymore.

Arenheit closed the book and stepped forward, cooling the cold sweat on his forehead in the cold air.

Splash, splash.

The massive ice had completely crushed Yurik's lower body. Yurik, with half his body trapped under the ice, was looking up at the sky.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about how the Duke could come out unharmed from within the Source."

"Did you find an answer?"

"Not yet."

Seeing Yurik answer briefly, he finally realized it was truly the end.

As strength drained from his entire body, a headache rushed in.

It was over. This was really the end.

Only terrible things had continued to happen all this time. There had been painful moments, but everything visible in the world had been too horrific.

But with this, he was... free.

"You look as if you've gone to heaven, Duke."

"Yes. You'll soon fall to hell."

"I'm still puzzled about what happened earlier. Duke, did you cast some magic?"

"Magic?"

What he had accomplished couldn't be such a trivial trick.

Arenheit looked down at Yurik and said casually.

"It's not magic. This is a story."

"...A story?"

"An unfinished story. A play that could change at any time because the ending hadn't been decided yet. This world is fake. This body is fake too. I'm not a person from this world. It might sound like crazy talk, right? But it's true."

"Where did you come from? Are you an alien deity?"

"Hardly. I am... my real name is Yu Yesung. I still don't know how I came here."

A little distance away, Leandros was coughing up blood for the second time.

Arenheit continued speaking while watching that sight.

"You kept trying to bring about destruction. What do you think the former Duchess, who couldn't stop what you were doing, resorted to? But what do I care now? It's all over."

Now there was no need to worry about the former Duchess's intentions, saviors, or the suspicious Hartmann deity.

They had only been concerning as potential variables when progressing the story, but now that everything was over, what was the point?

"I think everything about me not dying was all for the end of this world. You know what? After you buried me at the bottom of the tower, I kept repeating death and life."

"It seemed that way."

"Each time I died, I was expelled outside this world and then returned. This time, because you killed me, I had to repeat regression again."

"...Regression?"

"I don't remember which regression this is. Seven times? Eight times? I think I've forgotten..."

The moment Yurik fed him to the tower, he was a dead man.

He experienced regeneration and dissolution within the Unborn Source, eventually met death, and went back again.

To the beginning of the story. To the old ducal residence with leaking rainwater due to lack of repairs and the moldy bed.

At first, he thought he would go mad. But he couldn't go mad. Thanks to the one truth that kept him from going insane.

He had seen the end of the story. He had been able to go almost to the end! He had been able to end it!

...So he couldn't lose his mind. Even while thinking he might become a wreck, he could never collapse.

"I repeatedly researched ways to win. After about five regressions, I could easily reach the moment when you fed me to the tower. But after that, you survived even Leandros's blow and succeeded in awakening your father, Yog-Sothoth, so I had no choice but to prepare my secret weapon."

After being eaten by the tower for the first time, in the next life he barely managed to reach here with Leandros, only for Yurik to take him hostage and make Leandros commit suicide. And he too had his breath cut off by Yurik.

So he regressed once more.

That time, he completely withdrew to the rear and sent only Leandros and his party to the royal palace. But what returned was a horde of demonic beasts covering the entire nation and Yurik cutting off his limbs, saying it was necessary for Yog-Sothoth's complete resurrection.

He regressed again.

In that timeline, he asked Aphoom-Zhah to send an avatar along with Leandros. Then Yurik chose to fuse with Yog-Sothoth himself, devouring Leandros and Aphoom-Zhah's avatar and covering the kingdom with mud.

Naturally, he regressed.

In the next life, he tried to make things flow as similarly to the first life as possible. And while trying not to interfere as much as possible, he observed how things progressed. There he even realized that Leandros lacked divine protection and died by melting.

He regressed again.

This time, he made great efforts for Aphoom-Zhah to become close with Leandros. And he also manipulated Amelia and Russel to move centered around Leandros.

How fortunate it was that people couldn't distinguish between friendship built by being pushed and true friendship.

Then in the final act, when Leandros and Yurik clashed, Aphoom-Zhah came running. But unfortunately, perhaps Leandros's vessel was a bit small, as he failed to subdue Yurik.

Having learned this much, he had almost seen the story's conclusion.

"You've been watching my final regression line until now. This is the result. You die, and Leandros survives."

At the quiet words, Yurik seemed briefly shocked.

But soon he began giggling and laughing.

"Arenheit... no, stranger wearing his body. You're insane. Everyone else calls me crazy, calls me a monster, but I don't think so at all. You're the real monster. A monster and a pure collection of madness."

"I don't feel that way."

"You're truly amazing. I've never seen a human so consumed by madness. Ah, how ridiculous. There was another monster here wearing human skin. Compared to you, I'm not a monster. Not at all. You make me feel human."

Hearing his words, Arenheit asked himself.

Was he a monster? The answer was naturally 'no.'

He couldn't understand why Yurik was calling him a monster. So he asked back.

"Why am I a monster? I just accepted a little loss for Leandros's sake."

"That's what the world calls insane. Because no one else does that."

Was that so? Probably not.

He wanted to ponder Yurik's words, but Yurik began coughing up blood.

It seemed the time allowed to him wasn't long.

"Should I ask Leandros to kill you quickly?"

"Before that... just one more thing. The former Duchess, how did she raise you? How did she make you descend?"

"It's certain she raised this body as a vessel. She too had received revelations about destruction. She believed that an alien savior who would save the world would dwell in her own child..."

"Savior? 'Savior'?"

That was right, wasn't it?

He thought it had been written that way in the former Duchess's notes.

When he nodded, Yurik looked up at the sky again.

It was a twilight sky that was slowly beginning to find its normal blue color.

"If this is one story as you say, then I'm a role that cannot be saved."

He had sworn when he was first eaten by the tower. That he wouldn't save that one person.

Even if the Duchess called him a savior, he too had people he wanted to save and those he didn't.

He slowly exhaled.

Black blood was mixing with the mud.

"Stranger. Cruel savior. Do you think you've created a satisfactory story?"

"I don't know about that. I just hope this story will be accepted."

He didn't know who the being was that gave permission for the story's conclusion.

But wasn't this a quite satisfactory ending?

Leandros had killed his enemy, and all his companions had survived.

The terrible deity that would have devoured the life of this planet had fallen back into deep sleep.

A peaceful ending. The kind of ending anyone could wish for.

Leandros, who had been recovering for a while, looked at him. He had an unusually disheveled face.

When Arenheit waved at him, Yurik muttered beside him.

"I think you won't be able to conclude. Because-"

"Your Grace!"

Yurik's lips moved, buried under Leandros's shout.

His eyes finally found rest. What was reflected in his red eyes was a clean, blue sky.

Leandros ran over and embraced him, and from both sides, Amelia and Russel also stretched out their arms to embrace them all together.

They collapsed while holding each other tightly. For a long time, unable to say anything, feeling with their whole bodies the peace that had finally arrived at this moment.

"Your Grace-!"

"Arndt!"

Arndt, who had been coming over the ruins supporting Verde, screamed loudly.

Abandoning Verde on the spot, Arndt ran over and squeezed into the empty space to hug them tightly.

Many words weren't necessary. Everyone was crying or sniffling a little.

Even though tears didn't come, Arenheit was filled with emotion at finally obtaining the ending he had secretly hoped for.

Leandros, who had barely raised his head, whispered.

"Let's return to the ducal residence."

Let's go back.

Let's all go back together.

At words that sounded like a promise, Arenheit nodded.

"Yes."

And at that moment.

With a sharp ringing sound, the four people who had been crying and laughing stopped just as they were.