Chapter 406
Chapter 406
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 406
Chapter Title: Apostate, Gletus
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Apostate, Gletus.
An alchemist and Summoner who had reigned as a calamity for hundreds of years.
Though her forces had weakened along with the wounds left by Galahal, she had once been a symbol of unavoidable disaster, on par with the Sword of Death and the Black Dragon.
"I'm asking you."
"Why you're here."
Belnoa, who had personally experienced her presence just recently, couldn't help but stiffen as she stared at the documents before her.
"...The Apostate Subjugation Operation?"
"Read it first."
Raniel gestured, and Belnoa nodded.
Srash.
Belnoa flipped through the documents layer by layer, each sealed with intricate circuits. The handwriting was familiar—Aphria Academy days, she'd seen it often. It was Raniel's script.
Apostate Subjugation Operation.
Alkeia, the land for those who reject faith.
The abyss Belnoa had navigated not long ago.
Raniel knew its exact location. Even its approximate size and structure.
...How?
Questions swirled—how could Raniel know the depths of the demonic realm no one had reached? But Belnoa kept reading.
The document, dubbed the Apostate Subjugation Operation or Alkeia Annihilation, detailed the strategy meticulously. It wasn't slapped together in a day or two... revisions and rewrites covered every page.
A plan forged over long years.
It outlined the Apostate's presumed forces, detailed intel, weaknesses, and countermeasures. Belnoa glanced over the dozens of pages and looked up.
"When did you start writing this?"
"From our first encounter with the Apostate... about eight years ago?"
Raniel replied calmly.
The first clash with the Apostate, when the Sword of Death appeared and upended everything.
"From then... all this time?"
"I've revised it endlessly—no original draft left—but yes, I started then. Keep going."
As Belnoa returned to the documents, Raniel eyed her silently. Narrowed eyes confirmed the Grail fragment embedded in Belnoa's soul.
Once a seed, now bloomed and rooted in her soul...
Three years ago, planted with hope for the future, it had fully flowered. Belnoa had transcended to superhuman with the trigger, and so had Rak. The Grail in their souls would accelerate their growth, aid them at times.
And it fulfilled the condition.
Her long-laid plans advanced to the next phase. Every seed she'd sown had sprouted; now came the harvest.
So you've pieced it together after all.
With the long-awaited moment at hand, Raniel recalled three years prior.
Then I can finally tell you.
Yes, the full truth.
Raniel closed her eyes, exhaling briefly.
Head tilted back, she remembered.
Three years ago, the day she learned everything.
2.
Three years ago, the day she battled Kyle to the end and returned.
Once recovered enough, Raniel sought out Cardi immediately. The ancient elf held stories she needed to hear, questions to ask.
"That day, Kyle definitely slew the Demon King. Traces of cutting away that filthy shadow... even the Goddess of Ashes confirmed it. Kyle killed the Demon King."
What she'd seen and heard.
"He must have. Just like ancient Ganikalt, severing the Demon King's essence..."
What she'd endured.
"But the shadow didn't die. Degraded, yet still alive. And it took Kyle as its host."
Combining insights from her fight with Kyle, transformed into the Reverse Heaven Sword, she reached the answer.
"Cardi."
Raniel said.
"That day, your comrades became calamities because..."
"Speak slowly. No rush—I'll hear it all. Wet your throat first."
Cardi smiled bitterly, handing her green tea. Normally ignored, Raniel grimaced but downed it.
"So you've figured it all out."
As Raniel coughed from the gulp, Cardi raised a finger.
"Let's play a guessing game."
Cardi flicked his finger lightly.
A platinum starlight and scales materialized in the air.
"Long ago, I contracted with the stars. But I couldn't tell anyone. Three conditions to fully access it."
Three conditions.
Three chains on the scales, two already broken. One remained.
"The third: realize the identity of these 'calamities.' You learned it in the Northern Tower—our journey, our tale."
The Hero, Ganikalt van Galatrik.
The Sorcerer, Belial van Draconic.
The Saintess, Gloria Bell Armias.
The Great Sage, Cardi van Armiel.
Knowing their names, path, and end fulfilled the third.
"Second: grasp the shadow's essence. You witnessed truth in my homeland, Arcadia. What forms the shadow's core."
The shadow: a curse aggregate.
Humans and demons, neither dead nor alive, cursing stars endlessly—resentments fused. Learning a rejected god embodies it: second condition.
"And the first."
Cardi smiled bitterly.
Pointing to the last chain, he eyed Raniel. Your turn.
"...The first condition."
Raniel spoke for him.
"Why the ancient Hero and comrades made that choice there. And..."
She pointed at Cardi.
"Realizing you acted as 'Trials' Proxy."
Cardi exhaled long.
"Why think that?"
"Kyle couldn't conceive it alone."
Raniel smiled bitterly.
"Trials' Proxy. To make me Hero, pass me the stars—Kyle requested it from the stars. But Kyle knows nothing of contracts, magic, trades. No way he'd know something complex like Trials' Proxy."
"Once I considered it, the answer was obvious."
Raniel tapped the table.
"Kyle said he'd glimpsed your journey centuries ago—your mistake or the stars' prank. Memory faded fast, but some scenes stuck indelibly."
One: Ganikalt's Reverse Heaven Sword.
Another...
"Your final contract moment. Kyle mimicked it."
Suddenly recalling that instant they contracted the stars—a great mage and comrades' deal centuries past.
"That's Trials' Proxy. Am I wrong?"
"...Damn."
Sharp as ever.
Cardi muttered, smiling bitterly.
"Yes, exactly."
The chains shook.
Raniel continued, eyes on them.
"You felled the Demon King. Ganikalt severed its divinity... demoting it to imperfection. Yet it didn't die."
Cardi had said once: stole the 'king' from Demon King, shattered its vessel. Then swept by overflowing shadow, corrupted...
"'Swept by shadow, corrupted.' Too vague. Reality was this."
Gathering intel so far.
Raniel pulled an ancient map from the shelf, spreading it before Cardi.
"Like its first emergence, vessel-less, it rampaged. Swallowing half the continent..."
She tapped the map.
"Devouring nearby life wildly, seeking a new vessel. You resisted such a Demon King. Could've fled if you wanted."
They were that strong.
Injured or not, Cardi could've extracted his comrades easily.
"But you didn't flee."
Raniel said.
Cardi gave a wry smile.
"Could've sacrificed half the continent, humanity's bulk, retreated to recover, then finish it... but you couldn't ignore those deaths."
Thus, facing humanity's extinction.
"You chose."
The first Hero, Saintess, Sorcerer chose.
"To become the shadow's vessel yourselves."
To contain the rampaging shadow.
Offering everything as trade price.
It was Trials' Proxy incarnate.
"......"
Cardi silently wiped his eyes.
The chain was severed.
A voice echoed in his ears.
"This is my choice."
"My will."
"Even as beasts, this is my decision."
Facing the flood, they chose.
To be vessels containing calamity.
Willfully stepping into filth. At the last, Ganikalt said:
"Humans live fleetingly, so we promise futures. Short lives burn out unfulfilled, so we promise more. We're no different."
We promise futures.
Believing heroes would rise again.
Unshakable faith...
"But as Hero and strongest swordsman, can't just dump it on posterity."
Can't burden successors blindly.
Ganikalt smiled bitterly.
"I'll bear it."
Do his utmost now.
To lighten the load for those after. That was Hero Ganikalt van Galatrik's way.
"I offer my life, soul, body, every path I've walked."
All he could give.
Plus rights to their stories remembered—as payment. Choosing puppethood, but offering all allowed one condition.
"Though our souls and bodies corrupt, we cannot exterminate humanity. When they make their final haven, we cannot go there. This is the contract."
The contract's full scope.
"Wondered why calamities can't enter Wangdo. That condition, even forsaking remembrance rights. Right?"
Cardi nodded at Raniel's guess.
"...Yes. That's the whole contract. I made a similar one."
"Losing all mana and remembrance rights..."
"Ensured starlight connects. Heroes' souls transform perfectly for starlight at awakening. What Kyle tried on you—I devised it."
So he recognized Kyle's attempt.
Cardi smiled wryly at Raniel.
"Plus countless restraints to reinforce it unshakeable."
Gags on shadows, interventions—myriad bonds strengthening the contract.
"They wished it of me."
Long-lived elf.
To pass truth to future heirs, Cardi had to uphold it perfectly. At wait's end, he smiled.
"You've finally come."
Cardi handed her the scales.
"The heir awaited centuries."
All conditions met.
The star contract recognized Raniel as legitimate successor. Accessing all terms, she let out a hollow laugh.
Info flooded in.
Vast data wave swept her mind.
Using superhuman computation from transcendence, sorting it, Raniel spoke incredulously.
"You've hidden so much."
"Itched to spill, but endured."
Contract linked, she knew innately: her path ahead, how to proceed.
"Cardi."
Raniel closed then opened eyes.
Exhaling, no longer her light self. As Ashen Mage, Hero, Heir, she spoke.
"I promise."
"...What?"
"To free you all from this contract."
Kill all calamities.
What you couldn't, I will.
As you stood for humanity.
"...I'd be grateful."
Cardi smiled wryly.
Long sigh, then lifting head—his usual face. No more secrets.
"Now I can speak."
He rose, reaching for the shelf.
An ancient map.
"One warning, Raniel."
Cardi spread it.
"Where all filth flows."
A dot appeared.
Marking contract-bound beings' location.
"Alkeia, land for faithless."
Pointing, Cardi said.
"To kill calamities, head here first. Watch it closely."
"...Watch?"
"Gloria's—no, the Apostate's seat. Former Pantheon site. Listen well from now, Raniel."
Cardi told.
Alkeia's tales.
And the salvation the Apostate once spoke of, her power's limit.
"To strike the Demon King, end all calamities and the story... first to fell is the Apostate."
The true meaning of her blessing.
Hearing of the ex-Pantheon land and her dreamed salvation, Raniel swallowed dryly.
"Possible?"
"Yes. Recall her saintess days' title."
Delohim's right arm.
Closest to god.
In distance, authority.
"...Tough from the start."
"Indeed."
Per Cardi, impossible solo. Even all humanity's might combined—no.
"So you raised them."
But Cardi knew.
Raniel too.
No need to bear alone. She recalled disciples nurtured for the future these years.
Not yet...
If they bloomed.
Mastering talents fully—possible, Raniel judged. Her cultivated variables.
Ones the Apostate never foresaw.
Blades reaching calamities.
Time to hone them sharp. So she waited. For disciples to reach her side.
And that day came.
Over three years, the blades perfected. Raniel opened eyes sometime ago. No past scenery now.
The final piece: Belnoa van Draconic.
The last gap filled before her.
"Belnoa."
Instead of instant reply, Belnoa eyed the documents. Alkeia's terrain map. Names etched at positions. She stared silently.
Hero, Lania van Trias.
Leading myriad powerhouses.
Hero, Destel.
Tracker, Kalt.
Sword Ghost, Draka.
Madman, Kelrhalim.
Divine Archer, Remia.
Undying, Kariot.
Saintess, Natida.
Names heard on battlefields.
Some, her teachers.
Below, familiar ones.
Sorcerer, Belnoa van Draconic.
Hero, Chloe.
Warrior, Rak van Grace.
Summoner, Resti Elenoa.
Eyes on the four boldest names, Belnoa looked up. Meeting humanity's hope. The figure at her path's end.
Ashen Mage, or Hero.
She said.
"Ready for the next stage?"