Chapter 43 — Last Goodbyes
The battlefield had gone quiet.
Not the silence of peace, nor the silence that follows victory; this was the silence left behind when something important had been torn away, and the world kept moving anyway.
The ruined hall no longer trembled from cursed energy or collapsing stone. The dust had begun to settle. The shattered remains of pillars cast long shadows across blood-soaked ground, while the air still carried the taste of death, thick enough to choke on.
Aken stood at the center of it all without moving.
His breathing was steady, too steady actually. Like his body still hadn't realized the battle was over.
Or maybe it had, maybe this was what happened after the body exhausted every emotion it had left.
Broken stone crunched faintly beneath his feet. Around him lay the aftermath of a war no one had been meant to survive; destroyed weapons, fractured walls, streaks of blood carved into the ground like scars the dungeon wouldn't heal from.
And bodies
His eyes stayed fixed ahead; Jin Wong and Soo-ah. Two people who had still been alive moments ago.
Two people who had spoken, fought, and bled beside him.
Now they were dead, gone.
"…Aken."
Jae-Min's voice came weakly from behind him, strained and uneven, as if speaking itself was painful now.
Aken didn't answer, didn't even turn. His mind refused to accept what he was seeing.
"No," he thought to himself. "This wasn't how it was supposed to end. Not after everything we went through together. Not after the dungeon. "
Not after the fear, the exhaustion, the moments where they barely managed to drag each other forward.
Not after she smiled at him.
His fingers twitched slightly. The memory hit him without warning.
Soo-ah was sitting quietly near the campfire earlier in the dungeon, pretending not to listen while Jae-Min complained about the food supply. The way she rolled her eyes whenever Jin tried to act serious. The faint smirk she tried to hide whenever Aken nearly embarrassed himself.
Small things, stupid things. The kind no one thinks matters until someone's gone.
"…Are you just going to leave them here?"
The voice came from his mind; calm, yet detached.
Future Aken.
Aken swallowed slowly, his throat suddenly dry.
"…What do you want me to do?"
Even to himself, his voice sounded painful; hollow, scraped empty. For a brief moment, the other presence remained silent.
Then he spoke:
"There is a way to save one of them."
Aken's head lifted sharply.
"…What?"
The numbness cracked instantly. Hope rushed in so fast it hurt; dangerous hope. The kind that made people do foolish things.
"What are you talking about?"
"The Vampire Prince's blood," Future Aken said. "You witnessed what it could do. Its regeneration doesn't merely repair damage. It reconstructs matter at a foundational level."
Aken's eyes flickered toward the remains of the Prince scattered across the ruined floor.
"…You're saying it can bring someone back to life?"
"Yes."
The answer came immediately, and for one terrible moment; everything disappeared except that possibility.
They're not gone.
His chest tightened violently, but Future Aken continued either way.
"It is unstable though. Unpredictable. What returns may not remain entirely human."
The words hit harder than the hope itself.
Aken's jaw clenched.
"…Then what's the point?"
Silence.
Before the other could answer, a faint sound cut through the ruined hall.
"…A…ken…"
It was weak, barely audible; but real.Both Aken and Jae-Min froze.
Slowly, Aken turned.
Jin Wong.
His body hadn't moved. It probably couldn't. But something was still there. Something stubbornly refusing to disappear quietly.
Aken moved instantly, dropping beside him.
"Jin, your alive," he said quickly, fumbling through his inventory with shaking hands. "Don't talk. I still have potions—A-rank ones—they can stabilize you, just hold on—"
"No."
The word didn't come from Jin's mouth. It came through his skill. A fragile mental transmission. Weak, flickering; but clear.
Aken stopped.
"…Why?"
"You already know."
"No, I don't," Aken snapped, sharper than intended. "You're still alive. Meaning we still have enough time."
A long silence followed.
"I'm not."
The words landed softly. But they crushed something inside him. Jae-Min looked away, Aken couldn't.
"You're young," Jin said slowly, his presence flickering like a candle struggling against the wind. "You still think everything can be fixed… if you're move fast enough."
Aken's grip tightened around the potion vial until his hand hurt.
"…And you don't?"
Jin's answer came quietly.
"…No."
Not fear, not bitterness, just...acceptance.
Aken hated it; he hated how calm he sounded, hated how unfair it was.
"…Then what am I supposed to do?" he asked, his voice roughening despite himself.
Jin was quiet for a while. Long enough that Aken almost thought he'd already died.
But just then—
"Soo-ah."
Aken's eyes shifted toward her body laying on the cold floor.
"She's stronger than she lets people see," Jin continued faintly. "But she carries too much alone."
Something fragile passed through his presence. A memory; affection.
"She acts cold...because it's easier than letting people watch her fall apart."
Aken said nothing, his chest hurt like there was a knife in it.
"If I'm gone…" Jin continued weakly, "…she'll pretend she's fine." His voice faltered. "But she won't be."
Aken lowered his head slightly.
"So don't let her carry it alone."
The words came out firmer this time, not advice; a request. No—
A final responsibility.
Jin's voice broke again, weaker now.
"Not for me," he whispered. "But for her."
Aken swallowed so hard to the point that it hurt.
"…I understand."
A faint pause followed, then Jin answered softly.
"No. You don't. But maybe someday; you will."
Aken's brows tightened. Silence settled over them again, heavy and unavoidable. Then Jin's fading presence stirred one last time.
"…Thank you... Aken... Ezomo."
Aken looked up, but there was nothing left. Jin Wong's hand slipped from his grasp; cold, still and gone.
For several seconds, Aken didn't move, he couldn't. His mind stopped. Then he suddenly slammed his fist into the ground hard enough to crack the stone.
"He didn't deserve this."
His voice shook, loudly, yet violently.
"None of them did!"
The words tore out unevenly, dragged from somewhere deep inside him that had been holding everything back since the fight ended.
Jae-Min stepped forward slowly, barely staying upright himself.
"…I know Aken."
Aken laughed once, a broken sound came through.
"Do you though?"
Jae-Min fell silent. Then, quietly "Maybe I don't."
The honesty in the answer made Aken freeze.
"But I know what it feels like," Jae-Min continued, "to survive when someone else doesn't."
Aken finally looked back at him. Jae-Min's remaining hand trembled against the hilt of his sword.
"There are people I still see every time I close my eyes," he admitted. "People I thought I could save."
His expression tightened.
"And the worst part is… eventually the world keeps moving forward."
That hurt more than anything else, because... it was true.
The dungeon didn't care, the system didn't care. The world would continue tomorrow exactly as it had yesterday.
As if Jin Wong had never existed. As if Soo-ah's laughter had never filled the room.
Future Aken's voice returned quietly.
"You're running out of time."
Aken closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his gaze drifted toward Soo-ah.
Still unmoving, still silent.
"…What happens if I use it?"
"A possibility," Future Aken replied. "Nothing is guaranteed."
"And what if it fails?"
Silence. That alone was enough of an answer.
Aken stared at her for a long time. At the frost still barely clinging to her fingertips, at the blood staining her clothes, at someone who had fought until the very end despite being terrified.
Then he slowly exhaled.
A chance, that was all he needed. Not certainty, not the safety; just a chance.
Because if there was even the slightest possibility he could bring her back—
He would bear whatever came after, even if it destroyed him.vAken pushed himself to his feet, not because he was ready for what came next, not because the grief had lessened.
But because standing still would mean accepting this fate.
And he couldn't.
He looked down at Soo-ah one final time before tightening his grip around the vial of corrupted blood forming in his hand.
"…I'm bringing you back," he whispered.
His voice cracked slightly.
"But you'd better yell at me for this later."
Jae-Min looked away sharply, jaw tightening as if the words hurt to hear.
Future Aken remained silent. And within the ruined castle, something ancient stirred.
Because death inside a dungeon was never simple.
And some of those things; should have stayed buried.
END OF CHAPTER 43