The letter began: What I write here is little more than excuses and cannot be of any comfort to the reader of this letter. I know I canāt repent for what Iāve done, but stillā¦I wanted to write these words. Iām sorry, Jeong-woo.
It all began with Baylukās words.
āBayluk?ā Yeon-woo hadnāt expected to hear that name, and the pocket watch began to tremble uncontrollably. Yeon-woo put his hand around it to comfort it. Along with Vieira Dune, Bayluk was the one who benefited most from Arthiaās fall and Jeong-wooās death. He was the one who had secretly fed Jeong-woo the poison that eventually killed him: Red Lotus Eye.
The pain of the poison had been cruel, and Bayluk had even taken his time to poison Jeong-woo so that it would be undetectable. By the time Jeong-woo realized that something was wrong, the poison had already invaded his marrows, and it was too late. It was around that time that Jeong-wooās condition worsened, causing him to become erratic and moody.
Bayluk was essentially the culprit who caused the disbandment of Arthia. āBut the problem is that no one knows where he is now.ā Bayluk had hidden himself at the same time Jeong-woo collapsed. There was no way to find him.
Bayluk suddenly asked me, āDonāt you want to find your family?ā It was the morning that we were preparing for the war against the alliance of clans, no different from any other morning, but Iāve never been able to forget it since.
The word triggered a desperation in me, someone who has never known my identity. However, when I asked him what he meant, he only smiled strangely like always and said, āIāve found the ruins of the Giant species.ā Those words were enough to drive me mad.
Valdebich had always struggled with his identity since he was someone who was neither human nor Giant. Being a mixed breed in the Tower wasnāt anything special since so many players from different planets and dimensions were there. However, Valdebichās struggle was different.
He wasnāt as smart as humans, and he didnāt have the outstanding fighting spirit of Giants. He was neither a mortal or an immortal, and he possessed an uncertain position. Because he was the descendant of an extinct species, he drew a lot of attention, but it was always a source of trauma for him.
Valdebich also didnāt know anything about his birth. He had faint memories of his childhood, of a house with a large backyard, of siblings and friends who played jokes on each other, parents who smiled at him and told him that they loved him.
However, those memories were foggy, and his parentsā faces seemed obscured by shadow. The clearest memory he had was from when he was around five years old. He remembered his grandfather, who called himself the family butler, forcing him to learn the basic techniques of the Giant species.
His grandfather was different from his affectionate parents, and he always scolded Valdebich cruelly and called him āloserā and āidiotā. He said that Valdebich wasnāt good enough and was an embarrassment to the Giant species.
Because of this, Valdebich became a timid child who truly believed that he was a useless being. This trauma persisted even after he gained the nickname Sword Yaksha and caused a ruckus in the Tower. It was also the reason heād become obsessed with the idea of family.
Who was he? Why did he have to leave the family that loved him? Did they abandon him? Or had there been some kind of incident?
If he hadnāt been raised by the strange grandfather and stayed with his family, he would have grown up normally, right? Valdebich did everything he could to find his roots, but he failed every time.
The Draconic species still had one last member, the Summer Queen, but the Giant species had gone extinct much earlier and had left hardly anything behind. There were even questions around the existence of a half-Giant like him, and whether he was truly one. If so, were there still Giants living to this day?
Bayluk had used Valdebichās insecurities about his family as bait, and Valdebich had eagerly swallowed it, not realizing it was poisoned. Heād headed out to look for the ruins according to Baylukās instructions, but he hadnāt been able to let Jeong-woo and the others know.
Valdebich found it hard to tell them about his departure since they were all preparing for war. In the past, his friends had excitedly helped him search for ruins, only for the endeavor to end in failure.
I had overcome my trauma by then, and the location wasnāt that far, so I thought Iād be able to return quickly. I didnāt think it would be a problem if I checked quickly and returned. However, this was exactly what Bayluk had been planning.
Bayluk hadnāt lied. The ruins really did have traces of the Gian species, even more than the ones Valdebich had investigated before. There were traces of villages, mass graves, and even a hidden quest related to the fall of the Giant species. Valdebich had become wrapped up in it and his obsession with his family and identity led him to forget about Arthia.
The only thoughts in his head were related to the quest and his search for his family, who might be in danger somewhere. Time passed, and by the time his reason returned, everything was already over.
It was only then that I heard news about Jeong-woo, and I realized that I was a failure. My family had abandoned me, and in turn, I abandoned my only friend when he needed me the mostā¦still, perhaps the heavens wanted to give me another chance.
I remembered that Jeong-woo had once mentioned to me that my family might still be alive somewhere since heād managed to meet a dragon, whose species was already assumed to be extinct. He said perhaps Iād been separated from my family by some accident.
Dragon. I had to find the lair of the last dragons. I donāt know if it was because they shared the same traits as the Giant species, due to their immortality and arrogance at once being the equals of gods and demons, but it wasnāt too hard to find the place. All I had to do was go to the places where only superior beings would be able to approach.
I found Jeong-woo already gone. I had hurried so much, but in the end, I was too late. Then, I remembered the reward Iād received from the ruins, and I used to to send Jeong-woo back to his homeland. Although I had ended up in my current situation, I wanted him to have a chance to return to his familyās arms.
Valdebich had a ticket that allowed someone to travel to any dimension regardless of the time and location without any restrictions from the laws of nature. Valdebich had thought of using it to return to his speciesā home dimension after finishing the hidden quest, but instead, he opened the gate to Earth without any hesitation.
I was foolish until the end. I only realized what I had after I lost it. Jeong-woo was more like my brother than the ones in my memories and more special to me than my parents.
Valdebich would never be able to return to his home dimension, but it didnāt matter. He wanted Jeong-woo, his friend and brother, to return to his peaceful home world.
He remembered that when heād first entered the Tower a long time ago, everyone had thought about taking advantage of him except for Jeong-woo. Jeong-woo had simply held out his hand and said, āDo you wanna be friends?ā
Yeon-woo read the letter again and again before returning it to the envelope. Valdebich had searched for his family, only to lose both family and friends in the process. Yeon-woo could imagine Valdebichās despondent face as heād sent Jeong-woo back to Earth before leaving Laputa with heavy footsteps, perhaps thinking of his memories.
There was a small container next to the spot where the envelope had been. Yeon-woo opened it silently to find a blue glass bottle on a faded cushion. It was the elixirāthe medicine his brother had tried so desperately to find but hadnāt even been able to return with in the end.
āCan I ask you something?ā
āWhat was the Crawling Chaos like?ā
While Yeon-woo had roamed the clan house following the traces of his brother, the rest of his friends sat on a bench in the yard. Edora looked at the main building with a worried face, and Galliard had gone somewhere, and so Brahm and Boo conversed with each other. They shared a deep friendship since one was an alchemist and the other a witchdoctor with many common interests.
They mostly spoke about their experiments, but recently, after Boo regained his memory and identity as Faust, their conversations grew deeper. They couldnāt help being curious about each other: one had once been a god, and the other had tried to follow gods.
Brahm was especially curious about the Crawling Chaos, with whom Faust had first-hand experience.
āThose otherworld gods are all beings we donāt know anything about.ā The gods and demons who had been trapped on the ninety-eighth floor for a long time were envious of the beings they called the Outer Gods and players referred to as the otherworld gods.
In their eyes, these gods had complete freedom, but no one knew about their origins. The gods and demons had once traveled the vast universe and been worshipped by multiple dimensions and worlds. They were all-knowing and omniscient transcendents, which meant that they ignored locations that they didnāt recognize. They thought useless and empty spaces were beneath them.
However, after they were trapped in the Tower and the otherworld gods appeared, they were shocked to see cosmic beings so great and expansive that they no longer had egos.
These entities werenāt newborn transcendents, either, since their legends were as profound as theirs. They were curious about their origins, how they arrived at the Tower, and how they managed to avoid the curse of the Tower.
They believed that learning this would help them escape the prison of the ninety-eighth floor. However, because of their trapped situation, there were limits to what the gods and demons could do. The otherworld gods didnāt acknowledge their authority and quickly lost interest in beings that seemed little more than caged cattle to them. This was why Brahm never had the chance to research the otherworld gods.
In fact, from the beginning, it had been hard to communicate with these strange beings, and yet, the great mage Faust had managed to form a contract with the Crawling Chaos, one of the greater otherworld gods. Through this contact, heād even gained enough knowledge to create the Emerald Tablet.
Since this Faust was right in front of him, there was no doubt that Brahm would be interested. On top of that, while Yeon-woo had been busy with Kalatus, Faust had made contact with the Crawling Chaos. Brahm wanted to know his impressions.
ćThereā¦wasā¦nothing.ć
āNothing? What do you mean?ā Brahm cocked his head, not quite understanding.
Brahmās forehead wrinkled.
ćFalse darknessā¦ trying to imitate the Darknessā¦it wasā¦an empty void.ć
Brahmās face stiffened. Darkness and void were familiar words.
ćThatāsā¦allā¦I rememberā¦ifā¦I wantā¦to remember moreā¦I mustā¦regainā¦myā¦formerā¦life.ć
The being was stopping Boo from remembering even though he was already an Elder Lich.
āThen if you regain your former life, the Darknessā¦!ā Brahm was about to ask something when someone hurtled towards them with the sound of cracking glass.
Brahm barely managed to catch him. Pieces of broken armor showered on the floor.
āWhat happened, Hanryeong?!ā
Hanryeong, who had been sent to deal with the Elohim, was heavily injured. Was there even anyone in Elohim who could hurt Hanryeong? With the Roman Dictator and the heads of the Proteogenoi family dead, the Elohim was now defanged.
Moreover, Hanryeongās body was melting. Since heād been born out of death and created from shadows, he could be injured, but he would never die. And yet, that was exactly what was happening to him. Brahm and Boo had never seen this strange phenomenon before.
ćAnti-Venomā¦has appearedā¦at the Elohim!ć He was referring to Anti-Venom Bayluk.
At those words, Hanryeongās arm fell to the ground and scattered into particles. Whoosh.
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