Episode 28 : Mirror of Reflections (1)

In a quiet garden that was wrecked by 'The Rebels' Guild, was left with two people inside this tranquility.

[...]

In the end, Adam gazed upon the place he had resided in for years that he couldn't count, stared at the forbidden fruit in his hand until he was drowned in his thoughts.

Afterwards, Eve came by and stood beside him, wondering why Adam's expression was as blank as death.

[Adam, are you not happy?] Eve asked suddenly.

Caught off guard, Adam snapped out of his thoughts and glanced at Eve to mumble his doubt. [It is just hard to believe this.]

[Yes, we've been waiting for this moment for so long.. I understand how you feel..]

[...]

Eventually, Eve nodded with a smile before bumping her forbidden fruit onto Adam's fruit.

Eve started speaking. [It's not because I don't feel it a lot.. I just feel like we could have helped Sa—JoonChul a bit.]

[...]

[He's been this way before we existed. And I feel bad for him to go through this all alone.. without anyone to know of his torment.]

[Once all of his friends died, he might be alone again and again. I'm certain he already knows that.] Adam added, sighing.

[It doesn't matter if we had it worse or JoonChul did.. Isn't it shameful for us to die now? We are going to leave behind the person who gave us this chance to rest in peace...]

[He was the one who got us in the mess.]

[But you don't feel that way, do you?] Eve grinned.

Adam stared at Eve's smile for a bit before sighing again in the process. [There's no point in thinking about this.]

[Oh… Are we doing it now?]

Adam responded with a nod before moving the forbidden fruit close to his lip, prompting Eve to do the same.

After that, they each took one bite of their forbidden fruits, waiting for the moment to begin. Expecting it to happen, two spotlights flashed onto Adam's and Eve's bodies which led to their bodies dematerializing to dusts.

[I love you, Eve.] Adam confessed wholeheartedly as he extended his hands toward Eve.

Eve, who was disappearing slowly along with Adam, felt mystified and overjoyed by Adam's confession that she, too, wanted to confess.

[I love you too, Adam.] After saying what she wished, Eve grabbed hold of Adam's hands with her teary eyes full of contentment.

As these two held hands in the midst of their death, they embraced one another with their true feelings before vanishing, including with their existences ceasing to exist.

…Soon, the spotlights disappeared after erasing two lovebirds within this world. As it wasn't over yet, the Garden of Eden collapsed from having their only residents dying.

Everything from flowers, bushes, grasses and the newly formed tree were dying alongside the collapsed greenhouse…

At last, Adam and Eve were freed from having to stay in the Garden of Eden by themselves, isolated by the worlds and its people.

…It was what they had sought for in their entire lives, and as their last wish, the both of them prayed upon their death for JoonChul to also get what he wanted as well.

[May you reach the ending you want.]

———

On a cold and snowy mountain, a group of people were climbing up the hill to reach their destination.

And that destination was the entrance of the temple for the stage they were currently in.

Upon the people who were leaving behind the Garden of Eden, there was me who was emitting an melancholy ambience around myself.

'Two gone.' I mused.

Despite it being hard to notice my mood, my comrades, the ones who had always been with me, were quick to realize it immediately.

Seeing it coming, I heard Mirai's voice resounding closer to me, seeming like she was walking up to me.

"Captain.. If you have anything you want to say, you can tell me."

Being considerate and sincere as she possibly could, I grinned at her before sensing Mirai's arms wrapped around my left arm.

"I am fine, Mimi." That was an obvious lie.

Naturally, Mirai pouted as she pinched my arm. "Baka! I know you're lying to me!"

"Hai, hai."

"Sensei, did you know that I got my first ever disciple?" Raiden mentioned it to me.

As clear as it was, I could see Raiden trying to cheer me up somehow, making me forget about the things I was musing about.

"That's great news. Who's the lucky person?"

..It was a pleasant moment to have my friends by my side.

"Alaine-chan! She agreed to become my pupil!"

Along with a grin, I responded. "You must be quite thrilled to teach her."

Mirai, annoyed by Raiden who was taking all the spotlights, joined in on the conversation.

"So what? If it weren't for my silk arm, Alaine-chan could have been dead by now!"

"Oh deary me." Behemoth scoffed while being carried by Raiden.

Angered, Mirai scowled. "I wasn't talking about you, scaredy cat!"

Not liking the fact that he was called a scaredy cat, Behemoth bawled and was about to start another argument with Mirai.

"Ha!? Are you going to start another fight with me? You know you'll lose because you're just a tiny spider."

..Yet another troublesome situation.

I thought, rubbing my temple already. 'Why can't they get along with each other?'

"Behemoth."

One word was echoed from behind us, feeling a chilling sensation at our backs when we heard it.

"Mirai."

Another one was resounded.

I grinned, knowing full well who the voice belonged to. 'At least, I could count on her to resolve their usual arguments.'

"One more word and you'll understand what's next." Frostina spoke with her innocent smile.

Without a doubt, Mirai and Behemoth both flinched and instantly avoided Frostina's chilly glance. In addition to that, Mirai seemed like she was pouting angrily while being as cute as ever.

As for Behemoth, he was grumbling with a whistle.

"Pfft." I chuckled as if I was at ease by my comrades' silliness.

It was even enough to make me forget about what I was thinking about earlier, almost at least..

In spite of this, I needed to pretend I was fine, so that my comrades wouldn't have to waste their time worrying about me anymore. Because they already experienced enough torment from my death that I didn't want them to have a hard time again..

'I'm definitely in a sad mood.' I ruffled up my hair, trying to get myself to stop being sad.

"I can't be depressed when I'm about to enter that place." I muttered to myself, gazing my eyes on the top of the mountain.

There, I could see a cliff where the entrance might be. As a result, I told everyone to hasten their paces since we already wasted so much time in the Garden of Eden.

I had a bad feeling that all the loot inside the temple was already being hauled away by greedy humans, and even if they weren't greedy, they would still take those items because it was a part of the stage.

"..."

'..What is this bad feeling?' I pondered as I stopped midway.

"...!'

In a flash, I turned around immediately as I exclaimed toward everyone, having my sword manifesting into my palm.

"Get to the temple right this instant!"

"Quickly!"

..I must remain calm.

[You activated the Skill, 'Discharge' Lv. 2.]

[Your Skill, 'Discharge' has gone up a level!]

'It wasn't enough that they were kicked out of the garden without a scratch, but now they have done it!' I cursed.

"Captain!" Mirai cried out.

'No time to explain, but I must protect everyone here. Why did those bastards have to do this?!'

While I was dashing onto the snowy ground, I took a leap up, generating a platform of ice underneath me. Thanks to this, I was able to walk on thin air just like how Frostina did it.

I grunted. "These bastards!"

Halting my steps when I got as far as I could from my guild, I laid my resentful glance onto the distant sky. It was only then that my guild could notice why I was running forward in a slight panic.

..A meteorite was advancing in this direction.

Flame in the color of blue which was the hottest, was engulfing the meteorite to the brim. And accompanied with that, a trail of flakey snows were boosting the meteorite's speed.

I needed to stop it. Even if it means I'll be damaging my body for this, I must.

Because if I didn't, everybody and the entrance to the temple would inescapably be demolished entirely.

"How are they?"

In due course, when I saw that my guild was retreating to the temple as per my words, I was now able to begin to defend them.

Since there wouldn't be enough time to sprint toward the entrance because of the meteorite, the only way was to destroy it.

"Are you ready?" I mumbled to Lucifer.

And he responded in my head with great confidence. 'Ready as I'll ever be, master.'

[Imitation of 'Clone' Lv. 3 has activated.]

[Imitation of 'Extraordinary Multitasking' Lv. 3 has activated.]

Two of my clones swayed away from my two sides, going to their positions in the quickest ways possible. By then, the meteorite was already approaching me at a rapid pace, and it wasn't a good thing at all..

"Combos time." I, with slight concerns, extended my sword in front of me.

[Imitation of 'Wave Vortex' Lv. 3 has activated.]

[Imitation of 'Thunderstorm' Lv. ??? has activated.]

[Imitation of 'Hailstorm' Lv. ??? has activated.]

[Imitation of 'Multi-Blasters' Lv. ??? has activated.]

Using too many numbers of skills to combine can sometimes bring extreme physical and mental harm to the person who's casting it. Not only that, it required a ton of MP to get them to fully operate.

But that doesn't matter to me..

[Quadruple Combos! 'Thunderstorm' Lv. ???, 'Hailstorm' Lv. ???, 'Wave Vortex' Lv. 3 and 'Multi-Blasters' Lv. ??? have combined into one Skill!]

..Since I had a very unbelievable Hidden Skill up my sleeves.

[The Combined Skill, 'Storm Outrush: Three Convergences' Lv. 3 has arisen!]

[Hidden Skill, 'Simulation' Lv. 3 has been forcibly activated!]

A split second before the combined skill activated, I felt a rush of fluid escaping my lips, pushing out a pool of blood from within me all of the sudden.

"Urgh.." I coughed as my blood was dripping off of me.

[Hidden Skill, 'Simulation' Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]

BOOOMM!!

Three beams of three different storms were shooting at the meteorite in max power, in order to eliminate those angels' pitiful attempt to kill off my guild.

Crash!!!!

In a blink of an eye, the collision between the meteorite and my combined skill forced a shockwave of destructive gale coming my way.

By then, the force in the collision was knocking my body back little by little while the beams and the meteorite were crashing violently together.

"Damnit..! Argh!"

At that moment, not even a minute had passed, I felt numbness within my hands and legs, trying to endure it all by myself when in fact, there were more to deal with.

In a flash, a flare of light was accompanied with a bang when the meteorite was exploded by my combined skill.

Blowing up into millions pieces, the meteorite had been turned into a meteor shower, and was raining them down into my direction.

"Things like this never get easier!"

At that point in time, my legs were already out of strength that it caused me to flop down to my cracked ice platform.

..Despite this, I continued on unleashing the combined skill toward the meteor shower with my numbing hands.

Shooting down the meteor that was about to hit me, I breathed heavily as my hands were completely feeling like they were close to not listening to me.

BANG! BOOM! BANG!

"Damnit.." I grunted when I missed a couple of meteors.

..Those meteors were about to crash into me who couldn't even run nor jump, so how am I going to defend myself while I'm stuck in activating my combined skill?

…

..

"..." I smirked.

Clattering.. Clattering..

From the start, I already had my clones summoned multiple layers of shields to protect me from the harm of the meteorite, since it was clear that I needed to prevent some of the aftermath to not damage my guild members while they were retreating to the temple.

Clang!

So right now, the meteors that could have put holes in my numb body, were slamming into my shield like endless raindrops hitting on an umbrella.

"Just you wait, Sapphire and Ruby. I'll kill both of you first." With a malicious voice leaving my lips, I glared at the distance where the meteorite came from.

Not only was I enraged, I was disappointed. In fact, I was bloodthirsty with murderous intentions to kill those disgusting angels.

"You fucking cunts." I swore with my incandescent glare.

Crackling…

"Huh?"

When I heard that sound reverberating from below me, it led me to take a peek at it before realizing it was the damaged ice platform.

"Ha… Dang."

CRACK!

The ice platform shattered like glass, causing me to not have a foothold to stand on which ended up with me falling to the snowy ground.

My MP is already depleted to its lowest, forcing the combined skill and the clones to disappear with it. But luckily for me and everyone, the meteor shower was already harmless now to even hurt someone.

And unfortunately for me, I had to get dropped into the snow…

"Oof."

I groaned, knowing that I had to wait until I could get moving again and for my body to get its strength back.

"This is going to take a long time.."