EP.219 The Traces Left by Catastrophe (6)
Deep in the ancient kingdom of Arcadia.
In the Madman’s Dwelling, which marked the beginning of their journey, Cardi recalls the past. Thinking back, everything started from here.
A new king’s coronation.
The day the woman who shone more brilliantly than anyone took her place as queen, tragedy began.
WHOOSH!
The “Black Flood.”
Dark water that obscured the sun and stars.
Endlessly pouring black rain.
The flooded black tide.
The black flood that engulfed the entire nation, swallowing half the continent, was held back by the princess’s sacrifice. It was held back, but it was merely a temporary solution. The calamity, having gained its vessel, revealed its existence to humanity in a clearer form.
The Demon Lord.
The king of those forsaken by the stars.
The one who commands all beasts.
The one who exists to drag the stars down.
Amid the birth of a king that curses the world and escalated notoriety… the heroes who would oppose him gathered one by one. The assembled heroes focused on the birth of the Demon Lord.
DUN DUN DUN!
“He wasn’t created overnight.”
“It’s a concept that shouldn’t exist.”
“Someone created something that shouldn’t exist.”
Under the Grand Magus’s conjecture, the investigation began, and they faced the truth in the heart of Arcadia. Before the hell created by a single Braver, the heroes groaned.
And they swore before hell.
“To save the suffering.”
“To protect humanity.”
“To guard the children.”
With their respective beliefs, they set out on a journey to keep the oaths they made to themselves. Therefore, this was where the journey began…
“This place had to be where we returned at the end of our journey.”
Its conclusion had to be here.
They had to return here to put a period at the end.
CLICK!
“…But it was never marked.”
The story remained unresolved, left hanging.
“…”
Centuries have passed, and now, the Grand Magus remains silent before hell. The journey is still unfinished. No period has been placed, and many things have changed.
“The story has broken, and they have lost their way.”
Now, not a single soul remains who remembers their tale. Only hell exists here, just as it did centuries ago.
Yes.
Just as it was back then, still.
“…This is what I left behind.”
The heroes of humanity returned as calamity.
They swept through Arcadia, and at the end of their rampage lies this hell. They did not touch the royal castle that housed this hell.
As if to warn.
As if no one should approach the origin of the Demon Lord, turning this land into a land of death, they left a warning for humanity.
THUD.
“But…”
THUMP.
Cardi raised his head at the sound of approaching footsteps.
There was a human who returned here over the barrier. She is the one who stepped into the hidden truth of centuries, with a human body and lifespan.
Raniel van Trias.
The moment she emerged from the barrier, she halted her steps.
She briefly exhaled and looked at Cardi.
In her blue eyes was certainty.
SWISH!
“She seems to have realized something, understanding in her gaze.”
Facing her blue eyes, Cardi spoke.
“…You’ve come.”
Cardi instinctively felt.
Once again, she had stepped closer to the truth, and thus, a story he could tell arose.
“It seems you understand everything now.”
Cardi asked with a bitter smile.
“Will you listen?”
In response, Raniel nodded.
Cardi also nodded.
“Let’s talk as we go.”
There was much to tell.
—
“Hey, Cardi.”
I called out to Cardi, who was about to move.
Cardi turned back, and I pointed at the barrier, continuing.
“I saw shadows inside.”
Before I heard what I needed to, I had to address this first.
“Beyond that barrier, sitting on the throne at the end was a shadow.”
SHADOW!
“…A shadow?”
“The First Light, the nameless one.”
At my words, Cardi frowned.
Cardi, who had just turned to look at me, turned his body to face me directly.
“…What did you just say?”
“There was a shadow inside, and it introduced itself as such. The First Light, the nameless one.”
Cardi’s expression turned serious as he stared at me.
“…That’s impossible.”
“What do you mean impossible?”
“I cut it with Ganikalt’s sword. Gleria would have burned its soul with the Holy Fire. Belial and I saw it clearly there.”
The spirit of the Braver vanished in flames.
Leaving no trace behind.
As Cardi murmured to himself, he touched his lips.
“…But, if we go by that, your knowledge about the Red Palace itself is nonsense. What did the shadow say?”
I explained what had happened inside the barrier. The explanation didn’t take long, and after hearing the whole story, Cardi slowly nodded.
“Definitely sounds right.”
“So…”
“I don’t know how it survived or escaped from there, but… the shadow you encountered must be that madman.”
That madman, the First Light.
BOOM!
“…The Braver who created shadows.”
“Yeah, if that being is behind it… the incident that happened in Apuria somewhat aligns. There’s something that’s bothering me, though.”
“What’s bothering you?”
“Skebal. That guy couldn’t have thought this up all on his own.”
Cardi sighed briefly.
Whenever Cardi talked about Skebal, it was always like this. It was as though he was describing a pitiful fellow.
“You seem to really underestimate Skebal, huh? Well, he probably deserves to be underestimated…”
“His train of thought isn’t very diverse. If he gets stuck, he doesn’t think to go back, just contemplates trivial betrayals or the like, hence why he still looks the same even after centuries.”
“Ah…”
“I suppose that’s why he’s getting beaten up by you all the time?”
SLAP!
“Is that really how it is?”
“Anyway, that’s not important.”
Cardi pointed ahead.
It was a gesture to keep talking while moving. Cardi took the lead and I followed behind.
“Didn’t the shadow say three years?”
“Yeah. Three years.”
In three years, either kill yourself or create something to oppose.
The shadow said it to me that way. I have no idea why it told me that but… three years was a period I had in mind long ago.
“Humanity’s dark age.”
The age when lights go out.
A period during which all heroes are replaced, inevitably returning at certain intervals.
BAM!
“The period is approaching when lights go out.”
“…In that sense, yes.”
“Until that time comes, if you want to achieve what you desire… you’d have to know a lot more than now.”
Goals clarify.
What needs to be done starts to take shape. I tightly gripped the Holy Grail I had stored in my robe and nodded.
“That makes sense.”
“I can help you with that.”
After walking a while, we emerged from the Red Palace.
The center of Arcadia, now in ruins, came into view. Standing there, Cardi turned to me.
“The origin of shadows, and understanding of shadows.”
The conditions required to connect to the second contract.
“Let’s hear the answer.”
—
Prove the answer you’ve obtained.
You must prove it to hear the truth.
“Resentment born of pain.”
At Cardi’s question, Raniel opened her mouth.
To express the answer she discovered.
“A scream that echoes as something dies. Vowing to neither live nor die, eternally suffering, spitting curses.”
In screams dwells origin.
Intense desires hold power.
“Stars answer to origins. When one wishes strongly for something, they respond. For some, it’s prayer, and for others, it’s a transaction.”
Whether a mage or a priest, the essence is the same.
They yearn for something and pay a price to attain what they desire.
“Wishes of someone can turn merely into assets. Alone, it’s insufficient, but if it becomes dozens or hundreds of thousands… it holds immense value.”
Dozens, hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Raniel witnessed that.
At the edge of death, they never ceased cursing. Their origin was resentment.
“To scratch, to claw, to drag down in resentment. Narrowing that direction to the stars, what is born is…”
To drag the stars down.
To destroy the stars.
Existing solely for that purpose, a king.
“The shadow, the Demon Lord.”
The Demon Lord.
“Correct.”
Cardi nodded at Raniel’s answer.
“Then, why did they resent the stars to such an extent?”
“…To some extent, yes.”
At the end of the Red Palace.
In the place opened with a key, Raniel saw it. A pedestal was there, and it held a grudge more intense than any other time.
What bore that grudge was not human.
As she exited the room and walked down the corridor, Raniel once again focused on the bodies of the dead scattered on the floor, and in the process, she realized her guess was correct.
Human corpses.
Mixed in with them were beings resembling humans, yet not human.
“Those forsaken by the stars.”
In some historical texts, they were described as such.
And now, they are referred to as:
“Demons.”
Forsaken by the stars and unable to house the stars within them.
Born to be unable to live in the light, they were named demons by humans.
“They would have ample reason to resent the stars.”
“…Yes, they had their reasons to feel that way.”
Cardi sighed.
“Everything maintains balance. Those living under the light like humans and elves were balanced by those forsaken by the stars.”
But, then Cardi said.
“Humans have gods, but they had none.”
Thus arises the imbalance.
“Under the stars, there were the Mage of Ancient Dragons, those favored by the stars, and those who bore starlight… but they had none. They were endlessly shoved into corners, again and again.”
The balance keeps tilting to one side.
“So, they yearned for a god for themselves.”
“…Even if it meant eternally suffering?”
“Even so, they longed for a god. The one who answered that wish wasn’t a star, but a Braver who lived as a human.”
The origin of those forsaken by the stars.
The one who intertwined that origin was the humans living under the stars.
“Funny when you think about it.”
Ultimately, it was such a story.
HA-HA!
“It all happened because everything strives for balance. Perhaps, the things that the stars have turned a blind eye to for ages have only now erupted.”
Raniel fell silent, and Cardi spoke.
“This is the origin of the Demon Lord and that truth.”
A being born from yearning.
Raniel mulled over that single line. From that single line, she could feel something just out of reach.
“Centuries later.”
While Raniel hummed thoughtfully, Cardi smiled lightly.
“Congratulations on reaching the second truth. It’s your task to ponder the insight you’ve gained. And this…”
Cardi drew a hand in the air.
Starlight gathered, and a balance appeared.
“Here’s the insight I gained when I reached the same truth as you. It might be good to keep it in mind.”
On the balance lay a key.
Cardi lifted the key and handed it to Raniel.
“…What is this?”
“What else could it be? It’s a key, as you see.”
“No, I mean, what does it open?”
Cardi raised his arm.
The tip of his finger pointed south.
HUM!
“That south is where the Tower stretches, isn’t it?”
It was as I remembered.
Looking at the place Cardi indicated, the remnants of collapsed towers sporadically came into view beyond the castle walls.
“This is the key to open the tower I built.”
The tower constructed by the Grand Magus.
Raniel’s eyes widened. Matchingly with her thoughts, Cardi smiled.
“The first Ashen Tower.”
“Are you giving this to me…?”
“What’s inside will be of help to you. It’s only right that an appropriate reward is given to one who surpasses tough conditions and reaches the truth.”
BING!
What could that reward be?
Before Raniel could ask, Cardi answered.
“Even if you take everything inside out…”
Cardi abruptly fell silent mid-sentence. He felt an intense gaze. And in this place, there was only one person looking at him.
“…”
Cardi silently glared at Raniel.
Her blue eyes were burning hot with desire. In those eyes, Cardi felt an intense longing. As if she were a thief, standing before a treasure chest.
“…You can take everything out.”
The moment Cardi finished with reluctance.
As if waiting for that moment, Raniel lightly flicked her wrist. With just that, the incantation formed and flowed from her hand to the floor.
CLANK!
The chains rattled with a CHINK, as Cardi’s gaze narrowed at the sound.
“Wait, no. I can walk on my own now…”
“What are you doing? Don’t you want to catch it?”
“No.”
“Let’s hurry up.”
Her eagerness was greater than ever before.
