Chapter 140
Johann wanted to thoroughly beat Zion, but for the time being, he lent Zion his ability so that he could move across the sea.
Finding Odette was far more important and urgent.
“Please, Albrecht… I was wrong.”
Zion kept looking back at past events, wondering where he had gone wrong.
‘Was it because I suspected her abuse but pretended not to notice? Because I spoke carelessly?’
But the more he went over it, the less he could grasp what the real problem was.
Not because there were no regrets, but because there were only regrets.
Going to her on his own and trampling on her handkerchief. Trying so hard to make her cry. Ultimately, finding her and attempting to brainwash her.
The more he recalled these moments, the more he painfully realized just how cruel he had been to her.
“Damn it, Odette!”
But still, no matter how cruel he had been to her…
‘She shouldn’t have run away into death. Even if she ran, she should have run somewhere I could follow.’
So I could at least grab onto her skirt and beg before her. But why… why did she choose a death I could never follow?
If Zion had believed in the afterlife, if he had believed there was a chance to meet her even in death, he would have gladly given up his own life.
But after death, isn’t the place humans go just… nothingness?
She must hate me that much. She must resent me that much.
Then let her see with her own eyes how I’m suffering. Let her confirm that she has successfully punished me, that she has broken me.
If she wanted, I could be even more broken. I would gladly accept any pain…
While lost in this turmoil, Zion’s steps had returned to the cliffs of Meursault.
Even seeing it again, it was dizzying. The depth of the water, the strong downward currents—it was a place notorious as the sea’s death cliff, where one could be sucked into the deep in an instant.
‘How did I fall here on my own? How could anyone hate me more than this place?’
Zion felt like he was going insane. The vastness made it hard to breathe.
“Odette—!!!”
Had he ever in his life cried out in such a pitiful, desperate voice? His own voice sounded like the death wail of a beast.
His devastated purple eyes swept across the sea. At that moment, he thought it might be easier to just sink into the ocean than to live the rest of his life.
Crack—rumble.
A flashing bolt of lightning struck the sea, instantly illuminating the entire beach. Zion shifted his gaze to its point of origin.
“…Your Highness?”
Standing atop the cliff, Johann gritted his teeth and poured all his ability into the sea.
It was an audacious use of power, raising the contamination level to its maximum in an instant. Like a god unleashing lightning, there was a madness in him that seemed willing to let loose, no matter the consequences.
A madness that would gladly obliterate the empire he had cherished his entire life, just to find Odette’s body.
“Damn it… do you even have time for useless thoughts right now?”
Johann, drenched in sweat, commanded in a fierce voice.
After unleashing his power, the seawater surged like a massive wall and split to the sides. Dry land was revealed in the gap. The sea had been divided in half.
“Zion!! Find Odette immediately!!”
Even for an S-rank transcendent, such an act was not easy. Using his ability to its full extent made it difficult to also search the depths of the sea.
Snapping out of it at Johann’s reprimand, Zion quickly scanned the exposed seabed.
Even as Johann split the sea several times, attempting similar maneuvers, Odette was nowhere to be seen.
‘Was she swept away by the current and dragged into the deep?’
Just as Zion’s face grew grim…
“…!”
A faint scent of peach blossoms reached him. The same scent that had disappeared the moment Odette had raised a gun to her head.
Zion’s heart thumped violently. Or perhaps it started beating anew, intensely.
‘S-she’s alive…?’
Zion’s ability made him like a dog with a keen sense of smell. He could detect the peach blossom fragrance even more sensitively than other transcendent beings.
“Your Highness!”
His voice trembled as he called urgently to Johann. Hope swelled in Zion’s eyes as he rushed toward the source of the scent.
“Your Highness! It’s here!”
S-rank transcendent beings normally had strong egos, making cooperation difficult. Especially when using their abilities to the maximum, cooperation was nearly impossible.
The control of a transcendent’s body is entirely overtaken by the ability rather than the body’s owner.
But now, Johann’s ability willingly followed Zion’s guidance. To save the purifier.
In an instant, Johann again unleashed a massive bolt of lightning at full power.
The sea split once more, and soon a woman’s form became visible. Zion hurriedly pulled the cold body up onto the sea wall.
With trembling hands, he checked Odette’s breath. He must have prayed to God countless times in that brief moment.
“Odette, wake up. Please… Odette.”
But Odette did not breathe. There was no sign of life anywhere.
‘Why…? I could smell her. The scent was there, just like when she was alive.’
“Odette… open your eyes. Please.”
But the woman was dead. Zion could not believe it. He had clearly smelled her.
Then—
“What right do you have to hold Odette?”
A voice full of displeasure sounded.
It was Viktor, who had tracked them here by intuition.
“Hand her over.”
Viktor quickly snatched Odette from Zion’s hands. Zion attempted to take her back but stopped when he saw Viktor warming her body with his own.
“Have you forgotten that it was because of you that Odette chose death? You ignorant bastard.”
Viktor glared at Zion with bloodshot eyes. Zion did not respond.
Not because he was reflecting, but because Viktor’s words did not register at all.
‘The scent was there. She was definitely alive, even if just for a moment.’
“Albrecht… breathe.”
Zion focused solely on whether life was returning to Odette’s face, whether her inhalations and exhalations had resumed.
Even Viktor, who had glared at Zion as if ready to kill him, eventually wrapped his arms around Odette and began to sob.
And so, no one noticed that another purifier had appeared in the mansion.
Even if they had, no one would have cared.
‘I must have drifted quite far while unconscious.’
The time spent riding on the whale’s back had been long, but eventually it came to an end. The once unfathomably deep seabed slowly became visible.
Just as Odette thought the water might soon shallow, the whale stopped.
“Huh?”
The underwater was dark, but when she illuminated it with her status window, she could faintly make out shapes.
Beside the whale stood a dolphin. The whale shook its body gently, as if signaling her to transfer.
‘What…? There’s a transfer system?’
The dolphin stayed close to the whale to make it easier for Odette to move. Seeing this, Odette let out a small laugh.
“Thank you for bringing me this far.”
Saying goodbye to the whales, Odette transferred onto the dolphin’s back. The shallow beach was near.
As her body was about to break the surface, Odette called her status window.
‘Open the shop.’
[Shop function activated!]
‘I want to change my hairstyle and eye color.’
The status window glowed in response to her command.
[Change hairstyle (random)]
[Price: 100 Atasha / 1 day]
[Change eye color (random)]
[Price: 100 Atasha / 1 day]
[Would you like to purchase and apply? YES/NO]
Odette gladly pressed YES.
When she emerged above the water on Meursault beach atop the dolphin, her hair was now brown and straight, and her eyes hazel.
