Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Bellamir Ru Elodie
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“Weird feeling.”
A sense of liberation.
Elation.
…My chest swells with an inexplicable fullness.
The delusion that I could achieve anything.
An infinity that makes me feel like I could shatter any wall and press forward.
“Really… weird.”
It’s just the presence or absence of a single mask.
I merely shed that shell.
Yet a person’s mood… can change this much.
“…….”
Right now, without a single lie.
Without donning any mask.
I stand upon reality solely as the existence that is “me.”
That was…
An utterly unfamiliar sensation… and perhaps, one of profound freedom.
[ ! ]
[ Please equip 【Mask of Silence】! ]
Ding.
Ding ding.
The message floating at the edge of my vision crudely yanked me back to reality.
“…Got it. I said I got it.”
In this space called reality, just once…
That fleeting instant of liberation.
Even that short moment is not permitted…
The system warns that even that much is “dangerous.”
- Zzzt…
Purple cracks spread from my fingertips.
Bone-piercing pain radiates to my shoulders.
“…I know.”
That these messages aren’t mere coercion…
That they’re advice for my sake.
The bare minimum line to keep me alive.
Swish.
I raise my hand.
…A body covered in purple cracks, slowly crumbling.
“…Is there no such thing as a miracle?”
Miracles had come to me before.
They definitely had.
Once, twice… no, perhaps countless times.
Those few miracles ruin a person, and that handful of luck breeds forgetfulness.
“…Hilarious.”
I let out a quiet laugh.
Even as my chest throbs and my body crumbles in agony…
The corners of my mouth lifted.
“Arrogant…”
Humans are such arrogant creatures.
As if they’ve entrusted a miracle somewhere.
Demanding yet another as if it’s their due.
Cursing the heavens, blaming fate.
Even… pitying themselves.
“First…”
I lifted my head.
I pulled my gaze from the abyss it had been falling toward and looked up at the sky.
The blue sky had already vanished, and the red moon was now half-swallowed by the abyss’s shadow.
And…
Beneath that moonlight.
The witch, holding a white mask in her hand, leaning against her throne.
Bellamir was gazing at me.
“Hand that back first.”
I have no idea how she stole 【Bound】 equipment from my inventory.
Or how she nullified a “Myth” grade unique skill…
Or whether she used the authority of a “Calamity.”
…Honestly, none of that mattered.
“I need it…”
As always.
I needed that thing.
Even if I couldn’t speak, couldn’t show emotions.
…Even if I had to hide the existence that is “me.”
“…It still hurts right now.”
With the mask unequipped, the 【Magic Power Suppression】 had also released.
The magic power surging inside me…
Was rampaging at a speed I could no longer contain.
- Zzt… zzzt…
It had been over five minutes since Leviathan manifested in reality.
The price for exceeding the limit.
Paid in magic power, and in turn, my body was crumbling even faster.
And…
“Hand it… back?”
Bellamir lifted her head, clutching my mask.
“You who stole everything from me… what right do you have to demand it back…?”
Gurgle…
Fallen spirits rise from beneath her feet.
Dozens, hundreds?
…No, far too many to count.
Trailing the red moon’s shadow, blackened spirits rise in response to the witch’s rage.
──────!!!
And at the forefront of those spirits.
Beneath the throne, the massive dragon-shaped spirit that had bowed its head…
Roars.
Its cry shakes the space.
It even makes the other spirits tremble.
But… strangely.
That roar failed to shake my heart.
“Really weird feeling…”
Heaven above heaven, earth below earth, I alone reign supreme.
As someone once said, a sensation as if I alone exist under these heavens.
This arrogant emotion feels so natural…
So utterly alien.
“It feels like I’m no longer myself.”
The boundary of “me” blurs…
The consciousness of “existence” swims through the abyss.
Even so…
I had to move.
“…With every first step, remember.”
Why am I here.
Why do I set foot once more upon this abyss.
“…To survive.”
I fight solely…
To live.
That’s all.
“…With every second step, reaffirm.”
Fight for yourself.
Fight for those who watched over you.
“…With every third step, do not grieve.”
Failure is always by my side.
I’ve fallen before, had moments of ruin…
But I won’t kneel crushed beneath them.
“…With every fourth step, even if you wail.”
If you want to cry, cry.
Tears can be hidden behind the mask.
“…With every fifth step, rise again and walk.”
Even drenched in blood.
Even gasping on the verge of death…
I rise again.
“…With every sixth step, know it won’t end.”
This path… has no end.
Cannot end.
Because all the meaning of the path walked thus far…
Cannot be rendered meaningless.
“…With every seventh step, vow never to give up.”
If…
There truly is a god.
If the system watching over me…
If the one calling itself the law of causality can claim to be divine.
And…
If that causality can permit the name of miracle…
“I swear.”
Please…
Let the existence that is “me” not sink into the abyss.
Not fade away.
So, miracle…
Please, one more time.
Right here, right now, do not turn away from me.
***
“It’s been a while since we fought together, huh, Adel?”
“You’re smiling even in a moment like this.”
“Hm…?”
Klaus suddenly sensed something off.
He had spoken first, sure…
But he hadn’t expected Adel’s usual response.
And yet.
“…Huh?”
A reply… came back?
Not on the whiteboard like always…
But in plain… language.
“Come to think of it…”
Klaus slowly raised his head.
And…
He couldn’t look away.
The mask… was gone.
The white mask that always covered Adel’s face…
Was nowhere to be seen now.
“Hmm…?”
For a moment, bewilderment crossed his mind.
Could it be… the silence and the mask…
Were just a concept?
But… the bigger issue was…
“…….”
Mouth, nose, eyes…
Clearly a human face.
Yet for some reason, Klaus… lost his words.
An absurd situation, but even more absurd was…
That face.
“Wow…”
That face couldn’t be described as merely beautiful or handsome…
It was something closer to sanctity… a perfected something.
If a god meticulously crafted a human, infusing the essence of all beauty…
And the result transcended “perfect” and “pure”…
It would be a face just like Adel’s now.
But… no time to bask in that impression.
“Why… why…!!”
The witch Bellamir screamed in fury.
She tore at her own body, clawed at it, heedless of the blood flowing.
“Why, why, why…!!”
A dream she’d waited for so long.
A dream that seemed within reach, right before her.
“Why now, of all times―”
She’d called desperately, cried out desperately…
Yet when it finally fell into her grasp, the dream coldly turned away.
“I kept calling and calling…”
─“Elodie, we must dream.”
─“Princess, what’s a dream?”
“Why do you all… always…”
Who created the nightmare called the “witch”?
This world.
Humans.
“Always… deny me?”
─“W-Witch! It’s a witch…!!”
─“S-Spare me…!!!”
“You’re the ones who made me like this.”
─“Elodie… you are our nightmare.”
─“Step aside… Princess… no, witch. Or I’ll cut you down.”
“…Why now do you try to erase me?”
She was aware she was a nightmare.
But… that nightmare wasn’t one she created herself.
“Why are dreams permitted only to you…?”
Red shadows spread from her toes.
In the darkness flowing like blood, thousands of spirits writhe.
They wept together.
Screaming, writhing in agony.
“…Hey, what’s suddenly up with her?”
Klaus tilted his head and asked.
Adel, watching from beside him, replied indifferently.
“No idea.”
Yeah.
No idea.
I knew nothing.
Why the one called witch, Bellamir, screamed in such pain.
Why she wailed.
No one knew.
***
- Zzzt…
【Leviathan】 coils around my hand.
I regulate the mana… threads of mana flow from my fingertips, wrapping one by one around my fingers.
“Ugh… there’s a ton.”
Beside me, Klaus fussed amid thousands of spirits.
…To him with the “Light” attribute, they weren’t much of a threat anyway.
“It’s wrong… all wrong…”
Even amid that, Bellamir wailed, trapped in her own world.
And…
Slither.
A massive body approaches my side.
Leviathan.
Thud.
I quietly placed my hand on its scales.
【That one strong.】
Leviathan slightly turned its head, pointing to the spirit prostrated at Bellamir’s feet.
If Leviathan was an Eastern dragon… that was its Western counterpart.
“So… you think you’ll lose?”
【Ridiculous.】
Leviathan scoffed.
As expected of a being called a “dragon,” its confidence pierced the heavens.
“Adel.”
“…….”
“Go first?”
The moment Klaus called me, he shot forward faster than light.
───────!!!
In an instant…
The path before me cleared straight ahead.
Spirits vanished into the radiance, and at the end, the dragon rose.
“Levi.”
【….】
“Hold them.”
【…Got it. Master.】
───────!!
Roars shaking space from two dragons.
Two beings born differently bare their claws at each other.
Step.
I walked silently down the path they opened.
With one hand regulating not mana, but the surging magic power.
- Zzt… zzzt…
Each time I handled the magic power, my body crumbled further.
Cracks spread to my shoulders…
But it was fine.
This level of pain was nothing anymore.
“…….”
I don’t know how to handle magic power.
But mana and magic power differ by one character.
So… the handling might be similar.
Even if wrong, it doesn’t matter.
A wrong path would simply become my own.
“…….”
With one hand dragging 【Leviathan】, I drew a stroke in empty air with the other.
And… from between my lips echoed the 【Incantation】 for spell activation.
“Sea (海).”
The first stroke etched in air bloomed purple into a character.
In that instant, pitch-black darkness… the abyss churned into a sea.
Black waves endlessly swallowed the world.
Swish.
Second stroke.
Connecting to the first, a reddish sky churned and linked.
“Heaven (天).”
The red-tinged sky connected to the sea.
Entwined as one, heaven and sea shattered the world’s boundaries.
Third stroke.
“Overturn (覆).”
───────!!!
The world flipped.
Heaven became sea.
Sea became heaven, heavens and earth capsizing in spectacle.
Fourth stroke.
“Waves (浪).”
The overturned heaven surged as massive waves, devouring clouds in crashing billows.
Final.
Fifth stroke.
“Spear (槍).”
Whoosh…
Raindrops poured.
But… each falling drop turned to spears, piercing heaven and sea, skewering foes.
“Water (水).”
《Abyss / Supreme Magic》
「Azure Heavens Pouring Water (靑天落水)」
───────!!
In the capsized world, sea and heaven entwined into waves.
Falling raindrops became spears, piercing all enemies.
Swish!
I moved toward Bellamir.
However…
- Boom!!
The dragon-shaped spirit abandoned its clash with Leviathan and charged me.
As its massive claw loomed…
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Red Thread: Guidance】
You guide fate.
Fate begins from your fingertips.
The red thread stretches toward the bound one, in your direction alone.
: The ‘Bound’ offers absolute fate to the ‘Guide.’
: The ‘Guide’ can summon the ‘Bound’ at any time.
: The ‘Guide’ can go to the ‘Bound’s side at any time.
No one knows what that thread connects to.
It could be love, hatred, friendship, or a curse.
But one thing is certain…
At the end of that thread, you were always there.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
A red thread coiled around my wrist, fate pulling us together.
“NyaAaAah…!!”
Following the thread of fate, Neru appeared before me, blocking the dragon’s claw.
Boom! The ground split, and I seized the gap to step closer to Bellamir.
“Ah…”
Only then did the witch raise her head to meet my eyes.
…I know.
The “witch” Bellamir is nothing without her spirits.
A “Calamity” classified as black, unworthy even of the name.
“…….”
To such a her, I aimed 【Leviathan】.
[ Unique skill 【Devourer of Calamities】 can be used. ]
Stab…!
The blade tip pierced her chest.
And at its end…
“Ahh…….”
The woman called witch… shed tears.
──────!!!
The unique skill 【Devourer of Calamities】 is the power to “understand” calamities.
Thus, as the user, I had to understand the calamity.
“…….”
Why can’t calamities be understood.
Because they’re defined as “evil” from birth.
Or… because they’re born solely for destruction.
“…No idea.”
In the end, I couldn’t know.
But if only I could understand them…
[ Using 【Devourer of Calamities】. ]
If I understand them…
Does that mean I must bear their end as well.
…No idea there either.
“…But.”
If only I can understand you…
Then you must understand me too.
Me, who bears the fate of slaying you.
[ Piercing the essence of 「Witch」 Bellamir───
[ … … … ]
Zzzt─!
[ ! ]
[ Piercing the essence of 「Witch of the Fallen Kingdom」 Bellamir Ru Elodie! ]
Cracks began spiderwebbing across the blazing red moon.
And soon…
────!!
The red moon shattered like glass, the sky crumbling as fragments scattered.
The world… finally regained its original light.
