Chapter: 154

Chapter: 154

Sudden floods surged as acid rain poured down.

Before they could react, the rising waters swept everything away in an instant.

And to protect everyone, Muzkan, the magician, burned through his magic to hold back the flood in the lake.

As a result, he exhausted all his strength and ultimately lost his life.

It was the price paid for everything.

There was no regret on his face.

The regret, instead, belonged to those who remained.

“This fool, this idiot...”

Especially Ruze was having a tough time.

“...We can’t take the body with us.”

Just before dying, Muzkan had laid everything he could offer from his spatial pockets.

Now, there was no magician to pack their gear.

Each had to carry their own burdens.

Besides, they could no longer enjoy magical protection.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Ruze, wiping away tears, shook her head at Ebelasque’s insistence to take the body with her.

“Your heart isn’t limitless. This is enough.”

Ruze wrapped her arms around her belly.

Seeing that, Ebelasque realized what she meant.

In the acid rain, Muzkan, with his regret-free face, faded into nothingness.

The journey of the remaining trio continued.

And shortly after, the second casualty emerged.

Ruze was the second victim.

She had demonstrated her elite skills as a one-armed swordsman, but being one-armed led to her demise.

The creatures attacked, and the poison from their attacks hit her empty arm, claiming her heart.

“Ruze, no! No!”

Ebelasque screamed and poured all the potions she had saved for her, but her life was slipping away quickly.

“Haha, Muzkan... I couldn’t even protect the connection to Seok.”

Ruze, spitting out blood, slowly closed her eyes, regret written all over her face.

“If I were alone, it would have been okay...”

Wrapping her arms around her belly, filled with deep regret, Ruze met her end.

Naturally, they couldn’t take her body either.

Ebelasque’s mana was reaching its limit as well.

“...Let’s go.”

The Iron-Hand and Ebelasque continued on, eventually left alone.

The conversation between them began to dwindle.

Sensing the change, the Iron-Hand slowly talked about his daughter, almost to himself.

Ebelasque could only listen in silence.

Then one day.

As always, the ground confirmed by Ebelasque collapsed beneath her feet.

Unluckily, underground acidic water surged up, instantly melting everything below, causing the ground above to crumble as well.

Ah, so this is how I die.

Thoughts of Aimi flashed through Ebelasque’s mind as she gazed at the fading sky.

She wanted to see Aimi again.

Having long since given up hope and worn out by her body, it was then her eyes closed, filled with regret.

In that moment of near plummeting into the acidic lake, she was caught by the Iron-Hand.

He swiftly lifted her body upward.

When Ebelasque opened her eyes wide after being hauled up, she found herself rolling on the surface.

After rolling around for a while and coughing, she lifted her head.

What lay ahead was just an empty wasteland.

“...Iron-Hand?”

Ebelasque called out to him, but he was nowhere to be found.

Her face went pale.

Rushing back to the spot she fell, all that greeted her was rushing acidic water.

In that final moment, the Iron-Hand had thrown himself to catch her, plunging into the acidic lake.

“A, ah...”

Overwhelmed with despair due to her mistake, she sank deep into sorrow.

He had come to the surface to save his daughter.

Yet he prioritized himself over her.

Ebelasque understood.

Subconsciously, he had been treating her as if she were his daughter.

Because she was of the same age as his daughter, such behavior had naturally slipped out.

In the Iron-Hand’s eyes, there had always been a mix of longing and regret.

And at the very last moment, the Iron-Hand chose to save her instead.

Ebelasque rose from the ground.

Exposed to the acidic rain, with her skin and legs melting, she began to move forward again.

Since the Iron-Hand had saved her life,

she now had to fulfill his goal.

His singular goal:

To save his daughter.

And the goal of Benapoch:

To save the city.

With the name of hope held close, she did not let it go and kept pushing forward.

It was tough.

The world, heading towards destruction, kept binding Ebelasque’s ankles, and her body became increasingly battered.

“Cough, cough.”

Eventually, her body reached its limit.

Death was looming near.

But she couldn’t die.

Everyone had sacrificed so much to send her this far.

She had lived long denying reality until now.

And so, wanting to avoid facing that reality, she shut herself away even more.

“What do you know? What do you know!?”

Thick tears began to fall from Ebelasque’s eyes.

It had been such a hard journey.

Yet she wanted to return to that journey.

It was the only time in her life she could have moved forward the most.

In this place, she was an eroder.

Just a stranger.

“I know.”

Kraush chuckled lightly, looking at Ebelasque.

Indeed, he had heard plenty of her tales.

Locked away in prison, she had spoken of her past daily.

Back then, Kraush couldn’t understand Ebelasque’s feelings.

But now he did.

He too had desperately fought for survival even after losing everyone.

That day when they couldn’t prevent the destruction.

Kraush had also fallen deep into despair.

The weight of all that hope crushed down on a person’s shoulder.

“I’ve lost everyone I was close to in this world.”

Though they might be the same people, the ones in Kraush’s memory no longer existed.

They could never return from the world they had lost.

Just as Ebelasque couldn’t save a single one of her friends,

Kraush couldn’t save even one of his comrades either.

All that remained were memories.

“But I keep living. Because they saved me and brought me this far.”

To avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Kraush fought with all his might to live for today.

He thought that was the only way to repay those who had been with him.

“And isn’t that the same for you? You’ve been living on without being able to hold onto your goal.”

Kraush took a step forward.

At that, Ebelasque’s body jolted.

“It’s frightening. Being left all alone.”

Loneliness is severe.

The loneliness that no one remembers the world she once knew is inexpressibly harsh.

So Ebelasque had denied reality.

For if not, she felt she would be forever alone in this world.

“That’s why you hide then. Even if you try to leave something behind in this world, you’re afraid you’ll lose it all again.”

Ebelasque’s eyes wavered.

Snow began to fall slowly from the sky.

And through the falling snow, Kraush’s eyes shone blue.

With snow descending, Ebelasque trembled.

“Ebelasque.”

Kraush spoke to the tear-filled, speechless Ebelasque.

“Let’s make a deal, like back then.”

Ebelasque’s past and Kraush’s beginning were surely different.

“Just one deal, Kraush.”

After the Black Witch’s death, she had asked Kraush for that in prison.

“I’ll tell you one secret the Ephania Palace has kept hidden.”

With a relinquished smile, she leaned her head against the bars in that moment.

“Break my heart that Aria possesses.”

Back then, Kraush had definitely taken a deal for death from her.

“I will inherit the immortality of Crimson Garden.”

But now, she was uttering a completely different deal than before.

Ebelasque’s eyes widened.

Ebelasque was immortal in a sense different from Crimson Garden.

However, she could choose to break her own heart and die if she wanted.

She merely chose not to die for the sake of her old comrades.

She was a half-baked immortal.

But Crimson Garden was different.

She was genuinely immortal.

And Kraush would inherit that same immortality.

“Even if you crumble and vanish, I will continue to live in this world.”

Everyone who had once been by her side had crumbled away.

Not a single friend, comrade, or world remained for her.

This loneliness had scared her, making her cling to resurrection.

She was still terrified now.

Terrified of seeing those beside her leave her and the loneliness that would come next.

Amidst this loneliness she had entrenched herself in,

the boy who had stepped into her life began to color that darkness.

Kraush’s hand cradled Ebelasque’s head.

Thanks to using Annihilation Erosion, warmth flowed through his hand, soaking into her.

Ebelasque raised her head.

The boy reflected in her teary eyes wore an innocent smile.

“If you’re lonely, just stick by my side. I won’t leave you alone.”

Tears streamed down Ebelasque’s trembling cheeks.

She could inherit all the loneliness she had experienced so far.

Stealing was her specialty when it came to curses.

“So help me out.”

Kraush pointed to the mountain.

“How about we try saving this world together this time?”

On the snowy peak,

the two who had experienced a ruined world and lost everything now faced each other in the current one.