I, the Final Boss of the Beta Server!

Chapter 245 : Where He Is, I Am

Chapter 245: Where He Is, I Am

The black car glided slowly and finally stopped at the main entrance of a large hospital with a futuristic façade.

The car door opened automatically. Shiltina put away the pen and her private seal, which she had been using to review documents in the car, and stepped out. Ophelia naturally followed behind her, trailing by half a step.

At this moment, Ophelia showed none of the dignity befitting the Second Princess. Instead, she looked exactly like Shiltina’s personal secretary.

“Ophelia, you’re coming too?”

Shiltina was slightly surprised. Usually, whenever she made time to visit the hospital, Ophelia would wait in the car downstairs, rarely accompanying her inside.

Yet, Shiltina had occasionally noticed that her half-sister would make time to come here alone… as for why she preferred visiting separately rather than together, that was something unknown.

“Mm-hmm.”

Ophelia smiled brightly and nodded. “It’s also something related to Brother Rast’s treatment.”

“Sister, have you forgotten? I can at least be considered a Mechanist… The medical team’s various attempts to awaken Brother Rast from his vegetative state, including their proposals involving the latest medical technologies and equipment, are all being overseen by me.”

“This time, it’s a plan from Starfall University. They say that Brother Rast was trapped in the Historical Echoes of Deep Blue Port for hundreds of years. In other words, he truly lived within the Nightworld.”

“Compared to the Real World, Brother Rast’s soul is actually better attuned to the Nightworld, with a higher level of compatibility.”

Ophelia paused briefly before continuing, “Therefore, if fragments from the Epoch Stele in the Arcane Tower—pieces that fell from the Nightworld—are placed near Brother Rast, allowing his body and spirit to feel the aura of the Nightworld up close…”

“Then perhaps his soul, which now lies barren like ruins, might be stirred, his fractured memory and spirit healed, and even his awakening accelerated.”

“I came this time bringing fragments of the Epoch Stele, preparing to place them in Brother Rast’s ward.”

“I see.”

Shiltina nodded gently.

Two years ago, after the wedding that never took place as planned, and the subsequent hunt in which the Demon King Sataniel shot down an angel from the skies…

That young man named “Rast” fell into a continuous vegetative state that the doctors described as “post-coma unresponsiveness”—in simpler terms, a “vegetable.”

There was no need for Dean Silver, always slouching and listless like a guilty cat, to explain it.

As the wielder of the Nightblade “Infinite Blade,” when Shiltina saw the boy lying in long slumber, still carrying on his body the lingering embers of “Fantasia Collapse,” she understood everything.

As a power beyond “True Name Liberation,” if “Fantasia Collapse” was unleashed upon a piece of Crest Equipment, then after that ultimate bloom of destruction, the cost was the weapon’s permanent annihilation.

Not simple breakage, but conceptual obliteration at the level of structure, impossible to repair—like how even the most skilled craftsman could piece together a broken blade, but could never reassemble millions of scattered metal particles. Even if one reforged a sword identical in appearance, its essence would already be fundamentally different.

If that was the cost when used on mere weapons, then what of things far more fragile?

“Equivalent Exchange” was the only law of the Extraordinary World, angels included. For Rast to slay a Quasi-Angel despite not having reached the Legendary Realm, the price he paid was unimaginably steep.

Using his “All Things Are Weapons,” he did not stop at Crest Equipment but turned his Higher Sequence Tier and even his Nightblade “Fool’s Library” into weapons.

And then he collapsed them all, detonating brilliance comparable to the Divine Realm in a single instant.

The Higher Sequence Tier and Nightblade were the very essence of an extraordinary being in the Present World—the foundation they trained and honed their whole lives. Like the golden cores and nascent souls of xianxia tales, their sudden collapse could only bring devastation.

To regress entirely from extraordinary to an ordinary man with no strength to bind a chicken, or even to die outright, was to be expected.

And Rast did not only collapse his Sequence and Nightblade—his body and soul were burned together.

Only that way could he erase the chasm between the Sixth Tier peak and a Quasi-Angel, even momentarily touching the Divine Realm.

Like that day above the Imperial Capital, when the dark fallen wings of the Demon King’s shadow spread wide, and in that fleeting moment, burst with brilliance like a meteor streaking across the sky.

But brilliance was only ever fleeting. Just as meteors were rare exceptions, the eternal theme of the cosmos was still black void… After the dazzling flare came only a fall to the earth, to slumber in dust.

Now, Rast’s body, spirit, and soul alike were nothing more than ruins, like a barren land consumed by fire or a collapsed tower.

In such devastation, the fact that the boy did not die outright but instead maintained basic life signs while in deep slumber could already be called a miracle.

It was a fundamental wound of body and soul alike. Even though Shiltina had advanced to Legendary and, with the Holy Sword in hand, was comparable to an angel, she was still powerless before it.

Over the past two years, Shiltina had worked tirelessly to promote the establishment of the cooperative hospital between Starfall University and the Empire… and she made time whenever she could to visit the boy who slept in the top ward.

This was all she could do now.

There had been glimmers of hope: soul-wave instruments sometimes picked up faint signals, as if, within Rast’s soul, a tiny seed was quietly sprouting amidst the burned ruins.

But aside from that, countless treatment plans proposed by the Empire and Starfall University’s best medical teams had yielded little effect.

Even so, Shiltina pressed forward, driving research into new techniques and medicines. Even if she failed a thousand or ten thousand times, as long as she lived, she would keep trying—

Just as the Foresters’ family creed: never abandon, never betray.

With Shiltina’s steps, the security layers of the hospital unlocked one by one. As a cooperative project between the Empire and Starfall University, its secrecy level was extremely high. Yet Shiltina’s fame was unmatched, and with her frequent visits, every guard and staff member here knew her well.

Ding—

After their passes were scanned, the elevator opened. Shiltina and Ophelia stepped inside. Seconds later, the display froze on the top floor: the 23rd.

This was where Rast’s ward was located.

The doors slid open to a quiet corridor.

Almost immediately, Shiltina noticed two familiar figures.

One was Akxia, her long hair ice-blue, radiating an aura of a snow-capped mountain. The other was the huge snow ferret lying lazily on her shoulder, yawning again and again.

Two years had changed much: Ophelia had grown from a doll-like girl into a graceful maiden, and Shiltina herself had changed as well. But that pair—a girl and her ferret—remained the same.

Akxia was still as cold as ever, as though time left no trace upon the Death God’s heir. Dean Silver, even more so—Shiltina recalled a saying she had once heard from Rast: “Mountains and rivers may change, but a man’s nature does not.” She thought it suited Dean Silver perfectly.

Two years or five hundred, the Dean would surely remain the same lazy shut-in.

Akxia was walking in the opposite direction, from the ward toward the elevator. Clearly, she had just finished visiting and was leaving.

Seeing Shiltina, the ice-haired girl gave a slight nod of greeting. For someone so stoic and expressionless, even this was a rare show of emotion. Because of Rast and Dean Silver, Shiltina was one of her few acquaintances at Starfall University.

“Long time no see, senpai.”

“You must have formally graduated from Starfall University by now… What are your plans?”

Shiltina greeted her warmly.

Two years had passed. Shiltina had advanced from a second-year student, when she first met Rast, to her fourth year.

Meanwhile, Akxia, who had already been the top student when Rast enrolled—the Student Council President, ranked first at the Starfall Obelisk, first of the Twelve Seats of the Round Table—had naturally graduated.

“I imagine, with senpai’s ability, no matter which power on the Western Continent invited you, you’d surely be treated as an honored guest.”

“Of course, if senpai were willing to join the Granwell Empire, whether in the military or government, the Empire would welcome you with open arms.”

The instant Shiltina saw her, she sensed the silent domain emanating from Akxia’s side—an aura of death, cold and clear like the Netherworld.

Akxia had also ascended to Legendary, the Legendary path of the Death God Sequence. She had even advanced so far that the Divine Realm was no longer distant.

But this was no surprise. Just as Shiltina’s rapid breakthrough had been thanks to her bond with the Holy Sword, Akxia carried something beyond the reach of ordinary Legendaries—the Death God’s Holy Grail.

As a descendant of the Old Death God, and bearer of the Holy Grail of Death, she was the sole master of the Death God Sequence. Advancing to Legendary, or even becoming an Angel of Death, would not be difficult for her.

Yet, to Shiltina’s invitation, Akxia only shook her head.

Blue light shimmered at her fingertips, flowing into delicate words drawn in midair.

“All invitations, I refused.”

“I plan to stay. I will remain at Starfall University.”

“I see.”

Shiltina nodded slightly. “That’s a pity, but I can understand your choice.”

“Taking up posts elsewhere would bring prestige and power, yes, but also shackles. You’d lose the carefree freedom you had at Starfall University.”

Staying on as a tutor or professor at the university offered far less in name, power, or wealth.

But Shiltina knew well—Akxia was not one to crave such things.

To her, being a lofty figure above millions was no different from staying at Starfall University as a snow ferret’s caretaker, feeding it while they watched shows together.

And even without the War Chariot Sequence’s “Ultra-Instinct,” her woman’s intuition told Shiltina the true reason Akxia stayed.

Or rather, the only reason that truly mattered.

“So, senpai chose to stay… not only for the old Headmaster’s kindness, but also because of him, right?”

“Mm.”

Without hesitation, Akxia nodded again.

The delicate blue letters traced across the air once more.

And as she wrote them, her eyes shone with a profound, unshakable emotion:

“Where he is, I am.”

She had not spoken the name aloud.

But everyone present knew exactly who “he” was.