I drifted through the darkness. Nothing was visible. I couldn't tell if I was stepping on the ground, and even my sense of direction had lost its value.
The darkness was very cold where light didn't reach. A chill seeped into my bones.
If I exhaled, my breath would probably fog up. But because it was inside the darkness, I couldn't see it.
Everything here was pitch black. Even time and space seemed frozen and imperceptible. Because I couldn't see anything, I couldn't move, and so all I could do was simply think inside my head.
I reflected on the past. Before I opened my eyes in this world. Even much further back than that. The days when I looked at the world through a monitor.
This world was a game to me. All elements were made up of graphics built by accumulating data. I had adventures there.
At first, I was helplessly defeated. Monster attacks, dangerous traps, unreasonable terrain, unfamiliar mechanisms.
I died so many times. I died stupidly too. I thought about quitting several times, crushed by it all. But to give up like this stirred up a pointless stubbornness in me. So I kept challenging it. Even after dying, dying, and dying again.
That's how my skills improved and I accumulated know-how. As I kept at it, I found it fun. My eye for things developed, and I learned how to respond.
I continued the adventure.
The world inside the game was vast. It was expansive and beautiful. How many times did I think to myself how wonderful it would be if that were real and not just graphics?
I defeated monsters, traveled through fields, and met various NPCs.
Yes. I really met so many. There were cheerful characters, and characters who couldn't overcome their innate tragic fate. There were cunning and quick-witted ones, and people who were simply good. They had charm and seemed like truly living people.
Being involved with them while progressing through quests was a great joy for me. Of course, traveling alone would be too empty and boring.
But as I headed toward the end of the story, and as the enemies gradually grew stronger.
The people with me only decreased. And so finally, when I stood before the final boss, there was no one by my side.
Even when I defeated the boss after countless challenges, those who had disappeared never returned.
All those who had been with me fell before fate. Only I overcame the law and transcended the limits to gain the qualification for ascension.
The knight who defeated the god thus ascended and became a star in the sky.
That would have been the ending of this game. No scene existed after that. Majestic music simply flowed as the ending credits rolled.
What emotion did I feel while watching that scene? Was it the exhilaration of finally seizing victory after dying and challenging the difficult final boss over and over?
No. What I felt was emptiness.
I had defeated the supreme enemy and reached the pinnacle as a knight. Ascension was a privilege given only to those qualified, having transcended their own limits. That was surely an honorable thing. Even though it was something in a game, it was enough to feel a sense of achievement.
Yet I wasn't happy at all.
When there's no one around, what's the point of having the qualification for ascension alone? What value is there in becoming a great existence alone after sending everyone away?
[Would you like to proceed to the next playthrough?]
So I immediately pressed the button. The world changed, and I returned to the beginning again.
The relationships I had built with the characters were also reset. I felt considerable loss at that, but I moved right away.
The second playthrough was easier. Since they were enemies whose patterns I already knew, there wasn't much difficulty. The enemies also grew stronger to match my strengthened state, but they were enemies I could defeat even when I was infinitely weak in the first place.
And so I defeated them, faced the relationships I had passed by, and did my best to prevent them from meeting the worst endings.
But this game, cruelly enough, never grants what the user wishes for. Even if I kept them alive, that was never a happy ending. They often despaired at cruel truths, or survived with fatal injuries instead of dying, or their minds broke.
That didn't change even after repeated playthroughs. As if this were a predetermined fate, the conclusion was always the same.
I could reach the highest throne, but no one remained by my side. Why didn't I give up in the end while repeating such meaningless endings?
Yes. I simply wanted to see it.
In this beautiful world that I loved and was deeply absorbed in. The new story that unfolds after the end of the story I created.
I wasn't the kind of person who ruminates on feelings in a sentimental state while watching an ending with lingering impressions. If I saw an ending, I was the kind of person who had to scrape up and see everything—the afterword, side stories, epilogue—to feel satisfied. Open endings could go to hell. Sad endings and the like could go to hell too.
At the moment of ascension, I looked at the sky. Like me, souls who had ascended alone and lonely to become the veil of stars. They were great warriors, omnipotent mages, strong knights, destructive dark mages, and renowned priests and paladins.
Those who went to the veil of stars fought to protect the world from the outside.
I would have spent my time occupying a part of that place too.
I hated that. Was this all the conclusion I got after sending away precious relationships? It was unacceptable.
Just look at how the world is sustained by relying on outstanding individuals. Look at how the world ended up after relying on just one person, how that despair which embodied it all came crashing into the world and created this mess.
The reason I gave up ascension and scattered my power throughout the world was because one person alone can do nothing. Because everyone must carve out their own path and fight on.
To see that, I willingly chose this path.
"So, I can't just stay collapsed in a place like this."
I raised my body in the darkness.
Warmth returned to my body as light flowing from me illuminated the darkness. I stood up and stared at the endless darkness.
Nothing was visible. But I could feel it. From the place that created this space, Taiheo was staring at me.
It would want to ask me. Why are you trying to get up? The answer was already decided.
"Does a star need a reason to burn?"
Stars burn brilliantly and beautifully. There's no reason for the radiance they emit. It's not cool to question that reason. Stars simply shine silently.
[No star burns eternally.]
Taiheo spoke to me. Though I hadn't felt any emotion from it until now, for the first time I felt some kind of emotion from the creature. Regret, lingering attachment, sadness.
The reason it could say such a thing was because it had experienced it more keenly than anyone.
Before becoming the Void, it must have been a star that shone more brilliantly than anything else in the world.
Everyone must have looked up to it. There would have been no place in the world where its radiance didn't reach. But a star's lifespan isn't infinite.
Even stars that seem to burn eternally to people have a predetermined lifespan in the end. From the universe's perspective, stars are also just beings that fade and pass away.
"Yes. I know it well. There are no eternally burning stars in the world. Any star is bound to die someday."
Nothing in the world is eternal. People praise eternity, but that's only desire toward something they don't have. They wish for it because it doesn't exist. Because their lives are merely fleeting moments.
That's the cruelty of the world. Joy is short, hope is dim, death is clear, and pain is abundant.
It was the same principle as how even though countless stars shine, the darkness of the universe is far more abundant in the end. How sad. That the end is predetermined, that's why starlight is all the more beautiful, because they don't stop shining even while knowing the end.
"Yes. Nothing is eternal. I know that everything will fade someday. So you're the same. There's no such thing as eternal void either."
The Void didn't answer. Perhaps it thought it wasn't worth it. I know too that words that are merely babbled don't have persuasive power.
So the moment I tried to prove and show it, my legs lost strength. The warmth disappeared and the cold invaded my body again. Looking down, I saw the darkness eroding my body. The light was growing dim again. I tried to endure somehow, but honestly speaking, it was too much. I was just trying to get up again, was this the end?
That was the moment.
"Get up."
Someone supported me from the side as I was about to collapse. Who? I turned my head. In that place where there should have been only darkness, I saw a familiar face.
It was Loraine. Her form was blurry, eroded by the darkness. But I saw clearly. She was still alive. I had definitely seen her disappear, consumed by darkness, with my own eyes, so how?
"You're not the kind of person who falls in a place like this. You always got up and fought proudly."
"You..."
"So get up. Like you always did, show me your cool side."
Loraine smiled brightly at me. It was such a bright smile that I couldn't recall her usual frivolous appearance. Her form became clearer. The color that had been consumed by darkness returned to her.
-Whoosh.
A pure white flame was burning at the center of Loraine's chest. That was starlight.
The light wasn't coming only from Loraine. A faint light source was caught at the corner of my vision. I slowly turned around.
There was light.
Countless starlights floated up in the darkness, like a beautiful Milky Way adorning the pitch-black night sky. Flames of stars and moons and suns, large and small, burned while driving away the primordial darkness.
People holding their own flames rose up. They were all looking at me. Even though they didn't speak, their emotions pierced through the darkness and reached me.
Their light permeated my body.
I know where those flames originated. Those are the seeds I sowed. The seeds I scattered throughout the world had now pushed through the soil of darkness and sprouted at this moment.
Had they been watching me continuously without dying? Or had the seeds I sowed at least granted them reprieve from death within this darkness?
Within everyone's gaze, I saw the universe. The universe, so empty and cold, looked lonely floating alone.
But not anymore. I wasn't alone. My light was large and strong but not unique. This was the very moment I had most desired after refusing ascension.
A cluster of stars. A galaxy of distinguished people. A constellation. All those words are called this:
'Myriad Stars.’
The light emitted by the people who rose up permeates into me. The more it does, the more beautiful and brilliant I become. But I'm not unique, so I don't become intoxicated by that fact.
I will gladly become a lighthouse so that the people behind me can lead this light.
"Now. Don't forget."
Seren Gracia pressed a shield into my hand.
"Hey. Sir Knight. You can't forget what I gave you like this, can you?"
Eldin picked up a sword I had dropped somewhere and handed it to me.
Holding the sword and shield, I quietly stared at Taiheo.
Now I could see. The creature hidden in the darkness revealed its outline before the massive light emitted by the myriad stars. It was still strong. Still lofty and arrogant. But I didn't feel the same overwhelming pressure as before.
Was it because it had weakened? Or perhaps I had grown stronger. The overflowing light surrounded my body and took on a single form.
At first I thought of something like armor, but I soon smiled and changed my mind. In this changed world, I couldn't insist on armor forever.
Whoosh! The pure white light enveloped my body and soon became a piece of clothing. It was a beautiful formal frock coat that men of this era would wear.
Wearing a coat made of countless starlights and shining, I walked toward Taiheo holding my sword and shield but it stood still and stared at me.
I still didn't know what those eyes were thinking.
Still, I could be certain of this one thing.
Taiheo and I stood facing each other. It was a distance where my extended sword would reach.
"Let's begin."
[......]
Taiheo didn't answer but simply raised its sword silently. I did the same.
We crossed swords. A flash invisible to the eye burst forth, and a shock inaudible to the ear spread.
The darkness created by Taiheo was washed away, and the world regained its original colors and form. What became visible was the ruined city and the massive crack torn in the sky.
Taiheo’s and my bodies shot up. We exchanged swords several times in midair. The more I crossed swords with it, the more intensely my light burned.
Light flowed out from behind me.
It wasn't the sun, moon, and stars. It wasn't a mandala weaving them into one either. The light wasn't singular. Everyone I had encountered, every seed I had sown, gave me light.
Yes. Right now, I wasn't alone.