1 turn, 3 minutes in 'Complete Nullification' state, Raven remained.
He just floated in the air, and now it was just a matter of attacking and killing him during these 3 minutes.
"Whoa!"
"What the hell is going on...?"
Sword Demon and Spear Demon, who had hurled their swords and spears towards Raven, let out bewildered groans.
Their attacks merely crossed the empty air, slicing through the flickering shadow of Raven. They were unable to inflict any damage on him.
"The soul core, I can't see it...?"
"Is this bastard really the main body?!"
"It's definitely the main body. But why-"
Just then, Mason, who had savagely scratched Raven's body with his claws, ground his teeth.
"This monster, he doesn't have a soul core...!"
"Is that even possible?!"
Even the vampiric monsters of the Blood Clan, though their bodies were jelly-like and made of blood, had a soul core.
The primary rule for monsters is to perish if they lose their soul core.
But how could Raven exist before us without a soul core?
- So, I used my spirit and soul as the matrix. I shattered and broke my soul, using it as rotting material.
I remembered what he said when he attacked me in the slum village.
I muttered in frustration.
"It's not a metaphor, you literally sacrificed your soul...?"
"Yes."
Then, Raven's voice resounded.
The 3 minutes had already passed. Damn it!
"I burned the last bit of my soul as an offering. That's why I have transcended monsters and escaped the world's laws, becoming a plague."
Raven, having regained his senses and escaped the nullified state, let out an evil laugh.
"With such resolve, how do you plan to stop me?"
"Ck...!"
I desperately racked my brain. Think, think!
How to kill an opponent without a body or a soul core?
There must be a way, there must be-
"Ash, thanks to you, I dreamt of a distant past. Thank you. My hatred has only solidified..."
But Raven didn't seem to give me any time.
"Have you used up all your prepared moves, human? Then now, it's my turn."
Raven's smog-like form suddenly compressed,
"Be swallowed by nightmares, sink down, drown in the memories you fear the most...!"
Chaaak!
Like a burst sprinkler, it sprayed droplets all around.
It was not something that could be avoided. Like acid rain dissolving marble, mental barriers melted away, and black shadows infiltrated my mind.
'I'm done for.'
I laughed bitterly.
Then,
'What?'
Suddenly, it felt like someone was embracing me from behind.
***
"Your Highness."
I flinched at the voice next to me.
"What's the matter, Your Highness. Are you already drunk?"
"Ah, huh? Oh?"
Suddenly, I was in the mercenary guild's bar.
Next to me sat Jupiter.
The one-eyed veteran, with a familiar mischievous smile, held a cup of liquor in one hand and a smoking cigar in the other, furrowing her brow at my side.
"This is troublesome. Weren't you supposed to be my drinking buddy all night today?"
This scene,
I remember it.
"Jupiter!"
I urgently grabbed the old soldier's shoulder. Jupiter's only eye widened in surprise.
"Your Highness? What's suddenly the matter..."
"I'm here!"
I looked around, grinding my teeth.
"You must never go to the front line! Understand?"
But when I looked back at Jupiter,
She was already lying on the city walls.
Spilling blood from her chest, ravaged by magic bullets.
"..."
Before my dazed self, the nightmare I had once seen replayed, piece by piece.
"Prince!"
"Your Highness!"
Oldgirl and Skull came running with smiles, then-
Thud! Crack...
Like a dried-up tree drained of all blood, he died, shattered into pieces by the blood magic.
"Eat plenty. It's our tribe's traditional dish."
Kureha, who had served me dinner with a kind smile, his body,
Crack, snap...!
Twisted and deformed grotesquely, transforming into a giant wolf monster, and soon fell dead.
"In this city, you are an indispensable person."
Margarita said that to me as I sat on the mansion's bed, then she left.
"Don't overdo it from now on."
And then, she fell, struck by an arrow.
Quietly, in front of the temple's goddess statue.
And, again.
I saw Godhand sitting on a bench in front of the alchemist's workshop, shyly smiling as she waited for her lover, holding a flower in one hand.
Whish...
In the next moment, he vanished.
Leaving only withered flowers scattered around.
"Damn, I knew it would come to this..."
At the destroyed forward base.
Ken, with a sad face, is slaughtered in front of the legs of black spiders.
People's blood stains the ground.
Death. Death. Death.
All the guilt I must carry for a lifetime, once again filled the horizon. I couldn't breathe and fell to my knees on the ground.
"Look."
Then a voice came from above. I barely managed to lift my trembling head.
"Don't avoid it, look. All these are the lives you've reaped."
"Ra, ven...!"
Raven was floating in the sky.
In a world filled with death, the plague lord reigned alone in the void, like a black sun.
"To more effectively kill your mind, I've infiltrated your psyche myself."
"Well, thanks for the concern...!"
"You're holding up better than before. Have you developed a resistance? Or, is your guilt that shallow?"
Raven let out a low laugh, then stirred his body, pouring down another dark rainstorm.
"Well, it doesn't matter. I'll repeat it thousands, tens of thousands of times, until you completely break...!"
Every droplet he poured out represented the death of my comrades.
I closed my eyes tightly. I couldn't bear it, not even once more.
Then.
Click-
The sound of an umbrella opening.
Swoosh-
The raindrops did not touch me.
I looked to the side in surprise. And there,
"Hello, darling?"
Salome stood there.
Covering me with a strikingly bright pink umbrella in this dark world, smiling brightly.
"Huh?"
"No..."
Both Raven and I were startled.
"Salome...?"
"Witch! How did you get here?!"
"Hmph. Underestimating a succubus too much, aren't you?"
Salome crossed her arms and shrugged.
"Raven, you made a hole in Ash's mental barrier. Naturally, I can use that hole too."
"You... vexing succubus! Don't interfere with my work!"
Then Salome, still holding the umbrella over me, placed her other hand on my shoulder.
"Ash. I'd like to keep holding this umbrella over you forever, but unfortunately. Everyone has to face the rain someday."
Salome smiled broadly, then,
"So, look properly."
Click!
She folded the umbrella.
"If you have to face it, face it to the end, properly."
Swoosh!
The nightmare's downpour swept over me.
And what unfolded was a painful memory, no different from before.
Jupiter lay dead. She was on the city walls, bleeding from her chest, ravaged by magic bullets.
At that horrific sight, I involuntarily turned my head away. Then Salome, standing beside me, shouted.
"Don't turn away, Ash!"
"...!"
"This is the world you created. This is the path you've walked so far. So."
Salome's voice was stern, yet warm.
"Look properly! To the end, properly!"
I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists.
And looked ahead again.
Then... I saw.
Junior was laying Jupiter's head on her knee, whispering something to Jupiter who lay fallen.
Jupiter breathed her last with a peaceful face. Junior held Jupiter's body and wailed for a long time.
And then.
And then...
Junior wiped her tear-streaked face, stood up straight, took a deep breath, and with a determined look,
She stood up.
-The scene changed.
Bodybag and Burnout were seen grieving, collecting the bodies of Oldgirl and Skull.
The two young elves cried as if the world was ending, and then...
Holding each other's hands.
Wiping each other's tears.
They stood up.
-The scene changed.
Kureha's body, turned into a monster and killed, was seen.
Kuilan gently embraced that body.
Kuilan, looking affectionately at his dead brother, slowly got up.
And, to bury his brother, he moved forward.
-The scene changed.
After laying Margarita, struck by an arrow, gently in front of the goddess statue,
Torkel adjusted his helmet, his right hand holding a toothless kitchen knife, his left arm tightly bound with a broken table.
Then, as if to fight again, he lifted his blood-soaked body.
-The scene changed.
Lilly sat alone on a bench.
Even though her lover, who used to surprise her holding a flower, no longer came, she sat quietly in front of the workshop.
She was looking at a metal flower in her hand.
After clutching the flower to her chest gently,
Lilly struggled to get up, moving from the bench to her wheelchair.
For her, unable to use her legs, this was exceedingly difficult. But Lilly, gritting her teeth and groaning, managed to sit in the wheelchair.
And, wheeling the chair.
Somewhere - somewhere in this harsh world.
She moved.
-The scene changed.
I was reading a letter sent to me. The letter, written in a child's crude handwriting, was from Ken's siblings.
After Ken died in the tutorial, I had agreed to take care of their livelihood.
Sending living expenses under the name of the Third Prince, one of the siblings sent me this letter.
- What kind of knight was my brother?
I replied thoughtfully.
- Knight Ken fought more bravely than any knight in this world.
- To protect the world. To protect you.
- I, and Crossroad, will not forget his bravery and dedication.
Then, a reply came.
- Then I want to protect the world like my brother too!
Looking at that pure sentence, written in clumsy handwriting,
I held back my tears for a long time as I read it.
...Again, the scene changed.
An old man in armor eaten away by rats, Margrave Cross, appeared.
"How was it?"
The Margrave, with a bloodied face, gazed intently at me.
"Was it worth sacrificing your most precious thing, to protect this city?"
"..."
I didn't answer immediately.
Instead, I turned my head to look beside me.
Using a cane, bandaged all over.
With a brightened face, walking across the spring garden - towards the center of the city, was Evangeline.
"Of course."
Before I knew it, I too was standing.
With trembling legs, I barely stood up.
"Margrave Cross. Before you died, you told me. Crossroad is called the city on top of graves."
I faced Margrave Cross.
"It's a derogatory term meaning a lot of casualties, but even if it's on top of graves, it also means people still live on."
A faint smile spread across the bloodied old man's face.
Yes. Now, I finally realize it anew.
After facing my guilt and seeing the people who follow, late though it may be, I now understand.
People die.
But their purpose continues.
Those left behind carry on their will, moving forward again.
Thus - it perpetually continues.
The history of humanity. The will of humanity. The dreams of humanity.
"I may be late, but now I understand."
I raised the flag, and people gathered under it.
If people died for that flag.
My duty is not to break the flag.
Not to despair. Not to be frustrated. Not to regret or blame myself.
No matter how painful it is. No matter how much I want to run away.
I must carry it on.
Remembering clearly what they died for... I must shoulder a will as strong as their lives and raise the flag high again.
Because that is the responsibility and duty of the one who holds the flag.
"I will say it a hundred times, a thousand times, Margrave Cross."
I stretched my hand to the right.
"This city is. And this world is."
Then, in the empty void where there was nothing... a brightly shining flag appeared.
Gripping it tightly, I shouted.
"It's worth... protecting!"