Osian silently gazed at Rommel's corpse.
Although his expression as a monster was unrecognizable, it was clear that he had gone peacefully.
'If it had been a game.'
If moving on to the next round, they could meet again. And could have undone the wrong choices.
But now that it had become reality, it wasn't so. Farewells here become eternal farewells where they can never meet again.
Yes. This was Rommel's end.
Osian raised his head and stared blankly at the ceiling.
He could see the faint starlight remaining here and there from the aftermath of the battle disappearing.
Like Rommel's fading life, those too would vanish futilely.
-Shwick.Osian held his sword vertically to show respect toward Rommel.
"This time, may you rest in peace."
*
Osian trudged through the underground waterway.
Krua, who had been waiting for Osian up ahead, spotted him and approached urgently.
"You, you! What were you thinking doing something like that! More importantly, are you okay? We heard an incredibly serious sound from where we left. I really thought an earthquake had occurred..."
Krua was about to say something but stopped momentarily after seeing Osian's face.
"Are you... okay?"
"I'm fine."
"How can you be fine? Do you even know what your expression looks like right now?"
"My expression?"
"Well..."
Krua was about to say something but stopped. Because she knew there was no point in mentioning it if Osian himself wasn't aware.
"Anyway, forget it. The monster?"
"There is no more monster. Because it's over."
"...Did you really defeat that monster alone?"
"Well. I wonder if it should be called defeating it."
Osian recalled the final exchange he had with Rommel.
The final strike launched against Rommel who was wielding the Starlight Sword with all his might.
At the moment their swords crossed and aimed for each other's throats, Osian saw Rommel's sword path deviate ever so slightly.
"He left on his own."
If Rommel had swung his sword straight through, he clearly could have inflicted damage on Osian too.
It was the power of Starlight, after all. Even for someone as sturdy as Osian, getting hit by the same Starlight would be just as dangerous.
While he wouldn't die thanks to the Starlight Armor and coat, he couldn't have avoided severe injuries.
Rommel deliberately made his attack miss out of consideration for Osian.
"That was just like him."
"What does that mean?"
"It means it's all over now. Let's head back. We need to report the results to the client."
Though Krua didn't understand what Osian was saying, she could sense that he had been affected somehow.
"Well well. You really did come back alive?"
When Krua brought him to the meeting point, the underground keeper who had guided them widened his eyes upon seeing Osian's face.
For him, who still vividly remembered being chased by the monster, it was hard to believe that Osian had returned alive.
"Are you really a living person? You weren't revived as a corpse by some dark mage, right?"
"Hey you. Is that what you say to someone who came back safely?"
Krua, who was next to Osian, snapped and kicked the underground keeper's shin.
The pain made the underground keeper come to his senses and realize this wasn't a dream.
"Wow, seriously real. To survive against that monster."
Wonder what reaction he would show if told that rather than just surviving, the monster was defeated.
But Krua didn't bother explaining that part. After all, Osian's expression was that of someone who just wanted to return quickly.
"Hey, enough, let's go back. The mission was successful anyway. There were some issues in between, but we're safe so it's fine."
At Krua's urging, the group returned to Zero Ground.
The atmosphere in Zero Ground was a bit chaotic, perhaps due to the earthquake from earlier.
It was a natural reaction since underground cities are vulnerable to natural disasters.
"This is where Atilla and I part ways. It was nice seeing you after so long."
"I-if we can meet again, see you next time."
When the timid Atilla said those words, Krua's eyes widened and she put her arm around Atilla's neck.
"See? Even my sister says so. Let's meet again when we have the chance."
Seeing that sight, Osian smiled slightly and replied.
"Right. It was nice meeting you too. See you next time."
After saying goodbye to the lingering sisters, Osian headed to where the masked man was.
As if it had been arranged beforehand, the nearby guards let Osian in without saying much.
Like before, after opening several doors, he arrived at an antique room.
"You've arrived."
The masked man sat quietly in his chair. His gaze was fixed on the flames in the fireplace on one side of the room.
Instead of responding to the greeting, Osian naturally sat down on the sofa placed opposite to him.
They remained still for a while. Only the soft crackling sound of burning firewood in the fireplace echoed.
A fireplace in a library wall. While it seemed like a design with fire hazard risks, figuring they must have built it calculating for all that, he decided not to worry needlessly.
The masked man was the first to break the silence.
"I couldn't protect my dear friend. Rather, I only received help."
He removed the black leather glove worn on his right hand.
Black energy rose up and swarmed over the skin that had changed as if terribly burned.
It was a curse similar to the one that had consumed Rommel's body. Though weaker than that one, the essence was the same.
"I was in the process of becoming a monster, afflicted by an ancient curse. Rommel took on the curse in my stead to save me. Do you know what my first emotion was at that moment? It was 'what a relief'."
The man stared at his trembling palm as if cursing it, then clenched it into a fist.
"My dear friend sacrificed himself by taking my place, and yet there I was, feeling relieved about surviving rather than feeling grateful. Later when I realized what had happened to Rommel, regret came flooding in, but it was already too late."
"Was there no way to reverse it?"
"I searched and researched for a long time, but it wasn't possible. Because curses don't disappear so easily. Moreover, the ancient curse dwelling in Rommel's body was a culmination of all sorts of powers that dark mages had mixed together solely to bring about destruction. Treatment wasn't even a consideration."
"So that's why it couldn't be dispelled."
Because they deliberately made it malicious without even considering the possibility of dispelling it.
The masked man nodded.
"Yes. Moreover, that power had already eaten away at Rommel's flesh, so if the curse itself was completely removed, Rommel would have died anyway. The curse became both Rommel's death and, ironically, his lifeline."
Osian recalled the tentacles that had fallen from Rommel's body.
Those tentacles, the manifestation of the curse, couldn't withstand the power of Starlight and melted away as they were expelled from his body.
But at the same time, Rommel's body weakened, and as a result, he met his death.
Even if Osian had lost the fight and died, it would have been the same for Rommel.
"Part of that curse still dwells in my body. Though I truly hate it, it's also this power that has kept me alive until now."
"Is your body alright?"
"The amount of curse is minimal. It's not enough to eat away at my mind, and it seems to know that if it tried to do so and I died, it would die too, so it works to keep me alive."
Now it was closer to being a living parasite rather than a curse.
A parasite that continues to sustain its host to survive.
"So that's why you asked me about Rommel. Thinking that with the power I possess, I might be able to somehow bring him back."
"Yes. Shamefully, as someone who can hardly be called a knight anymore, I couldn't bring Rommel back. But I thought you would be different, you who had defeated even a god and experienced ascension."
Ascension.
A new word came from the masked man's mouth.
But Osian didn't immediately ask what it was. Since he would naturally come to know anyway, he decided to focus on the man's story for now.
"I couldn't do anything. Though I knew I needed to end his life for Rommel's honor, I couldn't bring myself to kill my dear friend."
"So that's why you prepared a space where he could stay, and let him live there."
The masked man carefully asked.
"What happened to Rommel?"
Silently, Osian took out Rommel's helmet from his bracelet and placed it on the table.
Seeing Rommel's rusted helmet, the man caressed it with trembling hands.
After composing his emotions, he asked.
"Did he go peacefully?"
"He went as Knight Rommel, not as a corrupted monster."
"I, see. That's a relief."
The man removed the plague doctor mask worn on his face.
Hot tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Truly, what a relief."
Though he couldn't witness his friend's end, he was sincerely grateful to at least receive news like this.
Watching this sight, Osian recalled the inscription on the armor Rommel had given.
While the armor's name was nothing special, the equipment description window had a sentence saying it belonged to someone precious to Rommel.
And even the name.
Though the memory was now hazy from being too long ago, seeing the man's tears suddenly made the name come back clearly.
"Gaien."
The man's shoulders jerked at Osian's words.
He looked at Osian with eyes wondering how he knew his name.
"How do you know my name...?"
"I heard it from Rommel when I met him very long ago."
-For my most precious friend Gaien.
That inscription must have surely been written by Rommel.
Osian gripped Rommel's helmet and summoned Starlight.
With a whoosh, pure white flames enveloped the helmet and completely stripped away the rust on its surface.
The aged helmet changed to look completely new, with faint starlight dwelling within it.
The masked man, Gaien, stared at that sight as if entranced.
His pupils were filled with the starlight flickering on Rommel's helmet.
"Take it."
"Can I... really accept this?"
"It's for you, Rommel's friend."
"This is for knights. How could someone like me, who isn't even a knight anymore, accept something so precious...?"
One might say what's so important about just a helmet, but it wasn't like that at all for Gaien.
To him, armor was a symbol of knighthood. For Gaien, who lived while rejecting his calling after being corrupted by the curse, it was now an object of longing that felt almost sacrilegious to even think about.
"Even so, it's yours."
"Why is that? I'm already a fallen knight."
"Even if it falls from the sky and is buried in mud."
Osian held out the helmet to Gaien.
"The fact that it's a star doesn't change."
"..."
Gaien gaped as if shocked by those words.
His trembling hands naturally accepted the helmet.
The Starlight power dwelling in Rommel's helmet gently penetrated his body.
Though the curse dwelling in his body shrank back, the Starlight didn't try to remove the curse itself.
It merely eased some of the pain dwelling in Gaien's body.
Gaien stared intently at Rommel's helmet before naturally placing it on his knees.
Then he put the plague doctor mask back on.
"Not yet, I don't think I'm ready to possess this yet. This seems more fitting for who I am now."
"Is that so?"
"But someday, surely..."
"Yes."
Even without hearing the rest of Gaien's words, his wishes were clear.
Osian nodded with a faint smile.
Having finished sorting out his troubled feelings, Gaien moved on to the next topic.
"I apologize for showing such an unsightly appearance. Now, we should discuss the request. Osian, you successfully completed my request. So I should hand over a fitting reward."
"Ah right, there was that."
"What information would you like?"
"After I disappeared, what happened to this world? How much do you know about this world?"
"Let's proceed with the story calmly first. Do you remember what you did at the end, Osian?"
"I..."
Osian traced back his memories.
Actually, as for memories, the last thing was defeating the final boss in the 99th round.
"The God of Deep Law. You defeated him."
"Yes. I defeated him, and after that..."
There are no memories after that. In the game, after defeating him the story ended there. All that was left was choosing whether to move on to the next round or not.
"This is where I should start explaining. After defeating him, you took on divinity. No, you must have had divinity from before then. With that as the final piece, you reached a certain level."
"Reached?"
"Yes. Because that was the process of ascension."
Ascension. That word appeared again.
"You're saying I ascended after defeating him?"
This was a very important clue. Usually in the game, what happens when moving to the next round wasn't shown.
After defeating the boss, that round ends. Watching the given ending was the last thing.
And the ending Osian remembers concluded with defeating the god oppressing the world and the world regaining its freedom.
"Yes. Knights are those who handle the power of the heavens. Among them, only an extremely small number gain the qualification for ascension, and among those, an even smaller number finally achieve all their great works and ascend. At the end of handling the power of stars, they eventually become stars themselves."
"Become stars. Do they go somewhere?"
"I don't know the details. I too only know from old documents and stories of ancient people. Far beyond the celestial bodies, a place where outside beings sometimes visit. Perhaps it leads to an even broader world."
However, Gaien continued.
"But you did not. You who should have become a star or gone somewhere, are here now."
"What happened that day?"
That day. The day Osian defeated the final boss who was also a god.
The world changed based on that point in time.
"A beam of light shot up toward the sky. And countless stars fell to the ground."