Outside the pitch-dark window, a bright white flash was followed by a dazzling red light.
"...!"
Verdandi, who was spending a pleasant time with her sisters Urd and Skuld, jumped up.
"That light..."
As Verdandi urgently tried to leave the oak palace, Skuld grabbed her collar.
"Where are you going, sister!"
"..."
"You're leaving me again? Are you planning to abandon us all again?"
Verdandi turned her trembling head. She saw Skuld, who was on the verge of tears, and Urd, who wore a complicated expression.
"Don't go, sister. You promised to stay with us...""..."
Slowly turning back, Verdandi knelt down and met Skuld's gaze.
In the kindest voice possible, she spoke to her sister.
"I'll tell you what will happen, Skuld."
"Huh?"
To the puzzled Skuld, Verdandi recited the cruel truth in order.
"I will leave, and the war situation will worsen. Eventually, the Elf Kingdom's army will be defeated, and here in the palace, Urd will fight to the end without surrendering... and perish."
As she spoke of her sister's end, Verdandi bit her lip hard.
"And Skuld, you will be forcibly made queen... leading the survivors, you will leave this homeland and be forced to relocate to an autonomous district. For a hundred years, you will endure all sorts of humiliation and disgrace while leading our race."
"..."
"And in the end, on the front lines fighting for the world... you will save people at the cost of your life, and then you will die."
Blood flowed from her bitten lips. Tears fell from Verdandi's eyes as she recalled her sister's end.
"Urd died to protect the honor of our race, and Skuld, you died to protect its future."
"..."
"With a noble heart I can't even imagine, knowing you would die... you still walked that path."
Verdandi looked around the peaceful and cozy oak palace interior of those times.
"If I stay in the dream of this place, I would be happy. But I can't undo what happened just to ease my own mind."
"..."
"Such lies would insult you, sister, and you, Skuld..."
Weeping, Verdandi hugged Urd and Skuld tightly.
"I love you, I love you, I truly love you both. That's why... I have to go."
"...Verdandi."
In silence, Urd slowly took off her crown and handed it to Skuld.
Skuld received it and... holding it in both hands, respectfully handed it to Verdandi.
"Take it."
Following Urd's soft whisper, Skuld smiled brightly and raised the crown.
"Now it's yours, sister!"
"But, I..."
"You are worthy, sister."
Urd also smiled gently.
"You just proved it. That you can bear its weight."
"..."
"Take care, Verdandi. For our sake too..."
Be happy.
With their whispers, Verdandi accepted the crown and slowly placed it on her head.
With disgrace, humiliation, glory, honor, and-
With the lives of the sisters embedded in it. That crown.
The last surviving member of the royal family of the Elves, the second daughter of the World Tree, Verdandi, smiled. She smiled with a tear-streaked face.
Then she turned around and placed her hand on the closed door.
***
"You promised to play with me today!"
Kellison burst into tears, shouting at Kellibey's back as he tried to leave the cave.
"It's always like this, Dad! Always, always! You abandon the family and go off to do your own thing!"
"..."
"What is the Golden Bough? The wish of our race? The kingdom's future? Always talking about things I don't understand! Chasing after dreams like illusions, going farther and farther away...!"
Kellibey tightly shut his mouth. Kellison yelled.
"Is that stuff more important than our family... more important than me?"
"Dad has something he must do."
Kellibey gripped the cave entrance firmly with his rough hand.
"But know this... there's nothing in this world more important than you."
"..."
"The day will come when you understand this contradiction too, my pebble."
At that moment, the voice from behind changed.
"...No, Dad."
Surprised, Kellibey turned around to see that Kellison had already grown up and was there.
The Dwarf King scratched the back of his head with a bitter smile on his lips.
"The truth is, I already understand."
"When I was young, I couldn't understand Dad's actions, but as I grew older... I naturally came to understand."
Kellison continued, feeling awkward.
"Why Dad was so self-righteous, why he was so single-minded, why he always kept everything to himself without telling us anything... As I became an adult and took on the responsibility of many people, I came to understand."
Tears filled Kellibey's eyes.
"...This must be a dream I made up, right? An illusion I created to ease my mind before your death?"
"Haha. Maybe so. Because you are a coward."
Kellison, laughing heartily, approached with long strides.
"But then again, who knows. It might also be the unspoken small sincerity of a cowardly adult son who grew up swallowing words instead of expressing them."
Kellison handed a small key to Kellibey. It was the key to lock the entrance of the small cave.
The next moment, when Kellibey raised his head, the door in front of him was no longer the entrance to the cave.
It had become the royal family's treasure vault, sealed with a golden door, and the key in Kellibey's hand had transformed into a golden key that could open that vault.
"Take it."
At Kellison's words, Kellibey, with a hollow laugh, grasped the golden key with his thick fingers.
"A father passing on the throne to his son, how pathetic."
"Indeed, you were the worst father, but the best blacksmith and the best miner..."
Kellison lightly patted his father's back.
"You were always my hero."
"..."
"Go, Dad."
Kellison motioned with his chin.
"If there's a hole to be drilled in the sky, we Dwarves can't miss it, can we?"
After closing his tear-filled eyes tightly once.
Kellibey smiled broadly, lifted his beard, and quickly inserted the key into the lock on the door.
***
The ivory tower was burning.
All the old books, all the research papers, and various artifacts were turning to ash.
And, so were the young wizards who filled the ivory tower.
Standing quietly with tears in their eyes, their robes catching fire, they gathered in the lobby of the ivory tower.
"That's how wizards are."
Dearmudin, realizing this was a nightmare, immediately recognized where he was by the light outside.
To snap himself out of it, he set fire to the place without blinking an eye.
"All those who were smarter than me, more talented than me, more virtuous than me... all those young lives always perished before me."
Dearmudin looked at his burning disciples.
He saw all those young lives that left this world before him.
The phantoms of those pitiful and regrettable children, whose names and faces he had never once forgotten even in dreams, were flickering.
"But what an old man like me must do is not to regret."
Shedding tears of blood, Dearmudin turned his back. He reached for the closed door, leaving the burning interior of the ivory tower behind.
"For the sake of the children who will follow, record, research, pave the way, and lay the foundation."
Building a bridge with blood and life, continuing the knowledge and research.
"That's the work of a wizard, that's the work of a scholar, that's..."
Holding onto the melting front door of the ivory tower, enduring the pain of burns, Dearmudin muttered as if spitting blood.
"...the history of humanity."
And, as Dearmudin tried to open the door and go outside.
"Everyone, attention-!"
The children in the flames shouted in unison.
"Salute to the master-!"
Snap-!
The young wizards saluted the grand wizard in unison.
"Move towards a great tomorrow, Grand Wizard!"
"Towards a great tomorrow!"
"Towards a great tomorrow-!"
"..."
Dearmudin wiped away the tears of blood on his wrinkled face with his hand.
Then, as dignified and cool as possible, he turned around and with the best voice he could muster, he said.
"See you in the great tomorrow, foundations of history."
And Dearmudin grabbed the door of the ivory tower engulfed in flames and swung it open with all his might.
***
Inside the temple corridor. In front of the statue of the goddess.
Torkel quietly prayed. Margarita sat next to him, holding his hand, praying together.
After a while, Torkel finished his prayer. Margarita smiled and asked.
"What did you pray for today?"
"It was simple."
Torkel slowly exhaled, opening his closed eyes.
"I prayed for the original sunlight to return to my sunny land, Crossroad."
And then, Torkel slowly stood up and walked out of the corridor.
Kneeling in front of the statue of the goddess, Margarita asked.
"Where are you going, Torkel?"
"To where I need to be."
Torkel took a deep breath.
"The final struggle isn't over yet."
Margarita asked worriedly.
"Does it hurt?"
"It does."
"Is it painful?"
"It is."
Torkel clenched his fist.
"But it's okay. Because on that day, you prayed with me."
"...Torkel."
As Torkel's back grew distant, Margarita asked in a somewhat relieved tone.
"What expression is your goddess wearing now?"
At that question.
Instead of looking up at the statue of the goddess, Torkel turned around and gave Margarita a faint smile.
And he answered.
"Now I don't need to check every little thing."
With that, Margarita also smiled.
Torkel left the corridor, walked down the hallway, and headed towards the main entrance of the temple.
His once clear skin was now covered with leprosy, and his previously light body was weighed down with heavy armor.
A helmet, worn to hide his hideous face, covered his vision as he put it on his head.
Bearing the weight of his life with joy, Torkel murmured.
"Now, it's just right, heavy enough."
As he picked up the broom next to the main door, it transformed into a giant shield in his left arm.
Torkel opened the door with strength and stepped outside the temple.
And then- he was on the deck of the airship La Mancha.
Surrounded by darkness, with black tentacles gleaming with wicked gazes, in the midst of a swirling abyss.
Covered in blood, Emperor Traha was gasping for breath, and Verdandi, Kellibey, and Dearmudin stood guard, radiating their auras and glaring ahead.
"Hoo."
Taking a deep breath,
"Let's go-!"
Torkel roared, and in response, La Mancha gathered the last fuel in its rear thruster and burst into flames.
While Torkel blocked the swarming tentacles from all sides, Verdandi, Kellibey, and Dearmudin unleashed dazzling attacks forward.
The ever-emerging veils of darkness were slashed, pierced, and burned. Cutting through the layers of darkness, La Mancha soared upward, upward, upward.
And then-
***
Lucas did not hesitate.
Between the summer of memories with loved ones and the cold, harsh winter of betrayal. He did not hesitate for a moment.
Clang-
Lucas opened the door.
The assassination squad from outside winter rushed into the summer garden.
Screams and shouts, sounds of flesh and blood splattering echoed from inside the garden. But Lucas did not look back even once.
With an emotionless face, he only stepped forward to escape the garden.
It was then. Someone blocked Lucas's path.
"You always regretted it!"
It was Lucas himself as a child.
The foolish and immature self who had opened the winter garden on the night of betrayal. The young Lucas cried out.
"You ruined everything! Because of you, Empress Dustia died, and Prince Ash was broken!"
"..."
"You can still fix it. It's still possible. Close that door now. And go back to the summer garden, to those happy times..."
Young Lucas, trying to say something more, had to stop.
Crack!
The real Lucas grabbed the young Lucas by the neck with his left hand and lifted him into the air.
"Ugh, what is this-"
"Get lost."
With eyes flickering blue, Lucas glared at his younger self...
No, at his old regret.
"I overcame an old guilt like you a long time ago."
"...!"
"No matter how hideous and terrible, this is the result of my choice. This is my life, and this is my banner."
Turning his back on the blood-soaked summer garden, Lucas gritted his teeth.
"All those scars and regrets... eventually brought me here."
Lucas looked down at the tattered black flag tied to his left arm.
He recalled the words his lord had said when tying the flag.
- Don't forget what we were looking at.
To save the world.
For this absurd goal, Ash had run forward, and Lucas had always stood in front of him.
Knowing that this path was drawn with his lord's blood and tears.
He couldn't turn back just because of his regret.
"With my own will, I pave the way for my lord."
Snarling fiercely, Lucas took a step outside the garden.
"Do you think there's room for regret to creep in...!"
"...Haha."
Then, the young Lucas laughed thinly.
"This, I really have to admit..."
And as Lucas's steps left the summer garden and reached the snowstorm outside winter.
The surroundings transformed into the deck of La Mancha.
And in Lucas's left hand, instead of the young Lucas, was the cursed sword Excannibal.
Gooooo...!
Ahead of the airship, a thick and powerful darkness, exuding a more malevolent aura than any darkness they had pierced through so far, came surging in.
It was the final, ultimate veil of the swamp of darkness.
Taat-!
Without hesitation, Lucas dashed forward. He ran along the deck, as if flying towards the edge of the ship.
Everyone on the blood-soaked deck, who had been clearing veils and fending off darkness from all sides, watched Lucas.
"Sir Knight!"
"Lucas!"
"Sir Lucas!"
"Go-!"
Everyone shouted in unison. Lucas gritted his teeth and sprinted forward with all his strength.
"Slash it-!"
At this moment, the cursed sword in Lucas's left hand began to vibrate wildly.
Once wielded by the fallen king Fandragona, when he was known as the knight king.
This sinister sword, blackened by his regrets and guilt, was...
Swish!
It shed the crimson filth that had covered its hilt to blade, revealing its original beautiful form.
From the cursed sword Excannibal,
To the holy sword Bestowed Sword-
The [Excannibal] in Lucas's left hand and the [Bestowed Sword] in his right hand both emitted a blinding light.
"Step aside, night."
Lucas, having run to the edge of the deck, put his soul into swinging the two longswords with all his might.
"The lord is passing-!"
Flash-!
A cross-shaped sword strike was brilliantly etched above the surging darkness.
And in the next moment,
Crash-!
The night, which seemed never to end, was torn apart.
The final darkness, whose thickness was unimaginable, was shredded in a single strike.
The Veil of Darkness that had covered the sky all over the world swept away, revealing the sky above.
As La Mancha soared through the endless swamp of darkness, the sun scattered its radiant and warm light.
It was the dawn sunlight they thought they would never see again.
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at /MattReading