Chapter 404:
Chapter 404:
I was sitting at my desk, reading a book, before heading outside.
The book was my diary, a book where I wrote down all the secrets of this world before I forgot them.
…And, to be precise.
"….."
If I were to die, I would leave it for my companions who would be left without me, because even if I\'m gone, someone will have to protect this world.
"Hmm…"
That\'s why, in the first place, I asked the Vine Witch to put a special enchantment on my journal so that no one could read it but me.
Technically, the spell was to be broken after I died.And I had a question on my mind.
"…Do I even need this anymore?"
That was the meaning of this book\'s existence.
I made it thinking that I would die in the middle of it, but I ended up being alive until just before the final battle.
So I wondered if it was really necessary, since most of what was written here was about how to stop the Moonlight Church and how to prepare for the Sun God.
My friend, the diary, was sent away after I finished using it in the commotion of losing my memory.
But…
‘…but, well, you never know, there might be some useful information in there.\'
"Measures to Take When a Forest Necrotizes One Day," "Solutions for When Someone Loses Their Memory," "Methods to Revive People from Death," and so on…
Even if that information is so useful that it\'s dangerous…
Yeah. I don\'t know what will happen to people, so I\'ll keep it for now.
With that thought, I put the book back on the shelf.
"Okay. Let\'s go."
I muttered those words and got up from my seat, encouraging myself.
I had a lot to do. There were things to do with the moon ore I\'d gotten from Eun-woo after meeting with her the other day…but most importantly.
‘…Also, when are we going to break those holy artifacts?’
The six Sun God artifacts that Celeste and I have collected so far.
I had originally planned to destroy them immediately after the revelation, but I had a hunch that I should leave them alone for now.
Okay, maybe later.
With that thought, I walked out of the room.
As I made my way toward the living room, I saw a bustle of activity.
"Ha-yul, I need a hair tie."
"Yes, Se-hee. It\'s yellow, right?"
"Yes. Thank you."
"Ha…Good old days, going to work…"
That was our Egostream members getting ready to go to work in the morning.
Choi Se-hee, Ha-yul, Seo Ja-young, Shinryong, Soobin, and Eun-woo were all busy.
At my request, one by one, our members from all over the country are participating in the Korean National Guard activities.
By the way, this kind of commuting was possible because we gave the technology of the teleportation device made by HanEun Group to Lee Seola Yuseong Group, and Yuseong Group installed teleportation devices, which cost astronomical funds to make, in all the buildings of the National Association.
So, it\'s a good thing that not everyone had to move house since no one seemed to want to get out of here.
I was thinking about that when I walked into the living room.
Seo Ja-young, wearing a hoodie, her purple hair hanging down, her eyes sleepy and yawning, saw me and flew over to me, waving her hand in greeting.
"Uh, Da-in\'s out. Ha-am, I\'m coming….Before that."
…With that, she smiled slightly and floated towards me.
-Aye.
She casually kissed my cheek and left.
"I\'m really going~"
"No…Haha, goodbye."
…What should I do about that?
Well. It was all my fault. I still haven\'t told them about my relationship with Stardus.
…But if I did, I could really get killed.
‘Da-in. If you tell them now…It\'s bad enough we\'re dealing with the Sun God, but we could start a civil war.’
‘….\'
Ever since that consultation with Lee Seola, I\'ve been keeping my mouth shut. Yeah. It\'s all over, and I\'ll tell them someday. Let\'s tell them then…
Anyway, in this way, we, the members of Egostream, were all getting along well.
And so was the world.
"…Hmm."
It was now four months, or 120 days, until the Sun God\'s descent.
I stared at the blue sky outside my living room window, lost in thought.
The world was holding up much better than I thought it would.
Maybe it\'s because I\'ve been so nervously and thoroughly preparing for these four phases. So far, it\'s been so peaceful that it\'s funny how nervous I was.
…Something.
What is this inexplicable, ominous feeling…?
Silent for a moment, I shook my head and moved on.
That\'s right…Something\'s going to happen, and if it\'s like the original, it\'s going to stay like this.
So, let\'s just work in silence.
‘…I\'m going to spend the day with her.’
I\'ll see how Stardus is doing.
I was putting on my coat while thinking about Stardus.
"Da-in, where are you going?"
The voice came from behind me.
I turned around in surprise, and there stood a smiling Soo-bin.
She had worked with Seo-Eun at the Association, where she was the de facto general manager of all of the scattered members of the Egostream, with her excellent judgment and leadership.
The members of the Egostream would rather listen to her than the Association…
"…Haha, I\'m just going to go to the command center to see if everything is going well."
After saying that, I glanced up and said,
"So, Soo-bin, are you going to the Association with Seo-eun today?"
"Oh. I was going to, but…Seo-eun said she had some work to do at home."
With those words, Soo-bin smiled again.
She then said to me
"So. I\'d like to go with you to the headquarters to help you out if you have any problems."
"…Haha, you don\'t have to go with me."
"No, I\'d love to come with you."
I couldn\'t help but laugh at her smiling dismissal.
…I think she\'s noticed I\'m going to see Stardus, but maybe it\'s just my mood…?
Anyway, just like that, I was on my way to the headquarters with Soo-bin.
***
~Headquarters of the Earth Countermeasures Committee for Sun God Invasion Preparation~
An organization created by the alliance between the Association and Cathedral, it is located in a tall building in the United States that was quickly erected in just a few days.
The only way to get in is with an "invitation," which Celeste created.
Anyway, heroes and villains from all over the world gathered there to work together.
I wandered around looking for Stardus.
There were a lot of people around who said hello to me, and I said hello to them all.
After wandering around like that, I finally found Haru, standing in front of a circular desk talking to other heroes.
She stood there, her blonde hair flowing, pointing at a map on the desk, her face serious as she said something.
…I smiled briefly at her, and decided to wait for the meeting to end.
"…Yeah, that\'s fine. …Huh? Egotistic!”
After not too much time had passed, nodding with her companion, she walked out, and when she saw me waiting in front of her, she smiled brightly and came toward me.
…Of course, her smile turned to a stern face when she saw Soo-bin standing next to me, also smiling.
"…And there\'s Soo-Bin, too."
"Yes. Hello, Stardus."
"…Hello."
She smiled gently at Soo-Bin, who replied with a slightly warm smile.
…Something about the way they\'re both smiling at each other makes me think the temperature has suddenly dropped five degrees…
"So, Egostic, what\'s going on?"
Haru, who had just turned her head away from Lee Soo-bin, said with a smile that seemed much more natural to me.
"Haha. I was just wondering how you were doing, Stardus. So, what\'s the state of the world these days?"
I asked.
Haru thought for a moment before answering.
"Not too bad, the angels from above keep coming down, but we seem to be handling it pretty well, and Celeste\'s got the runaway powers under control."
I nodded at that.
The runaway power had started about a month after the Sun God\'s revelation.
As the Sun God drew closer and closer, some of them, overwhelmed with power, finally lost it and exploded like a bomb, just like in the original.
‘Celeste can fix this.’
I neatly prevented this by having Celeste teleport in and manage it herself.
The Sun God gave Celeste the power to control the other powers to make them go wild, and she used it to calm them down.
‘The ability to make dreams come true’ is also the reason why villains readily cooperate with heroes. Is it because of Celeste\'s status, which has abilities almost bordering on creation. When she personally corrected the runaway superhumans, the morale of the villains also increased.
However, lately, Celeste has seemed a bit unstable again, and I\'m worried…
As I was thinking about it, Haru added.
"I\'ve been hearing in the field lately that the angels\' power seems to be waning."
"…What?"
I asked.
I snapped out of my reverie and turned to her.
"Uh. They say that the number and strength of the angels attacking from the sky is decreasing…so they\'re getting easier to deal with these days. I feel the same way."
She nodded.
"…Yeah."
I stiffened.
The angels\' power was waning?
That was good news. Good news…
‘In the original, they weren\'t.’
What?
Why are the angels\' powers suddenly weakening?
"…I understand, but please tell everyone to stay vigilant and be extra prepared for times like this."
"Yeah."
Even as I say that, something, a nagging sense of foreboding, kept nagging at me.
Maybe I could call it a hunch, a gut feeling.
‘…Somehow, after all these months of ease.’
I had a premonition that something bad was about to happen.