episode_0132

Head to the operation room.

Although he is wearing an instructor’s uniform rather than a pilot suit, he has to look like this right now, at least for the sake of showing off.

But before heading to the strategy room, I needed to make some physical adjustments alone in my private room.

“…….”

In the mirror.

I see a young man.

Although it has already been a while since he retreated from the battlefield, the man is finally seen being dragged back to the battlefield.

“I did everything I could during active duty, but as soon as I finished my reserve service, war broke out and I felt like I was back on the battlefield.”

I’ve never actually felt anything like that.

However, when I occasionally connected to the community in my hometown, I often heard stories like that.

Wouldn’t that be similar to how I feel now?

I can’t say for sure that it’s not like that, but it’s definitely true that I have at least similar feelings.

“Hu.”

In the mirror, look at your eyes.

I look at eyes that have lost their color and become similar to the eyes of a dead fish, commonly called frozen eyes.

Aether loss.

Although the symptoms are similar to ‘cataract’, it is a phenomenon in which the optic nerve is greatly damaged due to too frequent exposure to excessive wide-angle phenomena, including electron light.

It was something that could not be helped.

If you were to blow up about 2,000 enemy aircraft in one battle, you would have to see with your own eyes the sparkle that each aircraft explodes as it explodes.

They say that if you look directly at the sun, you will go blind.

Although I am not as strong as Taeyang, I am a person who fought a war while watching flash bombs explode dozens of times a day when I was around 20 years old.

“…….”

As a result, there is no color in the eyes.

The human body is ultimately expendable, and the more you use it, the more it wears out. In my many battlefields, the thing I used the most was my eyes.

Therefore, it is natural that even if you look close to the mirror like now, your face appears blurry.

At the age of 27, I am blind, and sometimes in the morning when there is low pressure, my vision becomes blurry.

If I were to turn 30, I would probably lose my eyesight by then.

Before that, the internal organs of the body, including the eyes, will age and die, but-

‘So it’s not time to die yet.’

I tried to quietly disappear into space, but the situation was not conducive to doing so yet.

Rather than saying that I suddenly want to live, it feels like the universe is forcing me to live.

‘I have to live.’

Even for those who live in the future.

Even in the sense of honoring the souls of the dead.

So that those whose family members were murdered do not throw everything into the whirlpool of blood to seek revenge.

Even if, like me, I hope it doesn’t happen that way.

“…….”

Blurry vision slowly returns.

After straining your eyes, reach out for the object you prepared in advance.

Vision aid device.

Others say it is a suspicious half-mask, but this object hides a secret.

A device to assist with losing vision as much as possible as if wearing glasses?

no.

“……Sapphire.”

I pressed my thumb against the inner button of the visor.

“The time has come.”

Click.

The visor opens left and right.

The ether, which appeared to be made of white metal, splits with a ‘click’ sound, revealing an elongated glass connected between them.

[Have you decided?]

Weeing.

As soon as I hold the stick-like glass, I immediately hear someone’s voice.

[sorry. I did my best to keep you from doing this.]

“It’s not for you to apologize.”

The blue glass in my hand slowly began to reshape itself, taking on a jewel-like appearance.

“As the Chairman of the Colony Union, you have done the best you can. You did everything you could as a ‘human being’ while hiding your identity as the Creator as much as possible.”

[Maybe it would have been better if it had been revealed from the beginning that he was the creator.]

“You told me subtly. But still, the fact that you commit something like this means that you can handle it even against the Creator.”

[It’s meaningless to re-judge what happened, but sometimes I feel like ‘he’ was right.]

“…….”

that.

The one who made me an AS pilot.

[Justice is power.]

“……Sometimes, it’s something that really makes people feel crazy.”

And the dead by my hand.

“That’s it. What’s the point of talking about the past? Let’s focus on the now. Sapphire. No, ‘Sharpie’.”

As I grabbed the crystal, the ether crystal, which was in the shape of a gem, slowly became fluid like water and began to flow along my hand from side to side.

“It is time to return to your ‘body’ again.”

[Hehe… I can’t help it. I wasn’t going to bring this up.]

Crystals of ether that have turned into liquid begin to climb up my shoulders and neck and towards my eyes.

[If you do this now, you will never be able to drop it again. Because getting rid of it means blindness and death as an AS pilot.]

“It is about keeping the Creator’s decision itself in view, and of course giving it up is no different from dying forever.”

[…It could be something like the Creation Tree. A being that lives forever.]

The reason I gave up on Sapphire’s support and treatment.

[They say they become immortal.]

Recovering my eyes through ether treatment means using the ‘core’ of the Creation Tree as my eyes, which means I become a vessel containing the beasts of Creation.

Of course my body will become immortal.

Immortality in a perfect sense that cannot be compared with things like soul transfer, personality cloning, or body replacement through clones that are being studied throughout the colony.

“The beasts of creation all came from outer space. 200 years have passed since the beginning of the Universal Century, but he has still maintained his identity since he fell to Earth.”

[…….]

“But you are not ‘the first generation’ in the pure sense.”

[Yes.]

Although the beast of creation came from outer space, that outer space is not ‘our universe.’

[We were looking. A being who will inherit this cycle of fate. A successor who will inherit the eternal blessing and curse.]

The creators hand over their power.

And they hope that their tens of thousands, hundreds of millions, and eons of time will come to an end.

[I was like that too.]

They chose humanity.

They selected the 12 most outstanding humans among mankind and tried to hand over their ‘position’ to the 12 with the strongest mental power.

[The 12 Constellations Colony was a system that sought to find people who would become the next great creators. Although the meaning has changed now.]

“I knew it.”

But it was never mentioned separately.

“Because there is no one more prone to the temptation of power than humans.”

I knew that the beasts of creation were trying to escape immortality by attracting humans in the name of super AI and making them their successors, but I didn’t care.

“You were different. Isn’t that right?”

[…I was the same too?]

“But it has changed.”

Slowly, the crystals of creation seep into my eyes.

“Are you planning to make me immortal?”

[yes.]

“Why?”

[Because I don’t want to see you die.]

A lot of information flows in through the eyes.

[I made my choice. you. But I won’t abandon you and leave on my own. It will live forever in you.]

“Does that mean you want to walk towards immortality with me?”

[I’ve already spent countless eons alone, so it’s not a bad idea to spend time together, right?]

“Interesting.”

The ‘Sapphire Unicorn’ gemstone in my visual aid-visor seeps into my eyes.

“You’ll regret it.”

[You will regret it.”

Saaaa.

“Every time I do something like that with a woman, I’m going to groan inside.”

[I’ll pretend not to notice and sleep. And why did you keep it a secret in the first place? Even when he played active duty with me, he worked like crazy in the cockpit.]

“That’s true.”

Look in the mirror.

There was a man there that I knew well, but his eyes were not the typical Korean brown eyes.

Blue, as if a sapphire gem had been cut into it.

A very natural blue color, different from wearing colored contact lenses.

“…….”

Blink your eyes.

I see the world much more clearly than before.

[But, is it really possible to restore just vision?]

“Shhh.”

Toward the voice ringing in my head, I put my index finger to my lips.

“Sight is enough.”

For the fight ahead, that alone is enough.

“It’s not like my skills are dead.”

[Form is temporary, but class is eternal?]

“The form has now been revived. No, maybe more than during the heyday…”

Maybe, I might be stronger than I was then.

“Sapphire. I think I learned many things without even realizing it while educating my students.”

[What specifically?]

“I was able to change myself through seeing my shortcomings in them and thinking about what I should do to fix my shortcomings.”

Although I didn’t really think about that.

“I think I can fight a little better than when I was active.”

[What if we tell the story in 4 minutes and 33 seconds?]

“4 minutes? no. Even 4 minutes is too long.”

It’s long enough so the only thing that’s long enough is on the bed.

“Let’s go. To end this war.”

I put the cracked visor back into place.

Clap, clap.

The blue ether flowing from my body filled the glass part of my visor again, but I just quietly put on my mask.