Chapter 369. Consciousness Returned (1)
Alon looked at the sky with a blank stare.
Where once there was only a sky full of the galaxy before learning the truth, countless eyes had now opened.
Different sizes and shapes.
But one thing was clear: whatever they were, they were thousands, tens of thousands of "eyes".
Alon watched them in silence, and without realizing it, let out a hollow laugh.
‘...So that was it?’
The first thing that came to his mind was Psychedelia.
The game that had allowed him to roughly know what would happen in this world, and gave him the necessary knowledge to save the children who would be the Five Deadly Sins.
Of course, Alon did not see this world as a game.
He had understood for a long time that this was not a space made of zeros and ones. Any idiot would have realized that.
What he remembered was the ending of Psychedelia.
When one completed the game as Eliban, a playable character, capturing all the Sins again and again, a different ending always appeared.
It was normal. Depending on how one controlled Eliban, there were countless bifurcations in the ending.
Sometimes, even if you eliminated all the Sins, the Allied United Kingdom weakened and the Empire invaded.
On other occasions, even reaching the ending, the negative reputation accumulated by the player caused a tragic ending to emerge.
He also saw endings related to the various classes Eliban could use.
Among them, of course, there were also the so-called "happy endings." Those where none of the companions Eliban had formed bonds with died, and miraculously the influence of the Allied United Kingdom suffered no loss, so the Empire did not invade. An ending any player would consider a happy ending.
However, all those multiple endings had one point in common. A phrase that appeared at the end.
Whether it was a bad ending.
Or a happy ending.
The phrase that appeared before the player did not change.
“Only you have escaped destruction.”
A phrase that for a time caused doubts, interpretations, and complaints among many players. Others said it was surely a hint for a sequel.
Alon also paid attention to it back then.
He even searched the Internet.
And checked wikis where they gathered theories.
But in the end, they were all interpretations, nothing official, so he soon lost interest. However, now, in this precise instant, he finally understood that phrase from the ending.
The ending of Psychedelia was not an ending.
No matter what ending Eliban obtained; that was only the result of stopping the Sins. What happened afterward was never shown.
That is why it said:
“Only you have escaped destruction.”
“Ha.”
Alon let out a hollow laugh, having fitted a piece of the truth he would have preferred not to know.
The countless eyes above the blue night kept watching him.
He felt endless gazes. And at the same time, he also felt emotions.
And then—
Uuuuuuuung—!
A gigantic rumble began to be heard.
It wasn't the noise of a magic circle.
It wasn't the sound of any machine.
It wasn't a vibration.
It was, literally, a strange sound emitted by the world itself.
And that sound instantly devoured the emotions of everyone present.
The soldiers were consumed by terror.
The knights began to tremble with fear.
The mages alternated between tension and resignation.
And then—
Tok—
With a tiny sound, as if something broke.
The galaxy visible to everyone... or rather, the eyes visible to some, began to fall toward the ground.
To Alon—
The soldiers were amazed. Although plunged in terror, the galaxy raining down like a luminous rain snatched their minds away.
But not Alon.
[DecompositionDecompositionDecompositionDecompositionDecomposition] [Krfrem]
The first thing he heard was a sound so horrendous it made his skin crawl.
[KillKillKill] [IWillKillTheEarthGodAndMe] [ThisTimeForSure]
Then came voices like senseless curses.
Murmurs loaded with regret and fury, directed at who knows whom.
And the last thing he heard was—
—[FinallyICanSeeIt]
—*[Let's see, show it to me]**
—*[Finallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinally—]**
Stories impossible for Alon's mind to comprehend.
“…Why?”
Alon voiced the doubt without realizing it.
He never imagined those things would truly fall.
But—
[Because we were stopping them.]
The one who carried everything spoke softly, as if answering Alon's doubt.
[I entrust what comes next to you.]
And with that, he disappeared completely.
Alon stared at the empty space where he had vanished, as if he had left him only half an answer.
“…Huh?”
Suddenly, his vision shook violently. He was puzzled for an instant, but understood immediately.
The shock of the moment was so great he hadn't even noticed his own condition.
Although the body had partially healed thanks to the divinity of the Primordial Elf…
He still had too many wounds, and when he ran his hands over his face, they were soaked in blood from his eyes and nose.
Staring absently at the blood, Alon murmured:
“…I think... I should rest a bit.”
With those words, he simply closed his eyes.
The voices calling him in the distance.
And the strange sounds coming from the meteor shower—
everything faded away.
He didn't know how much time passed.
When he regained consciousness.
Alon finally woke up, and immediately heard several pieces of news.
First: he had been unconscious for more than two weeks.
Second: Eliban, who was believed to have disappeared along with the one who carried everything, was still alive.
Of course, even though he was alive, they couldn't ask him anything. Eliban had appeared floating in the air when the one who carried everything vanished, but since then he remained in a coma.
Even so, Alon felt relieved.
At least he didn't want him to die.
…And as long as Eliban remained alive, someday he could ask him.
The meaning of those words he said to him at the end.
“Father……”
Alon didn't understand why Eliban used that address.
It's true he had taken care of him since he was little.
But not enough to call him "father".
Did he want to call him that just because of that?
After thinking about it a bit, he shook his head.
Eliban's eyes seemed to contain something else.
The more he thought, the tighter his chest felt. And he had too many questions.
What happened after that.
If the children were okay.
What happened after those eyes fell.
There were so many things he wanted to know.
Someone might say:
And why don't you simply ask?
And yes, it's true. If you want to know something, you ask.
Right now everyone was gathered in his room. There were those who could answer everything.
But even so, Alon didn't ask.
Or rather—
He could not ask.
Because Alon had only regained consciousness.
Yes, only consciousness.
Unfortunately, Alon couldn't move his body. He was practically like a vegetable.
What if he could never get up again?
He felt fear upon waking, but soon dismissed that worry.
Because he immediately understood why he couldn't move.
‘...How long until I can move?’
Alon observed his own body. It couldn't be called normal.
It was pitiful. Natural recovery seemed almost impossible.
Even so, his body was recovering.
He didn't know why. He wasn't even using the divinity of the Primordial Elf.
But at that rate, perhaps in a few days he could open his eyes.
And thanks to Rine's prognosis, he knew exactly how long it would take to wake up.
The problem was—
“……Honestly, there is a high probability that there are problems with memory.”
There was a small error in her prediction...
“Godfather, this time he used excessive power.”
“B-but then, shouldn't there be problems in the magic core or something like that?”
“Fortunately, there are no problems in the magic core. But the device controlling that absurd magic... it's very likely it suffered damage.”
“Then…”
“Don't worry too much. In the worst case, it would be temporary amnesia... probably. Well, if it were to be more serious...”
“More serious?”
“Let's leave the conversation here. Honestly, I don't think it will go that far. Although if something like that were to happen, the ideal thing would be to tell him many of the experiences and memories he has had up to now.”
“Experiences and memories?”
“Yes. Even in this state, the unconscious mind sometimes remains active. If we tell him memories beforehand, there is a higher probability that his memory will return.”
“But don't tell useless things. It could cause the memories to return distorted.”
“Distorted?”
“Like remembering things that didn't actually happen, repeating exactly what he hears from us.”
Rine's words resonated in the room where everyone was gathered.
A momentary silence.
“Tr-true.”
“That wouldn't be good.”
“We'll have to be careful...”
“Exactly. We must only tell him the truth.”
“Then, from now on, we will talk to him about memories whenever we have time.”
Soon everyone began to look determined, saying a few words before leaving one by one.
Until, deep into the night—
“Master.”
Yutia Bloodia arrived.
“…Okay. From when should I start telling?”
She sat down with an incredibly calm voice.
“I suppose since I was eight years old...”
And she began to bring out her memories.
“…Although Seolrang says weird things like I'm actually over 2,000 years old, I was undoubtedly eight when you saved me.”
Talk about memories—
“The letters we exchanged were very fun. Ah, by the way, Seolrang isn't telling the truth, okay? Over 2,000 years? How could a human live that long?”
…Is this really about memories?
Alon broke into a cold sweat at the strange direction of the story.
…He felt, somehow, that even if he could open his eyes at that instant—
he shouldn't open them.
