Chapter 245
I should have protected you.
I should have stalled for just a little longer.
“Yoon Haul… Yoon Haul… run away….”
I coughed up blood, drowning in regret.
It was too late to blame myself for being too weak.
If I had just escaped from his grasp a little longer,
I could have… destroyed the Cube….
I had stalled for time and bound Abaddon’s movements.
But even so, I had to watch as he vanished right before my eyes.
And not long after, I had to witness him dragging Yoon Haul back violently.
“Ugh… urgh…”
In her arms was a small cat that had been a Cube.
She clung to it, using magic to protect it as if it were the one thing that must never be taken away.
Abaddon could have easily killed her and dragged her here.
It was clear why Abaddon had brought Yoon Haul before me instead.
With his victory assured, he wanted to savor his superiority, even if just for a moment.
“The heir of Castica.”
“…”
“Did you think your noble birth would shield you from death?”
Abaddon spoke, gripping Yoon Haul’s neck.
“You were never meant to handle something of this magnitude.”
“You meddled in affairs beyond your capacity, and now you’ve shortened your life.”
“Your arrogance killed this child, too.”
A child who was exceptionally talented, a genius both in intellect and combat.
Yoon Haul, who had mastered magic, swordsmanship, and even prophecy, was captured again in just five minutes, a painfully short moment.
Abaddon was right.
I was never meant to handle something of this scale.
Even Lee Han couldn’t defeat him.
So, in this half-finished novel that was canceled before the final battle,
What sense did it make to throw an ordinary person into this absurd power imbalance and end it like this?
If there was a god, they must have hated me, despised me.
A self-deprecating laugh escaped me in the midst of this hopeless situation.
Abaddon pointed his staff at Yoon Haul, who lay collapsed on the ground,
And declared to me as if announcing my defeat.
“It’s all over now. Surrender and hand it over.”
“Just do it…”
My defeat.
Yoon Haul nodded silently.
Instead of answering, I walked toward the machine’s core.
And at its center—
“….”
Following Abaddon’s wish, I inserted the Cube.
The mana circuits roared to life, and the bond connecting me to the Cube was severed instantly.
And then—
The pain I had pushed aside came flooding in relentlessly.
“Ugh, ugh… urgh…”
My limbs trembled in agony so intense I could barely keep my heart from seizing.
My entire body, shredded by Abaddon, was screaming in pain.
Was I really fighting in this miserable state?
“…”
I gritted my teeth, glaring at Abaddon.
He met my gaze with a mocking smile, fully aware of my predicament.
He knew.
Even if he didn’t cut my throat with his sword, I would die slowly in this state.
But the reason he wasn’t killing me immediately…
Was so that I could watch Yoon Haul die.
Watch Adela die.
Watch my friends die one by one, even Basilus, who would die miserably before me.
“Haa… haa…”
I turned to look at Yoon Haul.
Her eyes, her intent—
I could vaguely read it.
‘We can’t win.’
‘We can’t escape.’
‘We will all die here in the end.’
Though tears filled Yoon Haul’s eyes, there was no sign of defeat in them.
And I felt the same.
It was true that I had lost, but strangely, I didn’t feel wronged.
I chuckled softly and muttered.
“You’re definitely a demon…”
“But you’re a pretty dim-witted demon at that.”
“What?”
No matter how I looked at it, it was just too ridiculous.
Watching that smug, ecstatic expression of his—it was impossible not to laugh.
“Haha… hahaha…”
Abaddon frowned at me like I was some lunatic, suddenly laughing for no reason.
But—
How could I not find it laughable?
That smugness, that revolting confidence that he was about to own all the power of this continent.
It’s hilarious.
He can’t possess any of it.
Watching him delude himself so pathetically, it’s just too funny.
I laughed for a long while, then wiped the smile from my face.
I spoke in a cold voice.
Abaddon, who looked like he was already celebrating with the world at his feet, was about to be rudely awakened.
I delivered the harsh truth.
“You’re gravely mistaken about something…”
“You will never be able to complete this.”
Do you know why?
I smirked and added.
“Because today is your funeral.”
Finally, Abaddon’s expression chilled as he continued to choke Yoon Haul.
After all the suffering, all the desperate attempts to survive.
There’s no way I’d die alone in this pit.
“I’ll make sure you’re not lonely on your way out.”
“What do you mean…?”
Abaddon tilted his head in confusion, then his expression twisted violently.
Finally realized, huh?
We hadn’t spent the last hour disassembling the Cube like idiots for nothing.
A mana circuit capable of activating the machine at any moment.
We had unlocked the circuit’s encryption, making it possible to blow this entire underground chamber sky-high with a single press of that button.
It was our final bastion, a choice we’d wanted to avoid.
But now that the time had come, I would gladly press that button of mutual destruction.
As Abaddon belatedly realized this and lunged to stop me—
“¡No… no… no!”
I grinned and leaped for the button.
* * *
Like a volcano erupting, black smoke soared into the sky.
A massive shockwave swept through the area in its wake.
An explosion of magic.
Boom!
Boom—BOOM—.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—.
A colossal wave of magical energy, unlike anything ever seen, erupted in an instant.
Sweeping away everything in sight.
Utterly destroying everything.
A cloud of dust covered the sky.
As if erasing the world, it blanketed the heavens entirely.
And soon, darkness descended.
#A Fleeting Moment
In an instant, the forest vanished without a trace.
The enormous magical shockwave obliterated half of the Odryse Mountains.
It was a horrifying explosion.
“Ugh… ugh….”
Basilus trembled violently as he released the barrier.
What… Did I just witness?
What in the world happened…?
Even a dragon like Basilus had to exhaust all his magic in an instant, leaving him drained.
Without the barrier, they all would have died instantly; Basilus’ magic barely managed to protect the three of them.
Under normal circumstances, that fact alone would have been comforting.
But
But something was wrong.
Basilus sensed something off and slowly got up.
He blinked slowly and called out a name.
“Siha… Siha…?”
Han Siha was nowhere to be seen.
No, it wasn’t just that he was missing.
The bond with his Tamer was severed.
Basilus cried out desperately in a frantic voice.
“Ugh… uuugh!”
An error?
That couldn’t be right.
The bond wouldn’t break just because they were far apart.
Not once had that ever happened.
“Ugh… uuugh!”
Basilus desperately called out for his master.
His Tamer, who always came when called, wasn’t coming this time.
Even when scolded for whining, his master would always pat his head.
Even when he, a massive dragon, reverted to a hatchling’s state and acted spoiled.
His master, who always accepted him with calm composure, didn’t return.
“Siha….”
Basilus couldn’t accept the truth,
“Uu… uuu…”
But as he cried until he was exhausted, he began to slowly grasp it.
“Ugh… ugh….”
The Tamer wasn’t coming back.
* * *
Basilus, in his own way.
And the humans, in their own way.
The remaining three also realized the cruel reality.
The explosion that occurred in the underground chamber.
A massive blast powerful enough to split a mountain in half—it wasn’t just Abaddon at the center who wouldn’t have survived.
No one could have made it out alive.
Amidst the smell of dust and debris, Adela slowly rose to her feet.
Where the entrance had been visible before, there was no longer any sign of it.
Even its trace had vanished.
As if this place had never been a forest to begin with.
The rocks were gone, leaving only a desolate plain behind.
The earth had collapsed.
The NGC area was completely buried.
There was no trace left.
A frantic voice echoed through the empty space.
“Han Siha… Han Siha!”
She didn’t know what had happened, but one thing was clear.
The world had fallen apart.
Even if it was just one person who had fallen,
To her, that person was the whole world.
“This… this can’t be… no matter what… you promised….”
As she ran, Adela came to a realization.
“You promised you’d stay alive….”
The odds of him surviving were infinitesimally low.
No, he was surely dead.
“But… where are you! Where are you, and what are you doing…! Why… why can’t I see you….”
She accepted the brutal truth she never wanted to believe.
The completely shattered remains were scattered across the desolate ruins.
“Ah… aaah….”
Adela collapsed onto the broken earth.
* * *
Yoon Haul was clutching the Cube of Life in her dying moments.
Perhaps that’s why.
She hadn’t died instantly from the explosion that obliterated the underground chamber.
No, she hadn’t died instantly, but that was all.
Soon… before long… she would die.
Abaddon was dead.
Han Siha had perished with Abaddon.
And now, she too would pay the price.
Her eyelids, growing heavier, made her feel the nearness of death.
Yoon Haul lay beside Han Siha, who had his eyes closed.
“Han Siha….”
She called out, but no answer came.
Yoon Haul looked at Han Siha with a sad smile.
His hand, still faintly warm.
Yoon Haul gently took his hand.
As she gazed at his peaceful face, as if he were merely napping,
Memories from the past naturally surfaced.
Yoon Haul smiled softly, recalling her days at the Academy.
“Do you remember?”
Their first meeting was when Han Siha sought her out to uncover the whereabouts of the missing Usher.
Back then, Yoon Haul had been in full serious mode.
She spoke in a solemn tone.
‘I knew you would come.’
‘No, you didn’t.’
Of course, she had been seen through instantly.
He was the first lunatic who had ever thrown such blunt words at a prophet during their first meeting.
“You were so rude back then.”
And I…
“I was such a hopeless person, too.”
Thinking I’d spend my life with you, imagining the future as if it were guaranteed.
I trailed behind Han Siha everywhere.
He seemed to dislike it, but he never outright pushed me away.
I can’t describe how amusing it was to see him flustered.
Those times, now, are all memories.
To Yoon Haul, whose life had been filled with apathy and boredom, and to whom everything in the world was endlessly dull,
Han Siha was the first person to bring any excitement.
The reason I was drawn to you was because I couldn’t see an end to you.
But now, you’ve become someone too precious to think of an end.
Would my ‘end’ be with you?
Yoon Haul had worried and wondered countless times.
Now, she realized that the prophecy was true.
“I never wanted that prophecy to become reality like this.”
“But here I am, at your ‘end.’”
A lonely soliloquy of one left behind.
Though her words would never reach Han Siha,
Yoon Haul murmured with a trembling voice.
Death was approaching.
Cold and cruel, it tightened around her neck.
The reality of it…
“It’s sad… so sad…”
“But it’s not so bad.”
Cold, terrifying, and unbearably painful.
“But with you here… I don’t feel alone.”
She was grateful to have someone to share this with.
“Thank you, my end.”
Yoon Haul smiled sadly as she closed her eyes.