Ch.150Chapter 150. Final Chapter (5)_Age of Destiny

“I can see Lin!”

“You did it!”

Ravin, who had been straining his eyes while watching ahead, shouted as he spotted Lin, and Arsil rejoiced as well.

“Thank goodness…”

Tigria, who had lost her left leg, leaned against Arsil and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Lin!”

Realizing that her vessel had escaped from her body, Rinasien quickly withdrew all the magi from Lin’s flight path.

She had no choice but to protect him, as he had absorbed all the magi and returned to being human.

“That damn hero bitch pulled something!”

It had happened while she was frozen in pain from having her abdomen torn by Hnoni’s power.

“After all I went through to have you… I can’t lose you so meaninglessly!”

Rinasien screamed, stretching her hand toward Lin.

“I’ll go save him!”

As the shadow of the giant hand covered Lin, Ravin prepared to leap without hesitation.

[No. You have all done everything you could.]

The Goddess stopped the thief and continued gently.

[We are all sinners against one person—Lin. To save him, each of us has given our all and done our best.]

Despite her gentle tone, the Goddess roughly struck away Rinasien’s hand.

After bringing Lin, who had escaped, into the range of her divine power to protect him, the Goddess apologized to him.

[I’m sorry, Lin. Because of my inadequacy, I’ve caused you too many trials and sorrows. I’ve ruined this world.]

“Goddess… Lucy…!”

[The hero chose to save you and leave of her own will.]

“Please save Lucy!”

[It’s too late. She has already…]

As the Goddess shook her head, Lin froze in despair.

“After all my efforts to protect her…”

Naidrian had died.

He had gone to save him from Rainford and the Demon God’s attack without even asking for forgiveness.

Lucy had died.

After rescuing him from Rinasien, she too had died quietly, asking not for forgiveness but for him to be happy.

Filled with anger, Lin confronted the Goddess.

“Is this right? That we who dedicated ourselves to you and the world should die like this!”

[It is not right at all.]

The Goddess kept her eyes fixed on Rinasien.

Chaos wrapped her hands around the area where the Goddess had struck her and raised her magi.

But when the Goddess extended her hand and clenched her fist, divine power seized and bound Rinasien.

At the same time, the law of causality began to strongly constrict the Goddess’s power.

[No one can stop me!]

The Goddess applied more force but absolutely refused to let go.

[I will no longer stand by and watch.]

The Goddess, who had always obeyed causality, began to release all her power to correct her mistakes.

CRACK!

The sound of something—chains or ropes, it was impossible to tell—being torn from invisible space echoed.

[I will now do what I should have done as a Goddess long ago!]

Brilliant light swept away the gray magi that had been covering the world.

The light was dazzling but not painful.

But the Goddess standing at its center no longer wore a benevolent smile.

[Humanity, hear me! Despite seeing records of my punishment during the era of the Second Hero, you did not repent and repeated your crimes!]

No one could help but tremble at the Goddess’s thundering voice.

Even Lin knelt down, unable to raise his head.

[Your sins have bound us and this world to such an extent that I, Justini, firmly declare the second purification.]

Everyone was shocked.

Why now? At this moment…?

[However, I will give you one last chance. To you who have gathered here and newly realized your sins against Lin, I give this opportunity.]

The Goddess raised her finger, pointing beyond the island.

[Go, and no matter what happens, do not look back. Those who turn back will become subjects of purification.]

[Justini!!! How dare you purify the world! This world! It’s the gift I prepared for Lin!]

The gray magi swirled around Rinasien.

Chaos grew larger and larger until she towered even over the Goddess.

[Go.]

When the Goddess stomped her foot, divine power spread along the path of escape from the island.

[I said I would not use water again, so this time it will be fire.]

That was the end.

Those were the Goddess’s final words to humanity.

Having released herself from the restraint of causality, the Goddess flew in the opposite direction from humanity.

Straight toward the belly of the enlarged Rinasien.

[Where do you think you’re going!]

Rinasien tried to block her somehow, but she couldn’t land a single hit on the Goddess who had released her power by defying causality.

[Foolish one, do you not know why Angria tried so hard to avoid my gaze?]

The Goddess tore open Rinasien’s belly with her bare hands and leaped into her womb.

[AAAAAAHHHHH-!!! LIN!!!!]

A grotesquely distorted scream.

At that scream, half of the refugees following the divine power path turned back.

“Ugh…!”

“Ah!”

Those who ignored the Goddess’s warning and looked back froze in place.

No matter how hard they tried to move, they couldn’t budge an inch, as if nailed to the spot.

“Why did you…”

Even those who tried to check on the people who had already frozen and weren’t following anymore accidentally looked back and froze.

[Lin-!!!! Please come back!!! You loved me! You loved me! You can’t live without me!]

Airan’s group and the hero’s party trembled at the desperate screams but steadily moved forward.

Airan’s Lowellina forces ran ahead to secure the path, while Ravin urged Arsil on, and Lin encouraged Tigria as they slowly followed the path of divine power.

[Aaaaaaah! Lin… I was wrong! I should have only looked at you! I should have lived only for you! Please! Please please please please please please pleeeease-!!!!!]

Rinasien shed tears that had turned gray, begging Lin over and over.

But all she could see was his back, drenched in sweat.

[Kuh… Kak!]

Cracks began to form on Rinasien’s body.

The Goddess’s light was leaking through those cracks.

[Justini! If you do this, you won’t survive either! We’ll both die!]

[Gladly.]

At the Goddess’s calm response, Rinasien finally felt the fear of death.

[No… No! How could I have come this far only to end like this! Lin…! Please look at me just once… Lin… I was wrong… Please just once…!]

Unable to bear listening anymore, Lin quietly spoke while looking ahead.

“Lucy said she wanted me to be happy, not herself. Rina, you’re thinking only of yourself until the end. That’s exactly why I will never forgive you.”

Though quiet, that resolute answer clearly reached Rinasien.

At those words denying her, Chaos completely lost her mind.

[Heh… hehehe….]

Rinasien laughed blankly.

[Finally, you called me Rina….]

BOOOOOOOM-!!!!!

A thunderous roar shook heaven and earth.

Rinasien’s body, unable to withstand the Goddess’s power, burst apart, causing an explosion unprecedented in history.

“Hiiieek, what is that…!”

The explosion was so tremendous that not only the survivors from the island but also most of the Lowellina forces turned their heads.

They froze standing upright, watching the shockwave of the explosion approaching them.

“Ah…!”

As the ground shook from the massive explosion, Airan fell.

“Ugh…!”

She tried to stand, but her sprained ankle had swollen instantly, making it difficult to move.

“Go…!”

The general was about to call her husband but stopped.

If she called him here, he might look back and freeze.

Many soldiers had already frozen around her.

Airan quietly closed her mouth.

Her body, exhausted from witnessing such an enormous battle, wouldn’t obey her.

Airan gazed wistfully at her husband’s back.

A sinful life, ending here.

Just as she was preparing for the end,

GRAB

“Don’t give up, General!”

“Biscon?!”

The vice-commander turned back and grabbed her hand.

“If you turn around…!”

“I am a sinner and deserve punishment, but you and your husband are not. Please survive and lead the remaining humanity in the right direction.”

Surprisingly, Biscon took Airan’s hand, walked a few steps, and guided her to Garin, pushing down on the back of his head.

“Don’t look back! Take the general and go all the way to the end!”

“Vice-Commander!”

“No.”

Biscon stopped walking at Garin’s anguished cry.

“I am not a vice-commander but a sinner.”

As he released Airan’s hand and Garin’s head, Biscon quickly began to freeze.

Thus, Biscon became the only one in the punished city of Kaulan to freeze while facing forward.

In the end, only the hero’s party, Airan, and Garin safely escaped from the island of Kaulan.

BOOM!

As soon as they escaped, a massive pillar of fire rose and burned the entire island.

The flames continued to move and burn for days on end.

The fire consumed not only sinners but also the magi and impure things throughout the world.

Finally, the purifying fire sent directly by the Goddess disappeared cleanly after burning everything except Lowellina and the lands of the old religious state.

This meant that both the Demon God and eventually the Goddess herself had vanished from the world.

“The crimes committed three times became the firewood that burned us.”

Airan lamented over the world that had turned to ashes.

Garin embraced her as she couldn’t even shed tears.

Her slightly trembling shoulders were so small and delicate.

“Is it over?”

Lin couldn’t hide his emptiness.

“And a new beginning.”

Ravin embraced him, trying to comfort that emptiness.

Lin silently buried his face in his embrace.

Arsil and Tigria watched the scene painfully from a distance.

Thus, with the fall of the Empire, the era of the two gods of good and evil—the Goddess and the Demon God—came to an end, and the era of Fate, governing past, present, and future, began.