The blinding light made him squint, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a blue sky.
Ul was sitting in a park that existed in the center of Uuga. The real Uuga had lost its benches and fountains due to the decisive battle, making it feel desolate.
But the scene before him was as it had been before. The light that shone in was warm.
He realized it was a reproduction of Shizuku’s memories. Seeing Shizuku, who had slumped against him as if exhausted, and gripping his hand tightly, Ul let out a sigh.
“Seriously, what a pain… oh.”
He felt something like fragments spilling from his palm and opened his right hand. He saw the bone fragments left by Rock crumbling away.
This place was not real. However, even when he woke up, there would be no fragments of Rock left in Ul’s possession. He had fulfilled his purpose.
“Rock. Thank you for saving me.”
There was, of course, no reply, but he thought he heard his usual rattling laughter. He closed his eyes as if sending him that sound, and when he opened them, Diz and Akane were standing in front of him instead.
“Hey, you’ve had a tough time. Though, I was also a bother to you.”
Diz shrugged, smiled, and sat down next to Ul. Ul returned the smile.
“You were a hundred times easier than Shizuku.”
“Did you want someone a bit more troublesome?”
“Why?”
“You prefer troublesome women, don’t you?”
He had been asked something unnecessary. Ul contorted his mouth.
“Spare me. Seriously. Just stay as you are. You’re perfect right now.”
“Yay!”
While they were exchanging foolish banter, Akane approached Shizuku, who was sitting beside Ul in the form of a girl.
“Shizuku.”
When called, Shizuku looked up. Even after leaving that extremely dark place, her complexion wasn’t good. Her eyes were puffy, she was listless, truly exhausted.
“…Yes, Lady Akane.”
Even so, she managed a small smile. It wasn’t the captivating, beautiful smile she usually showed. It was small, modest, almost imperceptible.
“Did you cry properly?”
To the question, Shizuku nodded slightly. Akane stroked her forehead and smiled.
“That’s good.”
Akane said so and hugged her. Perhaps because she was tired, Shizuku didn’t resist.
“I…”
After a moment of silence, speaking even a word seemed to exhaust her, and she opened her mouth very slowly. Ul and the others waited silently for her words.
“What should I do?”
Her voice was thin, like a lost child’s.
No one there said, “Not at this point.” They all knew that after enduring a tremendous storm, her true self had finally emerged. Akane, who was on her lap, peered into Shizuku’s face and asked.
“Shizuku, what do you want to do now?”
“What do I… do?”
Silence fell again. But this time, it wasn’t from exhaustion, but because she was desperately searching for words from within herself. After a while,
“I did something unforgivable. I must atone.”
Words of regret were spun.
The reason for her regret was understandable. In her suffering, she had plunged into hell to escape the pain. Of course, there was a noble cause, and it would be wrong to judge it as a mistake. However, it was an undeniable fact that she had used it to turn away from herself.
When this was directly pointed out, she couldn’t bear it, and her spirit broke.
Her regret about that was understandable. No matter how much Ul or Akane embraced her, the wound had not yet healed. Neither magic nor divine medicine could heal wounds of the spirit; only time could.
“When you do something bad, you have to apologize, right?”
Akane understood that too. So she took Shizuku’s hand and spoke gently.
“Yes.”
“But it’s not just you, Shizuku.”
“Just me.”
Akane detached herself from Shizuku and held her free hands together.
“The one who created you, the one who raised you, the one who taught you.”
Many things had accumulated for Shizuku to reach this point. She wouldn’t have arrived here solely by her own will.
“Diz is also wrong. She abandoned the world trying to save Israilia. I did too, right? I helped Diz, and it’s the same. Not to mention my older brother, he’s… that.”
“That.”
“What has happened now is because everyone chose it.”
Yes, no one in this world was without responsibility.
All humans bore responsibility for themselves. If you entrusted something to someone, the responsibility of entrusting it followed. And that was also a right.
“Responsibility belongs to everyone. You can’t take it all away.”
Therefore, she must not take it all away and bear it alone.
There were the feelings and responsibilities of countless people in Shizuku’s journey. She was merely the executor. Akane was saying it was wrong for her to bear all the sin and responsibility.
“Akane is so proper.”
“Indeed…”
“You two be proper too.”
” “Yes.” ”
Akane’s words made the two of them reflect.
“…”
Shizuku was silent for a while after Akane said that. It would still take time to recover. They wanted to let her rest a bit longer if possible, but
“I don’t think I can hold on much longer…”
Ul looked up at the sky and saw a slight crack in it.
Soon, this space would collapse.
It was an unreasonable act to interfere with two heroes simultaneously. Moreover, Ul’s own power was unstable and couldn’t be maintained forever. There was no time.
But there was still some use for this place.
“I should do what needs to be done while I can.”
“What needs to be done?”
“Discussion without violence.”
The discussion, which could have been settled much earlier if they had begun from the start, finally commenced.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
“First of all, you two can’t be gods, right? Or rather, you couldn’t. That’s a fact.”
Ul said so, and Diz nodded apologetically, while Shizuku strengthened her grip on Ul’s hand without speaking.
“………”
“That’s right… You might call me irresponsible, but it was more than an individual could bear.”
Diz spoke reflectively, but as she looked at Shizuku, who sat between them, her eyes narrowed.
“To be overwhelmed as a Sun God who feeds on positive emotions, it’s pathetic, I know.”
Indeed, in terms of pure manipulability, the Sun God was better maintained. Unlike Sizlunarika, who was violently manipulated by the dragon and had expanded, the Sun God Zeuradia, though divided into seven parts, had been correctly utilized by the Seven Heavens of the past.
In that sense, the fact that Shizuku’s spirit began to falter first might not be due to the state of the individuals themselves… but that’s beside the point.
If the person realizes they can’t do it, they can’t.
“What’s great about Diz is that she said she couldn’t before she broke. Unlike that idiot over here.”
“Idiot!”
“Ah, u.”
Ul and Akane poked Shizuku’s temples from either side, and the weakened Shizuku let out a cry but offered no resistance. She was truly weakened. To think of becoming a god in this state was laughable.
“However, it’s also true that I don’t want to abandon everything because of that.”
“………I also do not wish to abandon the world.”
Following Diz, Shizuku also murmured.
“There were lies. But it’s also true that ‘everyone’ wanted to help ‘everyone’.”
“I understand. I made friends in the Demon Realm, too. I really don’t want to give
