Chapter 31: The Last Request

The sheer aura emanating from Vorzakh’s true form demanded absolute submission. It wasn’t just an opponent—it was a literal grim reaper, waiting to claim every single soul left standing on the hill.

Paralyzing fear gripped Ren’s muscles. His body locked up entirely, his breathing turning ragged as his heart slammed against his ribs.

[HOST’S FEAR HAS REACHED AN EXTREME LEVEL!]

[WARNING! WARNING!]

[EXTREME TERROR DETECTED: UNSTABLE NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL MATRIX FEEDING NYX SEAL.]

[NYX SEAL INTEGRATION RISING...]

[87%... 88%... 89%... 90%... 91%... 92%... 93%!]

Ren’s eyes dilated in raw panic as the system interface flashed blood-red before his eyes, the percentage climbing rapidly.

’What the hell is this?!’ Ren roared internally, cursing the interface with every fiber of his being. ’Why is the seal surging just because I’m terrified?! Are you screwing with me, System?!’

[EXPLANATION: THE NYX SEAL HARVESTS EXTREME NEGATIVE EMOTIONS—PARTICULARLY MORTAL TERROR—AS DENSE EMPOWERMENT. THE UNSTABLE EMOTIONAL DISRUPTION CORRUPTS THE HOST’S CORE.]

’Damned worthless System! Why didn’t you warn me earlier?!’

Even if the warning had come sooner, suppressing raw primal fear was impossible. Looking directly at a 6.5-meter executioner of absolute death was an instinctual reaction no mortal mind could simply turn off.

"Damn it...!" Ren hissed through gritted teeth. A sharp electrical shock shot through his brain, making his vision flicker black at the edges.

Across the clearing, Vora stood with her chin held high, her purple eyes glowing with sadistic finality. She pointed a slender, dark-gloved finger at the defenseless refugees.

"Your nightmare begins now," Vora commanded, her voice dropping to an icy whisper. "Vorzakh... butcher them all. Leave nothing behind."

BOOOOOOM!

Vorzakh moved. The 6.5-meter colossus sprinted with terrifying velocity, its gargantuan hooves shattering the bedrock and driving seismic waves through the soil. Dust and pulverized stone blasted upward in its wake. The three glowing crimson eyes locked entirely onto the huddled group of survivors surrounding Liora’s motionless body.

Ren’s eyes tracked the blurring motion of the titan.

’It’s ignoring us... it’s going straight for the helpless ones!’

Ren’s mind completely short-circuited. Paralyzed by the sudden shift in target, he froze, his arms stiff at his sides as the monster closed a twenty-meter gap in the space of a single breath.

Vorzakh raised its colossal purple scythe high into the air. The black-and-violet aura wrapping around the razor-sharp edge hummed like a buzzsaw, descending in a brutal arc meant to cleave the entire mob in half.

CLANG—ZZZZT!

A brilliant, crimson magical dome erupted out of nowhere, enveloping the refugees just half a second before impact.

Vorzakh’s colossal scythe slammed full-force into the translucent barrier. A deafening shockwave erupted, sending a blast of compressed air sweeping across the hill. Spiderweb cracks instantly expanded across the crimson glass at the point of contact, buzzing with violent kinetic feedback.

Ren stared at the fractures, his breath hitching.

’Liora...?’

The barrier’s origin was undeniable. Even while crushed on the brink of death, her body drained of vitality, Liora had mobilized the absolute last drop of her soul energy to shield the refugees.

Ren’s gaze drifted slowly from the looming titan, moving past the splintering red dome, and landing on the pale girl at the center of the crowd.

Liora lay crumpled on the hard dirt. Her skin was ghastly pale, her lips completely drained of color, and her Red dress was soaked in dark blood. Her breathing was so faint that her chest barely rose. Yet, her right arm remained trembling in the air, her pale fingers rigid. From her trembling palm, a thin, faint stream of crimson light flowed continuously into the dome above.

Ren stood motionless.

"...Liora."

She was still fighting for them.

Even now, stranded at the absolute edge of death, when every instinct should have demanded she cling to her remaining life force, she channeled her last breath to shield people who couldn’t protect themselves.

A strange, unfamiliar pressure built inside Ren’s chest. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t anger.

His eyes stung slightly as a lump formed in his throat.

During his previous life on Earth as Elian, human interaction had always been remarkably straightforward. People needed something, and people gave something in return. Relationships were built on utility and necessity. Someone needed a job; someone needed money. Someone needed expertise; someone needed manual labor.

Even as an architect, Elian had operated strictly within that logic. He designed structures, but he needed construction crews to build them. The workers needed the project to secure wages. Both sides profited. It was a clean, rational symbiotic arrangement. Elian had never considered it cold or cynical—it was simply how the world functioned. People helped others when there was a reason, a benefit, or an expectation of mutual survival.

He knew altruism existed, of course. He had read about individuals risking everything for strangers. But throughout his entire life on Earth, Elian had never witnessed it firsthand. Or perhaps... he had simply overlooked it, viewing humanity through a purely pragmatic lens. People survived. People sought advantage. People guarded their self-interest.

Yet right here, right now...

A dying woman who couldn’t even stand was dismantling every rational law Elian had ever lived by. There was no reward waiting for her. No profit. No guarantee that the people she saved would remember her name tomorrow. She might breathe her last before a single word of gratitude could be uttered.

Yet she kept her hand raised.

Ren stared at her trembling fingers.

"...Why?"

The word slipped past his lips before he could stop it.

On Earth, Elian understood humanity as a network of mutual dependencies. But Liora was demonstrating something beyond logic—a deliberate choice to shield what she deemed precious, even when it cost her everything and offered nothing in return.

Perhaps people weren’t just nodes in a functional system. They possessed choices. The choice to be selfish. The choice to abandon others. And the choice to stand firm when logic demanded retreat.

Ren clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

The red light emitted from Liora’s palm flickered weakly. The crimson dome groaned under the titan’s weight, yet it held.

"Liora, stop! Please, just let us die with you!" several refugees screamed, their eyes streaming with tears as they begged her to drop the spell. "Don’t torture yourself anymore!"

Liora didn’t answer. Her eyes remained closed.

"Please... save them..."

A soft, clear voice echoed directly inside Ren’s head.

Ren snapped his eyes open. ’Liora’s voice?!’

It was impossible. Liora was thirty yards away, surrounded by weeping villagers, her lips completely still.

Ren whirled around instinctively.

Standing right behind him was a translucent, glowing phantom—Liora’s spirit form, radiating a soft, azure light.

Ren’s chest tightened, his eyes widening. "Liora...? How...?"

He glanced frantically between her physical body on the ground and the luminous entity standing before him. It was her soul projection, tethered by a thread of pure light.

The world around them suddenly ground to a complete halt.

The howling wind died down. The frantic screams of the refugees froze in mid-air. Vorzakh, mid-strike with its giant scythe, was locked in place like a massive statue. Ryu, halfway through a sprint with his drawn longsword, remained suspended in motion. Even Vora’s cruel smile was frozen in time.

Time itself had stopped.

The spectral Liora stepped closer, a gentle, sorrowful smile touching her lips. She reached out, her hand resting over Ren’s. The contact felt feather-light and icy cold.

"Ren... please," she whispered, her voice trembling with quiet hope. "Save them."

It was a smile he had never seen on her face before—pure, selfless, and entirely devoid of malice.

"I believe in you," she added softly. "You can pull them through this."

Ren swallowed hard, his voice caught in his throat. ’Why me...? I’m just a coward hiding behind a system, terrified of the dark god’s seal consuming my mind... Why are you placing your last hope on a porter?’

"I’ve known from the start that there was something extraordinary inside you," Liora continued, looking deeply into his eyes. "I can see the spiritual resonance of people... and the energy coiled within you is immense. You have the potential to turn this around."

She squeezed his hand tighter. "At first, I wondered if Vora dragged you here because of that energy. But regardless of the reason... your power is real. Please... bring them back to the real world. Get everyone out of this nightmare realm!"

She pressed her forehead against their joined hands, her ethereal form shaking as tears spilled from her eyes.

Ren’s chest ached violently. He knew the "immense energy" she sensed was merely the corrupting footprint of the Nyx Seal—the dark god’s power creeping through his core. She had mistaken a cursed seal for righteous potential.

His seal sat at a precarious 93%. Utilizing high-tier system functions now meant flirting directly with total overwrite. Yet looking down at her weeping spirit, turning her down felt like an unbearable weight on his soul.

"Liora... let me ask you one thing," Ren said quietly, his voice raspy.

Liora lifted her head, her tear-stained face looking up at him.

"Why do you care so much about them?" Ren asked, holding back the knot in his throat. "You’re sacrificing your very soul for strangers. What makes them so precious to you? You were all just random victims trapped in this dimension..."

Liora’s eyes quivered. A soft, painful sob escaped her lips as she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Ren’s shoulders in a tight embrace.

Ren stiffened slightly, completely unaccustomed to the warmth of the phantom contact.

"Because... I can’t bear to see them suffer anymore because of me," Liora wept softly against his neck, her voice breaking into small gasps. "Even trapped in this hell, I saw their hope. I saw their dreams, their wish to go home... I just wanted to be useful. I wanted to help them hold onto those dreams."

She buried her face deeper into his shoulder. "I lost my own hope the moment Vora turned me into the battery for this realm..."

Ren lowered his arms, awkwardly patting her spectral back.

"I don’t have a future anymore," she sobbed. "I have no dreams left to chase... That’s why I want them to live. I want them to step back into the sun and fulfill the lives that were stolen from them. I can’t stand watching them die in this dark place... knowing this dimension only exists because my mana is feeding it!"

Ren stood frozen, her words ringing clear in his heart.

Liora pulled back slowly, her azure form beginning to fray at the edges. Particles of light drifted off her shoulders, dissolving into the frozen air. Tears continued to flow down her cheeks as she looked at him with desperation.

"Please... don’t let my sacrifice be for nothing."

Ren’s eyes felt hollow, holding back the moisture threatening to spill over.

"I only have one final wish as a human being," Liora whispered, her voice fading to a delicate breeze. "I just want to see them walk out of here... and smile again."

Her form began to break down rapidly, disintegrating into a shower of bright blue motes.

Before fading entirely, her final words echoed in the silence: "Ren... help me shatter this dimension... I really wanted to live... to walk under a real sky as a free human being..."

The azure light shattered, dispersing into nothingness.

Ren closed his eyes tight. A single tear escaped, tracing a path down his dust-covered cheek.

SNAP!

Time resumed instantly.

The shrieks of the refugees burst back into the air. The violent metallic screech of Vorzakh’s scythe grinding against the cracking crimson dome resumed with deafening force. Ryu charged forward with a roar, his blade blazing with desperate purple energy.

Ren opened his eyes. The hesitation was gone. His pupils were dark, cold, and focused.

’Max out the system protocol?’ The thought crossed his mind, no longer carrying the sting of dread.

If he stood by and did nothing, their survival rate was absolute zero. The refugees would be slaughtered, Liora’s sacrifice would be erased, and he would eventually be hunted down by the titan anyway.

If taking a catastrophic gamble on the dark god’s seal gave them even a 0.1% chance of shattering this nightmare... he would take the drop.

Ren raised his left hand, his inner voice cutting through the chaos with absolute, unyielding clarity.

"System... release all safety limits."