Chapter 77: End; Death dancing in the Masquerade (5)
If he hadn’t gotten rid of Prototype X; if Ha Saetbyul was able to link the minds of all demons to one place, Wei Yan’s current situation would’ve been immediately conveyed to Noah and Ysayle.
But since that wasn’t the case, Wei Yan laid his hand on his waist, looking for the communication artifact. However, there was nothing on his waist.
“Looking for this?”
The Regressor lifted a long stone plate.
Hatred and despair appeared on Wei Yan’s face. That was the only device that allowed one to communicate with others outside the current room, and Wei Yan now understood the place he was in.
“…”
With the scimitar in his hand, Yu Jitae walked towards Wei Yan.
He was breathing heavily and uncomfortably. The intense shock had destroyed all his organs and the demon barely managed to raise his trembling head to glare at Yu Jitae.
The one remaining eye however, was out of focus.
“Why, why… the fuck… are you doing this.”
His voice squeezed out the remaining life he had.
“…”
“What did I do to youu… you piecee of shit.”
After approaching him, Yu Jitae stabbed the scimitar into the ground.
“Why do you think I’m doing this.”
“… I did something to you, huh? The last name ‘Yu’… if I remember correctly, the girl I kidnapped when developing a new drug was a ‘Yu’… is it her? Because of that?”
“Wrong.”
Wei Yan faced Yu Jitae with a powerless gaze.
“I have no grudge against you.”
“Whaat…? Are you crazy then…”
Perhaps there was a time in the distant past where he had a grudge, but there was not a single emotion against Wei Yan at this point, that could be considered a resentment.
There were times when he had been annoyed because of Wei Yan in the seventh iteration, but ultimately Wei Yan had never been a direct source of harm. There was no reason for him to feel emotions like grudge or vengeance.
“Should I be honest.”
“…”
“There’s something I wish for, and you’re a hindrance. That’s why I’ll be killing you.”
“…Fuck, fucking trash… are you still human?”
Yu Jitae gave a faint smile. For the first time in a very long time, he felt a trivial doubt.
“If there’s a human somewhere that could ruin your plans, and if that future will come for sure, what will you do.”
“I’ll pull their intestines out and strangle them… but, aren’t you human…?”
“What does ‘human’ even mean.”
“…”
“They are a disturbance, but words don’t go thorough, and they remain stubborn even with swords pointed against them. You guys are all generally like that. Disgusting, pathetic and talk nonstop about a boring topic.”
“…”
“Annoying enough to see them one or two days, but I had to watch on for a fairly long time because of circumstances. So what else can I do.”
Looking back, he had killed a lot of innocent people for various reasons. For being a hindrance; because they were annoying; accidentally, etc… if actions defined a person, he wouldn’t be a human.
Yu Jitae did not deny that.
“Hmm?”
“…”
“What should I have done.”
The man locked up in the walls of time did not put regulations on himself. He just had to live some way or another.
“…Cough.”
After understanding what the Regressor meant as a demon, Wei Yan felt blank. He looked into Yu Jitae’s eyes, before laughing, “Kuk, kuk” while bleeding from his mouth.
Because of his short breath, his laugh also left with short pauses.
Soon, his laughter as well as his breath came to a stop, as Wei Yan comprehended the situation.
Yu Jitae.
The communication artifact in Yu Jitae’s hand; the direction of the Azure Dragon study group’s encampment at a distance; the room-type dungeon with dimensional walls isolating the room, as well as something that was distancing itself on the other side of the wall.
“All fucked up… Cough…”
Before long, Wei Yan opened his mouth with a calm voice as he made a resolve.
“This is the heart…”
Since he understood that his Grand Schema had failed,
“The bone’s quite tough, so you should stab properly.”
Wei Yan discarded himself without a second thought.
***
“How old are you, young miss?”
“I’m 20 years old.”
“Twenty?”
Before the dungeon gates closed, Li Hwa was talking to Bom while flying through the empty sky of a ‘room’.
“How pretty. I have never seen a child as beautiful as you in my fairly long life.”
“Thank you.”
“Even your voice is like a glass marble… you must be loved a lot.”
Bom returned a smile.
Due to the planned battle formation, Li Hwa had to go stop Ysayle Khalifa.
Ysayle had departed before them, and she must be heading to the boss room through another room with a puppet. Therefore, they needed to go faster if they wanted to stop Ysayle from going any further.
With an unfamiliar dimension and the coordinates not being clear in her head, even a green dragon was not able to teleport from the inside of a dungeon, to another area of the dungeon.
And while they were comfortably flying thanks to the telekinetic ability, Bom suddenly turned blank. After coming to herself, she stared at the old lady.
There was something strange – what she read through Providence was different from the old lady’s current self.
Bom therefore decided to ask her.
“Granny.”
“Nnn?”
“…If this sounds rude, you don’t have to reply.”
“Okay I will. What is it.”
“What happened between you and Ysayle Khalifa?”
Li Hwa stared at Bom with a smile. Beneath her eyes were the deep wrinkles of her life.
“Back in the days… I was like you, young miss. I was very pretty as a child.”
“Really?”
“It’s a joke. I wasn’t as pretty as you. If I was, I would have become a celebrity instead of a superhuman.”
“Hehe…”
“But even then, I was quite loved. The men of my village would come near my house to sneak a look at me.”
“Ahh.”
“I don’t know why in the past, but I didn’t want to show myself to them. Maybe I thought my face would wear down if I showed them too much. I was acting snobby.”
“…”
“And there was this boy who was really persistent. He was short, and ugly. Every time he would stay at a nearby park alone, and if I left for the convenience store, he would greet me from a distance without even having the courage to step up.”
“…Was he younger than you?”
“He was. That’s why I wasn’t that content, because I was into confident older men.”
“Aigoo…”
“Ahh, am I saying too much?”
“No? It’s fun.”
Others would be surprised if they saw this, because Li Hwa rarely ever talked about herself. Thus, even the members of the Grand Natural Society that were close with her barely knew about Li Hwa’s past.
“Hulhul. It’s against the rules if you’re kind on top of that…”
But Li Hwa was feeling a strange sense of comfort from this unknown girl.
“And one day, he plucked up his courage and walked up, and handed me a small envelope, you see. He put a letter and a picture of himself inside.”
Searching through her pocket, Li Hwa took out a small notebook. It was a leathery notebook, that had been blanched here and there. Inside, there was the faded photo of a man taken with a polaroid.
“No-one used a polaroid back then… well, he was a strange child. His face wasn’t that great, nor was his family. He was short, and he wasn’t even a Taiwanese like myself. And back then, the interpreting artifact was expensive so he was a slow speaker too. I had never thought that I would end up marrying him.”
“Oh wow?”
“Yes. We somehow ended up dating, and also somehow ended up bearing a child. I regret it a lot. I should’ve met a better man! You know.”
Hulhulhul. She laughed from her own joke.
“Or I should’ve lived by myself… who would have known that he would die while I had a child inside.”
“…”
“It was Ysayle Khalifa’s troops. Back then, I had just awakened and Ysayle Khalifa wasn’t a strong demon either.”
“…”
“But it was still very scary… We were going to hide in the wardrobe, but my husband couldn’t come in because of my swollen stomach. So he put me inside the wardrobe and locked it from outside.”
With a reminiscing light, Li Hwa gazed off into the distance.
“But that indecent bitch lit the apartment on fire afterwards. It was very hot, and I thought that was my death bed.”
Hulhul, the old lady laughed.
“My body is very stained and dirty right? Since everyone around was interested, I just told them it was from the East-Asian Great War. In fact, it’s different. It’s a burn I got when I was a lot younger.”
“…”
“Technology has gotten better and it’s possible to get rid of it but I decided to leave it, because I didn’t want to erase that memory. Every time I look into a mirror, I think to myself, and wait for the time to come.”
“…”
“During the Great War, and even after the war after retiring, I looked everywhere but couldn’t find her… But now, the day has finally come.”
Bom held onto the old lady’s hand with a sorrowful gaze. The old woman’s eyes were staring past the interdimensional wall, off at a far distance.
“Today must be the day I finally kill that bitch…”
***
“…”
The 67th room was the shortest pathway to the boss room from the 39th room where Noah was. It was a room of vast wasteland, filled with dry dirt and stone. BM had arrived there first and was waiting for Noah to come.
“…”
BM, the alcohol addict, was craving alcohol. In the hideout, he had given empty promises of how he would quit alcohol to his comrades, but now that he was actually sober for around 15 hours, his fingers started trembling.
He nonetheless had to hold it in.
“Yeah it’s me. Noah’s here.”
It was because his enemy was right in front of him.
His voice travelled across the wireless artifact and was conveyed to Minamoto, who was heading to the boss room, Li Hwa and Bom who would be going after Ysayle Khalifa, as well as Yu Jitae.
“What are you doing? Standing there doing nothing.”
He had appeared like an average youth until now, but it seemed that Noah had discarded his mask. The clean and fancy tuxedo did not suit the dungeon, but the middle-aged gentleman full of elegance stood in front of BM.
“You must be busy. Go on.”
BM continued his words.
“I don’t think you’ll simply make a road for me though.”
“Well, that’s how it went. I wasn’t planning on going after and fighting you, but now that it’s come to this, I can’t take a step back.”
“Are you that BM?”
“Yeah.”
“I have long heard about your name.”
“What an honour.”
“They say, there’s Oscar Brzenk under the heavens, and you under Oscar Brzenk.”
BM whispered to himself about how he didn’t really want to hear that name.
“Did you have a good night’s sleep?”
That was when Noah suddenly talked about something off the topic.
“Sleep?”
“Humans tend to sleep and dream.”
“…”
“What did you dream of?”
BM’s head was tilted to a side. Raising his hand, he pushed his sunglasses up, before scratching his ears.
“What stupidity is this about.”
“The thought of an existence is projected to their unconsciousness, and it is displayed in the form of a dream during their sleep.”
“So what.”
“What would your dream taste like, as someone under the heavens. I’m very curious.”
“…Is he crazy or what.”
Unlike the words bluntly leaving his mouth, BM was tense.
During the Great War, everything related to Noah had usually occurred during the night.
Dream – it was something that happened during their sleep.
Yu Jitae had said that this man could ‘become’ a god, but he did not mention any details. There must have been a reason he didn’t.
Besides, the fact that he could become a god meant that he was not a god yet. If it was just a normal demon, there was no need for any complex thoughts.
“Stop with your nonsense, and let’s fight.”
[Extrication (S)]
BM’s body started transforming. Just like a demon pulling out their hidden true self, BM also began pulling out 13 chimeras embedded inside his body.
[Wings of a Wyvern (AA)]
A pair of bony wings appeared behind him.
[Ahillia’s Curse (AA+)]
His two arms became the arms of the demon baron, Ahillia,
[Heavenly Flute (AA-)]
And five horns appeared on his forehead.
Apart from that, a large tail extended out from BM’s waist, and his skin was covered in an armour-like leather.
Once he started operating all 13 chimeras, BM’s body started exuding a tremendous amount of mana that could shake the entire large dimension by itself.
“Interesting… it doesn’t look like a chimera of this place.”
Since Noah was also from another world, there were things he could see.
“Well, I’ll hear the other details later. As you said, I’m a bit short on time.”
An ash-coloured aura started pouring out from Noah’s body. It then began painting the world with its colour, and soon covered the entire room in achromatic colours.
Then, Noah extended his hand forward. A fissure was created in the alternate dimension as a sword dropped down and landed in his hand. Within that world which had lost its colour, his sword was the only thing retaining its previous colour.
‘Dream Eater’.
It was a Level 4 artifact; a weapon that would be considered a national level strategic weapon.
“Today will become your nightmare.”
Noah was about to move.
“…!”
But suddenly, after feeling something Noah widened his eyes. Colour returned to the world of achromatic colours, and the sword vanished into a smoke.
“…What are you doing?”
Wearing a devilish scowl, Noah did not respond to BM’s words and placed his hand near his ears before sending a message to someone else.
“Wei Yan, find Wei Yan. Right now–!”
Noah’s sonorous voice resonated across the wasteland.
***
The demons that were waiting at a nearby dungeon urgently rushed in towards the 39th room. Reaching the long sewage-shaped dungeon, they headed to where the tents were and found the cadets of the Azure Dragon study group collapsed unconscious on the ground.
“…!”
These cadets had their minds encroached by Wei Yan’s demonic aura for a very long time. And yet they were all unconscious?
“Shit…!”
Letting out profanities, the demons searched for Wei Yan. He should still be nearby, as they could sense his demonic aura.
Where is he, and who was it that did it?
Wei Yan had to survive though, because this entire Grand Schema had been for Wei Yan. Thus, when they finally found Wei Yan, they were all frozen stiff.
“T, this…”
“Fuck…”
The transparent interdimensional walls covering all sides of the 39th room.
High up on one of those walls; in the middle of the invisible wall; as if he was floating in mid-air – there was a scimitar stabbing Wei Yan’s heart, straight into the wall of the dimension.
“…”
Staring at the black blood that flowed down the wall into thin air, the demons lost their words.
Wei Yan was dead.