Chapter 121: Title (5)

Rustle.

The small elf, curled up like a shrimp in her sleep, slowly raised herself.

She looked around with a blank face for a moment, her two pointed ears drooping low.

“So… it wasn’t a dream.”

As she woke, the reality of her situation closed in on her.

She had returned to a place of darkness where no one could reach her, where no one would come to her aid.

Clench.

Aura tightened her fist.

“…No.”

‘I am the protector of the elves. A master of spirit magic. Even the Regents and the Queen herself rely on me—there’s no way I’m letting this darkness defeat me.’

Slowly, Aura rose to her feet.

It was disgraceful behavior for an elf warrior with as much experience as her.

“Hmph, h-hmph.”

Luckily, with the broadcast cut off, no one had seen her disgrace.

“This great Laura feels no fear!”

Recalling her composed self from her broadcasting days, she managed to drive away the fear.

“Even if this is a prison of darkness, it’s all part of the world the GM created. The answer has to be somewhere.”

Aura took a step in one direction.

In the abyss of darkness where no light reached, she had no sense of direction.

It had been so long since she entered this place that she couldn’t even tell if she had come from above or below.

‘But even so, that’s all there is to it.’

Every world the GM created had spatial limits.

She didn’t know what this prison entailed, but if she kept moving forward, she’d eventually reach the edge.

She would tear through that boundary and escape.

With the thought that there might be a way out of this situation, Aura felt a little more at ease.

There’s no way this prison could trap someone like the great Laura. She would escape soon enough!

She walked ten miles.

Then a hundred miles.

Then a hundred thousand miles.

It was at this point that Aura became certain: her plan was flawed.

Without any means to track time, she couldn’t be precise, but she was sure she had traversed a distance greater than the width of a continent.

Yet, throughout this ordeal, she had not once felt sleepy, hungry, or thirsty.

Even with the most conservative estimate, several months should have passed by now.

‘…What in the world is happening to me?’

Laura struggled to keep herself conscious, clinging to her sanity, but she was nearing her limit.

There was no way out of this prison.

No matter how much time passed, she couldn’t sleep, eat, or drink.

Those needs didn’t even exist here, so she couldn’t die.

It was as if someone had designed the most horrific prison to make her endure eternal suffering.

“No…”

A terrible thought crossed Aura’s mind.

If she didn’t experience bodily functions, if she didn’t need sleep, food, or water…

Does that mean she wouldn’t age?

Elves generally didn’t show signs of aging. 

That’s why, despite her elder age, she appeared youthful. 

However, after a thousand years, her lifespan would typically end naturally.

But considering what she had endured in this space, she doubted she would even die a natural death here.

‘Eternally… suffering in this darkness?’

She would live alone in this horrifying, fearsome world, forever.

“No, no!”

Dying would be better.

To live forever in this hell?

“No!”

Tears of terror began to fill her eyes.

“Let me out!”

Was this all the GM’s doing?

What had she done to deserve this?

She had never defied the GM, never blasphemed the divine!

“Let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out…”

After walking for over a year, the mask she had worn to help her avoid facing reality finally shattered, and her eyes were engulfed in madness.

There was no hope left.

Two years since the noclip phenomenon trapped her in this unknown world.

Aura lay there, half-accepting the reality.

She had thought about it tirelessly for a year.

Why had she been condemned to this?

Did the GM truly wish to punish her?

How could she earn the GM’s forgiveness?

The cause of her pitiful state had now become the punishment of the GM within her.

Her last remaining hope was that the GM would take her out of this place.

She thought and thought again about how to quell the GM’s wrath.

She wanted to abandon thought altogether and let her mind dissolve.

She wanted to escape this torment, even if it meant going mad.

But there was too much to lose.

All the fans waiting outside, expecting her to return and tell them she was alright.

She lay for a year, doing nothing, pondering a way out.

But no solution came to her.

How could she calm the GM’s anger when she had done nothing wrong?

“What did I do wrong?!”

She had called out to the GM countless times.

Begging him to end this pain.

To set her free.

Yet, no answer ever returned.

Ten years passed.

Giving up on any response from the GM, Aura abandoned her attempts at communication.

And she thought of a new solution.

The reason she couldn’t escape now was because she didn’t have the strength.

Born with an unmatched affinity for spirits, Aura had never needed any means other than the spirits.

Why struggle to master other powers when she could simply ask the spirits to do it better?

She had neglected all else, but now, with her connection to the spirits severed, this was her last hope.

One hundred years had passed.

“It’s done! The eighth circle!”

Aura cheered, feeling the presence of the eighth ring within her.

—Oh! Impressive, Aura!

“Heh. Keep praising me.”

Hearing the GM’s voice nearby, Aura sniffled with a small smile.

—Can you leave here now?

・・・Sorry, Aura.

“Why are you apologizing, GM? It’s because I was incapable.”

No one had helped her, yet Aura had trained alone, reaching the status of a grand mage.

If the outside world had seen this through a broadcast, her accomplishments would have shocked the continent.

But an additional issue had arisen along the way.

—I couldn’t set the world right and couldn’t save Aura.

“Don’t worry about it. I know it wasn’t intentional.”

Aura’s mind, on the verge of madness, had created a hallucination.

A secret friend only she could see, born from the depths of her mind—GM.

…I’ll definitely save you, Aura.

“Hehe… I’ll be waiting, my GM.”

Falling deeper into this world, she could think of nothing but GM.

Her mind was filled with him, eventually conjuring his illusion.

At first, she had grabbed him by the collar, demanding to be freed, but all he did was apologize repeatedly.

In her vision, a sinister god from another dimension had kidnapped Aura, and GM was struggling to find her but hadn’t succeeded yet.

If Albus had heard, he would’ve scoffed at such an absurd tale conjured by Aura.

After two years, the idea formed in her mind that maybe the GM wasn’t against her but was trying to save her.

Thus, a story unfolded unconsciously, where she ended up in her current state because of his inability to rescue her.

She had never actually met GM or known him well, so every detail was shaped by her imagination.

His face, personality, body—everything, made just to her taste.

An ideal god conversed with her, and eventually, Aura fell in love with GM.

“But I will reach the ninth circle. I’ll leave this place and meet GM.”

—Aura.

“And when we meet…just the two of us…can we do all the things we couldn’t before?”

Blushing, Aura twiddled her fingers.

GM chuckled as he watched her.

Clink.

The space where GM—or the hallucination she believed was GM—had been shattered.

It fractured like glass, letting out a sacred light.

“No… it can’t be.”

Aura knew what this light was, even though she had never seen it before.

—Aura.

A light she had only witnessed in her imagination, a light she had longed to see.

—My young lamb, do not fear.

The GM’s power reached her.

—I am the GM.