It sounded like the faint ringing of a tiny bell.
It also sounded like the bell that opens the dawn.
It was the guide that leads a lion toward the path of death.
And it was also the embrace of a mother who warmly holds all who grieve.
‘What is... this, exactly?’
Salesin felt doubt.
Everything felt dazed, as if floating.
A mental attack? No. It was something qualitatively different from that.
He looked at Ludger in front of him.
Ludger, whose eyes had opened wide when a blade was driven into his heart, showed no change in expression afterward.
As if time itself had stopped.
An illusion? That was not it, either. The sensation in his hand was unmistakably vivid. There was no way he could fail to distinguish that.
‘Then how, exactly...?’
Immediately, the world collapsed.
The scenery melted into a drooping smear, revealing the sight behind the curtain—the “true reality.”
And Salesin realized it.
The one who had driven the blade in was not himself, but Ludger.
Ludger’s swordstick was embedded near his heart, where black filth overflowed.
A swordstick whose handle bore a crow’s head in relief, looking luxurious at a single glance.
It was unbelievable.
“Wh–what is this...?”
Before he even had time to voice his question, Salesin’s wings vanished and his body fell limply.
Kwaang!
A cloud of dust rose as Salesin slammed into the ground.
His body still refused his will, as if he had just awakened from a dream.
While he was struggling and barely regaining sensation, just as Salesin tried to rise, a silver chain flew from somewhere.
Chwarurururuk!
The silver chain bound Salesin’s arms and legs, his neck and torso, fastening him to the ground.
“What now!”
Salesin frowned. This silver chain was no ordinary chain.
It bound the soul and prevented it from reaching the great flow.
It was a power only a necromancer could wield.
“Finally caught you.”
Setadel, who had been hiding all this time watching for this very chance, spoke while holding a lamp in one hand.
“Setadel!”
“You should know, right? That this chain is the worst possible matchup for you in your current weakened state.”
A chain that binds the soul.
Thus, what Setadel sought was the soul accumulated for a long time inside this perilous vessel.
But even Setadel could not easily retrieve or seal a soul of this caliber.
Even if it had weakened to the limit.
Crrrk! Crrrack!
As if to prove the point, the silver chains binding Salesin’s body began to creak and crack one by one.
“You damn traitor!”
More fragments near his heart fell away, widening the hole.
More black liquid overflowed.
It was an amount so great it was impossible to imagine where inside that body it had been contained.
Just then, Ludger descended slowly, black wings fluttering.
Ludger’s cold gaze looked down at Salesin.
It was a situation completely opposite from when Ludger had first faced Salesin in a prison cell.
Salesin looked up at Ludger and asked,
“What did you just do?”
Instead of answering, Ludger turned his head to the side. Salesin’s gaze naturally followed.
There stood Franz, holding a small bell dyed black in one hand.
Clara Cowen’s adopted son, and one of the Dreamwalkers.
A genius of dream magic who, if he wished, could ascend to the position of Master of the Dream School.
He who had never revealed himself until now had finally appeared.
“That is...!”
But what shocked Salesin was not Franz himself.
Salesin’s gaze was fixed on the black bell in Franz’s hand.
At first glance, it looked ordinary, but Salesin could feel the divine power emanating from it.
“A Divine Artifact! How—?”
What Franz held was one of the three Divine Artifacts possessed by Noxanna, Goddess of Night and Death.
Together with [Nursery Rhyme], it formed a matched pair—another Divine Artifact, [Lullaby].
The ability of [Lullaby] was simple.
It overlaid dreams onto reality.
Just as its name indicated, it lulled the target into sleep and let them dream a dream indistinguishable from reality.
What Salesin had thought a moment ago—killing Ludger—had also been a dream caused by the Divine Artifact.
The dream’s owner did not discriminate among people.
Even if it was a monster that had accumulated filth for over one thousand years, her compassion had embraced him.
“There is no way a Divine Artifact can be handled in the real world. Especially not by a human!”
“I’m not an ordinary human anymore.”
Golden light flickered in Franz’s eyes.
“I am the Apostle of the Goddess of Dreams, Noxanna. A human who succeeded Nirva and became the new Apostle. In a way, I’m in a situation similar to yours.”
“Noxanna’s Apostle? Even so, summoning a Divine Artifact into this reality °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° is—!”
“Yes, you’re right. That’s impossible. At least by human power.”
Franz calmly spoke the truth.
“This wasn’t summoned by me. It is the final arrangement the Goddess cast out with all the remaining power she had before she fell asleep again.”
Before the Goddess of Dreams, Noxanna, fell asleep, she shot a single force beyond the sky of Dreamland’s depths.
The identity of that was the Divine Artifact [Lullaby] now held by Franz.
“I had a hard time finding this. And since it could only be used once, I could only use it at a decisive moment. But looking at the situation now, I guess I used it well.”
The Divine Artifact [Lullaby], having expended its power with that one use, slowly disintegrated into dust and vanished.
Franz drew a longsword from his waist.
It was the first time he unsheathed it since receiving it from Suruna, yet its feel was not unfamiliar.
It was the same type of weapon he used to defeat Nirva—no, something far stronger.
A blade forged solely for this moment.
Franz’s gaze turned to the distance, to where Suruna lay collapsed in a half-corpse state.
Suruna was watching him with his single remaining eye.
“Is this... the promised day?”
Suruna did not answer. But the fierce will contained in that eye said exactly that.
Franz gripped the longsword and slowly approached Salesin.
“Your hand toyed with my actions, and I received help from you. I do not hate you, but I cannot say I like you either. Still, those emotions no longer matter.”
Thud.
Franz stopped right in front of Salesin and reversed his grip on the longsword.
“But as we agreed from the start, I will fulfill the contract. Because it is a promise.”
Puuuk!
Franz’s longsword pierced Salesin’s wound.
The blade quivered, then melted into Salesin’s body, flowing downward. Salesin’s upper body jerked violently.
The chains binding him broke one by one.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
Salesin’s eyes rolled back as veins bulged on his neck.
The energy soaking into him as the sword melted was spreading beyond his body, invading his soul.
It was a lethal poison. If he did not immediately cut off and vomit out a portion of his soul, it could all be contaminated.
Gush!
Black filth poured from Salesin’s eyes, nose, mouth, and the hole in his chest.
After regurgitating the contents for a long time, Salesin’s snow-white hair lost its shine, turning brittle, and wrinkles began to form on his face.
But Salesin’s eyes were sharper than ever.
Because of his moment of violent struggle, all the chains had come loose.
Salesin sprang to his feet and charged at Franz.
“You! You dare!”
Now that the Divine Artifact had completely vanished—this was the chance.
Franz did not retreat.
Before Salesin could feel doubt at that sight, a strange sensation traveled across his chest.
He looked down.
A disk was embedded in the hole in his chest.
On the surface of the disk, countless white letters were densely inscribed.
“Huh?”
Salesin had no choice but to spit out such words without even realizing it.
The one who embedded the disk into the chest of Salesin as he charged toward Franz was Ludger.
“Did you think there was only one Divine Artifact?”
Ludger, who Salesin had forgotten because he was so focused on Franz, took the Relic in his arms and shoved it into his chest.
Salesin staggered and backed away.
He tried to pull it out with both hands trembling violently, but pitifully, he only scratched at its surface.
The snow-white energy of the Relic began to flow along Salesin’s body.
“Aaaaarghhhh!”
Salesin felt as if his mind were turning white from the pain burning his soul.
It was the first time he had ever felt such agony. As though his brain were being seared by a branding iron, as though bugs were biting into him, as though every single cell was being torn apart.
“H–how...!”
Salesin asked with a shaking voice.
“The device you broke was the item used to activate this Relic—no, this Divine Artifact. Since you broke it, you must have judged that now you had no means left to properly run this Divine Artifact.”
That was why Salesin believed he had secured victory.
“But it seems you forgot something. Just because a device is used to handle a Divine Artifact does not mean it is the only method. Originally, all that was required was something capable of withstanding the divine power contained in the Divine Artifact.”
At those words, Salesin’s eyes widened.
Burst blood vessels filled his darkening pupils, black liquid overflowing as his eyes trembled in disbelief.
“The original vessel meant to withstand the divine power was the Gallaharrad Citadel. But as long as something can contain the divine power, anything else will do. Just like right now.”
Ludger calmly spoke a shocking truth.
To wield a Divine Artifact, one needed a vessel that could endure such power.
The first had simply been the Gallaharrad Citadel.
Now that it was destroyed, Ludger had used the second vessel—Salesin’s body.
“Gaaaaaaah!”
Salesin stretched a hand toward Ludger.
But white flames rose at the tips of his extended fingers, and they crumbled into pitch-black ash, scattering with a dry crackle.
“Save me! Spare me!”
Salesin begged.
“You know it too! With this power, you could become the god of this world!”
White flames rose all over Salesin’s body and consumed him.
It was a phenomenon caused by divine power overflowing outward.
“You and I only need to join hands! Why are you trying to give it up! We could stand above everyone, live omnipotently like gods!”
Everyone held their breath as they watched.
Ludger spoke coldly toward Salesin.
“I am human.”
“......!”
“And I will remain human.”
The flames running along Salesin’s body grew stronger and turned into something like a blazing hearth.
“No! Noooooo!”
“Do not worry. I will not let you go on your way in lonely solitude. This Divine Artifact was created for that very purpose.”
The flames grew larger and stronger.
But the flames inflicted no damage on the surroundings.
Even though they seemed ready to explode outward, they soon condensed around Salesin and turned into a snow-white sphere.
And the upper portion of the sphere cracked like an egg hatching.
A pillar of light shot straight into the sky.
The ice dome created by Marias Selmore and Clinton’s magic circle were pierced by the pillar of light and vanished in an instant.
Revealed behind them were the storm clouds.
When the pillar of light pierced through the storm clouds, the clouds tore open with a loud rip, forming a giant hole.
Beyond it, a sky of pitch-black night spread endlessly.
And the light pierced the center of that night sky.
Pa-ching!
Something shattered, and the sound rang vividly in everyone’s ears.
Ludger looked at the scene and murmured calmly.
“An arrow, meant to pierce the heart of only one being.”
The space struck by the light shattered like glass.
The being hidden beyond it revealed itself.
“W–what is that?”
“This is insane.”
“Am I dreaming right now?”
Even Casey Selmore, who prided herself on having a strong heart after experiencing all kinds of incidents, felt her legs give way at the sight before her eyes.
The pitch-black sky had cracked open, revealing a void filled with something unfathomable.
And beyond it, something enormous—its size impossible to estimate—was looking down upon them.
The pale, massive form resembled a giant gazing down upon the world.
The overwhelming presence emanating from the giant.
A dizzying feeling, as if one’s mind would twist apart just by looking at it.
There was too much information piercing through the optic nerves for the brain to handle.
Everyone instinctively realized what it was.
That was a god.
A terrifying being that transcended humanity beyond measure.
The main god, Lumensis.
The god everyone worshipped as the god of light and father—now they were looking at him with their own eyes.
But Lumensis was very different from the stories.
He did not look benevolent, nor did he feel holy.
Instead, he appeared closer to the opposite. A tyrant and destroyer who sought to rule and manipulate the world at his whim.
Beyond the broken space, Lumensis’s gaze turned toward them.
They all feared that if he simply raised his hand and struck down, the entire continent might be blown away.
At that moment, a snow-white arrow pierced the heart of Lumensis.
It happened before Lumensis could even react.
────!!!!
Light exploded.
It engulfed all of Lumensis, filled the void space, and even tore apart the darkness beyond the sky.
Clang.
Something broke.
At the same time, people felt that something which had oppressed them since birth had vanished.
As though invisible shackles or chains had fallen away.
They looked at the sky.
The pitch-black sky burned with white light, scattering beautiful powder in every direction.
Countless starlights filled the darkness where nothing had been visible.
And soon, even those starlights faded into the dawning light of morning.
“Behold.”
Everyone looked at Ludger.
Over his shoulder, the sun was rising across the horizon.
Its scarlet light spread out, forming a violet boundary between the cerulean sky and the red glow.
The sky that had shown nothing moments ago was dyed in pure, natural light.
Why was it?
It was the same ordinary sunrise they could always see, yet it felt so beautiful.
“This is what I give you.”
Ludger looked at the rising sun and spoke.
“Freedom.”