Chapter 437
Chapter 437
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 437
Chapter Title: Beyond the Collapsing Landscape
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Kalt stepped beyond the collapsing landscape, into the outer reaches of the world. His steps felt light. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they lacked any strength, Kalt mused.
"...".
He had freed his master and fulfilled his long-held aspiration to surpass him. He had achieved that cherished wish, yet Kalt now felt an inexplicable emptiness.
A sense of refreshment, the lightness of a burden lifted, and the satisfaction of accomplishing his goal. Seeping into the cracks between those feelings was a touch of hollowness.
...That must be what purpose and wishes are truly like.
Kalt smiled bitterly.
Exhaling deeply, he took another step forward. That place was where Kalt had originally stood. The outskirts of Alkeya, the land for those who rejected faith. A vast plain before the enormous temple gates.
The sun still hung in the sky.
A cool breeze blew from somewhere.
Kalt swept his gaze over the scene, utterly mismatched with the abyss, and unwittingly swallowed dryly. The plain was littered with the corpses of magical beasts. Mountains of piled-up carrion. The stench of blood mingled with the wind. And blood trickling along the furrows...
Following the trail of blood with his eyes, there sat a holy knight slumped before the temple gates.
"You finally made it."
Shattered armor. Clothes dyed red with blood. Human blood pooled everywhere, as much as the beasts' own. At its center sat a superhuman gripping a sword marked with a red cross.
"Come on in, brother."
The Undying Kariot.
He waved a hand, a cigarette dangling from his lips. Kalt smiled wryly and walked toward Kariot.
"Looks like you took care of everything."
"It was a battle of endurance, really. How many times did I die? I stopped counting after it hit double digits."
Kariot let out a hearty laugh, exhaling a long breath.
Sizzle, the cigarette burned away, gray smoke rising.
"The door wouldn't open."
The firmly shut temple gates.
Kariot gestured behind him as he spoke.
"Right in the middle of the fight, the temple shook, and something locked the door. Tried to open it after the battle ended, but no dice."
"...I see."
"Even if it did open, linking up would be tough."
Scattered everywhere were broken weapons and gear.
Even the vine wrapped around Kariot's red cross sword had withered and twisted. Pointing at them, Kariot spun his finger toward Kalt.
"You look about the same, brother."
Kalt was a battered mess, coated in blood.
It was a miracle he hadn't lost consciousness yet. Under Kariot's gaze—as if questioning whether he was even alive—Kalt shrugged.
"I can still move, but swinging a sword? Nah. Feels like I've scraped every last bit of stamina."
"At least your limbs are intact."
"Yeah, tell me about it."
"...".
"...".
A brief silence.
Kariot broke it first.
"Did you send him off well?"
"Yeah, fortunately."
"Want one?"
"Sure."
Sizzle, flick.
"...".
Kalt exhaled a long plume of smoke.
Gazing at the rising cigarette smoke, he suddenly wiped at his eyes. Kariot asked nothing, and Kalt said nothing. After a moment, Kalt spoke.
"...He was incredible, right to the end."
Kalt murmured.
Not for anyone to hear. It was a soliloquy. He chewed over his master's final moments.
"Really."
Flickering before his eyes was Kuntel's last appearance. Tearing away the vines coiled around his body, then patting Kalt's shoulder with a smile.
"Well done, Kalt." Replaying those words, Kalt smiled.
...Kalt's mission had been to subdue the heretic's masterpiece, Kuntel. Having fulfilled his role, Kalt turned to look at the temple entrance. His own battle was over. But theirs surely wasn't.
Thud, boom.
The temple interior shook.
Inside, the fight continued.
2.
The madman, Kelrhalhm, looked ahead.
There lay a lake overflowing with curses. An obstacle blocking the path of the child standing behind him. Gazing at the ancient calamity, Kelrhalhm soliloquized.
It was the role of a senior to clear the way for the junior.
That was his duty as both master and predecessor.
This wasn't the child's stage; he was the one suited to it. Now was the time to keep his promise. The vow he had failed to uphold that day.
...But how?
Kelrhalhm's reason posed the question.
His body was no longer what it used to be. His mana had dwindled... Even at his peak, he doubted he could obliterate all that sludge.
Impossible. Lacking ability. An unattainable goal.
How did he plan to bridge that vast chasm between possible and impossible? Reason demanded an answer. Kelrhalhm gave none.
"Ah."
Instead, he let out a laugh.
It was a question unworthy of reply.
'The answer is already set.'
...To reach the unreachable, to turn impossible into possible, mages had always bartered. Paid the price to the stars above.
"Balance."
It was far from prayer or wishful thinking.
Pay the price, claim the power.
Remote from faith, so even in this land for the faithless, the stars answered Kelrhalhm's call. A platinum scale materialized before him.
Cracked and rusted.
A scale that had reached its limit over a century ago. Its pathetic form mirrored his current self. With that thought, Kelrhalhm seized the scale.
"I offer it."
What? the star asked.
Everything, Kelrhalhm replied.
"Fine if I can never use magic again. Take my eternity if you must. Take it all, this and that—just shut up and give it to me."
Kelrhalhm ground his teeth.
"The power to advance beyond that day."
For my halted clock.
To tick forward, even just one second.
"The power to open the path."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 【The deal has been established.】 The scale crumbled away, the final transaction complete.
The star answered the madman's—no, the human's—desire.
Flash.
Starlight overflowed. Beneath the surging starlight, the waves of curse halted for an instant. Kelrhalhm reached for the starlight before him.
...Just like that time.
Back then, too, he had reached for the starlight.
A century ago, that day, he had seized the star in rage, hatred, screaming for vengeance. But not this time. Kelrhalhm grasped the star.
Grip.
The moment he clutched it, the shackles shattered. Madness surged free. Rage, hatred, mania sought to devour him. Yet Kelrhalhm resisted. He clung to his sanity until the very end. He had to.
"You're just like me, child." He recalled the cursed words the heretic had whispered to him a century ago. The heretic had told Kelrhalhm: you too are a madman like me.
"You'll destroy everything with your own hands. Your madness will make it so. Ah, poor child. You'll surely meet your ruin." You will be ruined.
You'll shatter everything with your own hands. So the heretic had prophesied. And Kelrhalhm had resisted that prophecy for long, endless years. Suppressed the mania gnawing at him.
Despised as a madman? Fine.
Inspiring fear in allies? Fine.
Seen as a danger to all? Fine.
Whatever they called him, it didn't matter. Such things were trivial.
'What matters is...'
That he had resisted.
That he had kept resisting.
That he had understood the flames burning within, suppressed them. Chained himself, killed his emotions, endured a century.
'Until the very last moment...'
He had wanted to remain human, not a madman.
"Behold, heretic."
The human, Kelrhalhm, cried out.
Clutching the star, he laughed. Unlike that day, Kelrhalhm was not consumed by madness now. Still human, he stood before the heretic, having crossed a century's gulf.
Behold, heretic.
You prophesied I would drown in madness and perish.
You screamed I would become like you, swallowed by mania.
But I, Kelrhalhm bel Artia,
Stand here upon this land by my own will,
Not as a madman, but as a human before you.
"This is the answer I give."
Before the oncoming waves.
Kelrhalhm clapped his palms together.
3.
Kelrhalhm had offered the star his eternity alongside his path of sorcery. The path of sorcery was, to a mage, like the way of the sword to a swordsman—the tower they had built itself.
In other words, the mage's life entire.
And the star...
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 【The deal has been established.】 The star acknowledged Kelrhalhm's life.
All had expected him to lose everything and perish in madness... But Kelrhalhm had defied that end. Resisted again and again.
To keep his promise, to prove them wrong.
He had endured a century of life. The star placed a fair price on that long existence. Valued the eternity he offered. Thus, the starlight thrust into Kelrhalhm's grasp shone more brilliantly than anything.
Radiant light overflowed.
The heretic who had rent the heavens unwittingly turned her head. For the first time tearing her gaze from Raniel, she looked toward the lake of curses. Seeing the light bursting forth, the heretic's eyes widened.
Gazing at the madman there—no, the human—the heretic burst into laughter unbidden.
The first saintess realized it. Her prophecy that day had been wrong. And that a human had reached this place to prove it.
"Ahaha."
The heretic laughed.
Radiant light. The pure white light she adored beyond all else. That purest glow was more beautiful than anything.
And Kelrhalhm.
The human advancing, drawing the light.
Extended his hand to unleash the spell crafted solely for this day. Hundreds, thousands of circuits unfolded around Kelrhalhm. The deployed circuits began rotating in unison.
Starlight bloomed profusely. The blooming starlight ignited.
Within the blazing flames, a single point emerged. Flames were sucked toward the point. Platinum flames mingled with the inferno of Kelrhalhm's mana. United, the blazing point shone brighter than all else.
The name of this spell was Erasure.
This spell, infused with one human's life, was a weapon forged for a human to confront calamity. Focused on incinerating a vast domain in 'one instant'.
Kelrhalhm consigned all he possessed to erasure.
Snap, the moment Kelrhalhm flicked his fingers.
The condensed point of flame pulsed massively in that instant. The pulsing singularity birthed a fierce flash. The flash struck the area, dying the grand cavern pure white.
Flash.
Resti's vision, the heretic's distant gaze, Raniel's sight amid her desperate stand against forgotten gods—all turned pure white. The flash devoured even sound, until nothing could be heard.
In the silence where nothing was seen or heard.
The liberated heat erased everything.