I, the final BOSS of the beta test server!

Her body, ravaged and battered, with even the beating of her heart barely maintained by Cecil's strength... had already died in that palace, submerged in the domain of the legendary gravekeeper of the Sequence of Fertility, and silently perished.

What still exists is nothing more than the shadow incarnation created by the Shadow Servant using the power of shadows and combining it with the soul fragments he cut off.

Since it is an incarnation... then it can naturally present a form that is consistent with the origin of its soul, which is the appearance of Shadow Servant before he suffered that near-death injury and was disfigured.

However, with the death of the original body, when the power maintaining this incarnation is exhausted, it will naturally return to the path of nothingness and extinction.

"Actually, you've been here a long time ago, Cecil."

The incarnation of the Shadow Servant looked at the peaks of the mountains in the distance, which were shrouded in the setting sun, and suddenly spoke.

Her voice was no longer vague and hazy, but returned to the soft and mature female voice that Last had heard before.

"You arrived earlier than the gravekeeper... You weren't late. You were able to take action from the very beginning."

"Only, you didn't do that, did you?"

Cecil didn't answer directly.

He just stared quietly with his shadow servant at Gray's shrinking figure on the distant mountain road.

After a long time, Cecil's voice came, a little hoarse: "I'm sorry."

"No, don't say sorry to me."

However, in response to Cecil's apology, Shadow Servant simply shook his head slightly.

"I know, Cecil, you're more protective than anyone else, and you want to protect the Shore Guard members more than anyone else."

"But you're afraid."

"You are the leader of the shore guards. You have more to worry about and consider than anyone else."

"You're unwilling to engage in a life-and-death battle rashly, fearing you'll die before you can train your successor. By then, the Shore Keepers will be left without a legendary leader, while the Gravekeepers will have multiple legends... and everything will be irreversible."

"You're also afraid that because of your actions, Little Grey won't be able to experience sacrifice and death firsthand, and her character won't be able to complete its transformation and growth, becoming a qualified leader of the next Shore Guardians, capable of shouldering the future of civilization."

"You're more afraid that your actions will disrupt Luster's plans and arrangements, exposing him... and that in order to save me, you'll drag the entire organization's future into an abyss of no return."

"You must always maintain your full combat strength, as the Broken Coast has been restless lately... If the forbidden creatures in the sea sense your weakening condition, they will undoubtedly launch an offensive against the coastline. If the Broken Coast's defenses are breached, tens of millions of lives will be lost."

The shadow servant's voice sounded like he was talking to himself, but also like he was confessing something.

"You bear the weight not only of yourself, but also of the entire Shore Guardian organization, and even the fate of human civilization in this era."

"So you can no longer be like we were when we were young and just joined the Shore Watchers... that carefree and free, acting arbitrarily, following only your own wishes and likes, saving all the lives before you."

"Because back then, we had our old leader behind us, protecting us. No matter what consequences we caused, he was able to clean up our messes... But now, you have become the one responsible for the future of all mankind."

"I know all these things, I understand them all."

"If you weren't such a person...how could I have willingly stayed by your side for so many years?"

"I'm also a member of the Shore Guard. As a soldier, I pave the way for little Grey's growth and transformation. This has been my duty from the beginning, and it's the mission I've always believed in... I have no regrets about it."

"I'm just a little unwilling."

"Ever since you, Cecil, succeeded me as the leader of the Shorewatchers... I haven't heard you open up to me again."

Shadow Servant paused for a moment.

"Cesare, can I use your shoulder?"

"Consider this the last request from a subordinate who has toiled tirelessly for you for hundreds of years."

In the glow of the setting sun, the white-haired old man was slightly stunned.

Then he nodded.

Cecil reached out and gently embraced the shadow servant, whose figure had begun to disintegrate and became increasingly illusory in the glow of the setting sun.

The shadow servant rested his head lightly on Cecil's shoulder, but there was no weight at all.

"fortunately--"

"I come to see you as this shadow incarnation, not as my old and withered body."

"So, this is my last meeting with you, the last memory I leave you..."

"I think I can be frozen in my most beautiful state."

Shadow Servant and Cecil looked at the looming peak dyed red by the setting sun.

"Come to think of it, I'm already a grandmother who's hundreds of years old...but I'm still saying things like, 'I want you to remember me at my most beautiful,' like a young girl in love. When I think about it, it's kind of embarrassing."

"But—it really brought back a lot of memories from my youth."

"I participated in the new shore guard assessment with you, participated in the newcomer training, teamed up with you for the first time to go out on a mission, and when we returned triumphantly for the first time, I was showered with applause, flowers, and glory..."

"By the way, Cecil."

"Don't you think those two little guys, Little Gray and Rust, are actually quite similar to us back then?"

The shadow servant's figure became increasingly illusory, vague and uncertain.

The fiery red rays of light passed through her almost transparent body and fell on Cecil's weathered face, like mottled scars.

"Really? During this mission, I saw little Grey gazing out the window in a daze several times. It was as if I saw myself when I was younger."

"Back then, while on a mission with you, I saw that young man who controlled the sun's rays, and a longing for you blossomed in my heart... That's why I embarked on this path of no return."

"And that little guy, Rust, is just like you... in every way. If he hadn't refused to become the leader of the Shoreguard for some unknown reason, I think he could have taken your position right now without any problems."

"I can't bear to see those two little guys, Grey and Rust, end up following in our footsteps."

"So, promise me, okay? Cecil."

"When little Gray has fully grown up and become a qualified leader capable of shouldering the future of the Shore Guardians... please tell her the truth."

"Don't let them, because of misunderstandings, misconceptions, and unfounded hatred... embark on a road of no return like ours, a road doomed to failure."

In the fiery red glow, the white-haired old man was silent for a long time, then nodded slightly.

"In that case, I'm relieved."

The shadow servant's words became increasingly softer. If it weren't for Cecil's legendary physical fitness, he would have been unable to hear them clearly.

"The last of the last."

"Let me bathe in your light once more."

"I saw it when we first met... that bright and pure light that could dispel all darkness and illuminate the path for those who guard the shore."

Hearing this, Cecil raised his hand quietly.

next moment.

Like the blazing sun, the blazing and sacred sunlight shines up.

In that bright and clear light, the last ray of shadow that formed the incarnation of the shadow servant dissipated.

Chapter 120 I'm sorry I couldn't be your hero (two in one)

On the outskirts of the royal city, on the peaks of the mountains.

The sea breeze, carrying the twilight, blew Rast's clothes rustling.

The boy and the girl sat on the cliff like this, with the sea dyed red by the sunset glow below them.

Luster was talking, and Helen was listening quietly beside him.

"From what I know, most people join the Shore Guardians not for seemingly noble or righteous reasons."

"To seek refuge, to obtain a better life, to become extraordinary and superior... the initial thoughts of most shore guardians are nothing more than such selfish thoughts."

"However, through battle, sacrifice, and death, they will gradually change their minds and eventually transform into qualified shore defenders."

“This is the growth process of most shore keepers.”

Rast's words echoed in the sea breeze: "But I am different from them."

"Initially, it was because I saw the smile of the woman who rescued me from the rubble..."

"Because that smile was so happy, it made me unconsciously feel longing and yearning for it."

“But what really made me become a shore keeper was the experience that followed.”

He glanced at Helen beside him, her pretty face bathed in the orange-red glow as she listened attentively.

"Just like you have never left the palace in the center of the royal city since you were born, spending hundreds of years in it in a monotonous manner."

"Actually, I've had a similar experience to yours... I was trapped in a port city for three hundred years. No matter how hard I struggled, I could never escape that never-ending same day."

"And so, in that stagnant, eternally unable-to-move-forward time—the world lost its reality to me. I began to wonder about the meaning of life, treating everyone in that city as NPCs rather than living people... I began to wantonly vent my desires, seeking excitement."

"Gradually, my memory became fragmented, and my understanding of myself gradually collapsed... Even though I could occasionally recall past memories, I couldn't tell whether they were real experiences or hallucinations of my own imagination."

"I began to lose track...was I born in the border town of Canaan and had a normal childhood, but ended up in Deep Blue Harbor by accident? Or was I a member of Deep Blue Harbor from the very beginning, and those memories of Canaan were just a figment of my imagination? Or maybe Deep Blue Harbor was just an extremely realistic virtual game, and I was just a misguided program that had somehow developed self-awareness."

"In that state, my longing for the shore guards in my memories began to deteriorate."

"Like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline, I took that longing as a kind of proof... As long as I remember that smile, and can still feel the yearning and throbbing in my heart to "become a shore guardian," then the self called "Last" still exists. It is proof that I have not given up, proof that I have never given up on myself."

Luster looked at the setting sun on the sea level and said, "This is the whole story of me and the shore guard."

This was the first time he revealed his state of mind in Deep Blue Harbor. Even when he was talking with Hiltina, Last had never been so frank.

Because others cannot understand how it feels to have life remain static on the same day for hundreds of years.

No matter how much they imagined, no matter how hard they tried to empathize with Rast, it was just an imagination after all... Having never had the same experience, they could never empathize with Rast.

But Helen is different.

Monotonous time, a life that has stagnated for hundreds of years... This Queen of the Underworld has experienced it herself.

So Helen understood that for Last, who could only watch his memory fade away and his self-awareness gradually become damaged...how crazy and hysterical he would be in order to grab that life-saving straw.

Just like herself, in her past life, she had always regarded those worn-out fairy tale books left by her mother as treasures.

This is the only light in the lives of prisoners imprisoned in cages for hundreds of years. It is the meaning of their lives and the proof that they are still alive.

Memories are washed away by time, and the self is gradually eroded... Hundreds of years have passed, and except for the obsession that cannot be forgotten, the prisoners of time have long been left with nothing, both their bodies and their souls.

"How lucky."

The white and slender fingertips danced in the air, and ice-blue words were written.

Luster looked at the beautiful handwriting and asked, "What's so lucky?"

"Because, no matter how bleak your past was... you finally escaped from that place called Deep Blue Harbor, didn't you, Rust?"

The girl tilted her head, her long, soft ice-blue hair falling with her movement.

"Being a member of the Shore Guardians, fulfilling my childhood dream, forming my own team, and coming to my city..."

"These are all wonderful things that you, Rust, will never be able to experience while you're in that cage. You should be thankful for them."

"And the same goes for me."

The ice-blue handwriting that was being written paused slightly.

"I was so happy to see you at the maid selection half a month ago."

"I'm so happy to have met you, Rast..."

“This is the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me in my life.”

In the glow of the setting sun, Helen's beautiful dark purple eyes were no longer covered by a layer of gray, lifeless mist...

Instead, it became vivid, as if there was a flame burning.

This is her outpouring of her heart.

Because of meeting the young man in front of him, the canary imprisoned in the cage opened the window for the first time and saw the sky.

Because of the encounter with Rast, the bird in the cage plucked up the courage for the first time, jumped out of the cage, and got a glimpse of the scenery of the outside world.

It was also because of the meeting with Rast.

So Helen's life... was transformed from a monotonous and static black and white sketch into a colorful one.

For Helen, the moment she and Last set out on their journey——

It seemed as if all the light in the world was gathered around her. It was a dream journey bathed in sunshine.

……