“At last.”
Suruna looked toward the sky brightening with a pure white radiance and let out a faint smile.
A gentle, warm touch settled upon his forehead.
It was a familiar sensation.
“Do you remember?”
At the clear voice brushing softly past his ear, Arkenis gave a small nod.
“Every time you used to charge at me back then, I would defeat you and let you rest your head on my lap just like this.”
“You are talking about something that happened a thousand years ago.”
Suruna let out a hearty laugh as he gazed up at the sky.
“It’s over.”
“Mm.”
“The cage has been broken, and the oppressor that weighed upon this world is gone. Now this world will flow in a direction no one can predict.”
“Mm.”
“I am not sure whether that’s good or bad. Judging by the humans I’ve seen until now, things could turn for the worse. But judging by the humans I’ve seen until now, things could also turn for the better. It all depends on what those who remain choose to do.”
“Mm.”
“That Lumenis bastard. Serves him right. Pierced through the heart by the canaries in the cage he mocked so much. Blinded by greed—he never realized the Grail he prepared would become the poison that stabbed him.”
“Mm.”
“Hey, Arkenis.”
“Mm. Say it, Suruna.”
“I... I had such a hard time. While doing this insane thing, I thought about giving up hundreds, thousands of times. Was this really the right thing? Would the moment I’ve been waiting for ever come? What if it never came at all?”
“Mm.”
“On my way here, I did so many terrible things. In the past, I would have scoffed at them, but now... now I understand. I learned it—their pain, their suffering, their sorrow. And even knowing all that, I kept walking. Everyone called me crazy, but the truth is different. I knew it all along. Or maybe that’s exactly why I became insane?”
“Suruna...”
“Arkenis. I...”
Suruna’s faint voice trembled.
“Did I... do the right thing?”
That question carried everything.
A thousand years of footsteps, everything he had lived and done, melted into that single sentence.
There was no way it could have been “right.”
Even if it was all for this moment, the things Suruna had done were unforgivable to anyone.
But—
“Mm. You did well.”
Only one person.
Only Arkenis, who could truly understand Suruna.
Gently stroking Suruna’s forehead, she affirmed his life.
“You worked so hard.”
“...Ha. Haha.”
Suruna laughed.
He himself knew better than anyone that he would never be forgiven.
But in this moment, Arkenis chose to shoulder even a part of his sins and acknowledge his life.
Even knowing it was not the “right” thing to do, she accepted it willingly.
“For all the things I’ve done, I thought I’d meet a fitting end.”
The single eye Suruna had left slowly began to close.
“This... isn’t so bad.”
His trembling body sagged.
Life completely left him, and starting from the tips of his toes, his body scattered like dust.
Arkenis imprinted the last sight of Suruna into her eyes.
Until every part of him disappeared.
She continued watching.
* * *
Ludger gazed endlessly at the brightening light of dawn.
The cage had been broken. He could feel it.
Ordinary people wouldn’t sense it, but Ludger—sensitive to divine power—was different.
Through his eyes, he could see Lumenis slowly collapsing.
Beyond the cage, within the imaginary space invisible to others.
There, Lumenis lay pierced through the heart, white dust spilling from the gaping hole as he writhed in agony.
But he could not break the cage. He could only writhe in pain within that space, trembling on the brink of death.
‘At last.’
Ludger lowered his head and looked behind him.
He felt the gazes of everyone around him.
Their expressions held not the relief of a war ending, but shock from the sight they had just witnessed.
They wanted to ask Ludger.
But—
“It seems I don’t have the leisure to answer.”
As Ludger murmured that, a pillar of bluish light rose from inside the spire.
While everyone was still stunned by the sudden spectacle, the blue pillar burst like a fountain and gathered around Ludger.
Ludger deployed and recombined the bluish mana with spell formulas, drawing a complex geometric pattern.
At its end, a single gate formed.
“Now that the cage is broken, this is my only chance.”
Seeing the swirling blue gate, Ludger strode into it without hesitation.
“Wait!”
“Wh-where is he going?!”
While everyone floundered in confusion at Ludger’s sudden move, only one person reacted.
Before anyone could stop her, the girl with ash-gray hair hurled her body into the disappearing gate.
Rine.
The moment she leapt inside, the door contracted to a point and vanished.
Those left behind could only stare blankly.
* * *
Ludger walked.
No—could this truly be called walking on a “path”?
The path resembled white glass, or an ice sheet, or finely carved crystal. As he walked across it, he sank deep into thought.
At the end of this road lay the goal he had longed for all his life.
That thought vanished the instant a voice called out behind him.
“Wait!”
Ludger halted and slowly turned around.
There she was—Rine—hands on her knees, gasping for breath.
“Hah... hah... why... why are you so fast?!”
“Rine. How did you even...”
Ludger tried to ask, then recalled the nature of Rine’s mana.
“I see. Your mana is protecting you even here. That’s why you were able to chase me through this imaginary space.”
“Im–imaginary space?”
Barely catching her breath, Rine struggled to grasp Ludger’s words.
“This is the gap between dimensions. A place where nothing exists, yet everything exists. We call it an imaginary space.”
“H–here...?”
Rine looked around.
Despite the name “imaginary space,” which sounded empty and bleak, this place looked like a beautifully adorned crystal tunnel.
When she turned to the wall, countless mirrors reflected her image.
Rine stared carefully—then gasped.
Every reflection was a different version of herself.
“Wh-what is all this...?”
“That is your past. This hallway displays your entire life based on your memories.”
“Teacher—no, Heathcliff oppa. What exactly are you trying to do?”
Rine could not understand why Ludger had come here.
“There’s much to explain. Let’s walk and talk.”
Ludger resumed walking, and Rine hurried after him.
“As you know, I was the illegitimate child of the Holy Sovereign of Bretus, and the Grail arranged by Lumenis to house himself.”
Each time Ludger passed the crystalline walls, his reflection appeared like a mirror.
Multiple angles showed him in countless forms:
The Holy Sovereign’s illegitimate son—Heathcliff.
The Seorn instructor—Ludger Cherish.
The rifle-wielding mercenary—Machiavelli.
The monocled consultant—Moriarty.
The armed hunter—van Helsing.
His entire life passed by in fragments.
Rine looked on, spellbound.
‘These are the sides of Oppa I never knew.’
They passed the final fragment, and Ludger stopped.
The reflection before them was Ludger as a young boy—around seven.
“The Holy Sovereign despised me. Because I was too gifted, he resented my talent. The bloodline did too. They all tried to kill me because I offended their eyes.”
“That’s so...”
“They tried many methods. But I was blessed by the gods, so I did not die easily. One day, they took me behind the citadel under the pretext of an outing.”
Rine saw the scene reflected in the crystal wall.
A small Ludger being shoved and falling into an abandoned well.
“For days, no one came.”
He survived the fall miraculously uninjured.
But hunger—no divine blessing could ease that.
He wanted to die.
To escape pain.
Just as Ludger resigned himself to death, he found a fragment.
A tiny shard buried in the dark earth at the bottom of the well.
Ludger—entranced—picked it up.
A fragment fallen from some unknown plate.
Meaningless on its own.
But Ludger felt drawn to it.
He didn’t know why. Perhaps the whim of someone about to die.
Then, as moonlight filled the well—
The relic fragment opened a hole in the air.
The bluish opening was only the size of a hand mirror.
Too small to enter—only enough to peer through.
But through that hole, young Ludger saw another world.
And at that moment, a goal was engraved into his very soul.
Survive.
And someday—come back.
Then, as though in blessing, a golden-haired girl appeared above the well.
The memory ended there.
“Rine. Everything I have done until now was for this moment.”
Ludger walked forward.
The seemingly endless corridor reached its end.
At the end stood a blue door—just like the first gate he created.
“Changing my identity, roaming the continent, gathering relics, breaking the cage, piercing Lumenis’s heart—those were all just additional steps.”
When the Cardinal used the sacred relic on Ludger—
Ludger survived the hit unscathed for this exact reason.
His goal had never been to overturn the continent.
From the beginning until now—
He had only ever had one goal.
“And finally, I have arrived.”
Rine stepped through the final door after Ludger—and was blinded by a flash of light.
When she lowered her arm—
Her eyes widened.
Hooooooooonk!
Cars blaring their horns. Crowds of strangers. Towering skyscrapers and giant electronic billboards flashing rapidly.
“Where... where are we?”
Rine felt dizzy at this utterly foreign sight.
“My birthplace. And the place I was destined to return to.”
“...”
“Let’s go.”
Ludger started walking.
His torn clothes and wounds healed quickly under mana.
Terrified and stiff, Rine clung close to his side.
“Wow, look at that.”
“Are {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} they foreign models?”
“Her hair color is pretty.”
People passing by glanced at Ludger and Rine.
Hearing the unknown language, feeling their stares, Rine shrank—but Ludger paid no attention and walked steadily onward.
Eventually, they reached a residential district.
Then a quiet alley—and a small house.
“Wh-where is this?”
“A fortune-teller’s house. You wait here.”
Leaving Rine outside, Ludger went in.
Incense burners made of brass and various Buddha statues filled the room, with paintings hanging on the walls.
Ludger felt an indescribable sensation.
He hated this place—yet it felt familiar. And, painfully, nostalgic.
He stood before a sliding paper door deep inside.
After a deep breath, he steadying his voice.
“It’s me.”
“Come in.”
With permission granted, Ludger slid the door open and entered.
Inside sat a woman in a hanbok, appearing in her mid-thirties, staring straight at him.
The moment he saw her face, Ludger clenched his fists without realizing it.
She was slightly older than in his memories.
“Sit.”
Ludger sat and faced her.
After several minutes of silent staring—
Ludger spoke first.
“It has been a long time.”
“The fortune told me a dear guest would come today. And so it was true.”
The woman—
Ludger’s mother from his previous life, before he became Heathcliff—spoke without changing expression.
“My runaway son... what brings you home?”