Chapter 84
Chapter 84
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: Scars Left on the World (4)
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"There's no point in testing you through Zeta anymore."
"Ho? You said you were sparing his life, but you don't think I might kill you for that?"
"In my opinion, you don't seem like the type."
"...Even knowing you're a black-hearted old bastard instead of a real kid, you think I'll go easy on you?"
Lennon’s eyes widened. He hadn’t even properly seen Azel move before a sword was at his throat. The motion had been so fast it felt like time had briefly stopped, leaving him unable to perceive the process.
Yet even in that moment, Lennon grinned and said,
"I'll take a bit of venting on the chin. As long as you don't kill me."
"......"
Azel ground his teeth.
'This guy's not bluffing.'
He could tell from Lennon's eyes. The boy was dead serious. It wasn't that he believed Azel would never do it, nor was he speaking out of calculated fear.
His eyes said it truly didn't matter to him. Even if Azel, the man they sought, lashed out in frustration, he would accept it...
In the end, Azel lowered his sword.
"What do you mean by this prophecy you keep talking about?"
"A human with Dragon Demon mana, a vessel that can hold great power, will fulfill our wish."
The prophecy was succinct.
The Prophecy Guardians' wish was the extermination of the Dragon Demon Worshippers. To achieve that alone, they had forsaken their humanity to become part of the Guardian Shadows.
Azel asked,
"A vessel that can hold great power? What does that mean?"
"We're not at the stage where we can tell you that yet. We'll probably reveal it when we've gained certainty."
"When you're sure I'm the one from the prophecy who'll finish off the Dragon Demon King?"
"Yes."
"And how will you gain that certainty?"
"We don't know."
"......"
"Even if you stare like that, it's not a lie. Truth is, we don't know that much ourselves."
"The Guardian Shadows really are a mess of an organization. I thought the Prophecy Guardians were some upper echelon that knew a lot, but apparently not."
"Not particularly. For example, we don't even know the criteria by which we were chosen as Prophecy Guardians. We were simply selected, accepted it, and from that moment, we instinctively knew and acted on what we had to do—like how a newborn naturally knows to breathe."
"What?"
Azel was dumbfounded. Lennon shrugged.
"We know the process of becoming a Guardian Shadow. But becoming a Prophecy Guardian is something else."
"Becoming a member of the Guardian Shadows... I heard the Guardian Shadows themselves choose the members."
"Ah, that's exactly the process I'm talking about."
"Huh?"
"The Guardian Shadows who select members for the Guardian Shadow organization—meaning us."
At the same time, voices like whispering children echoed, and the Guardian Shadows began to appear like ghosts. Some were small like children, others hunched like the elderly, some massive like giants, others grotesquely obese... Though they had varied silhouettes, they all shared a common otherworldly appearance as they circled around Lennon.
Lennon looked at them and revealed the secret.
"Guardian Shadows were all once human."
"These things were human?"
Azel was shocked. Perhaps he should have expected it. But he hadn't because the Guardian Shadows were so utterly alien.
Azel had seen many forms of humanity.
Magic or Spirit Order secrets could warp humans. Some turned into monsters while alive, others became Undying after death.
But none of the altered forms Azel had witnessed resembled the Guardian Shadows. They evoked wraiths without substance at times, or the Undying at others. Yet they were neither. No evil aura emanated from them; they flickered between existence and non-existence, like beings straddling this world and another.
"There was once a great mage. Well, maybe not just one, but they say it was at least one."
What Lennon described was the origin of the Guardian Shadows. Even Azel, who had witnessed countless magical secrets, miracles, and wonders during the Dragon Emperor War, couldn't comprehend how this organization had come to be.
"He opposed Dragon Demon King Atein and his worshippers, working in the shadows to thwart their manipulations of world affairs for their own ends. But no matter how great his magic, it wasn't enough to stop them."
So the great mage devised one solution.
If he couldn't do it alone, and merely forming an organization wasn't sufficient... then gather the strength of many. Just as the Dragon Demon Worshippers built their alliances through faith in the Dragon Demon King, this side needed people who would cooperate out of pure zeal to stop them, without regard for personal gain or loss.
"In other words, those with an indelible grudge against the Dragon Demon Worshippers."
But there was a problem. Ordinary people with that level of grudge against Dragon Demon Worshippers didn't survive. The worshippers were obsessed with secrecy, and the easiest way to maintain it was to eliminate witnesses.
"So he chose the dead over the living as his allies."
Thus, the great magic was completed. A colossal spell targeting every soul in the world—something other mages would dismiss as impossible.
"That magic is the Guardian Shadows."
The souls of those who died harboring an indelible grudge against the Dragon Demon Worshippers encounter the spell's essence and receive a choice: fade into the realm of the dead, or forsake the peace of death to become part of the magic and fight the worshippers until the world's end?
The Guardian Shadows were those who chose the latter.
"You expect me to believe that?"
Azel was stunned. Recalling the Dragon Emperor War, both enemies and allies had unleashed magic akin to disasters without hesitation. There were even vile miracles that turned a village of a thousand into a land of death overnight, transforming all its inhabitants into Undying vectors spreading magical plagues.
Yet even by those standards, this was absurd.
Lennon said,
"As a former mage myself, I know it sounds far-fetched. But... every mage has one dream."
To claw the world with a great secret rite, leaving an eternal scar.
It was Kallos's smug catchphrase, the ultimate aspiration of all mages.
Legend held that the Dragon Slaying Ritual and the fact that all continent-dwellers spoke the same language were results of great mages fulfilling their dreams. So why couldn't a spell like the Guardian Shadows be possible?
"Those who transcend the accumulated knowledge and techniques of magic's long history to reach an unattainable ideal—they're the ones who work such miracles. The Guardian Shadows are one such result. That's what we've been told."
"......"
Azel was speechless at Lennon's revelation of the Guardian Shadows' origin.
Meanwhile, Zares—eyes closed from afar, sharing the vision of a Guardian Shadow beside Lennon—frowned and muttered,
"I've thought it from the start... He reminds me of someone I know."
"What do you mean?"
"My memories aren't all intact, but..."
At his comrade's question, Zares dredged up his recollections.
Prophecy Guardians resembled humans but had forsaken humanity. Unaffected by time, they retained the form they held when they became Prophecy Guardians. They didn't age, fall ill, or die unless slain.
At a glance, it seemed like the fulfillment of humanity's dreams. But forsaking humanity meant abandoning its joys as well.
They were trapped by their most intense memories. The indelible grudge against the Dragon Demon Worshippers haunted their minds like a curse, refusing release. Other memories faded into hazy mists, like summer daydreams vanishing beyond the fog.
Zares was among those Prophecy Guardians who had lost the most memories.
He knew he had been a noble and retained that prideful demeanor, but he had lost his boyhood recollections forming its foundation. Now, he only knew he had a father, mother, brother, and little sister—he couldn't even recall their faces.
Thinking of them sometimes drove him mad. Memories of times spent together and cherished emotions surfaced... but their faces eluded him no matter what.
"I've seen Azel Zestringer before."
Zares frowned.
Unable to recall his dear family's faces, why did Azel’s face feel so familiar? It seemed like a mistake, but no—it persisted. From the moment his illusion first appeared before Azel, a voice had whispered within him.
'This is important. You mustn't let it slip by.'
Zares trusted such instincts. Ignoring them had never ended well.
Then another Prophecy Guardian spoke.
"For some reason, I think I know who he resembles."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"A portrait."
He too had his eyes closed, scrutinizing Azel's face.
"He looks a lot like the portrait of the hero Azel Karzark I saw once."
"A portrait?"
"Yeah. Partly because of the striking red hair and blue eyes... but his features really seem similar. Though, from what I know, the portraits of Azel Karzark vary so much in depiction that their reliability is low."
"Hm......"
As Zares frowned, a voice from his distant past—when he was still a human child—flitted through his mind.
'Zares, the world may not know, but we are a great house of noble blood. Take pride in that.'
It must have been his father. He felt like he'd heard it many times. And... he had surely loved that story.
Zares felt a throbbing headache as he focused on the memory. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall what came before or after.
"Damn it."
Frustrated, Zares ground his teeth.