Chapter 184
Chapter 184
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 184
Chapter Title: He Who Inherits the Dawn, Tarhye Ronde (5)
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8.
Valerine and Balon.
[Forgotten Kings], Anridal.
Abyss Hunter Roberto. Dragon Lady Xserinia. Hatchling Skesari.
From the point these figures all appeared, remembering the battle in <Tarkirten> in detail became meaningless.
“Shirak!”
Of course, it was important that Skesari followed me devotedly right from our first meeting.
I intend to omit many events.
Although I joined forces with Xserinia’s group to confront Anridal.
“Our mother always said this. Bad kids definitely go to hell.”
「………………!」
“So you should’ve lived nicely! Tonight’s dinner is served in hell!”
But it ended in miserable failure due to my indecisiveness.
“Finish him off, outsider kid!”
Roberto’s close support and.
The mythic-grade spell Amber had told me about, 《Hundred Raging Storm Slash》, successfully cornered Anridal...
「Huuuh... too... connected? Can’t... use it then?」
At that moment, I simply couldn’t cast the spell.
“You... you bastard...”
Because the undead Anridal summoned right in front of me was... Balon.
“Kid! That thing’s an undead! Not the fairy you knew──!”
Balon died?
Then... what about the children? What happened to the orphanage kids?
「──See. Humans are selfish by nature.」
“Hurry up! Don’t you know there’s no time to hesitate──!”
Roberto shouted urgently at me back then.
「──If this fairy hadn’t been someone you knew, would you have hesitated over kin?」
That day, Anridal persistently tried to persuade me.
「See... humans are selfish by nature from birth.」
Until then, while incinerating countless undead, I’d never once felt guilt.
But why was it different that time?
Why couldn’t I bring myself to kill what had been Balon?
「You’re just human, nothing more. No need to blame yourself.」
Anridal claimed it was a perfectly normal reaction, since humans were innately selfish creatures.
「Reason is nothing but shackles... Cast them off.」
For the same reason.
He insisted that sacrificing this world to save my father was the rational choice.
「Madness is the freedom—and the gift—the gods permitted to humanity. Fulfill your wish?」
That day, perhaps.
I might have taken Anridal’s hand.
Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad.
As my mind eroded under madness.
If that dazzling dawn hadn’t appeared, painting the world, my head, my heart in brilliant light.
“Tae-yeop, you’ve been through a lot.”
To answer why remembering my battle holds no meaning.
“It’s okay now. I’m here.”
Because the protagonist was Park Hyun-su.
The hero who met Tersia beneath the wistful moon and inherited Berkenxia.
“Everyone, please fall back. It’s dangerous.”
How he encountered Tersia.
Even how he completed Berkenxia’s inheritance—I have no idea.
“Thinking only of yourself is what makes you human?”
That’s why I can’t recount it.
But there is one thing I can state clearly.
“No! Caring for others and showing consideration—that’s selflessness, the true mark of humanity!”
Park Hyun-su single-handedly faced Anridal, who had overwhelmed us all, and slew him in a brutal bloodbath.
“And that’s precisely the humanity the creation gods desired!”
And then.
In the aftermath of that overwhelming clash.
“Go! I command you to rush to everyone—family, friends, kin alike!”
The symbol of harmony between humans and fairies.
He reignited the beacon of [Tarhye Ronde] for the first time in 7,000 years.
“Berkenxia’s inheritor, Park Hyun-su, calls this world once more to the light of Tarhye Ronde!”
That beacon.
The one from myth that had never risen again since Liam’s era.
“Tarhye Ronde!”
A boy sobbed out the cry.
That became the spark.
“Tarhye Ronde! Tarhye Ronde!”
Other fairies began to join in, one by one.
“Tarhye Ronde!”
“Tarhye Ronde! Tarhye Ronde!”
“Tarhye Ronde! Tarhye Ronde! Tarhye Ronde!”
Those faint cries.
In an instant, swelled into a majestic echo blanketing the entire world, transforming into light.
It was a truly heart-wrenching sight.
And I declare without hesitation... it was the greatest day of my battle royale life.
Because I didn’t know.
The reason Balon had died.
That Park Hyun-su had sacrificed him to clear the path to Tersia.
And.
That Tersia—who loved this world more than herself, one of the [Warm Ones]—had died after passing Berkenxia to Park Hyun-su.
9.
At this point, most of this tale must be omitted.
As I’ve said before.
The protagonist of this story is no longer me, but Park Hyun-su.
Yes.
Park Hyun-su’s story... the story of that tragedy.
“Where do you wish us to go, inheritor of Berkenxia?”
To Fairy King Baldemar’s question, Park Hyun-su replied without hesitation.
“To northern Idia.”
There lay humanity’s city, [Barrier City: Antioch].
Where.
The elite knights who had exterminated the black fairies were desperately halting the southward push.
“After securing the north, we unite with Antioch’s army and strike central Edelバイス.”
Had the world not perished.
Historians would surely have dubbed this northern clash the [Winter Battle].
No exaggeration whatsoever.
The north had become a complete snowbound land. Snowdrifts thigh-deep—that sums it up.
“Richard Hou is... ugh... a summoner...”
“What’re you trying to say, Michelle?”
Michelle’s assessment was spot-on.
I answered Park Hyun-su’s question in her stead.
“If it follows game logic, just take out Richard Hou. The summons vanish too!”
But the plan had a fatal flaw. No way to locate Richard Hou.
“Then it seems I can be of assistance.”
That’s when we gained aid from two transcendents.
The first was the Elite Archer.
“You’re... the Elite Archer...?”
His real name: Paul Reed.
The administrator had called him that, and he referred to himself as Paul Reed.
“I can tell you how to find the Elite Knight—and how to beat him.”
Paul spoke like a man in his prime, but his appearance was unmistakably boyish.
It couldn’t be helped.
Paul’s in-game race had been Ain—ChildMan.
“If you’re scheming to use us for some Elite rebellion, you’d better scram while I’m still asking nicely.”
I provoked him.
Every Elite I’d met so far had been insane, so my hostility was near its peak.
“Rebellion? Nothing like that. To begin with... I abandoned any hope of wish fulfillment long ago.”
“What? You think we don’t know the atrocities you committed?”
“I know. I... I... I had no idea... that this world was real...”
But Paul’s mindset set him apart from the other Elites.
“That’s why I want to atone... by aiding you, Park Hyun-su... to this world, to those I killed...”
After learning the truth of this battle royale, he had genuinely forsaken his desires.
“Will you permit me that...?”
The absolute god who had chosen Paul Reed.
Black Flame Saint Leiblhein’s Absolute—we never learned why he’d allowed it...
“You’re gonna trust this creep? You in your right mind?”
“Shishishishi!”
“Apostles all share one trait: tricking humans with schemes! That’s just more playacting!”
Roberto objected fiercely, but the Elite Archer’s help was indispensable at the time.
The north’s situation was utter chaos—a three-way deadlock.
[Antioch]’s defenders.
The Elite Knight’s winter forces.
And the raid boss: Kellek-Sar’s insect horde, one of the [Forgotten Kings].
Move first, and you’d get crushed between the other two.
“I propose we use the exact strategy the Elite Sorcerer employed here.”
“What do you mean, Paul?”
“A temporary alliance with Kellek-Sar.”
We were all stunned by the suggestion.
“An alliance with the [Forgotten Kings]... ? See? I told you—this guy’s──”
“──Roberto, enough.”
“Miss!”
“Paul, was it? Go on with the plan.”
Elite players truly operated on a different wavelength.
“Kellek-Sar’s forces have long sought to join Edelバイス, the new lord of the abyss.”
“…………………!”
“But Richard Hou and [Antioch]’s defenders blocked them, forcing a siege in the north.”
Paul traced a line down the leather map with his finger, north to south.
“Give him what he wants. In exchange, make him give us what we want.”
Open [Antioch]’s gates, letting Kellek-Sar push south.
In return.
As they advance, Kellek-Sar’s horde crushes Richard Hou’s winter army.
“The killing blow, just like with the Elite Sorcerer. We hit Richard Hou in the chaos.”
Coordination with the [Forgotten Kings].
Everyone knew the peril of such a gamble.
“I’m absolutely against it.”
“Uncle... the risks here are way too high.”
But Park Hyun-su accepted it.
Had he refused, we might have lost the [Winter Battle].
“Flank ambush too!”
“Front’s closing in!”
“Damn it all, they just keep coming!”
Richard Hou and his winter army were that formidable.
“Without Jeong Cheol-man, Richard Hou would’ve been the undisputed top Elite.”
Even Paul, a fellow Elite player, rated him that highly.
The battle devolved into mayhem from the outset.
The insect horde got the short end of luck.
Ambushed and nearly wiped out by the winter forces.
No chance to aid them.
We seized the opening and beelined for Richard Hou’s winter palace.
“Is this it? This pathetic rabble all you’ve got? Pathetic... ha, ahahahahahahaha...!”
Even the pact between Kellek-Sar and the Elite Archer fell short. We needed one more crucial assist.
“And now, it ends!”
As Park Hyun-su faced mortal peril.
The second key ally who turned the tide...
「I’m nothing like Tersia. I don’t truly love you lot.」
...was the Black Sun, Karenden.
「Humanity. Instinct. Outer Universe. Creation Gods... I’m utterly sick of it all.」
The last survivor of the [Warm Ones].
The originator of magic, forger of suns and moons... and in private, Tersia’s own brother.
「My war with the Outer Universe stemmed purely from scientific curiosity.」
From what Park Hyun-su heard.
Karenden sacrificed himself, becoming the firewood for Berkenxia’s power.
「So I believed... until my friends died in a world whose name they never knew, and the truth dawned.」
As Valerine had said.
Berkenxia housed the ultimate force: [Tarhye Ronde].
「The truth that I fought to protect fools like you—ones who’d claim they’d save the world...」
Yet it demanded a fitting price: sacrifice.
「Life denied me that... but in death, I’ll face it just like them.」
“Karenden...”
「So when I meet those fools again, I won’t go in shame.」
The purer the sacrifice’s humanity, the more [Tarhye Ronde]’s might amplified.
With that power.
Paid in the blood of Karenden’s poignant sacrifice.
[Tarhye Ronde]’s blade cleaved the Outer Universe’s winter from this world... and ushered in spring.
The day the northern winter broke.
The day of humanity and fairies’ grand reunion in victory.
“Uncle, why’re you crying? Don’t cry. Smile. We won.”
Park Hyun-su didn’t smile.
He took no joy in the triumph.
He merely clutched Berkenxia’s blade and wept.
“Berkenxia’s inheritor... drives the abyss away and brings dawn back to the warm world?”
“Well, the tooltip...”
“A blatant lie... Look, I can’t do a damn thing alone...”
“Uncle...”
“In <Reltharon>, it was Valerine and Amber. In <Tarkirten>, Balon and Tersia... Now Karenden... So who’s next...?”
“............”
“You? Michelle? Or Charlotte? See—this wretched me can’t win without sacrifices...”
That was Park Hyun-su.
I truly longed to mirror his humanity...
Because.
It was the humanity Jeong Cheol once possessed.
Long ago, before he became Edelバイス.
Perhaps.
This tale might now ring like the prelude to epic victory.
But no.
From my memory.
Park Hyun-su’s story ends in sheer tragedy alone... and the curtain rose on that finale with.
The death of Charlotte Kandragun.