This Light Novel series has become infamous amongst readers as one of the most Tragic Light Novels ever written. When the main female character has Ocular Gushers on the front cover of the first book, you know its gonna be quite the feels trip.
Warning: As a Moments subpage, spoilers are unmarked by default. Proceed at your own risk.
- The first PV, of all things
, has been known to turn pre-existing LN readers into sobbing wrecks. The song that plays, "Always in my heart" by Yamada Tamura, heightens the effect. - Willem's reaction upon finding out that he's the last human left after he was found and unfrozen by Nyglattho in what is perhaps centuries later. And this was after he promised Almiria that he'd come back home to eat butter cake with her and the rest of the kids in the orphanage.
- It turns out that the old Ithea died a few years ago, and the girl that we see now is her "risen" original person, who tries to play the old Ithea in real life out of a sense of guilt.
- Chtholly's continual mental deterioration over time thanks to the Encroachment.
- And in the biggest tearjerkers in all of tearjerkers, we have Chtholly's death at the end of the anime. This is a character we've seen grow and mature throughout the series and whose life is shown to have mattered not only to Willem, but also to their "family". For added tragedy and feels, it didn't matter whether or not Chtholly survived that battle at the end in the finale: with how Encroachment works, she's still "dead" in the sense that she will never be the same Chtholly everyone came to know and love.
- Nopht's desperate and futile attempt to convince Chtholly not to march to her death, believing that she didn't need to fight now that she can live her life normally and happily now unlike them as she's already been relieved of duty.
- Chtholly thanking Willem with tears in her eyes but with a smile on her face for the happy life he's given her so far, given that these are her final words to him before finally expiring afterwards. Doubles as Heartwarming.Chtholly: Willem...Thank you so much...
- Poor Willem's reaction to all of this happening all at once though. The guy needs a big hug afterwards...
- And before that, we have Nephren doing nearly the same thing with a sad smile on her face as she falls to her death after sustaining numerous injuries from the Timere, intending to take them out with her, thanking Willem for saving the young leprechauns and making them, and not just Chtholly, happy. She lives.
- Volume 4 in general is full of these. In particular knowing just about everyone Willem and Nephren interact with is already dead.
- Nyggalatho having to decide what to do about Chtholly’s mangled corpse.
- Willem admitting to Almaria that he couldn’t keep his promise, right before he kills her.
- Ted realizing he’s begun turning into a beast. He opts to spend his last moments alone so he won’t threaten the other survivors once he turns.
- Things don’t get any better in volume 5. Nephren can never return to the Warehouse due to her half beast nature, Ithea is permanently crippled, and Willem ends up being forced to play the villain so that he can perform a Suicide by Cop in order to save the Warehouse. His final internal monologue is almost as gut wrenchingly sad as Chtholly’s. For an extra twist of the knife, the last thing he hears is Chtholly’s voice.
- Things haven’t gotten much better in the sequel. If anything they’ve only gotten worse. The fact that Willem’s Heroic Sacrifice only bought two days of peace is a real gut punch. The sense of fatalism is almost overpowering. Everyone at the Warehouse knows what happened to Willem and Chtholly. No one is expecting any kind of happy ending this time around.
- Seeing the children from the original series fall into the same cycle of despair as their elders. This is perfectly illustrated with Tiat, who seems to have fallen into a fatalistic depression. Like Chtholly, she thinks that her days are numbered and unlike the former she is under no illusions about her odds. Her fellow protagonist, Feodor, seems to have undergone a drastic change for the worse as well. At some point the kindhearted child introduced in the prologue transformed into a cynical young man who couldn’t care less about the suffering of others.
- Apple’s death serves as a heartbreaking reminder that no one, not even a child, is safe in the broken world of WorldEnd. What makes it worse is that her best friend Ryehl saw the entire thing; showing that not even Chtholly’s reincarnation is free of tragedy in her life.
- Lakhesh’s unexpected Death of Personality delivers an added punch to the above tragedy. On top of that, she comes back as a completely different person who immediately attacks her former friends. It’s bad when someone dies, but when that person’s body continues to live on as different self it makes it all the more painful for those that knew them. The worst example of this is when Elba, now inhabiting Lakhesh’s body, first meets Nygglatho and admits that they have no memory of their former caretaker.
