Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Farewell
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The spirit of chaos burned away desperately in search of its lost master.
Krash let out a small breath.
'It's way weaker than I thought.'
The spirit of chaos, which could only be harmed by skills, had been a headache for the Generation of the Sky.
The reason it had been able to wipe out an entire city back then was largely due to the lack of such skills.
That was why Ignis, which turned aura itself into a skill, was by far the most advantageous matchup against the spirit of chaos, no matter what anyone said.
Yet Krash, having dispatched the spirit of chaos far more easily than expected, showed a hint of puzzlement.
He had figured it would punch a few holes through him at least.
'...Was the spirit of chaos actually getting somewhat purified in the Spirit King's forest after all?'
Krash took note of how much weaker the spirit of chaos had been than anticipated.
Crimson Garden's decision to release it into the Spirit King's forest might have been a smart move.
'Come to think of it, the spirit of chaos only turned into a real monster because so many events piled up.'
There were several reasons why the spirit of chaos had grown uncontrollably strong.
From the cabal of mages who dabbled in the even more dangerous spirit amplification magic than spirit magic itself.
To the world spiraling into chaos from rampant wars and World Erosion outbreaks at their worst, causing the Spirit King's forest to proliferate wildly, allowing the spirit of chaos to devour that chaos.
It had become an uncontrollable monster in a shockingly short time compared to when it merely wandered the Spirit King's forest after the death of the primordial spirit user.
'Good thing I caught it now.'
Having sorted his thoughts, Krash panted as he raised his hand.
It wasn't regenerating now, burned by Ignis's flames, but the spirit of chaos's real problem was its regenerative power.
No matter how much damage you inflicted, it would eventually restore itself around the core given enough time.
To finish off the spirit of chaos, the core had to be destroyed.
The problem was that normal attacks couldn't destroy it.
'Black Hood.'
That was why Krash immediately activated Black Hood.
A pitch-black, round sphere formed heavily in his grasp along with the power gathering in his hand.
The moment the core was in Krash's hand, the black liquid composing the spirit of chaos began slithering toward him.
He had used the same method before to defeat the spirit of chaos, so smashing the core now would kill it.
Krash's eyes fixed on the core.
Inside the core, a writhing black darkness stared back at him.
This core was a mass of pure malice, saturated with too much World Erosion power to be used anywhere.
Before, he had destroyed it immediately upon acquisition.
But Krash had another option.
'In the end, its origin is World Erosion.'
Which meant he could absorb it with Extreme Blood Poison Infusion.
"Crimson Garden."
Hearing Krash's call, Crimson Garden stepped out from between the ruins of the collapsed black wall.
"Get ready to say your goodbyes."
Krash immediately devoured the World Erosion contained within the core.
That was the moment.
Krash raised his head, feeling the sunlight above.
What unfolded before his eyes was a sight he had never seen.
A peaceful meadow.
A boy was spending joyful time in the shade of a massive tree with a girl who glowed emerald.
「Agni, how's this? Nice and cool, right?」
The girl summoned a breeze to cool the face of the reclining Agni.
Agni's hair fluttered gently with the breeze, drawing a smile from him.
「It's more ticklish, actually.」
「What? If it's ticklish, then how about this!」
The girl then reached out and started tickling Agni wildly.
Caught off guard by her surprise attack, Agni burst into laughter and soon pulled her close, tickling her back.
Beyond those happy moments, the two went through countless events together.
Sometimes saving people as heroes, other times praised as the creators of spirit magic.
But time marched on relentlessly, and before long, the boy had become an old man.
Unlike the aged boy-turned-man beside her, the girl remained unchanged.
Before a dying campfire.
The elderly Agni slowly closed his wrinkled eyes.
「E, ri.」
「Yes, Agni? I'm right here. Did you call me?」
「Sorry. Looks like my time isn't infinite like yours.」
A spirit sustained by World Erosion's power.
A human bound by the lifespan of flesh.
Their timelines could never align.
「I wanted to show you so much more. My world couldn't grow as vast as yours...」
「Agni?」
「Eri.」
Agni called Eri's name with great effort.
He could no longer open his closed eyes.
「My time... was happy because of you.」
The boy who dreamed of the world as a spirit user had become an old man at the end of his lifespan.
At that final edge, the old man wished.
May his happiness reach her.
May she not grieve after he was gone.
With that wish's end, Agni breathed his last.
「Agni? Are you sleeping?」
The girl innocently called to Agni.
She didn't understand the death of living beings.
So she thought, as always, that Agni had simply fallen asleep.
From that day on, the girl stayed by Agni's side every day.
Calling his name as he slept peacefully, counting the days until he awoke.
「Agni, it's cold today. You might catch a cold.」
Sometimes she blew warm winds and covered him with a blanket.
And brewed the cocoa he loved, placing it on his table, waiting for him to smell its sweetness and open his eyes.
「Agni, it's summer now. You can hear the cicadas outside. The daughter of Delon next door, who was just born not long ago, is getting married. Time flies, doesn't it.」
Sometimes she cooled him with chilly breezes and placed watermelons she'd procured somewhere on his table.
Because it was peak season for the watermelons he always loved for their refreshing taste.
And spring, summer, autumn, winter.
Time flowed on once more.
Every day, the girl stayed by Agni's side, sharing stories of the day's events, helping him sleep soundly.
The girl waited for him all along.
Waiting and waiting.
But Agni's body gradually turned to bones, and he never opened his eyes.
「Agni, I'm getting tired now. I want to talk with you again, Agni.」
The girl missed the days of conversing with him.
She missed his smiling face, his sometimes sad expressions, and even the days he got angry.
「Agni.」
She missed him terribly.
「I miss you so much, Agni.」
She didn't want to believe it, but the girl realized.
That her master would never open his eyes again.
And that this was farewell.
On the day the skeletal remains crumbled, the girl's heart crumbled with it.
The first farewell for a spirit who knew nothing of parting was an unbearable reality.
In a world without the boy, there was no place for the girl.
「A, gni.」
The girl was swallowed by chaos, yearning for the boy to the very end.
Krash's eyes slowly opened.
What he saw was a pure white sphere.
As he gazed at the spotless sphere devoid of any darkness, the image of a girl appeared before Krash's eyes.
Her emerald hair had faded completely, and more than half her face had crumbled, making her features hard to discern.
Yet the emotion on that face was clear.
Resignation and acceptance, mingled together.
The girl smiled faintly at Krash and Crimson Garden approaching beside him.
Crimson Garden removed her breathing mask and walked forward.
"...I'm sorry. I thought I shouldn't interfere since this was your parting with the two of you. But sometimes, farewells need someone to soothe them."
With that, she reached out and embraced the girl.
She believed the girl would accept the farewell and depart.
Since Crimson Garden could no longer see the world once her host died.
Yet the feelings she held for Agni were stronger than expected, leading the girl to ruin.
Looking after her after Agni's passing might have been her responsibility.
Crimson Garden felt deep remorse for failing to see it through to the end.
Within that embrace, the girl slowly faded away.
Turning to specks of light in Crimson Garden's arms—which carried the same aura as Agni—and ascending into the sky.
Krash looked up at the rising light particles.
Hoping, at the very least, that they would reach the one she had longed for so desperately.
After carefully pocketing the sphere, Krash and Crimson Garden left the Spirit King's forest.
The soldiers saluted her and expressed their thanks for her hard work; Crimson Garden responded appropriately.
As Krash walked beside such a Crimson Garden, he glanced at her and asked,
"You okay?"
Krash had only glimpsed fragments of the spirit Eri's memories while absorbing the World Erosion.
But it was different for Crimson Garden.
She had seen and experienced the world through Agni's eyes directly.
That was probably why she couldn't bring herself to end Eri despite being able to.
"I'm fine."
Crimson Garden exhaled once as she spoke.
"That's just how immortality works."
Crimson Garden was an immortal who had lived far longer than Eri.
Krash couldn't even fathom how long her life had been.
He only knew it was far too long.
She must have endured countless farewells.
And witnessed the deaths of the species she cherished, lamenting each time.
Yet she created another species.
Because that was the only way she could see the world.
An infinite life repeated endless farewells with those bound by finite ones.
Perhaps that was why Crimson Garden so desperately wanted to shed her immortality—to avoid more such partings.
"I'll take your immortality from you."
So Krash turned to Crimson Garden and said.
Seeing that, she let out an incredulous laugh for a moment and raised her hand.
A crow flew in and perched on her hand.
"Right. For that alone, I need to make you stronger."
To break free from immortality's chains, Crimson Garden needed to make Krash stronger.
That was the only way to end it.
Mirsis placed the crow on Krash's shoulder, bowed her head, and departed.
"I have to."
Krash pulled out the sphere from his pocket.
It was none other than the Spirit King's egg.
The core that emerges when a spirit is destroyed and dies.
That was precisely the Spirit King's egg.
Thanks to Krash absorbing all the World Erosion power, the egg was now in a pristine state.
All that remained was finding Dorothy's core to revive her.
The problem was its location.
'...Yeomju.'
Aslan's mother and deputy head of the Egret family.
She undoubtedly had Dorothy's core.
So Krash had to steal Dorothy's core from her.
But he couldn't do it alone.
He'd get caught before even infiltrating Yeomju's chambers.
'I don't have to steal it myself.'
He just needed a comrade to steal the core for him.
And Krash already knew someone who could introduce him to such a comrade.
"I'm going to meet Lilina."
It was time to get introduced to that Aslan guy.