The Reborn Power of the West (End)
"What? You met the White Tiger?"
I nodded, confirming her words.
She stared at me, startled by my sudden announcement.
I gave a wry smile at her reaction, but I couldn't exactly blame her for it. The Four Divine Beasts are the only gods who lead this continent and stand against the Four Perils. Without them, there would be no continent, and no successors either. If they hadn't existed, humanity would likely have been reduced to the demons' slaves, hunted like beasts.
So when the guardians of such a continent summon a mortal they've granted their power to, it can only mean one thing — danger has come to the land, or it has fallen into a situation dire enough to warrant it.
The White Tiger had called upon me to protect the new White Tiger successor and to become her teacher, which meant the situation really was as dangerous as I'd feared. If Sitchurin stepped out into society now, the hyenas would tear her apart piece by piece, and in the end, there was a very real chance they would take her heart as well.
Call it a leap of logic if you like. But seeing how demons normally behave like humans, whispering and egging people on to betray mankind, there was no telling when or where they might set their sights on her.
Sitchurin needed to be equipped with the wisdom to make sound choices, and the resolve to stand by them.
"But... Hyeon, you're the Azure Dragon's successor. Why would the White Tiger ask to see you?"
From her reaction, it wasn't that she disbelieved me — it was simply that everything had changed so abruptly, so fast, that she was struggling to keep up. The moment she woke up, her boyfriend was going on about some girl he'd supposedly been talking to, then that same girl complained of a splitting headache and collapsed right in front of her. And on top of all that, I'd suddenly announced that I'd gone to meet the White Tiger. From her perspective, there was plenty to be shocked about.
Honestly, if she hadn't already known that I was incapable of that kind of lie, she probably would have tilted her head and refused to believe a word of it.
First things first — I needed to tell Ellie the truth about the war, which she'd missed entirely since she was unconscious when it happened.
I told Ellie everything. Starting with how, after we brought down Florence, the Four Perils had appeared. How Taowu had managed to possess his severed body. And what exactly set the successors of the Four Perils apart from the successors of the Four Divine Beasts.
Ellie nodded along as she listened.
"That's a relief. So the Divine Beasts grant their successors' powers from the start precisely so that people can hold the line?"
"Yeah. That's why they can bestow successor-grade traits on young children."
In cases like mine and Sitchurin's, where the trait manifests only after the body has grown considerably, pain comes with it. Accepting their power means reshaping the body to match it, so agony is simply the natural price. And that pain is something no one can help with. Handle it wrong, and the power the Divine Beast bestowed could turn and reject its bearer — which is why no one, not ever, intervenes when Trait Pain strikes. The most anyone can do is offer a painkiller to dull the worst of it.
Which meant all we could do was trust Sitchurin and wait.
"Uuuugh...! Daddy...!"
Even as she whimpered in pain like that.
All we could do was pray she endured it.
After that, I told her about Topaz's death and the extent of the damage we'd suffered.
"We did repel the demons and the Perils' successors, but our losses were heavy too."
"Wait — Sir Topaz fell in battle?"
Ellie grabbed my sleeve, unable to believe her ears. I closed my eyes and bowed my head.
"By the time we arrived, it was already too late. He drew the attention of countless demons with his unorthodox command, and thanks to him the walls held. But..."
"No... that can't be... He was the commander of the Empire's knight order, before I was given command."
"What?"
Topaz was that accomplished?
Thanks to the nature of the game — which never revealed a character's backstory — Topaz had been nothing more to me than a skilled swordsman, roughly Ellie's equal with a blade...
This might have been the first time I'd ever seen Ellie react this way.
She steadied her breathing and continued.
"He was my predecessor as knight commander, so I can say with confidence that his swordsmanship was a level above mine. I actually trained under him for a while."
He'd even been her teacher?
That made this far more serious...
At that level, Topaz had been nothing short of the Crystal Territory's deterrent.
Ellie's current realm, in game terms, was Sword Expert — a swordsman capable of skillfully wielding blade energy against her enemies. But with her own testimony that Topaz stood a step above her, he must have long since surpassed Sword Expert, and it seemed quite likely he'd been a Sword Master.
Losing a Sword Master is a heavy blow for humanity's side.
This was serious indeed...
Starting at Sword Master, one can unleash a unique color of mana — Sword Flame — from the blade. The color varies from person to person: blue, red, yellow, all manner of hues.
And on this continent, Sword Masters were a dying breed. At best, there was the Sword Saint of Dong, a nation distant from the Holy Empire, and a knight named Richard, known as the Sword of the Fallen Old Empire. That was the extent of those who had reached that realm.
In other words — with a Sword Master fallen in this country, if a crisis struck, there would be no one to draw upon save the successors.
Feeling a headache coming on, Ellie and I moved somewhere else to figure out our plan for the future. Sitchurin, for her part, seemed a little better than before — her pained cries had quieted somewhat.
When I told Ellie that this girl was Topaz's one and only daughter, she stroked the girl's hair and gazed down at her with sorrow.
"Let's go. We have our own duties to attend to."
At my words, Ellie pulled her gaze away from Sitchurin and looked at me.
"Right. I know."
Clutching at the dead would not bring them back. It falls to the living to forge the path toward a better life — nothing more, nothing less.
Ellie and I fell to discussing reconstruction and countermeasures, and before we knew it, night had fallen. She and I worked without rest, digging up ways to rebuild the Crystal Territory, yet not a single one of our ideas could be called effective or efficient.
Of them all, the manpower problem was the biggest.
Even without walls, a single strong fighter could hold a territory. But the situation as it stood was this: not only did we lack a strong guardian to hold the walls, even the walls themselves — the only thing that could reassure the territory's people — lay half-ruined. Gerald had quickly ordered reconstruction, but walls don't simply spring up the moment you command it.
Which meant, in the end, that someone would have to step forward and protect this territory.
We racked our brains back and forth, and still found no other way through.
The fact that Ellie was even here was remarkable in itself. For the lord of Cumul Territory to rush across the land in a single stride, all to aid another territory, was an extraordinary thing. Her standing was that of my contractor, yes — but before that, she was the lord of Cumul Territory, the easternmost frontline. Even if I stayed here, she would have to return east.
If she did, the west would be covered — but the east would be left empty, an absurd irony. After all, just because the west had been invaded didn't mean the east was guaranteed safety.
Either way, we were caught in much the same dilemma.
"Haah. This is giving me a headache..."
"Tell me about it."
There was simply no solution our own heads could produce.
Just as we were about to take a break —
It was slight. Very, very slight.
But the temperature in the room dropped.
"Ellie, how's the temperature in here to you?"
"Hm? Temperature? It feels fine...?"
The season was early summer, spring tipping into summer. Naturally, it should have been hot, if anything — not cold. But it wasn't as though I felt chilled, exactly...
Maybe I'd imagined what I sensed a moment ago.
Just as I was telling myself that —
In an instant, a wave of cold swallowed the entire room.
"Ngh!"
Startled awake by the sudden phenomenon, she shivered violently in her thin clothes.
"Blaze!"
- Yes, my lord!
Blaze answered my call at once, quick to heed the summon. With his help, I pushed warmth around Ellie and me, meeting the strange phenomenon head-on. I could feel the heat wrap around us, holding our body temperature steady.
A cold deep enough to make even me shudder roamed the room.
"What... what on earth is this?"
Ellie turned to me with the question, but I was seeing this for the first time myself. I'd never witnessed such a phenomenon even in the game...
I briefly wondered if it was the work of demons or the demonkin, but I shook my head. If it had been their doing, my instincts would have flagged it long before now.
But there was no such reaction — my instincts stayed silent. So it wasn't demons or demonkin.
Which left only one possibility.
Before I realized it, I was walking across a floor glazed with a thin film of ice. Blaze's protection only worked for those close to him, and I'd left him at Ellie's side — so I was receiving none of his warmth.
The thin ice crackled and splintered beneath each of my steps. The freezing air bit into my flesh from head to toe.
And as I drew near the bed, that sensation peaked.
Then I saw her — Sitchurin, curled up atop the bed, hugging her knees in fear, weeping.
"......*hic*..."
"Sitchurin."
"Sir Successor?"
Everything had happened in the blink of an eye, and it seemed she was just as shocked as anyone — she could do nothing but tremble and cry. Most likely, ever since her Trait Pain ended, she simply couldn't control the power she'd gained.
"I... I don't know what to do...! The cold wind won't stop...! I want it to stop, but... I can't make it stop...!"
Calming her down came first — she was staring at me, begging me to fix this.
"It's okay. No one's hurt, so you can breathe. Just calm down."
"I'm... I'm scared, I'm scared! Someone...! Please, help me...!"
The cold bursting out of her own body unbidden had driven her all the way to panic. If the temperature dropped any further, not only would I struggle to hold out — Sitchurin would collapse from exhaustion.
I lowered myself onto one knee, bringing my eyes level with hers. To meet the gaze of the girl who had covered her eyes in panic, I called her name.
"Sitchurin. It's okay. Open your eyes. Don't be afraid. It's coming out in a rush because it's the first time you've ever held this power — so don't worry. All right?"
Perhaps my words were the trigger — Sitchurin looked up at me with tear-soaked eyes and nodded once.
I quickly raised my palm before her, stirring the Authority of Purification to life.
- Hmmmm...!
A small orb of white light rose above my hand, stealing her gaze entirely.
"Raise your hand like I'm doing."
"Huh...? Okay..."
To the girl whose voice wavered with uncertainty, I began explaining, step by careful step.
Sure, I had the power to drive out all this cold myself — but I couldn't spend forever holding her hand through every loss of control. My role was to guide her until she could manage it alone.
"Take a slow, deep breath. Now — when you look at a scene like this, what do you feel?"
It may have been an answer she never expected to give. Even so, Sitchurin trusted me and drew out exactly what was in her mind.
"Cold... ice...?"
Yes. In that case.
"Now, imagine drawing that cold ice out onto your hand, and open your palm."
"Okay."
She steeled herself, stretched out her arm, and spread her palm — and something sky-blue began to take shape above it, little by little.
"Focus. It's fine if you fail. You can do this."
"...Nnngh..."
"There you go. That's it. Take a deep breath."
"*Inhale*... *whew*... *inhale*..."
"Good."
Now the ice, shaped exactly as she imagined it, had formed upon her palm.
"Open your eyes."
When she did, a snowflake-shaped piece of ice was resting in her right palm, so cold that a white mist of frost was blooming off its surface.
Which was only natural.
That was no ordinary ice.
It was a manifestation of the White Tiger's Authority itself — the Authority of Snow and Ice, given physical form.
Manifesting an Authority is no small feat, yet she had managed it on her very first try. A genuine relief.
Now came the second task — gathering back the cold that filled the room.
"Now, imagine pulling all that cold air into the ice — draw it in, every last wisp."
At my words she hurried to gather the frost into the ice, but it refused to obey her, spreading further instead.
"Don't rush."
At my words she steadied herself once more, and once more drew the cold toward her. The chill, concentrated into a single point, began to coalesce — and as it faded away, the room's temperature climbed back up with it.
And when every last trace of cold had vanished from the room —
the ice in Sitchurin's hands was no longer one piece. There were two.
"Whew..."
That had been far too close.
The Divine Beasts do not interfere with their successors' traits. Even if it's a power they themselves bestowed mere moments before. Speak generously, and you could call it protection — leaving us to grow on our own. Speak bluntly, and it borders on negligence.
And yet, when the White Tiger met me, it had shown clear affection for Sitchurin, so it seemed to cherish its successor well enough. Whether that held true for the White Tiger alone or for all the Divine Beasts, I couldn't say...
I'd never once cleared the game, after all — I didn't even know what the Divine Beasts looked like.
At any rate, once everything had settled, I turned my eyes to Sitchurin —
and found she had changed, in appearance as well as within.
Her black hair had transformed into the opposite shade entirely. It was a white much like Kahn's, yet threaded through with hints of blue — a bluish-white now crowning her head. And I could see, faintly, that her pupils had split vertically.
The blessing in all this was that she hadn't lost her father's golden eyes. If anything, they'd only grown a touch brighter — the color itself remained her own.
Incidentally —
"Are you all right?"
Before I could speak, Ellie — who had set Blaze on her own shoulder — asked Sitchurin how she was feeling. Sitchurin looked up at her, and the moment she saw Ellie's blue eyes, she scrambled to her feet to face her properly.
"W—waah...!!"
Oh, right.
Sitchurin was the girl who'd idolized Ellie, wasn't she.
Of course she'd be thrilled to see her hero standing there, healthy and whole, asking if she was all right.
Caught off guard by the reaction, Ellie could only stand there flustered, a question mark apparently filling her mind from corner to corner.
Even so, Sitchurin pushed her own feelings aside to apologize first — for the harm she might have caused. Even if it hadn't been under her control, she had very nearly hurt Ellie, and that much was true.
"I'm so sorry... the cold suddenly... I could feel it surging through my whole body, and something felt so wrong that I tried to shake it off, and then... everything around me was frozen..."
As she apologized, Ellie stroked her hair.
"It's fine. This big brother here protected me, so I wasn't hurt at all. What about you, Hyeon? Nothing injured?"
I nodded.
"I'm fine."
"Good. Still, you'll need to practice using your Authority, won't you?"
At Ellie's words, Sitchurin seemed gladdened by them — a smile bloomed across her face as she nodded.
"It frightens me... but I'll try. Because you've told me I can, my lady..."
To the girl clinging to that stiff word — my lady — Ellie answered with a smile.
"Don't be so formal with me. You can just call me big sister. A successor outranks me by title, after all. Or should I be the one using honorifics, Lady Sitchurin?"
By invoking the word successor herself, Ellie was acknowledging her — letting her know that now that Sitchurin had displayed the power of an Authority before her, there was no need for any formal Proof. And perhaps to put her at ease, she was teasing her a little besides.
Naturally, Sitchurin showed no immunity to this kind of joke — and indeed, she had none — so Ellie's teasing left her utterly flustered.
"N—no! I'll just... call you big sister...! That's all right, isn't it...?"
To her words, Ellie replied with a radiant smile.
"Of course. Big sister it is."
And at those words, Sitchurin smiled — and promptly collapsed to the floor.
White hair scattered through the air as she toppled earthward.
Ellie, who was right beside her, pressed her fingers to the artery in her neck, worried something was wrong — but there was nothing. Her breathing was even and steady, a perfectly normal rhythm.
"I suppose she was just tired."
At my words, Ellie looked down and finally realized the girl was fast asleep.
She had wielded her Authority widely for the very first time — unleashed it, then drawn it all back in. It was no wonder she was worn out. When I first used the Authority of Purification myself, it was only after every battle of the Tide of Corruption had ended, in a desperate moment when Ellie's life hung in the balance — I'd used it without a wink of sleep. Had circumstances been otherwise, I'd have passed out on the spot.
And Sitchurin's power had run so wild she couldn't even suppress it. Collapse from exhaustion was only to be expected.
When I asked Ellie, on top of that, why she was being so kind to Sitchurin,
Ellie said:
"Because she's Sir Topaz's daughter. If this is how I can repay the man who taught me how to survive on the battlefield, then I'm glad to."
"And... from what I saw earlier, she seems like a little sister to me."
"It'd be nice to have a big sister like you, Ellie, huh?"
At my words, Ellie kept stroking Sitchurin's hair, then said,
"Flattery won't get you anything, you know!"
She huffed and grumbled as she said it — but somehow, a smile had found its way onto her face anyway.