Chapter 384. Nerpa (7)

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-Ooooooong!-

As the suppressed crystal calmed down…

“Haa… Haaa…”

-Plop-

… Kiriel, who had been suppressing the crystal, collapsed on onto the floor and groaned.

“Ugh…”

It wasn’t just a simple groan, but rather a very painful one.

It was truly hard to suppress the crystal.

‘Enbi Arin… How in the world did you do this?’

She knew why the Nelkipa’s skin had briefly stopped attacking them.

Because Enbi Arin was suppressing the other crystal.

So she had dealt with Elis Valentine and tried to suppress the crystal as well.

But what was this…

A pain beyond anything she could imagine.

The energy of the Nelkipa had resisted her energy and retaliated vigorously as if her attempts at suppression had hurt its pride.

And the result of that was Nelkipa shredding apart Kiriel’s entire body.

If that strike from above hadn’t fallen from the sky and destroyed the crystal, then she really might’ve died.

“Cough…”

Kiriel coughed up blood as she checked her destroyed organs.

At least she was alive.

Thankfully, this was still within the limits of what she could heal.

At this rate, she could heal as long as she had the time to.

After all, she was a Transcendent.

‘It’s time to move. Right… That’s been bugging me.’

Kiriel pondered where she should head towards first, Enbi Arin or Hansoo, but then frowned as she looked at the Kalkuroun Fleet above her.

***

-Tatak-

-Tadadak-

The location where Nelkipa’s main control crystal was now in ruins.

And below the giant crater… an existence was looking into the sky, barely alive.

-Chiiijijik-

‘Damn… This is it.’

Not only was its body destroyed, but the blow had also broken the core that kept it alive.

The crystal had stopped working as well; there was no hope that it would survive.

Even if Hansoo didn’t kill it off, it would slowly die by itself.

-Chiiiijijik-

Melchizedek realized its doom as it looked despairingly at the sky.

Towards the red planet in the far distance, Angkara.

It had failed.

Failed to return there.

Failed at unifying Angkara.

‘Well, it’s out of my hands now…’

It hadn’t planned to do all this for the masses.

It was simply due to its curiosity, its vision, and its greed.

Since it was dying, it didn’t care what was going to happen to Angkara.

‘Nerpa… I didn’t expect you to act in such a decisive moment.’

But suddenly, Melchizedek frowned as it looked towards the red fleet in the sky.

The fleet which it expected to descend onto Nelkipa was slowly backing away.

Towards Angkara.

‘Huh?’

That Nerpa should’ve long since taken over that fleet.

Otherwise, there was no way they could showcase such a might.

Which meant that it was the Nerpa’s choice to go to Angkara.

‘Why…?’

Curiosity popped up inside Melchizedek’s mind despite being on the verge of death.

It had believed that the Nerpa would come and retrieve the Nelkipa.

But even before it could finish contemplating, Hansoo appeared before its eyes.

Melchizedek smiled as it saw Hansoo lifting up his hammer.

“Congratulations. From what I hear… this is your fifth. There’s two more to go. I truly hope… you fail in the next zone.”

It wanted to see Hansoo fall into despair, but it looked like it didn’t have enough strength to make that happen.

But there would clearly be others stronger than Hansoo who could.

A person who was entirely focused on getting used to the reality.

‘I hope… you can smash this guy apart.’

Clementine.

Although Hansoo was amazing, it had truly felt shocked when it had seen Clementine for the first time.

The reason why it was wary of the aliens.

Melchizedek thought of the greatest annoyance in its life as it started to overload its heart.

It wasn’t going to let itself be killed.

‘You… You didn’t kill me. I just simply committed suicide.’

As Melchizedek’s half-closed eyes met with Hansoo’s…

-Boom!-

… Melchizedek’s core exploded, its remaining debris turned to dust.

And Hansoo thought of Melchizedek’s gaze as he approached its body.

Like in the past, there was a single gift box and a letter.

‘Hmm… Let’s open the box first.’

Hansoo decided to appease his curiosity by opening the box first.

And from inside, two shiny orbs came out.

Two marbles.

A normal person might’ve been happy at the sight of a reward.

But as soon as Hansoo saw the two marbles…

“…?”

… Hansoo’s expression turned gruesome.

‘Two? Not three?’

The fairies gave out rewards fairly.

There was no way he would’ve been the only one to receive a reward.

Enbi Arin and Kiriel’s roles had contributed too much.

If Kiriel and Enbi Arin hadn’t stopped the explosion of the crystal and suppressed it.

If they hadn’t dealt with Clementine’s underlings while he was dealing with Melchizedek.

He would’ve failed.

Which meant there should’ve been three rewards in this box.

His, Enbi Arin’s, and Kiriel’s.

One each.

Hansoo quickly opened up the letter in his hand.

And a single line was written on the letter.

— It’s two. One for you. One for Kiriel.

‘Fuck… Arin!’

-Kaaaaaang!-

Hansoo’s body disappeared.

***

“Cough… Ugh.”

‘How fast… Heh.’

Enbi Arin made a tired expression as she looked at the two streaks of light charging towards her in the distance.

She didn’t want to show them that she was exhausted, but it wasn’t that easy.

She really was tired.

All her organs were burned up and destroyed.

Because she had overexerted herself trying to suppress the crystal.

This giant creature, Nelkipa, did not hold back on the creature trying to control it and resisted her.

Thanks to this, her entire insides had ended up destroyed, and it had even broken her core.

So she knew…

That this was the end of the road for her.

Transcendents weren’t amoebas.

There was a limit to how much they could heal, and once they crossed that line, the body could not withstand the energy flowing through it and slowly killed itself off.

And she had long passed that line.

Despite resting, her quickly diminishing flame of life proved this.

‘I really did run for a long time.’

Enbi Arin’s expression was full of regret.

She was afraid of death.

She wanted to escape this hell and find peace.

So she had fought. And fought. And fought.

To escape the worst-case scenario.

But as death quickly approached her, she realized that it wasn’t quite what she expected.

‘… It’s actually quite nice.’

She could finally rest.

She didn’t have to fight anymore.

She didn’t have to kill anymore.

She had fought too long.

Twenty years since she had come to this place.

And fifteen years stuck in that dream.

She had fought for thirty-five years and struggled to climb up.

She deserved to rest a little, right?

She had struggled for thirty-five years, no, twenty years excluding the dream, so nobody would say anything if she said she wanted to rest.

‘Nice…’

Enbi Arin weakly turned her head and looked next to her.

“Why… Did you help me?”

“… I don’t know.”

Ares Valentine, who also had his insides destroyed from the crystal, smiled at her as he lied down in a similar fashion.

He also didn’t know why he’d done it.

‘Well. It’s not half-bad…’

Ares, who had been trying to figure out his complicated feelings, looked at Enbi Arin’s profile and smiled.

Although the method was a bit different, he was going to ‘go up and rest’ now.

“…”

Ares Valentine’s eyes lost their light and slowly closed.

And Enbi Arin, who had been looking at Ares in silence, turned around towards Hansoo who had almost arrived and smiled.

‘Thanks to you… I’ve had a busy life.’

Enbi Arin thought of the dream Melchizedek had given her.

In it, she had truly been happy.

Taking over the seven zones and pushing back the Abyss.

Nobody could handle their power, and those precious to them were no longer killed.

Maybe it was a bit too perfect.

A bit too happy.

And if she really cared about her life and hadn’t suppressed the crystal.

The scene in her dreams wouldn’t have been possible.

‘Too bad I won’t be able to accompany you.’

She wouldn’t be able to follow them, but it didn’t matter.

There was somebody else who would achieve it for her.

Although it was only a dream for her.

Hansoo would be able to turn it into reality.

‘I wish you the best of luck on the 6th floor as well… Work for my share too. Heh.’

And with this final line of thought…

-Sss-

… Enbi Arin’s eyes closed.

***

“Let’s see. Time to hurry. There’s no time. Come on, you hunk of metal.”

N-Aroel complained to the giant ship, mumbling as he looked at Angkara in the far distance.

He had lost his legacy

He could not lose the flame as well.

The faster he was, the better.

‘And from what I heard… those aliens are there as well.’

He’d heard that the aliens were there.

Either hiding in secret or out in the open.

N-Aroel nodded as he remembered something.

‘Right. It’s called the 6th Zone, right?’

N-Aroel, who had been thinking while looking at Angkara, suddenly looked down at Nelkipa and smiled.

‘Well, if fate allows it, then we’ll meet again. Anyway, thanks for this time around. Everything was resolved with ease. See you next time, maybe.’

-Kuoooooo!-

The Kalkuroun fleet started to move towards Angkara at full speed.