Squeak

My spine tensed. Ellie’s words hit me hard. I was confused whether to be happy or sad at the words that she needed Jin Sian, not Ross. Ellie’s obsidian-like eyes were looking into me. She really wanted Jin Sian.

Only Jin Sian can resolve this situation. It was a look that fully conveyed that thought. Can I do it? No, I have to. As I was raising my hand towards the mask, Ellie suddenly grabbed my hand. It was a hand that felt warm. Ellie said in a trembling voice to me, who couldn’t fix my gaze on one place and was wandering.

“…But you have to come back. You’re Ross, after all.”

Ellie’s expression was so unfamiliar, as if she was someone forcibly pushing someone to the edge of a cliff. But at the sincere concern in her voice, I forced a smile.

“Of course. What are you worried about? I’m Ross.”

I took my hand out of her grasp and placed it on the mask. Actually, I don’t really know. Do I really have a way to become the complete Jin Sian? I recalled the advice Estelle gave me in my head. Find the Ross part of the soul where Ross and Jin Sian are mixed, and overlay Jin Sian on top of it.

What felt impossible somehow gave me a strange confidence at the touch of the mask on my fingertips. Like a coffee stain on a pure white dress shirt, a strange trace remained faintly in my soul. I had a feeling that this faint trace would help me.

The moment my palm completely touched the mask, I felt like I had been splashed with cold water. I instinctively closed my eyes and felt the materialized soul being overlaid.

The random thoughts in my head disappeared, and the voice within disappeared. Between stillness and silence, my breathing naturally calmed down and I felt as if my emotions were far away. Along with a fleeting sense of falling, time suddenly stopped completely.

***

I saw a carriage far away. I don’t know what they were doing inside, but the inside of the carriage was shaking violently. Since there was no background, no sky, no land, I approached the only carriage I could see. A black carriage remaining in a pure white world.

The closer I got, the more the carriage shook, and a sticky emotion clung to me. Suddenly, I felt a strange anxiety. I grabbed the doorknob of the carriage, but the door wouldn’t open. My hand holding the doorknob was covered in a sticky liquid. Even without looking, I could tell from the sticky texture that it was blood.

The sound of something breaking and a faint groan came from inside the carriage. The blood and brain fluid flowing from under the carriage rose to my ankles. With a click, the door lock was released.

“Ross.”

At the voice coming from the slightly open crack in the door, I unknowingly inserted my finger into the crack. No matter how much force I applied, the gap did not widen. Rather, the skin on my finger was crushed in the narrowed gap. Luna, who was groaning in pain beyond the unopened door, called my name again.

“Ross.”

I felt like the tongue in my mouth had disappeared. Since I couldn’t say anything, it must have disappeared. I tried to see Luna through the gap. But all I could see was the wall of the carriage, full of blood. All I could do was guess how painful it must have been.

“…Ross.”

Even as the skin on my finger was pushed back and torn, I forcibly inserted my hand. Even if my bones were broken, I put my arm inside. Eventually, I crushed all the bones in my body and put myself inside the carriage, and I could see Luna, who was soaked in blood.

Luna slowly lifted her eyelids as if waking up from a dream and looked at me. With tears welling up in her eyes, Luna forced a smile.

“…I missed you.”

At those words, I completely collapsed. The slightly opened carriage door closed completely again, and I fell next to Luna. With a smile full of peace.

***

Colton, who was screaming as his arm was cut off, Valentine, who was preparing intense flame magic to fill the entire dome, Derok, who was rushing to save Kelton, the only surviving comrade, and Lamine, who had finished temporary treatment and picked up his spear again. And Raelan and Ellie simultaneously felt an indescribable feeling.

The enemy who was about to swing the black sword at Kelton also felt it. Without realizing it, his head turned. The monster’s survival instinct reacted. Deny that thing’s existence. But I couldn’t. Even if the black sword thrashed and tried to push it away, it could never be denied.

Ross’s appearance hadn’t changed. The surrounding space wasn’t distorted, and he wasn’t emitting a dangerous atmosphere. But everyone here saw the moment when his essence was revealed for a moment. In the starlight of the vast universe, there exists an endless abyss. So beautiful and pure that its very existence is oppressive, a swirling pure chaos.

Zorga, the owner of the black sword and the guardian created by the labyrinth, felt everything collapsing. In Ross’s gaze, he felt a negativity as if he shouldn’t exist. He wanted to stick the black sword into his own head if he could.

But the power of the labyrinth resisted it, and Zorga regained his senses. Realizing that he had almost killed himself, Zorga grabbed the black sword in anger. Denying that he was feeling fear and terror, Zorga rushed at Ross and swung the black sword at Ross with all his might.

“…What the hell are you?”

The trajectory of the black sword was distorted and did not reach Ross. Ross, no, Jin Sian, frowned as he looked at Zorga with a blunt voice. Zorga felt a strange sensation as if a bug with dozens of legs was rummaging through his head.

“You don’t even appear in my novel, you know?”

A huge pressure oppressed Zorga. Resisting the intangible force that urged suicide, Zorga swung the black sword again, but Jin Sian just watched and did not avoid it. The black sword touched Jin Sian’s shoulder. But it couldn’t dig in any further. Just by touching the body wrapped in pure chaos, the black sword was eroded by the chaos and lost its power.

Zorga felt as if everything was being pierced through by Jin Sian’s gaze, which looked into his entirety. Before Zorga could do anything, Jin Sian said in a voice mixed with lament.

“Get out of my world, you dummy.”

Zorga’s body shattered and scattered in the chaos brought about by that one word. No one felt anything strange as they watched it scatter. It was the natural end of something that should not exist in Jin Sian’s world.

Jin Sian slowly turned his gaze around and let out a hollow laugh. Finally, Jin Sian’s gaze was fixed on Ellie. Raelan belatedly came to his senses and became nervous at the sight of Jin Sian just watching Ellie without doing anything. Even when looking through the familiar’s gaze, trying not to look directly at Jin Sian, his brain felt numb.

But even while making eye contact with Jin Sian, Ellie opened her mouth without any hesitation.

“…Give him back.”

“What?”

“My childhood friend.”

Ellie pointed her staff at Jin Sian. Only then did Raelan realize that the area around Jin Sian was gradually leaving blurry afterimages. A storm of causality and probability will come. To return the creator who suddenly descended into the world to his original place.

“You’re not the Ellie I know.”

With just that one word, Ellie vomited blood from the tremendous pressure that crushed her very soul. She almost dropped her staff, but Ellie barely grabbed it with her fingertips and pointed the staff again, saying.

“Go back. This isn’t the only world for you.”

“I’m thinking of doing that too. Actually, I didn’t know it would still be going on until now.”

Jin Sian said with a sigh.

“I need to end it completely so that I don’t have to come back again.”

At those words, Ellie rushed towards Jin Sian. Just approaching him caused extreme pain as her internal organs ruptured and blood vessels tore, but Ellie stood proudly in front of Jin Sian. Jin Sian, who was trying to quietly end everything, felt interested in that action.

“The author has a duty to take responsibility for his story.”

At Ellie’s words, Jin Sian twisted one corner of his mouth.

“Yeah, even if it’s the worst story, the author has to finish it.”

“So, give him back. We, the you here… haven’t finished it yet.”

At Ellie’s words, Jin Sian tilted his head from side to side. In an instant, his pupils split into dozens, hundreds, and then merged back into one.

“That’s not what I did. He didn’t come back on his own.”

“No, I promised me. I promised to come back.”

“Oops, I was born from lies. I won’t keep my promise.”

Ellie smiled at Jin Sian’s mockery.

“No, you will keep it. The person I know is similar to you, but not the same.”

Jin Sian, who was about to raise his hand to mock Ellie, burst out laughing at the squeaking sound echoing in his head.

“I see, that’s true.”