Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 1591: Final - : Guardian Shore Line - "OE: Perished from the Sea (13)
No time to talk about life and ideals, no time for small talk, Noel acted directly.
His actions were fierce and decisive, just like when he turned away without hesitation.
Just as the shadow was about to touch Su Ming’an’s sleeve—time seemed to be moved by an invisible fingertip, stalling for a moment.
Following that came a... silent awakening.
"Swish!"
An ancient, vast, dignified existence erupted from within the seemingly fragile shell of the young man.
Those soft, pitch-black eyes suddenly turned golden, as if illuminated by sunlight, no longer reflecting worldly matters. With a "shattering" sound, countless branches like mother-of-pearl burst from his back, emitting a peculiar sound of breaking free, instantly breaking through the ceiling, shattering all the glass on both sides, and rushing to the sky.
Everything happened in an instant.
One second, he was a pale, weak-looking young man at the cafe table; the next, the café collapsed with a roar, and a white-haired deity with golden eyes stood coldly, wielding a sword to strike back.
Bricks splattered, dust fluttered.
Overwhelming Strength radiated silently from Su Ming’an as its center, like a mountain towering over a plain, causing all things to hold their breath.
The pale young man, like an old shell peeled away, vanished silently. Standing there was an unearthly, transcendent being.
Three years passed, Su Ming’an gradually adapted to human identity. Aside from the assassination attempt by the Radical Faction, he hadn’t taken action again, spending his days between the World Hub and the lab, even relying on a wheelchair for mobility. Yet at this moment, he abruptly became the god who took humans to the skies three years ago.
...
Lü Shu was halfway through his exploration when he suddenly detected footsteps.
He looked up and saw a red-haired figure gradually appearing across the purple lavender plains.
"... Alger," Lü Shu spoke, "seeing you here means..."
He gripped the sheath tightly.
"I’ll hold off Alger; you go back," Lu said, glancing sideways.
"Go back?" Lü Shu asked.
"Their true goal isn’t you and me; the small world is what’s most important. Take the small world and swiftly move away from here, go, and don’t look back." Lu slowly raised his hand, preparing to transform into the Sea Emperor.
"If Alger can appear here, then Noel must be confronting Su Ming’an. Su Ming’an is the most dangerous!" Lü Shu spoke quickly.
"That’s why you need to go back," Lu said calmly.
Lü Shu’s pupils shrank for a moment; he knew in his heart that even if he went to save Su Ming’an, Su Ming’an would make him take the small world away.
He pursed his lips, "Then you go back; I’ll hold off Alger."
"... Fine." Lu didn’t care what Lü Shu was thinking, stopped arguing, and swiftly turned around, flying into the sky. Alger lifted his eyelids slightly but didn’t stop him.
"Lu’s strength seems a bit stronger than yours now." Alger raised his hand, flames danced at his fingertips, "You let him go back... You plan to risk everything to defeat me and then support Su Ming’an? Unless you burn yourself to sacrifice, there’s no chance."
At this point, he paused, understanding Lü Shu’s intentions.
Lu wouldn’t sacrifice here, but Lü Shu would.
So Lü Shu stayed behind while Lu returned.
"Swish—!"
Instantly, Lü Shu’s aura skyrocketed.
His white hair turned a deathly white, his pupils transformed from clear green to a ghostly green like flowing water from the Ming River, akin to two ghostly fires lighting up. The palm opened, and a Black Blade with an old copper bell entwined floated in it.
With both hands holding the blade edge, lifting it in front of his chest, the fabric on his back split open, unfurling a pair of broad, towering, slender bat wings akin to dragon bones, with spines protruding, blazing like fire.
Lü Shu didn’t intend to persuade Alger to "mend his ways." He understood that many people in this world are self-serving. If everyone could repent and offer their ideals, the world would be a fairy tale.
"Nothing can be changed..." Alger spread his hands, his red hair ignited flames:
"Nothing can go back..."
"We only wish to end this line... end your erroneous direction..."
"—No direction should be called wrong! No world should be ended just because it hasn’t reached perfect development!!!" Lü Shu shouted, "You’ve become delusional! It’s Noel Agnini! Did he ask the current Su Ming’an’s opinion? He hasn’t! Must everyone head towards perfection?!"
From the start, he only cared about the "now."
He even told Su Ming’an that if continuing was painful, then just stop here forever, don’t go on.
Thus, the clash of ideas is always irreconcilable. Humans are such creatures, unable to understand each other, always separated by an invisible barrier.
Alger’s gaze shifted, sighing, realizing the more one possesses, the less one can penetrate. He wants Strength, Lü Shu wants Happiness, Noel wants Freedom, Su Ming’an wants Safety, no one can untangle these entangled knots, no one can stop wielding their blades, even if they see through each other, even if they empathize.
"Let’s speak with blades," Alger said, wielding his fiery blade:
...
"Let me see if your ideals... surpass ours."
...
When Lu hurried back to the small world.
He saw Purgatory.
The sky turned scarlet, like a sun rising anew, people pointed anxiously at the sky, and some frantically turned swords against each other.
"Calm down—!" Lu transformed into the Sea Emperor, his gentle blue hair moving without wind, weaving a crown of Water Element and Radiance, emitting a tidal hum-like sound.
Ten fingers stretched open, a golden trident formed with a roar, countless water runes swam like live fish within, radiating light like pearls from the sea bed.
As if responding to the new emperor, the entire ocean went berserk! Thousand-meter-high tidal walls rose like mountains from the horizon, carrying the Strength of millions of tons of seawater and the fury of storms! The sky was covered by receding seawater and swirling cloud vortexes, like the apocalypse descending.
Witnessing this, people’s cries of fear became even sharper.
Seeing this, Lu quickly restrained his tide-calling power, as he hadn’t used full strength for a long time, realizing he seemed like humanity’s apocalypse too.
The trident touched ground, sending out circle after circle of golden ripples, and people’s chaos gradually subsided, as if awakening from a dream, they dropped their hoes and hammers, wiping blood from their bodies, dazedly looking at the blood-red sky.
"It’s a global Spirit chaotic Spell... like the handiwork of the Eighth Thrones, truly an undying ghost..." Lu glanced, quickly rushing toward the World Hub Tower above the ocean.
——There is Yu Zhu, all the world’s top figures, the Ming’an System.
In this brief moment, it is unknown how many people have killed one another and died.
"Damn it..." Lu bit his lip. Protecting a world is actually this difficult, a slight carelessness leads to a thousand fathoms of abyss.
He burst out at the fastest speed, flying towards the World Hub Tower.
——Hurry! Hurry!
That is the most important landmark, that is the thing needing the utmost protection...
Before he arrived, he perceived the distant image of the World Hub Tower thousands of miles away.
Under the suffocating blood-red color lies the crystallization of human wisdom and strength—the towering, magnificent giant tower, two hundred and fifty-six stories high, flowing with countless data light bands, symbolizing human pinnacle civilization, entirely constructed of the purest energy—each window of the tower body, like stars, reflecting the piercing light of the blood sun.
And right between this blood sun and giant tower, in the oppressive center of view, a figure hovered.
The figure’s pink hair fluttered, wearing a delicately carved mask, dressed in a complex long robe, like a soft dream. From budding to blooming, from splendor to decay, countless flowers bloomed and faded across the robe.
In one hand a scythe blade, in the other a branch of flowers, like a crescent moon, like a setting sun.
At the moment Lu almost let out a roar—
The figure moved.
No roar, no gathering of strength, not even a hint of a prelude.
The right hand holding the crescent scythe, extremely naturally, extremely casually, swept gently towards the magnificent giant tower embodying the highest human wisdom and hope.
Like brushing away a petal on a lapel.
Like pushing open a slightly ajar window of gauze.
The action, light, elegant, carried a transcendent silence almost divine.
Time seemed to freeze by this gentle sweep.
Space, like the glossy lake surface where a stone was thrown, rippled with profound clarity.
Then—
"Boom————————!"
It was not a usual explosion but a mournful cry of world structures being forcibly torn apart and crushed.
Starting from the tip of the blade, the two hundred fifty-six story giant tower, symbolizing human glory, like an artwork sculpted by the finest sugar frosting, suddenly—collapsed inch by inch!
Where the sword light reached, that unparalleled brilliance—silently overflowed like the gentlest of tides, yet in an instant engulfed the base, the mid-section, and up to the cloud top of the giant tower.
One window after another, shining with the glory of human civilization, silently turned to dust in the sacred light tide.
Those human statues Su Ming’an once saw, those walls of honor sculptures, those precise elevators of endless cycles, those hive-like grid rooms, like ice and snow thrown into a furnace.
Twisted, dissolved, fell.
Countless precise instruments, countless precious documents, countless top talents possibly fighting for the world’s survival...
"Zhenzhen! Zhenzhen——!!!"
In a daze, Lu seemed to hear nothing, his ears turned into a piercing "beep——," like the flickering snowflakes of a static television screen he watched as a child.
"Zhenzhen——what’s wrong with you——Zhenzhen! Pull yourself together! I’ll carry you out, Zhenzhen..." Unsure whose voice.
Lu blankly raised his hand, yet could only see the mist-like vanishing hope.
Originally, they really had gone the wrong way.
No, no, no.
They hadn’t gone wrong, clearly someone forced them to go right.
Or perhaps, that person had no choice, but some paths from the start had no endpoint.
"Zhenzhen——! Open your eyes, I’m Xiao Xiao! Why, I clearly started to make an effort, I’m not a Husky anymore... I’ve worked for almost three years, I’ve been officially employed, I’ve learned those simple formulas... why... why does everything get better only to..."
Lu’s hand went stiff, the overwhelming waves froze with him, he had no time to do anything.
Or rather, from the beginning, he had no time, he couldn’t possibly stop... this pink-haired person.
"Just who are you..." The voice was hoarse, not with resentment, more like confusion:
"Who are you."
"Did we... ever offend you?"
"I don’t even... know you, never seen you."
Because of a person completely unknown.
Because of a group of people completely unknown.
They were harmed, blocked, killed.
This is so strange, isn’t it.
The pink-haired person slowly turned, the carved mask reflecting the bloody sunset.
"I know you." The pink-haired person said calmly.
"...!" Lu’s eyes widened.
"Sorry." The pink-haired person raised the blade:
"Goodbye."
With crisp determination.
Like an eraser brushing over paper, where the scythe blade traced, soft brilliance overflowed again, cutting across Lu’s body...
"Clang——!"
A dazzling figure with divine light suddenly flashed beside the pink-haired person, raised sword, stabbed!
The scythe of the pink-haired person paused, slightly retracted, and the next moment, their body was violently pierced!
—Su Ming’an, with his white hair flowing, gripped the sword with crimson eyes.
His long hair, due to excessive burning, had nearly become platinum, the dazzling golden fire outlining every corner of his body, not as radiant brilliance, but as flames of self-immolation.
If a hundred years, then a hundred years.
If only ten years, then ten years.
If just a moment...
"Clang—!"
Then just a moment.
Countless crisp sounds, thousands upon thousands of branches grew from the ground, knocked off the pink-haired person’s mask, revealing a faceless visage, and pierced through them, drilling out from various parts of their skull.
"—Get out of my world!!!" Su Ming’an, with half his face burning transparently, was almost at the peak of anger, his hair, his skin, his blood, his bones, his soul... all frantically burning at this moment. He roared, the sword blade fiercely twisting, splitting the pink-haired person in half!
The "world" burned itself, mobilizing the land and skies, mobilizing the entire world’s strength, transforming into an endless inferno.
If the pink-haired person was not within the world, perhaps they could counter a bit, but, they were within the world, and the master of the world was pouring everything.
The pink-haired person slightly loosened their grasp, pierced by countless branches, that faceless countenance suddenly outlined a hint of a smile.
"...See, we have nowhere to go."
The next moment, the furious branches tore them apart, flesh and blood flew, and the last incomprehensible words fell into the abyss.
Amidst the flying flesh and blood, the gold and white deity was breathing heavily, they quickly embraced the falling Lu.
"Lu, are you alright..." Su Ming’an didn’t finish his sentence.
He had already seen Lu’s terrible state... slashed by the pink-haired person, losing most of his body, nearly just a half-husk, like a shattered crystal box.
"Cough...cough cough!" The blue-haired man opened his blood-stained eyes, half of his body melted, leaving only a blood-drenched half, with organs falling out.
Beside his ears were blood-stained fins, shattered like glass.
He raised his hand, wiping the blood from Su Ming’an’s cheek, the blood also quickly evaporated in the fiery glow.
Even in such an injury, his face was still smiling, as if it had become a mask.
"Sorry."
Su Ming’an’s ears were filled with emptiness, he could only hear the gentle voice as always, as if there was no pain.
"Su... Ming’an."
"I couldn’t... fulfill my promise... to stay with you until the end..."
"I couldn’t... find, the most fun sea area, to take you surfing..."
"Couldn’t, protect the land you all love..."
He brushed over Su Ming’an’s forehead, seemingly wanting to comfortingly caress, but lacking the strength, his fingers slipped onto Su Ming’an’s cheek.
—Exactly, touching a tear.
Su Ming’an was trembling, shedding tears, in sorrow, in confusion.
Indeed, confusion.
Anyone faced with such a situation would be confused.
Clearly, everyone tried to make everything the best.
Clearly, they were still joining hands with him, across the glass.
But why, through thousands of hardships and countless pains, can’t even "peace" be sought?
Three years, like a great dream finally waking.
Were they too attached to happiness, forgetting at the start, they thought about eternal farewell.
"Everything... will... be alright." Lu gradually couldn’t speak clearly, more than half of his body erased, solely relying on divine power to sustain the last bit of strength, obviously smiling, yet his voice lowered.
"Don’t listen to what they say, about ends, about no way out... any path... is a path..." He said to this point, laughed: "See, I am also Lu..."
Without warning, under these words, the deity who should have smiled, suddenly roared out.
"Ah——————!"
Why are there so many unattainables.
Why, clearly victorious, yet face the stories after the happiness of prince and princess.
Why, why, isn’t this world a fairy tale...
He clenched his fist, blood flowing through the gaps of his fingers.
"It’s okay, it’s just that this road is a bit longer, a bit steeper..." The temperature gradually slipped away, yet Lu’s expression was extremely calm:
Under the boundlessly flying dust, the sea water gradually returned to the nest.
The temperature left the fingertips, making one feel so cold.
The last time it was this cold, when was it. Lu couldn’t help but ponder.
It seemed like it was when he held a toy bear, picking up his first gun in a pool of blood... it was cold then too, but, colder than now.
Now, at least a bit warmer.
He clutched tightly Su Ming’an’s white robe, tightly, not daring to let go, afraid that like white paper it would drift away:
"Don’t..."
"Don’t... give up..."
"You haven’t, done wrong."
Pain, confusion, sorrow, despair... endless emotions, like pear blossoms falling incessantly, from his eyes, thousands of petals descending.
And even for him, burning to this point, life could no longer be sustained.
Grief slowly spread over his eyes, over the river between them.
It spread over the infinitely extending sunset, over the still pale golden wind.
It spread over... the horses leisurely grazing by the lake, seemingly unaffected by human conflicts, still surviving as before.
As if sensing the breeze, they ran, galloping across the plains, across the hills, across this land full of scars...
Suddenly, the Deity lowered its head:
"I will rectify everything."
Lu opened his eyes in astonishment, he should have felt happy, as he now had hope for salvation.
But why did he feel immense fear at these words, deeply saddened.
"You... can’t rectify... this is related to High Dimensions... unaffected by your Time shuttle... you... can’t go back anymore..." Lu shook his head.
"I will rectify everything." The Deity merely repeated.
Lu wanted to say something else, but he really didn’t have the strength, his mouth opened, but only blood flowed out.
He reached out with all his might, but could only tremble his fingers.
... If you can’t trigger it, and can’t return... what then...? Wouldn’t it mean... direct death? Lu wanted to ask.
The sea calmed, all things quieted.
Su Ming’an stretched out his hand, placing his palm over Lu’s eyelids.
Like a Deity presiding over a funeral, like a Bishop reciting an elegy.
He wept silently, yet solemnly, as if a bell tolling.
"... Walk over." He murmured, taking out the bloodstained, shattered Abyss Lord Divinity from his arms, gazing at it for a long while.
Cross that cold river.
The man in his arms, gradually lowered his head.
The touch of the fingers, as the eyelids gradually slipped, like a falling butterfly, dropping into the Deity’s broad and merciful palms.
"... There, the leaves will wave to you."
Until the warmth in his arms finally dissipated, until his surroundings returned to the original cold.
Until Su Ming’an — slowly closed the person’s eyelids in his arms.
The battered Yamada Machiichi came running, holding Isabella’s corpse, wanting to say something, but Su Ming’an placed the crystalline seed, Divinity, and two gemstones into Yamada Machiichi’s palm.
This is... the World Tree’s seed? And two Authorities? Yamada Machiichi asked in confusion.
If I don’t come back, give it to someone suitable. Su Ming’an said.
Lü Shu? Yamada Machiichi trembled.
Su Ming’an shook his head.
Where are you going? Yamada Machiichi clutched his sleeve.
Go back. Su Ming’an said.
"... The stones will smile at you."
The horses ran onto the ruins, treading with their hooves, looking at the distant blazing sun.
The tower turned to ruins, glass and steel scattered everywhere, corpses lay across, yet a hand trembled and extended out.
"... The river will greet you."
"Clank." A young man in overalls, used all his strength to lift a heavy stone, crawling bloodied from the wreckage, stumbling and walking, his eyes full of panic and helplessness, holding a deceased girl in his arms.
He stared blankly at her face, stroking her, gently picking up a sharp stone nearby.
"... There is neither poverty nor wealth."
"Bang!"
A crisp sound echoed, the stone fell, blood splattered.
The dull thudding of two bodies falling resonated behind the Deity.
"... No sorrow nor pain."
In streets and alleys, people pointing blades at each other, finally returned to their senses, emerging from a state of frenzy, holding corpses, collapsing on the ground, dejected and lost.
"Why." They looked at the sky in confusion.
"Deity, why..." On a park bench, a young man holding his deceased mother, muttered to himself: "I got accepted to the Tower, I could have made mom happy..."
He knelt on the ground, eyes vacant, crying out loud.
"... No enmity nor hate."
The Deity opened its mouth.
It hummed a soft tune.
The platinum Flames rendered Its form almost transparent.
It walked towards the sea.
Glowing with golden hues, like the morning sun upon the sea.
Countless branches connected to It, revealing a hint of weak pallor.
Until the sea water submerged Its neck, submerged Its pupils, submerged Its forehead.
Until the sea water suffocated It.
...
"... Where all die and are equal."
