A few readers have expressed an interest in how I planned to end it if I didn't drop it.
So for those few, here it is.
Chapter 69:
This chapter would start with Reiza waking up and being informed of what happened by Ema.
She would also find out that her uncle is well and alive again(and a little disturbed by what she has become).
The reason why he is alive goes somewhat like this:
- Due to constant time rewind of the world, the souls of dead people are prevented from returning to the reincarnation cycle.
- They are trapped the world just so they can reenter the dead bodies when time is rewound and their death is undone.
- Ema has some experience manipulating souls themselves, so she just had to find Renar's soul and put it back.
Ema then informs everyone that Evil root has managed to escape and she thinks that he teleported to where the Gundar, the god, is.
Since she saw the teleport from up close, she is able to give Reiza a few hints as to where their foes lie.
Through more practice, Reiza finally uncovers the full structure of the world:
- Alpha plane, the place used by the storage spell is 'above' all the other planes
- Beta1 plane, the 'real world' is 'below' alpha plane and 'next to' the other beta planes
- Beta2 plane, the plane where the trials in the church took place
- Beta3 plane, the place where the original dungeon is as well as the place where the world's core and therefore the Gundar is
*Side note: This is why back in chapter 54, Reiza and Aicyna were transported back to the gluttony room. The spell Reiza used transported them 'below' where they were, but she didn't specify it enough.
After discovering that, Reiza, Ema, Dan and Miranda teleport to the crystal room in Beta3 plane.
There stands the crystal with Gundar's grinning face, a black cat with two tails(evil root) and an angel with closed eyes('lightning skeleton'/the guy with artificial soul).
Chapter 70:
This chapter would be a pure back and forth talking.
It would start with Gundar asking Ema what she is doing in his world.
She explains that she made a deal with yet another god.
She fixes whatever is messing up this world and in exchange that god will help her find her origin world.
Gundar continues to mock her, calling her 'an odd-job errand girl' and such.
At that moment, the cat standing near the crystal bursts out, spraying blood everywhere.
Everyone is shocked by the sudden violent death, except Ema.
Ema says something along the lines of: "Sorry about that... next time, teach your pets that they shouldn't try to invade a somebody's soul when they are speaking."
This is the first time Gundar shows a sign of fear/panic on his face.
Ema goes on to rant about several more things including:
- The artificial soul
- Reiza having three dead divinity seeds in her
- The lie about having to sacrifice souls to keep the lands fertile and thus the demon/human war
At some point, she mentions a bit about herself as a god:
- "Everything is fair in love and war" is the name of her unique ability
- It allows her to break any universal law as long as its done for love or war (rules such as 'you cannot enter a locked world','you have to have an agreement of the other party to make them into an apostle' and 'a soul cannot be destroyed')
- It's also revealed that Ema's affinity is love (she is a god of love)
- And that the reason she wants to find her origin world is because she wants to meet her loved one again, even though she knows that person is long dead due to old age
When Ema finally goes in to kill him, the angel interferes and meets the same fate evil root.
At that point, Gundar starts panicking and says that if she kills him, the world would collapse and kill all of its inhabitants.
The reason for that, is that the world's systems are SO screwed up, there constantly needs to be a god in the world's core to manage everything.
*Side note: The crystal he is in is the world's core in case you didn't realize.
Of course, when he says that, Ema realizes that by killing him, she would also kill Reiza and the others.
But she does it anyway.
She gets close and rips Gundar's soul out and destroys it.
Queue earthquakes as the world starts collapsing.
Ema tells everyone to get out and take care of whatever happens outside before jumping inside the crystal.
Reiza and co. teleport out back to Beta1 plane, only to be welcomed by mountains shifting and the sky turning into unnatural colors.
The chapter ends with someone saying 'You... it's your fault!'.
That someone being Lily, the void slime, with her/its eyes filled with pure insanity.
Chapter 71:
Reiza, Dan, Miranda vs Lily
Initially, they are all terrified that this monster is after them.
But they soon discover why she is so mad in the first place.
Ema has already deleted and changed around several systems in that world.
One of them includes the game interface as well as levels and stats.
Because of that, Lily can't easily keep her human form anymore and is constantly in a melting state.
Just like that, she attacks the party, but at a way lower speed than they remember.
Since the system's stats are gone, her ridiculous speed and power was reduced to... still way faster and stronger than Reiza and co.
Moreover, since Reiza was also a high level, even she experienced a sudden drop in power.
*Side note: The detailed fight scenes are always improvised so I don't know exactly how this would turn out. All I decided was that Reiza would give the sword to Dan and the giant spear to Miranda at some point during the fight.
After barely defeating and killing the slime, the party finally relaxes even though the world is still seemingly ending.
They then discuss about what's going to happen next.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Reiza would go back to her old village and hunt down whoever was the perpetrator of the attack.
Dan and Miranda would work on the peace treaty between humans and demons.
The chapter ends with them looking ahead with determination to fix this broken world.
Epilogue:
It takes places several years after Chapter 71's end.
It's Reiza sitting in some sort of shrine, thinking about what has happened in these past years(cliche, I know):
- Most of the perpetrators behind the beastman village raid were under evil root's influence
- Ema deleted most of the unnecessary systems such as the status screen, levels, stats, intimidation system and the limit beast
- Due to the intimidation system being gone, people don't fear Reiza on instinct anymore
- Thanks to that, she, along with other beastmen, were able to rebuild their civilization again, this time as one big country instead of separated villages
- Renar became the king of the new country and Reiza started to be worshiped by the people there as a holy beast
- Kinua became the shrine maiden for Reiza's shrine as well as some sort of manager for her
- At some point, Ema has stabilized the world completely and left after saying her goodbyes
Her thinking is interrupted by Kinua entering and informing her that she has a special guest.
This special guest is En.
They go on to do some more exposition dump masked as a conversation:
- After many years, the human/demon peace treaty was finally signed by both sides
- Since there are still some groups/invidivuals that disagree, Dan and Miranda are hard at work at persuading/wiping them out
- Some talks about Aicyna and colonizing the monster nation
En soon says his goodbye before heading to the demon country for some other business
...
And if you don't mind, instead of a summary, I will write this last part as I would a normal chapter.
Sigh...
"What's wrong?"
Kinua seemed to notice there was something on my mind.
"Nothing... it just feels weird."
She came closer to me and continued.
"To unite the beast races as one and put an end to wars... that was our dream, don't you remember?"
She was clearly excited about it, her eyes were sparkling.
"I know...
I know, but..."
I still felt like something was just not quite right.
Everything feels a little... too peaceful.
...
"Let's go back."
I turned around and was about to head back to the shrine.
But then... I felt something oddly familiar happen.
A massive outburst of energy in a specific direction, just like back then...
"W-what was that?!"
This time, however, I was not the only one to feel it.
It's because it was not divinity causing it, it was mana.
Unconsciously, I already dashed in that direction, jumping over houses and the city walls.
I heard someone yell 'wait' behind me, but my brain simply ignored it.
I kept going forward.
Soon enough, I spotted some figures in the distance.
I was able to see three of them, but it was still a little hard to identify them.
After getting closer though, I could finally see who they were.
The one in the middle was a human girl with long black hair.
I recognized this one, it was Ema.
As for the other ones...
The boy to her left with short white hair was dressed in pure white clothing, carrying a deceptively serene atmosphere.
But that peaceful aura of his was completely ruined by the gaping hole in his chest.
No, not a physical one.
One 'made' of mana.
I could feel a sphere of nothingness inside of him.
The bizarre thing was that mana on the outside could enter it, but could never leave.
What the hell is he...?
The girl on Ema's right looked a bit similar to Ema with her long black hair, but was taller than her and had a few more body parts...
Her wings, horns and a tail reminded me of Miranda.
Is she a demon like her?
As they got closer, they seemed to notice me and started talking among themselves.
"Is that the powerhouse? She doesn't look like much."
Fortunately, thanks to my great hearing, I was able to hear the demon girl insult me.
"Something tells me we won't get along..."
The boy also made a comment of his own.
And after they walked near enough, it was Ema's turn to speak.
"Hey... long time no see."
"Hi."
I answered simply and waited for her to continue.
"Reiza, I'm here to ask for your strength."
That sentence alone relit something inside me.
Her explanation was long, but I barely listened to it.
I just knew one thing...
She wanted me to fight.
After all these years of peace...
Why am I getting so excited about it?
Perhaps I got used to fighting in the past too much?
Whatever it may be...
This is an offer I can't decline.
"Sure, let's go."
I felt my mouth curl up as I said that.
I didn't know what was waiting for me after I followed them.
All I knew was that I would have to fight.
But it wouldn't be a fight to escape my cage.
No...
This would be for a much bigger cause.
...
And that's how I wanted to end it all.
Using a few stupid cliches and a segway into a possible pseudo-sequel.
All of those characters at the end were the main characters of my other unwritten works.
I planned big and wanted to have a huge crossover with one novel being a sequel for all of the others.
It would have been epic... but very unrealistic to do.
And since I doubt I will ever write any of those stories now, this is where endless cage ends...
...
Until I decide to do that rewrite.
I originally wanted the rewrite to have a somewhat similar structure and characters.
But I think that I will change it quite a bit when I get around to it.
I wonder what I should call it when I finally start writing it...