She felt it.
The tower that had been crumbling had finally been completed.
She found the answer. Now it was time to put that answer into action. Blood trickled from Raniel’s nose. Her eyes turned red as the blood vessels burst.
···A spell is intervening in the world’s providence through a transaction with the stars.
Raniel decided to skip all that process. She would bypass the transaction with the stars. First, she would twist the providence at her own will, and later, she would pay the price. With this logic, Raniel crafted her spell.
Naturally, it was not easy.
It was not something the human brain could handle. However, Raniel’s computation ability, having surpassed limits, made it possible. She immediately utilized the超演算 (Superhuman computation ability) that a mage possessed.
Computation, interpretation, and execution.
By skipping the transaction with the stars, Raniel intervened directly in the providence. The instant she reached out her hand, mana did not rise. A line was drawn above the rules inscribed in the world by Raniel’s circuit.
The spell she crafted became both the rule and providence.
Ssmite!
In an instant.
A pure white beam of light tore through the space as if it had always been there. The appearing wave of light collided with Kyle’s sword.
KaAaaAank!
Space twisted.
Crack, sizzle! The surrounding space began to tear apart. The beam of light was torn by Kyle’s sword but ultimately nullified his strike. The Sword of Yeocheon might have cut through the providence, but Kyle no longer had the strength to wield it.
For the first time, Kyle’s sword was deflected.
Raniel did not miss the opportunity.
Taking a step forward, Raniel thrust her hand toward Kyle’s heart, grabbing it with her hand.
The only circuit she had kept hidden.
The circuit made by the Goddess of Ashes touched Kyle’s heart, inscribed in Raniel’s palm. Raniel smiled at Kyle, whose eyes were wide open.
“I don’t need it.”
Keeiiiiing!
“Take it back, you bastard.”
A handful of starlight that her soul could endure.
With that only left, Raniel poured all the starlight she possessed into the circuit.
Blink!
Starlight surged.
“I’ve thought about this for a very long time.”
“Was there another ending? Wouldn’t I be able to talk to Kyle again? Is there a way to restore Kyle as a human?”
She mentioned how she had pondered and pondered.
The Goddess of Ashes, regretting for 13 years, bitterly smiled as she drew something in the air.
“I’ve been searching for so long.”
She laughed and cried.
“I’ve finally found the answer.”
She declared that it wasn’t a conclusion she found alone. There were countless variables, and it was those variables that altered the future that led her to this answer.
“Don’t become like me.”
What she completed was a circuit. While handing that circuit to me, the Goddess of Ashes warned.
“Don’t become a god.”
“Don’t cling to starlight.”
“Authority accomplishes nothing. A god is nothing but a hollow being. You must never deny the path you’ve taken. So…”
Recalling her words.
“Give it back.”
“It’s something you don’t need.”
I reached out.
“Don’t become like me. Live your own life.”
I reached out and grasped Kyle’s heart.
In that moment, the circuit inscribed on my palm flashed violently. Waves of light surged from the circuit that devoured all starlight, leaving only a handful behind.
Dazzling platinum light.
Starlight seeped through the hole in Kyle’s heart. The shadows inside his heart shook in response to the rising starlight. As if rejecting the foreign substance entering his body, Kyle’s heart spasmed wildly.
Crunch! Crack!
The flailing hands seized my arm, clawing at my flesh, screaming. Ignoring the screams ringing in my ears, I strengthened my grip.
‘I won’t let go.’
Absolutely not.
Go ahead, claw away. If you’re going to break my fingers, then break them. Even if my skin tears and only bones are left, I will never let go.
I had overcome so many crises to get this far. I had suffered greatly. I had faced death countless times. There were moments when I almost truly died. Having crossed those limbs several times, I had made it here.
So, I cannot let go.
‘This is my last chance.’
The light intensified.
The surging starlight reached the seed resting deep within the heart. It was the seed that Sara had planted in Kyle’s heart, having devoted everything she had.
It was, in fact, Sara’s origin.
The origin of her life as a saint and her desire to achieve everything that composed her life. I grasped it, to fulfill the last wish she had wished for.
Light seeped into the seed.
As the surging starlight swallowed it, the seed began to sprout. It broke through the shadows in the heart, sprouting roots, pushing them away. White beams of light began to rise through the overflowing starlight.
···This was my purpose.
The circuit I received from my future was incomplete. With just this one circuit, I couldn’t restore Kyle. That’s why she had said it would be useless for Cardi.
It couldn’t be helped.
Because Kyle, who had left a wound on his heart, resisted until the very last moment.
Because Sara, who offered everything to save Kyle, existed.
Because I, who had endured 13 years of hell, was here.
Only because of all that, this circuit finally gained meaning. If even one of those elements were missing, this circuit would have been utterly useless. So, I tightened my grip even more.
To ensure their efforts weren’t wasted.
To make their lives meaningful.
My role was to lead the variables they created to a single answer, after all. I came this far for that reason.
“Kyle.”
At the end of the continued path, I smiled bitterly.
“Come back quickly.”
I spoke while laughing.
“I have so much to say.”
With a flash,
the burst of light dyed the surroundings white.
—
Kyle blinked.
How many times did he blink? Kyle Toven felt the grime that filled his head fade away. His mind slowly cleared, just like soot being washed away.
Kyle Toven.
Recalling his name, Kyle stood up. Looking around, a landscape like the night sky unfolded. A night sky adorned with stars. Looking down at his feet, there was a pure white glowing path.
The road he had walked.
The life Kyle had lived.
Looking ahead, there was a path filled with grime, a road that negated his past life. If he took just one more step, he would have gone far down that path.
Kyle looked at his foot.
The foot he raised was halted just before stepping into the grime. Just before that foot touched the muck, the filth began to wash away as if something was cleansing it.
“…Ah.”
Seeing that, Kyle smiled.
What he feared did not happen. It seemed that the girl succeeded after all. She had managed to kill the monster that had turned him into something else.
“Thank goodness,” Kyle muttered.
Raniel, who came from the future, had said.
Her world had perished. Kyle now also knew the reason for that destruction. It must have been him, once turned into a calamity. Because she could not stop that transformation in time, her world must have perished.
That’s why he worried.
Worrying, Kyle struggled until the last moment. He wanted to believe that the Holy Sword stabbed into his own heart had helped her.
···It probably meant something.
In any case, the dreadful future that the future self foresaw would not repeat itself. With that fact, Kyle felt relieved. His heavy footsteps felt a bit lighter.
“……”
Without a word, Kyle lifted his gaze to look ahead.
Where the grime-covered path had vanished, only emptiness remained. An emptiness of nothing. That was the end of the road. Death, eternal extinction.
That was the end permitted to Kyle.
Before death, Kyle exhaled briefly.
His role had ended. Now he could close his eyes in peace. At the brink of death, he involuntarily looked back.
“I’ve walked quite a bit.”
A short life, if it could be called short.
Yet it felt long to Kyle. He couldn’t say he had lived that long life well. It was ugly, it staggered, and he had done many things he shouldn’t have. Therefore, the road Kyle had walked was far from perfect; it was crooked and unsightly.
He made many mistakes.
Looking back, he had many regrets.
Reflecting on his life, Kyle dreamt of a different ending that might have been possible. It was not a purely impossible assumption. It was a future he could have reached if he had just tried a little harder.
‘…If I had worked a bit harder.’
If I hadn’t given up and had chased after you.
Even if I stumbled, even if I was frustrated, even if I froze, if I could have stood up and followed you in the end. Or if, when I first faced the you who had changed so much, I had tried to see you as the same person.
Would a different ending have been possible then?
Walking the road together, bickering like before, could we perhaps have reached the Demon Lord? Even if it took a long detour, could we not have reached the ending you and I desired?
···And then, after all that was over.
When both you and I were no longer a hero or a wise one, could we sit down in an old tavern, sipping drinks, and chat about trivial matters?
‘…That would be pleasant.’
Sipping a drink, chatting about heroic days, poking fun at our mistakes, and talking about ridiculously strong enemies, asking ourselves ‘How the hell did we win that?’ and getting drunk on our nostalgia, a truly trivial future.
That future crossed Kyle’s mind.
“…Ah.”
A laugh slipped out.
An unachievable future. That’s why it seemed all the more beautiful. Kyle chuckled and placed the raised foot forward.
Now it was time to end this life.
As Kyle’s lifted foot was about to touch the void, Blink, instead of emptiness, a pure white light touched his toes. Kyle widened his eyes and looked down.
Swish!
A path was being forged.
Like a seed sprouting, the path was forming at a very slow speed. The life that had ended was attempting to continue once more.
And then.
Grab!
Someone seized Kyle.
Turning around, Kyle saw Raniel, who was gritting her teeth and chasing after him. She looked up, panting heavily. Whatever it took, she must have suffered, she smiled and said,
“I got you.”
Raniel pulled Kyle.
—
Blink.
Kyle blinked again.
After blinking several times, he was finally able to see the scenery around him. A collapsed ceiling. The remnants of shattered pillars. Deep gashes in the floor and soot everywhere — numerous traces of battle were all around him.
Next, Kyle looked at his own body.
Drooping arms and a body filled with wounds.
His condition was so critical that it wouldn’t be strange if he died outright, yet… his heart was still beating. The sound of his heartbeat resonated in Kyle’s ears: Thump, thump!
···I can’t move.
He was too weak.
Sleepiness kept washing over him. Somehow, something was recovering his body, but the recovery was exceedingly slow. To fully recover would take an indefinite amount of time.
However, this didn’t make sense.
The more he checked his bodily condition, the more Kyle felt astonishment. He was certain he had died. He was in a state where survival shouldn’t have been possible.
“…How?”
Kyle muttered absently.
“How am I still… alive…?”
“How the hell are you alive, you bastard?”
Before Kyle could finish his words, someone slapped his head hard. With a dull pain, Kyle slowly lifted his head.
“…Raniel?”
There she was, Raniel.
She was looking down at Kyle, looking like a mess. One eye was half-closed, and her left arm hung limply. She had lost so much blood that her complexion was even pale.
But despite all that, Raniel was smiling.
“Do you have any idea how much I suffered just to save you?”
Laughing, she patted Kyle’s head repeatedly. Since she had done it with some force, Kyle felt his skull throb. Before he could tell her to stop, a loud thud! echoed.
“Kyaaaaaaaak!”
Raniel, who had been thumping Kyle’s head, screamed and grabbed her wrist. Having exerted strength on her broken arm, it finally gave way.
“You blockhead! Ughhh!”
Screaming, she jumped up and down, but in her haste, she tripped over her broken ankle and fell to the ground. The sound of her ankle snapping was just the icing on the cake.
Again, a bird-like scream rang through the basement.
“…What are you doing?”
Kyle couldn’t hold it in any longer and muttered.
Raniel glared at him with widened eyes, but that fierce gaze quickly softened.
“Seriously…”
Raniel sighed deeply.
It seemed as if she had so much to say but didn’t know where to start, alternating between closing and opening her lips. Then, seemingly struck by a whimsical thought, she smiled mischievously.
“Hey, Kyle.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you get your ass kicked by me?”
Kyle flinched, his eyebrow twitching.
“Well, that’s true. You won, so I…”
“You got your ass handed to you by me.”
“………”
“All day you just got hit, and then at the end, you tried to pull off some close combat? Who even tells a knight to settle things up close with a mage?”
Raniel grinned.
“But I won, didn’t I? You lost to me. You lost even in close combat, you pathetic bastard.”
I won.
I won.
“This makes it 1 win, 1 loss.”
Though I’ve lost more, since Kyle had let her win during their battles, and she often lost as well, but none of that counted as a serious fight.
When she asserted it as if she had to make the point strong.
Raniel carefully enunciated each syllable.
“It’s a draw.”
With a pride and competitive spirit that was disgustingly strong, the great ashen mage smiled brightly.
