Book 5 Chapter 6
Episode 108
What brought back my five senses to my entire body was the cold. An extreme cold that was utterly unbearable.
It's cold.
It's really too cold.
I barely managed to open my eyes, and the frost frozen on my eyelids cracked, causing intense pain.
‘Where on earth am I…?’
I tried to raise my upper body from the snow and look around, but I couldn't. Because a blizzard was pouring down in a fierce gale that cut into my skin.
“Ugh, uh…”
At that moment, I heard a rough breath groaning right beside me.
Even in this snowy field, the pale purple hair inherited from the ancestor of magic was distinctly visible. Casena Page.
And above her, Fifi was buried in the snow with only her legs sticking out, so I urgently created fire.
The magic circle was in the form of two overlapping triangles.
The runes etched were ‘Hold’ (持) and ‘Expand’ (場).
Granting the fire-attribute magic the qualities of ‘Hold’ (持; maintaining for a long time) and ‘Expand’ (場; spreading widely)… Soon, the flames spread out like a curtain, blocking the bitter cold.
“……?”
I felt no burden on my core while constructing the magic circle, even though I had almost completely exhausted my magical power… Instead, a strongly condensed power merely pulsed within my core.
‘How many days have I been passed out? No, if that were the case, I would have frozen to death already.’
Judging by the condition of the scratches on my body, not even an hour had passed. Before I could even be startled, the surreal scene from earlier flashed through my mind.
- You sometimes call me the Void, and other times the Truth, don’t you? Strictly speaking, both are wrong.
Though I was caught in an unfamiliar and perplexing situation, I couldn't deny that my heart was strangely pounding.
To think I met the Creator of Magic… One of the <Ones Who Came>, the Black Sun, Karenden.
And at the moment of that encounter, it was clear that my magical power had been completely restored by the dazzling light of the Heugyangrin.
- The reason I called you to this era in the first place wasn't to prevent that destruction. It was to record and convey it, the light of the last era.
It seemed Karenden was the one who reincarnated my soul, which had died 300 years ago, into this body. But the reason was significant. To convey the light of the last era, what did that mean?
No, this isn't the time to be lost in thought.
I carried Casena on my back in the snow, and placed Fifi inside my blouse so my body heat could warm her. Both of their bodies were like ice.
‘Cold isn't the only problem….’
The concentration of madness hovering, no, dominating the atmosphere here was… if not as severe as the Papal State, certainly violent.
An ordinary person, Casena, couldn't possibly endure it. It's difficult to even breathe without magic control techniques.
First, as an emergency measure, I decided to use Bel Quirius. Holding Casena with both hands instead of on my back (so she was within my sight), I directly controlled the magical power flowing through her body.
How far did I walk through the snow like that? As expected, Casena painfully vomited blood. It was dark, discolored blood from death.
‘Surely not….’
I pushed through the blizzard, running with all my might across the icy plains where the snow reached my thighs.
However, as if mocking my efforts, the blizzards swirling from all directions made it unclear even where I was walking or if I was moving forward.
The only thing that made me remember the passage of time was Casena's breathing, which was becoming increasingly strained towards her death throes.
‘I had intended to find a place to avoid the blizzard.’
It was clear there was no such luxury.
I spread the flame curtain widely from a circular to an oval shape, then created a plank with earth-attribute magic and laid Casena on it, and my eyes trembled.
The skin of her neck had completely turned dark blue, and the touch of that erosion had already spread beyond her neck, invading her jaw and cheeks.
‘The Dark Poison….’
Originally, I had planned to unbutton her blouse to check her abdomen, but at this point, it was obvious what her upper and lower body would look like without even seeing them.
In short, Casena would die.
If I left her like this now…
A single, pessimistic option flashed despairingly in my mind.
‘Do I have no choice but to use it…?’
Perhaps that's why, despite such biting cold, I distinctly felt the warmth of the cold sweat that had formed on my forehead and then frozen solid.
‘…Juyeosogyedaeban.’
I thought, panting. I am neither a witch nor a priest, so I don’t know how to cure the Dark Poison that has invaded Casena’s body.
The only method I know is to induce a forced dormant state via Juyeosogyedaeban and then heal her.
But isn't Juyeosogyedaeban strictly speaking an incomplete magic? Indeed, after 300 years, I haven't recovered even now.
‘But now… there’s no choice.’
Hesitating painfully, at last, on my outstretched palm, lines of light intricately intertwined, slowly forming a high-order magic circle.
1st star, 2nd star, 3rd star…
Wiping the cold sweat from my face, though it was unlikely she could hear me, I said:
“Lady, from now on, you will fall into a somewhat, a somewhat long sleep.”
Click.
The anxiety from not knowing the future, the apprehension from heading towards an uncertain future, the fear from having no other choice but such a future.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be by your side when you wake up.”
Click, click.
Now I finally understood.
What kind of thoughts my fellow hero party members had when they watched me as my body became covered in the ice of Juyeosogyedaeban.
If I feel this way for Casena, with whom I’m not even that close, then those guys I spent five years with…
- Then, together, the four of us, together… let's go see the world. Alright…? I’ll wait by your side until you wake up.
And finally, 5th star…
As countless mathematical equations began to unfold amidst the dazzlingly rotating rings of light, frost fragments scattered from Casena's toes and then began to clump into ice.
Click, click, click…
Just then, when I had to focus my concentration to the extreme, I felt a new fear and instinctively looked around.
Something is there.
In this blizzard, something is there.
I thought I had been hearing an irritating sound for a while, but it’s getting closer. Now I can hear it clearly.
‘It’s really difficult to use multi-computation while casting 5th-star magic…’
Even as I thought that, 2nd-star flame magic was already unfolding on my other palm.
Stillness, silence.
A dry swallow, a brief moment of calm as short as a single heartbeat. The quiet before battle. And the next moment, ‘they’ appeared, breaking through the blizzard.
Chae-aeng─── Hwa-reu-reuk!
The moment I gripped the magic circle with my palm, the flames flew like snakes, coiling around their bodies and applying immense heat.
Even Rain couldn't help but be astonished.
Screaming with ear-splitting shrieks as they were engulfed in flames, they were neither human nor elf nor demi-human, nor were they magic beasts that commonly became prey for adventurers on the Akrad continent.
“This is insane…”
How on earth could I describe their monstrous appearance, as if they had sprung from a nightmare?
Their main body was clearly human. More precisely, cursed beings with mixed beast and human features, Werebeasts (獸人).
But no werebeast has ribs protruding from rotting flesh, nor do they crawl on the ground like spiders with those 24 ribs.
‘I’ve seen this in a book before…’
Those characteristics belonged to the undead led by one of the <Forgotten Kings>, the Spider Lord. Werebeasts that had become undead, then this place, surely…
“KIIEEEEEHHHH───!”
I thought it was merely a desperate death rattle, but that too was a miscalculation in this extreme situation.
As if resonating with that cry, from all directions, click… clack… clatter… rattle… the sound of something crawling across the frozen, dead land with ribs exploded forth.
So much cold sweat flowed that I couldn't understand it myself. I anxiously looked down at Casena's condition.
‘Juyeosogyedaeban has only reached her thighs now….’
It was out of the question to continue activating Juyeosogyedaeban when I needed all my strength for battle.
But if I cancelled Juyeosogyedaeban here and now, Casena would be consumed by the Dark Poison and would surely die.
2nd-star magic was the limit of what I could use, and if at least Fifi had been conscious, the situation might have been a little better, but…
Hwa-reu-reuk─────!
I spread the flames widely like a barrier, intending to buy time until Juyeosogyedaeban was fully deployed, but this also failed.
Before the flames could fully expand into a semicircle, a dozen or so undead crawled through the gap and fiercely charged in.
They are drawn to strong life, and prey on weak life…
The moment I frantically converted the barrier flames into intercepting projectiles, the moment one of them sank its fangs into my forearm and intense pain made my vision go yellow, the critical moment when two of them lunged their teeth at Casena's neck and heart.
「Dra (Dragon).
Kyu (spew).
veny (fiercely).
Tos (flame).」
I thought I heard a noble language in my ear, and the warmth of life swirled, caressing my cheek.
The light of life shining into this frozen world of death, it was fire.
With a thunderous roar that felt like it would burst my eardrums, the transcended flames surged in, melting the blizzard.
That storm of flames not only engulfed every undead it touched but utterly incinerated them into ashes before they could even scream.
Despite such overwhelming power, it was always unbelievable to me that it caused no harm to humans.
“Ha, hahaha…”
I was so relieved that I could only laugh blankly. I had often seen these overwhelming flames 300 years ago.
The authority of the Fire of Annihilation (火滅) unleashed by the Red Dragon Legion, created by the Black Sun Karenden with the command of 'Annihilation of the Abyss' for that purpose.
The fierce flames unleashed by the kin of Fire Dragons, whose creative meaning was entirely different from the Luminous Dragons created for ‘Order’ and the Water Dragons created for ‘Stability’, but were created solely for war.
‘And this level of power… is undoubtedly True Dragon-class, like Yoshuhar.’
The silence that descended upon the flames that instantly annihilated all the undead in the area, the owner of that silence approached, echoing heavy footsteps.
「Do bal ru shi… Who are you?」
When the blizzard, melted by the flames, began to swirl again, what appeared before my eyes was a dragon kin, an ancient power embodied in the form of fire.
The scales covering its entire body glowed fiery red, and its huge, abnormally twisted and torn wings… it was truly the overwhelming presence of an absolute life form.
「This is a forbidden zone, a land of madness where children of light must not enter.」
The emotion I felt then was one of relief, that I was safe, but the Red Dragon narrowed its eyes, perhaps thinking I was feeling uneasy because I had slumped down.
「Do you fear this form? Humans are still pitifully weak.」
The dragon's massive body was suddenly enveloped in brilliant flames, and from the scattering embers, the form of a beautiful woman appeared.
Beneath red hair more dazzling than any flame in the world, my gaze met the golden dragon eyes (龍眼) with vertically slit pupils.
She wore red scales like armor on the curvaceous body of an adult woman, but strangely, she carried a large basket like a backpack on her back.
“……?”
Before I could ask what it was, the Red Dragon, hearing Casena's sorrowful moan, gently parted Casena's lips and breathed into her.
From that red breath, a miracle blossomed.
For Casena's condition, whose breathing had been steadily failing amidst the abyss's invasion, rapidly stabilized.
The abyssal energy that had risen to her eyelids was consumed by the flames flowing through her veins, making them glow red, and began to be pushed further and further down.
Pride had once explained that miracle to me like this:
The authority of purification (淨化) that only True Dragons, entrusted with the mission of world management, can wield—a feat no human priestess or elf high priest could emulate.
To me, who was staring blankly at it, the Red Dragon gently picked up Casena and motioned with her chin.
「Other undead will soon flock here. Follow me.」
Looking back, this was the starting point of that sorrowful destiny. One could call it the end of a destiny, or the beginning of another.
In any case, the destiny of meeting 'that child' began like this, without any warning.
Indeed, it was the prelude to my hundred-year journey.