Chapter 43 Part 2

Eigg took a sip of his fruit wine and said, head lowered, “Whatever enemy it is, I’ll simply kill it.”

He had already slain a god. What enemy was left that he couldn’t kill?

Taylor chuckled. “True. Eigg… when Lin passed away, she was still thinking about what she wanted to say to you.”

He turned to face Eigg, who also raised his head to meet Taylor’s eyes.

Taylor’s smile faded. “I don’t think she owed you any apology. In fact, there’s an awful lot you should apologize to her for. But she always wanted to apologize to you. She said she deeply regretted quarreling with you. That if she’d just talked things through properly, maybe… maybe you could have understood her. Understood me.”

The corner of Eigg’s mouth twitched. “She kept thinking about that?”

Tipping the remainder of his drink into his mouth, Taylor grumbled, “Yeah. She kept thinking about that. She really was too naïve. If you were capable of understanding, given how long we’ve known each other, you’d have understood long ago.”

Eigg said, “Me? Understanding you? Disgusting.”

Taylor agreed. “Yeah, pretty disgusting.”

And then they fell silent.

Since long, long ago, between the two of them, there had only ever been this suffocating, bitter silence.

Over by the bonfire, Xia Xifeng was trying to teach people a traditional Halfling circle dance.

Qin Lang immediately scrambled to get away—and just so happened to reach the shadowed tree stump where Eigg and Taylor were lurking.

“Is Lord Xia really not a Halfling at heart?” Taylor had recovered his cheer by now, joking with Qin Lang.

Qin Lang replied, “He’s an honorary Halfling.”

Taylor burst out laughing loudly, picked up his plate and cup, and headed back toward the bonfire.

Dancing actually looked kinda fun. He was going to join in.

Now, only Qin Lang and Eigg remained beneath the withered tree.

With Qin Lang, Eigg found it easier to speak. “Compared to Taylor… I am far, far worse.”

Qin Lang answered, “Both you and he endured to the very end. You aren’t far behind at all.”

Eigg asked, “But this cycle is over. Outside is an Apocalypse too. Where could I possibly go from here?”

Qin Lang said, “Go out there and kill every single Outer God who created this Apocalypse.”

Eigg: “…”

Speechless, he said, “Lord Qin, isn’t your bloodlust a little too strong?”

Qin Lang replied, “Those weren’t my words. They were the final decree issued by the Elf Empress to all Elves, before she fell in battle.”

Eigg looked stunned. “Fell in battle? The Elf Empress fell in battle?! Has the Elven Empire been destroyed again?!”

Qin Lang shook his head. “After that Elf Empress died in battle, a new Elf Emperor rose. The Elven Empire will not be destroyed.”

The Dwarf King. The Elf Empress. The Human Emperor.

All three had died in battle within the first few years of the Apocalypse’s onset.

If they hadn’t exhausted their royal families’ accumulated power and fought to their last breath in resistance… by the time the players descended upon this game world, there would have been no Dwarf Kingdom, no Elven Empire, and no Human Empire left at all.

When the Apocalypse truly dawned, the primary strongholds of all the great races were still standing tall in the world. They served as the fortresses from which humanity awaited its counterattack, and became the major “capital cities” where players were most active.

Eigg stared down at his unfinished wine.

After a long while, he slowly drained the remaining dregs and lifted his head, looking toward the firelight.

“If it is the command of the Elf Empress… then as an Elf Lord, I am naturally bound to obey.” He stepped forward, moving out of the shadows, and walked toward the place illuminated by the bonfire’s glow.

The bonfire still crackled. The banquet was still in full swing.

Many were already drunk.

Arms slung around each other, once-mortal enemies sang wildly off-key songs and danced bizarre, flailing dances.

They laughed. They wept. They made utter spectacles of themselves.

In a few more hours, they would leave this cyclical dream and face the unknown.

The future was the unknown. At long last, they had broken free of the loop and regained a future.

Even if that future meant fading away into nothing.

Qin Lang hauled Xia Xifeng—still trying to sneak more drinks—away from the wine table, sternly reminding him there was still a major battle ahead.

Xia Xifeng nodded, then immediately pulled out a huge pile of potions, going around and force-feeding them to the drunkards one by one.

“Come, come! Pre-battle buff potions and consumables, get ’em while they’re hot!”

“Anyone’s armor busted? Weapons broken? Come find me for spare gear!”

“Should we heat up some bathwater? Put on some fancier threads?”

One Elven warrior’s eyes lit up with interest. “We can actually bathe and change clothes here?”

Xia Xifeng pulled out a gigantic heap of extravagant outfits. “You name it, I’ve got it!”

Then he pulled out self-heating bathtubs, shampoo, and scented soaps. “Everything you need!”

Taylor’s jaw dropped. He turned to Qin Lang and asked, utterly flabbergasted, “What exactly does Lord Xia keep in his backpack?!”

Qin Lang thought about it, then said, “Everything he can cram in there.”

For a player, if an item can be shoved into a backpack slot, you had better have a full stack of it filling that slot. It was a collection compulsion.

When Taylor saw that even Eigg was going over to claim a bathtub, he was rendered speechless for a long moment before muttering, “Damn Elves and their obsession with looking pretty.”

Qin Lang said, “I suggest you take a bath too. The next battlefield is very likely the ruined Blackstone Town.”

Scratching at his messy hair, Taylor said, “Ah. In that case, I really should fix my appearance.”

Xia Xifeng waved at Qin Lang. “Let’s go take a bath too!”

Qin Lang nodded.

A nice soak before a big battle, and a fresh change of clothes. It always made killing monsters feel a little more spirited.

Probably, not even the System had imagined that before heading to the next battlefield, Xia Xifeng and company would not only throw a massive banquet, but also collectively bathe, change clothes, and gear up in brand-new equipment.

When the System reminded Xia Xifeng to hurry up anyone still in the bath and get them dressed, the notification text didn’t end with a standard 【.】 but with a long series of 【……】

Six ellipsis dots. That was one speechless System.

By the time the warriors—now decked out in gleaming new gear—had formed ranks, the moon overhead finally began to crack and shatter.

A rift split open in the dream’s fabric, revealing a strange, devastated ruin beyond.

Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang were the first to step through the rift, with Taylor and Eigg right behind them.

Both players recognized this ruined landscape in an instant.

Just as Qin Lang had guessed, this was indeed the “Bloody Wedding” dungeon of Blackstone Town.

The spot where they emerged was precisely the shattered underground passage where monsters usually spawned.

Xia Xifeng said, “That spawn breach… that’s the Silver Moon Altar, isn’t it?”

Qin Lang looked down and kicked a broken piece of stone. “A pillar from the Silver Moon Altar.”

The altar, originally deep underground, had been forced up to the surface by some mysterious power. Shadow Fiends had poured out from this very spot.

And now, Taylor, Eigg, and their followers were emerging from it too.

Faint silver light shimmered across their bodies, making them appear just as vivid as living people.

The instant they stepped into this world, the whole space began to hum and roar.

Countless shadows surged toward them like a dark tide.

Without even waiting for Xia Xifeng or Qin Lang to explain the situation, Taylor and Eigg led their respective warriors, charging forward directly into the oncoming shadows.

Wherever they stepped, the blood-tinged dark haze in the air was blasted away, dissipating into nothing.

The sky above was dominated solely by the Blood Moon. Yet, the moonlight illuminating the ground was the radiance of the Silver Moon.

Before they had left the cyclical dream, Xia Xifeng had asked Taylor just what exactly the “Silver Moon Divine Artifact” was.

Taylor had laughed so hard his shoulders shook violently.

“That story… I made it up.”

There was no Silver Moon blessing. No Silver Moon Divine Artifact, either.

Taylor and his beloved had merely been pushing through legislation to improve the working conditions of the miners, using the tale that “the God of the Silver Moon personally descended to bless them” to comfort and reassure the miners’ hearts.

True, there really was a power of the Silver Moon emanating from the depths of the underground mines that could soothe the spirit. But that power came from a Magic Conduit Device he and Lin had installed—a Magic Array they had personally inscribed.

Xia Xifeng turned to Qin Lang and said, “Now I understand why the Blood Moon was so fixated on Blackstone Town, such a seemingly unimportant little town. It went completely red-hot with rage!”

Qin Lang said, “I thought you were going to say that Taylor, Eigg, and the others might be the key to reviving the Silver Moon’s Authority.”

Xia Xifeng insisted, “It went red-hot! The redness of the Blood Moon today is the redness of pure, incandescent fury!”

Qin Lang was speechless. “Fine. You’re right.”

Xia Xifeng folded his arms. “Aren’t you going to go grind some monsters?”

Qin Lang replied, “Got tired of grinding. I’ll let them have it.”

Xia Xifeng shot a glance at this hypocritical, soft-hearted-with-a-tough-exterior friend of his.

To avoid ruining the mood, I’ll let you off the hook today.

The two of them fell in behind the company of silver spirits, heading straight for the boss arena of the “Bloody Wedding” dungeon.

Taylor and the others clearly had no map knowledge of where the boss was, yet they charged straight in that direction, guided solely by pure instinct.

And soon, Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang caught sight of the familiar figures: the Bloody Bride and Groom.

Susan, whose physical form had already undergone horrific mutation. And Lynn, whose outward appearance had barely retained its original humanity.

The moment the ghastly specters were touched by the silvery radiance emanating from Taylor and his group, their faces lost their blank, dead-eyed stupor. A spark of sentience flickered back into their eyes.

They began to follow behind Taylor’s forces, all converging together toward the site of Susan and Lynn’s wedding ceremony.

Among the crowd of specters whose appearances had now reverted to how they’d looked in life… was the very person currently waiting for Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang back in the real world. The reigning Lord of Blackstone Town.

Susan’s mother.

“My child… it’s alright now. You can rest,” the mother said, stretching her arms out toward her daughter, unafraid of her horrifically twisted and deformed figure.

The hideous, grotesque Ghostly Bride began to sob like a small child.

Her razor-sharp claws slashed open her own chest. She twisted and snapped her own neck.

Even corrupted and transformed by the Blood Moon’s power, she refused to ever harm her mother.

Throughout it all, Lynn had stood beside Susan, utterly motionless, like a statue carved from stone.

“Allow me to grant her peace.” Taylor raised his greatsword. A flash of silver light descended and cleaved the Ghost Bride’s half-severed head completely from her body.

His gaze met Lynn’s. Then, he swung again and struck off Lynn’s equally motionless head.

Taylor set both corpses ablaze. The silver flames howled, scouring away the bloody moonlight.

Lifting his head, Taylor pointed the tip of his greatsword directly at the Blood Moon.

Beside him, Eigg did the same. And behind them, every single warrior who had followed them out of the cycle dream raised their weapons toward the sky, toward the Blood Moon.

A beam of silver light—keen as a sharpened blade—shot upward, piercing straight into that red, full moon.

The massive moon, which swallowed up nearly half the sky, seemed to visibly recoil as if struck, its massive disk shrinking slightly in size.

The shattered, fragmented rays of the Blood Moon were stained silver by that blade of light. The crimson haze transformed into shimmering silver dust, coalescing toward a single point.

Then, beside the massive, blood-red full moon, a secondary moon appeared.

Small. Faint. But unmistakable.

A thin, crescent moon of brilliant silver.

【Dungeon storyline complete. Returning to reality.】

【The false moon bestowed its power. Those who received that power believed in the true moon.】

【The legendary Silver Moon Divine Artifact never existed. So what, then, was the true Silver Moon Artifact?】

【It was the Authority of the Silver Moon, stolen long ago by the Blood Moon.】

【It was the noble soul.】