Episode 1051
Chapter 251: The Adversaries (Part 1)
June 2, 1804, midnight.
While the battle between the Abyss Legion and Bligiet and Keliak raged on within the Tower of Stories, the Balmel Alliance suddenly witnessed the steel gate in the garden swing open without warning.
“A steel gate? Has Orgal lost his mind? Opening that thing right in the middle of Tikan Palace without permission?”
“Hey, Murakan, look! Something dark is crawling out of that gate.”
“Yeah, what the hell is that? Could it be an invasion? Seriously? We even sent letters to Jin and declared surrender, and now they’re stabbing us in the back like this? More than that, how could they even think of attacking here? We’ve got three Changsung-levels and a handful of superhumans—there’s no way they’d be crazy enough to try.”
Already, a dozen black silhouettes, almost human in shape, spilled out. Just as Kashimir was about to declare an emergency, Orgal himself appeared last from the steel gate.
Even from a distance, Orgal’s face was twisted in a scowl. He looked deeply unsettled, but there was no sign he intended to attack. The black figures stood silently beside him.
The alliance’s superhumans immediately surrounded them.
“Orgal, what the hell is this? What are those black masses?”
Murakan stepped forward, with Luna and Runtia following close behind. Before Orgal could answer, they suddenly realized the true nature of those “black masses.”
“W-wait… that’s… me? No way, that’s me?”
“…What? You felt it too?”
“Huh? What are you two talking about all of a sudden? What’s going on?”
Luna and Runtia trembled uncontrollably, gripped by a strange sensation they had never experienced before—the feeling of confronting another version of themselves.
The Abyss Legion wasn’t composed solely of Orgals. Among them were a few other heroes who had, through a tangle of coincidence and fate, found their way to Helluram from different worlds. Luna and Runtia from another dimension were exactly such cases.
“They look like monsters, or black lumps of flesh, but that’s definitely me. Worn down and degraded after endless battles…”
“How is this even possible? How…?”
Other comrades also sensed something was off.
[Ha! I was worried there might be no counterparts among these soldiers, but thankfully, there are. Of course there would be. This will make explanations quicker! Damn it! Good, good! I love it!]
The moment Orgal spoke, the members of Tikan froze. Something had happened to him—he seemed a little unhinged. Luna and Runtia were sweating coldly in shock, leaving their comrades utterly confused.
“…Orgal. Margiela told me to talk to you by letter, but I never expected it to be like this. You seem different somehow. Are you alright?”
[Yeah. Our Jin Runkandel! I’m fine, really, I’m fine… sniff, sob.]
Suddenly, Orgal broke down in tears, and Jin instinctively handed him a handkerchief.
[Get lost! What do you know about my pain, trying to comfort me? You only show up now?]
“Has he really lost it? Hey, you wanna die?”
[Hahaha, alright, alright. You guys don’t know anything yet. Murakan, my old friend, ignorance is a grave sin.]
“Ow, my head. I can’t handle this. Kid, ask what’s going on. Luna, Runtia, pull yourselves together and explain.”
“Orgal, calm down first. Let’s talk this through calmly. Sisters, please explain.”
Sniffling and wiping his face under the moonlight, Orgal took a moment before Luna and Runtia steadied themselves and spoke.
“Jin, it’s hard to explain, but two of those black masses are Runtia and me. I recognized them immediately. They’re… me, from another world.”
“Another world?”
“Yes. It’s definitely me, but I lived a different life there. Suddenly, memories from that black mass flooded in.”
Luna wasn’t making things up. Even if Orgal was using some dark magic, the insight of the Changsung wouldn’t be so easily fooled.
Jin recalled the letter Margiela had sent.
-(Actually, we’ve had some confusing events recently too. After the captain met the witch, many things changed… It’s best if you hear the full story directly from the captain later. It’s quite shocking.)
By then, Veradin, Sandra, and Heddo, who had arrived late, looked at the Abyss Legion with the same stunned expressions as the first two.
“I was… Orgal’s comrade?”
“Sandra hasn’t met Jin herself? More importantly, how am I supposed to be two people?”
“What is this…?”
Memories from other worlds kept flooding in. Though not as vivid as Orgal’s, the others could clearly recognize that the soldiers were versions of themselves.
[Jin Runkandel.]
Orgal spoke again, his face now composed, his usual deep, steady gaze returning as if he’d never cried.
[I will tell you the truth of this world. It’s what I heard directly from Helluram. Call Valeria Hister. She must know this too.]
“Let’s go inside.”
Orgal and the key members of the Balmel Alliance waiting in Tikan gathered in the conference room.
For a long while, Orgal recounted everything he had heard from Helluram to Jin and the Balmel Alliance in detail.
He often paused, clearly in pain. Sighs filled with rage, grief, sorrow, despair, and hatred slipped through clenched teeth like poison.
Some superhumans who had glimpsed the soldiers’ memories struggled even more to calm their troubled hearts.
[…That’s all. Do you understand now? Why our Kinzello decided to help you, why I went mad. Of course, you’ll want proof. The memories of those who saw their other selves in the Abyss Legion will serve as evidence, and… damn it, do I really have to worry about that too?]
After the story ended, a long silence fell.
Not because they thought he was lying, but because the truth was too immense to accept easily.
Even Ameris and Eltiot, who had lived since ancient times, couldn’t fully grasp Orgal’s tale. The only ones who truly ‘felt’ it were those who had seen themselves in the Abyss Legion.
[Isn’t it fascinating, Jin Runkandel? That neither you nor Valeria Hister have ever appeared in any world. So among all gathered here, only you two are variables unknown even to the Gipl from other dimensions…]
Everyone in the conference room took note of this fact.
According to Orgal’s memories from the Abyss Legion, the liberation of Laprarosa wasn’t the first time.
So far, it had happened only twice in other worlds—once by Temar, and once by Orgal, the Cold Cho, and Siron.
But never before had the Meiwang tribe been fully freed like this.
[In other worlds Orgal experienced, the Tushin half either died or was left as little more than a corpse upon liberation. And Laprarosa’s technology was used for the Gipl’s benefit.]
Other events—the release of Gliek from his seal, the birth of the Fierce God, the awakening of Jito, the appearance of the Red-Eyed tribe—were all repeated histories from the Abyss Legion’s perspective.
Even without Jin, these events had occurred somewhere. Only the details differed. And in every case, the Gipl emerged victorious in the end.
[Why, why of all people… Jin Runkandel, is it you?]
Orgal met Jin’s eyes.
He looked wronged. He had fought across countless worlds to save them from the Gipl, had become the Abyss Legion even after death to stand here again.
Yet now, Jin seemed somehow more special than himself, and Orgal found it hard to accept.
At the same time, he felt relief.
Orgal had never had such a powerful ally as the Balmel Alliance in any world. If they fully joined forces, maybe this time they could finally defeat the Gipl.
[No, on second thought, why doesn’t matter. Whether Solderet really foresaw all this and prepared you and Valeria Hister, or if Solderet is being used by the Ma Shindae—this is what matters.]
“Solderet’s true intentions aren’t fully revealed yet, so you can’t trust me completely, huh, Orgal?”
[Exactly.]
“We’re in the same boat. Everything you said today is probably true. But the Orgals from those worlds aren’t exactly you. You’re different—your life and purpose were not the same. Just because those Orgals protected their worlds to the end doesn’t mean you will.”
The alliance between Balmel and Kinzello was a delicate, difficult matter. Until recently, Kinzello’s goal wasn’t to defeat the Gipl but to resurrect the Sun God.
[Even if you try to stop me from fighting the Gipl, my path is set. Regardless of the Sun God’s revival, they must be destroyed. Damn it, I’ve come to feel something like camaraderie with most of my former enemies. Different people? They were definitely me. And people like Luna were my comrades!]
Orgal trailed off, recalling the grim fate of other worlds and the comrades who had stood with him until the end—now standing before him in different forms.
[Honestly, whether you believe me or not doesn’t really matter. You’ve always been at odds with Jipul, so I doubt you’d suddenly side with them. Of course, from my perspective, I can’t help but consider the possibility that Solderet might betray us. Don’t take it the wrong way—it’s just something I have to keep in mind.]
Solderet’s true intentions.
Jin instinctively suspected it had something to do with the Black Sea space that Siron mentioned. And Orgal already knew about that information.
As the two of them paused to gather their thoughts, Valeria spoke up for the first time.
“Orgal, you said that neither Jin nor I have ever appeared in any other worlds.”
[That’s right.]
“But I have a feeling that, even if Jin hasn’t, I must have done something in those worlds… Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had access to this kind of record window when Laprarosa was liberated.”
A blue record window appeared above the staff on the day Laprarosa was freed.
Valeria brought up that record window again and showed it to Orgal.
“This is probably a record left by another version of me from a different world, addressed to me here.”