Chapter 220: The Story’s Epilogue

Chapter 220: The Story’s Epilogue

“Groselle!”

The Punishment Knight Longzel, who was closest to the giant, ran forward and supported Groselle. Then, little by little, he loosened his hands and slowly straightened, as if he had just lived through a bewildering dream.

Siatas broke free from Mobet’s support and, paying no attention to the pain in her body, used the wind’s push to run quickly to Groselle’s side.

She bent down and carefully observed him for a while. Then she pushed him, shouting herself hoarse.

“Wake up! Wake up!

“We should leave!”

Her voice gradually weakened, then slowly fell silent.

Mobet stood beside them. He watched the giant’s body sway, unable to keep its balance, before finally falling to the ground with a thud.

He remained silent for a few seconds, then slowly exhaled.

At that moment, Anderson and Edwina had already run over to the frozen ascetic Snowman. One used flames while the other simulated holy light, helping him rapidly thaw. Klein alone, having been nearby, arrived directly beside Groselle.

His vision of Spirit Body Threads told him that the giant had already died. Only his spirit remained, and even that had begun dissipating. This meant Klein’s damage-transference ability had no way to take effect.

From the moment Groselle began burning with dawn radiance and held the frost dragon back a second time, he had probably already prepared himself for death… Klein fell silent.

Mobet glanced at him and smiled bitterly.

“To be frank, I haven’t seen many giants. Most of my impressions come from books, teachers, and my parents. I always believed this race to be cruel and violent, closer to monsters than intelligent beings. But Groselle was not like that. He was frank, honest, and optimistic. He looked a little foolish, but he understood better than anyone what was right and what was wrong.

“He told me that this was because he was not one of the most ancient giants, not even of the second or third generation… Cruel, tyrannical, mad giants still possessed the instinct to mate, and would produce descendants. Among those descendants, more rational types would appear from time to time. Those descendants then produced their own descendants, and so the giant race as a whole moved farther and farther away from the category of monsters.

“Heh. I don’t know whether I should believe him, but his existence proves such a possibility…”

As Mobet spoke, he suddenly paused, seeming to fall into memories of the past.

By then, Edwina and Anderson had helped Snowman, whose body was still visibly stiff, approach. The ascetic struggled, then walked to Groselle’s side.

Looking at that closed single eye, Snowman drew a symbol similar to a cross over his chest, half-closed his eyes, and began praying in a low voice.

“Father of all things, great source, here is an honest and pure spirit… May he enter Your kingdom and receive eternal salvation…”

Siatas opened her mouth, seeming to want to say that Groselle believed in the Giant King Aurmir. But in the end, she said nothing. She silently watched Snowman complete the prayer.

“We must leave as quickly as possible. No one knows how long that door will last!” the elven singer said, looking around. Because of grief and pain, she appeared rather irritable.

She lowered her head and looked at the giant again, then added in a low voice, “We cannot let Groselle’s spirit dissipate in this illusory world. We must let him return to reality!”

“Good,” Mobet immediately agreed. Klein and the others naturally had no objections.

Edwina turned toward the ice-and-snow-covered cave and called, “Danitz, you can come out.”

At that moment, Siatas’s eyes shifted, as if she had thought of something. She turned her head toward Klein.

“Do you have paper and pen?”

“Yes.” Klein took out the fountain pen and notepaper he carried with him. It was the professional habit of a Seer.

Siatas accepted them and began writing rapidly. She still had not stopped when Danitz ran out of the cave.

Danitz remained silent. His mood seemed quite low. He showed no obvious joy or excitement at the fact that they were about to leave the world inside the book.

Finally, Siatas stopped writing and returned both paper and fountain pen to Klein.

“The formula you wanted.”

Wasn’t the deal supposed to happen after we left? Klein silently muttered in puzzlement as he accepted his fountain pen and the Ocean Songster potion formula.

Seeming to sense his confusion, Siatas turned her head toward Groselle lying on the ground and said in a low voice, “We are companions now.”

So she can just give the potion formula directly because of that? Klein put away the items and gave a nearly imperceptible nod.

“After we go out, I will give you the goblet.”

Siatas did not answer. She pushed Mobet.

“Go carry Groselle.”

Mobet lowered his head and looked at his not-especially-strong body and his leather boots with upward-curving tips. He smiled helplessly and walked to one of Groselle’s legs.

The Punishment Knight Longzel silently followed, bending down to hold the giant’s left shoulder.

Anderson glanced left and right, clicked his tongue, and said, “You’re all either injured or weak. I’ll do it.”

He then held Groselle’s other shoulder.

Klein was about to move toward the remaining leg when Danitz hurried over, quickly taking that position.

Seeing this, Klein stopped and watched as Anderson and the others lifted Groselle and walked toward the illusory door covered in snow.

He, Edwina, and the staggering, swaying Siatas and Snowman followed silently beside them, reaching the exit formed from the frost dragon Ulyssan’s corpse.

At that moment, Klein looked around and discovered that all the pale-blue blood the King of the North had shed earlier was gone, as though it had never existed.

As expected, a manifested, nearly real monster… Klein fell to the rear, watching as Edwina stepped forward, bent slightly, and placed both palms on the door.

Then Vice Admiral Iceberg suddenly exerted force, pushing open the snow-covered door in one motion.

Without sound or warning, everything before them became illusory, then transparent, then vanished.

Before their eyes quickly appeared rows upon rows of yellow-brown bookshelves, the orange sun already sinking to the sea level outside the window, and a desk holding a fountain pen, an ink bottle, and paper.

It was Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina’s captain’s cabin!

Klein and the others swiftly turned their gazes toward the center of the desk, where a book bound in yellow-brown parchment lay open.

Invisible wind flipped its pages until it reached the last page. Klein and the others then saw the ending:

“With the help of the mad adventurer and the powerful Hunter, Groselle fulfilled his promise and led his companions to kill the King of the North. However, he too fell into eternal sleep in the Nation of Frost.”

“It didn’t even give our endings… Siatas, where do you plan to go next?” Mobet put down Groselle’s leg and turned his head to ask the elven singer.

Siatas’s gaze abruptly turned blank for several seconds. Then she said firmly, “I will search for my people…”

Before her words finished, she suddenly saw Mobet’s flaxen hair rapidly turning white and visible wrinkles appearing across his once-smooth face.

In the span of a single breath, Mobet had aged before her eyes until he was on the verge of death.

Siatas’s heart tightened, and she was just about to throw herself forward when she realized in shock that her legs had already grown weak at some point.

With a thud, she fell to the floor and discovered that the backs of her hands were covered in age spots.

She instantly understood what was happening. Tears immediately slid uncontrollably from her eyes, while her body struggled, worked, and tried to crawl toward Mobet.

Mobet, likewise collapsed on the floor, was also wriggling toward her, extending his right palm forward.

Siatas reached out with her own right hand and gripped that dry, withered hand.

With difficulty, they lifted their heads. In each other’s eyes, they saw the other’s present appearance.

The corners of their mouths lifted at the same time, then powerlessly relaxed. Their eyelids lowered, covering the light.

Klein, Edwina, Anderson, and Danitz had no time at all to react to the change. Nor did they know what they could do. They could only watch as Groselle’s corpse rapidly rotted, his flesh and blood evaporating until only bones and a precipitated Beyonder characteristic remained. They could only watch as Mobet, Siatas, Snowman, and Longzel aged to the verge of death in a matter of seconds, then lost their breathing, repeating what had happened to Groselle’s corpse.

Their clothing either vanished or turned into rotten ash. Their spirits dissipated with extraordinary speed and were soon gone.

“Even the one who spent the shortest time inside lived there for more than 165 years…” Edwina whispered to herself, turning to look at the skeleton that was gazing out toward the sea and the sun.

It belonged to the Punishment Knight Longzel. He sat in the chair, looking westward, toward Backlund.

Snowman sat cross-legged beside him, his remains maintaining a posture of prayer.

That’s right. They lived in the world inside the book for hundreds, even thousands of years. Judged by the rules of the external world, since none of them were demigods, they should have died long ago… I should have thought of this problem… Why was I not at all alert? Could it be… Klein suddenly remembered the mental influence the book world exerted on Mobet, Groselle, and the others, and faintly formed a judgment.

He lowered his head again and looked at the parchment-bound book, convinced that it still contained many, many secrets.

“That fellow was rather interesting, and now he’s just dead…” Anderson looked at Mobet’s remains and tugged slightly at the corner of his mouth.

At that moment, all the Beyonder characteristics were slowly condensing. But the Punishment Knight Longzel did not precipitate anything similar. Edwina examined the scene for a while and said in a calm tone, “The potion he consumed was false. The power he obtained was also false, just like that frost dragon.”

It should have been manifested by the world inside the book. It was nearly false made true… Klein silently sighed. For a while, he did not know what to say and could only maintain Gehrman Sparrow-style silence.

For the next ten minutes, no one spoke inside the Golden Dream’s captain’s cabin, until four Beyonder characteristics each took shape.

One was the size of a fist and resembled a heart. Its surface was covered in holes and shone with dawn-like radiance. One was like a jellyfish, its transparent outer layer enclosing azure seawater. Within, whirlpools of wind rose from time to time, flashes of silver-white light sometimes appeared, and faint, melodious singing could vaguely be heard. One was a pure, shining crystal stone filled with a sacred feeling. One resembled an infant’s palm, with five tiny fingers spread open, its skin tone constantly changing according to its surroundings.

“Sigh. We can’t just keep looking at them like this.” Finally, Anderson broke the silence. “Let’s divide these Beyonder characteristics.”

Just as a trace of anger tinted Edwina’s pale-blue eyes, the Hunter shrugged and smiled bitterly.

“I think this should also be their wish, because we are companions who fought together.”