“Let the healing begin.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you ready?”
“Ready? Where do you think I’ve been? I’ve fought with wounds, torn apart, and even got a hole in my stomach. I can handle just about any pain…”
Thud.
“KYAAAHHHH!”
In the heart of Alkeia, where the dark clouds cleared and sunlight poured down, human screams echoed. The shrieks of humans, in agony, filled the area.
“Bones! Bones! Bones! Hah, HAHAHAAAH!”
“Hold still. I need to move this over here…”
“NATIDA, wait, wait! Just let me breathe…”
“Stay still. Resti, can you hold this part? Chloe, grab her legs too.”
“Like this?”
“Yes. Hold tight.”
“No, wait! This hurts more than I expected…”
Thud, thud, thud!
“KYAAAAAHHHHH!”
Resti grabbed Raniel’s thrashing arm while Chloe held her legs tightly. Through her blurry vision, Raniel looked at Resti who was holding her arm.
“Resti, if you let go of this…”
“Just a little longer. Hold on.”
Resti forced a smile and reached out.
She covered Raniel’s mouth with her palm. Right after, Natida’s divine power enveloped Raniel’s body. The real healing had begun.
“I wish I could treat you gently, but as you know, my divine magic has some serious backlash. And time is of the essence, so… please bear with me just a little longer.”
With a wry smile, Natida snapped her fingers.
Particles of light flickered white. The divine power that seeped into Raniel’s body began to accelerate and aid her inherent regenerative abilities, quickly healing her wounds…
“Ugh, cough, huff…”
The pain that accompanied such miraculous healing was no small feat. Raniel’s eyes rolled back. Her body, which had been twitching briefly, slumped down. Thud, and finally, her consciousness faded away.
*
“HUH!”
I jolted up.
It felt like I had a horrible nightmare. Or maybe I saw something flicker past me. Cold sweat trickled down my spine and clung to my clothes, making me feel uncomfortable.
“Oh, you’re awake?”
Startled by the voice, I shivered.
“I’ve stopped the urgent bleeding. How does your body feel?”
Natida was smiling warmly.
I trembled as I looked at her.
“Natida.”
“Yes, you called?”
“Do you, uh, have any grievances against me?”
“No, none at all.”
Looking at her with suspicion, she opened her mouth with a bitter smile, explaining my condition.
“I managed to stop the immediate bleeding, but the part of your eye and the lost finger cannot be healed. You could say it feels like something is blocking them.”
“It’s right that they can’t be healed. It might take a while for them to recover, if ever.”
I exhaled deeply.
“Thanks, Natida. I owe you one.”
“That’s what I’m here for. I’ll go check on the others, so please rest.”
As Natida walked away, I began to assess my condition. The flow of mana was all tangled up, and my body was a mess. The worst was my fingers and my eye. This was a price I had to pay, so I probably couldn’t recover right away.
‘That aside…’
I glanced around.
Chloe was resting with her head leaning on Belnoa’s shoulder, Lac was sprawled out on the floor, and Resti was leaning back against a pillar’s debris. I could also see Remia in the distance, organizing arrows.
Looking up at the sky, I saw the gaping hole slowly closing. Bathed in the pouring sunlight, I muttered.
“It’s over.”
It was over. The annihilation of Alkeia, the suppression of the Gletus, it all had ended. I took out an artifact from my pocket. An artifact that detects survival signals of the raid team members.
The unseen Kalt, Karioth, Kelharlem, and Destel were all safe.
The only signal that wasn’t blinking was that of the Sword Demon, Draka. It was the result I expected. From the beginning of the suppression, Draka had seen this place as a stage where he would cast aside his life.
…In the final moments, did he achieve what he aimed for? What did he feel at the end? While in such thought, I exhaled deeply.
‘There were many variables, and unexpected losses too, but…’
Regardless, the suppression had come to an end.
It didn’t deviate greatly from the originally planned outcome. However, I still couldn’t let my guard down. Slowly, I turned my head to see the distorted space in the center of the shrine.
…Still, Cardi had not come back.
I slowly stood up.
Ignoring Natida’s advice to not move and to rest, I spoke up. I still had a few things to process.
“First, let’s go outside and regroup with Kalt. I think I should stay here a bit longer.”
Everyone looked at me with worried eyes.
They probably felt uneasy about leaving me behind to face whatever was happening here. So I clarified further.
“When that grumpy elf returns from that space, I think having you all around might just make him act all high and mighty again. So let’s clear the area.”
So I could exist for a moment as ‘Cardi’ rather than the grand hero, Cardi van Armiel.
After saying this, that seemed to set the raid team in motion. As I watched them move away from the center of the shrine, I turned my gaze slightly to the side.
“Aren’t you going?”
“…Don’t you have something to say to me?”
The Ear Girl—no, Remia was looking at me with sharp eyes. Why now?
“It’s three times. I saved you three times.”
With an air of triumph, Remia shrugged. As if she was trying to strongly assert that she had been the one to help this time.
“Once when the black pillar was falling, again when you charged at the Gletus, and finally when you missed and pushed away that Gletus. Three times! Remember it!”
Watching her overly confident face made me feel quite sour, but I couldn’t deny the fact.
“Well… thanks. It really helped.”
“Yup. That’s all that matters.”
Remia smiled.
“I’ll slowly pay back the remaining debt, so wait for me.”
With those words, Remia turned away and walked away from me. As I stared at her back following the leading raid team, I couldn’t help but smile wryly.
“She’s changed a lot.”
Through trials, through loss, Remia had transformed. It wasn’t just her. My disciples I’d raised, that Kyle guy too, and even I had changed.
No human remains unchanged.
How long did it take to realize that fact? I turned away, smiling wryly, gazing at the shimmering space. Everyone had changed. Perhaps even that elf, who had endured for a thousand years, could change too.
…To be honest, I was a little worried.
The Ashen Goddess from the future had said.
When the Gletus was suppressed, Cardi fell silent for three days before taking his life. She warned me to avoid such an ending. I couldn’t take that advice lightly.
Because it was a reality that had occurred, and it was the time she had experienced. And I had the obligation and responsibility to walk a different path from her.
So I tried. So I sought the answer.
As a result, the time she lived and the time I was living had already diverged in many ways. In this changed world, I was confident Cardi wouldn’t meet the same fate, yet I still couldn’t shake off the unease completely.
“………”
I silently waited for Cardi.
How much time had passed? The still space began to crack, and the shimmering area started to collapse, revealing a hole.
Flick.
From where the crumbling space turned to dust, footsteps could be heard. A light, resonant sound of steps. Soon, Cardi appeared. Checking the surroundings, he confirmed it was just me and smiled sadly.
“Were you waiting, Raniel?”
“Well, kind of.”
“Whatever,” Cardi sighed and walked slowly towards me. Unlike his usual self, he had a light stride. Relaxed and comfortable, he took a seat on a pile of stones.
“Not a bad view.”
He murmured as he looked up at the closing sky. Sitting beside Cardi, I gazed at the same scene he did.
“It’s about the opening sky. The truth that mages pursue.”
“Right. I once pursued something like that too.”
Now, it doesn’t really matter.
Saying that, Cardi smiled.
“Seems you were worried. That I might have died or something.”
“Honestly, yeah. The future me told me that when the Gletus was defeated, you killed yourself.”
“I probably felt there was no reason to live.”
Cardi exhaled deeply.
“I was clinging to a thousand years of life, pushing through for her. When she died, I lost meaning in living. The value of life must have seemed infinitely worthless.”
“And now?”
“Well, now…”
A brief silence.
Then, suddenly, Cardi chuckled softly.
It was a lighthearted laugh.
“Now I have to find a reason. In the bitter end, she freed me from my bonds.”
“Bonds?”
“She finally started calling me Cardi.”
Not Cardi van Armiel, but just Cardi.
“The name Armiel was a curse to me. A curse and a shackle that kept me as the Grand Magus. Created by none other than her. Whether she wanted it or not.”
But, Cardi continued.
“Now, I can let go of this name. Without regret.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed. It feels light, yet hollow. I finally achieved a dream I’ve desired for a thousand years.”
“It’s a time unimaginable for me.”
“Yeah. Even in an elven land, you can’t treat a thousand years lightly.”
Cardi lowered his head.
I didn’t look at him. I was merely staring at the distant sky as it crumbled. Time passed slowly, and after quite a while, Cardi spoke up.
“Raniel.”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The wind blew.
The remnants of the black cross, the shadows scattered like dust, crumbled away. Falling between those shattered pieces was warm sunlight.
What was meant to end, ended.
What was to begin, began.
The time of a certain mage, frozen for a thousand years, started to flow again. The history of humanity that had been tormented by the Gletus for a thousand years also took a step forward.
“Let’s go, Raniel.”
Cardi stood up.
“You and I have much to do.”
It was neither the look of someone dying, nor that of someone despairing over a life devoid of value.
“You’re not planning on dying, are you?”
“Well, she told me to live, so I should. But if I make a lover, she might come after me right away, you know.”
It was a look of someone who wanted to live again.
At Cardi’s jest, I smiled bitterly.
“That better be a joke.”
“Can’t be a joke. She might really come back from the afterlife.”
“There’s a possibility. Hey, considering you’ve got that deep-rooted character in your soul, isn’t that dangerous? Lately, Chloe seems a bit dangerous too.”
“…Sadly, I can’t deny that.”
Laughing, we moved forward.
Leaving behind the collapsing, crumbling shrine, moving ahead. To what’s next. Again, towards the next thing.