〈 Chapter 337 〉 Given Time (6)
*
Four years ago, at the ruins of the Kingdom of Selef.
There, Kyle Toven faced the Demon Lord.
As he crossed the expansive black fields, the sky suddenly darkened. At first, he thought it was just a rain cloud, but that illusion didn’t last long. Something fell from the darkened sky.
Thud, plop.
It was raindrops.
Black raindrops fell. Each drop soaked the ruins of the fallen kingdom and flowed through the cracks in the earth, forming a stream.
Whoosh!
The rain continued to pour.
Kyle’s body was not one to tremble at a little rain. Even amidst a blizzard, his body remained intact; such was the body of a Hero. Yet, that day, as the rain fell, Kyle shivered from the cold.
A chill that seeped into his bones.
Instinctive fear made Kyle step back. Sara and Remia did the same. However, they couldn’t take a second step. They were trapped and could flee no further.
Creak, creak. Creak.
A twisting sound echoed out.
The twisting grew larger, followed by a tearing-like noise that reverberated. It was a strange tone that resembled a scream or the sound of nails scratching something.
Creak■■. ■■■■Creak.
And then it appeared.
■■. ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.
From the muddy ground, a hand emerged, and from the black muck that covered the sky, another hand rose, as a form took shape from the mass of goo. All of it happened in an instant.
A being appeared in a split-second.
At that moment, facing the entity, Kyle, along with everyone standing there, instinctively realized. That was the Master of the Demon Lord. The entity standing at the opposite end of the star.
In other words.
【■■■■, ■■■■■■.】
The Demon Lord (？王).
Grrrrrrrrr!
Waves of black muck surged in.
With each time the hand smashed down, the ground shook and muck splattered everywhere. Adapting to the all-consuming black wave, Kyle gripped the Holy Sword. Though he held it to try something…
“…Huh?”
The Holy Sword did not respond.
The dim Holy Sword was nothing but a well-crafted sword that caught the light oddly. It was not just the light that had faded. The starlight that surrounded his body and the voice of the star that had volunteered advice also vanished.
Elements that formed the existence of a Hero.
That was everything to Kyle.
The star left Kyle’s side.
In that moment, Kyle fell to being just a mere human. The Hero who was once exceptional lost his specialness. He lost his courage. He lost his integrity, pride, all of it. At that moment, Kyle, now alone, was filled with terror.
Clack, smack.
Kyle’s upper and lower teeth clashed together frantically.
Amidst the terror, his mind spun. The Hero who symbolized victory was no longer there. All that remained was a coward who could do nothing without the star.
Kyle fled disgracefully.
He dropped the Holy Sword, turned his back, and screamed as he ran. He escaped from the surging muck with the most embarrassing sprint he had ever done.
He ran and ran.
As he ran, Kyle turned for the first time when he felt a flash rising behind him. There stood Raniel, moving forward to take the place of the fainted Sara and Remia.
“I offer.”
Raniel’s voice echoed.
“Half of my lifespan.”
Kyle clearly heard that voice.
Against the surging shadow, he saw the surging starlight. He realized it clearly.
‘I ran away.’
Raniel…
‘That girl…’
Always searching for an answer, the Wise One.
‘Still, still not running away…’
There, she was striving to find the answer again.
Stepping forward, not retreating in the presence of the monstrous, mythic fear. Unlike Kyle, who fled, she moved forward.
Light surged.
As the surging light cast a shadow beneath Kyle’s feet, at that moment, he couldn’t even feel misery. Jealousy, longing, admiration—he felt none of these. What he felt at that moment was emptiness and disillusionment.
Chattering!
A massive chain filled with stars shot up.
The emerging chain bound the muck. It stopped the movement of the Demon Lord. Raniel had succeeded in binding a being akin to a god right there.
“Is that so.”
Kyle let out a dry laugh.
Inside him, something snapped, and he hung his head, letting out a brittle chuckle.
*
And so, they fled from the Demon Lord.
Immediately after fleeing, Raniel collapsed as a price for pouring in her lifespan. Sara, who had lost the star, fell to pieces. Terrified, Remia scratched her own skin. And Kyle came out alone from the barracks.
Deep night.
The stars shone upon Kyle.
Beneath the stars, Kyle stared blankly at his palm. The same hand that had swung a sword countless times. He recalled the past when he believed he would one day become someone special, irreplaceable like Raniel.
The past reached the present.
Even though he had trained and trained, Kyle had fled at the most crucial moment. In an ugly manner.
“…”
Kyle looked down at the ground.
He stood with his feet on the parched earth, but to Kyle’s eyes, the ground looked like a muddy swamp. The blood of countless who had believed in him and sacrificed their lives had turned the ground into a swamp.
He thought he was walking above the swamp.
But somehow, he was sinking below it.
Responsibility weighed down on Kyle’s shoulders. At that moment, the piled-up doubts engulfed him.
The Demon Lord (？王).
Could he truly defeat what he saw? Was it even a being that could be defeated?
Is it possible for me?
If I train for decades, will it be possible?
If I train for decades upon decades, can I replicate that swordsmanship I saw in my dreams? No, is that even a state of existence?
What if it was all just my delusion?
Was everything a dream, and in the end, was I only dreaming of a state I could never reach?
A multitude of questions gnawed at Kyle.
As the questions piled up and coiled like a snake, just then, a dry cough rang out from within the barracks. Following that sound, a splatter noise of blood pouring out followed.
…It’s impossible.
Physical injuries can be treated, but this is something else. The soul itself…
The murmurs of the priests.
Raniel, who was dying while coughing up blood.
You’ve used too much power at once.
Things you cannot have.
Perhaps, she won’t survive this night.
The power of the star is inherently…
Kyle closed his eyes.
The sounds faded little by little. The priests hustled by, the sound of Raniel spitting out blood, Sara praying in fear, and Remia scratching her own skin…
All of it felt like it was happening in a very distant place. While feeling a sense of disconnection from reality, Kyle kept his eyes closed and thought.
The place where I fled.
Ditching my duties and fleeing the battlefield.
There, Raniel took over what Kyle himself was supposed to do. Because Raniel risked her life, everyone, including him, survived. In a way, he had incurred an unpayable debt to Raniel.
‘She is…’
She was a perfect being.
‘An unattainable perfect being.’
He could never become like Raniel.
Kyle thought that way.
“…Ha.”
Kyle no longer resented Raniel.
He didn’t envy her.
He didn’t even wish to become like her.
He felt no longing or admiration.
He simply regarded Raniel as a perfect being.
It was akin to worship and idolization. And now, as his idol approached death, Kyle made a choice.
Kyle opened the eyes he had closed.
“…”
With vacant eyes, Kyle looked up at the sky. The stars shimmered above. While staring at the stars, he rummaged through his blurred memories.
“It’s a contract, pay the price.”
A memory slumbering deep in his subconscious.
In the forgotten and erased memory, someone demanded a deal with the stars. The stars answered that demand. As he rummaged through that blurred memory, Kyle opened his mouth.
“…I am.”
2.
“I am not worthy of the name Hero.”
Kyle spoke.
Before the sleeping Rania, in front of the rising Balance, Kyle continued to speak with a bitter smile.
“I am not like a Hero. I cannot become a Hero who resists until the very end and ultimately achieves greatness.”
The heroes of fairy tales.
“I’m just a loser who received more than I deserved.”
He had longed for it but could never become that.
“A human who can do nothing without the star. Just a loser who received an undue power, mistaking it for my achievements, swinging it around…”
Reflecting on his path, he spoke as if confessing before the divine.
“To me, this power is excessive.”
Kyle echoed the exact words he had spoken on the day of the contract.
“This power should go to someone more deserving. To a Hero who doesn’t flee, someone who has built everything on their own courage.”
That day, the star had replied to Kyle’s wish. To grant your wish, you need to pay a proper price.
【Only souls capable of receiving a blessing are predetermined.】
Those who refuse to accept the blessing become criminals.
Only those chosen by the stars from birth can accept the starlight. Thus, it’s impossible for you to transfer the starlight to someone you wish for.
But Kyle knew a way.
He knew of the contract made by the former Grand Magus. There lay a method to transform the soul of an ordinary human into a ‘soul capable of receiving the star.’
‘Trial.’
Enduring trials.
To pay a price capable of unsettling the order of the world through trials… To earn the right to twist the natural order. Kyle recalled the trial he received that day.
【Defeat Death.】
One was to defeat Death’s Blade.
To resist the death that would someday come.
‘And the second…’
【Achieve the overlooked great deed.】
It was to achieve the great deed he had shunned at the place he fled. In other words, it was about confronting the Demon Lord. That was the trial given to Kyle.
He sought means to overcome that trial. Numerous attempts and failures followed. He sacrificed emotions and tried to reproduce the Heroic Strike using the star’s power.
After countless trials and errors, Kyle arrived here.
“…The person who should gain this power is.”
The one who should become the Hero.
“It’s not me, but you, Raniel.”
Kyle murmured and smiled.
On the rising Balance, Kyle placed his starlight. All the starlight he had collected over the years, leaving only a handful, he placed entirely on the Balance. This was different from the original plan.
Originally, Kyle intended to borrow the star’s power to reproduce the Hero’s Strike. But now, Kyle knew that he no longer needed this power.
‘That strike…’
It doesn’t have to be reproduced through the star’s power.
It must be achieved solely through his own strength.
The Balance tilted.
Starlight entered the flesh of Raniel, who was approaching death. Though she had not fully accepted it yet, she began to drift away from death.
“…”
Kyle felt the strength leaving his body.
Now, what remained to him was but a handful of starlight.
Only enough starlight to grip the Holy Sword.
‘…Light.’
Kyle felt lightness within him.
Amidst the lightness, Kyle tilted the Balance. To fulfill the last remaining contract.
“I will endure the trials.”
Kyle spoke.
The star answered Kyle’s wish.
The seed sleeping in Raniel’s heart swelled with a powerful beat, and the surrounding area began to tremble. It served as a bait of sorts. A bait to lure the Demon Lord.
Tick, tick.
Kyle heard the ticking of a clock in his ears.
Unconsciously, Kyle became aware of the time remaining for him.
“…Three days.”
In three days, the Demon Lord would appear.
The time given to him was three days. Kyle slowly exhaled and sat in a corner of the church. Sara didn’t speak a word to Kyle.
She only offered her prayers.
As prayers echoed within the church, Kyle laid down the Holy Sword onto the floor. As he gazed at the sword placed on the ground, Kyle steadied his breathing.
A human, not a Hero.
Just a mere human.
Now human Kyle Toven prepared to face the last trial given to him. As the moment he had waited for approached, Kyle couldn’t help but smile.
“…With this.”
Kyle murmured.
“Finally, I can repay my debt.”
Whoosh!
Rain began to pour.
Hearing the sound of pouring rain, Kyle closed his eyes.
To sharpen himself sharper than ever.
3.
Tap, tap.
Someone walks through the pouring rain.
Her figure is hazy.
As she takes a step, the grass does not crush beneath her feet. The wind blows past her. Existing in that place, yet she does not exist.
She is an entity beyond this time.
A god (？) not meant to descend on this land.
The god walks and arrives at an old church. The woman, now the god of the ruined world and the last being remaining, stood before the church’s door, taking a breath. A bitter smile was written on her face.
Raniel, from thirteen years into the future.
No longer called Raniel van Trias, but now known as Raniel van Dragonik, the woman knocked on the door of the church.
*
