Book 5 Chapter 17
Chapter 119
“White Wolves……?”
But their condition was beyond terrible, it was utterly miserable.
The young man, who was leading the pony frothing at the mouth, had no left arm, and the woman writhing in the saddle had both her legs wrapped in blood-soaked bandages.
At that moment, the realization that something was terribly wrong flashed through my mind, and goosebumps rose all over my body.
- The leader of the wolves said… the main force was annihilated.
Are the White Wolves really annihilated? Before I could even ask, the young man collapsed in the snow. Gasping for breath, as if his last breath was about to be taken.
“Co, cold…”
“Lady, fire!”
“Oh, uh! Got it!”
Perhaps having snapped out of her daze amidst the urgent shouts, the woman, whose eyes had been unfocused, slowly lifted her head.
“Ah, Lord Alakish…!”
「What is it? What happened?」
“No, no, there’s no time to explain! Quickly, we need to get to the wall! He, he is coming…!”
Just then, the young man suddenly grabbed Kasena’s wrist and let out a mad laugh with unfocused eyes.
“Die, dying, all, all will die, h-heh, hehehehe, hehehehehehehehe…!”
Watching Kasena nervously shake off his hand… cold sweat broke out on my back.
“Ow, what are you doing!”
Something, something is strange… Something, something important feels twisted to a terrifying degree.
What on earth did they see?
What on earth did they go through?
These people aren’t ordinary folks who would quickly be consumed by madness; they are elite soldiers, the White Wolves, who have always fought in the Land of the Abyss!
“Who is ‘he’ exactly?”
The moment I asked that, feeling a chill run down my spine, a piercing, dying scream erupted from the pine forest far away.
“N-no, don’t come… Aaaaargh—!”
That scream, which froze our hearts, abruptly cut off with the sound of flesh being torn apart. The way the birds fluttered up was eerie.
“There are more survivors behind—”
“—Don’t go.”
As I instinctively tried to move my feet in that direction, the woman firmly gripped my shoulder and frantically shook her head.
“If you go, you’ll die, you’ll die! Heh, hehehehe, hehehehehe! They, they, they all died, those left behind, they all died! Nothing can stop that monster but the wall!”
The horror writhing in her expression and voice was almost madness, tearing at the nerves in the listener’s heart.
“Lord Alakish, even you cannot stop that monster. We must, we must, we must go to the wall! Quickly!”
Even as the woman babbled, screams echoed three or four more times in the forest. They were all different voices, and the distance was getting closer.
「I cannot abandon those who are still alive and leave.」
Had I been lost in baseless arrogance until then?
Had the fact that I was once the Archmage of the Hero’s Party, and that the True Dragon Alakish was by my side, amplified that unfounded confidence even further?
Of course, there was also a practical judgment. If I could gather the survivors and take them to the wall, I could build great favor with the White Wolves.
“Oh, he’s coming…”
A pure white frost, no, an extreme blizzard, arrived without any warning, blocking off the surroundings of the pine forest, where terrifying screams continuously echoed.
And… it became so cold.
As if I had been stripped naked…
Ever since receiving Alakish’s blessing of fire, I had never once felt an unbearable cold.
「……?」
Alakish’s eyes, which had been squinting into the blizzard, uncontrollably dilated the next moment.
「……Strike!」
Then, he spun around as if recoiling, shoving the basket containing the dragon egg into my arms as if pushing it away. There was no trace of blood in his eyes.
「Run away! Right now!」
Alakish, who was always so strong in both body and mind that he never lost his dignity, now had an incomprehensible amount of cold sweat flowing down his face.
“Let’s, let’s fight together! I can help—”
「—No, take Kasena and these humans to the wall! Hurry!」
The next moment, I came face to face with a surreal being.
I thought I heard a light rustling sound in the blizzard… but the dark energy brought by the blizzard began to churn and rampage chaotically.
At the same time, the concentration of the Abyss deepened beyond imagination. It was so rotten and dense that I couldn’t even breathe.
「Oh, my?」
The moment I registered that voice, something hot burst from my nose and ears, and my vision blurred violently.
Huh, blood…?
Why, why…?
In that moment, which felt like an eternity as I was frozen, the only sound I heard was the pony frantically galloping towards the wall.
「I didn’t expect to find it so quickly, it must be the King’s grace.」
The figure of the one who walked out into the snow on wooden clogs, his sleeves of a cultivation robe made of Abyss fluttering long, looked like a boy of at most eight years old…
「I was looking for you, avatar of Asura.」
That transcendent presence did not even allow a mortal to stand normally.
An invisible force pressed my entire body roughly to the ground with immense weight, almost bending my knees in half…
Kasena, who had visibly grown recently, was already prostrate on the ground, clutching her heart and painfully spewing blood.
「No, should I say avatar of an avatar?」
The White Wolf lying in the snow… died instantly, spewing blood from all seven orifices, the moment he passed by its side.
「Go quickly, Rain! I don’t have the luxury to protect you and fight against Shar’Kas!」
Only Alakish stood in front of us, but blood was flowing from a crack where a dragon scale on his flank had been broken, though I didn’t know when he had been injured.
I’ve never seen, never heard.
This, this kind of monster, not even when I was Rin.
What decision has Alakish made now, has he decided that I would only be a hindrance rather than a help?
‘No, that’s not it…’
Alakish is entrusting me now. The safety of his beloved daughter and Kasena…
Alakish is strong.
Incomparably stronger than me.
If it were a similar situation, I would have made the same decision. Creating a situation where Alakish can fight freely is probably the greatest help I can give him now.
But even so, is it right to leave Alakish alone against such a monster?
At the end of a brief hesitation, the moment I took off my left glove to construct a mental barrier, Alakish gave a clear, calm smile.
「Kyu Al Nog, believe.」
It was both a promise to definitely return and a binding spell that only a True Dragon could use. I was completely caught off guard.
My body moved on its own, and I firmly and persistently began to run towards the wall, carrying Kasena in my arms.
The only control I had left over my body was my head. Oh, this… I looked back at Alakish in astonishment, then urgently cried out.
“Alakish, no, don’t, you can’t! Let’s fight together, Alakishhhhh—!”
A bitter smile, the kind that can only be made at the end of life, formed on Alakish’s lips as he watched Rain, Kasena, and his daughter grow farther and farther away towards the wall.
Joy.
Sorrow.
And regret.
Just once would have been enough, I wanted to hold that child with a warm smile when she broke out of her egg. Just as Kalenden and Thersia had done for me.
‘Farewell, my daughter…’
And as he burned the spider webs of the Abyss that had been secretly following them with a breath of fire, Shar’Kas, the Young Lord of Baekdo, asked with interest.
「You know my true name. Do you recognize me?」
If he wanted to, he could have chased and killed them, but now, facing the ultimate prey, Shar’Kas had no interest in such insignificant creatures.
「I wonder how much memory you inherited from Asura.」
「May the Great Fire guide this Alakish to his end today, I shall remain loyal to my mission until the last.」
「You won’t answer? Hmph, it’s useless anyway. I’ll just look into it myself.」
Before he could even finish speaking, Shar’Kas crossed his arms, and a repulsive spider web snaked out from his fingertips, writhing like a serpent.
When the Abyss of heaven and earth began to quake, Alakish’s body exploded in flames of annihilation, forming the sacred shape of a dragon.
And the next moment, primordial fire and primeval darkness clashed, incinerating or rotting the entire pine forest, and fissures spread like spider webs across the ground, collapsing the strata.
As night deepened and stars began to shine more eerily than the moon in the night sky at dawn, all sounds abruptly ceased with a final great trembling of the earth.
All sounds sank into the Abyss.
* * *
From the beginning of its foundation, a somber silence hung over the Papal States, which had risen high into the heavens, scattering warm light upon the world.
Because the Abyss had left a deep scar on the heart of Haraderiman, the Radiant Dragon, who was the steward of order, the Radiant Dragon had been asleep for over 90 days, and his body was slowly decaying.
It was clear as day that the order of the human world would gradually collapse and face catastrophe.
“Is there really no way to heal His Holiness?”
When Faequior Kasselline Alter Aradamantel asked in an incredulous tone, Cardinal Hagon nodded heavily.
「Who can atone for the King’s Abyss? Even the gods found it difficult.」
Meetings attended by all key figures of the Papal States were originally presided over by Haraderiman, but now his Sacred Seat was empty.
Following the summons of Hagon, one of the five True Dragons who served as cardinals, the three existing Faequiors gathered in one place for the first time in two years.
Not only that, but Ocelot, the head of the heresy interrogation organization ‘Children of the Golden,’ Juliana, the priestess of the Star Cluster, and Dolan Slade, the head of the Special Affairs Division, were also present, so there was no need to explain the gravity of the meeting.
“To get straight to the point, we still don’t fully understand why the Queen of Time’s seal was imperfectly broken. The analysis just finished yesterday, and the magic circle Turayna prepared was perfect.”
It was a grand reversal spell that converted the extremely concentrated power of radiance in the Papal States into the power of the Abyss, causing cracks in the world axis.
Therefore, it would be fair to say, not ‘how did the Papal States succeed in such a thing,’ but ‘it was because it was the Papal States that such a thing succeeded.’
But would Turayna have prepared it all alone…?
“Is there a possibility that Turayna hesitated?”
Dolan firmly shook his head at Juliana’s question.
“No. If she had, wouldn’t the Black Church have noticed and counterattacked?”
That’s why, in the unfolding of the situation, a part of the framework doesn’t fit.
Space-time should have completely collapsed, and the Lord of Time should have undoubtedly descended upon this land. But something thwarted that rupture…
Something Turayna and the Black Church hadn’t anticipated intervened in the situation.
“Even if it was incomplete, the King’s seal was indeed broken, there’s no way there wouldn’t be repercussions.”
Micala Alter Pladimarte, currently the most senior Faequior, spoke.
“Your Eminence Hagon, something must be happening in the North and South Poles as well. It seems necessary to form an investigation team with us Faequiors.”
It was a valid proposal given the urgent situation, but Hagon, who possessed insights tens of times greater than humans, shaking his head firmly was utterly perplexing.
“His Eminence says that because we cannot disperse our forces. Everyone knows that the Archmage Rin’s body disappeared during this incident, don’t you?”
As Ocelot, the head of the organization, defended Hagon’s stance, Milonne Alter Gaumris, known for his blunt personality, retorted with crossed arms.
“Who doesn’t know that? Both continents are in an uproar.”
“That problem has become even more serious. Frankly, I have to say I have no idea what’s about to happen.”
“So what is it then?”
Everyone’s reactions were only slightly different, all bearing expressions that asked why such undeniable information was being mentioned, but their mouths hung open blankly at Ocelot’s next statement.
“The hero’s corpse disappeared along with it. I’m talking about Rista Alter Shirpaen.”