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Chapter 281: Ep. 53 - Demon King of Salvation
— CHAPTER ■■ —
You raise your upper body with a groan and see a small pocket watch wrapped around your arm by the watch strap. The moving hands of the clock match your heartbeat as you look down at it. Who gave this to you...? What happened? You only remember winning the Demon King Selection with your friends, then believing you all can return to Earth with Kim Dokja.
That's when you notice a faint glimmer of sunshine outside the window. The sunshine is too bright for the Demon World.
You bring yourself to the window and see beyond are the walls of the collapsed industrial complex. It's a strange scene... You can see the broken statue of Admiral Yi Sunsin and the ruined Gyeongbok Palace. Then also the smoke coming from the collapsed buildings of Gwanghwamun.
This is Seoul.
You can see your companions sitting down outside the window, hanging their heads with their shoulders shaking. Slowly, the haze lifts and you ask why? Why are we in Seoul? With the whole industrial complex? You search and count your companions from your window and realize there is one missing.
“…Kim Dokja?”
A message prompts something that is dawning on you. The story you two created together, it has stopped singing.
[The fable ‘Life and Death Companions’ is silent.]
Your body stills, but you feel fear filling every fiber of your being. Quickly, you scan the starry sky. The sky is bright enough and you count each constellation and beyond. You keep counting and counting, but you do not find him. In the sparkling sea, there is a star missing.
You stay quiet before bringing up an item that Kim Dokja bought for you two. It serves as a mental chatroom, a visual version of telepathy that can only seen by those invited.
[The item Midday Tryst has been used.]
The message window that hadn’t been used for a while opens and a message is sent.
[The message has been returned.]
It must be an error, you thought. You keep sending the message repeatedly, several times over and over. As the messages keep returning, you lower your gaze from the system message windows.
[You have exhausted the quota for today’s messages.]
The ticking of the pocket watch can be heard in the foreground while messages fill your vision.
[The constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ doesn’t exist in the Star Stream.]
[The constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ doesn’t exist in the Star Stream.]
[The constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ doesn’t exist in the Star Stream.]
[The constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ doesn’t exist in the Star Stream.]
...
[The constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ doesn’t exist in the Star Stream.]
If you weren't unconscious, could you have fought beside him? Could you have fended off whatever it was that threatened him and your companions?
Could you have saved him?
In the round where factions of angels wage war and you must play with this ridiculous trial system, you and Kim Dokja have survived to the seventh week. If only it could stay that way... You wake up to find Kim Dokja is gone and fear strikes you like it did before.
If you weren't unconscious, could you have fought beside him? Could you have fended off whoever it was that threatened him?
Could you have saved him?
You tightly grip onto the pocket watch, trying to muster all the anger you can to stifle the despair.