You (4)
On a rooftop, two people and one ignored doll were present.
'She' was there.
Klein felt the fresh air on his face.
The cold breeze lifted the long brown hair next to him, making it float in the wind.
Time seemed to stop as he stayed still.
The hand released his wrist but he remained unmoving.
As the person behind him straightened up, the hair left his field of vision and he finally snapped out of his daze.
Very slowly, Klein turned around.
He saw the familiar ordinary face, brown hair and eyes as she bore a playful smile on her face. She hadn't changed at all.
He opened his mouth, the words stuck in throat, and stared fixedly at the person he thought he would never see ever again.
"You…"
He addressed the person whom he didn't remember the name, trying to retrieve a proof of her existence as if she was about to disappear forever.
"What's your name?"
The woman tilted her head.
"Guess?"
Xin Jian knew why he was asking this question, but didn't answer.
"If you had to give me a name, how would you name me?"
Because she originally had no name to begin with.
Her name was given to her by the Fool.
Klein simply stared at her.
Sporting the same amused expression, she continued in an expressionless voice.
"I'm hurt that you don't even remember my name, did I only mean so much to you?"
Klein pursed his lips. Wasn't she supposed to make a dramatically aggrieved face then?
"…You don't look hurt at all."
She returned to her usual stoic expression and pointed at her face.
"I don't look like it but I'm actually very sad, though?"
A moment of silence ensued.
Then, Klein recalled the people fighting below and reacted.
"Why don't you let me kill myself? I can resurrect, and I'm the strongest. I have to die to let more people survive."
Xin Jian humphed and put a hand on her hip.
"I refuse."
"Why?"
She picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground in his daze and pointed at him.
"Because I don't want to."
As usual, her words didn't make sense. She didn't even have a good reason.
Since she knew that she couldn't convince him with words, she attacked. If she could defeat him, she could prove her opinion whether what she said was right or not. She would make him have no choice but to listen to her.
She swung her dagger at him and he used the clown's abilities to stand up from the edge of the roof and evade her blow.
After a few more failed attacks like this one, at a speed slow enough that skilled fighters who weren't Beyonders could have easily beaten Xin Jian, Klein spoke up.
"…You don't even have Beyonder powers anymore."
How would she beat him, a Great Old One, without any Beyonder powers?
"So what?"
She met his gaze.
['Imagination Lv. 1' is activated.]
[This idea has a high probability of being realized. Would you like to proceed? Yes | No]
She didn't need any Beyonder abilities to convince him.
「Haaa…」
The Oldest Dream sighed but she consciously ignored him.
She stubbornly declared.
"I'm going to defeat you with the power of friendship! ...And this dagger I have."
She would have rather used this sentence in a less serious context.
After her declaration, she charged at him at attacked him again.
In reality, she was only swinging her dagger around while Klein dodged her. He knew that he could easily kill her by using his Beyonder abilities.
On the screen in the center, the scene had changed from the dome to this rooftop and the dokkaebis tried to find the cause. (The Oldest Dream had hacked it.)
Everyone silently looked up at them.
Yoo Jonghyuk watched the street fight of the two variables while Cale's eyes widened as he recognized his childhood friend.
"What do you want to do?" Klein asked her.
The people watching the screen couldn't hear their conversation.
"Why are you fighting? You can't even use Beyonder abilities, that means that you aren't connected to Sefirah Castle anymore and can't use miracles to resurrect. If you die, you'll die for real, while I could simply die now and resurrect after that."
She shrugged.
"I don't care."
Klein felt helpless. His words weren't getting through to her.
Xin Jian knew. If she died, she couldn't be resurrected by miracles.
Even so, she would do it.
They continued their childish fight.
['Imagination Lv. 1' is activated.]
Xin Jian swung the dagger as if it was a sword, feeling the sensation of the blade cutting through the air.
Then, the dagger became a sword.
"I just don't want you to die."
Even though he could resurrect and that would save a lot of people, she didn't want him to.
Was that wrong?
"That's absurd-"
Slash!
Caught off guard, a slight scratch appeared on Klein's cheek and a drop of blood fell down.
An invisible blade had been created because she had imagined it.
'So what if I don't have any Beyonder abilities?'
That didn't matter.
"I've learnt something interesting here."
She swung her new 'sword'.
"In this world, people don't fight with Beyonder abilities, but with stories."
['Imagination Lv. 1' is activated.]
The sum of her experiences until now were condensed in one strike.
["Madness really makes you speak too much."]
She only knew one story.
Slash!
But, so what?
Slash!
That story, she had watched it countless times.
Slash!
Countless times, and countless times…!
Slash!
So her memories were mainly about Klein.
She expressed all her memories of Klein in one strike.
["Why are you so lonely?"]
The thoughts she had while watching him, and the emotions she had felt.
Because, for a very long time, Klein was everything for her.
The force in her attacks became stronger and stronger.
Klein summoned back the dagger she had in her hand, but the imagined sword didn't disappear. He stole the distance and avoided her blow before pulling out a dagger again and parrying her.
Each time he used a Beyonder ability, sparks of probability appeared around him, filling his surroundings.
He could just end it now and take his own life but he didn't know what she would do in that situation.
[The constellation 'General of the Golden Headband' wonders why they have to watch this uninteresting fight.]
[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' is bored.]
[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' wonders why you don't kill her.]
Slash!
Her attack slashed through the air once again, and he stole the distance to evade it.
Tsutsutsutsuchut!
Sparks of probability increased more and more around him.
She sneered.
+
The second strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Black Flames Empress Han Sooyoung'.
+
Han Sooyoung laughed.
"I'm second, now? It's still better than fourth."
With each swing, the sentences contained in Xin Jian's attacks changed the scenery around them.
White. Black. Gray. Red. Yellow. Madness.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
They flashed like illusions and were reflected by the increasing sparks of probability, as if the entire Star Stream was assisting her.
Tsutsutsutsuchut-
And each time a sentence formed on her invisible sword, another spark appeared around Klein who parried it.
However, Klein didn't have to worry about the incoming probability storm since he was a Great Old One.
Xin Jian invested coins into her stats and continued to attack. Even though she knew she would probably never match the agility of the unreachable being in front of her, she didn't care.
The battle finally began to look like a proper fight.
While swinging around her sword full of sentences, she told her story to the Star Stream.
["I will break you."]
Only in this way could she achieve her goal.
[Xin Jian smiled.]
A story about loneliness.
["No!"]
A story about spending thousands of years alone.
["Goodbye."]
A story about an immortal.
A story about a Nameless Angel.
However, the story only truly began when she met him.
["Your name is Xin Jian."]
Another voice appeared in her sentences.
It was a story about loneliness.
It became a story about regression.
It was a story when she watched him become a god again and again.
The only story she now knew by heart.
Like Kim Dokja had TWSA.
She swung her imaginary sword.
'It is a story about you.'
Xin Jian had Mr. Fool.
Klein was also the most important person to Xin Jian.
Maybe she knew more about him than he knew about himself.
Although he didn't know it, she had watched his story countless times.
["We are guardians, but also a bunch of miserable wretches that are constantly fighting against danger and madness."]
["We have saved Tingen."]
["I don't want to become a monster…"]
["I can't go back."]
["Kill me."]
["I have not betrayed the City of Silver."]
["I won't lose much, just myself."]
A message appeared in front of Klein.
[Due to the previous delayed request for a probability check, you will receive a probability aftermath.]
The sparks around him multipled, ready to strike.
Xin Jian's lips curled up and she grabbed him.
["There are always things higher than others."]
Klein's eyes widened because of the unexpected move.
When she had held his wrist earlier, Xin Jian had noticed something.
'I could hear his thoughts.'
It means that, by contact, their soul could be connected and she could use her Beyonder powers.
「Because she had once been the embodiment of the Error Uniqueness.」
By touching him, she also had the powers of a Lord of the Mysteries.
So, she used the Error's pathway abilities.
He should have noticed what she wanted to do by now.
Klein's pupils shook as the probability storm was stolen.
Or maybe it was his fate of being hit by the probability storm?
['Imagination Lv.1' is activated.]
At that moment, Xin Jian's 'idea' was realized and she stepped back.
Klein reached out to grab her, but it was too late.
+
The strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is…
+
[Your story was recognized by the Star Stream.]
The Oldest Dream released the system message whose destination had changed.
[You are the strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome.]
Xin Jian saw it and laughed.
The information on the blackboard in the air was modified.
+
The tenth strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Poet of Nightmares Leonard Mitchell'.
The ninth strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Doll Sharron'.
The eighth strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Lord of Doors Fors Wall'.
The seventh strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Hypnotist King Audrey Hall'.
The sixth strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Salvation Leader Nirvana Moebius'.
The fifth strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Supreme King Yoo Jonghyuk'.
The fourth strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Crimson Lord Kim Rok Soo'.
The third strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Black Flames Empress Han Sooyoung'.
+
A new name had also appeared.
+
The second strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'King of Deceit Zhou Mingrui'.
+
A few people knew that it was the name of the man on the screen right now.
[Your new Giant story is named '□□□'.]
Klein saw the sparks of probability heading toward Xin Jian.
[The Giant story '□□□' has begun its storytelling.]
A Great Old One was indeed able to bear a probability storm, but what about a currently ordinary person?
He tried to steal back the probability but it was as if a being as strong as him was temporarily blocking his powers. Xin Jian wasn't alone in that decision; and the strongest being in the Star Stream, the Oldest Dream, was helping her.
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is silent.]
It was as if the entire Star Stream had decided that Xin Jian should die.
[A constellation who has not revealed their modifier is watching your story.]
She bore a smile on her face as she was attacked by probability.
Tsutsutsutsuchut!
It was stories that determined one's position in the Star Stream, and possessing a Giant story undoubtedly made her the strongest incarnation.
Her plan had been to steal Klein's position as the strongest and die in his stead.
+
The strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is Xin Jian.
+
For a moment, the Oldest Dream replaced the censured name by the words 'Xin Jian', because Xin Jian didn't like censures.
Her plan had worked.
Even though it may be a meaningless decision, Klein didn't have to die now.
The 'Believer in Mysteries' smiled at the Lord of Mysteries.
Then, she internally addressed the Oldest Dream.
'I have decided.'
The Oldest Dream also looked down at her.
'I want you to name my Giant story…'
And she asked the Oldest Dream to replace '□□□' by something else.
This time, the Oldest Dream didn't give any reproaches about her naming style.
Since she didn't touch Klein anymore, her Beyonder abilities had disappeared and she still couldn't access to miracles from Sefirah Castle.
She wouldn't be able to resurrect.
Helpless, Klein could only watch her die in the fraction of second it took for lightning to fall down on her.
"No-!"
Before disappearing, Xin Jian saw his desperate expression and also muttered:
"I'm sorry."
Then she was disintegrated by the lightning and turned into ashes.
'If you are sorry, then why did you do this?'
Not even a speck of dust remained from her, as if she had never existed.
Falling to his knees, Zhou Mingrui stared at the spot where she was previously standing. He still didn't know her name.
Around them, everyone was silent.
[The Giant story 'You' has stopped its storytelling.]
***
0. Xin Jian
1. 'King of Deceit Zhou Mingrui'
2. The second strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Black Flames Empress Han Sooyoung'.
3. 'Crimson Lord Kim Rok Soo'
4. 'Supreme King Yoo Jonghyuk'
5. 'Salvation Leader Nirvana Moebius'
6. 'Hypnotist King Audrey Hall'
7. 'Lord of Doors Fors Wall'
8. 'Doll Sharron'
9. 'Poet of Nightmares Leonard Mitchell'
10. The tenth strongest incarnation in Seoul Dome is 'Judge of Destruction Jung Heewon'.
Cale (at least 1 story), coughing blood -> Crimson Lord
Audrey Hall (Sequence 2), hypnotizing people -> Hypnotist King
Fors Wall (Sequence 2), creating doors to run away -> Lord of Doors
Sharron (Sequence 3), acting like a doll -> Doll Sharron
Leonard (Sequence 3) -> Poet of Nightmares (What exactly did you do, Leonard??)
Lord of Mysteries (Great Old One, at least one story), acting like an ordinary person -> King of Deceit (your mere existence is a scam)
(Ah no, the real reason for this name was because he stole Han Sooyoung's flag, that's right.)
People with stories are placed higher in the rankings while the high Sequence Beyonders are still far stronger than ordinary people.