“I don’t know how far you’ve figured things out....... But you probably know what these monsters really are, at least.”
“As far as I know, I think of them as...... refugees, more or less.”
“Heh...... if you put it that way, they sound too pitiful. Well, it’s not wrong.”
In response to my question.
He calmly recited his past.
“I once met a monster. It wasn’t that strong...... but it was incredibly smart. It had even learned human language and knew how to use it. It said it was a species made up only of scholars.”
“.......”
“That monster told me. That across the entire universe, residents of worlds that have perished flow into other worlds...... and a vicious cycle continues, destroying those worlds.”
Up to that point.
It was something I’d also learned through my experiences so far.
But.
“This vicious cycle...... wasn’t something that existed from the beginning.”
“......!”
This man.
Started spilling information I didn’t even know.
“It’s...... only information I heard from the monster I met...... but I was told there were two incidents.”
“Two...... incidents?”
This was information.
Even Mirinae hadn’t told me.
“Because of the first incident...... countless worlds across the entire universe met destruction in an instant. And because of the second incident that branched from the first...... a [Malice] that desires destruction...... spread throughout the entire universe.”
At those words.
I opened my eyes wide and said.
“[Malice] is.”
“I don’t...... know what it is either. But...... it’s certain that [Malice] started this vicious cycle.”
About [Malice].
I had my own suspicions.
“If we learn what that [Malice] really is...... we might be able to erase this vicious cycle of destruction.”
“.......”
Just as he said.
If there was a clear cause behind this vicious cycle.
Then maybe we could remove that cause and overcome this destruction.
The reason he was telling me this.
Was to hand me a thread I could follow to overcome this destruction.
I could feel it—he didn’t want me to walk the same road he had.
But.
“It’s so far away.”
Hearing him.
I felt like the path ahead only grew darker.
‘That [Malice] is probably something so vast it’s hard to even compare it to the [Matron].’
Even the [Matron].
Not even their true body—just the power they could activate through Jang Youngwoong as a medium—had created their [Otherworld] across all of Seoul.
And now, a being that had spread destruction through all sorts of worlds, including Earth.
“Whether I can even...... learn what something like that is.”
Honestly.
I had zero confidence.
“You’re talking weak...... you even fought the Matron tooth and nail. I didn’t think you were the type.”
“I can’t ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ help it.”
Normally.
I wouldn’t have said something that weak.
I was the head of the Legion.
Whether I wanted it or not.
There were many people affected by every posture I showed.
No matter how hard it was, how hopeless.
I had to show as confident a face as possible.
But.......
The person in front of me was different.
Not one of my troops.
Not someone who would live on into the future.
“If the cause of this destruction was something like a botched experiment, or an infectious disease that turns living things into monsters...... then I’d be able to see some kind of solution. But...... the more I try to know the cause, the more the cause of this destruction only looks bigger and more overwhelming.”
Even if I mobilized what means I had.
A person who could never be saved...... someone whose death had already been decided.
If it was someone like that.
“I grit my teeth and endure day by day...... but whether surviving at the end of this is even really possible.......”
“.......”
“Every day I survive, the more new things I learn, the more my certainty keeps slipping away.”
Here.
Maybe I could.
Let myself complain a little.
“The scale of this destruction reaches all the way to the universe, and compared to that vast universe...... human power is far too weak. Overcoming this destruction with our power alone...... it only looks impossible.”
“With our power alone.......”
Then.
Jang Youngwoong, who’d been listening to my complaint, looked at me with hazy eyes and said.
“Maybe it doesn’t have to be.”
“......I thought so too. I’m trying to bring even those who aren’t human into the Legion’s embrace. If you really look at them, they aren’t that different from humans.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.......”
“If that’s not what you mean, then don’t tell me.”
I frowned and said.
“You’re telling me to borrow the power of an external existence like you did?”
It wasn’t as if there was absolutely no way to respond to this destruction.
If there was an external existence with power vast enough to overcome even this kind of destruction.
Then maybe we could borrow that power and survive.
But.
“That would change this land into something else. Even if we survive that way, Earth won’t be Earth anymore.”
“.......”
“I can’t...... choose that.”
At my words.
Jang Youngwoong weakly shook his head.
“That’s...... not what I mean.”
“What?”
“You saw the being whose power I borrowed...... the [Matron], right? The power they wielded, too.”
Cough.
Even as he let out a shallow cough, Jang Youngwoong forced out his words.
“I repeated time many times with their power.”
“Yes.”
“And. In that repetition...... there was one thing that never repeated.”
Something that didn’t repeat.
That was.
“Awakened people.”
He extended a finger.
And pointed at my body as he spoke.
“The Matron gave me the power to keep rewinding the time of that [Otherworld]...... but even within it, the level of an awakened...... didn’t go up.”
At that.
I nodded and said.
“Isn’t that because the Matron’s power was power that stays in the past?”
Just like Jang Youngwoong’s child couldn’t grow.
The Matron’s power leaned toward the past.
Within it, improvement toward the future couldn’t happen.
Awakened recreated by the Matron’s power must have been unable to grow for that reason as well.
“No...... no.”
“What?”
But.
Jang Youngwoong’s thinking seemed a little different.
“Others recreated by them...... maybe they couldn’t grow for that reason. But. Not me.”
“......!”
At that.
I realized the blind spot I’d missed.
Just as he said.
For others, since they were recreated existences.
Of course they couldn’t grow.
But.
“I’m...... alive like this. I wasn’t an existence they recreated.......”
The fact that his growth stopped even though he was an awakened who was originally alive.
Didn’t make sense.
‘According to the Matron, the time Jang Youngwoong actually experienced was shorter than you’d think.’
Even so, at minimum, decades.
Over that time.
Jang Youngwoong’s level didn’t rise.
“Not long after I accepted the Matron’s power, I realized it. My growth as an awakened...... stopped at the point when that repetition began.”
“......!”
“Even...... after returning to reality, it was the same.”
If that was true.
Then there was a separate reason his growth had been blocked.
And that reason was.
“The power that creates [Awakened]...... the [System], you see.......”
He spoke with a bitter smile.
“It was resisting the Matron’s power.”
“......!”
“As if it had no intention of cooperating with power like that...... it was expressing a clear will.”
“It expressed a will?”
“There was a message that kept appearing in my [Status Window].”
And.
I could predict what he was about to say.
“[This is a clear act of betrayal, so withdraw it at once.]”
And.
When my prediction hit.
I felt goosebumps rise over my entire body.
“That was the first time I learned that the system is a being that can express its will in that way.”
It seemed like that was his first time seeing it.
But I’d already seen lines like that several times.
[This is a clear act of invasion. Never allow it.]
The line that appeared before my eyes every time I entered a [Dungeon].
And not long ago.
[Never allow their interference.]
Even in the reward text I received for shattering the Matron’s illusion.
This system.
Was expressing fury toward the power of the [Otherworld] that tried to erode this land.
“Because I was accepting the Matron’s power...... the system stopped cooperating with me.”
“......!”
“This system...... even if it looks like it has no will, it clearly has some definite direction. And that direction is.......”
I caught what he was going to say.
And spoke first.
“It’s hostile to existences of the [Otherworld].”
The [Dungeon] that turns Earth into an environment of the [Otherworld].
And external existences that try to interfere with Earth.
The system expressed hostility toward both.
“Maybe...... the [Matron] isn’t the only being like that, right?”
“Probably.”
“They were relatively gentle...... but among them, there must be more aggressive ones too. If you aren’t just borrowing their power, but become their agent like I did.”
The power of external existences is certainly powerful.
But the moment you accept that power.
“The system won’t cooperate with you.”
Losing the strongest ally we’ve had so far.
The system.
And if you interpret this in reverse.
“In the fight against external existences...... the [System] is a definite ally.”
When it comes to resisting external existences.
The system is a being that supports me more actively than anyone.
“The problem is, it’s an ally whose identity we don’t know. A being you can’t identify can’t be trusted, no matter how friendly. So.......”
He lifted his hand with what strength he had left.
Tap.
And touched empty air.
I couldn’t see it.
But I felt like I knew what he’d touched.
“This thing...... dig into the system’s identity.”
“.......”
“It might help you overcome this world, and draw closer to that [Malice].......”
What he touched was.
The direction I needed to move toward from here on.
*****
Jang Youngwoong finished saying that.
As if strength left his hand, the raised hand dropped to the floor with a thud.
“I’m tired.”
Before I knew it.
His face, which had already looked pale, had changed into something like a skull.
The result of a being that hadn’t formed sufficient order being used as a medium to wield the power of an external existence.......
That must be exactly what this was.
“I...... caused a lot of trouble, didn’t I?”
“No. We were both just trying to live.”
“Still...... I regret it a little. Other regrets, I have no choice but to carry them.”
From inside his body.
I felt faint mana.
“I want to resolve this regret before I go.”
As he said that.
The mana that had been gathered inside him took form.
And what seeped out from his chest was.
A single blue bird.
I had seen that blue bird before, on the rooftop of that apartment.
[Blue Bird of Rumors]
[It is a blue bird of rumors that brings back the information the user desires.]
[Since it is a bird that only brings rumors, its accuracy is not high.]
[Determining the truth of the rumor is your responsibility, so be careful!]
The very bird.
Jang Youngwoong had handled as a summon.
“Follow...... that man.”
With those words.
The blue bird landed on my shoulder.
“It’s a kid that brings rumors. Since they’re rumors, it often brings nonsense too...... but among them, there are rumors you can use.”
“......I see.”
“It’s a kid made from my mana. It won’t last long. It’ll probably only be able to bring one rumor at most...... have the kid fetch the information you’re curious about. It’ll probably...... help.”
After saying that.
He stared blankly up at the ceiling and murmured.
“Ah, honey...... Suyeong.......”
“.......”
“Dad is go.......”
And.
With those words.
Thud.
I felt the last of the strength left in his body fade away.
The blue bird.
Looked down at its master with sad eyes.
He was a complicated person in many ways.
I should call us enemies.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
But.
Looking at him collapsed there, I bowed my head.
Whatever the case.
There was no reason I couldn’t at least give a greeting to someone who lived a hard life and went.
“......The system.”
I sorted through the mess in my head.
And stood up.
Then.
As I turned, about to head outside.......
At that very moment.
[20 divine power detects the power of an external existence!]
A message in my [Status Window] that suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.
“!?”
Seeing that message.
I flinched and had no choice but to turn around.
Had the [Matron].
Or one of the other external existences used their power.
That was what I thought, but.
“That’s......!”
What I saw when I turned wasn’t that.
Shining within the space that had been nothing but darkness.
A beautiful, radiant red jewel.
Seeing it, I thought.
‘The Matron definitely left.......’
But they had only stopped using Jang Youngwoong to exert their power.
They still had reserves remaining.
‘Those reserves mean the power they were giving to Jang Youngwoong.’
And they hadn’t retrieved the power they’d given him.
Now.
Jang Youngwoong, who had laid everything down and chosen death.
What was spilling out of his body was.
[Tear of Blood from the Regretful One]
[A single drop of tears forged by an external existence for their child.]
The very power the [Matron] had given Jang Youngwoong.
The remnants of the power they left behind.
Was in front of my eyes.
