"Eugh…."
Yuna huffed and puffed as her cells began to disintegrate and float around her. She didn't even know what she looked like at the moment. Fear consumed her as she felt her entire being scattering apart.
Her plate—the elements inside her body—churned intensely in an attempt to hold her breaking body together, but it couldn't keep up with the rate of disintegration. Her elemental energy was far too weak compared to the immense power of the dimension stone.
Yuna looked up at the night sky beyond the dense trees.
"It's… quite lon…ely…"
She muttered brokenly. Still, it was better this way—better than being seen fading away in front of people she knew. That would be too tragic. She hated tragedy.
The novels she read were mostly light-hearted or had happy endings. Life was already tragic enough; why should she continue suffering in a world she sought as a mental refuge?
"Ugh… am I going to fade just like this? …So anti-climactic."
Yuna tried to find humor in her plight.
She felt bad for her plate, which was desperately working to hold her body together. It began to melt under the assault of the dimension stone, and Yuna's body convulsed in pain. Even breathing felt unbearably laborious.
If only I could make it stronger, Yuna thought.
I can try…
She could try to forge her plate.
Although she didn't know the proper method, Yuna still wanted to try rather than let herself scatter into millions of particles. She was going to die anyway—whether the forging was wrong only meant dying faster or slower.
One last time, mustering strength amid the pain and disintegration, Yuna drew in the elements.
Normally, elements were stored inside the plate. This time, instead of storing them, Yuna used the elements to strike her plate—not containing them within it, but directing them into the plate itself, like melding metal with quality ore to forge something superior.
Plates were like cups used to hold water. Some people's plates were as large as water tanks, others as small as glass cups. Some were as fragile as paper, while others were as hard as metal. Elements were stored inside the plate so it could contain them.
Right now, Yuna aimed to change both the size and the strength of her plate.
• Elements are the foundation of the world.
That was what the elemental books proclaimed.
Instead of sending in one element at a time, Yuna collided earth, fire, and wind within her plate.
"Huegh…."
Intense pain seared through Yuna's body as she touched—more accurately, nudged and "hammered"—her plate.
"…I ca… can't…"
The pain was so overwhelming that Yuna felt she might lose her sanity. Death felt like a long-awaited liberation compared to the agony she was experiencing.
Let's just wait for death instead… I want to cry so bad…
Yuna thought numbly as pain tortured her mind. The torment assaulted not only her body but her spirit as well.
But…
She was already suffering.
Since she was already suffering—
"I'm going… till the end."
Yuna gritted her teeth and forced her eyes open, desperately clinging to her consciousness as it threatened to plunge her into endless rest.
The universe had conspired to fulfill her wish—to let her be reborn in another world, a fantasy world.
She didn't want to die so soon.
She had only lived for one year.
"I don't want to die so soon… I hate anti-climactic!"
Yuna wanted to cry, but even her tear glands seemed to scatter away.
Once again, Yuna absorbed the elements of earth, fire, and air, mixed them, and slammed them into her plate.
"…Heugh…"
The pain surged again, so intense that Yuna nearly blacked out. Her surroundings blurred as her mind filled with nothing but agony.
Yuna imitated the theory of the creation of the world.
Dust particles and gas collided—friction occurred.
Dust: earth.
Gas: wind.
Friction: fire.
Her plate began to change, spinning into a vortex within her abdomen. Its original shape could no longer be discerned as it became something formless.
Yuna continued supplying the three elements, but the surrounding elemental density grew thinner and thinner.
The trees around her began to wither, as if all their life force had been drained.
Yuna, unable to feel her body and sustaining consciousness purely through willpower, failed to notice the deterioration of her surroundings.
She staggered forward instinctively, seeking more elements. The further she moved, the faster the trees withered.
Yuna collapsed heavily onto the ground. She no longer had the strength to walk. Her blurred vision and flickering consciousness left her increasingly unaware of her condition or surroundings.
She didn't even sense the danger of the thinning elements.
When the spinning, formless plate finally settled, Yuna collided it with water elements, followed by plant elements—water, the building block of life, and plants, symbols of vitality.
As the elements became as sparse and thin as threads of a needle, Yuna's breathing grew weaker and weaker.
Then—
[.....Being 1111!@#$%^&* triggers the condition to connect to towers..... establishing connection to Towers across the planes.....]
A faint voice rang in Yuna's head, but her muddled mind couldn't grasp its meaning.
She could only see flickering lights—some brighter than others.
Yuna had a strong intuition that any of the lights could give her a chance to survive. The brighter the light, the greater her chances seemed to be.
Still…
She stretched out her hand and grasped the dim light that flickered in and out like a kerosene lamp about to run out of fuel.
Why did she choose such a weak light?
…Maybe because it looked lonely. She felt lonely too.
[Connecting to Ma*** Tower, establishing connection to sole resident of Ma*** Tower… 'The one who defeats ***' player Yeon Ra]
[
A distant voice echoed in Yuna's head, but she couldn't make sense of anything anymore. All sounds felt faint and meaningless. Her sense of self was barely held together by sheer will—clinging desperately to something simple yet profound, something even she couldn't fully understand.
[Player YeonRa's lone channel lacks elements. Will player YeonRa of Ma*** Tower provide elements to her lone channel?
Yes/No]
[Yes]
A surge of abundant elements poured in from a spatial vortex. Yuna absorbed them greedily, instinctively hammering her plate once more. She moved like a machine, acting purely on will. Pain from forging and disintegration numbed her entire being.
[Will player YeonRa provide pain alleviation for being 1111!@#$%^&* during the forging of her element plate?
Yes/No]
[No]
[Will player YeonRa provide mental protection to prevent being 1111!@#$%^&*'s will from scattering?
Yes/No]
[No]
[Player YeonRa is observing her lone channel]
[Player YeonRa is testing the will of her lone channel]
[Player YeonRa is ...]
[Beep…]
[Energy insufficient to continue sending notifications]
[Notification function shutting down…]
[Sigh…]
[Player YeonRa strikes a 'fighting!' ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ pose toward her lone channel]
[Beep… Notification function turned off]
Yuna lay on the ground, convulsing, oblivious to everything.
The forging of her plate continued for a long time—so long that time itself seemed meaningless.
After what felt like an eternity, Yuna slowly opened her eyes.