"And...how do you plan for Anser to defeat a being like...Randy?" The young editor asked, while holding in his hands the first draft; recently finished by Jeon Kwonoo. "The ending you came up with...I don't feel it's the right one, you know...I mean, it's not that it's a cliché! It's more like...something very predictable?"
Yes, predictable might be the right words. "…" Jeon Kwonoo knew it. However, isn't an ending where the protagonist is happy after the darkness what everyone wants? "Randy Bornman is arrogant, egocentric, and doesn't care about anyone, especially after murdering Joakim Hans...it's only fair that he gets an easy death because of his arrogance."
"Yes, and that's the same formula that other writers in this genre often use…" Do-Woo said. "What if…you make another draft?"
Make.
Ah, that's right, that's the power of a writer after all, to bring the impossible of fiction into the world through words.
"Eh? In this draft...Can Randy remember all his past lives? Isn't that...an inconvenience for the protagonist?"
And yet another draft.
Another one, another one, another one, and another one…
Each deleted creation felt like a blow to Jeon Kwonoo. Why couldn't his protagonist have a happy ending?
"…"
A true ending.
Not a happy one, not a sad one.
A real one.
"…"
He reached this point by sacrificing what would actually be his story. He could no longer go back to that first draft, he could no longer remedy what he had done. Both for the story and for his life.
Happiness comes at a high price, but how great must the sacrifice for happiness be?
If happiness is everything...is it fair to risk everything for happiness? What would happen if happiness were to disappear? That is Jeon Kwonoo's fear, a being for whom happiness always comes with an expiration date.
And he doesn't want that for his protagonist.
So he keep writing.
***
"The smell of blood is stronger around here." July 14 commented, jumping over several fallen logs. "Plus, it smells like burnt meat…"
Frederick walked behind July 14, with a mana shotgun in his right mana arm. "…" For some reason, Frederick had a bad feeling.
They arrived at the heart of a destroyed forest.
Bodies scattered everywhere, blood that stained the green grass red...or at least, that's what they thought; the blood had turned black.
Frederick kicked one of the men in the head; he was one of the zombies. Or so he thought. "…"
"Frederick!" July 14 screamed, who was near what appeared to be the mark of an explosion. "I think...I found…"
"You found?" Frederick walked towards July 14, making his mana shotgun disappear. "Speak clearly, I can't understand your—"
"It's Liam!"
And suddenly, as he stood next to July 14, and looked at the scene beside him...
That smell of burnt meat actually belonged to Liam. To Liam Yoon Hee. Their partner in adventure. July 14 left the scene and went to vomit in a place free of corpses. Frederick stared too intently at the scene; the remains of a burnt bottle, and traces of blood passing over a part of Liam's body. However, the most remarkable thing is that her head had been destroyed.
He didn't bother calling July 14. He knew the scene was too much for him. To think that they saw each other less than an hour ago...and to see her in this state...
Frederick removed his hood and placed it on top of Liam's body, then carried it with his left arm and followed the trail of blood.
"…" He was worried that Gene had run away; for some reason, he suspected she had something to do with the lights in the sky they had seen earlier.
On the trunk of a tree he found a bloodstain, as well as a spear.
"Frederick!" July 14's scream made him turn around immediately; the poor devil looked like a wet dog, hungry and cold, trembling and with tears in his eyes. Frederick never thought he'd see him so scared. "Where are you going?"
Frederick looked at him for another moment, then turned his gaze back ahead. "Gene."
He knew that July 14 already knew what he meant, so he went around the tree and found…dead insects and rats.
When a witch died, she left behind remnants of her familiar. Gene's familiar was a wolf, but, having consumed several witches, she had more than one familiar.
Gene was dead too. Or at least that's what the markings of 'undesirable' animal remains suggested. Although, in reality, for Frederick, the most undesirable thing was a human being, not innocent animals.
"…She also died."
And July 14 clenched his fists. "Why couldn't we have come sooner?"
"It was their responsibility. Not ours."
The neutral tone he used to say it suddenly enraged July 14. "What the hell is wrong with you, you idiot?! Didn't you care about them?! What kind of bastard are you?!" He approached him, his steps leaving fire marks behind him.
"That's why it was their responsibility," He insisted. "They were responsible for their own lives, and for our feelings."
July 14 stopped. "…" He frowned. "What does it mean?"
"At least they died knowing they fulfilled their part of the responsibility entrusted to them. Perhaps they didn't die in peace, and for that reason, I want them to take our love with them."
Frederick is a difficult person to understand. That's probably what July 14 thought. Since he still couldn't understand humans, much less Frederick.
"You're weird."
Then Frederick turned to look at July 14, and then he smiled at him. "I'm sorry, I know it was very confusing for you..." Was it strange? Perhaps. Still, coming from Frederick, who was a novice in those matters. "…It's just that I thought they'd be okay. I'm truly feeling the same things you're feeling right now. Sadness, anger, frustration... but once they're gone... we can only hope they pass on peacefully."
July 14 looked at him.
"…" He was a demon. He had no reason to feel sorry for a human like Frederick. And Frederick didn't feel it towards a demon like July 14 either. Right? "Human, I—"
But July 14's instincts made him grab Frederick and jump to the side, hitting himself against a tree.
A flash of light passed by where they had been standing.
"There's still one here." Frederick confirmed, letting go of July 14, and then, looking around; it wasn't just one, another was hidden up in a tree, and he had a bow. "There's an archer too!"
July 14 threw a fireball at the archer in the tree. At the same time, Frederick shot the man who threw the burst of light at them, managing to kill him.
The archer covered himself from the fire with his hood, then jumped out of the tree and ran away. "Don't run away, coward!" And July 14 ran after him.
"Oi! Wait!" Frederick said, running after July 14. "Don't do it...don't be an idiot! What if he's leading you into a trap, you moron!" But July 14 increased his speed, and Frederick could no longer catch him. "Damn it!" He looked behind him, where the other man's body lay. He settled Liam on his shoulder and went over to the body of the man he had killed; once there, he searched the body for a usable weapon.
His hand felt something...strange. And by strange, he realized it was a bomb. "…!" He quickly moved away from the body when he saw the clock was still running.
The bomb detonated, and Frederick managed to take cover behind a tree with Liam's body.
In the end, Frederick was right; that guy had a bomb...what about the guy July 14 went chasing? "That idiot!" So, he quickly got up from the tree and went in the direction he had run off in on July 14.
I had to stop him. If that bomb the other guy was carrying contained any pure energy... July 14 would definitely die! Demon hearts can't come into contact with pure energy!
_
At some point, they arrived at the base of a mountain.
The man they had been chasing on July 14 entered a damp, abandoned cave, which was also quite narrow.
July 14 frowned, angry. "Damned cowardly bitch..." However, he suddenly smiled; if this was his hideout...he would surely kill a lot of these guys. "Ready or not...here I go..."
His body turned into a burst of fire, and he entered the narrow tunnel. It was at some point where he managed to reach the end of it. Once he reached the end of the tunnel, his body returned to normal, he lit a green flame on his finger, and looked around.
On the walls there were marks, not animal marks, but rather...blood marks; texts written in blood.
July 14 was never a reading fanatic, or someone who was an expert at reading, but he knew enough to understand what it was written.
"Huh? 'These are the thorns of the rosebush...thorns that hurt those who love...and the flower is only seen by those deluded souls who believe they will obtain the most beautiful thing, while we are the ones who cut ourselves obtaining the rose'…" Then, on the right side of the wall, the text continued. "…'Red is love, passion, life...but it's also intense hatred, blood, violence'..." He looked around for the other part of the text; there was nothing on the walls next to him, but then he thought to look up, and there, the end of the message continued. "…'So, if I give you a red rose...what meaning will you give it? Love? Hate? Passion? Violence? Life? Blood? Or will you simply let it wither away?'…"
July 14 stared at the text for a few more seconds. What did it mean?
"This is stupid! We're in the middle of a war...and we have these messages?!" Although, he had to admit that he was thinking about the question. If July 14 were given a red rose, what would they meant to say to him? "Perhaps the girls, Liam and Gene...meant to say that they loved me…the boys, Enver, Yanshan, Amina, Ballerina and Hyung, passion...Frederick and Anser will surely live...Marco will be violence, of course..." But he was missing one. "Ji Noo…" He thought. He really didn't know what he would say. "…"
Ji Noo wasn't an optimistic person, at least that's how it seemed to July 14. He was always still, thinking about who knows what. He could be sure that Ji Noo would give him a rose, to communicate his hatred.
"But hatred of what?" Ji Noo didn't really seem that uncomfortable having July 14 with him. "Hatred of his...own creation?"
That was correct.
"The message depends on the person...no, it depends on what I think of the person. Liam might hate me, but I believe she's giving me the rose out of love..." So, the answer is… "I'd simply accept the rose! To hell with them trying to tell me what that mean when I already know the guys. Just figuring it out should be enough! That's a really hard question to answer!"
July 14 didn't want to think about it. Since he didn't know the answer. And he wasn't interested, but the one who wrote it cared about what meaning he would give it.
Does a red rose mean hate, or love? Why can't it mean both? Can't I hate you while I love you? Or, can't I love you while I hate you?
Is the answer complex? Of course, it depends on the person. That's why July 14 doesn't overthink it; he's just a demon, a being who doesn't pay much attention to life and only thinks about killing.
And yet, a human wouldn't overthink it either, perhaps saying; 'it means both' just to escape the doubt and continue being busy, forgetting about the life around them. Even in this world, people forget to live, and only worry about surviving as long as they can.
It's sad. Because that means the red rose will always mean two things, since nobody cares to give it a fixed meaning.
"You're that demon...aren't you?" A voice behind July 14 made him turn around; it was the man he was chasing. "This place...is sacred."
July 14 just snorted, and in the blink of an eye, he thrust his hand through the man's chest and threw him aside. "You destroyed the most sacred thing in my life; my two best friends...!"
A blessed bullet pierced his arm, and made him discover that there were more hidden inside the cave.
«Idiots.»
That's what July 14 thought as he killed each one of them with his own hands.
Meanwhile, Frederick could barely catch his breath when he reached the entrance of the cave. "…" In part, it was thanks to detecting the impure energy of July 14 that he was able to get here, however...he still didn't know what was inside the cave.
Before entering, he took a step back; indeed, the cave was inside a mountain, but, besides that...it was obvious that the poor mountain wouldn't hold up if July 14 delivered one of his powerful demonic blows inside the cave.
He left Liam's body by the cave entrance, and then set out to go in and look for July 14; upon entering, the smell of sulfur greeted him, so he immediately covered his nose with a handkerchief. He tried to go deeper into the cave in search of July 14; the more he walked, the stronger the smell of sulfur became.
"July! Where the hell are you?! Get out of here! This place stinks of poison! Oi!" Although of course, he was sure that the fool July 14 wouldn't have noticed.
But when he saw some green lights, he knew it was July.
He hurried, making his shotgun disappear, and managed to pull July 14's tail. July 14 shuddered, and turned to look at him. "Frederick!" But when he saw him covering his face with a handkerchief, he blinked, confused. "I killed the last few guys left...and why are you covering your—"
But as soon as Frederick heard the word 'kill' he immediately grabbed July 14's hand, and ran with him out of the narrow cave, having to duck, and making his escape difficult. "Those guys have a hidden bomb in their bodies! Bombs with pure energy capable of killing you!"
July 14's eyes opened. He realized he had acted without thinking, again. But just as he was about to say something, the first bomb exploded, followed by the second, making the place shake.
Frederick quickly covered July 14 with his body, to protect him from the pure energy that would be released.
The fire from the bombs turned green, almost bluish from the sulfur, causing both Frederick and July 14 to be flung out of the cave.
July 14 landed on the grass, with only burns on his forehead, when he got up and turned around; "…Frederick!" Frederick's entire back was destroyed; the flesh had been burned away, revealing his bones, and thanks to the explosion, the potions he had hidden in his body had also exploded, the glass embedded in his ribs and hips. July 14 ran towards him, helping to lift him up. "I-I'm so sorry! I-I thought they were just cowardly dudes and—"
But the base of the mountain trembled, as did the sky; the mountain would fall.
Immediately, Frederick looked back; Liam's body, so he used his mana to cover the wounds on his back, and then, released July 14 to go to Liam, and carry her, despite the pain of the burns. "…" The mana only served as a prosthesis, so...he had to endure the pain.
"W-We have to go...quickly, quickly!" At that moment, July 14's demonic pride vanished; consumed by despair, he ran towards Frederick to try and help him.
"Run, you idiot! You're the fastest now! Run, clear my way!" Frederick shouted in despair, while, between pain and sudden tiredness, he began to run.
July 14 didn't take long, doing as Frederick said; he turned in a burst of fire, burning everything around him to clear the way for Frederick and prevent him from stumbling, meanwhile, the mountain was beginning to collapse.
The stones began to fall, as well as an avalanche of trees and earth towards them; Frederick was able to avoid being hit by some trees thanks to his shield. Meanwhile, July 14 was busy carbonizing all the debris that was starting to fall in front of him.
Soon, the mountain collapsed. Along with the mountain's demise, a tremendous and powerful tremor erupted.
The stones flew out, one of them managed to hit Frederick; his shield was able to protect him, but, because of that stone, it made July 14 stop, and run towards Frederick. "Hang on a little longer! Stop running, I'll carry you the rest of the way!"
But just then, a stone was coming in the direction of July 14.
"NO! YOU IDIOT!" He quickly removed the mana he was using from his back and left arm, using it to create a mana rope, grab July 14, and pull him toward him.
He managed to remove July 14 in time, but his mana was now about to become unstable, and that meant he couldn't create any more prosthetics with it.
July 14 realized this, so he took his hand, for the first time, and pulled him along. They had no more mana potions; July 14 didn't use mana, so Liam hadn't given him any mana potions, and Frederick's potions...well, they exploded.
Right now, they were both running through the wreckage, until a stone blocked their path. July 14 stopped, and with one hand smashed the stone to pieces.
"…" Frederick was gasping, he was bleeding out; he knew he wouldn't survive much longer, if he didn't die here...he would bleed to death. And those who were part of Sherly's Sect...had a terrifying knowledge of how much longer they would live. "Vanguard of a New Life…" He squeezed July 14's hand, as they both continued running, Frederick using all the mana he had left in that last shield he would use.
Perhaps it was during that brief moment of adrenaline, feeling his body finally about to give out, that he saw him, Sherly; he was smoking near a tree, his back to them.
Or perhaps they were just Frederick's hallucinations.
"Give her a proper burial."
Frederick's words made July 14 turn around, distracting him. "What…"
Frederick let go of July 14's hand, removed Liam's body from his shoulder, and threw her towards July 14; instinctively, July 14 caught her. And at that moment, a giant rock came towards them.
July 14's heart beat dangerously fast.
The rock crushed them.
A powerful shield activated on July 14, shattering the giant stone before it made contact with July 14, but instead, the stone crushed the weak Frederick.
The impact of the blow sent July 14 flying, along with more stones; the last thing he saw was Frederick's hand, which managed to escape being crushed; however, what remained of Frederick's body…
"N-No…" July 14 murmured, his eyes opening, he held Liam in his arms, then ran through the falling stones and towards where Frederick had died. "Y-YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE, FRIEND!"
But more stones fell on him, and the shield began to crack, not from the impact of the stones, but from sensing the despair in July 14, his soul breaking, his heart breaking.
"F-FREDERICK!" His last scream sounded more like a roar of pain, as he continued dodging rocks to go towards him. "D-DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!"
It was the first time that a being of instinct like July 14 disobeyed his survival instinct in order to run away to Frederick.
But suddenly, a blow to his stomach sent him flying.
He released Liam's body during the force of the blow, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he found a male figure walking towards him; tears prevented him from knowing whose silhouette it was.
One thing was clear: he possessed terrifying red eyes.
More terrifying than the eyes of a demon, and far from possessing anything reassuring like the eyes of an angel, but definitely more cruel than the eyes of any human corrupted by evil.
"W-Who…who the hell are you?!" He said, rising up, and filling his body with flames, and then he ran towards that silhouette.
「You don't belong in this story, July 14.」
That's what the man said; as soon as July 14 approached, the man grabbed him by the neck and ripped off his head. As if he was garbage, he threw July 14's head aside, and tore July 14's body in two, finding his heart...he devoured it.
All this, while July 14 was still alive, watching the man perform such an action. Without some cells from his heart, he couldn't regenerate, and the strangest thing was that this guy...reminded him of Amina.
They both had that...terrifyingly mysterious aura.
A strange being, that instead of making you want to investigate it, made you want to flee before it caught you.
「I need more.」
「More irregularities…」
The man looked at the horizon.
«The boss...he left...in that...direction...»
It was July 14's last thought, after dying at the hands of this mysterious man, who then began walking in that direction.