Chapter 38: Last Goodbye

She straightened up slowly, her dark eyes burning with raw, venomous hatred as she glanced one last time at the sunlit plateau.

"Enjoy your little victory..." she rasped softly, her voice dripping with malice. "The real nightmare hasn’t even begun."

(Ren’s POV)

Ren opened his eyes to a boundless expanse of absolute white.

There was no concrete floor beneath his feet, no stone walls confining him, nor any horizon to mark where the ground ended and the sky began. Everything around him was a void—sterile, silent, and stark.

He looked left and right, his head swiveling as he tried to orient himself.

"Where... where am I?"

He paced three steps forward, only to find the scenery unchanged. There were no doors, no landmarks, and no way out. Just endless, blinding white.

"Did I die...?" he muttered, the tension draining from his shoulders.

Ren let out a long, heavy breath. His legs gave out, and he slid down onto the invisible floor, sitting cross-legged within the vast nothingness.

He stared up at the blank ceiling of the void. "I wonder how the rest of them are doing..."

His thoughts drifted back to the last coherent memory he possessed.

Vorzakh.

The primeval abomination’s final form.

He remembered the battered survivors falling one by one, using their own broken bodies to form a living shield over Liora’s motionless form. He remembered the terrified young men and women, weeping as they clung to her shoulders.

And then... Vorzakh had raised that massive, violet energy scythe.

Ren had no idea what happened after that moment. His memory shattered into fragments of blinding light and excruciating pain before his consciousness cut out entirely.

"Ah..." Ren lowered his head, resting his chin against his chest. "So I failed after all..."

A faint, self-deprecating smirk touched his lips.

"And here I was, trying so hard just to stay alive."

He clenched his right fist tightly against his knee.

"Man... I really didn’t expect it to end like this."

For a long while, Ren remained still, listening to the absolute silence of the white space. Yet deep down, buried beneath the sting of defeat, a faint spark of solace remained.

If this truly was the end... at least he hadn’t died a dog’s death.

He hadn’t begged for mercy. He hadn’t cowered in a ditch, nor had he waited passively for the executioner’s blow. He had dragged his broken body forward and fought until his absolute physical limit.

At the very least, his pride as a man remained unblemished.

Ren sighed, running a hand through his dark hair.

He had mapped out so many grand plans in his head. He was going to leverage the system, build his own domain in this strange fantasy world, master his growing abilities, and conquer every impossible hurdle laid out before him.

Yet the curtain had fallen long before the Nyx Seal could even complete its reset.

The irony left a bitter taste in his mouth.

’Where did it all go wrong?’ Ren closed his eyes, his brow furrowing as he traced his steps backward.

Was it the moment he accepted the quest to rescue Princess Evelyn? Was it when he dismantled the junkyard scrap, hoarding thousands of system points that he ultimately never got to spend?

Or... was it the moment he reached out and touched that deep-purple crystal inside the underground pyramid?

Frustration flared in his chest, and he violently tugged at his hair. "Dammit!"

He buried his face in his hands.

If he had just turned down the quest... If he had walked away from the crystal... He would never have been dragged into this nightmare of a world. His life would have remained quiet, mundane, and safe.

But regrets were useless coins. They bought nothing in the present.

Ren lowered his hands and stared blankly into the white void once more.

"Well..." he murmured quietly. "It is what it is."

He leaned back, preparing to close his eyes and let the silence swallow him whole, when a soft voice drifted from behind his shoulder.

"Ren..."

Ren froze.

The voice was faint, almost like a whisper carried over water, yet its cadence was unmistakable.

Slowly, his neck turned. His breath hitched as his eyes widened.

Standing ten paces behind him was a young woman draped in a flowing red off-shoulder gown. Her silver hair cascaded over her shoulders like liquid moonbeams, framing a pair of soft, emerald eyes that looked down at him with a gentle, genuine smile.

"Liora...?"

Ren scrambled up from the invisible ground, his heart pounding against his ribs.

"Liora... is that really you?"

He stared at her, half-expecting the image to dissolve like smoke.

Liora’s smile broadened slightly. "Thank you."

A sudden tightness clamped around Ren’s chest. "Liora... did you die too?"

She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she took a slow, delicate step forward, her red hem sweeping over the white floor.

"Thank you, Ren," she repeated, her voice carrying a fragile tremble. "For saving all of them."

Ren remained rooted to the spot, his throat dry.

When she halted two paces away, her bright emerald eyes glinted with unshed tears.

"Liora..." Ren watched a stray tear slip down her cheek. "Why are you crying?"

She shook her head softly, brushing the tear away with the back of her wrist. "I’m not sad... I’m just happy."

Ren held his breath, listening intently to every word she uttered.

"Because it’s finally over," Liora continued, drawing a deep breath. "They’re all safe, Ren. The dimensional barrier... it finally collapsed."

Ren blinked, confusion washing over his face. "Safe...? How?"

He knew what lived inside him. The moment he lost consciousness, Nyx had taken control—and an ancient deity of dark destruction was the last entity on earth to act out of mortal charity. How could anyone have survived that battlefield? The question gnawed at his mind.

Liora offered a small nod. "Yes. They’re all free."

"If they’re free..." Ren asked, his voice low, "then why the tears?"

Liora paused, letting out a soft, breathy laugh through her wet lashes. "Because I’m happy, you idiot."

Ren stared at her, dumbfounded. He could tell her smile was genuine, yet it carried an underlying sorrow that made his pulse race.

"I’ve waited for this day for so long," Liora murmured, her green eyes fixing on his. "For weeks, all I could do was watch them live in terror. Locked inside that artificial nightmare, hunted by monsters, forced to endure a life none of them chose."

She pulled her hands to her chest, her fingers curling into small fists. "And now... the nightmare is broken."

Her smile softened. "So if giving up my life was the price to buy their freedom..." She tilted her head slightly. "...it was worth every second."

"Don’t talk like that," Ren snapped, his jaw tightening. "Don’t sell your life short! Your sacrifice isn’t something to gloss over—you’re the reason any of them are breathing!"

Liora looked at him with profound gentleness. "Ren... I..."

Ren stopped, the rest of his words catching in his throat.

"Thank you for giving them a chance to see tomorrow," Liora whispered. Her smile faltered, turning small and solemn. "And... thank you for letting me watch them step out into the light before I had to go."

"Go...?" Ren’s chest tightened further. "What do you mean ’go’?"

Liora offered no verbal answer.

A faint, pearlescent glow began to radiate from the hem of her red dress, creeping slowly up her arms.

Ren’s eyes widened. "Liora?!"

The light intensified, blurring her outline.

Liora looked down at her glowing hands, her expression serene. "It looks like my time is up."

"Wait—what are you talking about?!" Ren stepped forward. "Liora!"

"I didn’t come here to ask for help, Ren," she said softly, tears streaming freely down her cheeks even as her smile remained intact. "I came to say goodbye."

Ren stopped dead in his tracks.

"Goodbye...?"

The realization hit him like a physical blow. Liora wasn’t just a survivor—she was the core battery of Vora’s sub-space. If the dimension collapsed, her soul anchor collapsed with it. She was fading out of existence entirely.

A sharp, agonizing ache twisted deep within his gut.

Liora held his gaze, her green eyes imprinting onto his memory. "Thank you. I’m truly grateful I got to meet all of you... Reika, Miku, Ryu, Evelyn... and you."

Ren bit the inside of his lip so hard he tasted copper.

Liora tilted her head back, looking up at the endless white expanse above. "If I’m being honest..." Her voice broke, turning raspy and thin. "...I really wanted to live."

Ren froze.

"I wanted to live so much longer," she wept, the tears spilling over her cheeks in constant streams. "I wanted to watch them grow up. I wanted to hear them laugh without fear hanging over their heads. I wanted to walk beside them... to see the real world I’ve only ever imagined in my head."

She lowered her head, her shoulders trembling violently as her composure cracked completely. "I wanted to be free..."

Ren couldn’t muster a single word.

"I wanted to become a great mage," Liora sobbed, her small fists pressed tightly against her chest. "I wanted to study magic until I possessed real strength... I wanted to be a hero who could protect people. I wanted... I wanted to see a world where humanity didn’t have to run from monsters anymore..."

Ren stared at her, his eyes burning red as the light swirled around her frame.

Her brave facade fell away entirely, leaving only a terrified girl facing the dark. "I don’t want to die, Ren..."

She pulled her hands up to cover her mouth, trying to choke back her violent sobs. "I don’t want to die..."

"I’m scared," she whimpered, her voice shattering into pieces. "I just wanted to live... I wanted to have a tomorrow..."

She looked up at him through her tears. "I wanted to be with everyone..."

Ren clenched his fists so hard his nails cut deep into his palms, drawing thin lines of red that dripped onto the white void.

Before he could take another step, Liora’s physical shape began to fragment.

Brilliant white light bled through her chest and arms. Her fingers dissolved first, turning into glowing, ethereal motes that drifted upward into the silence.

"Liora!" Ren lunged forward, reaching out with his right arm.

Liora smiled through the light, her emerald eyes shining with absolute clarity. "Ren..."

Her torso turned into a cascade of sparkling particles.

"Thank you... for everything."

Ren stretched his arm to its absolute limit, his fingers straining to catch her hand. "Liora—!"

She watched his hand reaching for hers, her expression softening into one final, peaceful look.

"Goodbye, Ren."

Her neck and chin dissolved into glowing dust, her voice fading into a distant whisper. "And... don’t you dare give up on living."

A blinding flare of white swallowed his entire field of vision.

"I will always..." Her faint smile was the last thing visible through the light. "...remember all of you."

FWOOSH—!

Liora’s form shattered completely into a fountain of radiant light. The white motes danced gently in the air before him, lingering for a fraction of a second before vanishing one by one into the empty space.

Ren stood frozen in the middle of the void.

His right hand remained extended into the empty air. But there was nothing left to grasp.

"Liora..."

Silence answered him.

Ren slowly lowered his arm, his chin dropping to his chest. "Liora..."

"Rest in peace, Liora..."

He let out a raspy, broken breath. "...dammit."

A heavy, suffocating pain pressed down on his soul—far worse than any physical beatdown he had taken from Vorzakh. Though they had only met within Vora’s twisted dimension, her final words and ultimate sacrifice carved a permanent scar into his chest.

’If Liora dissolved... then what the hell is happening to me?’

Without warning, the surrounding white void exploded in a flash of harsh, piercing brilliance.

Ren instinctively threw his arm over his face, squinting tightly against the intense glare that consumed his sight.

"Gah...!"

Ren snapped awake, his chest heaving as he gasped for air.

He pulled back his arm, only to hear the heavy, metallic clatter of iron.

CLANK!

Ren blinked, his pupils contracting as his vision cleared. Thick cold-iron shackles were bound tightly around his wrists, pinned to a damp stone wall behind him. Heavy iron chains wrapped around his ankles, locking his legs to the floor.

Through the shadow of his messy black hair, he looked forward.

Directly in front of him stood a row of thick, solid-iron prison bars.

He was alive. And he was sitting inside a cell.