NOVEL NEXT Chapter 144
December 22nd
“So the final dragon is stuck in the moon? It didn’t come down through a crack?”
“Yep, this is a photo taken of the moon’s surface, and if you look here, there’s a long streak.”
Dorim, who had rushed to Elysion while leaving silver mobile fortresses set up across Korea for automatic hunting, pulled out a photo.
A recently taken image of the moon’s surface.
On the enlarged photo of the moon’s surface, a figure that vaguely looked like a dragon was indeed visible.
A colossal dragon with a long body and black wings, the kind you might imagine when you think of an Eastern dragon.
The last trial.
The one who truly represents the will of the stars.
It stood on the vast plains of the moon, glaring down at Earth.
“What the heck… Why? So when the fifth trial was over, the destruction dragon was already born?”
“I don’t know. Besides, the way Yuki mentioned the destruction dragon appearing wasn’t through a crack.”
“…….”
The destruction dragon began to descend from the sky at some point and started harvesting souls.
Without any crack from a trial, without any sign.
‘I thought it was just about barely surviving the fifth trial.’
In truth, there was nothing strange about the destruction dragon appearing at any time after the fifth.
“The moon, the moon.”
Why the moon?
“This is just my guess.”
“Yes.”
“Erebus’s curse on the Throne of Nihility. The dramatic change in the trial’s contents seems to be caused by this.”
“…Yes.”
Dorim wouldn’t say this if it was just a baseless imagination.
When Dorim used the word “guess,” it nearly meant she was quite sure about it. Therefore, the way she started with a guess slowly changed into a tone of near certainty.
“That Throne of Nihility where the goddesses are stuck, there’s no specific avenue or location, right?”
“Right. It appears suddenly when humanity’s will weakens or the dimensional boundaries blur.”
“Then wasn’t it originally stuck in the moon?”
“Huh?”
“Like how Elysion can move around, the Throne of Nihility also appears by breaking through space if certain conditions are met. Its original body is on the moon.”
“…….”
“The stairs and stuff are just a kind of fake… specifically dimension magic? Something like that.”
“…….”
It was an idea she had never considered before.
While Dorim tapped the photo of the moon’s surface and rolled her eyes frantically, my thoughts were also sorting themselves out.
One thought popped up, just maybe.
“What if the will of the stars was on the moon?”
“Um.”
“What if the place the three goddesses desperately wanted to return to could be reached if they just escaped from the Throne of Nihility?”
“Hmm.”
“What if they were sealed at the dimensional boundary due to human rejection, forced to just watch right in front of them?”
“Mmmm.”
After contemplating my words for a moment, Dorim brought up a metaphor.
A metaphor that no Korean could possibly misunderstand.
“Like watching someone eat chicken through a fly screen right in front of a hungry person?”
“…For thousands of years.”
“Oh, now I get why those girls were so furious.”
We reorganized the story from the beginning again.
Throne of Nihility
Destruction Dragon
Trials
Moon
And the Will of the Stars.
Faced with all of this, we needed to find a way to solve it.
It didn’t seem right to just fend off the incoming monsters like before.
We needed to find out why the Will of the Stars, which always attacked humanity by any means necessary, had changed its attitude to a turtle-like stance.
Why was it slowly suffocating us?
“So, in short, because of Erebus’s curse, something happened with the Throne of Nihility.”
“And there was a setback in the plans of the three goddesses who were preparing something there.”
“Because of that setback, the destruction dragon is in a parked state?”
“Um.”
“…….”
“…….”
“So what is that thing?”
“I don’t know either.”
“Geez, have you ever seen such a frustrating goddess?”
Dorim pounded her delicate chest with her little hands and wailed, while I could only watch with an awkward expression. Everything was just a highly probable guess pieced together from our imagination.
One thing was certain, though.
We had to find another way besides waiting for our destiny to unfold here on Earth.
We needed to figure out why the trial dragon was just quietly watching us.
“We have no choice but to head to the moon.”
“…….”
“Let’s confront the dragon directly there. And let’s face the Will of the Stars directly.”
“No. That’s not it. Wait a minute. Sis, no really, that’s not an easy thing! The moon and Earth are so far apart! To take battle troops all the way there, we’d need to build a spaceship! That makes no sense, sis! Really!”
“No.”
“No.”
Dorim couldn’t help but blurt out the phrase that Koreans use when they can’t believe something, while she tried to counter this sudden conclusion with dozens of theories.
I found her reaction hilarious.
After all, weren’t we living amid nonsensical miracles?
To me, the very existence of magical girls in this world was already a miracle.
So, isn’t it also possible for a miracle to occur where we charge in with the Will of the Stars?
“Is the silver ship that flies through the sky just a story?”
“…….”
“I’m a 4-Star, you’re a 3-Star. Let’s combine our 7-Star powers to overcome this crisis.”
“…You’re thinking about that even in this situation.”
There was someone who had told me to stay relaxed, especially at times like this.
After everything was over, I had promised to meet someone back in the original world.
“Hmm.”
“What do you think, Dorim?”
“Let’s give it a try.”
We resolved to plan an attack on what was presumed to be the Will of the Stars.
For the first time, we would take the initiative instead of just defending against cracks.
As we protected people from the swarming monsters, we aimed to move toward the moon where the destruction dragon was discovered.
[Plan Romulus]
To end the age of stars and gods and win humanity’s final trial.
This plan was conveyed to all magical girls through the thread of destiny and was transmitted to the entire world, holding out against the endlessly swarming monsters.
Our enemies were waiting for us on the moon.
Instead of the enemies descending through cracks like before, for the first time, we would be approaching them.
Where the stars, gods, and foes are waiting.
Would that place be a trap?
Would that place be a dead end?
I couldn’t know.
-We’ll be okay.
But like we always had, we could only foolishly believe and march ahead.
That evening, Dorim and I aimed to create a flying vessel of a size we could never compare to before using the infinite starlight.
＊
A gray plain where nothing exists.
There was a massive dragon made of darkness. Its body twisted like a mountain range, with deep grooves between the scales resembling canyons.
Darkness
Chaos
The gigantic dragon, adorned with thousands of eyes, was conversing with a girl.
A girl who sparkled with four shining starlights on her back.
A goddess from another dimension
Starlight of Chaos
The chaotic color that emerged from the perfect flow of stars was ominous yet brilliant, containing every color. It was a color so unfathomable by human cognition that just looking at it made one feel dizzy.
Two beings born from complete chaos.
“Yes, I see now.”
“■■■■.”
“You suffered because of humans who brought irrational fates.”
“■■■■.”
“The star that should have been perfect was in pain due to its wounds.”
Yes.
I understand.
I will help you.
The magical girl of the [Star] left various advice while patting the black dragon with fragments of the three goddesses who tried to escape from the star.
Memories of the world that could have ended the age of humans
Memories of destruction
Whispering the form of that age when humans were most vulnerable, she taught them how to fight.
“They flare up like torches when they charge in, but if you envelop them slowly like falling rain, they’ll destroy each other in combat.”
We can just watch in eternity.
We are beings born from the perfect stars.
The girl’s whispers had a low yet eerie tone.
“If the salvation of the nonexistent fate comes, then the destruction of the nonexistent fate shall be needed.”
The girl with the fate of the [Star] had come as a sudden despair for humanity.
She, who cheered for the Will of the Stars, was the magical girl of [Despair] for humanity.