Chapter 246

Chapter 246
## Noble and Sublime

It was purely by accident that Isabella uncovered the “truth.”

She had simply wandered into a restricted area by mistake—a basement plunged into total darkness. In that void, where not even a flicker of light could penetrate, she encountered a woman reduced to mere skin and bone. Her hair was a matted, filthy mess, and…

Drip. Drip.

Fluid leaked from her two hollow eyes. Her pupils were lifeless, unable to focus on anything.

“You… are the ninth,” the woman whispered.

Eventually, the skeletal figure reached out a trembling hand and brushed Isabella’s cheek. Paralyzed by dread, Isabella stood frozen. She had no idea where she was or who this captive behind the iron bars could be.

“My little sister. But… you are also a failure.”

A failure? Isabella couldn’t comprehend what she had failed at.

The woman murmured a few more sentences, but her dying voice was a garbled, unintelligible mess. Only her final words were clear.

“Wait for your end on the outside. That would be… much kinder, in the end.”

The suggestion that death was a mercy.

The word “death,” spoken by a creature that bore a haunting resemblance to herself, finally forced Isabella to move.

“Do you not wish to live?”

“I long for death. But if I perish… another sister will be forced into this cell.”

*And that person will likely be you.*

The woman’s silence seemed to scream that warning. Ultimately, Isabella fled the scene immediately after hearing the approach of heavy footsteps.

*When will it be my turn?*

From that moment on, she lived in anticipation of the end. She was the ninth clone of the Dercian family, a flawed specimen who had learned the dark secret. Her fate was already sealed. She wasn’t particularly gripped by terror; in a way, she felt as though she had always been waiting for this conclusion. She was used to the icy glares and the looks of disappointment from those around her.

However, Isabella did not face execution. Instead, she was traded. She was given to the Desert Queen.

The captive in the basement had spoken the truth. Dying would have been a much kinder fate. Because the destination Isabella reached was a living nightmare.

—

In this place, the concept of day and night did not exist. It was a colossal subterranean cavern carved into Faisalmer. Within its depths, a multitude of children struggled to survive.

“Agh!”

“It burns! Please, stop!”

“Help me!”

The cries were eternal. Even though she should have grown numb to them, the sound was something she could never truly stomach.

“Did you hear? They say these tunnels lead directly to a segment of the Abyss.”

“……Sonora.”

Isabella shifted her gaze toward a girl with striking white hair. Sonora was the standout, the primary candidate to become the Queen’s successor. Strangely, she was another clone who looked exactly like Isabella.

“That’s why those who can’t adjust suffer like that before turning into hybrids. They are just pathetic creatures who couldn’t handle the Queen’s blessing.”

“……”

“But we are different. We adapted. We grew powerful. Isabella, we’re going to get out of here. Together.”

Sonora was the optimist, unlike Isabella. Though she was a bit strange, it was her only defense. Among all the children trapped there, Sonora’s demeanor was the only thing that resembled actual sanity.

But this place was a slaughterhouse. Children who couldn’t adapt mutated into monsters. Those monsters then hunted, slaughtered, and consumed the other children. To survive, the remaining children had to kill those monsters and then feast on their corrupted flesh.

*There is no light at the end of this, Sonora.*

Isabella couldn’t bring herself to say it. Even though they were identical clones, their upbringings were worlds apart. Isabella knew her origin as a clone, but Sonora remained ignorant. She simply thought they shared a lucky resemblance. Isabella was also the only one who realized they were all destined to die by the hand of the Desert Queen.

Yet, Sonora’s devotion to the Desert Queen was absolute. It made sense; to survive such a hell, one had to cling to a powerful belief, no matter how misguided.

“Guaaaaaak!”

“……Arnan. He’s finally turned.”

Arnan had managed to endure the horrors for five years. He had looked perfectly human only yesterday. Because he had held out for so long, his transformation into a monster made him terrifyingly powerful—to the point where no one but Sonora could challenge him. In a flash, the monster that was once Arnan killed and devoured five children.

Finally, Sonora drew her blade. She looked back at Isabella and offered a faint, reassuring smile.

“I’ll handle this, Isabella. You should rest.”

—

Sonora was the strongest child there—the most radiant and beautiful. Yet, even she didn’t escape unscathed from the battle with the mutated Arnan.

“That Arnan… he was tougher than he looked, wasn’t he? He was saving a trick for the end.”

Even though she had been wounded, Sonora managed a joke. She had always dismissed Arnan, taunting him to improve his skills. But Arnan had used his hidden techniques in his final moments to leave a mark on her.

“Arnan! We’ll grow stronger by consuming you. You’ll stay with us forever. I won’t forget you, I promise.”

It was a ritual that had been performed hundreds of times. The children fell upon the remains of the monster that was Arnan.

But Isabella felt a cold chill.

“Sonora. Your… your blood.”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Sonora moved quickly to hide the gash. But Isabella had seen it clearly. The blood wasn’t red. Sonora was turning; she was becoming a hybrid monster.

Despite this, Sonora smiled brightly.

“I can feel it. I think our time to leave is coming. When it does, you’re coming with me, Isabella. We’re two halves of the same soul. It’s a promise.”

—

Sonora’s health failed more with every passing sunless day. She was only staying conscious through a sheer force of magical energy that dwarfed the other children’s.

“……She has to be put down.”

“We need to kill her before the change is complete.”

“If Sonora turns fully, none of us will survive the night.”

The other children could sense the wrongness. Sonora was warping rapidly ever since her fight with Arnan.

“Have you forgotten everything? We’d all be dead if it wasn’t for her!”

Isabella blocked their path. She wouldn’t let them take Sonora. Without her friend, this place would have become a graveyard long ago.

“Move aside. We have to kill her.”

“If you stand in our way, you die with her.”

Reason was gone. The children had succumbed to madness. Perhaps Isabella herself had lost her mind as well.

*Srrr.*

Isabella gripped a hilt. It was Sonora’s sword—a blade fashioned from the ground bones of a monster. Tradition held that when your closest companion turned, you crafted a weapon from their remains. That was why Isabella didn’t have her own sword yet. Sonora’s blade had been made years ago from a friend who had lost their humanity.

If Isabella died, would Sonora carve a sword from her bones? By consuming the flesh and blood, they would remain united forever.

“Then try it. I never planned on a long life anyway.”

*I want to live on through you, Sonora.*

*My only friend… my only sister.*

—

It turned out Isabella was far more capable than she had imagined. When the red mist finally cleared from her mind, she was surrounded by a field of corpses.

“Pant, pant, pant……”

Her vision was obscured. Blood. Was it hers? When she wiped her eyes, the carnage became clear. No one was left standing. Every child was dead.

Only Isabella and Sonora remained.

“Sonora, it’s alright. We’re getting out of here.”

“Only… one person gets to leave, Isabella.”

Sonora’s voice was strained, heavy with a secret she had carried. When she looked up, her eyes were pits of solid black. Half of her was already a beast.

“Isabella. If it’s you… you’re stronger than I am. You can survive whatever comes next.”

“What are you saying?”

“Before I lose myself… kill me. I, I am…… ah.”

*Crack! Cr-crack!*

Her frame began to contort. Her neck snapped at a sickening angle, and bones began to erupt through her skin in jagged, unnatural patterns.

No. This couldn’t be happening. Sonora couldn’t be the monster. If only one person was meant to survive, it had to be Sonora.

“…I will be the one to die.”

It was only right. Isabella should perish so Sonora could see the sky. She had no attachment to her own life.

*—Wait for death outside. That will be… much kinder, in the end.*

The words of the woman in the basement echoed in her mind. She was right. Death was the mercy. Even if she escaped, her life would be a tragedy. If her death meant Sonora’s survival, that was the best possible outcome.

Isabella raised Sonora’s bone sword. She intended to end it quickly by cutting her own throat.

But just as she moved to strike—

*Static!*

The world flickered with a strange noise. Words appeared in the air before her.

**《Main Quest 1, ‘Survival’ has started.》**

**《‘Survive’!》**

And then, her consciousness faded into a void.

—

**《Main Quest 1, ‘Survival’ has started.》**

**《‘Survive’!》**

Wait, where am I?

“Wasn’t the starting zone supposed to be the desert city?”

I frowned at the monitor. The game had put me in a location that looked nothing like the desert settings I had chosen.

“And what the hell is that? Why is there a hybrid right at the spawn point?”

It was absurd. Not just a hybrid, but a high-tier variant. That’s a monster a level 1 character has zero chance against.

“…I just set this up for some quick XP. Is this why everyone says to avoid the desert city start?”

It was a death trap. If you get dropped in the Caltzman Desert, the standard advice is to delete the character and start over. The hybrid in front of me was a barrier that even a pro gamer couldn’t bypass.

I checked my inventory.

“Wait, a Rare-grade Bone Sword? Maybe the loot table is buffed because of the insane difficulty. This might actually be doable.”

If I could just land the hits, there was a path to victory. My character’s traits weren’t terrible either. Plus, the hybrid was still in the middle of its transformation.

*Crack! Cr-crack!*

I cracked my knuckles. I loved an impossible challenge.

“Let’s see what happens.”

*Click!*

I gripped the mouse, a smirk forming. It was a fight designed to be lost. A fixed point of death. But I’m the type who rewrites the script. I have a 99.9% survival rate, and I wasn’t about to let a glitchy spawn ruin it.

—

*Guaaaaaaaa—!*

After a grueling two-hour mechanical struggle, the hybrid finally toppled. It gave one last shriek before the life left it. A victory against all odds.

“Ah……”

Isabella, having relived every fragment of these memories, exhaled deeply. Memories are treacherous. When they are fractured, the mind fills in the gaps with whatever narrative makes sense. The “truth” she had clung to was a fabrication. She had lied to herself to make her existence bearable.

“I signed… a contract.”

She remembered now. The bluebird. The entity that called itself the Operator. She was going to die anyway, so she had gambled her body for a chance to keep living. At the moment her death was certain, her body was taken over. She had survived because of that deal—clinging to a hope thinner than a strand of hair.

“……Sonora.”

In the end, she was the killer. She had sacrificed her friend’s life to preserve her own. Despite her claims of wanting to die, deep down, she had been desperate to live.

Who was there to blame? Who deserved her anger? It was all the result of her own choices. Park Hyunmyeong had simply performed the task he was given to the best of his ability. He had fought for a result. No one could rightfully condemn him.

*—My sweet child. That man, Park Hyunmyeong, sealed the ‘Magic-Blood King’ inside himself just to protect you.*

Jormungandr’s voice resonated. The Desert Queen’s ultimate plan—the summoning of the Magic-Blood King! Isabella had unknowingly become the vessel for the corruption to stop the ritual.

*—Even though he restored your true name through transcendence, and even though he knew you hated him, he accepted his own demise.*

But the Magic-Blood King wasn’t summoned. It was destroyed. By Randolph. But that wasn’t Randolph’s choice—it was Park Hyunmyeong’s. Even with the full picture, he had saved Isabella. He knew she would turn her back on him once the truth came out, and he saved her anyway.

*—If Randolph perishes, Park Hyunmyeong perishes. But the Randolph standing there now isn’t Park Hyunmyeong. He is something new, or perhaps he has finally become his true self. Now… you must decide. Sacrifice yourself to save him, or let him die to save yourself.*

The moment of truth had arrived. Isabella looked at Park Hyunmyeong again. She saw his history, his essence.

*‘Noble humanity.’*

*‘Sublime spirit of challenge.’*

He was a man defined by those two core virtues. Isabella gave a small nod. Perhaps the answer had been clear from the start. She had failed once before, choosing her own life over Sonora’s.

But this time was different. This was a choice made of free will, unburdened by any contract.

“Go back. And… thank you.”

He had brought down the Desert Queen and dismantled her dark legacy. Without him, Isabella would have been lost.

Suddenly, she heard Sonora’s voice again—the voice from the moments before she died as a monster.

*—Be happy, Isabella. Promise me you’ll be happy.*

Isabella smiled. She was happy. Her time had been short, but she felt no lingering regrets.

*Saaaaa!*

Isabella’s form began to fade into the air. She was being unmade. But she was at peace. Now, she would finally see Sonora again.