Ch.232Warmth in Despair

This can’t be happening.

It’s impossible.

This should never happen.

‘Clop clop clop…’

As the sound of Durahan’s hoofbeats echoed around me, I collapsed in front of Seti’s severed head on the ground, silently screaming.

‘This can’t be happening…’

Even massive Mountain Trolls, and even the more gigantic Tyrant Worms couldn’t leave a single scratch on Seti’s body.

The Demon Rose with its swarm of bees, the Berserker Minotaur, the Dark Elf who ambushed from the shadows, and even the “Demon King” Royce Reich.

Except for the Lich of Mount Evernight who had landed a lightning spell, no one could defeat Seti—they couldn’t even land an effective hit.

For such a Seti to die with her neck severed by Durahan’s single strike.

How could such an absurd thing be reality?

‘Slash!’

“!!”

Again, that sound.

The sound of someone’s something being cut.

Behind me, as I sat helplessly shedding tears, another round, heavy object rolled and touched my back.

I don’t want to look back. I don’t want to, but I already know whose head it is.

The only person standing behind me was Phyllis.

Having finally rescued my sister whom I’d dreamed of saving, with only the task of returning her to an elf remaining…

I don’t have the courage to look at Phyllis’s head rolling miserably on the ground.

Huh?

Could it be Durahan this time?

Although not as strong as Seti, couldn’t she, who can handle close combat with her Bayonet Phantasm, possibly defeat Durahan?

Of course, that might be possible.

‘Clop’

If only I could explain the existence of those hoofbeats that still echo after the second victim’s neck has fallen.

‘Ah… what should I do now?’

I mutter this in my heart, but the answer is already clear.

Before a third victim appears, I must defeat Durahan by any means necessary.

It’s right to at least save the lives of the two who are still alive.

‘Clop clop’

But why?

Contrary to the thought that I should save Jessica and Mina, my limbs won’t move.

The sorrow and despair of losing Seti and Phyllis feels like cement weighing down my entire body.

‘Clop clop clop…’

I feel a gaze.

Durahan’s gaze mocking my despair, from somewhere.

The face of an old man with terrifying eyes and a distorted smile fills my mind.

He whispers that he will bestow despair upon me once more.

‘I have to get up…!’

Despite gritting my teeth and trying to force strength into my body, my limbs won’t budge.

It doesn’t have to be the revolver in my right hand.

If I could at least draw Wolvesbane with my left hand, I could protect the remaining two from Durahan’s sword…

‘Slash!’

I couldn’t protect them.

Unconsciously looking to the left where Jessica and Mina were standing…

I clearly recognized, as if in slow motion, Jessica’s red-haired head flying and rolling on the ground.

“Aah…!”

Inescapable despair.

There’s no other way to express it.

Jessica, Seti, Mina, Phyllis.

Though all were equally precious lovers, Jessica, the first woman I fell for, was still a little more special.

The shock of her death is likewise.

‘Clop’

I know that Durahan’s continuing hoofbeats will now take Mina’s life.

I can’t lose everyone—I burn with determination to save at least Mina, who remains last.

But on the scale in my heart, the despair of having lost too much outweighs the fighting spirit.

That’s why my body still won’t move.

‘This can’t be happening…’

I must get up.

I must protect Mina from Durahan’s blade.

If I give up on Mina while crushed by despair, even if I miraculously survive, I will never forgive myself.

But… could I forgive myself if I save Mina?

After failing to protect Seti, who devoted everything while looking only at me,

Phyllis, who had finally reached for her desperate wish,

And even Jessica, who had been with me from the beginning of my new life in Grantis…

Is saving only Mina enough to forgive myself?

No.

I already cannot forgive myself.

I’ve long crossed the final line I should have protected.

As long as I recognize this, no matter how much I want to protect Mina, my body won’t move.

‘My eyelids are heavy…’

All light in the world disappears, and all sound too.

Now there is truly nothing I can do.

I will lose my last lover to Durahan, and in endless despair, my head will be the last to fall.

William J. Kim’s second life ends here…

‘Wake up!’

…Just before taking the final step at the edge of despair, I heard the voice of someone precious.

With that, a slight sensation returns to my body.

I feel warm energy seeping in from the ground where I sit.

Strangely, that energy resembled someone I knew.

‘…Mina?’

It’s a strange experience.

To feel Mina’s presence from the warmth of the ground.

It feels as if I’m not sitting on the ground, but holding Mina in my arms.

Gently opening my eyes to that familiar and lovely warmth, I was still sitting on the ground.

I can see geometric patterns crossing the dirt floor of the castle courtyard, where not a single blade of grass grows.

‘This is…!’

Ah… so that’s what it was.

I’m glad I opened my eyes one last time.

After all, these patterns adorning the floor… were part of the Fragment of Omniscience’s magic circle.

“Everyone, wake up! Don’t succumb to Durahan’s illusion!”

Jessica’s clear voice awakens my consciousness and body.

Now, it’s time to wake from this long nightmare.

‘BANG!!’

A dazzling white star cutting through the fog.

I didn’t aim at anything specific, nor did I fire because I saw something.

The starlight shot from the muzzle transcends the magically isolated space, flying toward the source of the fog and despair that dominates this place.

I don’t think it might miss.

As long as the trace of Durahan who ravaged my heart with despair remains clear—

“…Checkmate.”

—the target {Durahan} will always be in front of my silver muzzle.

“Will!”

“Jessica! Seti! Mina! Phyllis!!”

As the whitish fog that filled the castle disappeared, we could see each other again.

Jessica holding Mina’s hand while deploying the Fragment of Omniscience, and Seti and Phyllis keeping their positions with tear-stained faces.

I too forcibly hold back tears that seem about to burst forth.

“I have a lot to say, but we should handle the urgent matter first, right?”

As I say this, swallowing my grief, my four lovers nod.

Where our gazes are directed, Durahan writhes in pain atop his ghost horse.

But the head he held in his left hand has been thrown to the ground with a large bullet hole between the eyes.

Ah… indeed, Durahan’s head looks best rolling on the ground.

“Unforgivable…!”

“Mmm, that is absolutely unforgivable.”

During the months we’ve traveled together, I’ve never seen Seti and Phyllis with such anger-filled expressions.

Even Phyllis’s face when she first encountered Calliope at the Moon Lake auction house was probably gentler than now.

“Lightning Bolt {Accelerated Thunder Bullet}!”

“Aaaaaaah~~~!!”

Lightning crosses the castle courtyard, piercing through both the ghost horse and Durahan’s body, with Seti howling as she follows.

‘—!!’

Is the strike of such a sharp sword so swift that it makes no sound?

The moment I thought Seti had merely passed by Durahan, the ghost horse’s body and both of Durahan’s calves were cleanly severed horizontally and flew through the air.

‘Crash!’

Durahan’s body is thrown to the ground before he can even grasp what happened.

Before he could compose himself, Seti was already in the air, holding her spear reversed, her red eyes burning with rage as she prepared for the final strike.

“Stone Bullet, Break Enchant!”

Jessica, having withdrawn the Fragment of Omniscience, casts an earth-attribute enchantment on Seti in the sky.

Eventually, Seti, holding a golden-glowing spear, plunges down vertically like a meteor—

‘BOOM–!!’

With a sound like a bomb exploding, a small crater forms where Durahan was.

It was the miserable end of the A-rank monster Durahan.