Episode 12: Final Episode / Chapter 194: To Hope for the End
TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk
{I will go off to war soon. Flame-Hell will most likely follow after me. Keep up your loyal appearance. It’s also good if you look like you have a lot of desires. Then you will be selected as his guard. Wait for the opportunity to kill him.}
It wasn’t like Dark-Sound personally came looking for him.
Dark-Sound’s voice whispered in his ear as he was walking down the streets of Alliance City, the night sky darkening.
“After killing Flame-Hell… What next?”
Choi Hyuk mumbled inwardly. He heard Dark-Sound’s distant voice.
{After that… will be the start of a new era.}
Alliance City’s sky was colorful. It was a dream-like sky that recreated the native skies of species in the alliance.
A section blazed with flames, while another was completely black, and one section was filled with brilliantly shining stars, making it look like a desert. There was even a frosty sky. While the sky was mainly recreating the native skies of the top four tribes, night had now arrived in the section that had recreated Earth’s sky. The Big Dipper shined once in the dark sky.
**
{Earth’s environment will be introduced to Alliance City.}
{An evaluation regarding whether earthlings will be appointed as a ‘High-Ranked Warrior Species’ will commence.}
{The galaxy that Earth was a part of and its solar system will be renamed ‘Earth Galaxy’ and ‘Earth Solar System’ respectively.}
{Restoration of Earth in the Earth Solar System, Earth Galaxy, Virgo Cluster, Laniakea Supercluster will commence.}
Choi Hyuk traversed through Alliance City.
Under the influence of the newly introduced Earth’s environment, cherry blossoms grew densely and yellow forsythias peeked out between the buildings. If it wasn’t for the aliens that crowded the streets, it would feel like he was on his way home after school as even the buildings were erected in Earth’s style.
Following Choi Hyuk’s footsteps, the warriors who were on the streets made way and saluted,
“For life and freedom!”
Choi Hyuk calmly walked down the path opening up in front of him.
He didn’t look back.
{This is Flame-Thorn. You’ve probably heard her voice a lot before.}
Flame-Hell had an abundant beard while Flame-Thorn’s cheeks were smooth. Although her clear skin composed of flames showed no signs of age, her imposing aura made her feel like a great senior. She had a human-like appearance but was also transcendent like the large figures of the Four Heavenly Kings in ancient temples. She gave off a different feeling compared to Flame-Rain, who was generally friendly.
Choi Hyuk bowed his head slightly before meeting their gaze.
‘I’m finally at this point.’
In the immeasurably tall pyramid known as the ‘alliance’, Choi Hyuk had crawled up from the deep underground and was now looking up at its peak.
No one could disregard him as he had brought upon the Spring of the Great Universe for the first time in thousands of years.
He could now face them ‘almost’ as equals.
Flame-Thorn glanced at Flame-Hell as she smiled faintly.
{I’m the one who suggested designating earthlings as a high-ranked warrior species.}
Unlike Flame-Rain who always talked to Choi Hyuk in Korean, Flame-Hell and Flame-Thorn talked to him in their native tongue.
{I respect you, who has made exceptional achievements starting as a low-ranked species, and the earthlings.}
Flames blazed following her smooth hand gesture. It was their own way of expressing respect. It was a hand gesture he had often seen while leading the Flame Army.
{At this point, it’s impossible to not reflect on Earth’s recruit training method. We considered you simply as a species living at the border… Thinking about it now, it would be sufficient to call you a brother of the Flame Wing Tribe considering your appearance and potential.}
Flame-Thorn spoke slightly apologetically yet annoyingly. She observed Choi Hyuk’s reaction after saying this.
Behind her smiling eyes, she coldly observed him to see if he held any grievance from the recruit training and how he reacted when she said, ‘brother of the Flame Wing Tribe.’
“A brother of a great tribe… What an honor.”
Choi Hyuk acted like a young warrior who possessed absolute confidence in his skills but also cared about the alliance’s evaluation of him. He showed them what they wanted to see.
{Hahaha, making each other proud… It’s a great relationship.}
Not only Flame-Thorn, but even Flame-Hell was delighted at Choi Hyuk’s answer.
They didn’t hide their pride as members of the Flame Wing Tribe. They possessed a thorough sense of elitism and speciesism. These traits were also decisive in why they separated from Flame-Rain.
Choi Hyuk secretly glanced around. There were six warriors guarding Flame-Hell and Flame-Thorn. They were surprisingly all transcendent warriors. Should he say that this was expected of people who stood at the peak of power and violence in the universe?
{We have decided to dispatch the Flame Army to the monsters’ universe, which is under Flame-Rain’s jurisdiction.}
The gentle mood slightly cooled. Flame-Hell observed Choi Hyuk.
{Only, I hope that Army Leader Choi Hyuk will remain with me. First, as my guard. We can discuss your next position slowly afterwards. Since I am planning on calling back the earthlings again… It might not be bad to create a new army centered around earthlings. Whatever the future holds, I promise you that I won’t disappoint you.}
They were sending the Flame Army, which was renown as the most elite troop, to the monsters’ universe to keep both Flame-Rain and Choi Hyuk in check. On the other hand, Flame-Hell strengthened his support base by keeping Choi Hyuk next to him.
Upon the miracle known as the Spring of the Great Universe, Flame-Rain’s popularity shined throughout the universe. Flame-Hell’s move to keep her in check and to bring Choi Hyuk, who was as popular as her, by his side wasn’t a bad one.
{In the past, we weren’t able to pay sufficient attention to you. For a warrior of your skills, you should have long since taken command of the battlefield. Luckily, there is a perfect opportunity for you as we’ll be advantageous in the war against the monsters for a while. Look at the big picture now. Starting from the recruit training, there were probably many points that were difficult to accept up until now. Our alliance policy has a bit of a… heartless side to it as well. However, I’ll take measures personally from now on. What I want you now is to grasp the inevitable actions of leading a ‘war’ rather than a ‘battle’ and personally change the field.}
Saying that everything would be different from the past, Flame-Hell praised and comforted Choi Hyuk with his words and gestures.
“Changing the field… Then what should I do next?”
Choi Hyuk directly met his gaze and asked. As if he had been waiting for this, Flame-Hell replied benevolently as he stretched his hand out towards him.
{It’s the exalted history you will forge. You too will become a wing of history. You will see a new world.}
Choi Hyuk courteously bowed his head and held Flame-Hell’s hand.
However, he had different thoughts in his mind.
‘Everyone’s… thinking of the future.’
Flame-Hell was looking far into the future by keeping Flame-Rain in check, setting the Flame Wing Tribe in an absolute position in the alliance, and the winning the war against the monsters.
Like how he had lived for tens of thousands of years, he was also looking at tens of thousands of years into the future.
Dark-Sound and Flame-Rain were no different in this regard.
‘It’s okay if you don’t assassinate Flame-Hell. Everything’s changed now. Dark-Sound? It’s fine to ignore him. If he keeps pushing you… Then I’ll definitely protect you. Also, wait a little longer. I’ll make this universe more worthwhile… and more loving. That’s why… don’t hate so much. Other things, and yourself as well.’
Choi Hyuk thought about Flame-Rain, who spoke confidently like a young queen with great consideration.
Choi Hyuk believed that she would bring forth a great future.
However, since the day Earth’s fate had been determined, Choi Hyuk had never thought about the future. His fate didn’t include the future.
“A new world… I can almost already see it.”
Choi Hyuk smiled as he looked at Flame-Hell.
**
“Youngjin, kill Dark-Sound. It’ll be your final mission.”
Baek Seoin demanded as though he had left Dark-Sound’s death in his care.
As though he was handing Baek Seoin an item he had left behind in his care, Chu Youngjin nonchalantly replied,
“Yes.”
When the communication ended, Lee Jinhee grabbed hold of Baek Seoin.
“… Will it be possible?”
Would Chu Youngjin be able to kill Dark-Sound? Would Choi Hyuk be able to kill the 12 remaining Exalted Wings afterwards? Lee Jinhee thought things were proceeding too quickly. Couldn’t they proceed when they were more prepared? When they looked even further into the future? When they were more certain of their chances?
“Leader… seems like he’s being chased by something.”
Baek Seoin stopped in place and looked at her.
“While it may be meaningless to calculate the probability of winning… If we were to, it’d be less than 10%.”
He talked about this gloomy prospect as though it wasn’t all bad.
“It’s an unbelievably high probability.”
This wasn’t sarcasm.
The probability in which earthlings, who had been Consumables, could completely slaughter the most powerful individuals in the alliance was 10%. In some ways, this could be considered incredibly high.
“What if Youngjin gives up his mission? To be honest… It’s been a long time since we’ve met.”
“Then we’ll wait for the next opportunity… or we’ll all die after being sadly discovered.”
Baek Seoin replied blandly.
Chu Youngjin could sleep.
The conversation from this morning kept lingering in his head.
While he had replied easily at the time, the ripples in his heart gradually grew larger as time passed.
Though he didn’t know why, various emotions entangled and murmured in his heart.
On nights he couldn’t sleep, Chu Youngjin would normally sit rigidly in his dark room. The thick darkness, in which he couldn’t even see his own hands, made it feel like he was abandoned in the vast ocean, and it also gave him the feeling of being enclosed in a coffin, unable to move a finger.
When he sat there like that, a sudden thought would cross his mind.
‘Must have been very scary.’
This wasn’t his own fear.
The girl who couldn’t step onto the Ring of Rebirth, where they killed each other, in the very end that fine afternoon.
Some disappeared after being killed by their colleagues, while she remained alone in the classroom after the others, who had killed their fellow students, had left. Her hair became disheveled above her trembling shoulders, and the sun cruelly shined its bright rays down on her.
Even though he hadn’t witnessed it, it was as vivid as a memory. What he couldn’t forget was the fear Lee Hyejin had felt that day.
“Kill him, huh…?”
It was sweet.
While humans were being slaughtered like bugs, those at the very top remarked that it was an ‘inevitable sacrifice’ before they continued on indifferently. And if someone stabbed and killed one of them at the peak and then mocked them? Just imagining it caused his mouth to fill with a bittersweet taste, akin to that of soju{1}, and his heart began to thump furiously.
Someone once stated that revenge was an emotion of slaves. Fuck that.
However, once the bout of giggling madness passed, similar to sobering up, his chest suddenly felt stuffy. He couldn’t figure out why.
When he opened his door and left, he was in a yard filled with rectangular doors.
These rectangular doors stood like trees in this white space where it was impossible to distinguish the floor from the ceiling. The big ones were the size of buildings, while the smaller ones were the size of mouse holes. From wood to steel, there were doors made of various materials. This was the ‘Garden of Doors’ in which the ‘Event Horizon Troop’ resided.
Chu Youngjin quietly walked through this place. Walking in a white space after leaving his dark room gave him an unpleasant feeling for some reason.
After walking for a while, he came across a long bench amidst the doors. Gulp-sized drops of drinks that could be drunk at any time floated around it.
Shiro was sitting on the bench, unmoving, like a picture.
“Ah.”
She looked surprised when she saw him.
Chu Youngjin asked,
“Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I naturally don’t sleep.”
“Then do you sit there every day?”
“No… I just had something on my mind. But why aren’t you sleeping?”
“It’s not like I really need sleep either… Let’s just say I had something on my mind as well.”
Chu Youngjin plunked himself down next to her. Seeing her, it felt like his complicated mind was calming down.
Looking straight in front of her, she opened her small, glossy lips and asked,
“Because of the grand scheme?”
“… I guess you could say that?”
Since Choi Hyuk’s plan of killing all the remaining Exalted Wings after killing Dark-Sound could also be considered a grand scheme.
“You’re going to be Dark-Sound’s guard on his expedition, right?”
The moment he heard her voice, his chest felt stuffy again. Yes, now he understood the reason. This cold girl, born as a weapon of war, Puppet Shiro. When she mentioned Dark-Sound, her voice was filled with affection. Chu Youngjin knew this.
“… Yeah.”
His reply was late.
Shiro looked directly at him as she said,
“While I probably don’t need to say this… Please take care of him.”
She smiled before swallowing a marble-like drink drop floating in the air.
She changed the subject.
“Once the expedition is over and Flame-Hell is killed, it’ll be the start of the real battle. Not everyone will acknowledge the new rule, especially the Flame Wing Tribe, who might resist vehemently.”
Chu Youngjin noticed her eyes igniting with revenge. Strangely, this cruel emotion seemed to wash the stuffiness that filled his chest.
“After killing Flame-Hell… And the battle after that ends? What about then? Did you think about it?”
Shiro blinked at his question.
“After killing him…? I never really thought about it. I think I’ll only know once we get there.”
Chu Youngjin grinned. What she said was true. To first finish what you desperately wanted. Once you thought, ‘I don’t know what comes after,’ many things became simpler. Like how she was set on killing Flame-Hell, he too had decided to kill Dark-Sound. His current feelings, the tragedy that would ensue afterwards, those were all things he could think about then.
Chu Youngjin and Shiro sat peacefully without saying a word.
The world was already messed up from the first step.
The current sense of peace was deceptive since Choi Hyuk and he, Chu Youngjin, would smash everything apart in the end. This machine woman, who had stood by his side, would despair and rage because of him. Even though he knew this…
‘It’s good like this for now. When that time comes, I’ll deal with it then… Though I’ll probably not even be alive by then.’
The more irresponsible he became, the calmer his heart was.
Suddenly, Shiro opened her mouth.
“Now that I think about it… There’s something I want to do after this battle ends.”
“What is it?”
“Uhh… Umm… It’s a secret.”
Seeing Chu Youngjin laugh in a bland manner, Shiro added, as if making an excuse,
“No, I mean I’m not saying it’s confidential. It’s my own personal secret.”
Chu Youngjin blinked. Like the world hidden behind his eyelids, whether it was a secret or not, he wouldn’t be able to know what the future entailed.
“Yeah. Though I don’t know what it is, I wish you the best.”
It seemed she was somewhat embarrassed by his reply as Shiro stooped her head down.
{1} Alcohol popular in Korea