Ch.252252. The Journey

Due to Heralhazad’s interference.

The souls are once again pouring out. In that situation, there was only one thing I could do.

Scatter mana to hold them in place, even if just for a moment.

Slam!

Then I immediately opened the general store’s door and entered with the Endstone.

‘If I lose the souls here, it’s over!’

I’m holding onto the Endstone to block the cracks forming in it, but souls continue to pour out like water leaking through holes in a dam.

Then I’ll proceed with the original plan and leave the continent.

Now, while relatively few souls have escaped, I moved into the general store while trying my best to hold onto them.

I could see Raizer being held back by Findenai and Erika. I thought I shouldn’t leave them behind, but.

“You idiot, what are you hesitating for!”

“Go!”

Hearing their shouts, I was pushed forward into the store.

The souls had already started pouring out inside the general store. I was planning to close the door since they would have nowhere else to go, but.

Thud!

The moment my thick hand touched the doorknob, it felt stuck and wouldn’t move.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Creak!

Raizer reopens the half-closed door and enters. As his lightning discharges like an aura, Erika and Findenai are finally knocked backward, unable to withstand the shock.

Thump.

His footsteps reach inside the general store.

Thump.

Being exceptionally tall and large, Raizer bent down to enter, then closed the door behind him with a faint smile.

“There’s nowhere to run.”

He stood with his back against the door.

As if planning to annihilate all souls in this space, fierce lightning bolts extended from his entire body, illuminating the dark interior of the general store.

There’s nowhere left to run.

From the beginning, even if I tried to escape, I couldn’t go anywhere with these souls.

From the Resting Land, which had developed cracks and lost its function as soon as it was created, souls were endlessly pouring out.

Trapped inside the general store with nowhere to go, they looked like fish trapped in an aquarium.

“Follow your destiny, outsider. You have no right to control this continent.”

“……”

“This is the time we’ve been waiting for centuries. The destiny of Aria Rius that you stole will find its place again by twisting your neck.”

Boom.

As Raizer takes a step forward, it becomes the starting point for electricity to spread across the floor, climb the walls, and reach the ceiling.

His electricity was taking control of this space.

A place unknown even to the gods.

A secret, hidden place beyond the continent.

Yet it couldn’t hide the divine radiance contained within.

“How.”

But even amid such threatening intimidation, even as the current touching my cheek seemed about to burn my flesh.

I couldn’t stop questioning.

I ask Raizer, who calls himself a god and follows destiny.

“Why are you so devoted to this thing called destiny?”

“Because that is how we can obtain our freedom.”

It was frustrating.

It felt like something was stuck in my chest.

It was absurd, but I understood why they had to think that way.

Just because I knew the truth, I couldn’t criticize their ignorance.

However.

It needed to be corrected.

“Do you truly think that’s freedom? Following a predetermined destiny?”

The screams of overflowing souls around me wailed as if in agreement with me.

However, even in such a situation, the god before me showed no retreat or hesitation.

“After finishing an ancient marathon, what comes to us is ultimately freedom.”

“How foolish.”

I suddenly remembered reading a book about destiny once.

It was written by a Holocaust survivor about his experiences.

The narrator of that book said:

If there is freedom, there is no destiny.

But if there is destiny, there is no freedom.

I thought these words perfectly captured the thinking of the gods before me.

The destiny they speak of and follow ultimately gives no freedom.

“For the sake of the continent too, the destiny (main story) you speak of must be derailed.”

“Sigh, outsider. My resolve is unwavering. And this is for the continent.”

“No.”

I shook my head.

Emotions were welling up inside me.

My body tensed up, and unknowingly, sighs and sadness heavily weighed down my entire body.

With that story you’re following.

With that story supposedly prepared for this continent, I will not send you away.

It wasn’t just for Aria Rius.

At first, I started simply for the salvation of the continent. I also planned to use Aria Rius as a protagonist to save the land where I would live.

But living here, I changed.

Indeed, it’s amusing.

I’ve watched many who live here.

Those who are dead.

Those who are alive.

Demons and gods.

Watching them all, I felt indignation. I questioned whether following the main story was truly the right thing to do.

Because.

Following it means.

Ultimately, doesn’t it prove that their lives are false?

Following the flow of all prepared stories.

Ultimately, this continent and everyone’s lives.

Joy, sorrow, pleasure, pain, anger, emotion, excitement, happiness, and more.

Doesn’t it prove that all emotions were simply created by a creator who scribbled a single letter on a desk to make a game?

“No.”

I won’t let that happen.

All the noble ones I’ve seen.

All the vile ones I’ve seen.

Good and evil.

Sometimes dual, sometimes colorful, sometimes beautiful people.

And those I loved.

I won’t make them false.

“You shouldn’t follow that mere destiny.”

My heart resonated.

My mind trembled.

I will not allow the lives I’ve witnessed to be defined as mere ‘games.’

This is a world.

And I am living with these people.

“Even your life.”

My eyes meet with Raizer, who is pouring out brilliant lightning. For the first time, there was a tremor in his eyes.

“I will affirm it.”

Raizer, the god of lightning and clouds.

He had worked so hard to protect the main story and to gain freedom.

But in reality, following all of that would ultimately prove that his existence was merely an NPC for a dozen or so hours of playtime.

He wouldn’t know.

Of course, even if explained, he couldn’t accept it.

That’s okay.

Your life is not a mere game.

There’s no need to waste your life being swayed by the main story.

“To give you true freedom. To give meaning to that life.”

I will kill you.

Even with that addition, Raizer wore a perplexed expression for the first time.

He could feel that I was acting this way for his sake.

“I’m confused. Truly dizzy.”

However.

Lightning began to pour out again. Emitting fierce hostility, they were ready to turn me into charcoal at any moment.

“It’s already irreversible. I will kill you, annihilate all souls, and follow destiny.”

Crackle!

“This one’s name is Raizer! Master of lightning! In charge of thunder and clouds, the greatest warrior among the gods!”

You.

“State your name!”

Boom!

As he stomped hard, the entire general store shook, and a storm of electricity began to swirl.

In the shock that burned my skin, I took a deep breath and stepped forward.

“Deus Verdi.”

A massive divine figure.

The greatest warrior among the gods.

Master of lightning and clouds.

Compared to such epithets, it might seem incredibly humble, but.

“I am a Spiritmaster.”

At least in this place.

A single word that crushes all of that.

The lightning he wore seemed truly pathetic. The large figure that I had to look up to see seemed ridiculously small.

I am a Spiritmaster.

“As a mere master of lightning.”

What’s here are souls in numbers that filled the continent to saturation and drove it to the brink of destruction.

“Don’t bark in front of us.”

Crack!

I crush the Endstone in my hand.

Then.

The pouring souls immediately flew towards Raizer.

Hostility.

Fierce hostility towards the god who came down to the continent to annihilate them and found his way here.

“How dare you!”

Currents rising from Raizer’s entire body extended towards them, but.

He was already buried under souls, standing at the threshold of a miserable death.

But that.

“Is your salvation.”

He seemed to want to say something, but Raizer couldn’t even move his lips.

Only, his once imposing eyes closed calmly at the very end, as if he had realized something.

I don’t know what it was.

Or perhaps he found his freedom through death.

Just like with Romuleus, gods simply vanished without souls.

I turn my eyes from his corpse to look at the general store, which seems about to burst with an enormous amount of souls.

The Endstone was completely shattered, but.

I decided to change my approach.

What’s contained here now is countless mana and souls with even more mana.

If left as is, it wouldn’t be strange if the space itself collapsed, so.

I slowly close my eyes and begin to handle mana.

I draw magic.

Quietly.

And truly calmly.

In the end, I failed.

The plan to create a Resting Land and gift a sanctuary to all souls.

It had already turned to bubbles.

Since I couldn’t reseal the Endstone, I broke it completely.

Let’s create a new place.

A new place that can hold souls.

Why?

It was obvious.

Thinking about it, I had sometimes thought that things would flow this way.

Their sanctuary.

“I’m sorry.”

I apologized to many. But this wasn’t directed at the dead.

It was an apology to those waiting for me.

I said I would survive.

I was confident that everything would be resolved without problems.

But it seems.

There was no way back.

I glance at the heavily closed door of the general store.

Longing spread throughout my body, but.

I couldn’t just savor it.

Slowly kneeling.

Just as Griffin’s demon held all the royal family members of Griffin throughout history inside himself.

I too hold these many souls inside me.

I recognize my heart twisting as overflowing mana enters. I was planning to create Lemegeton once more.

And the material was my heart.

“I’m sorry, Deus.”

I didn’t plan for this.

With a bitter smile, I spoke to the souls waiting for me.

“Everyone here is a savior of the continent.”

Please close your eyes with pride.

I.

“Will become your tombstone.”

And also your rest.

Commemorating the end of this life.

Let us weep together.

Time passes, but I don’t feel it.

As I accepted the souls, my body felt like it would twist and collapse, but I restored it using the vast mana scattered inside the general store.

Collapsing, restoring.

Collapsing, restoring.

Even in the pain of cutting flesh.

I was listening to the stories of many.

And they listened to my story.

“I wonder if they received my gift well?”

Now the continent has greatly deviated from the main story.

Now it’s not a story reserved for entertainment.

Not forcibly feeling emotions and time programmed for the protagonist.

May they live their own lives.

And enjoy freedom.

Among the pouring souls, there were mysteriously some who were helping my magic.

Somehow, the heart had become an artifact as if created by many mages gathered together.

My eyes slowly closed.

Perhaps.

What I had seen so many times.

Death, I thought.

I, who had stood closest to the boundary.

Finally.

As I was about to cross this boundary.

[No, you can’t.]

My eyes opened at the voice of a girl.

Something was pushing me away.

My body remained fixed in place like an old tree, but.

I was clearly being pushed away.

Suddenly, I could see the back of Deus Verdi, who was kneeling with his head bowed.

What was pushing me was.

Emily?

The girl who loved flowers.

Though she became a bone insect in the basement of the Verdi family.

Still, she smiled as she fell asleep at the end.

Following her, many people pulled me.

All familiar faces.

The natives of Setima whom I gave rest to at the Academy.

It didn’t end there.

The royalty of the Griffin Kingdom who were captured by Griffin’s demon.

Volta, son of Hernu, who was toyed with by Dante the necromancer.

The many souls I gave rest to in the Republic of Clark.

The warrior Han-so.

Ophelia’s daughter who was captured by Learic.

Even the burned woman who held Sevia, Illuania’s daughter, and fell asleep crying.

Those beyond the boundary of life and death.

They were pushing me away, preventing me from coming.

They evacuate me, who was dying, unable to handle the pouring souls.

Far away.

A doll sitting alone in the corner of the general store.

An item Professor Per Petra made for me.

Originally a doll to manage the Endstone placed in the general store.

When I entered it.

The doll responds to the soul and mana, changing its body and appearance.

Suddenly, there.

A young man who lived in South Korea.

It was Shinwoo Kim.

“Ah.”

I let out a sigh without realizing.

Souls are still pouring into Deus Verdi’s body.

Carefully placing my hand on his heart.

I could still feel the pulse of life.

Not dead.

Just, amid the shock of souls pouring in. The souls evacuated me to prevent me from dying of shock.

How long will it take?

For all the souls to be received and for that body to stabilize.

How much time will be needed?

I wondered, but it didn’t seem like it would take as long as I thought.

However, if I stayed still here, I too would be caught in the storm of mana and souls.

Then.

“Just for a while.”

I looked up at the souls and asked.

“Is it okay if I go out for a bit?”

Could I trust and leave it to them?

The souls didn’t answer that question.

Only, the door of the general store opened.

Beyond the door was a vast prairie bathed in the dawn sunlight that had already risen.

The general store that leads to random places.

Since I was no longer Deus Verdi, I couldn’t specify the location at will.

A prairie that clearly doesn’t look like the Griffin Kingdom.

But I slowly moved my steps outside the door.

Creak.

Thud.

As the door closed.

Suddenly, I was standing on this continent as Shinwoo Kim.

Until Deus’s body stabilizes and accepts all souls.

I began a very brief journey.

* * *

A week had already passed.

The chaos in Greyfond was somewhat settling, but the gloom that hung over the entire city remained.

Many were injured.

Many things were destroyed.

And Deus Verdi had disappeared.

He, who had disappeared through the door of the general store with Raizer, did not return.

Was he unable to return?

I’m not sure.

Anyway, many were worried, but.

All souls on the continent had disappeared.

Now there will be no such thing as the continent perishing due to the collapse of the boundary between life and death.

That was the right way to think, but.

Here.

On the palace rooftop.

Two women sitting on the railing.

No, two souls.

[What should we do now?]

The Dark Spiritmaster, who was absorbed into the staff used by Heralhazad and became half a bound spirit, and.

[…I don’t know either.]

Stella, who received the divine status from the fading goddess Hertia, and now had become half god and half demon.