Chapter 41. The Narrative Has Ended
The alleyways that had always been filled with darkness slowly faded away as dawn began to brighten the world. The underground and the surface switched places, causing the shelter that had been inside the sewer to rise above ground. The people inside the shelter stared around in confusion at the sudden change.
“Hmph, what the hell is happening all of a sudden?!”
Tequila, who had been butchering rats, hurried outside with his Chinese cleaver in one hand and a large bundle of fluff in the other.
“Is everyone okay?”
Tequila first checked whether the others were safe.
“Ugh, what in the world is going on?”
Rum was looking around while rubbing his back.
“Vodka, are you okay?”
“Yeah….”
Brandy was hugging Vodka, who had been frightened by the violent shaking, and trying to calm her down.
Fortunately, Tequila could not see anyone who was seriously injured.
“Are we… on the surface? But what happened?”
Brandy stood up with a puzzled expression.
She had no idea why they had suddenly been brought above ground.
More importantly, the surface, now left barren by the Authority of Destruction, looked completely different from the place Brandy remembered.
“Brandy, the sky!”
Vodka, who had been standing in Brandy’s shadow, pointed upward.
Everyone looked up.
The darkness was disappearing, and the sky was slowly turning deep blue.
“Good heavens, dawn is… coming?”
Rum followed Vodka’s finger with his eyes.
Even his usual gentle smile disappeared.
There was only one thing a changing sky could mean.
“They really killed that beast?!”
When Michael, Gin, and Absinthe had left, Rum had assumed they would return empty-handed as usual.
Even though Michael possessed extraordinary power, Rum had been convinced that he still could not defeat the cat.
Now Rum had no choice but to admit that his pessimistic thinking had been wrong.
BOOOOM!
The aftermath of the battle still remained.
The Authority of Destruction, which had yet to disappear, began devouring what remained of the clock tower.
“T, the clock tower is collapsing!”
“Is this also because the cat died…?”
“Then is it really over now?”
Just as Vodka said, the display on the collapsing clock tower showed 00:03.
In other words, after three more minutes, true dawn would rise and the bound souls would be released.
“But where did our heroes go?”
Rum looked around for their saviors.
However, he could not find any sign of the three of them.
There was not even a corpse left behind from the cat they had defeated.
Every single one of them must have been connected to me….
Standing on top of the ruined debris, Michael watched the people of the shelter with a melancholy expression.
If what he had seen in Gin’s memories was true, then every single one of them had once been connected to Michael.
Yet they knew nothing about themselves.
There was also nobody left who remembered them.
“You’re still as fucking disgusting as ever, Glasya-Labolas….”
For a moment, Michael became suspicious.
Was there really an ability in this world that could make everyone forget someone, including Michael himself?
Soon, however, Michael shook his head.
This was Glasya-Labolas’s artwork.
No matter what bizarre thing happened inside it, there was no reason to be surprised.
It should appear soon.
The reason Michael was still here was because he could sense demonic energy that had not been consumed by the Authority of Destruction.
If even the Authority of Destruction could not erase it, then that meant the demonic energy did not belong to this artwork.
Crack, crack, craaack!
Just as Michael expected, space began to distort.
Doors started forming.
“Doors connected to other artworks.”
Five completely different doors stood in front of Michael.
One was made of marble.
Another looked like a painting itself.
“This one is obviously it.”
Among them was a door made entirely of mirrors.
However, it was firmly locked and would not open.
Is it because dawn hasn’t arrived yet?
From the moment he first entered, the ending of this artwork had been set as the arrival of dawn.
Michael looked at the display sitting above the remains of the clock tower, the aftermath of his now vanished authority.
00:01.
Then,
00:00.
DONG! DONG!
Even though the clock tower no longer existed, the ringing of a bell echoed from somewhere.
As the bell announced the exact hour, the sun slowly rose and declared the arrival of morning.
“Agh! My eyes!”
“How long has it been since I saw the sun?!”
It was the first sunlight they had seen since entering the artwork, so everyone hurriedly covered their eyes.
At the same time,
“My power… is back.”
Michael’s aura, which he had lost due to overload, returned to him.
I guess something like this really is possible in a place where space and time are distorted.
Normally, Michael’s overload gradually recovered over the course of three days.
However, inside a place like this artwork, where space and time were twisted, he realized that his recovery adapted to the environment itself.
Fwoooosh!
Aura far denser and purer than what he had used against the cat gathered in Michael’s hand and erupted into fierce White Flame.
It seemed some of the power he had received from the Divine Beasts still remained.
He felt roughly forty to fifty percent as strong as he had been at his peak.
“Glasya-Labolas, wash your neck and wait for me. I’ll make you properly pay for touching my people.”
Michael had experienced overload several times before, so it did not take long to adjust to the aura returning to his body.
After making his vow of revenge, he started walking toward the door.
Tap.
Something sharp caught against his foot.
“Huh? Don’t tell me this is…?”
Pull.
Michael reached down and pulled out a familiar object.
It was a claw about the length of his palm.
“How did this survive?”
The demonic energy inside it was gone because the demon itself had disappeared.
However, its extreme hardness remained.
Apparently, the cat’s claw that Michael had broken with a counterattack had somehow avoided the wave of destruction that consumed the world.
“This could actually be useful.”
A claw harder than steel and capable of enduring aura would make a fine weapon.
Michael tied the claw to the cord around his waist and stood before the doors.
Pop! Pop!
Small sounds like fireworks rang out.
[Awarded, you have completed the narrative of the artwork, “Dawn”! Congratulations!]
A sign displaying those words appeared.
Clunk.
Then, without Michael even touching them, all five doors opened by themselves as if inviting him inside.
The interior of each door was pitch black, almost as though someone had intentionally hidden what lay beyond.
“What a noisy welcome.”
Michael was about to step through the mirror door when he heard Tequila’s shocked voice behind him.
“Gin! Absinthe! You two died?!”
