Episode 149. Jeong Si-woo (3)
The five guardians were powerful.
They were so powerful that the present-day members of the Jeong Si-woo Division couldn’t handle them. And they possessed many powers that were more incredible than what I remembered.
“Ugh… Uhhh…….”
But the ‘Five Heroes’ were way stronger. Just the five of them had always overcome all sorts of incidents and unexpected events in the past.
I wasn’t aware when I commanded them directly, but I could tell for sure now that I viewed them as a third-party. They were so powerful that I was uncertain if we could defeat them if we met as enemies.
‘Well, we’re on the same side, so there’s no need to worry about that.’
Thud!
The last guardian fell helplessly to the ground. None of the ‘Five Heroes’ were injured at all.
Many hunters were dead, and Han Yeon-soo’s army was mostly permanently damaged. But no one despaired or mourned.
“Great Overlord.”
“Ugh… Aaargh…….”
Because it was over.
The Disaster that held onto me all my life was finally over.
“It… it hurts…….”
The Great Overlord looked no different from an ordinary boy. All of his allies were gone, and he was groaning as he shook, lying on the ground. He looked weak, unlike in the past when he brought about the end of the world.
“How boring. If things were this easy, it wouldn’t have ended like that. Don’t you think?”
“…Right.”
“So our job here is done?”
“Yes.”
Asked the other ‘me’. He was already smoking another cigarette. He finished smoking, shook off the ash, and was now disappearing along with the smoke.
“I hope we never meet again.”
“I agree.”
“I mean, it’s not that I hate seeing you……. I just don’t want to be summoned to deal with circumstances like this. You understand, don’t you?”
He spoke with a grin. Although we were the same person, he was unfamiliar in some ways. Did I use to joke like this?
The Analyst Jeong Si-woo who experienced death and sunk to the depths instead of coming back in time, had become a different person due to that small twist in fate.
He was a steadfast ally that was very similar to me but not identical. That was the Jeong Si-woo that the Great Legacy brought back to life.
“Good. Well, I suppose you do understand……. I’ll head back with my hunters now. You can clean up the rest, can’t you?”
“Better than you can.”
“Sure. Well… If you have a chance to summon us again, make it a drinking party with everyone after the monsters are all gone. How does that sound?”
“No thanks. Let’s never meet again.”
“So cranky. Okay, then…….”
Fizzle.
He disappeared before finishing his words. I snuffed out the cigarette butt he left behind. And taking a step forward, I approached the Great Overlord. He was crawling on the ground.
“What an insignificant end. Don’t you agree, Great Overlord?”
“Uhh…….”
“I guess you might find it unfair that you’re dying before doing anything significant. But… I felt pretty crappy when I died, too. So, if you don’t like it, you can go back in time like I did, then find me and kill me. Okay?”
“Ughhh! You ba… stard─”
Thud, thud.
The Great Overlord tried to yell, but his head fell off. I glanced back, and the past-life Kim Seung-hyun wasn’t gone yet. He was calmly holding up his sharp sword.
“Now I have repaid my debt. I heard that he threw my head at you and gloated.”
“…….”
“I guess you wanted to finish him off, but I harbored a grudge, as well. You understand, don’t you?”
“…Of course I do, Seung-hyun Hyeong.”
The past-life Kim Seung-hyun smiled faintly. And with the flash of his sword, the old-time ‘Five Heroes’ vanished completely.
At the same time, the darn monsters howled loudly all around the -Land of Death-. They were mourning the death of their overlord.
Their overwhelming noise caused a few hunters who gathered in to frown. Instead of frowning along, I picked up a dagger and thrust it into the headless Great Overlord’s chest.
With the sound of his shell ripping apart, a red core revealed itself. The source. Once this was gone, Rifts would no longer appear. The unstable Dimensional Distortion Phenomena would disappear, and invaders would no longer threaten this world.
“…Mr. Si-woo?”
“I’ll do it.”
I gripped the dagger upside down. And without hesitation, I stabbed it into the core. The core was hard. It didn’t break with a single blow. Feeling my hand ache, I stabbed it once more. The core cracked slightly. Again and again.
As I repeated the process, nobody made a sound. Everyone held their breath as they witnessed the historical moment, and I quietly brought an end to the Disaster.
Crack, crunch!
With a somewhat anticlimactic sound, the core broke. And the red sky regained its original color. The sky that had been distorted due to numerous Rifts reclaimed its beautiful blue glory as was recorded in the textbooks.
“Oh…….”
A voice broke the silence. It wasn’t a yell or a roar of joy. Some looked up at the sky in disbelief, and some cried silently.
The world was saved. Less than 10 percent, no, 1 percent of the entire human race had saved the vast world and its numerous people. The emotions they felt were indescribable with words.
I keenly felt those emotions, as well. My heart felt overwhelmingly full. Lee Hyun-seung wiped his uncharacteristically reddened eyes, and Yoo Ji-yeon looked up at the sky in a daze.
We saved the world.
We did it all.
“…Mr. Si-woo!”
Han Yeon-soo hugged me. I didn’t say anything and stood still, holding her. And at that touching moment, I felt a strange emotion.
Like a smooth turning gear had fallen out of place, it felt like a creaking sound was ringing somewhere in my head.
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