Not even 10 minutes after collapsing, Dorothy opened her eyes. Befitting her powerful strength, Dorothy had already recovered from all her injuries.

“Don’t be so wary! I have no intention of fighting anymore.”

Dorothy’s eyes, now awakened, no longer held anger or killing intent.

Instead, there was a little bit of sadness in it.

Dorothy dusted herself off and stood up.

Then she spoke to the children.

“…You wanted to move forward, right?”

The children nodded their heads.

Then Dorothy raised her knife and looked up at the sky.

Looking far, very far away, she swung her knife.

The Ruler, the cause of this situation, split apart and disappeared.

I hadn’t noticed.

To think it was in such a place, perhaps no one but Dorothy could have found it.

“That Ruler is powerful, so it’s not affected by time. On the other hand, it’s not protected either, so if it’s killed once, it won’t return again.”

This meant that even if time turned back, the illusion collapse phenomenon would no longer occur.

The world is now on the verge of a singularity.

“I need to reach level 999 to summon Oz. To turn all of this back, it doesn’t change the fact that you all have to die.”

“…as long as it doesn’t hurt, then I’m not afraid.”

The children said so, their eyes tightly shut, even as they trembled in fear.

Then Dorothy smiled faintly and warned that it would hurt.

Dorothy raised her knife.

But she lowered it again.

“…I won’t see people as experience points anymore. I won’t act like a child anymore, and I won’t be lost in illusions anymore.”

Dorothy was a child, but she was no longer a child.

She no longer saw people as mere monsters.

She had finally overcome her sadness and saw something different from illusions.

She had matured.

She, who had only been a child, had finally grown up.

[Dorothy grew up on her own.]

[Dorothy Level Up!]

[Level 998 ㅡ 999]

[Oz appears.]

“Pfft. I feel so stupid.”

As Dorothy muttered while looking at the empty air, the sky turned black, and an egg with hundreds of arms, legs, and eyes, possessing a giant body, manifested.

A tingling power is felt.

“That is Oz…”

The corpses of all the original devils in this world, not tale devils.

Oz, the reality-altering device they fused into.

Dorothy looked at Oz and made a wish.

“My wish is always the same. Take me home… No, take me to a new home.”

Oz accepted Dorothy’s wish.

The world’s time began to turn back.

Tick. Tock.

As time turned back, Dorothy spoke.

“…See you again, Alice.”

…

“Everything’s back.”

“Dorothy?”

We returned to the day before the incident occurred.

It seems everyone’s memories are intact.

Dorothy was nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps due to the wish she made, the time she returned to might be different from ours.

We went outside to see if everything had truly returned.

Fortunately, everything seems to have returned to normal.

Then, a brown-haired girl passed by us.

Dorothy.

“…”

Dorothy was walking hand in hand with those who appeared to be her parents.

She was smiling faintly between her parents. But Dorothy no longer smiled with the pure, wide smile of a child.

The Dorothy who had smiled, believing she could return to her original home through illusion, was no more.

However, perhaps being able to wear even that bittersweet smile was the only value left to her.

Dorothy’s story, which couldn’t be judged as a happy ending, seems to conclude here.

I spoke softly, so only Dorothy could hear.

“Welcome to your new home. Dorothy.”

A pitiful child, who has grown up by shattering her innocence.

Dorothy’s arc is complete!

Was this chapter fun?

As always, if you spot any mistakes, feel free to let me know—and I hope you enjoyed the read!

—Chi