983 Episode 59 What Kind of Ending (4)

The moment Mitra asked, sparks erupted in the air again. Then, the voice of dokkaebi Biryu cut through the tension.

Startled, Mitra raised his head just as a deafening roar echoed across the battlefield.

With a sound like the earth tearing apart, the terrain began to twist and buckle.

A majestic, crushing pressure descended upon us. I observed the calamity with calm eyes.

With a mythical constellation like Mitra active, the balance of the scenario demanded a counterforce. Just as the 'Apocalypse Dragon' had appeared in the 'Battlefield of Myths', it was only natural that a similar disaster would strike here.

Mitra glared at me, eyes wide with betrayal. He was right to be angry. The reason I had brought him along—despite his obvious agenda—was because I needed a shield to temporarily block this very disaster.

Of course, there was no way the real World Serpent would appear here. The true 'Jormungandr' of Ragnarok was a Myth-grade catastrophe on a cosmic scale.

So, the 'World Serpent' summoned here...

As Mitra muttered the name, the summoned giant snake turned its nine heads toward me.

"I never thought I'd encounter that constellation here."

'Yamata no Orochi'. The constellation that had plagued Peaceland—the 'Eight-Headed Sovereign'. It had been twisted into a 'Disaster' and unleashed upon us.

Yamata no Orochi shook its massive heads and unleashed a breath of venomous energy. The constellations caught in the blast screamed as their incarnations disintegrated.

Oooooooh!

Orochi thrust five of its heads through the melting terrain. Mitra, undeterred, unleashed his power.

A spear of light materialized in the air, blasting two of Orochi's heads into oblivion. However, three other heads successfully clamped onto Mitra's limbs, tearing through his defense. At the same time, his [Prison of Light] shattered.

"Dokja-ssi!"

Mitra shouted, spotting Jung Heewon and Anna Croft, who had escaped the broken prison.

This was our last chance. Without hesitation, I grabbed my companions and opened the 'Missing Bush'. A pitch-black swirl of darkness began to suck us in.

Mitra was persistent. As if determined to destroy us if he couldn't have us, he risked being devoured by Orochi to hurl his spear of light at our retreating forms.

I went cold as I watched the terrifying spears slash through the air. I deflected a few with 'Unbreakable Faith', but blocking them all was impossible.

The moment I prepared to shield them with my own body—

Someone stepped in front of us, taking Mitra's spear. He swung a long bamboo stick, deflecting the incoming light with a desperate strength.

I recognized him immediately.

The Great Master Samyeong, who had lost his incarnation in 'Valhalla Hall', had joined this large-scale battlefield to the end.

The holy relic of the Great Master, having absorbed the impact of a Myth-grade attack, lost its glow and began to crumble. With a crackling sound, his incarnation body, impaled by the spear, began to spill its story.

If we left now, Great Master Samyeong would die. I reached out, but he shook his head and pushed me away. His body was tattered, his existence fading. Yet, the star of the Korean Peninsula shone brightly in his final moments. He looked past me, fixing his gaze on Anna Croft.

The swirling darkness engulfed us. Mitra's sorrowful roar echoed in the distance, quickly drowned out by a bitter, biting cold. If I hadn't been gripping Jung Heewon and Anna Croft's wrists, the cold would have severed my sense of their existence entirely.

In a world where time seemed frozen, a sound echoed—like gears clicking into place.

Click.

Something fell out of alignment. Something broke. And then, the sound of something being forcibly realigned.

A record appeared before my eyes.

Jung Heewon and Anna Croft looked at me with startled eyes.

"Dokja-ssi."

"Something is wrong."

A faint light enveloped us. Then, Anna Croft and the unconscious Kim Namwoon were wrapped in a sudden, violent storm of probability.

Alarm bells rang in my head. Why was the storm hitting only those two?

I didn't understand the cause, but the subsequent record revealed the consequence.

Terrified by the implication, I shouted at Anna.

"Tear the tickets! Quickly!"

Sparks exploded from her body the moment I screamed. Fortunately, she must have torn both tickets in time, as I saw her vanish along with Kim Namwoon.

Startled, Jung Heewon cried out.

"Dokja—"

"Hold on tight!"

The surrounding space-time shuddered violently, as if the foreign objects had been safely expelled.

Jung Heewon and I felt our bodies melting. Without a moment to resist, we became part of the stream of space-time. My vision flickered, and the history of the universe unfolded before my eyes. Countless stars spread out where the first light had once been. Galaxies formed, illuminated by the stories that birthed them.

The world of stories I'd read, written, and lived through. As if I were a fluid, I flowed through all those galaxies, heading toward the end of a long history.

As I looked at the wall, the wall looked back at me. I felt the great records within it respond—fiercely calling out, begging me to choose.

I chose one.

I chose it because the emotions of the people I longed to meet were so strong within that record.

The moment I touched it, I felt my body regenerating. Dizziness washed over me as the surroundings brightened, the abstract record transforming into a tangible landscape.

My heart pounded.

I tried to call their names. But my voice remained silent. It was only natural. My voice was not permitted in this 'hospital room'.

I am a reader. A being who observes.

Han Sooyoung, Yoo Joonghyuk, Yoo Sangah, Shin Yoosoung, Lee Gilyoung, Jung Heewon, Lee Hyunsung, Lee Seolhwa, Lee Jihye, Jang Hayoung...

The <Kim Dokja Company> I knew.

They were in that hospital room.

It was a scene I knew very well.

Jung Heewon's voice. Not the Jung Heewon I knew—but the Jung Heewon of the 1,864th round, the one who remembered Kim Dokja.

The moment I saw them, I realized what I was witnessing.

I knew this scene. The 'two portals' left behind by the Oldest Dream.

<Kim Dokja Company>, having reached its conclusion, faced two choices.

The first portal: 'The ending where Kim Dokja returns'.

The second portal: 'The ending where Kim Dokja does not return'.

Jung Heewon was arguing for the first. She believed that if they went there, they could be reunited.

But someone opposed her.

It was Han Sooyoung.

Amidst the group's hesitation, Han Sooyoung explained why they had to choose the 'second portal'.

They longed to meet the 'Kim Dokja' they remembered.

She spoke of the people who wanted to love even the 'misfortune' imagined by the Kim Dokja who had become their 'Oldest Dream'.

So they chose the second portal. They set out to find the scattered fragments of their reader.

I watched the backs of <Kim Dokja Company> as they entered the portal. Han Sooyoung, Yoo Joonghyuk, and Biyoo disappeared. Lee Gilyoung and Lee Jihye followed.

Shin Yoosoung looked back one last time just before vanishing. Without realizing it, I reached out to the child. I wanted to tell her not to go. But I couldn't. In this story, I wasn't the author.

As the group made their choices and disappeared, the hospital room door creaked open once again.

The constellations I knew were there. With <Kim Dokja Company> gone, they, too, had come to choose their own ending.

The characters departed. Soon, only the two portals remained in the empty hospital room. I sat down and stared blankly at the void they had left behind. Why did they have to make that choice? Even if it was all a lie, couldn't they have imagined a happy ending with their eyes closed?

Slowly, I raised my head. A sentence began to appear before my eyes.

I rose from my seat and, as if entranced, walked toward the first portal, which was still glowing brightly.

As if waiting, the swirling portal sucked me in.

And so, the story began.