Ch.69Chapter 69. At the End of Each Diverging Path

[Advanced: Irreversible Step (Lv. 9)]

Lin quickly cast the skill scroll after snatching the sacred jewel.

Feeling his speed increase dramatically, Lin pushed himself harder to run.

In many ways, this desperate sprint for survival was both urgent and intense.

“Yes, run! The more you run, the more I look forward to the moment I embrace you!”

Lin was furious.

Furious at himself for having no choice but to flee from that homo bastard.

Crack-crack-crack!

The negative emotion of powerlessness began to corrode the chains, turning them black.

One.

Two.

A total of three chains turned pitch black with corrosion and fell to the ground.

“Tigria!”

While running, Lin lifted the sacred jewel above his shoulder.

“Lin! That was originally mine! Give it to me. I’ll protect it!”

Denarua shouted, but Lin wasn’t about to listen.

Lin no longer wanted to just be protected.

“Catch!”

Throwing it with all his might caused his posture to falter slightly.

The expedition leader didn’t miss that moment and lunged forward.

His face was filled with ecstasy.

“You half-baked bastard!”

Denarua quickly dove between them.

Drawing her right-hand sword ‘Solitude,’ she slashed across the expedition leader’s upper body, then immediately stabbed at his heart with her left-hand sword ‘Silence.’

“Urgh!”

“Die and disappear. I cannot recognize scum like you as my kin.”

“Kin…?”

As Denarua prepared to deliver the final blow from mid-air to the expedition leader whose eyes were wide open in shock.

“Fire!”

However, she had to twist her body to avoid a magic arrow from behind, failing to finish him off.

Instead, the magic arrow that the dual swordswoman dodged pierced through the expedition leader.

Meanwhile, Tigria, who had fired the spell, successfully caught the sacred jewel that came flying toward her.

Lin recovered his posture and ran at full speed to join Tigria.

“Accelerate!”

‘The incantation got even shorter?!’

Denarua was shocked to see her cast magic with just a single word.

Lin and Tigria, caught in the urgent situation, weren’t even aware of this fact.

“Go to that wall from yesterday!”

“Got it!”

With the acceleration spell added, the two moved even faster.

Denarua realized that clearing the interior of the ruins for Lin had actually backfired.

The two sprinting down the obstacle-free corridor were unstoppable.

At least on their running path.

“Ugh! Haa…!”

The jewel’s curse began to corrode Tigria’s body.

Noticing that the curse was activating quickly due to her hollow soul, Lin quickly snatched the jewel away.

Reflexively looking at him as he forcibly took the jewel, Tigria finally saw it.

“Ah…!”

Lin’s soul, radiating a brilliant red light.

Thump

The warm, comforting feeling made the doll’s heart beat strongly.

Though the light quickly faded as he took the jewel away, the heartbeat didn’t disappear.

Thump-thump

“Tigria, are you okay?!”

She didn’t even notice that Lin had switched to informal speech.

When his gaze fell on her, Tigria hurriedly looked ahead.

“Ugh…!”

The moment their eyes met, her heart pounded so hard it hurt.

But there was no time to enjoy that pain.

“A mere doll shouldn’t be by Lin’s side!”

“…?!”

Smack!

Tigria, with only one acceleration spell compared to Lin who had used a skill scroll, was easily caught from behind.

When the magician was sent flying by a kick, Lin looked back, but Tigria urged him on.

“Go! I’ll hold her back!”

After nodding, Lin raised the sacred jewel high—it had been reacting to the dead-end wall ahead.

Orange magical energy flowed from the jewel and clung to the wall like smoke.

As the jewel reabsorbed the thick magical fog, the wall disappeared without a trace.

And there appeared a fork in the road.

The direction Lin needed to go was decided from the beginning.

“Tigria…!”

Lin swallowed his words as he was about to call the magician.

Swollen blue eyelids.

Split lips.

Thwack!

Even as he was taking in her condition, Tigria was being punched in the abdomen by Denarua.

“Know your place! Neither you nor anyone in the hero’s party deserves to be with him!”

Once the distance closed, the outcome was all but decided.

Beating the magician with fists and feet instead of swords, Denarua raged.

“That expressionless face! Don’t you feel pain? Are you saying you feel nothing, just like that woman who betrayed my brother?!”

“Limited… kuhak!”

“Just like that woman who betrayed my brother for her research! Are you also shamelessly showing your face after betraying the hero and tormenting Lin?!”

“Extract, trans… ugh!”

“Without an ounce of guilt! Without a shred of shame! You damn dolls who never even apologize or show the slightest remorse until the end!”

The punches didn’t stop.

Tigria’s body shook under the countless blows.

“Tigria!”

“DON’T COME!!!”

A cry so resolute that even Denarua paused momentarily.

“I said I’d hold her back. Go now.”

Lin saw it.

A look of firm determination that a doll should never possess.

“Don’t die.”

The magician smiled faintly at Lin’s request.

It was an incredibly natural and gentle smile.

With that as goodbye, Lin threw himself toward the right path.

“Lin, wait…!”

As the dual swordswoman tried to chase after the porter, her head was grabbed firmly.

WHAM!

She saw stars.

Stepping back from the overwhelming pain, Denarua couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“A headbutt? From a magician…?”

“Limited.”

The magician raised her hornbird staff while blood trickled from her forehead.

“Extract, transfer, remove, copy, cooling!”

It was the freezing magic she had already used in the Zuramun Archipelago.

A magic circle spread across the floor, instantly freezing the entire area.

Unlike last time, high barriers of ice formed not just targeting Denarua but the surroundings as well, making it difficult for the dual swordswoman to escape the maze easily.

“Eek!”

After slashing through all the ice pillars with her dual swords, Denarua spotted the magician standing on the left side of the fork.

“Time to settle this.”

The magician beckoned with her trembling hand.

“Follow me.”

“Why should I?”

Mocking the magician who was already half-dead, Denarua turned toward the right path where Lin had gone.

However, the magician’s next provocation stopped her in her tracks.

“I’ve met your brother.”

“What…?”

“He spoke to me when I was trapped in the lab. Said I was pretty because I resembled the original.”

“How dare you spout such nonsense!”

“After saying that to me, the 2nd Hero went to the execution ground the next day and died by his own will.”

The magician said words that should never have been uttered.

“That man loved the original until his dying breath. He said he wished for her happiness…”

“STOP TALKING BULLSHIT!!!!”

Blood-red magical energy exploded.

The magician slowly backed away to lure the dual swordswoman.

“Fine. Since you want it so badly, I’ll definitely kill you here.”

“Didn’t you hear earlier?”

The magician smiled brightly.

“Lin told me not to die.”

“You damn bitch!”

Ultimate Skill

[Observation: Remnants of Sin, Price, and Responsibility]

A new world opened.

A realm of blazing crimson flames spread out around Denarua.

“Look carefully! See what happened to those lovers!”

It wasn’t an attack skill.

It was a token of apology given by the Goddess to the only remaining blood relative of the 2nd Hero.

A unique authority granted to Denarua out of remorse, despite her becoming a demon.

“This is hell.”

As Tigria looked around ominously in the burning world.

Finally, when that voice—which she thought she would never hear again after escaping this Gilesman—called out to her,

“Number 144, Tigria?”

The magician felt every hair on her body stand on end.

“O…riginal…?”

—

Finally, they met again.

After running and running from the fork in the road, Lin arrived at a spacious room that had been used as a reception hall.

Confirming the wooden sign engraved with the Goddess’s emblem, just like in Efalterga, Lin calmed his trembling heart and opened the tall, ornate door.

Inside,

There was the Goddess with golden hair that emitted a soft glow.

Their gazes met, but neither could easily break the silence first.

Lin had too much to say, while the Goddess was too ashamed.

But they both knew there was no time to waste.

Eventually, the Goddess spoke first to Lin with a sad expression.

[I only have apologies for you.]

“…Even as you apologize, you’re still confident that I’ll keep moving endlessly to save the world, aren’t you?”

The Goddess was ashamed.

[…Yes.]

“So am I.”

Lin fidgeted with his porter’s bag and voiced the questions he had been holding for a long time.

“So, please answer a few questions for me.”

[Hmm, about that.]

The Goddess tilted her head and asked.

[After the class change? Or right now?]

“Ah, I want the class change right now.”

That’s right.

No matter how many questions he had, he couldn’t resist a class change.

This was the true player spirit ingrained in him since his past life as Mr. Lee.