Chapter 355: Episode 100: At the End of the 1,000-year-long Voyage (9)
The aircraft swiftly turned in mid air. They started falling straight down in a sudden drop aiming straight for that one target.
“Ahh…!”
Myu screamed.
The ‘bomber aircrafts’ simultaneously started shooting objects that were interpreted into ironclad missiles.
Accelerated even further due to the rapid drop of the plane, the bombs travelled faster than streaks of rain.
Dozens of missiles were falling towards Yu Jitae.
It was more than enough to create a crater of dozens of metres in radius in this library of memories, and a quick calculation told him it would destroy the nearby lands and wipe it off the face of this world.
They acted with not a single reserve, even though the personality was in this place!
“W, what should we do? At this rate we will end up dying!”
In the middle of the shout, the first missile landed on the ground 10 metres away from them creating a large explosion of light.
—-!
A deafening noise filled their eardrums. The sound waves reached a critical level, making it unable to differentiate each source of sound. The world was shaking with Myu crouching down and screaming inside it.
—-!
The next missile was slightly closer; approximately 5 metres away from them.
Even though only the noise and the shockwave had reached them, a portion of the fragile mental concept of personality turned into conceptual shards that shattered and scattered like glass fragments.
Thus, Yu Jitae hugged Myu in an even tighter grip.
—!
—–!
Even in the following explosions, all he could do was clench his teeth and endure.
Myu had already been pushed to the pit of despair once in this world. Drenched with fear, Myu’s body shook heavily like there was no tomorrow as its fragments fell piece by piece.
At this rate, something terrible might happen to Myu’s personality even before the missiles landed on them.
‘It’s alright!’ He shouted but his shout was buried in the surrounding noise, unable to reach its ears. Even so, Myu nervously gazed up at him so he shouted yet again. ‘It’s alright! You can do it! We can leave this place together!’ He didn’t know how much of his words had managed to go through but Myu hugged him a little tighter in response.
The crumbling of the body began to cease.
What supported a concept was its mental power. The reason Yu Jitae could fight the monsters and bear through the cold despite having the same physical condition as the mirror image of Myu’s personality was, in the end, due to the difference in their willpower.
—–!
—–!
At last, a missile landed above Yu Jitae.
That one strike quivered both his head and his entire body. He had to endure the bombardment with his bare body.
Wounds were added upon wounds as his body bursted out into shards. His legs were crushed with bones being visible but he could not powerlessly lose like this.
He had to endure it.
Even if it was to eat at his mind and even if his body was to gradually crumble down, he had to endure through it.
———!!
———!!
———!!
Before long, the true round of bombardment began. His vision was painted in white as he tightly wrapped his arms around the screaming Myu.
He could feel the heavy quivering of the body – the personality was starting to be erased despite the existence’s mental power. Those guys were bombarding this place no matter the cost, as if trying to destroy this entire world.
He did not close his eyes.
In a world devoid of sound, his sense of touch became ever so distinct. His entire body felt scorching hot as if it was on fire. The world in his sight had already turned white and those opened eyes also felt like they were in a pit of flame but even then, he did not close his eyes.
With his open eyes, he gazed at the sky. As his willpower slowly started to dwindle, he opened his mouth to shout in a voice he could not hear.
After a thousand years I have reached it.
You think I will fall in such a lowly world
From a trial as lowly as this?
Who can dare make me fall.
Who, dares—-!
Like a beast, he roared. Using his body to stop the rain of dirt and rocks that were scorching red after the explosion of light, Yu Jitae furiously bellowed in a fit of burning rage.
Although his ears picked up not a single sound, he had to gather his disordered mind into one. His entire body burned and shattered into pieces, but he nonetheless withstood it.
All the way, until the bombardments came to an end.
*
His unclosed eyes could see nothing but light, with the world erased from his sight. However it was fine and he thus did not close his eyes.
After some time, the curtain of light was lifted but he still could not see the front and had become like a blind person.
But reaching out with his hand, his fingertips touched something desolate.
The sense of touch was unreliable. The skin had already melted to nothing and the flesh was all scorched. It was the same even for his senses that existed as a concept – he could feel nothing with his fingertips.
However, the remaining finger bones were attached with his willpower and it was certain that there was something stopping the approach of his fingers.
His body was half shattered and charred but he was still alive. In addition, his body hadn’t scattered yet.
Even though he currently had no way of knowing it, the conceptually crafted [Origin Fragment] had long been half demolished. More than half of the conceptual world was gone.
The enemy had exploded themselves to death and even [Rationality] was destroyed in the process.
That was how extreme the [Memory Manipulators] were with the bombardment. More than 70% of all the mirror images of this world were dead and the ones alive were on their knees kissing the ground, trembling on top of the lands that hadn’t crumbled down yet.
However, the conceptual world supported by his willpower still had a cliff remaining that could be climbed up. The black wall that even [Conceptualisation (SS)] could not interpret and the memories within it were also safe from the [Memory Manipulators] and were left on top of the cliff.
Now that the library was gone, the wall looked like an extremely enormous black container.
Fortunately, the ‘mirror image of personality’ lying in his arms was also still alive. Its lungs moving along its breath was reaching his ribs. With that, he was certain it was still alive.
Even though he still could not hear anything due to the aftermath, a part of his vision slowly came back. One of his eyes was completely shut and the remaining eye had about 30% of its previous visibility.
He was forcibly using his half-crushed eye to look at the front, but that much was more than enough.
Firstly, he looked at Myu. Even if every mirror image of this world was to disappear, the personality could not. As long as the personality was alive, everything else could eventually be made again even though it might take some time.
Myu was slowly dissipating in his arms so he had to open his mouth which he doubted was working properly to calm Myu down.
It’s alright.
It is all over.
When he diligently tried to convey that, Myu carefully raised its head to look at him but there was soon a look of extreme shock on its face. Looking deeply into Myu’s eyes, he could understand the reason behind that expression.
It was no wonder one of his eyes couldn’t see.
Half of his entire head was crushed so that was to be expected.
“…”
Immediately after that, Myu lost consciousness. In order to survive, the personality was instinctively trying to withstand until this large shock was to pass by.
He turned his gaze to the surroundings.
This place which had seemed like a peaceful village of the mountainous countryside now appeared like a floating island after the arrays of bombardment. It now resembled a donut-shaped island with a hole in the centre.
Even the bottom ground was all crushed and beneath the ground was of the same colour as the sky. In the centre of that world, Yu Jitae and Myu were on the bottom of a cliff.
The cliff was floating in mid-air. Yu Jitae’s willpower had protected not only his body and Myu but also this much of the land from the bombardment.
He turned his eyes to the remaining donut-shaped island. There was a small cave nearby. That cave was probably [Impulse] where every primeval actions were carried out alongside reflex responses.
It was a cave that could usually only be reached by going endlessly down to the basement covered in [Unconsciousness].
Yu Jitae climbed down the cliff with his quivering legs and placed Myu down in that cave before once again returning to the cliff.
The only remaining task was the most important one.
Using his bony arms and black, scorched legs, he began to climb the cliff.
Unable to grip properly, his hands slipped. Once, he even rolled down from the cliff because there was not a sliver of energy left behind in his body.
However, he went to the cliff and climbed it regardless.
He was swept away in an indescribable emotion. A message that floated up even though he had yet to fully climb the cliff incited his emotions even more.
<The target is the [Will of the Ancient One (SS)].>
At the very top – at the end of the library of memories surrounded by black walls was the clue to solving the [Will of the Ancient One (SS)]. As long as he could destroy it, he would be able to discover the coordinates of ‘Askalifa’ in the distant dimensions.
He would be able to send the baby dragons back home.
At last, his long-aspired dream was right before his eyes.
How much had he been longing;
For this moment to arrive.
How much have I been longing for it…
From the bottom of his dead emotions rose up memories of the past flowing through his mind.
How immensely long of a voyage had it been…
[Conceptualisation] was still activated and it started to show an image inside his mind.
With him in the centre, the world flipped upside down from the tip of the distant sky. Revealed around him before long was a dark world. He was sitting on top of a certain boat.
He could hear the calm splashes of the ocean but his eyes could not find anything in this world no matter how far they faced. Looking up did not let him find any stars nor the moon and there was nothing but void in his eyes.
The ship leaving the port was once again floating adrift,
But the end of that journey was coming.
Raising his eyes, he looked into the distance.
Look. Off in the far distance somewhere within the darkness – isn’t there something definite that was even darker standing tall oozing with presence?
As if telling him to come…
He crawled up.
Going one step higher.
One hand above.
He climbed higher and higher, before at last laying his hand on the scorched lands next to the black wall.
A gush of bright light started to envelope him.
The light was intense enough to blind his eyes once again, but it was an indescribably holy and lofty light different from anything of this world. With his broken face he smiled. Only half of his face was remaining so the smile was also half-crooked.
He simply could not control himself. Feeling the sense of fulfilment overwhelming his body, he gave a wide smile in quiet anticipation.
At the end of the 1,000-year-long voyage,
He finally reached the lighthouse.
***
The Regressor stood at the top of the world.
From a small gap in the middle of the [Black Wall] came out a piece of paper. This was the information regarding [Will of the Ancient One] that had been analysed by [Conceptualisation] over the period of 24 hours.
Slowly, the mirror image that was the host of the [Will of the Ancient One] was starting to be revealed.
Even now, when looking up at the sky, he could see the immensely foolish red eye looking down at the world. Yu Jitae had never used any ability that exceeded the threshold and therefore, the guy followed its principles and overlooked everything despite the world crumbling down to this state.
The mirror image that [Will of the Ancient One] was surviving by leaching off of was still alive somewhere and that was why the eye was still hanging in mid air. It would be among the living ones and he simply had to go up and kill it.
A page among Myu’s sealed memories came out to Yu Jitae. It was folded in half but he unhesitatingly spread it open.
Well, whoever it was was not that important, because everything was almost over.
Thinking that he opened the paper and,
“…”
He immediately froze on the spot.
*
At some point in time, Myu’s personality woke up from its sleep.
How long has it been, it wondered.
Light was seeping into the barren cave of the barren world. The sun was rising so a night must have gone by already. Apathetically calculating the time, Myu realised that quite a bit of time had passed.
Sitting blankly inside the cave, Myu’s personality gazed at the barren world.
Everything was wiped off of the conceptual world. But the risk of another explosion was still there so a few of the surviving mirror images on top of the ground still had devastated looks on their faces.
Suddenly, Myu felt rather uneasy. There was not a particular reason, but what flowed out of the tiny speck of a hole on the [Black Wall] was a part of Myu’s memories of the youth that she had forgotten and that was also conveyed to ‘Myu’ of the conceptual world. It was because the mirror image of the personality in this conceptual world was the only existence that shared the memories and senses with Myu’s true body.
It was when Myu was blankly looking at the ground of the empty cave.
Something blocked the light coming into the cave.
Raising its head, Myu saw Yu Jitae standing at the entrance.
His body was still a mess. Crushed head, scorched body, arms with only bones and a bizarre pair of legs.
“Ah, are you back?”
Myu welcomed him with a slightly brighter look on its face but he stood quietly at the entrance of the cave, silently looking back into its eyes.
“Why did you not wake me up. I think it has been around four days already.”
He didn’t reply.
Like the first time they met,
There was no expression on his face.
“…”
The uneasiness inside became a little bigger.
On the other hand, Myu was curious why it was welcoming him with such a happy tone of voice. Was it because of the time they spent chattering in the cold? Or perhaps it was because of the content of the conversation they had that Myu was feeling a little more attached.
If not, it could also be because the advice he gave had left an impression in its mind. To Myu’s lethargic question, he replied, ‘You can be like me’.
So, even though it might only be a little…
…Myu thought they had gotten a bit closer.
“…”
That was why Myu felt a little more uneasy.
Myu was a dragon.
Dragons did not forget, and the mirror image was also Myu.
Soon, after walking closer, he dropped a piece of paper on the ground. The uneasiness was turning into reality.
With trembling hands, Myu picked up the paper.
Myu immediately recognised the faded picture and the words written on the dirty piece of paper. On it was an explanation and a picture of the mirror image that [Will of the Ancient One (SS)] had chosen as the host.
The identity of the host inside the picture…
Crouching down on the ground, Myu raised its vacant eyes to stare at Yu Jitae. Even though he was right before its eyes, he was there with the light behind him with his expression unable to be discerned.
Myu gave an awkward smile.
Its lips were probably raised up.
Thinking it was a little awkward, it erased the smile off of its face and looked back down.
1,000 years.
A thousand years huh…?
How long would a thousand years have been to a human…?
Thinking about that created another smile on the lips. This time, even its eyes were in a curve.
Myu gazed back up at his face.
“… How, …unfortunate.”
Myu couldn’t stare at his face for too long, so lowered its gaze again.
“I was really looking forward to this vacation…”
He didn’t reply.
Myu clenched its lips a little before giving a light shake.
“Why did you bother waiting for me to wake back up…
“Have you not been waiting for a thousand years?
“What; did you become soft after all that time or something?”
Raising its head again, Myu looked at him. Staring at his face that was still very difficult to see, Myu gave a faint smile.
Hanging in his hand was a sword.
Suddenly, the conversation shared with him came back up to the surface.
If there is something to help with, you have to step up to help.
The voice that was vivid in its memories despite the cold taking away from its concentration.
“Is this the right way to help?”
Myu reached out to grab the blade of the sword. However, he did not let go of it.
“Ah, is it not?
“Please understand.
“This is my first time stepping up to help someone, so I might be unskilled.”
When Myu released its grip, he too relaxed his hand for some reason. The tip of the blade quivered. He seemed to have felt some kind of emotion and Myu felt something as well.
Myu once again grabbed the blade. After some resistance, he released his grip.
The entity carried the blade in its two hands.
– You mean I can be like you?
He had replied, yes.
“I really wanted to go on this vacation…”
Myu said with trembling fingertips.
“But still, I am glad that I could help someone despite the method.”
As the conversation they had regarding their dreams resurfaced in its mind,
“I have finally managed to fulfil my dream. It is thanks to you.”
The existence that only knew how to be powerless,
“So, My Nemesis…”
Pointed the tip of the blade at its own neck.
“…I hope you achieve your dream as well.”
.
.
.
Light dissipated, brightening up the cave.
Walking outside, he stared at the sky.
Fragments were scattering down from the sky, covering the world with its light.
The world was dazzlingly bright even for half an eye to see.
Therefore, his shadow was all the more darker.