Ch.183Chapter 183. A Noble End

The wind blows.

A cold and harsh wind blows more fiercely than before at the place where they thought the battle would end.

But they merely grieve.

It’s nothing more than mourning his end with the emotion of sorrow, sympathizing with the one they were bound to.

“Ah, uh. Ga. Ah…”

Yes, this battle is already over.

All he can do is exhale breaths that can’t even form screams, as his flesh burns from within with heat intense enough to evaporate the blood in his body.

But before his breath is completely cut off, there’s something that must be done first.

-Crack.

Francesca. The reason that made me, who could escape this place, come here.

The child who made me come because I couldn’t suppress the fluttering desire to see her again. A girl who simply wants to care for and love humans.

“Flan. Wake up, Flan!”

I melted and broke the ice that imprisoned such a child, and laid her body on the ground carefully to prevent damage.

But she’s not breathing. I can’t feel a pulse.

Could I be too late…? No, it’s just because she’s a doll.

She’ll surely be fine. If we can just escape from here, she’ll definitely be alright.

“Ka, huh, aah…!”

But as that hope was welling up, the monster began to writhe.

Feeling my breath catch, I gripped my spear shaft tightly and quickly turned to look at where the monster I had struck down earlier lay.

It’s trying to stand up. No, for now, it’s merely attempting to rise.

Using the cold to replace its depleted regenerative powers, substituting lost body parts.

“You stubborn bastard…”

You could just die comfortably there, why are you struggling so much?

Why are you making me point my spear at you again?

“No, don’t.”

As I try to aim my spear while swallowing such resentment, my body comes to a halt.

It didn’t take long to realize the cause.

That Flan’s fingers, whom I had briefly placed on the ground, were trying to grab my leg.

“Flan.”

“Don’t… do it…”

Starting with that, Flan painfully raised herself from her position and finally blocked my path.

A creaking sound accompanies each step she takes.

Some of her joints seem to have already lost their function, with certain parts even dangling.

“…Don’t kill him, please.”

In that pitiful state, she stood blocking the way to the monster that had imprisoned her in ice.

Though I don’t know why it did such a thing, she was now protecting the monster that had gone berserk and tried to destroy her…

“Please don’t kill Phobia Homer.”

“Don’t talk nonsense!!”

Is it because she just woke up and doesn’t understand the situation? Or is she consumed by old affection and guilt?

Whatever the reason, I can’t just stand by and watch that monster who has fallen from grace.

The fact that he can never return to his original state is something that she, who told me the identity of the monster, should know first.

“That thing is not the one we knew! If we don’t kill it now…”

“And then what?”

But I couldn’t ignore the question that cut off my outcry.

Because the face drawn on the head she was holding up clearly while blocking me looked more sorrowful than ever before.

“After killing Phobia, will anything… change?”

“…Flan.”

“No matter where we go… it’s the same, isn’t it?”

Tears flowing from her eyes freeze in the cold and are eventually blown away by the snowstorm.

As if this world doesn’t even permit sobbing.

“Everyone suffers, everyone is in pain… No matter what we do, we can’t overturn such a world… because this world is hopelessly broken.”

We were outcasts in such a desperate world.

We knew all too well that the hole that could lead us out might lead to another despair.

“Even in such a world, I want there to be hope.”

What kind of salvation is granted to those who have been broken by such a world?

“That even people who have fallen into despair… can rise again. That if they endure, surely good things will come…”

The girl who couldn’t become a savior was now directly conveying to me her will to seek such salvation.

“…I want to fall asleep dreaming such dreams.”

Forgetting the miserable reality and burying oneself in illusions to find peace.

Turning away from the cruel truth and pursuing false happiness.

“I want to believe… that even someone as broken as this… can return to being human… I want to fall asleep believing that.”

“Don’t talk nonsense!”

I understand how she feels.

I too have always had experiences where I wanted to turn away from reality and escape in such ways.

“You know better than anyone that once someone becomes like that, they can never come back. You were the one who taught me that!”

But it must be done.

Letting this child choose to fall into dreams is essentially no different from facing death.

“Still, I don’t want to anymore.”

Yet, as if ignoring my persuasion, the girl finally turns her gaze away from me.

But even with her head bowed, her sobbing escapes.

“I just… don’t want this anymore.”

“Flan!”

“If that’s not possible, then please kill me here too.”

And her outstretched hand reaches for the spear in my hand.

She began to exert force, trying to bring the tip of the spear to herself.

“I don’t want… to fight you…”

Her hand now has no strength at all.

A body that could collapse at any moment, and even if she escapes from here, it’s doubtful whether she can recover as before.

“I don’t want to hurt you… who provided me a comfortable place to stay.”

Despite being so broken, she couldn’t shake off her mission.

For the sake of her mission to live for humanity as humanity’s guardian, she was even prepared to fight me to pursue her mission of annihilating all beings that threaten humanity.

“So please…”

Is that why she came here?

Despite her mission to save the empire, did she end up in this pitiful state because she didn’t want to contend with me, even going against prophecy on a whim?

“Just kill me here…”

What should I do in front of such a pitiful girl?

In this moment when the child I long for refuses to be with me and wishes for her own death in resistance to a cruel fate.

What words should I use to give hope to this child and persuade her to live together in this cruel world?

-Crack.

At that moment, the monster, having somewhat restored its lost parts by freezing its body, raised itself and began to look down at Flan and me.

Thud, thud. The monster narrows the distance towards Flan and me, one step at a time.

“Phobia, sir…”

Unlike me, who sensed danger from him, Flan was sobbing towards him, expressing her despair.

“No, don’t. Don’t do this.”

Unlike me, who was preparing to throw the spear.

She tried to appeal to him, whom she believed had lost his humanity.

“Please, this kind of thing…”

She hopes that before the moment of eternal rest comes, there exists at least one ray of hope in this world.

“…for me.”

Just as I was about to throw the spear, ignoring that futile wish, I stopped my action when I heard a voice escaping from his opening mouth.

What did that guy just say?

“For me… you are crying… for me.”

Yes, he spoke.

That monster who had been rampaging until now has started to speak human words in front of us at this moment.

“…Phobia.”

“Yes, you… have always been by my side.”

He spoke in front of the girl who noticed this.

“Like starlight in the night… in the pitch-black darkness, only you watched over me, preventing me from falling apart…”

I don’t know in what sense he’s saying such words to Flan.

I don’t understand how a monster like him can utter such rational words.

But I’m certain of one thing.

The reason the snowstorm blowing at this moment has weakened is because the madness tormenting him has subsided.

“…Hyoseong Woo.”

And using that regained rationality, he turns his gaze to me.

He speaks my name, which I had introduced to him sometime before.

“Is that your name?”

“Are you back to your senses?”

“I don’t know. My mind is still a mess, but only your name comes to mind.”

In front of me asking with a hopeful expectation, he coolly shook his head and answered.

“Someday I would meet you as an enemy… whether that’s now, I don’t know.”

“…Phobia.”

“The one I serve is crying behind me, and my enemy stands before me.”

Phobia Homer quietly looking down at me.

His body trembles as if madness might surge, yet the gaze with which he regards me is utterly calm.

“Do you know what that means?”

Barely recalling the memory that someday we would meet as enemies.

As if teaching me that he created the current situation through a sense of duty to protect the girl sobbing behind him, for reasons unknown.

“…Yes.”

Perhaps it’s only natural.

Whether he’s found his rationality or fallen into fantasy, it’s only temporary.

-Slide.

I aimed the spear in my hand at his head, took a deep breath, and gathered my strength.

What needs to be done is no different from before.

Defeat him, take the girl I’m protecting, and escape from here.

“…Hyoseong Woo.”

Around Phobia, who had accepted such a fate, a cold wind began to blow quietly.

New flesh made of ice begins to sprout on areas that were seared with heat intense enough to evaporate flowing blood.

That flesh soon changes to leather, and beyond that, transforms into a form like armor, covering his damaged body like protective gear…

“I ask you, who has become my enemy.”

Thus, appearing like a knight, he quietly posed a question to me.

“What do I look like to you now?”

A question with a definite answer.

Such an obvious question.

*****

It was truly a fleeting life.

In an era where even the framework of society had collapsed, and ethics and morality held no value, a boy’s life was destined to merely follow the flow and die.

So the outstretched hand of goodwill must have seemed like salvation.

Thus, the boy served the god followed by those who saved him, and with that name engraved in his heart, he grew up and entered the path of knighthood.

Repeating prayers to overcome hardships, to overcome crises, to commemorate victims…

But the knight who couldn’t overcome what he considered trials eventually sought power, and in the end, took an unjust path, abandoning his human body and being banished from society.

It couldn’t be helped. Even he would have done the same.

The beast who encouraged those around him while consoling himself in this way eventually met eyes with another beast in the same situation and came to share love.

Yes, even beasts can have love. Even though he had strayed from the human path, the emotion of love was still permitted to him.

Faithful to that love, he unconsciously continued to pray to his old god who could no longer save him.

Even when he pursued a happy life with his family in a village built in the forest, even when that foundation was burned by the hands of demons from the outside world and his beloved wife and daughter were found in a miserable state.

Even as the subsequent generations of his kind, who had progressed radically since then, awakened hatred towards humanity, and unable to go against that flow, he reluctantly turned against his old homeland…

Even in the process of following such a flow, he always nurtured his love for the god he served and found comfort from it.

Even if not loved, because he could love.

Believing that at least that would be permitted even to himself, who had fallen from beast to monster…

“Hyoseong Woo.”

At this moment, at the end of such a life, finally facing his god.

The monster, realizing that she still loves him, faithful to the pounding in his chest, posed a question to his arch-enemy.

“I ask you, who has become my enemy.”

Even he isn’t certain.

He’s just desperately resisting by grasping the rope he barely found, as he still feels pain and his mind is a mess.

“What do I look like to you now?”

So everything he’s achieving now might just be a pretense.

The words coming from his mouth, his current actions, and even the armor surrounding him borrowed from old memories.

All of it might be without weight, just elaborately fabricated and meaningless.

“…Human.”

Nevertheless, the arch-enemy before him said.

Conveying his sincerity through spirits, teaching him that there was no falsehood in those words.

“You are human. Like me.”

Yes, it’s certainly not a pretense.

Despite the misery, after going through all of that, he is permitted to stand here as ‘a human being’.

“Then come at me, warrior!”

His mouth opened as he realized this, and soon a battle cry erupted.

“Today, I will risk my life to protect my god on this land! I will live the end of this life as a human!!”

Wails soaked in grief eventually turned into battle cries.

The armor that was merely a pretense now becomes a warrior’s gear and begins to charge towards him.

“For Lady Friga!”

The man facing the warrior preparing for his final holy war finally swallowed his resentment and thrust the spear in his hand.

The forelegs replaced by ice melt uselessly in the heat, and the sharply honed blade eventually digs into the vital point…

Trying to end the pain by piercing his windpipe.

-Thrust!

That is the end faced by a human born into this cruel world, at the end of a miserable life.

But his final moments were surely noble.