707 – 8. Will (81)
As always, the man had an emotionless face.
She was like that from the first time I saw her. Those golden eyes were as stark as a dried-up lake, and it was difficult to find even a trace of humanity. Could it be said that it feels like a blade that has been worn down and turned a dull color?
Still, he resembles me so much.
It was as if she had encountered a vicious prank. It felt like I had heard an evil prophecy that one day I too would end up like that.
To be honest, yes.
I hated that guy.
“There was a time like you for me too.”
The voice, bleached with emotion, is as crunchy as sand. Golden pupils soaked in fatigue shine on me like moonlight.
“I don’t want to lose anything, I don’t want to give up anything anymore.”
The man sitting on the rock was not even moving.
She is just staring at me with dry eyes.
Actually, that was enough for her.
To imprint on me a presence as strong as the burning sunset. Her manly golden eyes leave a clearer mark on my retina than the bands of twilight that burn the horizon.
“I have collapsed hundreds of times and despaired thousands of times. Failure, frustration, regret…….”
One word, one word.
The man’s tone is ragged as he recalls feelings that have now faded. Suddenly, I thought that his eyes were looking somewhere other than me.
Am I remembering a wound from a long time ago?
“It was only when I reached the end of the agony that I finally realized it.”
“What?”
“It’s impossible.”
As he declared, the man slowly raised her body.
The speed was slow enough to make me yawn. If someone were to see it, they would think that only his time was passing slowly.
But I knew.
How highly trained each and every movement is. There is no gap in sight, but if a gap is exposed, the tension feels as if the back of the neck will be bitten off at any moment.
A wild beast, trained through countless killings, was waking up.
Actually, he seemed like nothing was wrong.
“Babe, you know now.”
Standing tall, one piece.
“Not wanting to lose anything is just a child’s stubbornness. How many times haven’t I warned you? “You will pay the price someday.”
Another piece.
“I am your ‘future.'”
Finally, another piece.
“Don’t get lost on a path that has already decided its end. “Because it’s meaningless.”
The golden pupils of the man who had finally fully recovered were still holding a bright light.
This is the belief that fragmented and broken humans held until the end.
It burns like a flame, how could it not shine?
After precipitation, evaporation, and purification, the remaining emotional essence was extremely concentrated. Even just encountering this is enough to take my breath away.
It had to be that way.
Others may not know this, but I know it better than anyone else.
How did the man come to that conclusion?
There were many times when I cried, prayed, struggled, or screamed. But he was lost and stood alone on this lonely wilderness.
With only one intention to protect the world.
There is no one who would dare to laugh at that life.
But, even more so.
“…… No.”
I had no choice but to answer like that.
The man chose silence instead of answering. I still can’t read the emotions in those eyes.
“You are not my ‘future’.”
“You’re being stubborn.”
Jeobug, jerk.
Even though the man just took a step, her muscles contracted arbitrarily, awakening tension. Even though I was sweating coldly, I tried not to look away from the man who was getting closer and closer.
Every time he stepped on the ground, step by step, the man asked.
“Have you not realized it yet? “I thought she had already regretted and lost enough.”
“I…” ….”
“Leto, Celine… They are all comrades who were alive in the future I came from. “But now?”
It was the perfect answer.
From Noble mtl dot com
Even though I somehow managed to get up from the abyss of despair, there was no way I could have completely recovered from the scratches all over my body. Leto and Celine were still my most tender wounds.
I was speechless for a moment.
“You killed him.”
The short words give me goosebumps and without hesitation, they pierce my vulnerable parts. Like a wolf that smells blood.
“Your petty beliefs and meaningless stubbornness… “A cowardly choice to not give up anything even though I knew it was impossible!”
The man who was walking had already reached a stone’s throw away from me.
He whispered to me in a tone full of fatigue and heat.
“You caused Leto’s death… “You still don’t understand?”
“No, I know.”
There was almost no time difference in the questions and answers.
Reflexively, I answered that way. The response was surprisingly quick, even to me.
Why?
Probably because there is no reason to hesitate anymore.
Because it was a question I had already asked and answered myself countless times. If I was still hesitating, I wouldn’t have the courage to see the people who gave me advice again.
A faint, bitter smile appeared on my lips.
“You are right. “If I had been a little more careful, Leto might have lived.”
The man was actually embarrassed by my honest acceptance.
At last, the impurities of emotion are mixed into his golden pupils. First of all, ‘suspicion’.
“I know how impossible it is to not lose anything. “I also know that I will lose and regret countless times in the future.”
“Then…” ….”
“But I won’t accept a future like yours.”
The man is silent again.
However, a deep question was emerging from the way he was looking at me. As if he couldn’t possibly understand my decision.
“Because I decided to go my own way.”
“I would have said it was impossible.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s impossible.”
I face the eyes of the man who is silently staring at me.
Suddenly, I recalled a memory from a long time ago.
It was already a few months ago. The day when a blizzard raged and the ‘Corpse Giant’ looked down at me with its overwhelming size.
For the first time, I faced this man’s pupils.
The golden moon looks extremely tired and lonely.
Yes, it was like this that day too.
“I promised.”
Even back then, I chose my own path instead of the man’s path.
The young doubt in the man’s eyes at my ambiguous words only deepened.
“I won’t throw anything away.”
“You lied.”
The reaction afterward was the same as then.
Cynical.
“Just because it’s impossible doesn’t mean you have to give up.”
“It’s a contradiction.”
Smoke.
“And what about you?”
And at the end of the question, silence.
At the end of a question and answer that is so familiar that you miss it, another emotion appears in the man’s golden eyes.
It was so faint that it was difficult to define its name. However, it was clear that the gentle heat was heading towards me.
I asked again.
“After all that throwing away and throwing away… “Were you satisfied with the ending you got?”
“There is no such thing as the best ending. “There is only the best ending.”
“Then why did you come back?”
Once again the man was silent. The young light in his eyes becomes increasingly clearer.
“Isn’t it because you regret it?”
“Sweetheart.”
In a voice mixed with dull anger, the man spoke as if he was chewing.
“Don’t act like you know anything… She thought she could have made a more rational choice…….”
“Why did you help me?!”
But he wasn’t the only one who started to get emotional.
I also ask an age-old question.
“It doesn’t benefit you at all! Is that the brilliant ‘rational’ choice? Why did you go through all that trouble and raise me up from the crying and falling down…… !”
“Sweetheart.”
“Actually, I knew.”
I want to say something, but I can’t think of anything to say.
The man touched her lips and the sound of her taking a deep breath was heard. His heartless eyes, like a lake in the middle of winter, were rippled.
Thanks to this, I was able to have time to look around while suppressing laughter.
A wilderness with nothing left.
The ground was soaked with blood and countless corpses were spread out, and the sunset cast a gloomy light.
Is this the end the man has reached?
What will be the end of the mess I went through, cutting off my faith, my precious people, and even my heart?
I could say for sure.
“This is not the ending you were hoping for.”
“What do you know… ….”
“Because I am ‘Ian Perkus.'”
Because it is none other than ‘me’.
“What will the lovers who sacrificed for you say when they see this?”
He knew better than anyone else what to say to provoke the man.
“…… What?”
That is the signal.
Cow, the airflow in the area stops. Even though I didn’t do anything and the man just looked at me, I felt like my throat was tight and my airway was blocked.
It seemed as if the power of the whole world was converging towards her man.
Originally, keek, keek. It would be normal if I let out the sound of my breath being cut into pieces.
I exhaled huh, huh, as if I was suffocating and showed off my bravado.
“Everyone, at that time… Hmm, if it’s lovers…….”
“Stop it.”
The serious voice weighs on my heart once again.
Cruk, croak.
The pressure was so intense that my throat felt like it was going to rip out of my breath. It was at this level even though he was just glaring at me.
A monster of a different kind.
Is this what the warrior of the Heavenly Sword who competed with Delphirem in mythology felt like?
“I’m human too. If you get too excited…….”
Right then.
There was one memory that passed through my mind. The eyes of the ‘Dragon King’ seen from the future.
Figures that illustrate all the principles of the world appear on the retina. I had forgotten about it for a while, but it was a somewhat familiar feeling.
A vision that distorted space.
It was the moment when I finally realized what the origin of the first technology I had learned was.
There was no need to hesitate next time.
Wow!
I tore ‘something’ that was binding around my body, as if tearing it apart with both hands. At that point, the man frowned slightly and, unusually, looked at me with somewhat embarrassed eyes.
You probably didn’t know that I had learned the ‘eyes of all things.’
However, the opponent is a talented person from a different weight class.
When I got ready to pounce, the man lowered her posture without even being embarrassed. If she throws her fist like this, she will be defeated.
That’s why it falls down.
Her posture was more sloppy than she imagined, and the man immediately punched her. It was a perfect attack aimed at a gap, but as she had anticipated it in advance, she was barely able to react quickly.
Her arms wrap around his arms.
Seongguk jujitsu, flipping the moon.
It was one of the best martial arts techniques I know, but it was only a long way off compared to ‘me’ from the future.
Wud-duk.
It was the sound of my arm, which was wrapped around her man’s arm and heading toward her shoulder, being shattered on the side of my shoulder.
There was no one even to scream.
Staying in the same position as I was about to fall, I had to enjoy the view of being turned over.
And blackout.
Fragments of the shattered earth pour down from the sky. “Huh,” I burst out laughing.
It was just thrown to the ground, but the ground was a mess as if an explosion had occurred.
Pits, cracks, and hands that tremble even though they are unconscious and not dead.
Intuitively, it conveyed to me the fact that it was ‘death.’ If I hadn’t been unconscious, I would have just lost my life in a single blow.
Nevertheless, the person responsible for creating this tragedy had an annoyed tone.
“…… I lost.”
Standing in a hole that was roughly as tall as a child, the man said that.
There was a piece of cloth hanging at the end of his gaze. I burst out laughing and spat out a small piece of clothing that I tore off with my teeth.
It was rewarding to pretend to fall on purpose.
Finally, the man clicked her tongue once and made her stand up.
“The bet is definitely… It only brushed my collar once. “I admit it, you won.”
And then I turned around and took a step forward without hesitation.
It was my victory. The promise I made with him at first was that I could just brush against his clothes.
It is now over.
I was finally able to make up my mind with the advice of countless people, and the biggest enemy that stood in the way of my return did not just give up on me and leave.
Yes, that is how it should be.
Boom!
A hatchet passes by the man and causes cracks in the ground.
Naturally, golden eyes turn to me again.
At that time, I had barely managed to get up. Even if you don’t die, the psychological damage was bound to accumulate.
But I tried my best to shout out as if nothing had happened.
“…… Where!”
The man’s eyebrows narrow. It was an expression I hadn’t seen many times in a while, but today was different.
He makes that face when he encounters a phenomenon he doesn’t truly understand.
“It’s not over yet!”
“What nonsense…” ….”
“We must do our best!”
Soon, the man’s face distorts.
I swear it was the first time I saw his face. I was so amused by that fact that I smiled wildly.
“Or are you scared?”
There were many unfamiliar expressions today.
The man narrowed his eyebrows, distorted his face, and now even tilted his head.
He appears to be doubting his own hearing.
From Noble mtl dot com
It was truly a cheap attitude. So I let out an even more heated voice.
“Are you afraid you’ll lose to me?”
“I said something… ….”
“Afraid of being found out that you were wrong?!”
The man’s face hardens in an instant.
Yes, it should be like this.
There was no need for me to be excited alone.
“…… Come on.”
It was a single word he uttered as he straightened up his body, hesitatingly, and drew his sword.
The man looked down at me without saying anything. Cold eyes and burning eyes collide to form a rainy season front. The man kept her silent for a while.
Soon, he burst out laughing.
That’s the beginning.
“Pugh, huh…” hahahaha, hahahaha!”
The man burst out laughing as if he couldn’t bear it anymore.
She hadn’t laughed much, but she never imagined that her man could make her laugh so loudly.
I immediately stiffened my body and raised my tension.
“Phew, big… Tsk tsk… Um, power? “Do your best?”
I put my hand on her forehead and watched the man’s laughter subside.
Before I knew it, I was flying in the sky.
I didn’t even have time to say, “Uh,” My body had completed vertical takeoff in just a split second.
What on earth.
The worries did not last long.
I can’t even hear a sound. The moment something hit me directly at a speed that exceeded the speed of sound and hit my body, my body had already flown an enormous distance.
The internal organs are torn into pieces. All the blood vessels had burst, and although I wanted to spit out blood, there were no intact organs left.
Thud, a dull shock starts from the back and runs all the way to the fingertips and toes. As if that wasn’t enough, there was even the sound of something breaking apart.
I managed to regain my shaken vision and the sight I saw was, yes.
Cracks were forming on the border between worlds. I flew over a distance I didn’t even know how far away, and the transparent wall around the place where my body was trapped screamed.
The rupture occurred immediately afterward.
Click!
With the sound of a mirror breaking, I spun around in the black darkness and crashed into something.
Amjeon, cancer, cancer.
I couldn’t even tell how many people died in just one attack. However, right after I managed to come to my senses, I saw it.
A rocky mountain shattered around the point where I crashed.
At some point, the wilderness that was full of corpses was no longer visible. It meant that I had crossed the boundary of the space I had just broken and reached a new place of unconsciousness.
But, how.
It was a border that was impossible to pass without special tools. But does this mean that the man shattered that barrier with sheer force alone?
It was when I fell down and touched the ground with trembling hands.
Paak, and do it.
I felt a hand grabbing my collar. As I shake my head and look straight ahead, I see golden eyes staring at me.
His face had suddenly become cold again. However, I can’t hide the fire burning softly in those eyes.
“Have you forgotten whose memories you learned from?”
I had to admit it, taking a deep breath.
The fact that I can’t seem to win.
He is the only person who survived after going through four front lines.
One of the twelve representatives of the Round Table, humanity’s last decision-making body, the commander-in-chief protecting the Great Wall, and a star hunter who single-handedly brought down three of the Seven Sins.
And ‘created God’.
The last master of mankind was now standing in front of me.
As a nemesis that must be overcome.