Pale green lines were detaching from Julia's body.
The faint point of light drifted toward the sky.
Simon seemed to have seen this scene before; it seemed strangely familiar.
He directly stated what it signified.
"So what should we do now?" Lucelia asked anxiously beside him.
From what they knew, apostasy was a major event.
Simon shook his head helplessly. "There's nothing we can do. She no longer believes in the teachings of life. Life's gaze has turned away from her."
However, Simon acted somewhat indifferent, not as anxious as the others around him.
It was just apostasy; what was so strange about it?
She would become the first apostate on the ship.
Alka felt Julia's firm grip on his hand, still enduring the world's sorrow and pain.
"Ah..."
He understood. He turned to look at the anxious Lucelia beside him.
Lucille also believed in life, but it was just like any ordinary person's faith, not a member of the Seed of Life.
"Lucille... I don't think I've asked you yet. What is the general doctrine of life?"
Hearing this, the anxious Lucelia took a few deep breaths, calming herself.
Resignedly, she said, "Life and the world, circulate like a chain."
This was the main theme; everything else expanded and extended outward from it.
Alka nodded, looking at the coin floating in front of Julia, the treasure she had recently acquired.
The side of the skull facing the crowd continuously emanated a blood-red aura.
The negative side of the treasure had overwhelmed the positive side of life.
Julia seemed to have chosen the path she wanted to take.
The people around her might not have known what this meant.
But Alka, who had experienced the same pain, and even within this ocean of pain, had forged a deeper connection with the world, deeply understood Julia's choice.
Feeling her hand loosen, Alka immediately let go, breaking the connection.
Without the experience of the world's pain, Julia immediately collapsed to the ground.
She gasped for air.
Beside her, Mathilda immediately helped her up and carefully examined her body.
"She's in poor condition... Her body is covered in lacerations. She's hyperactive, yet weak.
She needs some rest to recover."
Julia panted, silent.
She looked at Alka.
"You...what did you choose? What did you choose?"
"Me? I don't know." Alka shook her head, facing Julia's fingerprints.
He looked at the choppy sea beside the boat and said, "I haven't decided yet. I haven't decided what to do..."
The crowd stood nearby, somewhat bewildered.
They had no idea what the two were talking about, but it seemed something quite serious.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch? Do nothing?"
"Of course not. I just haven't decided what to do yet. Of course I will make a choice and take action."
Julia, holding onto Mathilda's hand, forced herself to sit up. Panting, she spoke fiercely, "Let's choose destruction... Let's do as she wishes... How about that? She's in so much pain, so desperate for destruction, so desperate for death...
How about we just help her? Speak!"
Faced with Julia's increasingly agitated questioning, Alka remained silent, unsure how to respond.
He didn't want to choose sides. His rationality, his sensibilities, and his upbringing all told him not to.
But this side was the best, because he had truly experienced such a situation before.
He could empathize with her with remarkable empathy.
In such a situation, the desire to die was so overwhelming.
"I... haven't made up my mind yet."
"Roar!"
"Wait! What are you doing!"
The scene suddenly erupted in chaos.
The crystal dragon, which had been inactive nearby, suddenly tackled Julia and roared furiously at her head.
It was a display of extreme rage.
This sudden action caught everyone completely off guard.
Jason rushed forward, grabbed the crystal dragon, and tried to drag her up.
It was so sudden. Although Jason tried to stop her, his eyes were filled with confusion.
However, the crystal dragon continued to pin Julia down, roaring at her continuously, but didn't attack, as if simply venting its fury.
Looking at the crystal dragon roaring at her, Julia's eyes seemed to understand something, a fierceness filling them.
She raised her hand and pressed down on the crystal dragon's shoulder.
The blood-red mist from the coin swirled around her, surprisingly forcing the crystal dragon back slightly.
"Ha, I get it. You chose to betray, right? So your earlier silence was because you also knew something, right?"
"You chose to betray? Don't even think about it!"
A dragon and a merman suddenly confronted each other, each trying their best not to hurt the other.
They seemed to be venting their respective anger.
They yelled at each other.
But that was all.
Jason held the crystal dragon, trying his best to pull her away, but his strength was no match for the fully enraged and grown crystal dragon.
Simon was forced to help from the side.
Matresa and Chatetti both embraced Julia, attempting to stop her.
They didn't know why, but it was clear they couldn't let the two continue their rivalry.
An unprecedented disagreement arose on the ship.
The problem was that, aside from these three people, everyone else knew nothing and was completely lost.
That wasn't the right thing to say.
They had a rough idea based on the two's conversation and the feelings they had experienced before.
They just didn't know what the so-called choice meant.
"So what's going on? No one wants to tell us?" Lucilia said, somewhat bewildered and angry.
Pororo stood at the front of the deck, arms folded, watching the chaos.
His gaze fixed on the sea, his thoughts etched in his mind.
Juanlu, the only one who remained silent, stared at Alca.
He watched the captain, sitting on the stairs, silently stopping the two without even making a move. Silently, she walked over to his side.
"At this point, you're the only one left."
"Let them vent. Once I help one side, it means I'm solidifying their ideals, but... I haven't made up my mind yet."
Borolo, seemingly having figured it out, strode over. His footsteps were unusually heavy, clattering the entire deck.
He came directly in front of Alka.
He knelt on one knee and extended his hand.
"Come on! Let me experience it too. What kind of realization could have brought us to this point? I'll give you my answer."
Borolo looked at Alka, then at the sparring Crystal Dragon and Julia.
He looked at Alka and said, "I don't know why you're struggling. I don't know what's weighing you down."
Then he looked at Julia. "The clash between the doctrines you've adhered to for centuries and reality, the disillusionment and realization, has led you to extremes. You're neither calm nor rational now."
He then looked at the Crystal Dragon. "You were still a child. We watched you hatch from the egg. This wasn't your choice, but the result of your inheritance."
He turned back to Alka with a determined gaze. "Come, let me experience it too. Let me feel the pain of this world, and then make a decision."
Another hand gently rested on the back of his. It was Juanlu, standing nearby.
Observing this situation and the lesson Pororo had just given him,
Julia and the Crystal Dragon paused.
"Count me in. What has brought Sister Julia to this state? What has caused her so...painful?" Matlisa approached and placed her own hand on it.
Simon walked over silently. The mechanical arm on his left arm completely fell off, and the treasure-made index finger fell along with the precision hand.
On his right arm, only the upper arm remained.
He placed the remaining section of his right hand on the backs of everyone's hands.
"I am a mechanic, pursuing truth, and forever curious."
Jason observed the scene and touched the crystal dragon's head. "Let me see what you carry."
"The sadness before... broke my heart, and it made me care," Lucilia said, recalling the ocean of sorrow that had previously filled Alka's soul space.
She looked at Sofia, and they nodded together.
Hand after hand joined together.
Placed in front of Alka.
Looking at the determined eyes of the crowd, Alka smiled inexplicably and stood up. "We're a team... let's make this decision together."
One hand rested on the backs of everyone's hands, while the other extended, pointing to Julia and Ululius.
"Come, let's bear this together. Let's experience everyone's thoughts and feelings. Perhaps you'll have a different understanding."
Hearing this,
The Crystal Dragon met Jason's gaze and slowly approached. With a slight twist of its tail, it scooped up Julia, who had fallen limply to the ground, and dragged her along.
Everyone's hands came together.
Alka's deer-head mask reappeared and was placed on his head.
Thorns entangled everyone's hands.
This time, they felt a sense of spiritual connection.
"Come... let's experience this together."
This time, Alka connected directly to the world, connecting with everyone else.
Emotions of grief and pain surged like a tsunami.
They swept everyone in.
They felt the world's pain, its sorrow, its frantic will to die.
Their responses to these feelings collided and resonated with each other.
Everyone had different thoughts.
Facing the world's suicidal will, Pororo initially felt that this shouldn't be the case. He should strive to save it, and also to save himself.
Sofia didn't want the world to be destroyed. There was so much beauty, so he tried to save it.
Lucilia hesitated, hesitating.
Juanlu didn't want this world to disappear, so he decided to save it.
Simon still yearned for knowledge, for a higher masterpiece of construction. How could the world remain like this? It must be saved.
Jason understood. He inexplicably recalled his childhood. The world's pain. Perhaps he should comply with her wishes.
Faced with Jason's choice, the crystal dragon was displeased and lashed out at him with its tail.
Julia, though less extreme in the face of the crowd's emotions, still felt the need to destroy the world of pain.
The world was too painful. Flesh and inspiration, already shattered, were pieced together again, like glue and thread sewn together.
Blood flowed endlessly from the shattered seams.
The dense seams had long since been infested with maggots, leaving them rotting and filled with pus.
Numbness and pain, along with the resulting death of life.
Sorrow and pain, a sea that filled the world's core.
A world, barely brimming with intelligence, was destroyed by the gods of its own world.
Shattered by the child born and nurtured within its own body.
It should have died, yet it was forcibly pieced together.
Ever since her spiritual awakening, she had endured unspeakable pain.
She wanted nothing more than to die.
Faced with the choices of the crowd.
What was different about her was that in a previous life, she had lain on a hospital bed, tormented by the pain, until the very end, she had hoped for death, not to lie there waiting for endless, hopeless treatment.
How similar it was to the world she was in now.
He could understand.
The loved ones, the people she cared about, tried to save her.
But she herself prayed for death.
He was so empathetic, he felt exactly the same way.
So he was torn.
But he, at that time, had also wanted to survive, he simply saw no hope.
Arka channeled his own emotions—the longing for life, the desire to live, and the desire to die.
Mixed with the natural spirit's desire to heal her mother.
They rushed towards the crowd together.
…
The thorns slowly receded.
Everyone opened their eyes, but at this moment, they were all silent.
Arka stood up and said, "Let's get some rest today. Once we've calmed down, we can discuss things together."
Faced with this suggestion, no one objected and each returned to their own room.
After closing the door, the entire ship fell into an unusual silence.
Everyone seemed lost in thought.
Arka lay down on his bed, sinking back into his dream world.
He sat in his dream world.
He lay on the lawn covered with fluorescent plants, gazing at the sky of his own world.
The mirror surface emerged, still retaining its deer-headed form.
But he didn't bring it with him.
A long time passed.
A-Ka muttered to himself, "I've decided. I'll do my best to save you.
If it doesn't work, if there's no other way, then... I'll help you die, as you wish.
" He seemed to be speaking to himself, but also to others.
He decided to change his perspective, to see things from the perspective of those who once wished for his life, those who had held out hope for him.
"If you've lost hope, if there's no hope left, I'll do my best... to create hope." He decided to act. A-Ka began to recall everything he'd experienced since donning the deer-head mask and connecting to the world through the power of nature spirits.
At that time, he was overwhelmed by the world's sorrow. He was almost delirious.
But the illusion and the consumption of gold and silver energy helped him, causing him to awaken in the ocean of sorrow.
He even connected with the world at the surface of the sea. Through the emotions hidden deep within him at the time, he saw his origins.
Because he longed to know his origins, and in that moment, the world responded to him.
It was precisely because he saw his origins that he was so torn about what to choose.
Because he truly wanted to help the world.
Before entering this body.
Arka's soul.
Originally Suddenly, he emerged from a dimensional rift in the astral realm. The violent energy within it nearly ripped his soul apart.
Alka would vanish from this world forever, leaving not a trace behind.
No one knew how his soul had arrived.
All they knew was that even his soul would perish in a foreign land.
But he appeared right next to this shattered world.
The world, numb with pain, awaiting death, simply believed Alka was a soul that had accidentally fallen from her world.
Since she wasn't completely dead yet, she would fulfill her duty.
She temporarily awoke, accepted the pain, and welcomed Alka back into her world.
She believed Alka's soul was her child, and that was her due.
Even though her brokenness and pain were all caused by her child,
But she still loved instinctively.
Arka's soul was naturally received by the Stone Mother, who channeled it into a recently deceased child on her island, the soul she had helped save.
Therefore, in the Stone Mother's eyes, Arka's origins were nothing to hide.
Even Arka's rebirth was due to a certain gift bestowed by the Stone Mother.
For Arka was born her disciple.
Arka's upbringing and education in his previous world, the very things of his country, shaped him into the person he was.
His soul firmly believed in what was meant to be.
And this faith was precisely what the Stone Mother believed in.
Therefore, Arka's previous worries and attempts at concealment were meaningless.
The Stone Mother knew her origins, but she didn't care.
With the world in its current state, what was there to worry about?
She was just an alien soul, not to mention one rescued by the world itself.
The world awakened, forcing itself to endure the pain and rescue Alka.
Even if it might have been a mistake.
But rescue was rescue.
Not to mention that Alka had connected the world without permission and was drowned in a sea of sorrow.
The gold and silver energies gently touched the world, trying to make it aware.
And the world responded, once again placing itself at the mercy of that pain.
In the midst of pain, she saved the child who had accidentally fallen into her sorrow.
In that moment, she restrained her own emotions.
So how could Alka not care about her?
This world could be said to be the foundation of his new life.
It's no exaggeration to say that she was the mother of his new life.
Otherwise, Alka would have been ground to dust in the astral plane, leaving no trace.
She even rescued Alka a second time.
Alka believed that the second time she was submerged in the Sea of Sorrow, she must have discovered her true nature.
She still wanted to rescue herself and send her out.
That's why Alka tried to make a choice.
It was too painful, too agonizing.
The world's forced survival was a form of torture, a torture greater than anything else in the world.
Alka's original intention was definitely not to destroy the world, but to save it.
But the world also forced her to die.
This left him torn.
He didn't know how to choose.
Because whether it was from Mirmi's memory fragments or the information he'd learned from becoming a nature spirit...
Destruction...
It was far simpler than salvation.
Saving could bring even greater pain and deeper suffering.
Because it wasn't that simple.