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Ganikalt’s sword cut through the Demon Lord.
A human’s sword reached the God.
With a swish of the quiet cutting sound, a storm raged on. The space split diagonally. The sword swung by the human reached the heavens. The storm swept away the dark clouds that filled the sky, even the muddy water that covered it.
When the storm finally calmed down.
Light poured from the sky that had cleared of shadows and dark clouds.
Sunlight streamed into the half-destroyed shrine. Under the incoming sunlight, Cardi lifted his head. Gleria, who had been praying with her eyes closed, opened them. Belial, who had been rampaging after turning into a Black Dragon, finally stopped for the first time.
“······.”
And, Ganikalt.
Ganikalt van Galatrick dropped his sword. Clang, the sound echoed as the Holy Sword fell to the ground. He slowly, very slowly exhaled.
One-armed. One-eyed. A broken demigod.
Yet when he turned around to face his companions, Ganikalt was smiling lighter than ever. As he soaked in the sunlight streaming through the gaps in the shrine, Ganikalt began to steady his breath.
After a brief silence, he opened his mouth.
“Finally···.”
However, those words could not be fully spoken.
With a thud, the shrine shook violently. Ganikalt looked back. Cardi, Gleria, and Belial, finally catching their breath, all gazed at the same spot.
At the center of the shrine, the shadow that was scattering without a vessel.
It began to converge into a single point. The gathered shadow pulsated like a living heartbeat. Thump, thud, it started to leap. Everyone present realized they couldn’t just leave it be.
They squeezed out their remaining strength.
They poured everything they had into it.
But they had already been fighting for ten days and nights. Ganikalt, who had lost half his body. They had no means to halt the heart of that shadow.
‘···There’s no way.’
The story that should have ended here.
The heroes’ tale that had to conclude with their victory over the Demon Lord and their return was not concluding. The world demanded something of them. Fill the next page. Your story cannot be finished yet.
And, Cardi suddenly understood what story had to be written on the next page. He realized what role was being demanded of him right here and now.
Having realized this.
“We have to escape.”
Cardi shouted.
“We need to retreat from here. We’ll be swept away otherwise. Let’s fall back first, then···.”
He reached out to Gleria.
To Ganikalt, who was exhaling harsh breaths, to the Black Dragon, who was trying to swallow the shadow with its worn-out claws and teeth.
“We must promise our next step···.”
Though he reached out.
Cardi ultimately could not grasp them. Cardi himself also understood why. He was the one who always spoke with unwavering conviction, with unshakeable faith. But how was it now?
His voice was trembling.
He lacked confidence in his own words.
Well, that’s because it was something that contradicted his beliefs. Knowing the contradiction, he still wished for it. Why did he wish for that?
···Because he had realized it.
Cardi understood the role that was being demanded of him in this place. It was a sacrifice. However, it was a sacrifice far removed from nobility. What would be written alongside that sacrifice in the next chapter of their story would be words that should never be given to those heroes who devoted everything for the world.
“Let’s run away from here, let’s···.”
Yet, he was about to say they should escape from this place.
“···You know, Armiel.”
Cardi was aware.
“That it’s not possible.”
That his companions wouldn’t run away.
Cardi looked straight ahead. Before him, Gleria was smiling bitterly. She softly pushed away Cardi’s extended hand.
“There is a way, right?”
“···No.”
“‘No’ means there is, doesn’t it?”
Cardi bit his lip.
Tragically, a way to stop it came to Cardi’s mind. The method he couldn’t bring himself to speak of. Gleria placed her hand on Cardi’s shoulder. She looked directly at him.
“Armiel.”
A gentle voice. A warm smile.
Cardi looked at her with trembling eyes. He saw Ganikalt looking back at him, the gaze of Belial remained unchanged even after turning into a dragon.
Though they said nothing.
In their eyes, Cardi eventually spoke.
“···It’s what the last queen of Arcadia did.”
To become the vessel that holds the shadow.
Devoting oneself to bind the vessel.
After hearing Cardi’s explanation, Gleria replied briefly.
“I’m glad. That there’s a way to save.”
Cardi’s gaze faltered.
He looked at Gleria standing before him. Her eyes seemed to have already made a decision. Cardi gripped her shoulder tightly.
“Don’t say something insane, Gleria.”
Cardi yelled.
“Didn’t you hear me? It will become a calamity. Don’t you remember what our wise, noble queen became? The shadow gnaws at the human mind. It alters forms and crushes beliefs. The moment you embrace it···.”
Cardi spoke in a trembling voice.
“You will become a calamity. Not a hero, but a calamity, an enemy of humanity. You will cease to be who you are.”
You will massacre countless humans with your own hands.
You will commit many sins.
You will be remembered not as heroes, but as calamities.
“Still, you know.”
In response to Cardi’s shouts, Gleria merely smiled. Beautifully. And cruelly.
“You can save us, can’t you?”
Cardi fell silent.
Gleria opened her mouth.
“The moment that shadow overflows, just like then, half of the continent will be engulfed. The whole world will turn into a Phantom Territory. We all know what happens then···”
They had come from beyond the Phantom Territory.
They had seen the land consumed and ruined by the Phantom Territory countless times, seen the powerless people falling apart. They had reached this place to save those helpless beings.
“Many people will die. Perhaps, humanity could face total extinction. That must never happen.”
“But···.”
“That, we must prevent.”
And then she said,
“If there’s a way to save, to ignore it would be a grave error. At least that’s what I’ve learned.”
Gleria smiled sadly.
“I will bear it.”
“I’ll join you.”
Ganikalt, gripping the sword he had dropped, said.
He let out a long breath and smiled.
“You can’t carry it all alone. So share it. If we bear it together, it might feel a little lighter.”
Slowly, very slowly, the Black Dragon bent its head beside Ganikalt. Having no mana left to unleash even a previous spell, it conveyed through its eyes: I will join too.
They turned their heads to look at the shadow.
Walking away from Cardi, they stepped towards the shadow.
“Wait, just a moment···.”
Cardi moved toward them. He was about to speak, to say that he would shoulder it too, to not leave him behind when.
“Armiel.”
Gleria turned to look back.
“Will you stay behind for us?”
“What do you mean···.”
“We plan to make a contract from now on. Not just to hold the shadow, but to impose constraints on ourselves as well. We will likely have to sacrifice a lot.”
Not just a lot, but everything.
Cardi, well aware of what such a contract entails. Even without an explanation, he had realized what they would have to sacrifice.
“We might be forgotten by everyone.”
“That is···.”
“Perhaps no one will remember us, our journey might be erased. But if we can save, then it’s fine···.”
Gleria smiled grimly.
“But I would like for someone to remember. Our stories··· the contract we made, I wish someone would acknowledge it.”
So, she said.
“Will you take on the contract?”
It was a cruel request.
Such a brutally cruel request, but Cardi couldn’t refuse it. Someone had to maintain and uphold this contract. And having realized that the suitable role was that of the Mage himself.
“I’m sorry, Armiel.”
Gleria smiled painfully.
With a bittersweet smile, she turned away from Cardi, stepping toward the shadow. Her steps trembled just slightly.
Filled with fear, yet she walked toward the shadow.
“I wish for salvation until the very end.”
She cried out.
“A miracle.”
She sliced her arm to serve as a medium for the contract.
In the overflowing Starlight, they began to forge the contract. Cardi, unable to approach or step back, watched them.
“This is my choice.”
“It is my choice.”
[Even if I have turned into a beast, this is my choice.]
The Star questioned them.
They wished for the contract of their own volition.
“To live in the fleeting moments of humanity, we promise the next. Because there is much we cannot achieve with our short lives, we promise the next, for we are just the same.”
Next, they declared.
“Until the moment the heroes of later generations emerge, we will devote everything to bind the shadow.”
Again, they added.
“But we cannot simply hand this down to the future.”
Ganikalt smiled sadly.
“I will sacrifice. My soul. My life. My flesh. All the paths I have walked.”
Everyone echoed the same words.
“We can never灭绝 humanity. When humanity creates its last sanctuary, we can never reach that place. We must not be where the starlight touches.”
They stated.
“Fulfill the contract.”
The Starlight enveloped them.
The shadow swallowed them whole. As light and darkness intertwined, Gleria glanced back at Cardi. She opened her mouth, but her voice did not reach Cardi.
Only her gaze reached him.
That gaze was trembling.
Gleria was shaking with fear. Terrified that she would cease to be herself. Cardi had seen such a look in her eyes before.
“I’m scared sometimes.”
“I fear taking the wrong path. That I might follow a different road. I fear believing that the wrong path is the right one. Am I on the right path?”
The Gleria who had seen much, who had experienced much and suffered in the Phantom Territory. He recalled her sitting by a campfire, hugging her knees, muttering those words. Back then, what had he said?
Crack.
Cardi bit down hard.
His clenched fingers dug into his palm, drawing blood. At this moment, what he felt was powerlessness. Amidst the powerlessness, he squeezed out a voice.
“I promise.”
Watching Gleria being swallowed.
Gazing at the companions there, Cardi shouted.
“I promise. I swear. I will definitely, definitely save you. Whether it takes ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years···.”
No matter how long it takes.
“I will save you. I will hold onto you.”
I will stand in your way.
I will not let your sacrifice be in vain.
[To an elf, that’s just a fleeting moment in time.]
Recalling his usual mutterings, speaking that line while behaving bravado, Cardi forced a smile.
“I am an elf.”
The elf who wished to be human spoke.
“I live eternally, I am an elf.”
Cardi smiled at Gleria.
At that awkward smile, that bravado, Gleria couldn’t help but chuckle softly. That smile was the last thing Gleria saw before she was completely consumed by the shadow.
Her vision was covered in darkness.
As the shadow seeped in, it felt cold and dark.
1.
Her vision turned completely white.
The light that seeped in was warm.
Gleria smiled faintly as she was gently enveloped by the light. It felt comfortable. Such a comfortable death. Perhaps the praise from those that come after is this comforting death.
‘Really···.’
So kind, those who come after.
Despite committing so many sins, despite having taken so much from those who came after, they called her a hero until the very end. They told her that her life and sacrifice were of value.
In just a few sentences.
A sentence anyone could say, but it was a phrase spoken by someone who had never reached such a place, and Gleria found salvation in it.
‘Ah···.’
She looked back on her life.
The path that had shone brightly became twisted and ruined the moment it was swallowed by darkness. A path stained with blood and corpses, a path resonating with foul odors stretched out long.
However, the place where she stood now wasn’t like that. The path she stood on was bright. It was the right path.
The saint, who had lived to save the powerless, became a calamity. The apostate, who had sought to destroy everything believing in only his own beliefs, became a saint once more. Gleria Bel Armias, having returned to her original self at the end of the path, closed her eyes. Thus, she welcomed her own death.
No, she was about to.
“······.”
Though her eyes were closed, life did not end.
The apostate slowly opened her eyes.
What she saw was neither heaven nor hell. What entered her sight was a low hill. A hill with a warm breeze blowing. It was a memory from long ago.
···A hill where she had often played with that person.
On a fine day, in the warm sunlight, on a rainy day, on a day when the leaves crunched underfoot, on a day when snow fell thick, just on all days she had made excuses to drag that person along.
“I have work piling up. I can’t.”
“Aren’t you tired of going there? I’ve prepared a lunch, come with me? You really are a bother···.”
Grumbling yet unable to refuse, she had dragged that person there. Gleria slowly raised her body. Lacking strength, she could not stand, so she leaned against a tree on the hill.
Why am I here?
This place should have burned down that day···.
It was at that moment an audible thud was heard from somewhere. Gleria slowly turned her head toward the source of the sound.
“Ah···.”
Gleria sighed.
She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly. Is this an illusion? Am I dreaming? If it’s a dream, I don’t want to wake up. In that fleeting moment, countless thoughts flew through her mind.
Thud.
And then, the footsteps halted.
Gleria looked up at someone who had stopped in front of her. The figure she had so longed to meet stood there.
“Gleria.”
Cardi van Armiel spoke.
“I’m sorry. I took too long.”
