“How… can I remain so calm, you ask.”
Alice’s athyst-like eyes pierced through Parang.
Overwheld by that deep gaze, Parang t Alice’s eyes with slightly trembling pupils.
Alice seed sowhat angry. Was it because of Parang’s question just now?
Thinking she might have said sothing inappropriate to her friend in her urgency to ask, Parang hastily opened her mouth to smooth things over.
But Alice was faster.
“The reason I can remain calm, Parang, is because I made a firm vow to never waver.”
She spoke while eting Parang’s gaze with eyes that shone steadily.
“What defines you isn’t the tentacle fragnts inside your body, or the monster in your dreams, or that precious status window of yours, Parang. Only the path you’ve walked and who you are can define your existence.”
Parang’s pupils trembled even more.
“The achievents you’ve accomplished while living in this world alongside other living people. The adversaries you’ve overco. The bonds you’ve ford and nurtured.”
Alice’s voice held not a trace of hesitation. Instead, it carried an absolute certainty about the aning of existence.
“All of those things co together to make ‘you.’ Just because there’s so monster inside your body doesn’t invalidate the ti you’ve lived as a human being.”
Her eyes shone brighter than any eyes Parang had ever seen.
“And the only one who can na you, the ‘you’ created by all those things coming together, is yourself alone. Declaring clearly who you are – that’s both your right that only you can exercise, and simultaneously your duty that you must never run away from. Do you understand?”
After unleashing her words like a storm, Alice gazed at Parang with unwavering eyes.
“My right and… duty…!”
It felt like lightning was striking repeatedly inside Parang’s head.
All the experiences Parang had lived through until now. The footprints that the existence called Parang had left in this world.
Just as Alice said, what made up Parang wasn’t a few fragnts of text floating in a status window, but precisely those things.
And the only one who could na the footprints left by her existence was Yu Parang herself, and no one else.
“And it’s the sa for us too. Neither I, nor anyone else in Oceanos, nor any of the other people who have cherished and loved you, will leave you just because of a few tentacles.” ȑâɴǑ₿Еs
“…!”
Parang’s eyes widened once again.
“You said you have a skill that can verify the essence of existence, right? Well then.”
Alice spread her arms wide and looked straight at Parang.
“Cast that skill on . See what I appear as now.”
“B-but…”
“It’s fine, go ahead.”
Parang swallowed hard and cast the skill toward Alice.
‘[Mind’s Eye]’
Parang’s vision inverted.
The world was dyed entirely in green. Like viewing through an infrared cara.
And there, Alice clearly existed in the form of a monster.
While part of her upper body still maintained a human form, everything else had transford into unidentifiable tentacles, eyeballs, and masses of flesh.
It looked as if a human form had been forcibly stuffed into part of a monster.
No one would think this was human.
But those shining eyes in the remaining upper body. Eyes filled with certainty, convinced that no adversity in the world could stop her.
Looking at that, Parang thought:
If Alice wasn’t human, who in this world could be called human?
[Mind’s Eye] deactivated, and Parang’s vision returned to normal.
“How did I appear?”
“That’s…”
“No, you don’t need to say it. I’m sure I looked horrible and grotesque. That’s right. At this point in ti, that’s my essence. Part human, part eyeballs, part Kraken.”
“Alice… such words…!”
“Listen until the end. What I want to say is this: After seeing my essence, did you want to abandon and leave, calling a monster?”
“…!”
Parang was struck speechless. She swore to the gods she had never thought such a thing. Not even a bit.
And at the sa ti, she realized. Neither Alice, nor anyone in Oceanos, nor any friend she had made would think that way when looking at her.
And so, after this storm-like conversation had passed.
“Phew…”
Alice leaned back tiredly, while Parang wiped her face with her hands.
Well, not exactly wiping since they were underwater.
Parang straightened her posture and t Alice’s eyes.
Now she could finally see the nature of the light held within those eyes.
It was certainty.
The kind of certainty that only soone who had clearly defined their own existence could possess.
An unwavering belief that re doubts would not even qualify as obstacles on the path she walked.
Looking into her friend’s eyes and hearing her voice, Parang gained her own realization.
Of course, the worries in her heart hadn’t simply washed away like water in an instant.
There was still, undeniably, a trace of hesitation remaining in Parang’s heart.
But Parang could make a promise to herself.
Though this small hesitation remaining in her heart might hinder and get in her way, she would not let herself sink because of it.
Even if soone were to dig into Parang’s heart, drag out this hesitation, and thrust it before her eyes to block her path, she would gladly shed tears, endure the heartache, and utterly destroy them.
Parang made up her mind and opened her eyes.
In her own eyes, reflected in Alice’s pupils, there was now a faint but distinct light.
It was a cool, clear, blue light, like the sumr sea.
Alice must have seen that light too, for she continued their conversation with a slight smile.
“It seems you’re ready for our final conversation of the day.”
At those words, Parang looked at Alice with slightly widened eyes.
“Final conversation…?”
“Yes. About the essence of the Kraken. About what kind of relationship exists between you and the Kraken.”
Parang lowered her head and looked at her palm.
“The essence… of the Kraken.”
She raised her head again to look at Alice.
“Yes. I’m ready. Tell .”
“Before hearing it from , how about seeing it for yourself?”
“See it… for myself?”
“Yes. Your skill, I an. The one that sees through to the essence. Why don’t you try using it on the Kraken? Then hearing my explanation afterward might be better.”
“Ah…”
Parang nodded slightly.
Until now, she had never used Mind’s Eye on the Kraken.
She had been afraid of discovering her own twisted essence within it.
Truth be told, she was still afraid. But the difference between then and now was that Parang now had courage.
“Soone once said that courage isn’t about not being afraid, but about moving forward even while trembling.”
Alice looked at Parang.
“Are you ready to move forward?”
Parang t Alice’s gaze and nodded.
“Yes.”
After summoning the Kraken, she activated her skill.
“Mind’s Eye.”
FLASH!!
At that mont, Parang’s vision went dark.
#
“Ugh… ungh…”
Parang opened her eyes in an unfamiliar space. Just monts ago she had been talking with Alice in the red stone chamber, but now she was in a space that was entirely blue in all directions, with no distinction between front, back, left, or right.
But it wasn’t underwater. Rather, the texture of the space itself was closer to that space where she had t the dark Parang in her dream.
And as she looked around, a familiar form appeared in the distance before her.
It was the Kraken’s tentacle.
Parang approached it.
The closer she got, the more clearly the Kraken’s tentacle beca visible.
It was made up of countless tiny structures clustered together. Like cells, perhaps.
The closer she got, the more detailed the Kraken beca, but Parang’s steps also grew increasingly slower.
She wasn’t intentionally reducing her speed. It was as if she were trying to force together the sa poles of magnets,
“Unnngh…!!”
But Parang gritted her teeth and pressed forward. Though her legs felt like they might burst, she didn’t stop.
And finally, when Parang reached right in front of the Kraken, her feet, which could no longer advance, ca to a complete stop.
At the sa ti, Parang could clearly see the Kraken’s true form with her own eyes.
The Kraken was made up of Yu Parang.
Tens of thousands, billions, trillions of tiny Yu Parangs gathered together to form the Kraken.
Beings with the sa face and hair color as Parang, emanating the sa aura, all looked at Parang with identical blue eyes.
Being under the simultaneous gaze of countless people made Parang’s heart feel like it might burst.
It was pressure, it was fear, and at the sa ti, it was awe.
At last, the countless Parangs opened their mouths and spoke with the sa voice.
That voice resonated simultaneously from in front of Parang, behind her, below her, above her, and from inside and outside.
With the sensation of being thrown alone into a massive cave made of voices, Parang felt like she might go mad.
“Urk… kuhak!!”
Finally, unable to endure any longer, Parang’s consciousness was forcibly ejected from that mysterious space.
CRASH!!
“Hah…! Hah…! Ungh…”
Parang gasped in shock at the sudden impact she felt on her body.
When she opened her eyes, she was back in the space where she had been talking with Alice.
It seed she had been thrown backward from her sitting position and rolled on the floor.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, Parang asked Alice before her:
“What did I just see…? Was that the Kraken’s essence?”
“What did you see?”
“I saw the Kraken. It was… It was made up of countless versions of . I’m not sure if they were really or not, but it was like an infinite number of beings that looked exactly like , all clustered together…”
Parang rambled, unable to contain the thoughts flooding her mind.
After helping Parang up from the floor, Alice held her shoulders and looked her in the eye.
“What you saw was correct, Parang. That is indeed the Kraken’s essence.”
“You an…”
“The Kraken is you, Parang. To be precise, it’s every iteration of you.”
“What…?”
“Past, present, and future, all those countless iterations of you rged together into one massive collective consciousness and natural phenonon. That is the Kraken’s essence.”
“…!”
Parang barely managed to hold onto her fading consciousness.
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