The beautiful background music came to an abrupt stop. Utaha Kasumigaoka silently took off her headphones, her eyes reddening as crystalline tears pattered down and her whole body trembled uncontrollably.
Merlin...
Did you even know what you were writing?!
Why did you have to make it hurt this much?!
Why use such gentle words to tell such a cruel story?
It was too heartbreaking...
It was as though a beautiful utopia was collapsing, with all romanticism and idealism seized by the throat and strangled by desire... only to ultimately die to desire as well, humanity's civilization quietly vanishing away.
As a microcosm of that era, the protagonist of Moon Coral did not receive a happy ending either.
A girl who was not human became human.
Someone without emotions came to understand love.
A one-sided love, self-righteous decisions—they both prayed for the other's happiness.
What an unfortunate, yet fortunate pair they were...
Perhaps in the end, the little merchant's journey proved that Earth and the Moon had not abandoned each other, that he had come to answer the coral's call on behalf of the moonlight.
However, Utaha Kasumigaoka did not like this ending, where so much of their memories had been lost. It felt unbearably sad.
That desolate feeling could follow the strings, pass through your hands, your arms, your spine, and shoot straight into the crown of your head!
The shift in the BGM midway through was even more astonishing.
The madness that followed seemed to accuse humanity's happiness in the first half of its life.
After finishing it, she felt a despairing urge to cry, like the throbbing pain of being abandoned and forgotten, and like the helplessness of being swept along by the surging currents of an era.
"Is this... humanity's ending?"
She murmured to herself, her gaze somewhat unfocused. For a while, she could not pull herself out of the story.
The Steel Land update-chasing group had fallen completely silent as well...
Only after a long time did everyone recover.
The grand group of two thousand people had fewer than 99+ messages for a full hour.
Only after everyone had spent a long time steadying themselves did they take a deep breath, stiffly type out messages, and begin frantically discussing Merlin and Moon Coral.
Some were excited, thrilled, or saddened...
There were also readers sobbing their hearts out, shedding tears for the protagonists.
It was hard to imagine that Moon Coral's lingering impact could be so terrifying.
Though its vast, majestic sense of desolation was identical to Steel Land's, its descriptions cut even deeper. The hazy atmosphere that rushed toward the reader made its world incomparably vivid, delivering an intense sensory impact.
It was as though it possessed some kind of magic, pulling readers into that despairing world and making them struggle desperately within it.
If Steel Land was a glass of strong liquor,
Then Moon Coral was a handful of rich tea.
It might not hit as fiercely as liquor upon the first taste. It did not use many ornate phrases, nor did it directly quote soul-shaking warnings or aphorisms.
It simply told a story.
It slowly unveiled a grand yet sorrowful world through the protagonist's eyes.
But the longer one spent reading, the more one could savor an indescribable truth within the text.
The suffocating feeling closing in from every direction, along with a trace of pure emotion that made one's soul tremble, allowed one to see the true image of that apocalypse ever more clearly.
The entire work carried a strange, magical quality.
It tugged at the heartstrings.
The sea shone, the coral sang softly. Even now, I still loved you.
Such an intoxicating story, told with such quiet tenderness, could only be described as romantic.
Although the male and female leads never truly got together, and barely even communicated with each other,
Their love still reached the other.
Brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant!
This novel struck straight into people's hearts, drawing them so deeply in that they could not escape.
It was even more stunning than Steel Land.
That inevitably left the readers puzzled.
Where had that bastard Merlin gone to study? His writing had visibly improved!
But regardless, the readers still excitedly sent messages in the group.
Reiho Reiroku: "What a wonderful piece... No, more accurately, a masterpiece."
Holy Fallen Black Cat: "That old thief actually found his conscience this time and finished it?!"
Your Highness: "I love it, I love it. Merlin still has a little conscience after all~(￣▽￣~)~"
Chiryu Yujin: "He has time to start a new project but won't finish Steel Land. That little conscience is all Merlin has ╮(￣⊿￣)╭."
FFF Order Member: "The new work is excellent. Let's not sacrifice Merlin to the heavens for now. Maybe he'll fill in the Steel Land hole in a few days."
Gyuuki: "No hope. This guy leaves more holes than I do (￣⊿￣)."
Shigen: "You bastard upstairs, you have time to chat in the group but not to update?"
Gyuuki: "Cough cough cough, I'm writing, I'm writing."
Literature Girl: "Moon Coral was so good. Just seventy-six pages, yet it made me shed so many tears."
Partner of Justice: "+1. It made Tokisaki cry her eyes out. Damn you, Merlin!"
"...So everyone felt the same way I did~."
Utaha Kasumigaoka murmured, using a tissue in her fair hand to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes.
Seeing everyone chatting so cheerfully in the group diluted much of the oppressive, sorrowful atmosphere in her heart.
However, the profound impression Moon Coral had left on her—the unprecedented impact—was deeply branded into her heart. She would never forget that humanity's civilization had silently slipped into destruction...
For her new book, perhaps she should try writing something post-apocalyptic?
Then, following the trends of the era, she could give the light novel an absurdly long title.
She could combine the strengths of Steel Land and Moon Coral, then refine them into something new...
Wait...
If she did that, would humanity still have any chance of surviving?
The girl scratched her head and abandoned that dangerous idea.
"Beep beep—."
Another message came in.
Curiously clicking her mouse, Utaha saw a message from the friend marked "Blonde Flat-Chested Girl."
"Hey, fatty, have you read Moon Coral yet? It's so damn good!!"
"Hurry up and read it. It might give you some inspiration."
"Don't forget to thank me!"
"Pfft~."
The long-haired black-haired girl could not help laughing.
She could already imagine the other girl standing proudly before her, swaying her twin ponytails and asking to be praised with that adorable expression.
Though she was rather happy, Utaha Kasumigaoka still could not resist being sharp-tongued toward her.
The corners of her lips curled up, her brows lifting slightly as she sent a biting retort to her friend.
Her fair fingers rested on the keyboard, clattering away.
"Could it be that Eriri doesn't know I'm an administrator of the Steel Land update-chasing group? I'm also Teacher Merlin's loyal fan, you know~."
"I had already finished Moon Coral the moment it came out."
"I never expected Eriri to be not only so flat-chested, but so cute as well~."
"Damn fatty..."
In the room, the blonde girl with twin ponytails gritted her teeth in furious exasperation.
That woman was like a dog biting Lü Dongbin—she could not recognize good intentions!
She definitely would not share anything with her next time!
Hmph~
Eriri Spencer Sawamura haughtily turned her head away.
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
Moon Coral's appearance was like a depth charge thrown into the entire world, stirring up waves upon waves.
Hot-search lists in every country were suddenly flooded with topics like "Merlin," "Moon Coral," and "The Legend of King Arthur," many of them even linked together.
The literary world, the music world, the art world... countless people were ecstatic.
Beyond that, political circles in every country swiftly formed think tanks as well.
They began analyzing whether Merlin was truly Merlin.
If he really was Merlin, was he the Merlin of this world, or the Merlin of a Parallel World?
What was the purpose of the Heavenly Curtain's existence?
If the Servants from Fate/stay night—or even the Heroic Spirits themselves—descended into reality, how should they respond?
Among them, the leaders of the Akkameli Nation were the most awkward.
America had slaughtered its native people, the Indians, nearly to extinction. If Feathered Serpent Kukulkan descended, should they kneel... or take out nuclear weapons and bomb her?
What if they could not kill her?
Or what if they could not even hit her?
Rumble...!!
The world's fortune rapidly shifted, gathering in an unpredictable direction.
Streaks of golden lightning rumbled across the heavens, as though heralding the rise of a new era.
Heavenly phenomena descended.
It seemed that heroes would emerge in great numbers, and noble figures would descend into the world.
An incomparably glorious golden age was gradually opening its curtain!
In these turbulent times, countless monsters lurking in the "dark world" suddenly awoke.
"Will this planet's future ultimately still belong to humanity?"
Within the Vampire Empire, Aisworgul Ayajiz murmured to herself.
As the Second True Ancestor, the Eye of Annihilation, she had dwelled in eternal night. She had once run rampant through East Asia, suppressed countless races, and made a magnificent mark upon history, only for it all to end as the vampire race withdrew from history's grand stage.
The era belonging to humanity seemed far from over.
Instead, it was only growing ever more intense.
Before you continue