Chapter 25: This body, appearance

“Please… kill me…….”

—Drip.

Transparent tears flowed from her silver eyes.

Tsuki’s true feelings, which she had hidden behind a false smile just moments before, now poured out.

“So that’s how it was…”

“Le-Leon. Is that really true?”

Leon was known for disliking emotional approaches to urban legends.

However, even he,

“This is a first for an urban legend…”

Couldn’t ignore Tsuki, who was weeping and pleading to be killed.

‘It seems she can’t control the eclipse herself. That must be why she wants us to kill her.’

“Tsuki. You can’t stop this eclipse, can you?”

“Huh…? H-How did you know…?”

“My thoughts were correct. Ren, Tsuki can’t control this phenomenon. That’s why she’s asking us to kill her.”

“I already knew that much, Leon.”

“Then I have a question. It’s strange to ask now, but… the reason you caused this situation doesn’t seem to be merely wanting to meet her. What’s your exact purpose?”

Leon already had a confirmed answer regarding why Ren had done such a thing.

‘It’s probably because of Phantom…’

Whenever he heard that entity’s name, Ren especially couldn’t maintain his composure.

“Tsuki… there’s a way to save you.”

“Huh…? What do you mean…?”

“Phantom. That being might be able to.”

“Phan…tom?”

“I don’t know its exact identity, but it has a pitch-black appearance, eyes that seem to hold an abyss, and it’s always shrouded in darkness.”

Upon hearing that description, Tsuki felt a pang in her chest.

A sensation of having vaguely seen it in a distant memory.

A longing that felt like a flower petal carried by the wind, almost within reach, yet untouchable.

‘Why does it feel so familiar…?’

She was an urban legend who had lost many memories.

‘Is this feeling of longing just a delusion…?’

“Tsuki, I know I did something foolish. But no matter what… I couldn’t give you up… I’m sorry.”

“Ren…”

His gaze was incredibly warm.

Ren, who called her ‘Tsuki’ instead of an urban legend.

His red eyes were enough to make a tiny seed of hope sprout within her.

‘…Is there really a way for me to live as a human…?’

At that very moment—

[What a ridiculous farce.]

A dark, viscous voice echoed through the Underworld.

“Wh-What is it? Is it an urban legend’s rule?”

“No, it’s a little different. It has emotion. Urban legend rules aren’t like this.”

“Everyone, be careful! This is the Eclipse I told you about. The true urban legend that caused Tsuki to be like this, the one who presides over the eclipse, is this guy!”

Ren recognized the voice instantly.

A hateful tone, an arrogant voice that regarded humans as mere toys.

“Eclipse! Come out now. Are you cowardly hiding your form again?”

[May all be swallowed by the eclipse and die.]

[Eclipse’s Second Phase: Annular Eclipse has been completed.]

As the chilling Underworld message echoed through the air,

“Aaah… No…! Please…!”

Tsuki’s body began to tremble frantically.

Crimson-black energy covered her entire body.

“Please stop…! I-I don’t want to hurt anyone…!”

[Wouldn’t it be fair for you to experience the despair I suffered because of a small girl like you?]

‘Despair? What does that mean…?’

At the end of that question, Tsuki’s consciousness sank into the void.

****

—Crash!

Having lost consciousness, Tsuki became merely a puppet controlled by Eclipse, continuously attacking everyone.

“Damn it. I told you, Ren! Tsuki is just an urban legend!”

“Everyone, quiet down. This isn’t the time to argue about that.”

“But Leon…!”

“I’ll half-kill that red-eyed lunatic after this incident is over, so for now, focus on dodging the attacks.”

“Hmm… Ren suddenly seems pitiful…”

—Clang!

Ren was desperately fending off Tsuki’s attacks.

‘I absolutely can’t get hit. Even a slight graze will cause me to be gradually encroached upon by the black stain.’

“Leon, I’ll deflect all the attacks. So you… Tsuki…!”

“I know without you saying it.”

—Whoosh!

Leon enveloped his entire body in golden energy and charged towards the controlled Tsuki.

—Boom!

Leon’s strike was incomparably more powerful than before.

Its force instantly scattered the crimson-black energy covering Tsuki, but.

“…….”

“As expected, this isn’t enough, is it?”

It was insufficient to fully restore her.

“Let’s see how strong Eclipse’s power truly is.”

—Rumble!

Was it impossible for Tsuki to block his full-powered attack?

First her arms and legs, and then gradually her abdomen, she began to allow Leon’s attacks.

“Good. Leon is pushing her back.”

“As expected, he’s worthy of being the representative of Eternal Guardians… He’s on a different level from us.”

All the guild members predicted his victory.

However.

“Tch… Was the purpose not to allow attacks, but to make me continuously touch the energy?”

Leon’s hand was slowly being encroached upon by the crimson-black shadow.

Eclipse’s energy spread slowly, but surely, like the moon obscuring the sun.

“Ren, what’s the situation on your side?”

“Same here, Leon… It’s very subtle, but just a graze is causing encroachment.”

“…It seems we’ve fallen into Eclipse’s trap.”

Then, the final rule was announced, one that would plunge them further into despair.

[Eclipse’s Final Phase: Total Solar Eclipse begins.]

“Ev… everyone, run…! Quic… kly…!”

Tsuki’s silver eyes regained a blurry focus, but her body was still trembling like an aspen leaf.

The crimson-black shadow grew darker and darker, now beginning to spread to the surroundings.

“Please…! No…! No!!”

—Shwaaa!

“Ugh… My body won’t move…”

“Leon! We need to retreat right now—”

“It seems too late… I can’t even twitch a finger.”

Crimson-black tentacles extended from the shadows of Ren, Leon, and all the guild members, entangling them and preventing them from moving.

“Kyaaaah!!”

“Tsuki! What’s wrong?!”

“Again… My body, on its own…!”

Intense pain crushed Tsuki’s entire body.

A sensation as if an alien entity had entered her skin, seizing control of her body and mind.

Tsuki resisted desperately but couldn’t stop her hand from moving on its own.

“No…! Stop…! Please…!”

But her hand was already gripping the neck of an agent.

“Ugh… Ugh…!”

“No, don’t…!!!”

She struggled to resist, but the sensation transmitted through her fingertips was utterly despairing.

The human body slowly collapsing.

“S-Save me…”

—Fizzle!

The agent she was holding instantly turned into black ash and vanished.

“N-No! Stop it…!!! Just kill me! But why…!”

Tsuki screamed, clutching her hand as if to tear it apart, but it was useless.

Her hand simply reached out towards another victim.

“Am I… just a terrible urban legend after all…?”

Eclipse.

Its essence was to swallow light and plunge everything beneath it into darkness.

As long as she existed, light had to be extinguished, and humans had to disappear.

A cruel yet absolute law of the story.

‘From the beginning, I… was never meant to exist…’

She felt foolish for having held a moment of hope after hearing Ren’s words.

She wished she had never known.

‘God… why do you give me hope only to throw me back into despair…?’

Why.

Why, oh why.

Tsuki looked up at the sky with blurry eyes.

The red moon, as if to swallow everyone.

People being encroached upon by black ripples.

‘If only… I had died… because I’m alive…’

She wanted to commit suicide. She wanted to end her own life.

But Eclipse didn’t even allow that.

It merely bound her, as if to ensure she didn’t miss a single moment of the despair before her.

“Someone… please save everyone from this hell… Please…”

Even knowing it was a meaningless cry, she prayed to the moon until the very end.

But no one, nothing heard her earnest plea.

Precisely, not until about 5 seconds ago.

—Crackle!

At the moment she thought even her last remaining hope had extinguished,

—BOOM!!

With a sudden roar, the entire city shook, and a massive storm raged.

“Ugh, what is it? What on earth is happening?”

“Leon! Th-The sky…!”

The crimson-black Underworld sky that Eclipse had dominated—

Was splitting apart on both sides, as if a thin cloth was being pulled.

Perfect darkness flowed through the rift.

It was a pitch-black darkness, incomparable even to the darkness Eclipse had brought forth with the eclipse.

“Something is forcibly breaking through…”

“Eclipse’s Underworld… How?”

Then, a man’s silhouette appeared in the darkness.

“Th-That’s… could it be…?”

“The being shrouded in black energy… It’s definitely ‘him’…!

Hair like a dark sea.

Transparent, pure white skin.

Obsidian-like, pitch-black eyes.

An existence presumed to be a top-tier urban legend, capable of easily subduing even destruction-class entities—

Phantom.

The being with overwhelming energy finally revealed itself before them.

“Phantom… you mean… that person…?”

While everyone regarded the pitch-black man as Phantom, Tsuki knew.

‘That person’s name isn’t Phantom.’

Tsuki had lost countless memories, but how could she forget that person?

That person, who seemed so dark and cold but in truth possessed a warmer heart and gentleness than anyone else—

“Savior… Lu…cian-nim…”

****

And this man, Sihyun, who is in charge of (?) Phantom and the Savior, is currently…

‘Goddammit. This again?!’

He was busy cursing the situation he had been forcibly dragged into.

That’s right. The story, the world, was demanding it from him!

‘Please normalize the grimdark genre, please.’