[ TWATF 2 ]

Chapter 245: Ouroboros (1)

"No."

The host became dumbfounded.

"What?"

"I won't say anything."

The host was shocked and confused.

"But you should... uh, everyone's curious about the top floor of the [Nightmare of the Beginning] for example.... At least if you give us the theme of..."

"A theme?" Sirwen scoffed. "Why would I create a tower if I'm going to spill it all by talking? I can just talk about it without making it."

"Y-yes, but..."

The host frantically searched through his cue cards and Sirwen spoke.

"If you want me to say something so badly..."

"O-oh! Please!"

The host smiled and looked at Sirwen, but she wasn't there anymore. Or metaphorically at least.

She was looking for an old past. The time that most beings had forgotten now. The days when everyone fought to be a 'being'. Many scenes flashed past her eyes.

"This is a tower for a certain person."

After the [Fall] came, the Tree of Imagery was destroyed. Every being was present when it happened.

The branches and trunk fell down and the Tree of Imagery dispersed into silver.

Lords and Gods. Adapters and Awakeners. They all looked up at the scene. They felt the disaster they could never even hope to stop. Then they accepted it.

This was the end. This was how it all was going to end.

With an explosion, the world turned and everything was covered in silver dust. It took about one week for the silver dust to die down.

A silvery 7 days.

But even after that one week, people still survived. The beings that survived now realized that they were living in a 'new world'. It was the creation of a mixture between <Depth>, <Chaos>, and the <Great Lands>. It was the world that had Gods, Lords, Adapters, and in one place. There was no Tree of Imagery and the world was free from the chains of the System.

New World.

People named the new world.

"You're back."

"Yeah."

"How was the party?"

"It was the same as always."

"Were the Union people grumpy again?"

"..."

"Don't mind them. They always do that."

"Yeah, and it doesn't make me feel any better each time."

Sirwen smiled and took off her coat, placing it on the chair of the hospital room.

"How's your condition?"

"I'm fine."

"Fine? You look like you're dying."

Sirwen looked at the old man lying on the bed. He had white hair and a wrinkly face. Time and age were ruining his body. Sirwen remembered the old man's past of when he was a boy.

A rude boy from <Depth>. A boy who was so stubborn that it was easy to tell whose Follower he was. The boy who acted like he was grown up was now a old man.

Sirwen caressed the old man's forehead and thought about his name. As if she would remember his name after time was up, she thought about the name.

This old man's name was Runald.

"Yeah. I will die someday, right?"

"Someday? I think it'll be soon."

"Ugh, don't say it like that. I feel racism every time you say that, you know."

"Haha..."

"Do you think Chunghuh would have felt it this way? Or Karlton...?"

"Runald."

"Haha, I'm joking. Joking."

Runald smiled, slightly shaking his lips.

"I'm just... scared. Unlike Chunghuh, it's the first time for me... to die. It will be the first and last."

"Don't be stupid. It's the first time for everyone."

"Sirwen. What do you think death is? Is it returning to nothing? Is there nothing beyond this world? No memory, spirit or..."

Runald's lips then soon became silent. It seemed like he was out of his energy. Small, shallow breaths were heard. Sirwen caressed Runald's forehead with a sad look on her face.

"Kid, that's what makes us human."