Chapter 24: The Price of Hope

It was risky, stupid, and completely forced upon him, but Ren refused to compromise his personal code. If he stayed behind while Ryu threw himself into the fire, he would never hear the end of it. Besides, if he was going to die in this godforsaken world, he’d rather go down fighting than cower in the woods and regret it later.

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[Liora’s POV]

The massive, brute-class humanoid beast loomed over the hilltop, glaring down at Liora as she settled into a low, practiced combat stance.

Vora clicked her tongue, her expression flickering with mild annoyance. "Tch."

"Liora... how dare you stick your nose into my business with my man?" Vora stepped forward, her heels clicking rhythmically against the loose gravel until she stood side by side with the hulking monstrosity.

"I never imagined you’d actually have the spine to confront me head-on like this." A crooked, arrogant smirk spread across Vora’s lips.

"Vora... let’s put an end to this," Liora said quietly.

She thrust her palm out, gathering dense crimson mana into her hand. The ambient light distorted around her fist before solidifying into a brilliant, razor-sharp energy blade. Without hesitation, Liora leveled the red point directly at Vora and the behemoth beside her.

"Hahahahaha!" Vora burst into a shrill, piercing laugh that cut through the whistling wind. The sheer venom in her tone sounded less like amusement and more like a cruel promise.

"Are you serious right now? Do you actually want to end your life today?" Vora choked back another laugh, her cheeks flushing slightly as if Liora’s challenge was the funniest joke she had heard in years.

"Are you ready to die, Liora? The battery of my dimension?" Vora’s eyes narrowed into slits, a sinister grin curling across her face.

"Vora... I already know how to break this dimension," Liora replied, her voice eerily calm and stripped of all emotion.

Her hollow gaze fixed on her target. The cold mountain wind whipped her off-shoulder red dress around her legs, tugging gently at the wide-brimmed hat resting atop her silver hair.

Vora raised an eyebrow, her smile twisting into a mocking curl.

"To shatter this realm... all I need to do is die along with you, right?" Liora let out a faint, empty smile. A profound, deeply hidden sorrow lingered behind her glassy eyes.

"I don’t care if I die fighting you. From the moment I figured out you were using me as an energy source to anchor this realm, I’ve been waiting for the right moment to execute this mutual destruction."

Memories flooded Liora’s mind, pulling her back to the day she was first dragged into this hellish pocket world.

Vora had targeted her back during the raid on the Village of Zephyrion. Out of everyone in the settlement, Liora possessed an exceptionally vast mana pool. Vora had struck while Liora was serving as part of an official diplomatic escort dispatched by Zephyrion to the Starlight Kingdom, tasked with negotiating a vital joint-defense and security treaty.

Mid-journey, tragedy struck. Vora ambushed the convoy, slaughtering Liora’s comrades without mercy. Liora had fought back fiercely, trading blows with the intruder, but Vora’s ability to manipulate and swarm her targets with high-tier monsters quickly tipped the scales. Overwhelmed and exhausted, Liora was captured—marking the beginning of her imprisonment within this artificial domain.

Following her abduction, Vora systematically kidnapped more citizens from Zephyrion, dragging them through spatial rifts and dumping them into this pocket world. She executed several captives with sadistic cruelty right before the eyes of the survivors—a calculated act of terror.

Liora had never understood Vora’s ultimate goal. Why target Zephyrion specifically? Why go out of her way to massacre some while intentionally leaving a small group of survivors alive?

Crushed by unbearable isolation during those early days, Liora had eventually approached the surviving refugees left behind by Vora. From that point forward, Liora stood alongside the survivors, using her raw magic to ward off the wild beasts and help them carve out a miserable living in a realm overrun by Aberrants.

Then came the turning point.

While gathering firewood along the dark perimeter of the woods, Liora overheard a quiet conversation between Vora and Velista hiding among the shadowed trees.

Eavesdropping from the thickets, Liora pieced together the horrifying truth: this entire dimension required a massive reservoir of continuous energy to maintain its structural integrity, and Vora had forcibly bound Liora’s boundless magic capacity to serve as its core power cell.

However, Velista had issued a crucial warning during that hushed exchange—if Liora took her own life, or if both Liora and Vora were killed, the dimensional anchor would shatter, collapsing the entire pocket realm into nothingness.

From that instant, Liora’s entire purpose crystallized into a single, absolute directive: destroy this cursed realm and free everyone trapped inside it.

"Hahaha! Liora! If you’re that eager to die, I’ll gladly entertain you!" Vora roared with unhinged excitement.

Liora stared back, her face completely expressionless.

Without uttering another word, Liora dropped into a low, agile stance, tightening her grip on the hilt of her red energy sword.

Beside Vora, dark purple mana began to pulse violently, swirling around the villain’s extended palm like a serpent.

"Kill her," Vora commanded, pointing her finger toward the silver-haired girl.

The humanoid monster unleashed a deafening roar that shook the very foundations of the hill. "ARGHHHH!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The giant brute charged forward at terrifying speed, its massive weight cracking the stone surface beneath its heavy strides.

Liora didn’t flinch. Her hollow eyes remained locked onto the approaching monster. She had already accepted her fate long ago. She could no longer bear to watch the innocent people of Zephyrion suffer within this prison—a twisted space that had stolen their freedom, their loved ones, and their future.

Liora sprinted directly toward the charging behemoth, her dark red dress fluttering wildly against the oncoming wind.

’I don’t care about the consequences anymore,’ she hissed beneath her breath as she closed the distance.

Liora knew that every wish demanded a price. Nothing in this world could ever be achieved without sacrificing something of equal value in return. To forge a single strand of hope, sometimes one had to walk through absolute despair. To save a life, sometimes one had to be willing to stake their own.

Liora had embraced that reality completely.

She didn’t fear death.

It wasn’t because she viewed her own life as cheap or meaningless, but because, for the first time in her existence, she felt her life could accomplish something far greater than merely surviving another day.

Before her lay a cursed dimension that had swallowed so many innocent lives—a place devoid of mercy, where every exit demanded a toll paid in blood.

And if that toll required her life...

Liora wouldn’t hesitate for a single second.

What was one life compared to so many innocent souls waiting to return home?

If her death was the exact price required to grant them another glimpse of the sky outside this realm, she refused to label it a tragedy.

She chose to call it an exchange.

One life for dozens.

One final sacrifice so everyone else could walk out alive.

Liora knew that no one back at the camp would ever truly forgive her for this. They would call her foolish. They would weep for her loss and beg her to value her own survival above all else.

But how could she choose to live while watching others perish simply because she was too terrified to sacrifice herself?

She had no desire to play the hero.

She didn’t care about being remembered or praised.

She simply wanted them to make it out alive.

If there was one lingering fear in her heart, it was the terrifying thought of being completely forgotten by the world... but perhaps, through this final act, a small piece of her memory would live on within the hearts of those she saved.

To her, living wasn’t defined by how long a person managed to endure.

Sometimes, living meant being willing to lay down everything so that the lives of others could continue forward.

Liora glared at the massive brute barreling toward her, her breath coming in fast, steady bursts.

If her life was the key needed to unlock the gates of this prison, she would hand it over without regret.

If her existence was the debt demanded by this cursed realm, she would pay it in full.

And if, in the end, there was no path left for her to return to the world above...

At least others would take that path in her place.

That was the sole thought that banished every trace of fear from her mind.

She didn’t need to walk out of this dimension alongside them. She only needed to ensure they made it back to the real world to live normal lives—even if she was destined to stay behind forever.