Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: Each One's Stage (7)
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Madman.
A derogatory term for Kelrhalim.
Whenever people encountered Kelrhalim, "madman" was the first word that came to mind. The soldiers who remembered him rampaging wildly, grinding the Demon King's army to dust alive, feared him. For things that terrified and repulsed them, people slapped on the label of "gone mad."
Gone mad.
A mage who had abandoned reason.
'Madman, Kelrhalim.'
Called by that name, Kelrhalim wandered the battlefields for over a century. There was no better place than the front lines for slaying the Demon King's forces, and to pursue traces of the shadows, he had to linger near demon realms.
The battlefield was the perfect environment for achieving his goal.
But it was no good place.
The magic he had learned to teach students was now used to kill and tear apart lives. Kelrhalim, born a scholar, wore down bit by bit as he roamed the fields of war. Controlling his madness grew harder with time.
Every time he failed to rein in his madness.
Every time he wrought more carnage than necessary.
The number of those who feared him grew.
When everyone thought first of the epithet "Madman" rather than the name Kelrhalim, no one remained by his side. He wandered the battlefields alone.
He sought no understanding.
If he could achieve his purpose, that was enough.
That was how he had lived.
Then one day, Kelrhalim encountered a young mage. Rumors swirled about this mage making a name on recent battlefields. A mage traveling with the Hero? Wild tales abounded.
"You're Kelrhalim?"
A young man with ashen hair.
"What."
He blurted it out casually, staring at Kelrhalim.
"You look perfectly fine."
Kelrhalim furrowed his brow.
The knights beside the young man swallowed hard.
And the young man smiled.
"I wondered what kind of lunatic gets called a madman... but you're perfectly normal?"
Kelrhalim shot back at the young man.
What did he mean by that?
The young man smiled at Kelrhalim's question.
"Real lunatics don't even know they're crazy. Or they make excuses about why they had no choice and beg for understanding. You know the Sword Demon? That's exactly his type."
He shrugged and said to Kelrhalim,
"So what about you?"
He pointed at Kelrhalim with a fingertip.
"You understand your own madness. You must have reasons that drove you to it, but you don't demand others get it. You keep it to yourself and bear the responsibility alone."
No forcing understanding.
No shirking responsibility.
He tries to endure his madness entirely on his own.
"Cool."
He laughed and extended a hand.
"I'm Raniel. Honored to meet you, Kelrhalim."
Ashen Mage Raniel.
Kelrhalim stared at the hand of the young man who introduced himself that way. In a century since stepping into superhuman realms, it was his first such experience.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ I don't know much about Kelrhalim.
I don't know why he gained his madness, why he hates the stars so much, or how the world looks through his eyes.
A few lines etched in history books.
Fragmented words from rumors.
A handful of scattered, crumbling records.
You can't claim to understand someone's past from scraps like that. So I couldn't say I understood Kelrhalim. Half-baked understanding would be an insult.
But there was one thing.
Just one thing I could say I truly understood about him.
'Madness.'
Kelrhalim's madness.
I understand it.
'Because I've seen it.'
I know the means he uses to control his madness, the resolve with which he grips it. And...
"Fine, I'll trust you once. Ashen Mage."
I know what happens when that madness breaks free. How could I not? I saw it with my own eyes.
'I get why they were wary.'
Kelrhalim, freed from restraints and swallowed by madness.
The sight on that battlefield made me understand why everyone called him a madman.
He tears apart everything that approaches. Covered in blood, he unleashes spells wildly. That clawing, burning slaughter... it was less human, more beast. A beast driven by instinct.
In the past, I had to face that beast.
Stopping the mad Kelrhalim was part of the contract for using his madness.
Of course, he was no easy opponent.
After repelling the traitors, I dragged my exhausted body to subdue the mad Kelrhalim. I drew circuits with broken fingers, gathered the remnants of spent mana, and wove spells.
We saw each other's rock bottom.
We saw each other's limits.
In that process, I understood his madness, read his restraints, and forged a contract through his lips.
"I hate the stars, Ashen Mage."
Kelrhalim.
"I hate them, but I hate myself just as much. I curse my powerless self. I guard against the me captured by madness."
Madman.
"So, Ashen Mage."
"One request, if I may."
Though called a madman.
"The day will come when the me freed from restraints, turned madman, can't return to human. It surely will. The madness I harbor is like wildfire—it will one day consume me entirely."
Though labeled a madman.
"When that day comes, kill me."
A human who resisted becoming a madman himself.
"It won't be me anymore."
The madman who wished to remain human begged me.
To kill him if he shed his humanity. Recalling that request, that past, I face the present.
Spells pour down.
Shadows rake the ground as they close in.
Thick black fog obscures everything.
"......"
I silently extended my arm.
I seize the raining spells. Ashen mana devours them. I kick off toward the advancing shadows. With a heavy thud, the shadows falter.
Thwack.
I swing my arm at the faltering shadows, at the dense black fog. Clearing the fog, I press toward the center. I see the figure standing there.
A human embracing shadows.
A being that has shed humanity.
A being no longer worthy of the title superhuman.
I speak his name.
"Kelrhalim."
He looks at me.
I gave him a bitter smile.
"Is that what you're saying? Keep the contract?"
Flames burn in the madman's ashen eyes. His skin cracks starting from his pupils. Black filth oozes from the fissures.
This is one human's ruin.
The shattering of a soul.
A process I've experienced myself.
'I offer half my lifespan.'
The day I offered half my life to the stars, I gained power beyond my bearing. The price was horrific. Cracks formed in my soul, manifesting in my flesh.
'In my case, it leaked starlight.'
Now, Kelrhalim leaks shadows.
Seeing it, I sense time is short. Not just for him.
'Me too.'
Ashen mana shielding me from the shadows.
'Same for me.'
It's poison too.
Poison blocking poison—ashen mana still burdens my body unchanged. My usable time is limited; when the last sand falls, I lose.
No time.
Much to do.
Limited time forces choices on me.
My reason whispers: kill the shadows with Kelrhalim before they escape him.
'Kelrhalim has severed all restraints.'
Even ripping out the shadows leaves a rampaging madman. Reimposing restraints like before? Impossible.
Back then, one restraint remained.
It preserved his last reason, allowing recovery over time. We rebuilt around that chain.
But now? Impossible.
'All restraints gone.'
No path back for Kelrhalim.
Death is his only end.
'So, kill him.'
Rational, efficient choice.
Kill Kelrhalim with the shadows.
Grant his wished death.
Or I die.
"......"
Dwindling time. Approaching moment of choice.
At the crossroads, I closed my eyes.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
Three girls walk through the darkness.
The swirling barrier's interior is pitch black. Not a step ahead visible. They rely on Aila's starlight to advance. But reliance has limits.
"This way."
Resti points the path.
"The flow leads this way."
Eyes that see what mortals cannot.
The Watcher finds paths even in darkness.
"It's so dark."
"...For a moment, I can light it up."
Where Aila's light doesn't reach.
Chloe reaches toward it. A flash pierces, shadows recoil. Thinner now, Aila's star relights the way.
They advanced like that.
Sometimes Resti guided, sometimes Chloe cleared darkness. Aila led, but not alone. They borrowed each other's strengths to press on.
"Must be here."
And they arrive.
"That's the altar we need to destroy."
Aila points to the darkness's end.
Something grotesque sits there. Woven from human bones, an altar for offerings to gods.
"Smashing it ends everything, I heard."
Aila says.
Resti nods.
"Step back a bit."
Resti places a hand on the ground. At the contact, cracks form. Something reaches from them.
Rumble, thud.
The ground shakes. With the quake, something rises. A familiar called a Golem.
'They say even basic Golems reveal a summoner's skill.'
Thinking that, Aila eyes Resti's Golem. Towering so high she cranes her neck—its end barely visible.
'Bigger than the royal guardian Golems, maybe...'
No doubt of her summoner prowess.
Resti touches the Golem's back. It stirs. Thudding heavily, it charges the altar.
-Groooar!
With full momentum, the Golem slams into the altar. Massive Golem meets bone altar in collision.
Giant Golem versus bone altar.
Predicting the shatter was easy. Aila expected the altar to crumble... but as dust cleared, reality differed.
"...Untouched?"
The Golem shattered.
On contact, it exploded into fragments. The altar bore not a scratch.
"......"
Resti frowned.
She clapped once. Circuits materialized before her eyes in response. Completed in an instant, they glow, shaking the earth.
Thud, rumble!
Towering Golems rise. Wolf-like familiars tear through space. Myriad summons fill the area.
Dozens become near a hundred.
A top-tier summoner forms an army alone. Proving it, Resti swings her hand. Familiars obey the commander's order.
-Groooar!
Roaring, familiars march on the altar. Ground quakes, dust rises.
"Wow..."
As Chloe marvels at the swarm passing her, the hundred summons near the altar.
And that moment.
"...!"
Aila's eyes widen.
Her instinct rings alarms. Honed by years of star prophecies, the girl's senses are razor-sharp. Aila acts on instinct.
Grab.
She yanks Resti's wrist.
Seizes Chloe's nape, ducks low.
And it was right.
Whoom.
As summons close on the altar, it vibrates massively. A shockwave erupts from it, sweeping the area. It passes over the crouched Aila and the two.
"...Ah."
Nothing left where it swept. Seeing shredded, shattered familiars, Aila swallows.
"...Looks like normal means won't cut it."
So what means to use?
"...Starlight shaped as a weapon."
Resti mutters.
Aila and Chloe look at her. Platinum rings spin in Resti's eyes.
"That altar's structure crumbles only to starlight, but plain starlight won't do."
Resti says.
"Starlight as a weapon—like a Star Sword."
Gazes naturally turn to Chloe.
The Star Sword is the Hero's domain. And here, even as candidate, a Hero exists.
"Chloe."
"...I haven't undergone the trial yet."
Chloe shakes her head.
Her mana is exceptionally starlight-born... but she's still just a candidate.
"I heard you need the trial to be recognized as Hero and awaken star talent fully. Mine hasn't come, so I'm still a candidate..."
Can't wield star weapons.
Her mana isn't weaponized yet.
"Then how..."
Aila touches her lips.
That altar must shatter. But no method surfaced.
'...Professor Lania—no, Lord Raniel.'
A tasked matter.
Entrusting it to her means she can do it. Aila closes her eyes. She thinks and thinks.
Her talent.
And these two's talents.
"...Ah."
At the end, Aila realizes something.
"Lately, special lectures started..."
"Taking them with Resti—they're tough, so it's rough."
A tale Chloe chattered before her. It meshes with Raniel's recent words.
"Resti and Chloe."
"Those two can use each other's talents. With Your Highness's talent too."
That's why these two were gathered.
Aila recalls her talent and theirs.
Child loved by stars, Stella.
Stella makes surrounding flows her own.
Controls all flows.
One who reads star context, Watcher.
Watcher sees and comprehends all.
Comprehension to analysis, analysis to utilization.
Child blessed by stars, Brave.
The Brave wields starlight as weapon.
Unawakened just means un-tempered; the Brave's starlight holds weapon potential inherently.
Three talents interlock.
Aila opens her eyes.
"Maybe."
She looks at the two.
"Maybe there's a way."
To shatter the altar.
Aila's eyes gleam gold as she speaks.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 3.
"Maybe there's another way."
Muttering that, I open my closed eyes.
Opening them reveals surging shadows. I walk toward the waves crashing over me.
"Efficient, certain, rational path."
So alluring.
"Easy path."
I know someone who clung only to such paths.
"Draka walked that."
Sword Demon, Draka.
He preached efficiency, demanding others' sacrifice. Valued others' lives lightly. Only he human; rest mere consumables.
Draka was that man.
"Chooses lightly."
He always chose easily.
"Discards lightly."
No hesitation in abandoning someone.
"People live lightly, ever so lightly."
And I.
"Thought about it."
Draka.
"Didn't want to become that kind."
Lived despising such humans.
Demon King's army razed my village, but those humans burned it—so I refused their path. Stubborn pride.
Thus, I shunned easy paths.
Ignored efficiency. Abandoning is easy, so I didn't. Even when others screamed impossible, abandon it—I delayed discarding anyone to the absolute last.
'Can't take sacrifice lightly.'
That's.
"One standing before all can't do that."
When all abandon, not abandoning.
Searching other ways without abandoning.
Thus saving the one to discard.
"That's not what a Hero does."
My role beside the Hero.
"So, Kelrhalim."
Thud!
I step boldly into the shadows.
Ashen mana spreads from my foot. Climbs my body. Flows through skin circuits.
Smash.
I clench the completed spell in my fist, swing.
Thwack-!
Shadows clear in one stroke. Facing revealed Kelrhalim, I grin crookedly.
"Contract delayed a bit longer."
I see possibility.
Kelrhalim severed all restraints, leaving none.
But for me, not him, one remains.
"A prior contract takes precedence."
The one when Kelrhalim came to Aphria. A chain shared between us. I recall it.
The contract remains in effect. Restraint One: If a restraint wavers, barring principle violation, the subject must accept the contractor's proposal.
Restraint Two: If subject loses reason, contractor gains right to impose 'new restraint.'
Restraint Three: Above restraints hold absolute priority in Aphria.
Fulfill the contract, Mage. Recalling it, something grips my hand. A chain of starlight. Holding the rattling chain, I smile.
"Contracts demand care, right?"
Not easy.
Tedious, tricky—but valuable for it. The path I've chosen, will choose.