A space thick with a sense of incongruity.
A sky colored in with blue crayon.
Clouds smudged with pure white chalk.
Trees with colors left unfinished here and there, and birds caught mid-flight, unmoving as if frozen in a drawing, all lay flat and awkward.
In short, it was a strange place.
If you lowered your gaze from your bent head, you’d see a deep green lawn stretching out beyond the horizon.
Of course, it looked as if it had been carelessly colored in with a green pencil, giving the same unsettling feeling, but—
It was like a picture drawn by a child who had just started to learn art.
A world inside a flat plane, where everything but yourself had come to a standstill.
It felt like stepping into such a world.
“Ugh…”
Even so, it was clear where I was supposed to go.
For amid the childish drawing style, only one being stood out, painted in the utmost hyper-realism.
A crooked, odd tea table.
Equally awkward chairs, their lines drawn carelessly.
Sitting there was a woman, white from head to toe.
Her hair and eyebrows—
Her eyes were closed in a languid manner, and even her long eyelashes were strikingly white.
Hio trudged over and plopped down across from her, in front of the odd tea table.
It wasn’t difficult to guess who this mysterious woman was.
The bizarre phenomenon I had seen and the voice I’d heard just before coming here.
What I’d thought was merely the Magician’s House was, in truth, a truly sacred domain.
Which meant the woman before my eyes was—
“The Goddess Liphyue.”
The last remaining god in this world.
The Goddess of Hope, Liphyue.
As if to affirm Hio’s words, Liphyue smiled gently.
Her eyes remained closed, but the smile on her lips spoke of genuine delight at this very moment.
“My child.”
Her lips parted quietly.
Her voice, unlike in the sanctuary, did not echo or sound mystical, but was clear and composed.
“Would you care for some? It will help ease your mind.”
I immediately understood what she meant.
A teacup, drawn as if straight from a painting, appeared on the tea table, itself also like a picture.
Though the crooked teacup held nothing inside, Hio picked it up and brought it to his lips.
There was no doubt.
It was as if Liphyue’s very voice possessed some power to dispel all suspicion.
So he tipped the empty cup, and like a lie, his mouth was filled with liquid.
A sweet yet faintly bitter taste began to spread.
As it slipped down his throat, he felt his mind grow calm, and his tension melted away.
He thought he hadn’t been very tense, but in reality, his body had been wound up from the unfamiliar space and its strange sense of incongruity.
“Isn’t the taste nice?”
With closed eyes, Liphyue looked at Hio.
Instead of answering, Hio set down the teacup and glanced around at the drawn clouds, sky, grass, and table.
“You really don’t have much talent for drawing.”
He had seen Liphyue’s drawings before.
The Monster Wave at Yohn Torno’s Castle, where he had tried to shield himself from the god’s eyes.
The crude drawing on the cover of the Catalog of Endurance he’d received as a reward then looked just like the scenery now.
“A finished picture holds little hope, does it? That’s why I like these kinds of drawings.”
“I see… In any case, if you were able to speak like this, you could have done it sooner.”
Maybe it was because his mind felt so at ease.
Though this was an unfamiliar place, and this was his first time meeting Liphyue, she felt oddly familiar.
Maybe he even wanted to act a little spoiled.
Liphyue simply offered him a compassionate smile.
“It was only possible because you came to my sanctuary. Their eyes are everywhere, but in my domain, they can do nothing. They always wish to destroy it.”
“So the Abyss Monsters really did target Hibernia because of its divinity.”
“That’s right.”
Liphyue leaned back languidly into her chair, tilting her head slightly toward the sun in the sky.
Of course, the sun was a fake, drawn in red and yellow, and her eyes remained closed, but her smile seemed truly content, as if she were basking in warm sunlight.
In that posture, she spoke softly.
“It’s been hard, hasn’t it?”
‘Why did such a simple phrase shake my heart so deeply?’
“It must have been so difficult, coming all this way.”
If I’d heard those words at another time, or from another person, I might have just nodded and brushed them off.
But this time, I couldn’t.
Instead, it came out as if I were truly complaining.
‘…What are those things, really? What am I fighting against, and what am I supposed to do?’
It must be that strange drink’s fault.
‘Had I ever felt so relaxed in years?’
When I was weak, my mind was uneasy.
After I gained strength, neither body nor heart could find rest.
A responsibility I wasn’t even aware of had slowly piled up, growing heavier, and the number of people I could trust and rely on was pitifully few.
That’s why my heart, always uneasy as if being chased, the pressure to grow stronger—all of it melted away for the first time.
No wonder I kept letting out complaints.
“I’ve missed out on so much. There are too many regrets to count. I wanted to save them, I wanted to stay together, but so many things just didn’t work out.”
I wanted to save them.
Berga Pavlenko, the mentor who first taught me magic and showed me the path forward.
If I could have, I wanted to save him.
I wanted to rescue him.
Aerial, who endured for a thousand years. Regarda, who stood by his side. I wanted to free those two from their suffering.
Not being able to do so, no matter what excuse I made, was simply because I lacked the power.
If I could turn it all back, I would.
Even Atawolf, the worst villain who killed countless people—I actually wanted him to live.
I wished the Sword Saint could have somehow persuaded him so they could live together.
It wasn’t out of some cheap sympathy. It stemmed from a wholly selfish desire.
If one of the strongest could lend their aid, it would be a tremendous help.
And maybe, the heavy burden I bore would be lightened, if only a little.
“What should I have done?”
‘Was this really the best I could do?’
‘Was there no better way?’
Though I always seemed unruffled, inside I was forever regretting and blaming myself.
I said I was striving to stop the Fate of Destruction, but in the end, so much didn’t go my way.
I am only human.
No matter how much I’d experienced through the game, too many things had changed.
How could I have anticipated, prevented, and obtained everything I wanted? I was an imperfect human—
“If only I were Jijoncheonma, the one everyone adored and envied in the game, maybe things would be different.”
I pretended not to care, but I knew well the countless expectations people placed on me.
If it’s Jijoncheonma, he’ll be different.
If it’s Jijoncheonma, he’ll make it happen somehow.
As expected of Jijoncheonma.
No matter how much I pretended not to notice or acted indifferent, those gazes and expectations would never disappear.
As those hopes and wishes piled up slowly, I found myself being crushed by their weight before I even knew it.
“…My child.”
A deep sadness colored Liphyue’s expression as she gazed at Hio.
“That is the nature of hope.”
Though her eyes remained closed, she mourned as if she understood everything.
“Everyone looks to hope and expects from it, but no one cares about the weight or pain it bears.”
Yet, she continued.
“And that is why it is hope.”
Even so, it remains hope.
Always at the very front, so that all can see and wish for it, hope remains because it does not waver.
That’s what Liphyue was saying.
“I’m sorry. This is all I can do for you.”
Her eyes closed, she slowly lifted her hand, maintaining a straight posture.
A brush was suddenly held in her fair, slender hand.
“Before records even began, before the birth of humanity, we were already at war.”
Elegant motions of the brush.
In its wake, images appeared in the sky.
What was first painted: light and darkness.
The purest white light, and the deepest black darkness.
“After a long battle, we won. The deepest darkness sank to the lowest depths.”
Darkness weakened, and light rejoiced.
Where darkness once was, light descended, giving birth to many things.
Plants and animals, humans and fairies, monsters—ferocious, yet within limits.
Even Dragons, to protect all of it.
The world was formed and began to stabilize.
Everything moved in harmony.
Thus, the place once filled by darkness was covered.
And so, after an age of peace and prosperity passed, to the point where even the memory of the deepest darkness faded—
“It returned. The deepest darkness became the Abyss and came back.”
Over the smiling, bright creatures painted in the air, a thick layer of darkness was drawn.
The beginning of the war recorded as ‘Strange Entities.’
The start of calamity.
Dragons fell, fairies and spirits either hid or vanished.
At that point in the story, I had to ask—
“Why didn’t the gods intervene?”
Even Kreutzwald had foreseen that future.
‘So could the gods have not known?’
‘If they did, why did they allow such a terrible war?’
To this, Liphyue replied.
“The darkness grew ever greedier, wanting not only its original place, but to cover other worlds in their shadows. So, we had to stop it, but we couldn’t.”
Her hand, gripping the brush, continued to move.
Countless living beings appeared in the air. Above their heads, light and darkness were painted in layers.
“We loved this world, which we created, too much.”
If they had intervened directly, perhaps they could have stopped the Abyss.
‘But what meaning would there be in that?’
The aftermath would erase the world.
The gods loved everything in this world, and thus, could not act directly.
If they had clashed directly with the Abyss, the world would have been destroyed.
“The heart is such a precious thing—even we could not abandon it. The moment we abandoned it, we’d be no different from the Abyss.”
The moment they decided that, it became a vast current of fate, and ultimately led down the path of destined destruction.
Just like… the ending inside Ventair Online.
“Rather than endlessly delaying the Fate of Destruction, we chose instead to give the world variables.”
If they had used their many divine powers, they might have postponed the predetermined end for a long time.
But the reason they didn’t was that the darkness would keep surging in, and in the end, destruction was the inevitable fate of this world.
So, using their enormous powers, they chose instead to create small variables.
Even if, as a result, they lost their power.
Even if, as a result, they fell into a sleep from which they could never awaken, it was because they loved this world so much.
“My child.”
Therefore, what they left until the very end was hope.
The last remaining god, the Goddess Liphyue.
The Goddess of Hope.
Such a goddess spoke to Hio.
“You, and your companions, are those who twist fate.”
Though her hands, which had swept the air with the brush, were now neatly folded atop her lap—
“Though it is lamentable that I can no longer foresee how the fate, so greatly shaken, will change from here on.”
Liphyue’s eyes remained closed.
Yet, contrary to her words of regret, a serene smile touched her lips.
“Still, I am glad. I am glad you came to me before it was too late.”
‘What did she mean by “glad”?’
Before I could ponder it, something began to change.
“I’m sorry we can’t talk longer.”
The painted world, which had stretched wide beyond the horizon, was shrinking.
The once endless space was visibly narrowing, and beyond its edges, darkness was creeping in.
“Will you join the strike team? Or will you form a new one yourself? Perhaps trying something entirely new would be fine too.”
As if saying she could watch no longer, Liphyue’s words trailed off.
Resting her arms on the table, she gradually bowed her body.
The space grew smaller.
Her voice was languid.
“I’m curious how your story will end… but I am so very tired.”
Truly weary, Liphyue lay her head down on her arms as if they were a pillow.
“The system is perfectly established. What I wished to grant you, you’ll receive upon your return. So, my child, do not forget.”
The last remaining goddess in this world, Liphyue.
The Goddess of Hope.
With her final words, she spoke—
“You are my hope.”
As Liphyue’s figure grew drowsy and faded into slumber, my vision blurred and stretched away.
「Item – ‘Catalog of Endurance’ has disappeared.」
「The effect of the item ‘Catalog of Endurance’ has been permanently bound.」
「You have acquired the Ancient Spellbook – ‘Book of Dragon Summoning.’」
「You have obtained Authority – ‘???’.」