◈ Episode 492. Fertilizer (8)
I, Lee Hoyeol.
I had thought that, after making up for a gap of more than a dozen years, I had now experienced many things other players had not. Yet this was the first time I had ever seen a message like this. ‘……
Self-destruction?’ I would have suspected it right away.
If the opponent had been a demon-type monster?
Bullshit, I wouldn’t even have snorted.
But the scene unfolding before me said otherwise.
Moreover.
The World Tree slowly vanishing behind me lent weight to that fact. That the battle was truly over. The fusion intelligence, Yugwid—its body, which had stood as unmoving as a rocky mountain, began to collapse little by little.
Was it because the distance was close that I could see it more clearly?
“Ch-Chief Lee?”
Bensch William.
He trailed off and raised a finger. Even without pointing, I knew, Senior Bensch. Not only I, but everyone here did.
Crack, crumble.
Upper body and lower body—it was impossible to say where it began.
It crumbled and collapsed all at once.
Without offering the slightest resistance.
“What in the world……?”
Someone trailed off for only a moment.
Then, gazes soon focused on me.
Somehow, those eyes resembled the ones that had poured down on me when I first announced reversal magic. ‘It seems they’re expecting an explanation from me…….’ Well, it wasn’t as if I knew everything either.
Was this also the power of {Nature}, and at that, the might of nature imbued with the blessing of the First World Tree? I seriously considered it, but…… it seemed I was barking up the wrong tree.
Because I had experienced it once before. ‘On the Arcana Continent.’ Even if I had borrowed the World Tree’s power to unlock the Nature ability.
It could not have surpassed the power of the Spirit Kings.
Then, as expected. ‘As expected, it must mean exactly what it says.’ I mulled over the message that had flashed before my eyes and opened my mouth.
“Self-destruction, to destroy oneself.”
Looking at the scattering fusion intelligence, I continued.
“This is your pride, Yugwid.”
*
Oried shouted.
“What are you doing this for? Giving up now, after all this? How did you become more useless than when you were a girl who knew nothing? Fine, whatever. Get out of my consciousness right now!!”
The name fusion intelligence was not an empty one.
Yugwid and Oried.
Because the consciousnesses of the two beings had fused.
That was why it had no choice but to be called a fusion intelligence. In other words, if the fusion intelligence turned to earth and vanished like this, the consciousnesses of both beings would also disappear forever.
“How upsetting. Words like that hurt, Oried. I was already suffering wounds, large and small, from the passing years. And now you tell an old woman like me that I was better when I was young.”
The gentle giant.
Her distinctive slyness had returned.
Yugwid no longer wavered.
It was because she had clearly witnessed it.
She let out a laugh. ‘Because I want to reach a different ending from yours.’ At this moment, Yugwid thought of her fellow former elder mages, Karimzeva the Fire Dragon and Senios of the Eternal Snow. If the situation had flowed according to Oried’s will……
I would have met an end similar to yours. ‘It would have depended on the severity of Chief Lee’s judgment.’ If Chief Lee showed mercy, she would meet an end like Senios’s; if he did not, she would not even be able to recover her corpse, just like Karimzeva. ‘In that sense, I’m going to try being stubborn one last time.’ Even so, should not the end go according to my will?
Because they shared consciousness.
Oried, having seen through that inner thought, changed her tone.
“The end? Don’t say such weak things, Yugwid.”
A voice that had become falsely affectionate.
The sight of her flying into a rage until just now was nowhere to be seen.
She whispered sweetly, as if coaxing a child.
However, all Yugwid did was chuckle.
“Unfortunately, I’m too old to fall for that kind of sweet talk.”
“……
You.”
“And you know it too, don’t you, Oried?”
Yugwid continued speaking without shrinking in the slightest before the Spirit King of Earth, who was glaring at her as if to kill her. And those words struck Oried where it hurt.
“That both you and I lost our purity long ago.”
“……!”
They were different from the other spirits who had preserved their purity.
Oried had entered into a contract with Yugwid that should never have been made.
Yugwid calmly finished speaking.
“So you had better abandon any foolish thoughts.”
Because my decision will not change under any circumstances.
At the same time.
It began to collapse in earnest.
The fusion intelligence.
And the space of consciousness where the two coexisted.
Rumble.
A boulder fell down over Oried’s head.
If she had not quickly dodged.
It would not have been strange for her to be crushed to death beneath it.
Oried shouted.
“Are you serious? You’re giving up like this?”
Nod.
“……
Truth! Yes, what about the truth you were pursuing?!”
Shake, shake.
“You’re saying you’ll give it up now, without a shred of regret……? You’ve gone completely mad, and you’ve been thoroughly tainted! What broke you like this? Reversal magic? Pride? You don’t really believe it, do you? The change in the Shadow Mercenary Corps!”
……
Hmm.
The Shadow Mercenary Corps.
At those words, Yugwid sank into thought for a moment.
But soon, she shook her head.
So even the flow of time cannot be reversed after all, Chief Lee.
“Maybe it’s because I’ve aged. Some people might be disappointed to hear this, but to speak honestly…… it happened decades ago, so both my memories and my desire for revenge have grown faint. Now, I don’t care what they do. So it should be fine.”
Thud.
“Ah……”
At that point, Oried forgot all dignity and sank down on the spot.
As befitted the word self-destruction.
The space of consciousness continued to collapse.
At this rate, Yugwid and Oried.
The consciousnesses of the two would be buried beneath the remnants of the fusion intelligence and vanish.
That was the ending Yugwid desired.
“At last, the time has come for me to meet an end befitting an earth mage.”
Burning flames do not grow old.
The same goes for eternal snow that does not melt.
But the earth is different.
Yugwid looked at the collapsing fusion intelligence, the golem.
Its appearance was no different from a boulder being worn away by wind and waves. The pieces of rock worn away like that soon crumbled into powder. They were naturally turning into soil.
Yugwid murmured.
“From giant to soil. Let’s see, it is time to be reborn as fertilizer.”
Sssss.
As expected.
The fusion intelligence returned to soil.
At the same time.
The consciousnesses of the two also began to grow faint.
Even so, Yugwid held on until the very last moment. ‘I do not know what result will come of this, but…….’ To the incomplete prototype rift.
It was a rift that should originally have been closed by the self-destruction of the fusion intelligence. Yet the fusion intelligence, having turned into fertilizer, was connecting two completely different worlds into a single land.
Yugwid let out a laugh.
“I trust that you will manage well enough on your own.”
Chief Lee, Marcelo, Matisse.
And even Senior Bensch.
It was the moment Yugwid thought of the Magic Tower’s future.
A voice pierced through her consciousness.
-“This is your pride, Yugwid.”
Pride, is it?
Thank you for acknowledging it, Chief Lee.
Yugwid uttered her final words.
Yes, this was precisely.
Not the end of an incompetent elder mage of the Magic Tower.
But the end I chose as a single earth mage.
“So you may envy me as much as you like, Senios.”
*
It vanishes as if it were a lie.
The fusion intelligence that had laid waste to the Arcana Continent and Seoul.
I think back on what the best I could have done was. ‘……
If only I had been a little stronger.’ If I had unlocked the {Nature} stat earlier and had been able to handle the [Blessing of the First World Tree]
a little more skillfully. Perhaps I could have reached a slightly better ending.
But would that truly have been Yugwid’s pride?
I opened my mouth.
“I pay my respects to your pride.”
Since the system, which does not lie, had declared it “self-destruction.”
It was safe to view the fusion intelligence’s collapse as Yugwid’s will.
Was there proof that it was not Oried’s doing?
Of course there was. Unlike before, as if worried it might damage the surroundings, the fusion intelligence had curled its body in tightly as it turned into soil.
Soon, my vision flashed.
[The fusion intelligence Yugwid is changing.]
[The prototype rift is changing.]
[A new field appears between two completely different worlds.]
The monster that had appeared vanished.
Originally, it should have been a rift that was cleared and disappeared.
Yet the prototype rift remained right where it was.
That was not all.
Had they peered inside it with magic?
A group of Skilled Mages buzzed with murmurs.
“……
Over there, beyond that, that! Isn’t that the Arcana Continent?”
“Miss Jibril, I can see it! It really is the Arcana Continent!!”
“Shh! Please be quiet, Rinne!”
“Gulp!”
The Skilled Mage, having noticed my gaze, hurriedly covered her mouth, but there was no need to do so. Not only the Senior Mages but the players also seemed to have grasped what role the prototype rift was playing.
Baek Iseol flinched and muttered.
“Don’t tell me that beyond not disappearing, a rift connecting the Arcana Continent and reality has appeared……? As the fallen fusion intelligence formed a new field……?”
The master of the Shinhwa Guild.
At the same time, befitting a high-ranking player, her powers of deduction were fairly good.
I was of the same mind.
This must be the final legacy Yugwid left to the Magic Tower.
And to reality and the Arcana Continent.
My vision flashed in succession.
[The influence of a completely different world is being transmitted.]
The ones shocked by that message were probably the players.
As expected, the player closest by.
Baek Iseol now let out a cry of astonishment.
“……
A buff? Don’t tell me, the one they said was active on the Arcana Continent?!”
The Arcana Continent and the capital of South Korea, Seoul, had been connected as one.
Naturally.
Not only the numerous buffs currently active on the Arcana Continent.
[From now on, the Arcana Continent sings of that legend. The cold wind blowing across the entire Arcana Continent ceases, and the frozen land melts, trembling with vitality. : Experience gained increases by 50 percent.]
[The spirits of the universe greatly rejoice at the reversed entropy. Their mischief has greatly twisted the law of causality of the Arcana Continent, but no one will blame them. : Item drop rate increases by 50 percent.]
[The pure-blooded magic race, the Descendants of Twilight, scatter violet mana across the Arcana Continent. The mana density of the Arcana Continent increases. The curtain rises on the age of great magic. : Magic manifestation power increases by 30 percent.]
……
Even the most recent buff that had appeared.
[The “Age of Purity” arrives on the Arcana Continent.]
It meant that they were valid even beyond the Arcana Continent, in reality.
“……
How should we take this, Chief Lee?”
The Senior of the Healing School, Belliere Yusia.
She cautiously asked me. Unfortunately, even I could not dare to guess the aftermath of this situation. If there were positive aspects, there would also be negative ones.
For example. ‘Raymon Sean.’ This was a situation where it would not be wrong to say that the strangeness he pursued had been partially realized. However, that was not something to worry about immediately. Yes, because there was something else to worry about right now.
Because they were as pure as children.
Their curiosity was also like that of children.
Beings revealing their presence beyond the prototype rift.
Peek.
Countless spirits poked their heads into reality.
Spirits in their natural state visible to the naked eye?
The one most shocked by that phenomenon was Feiyan, Senior of Spirit Studies.
“U-ueeeek?”
You will have to rewrite every book related to spirit studies, Feiyan.
But do not exaggerate.
Because no matter what, your lot will be better than mine.
Soon, the spirits that had been looking around reality turned their gazes toward me.
“!!!”
Yes, spirits.
Though the tears you shed were regrettable.
I am alive and perfectly well like this.
This was why I had been about to say even a single word……
“H-How……?”
Whether they knew my complicated feelings or not.
The spirits rushed toward me in a swarm.
Among them were Spirit Kings whose appearances alone were extraordinary.
The scenery of the area spread out over the airwaves.
What did that mean?
[Your legend resounds through two completely different worlds.]
……
What else could it mean? It meant the misunderstanding had only gained momentum!