Ch.355[Final Chapter] The End (2)

“Sister? Sister! Why are you suddenly like this!”

“Oh, brother.”

Seti collapsed, coughing violently. I held my sister in my arms. Her body felt cold, as if her temperature was dropping.

“What on earth……”

Seti was just the beginning. One by one, survivors regardless of status or position were showing abnormal symptoms. Tears of blood, violent coughing followed by bloody sputum, then staggering and collapsing.

Just from what I could see.

“Keuup!”

Rustila Kersil.

“Ah, shit… what is this.”

Zernya von und zu Trisha Adelbein.

“…Ugh.”

Ireh Hazlen.

“Young master……”

Even Sonia, who was a bioroid.

The severity varied, but the pattern of symptoms was the same. Only Cartesia and I remained relatively unaffected for now.

“Kid.”

“Something’s wrong.”

“I can see that.”

Cartesia pulled her hood down and looked around.

“Seeing even androids in that state, this can’t be a simple biochemical weapon.”

Even drones were wobbling and falling to the ground. I could sense someone’s intention to break everything that moved, regardless of whether it was organic or inorganic.

I couldn’t think of a solution. My mind was blank.

Then my phone rang. It was my father.

[Ah, son.]

“Father? Are you alright?”

[The hospital is in complete chaos. Everyone—patients and doctors alike—are collapsing. I called because something seemed wrong. How are things there, at the research facility?]

I quickly explained the situation. Through the phone, I heard a blood-curdling sigh.

[…I’ve seen similar symptoms in your mother before. It’s Laplace.]

“Is there no way to treat it?”

[If there had been, I wouldn’t have lost your mother… Reika?]

“Father?”

[Ah, Reika. You’ve been waiting for me. I’m sorry. Here, take my hand. Let’s go together now…]

“Father!”

The world on the other end of the phone shuddered.

“Father! Father!”

[Hello?]

Fortunately, the call didn’t disconnect but output another person’s voice. It was Rezein, Seti’s mother and mine as well.

[Is that my son? Just a moment. Honey, what are you trying to die alone for? Get a grip!]

“Mother!”

[Son! Are you alright there?]

“It’s terrible here too.”

I took a deep breath while looking around. As I surveyed the horrific scene, I could almost see the hospital where my parents were projected before my eyes.

Could a mere word like “disaster” even begin to describe this situation?

[Son, we can’t hold out much longer here either. *cough* I’m sorry.]

“No, please… please wait as long as you can. I’ll try to do something.”

I gathered the scientists who could still move. Many still had mild symptoms. Ireh was among them. We headed to the control room.

“We need to find the black hole where Laplace resides.”

“How?”

“That’s what we need to figure out now. Astronomy team, can you stand?”

“We’ll do our *cough* best.”

The scientists moved in perfect coordination. The tracking team remotely operated the observatory, searching for the culprit behind all this, the end of everything.

And the moment they activated the interstellar radio telescope, all the scientists watching the monitor simultaneously lost consciousness.

The screen was filled with dark blue noise. The moment I saw it, I realized which black hole was hosting the Laplace-system foreign god.

“…Ha, haha.”

Damn it.

I took off my outer garment and threw it over the monitor. This was information humans shouldn’t see, content they couldn’t comprehend.

I needed to go down, to the deepest part of the research facility.

“Brother, where are you going?”

“Young master, it’s dangerous to move alone. Let us come with you…”

I shook my head.

“You stay here.”

Rustila grabbed my arm.

“I can’t allow that.”

“Absolutely not. Rest here.”

“We’ve come this far… it doesn’t make sense to fail now.”

Zernya, Sonia, and even Seti grabbed my arms.

“Even if we fail, we go together.”

“Well said, Sonia.”

“Brother, I can walk on my own. I won’t get in your way. I’m still okay.”

I looked at Ireh in bewilderment. Ireh nodded. This could be our last moment. That’s why everyone was saying they wanted to stay together until the end.

I gathered the remaining people, including family and acquaintances, and went down to the control room. There was a dimensional manipulator in the control room—humanity’s technological pinnacle for connecting one dimension to another.

A mysterious light flowed from one of the dimensional gates. And a girl was ejected from it.

“You…”

“…Eidel Rheinland?”

It was Matonica, Shterm’s avatar. I was stunned by this unexpected appearance.

“You… it’s all because of you! Eidel Rheinland!”

Matonica staggered toward me. She reached out her hand toward me. But she couldn’t close it.

Cartesia, who had stepped in front, grabbed Matonica’s arm and threw her over. Matonica, slammed to the ground, rolled on the floor spitting blood.

“Keukhak!”

“That’s my kid. Touch him and I’ll kill you.”

“Cartesia, wait.”

Something was strange about Matonica. She didn’t have her usual wind instrument or flagpole weapons. I couldn’t feel any of the Pron power she should have as an avatar.

This was impossible. The contract between a foreign god and its avatar can only be severed by death. Unless Shterm had died…

“…No way.”

Matonica glared at Cartesia and me, groaning “Keuuuu.” Blood tears were flowing from her eyes.

“You… you finally killed my master. Because of you, even our last hope has been shattered!”

“What did I do?”

I had defeated Aurora and Renatus, but not Shterm. His black hole hadn’t been found even when the gravitational cannon was completed.

“Look at this shamelessness! You don’t need to hide it anymore!”

“…Hide what?”

“The fact that you are Laplace!”

“Still going on about that?”

Matonica burst into a hollow laugh.

“Listen, Eidel Rheinland. I know that Aurora and Renatus died because of that vicious weapon you created. And I know this message appeared afterward.”

– Initiating gravitational contraction.

“The gravitational bomb is a weapon that uses gravity as a medium, and ‘Big Crunch’ is the phenomenon where the universe collapses into a single point and disappears. Now, don’t you think the timing is exquisite?”

“So, what I did accelerated the end of the world…”

“Yes! By decades!”

My vision swayed from side to side. I felt dizzy.

“Ha, then…”

“Are you finally admitting it? You filthy bastard.”

“…No.”

I didn’t know the cause, but Shterm was dead. That was reality. And Matonica had come looking for me.

Why?

Because Shterm must have ordered her to. Even in death, she had to kill me. A mission that couldn’t be severed even by death had come to me like a ghost.

But as an actual threat, she was insignificant.

“Now… it’s really the end.”

Matonica rummaged through the debris. She pulled out a metal rod that had been part of the building and took a stance.

Scientists stepped between her and me. Matonica growled lowly.

“Move.”

“Vile monster, you won’t lay a finger on Professor Rheinland *cough, cough*!”

“I said move. If I kill him, we all might live.”

“Don’t listen to the foreign god’s puppet!”

“Ha!”

Matonica pointed the metal rod and shouted.

“You know one thing but not the other! Eidel Rheinland is Laplace’s puppet! Can’t you see the bloody foam coming from my mouth?”

Matonica spat out fresh blood. A machine spitting blood—it made no sense.

The natural order was twisted. Causality had been manipulated.

I looked up at the void.

[— You hear a voice calling you from somewhere.]

[— At last, let us, become one.]

Status window.

Why does a status window even exist in this world? This isn’t a game, is it?

“If you won’t move, stay there! I’ll send you all together as you wish!”

Matonica charged. The scientists’ terrified screams overlapped with the sound of Ireh loading holy bullets. Cartesia stepped forward to stop Matonica.

But.

“Wait.”

“Kid?”

“Sister Ireh, you too.”

I blocked Cartesia and Ireh, then pushed through the scientists.

“If I’m the culprit, I’ll gladly die.”

“What?”

“But even if you end my life with that weapon, the destruction won’t stop. Killing an avatar doesn’t necessarily deal a critical blow to the foreign god.”

“This guy… what’s he planning?”

Matonica is right. I don’t know what I’m thinking either. But my mind is already made up. I know all too well that there’s too little time to keep deliberating.

[— Across dimensions, to where you truly belong.]

I spread my arms.

“I have no ulterior motive.”

And smiled.

“I just don’t want to leave a bleak future for my daughters.”

***

Dozens of minutes later.

The universe was dyed in darkness.

Stars burning with nuclear fusion went out one by one.

The Milky Way disappeared, and electricity rapidly dried up. Humanity had to use only the energy they had stored for their final breaths.

Whether these breaths would be the last flame to carve out the heart of the end, or the final sigh of a dying patient—no one knew.

While operating the machine, I offered a kind of excuse to Matonica.

“…I really didn’t intend this.”

“Whether you intended it or not, the situation is the same. Just two shots from the gravitational cannon created the optimal conditions for the end of the world to manifest. You fired the celebratory shot, so to speak.”

“Then I should take responsibility.”

Matonica glanced at me. She had just tried to kill me moments ago, but dramatically nodded at my request to somehow salvage the situation.

While finishing the gravitational cannon settings, my two wives pushed through the crowd and berated Matonica.

“Hey, do you have any proof that our husband is Laplace’s avatar? Do you?!”

“Please stop. Enough already. What more do you want? Sacrificing Eidel makes no sense!”

“Rustila, Zernya.”

I calmly restrained my two wives.

“That’s not what’s important right now. The end is definitely coming, and if we don’t stop it, everything is finished. We need to try everything we can before that.”

Then I turned my gaze to Cartesia and Ireh.

Cartesia and Ireh actually knew my true identity. I’m not the scoundrel Eidel Rheinland, but Jinsoo Lee—a being from another universe.

Come to think of it, this lends credence to the claim that I might be Laplace. To travel from one dimension to another, especially faster than light, one would need to pass through a higher dimension, as suggested in wormhole theory.

If that entity called “the End” intended for me to cross that higher dimension?

Nothing is certain. The information we have is extremely limited.

At times like this, humans need to have a bit of courage and curiosity. To transform the unknown—and therefore frightening—into knowledge.

[— Become one.]

The status message that had been echoing in my head. My legs trembled with the fear that directly reached me through my sixth sense.

Still.

I had to do this.

“…According to theory, we need to directly cross into the 11th dimension and confront that foreign god or whatever ‘the End’ is, to have any chance.”

It was none other than Cartesia who reinforced my resolve.

“Just as one must enter a lair to hunt a beast, to fight the abyss, one must first enter the pitch darkness…”

Cartesia frowned. She didn’t like it either.

I changed into a spacesuit and personally entered the dimensional transfer capsule. Despite the researchers, officials, my wives, my sister, and even Ireh all trying to dissuade me, I was determined to proceed with this venture.

Looking around, I had no choice.

After the end showed its face, the abnormal symptoms affecting both people and machines were growing stronger. Some had progressed to severe cases and were now bedridden.

Dark blood was everywhere. Black, yet also red, with a blue tinge. In the darkness, it even sparkled like stardust. Could this truly be human blood?

Meanwhile, only I remained unaffected.

Why?

If everyone was suffering, why was I the only one unaffected while even Cartesia was coughing up black stardust?

“Keu.”

“Zernya!”

“I-idiot. If you’re going, take me with you. This could be our last moment together…”

My wives approached, tears streaming down their faces. Not just tears, but tears mixed with blood. It was too heartbreaking to watch.

“Rustila, Zernya.”

My two wives were the first to embrace me.

“This might be goodbye.”

“Don’t say such ominous things. Don’t…”

“Don’t gooo.”

I kissed both my wives. Until the end, they wanted me to stay in this world. They said if we had to die, we should die together.

“What’s the point of us all living if you’re not here!”

“Take care of Lucia and Anya.”

“I said don’t go!”

The researchers used their last strength to pull Rustila and Zernya away. Even they seemed to have reached their limit, collapsing weakly.

“Brother.”

“Sister, if you survive, be a good aunt.”

“Young master…!”

“Sonia too. I’m sorry we couldn’t go on our honeymoon together.”

Sonia and Seti burst into tears. I kissed Sonia and then embraced Seti. Seti caressed my cheek, then collapsed.

Gradually.

Destruction was approaching.

By now, only two people remained conscious.

Ireh and Cartesia.

“Sister.”

“Call me by my name.”

“…Ireh.”

I checked the observatory monitor. The contraction of the universe was accelerating. If my calculations were correct, the world would end within minutes at this rate.

“This really is the end now.”

“Do you think I’ll give up like this?”

“I don’t know if I’ll die or continue living when I go beyond. But I’ll never forget you.”

“I will never let you go.”

Ireh grabbed my suit. And the next moment, a soft touch and sweet fragrance enveloped me.

As Ireh pulled her lips away, she whispered.

“Just watch. Just as you saved me, I’ll save you too.”

“……”

There was nothing more to say. Finally, I turned to Cartesia.

“Ready, kid?”

“Of course, miss.”

I threw myself into the dimensional converter.

I stepped into the 7th dimension, using Cartesia’s black hole as an intermediate station. Cartesia brought out her lab equipment and adjusted the position.

“I’ll handle pinpointing the coordinates and taking you to the 7th dimension. After that, going up to the 11th dimension… you’ll have to figure that out yourself. I’m sure you can do it.”

Cartesia remained calm until the end. As if reading my thoughts, she added:

“I was planning to die anyway. Dying then or dying now is the same to me. I was going to return to nature anyway, so I don’t particularly feel sad. Even if you never come back, well, I’ll just accept it and move on.”

“I’m glad you’re so composed.”

Cartesia looked up at the 8th dimension beyond.

“There’s no time. Go up now.”

I followed her words. Following Ireh’s completed folding theory and Cartesia’s dimensional conversion theory, I entered a solitary journey to eliminate the last foreign god.

[X coordinate: ∞]

[Y coordinate: ∞]

[Z coordinate: ∞]

[W coordinate: ∞]

[T coordinate: ∞]

(……)

The number of coordinates, starting from seven, gradually increased one by one until they reached eleven.

[— (……)]

[— Something is waiting for you.]

After receiving the message, I slowly reached out my hand.

[— You attempt an uneasy communication.]

The darkness recedes. And another darkness rolls in.

In the place where all worldly scenery had disappeared, I saw it.

[— Welcome to the edge.]

The black hole where “the End” lived and breathed.

The name of that black hole was the universe itself.