Chapter 276: Her Realization
Chapter 276: Her Realization
A dark space.
"Ha..."
Stardus was floating in that weird space where she couldn't see where she was going.
Until she reached her next destination, she pondered what she had just seen.
"...."
...a world where everything was the same as her own, but somehow everything was wrong.
A world where so many catastrophes that she had succeeded in preventing, she had failed to prevent at all.
And the reason why that world, unlike her own, had fallen apart so thoroughly.
The most essential, the only difference between it and her world.
'...was that there was no Egostic.'
She muttered the thought as she was swept away, alone in the darkness, eyes closed.
A difference of only one person.
A single difference that changed the fate of both worlds.
...The villains that he had killed at will had become S-class villains who would have slaughtered thousands in the future if he hadn't.
The catastrophes he'd intervened and prevented would have come to pass without him, bringing the country to near destruction.
It was only then, when Stardus saw a world without him that she finally realized once again, how important he had been to her.
'....Egostic.'
Yes.
Thinking about it, it was only him who always came to her in times of crisis when everything seemed to be over.
As she thought about it, she remembered all the times she had been with him.
When she thought she couldn't stop the plane from falling, he called her and gave her courage.
In the basement of the HanEun Group's laboratory, he'd risked his life to take a hit for her.
When the HanEun Group came with a huge weapon, he took it and stopped them.
When the Moonlight Maiden attacked the city with a storm, he appeared at the last minute to stop her and take her away.
When the Demon King came to kill her, he appeared out of nowhere to stop him and defeat him.
In all of those moments, Egostic was always there for her when she was in a crisis.
He's even gone so far as to capture or hunt down other villains on her behalf.
Even during the Moonlight Gate incident, he'd come to her aid with his people.
She thought to herself, over and over again.
Finally, she organized her thoughts.
...Without him, millions, tens of millions, would have died.
'So... He isn't a villain?'
Without realizing it, she thought.
Terrorizing, but never harming civilians.
He's taken down other villains, saved countless lives.
...who always stood up for her when she was in danger?
Maybe he's more of a hero than a villain.
As she thought about it, she wandered through this strange space.
...So, where do I go from here? I like the idea of thinking about Egostic, but I'm not sure I can even get back to where he is.
...I hope I can go back and won't be stuck in this strange space forever.
That's what Stardus imagined but at that moment, she saw a familiar face.
...Yes. The reason why she was still alive, unlike her otherworldly self. That was it.
It was always because, in moments like this one, he had reached out to her.
'...I've relied on him a lot in my life.'
She thought to herself with a self-deprecating smile.
Why hadn't she realized it before, why had she always thought so negatively about him?
And then, at the last moment, she remembered the face of Egostic.
...But I can't help it. All these years, when I think of this, when I hope in vain, as if to prove it's not vain. As if to insist that I believe in myself- because he always appeared before me, smiling brightly, and I couldn't hate him even if I wanted to. In his presence, I felt safe.
...I miss you.
And the moment she thought that.
-Hwaak
Suddenly, before her eyes, a white light burst forth.
Startled by the suddenness of the situation, she opened her eyes and what appeared in front of her was.
"...Haha, Stardus, what are you doing here?"
Wearing a black hat with a white mask covering half of his face, wrapped in a black cloak and smirking.
She remembered...and missed.
"I'm here to save you, Stardus."
Her own villain.
Her own...Arch nemesis floating above the blackness, reaching out to her.
It was Egostic.
Seeing him like that Stardus thought, dazed.
'...You've come again, for me.'
Once again, it was always him, opening his hand to her in her hour of need.
Seeing him smile like that she thought to herself.
...You.
How could I not like you?
How could I?
How could I not like you?
Whether he knew her thoughts or not Egostic, still smiling, held out his hand to her.
"Stardus, let's go home now."
"To our home."
And looking at him like that she smiled, unable to help herself and offered him her hand.
"Yes..."
And just like that her hands and his hands finally found each other but before she could fully feel the warmth a white light erupted around them, and their forms vanished from the space.
Now it was time to return together to the home they had come from.
To their Earth.
***
"Da-in! Da-in!"
Stardus was struck by a spell cast by the Moonlight Lord, and flew through the portal.
After which she disappeared, with Egostic following her through it under the black sky, among the ruined cities, they stood in disarray.
"Hey... You bastard, what did you do!"
"Khhhh... Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
Electra's eyes glazed over as he watched the Egostic disappear before her eyes, and like lightning, she lunged at the bastard, grabbed him by the throat, and began to shake him.
He gasped for air, then opened his mouth to speak with a wicked grin.
"Hahaha... Hahahahahaha! It's too late for you guys. They will now wander the other dimension forever, where they will die, and you will never see his face again. Hahahahahahahaha!!!"
"Don't fuck with me! Get him out of here!"
"Kahahahahaha, kahahahahaha, kahahahahaha, kahahahahaha..."
Unable to contain her anger, Electra threw Moonlight Lord to the ground.
There was an ominous sense of agitation in the group surrounding him.
"...I'll never see Da-in again?"
The light in Han Seo-Eun's eyes had long since disappeared.
The other members of the group also felt an ominous intuition and began to agitate but just as they were about to collapse.
The Moonlight Lord, who had fallen to the ground and was bleeding from the mouth, looked up at them with his hands on the ground and shouted.
"Yes! It's over for good. No matter what you guys do to me, they won't be able to come back. Farewell forever! Hahahahaha!"
And with that, only the maniacal laughter of the Moonlight Lord echoed, and the rest of the group slowly spread in frustration but just then.
"...Who's not coming back?"
"Kahaha!!! Huh?"
"Ugh! Everyone, up there!"
At that moment, an oval-shaped gate of bright white light appeared in the dark sky.
From beyond, as if he had just gone to play for a while the smiling-face Egostic and Stardus, with their hands clasped together, appeared casually from beyond that aerial portal.
"Da-in!"
"Yes, I'm back. ...Luckily, I wasn't gone long."
He landed on the ground just as casually.
Turning his head, he smirked at the Moonlight Lord, who was looking up from below with his mouth open in disbelief.
"...So, was your last move a success?"
"...There's no way you could have survived the rapids of that dimension in a human body..."
"It worked, so why not? Anyway, there's nothing more to do now, is there?"
"This... this..."
As he said that, he moved his hand, telekinetically grabbing the Moonlight Lord body from thin air then casually pulling the gun out of his hand.
"Anyway, now that we're done, stop being ugly and gossipy. Oh, and..."
With that, he looked around for a camera lying off to one side, telekinetically picked it up, and smirked into the lens.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for Egostic surprise of the day. Did you all have fun dealing with the Moonlight Gates?"
"I think we'll call it a day, then."
"Goodbye, everyone!"
"You...!"
And with that, the last words of the leader.
-Bang.
With a single shot, his body collapsed into a heap.
In the next instant, dozens and hundreds of magic circles emerged from the ground and shone.
-Hua, hua, hua.
At the same time, the gates in the sky began to disappear one by one and soon, the dark moon in the sky disappeared as the sun rose.
Its white light bathed all who stood there, their shadowy figures against the city's backdrop.
The broadcast was over.
Finally, the Gate Plague of the Moonlight Church has come to an end.
*
Under the brightened sky Stardus looked up to see the side of Egostic, who was chuckling weakly.
...Stardus looked at him and thought to herself.
"...."
Eventually, he took him down himself and averted this disaster.
Thanks to him, thousands, no tens of thousands of lives were saved.
...And, not just now, but before too. Because of him, the world was saved.
Can we really call him a mere villain?
'...Hmm?'
As she thought that, she realized something.
...What if...what if...what if...what if...what if...what if...what if...what if...what if...?
'If I'm closer to him now, there's nothing wrong with that...?'
She thought to herself.
*
'It's finally over...'
After defeating the Moonlight Lord I looked up at the brightened sky again and breathed a sigh of relief.
It had taken a long time to stop the Moonlight Church and the disaster they caused.
Now I can rest easy for a while. In the original, Stardus spend a while fending off the monsters that came from the gates at the end of Phase 2, but now there's no such thing. With that event gone, there's no chance of anything happening for a while.
'...Hmm?'
I thought to myself and suddenly, I realized something.
...Seo-Eun was the boss of Phase 3 anyway, so in effect, I had already solved the biggest problem of Phase 3.
'Isn't it okay for me to retire now?'
I thought to myself.
***
[The Moonlight Gate crisis, which began in South Korea, has finally come to an end.]
[The world's major nations are now reportedly doing their best to deal with the remaining monsters and post-war reconstruction of the cities...]
[A live video broadcast by South Korea's A-list villain, Egostic, has garnered tens of millions of views and tremendous interest from overseas...]
[[Exclusive] Stardus and Egostic promoted to S-class Hero and S-class Villain respectively]