Chapter 144 : Call of the Stars (2)

December 22

“So you’re saying the final dragon is embedded in the moon? Not that it came down through a rift?”

“Yeah, this is a photo of the moon’s surface, and if you look here, you can see a long stain, right?”

Dorim, who had hastily come to Elysion after setting up silver mobile fortresses all over South Korea and setting them to auto-hunt, pulled out a photo.

A recent photo of the moon’s surface.

On the large photo of the moon’s surface that Dorim displayed, a faint dragon-like shape could indeed be seen sitting there.

A huge dragon with a long body like one might imagine for an Eastern dragon, with black wings attached.

The final trial.

The one who truly represents the will of stars.

It was standing on the vast plains of the moon, glaring at Earth.

“Why… on earth? Then when the fifth trial ended. Was the dragon of destruction already born?”

“I’m not sure about that. Originally, the way Yuki described the dragon of destruction appearing wasn’t from a rift either.”

“…”

The dragon of destruction came down from the sky at some point and began harvesting souls.

Without any trial rift, without any sign.

‘I thought it just meant they barely overcame the fifth trial.’

Was it not strange for the dragon of destruction to appear at any time after the fifth trial from the beginning?

“The moon, the moon.”

Why the moon?

“This is really just my guess, but.”

“Yeah.”

“The throne of nothingness that Erebos cursed. No matter how I look at it, this seems to be the cause of the dramatic change in the content of the trials.”

“…Yeah.”

Dorim doesn’t say things like this if it’s just baseless imagination.

When Dorim says “guess”, it means she’s speaking with almost certainty. That’s why Dorim, who had prefaced with “guess”, was quickly changing to a tone close to certainty.

“That throne of nothingness where those goddesses are holed up, it doesn’t have like a fixed passage or place, right?”

“Yeah. It would suddenly appear when humanity’s will weakened or the boundary between dimensions weakened.”

“Then wasn’t it embedded in the moon from the beginning?”

“Huh?”

“Like Elysion that can move here and there, the throne of nothingness appears by penetrating space if certain conditions are met. The original body is on the moon.”

“…”

“Those stairs and such are a kind of fake… more precisely, dimensional magic? Something like that.”

“…”

It was an idea I had never thought of.

Dorim tapped the moon surface photo repeatedly while rolling her eyes frantically.

“It always watches what humanity does, but if it’s a space that can’t interfere with Earth without power, the moon is the only thing that comes to mind. From ancient times, the moon has also been passed down as a symbol of goddesses.”

All stories passed down from ancient myths described the moon as female.

Three goddesses of fate live on the moon.

The moon goddess has three aspects.

The three goddesses remembered by modern humans who came to know death beyond the earliest era.

Was that simply a coincidence?

Tap

Tap

Tap

Tap

Each time Dorim frantically tapped the desk to organize her thoughts, my thoughts were also being organized.

One thought that came to mind, just in case.

“What if the will of stars was also on the moon?”

“Hmm.”

“What if the place the three goddesses so desperately wanted to return to was a place they could reach just by escaping the throne of nothingness right next to them?”

“Hmmm.”

“What if they were precariously sealed at the boundary of dimensions due to human rejection, and could only watch from right in front?”

“Hmmmm.”

Dorim thought for a moment after hearing my words and then came up with an analogy.

An analogy that any Korean would understand.

“Like eating chicken beyond a screen door in front of a hungry person?”

“…For thousands of years.”

“Oh, I think I understand why those bitches were so pissed off.”

We organized the story again from the beginning.

The throne of nothingness.

The dragon of destruction.

The trials.

The moon.

And the will of stars.

The way to solve all of this that we face.

It didn’t seem like the answer was to endure by defeating the vaguely surging demons like now.

We needed to figure out why the will of stars, which always actively attacked humans by any means necessary, had changed its attitude to that of a turtle.

Why it was slowly killing us off like this.

“So in short, something happened to the throne of nothingness because of Erebos’ curse.”

“Something went wrong with the plan the three goddesses were preparing there.”

“And because of that hitch, the dragon of destruction is in a parked state?”

“Yeah.”

“…”

“…”

“So what is that thing?”

“I don’t know that either.”

“Oh my, have I ever seen such a frustrating goddess.”

Dorim wailed while beating her slender chest with her small hands, and I could only watch with an embarrassed expression. Everything was just… highly probable speculation pieced together by our imagination.

Just one thing,

What was certain was.

We had to find another way besides waiting for fate on Earth like this.

We had to find out why the dragon of trials was just quietly watching.

“We have no choice but to go towards the moon.”

“…”

“Let’s face the dragon directly there. And face the will of stars directly.”

“No. That’s not it, wait a minute. Unnie, no really. That’s not an easy thing! No, how far is the moon from Earth! No, to get combatants there we’d have to build a spaceship and that’s an impossible thing, unnue. No really!”

No

No

Dorim kept uttering the word Koreans say when they’re most dumbfounded, trying to refute this absurd conclusion with dozens of theories.

I found Dorim’s reaction amusing.

Aren’t we living in an impossible miracle to begin with?

To me, this world where magical girls exist was itself a miracle.

Then isn’t there no reason why the miracle of us invading the will of stars shouldn’t happen?

“Is a silver ship flying in the sky plausible?”

“…”

“I’m 4-star, you’re 3-star. Let’s try to overcome this crisis with the combined power of 7 stars.”

“…You come up with such words even in this situation.”

Because there was someone who taught me to stay relaxed especially at times like this.

Because there was someone I promised to meet again after everything ends and I return to my original world.

“Hmmmm.”

“What do you think, Dorim?”

“What the heck, let’s give it a try.”

We resolved to plan an operation to attack the place… presumed to be the will of stars.

Our first counterattack, when we had always only defended against rifts.

While protecting people from the surging demons, we aimed to advance towards the moon where the dragon of destruction was discovered.

[Project Romulus]

A battle to end the era of stars and gods, and overcome humanity’s final trial.

This plan was conveyed to all magical girls through fate threads, and transmitted to the whole world enduring the endlessly surging demons.

Our enemy was waiting for us on the moon.

Unlike before when enemies came down through rifts, for the first time we are approaching them.

Where stars and gods and enemies wait.

Is it a trap?

Is it certain death?

We didn’t know.

-We’ll be okay.

But we could only believe and advance like fools, just as we had done until now.

From that evening, Dorim and I tried to create a flying vehicle with a body incomparably larger than anything before, using infinite starlight.

* * *

A gray plain where nothing exists.

There was a huge dragon made of darkness. The dragon’s body was like a mountain range, with grooves between its winding scales as deep as canyons.

Darkness

Chaos

The huge dragon with tens of thousands of eyeballs all over its body was conversing with a girl.

A girl with 4 starlights shining behind her back.

A goddess from another dimension.

Starlight of chaos.

The color of chaos that had escaped from the complete flow of stars, which shouldn’t have existed originally, was ominous yet brilliant, containing all colors. It was a color that seemed unfathomable to human perception, making one’s mind dizzy just by looking at it.

Two beings born from complete chaos.

“Yes, I see.”

“■■■■.”

“You suffered because of humans who brought unreasonable fate.”

“■■■■.”

“The star that should have been complete was suffering because of wounds.”

Yes.

I understand.

I’ll help you.

The Magical Girl of [Stars] held fragments of the three goddesses who tried to escape from the star, and while stroking the black dragon, left various pieces of advice.

The memory of the world that could have ended the human era.

The memory of destruction.

She whispered the appearance of that era when humans were most vulnerable and taught how to fight.

“They blaze like torches when rushed all at once, but if enveloped slowly like a gentle rain, they will fight each other and self-destruct.”

We just need to watch in eternity.

Because we are beings born from the complete star.

The girl’s whispers had a low yet chilling tone.

“If a salvation of fate that didn’t exist comes, a destruction of fate that didn’t exist will be needed.”

The girl with the fate of [Stars] came as a sudden despair for humanity.

She who cheered for the will of stars was the Magical Girl of [Despair] for humanity.