The Worldview Where Everyone is Destined to Die

Chapter 17: Convenient (1)

Just as my body was about to fall back, I managed to regain the balance by moving my legs.

Something had definitely hit my head but looking around I couldn't see anything.

No, should I say it is worth it... there was nothing really around.

Nothing.

Neither the herringbone-patterned floor, which I thought of as old fashioned beauty or the red silk wallpaper which I thought didn't suit my thoughts well. No, there was nothing on the wall or the ground.

'Night...? Or did I lose my mind.'

I touched my eyelids wondering if I was closing my eyes in the darkness without a single glimmer of light.

Only after confirming that I could touch my eyes and eyelashes, I had to admit that I had fallen into a complete darkness.

"Is... anyone there?"

For some reason I couldn't confidently speak out loud. The conviction that no answer came back was making me fear more.

'This is bad.'

It is said that humans are trapped in complete darkness and completely lose their sight after a certain period. But before I lost my sight, the fear of losing myself began to rise.

-Kwang!

Before I knew it, my legs lost strength and I collapsed on the ground. Before I could recover from the shock of being hit on the head, I fell into this dark space.

But did they say it as a call?

Thanks to the ugly fall, I had this chance to escape this suffocating place. When I fell, there was something like a wall where I placed my hand.

I wasn't sure if this was good, but I wasn't entirely in darkness, but was trapped standing in a narrow, dark place about 1 meter deep.

Click!

As a result of checking the walls for anything odd, I managed to get out of this narrow space like a coffin.

"Huk, huk...."

It seemed like I lost my calmness due to the fear of waking up in this small place. I took a deep breath and wiped off the cold sweat from under my chin.

-Click! Click!

I instinctively took out the pistol from the holster and loaded it with bullets, but I had no time to remember that I was even wearing one until I opened my eyes.

"Who is this? Who is the one pulling these pranks!"

I held the gun close to my chest and looked around thinking that an enemy might come out at any time. It was only then did I realize that I was seeing something weird from any common sense.

"This is-"

Well, what should I say about this?

I was looking at the world where everything had literally stopped.

The upper part of the tower was all scattered like it was hit with something and the magic tower was tilted and collapsed due to the impact, and the four walls had collapsed as if it was roughly cracked open without any careful effort.

Fragments of statues of Gods floating in a circle as if mocking the existence of gravity, destroyed <Star Crosses of the Great Being>, a black sky and a world of black and white, faded to white.

The traces of disordered order and chaos were provocations, as if each one was lined up to mock something.

-Goo, Gooo- uhh-

What broke the silence was a voice which sounded like a kid trying to adjust the voice, or something which seemed to imitate a human being.

I tried to overcome any obstruction and fire the pistol into the air.

-Bang!

-Grrrng! Bang!

Then this being tried to imitate the sound of my pistol which was fired, like it was funny.

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Enough..."

I was feeling dizzy.

The circular stone statue that was spinning in the air spun around and destroyed the temple, shaking it like a toy.

As if something with huge hands was playing with it.

-Swish! Ach! Eucharist!

It was definitely here, somewhere in the sky and even though it felt like it was taunting me by going back and forth between heaven and land, I couldn't pinpoint its existence.

It was a being that didn't close even if I stretched out my hand, but was in contact with me even if I did not extend my hand.

It was the fear lurking within me, and my imagination was as negative as possible

-Thank you~.... Thank you~.... T-thank you for inviting~ thank you-....

"Shut up!"

-Bang!

Forgetting that I had to save bullets I fired two loaded bullets into the air and started running.

No matter how much I ran, the end of my legs that hit the floor always seemed to be touching a tongue.

"This cannot be happening....."

I was out of breath and yet I ran again and again.

A world without light, pale and dark, shadowed by death.

The legs were running towards a place that felt familiar.

The place I unconsciously headed to was-

"Theodore."

In the first nightmare, it was the very place where Theodore was killed.

Theodore, was there in this landscape that had faded to black and white, unlike the burning sunset.

"Theo!!"

Like a wax doll, in the same form as it met its miserable end.

The 'Theodore of academy' I knew was a teenager who was leaving the growing phase and entering his adolescence.

On the other hand the Theodore in front of me had the face of a young man. Nevertheless, I was somehow convinced this is the man I had to meet.

I was desperate.

If it wasn't for this scene, I would have thought that this scene was a clear fake done by some craftsman with a bad feeling, perhaps once a thousand years or so.

The hair fluttering, the upper body stopped in the air, while looking at the sky, eyes not closed and blood gushing out as the bullet pierced through.

It was an unrealistic and nasty sight of death.

However what was strange was that there were golden tears flowing from the left eye of Theodore where he was shot

In my faded vision, the sparkle was very fascinating.

I unconsciously placed my finger on the golden tears flowing like a river and suddenly came to my senses.

Someone was shouting in my head that I should never have touched that thing.

"Huh, huk...."

I turned away from Theodore whose one eye was shedding golden tears and this time I turned and raced to the west.

The hollow ground as if a young giant had torn it apart for fun, was preventing me from finding the place in the memory but I couldn't stop.

"Judith!"

I looked down the cliff and shouted.

There, Judith leaning against the cliff with her head down, remained motionless like Theodore was, a moment back.

Judith with her hair that had grown past her collar bone and below her chest, tied down and hanging down, looked more mature than the Judith I knew.

The way she leaned back comfortably seemed like she was taking a nap against the tree. But I knew that Judith wasn't sleeping peacefully.

Even without taking a close look, I could see that Judith;s right hand and part of her arm were damaged by my shot.

The bleeding that started from Judith;s head spread around like a black curtain.

"Damn."

On top of the blood stains, there were shiny things like beads that children play with. The halo of light was shallow and wide flowing somewhere from Judith's right hand, where only the shape of Judith remained.

The sparkling things were all gathering around Judith's right hand like it did with Theodore's left eye.

And they were all places I shot in my dreams.

"Shirley..."

I turned my back again to see the final despair I caused with my own hands.

Perhaps, Shirley, unlike Theodore and Judith, might be alive, I was expecting it.

Right, then it would be right.

I headed to the last place of tragedy that still remained like before.

Time stands still as if someone had been stuffed right before death.

In the distance, I could see the sword of Arthur shining and broken, and Shirley's spear sticking to the sword of Arthur like a magnet.

The reason I managed to recognize it as Shirley's spear, shining in gold all in one piece, was because of the wine colored formal velvet pennant wrapped around the spear of Shirley.

It probably had this written.

Because I wrote it and gave it to her as a gift.

"-Ack!"

Despair.

Before I knew it, I was on the ground, surrounded by those following me. I covered my face with my palm but the scene I saw was stuck in my head.

-Thanks to you, I was happy.

"Thanks to me?"

-Let us play sometime again.

"This again."

-I will give you plenty of time this time.

When I turned my head at those words, I came face to face with countless eyes looking at me.

"Senior...!!"

I, who was in an unconscious realm, heard a shout from someone and woke up.

"Nurse, no, wait, doctor!!!"

A voice I missed so much.

Instead of Shirley curled up cold and dead like a doll, there was a living Shirley next to me.

"Shi-"

I tried to call her name out loud with joy but it didn't happen. This was because my throat, which was now dry as desert, felt like it would tear at small air moving in.

The moment I tried to get up, Shirley pushed my shoulders hard and pushed me back down.

I collapsed back onto the bed helplessly.

"This is the hospital building. They said you cannot move until the doctor comes."

"Doctor?"

"Yes. If you move like this, you can get hurt. Your sense of distance is quite poor because of your eyesight."

The corner of my eye had a blurred vision because a bandage was covering one of my eyes. I tried to take it off but soon realized it wouldn't work and sighed.

"Wam I adly urt? (Am I badly hurt?)"

"There was too much blood compared to the wound... senior you were in a coma for a week. You understand that?"

"One week...!"

Not another word could come out of the mouth because it felt like I was bleeding lightly.

I immediately shut my mouth and Shirley took out a small bottle from the drawer next to me and held it out.

"Drink this to quench your thirst."

I wasn't as thirsty as I thought, perhaps because of the treatment I was given when I was unconscious, but my throat condition felt much better after I drank water.

"Aren't the clothes uncomfortable? Theodore brought his own and changed them."

"It is alright except the sleeves are a bit short."

I was worried because my clothes had been changed but I was fortunate that it was Theodore who took the role of guardian. Without listing my neck, I glanced down to check whether the magic circle was hidden well.

Shirley took off the extra chair she had under her chair and flopped onto the bed I was lying on.

"What a mess it was... no, I was afraid that senior would never wake up.... Theodore and Judith had spent several days... forget it. It's been fine since you woke up."

"Sorry."

"What are you sorry about? Some insane bastard threw a rock at someone else, that is the dog who needs to apologize. And wet that throat. I think you should be fine then."

Was she relieved I woke up?

Shirley sat down and began to doze off as if she was trying to relieve the fatigue which she was enduring.

If things had continued like this, Shirley, who had relayed the situation to the doctor first, would probably be asleep.

But no one could blame her.

Above all, I knew clearly that anyone would be exhausted after caring for a patient for one week.

'I was hit by a stone.'

I survived 3 days without sleep but on the 4th day, I got hit by a stone and fainted.

I didn't know if this was an accident or a plan of the devil, but I was sure of one thing. After seeing this dream, I was convinced of two things.

One is that the world of dreams is in the future rather than the present. In that cruelly chaotic black and white world. Theodore and Judith seemed to be 2 to 3 years older than now.

Another thing is that the future events I have caused are having an impact in this world.

In the future world, I shot Theodore in the eye and the present one was one eyed.

The same happened to Judith's fingers and part of her being blown off there and the current one has a prosthetic arm.

I wasn't sure what my cruel acts were hoping for and why, but if that world and this world are linked...

-Let us play again.

The existence that hovered around me like a joke wasn't fiction either.

I gently stretched out my neck and looked out the window. And I was shocked to see that all the windows were boarded up and grilled.