The Guardian Star and the Final Sin (5)

At last, we reached the fifth peak.

I had already warned Ellie and Yeon that Bret would be waiting on the fifth peak, so as they climbed, a quiet tension crept into their bodies, tightening with every step.

Not far up the mountainside, a vast cavern yawned open before us, welcoming us as though it had been waiting all along. But to me it felt less like a welcome and more like a colossal monster spreading its maw wide to swallow us whole.

Still, if we didn't go in, we would never hear the truth from the man who had forced those nightmares on Ellie and Yeon — never learn why he had done any of this. So, step by step, we set foot inside.

Just like the third trap, countless torches studded the walls. They greeted our arrival, bathing the cavern in bright light. And then they appeared — a horde of demonic beasts and demons beyond counting. Only the fact that our entrance sat on high ground seemed to have kept us undiscovered so far.

Until—

= Kieeeeeeek!! =

They had been lurking in darkness, and the sudden flood of light had sent their keen senses into overdrive. Their aggression and ferocity, in other words, had effectively doubled — if not more.

With the Status Window's message, the final trap he had dug began in earnest. The number of enemies was nothing short of staggering — it made the den that had held some three hundred demonic beasts look like nothing at all. A number too vast to count.

I unsealed the mana I had been holding in reserve, pressed a sword into Yeon's hand, and told Ellie and Yeon to arm themselves fully and follow me down. As always, they trusted me without question, nodding and swiftly gathering their mana and drawing their weapons. I descended ahead of them and unfurled the domain of wind.

The space was so enormous that even my Divine Wind Sword Domain couldn't hope to cover all of it. But for cutting down a horde of enemies in a single stroke, no domain served better — so I spread it without hesitation.

Emerald wind whipped into a frenzy, and countless swords of wind plunged from the empty air into the ground below. The wind-blades hungered for demon lives — and so the calamity began.

"Gather."

At my word, Jeongryeong and nine wind spirits materialized at once, stepping forward to shield me as they formed a defensive line.

"Charge!"

At my command, the wind spirits — Jeongryeong aside — struck the instant the demons wavered, reeling at the sight of their kin cut down by the swords of wind, and tore as one into the throats of every enemy whose guard had broken.

I mounted Jeongryeong's back, gripped a sword of wind I had forged before descending, and carved through the demons from a vantage above their heads. Like a farmer reaping rice with his sickle, I harvested their necks — swift and precise.

- Shshshshk!!

But the weight of their numbers was worse than I had imagined. Among the wind wolves, the wounded began to mount. Those whose throats had been torn open yet refused to die wrung out their last strength, clamping down so the spirits couldn't pull their claws and fangs free — and the demons aimed chiefly for the spirits' backs and necks. The spirits alternated between solid form and wind form to dodge the worst of it, but shifting to wind again and again strained even them. If this became a war of attrition, their forcible unsummoning was all but inevitable—

—until the two women arrived, striking in concert, and the tide turned.

- Fwoosh!

Ellie dropped in from the right in the blink of an eye, faced forward, and simply drew her sword from above down. The power behind it was anything but simple.

"White Flower Sword."

"Radiant Scattered Flames."

White flame erupted from Ellie's blade — an overwhelming torrent that lasted a moment, only a moment, yet with enough force to swallow the entire cavern. The demonic beasts caught in it were engulfed by the wave of fire and reduced to ash.

"Butterfly Flower Sword Art, Linked Blossom Style."

"Third Sword: Peach Blossoms, Apricot Blossoms!"

Yeon followed right behind Ellie, landing safely to the left — and the space around her had turned into a garden of butterflies and flowers wrought of crimson sword aura. Except something was off about calling it sword aura. The power wreathing Yeon's blade ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shimmered and rippled far too vividly, asserting its own presence. That was no sword aura. It was Sword Flame — the special fire that only a Sword Master could possess.

While I stood there dumbstruck, Yeon turned to me.

"Thank you, Hyun. Because of you... I could finally clear away the past that had seemed like nothing but darkness. It's like something burst open in my chest... I feel so light."

So saying, she showed me the Sword Flame she had kindled not through enlightenment, but by burning away her own dark past.

In the game, Yeon's Sword Flame had been nothing more than a color that looked like ordinary red fire. But the sword I was watching now burned not red but vermilion, and tiny butterflies spread their wings around the blade, fluttering in its orbit. Her Sword Flame was resplendent, plain and simple — fitting her very name, Hwa Yeon: flowers, linked. Blossoms blooming one after another, butterflies weaving between them. Around her spread a garden of crimson flame, as though it had been modeled on the garden of the Kumul estate.

The demonic beasts that touched those flowers burst into Sword Flame across their entire bodies, unable to resist — and the more they thrashed to shake off the fire, the wider it spread, dealing devastating damage to every beast and demon nearby. The creeping fire looked exactly like flowers scattering their seeds. The Sword Flame reached me too, but it dealt me no harm at all; it simply bloomed brilliantly once and faded. Riding the domain of wind I had raised, the white flame and the vermilion burned outward faster still — and in what felt like an instant, some five hundred demonic beasts and demons were annihilated by the two women's blades. The monsters crumbled into drifting dust, until at last no one remained in the cavern but us.

With the Status Window's message, every trap lay destroyed. And from the depths of the vast cavern, someone walked out — dressed head to toe in black, hair left uncut for so long that it hung wild and loose. The one who had designed every trap, who had plunged me, Ellie, and Yeon into peril: the blacksmith, Bret.

Reading the Status Window, I understood at last that he had fallen completely into darkness. Slowly, I leveled my sword at him and spoke.

"Why? Why did you do all of this?"

Bret shifted his gaze to me, but gave no reaction — he only stared. After a long silence, he opened his mouth.

"So you're the detestable Successor."

"Detestable?"

"That's right. Detestable. You never once think of what your predecessors did to us — you only ever have words for us. How utterly revolting."

"What... do you mean?"

"Ah... right. You wouldn't know. Fair enough, I suppose — so much time has passed. But what am I to do... my grudge against the Successors still burns white-hot."

Something was there. But we had never harmed him in any way — and judging by how he spoke, this had to do with the previous Successors...

"Hahaha... What a puzzled face. What, curious why I'm like this? Of course you wouldn't know. Those detestable humans and Successors buried every last truth."

"Then tell me."

"You Successors — long ago, you betrayed us, the ones who forged your weapons."

"Long ago?"

"That's right. Can you see this ear?"

Bret's ear had been severed by something, and bore the marks of regeneration over the wound.

"I am of that race. A dwarf."

"What?"

"That's impossible! They're a race out of legend!"

Ellie and Yeon both cried that it couldn't be true, pressing in on Bret. In the game Four Pillars, those races meant peoples who lived in harmony with nature, their way of life unlike humanity's. There had been races like elves and dwarves, but as far as I knew, every one of them had gone extinct. The game's timeline showed them already destroyed, unable to withstand the demons' invasion. Humanity, blessed by the Four Divine Beasts, had at least produced champions to stand against the demons — but these races, never granted the Divine Beasts' blessing, lay defenseless before the demonic onslaught.

To be sure, they possessed strength and cunning far beyond any human. Their weakness was simply their numbers. They had always been few beside humanity's multitudes, and as even those dwindled, they more and more often failed to hold the attacks that crashed over them like waves. In the end, unable to overcome that overwhelming difference in numbers, their tribes faded away bit by bit — until they set foot on the road to ruin.

It wasn't that humanity refused to help. Humans sent armies and even mobilized the Divine Beasts' Successors to save them, working to lessen the harm they suffered. But all that aid could not stop their footprints from growing fewer and fewer, until they vanished altogether. Worse still, as generation followed generation and those who remembered them died out, the knowledge itself was lost — until they survived only as creatures of legend, passed from mouth to mouth...

And yet here one stood, alive?

"What on earth happened? Will you tell us?"

"The Fourth Azure Dragon's Successor. He killed everyone. Men, women, the old, the children — all of them!!"

"What...?"

"I still can't forget it. The hand of a child, reaching for me as it burned alive — it's seared into my memory to this day."

"The Successor said... that because we wouldn't listen, he slaughtered them all as an example..."

"That's... impossible...!"

"How dare you spew that insane drivel in front of me?"

Ellie, who had been listening to Bret's story, bared her fury and leveled her sword at him — but he paid her no mind and went on.

"In the end, we bowed to his power. To save what kin remained, we knelt before the Fourth Azure Dragon and pressed our foreheads to the dirt."

"...And what he said then was... 'This befits a lowly race like you'... I believe it was."

"Haha... laughable, isn't it? You fool who reached for the divine throne?"

"Was it our sin, trusting so easily the one who swore to shield us! We heaped reward and gratitude on the one who had protected us... and you repaid us with nothing but fire and steel!"

"...Haha! Then listen well. I will tell you everything, start to finish. Let's see whether you can still swing that sword at me once you've heard it all."

And so Bret began to pour out the truth, piece by piece. Dispatched as protocol demanded to protect the race, the Fourth Azure Dragon's Successor came to their village and, in accordance with the Emperor's orders, swung his sword against the monsters and demons that plagued them. Naturally — he had shielded them from evil — so the dwarves showed their gratitude by drawing on their signature metallurgy and smithing arts to forge him magnificent weapons.

But perhaps that was the seed of it all. They had no way of knowing. No way of knowing the future of ruin that was closing in on them.

As time passed, the situation curdled. Because of the Fourth Azure Dragon's Successor, the village's maidens wept day after day, forced ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to attend his nights. He terrorized and brutalized at every opportunity, comporting himself as though he were the king of this place. At last his kin could bear it no longer — they told him never to return, that they had no need of his 'help,' and the chieftain himself sent a letter of protest to the Emperor. Whether that letter was the spark, the Fourth Azure Dragon's Successor slaughtered half the village Bret lived in, then dragged off only those who caught his eye and kept them barely breathing — atrocity upon atrocity.

The dwarves, unable to endure any more, naturally rose against him with weapons of their own making. But no mortal craft could overcome a vessel empowered by a god's might, and every soul who raised a hand against him died where they stood. Pressed, terrorized, and beaten by the Fourth Azure Dragon, the survivors were hauled away to some unknown place and worked to the bone, shedding tears of blood day after day.

Bret and the surviving kin, he said, wished for only one thing. Please — let us escape this hell. Kill us if you must... but please, let us leave this place.

Before long, that wish was answered in the cruelest form imaginable. Tiring of his toys, the Fourth Azure Dragon's Successor stormed the place without warning. Day after day he murdered the men he had abducted and dragged the women away, and amid atrocity upon atrocity, he finally declared he would wipe out Bret's kin once and for all — penned them in, and set them ablaze.

"Ranya...! I can still hear my lover's wailing as though it were ringing in my ears right now... Have you ever seen it? My beloved..."

"The moment she was used as a tool to service the desires of the man I hated most in this world."

"I... saw it. Even as she died, she wept and smiled at me, insisting it wasn't my fault... How could I ever forget that?!!"

As he spoke, tears of blood truly streaming down his face, he drew out a pure-white bow and aimed it at me.

"Galaxy. A bow Ranya and I forged together, heads bent close over the work — we who bore the title of master smith even among dwarves."

"With this bow, I'll make you feel every last ounce of the pain I have endured."

A streak of pure white burst from his bow and flew straight and true for my skull. I barely managed to shatter the arrow and hold my defense.

"Die! I said die!"

As I deflected the indiscriminate barrage of arrows again and again, Ellie and Yeon seized the opening and swung for Bret—

- CLANG!

—but their blades, at some point, had ended up in Bret's hands, the weapons swapped before either of them noticed.

"...Right. To make you suffer as I have suffered... I mustn't kill you... yes."

"You will make fine slaves."

At his words, Yeon—

"You insane bastard. I'll admit I can't even imagine the pain you've carried all this time. But why in the hell do you take it out on us?"

"Is that one not a vessel holding the same divine power as that detestable creature? Then I have reasons to kill him overflowing... do I truly need another?"

"Ha... I swear, I don't get why there are so many screwed-up bastards who just love looking down on me from above."

"Don't worry. It will hurt enough to kill."

"Oh, don't you worry either. You're going to pay for laying hands on my man, aren't you?"

Just as Yeon's vermilion Sword Flame began to climb the length of her blade—

"Yes... let's see whether you bitches still swing your swords at me after this."

Bret swung his own weapon to fling the two of them back, then bolted into the depths of the cavern he had emerged from earlier. Sword Masters — pushed back by a dwarf? Impossible... For now, at least, they were safe. Ellie, Yeon, and I plunged into the passage Bret had fled down in an instant.

And there... we saw it. Adventurers reduced to the demons' playthings, and packs of demons crowded around them. A scene too deranged to put into words... was unfolding right before my eyes.

For a heartbeat, I almost wrapped white light around my right hand and invoked the Domain of Tranquility... Then I withdrew the mana.

Too late to bring them back with the Authority of Purification...

Ellie and Yeon, seeing it all laid bare, couldn't stop retching — the nightmarish scene and Bret's mad words from earlier replaying behind their eyes. Even I could barely stomach it. They had no chance of holding out. I poured in far more of the Authority of Purification than usual, shielding their minds and lulling them into sleep. Any further, and who knew what it would do to their psyches. For now — let those before us pass on in peace.

"Blaze."

At my word, Blaze appeared at my side — and saw the scene I was looking at.

"Successor... this... what in the world..."

Even Blaze, who rarely reacted to mortal affairs, had been struck speechless. All I could do was give the order.

"Let them go in peace."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"...Yes."

Blaze swelled in size, growing into a hatchling larger than I was tall, then breathed fire from his jaws — sending them gently down the road to rest. They wouldn't have wanted to keep suffering like this, either.

= Kieeeek!!! =

The demons who had used the adventurers to sate their own desires were all reduced to ash in Blaze's flames. Having carried out my orders admirably, Blaze shrank back down — and just as I moved to unsummon him—

"Successor, your hand..."

I looked down at his words. Somewhere along the way, drops of blood had begun to fall from my clenched fist, one after another.

"I'm fine. Thank you."

"Please... let go of your rage..."

Sharing part of my emotions and senses, he must have glimpsed what I felt — that I was angry beyond all imagining. Since I couldn't leave Yeon and Ellie behind, I sent back seven of the ten wolf spirits, Jeongryeong included, and asked the remaining three — Jeongryeong and two wind spirits — if they could carry Ellie and Yeon, stroking their heads as I did. I couldn't bear to leave the two of them alone in this vile place while I went on ahead.

Whiiine...

They fawned over me, nuzzling and cooing as though to talk me out of my anger.

"I'm fine. I'm not really angry."

They clearly didn't buy a word of it, but they obeyed, hoisting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the sleeping Ellie and Yeon onto their backs and following at my heels. I was tracking Bret's escape route with my Intuition when a woman's voice reached me from somewhere.

"I-is... isn't anyone there...!"

Fearing another victim, I raced toward the sound — and found a brown-haired woman calling for help. I hurried over and looked her over; there were no serious wounds on her. Then, all of a sudden, she seized my hand.

"Please... my beloved... Bret...! Pull him out of this chain of evil!"

And then, right before my eyes, the brown-haired woman vanished without a trace.

...I couldn't believe what I had just seen. As I doubted my own senses, her words came back to me.

"Bret, she said?"

It could have been a coincidence of names, but something felt off. My Intuition kept insisting that this Bret was the very man I was chasing. If she had shown herself to me for the sake of pulling Bret free of the chain of evil... then of course I would grant that wish. Right now, Bret was committing the very same atrocities as the man he had hated most.

"Ranya... was that your name? I will grant your wish. I swear it."

If she was truly Ranya, Bret's lover, then she had held on until the very, very end, refusing the path of reincarnation — which would mean she had watched all of it. Every single thing he had become.

How much darker do you intend to stain yourself, Bret...?

What must she feel, knowing the one she loved was committing atrocities because of her? I didn't need to force myself into her place to know the answer. It would be agony. And I was the only one who knew the truth of it — so I quickened my pace after Bret, resolved to see her safely onto the road of rebirth.