1067 Episode 67. The World Serpent (5)

This world is composed of Kim Dokja's lies.

When she first heard that proposal from 'Snowfield Kim Dokja', Lee Jihye had asked sharply.

Probably not only her, but most of <Kim Dokja Company> would have felt similar emotions. However, even if feeling the same emotion, they would have all shown different reactions. Some would have gotten angry at such a Kim Dokja, and others would have silently watched him.

And some,

Would have drunk the tea in a single gulp, like her.

To Lee Jihye asking with a smile, Snowfield Kim Dokja shook his head.

The moment she heard those words, Lee Jihye was swept by a deep sense of lethargy and collapsed onto the chair.

Kim Dokja did not answer. Even that silence was quintessentially Kim Dokja.

The Kim Dokja from back then. The '49% Kim Dokja' who lived in the world after the conclusion together with them, even if only briefly. Snowfield Kim Dokja answered.

An ambiguous answer as always. Narrowing her eyes, Lee Jihye asked.

Startled by those words, Lee Jihye's hand holding the teacup trembled faintly.

Perhaps because she had seen that conclusion, she was here now. Clinging to a thread of hope at that single scene. Yet Kim Dokja, who had handed her that thread of hope, wore a rather frigid expression.

The inside of the room was endlessly quiet, but the inside of Lee Jihye was chaotic. Calming the swirling emotions, Lee Jihye bit her lip tightly and asked.

Snowfield Kim Dokja looked down at the empty teacup she had set down. Stories swirled atop the teacup, soon forming a miniature landscape.

Lee Jihye looked down at that landscape as well. The characters of the 41st round. The world they lived in was there.

And now, she was seeing the vivid landscape that had been reflected inside that teacup right before her eyes.

Watching the bombardment of the Ghost Fleet pouring down, Lee Jihye swung her Twin Dragon Swords. As if confronting the landscape before her eyes, she too swung her swords to protect her own landscape.

On the front line of the landscape she knew, Yoo Joonghyuk was always there.

There was Han Sooyoung always pointing her finger at him, Jung Heewon shaking her head while watching them, and Lee Hyunsung wearing a faint smile. There was Yoo Sangah giving gentle advice, and Lee Seolhwa always anxious that her companions might get hurt. Lowering her gaze slightly, Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung could be seen bickering as well.

People who could be called peculiar if peculiar, strange if strange, and ordinary if ordinary. Lee Jihye was together with them.

Now, it was all a story like a lie.

And now, before her eyes was another lie of Kim Dokja. The characters of the 41st round. The three people standing while supporting each other against the disaster trying to destroy their world. Perhaps Lee Jihye resented Kim Dokja a little.

As if asking Kim Dokja, she questioned the landscape before her eyes.

The answer returned with sharp blades. The history they had lived was answering her.

Those were 'different answers' to the stories she had experienced.

Another possibility that all the history they had lived could have reached.

Therefore, in truth, she knew without needing to hear an answer.

That god, who could not favor merely a single story because he loved all stories, must have ultimately cherished the characters of all other worldlines—the 'Lee Jihye' and 'Jung Heewon' of this world as well.

"Unnie! Run!"

As the 41st round's Lee Jihye poured out bombardment, Lee Jihye's defense wavered for a moment. Not missing that gap, Jung Heewon penetrated her distance.

Where on earth did such power still remain? Parrying Jung Heewon's sword that exploded heavily, Lee Jihye thought of Kim Dokja once again.

During the '73rd Demon King', and when 'The Nameless Mist' appeared in the Demon Realm. Each time, Kim Dokja sacrificed himself to continue the stories.

Within her vision undulating as if drunk, Lee Jihye felt for the first time that she might understand the Kim Dokja of back then.

An ancient story surged, and a stage wavered beside her. The figure of Kim Dokja holding a white flag beside her, desperately trying to persuade the '999th round's Lee Jihye', was drawn like a hallucination.

Those words from back then now returned to her of today.

She was no longer the 'Wounded Sword Demon' alone. The seventeen-year-old girl who embraced only her own wounds and looked at the world through the cracks of those wounds was gone now.

The Wounded Sword Demon had now become a person who could read other people's wounds beyond her own.

Because of that, because she understood such a Kim Dokja, Lee Jihye—

A new 'stage' was unfolding atop the stage of 'Ragnarok'. A thick scent of the sea. The 'stage' where <Kim Dokja Company> had confronted the disaster of the 999th round.

Under Jung Heewon's sword strikes driving in desperately, wounds were increasing on Lee Jihye's entire body as well before she knew it. How did the end of this story go? A story she had reminisced hundreds, thousands of times. A story she had reread several times in the version written by Han Sooyoung.

Yet why was it, strangely, at this moment, Lee Jihye could not remember the conclusion of this 'stage' very well. What happened to her 999th round self? Was it because the tea Snowfield Kim Dokja gave was too bitter, or because she lost a portion of her stories while crossing over to this worldline? The memory would not easily surface.

Lee Jihye saw Jung Heewon's sword flying toward her. A story shining purely, attained through earnest, repeated training. If she met her end by being struck by such a desperate sword, that too wouldn't be bad.

And so, the moment the blade of the realized stage was about to reach her heart.

"Do it properly."

Jung Heewon, who had stopped her sword, growled.

Astonishingly, the blessing of the 'stage' was vanishing from Jung Heewon's entire body.

"I don't need a 'stage' like this."

As if casting away the role clinging to her, Jung Heewon shouted.

"Just as you said, my world is for me to prove. Even if I fail, even if I'm broken, even if the conclusion is already decided—this is 'my story'."

Blankly, Lee Jihye stared at that Jung Heewon.

She didn't want to admit it. Yet this time, she had no choice but to admit it.

This world had the qualification to receive Kim Dokja's choice. At the center of the pitch-black night sky, several stars twinkled. Even amidst the ruins, stars that had not given up on the story were watching this story.

This world loves a protagonist who struggles while betting their everything. Starlight granted to the 'protagonist' who ultimately does not give up on the story even amidst scheduled destruction.

Why does this world show hope only at the moment one lays down the answer?

Watching the incoming sword strike, Lee Jihye,

Everywhere in the scenarios was the Kim Dokja she had liked. In Jung Heewon's sword, in the shouts of the 41st round's Shin Yoosung and Lee Jihye, in Lee Hyunsung's hands, in the cries of the writhing World Serpent, in the handful of starlight still illuminating this night sky—Kim Dokja was in all of them.

Ooooooo!

As if reacting to the stories of the two people, the World Serpent burst into a roar.

[Instant Kill].

As if drawing the final stroke of the story, Lee Jihye drew her sword. Embedding all her stories, she swung her sword as if making this world remember her. That was Lee Jihye's own story. Neither a Giant Story nor anything else, but merely the total sum of the history lived by the human 'Lee Jihye'.

Toward that Lee Jihye, Jung Heewon swung her sword as well.

In the extreme split-second, the sound of worlds overlapping was heard.

That was a story that did not exist in the original 'Ragnarok'. A shred of blessing toward an incarnation who confronted a god purely with the power of a human.

An item that had been an A-grade replica. The sword of Jung Heewon, which had severed incarnations, severed monsters, and even severed stars, was blooming upon receiving Jung Heewon's stories. The symbol of a story holding starlight—a Star Relic (星遺物).

Jung Heewon gripped her new sword with both hands and slashed horizontally.

As the skill possessed solely by Jung Heewon in this world radiated light.

A single star assisted that probability.

'Uriel.'

Lee Jihye saw the archangel wings sprouting from Jung Heewon's shoulder blades.

'You were reading all along as well.'

Lee Jihye saw the sword flying toward her. [Instant Kill] was fast, but Jung Heewon's sword was a bit faster. Lee Jihye slowly blinked her eyes.

Yet the moment Jung Heewon's sword was about to penetrate her heart, the sword tip abruptly bent its trajectory. The tip aiming for her heart accurately struck Lee Jihye's sword hilt.

Pachichit!

And almost at the same time, Lee Jihye's [Instant Kill] grazed past Jung Heewon's forearm.

Lee Jihye watched her Twin Dragon Swords flying away emptily. A truly perfect sword path. Even without using Giant Stories or the power of an Outer God—

Still scattering transcendental energy waves, Jung Heewon was catching her breath as if about to collapse, oblivious to the stories pouring from her entire body.

"Heewon unnie!"

Subsequently, the 41st round's Shin Yoosung appearing from somewhere grabbed Jung Heewon's hand. As if agreed upon, the two mounted the 3rd-grade monster species 'Wyvern King' and soared into the sky above.

Their objective was clear. They were soaring toward the 'World Serpent'. Unable to chase after that Jung Heewon, Lee Jihye blankly looked up. Then, something suddenly came to mind.

Kugugugugu.

The stories of 'Ragnarok' were churning. Lee Jihye looked at the droplets of Jung Heewon's blood smeared on the back of her hand. In those blood droplets, a story she knew well was contained.

Why was it? The story of the dead Thor was seeping out from Jung Heewon's stories. Suddenly, the lore of 'Ragnarok' flashed through Lee Jihye's mind.

The moment Lee Jihye, rising while staggering, was about to take flight into the air again.

Lee Hyunsung, appearing from behind, held her shoulder.

To trust someone. Hearing those sweet yet anxious words, Lee Jihye felt her resolve weakening continuously.

Raising her head once more, Lee Jihye looked up at the two people vanishing toward the World Serpent. A story nearing its conclusion mobilizes all its capabilities to realize that epilogue. Gazing at the scenery flowing toward an unstoppable conclusion, Lee Jihye imagined once more that 'Kim Dokja's lie' she had so longed to see.

Was Kim Dokja still reading this story?

Now, that was the only thing to lean on. That he would still be reading this story. So that at the end of this stage radiant with tragedy—

Still, hoping an epilogue they had not yet read remained.

The eastern sky could be seen brightening brilliantly as if the sun were rising. Both Lee Hyunsung and Lee Jihye looked at that sky. Stars shining as if filling the empty darkness. The starlight pouring here and there looked like endlessly falling snow. The final stage of this story illuminated by that starlight.