The World After the Bad Ending

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In front of the Steel Empress.

Having shaken off my fear, I lifted my head.

As I came here, I hesitated multiple times, thinking about taking a different route.

But now, I had steeled my resolve.

The Steel Empress started to charge at me.

She intended to steal the warmth of the living.

I opened the bag I was holding.

And pulled out a bottle.

Inside the bottle sloshed a red liquid.

A potion containing the miracle created by an alchemist.

Its effect: partial immunity to flames.

I wish it offered complete immunity.

Unfortunately, such a thing does not exist on the side of the Flame Butterfly.

‘Unless it’s the ultimate potion, the elixir.’

But what’s not there is simply not there.

Without hesitation, I uncorked the potion bottle and swallowed it.

The thick and foul liquid slid down my throat.

It was bitter.

But I forced myself to swallow it all.

Clink!

After throwing the potion bottle to the ground, I lifted my bag.

Inside the bag.

What filled it was red crystals, saturated with heat.

Whoosh!

Heat poured out from the crystals.

All of these were the essence of fire.

The corpses of spirits began to ignite their last embers.

“Dammit, please hold on. Me.”

I shut my eyes tightly.

As I imagined what was about to happen, cold sweat formed on my forehead.

However, my body was already moving.

I vigorously pulled the heat-protective magic cloth covering the essence of fire.

Szzzzzzzztt!

At that moment, the essence of fire inside the bag released enough heat to set the bag ablaze.

The heat that had barely been suppressed by the magic cloth burst forth.

“Guah!”

And I was the one who had to endure that heat.

My skin and muscles melted away, unable to withstand the heat.

My vision blurred, and my breathing became congested.

It’s hot.

It felt as if my body was on fire.

In reality, my body was burning.

That was somewhat fortunate.

If I hadn’t taken the flame immunity potion, my skin and muscles would surely have burned, and my bones would have melted.

Thanks to the potion, it stopped at this level.

[!!!]

The Steel Empress came charging at me, her eyes rolling back.

The heat she radiated was something I had never felt before.

It was natural for her, who desired heat, to lose her mind.

As the Steel Empress rushed within inches of me, she reached out her hand.

Seeing this, I desperately clung to my sanity.

Before the Steel Empress could touch me, I threw my body toward her.

Whoosh!

With a rush of hot air, my body collided with the Steel Empress.

In that instant, the chill that she possessed enveloped me.

It was cold.

This side felt bone-chillingly cold.

But right now, that chill was immensely welcome.

It offset the heat pouring out from the essence of fire.

For a moment, I could breathe easier.

My dazed mind began to clear.

Tap-tap-

At that moment, the Steel Empress began to melt little by little.

She had never eaten a potion like the flame immunity one.

So, she bore the heat of the essence of fire with her entire body.

The essence of fire was intense enough to melt even her steel body.

But the Steel Empress didn’t care about that at all; she hugged me even tighter.

As if she had longed for this warmth.

[Ahhh!]

She wailed as she squeezed me fiercely.

She was certainly crying.

But for some reason, I didn’t sense any sorrow there.

Instead, she seemed to be happily regaining the warmth.

Steel tears flowed down her cheeks.

Seeing that, I steeled my heart even more.

Yes, embrace me.

I will melt away the grief you had to bear instead of Lucas, who couldn’t become a god.

You embrace me like that.

Now, it was a battle of time and willpower.

Which would break first: my willpower collapsing, or the Steel Empress melting away entirely?

It had become a fight between the two.

Of course, even if my willpower broke,

the Steel Empress wouldn’t just vanish without me.

She would merely continue embracing me while melting away until the end.

But it couldn’t end that way.

If it did, there would be no reason for me to go through this struggle.

[Creak!]

I bit down as if to shatter my teeth.

The heat and chill pierced through my skin causing pain.

I’ve never felt pain like this in my life.

However, as the pain persisted, my mind became clearer.

I gripped the fraying thread of my willpower tightly and held on to it.

If I endured and endured, eventually, an end would come.

Waiting for that time, I could only endure.

*

Time continued to flow endlessly.

I couldn’t gauge how much time had passed.

One thing was certain: even an eternity wouldn’t be longer than this.

My vision was blurred.

I hardly felt any strength in my body.

It was a miracle that I was still able to take shallow breaths.

The heat from the essence of fire that had engulfed me had now all diminished and finally lost its light.

My breathing was frail.

Late sweat beaded on my forehead.

My mouth felt parched.

I slowly lifted my head.

With blurred vision, I surveyed my surroundings.

The Steel Empress was nowhere to be found.

She had wandered aimlessly until the end, searching for warmth.

She, who became a mystery instead of a god, was no longer in this world.

An inexplicable sense of regret washed over me.

The burnt crystal had fallen from my bag and rolled on the ground.

Clink-

Then the ground, which had turned into steel, began to crack.

The cracks soon spread throughout the entire forest.

Clink!

Finally, all the steel shattered, and the forest returned to its original form.

The broken steel pieces soared towards the sky.

Infused with the final wish of the Steel Empress, who longed to become a god.

The steel vanished towards the heavens.

Thud-

I fell to my knees.

I had no strength left to move.

The skin that had been wrapped in heat was now all peeled away, leaving no form behind.

In its place, something else was filling my revealed skin.

Steel.

It was steel.

The remnants of the Steel Empress, melting into me, were sticking all over my skin.

It looked as if it had been gilded.

I had been waiting for this.

I struggled to sit up straight.

I immediately began to melt the steel with the faint heat remaining in my body.

As a result, the steel began to evenly blend into my skin.

This was no ordinary steel.

It was the essence that constituted the Steel Empress.

The protagonist, Lucas, after melting the Steel Empress,

gained a mystery as her steel merged with his body.

‘Steel Body.’

True to its name, it was a sturdy body like steel.

The steel body sparked with the flames of Lucas’s will and significantly enhanced his growth.

However, my situation and Lucas’s were fundamentally different.

Lucas could completely melt the steel infused into his body with the flames of his will.

But I could only make do with the residual heat from the essence of fire.

I couldn’t completely melt the steel.

‘So I.’

I would do my utmost.

My skin began to be fully covered with the melted steel.

Though I couldn’t acquire a steel body like Lucas, I aimed to possess something different.

‘I will have the skin of steel from today onwards.’

I painstakingly covered my melted skin with steel.

In any case, the pain had faded.

There was no longer any hesitation.

Steel continuously blanketed over my skin.

In that moment, when my body was fully dyed with the brilliance of steel.

Tinkle-

The remaining heat in my body vanished completely.

Heat disappeared, and I could breathe freely again.

Regaining my senses, I slowly raised my hand.

In front of my eyes was a hand covered in steel.

The hand moved without any issues.

I had finally obtained the skin of steel.

“Phew, ha.”

I exhaled the breath I had been holding in repeatedly.

I looked down at my drooping body.

The special equipment, the Shroud’s bandages, wouldn’t disappear with just the essence of fire.

Since even the flames of willpower couldn’t melt the Shroud’s bandages.

I still looked like Hanon Irey.

However, the Shroud’s bandages had undergone one change.

The Shroud’s bandages began to change the color of my steel skin back to its original complexion.

Before I knew it, I had completely returned to the appearance of Hanon.

What lay within, though, didn’t matter.

I looked just like Hanon on the outside.

“Uh, uh.”

My mind was almost at its limit.

Whether it was covered in steel or not, my body was still riddled with wounds.

Normally, the later generation spirit lord would come out to express gratitude and heal my wounds.

But there was nothing before me.

Where had they all gone?

The spirits weren’t even a trace in sight.

“Ugh, heh heh, right, I’m not Lucas, am I?”

A chuckle escaped from my lips.

That, after all, was a fortune that belonged to Lucas.

Someone like me, who had no connection to spirit sensitivity, wouldn’t matter.

It was alright.

I hadn’t intended on becoming a Spirit Mage anyway.

I crawled to pick up the potion that I had set down near the tree earlier.

It was a high healing potion, prepared at a great cost.

I poured the crimson potion into my mouth.

As the potion entered my stomach, it spread throughout my body evenly.

I collapsed onto the ground as if I was fainting.

I could feel the sensation of my wounds healing.

Having used the flame partial immunity potion, and with the Steel Empress partially offsetting the heat.

All I burned were my skin and outer muscles.

This much should be recoverable with a high potion.

However, mental strength was a separate matter.

No matter what, after going through such an ordeal.

Because of mental exhaustion, I couldn’t hold on any longer.

I had obtained an important card that would be responsible for me moving forward.

‘Now all that’s left is.’

Only to train for the mock battle.

Fortunately, training was a field I was somewhat confident in.

I had come this far.

If I don’t win, all of this effort would be for naught.

‘…I will definitely win in the mock battle.’

With my last breath escaping, I closed my eyes slowly.

The breeze from the Spirit Great Forest brushed against my face.

I felt I could take a delightful nap.

Please, may my efforts not be in vain.

As I let go of my consciousness, I wished for it.