Chapter 83: What should I do...?
It started with her scales returning to their original color. Her pupils showed pure exhaustion, tears soaking her face.
The rain still fell without pause, streaming down her hair and her white scales before dripping onto the rubble-strewn street below.
Eiros could hear Renessa’s breathing steady, though it caught occasionally, as if she were struggling to hold herself together in this new, unfamiliar state.
Renessa regained the awareness that had drowned in darkness moments before. The first thing she felt was her own body, soaked to the bone from the rain, then the sight of the city stretching out before her, dark and littered with the wreckage of a chaotic battle.
Several buildings along the street had collapsed. Thin trails of smoke drifted out from beneath the rubble, while the light from a few surviving lighting artifacts flickered weakly through the rain. From the distance, the sound of clashing and monster roars still occasionally echoed through.
Her mind came rushing back, remembering everything she’d done. Those moments when she’d felt utterly shattered, discovering just how many hosts of the Corruption Seed had been hiding, well-concealed, all across Clathria.
That was clearly the work of low-ranking Black Genesis members. If that were true, she started to wonder—were other cities suffering the same fate?
Was the human world also destined to fall into the same chaos that had consumed her own world?
Overrun by ’them,’ nearly impossible to kill.
She choked on her own breath, feeling a hand holding her entire body steady. Unlike her own body, which had gone somewhat cold, that hand embraced her with warmth.
In the middle of that cold night air and the rain soaking them both, that warmth became something Renessa found remarkably easy to feel.
Renessa arrived at the biggest problem she carried. She never once regretted killing the hosts of the Corruption Seed, because to her, it was something that had to be done before it was too late.
All of it, for the sake of this world’s own good.
But now, the problem was...
She glanced behind her, finding Eiros looking utterly wrecked. His face was deathly pale, his severed arm still oozing blood nonstop, his body just as ravaged. He looked as though he’d been bathed entirely in blood.
His messy black hair clung to his face and neck. Blood flowing from his wounds mixed with the rainwater, then dripped into a small pool forming beneath them.
And then, finally, there was that dark, swirling thing inside Eiros’s body. It had grown even further, edging closer to sprouting, and all of it had happened because of Renessa’s mistake.
Eiros let out a relieved sigh, his body relaxing as he found Renessa looking at him with full awareness in her eyes.
He felt relief that the girl had finally come back to herself. But the matter wasn’t over yet, watching Renessa stare at him, her expression brimming with guilt.
Her tears kept spilling nonstop as she cried in silence. Sure, it might’ve been hard to tell with the rain, but her visibly damp eyes made it all clear enough.
"Haah..." Eiros drew a breath, giving a small smile as his body seemed to deflate, and looked at Renessa. "My whole body hurts..."
That caught Renessa off guard—she froze for a moment, then bit down on her lip and quickly pulled away from Eiros.
"Sorry," she said. That was genuinely a rare moment, watching Renessa speak with such a gloomy expression, nothing like her usual mischievous look.
The air around them turned genuinely awkward after that. Because neither Eiros nor Renessa knew what to say. Eiros might’ve been quiet because he was simply too exhausted, but Renessa stayed silent under the sheer weight of her guilt.
Only the sound of the rain filled the silence between them. Every so often, a flash of light from the west lit up the walls of the ruined buildings for a few brief seconds.
Only after a fair amount of thought did she finally seem to steel herself, looking at Eiros and parting her lips:
"What should I do...?"
"....?" Renessa’s sudden question caught Eiros off guard. He found her looking at him, her expression genuinely complicated.
"What should I do to make up for what I did? Hey, darling— no, I mean, Eiros, what should I do?"
Eiros’s expression looked awkward for a moment. He was genuinely stunned watching Renessa, now so overwhelmed with emotion, his own face making it obvious just how confused he was.
Especially since this was the first time Renessa had ever called him by the name "Eiros," instead of one of her usual pet names.
Well, honestly, Eiros himself had no idea what to say right now. Once again, just like that incident with the Saintess, Eiros found himself needing to come up with something comforting to say to a girl who was far too emotional and sensitive right now.
Watching Renessa clutch her own dress tightly made Eiros realize he probably hadn’t fully seen Renessa’s true face until now. So, this was something new.
He blinked, forced a smile, and scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Hmm... let’s see," Eiros and Renessa’s eyes met. "How about you help me out?"
Renessa tilted her head. "Help with what?"
"Anything, really. I’d be happy with whatever."
Renessa fell silent after that, apparently sinking into her own thoughts.
There were still children and residents trapped among the ruined buildings. In her current condition, forcing herself to follow Eiros would only make her a burden. At the very least, she could still use what strength she had left to carry them somewhere safer.
Meanwhile, Eiros just stared at the transparent blue screen appearing in front of him.
The blue light from that screen reflected faintly off his pale face and the wet surface of the street.
The emergency Renessa had caused was finally resolved. As for the reward, well, it wasn’t bad at all.
He drew another breath, trying to force himself up. His movement made Renessa look at him, alarmed by his sudden motion given his terrible condition.
Eiros steadied himself using his remaining hand. His legs wobbled slightly as he stood, but he still managed to keep his balance.
Then, Eiros’s gaze drifted west. A small sigh crossed his face as he spotted cracks spreading across a pale green barrier out there.
The barrier stretched high above the Western Fortress, but the light making it up had grown far dimmer than before. Every impact from outside sent new cracks spreading across its surface.
’And here I thought the reward I’d get from finishing Erness’s mission would be something I’d need to use in the future.’
He let out a hollow laugh, watching that barrier shatter, the sound of cracking glass echoing across the entire city.
Fragments of pale green light scattered across the sky like broken glass, then faded one by one before they could even touch the ground. Moments after, the roaring from the direction of the fortress grew even clearer.
Renessa also fell quiet hearing that, standing up alongside Eiros and looking toward the west.
"Should we get out of here?" Renessa then whispered into Eiros’s ear.
Yeah, considering their condition, that was probably the sensible choice. Eiros was already utterly exhausted, both mentally and physically, his Soul Essence drained too.
As for Renessa, her Soul Essence was clearly in a far worse state than Eiros’s. So, when Renessa suggested fleeing, Eiros just put on a resigned smile.
"I’m heading west."
That choice sounded strange to Renessa. "Are you even still able to fight? Darling, are you pushing yourself?"
For now, Eiros could sense that Renessa was slowly starting to stabilize again. She was beginning to act more like the "Erness" he knew.
But this time, her voice sounded a little different, laced with genuine, sincere worry. Well, people really could change, huh?
So, Eiros just nodded.
"I’m still fine, I’ve still got plenty of Soul Essence left."
A blatant lie.
His Soul Essence was barely there at all, but that hardly mattered. Renessa watched him in silence for a moment, then let out a sigh, pouting.
"I won’t force you... In that case, I’ll wait here."
"That’s better," Eiros nodded, a little surprised watching Renessa, usually so stubborn, act so much gentler now.
Renessa didn’t actually intend to just stand there and wait. She’d help the people who hadn’t managed to save themselves yet, carrying them away from the districts still crawling with monsters. That was the most useful thing she could do without slowing Eiros down.
At the very least, she needed to do that much, to take responsibility for what she’d done.
After a bit of light conversation, and Renessa nagging him not to push himself too hard, Eiros was finally left alone there.
Renessa’s body vanished into the rain and the ruined buildings, moving toward the area where cries and calls for help could still be heard.
Eiros roughly rubbed his face, then, exhausted, glanced over at his system.
The reward he’d gotten from Renessa’s mission was 12 Soul Stones and one Soul Essence recovery pill.
Well, that was genuinely useful. Eiros figured his system had been generous enough to hand him that pill, so it could serve as his trump card down the road.
But it seemed like its actual purpose was to squeeze even more work out of Eiros. It made him think that in this webtoon world, he might’ve been created as some kind of anomaly, meant to resolve things that had no protagonist to handle them.
[WORLD MISSION]
Objective: After capturing the Black Genesis operatives, defend the Western Fortress of Clathria.
Failure Condition: Corruption Seed Sprouts.
The final line stood out far more sharply than the rest of the text.
Even the failure condition looked more terrifying than before. That made Eiros quietly start developing a certain resentment toward whatever was behind this system.
But he didn’t dwell on it for now. He raised his heavy sword, summoning it out of thin air, then lifted it.
Red lightning crackled briefly along its blade, lighting up the empty street and the wreckage scattered around him.
The sword shot forward, driving into his stomach. A sharp pain blurred Eiros’s vision, but he didn’t so much as cry out. His gaze stayed calm as he pulled the blade back out, revealing a gaping wound, fresh red blood seeping out nonstop.
The sword hit the street with a heavy, metallic clang. Eiros’s knees buckled, while fresh blood quickly mixed with the pooling rainwater beneath his feet.
It would’ve been a problem if Eiros had to die slowly, drawn out over time. But luckily, thanks to his severed arm and the other wounds covering his body, he’d already lost a tremendous amount of blood.
His body had already been standing right at its final threshold, even before that new wound. The stab wound only sped up something that wouldn’t have taken much longer anyway.
[Host Has Died]
The system appeared before him, right as his vision went dark. His body collapsed, lifeless.
The rain kept falling on the now-empty street, while the sounds of battle from the Western Fortress still echoed in the distance.
***