Chapter 219
Chapter 219
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 219
Chapter Title: Traces Left by the Catastrophe's Claws (6)
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The heart of the ancient kingdom Arcadia.
In this place, once the madman's lair and the herald of the journey's beginning, Cardi recalls the past. Come to think of it, everything started here.
The new king's coronation.
That was the day tragedy began, when the woman who shone brighter than anyone ascended to the throne.
'Black flood.'
Sewage that blotted out the sun and stars.
Endless black rain pouring down.
The overflowing black flood.
The black flood that engulfed the entire nation and swallowed half the continent was halted by the princess's sacrifice. But it was only a temporary measure. The catastrophe, now possessing a vessel, revealed its existence to the mortal world in a far clearer form.
Demon King.
The king forsaken by the stars.
The one who commands all demonic beasts.
The being that exists solely to drag down the stars.
As the king arose, clawing curses across the world, its infamy grew day by day... Heroes gathered one by one to oppose it. The assembled heroes took note of the Demon King's birth.
「It wasn't created overnight.」
「It's a concept that simply shouldn't exist.」
「Someone brought into being what should never have been.」
Under the great sage's conjecture, the investigation began, and they confronted the truth in Arcadia's heart. Before the hell forged by a single madman, the heroes groaned.
And there, before hell itself, they swore an oath.
「To save those in suffering.」
「To protect humanity.」
「To safeguard the children.」
Each harboring their convictions, they set forth on their journey to uphold the vows they made to themselves. Thus, the place where the journey began was here...
“The place we return to at the journey's end must be here too.”
It had to end here.
They had to return here and place the final period.
'But it never came.'
The story was abandoned, left unresolved.
“......”
Now, centuries later, the great sage falls silent before hell. The journey remains unfinished. The period was never placed, and countless things have changed.
'The story is broken, and they have lost their way.'
No one even remembers their tale anymore. Only hell remains here, unchanged from centuries ago.
Yes.
Exactly as it was back then, still.
“...This much, at least, they left behind.”
Humanity's heroes, returned transformed into catastrophes.
They ravaged Arcadia, and at the end of the trail they clawed through lies this hell. They left the royal castle, which cradles this hell, untouched.
As if issuing a warning.
As if declaring that no one should approach the Demon King's origin, they turned this land into a realm of death to leave their warning to humanity.
'But...'
Thud.
'Now, someone has to know.'
Step.
Cardi lifts his head at the sound of approaching footsteps.
There stands a human who has crossed the barrier to return here once more. A human with a human body and lifespan, stepping into the truth hidden for centuries.
Raniel van Trias.
She stops after emerging from the barrier.
She exhales shortly and gazes at Cardi.
In her blue eyes gleams conviction.
'Eyes that seem to have realized something, to have understood.'
Meeting her blue gaze, Cardi opens his mouth.
“...You've come.”
Cardi senses it intuitively.
That she has taken another step toward the truth, and thus he has a story to tell her.
“You seem to understand everything.”
Cardi smiles bitterly as he asks.
“Will you hear it?”
Raniel nods at the question.
Cardi nods as well.
“We'll talk as we go.”
He has much to tell.
2.
“Hey, Cardi.”
I called out to Cardi as he started to move.
He turned back, and I pointed to the barrier as I continued.
“I saw a shadow inside there.”
Before hearing what needed to be heard, there was something to address first.
“Beyond that barrier, on the jade throne at its end, a shadow was sitting.”
“...A shadow?”
“The first madman, the nameless one.”
Cardi furrowed his brow at my words.
He turned only his head to look at me at first, then fully faced me.
“...What did you just say?”
“There was a shadow inside, and it introduced itself as such. The first madman, the nameless one.”
Cardi's expression grew gravely serious as he stared at me.
“...That's impossible, though?”
“Impossible how?”
“We cleaved it with Ganikalt's sword. Glia burned its soul with the holy flame she summoned. Belial and I saw it clearly there.”
The madman's soul burned away there.
It left not even a trace.
Muttering that, Cardi touched his mouth.
“...But if we're splitting hairs, you knowing about the Crimson Palace doesn't make sense either. What did the shadow say?”
I explained what happened inside the barrier. The explanation wasn't long, and after hearing me out, Cardi slowly nodded.
“Certainly, that fits.”
“So...”
“I don't know how it survived by some means or escaped from there... but the shadow you met is that lunatic, no doubt.”
Lunatic. The first madman.
“...The madman who birthed the shadows.”
“Yes, assuming that being is behind it all... then the events in Aphria start to make sense too. There were a few things nagging at me.”
“Nagging things?”
“It wasn't a plan Skeval could have come up with alone.”
Cardi let out a short sigh.
He always spoke of Skeval that way. Like he was recounting some pathetic fool.
“You seem to seriously underestimate Skeval? Well, he does deserve it a bit...”
“The guy lacks diverse thinking. When he's stuck, he doesn't try going around; he just thinks of lame crap like betrayal. That's why he's still the same after centuries.”
“Uh...”
“So that's why he gets his ass kicked by you every day, right?”
Is that how it works?
“Anyway, that's not the point.”
Cardi gestured ahead.
A signal to talk while walking. He took the lead, and I followed behind.
“The shadow said three years, right?”
“Yeah. Three years.”
Kill me within three years.
Or create something to oppose me.
The shadow told me as much. I don't know why it told me that... but three years was a timeframe I'd already considered.
'Humanity's dark age.'
The era when the fire goes out.
The fixed cycle when all heroes are replaced, inevitably arriving.
“The period when the era without fire comes.”
“...Something like that.”
“To achieve what you want before that time... you'll need to know far more than you do now.”
The goal clarifies.
The tasks to do take concrete shape. I gripped the Holy Grail tucked in my robe tightly and nodded.
“Yeah.”
“I can help with that.”
After walking some more, we exited the Crimson Palace.
The ruins of Arcadia's center came into full view. Standing there, Cardi turned to me.
“The origin of the shadows, and understanding them.”
The conditions needed to reach the second contract.
“Shall we hear the answers.”
3.
Prove the answers you've obtained.
Only then can you hear the truth.
“Resentment born from suffering.”
At Cardi's question, Raniel speaks.
To voice the answer she has found.
“The screams of something dying. Curses spat out in eternal torment, neither dead nor alive.”
Screams harbor origins.
Intense longing holds power.
“The stars are beings that answer origins. When something is wished for strongly, the stars respond to that wish. To some, it might be prayer; to others, a transaction.”
Whether mage or priest, the essence is the same.
To wish as an origin and pay for that wish to obtain what is desired.
“One person's wish can become currency in itself. One alone isn't enough, but if it's dozens, millions... it holds immense value.”
Dozens, millions of deaths.
Raniel witnessed it.
At the boundary of death, they did not cease their curses. Their origin was resentment.
“Resentment to claw, bite, and drag down. When directed solely at the stars, what is born is...”
To drag down the stars.
To destroy the stars.
A king(王) that exists solely for that.
“The shadow, the Demon King.”
Demon King.
“Correct.”
Cardi nods at Raniel's answer.
“Then, have you realized why they resent the stars even in such a state?”
“...To some extent.”
At the end of the Crimson Palace.
In the place she entered using the key, Raniel saw it. There lay an altar, steeped in resentment more intense than ever before.
It was not human that harbored that resentment.
As she left the room and walked the corridor, Raniel paid attention once more to the deaths strewn across the floor, and in that process, she realized her conjecture was correct.
Human corpses.
Mingled with things that resembled humans but were not.
“Those forsaken by the stars.”
Some history books described them thus.
And now, they are called this.
“Demons.”
Forsaken by the stars, unable to hold them in their flesh.
Born unable to live under the light, they were named demons by humans.
“They have every reason to resent the stars.”
“...Yes, they had reason enough.”
Cardi sighed.
“Everything achieves balance. Balancing those who live under the light, like humans and elves, were those forsaken by the stars.”
But, Cardi continued.
“Humans have gods, but they had none.”
The imbalance that arose from that.
“Those under the stars had ancient dragon mages, those loved by the stars, those who bore starlight in their bodies... but they had none. They were endlessly pushed to the corners, again and again.”
The balance continually tipping to one side.
“Thus, they longed for a god(神) of their own.”
“...Even if it meant eternal suffering?”
“Even so, they wished for a god. What answered that wish was not the stars, but a madman who lived a human life.”
The origin of those forsaken by the stars.
A human living under the stars wove that origin.
“Thinking about it, it's absurd.”
In the end, that's the story.
“It all happened because everything seeks balance. In a way, it might be that what the stars ignored for ages has finally erupted now.”
Raniel fell silent, and Cardi spoke.
“This is the Demon King's origin and its truth.”
A being born from longing.
Raniel mulled over that single line. In it, she sensed something just within grasp yet elusive.
“Centuries at last.”
As Raniel let out a low hum, Cardi gave a faint smile.
“Congratulations on reaching the second truth. Musing over your newfound insight is your part. And this...”
Cardi traced his hand through the air.
Starlight gathered, and a pair of scales appeared.
“What I gained when I reached the same truth as you. Keep it in mind.”
A key lay on the scales.
Cardi lifted the key and handed it to Raniel.
“...What's this?”
“What else? A key, just as it looks.”
“No, I mean, what does it open?”
Cardi raised his arm.
The tip of his raised hand pointed south.
'The south is where the mage towers stand, right?'
It was as Raniel remembered.
Gazing where Cardi pointed, she could make out the ruins of collapsed towers scattered beyond the walls.
“The key to the tower I built.”
The tower built by the great sage.
Raniel's eyes widened. As if affirming her thoughts, Cardi smiled.
“The first Ashen Mage Tower.”
“You're giving this to me...?”
“What's inside will help you. One who breaks through harsh conditions to reach the truth deserves proper reward.”
What was that reward?
Before Raniel could ask, Cardi answered.
“Take everything inside...”
Cardi trailed off and shut his mouth. He felt an intensely piercing gaze. And in this place, only one person was looking at him.
“......”
Cardi shot Raniel a wordless glare.
Her blue eyes burned hot, as if smoldering. In those eyes, Cardi sensed intense desire. Like a tomb raider before a treasure chest.
“...Take everything out...”
The moment Cardi finished his words with unease.
As if she'd been waiting for that exact instant, Raniel flicked her wrist lightly. With that alone, a completed spell flowed from her hand to the floor.
Chain.
Cardi's eyes narrowed at the rattling chains.
“No, wait. I can walk on my own now...”
“What're you doing? Grab on.”
“No.”
“Let's go quick.”
It was the most motivated she'd ever been.
Author's Note
Sorry for being late...!