Chapter 127: Shattering the Illusion
He stared at her in a daze. Then their eyes happened to meet, and his sister, noticing him at last, came over with a startled look.
"What’s this? Walfred, what happened to your face?"
His sister reached out and cupped his cheek.
A warm touch, faint creases on her palm. That soft sensation came through with heartbreaking clarity.
"Seriously, why is your face half of what it used to be?"
"Huh? Is it? I hadn’t noticed."
"Oh, you. Look right here. Your cheeks are completely sunken in. You’re nothing but bone."
His sister’s face was full of worry.
Beside her, his niece tilted her head.
Watching the mother and daughter, so clearly close, Walfred kept his mouth firmly shut, saying nothing.
Then his sister spoke again.
"Are you actually eating properly?"
"..."
"Don’t tell me you’re still pulling all-nighters playing games every day?"
His sister pressed him, eyes full of suspicion.
At that, Jenna waved her hands as if coming to Walfred’s defense.
"Come on, Mom. Uncle doesn’t game anymore."
"Hm? And how would you know that?"
"Because he quit the game we were playing together last week, said work got busy... Ah!"
Had she realized her slip too late?
Jenna hurriedly clapped both hands over her mouth.
But the damage was already done.
"...Jenna."
"M-Mom! It’s not what you think..."
"You! I bought you that brand-new phone because you promised you’d quit gaming, and you’ve been sneaking games behind my back with your uncle?!"
The scolding cracked down like a thunderbolt.
Apparently predicting what would come next, Jenna began inching backward.
"I, I quit! Uncle quit, so I’m done too! So it’s fine! Safe!"
"Safe, my foot! Get over here!"
"Waaah! Uncle! Help!"
His sister gave chase, looking ready to smack her across the back at any second, while Jenna nimbly fled.
A scene that filled him with happiness just from watching. Walfred simply looked on in silence.
"..."
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times over.
The scene he had wished for, again and again.
But by a cruel irony,
precisely because he had wished for it so many countless times, Walfred came to a realization. This scene unfolding before his eyes could never, ever be real.
"Phew, forget it."
Meanwhile, his sister, apparently out of stamina, gave up the chase. She picked up the bag she’d left by the front door and said,
"Let’s head to the restaurant first. We can’t be late for the reservation."
"Sounds good! Where’s Dad?"
"He says he’ll meet us there."
"Tsk. He could’ve come to pick us up."
"Right? Honestly, the man has no sense."
The two of them looked as close as ever, as if they’d never been bickering at all. Standing by the front door, they called out to Walfred.
"Walfred. What are you doing? Hurry up."
"Uncle! Come on!"
The two of them urged him to hurry.
Walfred stood in the living room, taking in the sight of the two of them standing side by side, holding it in his eyes for a long moment.
And then,
"...Right."
He nodded slowly, and his gaze moved to Jenna.
"I’m almost there, so hang on just a little longer."
"What? Hang on?"
"Yeah. I’ll be in Key West soon."
"Huhh? Uncle, are you still half asleep?"
Jenna didn’t bother hiding her bafflement.
But Walfred didn’t answer. Instead, he turned to his sister this time, his lips parting.
"Sis."
"Hm?"
"Happy birthday."
Was it the out-of-nowhere birthday wish?
His sister’s eyes widened a little.
Then she let out a soft laugh and said,
"What’s this, all of a sudden? After all this time."
"...I just wanted to say it."
Because that day, he never got the chance.
Walfred smiled bitterly.
And one more thing.
If he could share one last goodbye with his sister, there were words he’d always wanted to say. Walfred looked her straight in the eye and spoke.
"Don’t worry about Jenna."
Fists clenched hard enough to draw blood, Walfred steeled his resolve.
"I’ll protect her to the very end."
No matter what happens. Without fail.
With that, he had said everything he wanted to say.
Meanwhile, the mother and daughter stared at Walfred with puzzled expressions.
"Mom, isn’t Uncle acting weird?"
"Yeah. What’s gotten into him today?"
Walfred didn’t answer.
Instead, he quietly closed his eyes and drew every drop of mana and every sense in his body to its absolute limit.
In that instant,
Crack! Krakakakaka!
[Rapid Freeze] erupted at maximum output.
A wave of overwhelming cold radiated out from Walfred, freezing everything around him in the blink of an eye.
The living room, the sofa, the front door.
Even the figures of his sister and Jenna. All of it.
And then,
Crunch!
The surrounding space warped.
With a sound like shattering glass, the scenery around Walfred transformed in an instant.
In place of warm sunlight, biting cold.
In place of the old sofa and TV, the cement walls of the abandoned research and development center. And in the direction where his sister and Jenna had stood...
[మటయ౯ఓగ──!?]
was a hideous jellyfish monster.
Its body was slathered in grayish-white slime. A bloated mass more than a dozen feet across, with a single gigantic eyeball.
And hundreds of tentacles, frozen solid in midair in the middle of trying to wrap around Walfred.
Just then,
Ding!
His vision flashed red, and a familiar alert appeared.
[Warning! Powerful monster detected!]
[Elite: Soul Eater]
[Rank: A+]
[Immediate evacuation recommended!]
It was the moment the creature’s identity was revealed.
The Soul Eater. The thing blinked its revolting eyeball at Walfred, over and over. Each time it did, the hallucination he’d just seen flickered rapidly before him again.
But every single time,
Crunch! Krakakaka!
the [Rapid Freeze] radiating from Walfred’s body shattered the illusion and froze the creature’s flesh.
The eyeball was plainly flustered.
Meeting its gaze, Walfred opened his mouth.
"...Accelerate."
And in that instant, Walfred vanished in the blink of an eye.
The panicked Soul Eater rolled its eyeball frantically, searching for him, and soon found him.
Right in front of it.
[────!]
What was reflected in the Soul Eater’s eyeball next was an axe made of ice.
And then,
Thwaaaack!
with a violent crack of impact,
the gigantic eyeball split in two.