The Breath of Purification
A purified blade. Golden hair. A lightly grown beard. Shattered black armor wrapped around his body. He looked exactly like the kind of young hero one might imagine growing up in a classic Western fantasy tale. Rachel's father was in a wretched state, his body covered in battle scars and exhaustion. He gasped with ragged breaths, as though he might die at any moment.
He's already lost consciousness. Immediate treatment was necessary. The only problem was that there were no means available to heal him.
Then, the image of Rachel, whom I had tied to a distant tree, flashed through my mind. What if Rachel used her power?
Splash! The moment the thought occurred to me, I covered the corpse with dirt and washed away all the blood with rainwater. After that, I shoved the unconscious man in white armor into the ground and hid him from Rachel's line of sight. Then, using my resonance, I pulled Rachel over while still wrapped in the water pouch I had created.
She looks like a baby delivered by a stork. If a bird were carrying the end of the pouch in its beak, wouldn't it look exactly like this? Rachel arrived dangling in that very form.
Rachel, who had been sobbing intensely, saw her fallen father and finally burst into tears.
"Hwaaaang!! Jonoooon!!"
Jonon? Is it the culture in this world to call one's father by name? A fleeting question crossed my mind, but it wasn't important right now. I immediately stopped Rachel as she tried to rush toward Jonon.
"Hweeeeng!!"
"Hic... Sniff. What... what do you mean...?"
Jonon's condition was horrific. His entire body was covered in cuts and punctures from swords and similar weapons. For some reason, his left arm—marked with a Rosario—had rotted away as if it were decaying. I couldn't be certain that Rachel's ability was a healing power. For all I knew, it might only work on me, or it could require complex conditions to activate.
Even so, I believed Rachel could do it. That was why I calmed the sobbing girl and guided her to unleash her power.
"What I... did first...?"
"·········."
Rachel fell silent. She stopped crying as if deep in thought, furrowed her brow, and then slowly approached Jonon. She raised her right arm and placed it near his heart. Soon, light began to emanate from the girl's arm.
****
A golden orb. The blue star had left that orb behind, and it gave Rachel warmth. That warmth had already taken root deep within her heart. The first time that warmth was released was the moment she met that being.
A great existence with sharp yet somehow weary eyes. When she fell from the cliff, the colossal one had gently caught her. Afterward, seeing the being about to leave, Rachel had called out without thinking. Then she reached out her hand toward him and thought, Please don't be in pain.
At that moment, light had bloomed. And the exhaustion in his eyes had instantly sharpened with renewed vigor. But Rachel hadn't understood what she had done. She had simply thought, I'm glad he's better now.
And now, the fallen Jonon lay before her. The one who had brought her here said that she—Rachel herself—was the only one who could save Jonon. But Rachel couldn't make sense of any of it. The fact that someone precious to her was dying was the only thing swirling chaotically through her mind.
The next moment, a gentle voice reached her.
"What I... did first...?"
Just as rain washes away dust-covered ground and leaves it clean, Rachel's heart grew calm. Following his words, she recalled the moment of their first meeting. She revisited that short but intense memory of that day, replaying the fleeting instant in her mind.
The golden orb. Her own heart. Her hand.
Rachel, sitting beside Jonon with her eyes closed, placed her hand on his chest.
You promised to play with me! Don't hurt anymore! Don't be in pain!
Then she continuously cried out in her heart the true feelings she had harbored over the two years she had wandered the world with Jonon. To Rachel, who could only form a brief connection due to certain circumstances, Jonon was her eternal companion and her parent. The five-year-old child wished with all her heart for her guardian's recovery.
And her will was answered.
****
It worked.
Light was flowing from Rachel's hand. Considering how my body had been completely healed by that momentary flash of light, this man named Jonon would surely make a full recovery soon. As if to confirm that guess, the wounds covering his body began to fade one by one.
As expected, Rachel's ability wasn't limited to simple fatigue recovery—it included physical restoration far beyond that. The puncture wounds on his thigh and chest healed rapidly, and the blood that had been pouring out stopped flowing.
However, there was one concerning detail.
The left arm isn't responding.
To be precise, the moment it received Rachel's healing, it immediately reverted to its original decayed state. It looked as if the arm was rejecting the recovery—like some kind of curse.
In most such cases, it meant the curse surpassed Rachel's power... which would mean it could never be healed.
······Should I test it while I'm at it?
Among the results I had gained from my growth over the past few days, one of the new discoveries had yet to be properly proven. To verify it, I needed a sample, but I hadn't been able to find one during the battle with the whale pod. Jonon's left arm, however, seemed like the perfect sample for testing this ability.
Instead of leaving it like this, I'll give it a try.
I began gathering the rainwater pouring from the sky. The raindrops across the area swirled as if caught in a massive vortex, merging into a giant droplet. Once I had created a sufficiently large mass of water, I breathed life into it. There was no dramatic visual change, but if my hypothesis was correct, this water would now be in a purified state.
A few days ago, I saw the seawater polluted by blood become clear during the battle.
At the time, I thought the water had simply mixed and dispersed, but after noticing how the areas touched by my breath became unnaturally clean, I began to form this theory. Perhaps my breath contained some purifying effect.
And in fantasy, purification was also the power to erase evil.
"Ugh... Huh?"
When Rachel slowly opened her eyes, her face was drenched in cold sweat. It seemed she had used up all her strength, just like I had when I first awakened my Water Resonance and collapsed from exhaustion.
"Jonooon... But..."
In the end, Rachel collapsed beside Jonon with a soft thud and fell into a deep sleep.
I drained all the moisture that had pooled beneath them, drying the ground completely, then used that water to lift Jonon into the air.
I wrapped the floating mass of water around Jonon. Soon, bubbles began to form around his left arm.
****
A Holy Scar is both an eternal sword and armor. While most people place it on the same level as a mage's circle or a swordsman's core, its power and value exist on an entirely different plane. No matter how you look at it, circles and cores are things humans can create with their own power. But a Holy Scar requires the help of a god. It is the embodiment of divine will.
That is why those who possess a Holy Scar can wield immense holy power and the strength of a god. And that is also why the side effects of losing one are beyond imagination. Emptiness, deprivation, loss, loneliness—these countless negative emotions swarm to attack the one who has had their Holy Scar taken away.
The area where the Holy Scar once resided begins to rot and decay as the price for rejecting divine will. The lost holy power and the Scar itself turn into poison that courses through the victim's entire body, devouring their life force. The price of defying a god. That was the side effect of rejecting a Holy Scar.
For the past two years, Jonon had felt that truth in his very bones. Ever since he had rejected his own Holy Scar and left the imperial palace, he had barely slept properly. The wound on his left arm tormented him endlessly, and the loss of his once-immense power left him hollow.
Even so, what had allowed Jonon to endure was the imperial princess who filled that void. His sense of duty to save her at all costs had also become the driving force that kept him moving.
But a machine without fuel eventually stops. Jonon's body, which had been forced to move despite being broken, had finally reached its limit.
This place is...
Jonon opened his eyes within a pitch-black space. It was so dark and viscous that he wondered if this was the 'realm of corruption and decay' that Justron's doctrine constantly mentioned. Instinctively, Jonon realized this was the state of his own body.
The power granted by a Holy Scar could be used in tandem with other energies. That was why Jonon had operated the core he possessed before receiving his Scar alongside it in battle. What lay before his eyes was the core residing within his body. However, due to the removal of his Holy Scar, it had rotted and decayed, unable to function properly. It was almost miraculous that he had been able to fight Justron's holy knights in this condition.
I've treated you too harshly...
Jonon felt both gratitude and guilt as he looked at the core that had obeyed its master's stubborn will until now. At the same time, he realized he was nearing death.
·········.
There were far too many regrets left behind. He couldn't focus on a single thought. If only he had at least brought the princess safely into Nuru's Forest. It was regretful. He shouldn't have stopped by that village earlier. He should have dealt with the plague sooner. Countless 'what ifs' tore through him.
But no matter how much he regretted, he could not escape death. The only thing Jonon could do was trust in the princess. He had not been completely unprepared for a death like this. That was why he had taught the princess what she 'must do' whenever he had the chance. The situation was dire, but he and the princess had always overcome similar crises together. So perhaps the princess could overcome this too. He clung to that hopeless hope.
And so, Jonon slowly closed his eyes as he watched his rotting core crumble away.
At that moment, Jonon felt something. It was warm and gentle, pure, yet at the same time cold, sharp, and chaotic. When he slowly opened his eyes, a small blue light was floating before him.
This is...
It was a faint light, but Jonon saw a glimmer of hope within it. He reached out toward that ray of light. Then, the small light burst forth and began to engulf his dark world. It was like water filling a polluted room.
Yes—this was water!
That simple realization was enough to awaken Jonon's fading mind. The water, carrying intent, began to wash away the corruption from his tainted core. The sense of loss from the Holy Scar, which had clung to him like rust that would never come off, began to melt away.
For the first time in two years, Jonon felt a sense of fullness filling his heart. Even after the rust on his core had been completely washed away, the blue light did not disappear. Instead, it settled into his broken core.
Jonon stared blankly at the light, then quietly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he awoke inside the cabin.