Chapter 187: Chapter 183: A Virtuous End

The wind blew.

In the place they thought the fight would end, an endlessly cold and harsh wind swept through, fiercer than before.

But all they could do was grieve.

Grieve for those they were connected to, resonating with the awakened emotion of sorrow, and simply mourn his end.

“Ah, uh, gah… ah…”

Yes, this fight had already ended.

All he could do, his flesh burning from the heat that evaporated his blood, was exhale without even being able to scream.

But there was something to do before completely cutting off his breath.

-Crackle.

Francheska. The reason I came to this place where I could escape.

The child whose yearning to see again I couldn’t suppress, leading me here. A girl who simply wanted to protect and love humans.

“Flang. Pull yourself together, Flang!”

I melted and broke the ice imprisoning her, laying her down gently to prevent her body from breaking.

But she wasn’t breathing. There was no pulse.

Had he been too late…? No. It was because she was a doll.

Surely, she would be fine. If only we could get out of here, she would surely recover.

“Ka, huh, aaah…!”

But just as that faint hope began to rise, the monster’s body stirred.

Feeling my breath catch, I gripped the spear and quickly looked back at the spot where I had previously struck down the monster.

It was standing up. No, it was still just attempting to stand.

Using the cold to replace its depleted regenerative power, substituting its missing body parts.

“You stubborn idiot bear…”

You could just die peacefully there, so why struggle like that?

Why are you making me aim my spear at you again?

“No, don’t.”

Swallowing such resentment, just as I aimed my spear, my body halted.

It didn’t take long to realize the cause.

Flang’s fingers, which I had laid on the floor for a moment, were trying to grasp my leg.

“Flang.”

“Don’t do it…”

Starting with that, Flang struggled to stand up from her spot, passed by me, and finally blocked my way.

A creaking sound was heard with each step.

Some of her joints seemed to have already lost their function, and some parts were even dangling.

“Don’t… kill him.”

Blocking my way in such a miserable state, the monster who had trapped her in ice was there.

I didn’t know why he did such a thing, but then the monster went on a rampage and tried to destroy her…

“Please don’t kill Mr. Phobia.”

“Don’t say something so absurd!!”

Was it because she just woke up and couldn’t grasp the situation? Or was it because she was overwhelmed with old emotions and guilt?

Whatever it was, I couldn’t just leave him be now that he had become a monster.

The fact that he couldn’t return to his original self was something she, who told me about the monster’s identity, taught me first.

“That guy isn’t who we knew! If we don’t kill him now…”

“And then what?”

But I couldn’t ignore her question that cut off my shout.

The face looking up clearly at me, blocking my way at this moment, looked sadder than ever.

“After killing Mr. Phobia, will anything… change?”

“…Flang.”

“No matter where we go… it’s the same.”

Her tears froze in the cold and were eventually swept away by the blizzard.

As if even this world refused to allow grief.

“Everyone is in pain, and everyone suffers. No matter what we do, we can’t overturn a world so utterly broken… because this world is beyond saving.”

We were abandoned in such a hopeless world.

And we knew all too well that any escape from it might lead only to another despair.

“Even in such a world… I wish there was hope.”

What kind of salvation could be allowed for one broken by such a world?

“I want to believe… that even people who’ve fallen into despair can rise again. That if they endure, something good will come their way…”

The girl, who could not become a savior, directly conveyed her desire for such salvation to me at this moment.

“…Even if it’s just a dream to fall asleep to.”

To forget the miserable reality and seek solace in an illusion.

To ignore the harsh truth and pursue a false happiness.

“Even someone as broken as that… might return to being human. I want to believe that… as I drift into sleep.”

“Stop spouting nonsense!”

I understood her feelings.

I had always wanted to escape reality and run away, just like that.

“You know better than anyone that once he becomes like that, he can never return. You were the one who taught me that!”

Still, I had to act.

Letting her sink into her dream was tantamount to letting her die.

“Even so… I can’t anymore.”

But as if rejecting my plea, she averted her gaze, refusing to meet my eyes.

Yet even with her head bowed, her sobs escaped.

“I… I just… I can’t do this anymore.”

“Flang!”

“If you can’t stop it… then please, kill me here too.”

Then her outstretched hand reached for the spear in my hand.

She began to pull the tip of the spear toward herself.

“I don’t want… to fight you…”

Her strength was entirely gone.

Her body could crumble at any moment, and it was doubtful whether she could ever recover even if we escaped this place.

“I don’t want to harm the one who provided a place for me to be at ease.”

Even though she was so broken, she couldn’t let go of her mission.

As a protector of humanity, she lived for the mission of annihilating all threats to humanity, even prepared to fight me for it.

“So please…”

Was that why she had come here?

Despite the mission to save the empire, did she end up in this miserable state because she didn’t want to fight me, defying the prophecy?

“Just… kill me here…”

What should I do in front of such a pitiful girl?

The child I yearned for refused to be with me, and at this moment, she wished for her own death to resist a cruel fate.

What words should I use to give her hope and persuade her to live in this cruel world together with me?

-Crack.

At that moment, the monster, which had frozen its body and partially repaired its missing parts, began to stand up and look down at me and Flang.

Step by step, the monster closed the distance between me and Flang.

“Mr. Phobia…”

Unlike me, who felt the danger, Flang was sobbing and expressing her despair toward him.

“No, don’t.”

While I was readying myself to hurl my spear, she pleaded with the monster, who had, by now, lost all semblance of humanity.

“Please, don’t let it come to this…”

She wished for even the smallest glimmer of hope to exist in this world before he met eternal rest.

“…for my sake.”

Just as I was about to ignore that futile wish and throw the spear, his mouth opened, and a voice emerged, stopping my action.

What did he just say?

“For my sake… you’re crying for me, aren’t yo

Yes, he spoke.

The monster that had been rampaging until now began to speak human words in front of us at this moment.

“Mr. Phobia…”

“Yes, you’ve always been… by my side.”

Noticing this, the girl before him began to cry. He continued,

“Like a star in the night sky… in the pitch-black darkness, you alone have kept me from falling apart. You watched over me…”

I didn’t know why he said such things to Flang.

Nor could I fathom how someone who had become a monster could utter such rational words.

But one thing was certain.

The reason the blizzard had weakened in that moment was that the madness tormenting him had subsided.

“…Woo Hyo-sung.”

And then, with his regained clarity, he turned his gaze toward me.

He spoke my name, which he had once been introduced to.

“Is that your name?”

“Are you… back to your senses?”

“I’m not sure. My mind is still a mess, but your name is the one thing I can remember.”

With a faint glimmer of hope, I questioned him, but he calmly shook his head and replied.

“I remember that someday, we were meant to meet as enemies. Perhaps that moment is now.”

“…

“The one I serve is crying behind me, and my enemy stands before me.”

Quietly, Phobia Homer gazed down at me.

Though his body trembled as if consumed by madness again, his gaze was eerily calm.

“Do you know what that means?”

He recalled only the memory of meeting as enemies someday, yet somehow, it was clear that his current actions were driven by a duty to protect the girl sobbing behind him. �

“…I see.”

Perhaps it was inevitable.

Even if he had regained his reason or fallen into delusion, it would only last a moment.

-Swish.

Gripping my spear, I aimed it at his head and steadied my breath to gather strength.

What I had to do was no different from before.

I had to take him down, protect the girl behind him, and escape this place.

“Woo Hyo-sung…”

Around Phobia, who accepted such a fate, a cold wind began to blow quietly.

In the parts of his body seared with heat enough to evaporate flowing blood, new flesh of ice began to grow gradually.

The flesh turned into skin, and beyond that, into a form of armor covering his broken body…

“To my enemy, I ask this.”

Now clad like a knight, he faced me and calmly posed a question.

“What do I look like to you now?”

It was a question with an answer already decided.

An utterly predictable one.

It was indeed a futile life.

In an era where the framework of society was broken, and ethics and morality held no value, the life of a boy was destined to drift aimlessly until death.

So, the extended hand of goodwill was eventually seen as salvation.

Thus, the boy served the god followed by those who saved him, and with that name engraved in his heart, he grew up and entered the path of a knight.

Repeating prayers to overcome hardship, prayers to overcome crises, and prayers to mourn the victims…

But even considering it a trial, the knight who ultimately couldn’t overcome it sought power, and, in the end, entered a corrupt path, abandoning his human flesh and being expelled from society.

It was inevitable. Even if it were himself, he would have done the same.

Thus, the beast who encouraged those around him while admonishing himself eventually met another beast in the same situation and fell in love.

Yes, even beasts could have love. Even after straying from the human path, he realized that he was still allowed the emotion of love.

Faithful to such love, he unconsciously repeated prayers to the old god, who could no longer save him.

Even when he sought a happy life with his family in a village built in the forest, and when that village was burned down by demons from the outside world, and his beloved wife and daughter were found in a dreadful state.

The next generation of his kin, spurred by his experience, soon developed hatred toward humanity, and unable to resist that flow, he reluctantly turned his old homeland into an enemy…

Even while following that flow, he always nurtured his love for the god he served and found solace in it.

Even if he couldn’t receive love, he could give it.

He believed that at least that would be allowed even to a beast who had fallen into a monster.

“Woo Hyo-sung.”

At the end of such a life, at this moment, he finally faced his god.

The monster, realizing that she still loved him, faithfully following his heart’s beating, posed a question to his nemesis.

“To my foe, I ask this.”

He wasn’t sure of himself.

He was clinging to the rope he barely found, resisting desperately, but still felt pain, and his mind was a mess.

“What do I look like to you now?”

Perhaps everything he was accomplishing at that moment was nothing but a facade.

The words coming out of his mouth, his current actions, and even the armor borrowed from old memories that surrounded him.

All of it might be meaningless, without any weight, just seemingly elaborate.

“…A human.”

Yet the foe before him answered.

Speaking through a spirit to convey sincerity, leaving no room for falsehood.

“You’re human. Just like me.”

No, it was not a facade.

Though it was miserable, having gone through all that, he was allowed to stand here as ‘a human being’.

“Then come at me, warrior!”

Realizing that, his mouth opened, and soon, a battle cry began to erupt.

“Today, I will fight to protect my god on this land with my life! I will live the end of this life as a human!!”

The wailing, soaked in grief, soon turned into a war cry.

The armor, which was merely a facade, eventually became a warrior’s gear and began to charge toward him.

“For Lady Friga!”

The man, facing the warrior preparing for the final crusade, finally swallowed his grief and thrust the spear in his hand.

The ice-replaced front leg melted uselessly in the heat, and the sharply honed blade finally reached the vital point…

Piercing his throat to put an end to the pain.

-Squelch!

That was the end met by the human born into this cruel world, at the end of a miserable life.

But the final moment was certainly noble.