Kalt stepped beyond the crumbling landscape into the outside world. Each step felt light, perhaps he could call it weakness, Kalt thought.
“······.”
He had liberated his mentor and fulfilled his wish to surpass him. Having achieved such a long-desired wish, Kalt now felt an inexplicable emptiness.
Coolness, the lightness of having shed a burden, and the sense of accomplishment of having achieved a goal — yet all of these were permeated by a slight emptiness.
…Goals and wishes are just like that.
Kalt smiled bitterly.
As he exhaled deeply and took a step forward, he found himself in the very place he had been standing. The land for those who do not believe, the entrance to Alkeia. A vast expanse with the massive temple doors laid out before him.
The sun still hung in the sky.
A cool breeze flowed in from somewhere.
As Kalt absentmindedly surveyed the scenery, starkly contrasting with the abyss, he caught his breath. The plains were filled with the corpses of beasts. A mountain of decaying bodies. The smell of blood mingled with the breeze, and blood flowed through the furrows…
Shifting his gaze along the blood, he saw a holy knight seated in front of the temple doors.
“Well, look who finally arrived.”
The knight’s armor was shattered, and his clothes were stained red with blood. Surrounding him was human blood as plentiful as that of the beasts. Sitting at the end was a superhuman wielding a red-crossed sword.
“Welcome, brother.”
The undying Karioth.
He waved his hand with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Kalt bitterly smiled and walked toward Karioth.
“Seems you dealt with them all.”
“It was really a battle of endurance. How many times did I die again? I lost count after the double digits.”
Karioth chuckled and exhaled dramatically.
Shriek, the cigarette burned down, releasing plumes of gray smoke.
“The door won’t budge.”
The temple door remained firmly shut.
Karioth pointed behind him.
“While I was in the thick of it, the temple shook, and something got stuck in the door. After the fight ended, I tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.”
“…Is that so?”
“Well, even if it opens, I doubt we can team up.”
Scattered around were broken weapons.
Even the vines coiled around Karioth’s red-crossed sword had withered away. Pointing at them, Karioth spun a finger to indicate Kalt.
“Looks like you’re in the same boat.”
Kalt, covered in blood and barely holding himself together.
It was astonishing he hadn’t lost consciousness yet. In the look from Karioth that seemed to question whether he was alive, Kalt shrugged.
“I can move, but I doubt I can swing my sword. I feel like I’ve scraped my stamina down to zero.”
“Well, at least you’re still alive.”
“Indeed.”
“······.”
“······.”
A moment of silence.
Karioth broke the silence.
“Did you send him off well?”
“Yes, fortunately.”
“Care for a smoke? Brother.”
“Sure.”
Hiss, clap.
“······.”
Sigh, Kalt exhaled deeply.
As he watched the rising smoke from the cigarette, he absentmindedly wiped his eyes. Karioth asked nothing, and Kalt said nothing. After a moment, Kalt finally spoke.
“…He was a remarkable person, until the very end.”
Kalt muttered.
It wasn’t meant for anyone to hear. Kalt was speaking to himself, reflecting on his mentor’s last moments.
“Truly.”
What flickered before his eyes was Kuntel’s final image. Pulling the vines entangling him and smiling as he patted his shoulder.
“You did well, Kalt.”
Chewing on that single sentence, Kalt smiled.
…Kalt’s mission was the subjugation of the Gletus, the masterpiece of the traitor, Kuntel. Having fulfilled his role, Kalt turned his gaze to the temple entrance. His fight had ended. But their stage had likely not finished yet.
Thud, rumble.
The interior of the temple shook.
From within, the battle continued.
2.
The Braver, Kelharlem, looked ahead.
There lay a lake of curses overflowing. An obstacle that blocked the way for the child standing behind him. Gazing at the ancient disaster, Kelharlem spoke to himself.
Opening the way for those who come after is the role of a senior.
That was the role of his mentor and senior.
This child’s stage is not here; he himself was meant to play a part on this stage. Now was the time to fulfill a promise. The vow he failed to keep that day.
…But how?
Kelharlem’s rationality posed the question.
His body was not as it once was. His mana had dwindled… Even if his prime self were to show up, it was hard to imagine blowing away all this sewage.
An impossible task. A lack of capability. An unreachable goal.
“How on earth do you plan to bridge this vast gap between possibility and impossibility?” his mind questioned. Kelharlem remained silent.
“Ahh.”
Instead of an answer, he let out a laugh.
It was a question without worth answering.
‘The answer is predetermined.’
…To reach the unreachable, to make the impossible possible, mages have always made deals. They have paid a price to the stars above.
“Balance.”
It was far from a prayer or a wish.
Paying a price to gain strength.
Far from faith, even in this land for the non-believers, the stars answered Kelharlem’s call. Before him, a platinum balance appeared.
Cracked and rusted scale.
A balance that had already reached its limit over a hundred years ago. Its unremarkable form felt like a reflection of himself. With that thought, Kelharlem grasped the balance.
“I offer this.”
“What for,” asked the star.
“For everything,” Kelharlem replied.
“It’s fine if I can no longer use magic. You can take my eternity. It doesn’t matter if you take this and that, just shut up and give it to me.”
Kelharlem gritted his teeth.
“For the strength to move beyond that day.”
My stopped clock…
Even just a single second flowing forward would be enough.
“Strength to open a path.”
The balance, having completed the final deal, shattered.
The star answers not to a madman but to a human’s plea.
Flash.
Starlight overflowed. Under the deluge of starlight, for just a moment, the wave of curses halted. Kelharlem reached out toward the starlight before him.
…Just like that time.
Back then, he also reached for the starlight.
On that day, a hundred years ago, he grasped the star in anger, hatred, and a cry for revenge. But this time, he would not do so. Kelharlem seized the star.
Crack.
The moment he grabbed the star, chains were loosened. Madness was unleashed. Rage, hatred, and mania threatened to swallow him whole. Yet, Kelharlem resisted. He held onto his sanity until the very end. He had to.
“You’re like me, my child.”
What resurfaced was the cursed words whispered to him by the traitor that day. The traitor had told Kelharlem he was also a madman.
“You will break everything with your own hands. Your madness will make it so. Ah, poor child. You will surely meet your ruin.”
You will be destroyed.
You will crush everything with your own hands. The traitor prophesied. And for a long, long time, Kelharlem resisted that prophecy, fighting against the madness that gnawed at him.
Even if he was scorned as a madman.
Even if he instilled fear in allies.
Even if he was seen as a dangerous being by all.
It doesn’t matter what anyone called him. Such things were of no importance.
‘What matters is…’
That he resisted.
That he had resisted.
Understanding the flame burning within and having suppressed it. That he managed to endure for a hundred years while shackling himself and killing his emotions.
‘I, until the very last moment…’
Wished to remain human, not a madman.
“Look, traitor.”
The human, Kelharlem, shouted.
He laughed while holding onto the star. Unlike that day, the current Kelharlem was not swallowed by madness. Standing before the traitor, he was still human, crossing the long gap of a hundred years.
Look, traitor.
You prophesied that I would be consumed by madness and meet my ruin.
You shouted I would become just like you, swallowed by madness.
I, Kelharlem Bel Artiya, stand here before you with my will, on this earth, on my own two feet.
“This is my answer.”
Before the incoming tide.
Kelharlem slapped his palms together.
3.
Kelharlem offered his eternity along with his magic to the star. Magic, to a knight, is akin to the sword path, and signifies the tower built by a mage.
In other words, it signifies a mage’s very life.
And the star…
【The deal is complete.】
The star acknowledges Kelharlem’s life.
Everyone expected him to lose everything and be consumed by madness… Yet, Kelharlem did not meet such an end. He resisted, and he continued to resist.
To uphold a promise, to prove himself.
He had endured a hundred years of life. The star assigned a rightful price to the value of that long life. It marked an adequate value on the eternity Kelharlem offered. Thus, the starlight given to Kelharlem blazed brighter than anything else.
Brilliant light overflowed.
The traitor, who was splitting the heavens, unintentionally turned his head. For the first time, he broke his gaze from Raniel and looked toward the lake of curses. Seeing the light bursting forth, the traitor’s eyes widened in surprise.
In that place, the madman… no, the human looked on, and the traitor couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
The first saint realized her prophecy from that day had been wrong. And the existence of the human who had come all the way here to prove that fact.
“Aha.”
The traitor laughed.
Brilliant light. The pure white light she loved above all. The purest of lights is more beautiful than anything else.
And, Kelharlem…
The human, pulling the light toward him, reached out to unfold a spell made solely for this day. A countless number of split circuits unfolded around Kelharlem. The unfolded circuits began to spin in unison.
Starlight cascaded down. The flowing starlight ignited.
In the burning flames, a single point came into being. The flames were drawn into that point. The platinum flames mixed with the flames generated by Kelharlem’s magic. Thus, the burning point shone brighter than anything else.
The name given to this spell is “One Dispel.”
This spell, containing the life of a human, is a weapon forged to confront calamity. A spell focused on burning a vast area in an instant.
Kelharlem consumed everything he had with “One Dispel.”
Snap, as Kelharlem flicked his fingers.
The point condensed with flames flashed brightly in an instant. The flashing pinnacle created a fierce flash. The flash swept across the area, flooding the Duke’s domain in blinding white.
Flash.
Resti’s vision, the traitor’s gaze from afar, and even Raniel’s view, who was fighting the forgotten gods, all became engulfed in white. The flash swallowed sound, until nothing could be heard.
In the silence, where nothing could be heard or seen…
The liberated heat consumed everything.
