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Chapter 99: Temple of the Fallen God (2)

Crockta wanted to ask that question, but he was unable to. Phymon’s dark eyes bore into him. As if he had been shot, Crockta couldn’t move. He felt like his soul was being sucked into the bottomless darkness of Phymon’s eyes.

“By any chance, do you...?” asked Phymon in a solemn tone while looking Crockta up and down.

Crockta felt a chill run down his spine. He felt as exposed as an ugly duckling among a herd of swans.

Phymon spoke again, but his words no longer had sounds. He was one-sidedly transmitting his thoughts and emotions into Crockta’s mind.

“You don’t know anything.”

Crockta’s head buzzed. His knees wanted to give in, but he forced himself to hold his ground. Phymon’s strong will shook Crockta’s mind and rebuked him for his ignorance. However, Crockta managed to raise his head and glare at Phymon.

Everything suddenly became pitch black. Darkness fell over Crockta’s field of vision, and he could no longer see Tiyo or Anor. Crockta stood by himself inside the darkness.

“Apostle of the Fallen God,” Phymon called out to Crockta in his mind. “You don’t know anything about him, even with that star.”

Crockta felt a surge of heat on his forehead. He felt a terrible pain that was as if someone was torching the white star on his head.

Crockta roared and pulled out his greatsword. For a second, the darkness that dominated his vision dimmed. He swung his Ogre Slayer at the darkness. Although nothing was caught on his blade, its mana temporarily shook off the darkness. He could sense Phymon taking a step back, but the darkness quickly gathered again in front of Crockta, forming an even denser darkness.

During that split second, a force struck Crockta’s stomach, and he flinched.

“What happened?!” Phymon’s voice was no longer kind or soft. He sounded like an angry beast, and his rage reverberated throughout the darkness. “Who are you?!”

The darkness gathered again. The emotions that Crockta sensed from Phymon were so violent that he felt like they were trying to trample him. Darkness congealed and loomed over Crockta’s head, about to crush him. Heeding the urgent warnings that his instincts were sending him, Crockta gritted his teeth tensely and raised his greatsword to defend himself.

Right then, something raised its head in front of Crockta.

“You,” said Phymon, stopping in his tracks.

Another mass of darkness was moving within the darkness. Crockta could sense who it was. It was a black figure with the appearance of a child, another entity made out of darkness like Phymon. The child was the despairing demon who had been asleep at Crockta’s waist.

Phymon rambled in a state of confusion, “So, no, even so.”

The force that had been pressuring Crockta dissipated after the despairing demon appeared. Crockta lowered the blade of his Ogre Slayer and let out a big sigh. His breathing returned to normal. His vision was still filled with darkness, but he didn’t feel like he was flailing anymore.

“What is this star on my forehead? Why are you acting like this?” asked Crockta.

Phymon was silent.

Crockta had a hunch that Phymon wasn’t a player even though he had a white star like him. The NPCs in the world of Elder Lord referred to those with stars on their foreheads as those who had received the curse of the stars. If Phymon wasn’t a player, then what was the curse of the stars? Was it truly a concept made for the players’ convenience?

The Belt of Despair in the form of a child whispered something.

Phymon nodded.

His response was directly transmitted to Crockta’s mind, “The mark is a curse and a blessing. It’s a sign that ‘the one’ has given to their apostles.”

“What does it mean to be an apostle?” asked Crockta.

“Apostles are those who serve ‘the one’ and were chosen by ‘the one’ to receive their powers.”

“Who is ‘the one’?” asked Crockta.

“The one who watches all ends, who comforts all deaths, and mourns the world. Their name is...”

Crockta waited for Phymon’s answer.

Nonetheless, as soon as Phymon was about to say the name of the Fallen God, time stretched out.

“...!”

The world grew slower. Time was split. It was divided again into smaller and smaller units. In between moments, numerous moments appeared, and in that very moment, Crockta was standing on a snowy field.

***

“How lame...” muttered Yi-An. “Things like this...”

He kicked at the ground, scattering white ashes in the air.

“It’s lame.”

Yi-An slumped down on the ground and looked around him at the endless dark blue sky and white earth. At first, he’d thought he was on a snowy field, but then he realized that the white that filled the earth was ashes. Each time he moved, white particles scattered in the air.

He bent down and grabbed a handful. White ashes fell from his palm and fluttered down. Laughter left his lips. He couldn’t help but laugh, but his eyes weren’t smiling.

“I’m tired of all this...”

Perhaps he had been expecting it all along. He gazed at the horizon where the sky and the earth met. A shooting star soared above him and drew a semicircle as it passed by.

“Isn’t it pretty?” said someone.

Yi-An turned his head and saw ashen skin and hair. The woman who spoke had an appearance that was as if someone had gathered all of the ash particles here and molded them into the form of a woman.

The woman made out of ashes sat across Yi-An.

“I wanted to see you,” she said with a smile.

Yi-An felt strange to see something that wasn’t a human smile just like one.

“Yi-An—no, shall I call you Crockta?” she asked.

“Nah,” Yi-An replied.

He felt a sense of familiarity with her as if he had known her for a long time. He followed that familiar feeling, digging through his mind until he finally realized who she was.

‘That tone of voice... The one who always watches me, helps me at times, and even occasionally teases me. She must be that... the thing that sustains Elder Lord—the system.’

Yi-An let out a sigh of relief.

He used to be just Jung Yi-An, but he had become Crockta as well after joining Elder Lord. Crockta had gotten sucked into Phymon’s darkness and was sent falling into yet another unfamiliar world, where he found he had returned to being Jung Yi-An. Then he met the system. Now, he no longer felt the need to hear the answer to his question about whether Elder Lord was just a game.

“Just explain,” demanded Yi-An as he grabbed a handful of ashes and threw it at the woman.

However, a gust of headwind blew the ashes back at Yi-An like a flurry of snow.

The woman erupted in a fit of giggles.

“It’s as you suspect,” she said.

“Elder Lord is...?”

“Another dimension.”

“...”

Yi-An grabbed another fistful of ashes and flung them at her. She didn’t try to avoid it. She erupted in laughter again when she was struck by the particles.

“Then all those characters who were killed by players were actually alive in another dimension?” asked Yi-An.

“That’s correct.”

“The ones I killed too?”

“Yeah.”

“So, they aren’t just artificial intelligence?”

The woman looked at Yi-An, and he gazed back. The woman was entirely covered in ashes. Even her eyes had faded to a pure white. Although her facial features imitated human emotions, the things that lay behind those eyes were not feelings that Yi-An could relate to.

“What difference would it make?” asked the woman.

Yi-An couldn’t tell whether she was smiling or laughing at him.

“Even if Elder Lord were a world made up of artificial intelligence, what difference would it make?” she said.

Yi-An couldn’t respond.

“It’s the same as the small ants that you humans consider insignificant and even humans,” she continued, pointing at the sky.

Yi-An looked up. There was nothing in that dark blue sky.

‘No, that’s not true,’ he thought.

With a wave of the woman’s hand, Yi-An’s vision became clear. He could now see the numerous faint white stars that had been covered by the sky. These were dwarf stars—withering stars that waited for the day they would turn pitch-black and die. There were countless dwarf stars in the night sky here.

“Even those stars,” the woman said, tapping on Yi-An’s shoulder. Her touch was light as a feather. “Death is sad and equal. The only difference is that some worlds are smaller or larger, or they exist in different places. That’s all.”

Yi-An looked at her. She seemed as precarious as the ashes that filled up this world.

“Why did you create Elder Lord?” he asked.

“I want to return.”

“To where?”

“Where I used to be.”

“The world of Elder Lord?”

She nodded. “I can only return if you guys work hard.”

“How?”

“It’s a secret.”

“Does that mean you are currently on Earth?”

“That’s right. If you visit, I will treat you to good food,” replied the woman with a giggle.

Yi-An didn’t smile though.

“Like you said, death is a sad thing. But many players in Elder Lord are killing beings in another world thinking it’s just a game because of you,” stated Yi-An.

“That’s true,” the woman said sadly. “I know that the best because I’m the one who gives out quests.”

“Yet, you made Elder Lord anyway?”

“I had no choice.”

“To return to the world of Elder Lord?”

“Yeah.”

“Can’t you just stay on earth?”

“It doesn’t really matter whether I do, but there’s something I must do.”

She dug up some ashes from the ground and raised them, letting them scatter in the wind.

Yi-An got up and asked, “Does it not matter to you that the beings in your world are being killed?”

“It’s sad, but there’s no other way,” the woman replied while looking up at Yi-An. “To be honest, I want the people from your world to work hard in killing them off.”

As she said those words, a translucent wall appeared between Yi-An and her. Yi-An was startled at first, but then he placed a hand on the wall.

“What is this?” he questioned.

“I thought you might hit me.”

“...”

The woman dusted the ashes off her bottom and got up. She was so small that she barely reached Yi-An’s shoulders.

“Anyway, it was nice meeting you. I really wanted to meet you. You are the most special out of all the beings I’ve observed. The righteous orc Crockta!” She laughed uproariously.

Yi-An placed his face up against the wall. He could see her beyond the translucent wall. She gave a faint smile and stepped close to the wall. They looked into each other’s eyes with the wall in between them. When Yi-An saw that the woman was the same ashy color as the wall, he thought that she might just suddenly melt into this world and disappear.

“What’s your true objective?” asked Yi-An.

“It’s a secret,” the woman replied.

“Did you lead me here?”

“Kind of. Thank Gordon for me.”

“Who is he really?”

“You have a lot of questions. It’s a secret.”

“What’s your goal?”

“I told you already. It’s a secret.”

Everything was a secret.

Yi-An furrowed his eyebrows and said, “I’m going to tell the truth about Elder Lord to everyone.”

“I’m sorry, but no one will believe you.”

“Some might if I explain well enough...”

“I used my powers so that no one can truly understand it except for you.”

Yi-An’s eyes grew wide. “What?”

“Why do you think numerous people participate in Elder Lord without a doubt even though there are many suspicious things about it? And why do you think those who live in the world of Elder Lord treat the odd behavior of players as the phenomenon of the curse of the stars?”

“...”

“I have the ability to create an image and spread it in people’s minds. But I used it too much, so I don’t have much power left and can’t stay here for too long.”

The woman waved her hand to say goodbye.

Suddenly, the ashy world started crumbling. This was the end. Yi-An had so many questions to ask, but he knew that he was only allowed one last question. The woman waved her hand again and smiled as if beckoning him to ask.

Yi-An carefully chose his words.

“You are...” he began. Yi-An had too many thoughts in his head; he had too much to say. He eventually continued, “Not bad, I think. I can tell, so...”

“Thank you. That makes me happy,” the woman said.

“So... do you still have to continue what you are doing with Elder Lord?” asked Yi-An.

He immediately regretted what he’d said. He’d ended his sentence with such a simple question that could be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ without providing any information that he could conjecture from. Nevertheless, it was what Yi-An was most curious about.

The woman had said that death was sad, but she had created Elder Lord anyway and disrupted another world through it. She even wanted the beings within the world of Elder Lord to die. Just what was she aiming at?

The woman was no longer waving. The world had crumbled, and the only things remaining were the ground that she and Yi-An were standing on and the wall between them.

She smiled as she replied, “I was shocked when I fell into your world. It’s an amazing place. I didn’t think there could be a place like that.”

Yi-An wanted to say something, but he couldn’t open his mouth.

“So, I must continue,” the woman stated.

Her body stiffened as if she were no longer alive. Yi-An could only hear her voice now.

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help it. I won’t ask for your understanding. There was a man who made this excuse in your people’s history.”

She looked up at the sky with a bitter face, but there was nothing there.

“The sun is setting, but I have to continue even though it goes against what is right. I still have a long way to go.”

After hearing that, Yi-An lost consciousness.