The Salvation He Sought
This was no golem. Unlike the constructs forged by alchemists, necromancers, or a handful of exceptional mages, this was nothing more than a crude trick—spirits forced into vessels to grant them motion. Inferior in both performance and power, the bond was fragile; even a modest impact could sever the connection and release the spirits within.
The spirits slipped free, revealing the hidden passage beyond. I stepped through, remembering to draw the Key of Tantalus from my coat in advance.
Footsteps echoed behind me, reverberating through the cavern with an almost oppressive weight. Even I found myself glancing upward, half-expecting the ceiling to collapse, though the true target of that sound waited deeper within.
A thin beam of light pierced through a narrow crack in the distance. My pace quickened. Under normal circumstances, I would have moved with greater caution, wary of a final trap, but the layered barriers and the Key of Tantalus gave me the confidence to press forward.
I opened the last door. It no longer mattered what might come flying out—arrows, spells, curses. Even if a full battalion waited on the other side, the result would be the same: disappointment and faint fear etched across the assassins’ faces.
“……?”
Yet when the door swung open, nothing struck me. There was no ambush, no elite assassins, no red-haired man. Only a single figure stood in the vast chamber.
“You’ve arrived.”
Hyler waited alone. The enormous space could have held a hundred men with room to spare, its floor leveled and smoothed unlike the rough tunnels before. Aside from the glowing orbs embedded in the walls and a half-erased teleportation circle on one side, the room was empty.
“…Where are the others?”
I moved deeper into the chamber, allowing the spirits to follow.
“They’ve withdrawn. They said they would observe through one of the orbs.”
Hyler’s outstretched hand held something small—a trigger scroll, no doubt the final trap. Before I could even consider it, a wave of hollow disappointment washed over me, and laughter escaped my lips.
“…Haha. I see. So my direction wasn’t entirely wrong—just the order of things.”
My face felt faintly warm. I had spent so much effort reasoning and analyzing, yet my entire premise had been flawed from the start.
“Right. I did notice the lack of hoofprints despite the supposed numbers, and I kept thinking the traps felt strange. But that was as far as I got.”
This cavern had never been a trap designed for a specific target. It was a secret base. More precisely, a hidden transit point.
I had heard rumors that the High Assassin Guild maintained portal bases across the continent for swift, covert movement. I simply never imagined this was one of them.
“You must have been quite desperate. To sacrifice one of the guild’s key transit points just to claim my life.”
I couldn’t tell which orb they were watching through, but I directed my words—anger and scorn mingled—at the red-haired man who was surely observing. In this situation, it was little more than an empty threat.
“He said you were worth it. Though he didn’t seem to believe success was likely.”
Hyler smiled faintly. The rage and hatred still burned in his eyes, yet their intensity had undeniably faded.
“…Then tell me, Hyler. If you knew it would fail, why stay behind?”
It was a foolish question. I already knew the answer. I was merely stalling, unable to steel myself, desperate to postpone the inevitable for even a moment.
“You already know, don’t you?”
His gaze demanded it. Pleaded with hatred, fury, and resentment.
“…Yes. I do.”
I activated the Key of Tantalus. Strange, vivid colors flooded the space, isolating us from the world outside.
“Why not trigger it the moment I entered?”
The scroll in his hand was a simple activation trigger, the kind mages prepared for clients who couldn’t use magic themselves. The spell it would unleash was almost certainly a self-destruction incantation meant to collapse the entire cavern. I would have done the same.
The magic circles at the entrance had been dismantled by the mice, but such spells were always hidden where intruders couldn’t easily reach them during entry—and the mice hadn’t made it this far.
“I suppose it would have felt too hollow.”
Hyler let the scroll fall. Within this isolated pocket dimension, its signal would never reach the spell.
“Besides, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
He smiled. He understood this was the end—of pain, of emotional contradiction, of nightmares. The salvation he had truly sought.
“Well then. Let’s end this.”
He spread his remaining arm wide, as if welcoming the fate to come.
“……”
“……”
Silence settled between us. It lasted only an instant, yet it held the weight of everything that had led here.
“…Just in case, could you tell me why that red-haired man is after me?”
Another pathetic attempt to stall. I despised myself for it.
“I don’t know. And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“I figured.”
There was no more time to waste. Just as he had made his resolve, so must I. Mana gathered at my fingertips at my will, and crimson flames ignited in the air—the spell Infer Bursting, the same one that had once consumed his sister and the bandit leader.
“…I’m sorry, Hyler. For failing to save your sister.”
If it hadn’t been me—if Rowell, Orcan, Lauti, or Medrup had been there instead—perhaps the girl could have been saved. Maybe there had been another way. Memory was treacherous; the claim that no other option existed was likely just my own rationalization.
“And for failing to save you.”
If any of them stood here instead of me, they might have offered him true salvation—not this imperfect act, but something that could have healed the wounds in his heart and freed his soul from torment.
Yet only I stood here. My own selfishness, my desire to keep their light untainted, and my fear that they might fail had brought me here alone.
“…I don’t need your apologies.”
He demanded it. He commanded it. He pleaded for it—the act he could never commit himself, yet had desperately wanted.
“Infer Bursting……!”
At the activation word, the flames surged toward him. Perhaps it was only my imagination, but I thought I saw peace settle in his eyes.
“I’ll be there soon, Ana.”
His whisper was barely audible. The fire sank into his body, and he collapsed to the floor.
“…May your soul find rest.”
Death alone was not enough. Mere escape was not enough. His memories, pain, rage, and hatred would never permit it. They would have driven him endlessly, like an unbreakable curse, from that day until now.
What he had truly wanted was not vengeance, but salvation. And for people like him and me, the salvation we could find for ourselves was always this—imperfect, and far from beautiful.
I watched in silence as Hyler’s body turned to ash, waiting until the Key of Tantalus deactivated. It was a small courtesy, perhaps tainted by hypocrisy or self-consolation, but it was all I could offer.
As far as I knew, Hyler had no family left. Nor had he formed any new bonds of importance.
No one in this world would mourn his death. This was his funeral—the final trace that he had ever lived.
When his body had completely turned to ash, the Key of Tantalus ceased its effect. The strange colors vanished, and the cavern returned to normal.
“…Destroy them.”
At my command, the spirits began shattering the glowing orbs one by one. I picked up the scroll Hyler had dropped.
Chasing after them was impossible now. The erased portions of the magic circle were almost certainly related to location, and I had no means of tracking assassins who had chosen to vanish.
“To think they only dipped one foot in.”
I had assumed that luring me so desperately meant they would commit fully. If they were willing to sacrifice a key base, it should have been natural to stake their own lives as well.
I had come prepared, layering every barrier I could and conserving mana all the way here. Yet they had simply withdrawn. And according to Hyler, they hadn’t even believed success was probable. In the end, they had merely abandoned one of their bases on the slim chance of a miracle.
“Are they cowards? Do they truly believe they can hide? Or is their goal already achieved at this point?”
Of course, no amount of thinking would yield the answer. I simply wanted to look away from the unease churning inside me.
“…Let’s head back.”
I dismissed the spirits from their rocky vessels and turned toward the entrance.