episode_0041

Along with countless pitch-black spheres and black spots appearing from all directions.

This was no longer happening through Aria’s Black Sword. It was happening at the very edge of what her two eyes could see.

A ravenous star that devoured the world just by looking. At the same time, a star’s mark was etched onto Aria’s dark, black retina.

“Stop, Aria.”

The moment Aria, with the pitch-black stars etched into her eyes, was about to swallow the entire world into her gaze, I spoke.

Along with that, the black spots that had spread across the area suddenly vanished.

“……Why?” Aria asked, turning her head towards me.

Her two eyes, bearing the etched pitch-black stars, looked this way, shining with a star-shaped brilliance, also known as asterism or starburst.

“Did I permit you to act as you please?”

“……”

“Remember your place.”

I said briefly, as if there would be no more discussion, because I didn’t want to hear any more words or explanations.

“It’s an order.”

“……Understood, Captain-nim.” Only then did Aria reply in a cold voice.

At the same time, she turned her head. Towards the being before her who proclaimed herself the ‘Goddess of Victory’.

I had come all this way to find an answer. For the answer that this place, called the ‘Heroes’ Tomb’, would provide.

At the same time, the scenery stretching behind the Goddess twisted again. Into the form of a moldy stone chamber.

Before long, we were in a stone chamber whose entire room was as intricate and elaborate as an ancient ruin, densely packed with reliefs and diagrams whose meaning was unknown. Soon, I realized the meaning of that place.

It was a tomb.

The tomb of heroes I had sought so desperately, the Mausoleum. And along that tomb, countless remains lay in stone coffins, lined up endlessly.

The countless heroes sleeping in the Mausoleum.

At the same time, I realized that the heroes sleeping there looked incredibly familiar. It couldn’t be helped. Every single one of them was a character I had raised myself.

“……”

, which I had personally created, played, and raised. All nineteen heroes filling that place were like that.

The characters I had raised while playing the game ‘Heroic Century’ beyond the monitor, were there, bearing the names of heroes. In the place called the Heroes’ Tomb.

Their appearance, the form of their armor and weapons, even their accessories—not a single detail was different. It was exactly the equipment setup I had given them in the game.

Only then did I finally realize that this place was—the where characters were created or waited in the Heroic Century series across generations. Literally, this was a game lobby.

Even if the number of titles was different, this was where all the ‘heroes from previous titles’ I had created and journeyed with beyond the monitor were gathered and slumbering. A place where forgotten heroes waited silently for someone to call them to action. That was the true nature of the Heroes’ Tomb, the Mausoleum.

Why were the characters I had raised—and not just anyone, but specifically the characters from previous titles I had raised—here as ‘heroes’?

“This is the Heroes’ Tomb.” The Goddess of Victory said from among the sleeping heroes.

“Those who answer humanity’s wishes when the world faces crisis, and sacrifice their entire lives for humanity.”

In a calm, almost sad and pitiful voice. “They are puppets of fate, unable to decide anything by their own will.”

The Goddess of Victory said. “Yet, thanks to their actions and sacrifices, this world is still protected.”

“……”

“That is how we protect this world.”

I didn’t answer.

A world where heroes were born whenever a threat arose, and were protected by those heroes. That was this world’s system.

And the heroes born like that never moved by their own will. Moreover, the word ‘puppet’ didn’t need to be interpreted grandly. The heroes there hadn’t moved by their own will from the beginning.

I moved them. Or someone other than me. They were moved by the hands playing the game beyond the monitor. Not by the heroes’ own will.

Even deciding their appearance and gender was no exception. What to wear, what to eat, what to fight, how to spend their day—all of it had been decided by the ‘player’ outside the monitor. Not by the heroes themselves.

At the same time, it was just a game. It *should* have been.

“Rain Grey—. All the evil in this world, and the 《Enemy of the World》.” The Goddess of Victory there said, speaking my name.

“Do you still wish for this world’s destruction? Did you come all this way, directly with your own two feet, for that purpose?” Before long, the Goddess spoke with a voice imbued with cold hostility.

“As this world’s , I cannot allow that.”

“……”

“I will not let this world I love be destroyed according to your will and the will of the 《Black Serpent》.”

The Goddess’s voice, more kindly than anyone, was telling me my purpose. “Sir Rain, your goal of destroying the world will not be achieved.”

The very thing I had so desperately wanted to know, the answer I had so anxiously sought to grasp. “Because I won’t allow it.”

Rain Grey and the 《Black Serpent》’s goal. Moreover, that goal was utterly absurd, outrageous, and truly villainous.

No, calling it ‘villainous’ was an understatement. It was so anachronistic and preposterous that it wouldn’t even be used nowadays. World destruction.

‘World destruction?’

Words that didn’t even evoke a hollow laugh.

Aria, beside me, was neither surprised nor flustered. As if she had known from the beginning. In a voice that implied nothing was new.

“To this world……” Just then, I asked back.

“Do you think it has such value?”

My voice spilled out inadvertently, just like that time. Without my knowing. As if, independent of my will, I was tracing the braille etched deep within my consciousness and unconsciously sounding it out.

After speaking, I fell silent due to a faint sense of unease. A cold, emotionless baritone that didn’t feel like my own. It was as if it were the voice of ‘Rain Grey’ slumbering within me.

“That is not something you or I can decide. No one has the right to.” The Goddess replied.

“Neither I, nor you, nor the 《Black Serpent》, nor any of the heroes here have the right to unilaterally decide the world’s existence or destruction.”

“……” I didn’t answer. My mind was simply cluttered. Why were the characters I raised there, exactly? Was Rain Grey’s ‘world destruction’ truly meant literally? More than that, what physical means could possibly destroy a world? And what was the reason for wanting to destroy the world in the first place? At this rate, the 《Black Serpent》 wasn’t just a villain, but literally nothing less than the 《Enemy of the World》. The most extreme form of evil, a madness indistinguishable from conviction. Perhaps it was she, standing against us, who was doing what was righteous and right? I fell silent. In the place where I believed there would be an answer, there was only a tangled ball of yarn, forming new knots, impossible to even begin to untangle.

“……So, what will you do?”

“As always, we will do the same thing.” The Goddess of Victory replied.

“That is, the who willingly sacrificed their life for this world’s victory, just as they have always done.”

The work of a hero. The work of saving the world. And just as she said, in front of Rain Grey and the 《Black Serpent》 who sought to destroy the world, their mission was set.

“Oh, come to think of it, did I tell you about the definition of a hero?” The Goddess of Victory said, twisting her lips and chuckling as if amused.

“A hero, is.”

Before long, the stone coffins began to move. The nineteen heroes who should have been sleeping within the stone coffins were successively rising.

“Someone who repeats, the very same thing.”

There were 19 heroes, aligning with the numbering of the Heroic Century series I had played so far. However, there were only 18 heroes I had raised there. The number was one short.

‘Not 19.’

18. One hero’s slot, for one title, was empty. Where did the remaining one go?

However, with different equipment in each series and graphics that improved by leaps and bounds with technological advancement, the altered appearances of the heroes made it difficult to even recall their order. Especially since the graphics from the very first series, played in the 199X era, barely managed to take human form.

Yet, that wasn’t enough to make a big difference. Because the army of heroes I had raised was already revealing their hostility towards us.

And facing the army of heroes determined to eradicate evil—.

*Crack!* The empty air ripped open. From behind. Like constellations adorning the night sky radiating a unique brilliance, a just large enough for one person appeared beyond the constellations. Right beyond that domain, they revealed themselves.

“We’ve been waiting, Captain!!” The utterly heinous villainous group, conspiring with me to destroy the world.