Chapter 163
Chapter 163
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 163
Chapter Title: Unbreakable Dawn, Holy Flame Cemetery (2)
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1.
“There’s a high chance that someday the Holy Apostles will take over your body.”
As everyone stared at her in stunned silence, Gong Min-young tilted her head.
“It’s not a difficult story. Shamans who get possessed by spirits often went berserk like they were haunted, right?”
At that moment.
Lee Seong-mi suddenly slammed the table and shot to her feet.
What……?
Her face was as white as a sheet. Without warning, she bolted toward the entrance.
“Sis, Sis! What’s wrong?!”
Shin Tae-yeop chased after her in a panic and grabbed her arm, demanding an answer. Lee Seong-mi replied.
“Ha-kyeong… Ha-kyeong might have gone to raise her synchronization rate.”
“Huh……? How?! ”
“She came by earlier……! She asked if I wanted to know the secret to true power. We have to stop her.”
A bad feeling writhed to life in Shin Tae-yeop’s mind. He shouted at Gong Min-young.
“Sis, come with us! You explain!”
Gong Min-young stood up without protest and followed.
“Wait, everyone’s going? Then I’m coming too.”
Shin Tae-yeop quickly shook his head at Seo Hwa-yoon, who was starting to follow.
“You stay here!”
“Why?”
“Use the info Gong Min-young sis gave us to plan a counterattack! We’ll be right back!”
Seo Hwa-yoon paused for a second, then nodded with grim determination. With that, Shin Tae-yeop broke into a run.
“Of course I’ll explain if you want.”
As she ran down the hallway alongside Shin Tae-yeop, Gong Min-young asked.
“But is stopping her really the right call?”
“Huh?”
“That sister of yours… she seemed like she’d given up on life, just like me.”
What……?
Shin Tae-yeop nearly froze in shock.
“And maybe she’ll succeed and gain enough power to beat someone like Hwang Ga-in.”
What the hell……?
Forgetting all pretense, Shin Tae-yeop yelled at her.
“What are you saying? It’s not that simple!”
“Why?”
“Ha-kyeong sis is family to us, even if she hides it!”
“Family……?”
“Yeah! Family! You just let family die? I could never do that—never!”
Shin Tae-yeop accelerated down the stairs, and Gong Min-young followed, watching his back as she thought.
Family?
His face had been full of genuine worry. Lee Seong-mi’s too.
Ah…… Damn it…….
What is this?
Why does it make me so jealous?
Kim Baek-jun built a paradise like this.
Nothing like Hwang Ga-in’s fake one.
The ‘real’ paradise Mom always dreamed of and told me about.
- We can’t make this a real paradise, but I want to turn it into something like a tree.
- A tree?
- A place where weary people can sit and rest for a bit.
I’m jealous……
So jealous it brings tears to my eyes.
If only Mom and I had started in Seodaemun-gu… with ‘people’ like these……
It’s so unfair.
Really……
2.
“My body… regenerated……?”
I could only ask in bewilderment.
“You mean I haven’t… died yet? How……?”
My body had been shredded by dozens of blades. There was no way I could still be alive.
“Yuya.”
Tersia turned her head and called out warmly to someone.
A girl approached.
What……?
I’d never seen her before, yet she felt strangely familiar.
“Do you remember Yuya?”
“I think I do… but honestly, no.”
“That’s natural. You were unconscious both times, after all.”
Both times……?
Choi Uk’s words suddenly flashed through my mind.
- There was light. Light in the form of a girl.
My eyes widened.
No way…… The light that came to save me during the Gongnam-dong workshop battle……?
“That’s right. And it happened again this time.”
“My God……”
“Yuya’s holy spirit is as weak as ours, so she can’t intervene directly in battles.”
I stared at the girl named Yuya. Words failed me; my mouth wouldn’t open.
“…….”
The girl simply bowed deeply to me. I bowed back.
Black hair that contrasted with Tersia’s.
Features and a slender frame that made her look even younger than Do Ye-jin.
She had a truly mystical aura.
“Yuya brought 101 here just before your last breath.”
Just before my last breath……?
Then the twilight that had reflected in my mind at the end… that was this girl?
“Is she a beacon keeper too?”
“No. Yuya is Yurvel’s messenger. We beacon keepers are apostles of Geldharia.”
Yurvel……?
I remembered seeing it in the tooltip for the rune letters. One of the creation gods, like Geldharia.
“Thank you so much.”
“…….”
“But… one question.”
I turned to Tersia.
It was a question I’d had from the start.
The moment in this world when Tersia appeared instead of ‘him.’
“No… actually, since the battle with the Sword God earlier…”
“Where is the [Master of the Broken Dawn] now……?”
I felt a chill of fear in that instant.
Tersia’s reaction was off—deeply so.
“He is…….”
“……?”
“……Recovering his holy spirit right now.”
Holy spirit……?
Probably something like the energy of the soul?
“Did someone invade this spirit world and force a fight?”
Tersia hesitated.
“Didn’t 100 explain?”
“Explain… what?”
“Oh, dear…….”
She let out a short, sorrowful sigh.
It took her a while to figure out how to explain.
“Berkenxia… in other words, the Dawn Sword in 100’s form. Did you hear what powers it?”
“Yes…… It was blood, right?”
“101. Whose blood have you been using to wield the Dawn Sword’s power until now?”
Whose blood?
Kim Gye-sang? Im Yong-gon? No…… That’s not the question.
“An incomplete successor can’t summon Berkenxia on their own.”
No…… That can’t be……?
As I shuddered, Tersia nodded.
“You’ve realized it. The Dawn Sword’s power until now was sustained by 100’s life force.”
“The usage limit… that was… the reason?”
“Looks like 100 really didn’t tell you.”
“Yes…… I… had no idea it was like this…….”
Unbelievable.
All those grueling journeys… he’d been supporting me the whole time.
Without a word.
Without asking for anything in return.
No matter how recklessly I pushed the power, not a single sigh……
“He probably didn’t want you burdened by using it. I was the same.”
“But it held up until now… why suddenly……?”
I knew the answer. Tersia knew too, and gave a sad smile.
“Berkenxia’s succession is built on faith.”
“Faith……?”
“Yes, faith. When the successor doubts the predecessor or their path, the connection weakens.”
I flinched.
“If the connection isn’t strong…… the supplier has to push harder.”
I could guess the rest.
“The [Master of the Broken Dawn]… even as our connection shook… strained himself… for my sake.”
Aaaah……
I collapsed to the ground.
I stared blankly at my trembling palms.
“What have I… what have I done to him…….”
Tersia approached and patted my shoulder comfortingly.
“It’s not 101’s fault. The [Mountains of Madness] breaks the captive’s mind…….”
No. No.
It was all my fault.
With my heart tearing apart, I spoke.
“What… what is his connection to the [Nameless Demigod]? What happened……?”
Tersia gave a wistful smile.
“Edelweiss…….”
Edelweiss?
A flower…? Out of nowhere?
Wait. Tersia’s from another world.
“How do you know that flower’s name……?”
As I asked, Yuya lowered her gaze, and Tersia started to speak but shook her head.
“You’ll learn about his relationship with 100… someday. When the succession completes.”
The pronoun was off.
Not ‘it,’ but ‘he’?
No way.
Edelweiss… is that the [Nameless Demigod]’s name? And Yuya knew him, like the [Master of the Broken Dawn]?
“Just… believe in his life…… A life as upright as yours.”
“…….”
“You know it, right? That 100 would never commit evil.”
Yes.
That’s who he was.
From the moment we met… that’s who he was. Why did I doubt him?
“Will I… see him again?”
He was gone.
I couldn’t feel him.
The [Master of the Broken Dawn] was nowhere.
“101.”
Tersia gave a bitter smile and gazed at the [Master of the Broken Dawn]’s tomb.
“Truth be told… you might never see 100 again.”
“……What?”
“His holy spirit is so faint now…… Whether he recovers or not…….”
Thanks.
I need to thank him.
But instead of gratitude… I poured out suspicion bordering on hatred……
And now it’s over?
“Don’t blame yourself too much, 101. It’s all like the holy flame.”
“Holy… flame?”
“The torch that passes the holy flame must burn out, while the one receiving it must flare up.”
“…………………….”
“That’s what all previous beacon keepers have done, starting from me.”
An ancient tradition.
“The predecessors’ duty is to guide and temper the successor’s weakness until the succession is complete.”
Tersia smiled at me so kindly, offering comfort.
“100 knew. About your fragility, 101. That’s why he always watched over you.”
But……
Even so, I……
As I writhed in self-reproach, something snagged in my mind.
“Wait. Tersia.”
“Yes.”
“You’re the first successor… so you had no predecessor…… right?”
Tersia gave a wry smile at my question.
“You caught that.”
“Then how… what battles did you……?”
“Simple.”
Tersia touched her chest with her left hand.
“I used my own life force—my lifespan.”
What did she just say……? Lifespan?
She fought by sacrificing her life, win or lose?
“After coming of age, I lived in a life-support device.”
“……What?”
“When things got dire, Brother Karenden would wake me.”
Unbelievable.
“Later, even that wasn’t enough, so he transferred my consciousness to a machine.”
No way.
Life-support device……? Machine……?
“Both were made for me by Karenden. He never said it, but he loved his little sister deeply.”
“…….”
“Ah…… I want to go see Brother now, too.”
Tersia……
She gave her youth to this.
No, her entire life…… to this war.
“But I still haven’t gone to him.”
“Tersia…….”
“It’s okay. I got to meet you, 101.”
As she said it, Tersia smiled—not with resentment, but purely and brightly like a girl.
“Truthfully… I secretly hoped 101 would say you’d give up this path.”
“Why?”
“The way I teach to fight… it’s by chipping away at your own life—your lifespan.”
Tersia added with a smile so heartrending I couldn’t bear it.
“Cut your lifespan—your absolute life force—and you gain explosive power…… But the price is steep.”
“……?”
“Literally your lifespan. Senses like sight and hearing fade, and memories slip away bit by bit.”
“……………!”
“You’re alive, but not really living.”
So that’s it.
That’s how it was.
That’s why she had to extend her life with machines.
Pity born of sorrow.
And…… awe.
Is that why I felt those emotions toward Tersia back then?
“It’s fine.”
That’s what I thought.
This path.
The one ‘he’ believed in me for and entrusted to me.
The path he led me to—finishing it is the only way.
- Don’t give up. You can do it, Baek-jun. I know you can.
The only atonement I can offer ‘him.’
“It’s the path I’ve longed for since I was young.”
And.
The only way to keep my promise to Jeong Ha-kyeong, Shin Tae-yeop, Do Ye-jin.
And everyone else.
“So… please teach me.”
That’s why I.
Didn’t hesitate at all, and earnestly pleaded with Tersia.
“The way of battle… that cuts away at your own lifespan……!”