“We’ve...... lost.”
Hearing Han Iseo’s words,
I looked at the giants.
“Th-the monsters of the Demon Realm...... like that.”
“......Is it our turn now.”
The giants had come back after bringing down the magic beasts of the Demon Realm.
They looked wounded too.
And their numbers had decreased compared to before.
‘Eight.’
In an overwhelmingly unfavorable situation, they had reduced the enemy’s numbers by four.
You could call it an incredible struggle.
Honestly, while I was unconscious, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of battle had taken place for them to reduce the giants by four in that disparity.
But.
—It is time to end it.
In this world,
the words We lost, but we fought well had no meaning.
KWA-A-A-AANG......!
The giants began breaking the Wall.
The artillery batteries installed along the outer edge of what was still intact fired back, but—
—A laughable resistance.......
“Keuk......!”
The enormous ice spears forming in the giants’ hands flew out,
and sniped the tanks and the artillery batteries.
“E-even the artillery batteries.”
“......It’s over.”
Once even the bombardment—one of the biggest reasons we’d been able to hold out this long—became impossible,
despair stained people’s faces.
......And then.
“......Hold on just a little longer!”
From the gap in the collapsed Wall, someone shouted.
The one commanding the Association’s battle.
General Jo Beomseok.
“Just a little longer—endure for as long as possible!”
Even with the artillery batteries mounted on the Wall smashed to pieces by the monsters’ attacks,
he clung to what little remained intact, alone, adjusting their position so they could keep firing on the giants.
“Endure more?”
It was an incredible struggle.
But the people who saw him ground their teeth and answered back.
“It’s over now.”
“What does it even mean to hold out a few minutes, a few tens of minutes more at this point.......”
Whether he heard them or not,
the old man shouted while prying shells out of the rubble of the destroyed Wall, one after another, no matter what.
“If we endure, something might change......!”
Even though he couldn’t be sure of it himself.
Even so, the old man kept repeating it, over and over.
“......The General really doesn’t give up until the very end.”
Watching him, Han Iseo said with a strange expression.
“No matter what, he really is an amazing person. To not give up even after coming this far.”
“......Are you completely giving up, Ms. Iseo?”
“At this point, we can’t help it.”
She turned her head again,
and looked at the giants trying to completely demolish the half-collapsed Wall.
“Still, well...... doesn’t it feel like we fought not too badly?”
“......?”
“I had a thought not long ago—if we hadn’t decided to fight like this. No, if you hadn’t been here, Mr. Youngjun. I think we would’ve already gone extinct by now.”
I looked up at her face in confusion,
but I couldn’t see her expression as she stared at the giants.
“I heard it from General Jo. That when he headed to Central Branch for the last meeting, he nearly got kidnapped. If the General had been taken then, the bodies of the Southern Branch Awakeners—including him—would’ve ended up in their hands too. And the Southern Branch has a lot of specialists in large-scale warfare in particular...... so the enemy’s combat power would’ve been massively strengthened.”
“.......”
“And if the enemy had brought monsters up in that state, then without even knowing the enemy’s true identity—without even knowing the enemy knew our information—we would’ve had no choice but to be helplessly destroyed.”
She shrugged.
“When that meeting ended and we decided to organize the Expedition Force. Around then, it wouldn’t have been strange if humanity had already gone extinct.”
Assuming what if was meaningless,
but if they had only kept fearing the Source of the Cold like this,
it would have turned out exactly as she said.
“But we dragged things out for a long time after that, and held on until now. Even if the time we held out is, at most, just a little over a month.”
Even with her face still turned away,
I could guess her expression.
“Still...... doesn’t it feel like we fought not too badly?”
“.......”
Because her voice was trembling.
Fear, terror.
“If it’s this much...... then even if we die satisfied.......”
With death right in front of you,
to somehow overcome that fear,
she would be wearing the face of someone trying to act detached.
But.......
“That won’t be the case.”
“......Pardon?”
“To say you can die satisfied. That’s nonsense.”
I cut her off and opened my mouth.
“There’s no way a death like this could be satisfying.”
“.......”
It was hard enough that even opening my mouth wasn’t easy,
but there was something I wanted to point out and move past.
“I saw the first human who was murdered after the world ended. The sight of a human who went through an unwanted death is uglier than you’d think...... nauseating.”
“.......”
“No matter how hard you try along the way, you can’t end up satisfied if you become that.”
“Why are you suddenly saying something like that?”
At my words,
she spoke through clenched teeth.
“I know I shouldn’t be saying this to you, after all the effort you’ve put in...... but we’ve all become fated to die here. Fated to become exactly what you called ugly and nauseating!”
“.......”
“No—since they’re planning to use our bodies, maybe we won’t end up like that. At least on the outside, we’ll look fine. But you know, don’t you? That it could be worse than becoming a corpse that was brutally murdered!”
Death was right there.
Some people tried to accept it with detachment,
but that was only an attempt.
“I just...... wanted to die with my mind at ease, at least.”
No matter how hard you try,
there was no way you could truly accept the end of your life with detachment.
She, too.
No—everyone here.
They’d thrown everything away and let go,
but the truth was, they still wanted to live somehow.
And.
The only thing I could say to people like that was—
“Don’t let go of hope.”
A cliché comfort.
“......Ha.”
Han Iseo let out a hollow laugh.
“Hope...... you’re still looking for that?”
“.......”
“With even you—our last hope—ending up like this...... that kind of thing is.......”
And.
At those words—
“......Puhat.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“......What’s so funny?”
“No, it’s not that I’m laughing because it’s funny. It just feels kind of ironic.”
“What.......”
At my sudden laughter,
Han Iseo’s usually good-natured expression was about to twist into a frown, but—
“Hope. Since when was I your last hope?”
“......?”
Ignoring her,
I lay all the way down on the ground and said,
“You were the one who talked to me about hope.”
“What?”
When I first arrived in Gyeonggi Province,
I remembered what Han Iseo had said to me.
—You asked how our group can keep running properly, when everyone is exhausted and struggling...... and the mindsets can’t possibly be gentle in a situation like this. The answer is right there.
—Hope!
“Kuheuk...... you were the one who told me not to throw away hope.”
“.......”
“And you were the one who told me what that hope was.”
After crossing into Gyeonggi Province,
everything I experienced here had been hard, and like hell.
I kept thinking about why I had to go through suffering like this.
And yet, the reason I could endure somehow was—
when I first settled into that Northern Branch,
the people gathered in a small room, listening to the radio.
Because I’d seen them.
‘It was worth it.’
Even if it was hard like a dog,
I could realize there was value in what I was doing.
“So when you say there’s no hope...... it’s ridiculous.”
Because I’d learned then
how important it was to hold onto hope and survive.
“You said we fought not too badly, right? That even if we only held out a little over a month, isn’t that not too bad?”
“......Are you saying that isn’t good enough?”
How had she taken my words?
Han Iseo clenched her fist tight in anger and said,
“Are you saying that even with someone like you helping, we only managed to hold out this much? Is that what you’re saying?”
“No, no. I think you’re misunderstanding something, so I’ll say it clearly.”
Kuheuk.
“Not too bad......? It’s not just ‘not too bad’!”
“......?”
Even as blood seeped out of my mouth,
I couldn’t hold back my laughter as I said,
“You all did the best possible.”
“......‘You all.’ Mr. Youngjun, why do you keep talking like that?”
At my words,
Han Iseo frowned, as if she’d sensed something off.
“You’re talking like you’re separate from us.”
Her point was sharp.
Yeah.
I was different from them.
They believed that if they endured like this, maybe something might change—
something vague beyond vague,
so hazy you couldn’t even properly see it.
They clung to that shallow hope,
fighting to survive somehow, and holding out until now.
‘That’s incredible.’
I was sure of it.
In this, they were better than me.
Because.
I don’t think I could have done that.
‘People who clenched their teeth and held out until now, clinging only to an ambiguous hope they couldn’t even be sure of.’
And.
‘Someone who held a firm certainty...... someone who knew they only needed to endure for a set amount of time.’
Their resolve could only be different.
“Kkeung.......”
“......?”
I forced my trembling hand to move,
and pushed it into the ground—
into where my shadow was.
[Shadow Veil]
The hand that pierced through the shadow
pulled up what I’d been looking for.
“Kkeuk!”
When I somehow lifted the thing that was too heavy to even raise,
Han Iseo widened her eyes and shouted.
“A radio......?”
The radio the Northern Branch people had gathered to listen to.
The radio she had handed to me.
—KZZZT...... BEEP.......
Unlike back then,
no voice came out of the radio.
Only the crackling sound and the beeping.
Nothing but unknown noise.
“This radio too...... looks like it finally got cut off.”
Hearing that, her complexion darkened even more.
But.
“No.”
“Huh?”
“Exactly the opposite.”
I knew it.
“This isn’t the sound you get when a connection is severed.”
“What does that.......”
“It’s more like.......”
KZZZT.
BEEP, BEEP.
Listening to it,
a laugh leaked out.
“It’s the sound you get when someone’s trying to deliver their intent more clearly.”
What they were trying to say was extremely simple.
So short and simple you could interpret it just by hearing it,
without any need for a notebook to jot it down.
—We’re coming.
I looked at the status window I’d kept open in front of my eyes.
[IRON LEGION (100%)]
The number that had been slightly short not long ago
was now full.
“So! What have you been talking about this whole time.......”
Maybe fear of death, and me repeating words she couldn’t understand, had finally made her anger boil over.
Han Iseo was about to burst into tears and scream—
and at that moment.
—DING.
“......Huh?”
The change began.
*****
Miserable, and humiliating.
People who had held on and survived so grotesquely you’d think, Do they really want to live that badly?
And now, even that resistance was ending,
and just as everyone fell into despair believing they were ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) all about to lose their lives—
[IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT]
[World Event - The Occupation War’s 1st phase has ended!]
As if it were mocking them,
a message that couldn’t be more casual appeared.
[A faction has been born that has achieved 100% occupation rate in one region!]
[Achieved Region - ROK.17]
[With the first achiever of the Occupation War event appearing within the greater region ROK, the Occupation War event within the greater region ROK ends in its 1st phase!]
It had appeared in front of their eyes out of nowhere,
and the status window babbled unknown nonsense.
“......The Occupation War ended?”
“What is this even supposed to mean?”
No one understood it.
Even with the giants about to climb over the Wall, people stopped and stood there blankly.
[With the Occupation War event ending, the Beginner Protection System is weakened.]
[In 30 days, the Beginner Protection Zone will be completely removed.]
GUUUUUUUUUU-WOONG.......
“......?”
From behind them,
they felt a presence.
At that presence—
“What in the world is that.”
Not only the people.
—What...... is this.
Even the giants who had just stepped over the Wall
froze, their eyes stolen.
GUGUGUGUGUGU.......
Because.
The Black Wall that had burned anything approaching it, leaving not even dust behind—
KREEEEAK.......
From beyond that Wall,
which everyone had declared could never be crossed—
{Citizens of Gyeonggi Province. Rest assured.}
Something—
something impossibly gigantic—
{We are the Legion.}
was coming over.
