EP.139 The Past, Even Further Back (2)
An ancient Elf, Cardi.
This old Elf, whose age was unknown, was always dry. He was calm and rarely expressed his emotions. The only time Cardi showed feelings was when it related to his past.
‘When the story of the Gletus came up.’
At that moment, I saw a change in Cardi’s emotions for the first time. While listening to my story, Cardi frowned and wore a wistful expression. That was the only emotional expression I had ever seen from Cardi.
– I’m sure I warned you.
Therefore, this was the first time.
– I suppose my words didn’t sound sane, Skebal.
Cardi spat out those words, and seeing him glare at someone as if he were ready to kill was something I had never witnessed in the ten years I had known him.
– Do you want to die?
I looked at Cardi. His face twisted into a fierce expression. His originally beastly yellow eyes looked even fiercer.
– Ha.
Someone was receiving that gaze.
Clack, the sound of Skebal moving brought a laugh from the air. His sneer echoed in the snowy mountains.
– You can’t protect anything, yet your mouth is still alive, Ashen. Do you even have the right to say such things?
– ……….
– You couldn’t keep your oath. You promised victory to everyone but faced defeat. You couldn’t protect a thing. It seems you still don’t understand your situation.
Skebal’s bony joints.
It wasn’t long after he became a lich, and yet his still-white bones pointed at Cardi.
– You are nothing but a loser, Cardi.
Skebal reached out.
– Hand over what you’re holding. That is not something you should possess. It must return to its rightful owner…
– How absurd.
Skebal’s voice cut off.
Cardi narrowed his eyes and extended his arm forward. He brought his thumb and middle finger together.
‘…What is he trying to do?’
I blinked.
I couldn’t comprehend what Cardi was trying to do. As far as I knew, Cardi was an alchemist and didn’t possess the skill to face Skebal.
– Ashen, what are you…?
Yet, for some reason.
Skebal’s pupils shook as he looked at Cardi. The black aura flickered this way and that. As if he knew what was about to happen.
– Stop!
Skebal shouted hurriedly.
Anxiety dripped from his voice.
– Everything is over! You still can’t let go of your lingering feelings…!
– Even if everything is over.
Skebal hurriedly began casting a spell. A barrier completed in an instant surrounded Skebal. Contrary to the panicked Skebal, Cardi remained at ease.
– My journey is not over yet.
Snap, Cardi flicked his fingers.
– Thus, the contract is still intact.
The surroundings brightened. The sunset casting shadows over the snowy mountains was suddenly lifted. What dispelled the sunset was not the approaching darkness of the night. It was a greater light.
I slowly lifted my head.
I looked up at the sky.
The sun was hanging there. The sun rose right in the middle of the sky, at zenith. It was no metaphor. The sun had truly risen in the sky. It took me a moment to realize what it truly was.
‘…It’s a spell.’
It was a spell.
A sun made of mana.
Words slipped out of my mouth.
“…Insane.”
Spells intertwined. Mana clashed against mana. Circuits bumped into circuits. What arose from the entanglement, friction, and collisions was a flame resembling the sun.
A colossal flame impossible to capture in one glance.
It was more fitting to say that the spell had been crushed together than woven together. The flame created by that spell writhed. The fiery mass, wriggling as if about to burst, followed the tips of Cardi’s fingers.
Whoosh.
Cardi traced the air with his finger.
Up and down.
As if dropping something.
– Extinguish before my eyes.
Whoooosh!
The flame fell. The sun was plummeting.
It looked just like the sun was setting. The difference was that it was not sinking beyond the horizon… but right before my eyes.
Boom!
A flash struck the snowy mountains.
The snow covering the area evaporated in an instant. The heat erased the millennium-old snow built up over endless years without a trace. In the face of that heat, the barrier erected by a mere mage became completely useless.
Ssssssh!
Everything that entered my view turned to ash.
I watched that sight blankly.
‘…An illusion.’
I knew it was an illusion.
Since it was something that happened in the distant past, I also knew the heat wouldn’t engulf me. Still, I involuntarily raised my arm to shield my face.
– Cough.
When the flash faded, Cardi was coughing dryly. Plop, blood fell to the ground. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Cardi looked up.
Tap, tap.
In the place where embers remained.
Cardi took a few steps toward it. There lay Skebal, half-melted.
– I was told… it shouldn’t be long now…
Those words never completed.
Crack!
The sole of Cardi’s shoe crushed Skebal’s life vessel. Then Cardi staggered as he walked away. No matter how I looked at it, he was in no normal state.
“…Hmm.”
I glanced at Cardi’s back.
That appearance felt incredibly strange. The aura surrounding him was completely different from the Cardi I knew.
‘Did Cardi ever become a mage?’
Cardi knew a great deal.
He was an outstanding alchemist. But he was not a mage. At least, not as far as I knew. One of the foundations of becoming a mage was the amount of innate mana one possessed.
‘And the amount of mana Cardi possesses is…’
Minimal.
Just using a few basic spells would drain his mana completely.
‘To cast something like that with such puny mana?’
It didn’t make sense.
It was an unbelievable feat.
‘I’d have to put in some serious effort to do something like that.’
I looked at Cardi’s illusion with doubtful eyes. Of course, glaring at it wouldn’t yield any answers.
‘…For now, I should follow him.’
Just as I decided to move, I momentarily looked back. My gaze landed on Skebal’s crushed corpse. The melted, sagging skeleton.
‘Somehow familiar.’
It was strangely familiar.
A chuckle escaped my lips.
‘…Those kids really do appear everywhere.’
It was the only thing familiar among all the unfamiliar sights.
2.
Near the Kurakt Mountain Range, there was a small village. A place considered the outskirts even in the North. In the village stood an old church, though it was not frequently used by the residents.
The people living in the North do not believe in gods.
More precisely, they did not have the luxury to believe in a god. For them, every day was a battle. Things were better now, but the North was uninhabitable before the Grace Family became established.
Battles with the barbarians.
Constantly being invaded by beasts.
Adding to that the harsh environment, there was simply no time for those living in the North to pray. Instead of praying to a god whose existence they may not know, they’d rather climb the mountains to hunt down another wild beast.
That was the perception of religion rooted in the North.
“This is the land of the godless. Not a place I particularly like.”
A believer of the Deloheim Church had stepped into such a land.
The old man, Berdict, revered as a cardinal of the Deloheim Church, spoke as he moved forward.
“The harder it gets, the more one should believe in God, but how can they say they live under His grace when they have no time to pray? That’s just being well-fed.”
Following behind him were holy knights.
At the end of the chain being pulled by the holy knights were children bound up. Their eyes, devoid of focus, were wearing pure white clothing. They walked barefoot in the snow.
“This is it.”
Thud, the cardinal stopped walking.
The place he halted was a wide expanse of snowfield. On the snowfield lay sacred objects brought from the sacred kingdom.
‘Things that can’t be valued.’
Objects that would occasionally appear during the baptism of a saint. Standing before each of those items filled with divine power made him feel almost omnipotent.
‘However, compared to that, these are trash.’
The cardinal recalled what Draka had shown him.
A small bone fragment. The divine power contained in that bone fragment resembled that of a star… beyond his imagination.
In the end, it was something like this.
The brilliant first saint of the glorious ancient times. The name of the first saint, engraved on the first page of the church’s historical records, is one that is unknown to many, leading some to consider her a fictional being.
But that wasn’t the case.
The first saint did exist, and what Draka showed was proof of that.
‘I will resurrect such a being.’
A smile spread across the cardinal’s lips.
He would bear witness to a miraculous moment.
The Deloheim Church would flourish once again. More dazzlingly and beautifully than ever before.
“…Um, Cardinal.”
A holy knight broke the cardinal’s immersion.
The cardinal shot him a sharp glare.
“What is it?”
“May I ask one question?”
“Speak.”
The holy knight hesitated before opening his mouth.
“Why does the Sword Demon wish to resurrect the first saint?”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“That Sword Demon only chases the existence of the Gletus. I know he is a part of the Church Order, but…”
The cardinal nodded with understanding and gestured.
“A revenge-obsessed phantom, why would he involve himself in such a religious matter? That is the question you want to ask, isn’t it?”
“Yes. That is correct.”
“The reason is simple.”
The cardinal looked towards the Kurakt Mountain Range.
“One of the five teachings of Deloheim.”
Recite it.
The cardinal instructed thus, and the holy knight responded.
“Don’t be bound by the past, live in the present.”
“Three of the seven.”
“Bury the dead in your heart. Yearn for them, but do not desire their existence.”
The cardinal turned back to the holy knight with his hands behind his back.
“The Sword Demon couldn’t uphold either of those.”
He was bound by the past.
He yearned for the existence of the dead.
“He wishes to resurrect his dead daughter. To achieve that miracle, the first saint is needed. After all, only the first saint can perform the miracle of resurrection.”
Even now.
Despite having prepared such sacred items and offerings, the miracle of resurrection remained elusive. Even if he brought a body that had just died, it wouldn’t spark the thought that it could be revived.
‘That’s why it must be a miracle.’
The cardinal scanned the altar.
The altar, which would be created through the sacred items, was indeed well-suited for performing gold alchemy. Looking at the inverted cross, he stroked his chin.
“Hmm.”
He nodded slightly.
“It’s lacking.”
It was lacking.
The cardinal stated it calmly.
“The offerings are insufficient.”
“Huh? But, I thought this amount would align perfectly according to the main church…”
“Being aligned isn’t enough. This is a site of miracles. There can be no deficiencies.”
“But, it’s difficult to procure anything right now, Cardinal. It would take at least ten days…”
“Why is it difficult?”
He turned his gaze.
His sight, standing at the foot of the Kurakt Mountain Range, landed on a village below. The cardinal pointed to that village.
“Isn’t there plenty of it there?”
The holy knight fell silent.
The cardinal’s eyes deeply sank. The restrained madness contained within those calm eyes made the holy knight swallow hard.
“…Should I go right now and prepare it?”
“It would be good if you did.”
The holy knight asked.
“How much would be needed?”
The cardinal replied.
“The more, the better.”
