episode_0180

“Huh…?”

Slowly, the coldness dissipated.

Like winter fading and spring arriving.

The icy chill that had covered Elvengard, freezing everything in its path, was gradually receding.

“Wow! It’s over! The calamity is over!”

Cheers erupted from all around.

Instead of fleeing, the elves stood still, watching the melting ice with expressions of joy.

They had survived.

All the disasters that had struck in the past few days had passed.

The elves celebrated this fact, embracing each other in jubilation.

“No… ”

But not everyone was able to rejoice.

Frost Lord Yerina stood by the collapsed entrance of the dungeon, staring blankly.

The stone in her hand was gradually warming up.

Her resentment towards Eugene, her magic, had disappeared.

In other words, Eugene was gone.

“Eugene! Eugene! Ahhhh!”

Yerina’s body moved on its own.

Without hesitation, Yerina began to dig through the rubble like a madwoman.

It didn’t matter how many rocks were piled in front of her.

Whether her nails were torn or her fingers were cut, it didn’t matter.

The only thought dominating Yerina’s mind was to reach where Eugene was.

“Frost Lord! Calm down! Frost Lord-”

“Arsera. No one can stop her right now. We can only wait until she collapses.”

“…”

Following behind, Jill and Yulia, blocked by Transylvania’s restraint, stood watching Yerina helplessly.

Standing on all fours, breaking and clearing stones repeatedly, Yerina was like a wild beast.

She was like a rabid dog that had lost its mind.

“The one who kept her madness in check is gone… There’s nothing we can do…”

Thud.

Jill’s teeth gritted as a sharp sound rang out.

Jill also wanted to rush forward.

But she was still too sane.

She didn’t have the strength to clear the heavy stones like Yerina.

“Jill, get the heavy equipment… We need to help her quickly…”

“Yes. I’ll help too.”

The only thing they could do was gather all the heavy equipment nearby and dig through the dungeon.

Yulia and Jill, tears in their eyes, turned around and immediately rushed into action.

They wanted to go crazy.

They wanted to lose their minds like Frost Lord, rather than feel physical pain.

But they couldn’t.

They couldn’t do that.

Someone had to remain rational.

Someone had to keep their wits about them.

Yulia and Jill, dragging their bodies that felt like they would collapse at any moment, desperately moved forward.

Hoping to rescue Eugene, who might still be alive down there…

***

Elvengard had been destroyed.

That day, the cold that had covered Elvengard had disappeared, but the land where life had been extinguished by the cold failed to recover.

And the same was true for the World Tree.

More than half of the trunk of the World Tree, eroded by the cold, had struggled to survive for about a month.

But in the end, it died completely.

The nation of the elves centered around the World Tree.

It was the moment when Elvengard faced its demise.

But that wasn’t the ‘end’ of Elvengard.

Despite the despair of the World Tree’s death, the elves’ reaction was not as desperate as one might expect.

The hundred thousand elven residents began a march along a distant path.

They reached the untamed land of Galia that they had acquired in advance.

The land was harsh, the climate was harsh, and the terrain was rugged.

But the elves immediately began to cultivate the land without a word.

There was no time to be lost in sorrow.

It was for the future.

For the Elves.

And for Elvengard.

All the Elves devoted themselves to reconstruction.

Thanks to their vastly superior physical abilities compared to humans, the new Elvengard quickly began to take on the appearance of a nation.

Although the glory of the past may have faded somewhat.

Elvengard was now striving to break free from its closed rural roots and emerge as an international city.

“Why are you resting? Activate the equipment quickly!”

“Lord of Frost. The equipment also needs some rest. If we continue to work with it overheated, it will be too much for the equipment.”

“I’ll compensate for everything if it breaks, so get to work quickly! I’ll even double the pay!”

“Sigh… Understood…”

Meanwhile, in the old Elvengard.

On the other side of the dead World Tree, which remained only as a stump, excavation work was in full swing.

Dozens of heavy equipment were lined up at the work site, which continued non-stop for over a month, 24 hours a day.

Workers hired by the Lord of Frost, the Witch, and the Saint took turns tirelessly excavating the collapsed dungeons.

The usual speed was more than five times faster, but even so, they showed no signs of fatigue.

“How’s your body?”

“My broken bones seem to have mostly healed.”

“Take a break… It’s too hard to suffer both mentally and physically… ”

After tirelessly excavating the dungeon alone all day, Yerina suffered a major injury and was dragged out.

After fainting from exhaustion and regaining consciousness, she regained her senses.

After seeing the heavy equipment gathered for work, she decided to stop digging with her hands.

“I’d rather suffer physically… If you lose your mind and keep your body exhausted, your heartache will be less immediate. So I want to go crazy again… I want to run around like crazy…”

“That, that’s something Yujin wouldn’t, wouldn’t want…”

“The rain has come three times already! What if there’s water below? Yujin would definitely be alive! It must be cold… Sob…”

Hugging Yerina, who was crying with bandages and casts all over her body, Yuria let out a worried sigh without saying a word.

They used to fight and compete with each other, but now they shared the same pain and worries, becoming the only three in the world who did so.

It no longer mattered who came first.

It was okay to share.

It was okay not to be alone.

Now all they could do was fervently hope for Yujin to come back alive.

“We’re almost at the lowest level…!”

The work continued day and night without stopping.

After endlessly digging into the dungeon, like an anthill, they were about to reveal the final boss.

Although there was no sound or sign of life from inside.

No one had given up hope among the three women.

Yujin would be alive.

They firmly believed that, without any doubt.

Their only worry was that she must be very hungry by now.

“Oh? It looks like there’s another dungeon below the floor.”

“Let’s go a little further in.”

It was time to meet Yujin now.

Surely, Yujin must have prepared a plan for this situation.

She must be waiting confidently, surrounded by a sturdy defense, snacking on cookies or something, saying, “Oh, you’re here?”

Just imagining that made them want to laugh.

Filled with anticipation of meeting Yujin, they uncovered the hidden double dungeon beneath the dungeon.

And finally, the altar buried under the pile of rocks was revealed.

“Huh…?”

And on top of it.

There was nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The expressions of the women stiffened.

“What is this?”

Yerina took off her cast and rushed in, clearing away the remaining stones and rummaging through the surroundings.

Even though she knew there was no way Eugene would be down there, she couldn’t stop herself from clearing away even the smallest stones.

“Why, why… Eugene… Where did you go?”

Thud.

With her legs giving out, Yulia sat down on the dirty floor.

She had cleared the entire dungeon.

Eugene had entered it.

And never came out.

So, if she was supposed to be in here, then where was Eugene?

There was no trace of Eugene in this place.

Not even a hint of her remains.

Instead, all that was found was a twisted, grotesque corpse.

It wasn’t Eugene, whether you looked at the clothes, height, or hair color.

“Oh, no…”

Frantically scanning the surroundings, Jill collapsed on the altar with dilated pupils.

There were no holes in the outer walls of the dungeon.

Meaning there was no way for Eugene to escape from the outside.

So how did Eugene disappear like this?

Jill found the answer to that question at this altar.

“No way… No way…”

Eugene confidently stated that there was a way to definitively capture the spirit sorceress Luna in her ethereal form.

But she hesitated to explain that method in detail.

At the time, she thought it was just too complicated to explain due to the urgency of the situation.

But now, the reason for that hesitation was clear.

What she didn’t realize at the time was her own foolishness.

“Were you planning to die from the beginning?”

Eugene had no intention of surviving.

The price of commanding Luna, the spirit, was none other than Eugene’s life.

Eugene used this altar to command Luna and offered herself to ‘someone.’

There was no other way to explain this situation.

“Haha. It’s a joke, right, Saint? Eugene wouldn’t make such a cowardly decision.”

“If it’s Eugene… Even if someone were to grab her shoulders from behind and startle her, it wouldn’t be strange…”

Laughing nervously and looking back, there was nothing there.

Only the endlessly towering dungeon walls were visible.

“Oh…”

The pupils of the three women shook.

The sudden shock was too much for them to gather their thoughts for a moment.

It was time to accept reality.

The fact that Eugene was dead.

No, the fact that Eugene had ‘disappeared’ weighed heavily on their hearts.

With a weight that they couldn’t bear, their hearts crumbled.

“Aaaaaah!”

The suppressed screams burst out.

Cries and wails erupted.

The three women, with even their tears dried up, clutched their chests and cried for a long time.

*

The ancient capital of the Holy Kingdom, Cologne.

Two letters arrived at the Briem Manor at the same time.

One was from the Elvengard Saint Mia, and the other was from the Saint Jill Diner.

“Huh…?”

Although the letters from two seemingly unrelated people arrived, their contents were the same.

Cornelia Briem’s eyes trembled as she read through the letters.

Hastily packing her belongings, she arrived at the Dead Land of the World Tree, the ancient Elvengard territory, in two days.

And there.

Cornelia encountered unexpected individuals.

“I’m sorry. It was too sudden.”

“What… What’s going on?”

Women dressed in black.

The Frost Lord, the Witch, the Saint, and the Saintess.

In addition to them, there were rabbit and fox beastmen, a young girl in a kimono, a dwarf girl, a white-haired old man, a holy knight and his younger brother, and elves.

It was a rare sight to see people of various races gathered together.

As Cornelia was bewildered by the situation, she discovered a piece of land that had been dug up to the size of a coffin and a smooth black coffin.

Staring fixedly at the tombstone embedded in the ground, Cornelius’s lips trembled as he read the inscription.

“Y-Yujin…?”

Desperately hoping that it was all a mistake.

This couldn’t be happening.

It just couldn’t be.

No one could stop Cornelius from slowly approaching the coffin and collapsing in front of it.

Everyone here had gone through this process at least once.

Just chewing on her lips.

I, too, struggled to suppress the urge to collapse and cry together.

“You said you’d come back…? You said you’d be with me in the future…? Is this all a lie? Is that it?”

“…”

“Look at this! There’s no body in the coffin! If he’s dead, where’s the body?”

“…”

“If there’s no body, then he’s not dead yet! What are you all doing?! Why are you holding a funeral for someone who’s not dead?! Ridiculous! Why are you messing with people’s hearts like this?!”

“…”

Cornelius’s anger, lost and scattered, spread everywhere.

This, too, was a process that everyone had gone through.

In the current state, no matter how much you try to explain, it’s impossible to accept.

Even if you understand it in your head, your heart is already overflowing with emotions, making it impossible to contain anything.

The only thing that could solve it was time.

“Yujin… Yujin, bravely faced his end. Saving Elvengard and a hundred thousand lives, defeating the invincible enemy… gloriously…”

“What’s glorious about it?! What’s the use of glory when you’re dead?”

“Hey! Stop whining! Do you think everyone here is just going to sit still?”

“…”

“I’m angry and unjust too! We’re all the same! But we’re enduring it…! Don’t blame and criticize the people here! No one here deserves to hear that!”

“Then… then… who’s to blame…? Who should I blame…?”

Cornelius collapsed in front of the coffin, crying.

Emotions spread one by one, eventually turning into a sea of tears.

It was an unstoppable flow.

There were those who owed Yujin a debt.

There were those who exchanged emotions with Yujin.

There were many who were saved by Yujin.

Everyone gathered here knew Yujin’s name.

Those who knew the existence of his enemies were very few.

The fact that Yujin sacrificed his life to save the world would never be known to the world.

Yujin’s journey had come to an end.

His name and story would only remain in the hearts of those gathered here.

Yujin would be forgotten, without being recorded in history.

But that didn’t mean what Yujin did was meaningless.

“Yujin’s will must continue.”

After embracing each other and comforting their wounds for a long time, they gathered together and made a resolution.

The fight was not over yet.

The immediate threat to the present world had been eliminated.

But the escaped archdemon remained.

There were remnants of the undead army that had fled from the collapsed dungeon.

And a much more powerful enemy, referred to as ‘that person,’ still remained.

Yujin was certainly strong.

But his power alone was not that great.

Yujin’s true ability was the power to gather people.

Although Yujin had disappeared.

The people he had gathered were still here.

And his will was being passed on and continued to the people.

“We want to establish an organization to resist the otherworld. We don’t know the exact deadline, but according to Yujin’s words, the enemy will surely invade to destroy the present world. Before that, we will destroy the otherworld first. It may seem dark and impossible, but it’s not. Yujin left behind a lot of legacies…”

The hope left behind by Yujin.

Fragile, but continuing.

Like a resilient ember that will never be extinguished by the wind.

“So, let’s gather our strength once more.”

The priestess swallowed her tears and made a resolution.

Even if Eugene is forgotten.

His will shall be carried on eternally.

***

After a long week of funeral rites, it all came to an end.

Only one tombstone remained on the abandoned land of Elvengard.

The tombstone, standing tall in the vast meadow in front of the empty grave, displayed its presence.

Time passed.

The sun set and rose, coloring the tombstone with shadows of light and darkness.

The wind blew, wetting and drying it repeatedly.

It even got buried under the white snow.

Time passed.

Storms passed, migratory birds came and went, and moss grew and was washed away countless times.

Despite the countless storms that passed, the tombstone remained unmoved.

It may have been chipped and weathered on the surface, but it stood firm.

“······.”

How much time had passed?

In the desolate land where dense forests once stood, a man and a girl stood in front of the lone tombstone.

“Ha······.”

The man, with a desolate smile, approached the tombstone.

He grabbed the tombstone and uprooted it from the ground.

After a moment of caressing the tombstone.

The man struck the tombstone with his hand.

In an instant, the tombstone that had stood untouched for years split in half.

Thud!

The split tombstone opened.

From within the split, a long black sword was revealed.

A sword with no hilt, only a blade.

As if familiar, the man picked up the sword and sheathed it in a wooden scabbard.

A scabbard perfectly fitting the size of the sword.

“Why did it take so long? Hehe. There are many stories······. I’ll explain slowly.”

“······.”

“Ah, but more importantly, there seems to be trouble with the undead legion. We should deal with them first.”

“······.”

“Tsk. That seems like a tough task. There’s a lot to do as soon as we return.”

“······.”

Caressing the sword, the man muttered to himself, looking up at the sky.

Leaving behind the broken tombstone.

The man, along with the girl, calmly left the grave.