Chapter 127

WHOOOOSH...!!

As the brilliant white light faded and Woojin arrived in the fairies' forest, bewilderment filled his face.

The man standing before him...

"Khan."

A pang shot through him. The moment the man spoke his name, Woojin felt his heart tighten involuntarily.

"... Are you really the person I know?"

He was confused. In the game, Woojin had spoken casually to him, but now he couldn't bring himself to do so.

His heart thudded... and thudded...

"Do I exist there as well?"

Nissen answered with a faint smile, as though he understood Woojin's anxiety.

"Ah..."

At his answer, Woojin bit his lip lightly.

"I was merely told."

He approached the spring, then cupped his hands and scooped up a mouthful of water.

"That an Outlander would come here."

TRICKLE...

He parted his cupped hands, letting the water flow down. As the droplets fell onto the roots of the enormous tree before him, its leaves rustled as though in reply.

RUSTLE!

At that moment, Woojin realized what the spring beside Nissen was.

The fairies' spring.

After drinking Fairy Water and recovering from mana chaos, Nissen had indeed been ordered by the Fairy Queen to tend the spring.

Even if he wasn't the Nissen Woojin knew...

'The period Nissen lived through coincides with the time I'm living in within the game.'

That meant he must have spent eighty years guarding this spring.

"An Outlander... Did the Fairy Queen tell you that?"

"She did."

"Then... where is the Fairy Queen now...?"

At that moment, Setsuna laid a hand on Woojin's arm as if to stop him.

"As I would expect of a Phantasmal Spirit child with spiritual powers. It seems you have already realized."

Watching her gesture, Nissen smiled bitterly.

"... It can't be."

Even without Setsuna's abilities, Woojin was perceptive enough to grasp the situation.

The enormous tree before him.

That single tree, whose presence remained unmistakable even among the densely packed trees, was clearly special.

"Fifty years ago, when Vandarius's Tower collapsed and demons poured out, the Fairy Queen led the fairy army into battle against them."

WHOOOOOSH!!!

"...!!!"

As Nissen finished speaking, the scenery changed.

The lush forest vanished without a trace, leaving Woojin standing alone in the middle of a desolate sandy desert.

The only thing unchanged was the single tree Nissen had watered moments before.

'The fairies' spring...'

Woojin looked at the spring beside Nissen. Where clear water had rested only moments ago, pale red water now filled the pool.

And there were wounds visible beneath his robe's sleeves.

Not just one or two.

The raw wounds were in a horrifying state, as though they had been cut open with a knife again and again before they could heal.

"My apologies. I wanted our guests to see only pleasant things... but my meager mana makes it difficult to maintain."

He scooped up spring water in his hands again. Blood flowing from the cuts across his wrists seeped into the spring, turning it a little redder.

In that instant, Woojin understood how he had kept the fairies' spring from drying up.

"Please don't look so sorrowful. It is only natural for anything to fade away once it loses its center. This is merely the price of defying the natural order."

Eighty years.

He had been wringing out his own blood to barely keep this place alive.

"This is all I can offer you. You have a long journey ahead."

He plucked a leaf from the last remaining tree and set it on a table made of sand. An old teacup appeared, filled with warm water.

"Please, have something to drink."

Had he squeezed out his mana just to serve a cup of tea?

Breathing a little hard, Nissen dropped the freshly plucked leaf into the cup and spoke.

"We were fortunate. I could open the gate because you were wearing fairy clothing."

At his words, Setsuna unconsciously clutched her dress.

The [Fairy Dress] could open a gate to the fairies' forest, but only within a town.

Nissen was saying that he had used her dress to open a gate to the fairies' forest where he resided.

'... Good thing we were in Baldoa.'

"I'd like to know about this world."

Accepting the teacup Nissen offered him, Woojin asked cautiously.

This was his third visit to the other world, yet he knew far less about it than he had thought.

Besides, another thirty years had passed since his previous visit. He had no idea how much more had changed.

"Anything I know... Though I'm afraid there may not be much I can tell you. I've spent most of my life in the fairies' forest."

Nissen drew a small droplet from the teacup and suspended it in midair. Setsuna began sipping from the droplet as it floated as though weightless.

"As for how things stand in this world today... to be honest, I don't know very much myself."

"That's all right. It's the past I'm curious about. If possible... events from eighty years ago."

The time in the game in which he lived.

Learning about the events, great and small, that had occurred during that period mattered more to him.

"Eighty years ago... So that is your time. When I was naive and inexperienced."

Nissen smiled faintly, as though reminiscing.

"I'm sure you have many questions... but please don't try to learn too much."

"What do you mean?"

"All existence is subject to equivalent exchange, and all events fall within the law of causality. For whatever you gain here, there will be something you lose in your world."

He spoke in a low voice.

"For there can be only one existence."

At that moment, Woojin suddenly remembered the [Wolf Ring] Irurin had given him.

'According to this world's history, Aswell should have obtained this ring after killing Fenrir.'

Instead, Woojin had broken the Wolf Ring himself.

He had formed a contract with Fenrir as a result, but regardless of what he had gained or lost, the [Wolf Ring] that had nearly become a duplicate within the game was once again the only one, just as the game's original setting dictated.

"Not only objects. Everything you take from this place will shake your world profoundly. The changes may be for the better, but they could also bring about the worst possible outcome."

"It doesn't matter."

Despite Nissen's warning, Woojin's resolve was firm.

"One thing."

Nissen raised a finger as he answered.

"Of the past that occurred here, which is the future to you, I can tell you only one thing."

A single question and answer.

Choosing carefully, Woojin voiced the question he had carried all this time.

"Why did humanity fall? Was it because of the monsters that poured out of the Labyrinth Tower?"

Not how to conquer the tower, but why they had failed.

He needed to know.

"You mean the Day of the Sixtieth Floor."

Unlike the Monster Waves that occurred as the tower was conquered, monsters had begun emerging directly from inside the tower on the day the sixtieth floor was cleared.

Raoul had said that was when the world changed.

"Certainly... the monsters that poured from the tower were horrifying. But monsters were not the reason the five great kingdoms fell."

"Then...?"

"It was humans."

Woojin's expression hardened.

What did that mean?

Hoping it didn't mean the worst, he cautiously asked again.

"Are you saying they destroyed themselves?"

"The words inscribed on the stele on the sixtieth floor."

"... Conquer the tower's hundredth floor, and any wish, any miracle, can come true."

The words escaped Woojin unconsciously.

"After reading the inscription, humanity fought desperately to conquer the tower. Yet, ironically, the words on another stele drove them to destroy themselves."

"Another stele...?"

Nissen spoke with a bitter expression.

"When they cleared the ninety-eighth floor, they saw the second stele."

Only one wish could be granted.

They had united under the great cause of conquering the tower, but that did not mean they all shared the same wish.

Some desired wealth.

Some desired peace.

Some desired eternal life.

"Before opening the door to the ninety-ninth floor, in that complacent moment when they were certain the summit was finally within reach... they turned their swords on one another."

Woojin clenched his fists involuntarily.

Those who had joined the raid split into factions and murdered anyone whose intentions differed from their own.

"During the ten years they remained stalled on the ninety-eighth floor, half of humanity disappeared. Afterward, the final suicide squad conquered the ninety-ninth floor, but..."

Nissen pointed to the sky.

"The final floor floats in the heavens, and we are slowly perishing, unable to find a way to reach it."

"But...! Even if the dragons are gone, there are plenty of ways to fly. Magic, spirits... At the very least, you could have built an airship using magitech...!"

Woojin questioned him urgently, but Nissen shook his head.

"I can tell you only one thing about the past."

CRUMBLE...

"...!!"

It happened then.

Nissen's body began to crumble, little by little.

"Do not strive to save this world."

As he crumbled into dust, Nissen delivered his final words to Woojin.

"You need only... make use of this world."

"N-Nissen...!!"

"And thereby save yourself."

Slowly bowing to him as he faded away, Nissen said his farewell.

"These are the Fairy Queen's final wishes."

"N-no...!! Stop!!!!"

Woojin hurriedly reached for Nissen, but his hands passed through empty air.

"Nissen...!!!!!!"

His figure disappeared, and the enormous tree turned yellow and withered in an instant.

As though the dam barely holding back the years had burst, the elves' forest met its death.

"Master... We have to go. We could be caught in the collapse too."

BANG!!!

Woojin struck the ground.

Those wounds on his wrists, cut open over and over...

If only he had at least given him the potion he had left...!

Even knowing it would have been futile, Woojin's chest ached with the helplessness of having done nothing for Nissen.

CRACK...! CRACKLE...!!

Like a screen shattering, cracks began to spread one by one through the barren scenery.

Behind the pieces that fell away lay only a pitch-black void.

"Master!!!"

Light streamed from Setsuna's hand as she held Woojin, falling in luminous dust from his head over his entire body.

"This isn't the time to grieve!!"

Was it thanks to [Soul Guardian]?

Woojin gathered his scattered emotions and looked at her.

"... I'm sorry."

"You're supposed to say thank you at a time like this."

However hard he tried to be strong, he was only human in the end.

"... Thank you."

Woojin nodded to Setsuna.

He was truly glad she was by his side.

RUMBLE...!!

Was it the queen's final kindness?

As the withered tree slowly collapsed over them, a rift within it engulfed them.

Woojin gazed at the spot where Nissen had stood.

WHOOOOOSH!!!

Until the brilliant white light filled everything, Woojin kept his eyes open, determined not to forget that sight.

* * *

"... It looks like that monster is gone."

At Setsuna's words, Woojin scanned his surroundings.

After emerging from the rift, he had returned to his original location in Baldoa.

A fair amount of time must have passed, however. Night had fallen, and the monster had torn through the pit containing the bodies, leaving it in ruins.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Stick to the plan. We're going to Fenrir's Den."

Nissen's disappearance had left him heavyhearted, but Woojin resolved to follow the Fairy Queen's final wishes to the letter.

To make use of this world.

'Equivalent exchange? Causality?'

Gritting his teeth, Woojin began walking forward.

"Fuck that."

Whatever it took from him...

He would take even more from this place.