Chapter 41: The Last Reckoning and the Dawn of Hope.

Kwaaaang-!

With a roar as if the world was collapsing, the building screamed as a whole. A tremendous shockwave shook the walls and pillars, and dust and debris poured down from the ceiling like rain. The entire building groaned precariously, as if it would collapse at any moment.

In the chaos where thick smoke and dust covered everything, a faint blue barrier slowly dissipated.

Within it, the figures of two people were revealed.

Seo Jin, wearing a gas mask and heavy exoskeleton equipment. His body, already not free due to the infection, could now only move with the power of machines. Beside him stood Cynthia, blocking the surrounding toxic air and debris with a thin magical barrier.

With the power of the machine, Seo Jin pushed aside the conference room doors, which had been bent and twisted like taffy. With an unpleasant grinding sound, the path to the interior was opened.

Into that horrific scene, the two stepped silently.

A place where those who discussed the fate of the world had gathered until just a few minutes ago.

Now, that place was a living hell of carnage.

About half of the people gathered were… already dead. It was difficult to even recognize the shape due to the direct impact of the plane, or being crushed by the debris of the collapsed ceiling and walls.

The remaining half were also mostly seriously injured, with broken limbs or crushed under the debris, groaning. Barely clinging to life in shock and fear, there were few who could move on their own.

Seo Jin walked slowly among them. The dull footsteps of the exoskeleton equipment echoed in the debris. He checked the faces of the survivors one by one. Faces on his list of revenge targets related to Arciel’s death.

And every time he finished checking, the pistol in his hand spat fire.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The gunshots that cut off the last breath were dry and emotionless. There was no mercy. This was the way of revenge he had chosen.

When the moans of the last survivor ceased, Seo Jin turned to Cynthia.

“Cynthia. Go downstairs and… block any enemies who might come up.”

“…Yes, Teacher.”

Cynthia immediately understood his intention. Her eyes were filled with sadness, but she nodded. This was also a predetermined step.

Seo Jin approached her and kissed her lips through the gas mask. A short but last kiss filled with many emotions.

“…I love you.”

Cynthia whispered. Her voice was tearful, but she also had a smile on her face.

“Forever…….”

She turned around without any regrets. Towards the collapsed stairs, towards the approaching enemies… she went down without hesitation to protect his last moments.

Left alone, Seo Jin looked around the wreckage again. And, in the innermost corner of the conference room, where the damage was relatively less, he discovered a figure moving slightly.

It was a face he knew well.

The Secretary-General of the Allied Joint Government.

The man at the pinnacle of all tragedies.

And the enemy who killed Arciel… the one he could never forget even in his dreams.

Seo Jin approached him slowly. The sight of the old man, covered in blood and groaning under the rubble, was miserable, but there was no pity in Seo Jin’s eyes.

“…I’m glad you’re alive.”

Seo Jin’s voice echoed lowly through the gas mask filter.

“I wanted to kill you… with my own hands.”

Seo Jin pulled out a pistol from his waist. The cold metallic muzzle accurately aimed at the old man, who was once the world’s highest power holder.

Bang!!

A single gunshot echoed emptily in the wreckage of the collapsed conference room. The Secretary-General’s body slumped down, taking its last breath.

It was at that moment.

Like smoke, or a shadow.

Something cut through the thick dust and burst into the conference hall in an instant.

Seo Jin turned around reflexively.

And swallowed his breath. Because he saw a face that was too familiar.

‘Yunia.’

The child he had taken in after Arciel’s death. The only hope in this twisted world, and the true protagonist.

But now, her face did not have any of the expressions Seo Jin remembered.

Not warmth, dependence, or respect…

Only cold anger and murderous intent towards the [enemy] in front of her, staring at a terrorist to be suppressed, were full.

Gas mask. And exoskeleton equipment that covered his entire body. That was hiding Seo Jin’s identity.

She didn’t recognize him. In her eyes, there was only the heinous terrorist who had killed thousands of people in an instant.

The tip of the sword in Yunia’s hand pointed at Seo Jin without a moment’s hesitation.

An elite magic ability user. Before her speed that transcended human limits, Seo Jin’s body, relying on mechanical equipment, had no room to react. He could only watch the approaching death.

Thwack-

With a sharp tearing sound, the blade broke through the gap in the exoskeleton armor and pierced his chest accurately.

“…Keuk.”

Even a scream did not come out. Seo Jin’s body leaned back powerlessly.

Thud.

With a dull noise, he fell to the floor.

His back touched the cold floor. His vision blurred, and his senses faded away. In the place he looked up with his last strength, there was Yunia’s face, still looking down at him with a cold expression.

There was no resentment. Rather, it was as if he had received too great a gift. That the last thing he saw was the face of a missed connection.

Even though it was a dying moment, strangely, a sense of accomplishment washed over him.

A sense of satisfaction, as if watching the ending of a novel he had been waiting for for a long time.

In fact, there was something he wanted to say to that child for the last time.

That he was sorry. And that he had missed her.

In Seo Jin’s ears, as his consciousness faded, Cynthia’s scream, which arrived late, was heard like a scream.

“No!!!!!!!!!!!”

At that cry that seemed to spit out blood, Yunia’s expression wavered for the first time. She looked at Cynthia with bewildered eyes. She could not understand the desperate figure of her tripping over the rubble and running, hitting her forehead and bleeding, but not caring.

“Cynthia…? Why are you here…?”

Then suddenly.

In the familiar tears and despair, Yunia seemed to realize something terrible. Her gaze turned again to the person who had fallen on the floor, wearing a gas mask.

Unknowingly, she knelt down and reached out to the gas mask covering Seo Jin’s face.

Slowly, very slowly… she lifted it up.

And the face that was revealed.

“Ah…….”

A sound of wind escaping flowed from Yunia’s mouth.

“Ah… Aaaah…….”

The light disappeared from Yunia’s eyes. With empty eyes, she looked down at the blood of the teacher that she thought she had buried, or had Buried Buried on her hands. The terrible truth that struck her brain was completely destroying her mind.

The person she had missed so much.

The one person she had despaired of ever seeing again.

That person… I…… with my own hands…….

The reality she wanted to deny struck her heart like a huge hammer. The moment suffocating pain and self-blame shackled her whole body.

The alien existence that had been sleeping inside her began to react to that runaway despair.

What had been forcibly implanted in her heart as an experimental subject.

The source of a wondrous power that could single-handedly annihilate dozens of Encroachment species nests.

At the same time, a dangerous bomb that could encroachment her at any time.

The Queen’s Essence.

In the torrent of emotions that lost control of the host, the Queen’s Essence began to resonate like a roar. A dark and ominous wave, completely different from before, burst out from Yunia’s body.

It was no longer the power that protected her.

It was the seed of pollution that would destroy her and this world.

The surrounding air weighed heavily. A crimson shadow seemed to be cast over the wreckage of the collapsed conference room. An ominous aura of the Encroachment world began to encroachment the space.

Once again in this world, a terrible descent of the Encroachment was about to begin.

With the body of the hero who had oncemake extinct it as a medium.

Right at that moment.

A sharp voice cut through the despair and chaos that seemed to devour everything.

“Crazy b*tch!!! Snap out of it!!! You can still… save Teacher!!!”

That cry, to Yunia who was falling into the abyss of pitch-black despair… sounded like a thin ray of light.

The person visible in her vision, blankly turning around with a tear-stained face, was.

“Linesha?”

Linesha, another disciple of Seo Jin, who had torn through space, was there.

It didn’t matter how she appeared.

“Y, you, you can save teacher ?! Is that true….?!”

“Yes! There’s no time to explain, so move him over here right now!!!”

Linesha shouted and gestured. Following her gesture, the gap in space that had been opened unstable expanded into a more definite form of passage. It was because the strong magic interference field had also been disrupted as the building collapsed. For a moment, there was a gap where space magic could be used.

Cynthia and Yunia, who had been struggling in endless despair until just now, belatedly came to their senses.

They didn’t know what was going on yet, but they grabbed onto a glimmer of hope and moved like crazy. Hurriedly, but carefully so that their teacher’s body would not be damaged any further… they supported Seo Jin’s body and entered the passage of space that Linesha had opened.

The place where the alien sensation of space movement disappeared was a completely different scene from the carnage just now.

Cold metal walls, various medical devices placed… it was a kind of operating room. And what was waiting for them was another familiar face in a surgical gown.

“Selena……?”

Cynthia muttered in disbelief. She was dumbfounded by the fact that those who had been out of contact for years were gathered in this place as if they had made a promise.

As they carefully laid Seo Jin on the operating table, Selena quickly checked his condition and opened her mouth. Her gaze was directed at Yunia.

“Yunia, listen carefully.”

Selena’s voice was calm and collected, but it contained a subtle pity.

“Seo Jin has… been infected with the Hexa Virus for several years. It has been getting worse in places you don’t know. He’s barely suppressed it with infection inhibitors and Cynthia’s magic, but… even if we had left him alone, he wouldn’t have lived for more than a few days.”

Selena looked Yunia straight in the eye and said.

“So… don’t blame yourself. You didn’t kill him. Maybe… he was satisfied because he saw the face of his beloved disciple for the last time.”

At those words, Yunia’s tears, which had barely stopped, burst out again.

“Still… still, isn’t there any way to save teacher…? Please…….”

Selena stared at the monitor, examining Seo Jin’s condition for a moment, then opened her mouth heavily.

“As I said, the infection is already at an irreversible stage. It’s almost spread to his heart. Surgical operations are out of the question.”

The moment despair was cast on Yunia’s face again, Selena added.

“But… it’s not that there’s no way at all. It’s the only possibility.”

Her gaze turned to Yunia again. That look was complicated.

“Perfectly combined with the Essence of the Encroachment Queen… your heart. Transplant half of that heart… to him and share it. With the Queen’s Essence… maybe he too can gain the power to overcome the Hexa Virus.”

Yunia replied immediately without hesitation.

“Please do that. Right now.”

Selena sighed deeply.

“Yunia. Calm down and listen. This is just… a theoretical hypothesis that I have been researching for the past few years. The probability of actually succeeding is… I guarantee you, less than 10 percent.”

“Please do it anyway.”

Yunia’s voice was firm.

“If you give away half of your heart, your magic power will also drop to less than half of what it is now. Maybe even more than that.”

“I don’t care.”

Yunia smiled for the first time… very faintly.

It was a smile, although it was on a face streaked with tears.

“This life… I received it from teacher anyway.”

She said, looking lovingly at Seo Jin lying on the operating table.

“I’m sorry that I can only give back… only half of it.”

Selena sighed once again. And then she shook her head.

“…This damn guy… is really born with disciple luck.”

She said, as if determined, while preparing surgical tools.

“Okay. Let’s give it a try.”

The sound of the radio coming from somewhere tickled his ears faintly like a dream.

[“General Seril, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Joint Government Emergency, said during a press conference that the recent terror was the work of an extremist separatist. She explained that she will do her best to ensure the safety of citizens and establish public security.”]

He felt warm sunlight. Warmth seeping through his eyelids. He even felt a little hot.

Seo Jin suddenly came to his senses. And he asked himself.

‘How… how am I alive……?’

It was a body that should have died clearly. A hole in his chest. Infection reaching his heart. Breathing that had stopped. And even Yunia’s face that he saw at that last moment. He thought he had no regrets, but could there be such a long dying vision?

But no matter how he thought about it, it was clearly the sensation of a living person.

He was heavy as lead. His eyelids were too heavy. He put all his strength into it and lifted them very slowly…

Through his blurry vision, he saw a white ceiling. The smell of disinfectant pricked his nose faintly.

It was an unfamiliar hospital room.

His head was foggy as if it was covered in mist. What had happened, how much time had passed… nothing was clear.

It was then.

From the medical device that sensed the patient’s slight movement, a monotonous alarm sound of beep- beep- began to sound.

In an instant, the hospital room door burst open.

And the faces standing there.

Children he missed so much… and was so sorry to face.

A moment of silence lingered between them.

In the silence where time seemed to have stopped, it was Yunia who burst into tears first.

“…Hic.”

With her small shoulders shaking, she stood precariously as if she would collapse at any moment.

Seo Jin tried to say something. That it was okay, that he was sorry… there were so many things he wanted to say. But only a sound of wind escaping came from his cracked throat, and his voice did not come out properly.

“…Ugh…….”

But that one word, that small sound, was enough.

Thwack-!

It was Yunia who ran and hugged him first. She buried her face in Seo Jin’s arms and cried sadly like a child. Following her, Cynthia and Linesha also approached and sat down beside him, or held his hand with trembling hands.

“Teacher……!”

“Hic… Hic…….”

“You were really… really bad…… Ah… Hic…….”

The warmth of the children, mixed with sorrowful cries and overwhelming relief, surrounded him. Only then was Seo Jin able to utter a word with all his strength in a hoarse voice.

“…I’m… sorry…….”

At those words, the children shook their heads as if they had agreed beforehand. With tear-stained faces, or with a forced smile.

That it was okay.
That they forgave him.
Such words were not needed.

Just… like this… just coming back again…….
I… we…… that was enough.

The warm sunlight was filling the hospital room.
At the end of the long and dark revenge, Seo Jin was feeling the warmth of being alive for the first time in a long time.

=end=