"To put it simply, instead of my soul that had already lost its flavor, I had wrapped a substitute personality around it like a wrapper..."
While smoking a cigarette, Ash explained his situation.
"That substitute personality is what you knew as Ash."
"..."
"But then, when Night Bringer pierced through my soul core, shattering my soul, the outer wrapper... the substitute personality got torn as well."
Ash swung his hand holding the cigarette broadly. The smoke, as murky and scattered as the people's hearts, spread around in a circle.
"Since my soul is pretty much just powder now, I can somehow manage to keep it together like this for now..."
King Poseidon, using the blood and heart of a Black Dragon, made Ash into a 'dragon', meticulously piecing together even the shattered fragments of Ash's soul core.
Normally, once a soul core is split, the shock to the soul body would lead to death, but Ash's soul was already so eroded by immense fatigue that even if the soul core took a hit, it would merely scatter without leading to annihilation. This was an unexpected advantage brought about by endless returns.
"But even if the inside soul is put together like a puzzle, what about the torn outer wrapper? There's no way to revert that."
Ash clicked his tongue and put the cigarette back in his mouth.
Nameless stuttered as she listened.
"So, the Ash we knew... is he dead?"
"For now, yes. At least I don't know a way to restore the torn substitute personality."
"..."
"But... that's just what I don't know. There might be another way prepared. It has to be."
After smoking the cigarette down to the end, Ash stubbed it out on the ground and grumbled.
"Above all, if that guy doesn't come back, I'm in trouble. I'll break apart soon."
"Break apart...?"
"I told you. My soul is pretty much like powder. I can maintain its form for now, but it will collapse soon."
Ash looked around at the people nearby, his gaze dripping with fatigue.
"Right now, I can recognize who all of you are, but give it a day, and I won't be able to tell who is who. I'll forget how to fight, remember strategies, blink, or even breathe."
"..."
"Ugh, where the hell has Aider gone? Not helping me at a time like this..."
Ash grumbled as Crown asked.
"What about the other substitute personalities?"
"Huh?"
"All this time, you've been overlaying numerous substitute personalities onto your body. What if you reuse one of them?"
Ash smirked. Indeed, a question befitting one of the few figures aware that this world was repeated.
"It's a good idea, but... no. If it's not that guy, there's no 'meaning'."
"...Meaning?"
"This is the last chance to challenge this world. That's what the director and I decided after the meeting."
The others gathered here mostly didn't understand Ash's words.
But they all sensed that his next words would be unsettling.
"Among the remaining candidates, the one who holds the 'most virtuous wish' was chosen to be the last player... to be laid over my soul."
Crown stuttered.
"A virtuous... wish? Is that the criterion for selecting a player?"
"Yes."
Ash nonchalantly put another cigarette to his mouth, but he didn't light it.
"Throughout countless returns, those of us fighting against annihilation pursued 'efficiency.' We sacrificed lives, chose who had to die, and decided which worlds needed to be cut away."
"..."
"But still, we failed. No matter how hard we struggled, the world was ultimately destroyed. So, finally, it made us question if we had been wrong all along. Maybe what's needed to clear all this... is something 'inefficient' that we've never even considered before?"
"..."
"So, it's him. The one with the most trivial, humble wish, one not for himself but entirely for someone else... That's the inefficient wish we're banking on. He's the last challenger who might save this world."
Ash slowly lifted his head to gaze beyond the darkness above—the distant earth above.
"And now, this is the result. This place is the world built upon his meager and twisted goodness."
"..."
"Judging by the situation, it seems he won't even beat the Black Dragon, let alone launch the ultimate offensive against the monster. But anyway, we entrusted the world to his goodness. Thus, the world's end should also come through his hands."
Ash belatedly lit his cigarette and exhaled the smoke forcefully.
"So, it would be problematic if he dies just like that... There's no answer to this. How do you gather up wrapping paper that's already torn and scattered to the winds? Does wrapping paper function that way?"
"..."
"Maybe this is the end of that naive goodness. Haha."
That was when it happened.
"Enough with the incomprehensible talk, Prince Ash."
King Poseidon staggered over.
Covered in burns, he looked decades older as if he had just undergone surgery that drained all his life force. King Poseidon blurted out desperately.
"Now that you've become a dragon, how about it. Can you defeat Night Bringer?"
"Um..."
Ash extended his right hand and from his little finger to his thumb, he sequentially ignited black flames.
It was an astonishingly natural control.
"There were several cycles in the past where that bastard Fernandez transformed me into a dragon. Thanks to that, I suppose I can handle the power quite adeptly..."
Right after, Ash chuckled.
"Seems a bit difficult, though?"
"What...?"
"In the cycles where I defeated Night Bringer, at least Lark or Fernandez, one of them was by my side."
Ash casually mentioned the names of his two deceased brothers.
"If both are there, it's almost certain, and with just one it's tough but possible. But now, both are gone."
"..."
"Lark and Fernandez are dead, and even father has lost his powers as a transcendental being... It's going to be tough."
Ash snickered as he sneakily glanced at this cycle's memories to grasp the situation.
King Poseidon gazed blankly at Ash with a pale, distressed face.
"Well, don't despair too much. Even if we cooperate with the protectors of the empire and defeat the Black Dragon, in the end... during the ultimate offensive by the monster, we've been doomed."
Even in the most ideal cycles.
Even when all four guardians of the empire fought together, fully blossoming their talents to the limit, and following an extremely honed and optimized route to gather all of humanity's will to fight—
They lost.
That's why they started looking for another way.
Being with the four guardians of the empire was indeed the 'most efficient' method, but they deliberately took a tough road to explore other possibilities, and this is how they ended up in a crisis at the end of that road.
'But, I've made a move.'
Ash continued to examine the memories, peering into the trap that 'he' had laid out in this cycle. Like observing a chess match that was underway but paused.
It was hard to fully guess the intention... but 'he' had continually spread out multiple moves.
And to continue those moves, to save the Pawn, the Knight, the Bishop, the Rook, and the Queen,
The King, himself, threw himself in front of the enemy.
"..."
This was still a positioning of someone ready to fight.
Except that the King was utterly shattered.
'If this were chess, it would be over here...'
This world is not a game.
Perhaps 'he' realized the moment the information he had about the game lost its meaning. The moment he realized that he couldn't win this world by treating it like a game.
He might have destroyed the rules himself. The most basic rule of the game that there must be a King...
But, for what?
'I hope this move isn't just a last desperate fling, friend. And hopefully, you've prepared.'
Ash opened his eyes after closing them for a moment and slowly got up.
'There's also a way to break the rule that once you fall out of the chessboard, you can't come back.'
Ash flicked the extinguished cigarette with his fingertips and threw it far away, shouting vigorously.
"Alright. I'll see what I can do about Night Bringer. Anyway, I can run around for about a day."
Ash curled the corners of his mouth up and laughed dangerously.
Pawn? Knight? Bishop? Rook? Queen? King?
Who cares, he's now a dragon.
And dragons beat chess.
"Anyway, there's hope if that Black Dragon bastard hasn't crossed halfway to Crossroad. The further he advances, the more he merges with the world's night, becoming stronger."
"..."
"So, where is the Black Dragon now? How many hours have passed since he began his invasion?"
Ash's lips slowly stiffened as he spoke energetically.
He realized belatedly that the faces of the people looking at him had turned grim.
Licking his dried lips, Ash bit his lower lip and smiled, but his precarious golden eyes were not smiling at all.
"...Don't tell me, he's already past the halfway point?"
***
36 hours after the Black Dragon's inland landing.
In the forest that had far surpassed half the distance from the Black Lake to Crossroad.
Grrrrr...!
Night Bringer, preparing his fourth breath, had grown even larger.
His power also endlessly swelled in the endlessly continuing night. The output of the incoming breaths was rising even more.
"He's preparing another breath...!"
"Alert Crossroad-!"
A scout soldier, with the intelligence report that the Black Dragon was preparing another breath, hurriedly passed through the teleport gate.
"Haah, Haah! Urgent, news!"
Exposed directly to the morale of the Black Dragon, the soldier trembled as if convulsing, tears streaming down as he shouted.
"Urgent news-! The Black Dragon is preparing his fourth breath-!"
The news quickly spread throughout the city.
Kings hurried to the shelters prepared underground, and all the defensive measures prepared in advance were urgently deployed.
"..."
Leaving the chaotic city behind.
Dusk Bringar stood alone atop the city walls.
The cold wind that blew through the falling snow tousled her long black hair aimlessly.
'...Was it supposed to still be autumn?'
The world, suddenly covered in an untimely winter, was cold.
Even more so without her lifelong subordinates or the beloved campfire...
The entire sky was dark, but the south was even darker. To Dusk Bringar, the entire dark sky seemed to be the form of the enemy.
"Haah..."
As she exhaled deeply, her breath instantly froze white. Dusk Bringar felt a sudden chill in the increasingly freezing world.
She still believed.
Because a promise was made.
That Ash would return.
That she would see his warm smile again.
That smile alone would brighten this winter night in an instant.
So...
"I must protect."
The home that child will return to.
That child's city...
"I must protect it."
So, just for a while.
Until that child returns, just bury myself in this blizzard.
Dusk Bringar's amber eyes tinged with red stared straight ahead.
Suddenly, a flash of lightning struck across the utterly dark southern sky.
And then, the next moment-
Boom!
The breath struck.
All the defensive measures humanity had prepared in the southern plains of Crossroad over the last 12 hours were activated but all were thwarted.
Artifacts shattered, magic circles vanished, and the barriers lined up in rows were all penetrated.
The evil dragon's linearly pushing breath seemed unstoppable by anything in the world.
And-
"Whew..."
Dusk Bringar gathered her breath.
Closing her eyes and gathering all her strength in her small body,
Flash!
With a blinding flash of light as she opened her eyes, Dusk Bringar had already transformed.
Horns grew over her head, wings and a tail sprouted from her back, and red scales covered her body.
Dragonblood Frenzy-
Igniting the blood within her, Dusk Bringar roared and breathed out in response to the incoming breath of Night Bringer.
Clang!
In the air above the southern plains, black and red flames met.
For a moment, all the snow pouring from the sky evaporated and vanished.
Thud...!
At the point of collision, a terrifying light and heat poured out, devastating everything around.
The snow-covered southern plains of Crossroad were instantly scorched black, and the range engulfed the southern city walls, where iron plates heated red and stone walls successively crumbled.
"Aah... Aaaaaah!"
Dusk Bringar screamed in agony as she continued to resist.
But the point of collision between the two breaths was gradually being pushed back.
Towards Crossroad. Slowly, but surely.