The seven suns fall.
The platinum sun violently flickers as it engulfed the black sun. A series of dazzling flashes and a storm of fierce heat. It was the moment when the seven suns swelled.
Flash.
A single flash strikes the area.
What follows is a deafening roar that tears at the eardrums.
————!
A loud bang erupts with the fierce flash.
The explosion created by all seven suns detonating cannot be expressed by any onomatopoeia. It is more akin to a high-pitched ringing sound.
The first shockwave sweeps through the area, followed by the sound of crumbling rocks that are caught up in the explosion and crash back down.
Boom, boom!
The rushing whirlwind ruffled Raniel’s hair. Brushing her hair aside, Raniel looked up at the sky. The black sun, now tainted by the seven suns, floated there.
The sun had a hole in it. The part that had broken off left the sun unable to maintain a perfect spherical shape, resembling more of a crescent moon.
Chiiiiii!
From the hole, black flames poured down toward the ground like blood. The sun hanging in the sky tilted and slowly began to descend toward the earth.
However, just as it did…
The sun, which had been falling, suddenly stopped as if anchored in place. The pouring flames reversed direction. The sun, now at a lower altitude, expanded as it inhaled the flames.
Kiiiiiiing!
An eruption of heated rays, hundreds of them, shot straight toward Raniel. Observing the barrage of searing rays, Raniel clicked her tongue.
…The ancient disaster, the cursed sun.
Raniel recalled the memory from the tower in the North, where Cardi had said that as long as the sun remains in the sky, there is no chance of winning. It must be dropped and thrust into the ground to be completely killed.
And they had indeed done so.
Cardi and Belial dropped the sun, and Ganikalt, blessed by Gleria, cleaved the sun in half with a single strike.
‘Of course, it doesn’t possess the same majesty as back then.’
Unlike the disasters faced by the first hero’s party… the resurrected disasters were beings that had already experienced death once. Though revived by the blood of forgotten gods, there remained a scar left by Ganikalt in the very center of the sun.
The sword mark that cleaved the sun’s core in two.
Though filled with the blood of gods and divine power, it could not wholly conceal the wound. Watching the incoming rays, Raniel lifted her foot. And then, Boom.
Cataclysm.
Rebuild.
The ground trembled beneath her boots.
As the earth shook, the terrain began to rise. In the midst of the shifting landscape, the surging rays pierced through the walls of earth and stone headed straight for Raniel.
The rays are, after all, part of the black sun.
The rays bend and twist as they track Raniel. Glancing at the pursuing rays, Raniel began to run upon the rising ground.
Accelerate.
Hundreds of rays pursued her.
The approaching heat and whirlwind. In the extreme heat, where it seemed like every drop of moisture in her body might evaporate, Raniel ran with her eyes wide open. Sizzle! The chain wrapped around her hand swung back and forth.
Running across the raised land.
Raniel gazed beyond the black sun that loomed ahead, beyond it where a traitor pierced the sky. A reverse cross touching the heavens stood there, along with numerous ancient gods kneeling before her.
That was the true enemy Raniel had to face.
‘…Reverse heaven (역천), and create heaven (개천).’
Raniel understood what the traitor intended. The hole in the sky continued to grow larger. When that hole is completely “opened,” the traitor’s wish will become reality.
She had to stop that at all costs.
Thus, Raniel made her choice.
Thud.
Raniel leapt from the ground.
Where the rising earth melted away, she reached before the sun and extended her arms toward it. The moment she squeezed her hand tightly.
Rrrrrrrrrrr!
The outstretched chains ensnared the sun.
The platinum chains did not melt even in the sun’s heat. Pulling on the chains that bound the sun, Raniel plunged herself toward it.
‘Even if it means some injuries.’
Even as her entire body began to melt, Raniel reached the sun’s core. Surrounded by the black flames, she thrust her hand into the scar etched into the sun’s core.
‘We go for a short, decisive battle.’
What she had to confront was not the resurrected disaster but a woman who aspired to become a god. Raniel understood that the annihilation of Alkeia had not yet concluded. Only after concluding the annihilation could they proceed to hunt the traitor.
Still, the fact that this was a race against time remained unchanged.
With her hand pressed against the scar on the core.
Raniel chanted her spell.
2.
The nameless gods bowed their heads.
Having lost all powers, intelligence, and reason, they were merely masses of force. Gleria squeezed the blood from the fallen deities.
Thud, thud.
Though they had lost everything, they were still beings that had once been gods. Their blood was the finest holy relic, and the divine power that had accumulated in Alkeia over the past centuries was an unending wellspring.
With all of that, Gleria opened the sky.
Watching the sky slowly tear apart, Gleria smiled. She was no longer mad. The smile that graced her lips was close to joy. That moment she had long wished for was finally approaching.
She would drag down the false gods and revert all lives of the world to their purest state.
Under the opened sky, all the sins, karma, righteous deeds, and wrongdoings accumulated in their lives would become meaningless. The soot and blood would be washed away, leaving only the pure white souls behind.
‘If that happens…’
If everything becomes pure.
‘We will be able to meet again.’
Gleria smiled wryly.
‘Without being soiled, I will stand before you. Everyone will return to their most beautiful forms.’
That was the salvation Gleria sought.
For everyone to break free from the regulations set by the twisted gods and return to their most pure states. Thus, achieving freedom.
Only that alone was the path to salvation…
“…”
…Saint Gleria bit her lip.
The traitor, Gleria Bel Armias, felt a pang in her heart. The scar engraved upon her heart. The scar left by a certain hero throbbed painfully.
“It’s already too late.”
The traitor, Gleria, smiled.
She had walked too far on the road to turn back. She was already a mad Braver, a traitor who had betrayed the gods. A sinner who had committed irreparable wrongs.
There was no way to be forgiven.
And she should not be forgiven.
The traitor looked ahead. She gazed down the path she was walking, the path stained black. A path piled high with corpses. She knew what awaited at the end of that road. What waited for her at the terminus was only destruction.
Even knowing that truth.
The traitor walked toward her doom. That was the only path left to her. As she moved forward, the traitor glanced back. What she saw was the twisted, hideously destroyed path she had walked.
However, if she turned her gaze a little further back…
There lay a fork in the road.
A path she had walked before she fell apart. Not as a traitor, but as a saint, as part of the hero’s party, a brilliantly shining road lay there.
Someone stood upon that road.
The traitor closed her eyes and opened them again. She saw reality, not the road. In reality, the traitor was looking back, and the direction her gaze was turned was where the black sun rose.
Flash.
The seven suns exploded, painting the world in pure white. The sun still hung in the sky, but its altitude had already lowered significantly. Moments later, the ground shook, forming a path toward the sun.
On that path, someone was running.
A magician, drawing radiant light and pulling ash, raced toward the black sun. Her ash-colored hair billowed behind her as the magician launched herself at the black sun.
Such was the moment.
Flash, something began to swell from within the black sun. The platinum sun expanded, completely swallowing the black sun.
Whoosh.
As the black flames attempted to escape from underneath the platinum sun, the sun pulled them in and fell down. Just as the sun sinks beyond the horizon, it buried itself in the earth…
KA-BOOM!
With a deafening roar, it exploded.
As the sun exploded, the horizon turned platinum. The surging heat tousled the traitor’s hair. The intense warmth and the shimmering platinum horizon. Watching the traces left by the sun, Gleria unintentionally smiled.
She knew that landscape.
She knew well the warmth generated by the sun. She could not have forgotten it. That spell had been used by none other than that person.
“Ah…”
So, you were here.
“Indeed.”
You, who resembled that person, were here.
“Again…”
The one who had held me upright that day.
The one who always held me upright, that person. You, who resembled that person… are trying to hold me upright once more.
“Yes.”
The traitor smiled and spread her arms wide.
Thud, thud, the sound of footsteps echoed.
A human dragging ash approached her.
“I didn’t come to stop you.”
The human replied to the disaster’s question.
“I came to kill you.”
Raniel van Trias, the Ashen Mage.
Pulling off chunks of flesh that were melted and stuck, she poured a potion over herself and walked toward the traitor. Covered in soot, yet her blue eyes remained untainted.
Thud.
The Ashen Mage stood before the traitor.
“And.”
The hero stood before the disaster.
“I’ve come to prove.”
“To prove what?”
“That your journey was not meaningless.”
A junior stood before a far-off senior.
“Hero, Ganikalt van Galatrick. Dragon Sorcerer, Belial van Dragonik. Sage, Cardi van Armiel.”
“…”
“And you.”
Raniel spoke calmly.
“Saint, Gleria Bel Armias.”
Gazing upon the woman who had sacrificed everything for the world long ago, Raniel opened her mouth.
“Centuries ago, at the end of your journey, the choice you made. Your sacrifices. I have come to prove that all of it was not in vain.”
I have come to stand against you, who seeks to render all of it meaningless.
“Traitor.”
Raniel pointed at the traitor.
“Welcome the successor pointed out in the covenant.”
The one who inherited the contract. The successor of the covenant. The moment those words reached the traitor’s ears, her gaze trembled for an instant.
“Next, again next.”
The being she had wished for and prayed for.
Someone who understands their intentions, inherits their will, and will head toward the places they could not reach. A hero who will crush those who had transformed into disasters and reach the conclusion.
“Indeed, it’s you.”
Gleria smiled.
“Yes, show me.”
She beckoned.
The nameless ancient gods reached out their hands toward Raniel. Like waves, they crashed down upon her. As the forgotten gods surged forth, Raniel stepped forward.
As always, simply to prove.
3.
The roots that spread in every direction, buried beneath the earth, soared along with the dirt. The massive roots that surged whipped through the ground like whips, striking repeatedly.
Boom, boom.
The earth trembled, and clouds of dust rose.
Beyond the rising dust, what appeared was the owner of the roots, a presence that filled this grand space. As the dust gradually settled, its true form revealed itself.
The master of the cursed land.
The giant tree, Abaddon.
The towering tree, the top out of sight, resembled the World Tree of the elves. Yet, this giant was not meant to cradle life like the World Tree but to encircle and trap it to death.
Twisted thorns wrapped around its roots.
Roots meant to drain, exploit the life of the earth.
In the center of those roots was a trunk that resembled a maw gaping wide.
‘What the hell…’
He had no idea where to start or how to confront it. At that moment, Destel’s body froze in the face of such overwhelming presence.
Crackle crackle!
The roots, overturning the earth, swept toward Destel. His body froze in shock, making him slow to evade, and he was about to be swept away by the roots.
Thud, someone stepped forward before Destel.
Veiling in a storm, Belnoa swung his arms toward the encroaching roots. In the clash of roots and storm, it was the roots that were pushed back. Turning back after repelling the roots, Belnoa looked at Destel.
“Destel.”
Destel gazed at Belnoa.
Hearing the sound of footsteps from beside him, he looked over to see Chloe passing by his side, walking forward. Following Chloe, Destel’s gaze shifted.
Chloe stood beside Belnoa.
The staff grasped tightly in Chloe’s hands radiated a brilliant light.
Chloe and Belnoa, his younger juniors, regarded him with determination. Meeting Destel’s gaze, they spoke.
“Give us orders.”
They declared their intention to confront that massive monster, that disaster.
