Chapter 404 - The Last Dissonance

# Morning.

"Sigh..."

A brief morning moment before going out.

At that time, I was sitting at my desk, reading a book.

That book was my diary.

More precisely, it was a book where I had written down all the secrets of this world before I could forget them.

...And, to be exact.

"....."

It was a book I had left for our comrades who would remain if I were to die.

Because even without me, someone would need to protect this world.

"Hmm..."

That's why from the beginning, I had asked the Vine Witch to place a special spell on it along with my diary so that no one except me could read it.

More precisely, I had arranged for the spell to be broken after my death.

And there was one thing I was contemplating.

"...Is this still necessary?"

It was about the meaning of this book's existence.

I had created it thinking I might die along the way, but I ended up surviving until right before the final battle.

Since most of the content was about how to stop the Moon Cult Leader and how to prepare for the Sun God, I wondered if it was still needed.

I had already sent away its companion diary after it served its purpose during that memory loss incident.

However...

'...Still, you never know, and there's some useful information in here.'

[How to deal with forest necrosis], [Solutions for when someone loses their memory], [How to resurrect someone from death], and so on...

Although that information might be too useful to the point of being dangerous...

Right. You never know what might happen.

I think I'll keep it for now.

With that thought, I placed the book back on the bookshelf.

"Alright. Let's go."

I muttered those words to encourage myself as I got up from my seat.

There was a lot to do. I had things to do with the moonstone I received from Eun-wol when we met last time. But the important thing was.

'...When to destroy those relics.'

The six relics of the Sun God that I had collected with Celeste.

I originally planned to smash them right after the revelation, but some intuition told me to leave them be for now. The relics didn't seem to be going berserk either.

Right. I'll do that later.

With that thought, I left the room.

As I entered the living room, I saw people bustling about.

"Ha-yul, can you get me that hair tie?"

"Yes, Se-hee. The yellow one, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Yawn... Things were better before, having to go to work..."

It was our Ego-stream members getting ready to head out to work in the morning.

Choi Se-hee, Ha-yul, Seo Ja-young, Shin-ryong, Su-bin, and Eun-wol—all of them looked busy.

At my request, our Ego-stream members were each stationed in different regions across the country, working as part of Korea's defense force.

By the way, we gave the teleportation device technology created by Han-eun Group to Lee Seol-ah's Yu-seong Group, and they installed teleportation devices in every association building across the country, despite the astronomical cost.

Thanks to that, everyone didn't need to relocate, which was good. None of them seemed to want to leave this place anyway.

As I was thinking about this while entering the living room.

Seo Ja-young, wearing a hoodie with her purple hair flowing down and yawning with sleepy eyes, saw me and waved happily as she floated toward me.

"Oh, Da-in's out. Yawn, I'm going... but before that."

...With those words, she smiled slightly and floated up toward me.

Smooch.

She naturally kissed me on the cheek and then left.

"I'm really going. Bye~"

"No... hey. Sigh, have a good day."

...What should I do about this?

Well. It's all my fault. I still haven't revealed my relationship with Stardust to them.

...But if I did, I might actually die.

'Da-in. If you tell them at this point... we're already struggling with the Sun God, and this could cause a civil war.'

'....'

Since that consultation with Lee Seol-ah, I've been keeping my mouth shut. Right. I'll have to tell them someday, after everything is over. I'll tell them then...

Anyway, all our Ego-stream members were doing well.

And the world was too.

"...Hmm."

Now there were about 4 months—120 days—left until the Sun God's descent.

Looking at the blue sky outside the living room window, I fell into thought.

The world was holding up much better than I had expected.

Perhaps it was because we had prepared so thoroughly for this Phase 4, being so tense about it. It was so peaceful that all my tension seemed ridiculous.

However.

Throb-

...Something.

What was this causeless, ominous feeling...

After a moment of silence in that feeling, I shook my head and moved on.

Right. I'm overreacting. What could possibly happen? If things follow the original story, it should continue like this.

So, I should just focus on my work.

'...I should go see Haruna today.'

Our Stardust. I should check how she's doing these days.

As I was thinking about Stardust while putting on my coat.

"Da-in. Where are you going?"

I heard that voice behind me.

Startled, I turned around to find Su-bin smiling at me.

Su-bin.

Working with Seo-eun at the association, she was essentially the overall leader of our Ego-stream members scattered across the country, thanks to her outstanding judgment and leadership skills.

The Ego-stream members tended to follow Su-bin's instructions rather than the association's...

"...Haha. I was just going to check on the countermeasure headquarters. See if everything's running smoothly."

After saying that, I glanced at her and asked.

"So, Su-bin, are you going to the association with Seo-eun today?"

"Ah. I was planning to... but Seo-eun said she had something to do at home."

With those words and another caring smile, Su-bin then said to me.

"So. If you have work, I'd like to help and visit the countermeasure headquarters with you. Would that be possible?"

"...Haha. You don't have to come with me."

"No. I'd like to go together."

I could only smile helplessly at her dismissive response.

...It seems she might have noticed I was going to meet Stardust, but that's probably just my imagination...?

Anyway, I ended up going to the countermeasure headquarters with Su-bin.

***

Divine Invasion Countermeasure Earth Committee Headquarters.

It's an organization born from the alliance between the Association and Kathedal, located in a tall building in America that was quickly established in just a few days.

The way to access it is through an "invitation" created by Celeste.

Anyway, in that place where heroes and villains from around the world gathered and cooperated.

I was looking around for Stardust.

Many people were greeting me, and I returned their greetings.

After searching for a while.

I finally found Haruna talking with other heroes in front of a round table.

With her blonde hair flowing down, she was standing and pointing at a map on the table with a serious face, saying something.

...I smiled briefly at the sight of her and decided to wait for the meeting to end.

"...Yes, that's fine. ...Oh? Egostic!"

After a short while.

As she was nodding and coming out with the person next to her, she saw me waiting and approached me with a bright smile and a cheerful voice.

...Of course, that smile turned rigid when she noticed Su-bin standing beside me with a smile.

"...And, Lee Su-bin is here too."

"Yes. Hello, Stardust."

"...Hello."

She responded with a slightly sour smile to Su-bin's friendly greeting.

...Both of them were smiling at each other, but was it my imagination that the temperature seemed to drop by about 5 degrees...?

"So, Egostic, what brings you here?"

Anyway, after turning her head away from Lee Su-bin, Haruna spoke to me with a much more natural smile.

"Haha. I just wanted to see how Stardust was doing. So, how's the world situation these days?"

To my question.

Haruna thought for a moment and then answered.

"Not bad. Angels keep coming down from above, but everyone seems to be handling them well now. And Celeste is taking care of the berserk ability users."

I nodded at her words.

The berserk ability users that started about a month after the Sun God's revelation.

As the Sun God drew closer, some of those whose powers overflowed eventually lost their sanity and went berserk like bombs.

Just like in the original story.

However.

'Celeste can fix this.'

I neatly prevented this by having Celeste teleport directly to manage it.

I had her use the power control ability given by the Sun God—originally meant to make other ability users go berserk—to instead calm down those who were going berserk.

Perhaps it was due to Celeste's status, possessing the ability to "make dreams come true"—an ability that borders on creation—that villains cooperated willingly with heroes. When she personally fixed the berserk ability users, the morale of the villains also improved.

However, I'm a bit worried because Celeste has been looking unstable again recently...

While I was thinking about this.

Haruna added.

"And. I heard from the field recently that the angels' power seems to be weakening."

"...What did you say?"

Hearing that, I.

Suddenly became alert and asked her again.

"Yeah. The number and power of the angels attacking from the sky are gradually decreasing... So they say it's getting easier to deal with them these days. I feel the same way."

At those words.

"...I see."

My face hardened.

The angels' power is weakening?

It was good news. It was good news, but...

'In the original story, this didn't happen.'

What's going on?

Why are the angels' powers suddenly weakening?

"...I understand. However, please tell everyone not to let their guard down and to prepare even more thoroughly at times like this."

"Okay."

Even as I said that.

I continued to have an ominous feeling.

A feeling that could be called intuition.

'...Somehow, after a few comfortable months.'

Something.

I had a premonition that something bad was about to happen.