Chapter 78: Omen (15) [Side Story Complete]

On a day when sleet swirled.

Eva decided to run away.

To go somewhere the Coven couldn’t find her.

There, she wanted to be with Adolf once more.

Eva, her body feeling infinitely light, walked continuously south.

Without noticing that the wounds all over her body were beginning to rot.

‘……Family.’

A picture of a happy family formed in Eva’s mind.

It was a projection of herself, her father, and her mother when she was young and her mother was still alive.

Still, it was a scene she liked.

In a quiet place, give birth to a child, and live happily until the day she died.

Eva’s steps were incredibly light.

Even though the wound where her arm had been severed was rotting and teeming with maggots.

She felt no pain.

The snow-covered streets were filled with bloodstains.

Before long, Eva could confirm that her one remaining palm was stained with blood.

She walked, lightly rubbing her necrotic palm with the softly piled snow.

“Wh-What on earth……!”

“A monster has appeared again!”

For some reason, everyone she encountered screamed in terror upon seeing her.

‘To think I tried to sacrifice my life for people like that.’

Eva found her own appearance so ridiculous that she couldn’t help but laugh.

Eva’s waking hours gradually decreased.

Nevertheless, her will to go south did not break.

Eva, having lost consciousness, continued to walk endlessly.

Each time she opened her eyes intermittently, corpses that looked as if they had been mauled by a pack of beasts littered the surroundings.

Eva wiped her bloodstained mouth and removed the bits of flesh stuck between her teeth.

A pool of blood.

Eva’s face was reflected in a pool of blood collected in a shell crater.

‘…Will he be scared of me?’

Eva covered her no longer seeing eye with a cloth.

She also washed her face with bloody water, wiping away soot, dust, and sweat.

With the brightening dawn behind her.

Eva gathered her belongings and continued south.

Avoiding people’s gazes as much as possible.

Towards her hometown, filled with memories.

She began to walk in a dazed state.

‘…My work is done.’

‘Yes.’

‘At this point, the Witch Coven will also be satisfied and won’t pursue me.’

‘How much blood I shed fighting those monsters.’

‘There won’t be any more threats now.’

‘The rest of my life, I can use it entirely for myself.’

‘Adolf is alive.’

Convinced of this, Eva limped on.

Her leg, overworked to the point where her kneecap protruded, was no longer functioning properly.

“…I will no longer think of you as a witch.”

“This is our role, who were once comrades. You, the newcomer, stay back.”

The voices of her comrades, with whom she had fought, echoed in her ears.

Witches with whom she had shared joys and sorrows for over three years.

They, too, seemed to be returning to their hometowns, just like her.

The Great War was over.

And the witches’ role had also ended.

It would be the natural order for them to disappear.

***

On this day, Eva lost her other eye, which had remained intact, and some of her internal organs.

Leaving behind three cold corpses of witches.

Eva smiled brightly and headed south.

She could no longer distinguish anything.

Instinct began to suppress reason.

“…Just a little more.”

Eva, too, vaguely knew.

That her body was not normal.

Not just her body, but that her mind was gradually being eaten away by something enormous.

She could clearly feel it.

Just before dying, she wanted to see Adolf.

Now, that was all.

She wanted to find solace in her husband’s embrace.

There wasn’t much time left.

Eva herself knew better than anyone that she had reached an irreversible point.

As quickly as possible.

While she still maintained at least a minimum of reason.

She wanted to meet him.

‘Did he achieve his dream of becoming a painter?’

‘Where would be a good place to set up our newlywed home?’

‘How many children does he want to have?’

She had a mountain of questions she wanted to ask.

She had a mountain of things she wanted to know.

She couldn’t die like this.

She didn’t want to die.

A giant insect called madness was eating away at her brain.

She didn’t want to go mad like this.

Just one last time.

She wanted to see hope.

Eva was more desperate than anyone.

Stopping the bleeding from her maggot-infested wounds, relying on a single set of tattered and torn clothes, avoiding people’s gazes and moving only at night.

She was moving desperately.

She didn’t know why she had to pay such a price.

She had truly done her best.

For everything she had wanted to protect, she had devoted herself body and soul.

The many days spent in hell were still unforgettable.

Not a single memory of the good old days came to mind.

But the days of suffering from cold, hunger, and monsters were clearly engraved.

Clutching a cross tightly in her completely rotten hand, she prayed earnestly.

That she would pay for all the karma she had accumulated by dying and going to His side.

Please, just for now, just for this moment.

Please, she begged, don’t make it painful.

Just a little time, she asked.

Because it was all over now.

Because she had successfully completed the role given to her.

Please, just let her wish come true once.

Please let her meet Adolf safely.

She moved forward, praying more earnestly than anyone else.

At some point, her legs stopped moving.

The sensation in her legs had completely disappeared.

Eva, having fallen forward, crawled on the ground.

Because she couldn’t die like this.

Even if only one arm of her intact body remained.

Because there was a place she had to reach.

Because there was a place waiting for her.

‘…What should we use for Christmas tree decorations?’

‘What kind of food did Adolf like?’

‘He must be waiting eagerly, am I not too late……’

Eva forced a smile.

Because she didn’t want to show him a sad face.

Filling her mind with happy delusions, she resisted the madness.

‘If only, if only I can meet him.’

‘If only we can confirm our love for each other once more.’

‘If only we can build a happy family and live together for a hundred years.’

Eva felt the touch of the ring deeply embedded on her finger.

And kept moving.

Eva’s body had already burned everything.

Eva was no longer in a living state.

Her superhuman obsession was closer to dragging a dead body.

Eva still thought she wasn’t dead.

She thought she wouldn’t die until she met Adolf.

“Ah…….”

When her body completely stopped moving,

She was right in front of her hometown.

Eva fought against madness until the very moment of her spiritual death.

And prayed earnestly to the heavens.

One last time.

Truly, one last time.

If only she could see him.

She would have no regrets, no lingering attachments, no resentment.

What she truly, earnestly wished for was only one thing.

A miracle.

In any form, she wanted to be by his side.

No, she just wanted to see his face.

And.

“Eva…?”

A familiar voice reached her ears.

There was a clear difference from the voice of the young boy in her memory.

But, surely, it was a voice Eva also knew.

“……I’m home.”

Towards the direction the sound came from.

Eva’s voice, squeezed out with her last strength.

Was filled with joy.

Eva, all her tension released, could finally find rest.

Rejoicing with all her heart that her earnest prayer had been answered.

Taking solace in meeting him at the last moment.

She accepted the deep sleep she had been resisting.

The place where their connection began.

In a small, deserted suburban park.

Their connection came to an end.

A single stalk of baby’s breath, out of season, bloomed solitarily where Eva met her fate.

Adolf silently approached Eva.

And embraced her ruined body tightly.

Their reunion was due to a cruel coincidence.

Adolf cursed such a coincidence.

He kept shaking Eva’s body, which had fallen into a deep sleep, tears streaming down his face as if he couldn’t breathe.

Saying that home was right there.

Asking her to return with him.

Naturally, Eva showed no further reaction.

Eva’s body had been empty for a long time.

It no longer held any meaning.

“…Who, why. Did this.”

Adolf’s bloodshot eyes were filled with anger towards the world, and resentment.

They had become turbid, to an extent hardly believable for the eyes of a once-innocent boy.

Endless hatred.

Adolf finally began to hate everything.

“Did you finish her off? My, she was a tenacious b*tch, like a cockroach. You did very well.”

The Coven agents who had been surrounding the park revealed themselves one by one.

“What is your name, sir? I am Lavrentiy Beria. Recently, our organization has been recruiting agents……….”

A conspiracy.

The moment Hitler saw Beria’s utterly repulsive face, he could finally be certain.

That there was a conspiracy behind all of this.

Hitler moved forward.

He seized control of Germany with the Coven’s power behind him.

And prepared the ‘Story of Rebellion.’

Solely for the only love that had been a light in his life.

He sacrificed tens of millions of lives.

***

“…It’s a rebellion that must never be repeated.”

Everyone seemed to agree with Miko’s words.

I, too, nodded in agreement with Miko.

Harbouring a hidden meaning.

“Well then, shall we return to the original story?”