Chapter 13

Journey's End

"What's wrong?" Akinobu asked, stopping. Everyone else stopped also.

Shigeto looked up from the book, his grim face apparent.

"Some new writing appeared," he explained. "It talks about some King of Shadows? That he's here, or somewhere around here."

"Sounds edgy," said Akinobu.

"Scary…" Rei said in a fading tone.

"Don't worry, we'll protect you!" said the boys in perfect unison. The boys fiercely stared at each other, and then laughed.

Rei looked around, looking for any signs of disturbance, and kept her ears open to the spoked woods. For now, she only heard the birds and some nearby stream. Though she didn't want to admit it, her heart and breathing would have told a different story from what her composure was telling. And she had every right to feel as she did. Shigeto, as stupid as he may seem, was right most of the time, his accuracy varying slightly depending on his ability to translate the riddle-like texts. Essentially, if the Prophecy Book said so, it was so.

"Does it say whether this King of Shadows is dangerous?" Rei asked.

"Hmmm…" Shigeto turned to the next page, only to find it blank. "Doesn't really say anything. Just says he's ahead. I think it'd be good if we don't let our guards down though."

"I'll create some scouts," Akinobu said.

He snapped off a leaf from a tree and held the leaf on his palm. The leaf twitched, then started folding in a complex pattern, eventually turning into something as sleek as an airplane and shaped a little like a crane.

He whispered something to the leaf and let it flutter off into the woods. Satisfied, he snapped off four more leaves and did the same to them as he had their predecessor.

"With this, they'll look around us to see whether anyone's there," Akinobu said, proudly. "It's got thermal vision too. And if it sees anyone, they'll fly over to me."

"Oooh," Rei awed, clapping to add to the effect. Akinobu bowed.

Shigeto was starting to feel the corner of his lip tugging southwards, but he couldn't reveal his hidden cards just yet. He needed to wait. For it.

Rei knew that Shigeto had something else other than his book, but she pretended not to. Sure, Rei wasn't really a combat type, being a seductress being her power, but her perception was as sharp as obsidian. However, the brains also need the brawns. Sure, she was faster and stronger than the average Joe, but she still needed the two dummies at her side to keep her safe from the not-uncommon monsters that roamed this world.

The trio walked on, eventually seeing their far-off target village through the cracks of the trees.

"We're almost there," Akinobu said. "Everyone, let's stay vigilant and—"

Suddenly, the tree by the group rustled. Rei stood still while Akinobu and Shigeto rounded about her. Akinobu picked up a strand of weed, stretched it and twisted it into a deadly javelin; Shigeto equipped the rings he'd scavenged on a side quest, away from the party. He readied himself, preparing to use them to boost the defense of his armor and offense of his summoned weapons.

Whoosh!

THUD.

As soon as the rustling stopped Akinobu collapsed, flopping down on his knees, then to the ground face-down. Shigeto and Rei stared at the unconscious boy and circled around, trying to get a grasp on the attacker and defend against them. Shigeto gripped his teeth, summoning two swords onto both hands, and other weapons to float by his being, ready to send them flying as soon as something came out from the trees.

The world around Shigeto jarringly cut to black and his strengthless body fell forwards.

Rei dashed to the village, their destination, at blinding speed, trying to submit herself to the safety of the folks living there. Her breath turned ragged as fear gripped on her psyche. Her heart drummed, both from the terror and the speed at which she was traveling.

And then she stopped. A sharp pain impacted with the back of her head. Her eyes rolled up, lids rested, and she uttered a single exhalation before she finally dropped unconscious. Right before she slid down the path face-first, something caught her by the back of her shirt.

A tall, grayish coat phased into being in an oily swirl. A tall Asian man stood the unconscious girl, who was in his grip.

He slung her over on one shoulder, grabbed the two boys by their shirt's shoulder, and walked through a purple opening in space-time he'd just opened up. As the man entered, the background cut to black. He tossed the three onto the misty, black ground and let them be swallowed up by the darkness. He stood by for a while before going to his sister.

Jinwoo sent other shadows around the world, trying to find where the elusive Haruto was. But still, no sign.

Returning back to his original world now, without Haruto, carried too much of a risk of failure because of the extreme time dilation between the two worlds, so he decided to stay here until he could pick up a scent on him.

For the time being, he decided to go into the Realm of Eternal Slumber and wait until his Shadows found him.

Weeks passed, no news from his Shadows.

Jinwoo stayed with his sister and her friend in the apartment he'd created. The world outside was greener than the greenest grass, sky bluer than any sky the three have ever seen. The air was never stuffy, and the outside was never hot nor cold. Just a warm day with a cool breeze.

But one day, it was done.

Haruto was located.

"Please, at least spare the children!"

Mercilessly, a teenage boy cut down the woman in front of him. Her useless shovel dropped with a thunk. He moved towards the door behind her and broke it open.

BAM!

The door flew off its hinges, hitting the dining table. Haruto looked around and opened up his ears, listening for any small disturbance.

He heard a small sob right in the closet.

Haruto rushed to the location and swung open the door. Three small girls, at most ten years, the smaller two younger. The eldest widened her eyes in fear, her breathing starting to get erratic. The second oldest gripped the back of the closet, trying to, fruitlessly, gain as much distance from him as she could. Haruto raised his blade, gifted to him by the god who had saved him, and swung down.

Slick!

A sickening sound resounded from the blade as the three girls were bisected, mercifully killed in an instant.

However, Haruto felt nothing, even as the upper halves slid down ever so slightly. In the service of a mad god, different from his savior, who is also under her service, there was nothing he could do other than to carry out her orders. Her current orders being to kill any living human that he crossed paths with. A truly omnipotent god of this world, probably matched only by the Great Sage himself; no one could defy her lest they desired they entire being to never have existed.

Blood and guts flowed down the floor as the dead fell limp, collapsing on its no longer stiff body. Haruto took a glance at the grisly sight and walked away, feeling no more sicker than when he came into the house. He checked the other areas of the house before walking out and moving on to the next people.

So many running people, he thought. This is going to be such a pain.

Haruto stretched out his wings and flew to the nearest person, cutting him down as smoothly as one would pass through a pillar of water. He spotted a woman some distance away. He flew and stabbed her between her vertebrae and out her lung. The woman gasped before falling over, dying in pain as she gurgled her last breaths. The beastman moved on to a man and decapitated him. It was a little messy so he had to contend with the hassle of dodging the blood coming to him. He wanted to avoid the sticky substances touching him as much as possible.

The boy flicked his blade to get rid of any liquid blood on it. He then wiped the blade, in one simple motion, through the sleeved pits of his elbow. He finished killing everyone in the village. Now, it was time to hunt down those trying to escape into the woods.

As Haruto turned to the forest, he glimpsed someone in between the houses. The figure was a tall Asian man, calmly strolling across the corpse-ridden village, looking at each corpse as he did so. As per order, Haruto flew to the man, his sword pointed to stab.

The sword broke as soon as contact was made to his chest, the clothes not even ripping. The figure didn't move an inch, neither did he flinch.

That man was definitely an Otherworlder. But to have a sword break on contact… not even Haruto could achieve such a feat, even with his current boost in power.

The man, before Haruto could even react, grabbed the boy's face and slammed him into the ground. The ground around the two exploded, dirt and rock fleeing the premises faster than an avalanche, the empty and burning houses flying off from the ground.

Haruto was still conscious, but barely. He tried to claw at the man's wrist, but the skin was unbreakable, as was his grip on the boy's face.

The figure lifted the Japanese up and threw him into the ground. The Earth shook, rocks and dirt evacuated the premises once again, carving the crater even deeper. Haruto couldn't breathe, couldn't move even. His body just trembled in pain and shock.

Jinwoo, the figure, used his mana hand and repeatedly slammed the mass killer into the ground, holding back just enough to not kill the boy.

Haruto was thrown in the air. Midair, the trees, the grass, the wooden and brick houses, everything vanished in a blink, faster than a phone could turn off. Everything vanished into a void, in which only himself and the man were the occupants of.

In an instant, the man appeared right in front of him.

Jinwoo laid his hand on the boy's forehead and looked through his memories. He sifted through memories of Japan, his training and his family. His objectives, his goals, his school, he sifted past them all. Events after the mindwipe, how he managed to survive the nuclear explosion and…

Jinwoo ever-so-slightly trembled when he saw it, his eyes darting as if he were trying to avoid a display of horror right in front of him. His breathing gave out, and his composure cracked.

Omnipotent gods, able to effortlessly transition from space-time to space-time, able to breach dimensions. To bend infinite worlds of worlds to their will; past, present, and future. Infinitely much stronger than the Shadow Monarch himself when they were able to erase universes with a single thought. Their powers were infinite, as long as they thought so. Even their subordinates had the ability to change the nature of the things around them to an incredible degree.

This world's logic is insane! Jinwoo thought to himself. Such a system cannot, SHOULD not exist!

The Shadow Monarch had considered killing everyone who had had a hand in the summoning of his world, but after seeing what Haruto had seen of this world, he reluctantly decided to perish all thought of it. His life was not his own as of now. He had people depending on him, he had to return the egomaniacal children back home. He needed to save his sister. He needed to see her again.

Jinwoo walked away as the black, solid void of the space melted around Haruto. The blackness bulged up as it trickled upwards on the student's body, before swallowing him whole and dragging him to the infinite depths below. From the outside, the bulge seemed to deflate, as if the body had just turned into thin air. That is, if you could see black from black.

Jinwoo took out the teleportation stone and charged it up, his work finally complete. A yellow glow swirled around him while air whipped upwards, knocking his hair this way and that way. With a breath, he blinked.

Sage Sion laid on her bed, pondering. Her summoning was a failure. Not one was strong enough to be a Sage. Not one. For the survivors of the Sage tournament, and those outside, she didn't even bother with them. Disappointments, every single one of them. And when she'd finally decided to turn them into mana-batteries, they had already disappeared. They probably died, but who knows.

News of a rampaging god and her subordinates also reached her ears, as well as the observations of Yuuichi. Being a god as powerful as herself, the UEG (as she called herself, standing for "Ultimate Extermination God"), the Sages had expected Grandfather to call them to help eliminate the threat, or that he'd finally make an appearance. Things everyone forced Van, the Great Sage's blood grandson, to ask. Disappointingly, Van shared to the others that the Great Sage wouldn't be doing anything and that he recommended to all of the other Sages to do nothing as well. Probably for his entertainment.

However, at some point, Grandfather would have to intervene and oppose the UEG. Leaving the Earth devoid of humans would severely hamper the god's enjoyment of the world, leading him to reset the Earth to before the UEG was freed, and ultimately destroying her. The question of how far he would let her rampage go on was another question entirely. If he deems the rampage entertaining, he might as well leave her alone until she achieves her objective.

Sion sighed and looked up into the ceiling, before sitting up when she heard Yuuichi come into the room with some tea.

Sage Alice, the size, figure, and appearance of a child, walked around the room.

"Whatever," Alice told herself, snapping out of her reverie. "It'll work, I'll show them. I'll show them all."

Alice concentrated and poured in a little more effort than she'd normally use for creating objects out of thin air in her worlds. Since it wasn't for her world, but for the creation of a summoning circle and the search for people that would come out of it.

Sage Alice looked through the worlds close enough to summon and mentally swept through them as if the air in front of her were some interface filled with Tinder profiles. Eventually, one caught her eye.

Hmm… interesting, she thought.

Sion messed up with her most recent flop of a summoning, producing no Sages at all. But Alice would succeed. She was handed the role by Van, with Yoshifumi agreeing without much opinion, during a meeting to discuss Simon's punishment, everyone else reluctantly deeming her the best fit for the job.

For training, instead of leaving them to their devices most of the time and letting them laze around bars or in inns, Alice decided that she would have her Otherworlders train in a world of her own making. To train them without respite, without a moment's slack. In her Another Kingdom, they wouldn't die from lack of sleep, but they'd still feel the pain of it, at first. As well as the pain of being chopped up and sliced by her soldiers, the pain as the teeth of her monsters digs down into their bodies, the extraordinary agony they'd be in when they get caught by a pursuer in her maze and get tortured for days in an underground lair. And then getting rereleased and forced to start at the beginning of the maze, to repeat the cycle until they escape.

Though tough, her training would definitely produce the most hardened and strongest Candidates, ultra-competent and durable against any fear and pain. And the best part would be that no one would die because she could just resurrect them, unlike Sion who had all of her Candidates killed all at once. Unlike Sion, no waste would be produced in Alice's training, material nor populace.

Though they may hate her at first, her Candidates will thank her once they become full-fledged Sages and obtain the immeasurable power she and the others shared.

Oh yes, she'd no longer be seen as a brat, but as the Sage to create the most Sages, and the most powerful, maybe even revered and admired. Especially with this world which she'd selected for summoning.

Little did the Sage know, her immaturity and over-ambition would lead to the summoning of a race of creatures so grand but so terrifying, and so omnipotent that not even the Great Sage could handle them. Creatures who wore the skin of men, but were of entities whose scales not even the omnipotent could comprehend.

No one could.

And after this fateful summoning, by the Otherworld's time, the Celestial Foundation of the Sages, as well as all those who resided within, and the collateral of yet another countless worlds around it would be dematerialised in a week's time.

But that's a story for another time.

OO HIGH SCHOOL, JAPAN

A black mist swirled amidst the room and disappeared, revealing the Shadow Monarch, Sung Jinwoo.

"Welcome back, Monarch of Shadows," greeted Smith. "Have you managed to… find everyone?"

Smith observed as Jinwoo's face became sullen, his eyes dropping to the floor. The Shadow Monarch pulled the translation bracelets from his arm and pocketed them into his overcoat.

"Only seven students."

Smith's eyes widened behind his tinted glasses. So many casualties…

"Did you… see them?"

"No, they were gone by the time I came."

"I see."

"How are your guys going to handle this… case?"

Smith looked around the empty classroom, thinking about whether the Shadow Monarch would like the cover up. He looked into the black outside, covering both the classroom entrance and the windows, a result of the dimensional gap they created to not disrupt the students.

"We have decided to make it a pipe bomb incident," Smith said with gentleness. "We will simulate the damages a pipe bomb would make in the classroom, like destroying the desks and chairs, creating blast marks in the vicinity, as well as creating viscera to scatter the scene. Cadaver clones of the students will of course be used for the gory effects. In short, we're going to blow up the classroom."

Jinwoo looked up, grimly pursing his lips. "What about the survivors?"

"You can leave your sister and her friend outside. But I'd recommend leaving the others behind. We'll make sure that they'll receive only minor scratches."

"I'll have to wipe their memories again first. But, what about my sister?"

"You don't have to for your sister and her friend, if you want. Or even the other survivors. The decision is yours, Monarch of Shadows."

"I'm sorry your stay in Japan had to be like this," Tomochika said, taking her friend's hand into hers. "Please, don't think of us too badly."

Jinah smiled with the utmost kindness, "No, it's alright. The attacks didn't change my opinion of Japan. It's still a cool place, with people that were nice to me. We were just unlucky."

"Thank God!" Tomochika sighed, "We'll keep in touch?"

"Yes."

"A lot?"

"Of course," Jinah said, hugging her friend tight. "I'll send you photos of Korea too."

"You better!" Tomochika said, her eyes getting wet and her voice trembling. "See ya."

"Yes."

Tomochika pulled away from her friend and stood back, letting Jinah's host family get the time to say farewell to Jinah.

Looking from the back, the scene looked beautifully picturesque. Jinah standing by the front of the zigzagging line barriers to the opening leading to the terminal, as if she were a mountaineer waiting and slightly reluctant to leave for the peak, whose tearful eyes and flushed cheeks was looking wistfully and regretfully towards a land much familiar, despite only having been here briefly.

The white wall background, the large screen above showing the flights and the times, Ayumi (host family daughter) and Saya ( host family mother) rushing towards Jinah's outstretched arms, it all seemed so harmonious and opposed at the same time. Serene despite the clear hustle and bustle that echoed and amplified across the large airport.

She heard "We'll miss you"'s and "Sorry"'s, as well as "Love you"'s and "Keep in contact"'s. "Stay safe" was moving for her, and it must have been for Jinah as well.

A subtle buzz could be heard from Sara's pocket.

"Is that yours?" asked Ayumi.

"Yes…" the mother answered.

She fished for her phone and pulled it out. She slowly turned it over and there, on the screen, was a contact named, "Dear". Saya's eyes widened and she quickly accepted the call, simultaneously putting the phone to her ear.

After a few words, the screen was changed to a video call, the background noise of the caller significantly increased in volume.

"Hello, can you hear me?" asked the caller.

He was clearly a middle-aged man, with shocks of white hair and a receded hairline. Around late-thirties (though Tomochika was surprised to learn from Jinah that he was actually in his late-forties and that Saya had just turned fifty a week prior), he barely had any wrinkles. Someone Tomochika had never seen but in photos back in the house JInah was staying in, where she, Jinah, and Ayumi met and played sometimes. Jinah herself only talked to this person twice, since he was a very busy person.

"Hi Jinah! How are you doing?"

"Japan was great! Well…"

"Ah, yeah… sorry. I'm sorry you had to go through all this," Youji apologized, scratching the back of his neck in awkwardness.

"It is alright," Jinah said, beaming once more. "Your family was wonderful to be with, so I have more good, uh, memories than bad!"

"Thank goodness," the father of the host family said, resting his eyelids and smiling. "I hope you miss us when you get to Korea!"

"I will."

"Hahaha, good, good. Well, have a nice flight back and I hope we see each other again, someday!"

"I will be back soon, Youji-san!" Jinah said, meaning every word of it.

"Alright! Don't forget to call Ayumi-chan sometime. She gets lonely so easily!"

"Dad!" shouted Ayumi from the side, her cheeks fading to red.

"Sorry, I'm a little busy so I don't think I can say good-bye with the others. Have a nice trip home!"

Toot, toot, toot.

Once everyone had their piece to say, Jinah gripped the handle of the suitcase and entered the line, entering the maw of the corridor to the terminal, and, ultimately to her flight. She looked back towards Tomochika, Ayumi, and Saya. She waved, and the trio waved back.

Right before she turned back, she saw a familiar blonde-haired girl running to her. It was Ayaka Shinozaki.

"Ayaka-chan!?" Jinah exclaimed. Though they were friends, Ayaka was more of a loner type in her opinion and wasn't well liked by others. So they'd only hung out during school.

"Jinah-chan!" Ayaka shouted back. Right by the line barrier, Shinozaki stopped.

"You better call me when you get home, Jinah-chan!" said the girl, tears starting to drip down her cheeks.

"I will!" Jinah promised. The Korean girl waved for the last time and turned, her figure shrinking and shrinking before disappearing as she turned a corner.

The group was silent, and an awkwardness pervaded the air around them.

"Um," started Saya, turning to Ayaka, "how did you come here?"

"I rode on the train and the bus," the foreign girl responded.

"I see… you will need to wait for another one to come, won't you?"

"Uh… not long, but…"

"Well that's great! Would you mind if I took you home?"

Ayaka shifted a little, her lips were pursed and her cheeks started to flare.

"No," said Ayaka. "I don't think I'll mind."

FOUR HOURS LATER,

INCHEON AIRPORT, SOUTH KOREA

Jinah felt very rested. Yes, she had to wait an hour and a half to get to her flight. Yes, the Economy Class seats were just as comfortable as before, meaning just serviceable. But binging movies she'd downloaded, movies recommended by her friends from Korea and Japan, playing online mobile games with Ayaka, reading a book, the time she spent during those four hours were great. She even finished her school report on Japan during the flight.

And with the short distance between Japan and Korea, she didn't have to board late at night. She boarded at like four in the afternoon and came at six-thirty. It was a fine trip.

As Jinah moved to the baggage claim area, she started to miss the friends she made. in Japan, as well as her teachers. It was terrible when almost all of their class, her teacher, and the substitute teacher were killed.

She remembered being summoned to the cursed cool green meadows of the Otherworld, the demonic porcelain goddess who killed the substitute teacher, the monster-infested woods she and Tomochika had to fight off and survive in… it was all so much.

Then her brother came, from across space and time, with abilities she could have never thought of him having. Her brother, a god in human skin. But still, nonetheless, her brother.

After some rest at home, JInah planned to visit Jinwoo to get the explanation which was deserving of.

For the fake bus accident she wasn't there, but she was for the simulated pipe-bomb explosion. The technology, planning, and material required had hurt her head throughout the time she was watching. Of course, she and Tomochika (who also remembers her time there) only got permission to watch because of their connection to Jinwoo.

After the "terrorist attack", the students found in the classroom (Haruto Ootori, Akinobu Marufuji, Rei Kushima, Shigehito Mitadera, and Ayaka Shinozaki) were found with minor burns and a few scratches. Except, Haruto was found with a concussion, a second degree burn on his arm and then some scratches.

Maybe a calculation in the planning was a little off the mark?

All five were taken to the hospital. Jinah and Tomochika said that they were in the bathroom together to explain the lack of injuries and filth on their bodies.

The school was closed down until further notice, and everyone still alive in class was given a two week holiday. And until further notice, the school was closed and all other students were transferred to a sister school (that almost no one knew existed, and which happened to be Ayumi's school). The higher ups and teachers at school did consider remote education an option, but thought that minimizing disruptions would be the best (a reason that no one in school could understand).

Jinah was waiting at a bench with her suitcase by her side, eyeing at the entrance for any sign of her parents.

She had just finished eating some sundubu (spicy tofu stew) before sitting down, so she was still pretty full. She blankly scrolled through her Instagram feed, and then her YouTube Shorts feed. She occasionally texted her friends, Korean and Japanese.

The phone switched to faint grey and started to vibrate, a red and green circle appearing on the bottom of the screen as the screen itself suddenly switched to a bright tone. It was a photo of her brother.

Jinah accepted the call.

"Yeah?"

"I'm coming to pick you up," spoke her brother's voice. "Be there in ten minutes."

"Wait, I thought Mom and Dad were coming…?"

"I told them that I wanted to talk to you for a bit, since we hadn't been able to talk much over the past few years."

"Uh-huh, yeah," Jinah smugly said, smirking at the explanation. "Over the past few years, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"Is Hae-in unnie* coming with you?"

(honorific for an older girl/sisterly figure)

"No, it's just the two of us."

Jinah paused, her phone still by her ear. He was definitely going to explain things to her.

Jinah and Tomochika rejected the offer to have their memory erased. She still wanted to be in the right mind to be able to get the explanation out of Jinwoo. What happened the first time the class was summoned, who summoned her, and how they returned everyone the first time round.

As well as how Jinwoo got his powers, and who the people he was working with were.

And what the heck was going on with Ayana's body, something she needed to know.

"You better tell me the things you promised to tell me," said Jinah, demandingly.

"I will," Jinwoo promised.

"In the car?"

"Yup, in the car."

"Alright, see ya then."

Jinwoo signed off first, and Jinah slackened her body on the beach, realizing that her limbs had been stiff the whole time.

She leaned on the elevated handle of the suitcase and dozed off.

She wondered whether Ayaka remembered anything. She'd better add that to the "questions list" too.

Her eyes slowly dropped, and she could feel the enveloping darkness start to dawn on the busy airport. The noise of people talking and coming and going became more and more distorted, and her vision became less focused.

Jinah blinked.

When she opened her eyes, she was a person standing in front of her. She felt a hand touching her shoulder.

Jinah suddenly sat up and stared at the person. It was Jinwoo. She turned and looked at the time on the screen of the airport: it had been exactly ten minutes after their call.

"Welcome back to Korea," Jinwoo said, grabbing onto his sister's arm.

Using his body as support, Jinah stood up, grabbing her suitcase in her free hand.

The siblings waltzed out of the revolving door and started to walk to Jinwoo's car, a black Hyundai sedan, last year's model. It was pretty far, so they made up the silence with some talk about Jinwoo's police work and JInah's stories of her stay in Japan. Stories of catching criminals and dealing a language barrier in school were exchanged,

Jinwoo remotely unlocked the car and sat in the driver's seat, Jinah the passenger's seat.

The air immediately dissipated, take on somber and serious pressure.

As Jinwoo turned on the engine, Jinah sat still, staring at her brother, waiting in anticipation.

The car, after turning on, rolled out of the vast parking lot and into the highway. Traffic was a little slow at first, but eventually evened out, turning spacious in the end.

As the two siblings observed the ever-approaching road and the already dark sky, Jinwoo began, his face lit up by the small lights coming from the dashboard amidst the darkness.

"Soooo, where do you want to start?"

"What about your powers?" Jinah asked. "I think that's the one we, as family, really need to discuss."

"Look," Jinwoo said, "I can tell you what happened, but I can also show you what happened. It's basically the reverse of a mindwipe. I can show you my memories of the events. I mean, if I tell you, you will have a hard time believing—"

"Oh, just tell me!" Jinah snapped, tired of the stepping-around Jinwoo was performing.

"Alright," Jinwoo said, shrugging. "I warn you, it might sting a little. Touch my hand."

Jinah located the hand resting on the cabinet with her vision. With his warning, she felt a little reluctant, scared of what horrors she might find in his head. She took a breath in, and exhaled. She steeled herself and closed her eyes. Her left hand moved on top of her brother's hand.

Struck by a psychic energy, the shock of the compressed information seemingly electrified the girl. She saw her brother's trials and victories, as well as her own. Her brother's story intertwined with hers, worlds collided, and dimensions torn asunder. Monarchs, gods, Sages, monsters, Gates, summonings—

Deaths upon deaths. Despair upon despair, and hope hand-in-hand with hope.

Jinah snapped into the back of her seat, her jaws bolted shut. Her legs, arms, and neck were tensed, and her eyes rolled back as her own memories returned to their places within the folds of the brain. Electric sparks popped, neurons connected, and her heart sprinted with all the input of emotions.

In the instant Jinah opened her eyes, the cars around them whizzed past like flies, their headlights becoming two short lines. Individuals became indistinguishable, becoming one long wall of grey on either side, with lines of light running through it. Looking forwards, the highway looked infinite, cut with unbroken lines of white and yellow; the walls of metal converged into an infinitesimally small point, which could only be discribed as a void. The sounds of the outside became mere blowing wind.

Then, as quickly as it came, the blazing heat fizzled out, and endorphins were deployed. Her tense muscles slackened, her heart walked, and her brain developed new understandings.

The impenetrable wall trickled and cracked, eventually becoming single cars lined to a finite horizon, beneath the red light. The car Jinwoo was driving dragged and slowed to a stop, as did the others all around them. What was left was the soft vibration of the embedded engine, rumbling its soft lullaby.

With her strengths back, she looked towards her brother and smiled. And the culmination of all of this, her pain with his pain, his story and hers, was released as a gentle sigh.

Her brother looked to his sister also, concerned with her state of mind. But seeing her face, he was relieved of his worries. Jinwoo grinned back in response to his sister's gentle facial expression that showed no pity but a thing that twisted along the line of love and admiration, but was as powerful as either.

Her once pale cheeks were filled, and her lids welled.

As her tears threatened to jump, her smile radiated like the gentle sun, shyly revealing itself from the grey clouds with which it covered itself.

THE END

Well, that was one hell of a story. Eight months on this story, and over a year ago since I've published the old fic. You know, I did say in the old one that I'd improve and add on to this story, but HOLY HELL did I put in a lot. I feel… so accomplished. Been through a lot of ups, and mostly downs, but finishing a long term project like this feels exhilarating.

Of course, you're probably wondering about whether Ayaka had her memory cleaned and about that weird and unfitting Doom Slayer side story. Well, I think they deserve to be open ended.

For Ayaka, one quality of hers I liked was the ambiguity of her humanity. Like sure, she can't ACTUALLY feel, her programming being artificial. But our emotions are triggered by complex choreographies of hormone transfers and electricity that flows throughout the nervous system and into our brain. Lorewise, Ayaka's being is so complex that most of the stuff is stored in a sub-dimension. With a body so complex, and a Personality Unit so sophisticated that it's able to completely simulate a humanity indistinguishable from the observer's, who's to say that she isn't actually experiencing it when our own experience is, scientifically, bound by our pre-existing organic programming? Basically the question of consciousness with AI and whether we can ever consider it living and truly sentient/sapient.

For the Doom Slayer, an open end just suits him with all the games he's been in. The first Doom game ends with Daisy dead and Earth ravaged, Doom 64 with Doomguy trapping Hell with him, Doom 2016 with Hayden trapping and teleporting him somewhere, and Doom Ancient Gods Part 2 with our Slayer encased in the sarcophagus that started the modern franchise. So, whether he just dies from Raiza's dimension tearing punches or gets transported back home through the dimensional tear from said punch (which will depend on the amount of plot armor you give him), your imagination is as good as anything I'll be able to write. I swear, it's not because I'm lazy.

Anyways, I'd like to give a shoutout and my thanks to Jebest4781 who stuck with me since the original fic, like YOWZA! SleepyAshOS, lots of love on your way too! And to everyone who's seen this pet project of mine but didn't comment on this, thanks for reading even a chapter of it. I'm not confident in my writing skills, but having a platform where you are able to bring to life a lingering thought feels like a superpower. It's with you guys' power of support that helped me motivate me more than if I kept writing without any linguistic proof of appreciation.

There will be people who are disappointed with no fight with the Sages and Jinwoo, as well as no appearance(s) of our boy and favorite eldritch horror, Yogiri.

For the first case, I'd like to apologize sincerely as I seriously could not see a fight happening. Jinwoo, as powerful as he is, is also very smart and compassionate. So being on a search and rescue mission, he definitely doesn't want a debacle since finding missing children comes first, especially in the crazy world the story takes place in. Also, I kind of lacked the imagination for a fight since Sion's full ability is never actually shown. She can manipulate space, but it doesn't say to what amount. She also levels up constantly, so her displays of power are kinda vague, so a fight between the two of them is anybody's guess. In the novel, the Sages just die before we grasp what they look like when they actually try. I mean, can she fold space to crumple Jinwoo into a ball? Her spatial abilities, infinite barrier strength, etc. are just too vague.

For Yogiri, I'm sure he's probably just sleeping at the back of the classroom, playing Monster Hunter whenever he wakes up, or eating when he feels like it. Yogiri's host family was probably picked out by the Institute, so they'd probably let him laze in the house. Really, he learns the value of friendship during his journey across the unknown lands, his whole journey in all of the novels. Meanwhile, in this fic, this is Jinah's journey and her own journey of a sort of revelation or enlightenment. She already knows the usefulness and personal value of friendship, seeming quite popular in her class. But this fic aimed to wake her up to the flaws and cracks that not even friendship could solve. Betrayal, indifference, discrimination, dilemmas, the patheticness of the human condition is shown to Jinah during the bus scene and the unseen parts right after her second summoning. But, she also learns that hope persists, that sometimes, friendship can overcome so much more than you could think. A lesson she found in Tomochika.

Anyways, I'll be leaving you with this one confession about the rant above: I have no fucking idea how much of it is bs I pulled from my ass and how much of it, themes and all, were actually intentional and was purposefully added in the story. Anyways, thanks for reading and commenting, and I hope you support me when I do get to start another project. Bye!

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