The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years-Chapter 618Book 2

The surroundings resembled a tree hollow. The walls were entangled with tree roots and vines like blood vessels, and the ground felt soft and spongy. The unpleasantly lukewarm heat gave the sensation of being inside the intestines of some giant beast. Considering the nature of the tree, that might actually be the more accurate comparison.

"...Since when?"

The sentence was cut off halfway, but its meaning was clear.

Residue responded while looking ahead again in a low voice.

"I don’t know."

"……."

"It could have been the moment I spoke, when I was wandering through that hallucinatory world, or maybe from the very beginning. Does it matter? Right now."

The sight of Symetra lying unconscious came into view. It felt different from the one seen in the white world. It meant this one was 'real.'

The way she had collapsed was somewhat unsightly.

"I thought the chances of your consciousness remaining were slim. That’s why I brought this stray along. I figured that by using one of her authorities, Sensory Sharing, she might be able to reach the core of your consciousness. Well, those who heard my plan seemed to assume that after that, I would talk to you and try to persuade you..."

There was no need to correct that misconception. The help of Retip and Iris had been indispensable in getting here.

"But in the end, bringing her along wasn’t necessary. Your consciousness is still clearly intact. That saved me the trouble of explaining my purpose to you."

"…Purpose."

A low voice was heard once again.

Residue looked at the place where Symetra or rather, the existence he had regarded as Symetra was standing.

The small figure standing there was undoubtedly that of a girl, but only her overall shape could be faintly made out, her appearance remaining indistinct.

It was as if her entire body was shrouded in deep shadow.

"Was what you just said your purpose, hyung?"

"Then do I look like the kind of man who would come all this way just to spout meaningless words?"

"…You’ve changed."

"I already said that before. From the looks of it, this place is indeed the interior of Destruction, and time seems to be flowing normally. I don’t intend to have a long conversation. I’ve already stated my purpose, so now it’s your turn to speak." 𝘳ἈɴȪꞖÈS

"……."

"You couldn't finish what you were saying back then."

Residue recalled.

The moment when Frey Blake appeared,

The moment when the form known as Luca melted away and vanished.

-Hyung, I, my wish is…

-My wishhh, uuuuh…

He remembered the hand reaching out with a tear-streaked expression.

Residue still didn’t know what emotion had been on Luca’s face at that moment, what wish she had been trying so desperately to say.

It had weighed on his mind, and that was why he had come here.

"How stupid."

"Hm?"

"You really missed the mark entirely. Something I wanted to say? A wish? There’s no such thing."

Luca took a step forward.

"Even if there was, there isn’t anymore."

As the shadows that had been covering his body faded, his true form was revealed.

"……."

Residue remained silent.

The figure was that of a girl, but that was all. Luca no longer appeared to be just a girl.

Half of her body had been eroded by something like gnarled wood. Even her face was not spared. Her left forehead, eye, and cheek seemed to have undergone a grotesque transformation.

Luca stroked the rough area as she spoke.

"...At least one Destruction with consciousness was necessary. I don’t know if you’re aware, but most Destructions don’t possess self-awareness. They’re more accurately defined as moving laws or programs rather than living beings."

It struck Residue as quite a fitting analogy.

Programs don’t make judgments. Their actions are determined solely by their surrounding environment.

"Not many laws apply to Destruction. But there are an uncountable number of them. I am the one who imposes rules on them. 'We are beings that bring Destruction', 'Do not fight each other', 'Wait for the most crucial moment', those kinds of rules."

"……."

"Of course, self-awareness is necessary. Someone has to make decisions at the critical moment. Hyung, do you understand?"

Luca pointed to herself.

"The 'I' that is speaking with you right now is an error. A being that should have remained silent until the final moment, but after starving and starving for so long, couldn't hold back by the third day and clashed with a girl who left her home and thus, an error was born."

In that moment, the girl died,

And the error that wore her shell came into existence.

"So the emotions I am feeling right now are not truly mine. The wish I was about to say back then wasn’t mine either. They are all stolen, mere copies."

"……."

"This error will soon disappear. After all, I cannot escape the rules."

Srrrk-

Residue glanced behind her.

Tree vines moved of their own accord, creating a passage, which soon became an exit. It wasn’t an injury that had been torn open, but a deliberate opening.

"So please, leave before that happens. As quickly and as far away as possible. Beyond the reach of my sight."

"……."

Silence.

Residue remained silent for a long time.

Then, he let out a deep sigh. Luca didn't want to overanalyze the meaning behind that sigh. However, Residue had the heaviest expression Luca had ever seen on him.

At last, Residue lifted the unconscious Symetra from the ground.

Then, without another word, he turned his back and walked away.

"……."

…He left.

The persuasion had succeeded.

An indescribable rush of emotions surged all at once.

But the biggest one was relief.

Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness.

Even if I am an error, even if these are borrowed feelings.

Even if the fundamental reason I feel this relief is not even my own.

Still, it was a relief that Residue had left this place.

-Kyaaaaa…

At that moment, a scream-like sound rang out.

Luca flinched and looked up, only to find that the man who had left had returned. With an oddly refreshed look on his face.

"Why… are you back…?"

"I couldn’t stand seeing that Reject on the ground. Watching a useless thing sleeping soundly, whether here or elsewhere, was enough to rile even my generous nature. Now that the eyesore is gone, I feel much better."

A fall from several hundred meters up, more or less. but well, she probably wouldn’t die. Residue chuckled.

"And why, back? You’re saying strange things. Did you really think I would be persuaded by just a few words?"

"That’s not what I meant! I…!"

"I saw your expression."

Luca flinched, her body trembling.

"When I left, when it seemed like I was following your suggestion. You thought it was a relief. Consider this a warning and don’t even think about lying."

"…So what if I did?"

"We are alike."

"──."

Luca’s lips parted slightly.

As if she had just heard the words she had longed for her entire life at the most unexpected moment.

"I know the mindset of a copied existence. …No, I know it all too well. The anxiety that comes from lacking certainty in one’s identity. The fear that even one’s unconscious thoughts and natural emotions might not truly belong to oneself… Those feelings are deeply intertwined. Anxiety fuels fear, and fear in turn amplifies anxiety. It’s a vicious cycle. For an intelligent being, the most terrifying thing is uncertainty."

Her body trembled and her ears rang loudly.

Her chest tightened, ands he felt like she might burst into tears at any moment. But she couldn’t even accept that emotion as her own. Without realizing it, Luca took a step back.

It might have been an instinctive defense mechanism ingrained in her body.

"…Then what?"

If that were the case, then why did her voice come out?

"You overcame it, didn’t you? How were you able to?"

"Because I found the answer."

Residue's lips twisted.

"Confusion, anxiety, doubt. The one who feels and thinks those emotions is 'me'."

"But that 'me', that self-awareness, is ultimately something stolen…"

"Stolen? So what? Then what about the opposite case?"

"The opposite…?"

"If someone were to borrow or steal everything that makes you who you are, would that person become you? No. Even if you were to die and an identical existence took your place, so perfectly that no one around you noticed until the day they all perished, that still wouldn't make the two of you the same person. That’s simply impossible."

"……."

"That is an undeniable truth. The concept of 'me' cannot exist in multiples. You, who continue to think at this very moment, your own consciousness is the sole and definitive witness to that. This is a law that applies not just in the Three Thousand Worlds, but also in the Void World, and even to the beings of the 'Outside'."

"No. The Outside… it's a place beyond anything you can imagine."

"True. But in order to bring destruction to this world, you all had to diminish yourselves to enter it. Beings that were once incomprehensible have now become ones that must, to some extent, abide by the laws of our world."

Of course, that was not what Destruction had wanted.

If not for a certain man fighting alone outside even now, none of this would have happened.

"A copied personality? A borrowed will? So what? Do you understand now? The moment something splits, it is no longer the same. That applies to both you and me."

"……."

"To me, you are 'Luca'."

It was difficult to look at Residue's face. Luca could no longer keep her head up and ended up bowing deeply. She felt her chin tremble.

…She had been acknowledged.

Something she thought would never happen in her lifetime. Something she hadn’t even dared to hope for.

Luca turned to face the part of herself she had been avoiding.

The reason she had wanted Residue to leave this place was because she had felt ashamed of how she had looked in their final moments together.

When her entire body had melted away, revealing the form of a monster, and in that moment of despair, unable to accept that this was her true nature, she had reached out. That image of herself had been so unbearably wretched.

She hadn't wanted the only person she had ever opened her heart to see her like that.

But Residue had not cared in the slightest.

"…Hah."

A laugh escaped unconsciously.

There had been hesitation in it, but somehow, her chest felt a little lighter.

So that's how it is.

Luca looked at Residue.

Her past self, the one who had once staggered as if about to break.

And her present self, standing tall with arrogant confidence.

A great change, an awakening of the soul… That wasn't something one could achieve alone.

Yes.

Residue must have been acknowledged by someone as well.

…She felt like she understood, just a little.

What she had to do,

What she could do.

"Hyung."

"Speak."

"Thank you."

"……."

"For meeting you again, for being acknowledged for the first time, for finding an answer, for my consciousness lasting until now… Everything that happened here today was, to me, a small miracle."

With the hesitation gone, a warm breeze seemed to blow through her heart.

"My wish… I just remembered it. Please kill me. Before this error is completely corrected, while even a fragment of the personality known as Luca still remains."

"……."

Residue’s expression changed.

He would understand. He would accept it.

If no one else, then at least Residue, who had shared the same pain, would.

"…Is that your wish?"

"Yes."

"You are a strong being. Even for someone like me, killing you would not be easy."

"But you can do it, right?"

"Yes."

"Then."

Residue nodded.

"I've heard your wish. I refuse."

"…What?"

Feeling like she had misheard something, Luca blinked her eyes rapidly.

"I said I refuse."

"No, why…? What do you mean…?"

"Why should I obey the demands of a brat like you?"

"You said… you’d grant my wish!"

"I said I’d listen to it. When did I ever say I’d grant it?"

Luca's face turned bright red.

"Coming all the way here just to spout this ridiculous bullshit! Do you think you can just insist on something like that now? Or do you take me for an idiot? I-I remember everything. I remember it all!"

Remember everything? More accurately, he couldn't forget.

Every trivial conversation, gesture, and expression Residue had shared with her.

All those memories were etched into her mind, never fading.

"You didn’t say it so half-heartedly! You clearly, definitely, said you would grant my wish…"

"Ah, then let’s just say I changed my mind and don’t feel like granting it anymore."

"……."

"I'm a bit fickle like that."

Luca was momentarily at a loss for words.

But only for a moment.

"…Why."

Cracks formed once more in the thoughts she had painstakingly sorted out, and her lips began to tremble.

"I had finally come to terms with everything."

She squeezed out her words, almost sobbing.

"If you had just accepted it now, that would have been enough."

It would have been sufficient, she could have been satisfied.

So why.

Why are you making me hope again?

"……."

Residue stepped closer.

"You—"

Thud. A weight pressed down on her head.

It was a large, warm, rough hand.

"—will cast off Destruction."

"……."

"You will no longer be bound by it. You will never lose yourself again. And after that, until I change my mind, you will stay by my side, handling all the annoying errands I assign to you."

"……."

"You might even complain that I’m overworking you. We’ll argue about it more than once. And one day, with a sulky face, you’ll probably joke, 'I should’ve just died back then!'"

"……."

Residue’s lips twisted into a smirk.

"You call our meeting a miracle?"

Crackle.

Lightning surged.

"You think just because your consciousness lingered a little longer, and because we had a short conversation in this disgusting hole, that’s a miracle? Haha, hahahaha…!"

His hearty laughter echoed through the tree hollow.

"Brat, you have no idea what a real miracle is. You’ve never even experienced one. So I—this great me—will show you."

Tzzzt!

Lightning crackled and spread in all directions.

Standing at the center of it all, Residue spoke.

"I'll show you what a real miracle looks like."