The battle had ended.
While damage elsewhere was minor, the forces that fought against the Blue Knight unit at the 3rd forward base suffered considerable losses. This was due to being caught in the enemy's attack before they could retreat when the front line collapsed.
I personally came with soldiers and workers to recover the 3rd forward base.
Corpses frozen to death by the Blue Knight's cold attacks were everywhere.
"...May you rest in peace."
An unnamed soldier had died frozen in the very pose of charging at the enemy with his sword raised.
I recovered his body and closed his eyes.
Fortunately, amid the misfortune, Blue Pearl, which had fallen during the battle at the 3rd forward base, succeeded in an emergency landing, completed repairs on its own, and rejoined us.
The two Pirate Kings driving Blue Pearl, the Rompeller siblings, stuck out their tongues.
"Wow... I'd heard a lot about the monster front, but I didn't expect this.""You're saying this is considered minor damage? They looked like they were about to end the world! And this is considered a relatively easy defense?"
We all smiled bitterly as we loaded the fallen soldiers' bodies into the prepared hearse.
The two Pirate Kings, who had briefly squeezed their eyes shut, also participated in recovering the fallen.
Blue Pearl, having completed emergency repairs, flew off carrying all the recovered bodies of the fallen.
Following that, the airship La Mancha flew in, picked up the three damaged mobile walls from the 3rd forward base, and returned to Crossroad.
"..."
Sitting on the bridge of the returning La Mancha, I leaned my forehead against the window and caught my breath.
Crossroad soon came into view.
The city was busy, wrapping up the forty-eighth defensive battle while simultaneously beginning preparations for the forty-ninth.
As I surveyed the cityscape that now moved on its own without my specific instructions, I thought:
'The next defensive battle, Stage 49, is essentially the final stage we need to clear.'
In the game, Stage 49 is the last defensive battle Crossroad can withstand.
The final defensive battle that follows, Stage 50, is in the realm of 'impossible to clear'.
When Stage 50 begins, the final boss 'The Sleepless Lake Princess' pours out of the Black Lake, leading an infinite number of monsters.
There is no possibility of victory against an infinite enemy army led by the strongest monster.
So the method proposed in the game is for a suicide squad to enter the dungeon before Stage 50 begins and defeat 'The Sleepless Lake Princess'.
To kill Nameless, who has become a monster, her who has become the embodiment of nightmares, with our own hands.
If we succeed in this, we'll see that ending we encountered in the game.
That final scene where Lucas stands alone on a field of enemy and ally corpses...
...But now I know.
Going towards that ending isn't the proper strategy.
'The ending I desire, and the strategy I've devised... lies elsewhere.'
The 'true ending' that Aider and I sought to reach together cannot be attained by following the existing route.
If we want to break free from being actors manipulated on stage and truly become masters of our own fate.
We must change our perspective on the world.
We must break the rules from outside them, dominate them, and establish new ones.
The puzzle pieces for this have all gathered in my hands, and I've decided to move forward on a new path never attempted before in this endlessly repeated apocalyptic game.
But to be truly honest.
'I'm afraid.'
It would be a lie to say I'm not anxious.
Is the path I've chosen, the strategy I've found, really correct?
If we go this way, will we really reach the true ending we desire?
What if, due to my mistake, my wrong judgment, everyone following my flag meets a painful end...
'...How amusing.'
I pushed aside my complicated thoughts and wiped my forehead with my hand.
Looking back, my battles have always been like walking a tightrope. They've always been last stands. They've always been life-or-death struggles, always the final showdown.
This anxiety creeping up on me now must be because the true end is near.
'Let's focus on the imminent defensive battle.'
To head towards the final battle, Stage 50, we must clear Stage 49.
And in this Stage 49, there's a high probability that the current acting Demon King - Crown will make some move.
He's praying for salvation for his sister Nameless, but currently, perhaps due to the curse placed on him by the Demon King, he's clearly turned into an enemy commander.
And as an enemy commander, he must have been trying to find ways to attack us while going through Stages 46, 47, and 48.
Whether he's really found our weakness, or if he'll try something else without clear results, is unknown at this point.
One thing is certain though - Stage 49 will be incomparably more difficult than the previous three stages.
'Let's continue reconnaissance... and prepare thoroughly.'
I examined the magic cores stored in my inventory, recovered from the previous three stages.
5 magic cores recovered from the Great Rat God. 3 magic cores recovered from Tamjinchi. 4 magic cores recovered from the Apocalypse Knights.
'The Great Rat God's magic cores are quite unstable. Let's use these to make relatively simple missiles. The Tamjinchi and Apocalypse 4 Knights' magic cores are too high-grade materials... Even if the schedule is tight, it's better to make equipment with these.'
And we also need to open the boxes that have accumulated, speed up the process of modifying La Mancha into a dimension-shifting ship, and urgently repair the 3 damaged mobile walls...
As I was mentally organizing the busy schedule between battles, as hectic as the consecutive battles themselves, the airship landed.
I was about to hurriedly give instructions to my subordinates as we disembarked, but the atmosphere around the people was a bit strange.
"Huh?"
Everyone was gathered around a space in front of the hangar, with shocked faces, covering their mouths, pulling their hair, widening their eyes, and some even shedding tears.
"Kyaaaa!"
"Oh my, oh my, how could this...!"
"I-I can't stop trembling..."
"To think such a day would come... Aaaaah!"
The atmosphere was unusual.
I quickly pushed through the people on the outskirts and entered that space.
"What's going on? Why is everyone..."
I had to shut my mouth mid-sentence.
As I pushed inside, it finally came into view.
...He was walking.
Step. Step.
Sid.
Towards his mother, Lilly, who had just returned from the battlefield pulling her wheelchair... he had left his nanny's arms and was toddling on his two legs!
It was truly a historic moment - Sid's first steps.
"Oh my God."
The scene of the small, fair baby shaking his fluffy red hair, his large brown and green eyes sparkling, toddling towards his mother was transcendentally cute, and also... somehow majestic.
I too, like the shocked people around, covered my mouth with my hand and trembled all over.
'Come to think of it, he's already a year old!'
Unfortunately, on his first birthday, we couldn't properly celebrate because it was the day of a defensive battle. I heard they had a quiet birthday party, and I sent a gift too.
Anyway, Sid is already one year old. It means he's now old enough to start walking...!
I thought he would crawl forever! I thought he would only babble forever! I thought he would be our front line's representative baby forever!
'...Wait a minute.'
Being able to walk means.
Could it be, now...
"Aw..."
Towards Lilly, who was stretching out her arms with a surprised and joyful face, saying 'That's right! That's right! Slowly!'
Sid, who was toddling towards her with his arms stretched out too, suddenly smiled brightly, and then.
"Mama!"
...He did it.
The people surrounding Lilly and Sid watching this scene all screamed and fell backwards. Sighs, exclamations, and joyful screams filled the surroundings.
Along with taking his first steps, he spoke his first word too!
"..."
Tears welled up in Lilly's eyes as she silently bit her lips.
Hurriedly wiping her reddened eyes with the back of her hand, Lilly smiled brightly back and opened her arms wide.
"Yes, that's right! I'm Mama! Come here, my baby...!"
Sid, excited, hurriedly took steps forward...
Wobble!
He fell forward.
Lilly, startled, was about to throw herself forward from her wheelchair, but there was no need.
"Heave-ho!"
"Aja-ja-jat!"
The two Pirate Kings standing behind me quickly stretched out their hands with strange shouts, creating a water cushion on the floor to catch Sid.
Everyone in the place who collectively sighed in relief gave thumbs up to the two Pirate Kings. The Rompeller siblings sheepishly scratched the back of their heads.
Sid, who had fallen face-down on the fluffy water cushion, seemed to find the sensation fun and giggled.
Then he got up again by himself on the cushion and...
"Mama!"
He toddled towards Lilly again.
Lilly gently embraced her son who had finally taken these short but great steps.
"Well done, my son. You did so well..."
Lilly held Sid and wept.
She had been worried that Sid wasn't starting to walk perhaps because she couldn't show him walking herself.
That he couldn't speak because she couldn't always be by his side, busy with work on the front lines.
Or if it was because he was mixed-race, or an aftereffect of the difficult birth...
I heard she had been consulting the temple often due to her many worries, but this was the moment when all those concerns were resolved.
"Thank you for growing up so well..."
In Lilly's arms, Sid smiled innocently.
The people watching this scene could no longer hold back and all rushed in.
"Me, call me too! Say Uncle Lucas!"
"Sid! It's Sister Evangeline! Sister!"
"Me too! Say Sister Verdandi! Hurry!"
"No, if you have a conscience, say Auntie..."
"It's Uncle Kellibey, baby! Come on! Say uncle!"
"Uncle? More like grandfather!"
I too shouted, squeezing in between the people acting childishly.
"G-Godfather!"
The baby's clear gaze turned towards me.
I smiled brightly back and shouted.
"Call me Godfather, Sid!"
Before Stage 49 began.
It was a peaceful and miraculous moment that came to our front line.
And...
***
...
***
...And what happened after that?
***
My consciousness...
As if filled with noise, it's not clear.
***
...I.
***
I am...?
***
"Godfather."
Suddenly breaking through my hazy thoughts, a young and blunt voice was heard from beside me.
"Godfather. Pull yourself together."
"Huh...?"
My clouded consciousness gradually awakens.
From a dream of the distant past, of happier times, I return to reality.
I came to my senses in a cold that felt like it could cut through flesh.
This place is the entrance of a cave in some mountain.
I was crouched at the cave entrance, wearing an old and dirty winter coat covered in matted fur, having just woken up from a light sleep.
Outside the cave, snow is endlessly falling from the sky.
No, no - this is not snow.
This is ash.
In the distance, the white frozen earth is visible, burning black and splitting, surging up into the sky as if in a whirlwind. This earth that has surged up into the sky falls back down as ash.
A black storm burning the completely frozen earth.
And a rain of falling ash.
"..."
For a moment, I blankly stared at the ruined world.
Yes, after losing the final battle against the Demon King...
The human world was completely destroyed.
It's been 15 years since then.
"Godfather."
At the voice calling again, I turned my head towards the inside of the cave.
There stood a young boy.
With red hair like his mother's fluttering in the cold wind, eyes mixed green and brown like his father's, gazing straight ahead...
The last great mage of humanity.
Sid, with a clear gaze just like 15 years ago, looked at me and said bluntly.
"Just now, Mom died."
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at /MattReading
Join my Discord! .gg/jB26ePk9