I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 775

In the ruined world.

I was defeated at Stage 50.

The final assault failed, and the world was destroyed.

Fifteen years have passed since then.

In the ruined world, the survivors still cling to life.

And still, I rebel.

Against the fate of destruction that has already arrived…

***

“……”

While tidying my attire, I looked in the mirror.

My face, still young, is visible amidst my long black hair, which I haven’t been able to cut properly for 15 years.

Since inheriting the power of the two dragons, I no longer age.

However, the deep-set, weary eyes reveal the passage of time that cannot be hidden.

For some reason, I seem to resemble my father, Traha, who is already dead.

“……”

I turned away from the cracked and stained mirror and stepped out.

I had to attend Lily’s funeral.

***

Lily’s funeral was simple.

For 15 years after the world’s destruction, Lily, despite her inability to move her legs, was a great help to us.

She appropriately distributed scarce resources, placed the limited manpower in the right places, and supplemented the lack of warmth with her fire magic.

Without her, the remnants of our World Guardian Front would not have been able to carry out even their last resistance activities properly.

But she, who always seemed to endure so strongly, fell ill some time ago and did not last long after that.

“This is a good death, considering the circumstances.”

Looking at Lily’s face, laid on a pile of frozen firewood, Sid spoke indifferently.

“In this world, to be able to die with all your limbs intact, in the arms of people who care for you, while warming yourself by a bonfire… how fortunate is that?”

“……”

Even in the face of his mother’s death, Sid was calm.

It wasn’t a facade or an act of strength. Truly, Sid thought it was fortunate that Lily had died this way.

This child, who grew up in a ruined world, truly believed that.

And in reality, dying of illness was a relatively peaceful end. Compared to the tragic deaths of other heroes who had fallen before…

In this state of the world, cremation was the only way to ensure the deceased’s rest.

Other methods would not preserve the body properly for various reasons.

We prepared for Lily’s funeral near the entrance of the cave we were using as a hideout. We gathered the few pieces of firewood and poured the hard-to-find oil.

At that moment, one of the heroes, who was guarding the surroundings, approached me and quietly spoke.

“Your Highness.”

I turned to see a woman with dark blue hair, dressed in mortician’s attire.

It was Elise, the Swordswoman Mortician, one of the few skilled warriors remaining in the World Guardian Front.

She wore an eyepatch over her lost right eye and a magical prosthetic arm in place of her lost left arm, but the sword case on her back was the same as it was 15 years ago.

Inside the sword case were the weapons of the fallen comrades.

Also, the keepsake of Serenade, her master and my lover, whom she had lost. It must have been preserved inside Elise’s sword case.

“Your Highness.”

While I was momentarily lost in thought about Serenade, Elise called me again.

Even though the world had already been destroyed and Everblack was no longer a country.

Elise called me Your Highness. Even though titles meant nothing in this world. Even though my coronation would never happen.

“If we make such a big fire, ‘they’ will find us.”

“……”

“Their encirclement is already closing in. If we light a fire this time and they pinpoint our location, we’ll have to abandon this hideout we barely found.”

It had only been a week since the remnants of our World Guardian Front had moved to this cave to escape ‘them’.

It was a comfortable hideout we had found after a long time. It was a place we didn’t want to give up.

But no matter how long we held out, it would only be a few more days. After that, we would eventually be discovered by them and have to find a new hideout.

Just like we had been doing for the past 15 years.

“Do you have a place in mind for the next hideout?”

When I asked, Elise hesitated before slowly nodding. I nodded back.

“We can’t have Lily’s funeral be in vain. Even if we have to move the hideout a little earlier than planned, let’s send Lily off properly.”

“……Understood.”

In Elise’s eyes, as she stepped back, a faint sadness was clearly visible.

She had already witnessed the deaths of many comrades and collected their weapons, but Lily’s death seemed to be painful for her as well.

Funerals in this era were truly nothing special. In a world that had already been destroyed, what was the point of wishing for blessings in the afterlife?

We would just mourn quietly and light the fire.

‘…In the past, priests would bless the afterlife, soldiers would fire blanks into the sky, and I would recite poems.’

I suddenly recalled the funerals of the world before its destruction.

Come to think of it, when was the last time I recited a poem?

After the destruction, so many people died and we couldn’t even hold proper funerals, so I stopped reciting poems for the dead.

As much as I cherished Lily, I wanted to say at least one verse, but…

“……”

Now, I couldn’t even come up with a decent verse. I quietly closed my mouth.

After everyone’s mourning was over, it was time to light the fire.

Sid, who had been standing silently beside me with an emotionless expression, snapped his fingers. Then, a magical fire ignited the firewood under Lily.

We watched Lily burn in the flames until the very end.

She had been my comrade since 18 years ago, when I first faced the Black Spider Legion at the forward base.

Now that Lucas and Damian, who were with me during those times, were either dead or missing.

The departure of Lily, the last of the veteran heroes, made my heart ache.

The fierce magical flames soon died down, and only ashes remained where Lily had been lying.

Sid waved his hand lightly once more, and a gust of wind scattered even the ashes, making them disappear.

This was the funeral of the end times, and the cleanest ending I had seen in the funerals of the past 15 years.

That was because.

Squeak, squeak…

Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.

Since the destruction, ‘those things’ had become rampant in this world.

A swarm of rats had gathered around the entrance of our hideout cave. The creatures, moving like a wave, surrounded us from afar, their red eyes gleaming.

It was unknown what those rats ate to maintain such numbers in the ruined world, but one thing was certain: they would not leave the bodies of my heroes alone.

To avoid desecrating the deceased, it was best to cremate them and scatter even the ashes. At least, Lily’s death would not be defiled by those things.

‘…A good death, considering the circumstances.’

Thinking of Lily, who had now disappeared without a trace from the world, I took a long breath.

‘A good death, considering the circumstances…’

I could feel the rat swarm, undulating like a wave in the distance, slowly closing in.

I looked around and said,

“Let’s move. To the next hideout.”

Once the rat swarm started to grow, it would be impossible to handle.

But more frightening than the rat swarm was the arrival of ‘the next’ enemy.

The rat swarm was merely the eyes, noses, and ears of the real enemies. They were just scouts used by the real enemy.

Before the real enemy came, we had to escape.

The survivors had already packed their belongings. In fact, there wasn’t much left to call belongings in this era.

We began to move, following the guide, Elise. The rat swarm that had surrounded us scattered all at once, making way.

Still, their red gazes were fixed on us.

Ignoring the rat swarm, we moved into the frozen world where white ash fell like rain.

A black storm was approaching from afar.

***

On the way to the next hideout.

With robes and cloaks pulled up over our heads, we walked through the endless downpour of ash.

The ash rain was so heavy that it was almost impossible to see clearly, but we were calm. In fact, this was just normal weather, not even worth calling bad weather.

That was the kind of era it was.

“Do you regret it?”

Suddenly, a question came from beside me.

I turned to see Sid. The small boy was calmly climbing the ash-covered hill, his feet sinking deep into the ash.

I asked back.

“Regret? About holding your mother’s funeral? About abandoning the hideout and leaving?”

“No.”

Through the boy’s deeply hooded robe, his clear eyes stared at me.

“Fifteen years ago, on the day of the final defense, about making that choice.”

“……”

“In the end, your choice made this world like this. Do you… regret it?”

I was momentarily stunned.

I couldn’t clearly remember what my choice was 15 years ago.

‘At that time, when I reached Stage 50, I…’

Instead of killing the ‘Sleeping Lake Princess’, I tried to save her.

To do that, I met the Demon King separately…

Throb!

Instead of the moment of choice that I couldn’t recall clearly, the memories of the disastrous consequences that followed the failed attack flooded my mind like a tidal wave.

Burning Crossroads.

The final boss, ‘Sleeping Lake Princess’, relentlessly pushing in.

And behind her, an endless… truly endless horde of monsters.

Melting walls, soldiers on them evaporating together.

“……”

I tried to talk to the ‘Sleeping Lake Princess’ until the very end.

Because I believed that was the only way to reach the true ending.

But the final boss only swung her sword mercilessly.

At that moment, Serenade pushed me away and took the ‘Sleeping Lake Princess’s’ sword instead, dying in my arms.

Lucas stood alone against the enemy commander to get me out of the ‘Sleeping Lake Princess’, and continued to fight until he sent us all out of the Crossroads.

I don’t know his end.

“……”

Torkel fought to the end, guarding the front of the gate before he died.

Quilan, Kellybay, Verdandi, and the Rompeller siblings maintained the resistance line until the end with the blessing of their respective tribal gods, but they eventually collapsed in the face of the endless wave of monsters.

Numerous soldiers and kings sacrificed themselves to buy time.

To save me.

After escorting the remnants of the defeated army I led out of the Crossroads, Evangeline turned back at the end and jumped back into the Crossroads.

To meet an end worthy of the successor of the Cross family.

Saying she didn’t want to leave Lucas alone.

She ran into her hometown, which was swarming with demons and monsters.

I don’t know her end.

“……”

On that day, the World Guardian Front was annihilated.

And the world began to perish.

The endless horde of monsters led by the ‘Sleeping Lake Princess’ burned all the land, sea, and sky of this world.

The last remnants of the World Guardian Front tried to organize a resistance and fight back, but they were endless, and we had lost all of our elite forces.

Even those who barely survived lost their lives one by one during the 15 years of escape that followed.

And now.

The earth is frozen, and the sky is burning. In a world that has already been destroyed.

We are living because we cannot die.

I am searching for a non-existent reversal… wandering through this hell.

“I heard it from Mom.”

Sid asked me again, as I remained silent.

“That day, before the final battle, there was a chance to kill that monster. But you chose conversation instead of war, and in the end, the world became like this.”

“……”

“Do you regret it?”

I was breathless in front of the boy’s clear gaze.

“If you could undo that choice from that day… would you undo it?”

“……”

An answer didn’t come easily.

It was then.

“Your Highness!”

Elise, who was guiding the group at the front, shouted urgently.

“Enemies!”

Dudududu…

The sound of horses’ hooves echoed from afar and quickly grew closer.

All the survivors urgently drew their weapons. Elise shouted at the top of her lungs.

“It’s the Apocalypse Knights-!”

At the same time as the shout, a cavalry unit, their cloaks fluttering, charged out of the ash rain from all directions.

Pestilence.

Famine.

War.

Death.

The enemies that had been tormenting us relentlessly since the destruction covered us like a dark cloud, swinging their weapons.