EP.142 The Past, Even Further Back (5)
A tower built in a distant past.
In a library where history that couldn’t be recorded and is remembered by no one remains untouched.
“…”
Faced with the truth, Raniel remains silent.
She had seen much. It took her some time to accept and digest what she had witnessed.
“…Huh.”
Raniel exhaled briefly.
She tilted her head back, closing her eyes while gazing at the church ceiling and the starlight pouring from it.
‘The calamity of the four is soon, the First Hero.’
Raniel mulled over a single sentence.
It was something she couldn’t easily accept. To swallow it required her to chew on it multiple times. With her eyes still closed, Raniel organized her thoughts.
She had thought of many things.
Recalling the words left by the calamities.
She pieced together the things Cardi had carelessly said.
Only after thinking, recalling, and piecing it all together… could Raniel accept that one line. Slowly, she opened her eyes. Quite some time had passed.
“…Thus.”
Raniel murmured.
“Thus, the Hero could have been born.”
Her gaze fixed ahead.
The product of the contract forged by the past Wise One lay there. The current Wise One, Raniel, faced it.
Four brilliantly shining stars.
Four stars resembling the starlight held by the Hero orbited around a pillar of light on a fixed path. Gazing at the stars, Raniel pondered.
There has always been a question in her mind.
‘Why do Heroes continue to appear?’
When one star sets, another is born. Throughout every era, at any moment, a Hero has been born. Even if gaps exist… Heroes have consistently left their mark in human history for centuries.
Everyone took this for granted.
However, not Raniel.
She always questioned what others considered as given.
‘There’s no way the stars keep granting blessings.’
Stars have neither goodness nor evil.
They’re nothing but something utterly calculative. It was incomprehensible that such beings constantly granted humans the power dubbed ‘Hero.’
Even if she couldn’t comprehend it…
Now, she felt she could understand.
“From the very beginning, was there only one Hero?”
A brilliant beam of light.
The sacred relic placed within it.
Cardi placed it here and made a contract with the stars. When that contract was formed, the singular light split. It was divided into four stars.
“…”
Raniel silently reached out beyond the light.
Caught within the light was a container. Raniel pulled it out into the open.
Creek.
As she opened the container, a soft light seeped out. What shed that light was an arm of someone. Although it had been many years and now only bones remained… it was not hard to guess whose arm it was.
‘The Saint’s arm.’
Not the apostate’s, but the Saint’s arm.
The arm of Gleria Bel Armias.
Gazing at it, Raniel recalled memories.
‘I heard this somewhere.’
There were legends she had seen while researching the ancient past. Among them, the documents that recorded the First Saint surely had such lines written.
“Saints are vessels.”
“A vessel to contain the stars.”
Raniel looked at the wall.
She read the name carved there.
“The First Hero, Ganikalt van Galatrick.”
Ganikalt, the Death’s Blade.
Before Raniel faced him, no starlight remained. No matter how he had fallen, if he were a Hero in the past, he should have retained some form of starlight.
‘But, he had none.’
He merely cast a shadow.
‘Why?’
Raniel asked herself.
She answered her own question.
“Because it’s here.”
The moment I uttered it.
Starlight gathered in the air. The gathered starlight transformed into letters. It became a sentence.
“For someone who will face the truth, I leave behind a few lines of a letter.”
It was a letter sent from the distant past to the present.
2.
“My name is Cardi van Armiel.
I was once a member of the Hero’s party, but now I’m just a mere loser. A mere loser like me leaving behind these lines… is because I hope someone will recognize the truth.
We have failed.
You, who have reached here, have seen it.
Though our purposes were diverse, we continued our journey with the singular intention of hunting the Demon Lord. It was not a smooth journey. It spanned several years and wore us down mentally.
At the end of that journey, we confronted the Demon Lord. We opened the door to the shadowed temple where he resided. That day, at that place, at that moment, we saw the true form of the Demon Lord. For ten days and nights, we fought against that curse.
We bet everything we had.
We did everything we could.
And, we failed.
We reached but did not touch. We could cut but did not. Right there, we were defeated by the Demon Lord.
In that moment of defeat, we thought.
Now we are defeated. All our journeys return to nothing. But whether it becomes a meaningless defeat or a stepping stone for future generations is something we alone choose.
Thus, from there, we made a choice.
We could not win.
And because we could not win, we had to look ahead.
Gleria severed her own arm. Ganikalt poured his starlight into it. They entrusted it to me and asked.
“If you, who lives close to eternity, are sure, you’ll find a way.”
I could not refuse their request. But I also couldn’t find a way. It was impossible for me. I had already failed once. The path I walked was wrong. I had no assurance that retracing my steps wouldn’t lead to further mistakes.
Thus, I made another decision.
Next.
As they did in the past.
Just as humanity has done since the distant past.
Next to the next.
I decided to cycle the starlight. I divided the most brilliant star that Ganikalt possessed into four. The reasoning involves the nature of the stars and the laws of power they provide… but I do not wish to explain it that way.
The reason for the four divisions is simple.
Because it is impossible alone.
We reached the Demon Lord because we were four. When one seemed about to crumble, another supported them. Because it was not one but four, we were able to continue our journey.
No matter how strong one is, they will eventually crumble. At that moment, I hope someone stands beside them. Therefore, I split the star into four.
Yes, that is the origin of the Hero.
An eternally circulating cycle.
That is the law I created.
This is the third contract I made with the stars.”
The letters paused for a moment.
After a brief silence, new words appeared.
They were more like a plea than information.
“…I am.
I do not know which era you who are now reading my letter has arrived in.
Perhaps a hundred years later.
Or even hundreds of years later.
It might be thousands of years later.
I do not know how much time has passed, but I believe I will still be alive by that time. Elves live long lives. Therefore, I envision your arrival here.
Are you a Hero?
Are you a sword master resembling that fellow?
If not, are you a mage like me?
I do not know who you are, but I humbly request you in the distant future.
Remember.
We existed in the past. In a time much further back than yours, there were those who sought to capture the Demon Lord.
Please remember.”
‘Please remember.’
That was the final line that ended the letter.
The letters of light drifting in the air crumbled into dust with a puff. I slowly closed my eyes and opened them.
“…Well then.”
The four Heroes, the four Hero party.
A smirk was forming at the corner of my mouth.
“This stupid elf should’ve just told me to form a party of four Heroes from the start…”
Why are there four Heroes?
It’s originally because their power comes from one source. Now that I’ve realized this, the reason one Hero is strong while another is weak has become clear.
‘Because their power comes from one.’
It was a power with a defined total quantity.
Suppressing my sighs, I relaxed my shoulders. Saying this, deep down, I really didn’t think that even if four Heroes gathered, something would change.
‘The Death’s Blade… the first Hero was strong, not because of the starlight.’
Because I had seen the memories inscribed in the church, I understood.
He was strong even before he became a Hero.
Since he was completed even before receiving power from the stars, he could showcase the best efficiency when wielded with “a weapon capable of cutting anything.”
“…Still.”
I muttered, gazing at the bones held in the container.
“I definitely know a way to kill the apostate.”
The remains of the Saint.
Four stars orbited around this relic. The stars would continuously orbit even without the bones of the Saint. So why was this bone placed here?
‘To hold starlight.’
Orbiting stars wear down over time.
The starlight that was once strong will gradually fade. Nothing can last forever. Thus, the crumbled fragments of stars lay within the remains of the Saint.
One or two orbits aren’t enough.
‘Dozens, hundreds of generations of change.’
For an unimaginable expanse of time, the stars have been rotating. From one to the next, adjoining eternally. That long time is embedded within these bones.
Someday.
In a very distant future, it was a device prepared by Cardi for someone who would arrive here.
“…”
Before leaving, I took one last look at the center of the church.
“Next, to the next again.”
That single line lingered in my mind.
Of course it would. The sentence left by Cardi, amusingly, was akin to what I had always thought.
“Next.”
Because it is impossible alone.
“Again, to the next.”
Yet, I couldn’t afford to give up.
“…So my journey isn’t meaningless.”
The Elf of the past believed in the next.
He engraved the truth here for someone who would come in future generations. He prepared a method to hunt the calamity. It was impossible for him, but Cardi left a method here that might be possible for someone in the future.
He believed.
With time flowing and flowing.
If it is passed down and down again.
Someday, it will surely reach.
The possibility he left here.
The laws of the four stars cannot be tampered with. However, I held within my hand the remains of the Saint, infused with starlight over centuries.
‘I cannot accept this.’
Since the soul had already shattered.
Since it had already worn down, that which I cannot accept.
‘What will I use it for?’
That was already determined from the start.
With the container in hand, I stepped outside the tower. With each step, the shadows of those who had once visited this place from the past flitted by my eyes.
“I hope my sword aids the world.”
I passed by the Hero.
“I hope no one loses their family.”
I passed by the Sorcerer.
“I hope everyone just finds salvation.”
I passed by the Saint.
“Next, to the next.”
I stood before Cardi.
Cardi, standing at the door, looked at me with a weary smile. Not the ashen visage, but the silver-haired Elf I had known spoke.
“From the past, the past even further back…”
He extended his finger, pointing at me.
“To you in the future.”
The apparition dispersed.
Amidst the fading apparitions, I moved forward.
