The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 10

Before the Empress of Steel.

I raised my head, shaking off fear.

I had hesitated many times on the way here, wondering if I should choose another path.

But now, I steeled my resolve.

The Empress of Steel began to charge at me.

She intended to rob me of even the warmth of humanity.

I opened the bag in my hand.

And pulled out a bottle.

Inside the bottle, red liquid sloshed around.

A potion containing the miracles created by an alchemist.

Its effect: partial immunity to fire.

I wished it were complete immunity.

Unfortunately, such a thing does not exist in Blazing Butterfly.

‘Unless it’s the ultimate potion, an Elixir.’

What’s unavailable is simply unavailable.

Without hesitation, I uncorked the potion bottle and drank it.

The thick, foul liquid slid down my throat.

Bitter.

But I forced it all down.

Clang!

I threw the empty potion bottle to the ground and raised my bag.

Inside the bag.

It was filled to the brim with red crystals radiating heat.

Fwoosh!

The heat from the crystals began to spill out.

These crystals were all the essence of fire.

The final embers of the spirits’ corpses began to burn.

” Damn it, please hold on, me. “

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Just thinking about what was about to happen caused cold sweat to form on my face.

But my body was already moving.

I yanked the heat-protection enchanted cloth wrapped around the fire essence.

Ssssssssssssssss!

In that instant, the fire essence inside the bag unleashed such intense heat that it scorched the bag.

The heat that had been barely contained by the enchanted cloth was now pouring out.

” Urrrrrgh! “

And I was the one who had to endure that heat.

My skin and muscles couldn’t withstand it and began to melt.

My vision blurred, and my breath became choked.

Hot.

It was so hot it felt like my body was burning.

In fact, my body was on fire.

But this was a fortunate situation.

If I hadn’t drunk the fire immunity potion, my skin and muscles would have burned away, and my bones would have melted.

Thanks to the potion, it stopped at this.

[ !!! ]

The Empress of Steel, eyes wild, charged at me.

The heat I felt now was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

It was only natural for her to lose her mind, craving the heat as she did.

The Empress of Steel, now right in front of me, reached out her hand toward my body.

Seeing this, I desperately clung to my consciousness.

Before the Empress of Steel could touch me.

I threw myself forward toward her.

Whoosh!

With intense heat, my body collided with the Empress of Steel.

Soon, the cold that the Empress of Steel possessed engulfed my body.

Cold.

So cold that it chilled me to the bone.

Yet, in this moment, I welcomed the cold.

It counteracted the heat flowing from the fire essence.

I could breathe a little easier.

My mind, clouded by the heat, began to clear.

Crrrack-

At that moment, the Empress of Steel’s body started to melt, little by little.

She hadn’t taken a fire immunity potion like I had.

So she was exposed to the full heat of the fire essence.

The fire essence was hot enough to melt even steel.

But the Empress of Steel didn’t care at all and hugged me even tighter.

As if she had longed for this warmth.

[ Aaaahhhh! ]

She howled and embraced me fiercely.

She was definitely screaming.

Yet, somehow, I didn’t sense any sadness in her cries.

Instead, she seemed joyful, as if she had finally regained the warmth she had lost.

Tears of steel streamed down her cheeks.

Seeing this, I steeled my own heart even more.

Yes, embrace me.

I’ll melt the grudge I had to bear, the one Lucas couldn’t, by holding you close.

So go ahead and hold me.

Now, it’s a battle of time and willpower.

Will my willpower snap and break first?

Or will the Empress of Steel completely melt away first?

It had become a fight between the two.

Of course, even if my willpower breaks.

The Empress of Steel won’t disappear.

She’ll just keep embracing me, slowly melting away until she reaches eternal rest.

But that can’t happen.

If that happens, there’d be no point in doing all of this.

Crrunch!

I clenched my teeth until they felt like they would shatter.

The heat and cold pierced through my skin, causing sharp pain.

I had never felt pain like this in my entire life.

But the longer the pain lasted, the clearer my mind became.

I grasped tightly onto the thread of willpower that was about to snap and held on with everything I had.

If I keep holding on and enduring.

Eventually, the end will come.

I simply waited, enduring until that moment.

* * *

Time passed endlessly.

I had no idea how much time had gone by.

But one thing was certain: no amount of time could have felt longer than this.

My vision was blurry.

My body felt almost completely drained of strength.

The fact that I could still breathe was a miracle.

The heat from the fire essence I had embraced had now entirely diminished and lost its glow.

My breathing was faint.

Sweat, belatedly, started to gather on my forehead, drop by drop.

My mouth was dry as dust.

I slowly raised my head.

With blurred vision, I looked around.

The Empress of Steel was nowhere to be seen.

She, who wandered aimlessly in search of warmth until the very end.

She, who couldn’t become a god and instead became a mystery, was no longer of this world.

A sense of sorrow, for reasons unknown, passed through me.

The scorched crystal slipped from the bag and rolled across the floor.

Clang-

At that moment, the steel floor it struck began to crack.

The crack soon spread across the entire room.

Crash!

At last, all the steel shattered and the room returned to its original form.

The broken pieces of steel rose into the sky in fragments.

Carrying with them the final wish of the Empress of Steel, who wanted to become a god until the very end.

The steel disappeared into the heavens.

Thud-

I collapsed to my knees.

I no longer had the strength to move.

The skin that had been wrapped in heat was now entirely peeled away, leaving nothing behind.

Instead, something else was filling the exposed skin.

Steel.

It was steel.

The remnants of the melted Empress of Steel were clinging unevenly to my skin.

As if it were plated.

I had been waiting for this moment.

I forced myself to sit upright.

With the faint heat left in my body, I began to melt the steel.

The steel evenly melted and started to seep into my skin.

This wasn’t ordinary steel.

It was the mystery that made up the Empress of Steel herself.

The protagonist, Lucas, melts the Empress of Steel.

Her steel then merges with his body, granting him a mystery.

‘The Body of Steel.’

As the name suggests, it is a body as sturdy as steel.

The Body of Steel synergizes with Lucas’s Flame of Determination and significantly boosts his growth.

But the situation between Lucas and me is fundamentally different.

Lucas can melt all the steel in his body with his Flame of Determination.

But I can only use the residual heat left from the fire essence.

I can’t completely melt the steel.

‘So I must do what I can.’

I did everything in my power.

The steel began to cover my entire body, layering over my skin.

I couldn’t gain the Body of Steel like Lucas.

But I was after something else.

‘As of today, I will have skin of steel.’

I fiercely covered my melted skin with steel.

The pain had already dulled.

There was no reason to hesitate anymore.

Steel continued to spread over my skin.

By the time my entire body was bathed in the full glow of steel,

Clink-

The last of the residual heat in my body disappeared.

The heat was gone, and I could breathe again.

Regaining my clarity, I slowly raised my hand.

Then I saw my hand, now covered in steel.

It moved without any issues.

I had finally gained the skin of steel.

“Haa, haa.”

I repeatedly exhaled the breaths I had been holding back.

I looked down at my weary body.

The special equipment, the Veil Bandage, hadn’t been destroyed by the fire essence.

Even the Flame of Determination couldn’t melt the Veil Bandage.

I still appeared as Hanon.

But the Veil Bandage brought about one change.

It began to return my steel skin to its original color.

Before I knew it, I had perfectly returned to looking like Hanon.

No matter what I was on the inside.

On the outside, I was indistinguishable from Hanon.

“Huff, huff.”

My mind was on the verge of collapse.

Even though my body was covered in steel, it was still full of wounds.

Normally, the future Spirit Lord would appear, thank me, and heal my injuries.

But there was no one in front of me.

Where had everyone gone?

The spirits were nowhere to be seen.

“Hah, haha, right, I’m not Lucas, after all.”

A bitter laugh escaped my lips.

That kind of fate belongs to Lucas.

Someone like me, with no affinity for spirits, doesn’t matter much, does it?

It’s fine.

I never intended to become a Spirit Mage anyway.

I crawled along the ground and grabbed the bottle I had set down earlier near the tree.

It was a high-healing potion that I had prepared at great expense.

I downed the crimson-colored potion.

As it settled in my stomach, the potion spread evenly throughout my entire body.

I collapsed onto the ground as if I were falling.

I could feel my wounds healing.

I had used a partial fire immunity potion, and the Empress of Steel had helped offset some of the heat.

Thanks to that, only my skin and outer muscles were burnt.

This much could be healed with a high potion.

However, my mental exhaustion was a different story.

No matter how much I recovered physically, the mental exhaustion from everything I’d been through left me unable to endure any longer.

But now, I had secured a crucial card for my future.

‘Now, the only thing left.’

Is to train for the mock battle.

Fortunately, training is one area where I have some confidence.

I’ve come this far.

If I don’t win, all this effort will be for nothing.

‘…… I will win the mock battle, no matter what.’

With my final breath, I slowly closed my eyes.

A breeze from the Great Forest of Spirits brushed against my face.

I felt like I would be able to sleep peacefully.

Please, let my efforts not be in vain.

With that wish, I let my mind drift away.