Reenactment of Ruin (1)
"I shall guide you to the gates of the imperial palace. So that you may safely depart with the treasures you have claimed."
Thud, thud.
Emperor Tarosk turned his back toward the exit.
His footsteps, heavy with clad armor, echoed throughout the corridor.
Following behind him, the party began to move their feet cautiously.
"...?"
He paused.
At that moment, Emperor Tarosk stopped in his tracks.
Someone was still standing in place, refusing to move.
"..."
It was Gaon.
Having secured the compass, the hand mirror, and the pendant, he was quietly staring at the sealed door.
Wrooooom.
A sinister energy continuously seeped from beyond the tightly shut door.
Yet, despite the ominous presence, Gaon remained entirely unfazed.
"Why do you stare at such a dreadful thing?" Emperor Tarosk asked, narrowing his eyes at Gaon.
The others followed Gaon's gaze toward the sealed door, but they quickly shuddered and averted their eyes.
The aura emanating from within was far too horrifying for them to bear.
Then, Gaon's calm voice rang out.
"Aurelius made two requests of me."
"...?"
"The first was the rightful inheritance of his descendants."
Gaon slowly turned his gaze toward the Koshat siblings.
The two still wore dazed expressions, seemingly unable to fully accept that they were descendants of the imperial family.
"And the second..."
Turning his gaze back to the tightly shut door, Gaon spoke.
"...is to eliminate the abomination that Rashutku has kept sealed for eternity."
"..."
"..."
The moment those words left his mouth, a heavy silence fell over the treasury.
As a complex swirl of emotions crossed Tarosk's face, Gaon continued.
"Your brother, Aurelius, worried for Rashutku until his very end. He said we could not leave the remnant that destroyed the empire buried here forever."
Gaon's face was nearly expressionless, yet an indescribable nobility seeped from his demeanor.
"He begged me."
"..."
"To destroy that remnant without fail, should the opportunity arise."
His voice was calm and detached.
Yet, a heavy sense of responsibility bled through his words.
He sounded like a man who believed bearing this burden was his natural duty, his absolute mission.
Every eye in the room turned to me.
Emperor Tarosk, in particular, stared at me with a face clouded by complex emotions.
A brief silence ensued.
Only the sound of our breathing echoed softly in the corridor. The rest of the party held their breath, watching the heavy atmosphere unfold.
Then, Tarosk asked in a heavy voice.
"If so... did my brother also tell you what kind of entity is imprisoned beyond that seal?"
"Yes," I replied calmly, nodding.
"Did you not say it yourself multiple times? That it is the remnant of the culprit that drove this empire to ruin."
"..."
The gaze behind Tarosk's visor grew even more intense.
"No."
He shook his head and spoke again.
"I was asking if you truly understand what that 'remnant' represents."
Deep concern was laced in his voice.
"That is no mere monster or cursed relic..."
"It is the past itself."
"...?"
"A horrific hell where the despair and terror of the moment the Rashutku Empire fell are recreated in their entirety."
Tarosk flinched, his gaze wavering the moment I finished speaking.
Indeed.
The trial that reenacted the past: The Nightmare of Rashutku.
This was not a simple battle against a powerful foe. It was a violent tempest where one had to stand directly against the collapsing flow of history.
In the game, passing through that door replayed the final moments of the empire.
And here, it would be no different.
The challenger would be forcibly transported to the exact moment Rashutku crumbled.
The core of this trial was to prevent the seemingly inevitable destruction from within the very heart of that despair.
"Knowing all that, you still intend to challenge this trial?"
"..."
"I ask if you, a mere mortal, intend to face alone a disaster that even the Great Ones could not bear and fled from."
Tarosk asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
Of course, I knew.
I knew exactly how dangerous it was to challenge this trial.
In the distant past, humanity roamed the continent freely under the protection of the Elders, but they have long since lost their territory. They now live calling their former lands the "Unexplored Lands" and the blessed underground the "Abyss."
During the first Divine Trial, I had spoken those very words before dozens of councilors.
The root cause of why the continent had become so perilous. The reason humanity lost the protection of the Elders and was forced to huddle in shrunken territories.
The origin of all those tragedies was The Nightmare of Rashutku.
A moment of despair so absolute that even the Great Ones could not endure it and had to flee to the heavens.
The day the brilliant ancient empire collapsed overnight was the starting point of all calamity.
But...
I let out a soft sigh.
As I had thought earlier, I possessed absolute certainty.
In the game, this trial was considered a success if you merely "survived," let alone prevented the destruction.
But now, I could achieve a perfect clear—something no one had ever accomplished.
What is this...?
Pean knit his brows.
Watching Gaon's actions, a strange sense of déjà vu washed over him.
Why is he suddenly trying to challenge that trial?
At first, he was simply puzzled.
But as the moments ticked by, the reason gradually dawned on him.
Could it be...?
Thump.
Pean's heart hammered wildly against his ribs. His mind spun.
It was an absurd, impossible thought.
Yet, every single piece of evidence pointed toward Gaon's true identity.
[Ancient Being]
This term literally referred to any living creature that had existed during the primordial era.
Even mindless monsters were no exception. In that sense, the Earth Dragon sleeping in the depths of the Labyrinth Village was also classified as an ancient being.
Pean, too, was someone who had lived through that era. Nominally, he was fully qualified to be called an ancient being.
But...
Pean considered himself a half-measure.
What he had experienced was merely the twilight of the ancient era—the very end of that age.
That was why he had never understood the true reason the Great Ones had been forced to abandon this land.
"Knowing all that, you still intend to challenge this trial?"
"..."
"I ask if you, a mere mortal, intend to face alone a disaster that even the Great Ones could not bear and fled from."
Yet, if there was one thing Pean knew for certain, it was that preventing such ruin was absolutely impossible for a Sword Master acting alone.
No matter how much time has passed... to think you would try to test "me" with a mere riddle.
Of course, Gaon was no ordinary Sword Master.
The declaration Gaon had made when opening the gates of Rashutku.
Others might have brushed it off, but Pean remembered the weight of those words with crystal clarity.
The subject of that sentence had been "me."
The rightful heirs to the imperial legacy were undoubtedly the Koshat siblings. Yet, the "true master" Gaon had referred to was himself.
Gaon is not of Rashutku imperial blood.
If he had carried the Emperor's bloodline, he wouldn't have needed to win Emperor Tarosk's trust by proving the legitimacy of the Koshat siblings.
He could have simply stepped forward himself, and that would have been the end of it.
And yet...
For someone to claim to be the true master of Rashutku, to have visited this treasury—which none but the imperial family could enter—multiple times in the past.
For someone to receive a personal request from Aurelius Tarosk, the last Emperor who barely survived the empire's fall.
Above all, considering the overwhelming presence of the "egg" Gaon carried in his breast pocket...
"..."
Thump, thump, thump.
Pean's heart beat faster and faster.
The ancient era. The time when the Rashutku Empire was at its peak of prosperity.
An age when gods roamed the continent freely, and the blessings of the Great Ones permeated every corner of the earth.
Those absolute beings who blessed the empire, whom even the imperial family had to bow down and serve...
Ah.
Of course, he had kept the possibility open.
Gaon's overwhelming power. His perfect comprehension of the ancient tongue. His vivid knowledge of the primordial era.
All of it transcended the boundaries of a mere human.
Yet, the evidence had been circumstantial.
Or perhaps, he simply hadn't wanted to believe it.
It was common knowledge that all the Great Ones had departed for the heavens, that not a single one remained on this earth.
So he had thought it impossible.
Perhaps that was why he had tried so hard to deny Gaon's true identity.
But now.
The moment all the puzzle pieces fell perfectly into place.
His suspicion solidified into absolute certainty.
"I understand your concern, Tarosk," Gaon spoke up.
He continued in a calm, low voice.
"The Great Ones fled to escape the calamity."
"..."
"After establishing the laws of the heavens, they designated this land as the lower realm. They severed it completely from the celestial realm, making direct intervention impossible."
"..."
"It was their own method of protection. An attempt to prevent 'those bastards' from laying their hands on this place as well."
Gaon continued his tale.
"But I have no intention of denying that it was a flight. In the end, the Great Ones chose to avoid a full-scale war with the invaders from the outer realm."
Sword Masters.
They walked the path of a seeker, chosen by the Great Ones.
Once, Pean had believed Gaon was a being just like himself.
But he had been wrong. Gaon was not someone who received revelations or choices from the Great Ones.
"But I did not run."
Gaon's voice echoed through the corridor. Alongside his unyielding will, a profound loneliness that Pean could never hope to comprehend was woven into his words.
"I, at least, chose to remain on this earth until the very end to protect this world."
Slowly, he turned his head toward the sealed door.
In his eyes lay an unyielding resolve harbored over thousands of years, alongside the fateful determination of a being carrying the weight of the entire world.
Pean could not even breathe.
Finally, the puzzle was complete. Every single one of Gaon's actions began to make sense.
Why he bore such a heavy covenant.
Why he could stand tall without a single shred of submission, even upon the scaffold of the Divine Trial.
Why he considered saving the world to be his natural duty.
Yes.
Everything had become crystal clear.
"Therefore, this time as well."
Gaon's voice grew even deeper.
A world abandoned even by the gods.
An empty space left behind by the departed Great Ones.
Yet, standing alone upon the ashes, he was the one who had refused to lay down his sword until the very end.
"I shall never run from destruction."
His declaration echoed through the heart of the empire, awakened after thousands of years.
[The Nightmare of Rashutku]
You have entered the trial prepared by '■?????@?????????■???????#???????!??????????????■??????%?????'.