113 – Despair
“No……”
“Ariel…?”
Ariel, who was looking at herself, suddenly fell into her panic, and her river sky, which had been bleeding from her mouth, quietly tilted her head to her side and called her.
“Why…?”
“I don’t like…”
However, Ariel just shook her head and took her back.
“I hate it…”
“Ariel…”
Her ‘Save & Load System’, her mysterious existence that has protected her until now.
A fraudulent ability that blunts even the absolute fear of death that humans can only feel, because they can return to the saved point under any circumstances.
It was because the ability suitable for that heroine was hostile to the person in front of her.
[Will you defeat the final boss?]
[Y/N]
That short phrase floating in front of her clearly showed that fact.
“Is this the ability for this…?”
“…….?”
“I wonder if it was the ability to defeat you…”
It was only natural for Ariel to panic.
If it had been a few minutes ago, she would have defeated Kang Ha-neul, the ‘final boss’ of this world, without hesitation.
But now that she knows the whole truth about Kang Ha-neul and Justia, she finally realizes that she is her destiny to defeat Kang Ha-neul. There was no
“…This, you know.”
So, as her defense mechanism, the denial of reality began to erupt.
“If I kill you here… Is there any way you’ll come back to life?”
“…….”
“That’s why you’re not speaking so calmly, are you?”
But when the river sky just silently shook her head, Ariel, who was trying to somehow deny the situation, quietly stopped her.
“…No.”
“Huh?”
“It’ll be fine. You won’t die.”
After standing still for a while, Ariel burst into laughter and opened her mouth.
“Coming to think of it, wouldn’t it be enough if I didn’t kill you and return?”
“………?”
“Yeah, there was such a simple way. If you’re just scared…”
With the rest of her relaxed, even with tears welling up in her eyes, she steps over to her muttering.
“…Sir Haneul. Don’t worry.”
“Ariel…?”
“I’ll save you.”
Then, she quietly closed her eyes.
“……?”
But for some reason, no matter how long I wait, her whole body doesn’t feel like it’s turning over like usual.
“… Huh?”
Because of that, she opens her eyes again and puts on a dumbfounded expression.
“What?”
Looking around her with her incomprehensible eyes, she once again closed her eyes and concentrated on her, but nothing changed in her.
“…….”
She could only see the collapsed hideout in the aftermath of her own attack, and the still-dying river and sky emitting blue flashes and smoke.
“…Strange. hahahaha.”
“Ariel… El.”
“Why can’t I go back?”
Thanks to that, Ariel muttered with a slightly embarrassed expression.
“…Hey, you know.”
“…….?
Then she starts to doubt her own ears within her.
“Anyway, it seems to be minutes, not hours.”
“…..Yes?”
“I’m so sorry that Geary is burdening you until the end…”
Because her river sky, which was sitting on her floor, for some reason she was repeating the same words she had told herself before.
“…Can I ask you a favor without shame?”
“………”
Ariel watched such an abnormal phenomenon blankly for a while.
“…Before it’s too late.”
‘No way.’
At the same time, a cold sweat ran down her forehead.
“Kill me.”
Kang Ha-neul, who shed the same tear from his eyes as he saw earlier, concludes with the same lines.
At the same time, a message once again floated in front of Ariel.
[Will you defeat the final boss?]
[Y/N]
Ariel, who had been staring blankly at the message with her face bluish, then quietly started rummaging through her pockets.
“Ariel…?”
– Swoop…
“You, you… What are you doing?”
Soon, she takes out the sharp knife she stole from Rumia.
“…Professor. Wait a minute. Something went wrong.”
“What…?”
“It’s not a big deal, so don’t be too surprised…”
Ariel, who had been staring at the knife calmly at her, quietly raised it high into the sky.
– Puff…..
“…Ah?”
A few seconds later, a sharp blade pierced her throat.
– Jureuk…
“…No!!!”
Her river sky, which had been staring blankly at the knife that had severed her veins and her nerves and pierced Ariel’s neckbone, soon began crawling towards her with her astonished expression on her face.
“Ah, Ariel…!”
“………”
But already, Ariel collapsed on the floor and began to turn pale.
“Why, why? Why…? Why…!”
“…It’s okay.”
“Is it because of me again?”
Kang Ha-neul, who had been holding and shaking Ariel who had fallen on the floor while shedding tears, soon began muttering in a dark voice.
“Yes. In the end, it’s because of me again…”
“………”
“I knew what was going to happen. I shouldn’t have given you my heart…”
A black aura began to radiate from his body.
“…Hateful.”
At the same time, his hair and eyes start to turn white.
“Everything is… Hateful…”
Before he knew it, the flash of blue light emitted from his body had changed to white, and a laurel wreath made of blood began to rise from his head.
– Chizuzuzuzu…
The next moment, a shadow riding a horse protrudes from the back of the river sky.
“………”
The moment the shadow quietly reached out to the tentacles that began to extend from Kang Ha-neul’s body.
– Support position…
A feeling that finally came to Ariel, her whole body turned upside down.
‘…I’ll go find it now.’
As Ariel, who had dimly opened her eyes, muttered to herself as she looked at him, who had begun to change into something other than the river sky after witnessing her own death.
‘My guardian angel…’
In the next moment, Ariel’s consciousness was suddenly cut off.
“…….”
How much time had passed like that?
“…….?”
A scene that Ariel has become accustomed to seeing in front of Ariel when she opens her eyes again.
“Why…?”
“I’m so sorry that Geary is burdening you until the end…”
When she realizes that she is still standing on a pile of ruins, she starts to hear Kang Ha-neul’s request for the third time in her ears, as she put on a bewildered expression.
“Can I ask you a favor without shame?”
The moment Ariel heard that voice, she realized the terrible truth and collapsed into her seat.
“Kill me before it’s too late…?”
“Ah, ah…”
A short and concise phrase came to her third as well.
[Will you defeat the final boss?]
[Y/N]
That fact only hinted at one thing.
“Ah, ah…!”
The save point of the system was, of course, updated the moment Kang Ha-neul’s death was confirmed.
“aaa!!!!”
Realizing that fact, Ariel’s despairing scream pierced the silence of her ruins and resounded all around her.
.
.
.
.
.
“…….!?”
Pandora, who had been sitting quietly in her infirmary, stood up in surprise at Ariel’s scream that resonated through the silence of the ruins.
‘What happened?’
Before long, she began to look around her with her terrified voice.
“…….”
But, of course, I could only see the scenery inside the infirmary, and there was no way I could grasp the situation.
‘…It’s scary.’
Thanks to that, she broke out in a cold sweat and started heading towards the half-broken door.
– Swoop…
‘Still, I want to see the river sky soon!’
Eventually, she pondered whether or not to open the door in front of him for a long time, but at that very moment, she mustered up her courage and grabbed the doorknob.
– KANG!!
“…….!”
She gets hit on the forehead by a door that suddenly opens, and falls out behind her.
‘What, what is…”
“………”
“……!?”
She touched her forehead while weeping at the throbbing pain that came to her before long. Soon after, she found a person quietly walking into her room and opened her eyes wide.
＞ Dice?
“…..Here you are.”
With her clothes and cape torn in places, she was still looking down at Pandora.
＞ Go, Kang Haneul is not here!
＞ Already left here!
She looks up at her for a moment with her happy expression, then shakes her head hurriedly as she realizes the plague of her famine that has spread within her furtuk hideout.
“…It’s okay if you don’t cheat with lies.”
＞ ?
“Because I’ve never been affected by an ability in the first place.”
But she replied with a blank expression, then took out her small notebook from her arms and pushed it towards Pandora.
“By the way, I need you to help me.”
＞ Suddenly?
“It’s just, a very simple task…”
Her eyes were shining quietly.
“Just like in the last seminar, you just need to touch the code here very lightly.”
＞ That’s how simple it is!! I’ve never seen such disgusting spaghetti code in my life!!!
“…Within 10 minutes.”
＞ Playful!?!?
.
.
.
.
– Tuck, Tuck…
Meanwhile, at that time.
“This way.”
“…Yes?”
“I can feel the energy of the sky from here…”
Kangmaru, who had rushed into the hideout, opened her eyes wide and began clearing the pile of her ruins that were blocking her corridor.
“Ha, heaven…!”
By the time her Himari helped her and put aside the wreckage of her halfway around her.
“Nuna, sister. Sky…!”
Kang Maru suddenly shouted with a trembling expression, then squeezed her body through the exposed gap and stepped inside.
“Noo, I’m sorry, sister. I misunderstood you all this time!”
“………”
“So, from now on…”
The expression on her face, shedding tears at her own little brother who began to appear right in front of her, as she briskly moved her steps, soon began to harden.
“……Heaven?”
It was because I finally saw with my own two eyes that Kang Ha-neul, who had been sitting with her back leaning against the wall, was dying, coughing up blood from her mouth.