Book 6 Chapter 5

Chapter 129

As Shar'khas spread his right hand, not only from his fingertips but also from his back and waist, disgusting cobwebs surged out, writhing like wings and a tail.

Shar'khas neither rushed nor showed impatience. He merely walked, maintaining the dignity of an ancient royal.

Yet, no one could stop his advance. In fact, except for a few, they were gripped by primeval fear and couldn't even move.

"Light of Flash (閃明), Shalwen."

Frishbia had personally excavated the relics of the gods, learned how to use them, and equipped them for use.

The reactor that appeared when Frishbia's mechanical breastplate opened to the left and right was one such relic. The blinding white-hot reactor spewed a dazzling beam of light in a straight line.

It was a legendary light said to burn everything and turn all to ash, but when Shar'khas swung his hand once… Hmm?

Chachachachachachachang────!

The light scattered and reflected off a dozen strands of cobwebs, piercing three innocent warriors and one adventurer, killing them instantly.

"!"

Frishbia's eyes widened slightly. Amazing, can those cobwebs deflect the very concept of power itself?

'Hmph, I'll find out if I check myself.'

Frishbia charged at Shar'khas, dodging, dodging, and dodging the tentacle-like cobwebs extending towards her, getting closer.

"Then, what if it's at close range?"

She tried to kick Baekdoryeong's head, but Shar'khas easily extended a hand and effortlessly caught her.

But as if even that was part of Frishbia's plan, light converged on a barrel that emerged as a cover opened from her knee greaves.

"Baptism of Dawn Light, Garinvella."

Oh, oooooh… While the warriors and adventurers admired her seasoned combat sense.

"Insignificant. A half-baked creature created by Karenden."

Frishbia's leg, entangled in Shar'khas's cobweb, was forcefully twisted with the sound of a hip joint breaking, and the barrel pointed at Frishbia herself.

Frishbia's body would have been annihilated by the light fired, burning the atmosphere.

If it weren't for that very moment, Frishbia rolling backward while severing her own leg. Blood gushed as her leg flew off.

"C-Captain!"

As the adventure party's subordinates rushed forward to protect her, Shar'khas raised the corners of his mouth, as if something very amusing had occurred to him.

"Yes, shall we play a little soldiers' game after a long time?"

Then, all of a sudden, half of the warriors and adventurers who had been surrounding Baekdoryeong began to move their joints with stiff movements.

"……?"

"……?"

"……?"

The next moment, they began to attack those who had just been their friends, family, and comrades. With horrified expressions.

These were warriors accustomed to fighting the abyss, but this situation…

When one becomes a zombie, expressions vanish from their face. Their entire body's skin rots away, and signs of the king appear in various places on their flesh.

That's why they can be struck down without hesitation. Because it's believed to be the way to grant them peace.

But this… what is attacking them right before their eyes is undoubtedly alive. It is a living friend, retaining reason.

"Ahahahahaha, always a spectacular sight…!"

Amid Shar'khas's evil laughter, the beast-men's claws pierced their friends' hearts, and their fangs tore at their comrades' necks.

It was a hellscape, a tragic and cruel hell (地獄道) that was impossible to witness with open eyes.

Those controlled by the cobwebs continued their frenzied charge without pause, even as their joints dislocated or popped out due to unnatural movements.

"Alakhish-nim!"

As the blood staining the snowfield red billowed like mist, Griffion finally set Rein down on the ground. Specifically, in front of Alakhish.

"R-Rein…!"

Kasena, who had been watching the absurd carnage with a haunted expression, let out a despondent groan upon seeing the boy's corpse with his heart pierced.

"Where, where is it…? Rein, where is Rein's forehead?"

Alakhish's vision was already stained black, making it impossible to distinguish her surroundings.

Pipi flew frantically and eagerly in front of her with fluttering wings, guiding Alakhish's hand to Rein's head with its sound and warmth.

In her dying breath, Alakhish pressed her forehead against the dragon's egg one last time, bade farewell, and then placed her hand on Kasena's head.

"Do not grieve, for this is my last mission, Alakhish, as decreed by Karenden…"

And after offering her final prayer to the heavens, she kissed Rein's forehead. There, a miracle began.

* * *

Did the gods think the same thoughts while beholding the landscape of twilight (黃昏)?

When eyes I thought would never open again did open, what warmly bathed my vision was a world of twilight.

Coming to this land from a harsh, nearly grayscale land makes reality feel faint… or so I'd like to say, but it's a very familiar land.

'Is it the Red Mountains?'

At least it's similar… To see this place at the last moment of my life, did I like this place enough to even feel homesick?

Still, it's not bad.

As warm spring sunlight poured down, the trees rustled softly, crickets chirped, and birds sang, everything felt like a single harmony.

"It's not yours, but the landscape of the homeland that I, Alakhish, always held in my heart and longed for."

When the familiar voice returned and I turned around, I spontaneously smiled. Alakhish was looking at me, bathed entirely in the lonely twilight.

"I guess I liked Alakhish more than I thought."

"Hmm?"

"Perhaps because I've lived through harsher times than I appear, I really liked this story. The story that when a person dies, those who went before them come to meet them."

It would be a lie to say I never stayed awake at night thinking about who would come.

If Rista had come, it would have been very boisterous, asking endlessly about what kind of life I lived, who I liked, which places I visited… I would have grown tired first.

If Pride had come, after some playful conversation, he might have exhaled cigarette smoke and suddenly exclaimed, "You lived hard!" with a gentle smile, which might have surprised me.

If Kiers had come, we would have laughed together for a long time without saying much. Just like when I met Pipi.

If Tureina had come, it would have been a bit awkward. What could I say when my former disciple lived over three hundred years and died, accomplishing even greater deeds than I? We would only feel embarrassed.

If the Dean Aunt and my classmates from the faculty had come together… then I might not have been able to hide my tears.

"But Alakhish came. I never imagined it, but it's not bad."

As words unspoken and deeds undone in this life came to mind, it was true that deep regret filled me, but it was also true that a strange sense of relief, that it was all over, settled in.

It's over now.

Now I can go too.

I gave up on abandoning my life and following them because I didn't know what I'd hear, but if it ends like this, then…

"Your face is full of regret for the life you've lived."

"……"

"Give it up. You haven't lived long enough to have such regrets yet."

I chuckled, thinking she was making an awkward pun, but there was no playfulness in Alakhish's expression.

"You once told me, Alakhish, to go south together, didn't you? When I heard your words then… I felt revived. My dying heart."

"Huh…?"

"Going south with my daughter, to the homeland where my kin are. Just dreaming of that made me feel happiness after a long time, huhuhut."

As Alakhish smiled brightly, for some reason, my eyes welled up with a tearing pain in my chest.

"This is a deal, Rein Ludwig. I will give you my soul. In return, can you show my daughter that dream in reality?"

"Alakhish, what are you saying…?"

"It's you. There's no one else I can entrust my daughter to but you. Only you, who shed tears for the beast-men and told me to go south together. None other than you, whom Karenden himself chose and called."

As she finished speaking and turned, Alakhish's outline blurred vaguely like mist in a dream.

No, not just Alakhish, but the entire landscape of this twilight mountain range, the homeland Alakhish had longed for her whole life, began to blur.

Only my form remained intact there, and feeling a strange uneasiness, I urgently called Alakhish's name, but.

"My daughter's name, Alakhish's daughter, is Akiraea. It means freedom. I entrust everything to you now. So that child can live a life worthy of her name…"

When that voice emerged from her lips, the dream world vanished fleetingly like dawn mist, and the cruel empire of the snowfield was once again spread out immeasurably vast.

"Rein…"

Kasena's tear-soaked voice awakened my hearing.

Kasena, embracing Alakhish's body, who lay with eyes closed and a peaceful smile as if all was accomplished, and sobbing, awakened my sight.

And the warmth of Pipi, who had settled on my shoulder, furiously flapping its wings and rubbing its head against me, awakened my touch.

"Ah…"

Looking down blankly, I saw that the wound near my clearly pierced heart was completely healed.

And from within, I distinctly felt the pulsation of my heart, beating with a power I had never felt before.

The magic circulating within my body was not cold enough to freeze, but hot like flames. The core of an overwhelming and absolute power, not permitted to humans, was flowing transcendent energy throughout my entire body.

As I firmly pressed my chest with the right hand that had clearly been severed, a quiet sob, the vestige of a sorrowful bond, escaped.

"Alakhish…"

At that very moment, a flame was drawn out long in the air, then swiftly converged into a distinct form, revealing a mysterious appearance.

It was a stone staff with four rings, the Four-Ringed Staff (四環杖), symbolizing the four forms of flame.

While the staff part gleamed with the ephemeral gray of ashes, the iron part, shaped like a dragon, majestically shone golden like living flames, then twinkled orange, and rippled with crimson.

Yeouiju (如意珠).

It was the authority Karenden breathed into the souls of the Dragonkin when creating them, and the power residing within it is said to be nearly infinite.

The Feycarians took the very last step when undergoing human modification by receiving this Yeouiju from the Golden Dragon and embedding it in their souls.

The moment I cautiously extended a hand trembling with grief and grasped that noble spirit.

"…This time, let's fight together."

Ancient flames surged violently, burning away the dark clouds that had been showering endless blizzards upon this irreverent empire and opening a path of light in the night sky.

"───?!"

The snow clouds that had covered the sky were, of course, not a natural phenomenon, but rather the providence of power stemming from madness.

It was not something that could be burned by human fire, nor pierced by mortal light.

Therefore, the moment he saw Rein emerge from the raging flames, the smile vanished from Shar'khas's lips, and a tremor (戰慄) surged through his mind.

"You… how are you alive?"

The boy did not respond to that hollow question. Instead, he merely swept his gaze lightly around once.

With eyes of divine drama, blooming like seven petals.

Then, the countless cobwebs adorning the air were engulfed in flames… and the bodies of the warriors who had been engaged in the tragedy of fratricide fell to the ground with a thud.

'My authority, in an instant…?'

To burn away so many cobwebs, he must have expended a commensurate amount of power, so why is there no trace of fatigue on that fellow's face?

He shouldn't have been so flustered.

He should not have given the boy, who had plunged the stone staff of fire into the ground, time to form a transcendent hand seal.

"Constructing imagery."

There are three hand seals constructed by reverently clasping both hands.

Ra (羅).

Gyeong (警).

Hwa (火).

As light shines in a world of darkness, vibrant colorful flames ravenously began to devour the grayscale domain that dominated this vast white world.

"Fire Warning: Flowing World-Honored One (火警 : 流量世尊)."

First, a massive amount of magic power rapidly converged, and then a ring of flames with a 3-meter radius unfolded around me. And in its very center, the rune of Fire (火) was etched, scattering sparks.

'That character is clearly Karenden's…?'

The eight fundamental elements of magic: Fire (火), Water (水), Earth (土), Wind (風), Ice (氷), Iron (鐵), Poison (毒), and Lightning (雷) all exist as runes themselves.

When magic is combined using these runes, called 'Origin Runes', transcendent elemental energy is bestowed, a power that mortals dared not wield.

The only Origin Rune Rin could wield was Lightning (雷), used in Thunderclap Bloodletting, and even the difficulty of using that Lightning (雷) was child's play compared to Fire (火), which is considered the foremost of the four great elements.

'This is because the amount of magic power required by the Origin is unreasonably enormous…'

The next moment, like fire spreading along oil, five triangles attached to the circle of Fire (火) sequentially rose within the flames.

Yu (流).

Ryang (量).

Se (世).

Jon (尊).

Gyeong (警).

As the ancient flames, fiercely glowing and licking out like tongues, illuminated this wicked, mysterious polar region as a city of eternal light (不夜城), Shar'khas's body instantly halted.

"Don't miss it, Rein… I just smelled fear from Baekdoryeong Shar'khas!"

As Griffion, who had seen something in that series of actions, hastily shouted, Kasena, who had been blankly staring at the boy's back, asked.

"Scent of fear, what do you mean?"

"It's something a terrified prey emits. Something it gives off just before fleeing!"

All mortal beings are mere insignificant creatures swept away in the flow of cause and effect (因果).

An immortal being, who turns the wheel of such cause and effect, bestowed upon Shar'khas the authority to reign at the apex of all ecosystems.

That is an undeniable, firm truth for anyone on this land… And am I, such a being, supposed to feel fear from such an insignificant creature?

"Hoo, huhuhuhuhuhuhu… Unbelievable. What do mere worm-like creatures think they are? Shar'khas fleeing?"

Crack, crunch, gnash… Suddenly, four pairs of horrifying spider-like bones burst from Shar'khas's back.

A foul-smelling, viscous fluid oozed from those four pairs of spider legs, shimmering like an evil shadow.

Simultaneously, a disgusting, pale, absolute power of the abyss exploded, paralyzing the consciousness of all mortals in the vicinity.

"If you've been revived once, I just have to kill you one more time. A simple matter."

Primeval terror was before my eyes.

Terror had the form of a boy, wielding a viscous fluid that could instantly corrupt and melt everything in the world.

A noble from a now-forgotten era, granted transcendent power by an ancient king…

"Close, Celestial Spider Web (天羅蜘網)."

As that repulsive, negative power split into countless strands and surged, space trembled, heaven and earth melted, and nature itself wailed.

If it were before, I wouldn't have lasted even a single second, but now I can see. Now I can confront that power.

In a sense of omnipotence, as if swimming through a dream.

"Bel Quierius."