The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 127



Finding Mia

“Musika.”

Vinesha shuddered, uttering the name.

“Master, Grantoni.”

And then, calling out the next name, she pulled herself upright.

An evil spirit shattered a fragment of the sky, pushing her outside.

Vinesha coughed, crawling across the floor.

Fragments of memory linked together, and tears continued to erupt from her eyes.

She couldn’t bear her own patheticness.

“It’s because of me. It was all because of me.”

She looked at the pendant clutched in her hand.

Musika had been captured by Gwoejon and died.

Marisa had given her life to save her.

Grantoni had lost everything, his face destroyed, caught up in her rampage.

And yet, she had lost her memory and simply lived aimlessly.

“Grantoni.”

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Vinesha savored the name.

Her younger brother, who would resent her most.

Her brother was now in Gwoejon’s spirit world, trying to retrieve Musika.

She clasped her hands together.

No.

She couldn’t lose Grantoni as well, after Musika and Master.

Grantoni wouldn’t be able to find Musika.

No matter how talented Grantoni was, he wasn’t a match for Gwoejon.

‘If it were me…’

Vinesha was the one who offered Musika to Goejon.

She, without a doubt, could find Musika’s traces.

Goejon knew this fact, and so destroyed Vinesha’s memories.

But even memories etched into the soul could not be erased.

Vinesha began to draw a magic circle with the blood squeezed from her own hand.

She had to create the coordinates to summon Musika here.

Just then, Goejon directly revealed himself from the other side.

Now was the only chance to summon Musika.

If she could find Musika, Grantoni would return as well.

‘I’ll take any resentment coming my way.’

Vinesha bit her lip hard, her vision constantly blurring with tears.

‘Musika, please, I’m begging you.’

Already, several years had passed since then.

There was no guarantee that Musika’s sanity remained intact.

But at this moment, Vinesha desperately wished.

She desperately wished, again and again, that Musika’s consciousness, devoured by Goejon, would remain.

The moment she finally completed the magic circle.

Vinesha poured all her mana into the magic circle.

“Musika.”

A blood-red magic, a fusion of soul magic and raw power, began to unfold around Vinesha.

“I have to save Grantoni.”

The moment the magic circle, shining with tears, burst forth.

*Koo-ung-*

The light of the magic circle vanished all at once, fading away.

Seeing this, Vinesha stared emptily up at the sky.

There was no response.

Vinesha knew best what that indicated.

“Ah.”

Musika’s consciousness had, as expected, been consumed and annihilated by Goejon.

Vinesha couldn’t believe it.

“No.”

And so, she drew another magic circle, and activated it.

“No. Please, no.”

Again and again, she drew and redrew the magic circle.

But each time, the circle guttered out, died.

A gush –

Blood poured from her nose and mouth.

The aftereffect, the price for using too much magic.

But she caught the blood, used it to draw the magic circle with even finer precision.

If she couldn’t find Mushika, Grantoni wouldn’t live either.

“Cha, Lari.”

So, she drew the magic circle, her hands trembling violently.

“Chara, Lari take me, take me and kill me.”

Finally, having created the magic circle, she wrung out her magic and activated it one last time.

“Leave those children alone.”

The moment she activated the magic circle, spitting blood.

Kooong –

Again, the magic circle failed.

Vinesha stared blankly at the floor.

On the shards of the shattered sky lay countless magic circles, painted in blood.

Not one of them brought an answer from Mushika.

It was all her fault.

Bloody tears dripped from Vinesha’s eyes.

“Please.”

Vinesha begged, facing the broken sky.

“Please, it’s all my fault. Those children did nothing wrong.”

Vinesha wept.

Like a child, she simply cried, praying to the sky.

“Take me, take me instead.”

But the sky remained stubbornly silent.

She dropped her head to the floor.

Then, with empty magic stirring, began to draw the magic circle once more with trembling hands.

Even if she died here today, she would summon Musika until the very end.

That resolution fueling her, the moment she was drawing.

Dududududududu-

Some sound reached her ears.

Binesha lifted her head.

And there, she saw the souls puppeted by Gweijon, rushing towards her.

They were sprinting across the shattered fragments of sky.

Binesha stared at them, lost.

No strength remained in her body now.

Even the lesser demon that had guarded her side was gone.

There was nothing she could do but be trampled underfoot like this.

Gweijon wouldn’t even allow her to finish drawing the magic circle.

Just before that realization unleashed a torrent of grief from her.

*Clack!*

A woman appeared before her.

This one, with blue hair flying and blazing with fierce blue flames.

The Unyielding Azure Flame

Eve.

“Vice-Professor Binesha, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I was told to become a lighthouse for Hanon Airei!”

Eve bit her lip hard, looking at the onrushing souls.

She, who feared ghosts, was seized by an immense terror at this very moment, but she overcame it with a shout of determination.

Whirr-rrr-rrr-rr-!

Eve’s azure flames soared madly, as if to touch the sky.

“How is it! Is this enough of a lighthouse to reach the heavens! Can he be found with this, the one you’re so desperately searching for!”

The lighthouse of azure flames illuminated the sky.

That light was a fierce light, enough to awaken even those asleep.

Before Binesha’s eyes, seeing that light, a man was etched.

The name Eve had shouted just moments ago.

Hanon Irelay

Bicameral Niflheim

In this moment, she understood who had led her here.

“Husb—, Mister.”

Vinesha couldn’t know what he knew, or why he had guided her to this place.

To Vinesha, Bicameral was the target of a self-inflicted wound, excused by a lack of affection.

A hole, unfillable, was bored through her affection.

Though her memories were gone, she thought, implicitly, that she was unforgivable.

And so, she scraped at that hole in her heart and pushed it onto others.

She was certain that Bicameral would never, no matter what, show her affection.

And so, she could pour out her terrible affection on Bicameral without restraint.

Surely, he was just, only, that.

Vinesha remembered Bicameral’s eyes as he looked at her.

Regret and apology.

Many emotions, whose meaning she couldn’t grasp.

She had been too preoccupied with scraping out affection to ever look back at him.

That image, only now, surfaced in her mind.

She didn’t know.

Vinesha couldn’t know for what purpose he had brought her here, and given her back her memories.

But one thing was certain.

He hadn’t wanted her to suffer so much.

Azure flames blazed before her eyes.

The azure flame, illuminating the boundless sea, cried out to find the ship.

Vinesha placed her hand upon the completed magic circle.

“Mushika.”

Vinesha closed her eyes and called out to her younger sister.

What was affection, that she was so blinded by it she envied her beloved sister?

Vinesha hated and loathed her past self.

Even if it was the doing of a ghoul-being, the origin of that feeling was surely her.

“Mushika.”

So, Vinesha confessed through falling tears.

She begged, let me see my beloved sister again.

Vinesha’s magic circle began to emit light.

At that moment, Vinesha felt warmth upon her shoulder.

Vinesha’s eyes slowly reached behind her.

And there, a spirit was standing.

Vinesha belatedly realized who she was.

Marisa, the teacher who had saved Vinesha at the cost of her soul.

Though she had lost her will, she had reappeared by Vinesha’s side.

Marisa laid her hand over Vinesha’s hand.

Seeing this, Vinesha felt a magic power, of unknown origin, surge.

The inept disciple, until the very end, had to benefit from her teacher’s virtue.

Vinesha poured out all the magic power that was boiling within her and cried out:

“Mushika!”

In that instant, a flash of light spread before her eyes.

Vinesha almost closed her eyes because of the stark white flash, but she opened them as wide as she could.

Presently, she discovered a child sitting in a secluded corner.

Vinesha ran towards the child.

She stumbled as she ran, but somehow rose again and rushed toward the child.

The child tilted her head the moment she saw Vinesha.

“Sister? Why did you come in such a hurry?”

The moment she heard the child’s question, Vinesha couldn’t hold back her tears and embraced her.

“Mushika, I missed you so much.”

As she returned the words Mushika had once said to her, Mushika hugged her tightly.

“Me too, sister.”

In the distance, hurried footsteps approached.

Vinesha heard the sound and lifted her head.

There stood Grantoni, his face a skull.

How long had he been scourging through the spirit world? His soul was injured and ruined everywhere.

Grantoni, panting for breath, stared at Vinesha and Mushika.

Adrift in the vast, vast ocean, a blue lighthouse, discovered after what felt like an eternity.

Following its beacon, he found Musika and Vinesha there.

“Vinesha-noona, Musika.”

At Grantoni’s call, Vinesha rose, cradling Musika in her arms.

Musika had long since lost consciousness, now fast asleep.

“Grantoni, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.”

Even after Vinesha lost her memories, Grantoni had sought her out once.

But she hadn’t recognized Grantoni at all, pushing him away.

After that, Grantoni spiraled into madness.

The taciturn man, now indulging in bizarre antics, sporting foolish grins.

It was as though, a desperate desire to escape his own wretched reality.

Vinesha felt a profound guilt towards Grantoni, his life ruined because of her.

To him, Vinesha had been a bolt from the blue.

“But, there are people waiting for you.”

Vinesha wouldn’t have minded Grantoni directing his anger at her.

But she couldn’t bear him turning away the people who came to save him.

“I will make sure to bring Musika back safely. So, let’s meet outside.”

They had traveled such long, circuitous routes to get here.

Now, it was time to retrace those steps, to return to the original path.

Grantoni gazed at Vinesha for a brief moment.

Then, slowly, he turned away.

The moment he saw Musika, Grantoni knew.

He had no way of taking Musika back, not after she’d been consumed by the aberration*.

Even if he’d found Musika, a few words exchanged would have been all he could manage.

But Vinesha was different.

She was, to Grantoni’s knowledge, the most exceptional soul magician and the one most deeply connected to Musika.

“Vinesha-noona, it wasn’t you I resented.”

Vinesha’s eyes widened slowly.

“It’s just… I resent that pathetic version of myself, the one who couldn’t do anything that day.”

Grantoni also knew that Vinesha genuinely considered them family.

And so, her lost memories grieved him, and his own powerlessness, he cursed it.

Thus, he aimed to restore Musika with his own strength.

He believed that if he brought back Musika and sought out Vinesha again, everything would return.

“No.”

Vinesha cried out toward that Grantoni.

“Grantoni, you could find Musika precisely because you sought her more than anyone.”

Vinesha spoke, wanting him to know at least that.

Hearing her words, Grantoni fell silent for a moment.

The figures of Grantoni and Vinesha blurred at once, vanishing.

All to return to the real world.

“Heh heh.”

Soon after, Grantoni clicked his teeth and chuckled hollowly.

“Tell Musika, beforehand, that I looked coolest when I was searching for her.”

Time had passed since Musika’s death.

And so, even the taciturn Grantoni had become rather slick.

“My little sister, I won’t give her up.”

And Vinesha, likewise.

Grantoni and Vinesha, weeping and laughing together, vanished.

Long ago, a fissure had formed in their emotions.

This was the moment that gap between them was finally filled.