Chapter Season 2 746

Time seemed to have stopped. In truth, his consciousness had probably all but frozen. Peran stared into the empty space without thinking, then suddenly came to his senses.

Why did the giant have no upper body?

Could the old man's strike just now have blown away the giant's entire upper body? The absurd thought briefly crossed his mind before he witnessed something unbelievable.

The giant, which had staggered backward, swayed violently as if it might topple at any moment. What would happen if it fell like this? The instant that thought occurred to him, the giant's body abruptly stopped.

“...!”

Then it returned to its original posture as though time had been rewound. No degree of flexibility could explain that movement. Unable to fully comprehend what he had witnessed, Peran stared at the giant with his eyes opened even wider, only to notice the space behind it.

The land the giant had trampled across, which until now had been hidden by its body and the dark clouds. The place he had assumed contained nothing because it could not be observed by ordinary means...

That place was...

That... place... was...

“Aaargh─!”

Peran screamed, clawing at his head. The pain felt as though his skull were shattering. It soon spread to his eyes, which now seemed to be burning as well.

He had seen too much. Things he had not wanted to see, must not see, had not wanted to know, and must never know forced their way brutally into his mind.

“Peran!”

Information far beyond his brain's capacity cascaded into him like a waterfall.

Birth, universe, harmony, flow, life, evolution, conflictwardestructionandwheredidallthethingsthatvanishedflow─.

“Peran! Are you all right?”

“Haaah...!”

The flow of information ceased the instant Peran closed his eyes.

Even so, the information he had already absorbed remained like the searing afterimage of a brilliant light.

Drip.

He felt something running from his eyes. It was not tears this time. It was far thicker, and hotter.

Had the blood vessels burst? Wiping away his bloody tears, Peran said,

“I'm... fine.”

...He felt as though he had gained a faint understanding of what had become of the land the giant had trampled. There was no way to express it perfectly in words, but to explain it briefly, that place had not yet been completely destroyed. In short, its destruction seemed to have been put on hold, though the intention behind that was unclear.

Why?

Was the purpose of Destruction not to destroy? Just what were those beyond the Unified World, in ‘the Outside’, thinking?

Before he could pursue the thought, his body lurched. Yang In-hyun had moved abruptly.

The dark clouds that had withdrawn were already surging back. They resembled waves rushing to fill a vast hole in the sea, making him wonder whether their only property was to fill empty space.

Whoooosh!

Yang In-hyun swung his sword and launched a blade of wind, but it had almost no effect. The same held true even after he slashed several more times in succession.

Peran's heart sank at the sight of those movements. Yang In-hyun's movements now seemed as futile as the struggles of a man whose life force was already spent.

“Sir.”

Without answering, Yang In-hyun turned and began descending toward the ground. They fell several times faster than they had risen, yet Peran's unease did not abate. He could barely feel any warmth from the skin touching his.

“Sir?”

Again, there was no answer.

Then, in the middle of their descent, the sword slipped from Yang In-hyun's hand.

“...!”

The sword tumbled through the air before the dark clouds swallowed it from sight.

Peran might not have been a martial artist, but he knew what weapons meant to them, especially in an emergency like this.

No. Even before considering that, the Yang In-hyun he knew was not a man who would ever let go of his sword.

“Sir!”

Yang In-hyun had no strength left. They were no longer making a controlled descent; they were falling.

Gritting his teeth, Peran untied the robe he had bound tightly around them. Then he reversed their positions and carried Yang In-hyun on his own back.

“Sir, please come to your senses...”

His body was as cold as ice. Cold enough to make Peran wonder if he was already dead.

Perhaps this was only to be expected. Until moments ago, Peran had shared Yang In-hyun's inner world. He therefore knew what had been in the man's mind as he performed that sword art.

The Everlasting Plum Sword Final Form had not simply meant the final form of the sword art.

It had been a sword dance performed at the final moment of his life.

Rrrrumble!

The dark clouds had pursued them to within arm's reach. An ominous pressure weighed on both his mind and body, though it was more bearable than before, perhaps because they had not yet made contact.

Clenching his teeth, Peran plunged toward the ground even faster.

Rooooar!

Just how high had they climbed?

He had deliberately avoided looking down until now, but seen from below the giant's waist, the ground lay at a truly dizzying distance. The sensation of falling seemed to twist his organs together. His breathing grew ragged and his vision blurred, and amid it all, he saw the dark clouds continuing to follow even after they left the previous area.

‘They're pursuing us?’

Could they do that as well?

If so, they were even more dangerous than he had imagined. They were about to pass through ‘that point’, the magic circle from which the ceaseless bombardment had poured down─ Ah.

They passed it the moment he said it.

Kaboom!

Once more, deafening explosions raged on every side.

Now the indiscriminate deluge of magic joined the dark clouds relentlessly pursuing them. Simply falling was enough to make him feel as though he might lose consciousness, yet he also had to account for the random trajectories of the spells and the dark clouds that chased him as if they possessed a will.

It felt as though hot steam were rising from his brain.

Ordinarily, he would have failed to handle even one of these things properly, but somehow he was managing them now. He could do so for a very brief time. Naturally, he could not maintain such an extreme state of concentration for long, and Peran reached his limit in an instant.

Awakening through explosive growth was all well and good, but he still could not freely control his newly heightened senses. The fact that this was purely due to his lack of experience left him so frustrated with his predicament that he could have spat blood.

‘Damn it!’

He knew how extraordinary the growth he had undergone today was. He also knew that asking for more was the petulance of a man who already had plenty.

But what else could he do when it still was not enough?

‘More.

Just a little more.

I don't care what happens afterward.

If only I can escape from here, if only I can return to the Magic Planet, then after that─’

At that moment, he felt something against his back.

‘Sir?’

Had he regained consciousness?

At first, Peran thought Yang In-hyun was touching him to signal that he was awake, but it felt slightly different. He could feel a finger moving against the edge of his robe.

Even amid the chaos, Peran soon realized that Yang In-hyun was communicating by writing.

‘Put me down.’

‘...’

Peran could not bring himself to speak.

Yang In-hyun calmly moved his finger.

‘Our conversation. Surely you have not forgotten.’

“I...”

Peran could tell that moving even a finger was taxing him. No vitality remained in Yang In-hyun's body. His flesh was cold as ice, and even if both of them miraculously survived this, Yang In-hyun would die before long. No hopeful words could reach a man who had lost the will to live.

Then what am I supposed to do here?

If they both died because he tried to save a man already at death's door, a man little different from a corpse, what could that be called but foolishness?

He had to think rationally. That was how mages thought, as Peran understood them.

The most fundamental quality of a mage was...

─Self-Righteousness is the path we must pursue.

“...”

Not rationality.

Peran jerked his head up.

A hailstone with a tip as sharp as a spear pierced his left ear. It seemed to have torn the ear off entirely, but he paid it no mind.

The moment he recalled his master's words, his true feelings surged back to the surface.

Had he not already decided which path he would walk?

Peran did not aspire to become one of the mages of his home universe, who acted on the basis of reason.

The mages of the Magic Planet were people who believed themselves right under any circumstances. Possessed of terrible self-righteousness, even if their path was foolish, idiotic, or strewn with thorns, they would never regret their choice so long as they themselves were satisfied.

Tug!

He tightened the knot in the robe and narrowly evaded the lightning bolts falling one after another. He did not avoid them completely. Blood sprayed from his side and shoulder where sharp fragments of rock carried within the lightning had wounded him.

He had protected his vital points, but these were no minor wounds. He had already lost far too much blood. He was enduring through sheer force of will, and even that would soon reach its limit.

In the midst of it all, Yang In-hyun moved his finger.

‘Let me go.’

His finger moved with difficulty, but the message it traced was firm.

‘You saw it, did you not? Then you must understand. You are insulting me now.’

He even seemed slightly angry. A man like this truly was terrifying when angered.

Even as the pointless thought crossed his mind, Peran nodded.

“Yes. I saw you place the final period at the end of your life. So what?”

Rrrrumble...!

With the roar of thunder and the din all around them, Yang In-hyun clearly could not hear him, but Peran continued.

“I know you have no regrets, and I know you’re perfectly satisfied. That’s all well and good. But that’s only your side of it, isn’t it?”

“...”

“I don't feel the same. I don't like your story, especially the ending. Ever since I was a child, I've only ever chosen fairy tales with happy endings.”

He forced a smile as he spoke, but reality was not so accommodating. No second miraculous awakening came to him in this desperate situation.

His wounds multiplied with every spell that struck. Fingers were severed, and one eye was crushed. A great gash opened in his thigh, and a massive burn was branded across his back. Yet strangely, the smile on his lips grew increasingly pronounced.

“If the life of Yang In-hyun the martial artist has ended, then you need only continue with the story that comes afterward. An extra chapter to your life. The tale of the Everlasting Plum Sword may be over, but surely you still have other stories left to tell.”

He could see the force of the dark clouds tenaciously pursuing them gradually waning.

Perhaps even they had a limited range. On closer inspection, the dark clouds had faded considerably in color and diminished greatly in size. If he could only shake them off, their chances of survival would rise dramatically.

“You can become a teacher, or withdraw from the world altogether. If you're tired and don't want to do anything, then don't. Spend your days as leisurely and indolently as you please. I believe you've earned that right.”

“...”

“I think that would be a better ending. Even if people point fingers and call it disgraceful, even if they curse you for desperately clinging to life. Living would still be far more enjoyable.”

There was no need to force a final period upon a life.

A sword art was not a life, so it did not have to be completed. It was fine for it to remain unfinished.

And so Peran wanted Yang In-hyun to live. He wanted them to return to Mount Hua together.

‘Yes.’

His wish took no account of what Yang In-hyun wanted.

This very desire was Peran's self-righteousness.

Rooooar!

How long had they been falling?

How much farther was it to the ground? The giant's body, which Peran glanced at from time to time, served as a measure of their altitude. They had not even reached its knees yet. Despite falling for so long, they still had more than half the distance left to go.

Peran did not despair at that hopeless truth. Instead, he sharpened his focus even further, for if he let his concentration slip in the slightest, he felt he would lose consciousness.

Then he suddenly thought the number of falling spells had decreased slightly. Had he crossed yet another threshold and only perceived it that way? That could not be. Both Peran's body and mind were already at their limits.

The brief lull gave him a moment to catch his breath, but unease quickly crept in.

Something was wrong.

Peran checked his surroundings. The dark clouds had now vanished completely from sight.

...

...

“...!”

At that moment, Peran looked down on pure instinct. Until now, the spells had been falling from above, so his attention had remained fixed upward.

Rrrrumble...!

The dark clouds were beneath them.

When had they overtaken him? He did not know.

But they were already too close for him to evade them or go around.

“Damn it.”

Just before he touched the dark clouds, he spoke in a half-resigned voice.

“No...”

“Of course not.”

It was then that an unexpected answer came.

A hearty laugh rang out from somewhere, and a flash of light pierced the dark clouds just before Peran struck them. Crackle! Sparks scattered in every direction, illuminating the surroundings.

A moment later, Peran was falling not through dark and dreary clouds but amid a vast expanse of light. As the abrupt turn of events and the shock blurred his consciousness, he heard a mocking voice.

“I agree with every word you said. I, too, am rather fond of clinging stubbornly to life, disgraceful as it may be.”

‘Ah...’

This voice was...

*****

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