Aslan utilized the cloak while flying and partially grasped its power and essence.
There was no cost in using this cloak.
It didn’t even require the most common mana, nor did it necessitate divine power.
Perhaps due to the mythical skill of the dwarves who crafted it, Aslan could accelerate merely by draping the cloak and thinking.
To the extent that flight was possible in this abyss where there is neither up nor down.
So Aslan used the cloak’s power to fly toward the center of the abyss.
Of course, the abyss has no specific location.
But just as in the game, the abyss had a center.
The darkest point, the deepest place.
The farthest point from light.
If the traveling party were here, they would undoubtedly be there.
Aslan guessed that the abyss was plotting to wipe out the traveling party and flew straight toward the center of the abyss.
The method wasn’t difficult; all he had to do was head toward the darker areas.
However, the problem lay in the judgment itself.
That judgment was clearly speculative and a mistake.
But because of it, Aslan managed not to be late.
He arrived at the spot expecting to find the traveling party but instead found Lewena and a tyrant dragon.
The moment Aslan recognized Lewena, he understood the situation.
The environment surrounding the fallen woman was, to put it plainly, desolate.
A powerful tyrant dragon and yet vivid remnants despite the darkness. Traces of destruction.
The tyrant dragon was undoubtedly a formidable entity, but Lewena was no pushover either.
That’s why, despite the considerable time it took for Aslan to reach the scene, Lewena held her ground.
She could endure even that significant amount of time purely because she was strong.
Through her innate ability to control the abyss and her mastery of illusion magic.
The woman had survived.
Aslan realized all of this and ultimately understood that the tyrant dragon had been using its innate powers to break apart the abyss while barely managing to fight the woman.
Even so, it was nearing its end.
ROOOOOAAARRR!
The roar of the tyrant dragon. Without hesitation, Aslan flew forward.
The dragon lifted its massive forelimb, and Aslan intercepted its trajectory, scooping up the woman.
At that moment, Aslan felt a chill run down his spine. A sense of unease creeping along his back.
In response, Aslan twisted mid-air, altering his trajectory.
KWAAGGGHHH!
The resounding boom. The breath attack that narrowly missed tore through space, threatening Aslan and Lewena.
Yet the breath never touched Aslan.
His body had already moved away, and Aslan rolled on the ground with Lewena’s cold form in his arms.
The failed landing caused his legs to tingle painfully, his brow furrowed, but Aslan worried more about the woman in his arms than himself.
“Lewena!”
He called her name with a perplexed face, shaking her gently. No response.
“Lewena!”
Biting his lips, he shook her again, and slowly, the woman opened her eyes.
Her revealed pupil glowed violet.
She had only one eye.
“Hello, Hyunwoo.”
Aslan was startled upon seeing that eye.
Lewena’s physical form looked, at a glance, like something that had abandoned humanity altogether.
Rather, her body seemed closer to the abyss.
Aslan’s Dragon King armor was being continuously eroded by Lewena’s abyssal presence.
Ordinarily, it might have gone unnoticed, but Aslan didn’t let it slip.
Instead, he embraced her tightly.
Surprisingly, Lewena’s eyes widened in shock at the strong embrace.
Still, the fact that Lewena was an enemy remained unchanged.
Aslan also thought that perhaps one day he would have to kill Lewena.
If there were another chance to kill her, he would undoubtedly do so.
However, that didn’t mean Aslan’s emotions disappeared.
On the contrary, Aslan lost control over his emotions as his body returned.
Despite knowing it wasn’t a rational or wise decision, Aslan rescued Lewena and held her close.
Because it was what his heart told him to do.
Though prepared to kill her for the greater good, Aslan couldn’t suppress his affection.
Aslan feared losing Lewena.
And Lewena could feel that fear.
So, while still embraced, she hugged Aslan back, trying to recall sensations that were almost lost to her.
And despite feeling no warmth, she smiled faintly.
“It’s warm.”
A lie. Yet a lie tinged with a shred of truth. Aslan bit his lips and quietly held her close.
—BOOOOOM—
A distant sound, like the earth trembling, echoed.
The enveloping darkness violently shook, and Aslan instinctively realized it was the tyrant dragon searching for them.
Since fortune beyond human comprehension doesn’t lie, Aslan understood that time was running out.
Simultaneously, he realized Lewena’s time was also limited.
Her body, in reality, had already reached its limit.
She maintained her physical form only because they were in the abyss; otherwise, her body would have been incapable of returning to Geladridion.
Her flesh had become entirely abyssal, making it nearly impossible to sustain her self-awareness, yet Lewena remained Lewena.
Humanity was scarce within her.
One of her once-beautiful violet eyes was missing, replaced by half a face consumed by the abyss.
Below her neck, everything was the abyss.
Only one arm remained human, and it didn’t move.
Looking at Lewena like this, Aslan recalled the appearance of the tyrant dragon.
That tyrant dragon was a formidable adversary that Aslan could face under certain conditions.
With the increased strength in the abyss now, Aslan found it hard to gauge his chances of victory.
Even Aslan, whose advantage lay in opposing abyssal entities, struggled; Lewena’s endurance until this point was nothing short of miraculous.
Aslan thought this when he released the embrace and immediately realized how wrong he was.
This wasn’t a miracle—it was perseverance.
Lewena endured solely through sheer determination.
There was no need to ask what drove that determination or the thoughts behind her actions.
But there was a story that needed to be heard.
“Why?”
At Aslan’s question, the woman raised her head and smiled faintly.
“Why are you crying?”
A question answered with another. Unable to read his own expression, Aslan remained silent.
Prompted by that silence, the woman extended her hand and caressed Aslan’s cheek. She spoke.
“I already told you why.”
“Why go this far?”
When Aslan questioned further, the woman smiled softly.
“You… were part of the abyss. You could have been with the abyss. But why…”
Her laughter trailed off. Smiling, she continued.
“Did you think that of me?”
Aslan couldn’t answer.
But that silence wasn’t an affirmation.
It was merely words spoken without conviction, something he never truly believed in his heart.
Lewena knew this well, and thus she smiled and said,
“Because I thought of you.”
Aslan looked up.
“Because I only thought of you. That’s why I did it.”
Aslan recalled a past conversation, and Lewena stretched her abyss-tainted hand to cup Aslan’s cheek.
“I regret not being able to give you more.”
The abyssal hand, strangely, didn’t consume Aslan.
“I tried doing it alone, but it didn’t work.”
The hand merely slid softly along Aslan’s skin.
Aslan couldn’t even suggest they could have done it together.
For he too had been this obstinate.
They say lovers grow alike.
Aslan cursed that fact.
“The abyss is weak right now.”
Aslan, in pain, and Lewena, expressionless, engaged in a one-sided dialogue.
Primarily, Aslan listened while Lewena spoke.
“The divinity of the Formless One is being melted away. Outside, the fortress is being attacked, and inside, Hyunwoo’s friends are being worn down, leaving the abyss greatly weakened.”
Her hand withdrew. Aslan grabbed it.
“I added a little more to that.”
“What are you saying?”
“The abyss can be killed.”
Startled by the sudden statement, Aslan stiffened as the woman continued.
“And the abyss can only be killed by the abyss.”
Before Aslan could fully grasp the meaning of her words, Lewena smiled bitterly.
“But… I’m the only foolish abyss willing to side with Hyunwoo.”
Interlocked hands. An abyss-cold hand. Yet Aslan found warmth within it.
Aslan grimaced in anguish. Lewena savored that expression.
“But this is where I stop.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Didn’t you ask me to speak when I was about to do something truly terrible?”
A conversation exchanged only in dreams. Before Aslan could react, Lewena concluded.
“I’m about to say something truly terrible.”
Unwilling to listen, Lewena gave him no reprieve.
“Kill me.”
Aslan gripped their interlocked hands.
“And fight holding me.”
Confused and unwilling to hear, he resisted.
“Destroy the abyss.”
But Aslan had no way to resist.
Shocked and unable to comprehend, Aslan somehow found himself gripping a blade.
An illusionary magic, perhaps. That must be it.
Seeing the blade in Lewena’s hand and the sword already in his own, Aslan grimaced.
But the blade wouldn’t stop.
The illusionary magic mocked Aslan’s flesh, facilitating the blade slipping into the body of the woman he loved.
There was no sensation despite the deep stab.
As the blade entered her body, Lewena’s face drew nearer.
When their slightly parted lips met, Aslan’s lips brushed against hers—lifeless and unmoving.
The soft lips caressed Aslan’s several times, and though he wanted to respond, he mingled in agony.
It was akin to a dance accompanied by pain.
Through this kiss, Aslan finally understood.
To destroy the abyss, one needs the abyss.
Put differently, the abyss cannot truly die.
Thus, to make the abyss appear dead, one must erode it with another abyss, eliminating the original.
A method impossible for the dying Lewena.
So Lewena transferred her power from her vessel to another capable container.
Transferring her innate abyss, the abyss forming her soul, into the empty divine artifact, the Sword of Sealing.
When the kiss ended, Aslan heard a whisper while still embracing her.
“Eat well, sleep early. And…”
What followed was a curse.
A curse Aslan would never forget.
“I’ll love you forever.”
A promise that truly spanned eternity. In Aslan’s memory, Lewena would eternally love Aslan.
When the illusion dissipated, Lewena’s body was gone.
Only the sword stained black remained.
Aslan, feeling the warmth of tears on his chilled face, clenched the sword containing the abyss.
With a pained expression, he stood up.
BOOM! BOOOOOM!
The earth trembled, the heavens quaked. The darkened skies roared violently.
Space began to shatter.
CRACKKK! SHATTER!
Flying fragments of the darkened space, resembling shards of glass, hardened black voids.
Beyond the cascading currents of death reaching the ground, countless figures emerged.
There was the god of emptiness and chaos.
Below were priests in the forms of possessors who had pursued Aslan.
Aslan, upon seeing them, let his twin swords hang loosely at his sides.
The blazing pure white sword, Purity.
And the newly darkened Sword of Sealing.
Aslan steadied himself, thinking of Lewena with a painful expression.
Today, here, a woman who would receive no sympathy died.
She had killed and harmed many, an unrepentant villain devoid of compassion.
Yet Aslan pitied her.
He pitied her for what she was born with and her inability to overcome it, cursed the fate that bound her, and mourned the outcome she eventually faced.
No one else would mourn her, so Aslan mourned and struggled in his pain.
In that pain, Aslan realized she was truly gone.
Knowing that with memories, she would gradually fade, her face blurring with time.
Thus, he wished.
For her final wish.
“Today, here, the abyss dies.”
ROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!
The tyrant dragon bellowed mockingly at Aslan’s declaration, as the possessed ones charged forward. The black tide surged, covering the heavens and earth.
Facing them, Aslan raised the sword imbued with Lewena.
The abyss flowing through the sword recoiled.
CRACK!
The surrounding, lifeless black space split open, swirling like a vortex.
THUNDEROUS CRACK!
Amidst the distorted black void, Aslan’s teal-green eyes shimmered with tears.
