White (8)

A colossal white dragon, one that had dyed the entire world white, appeared before my eyes.

In my hand, a bow of transparent glass had grown, as if a crystal had sprouted from a wooden staff.

"Still unable to face reality?"

From the dragon's mouth flowed a voice that had always made my skin crawl.

"Why do you choose imperfection? Why do you refuse to become whole? But it doesn't matter."

The ground began to shake.

Yes, one of the techniques I had used so effectively.

But its power was incomparable to when I used it. The earth attacked everyone here as if it had a will of its own.

The people here aren't so weak as to need my concern.

I just have to do what I need to do.

I nocked moonlight onto the bowstring.

I drew back the string, an arrow infused with moonlight and softly glowing.

"Yeah, first, I'll make you fall."

But when I released the string, the arrow didn't fire.

It started to seep into my glass bow.

Moonlight reflected off the glass bow and surged forward. Countless beams of light swallowed the white dragon that covered the sky.

The attacks heading toward me scattered into nothing as the moonlight washed over them.

The dragon's wings, engulfed in light, were torn to shreds, leaving it unable to stay aloft.

"Foolish. Reality isn't a fairy tale. Hardship isn't solved so easily, and ideals are ideals exactly because they are impossible."

Its wings regenerated and began to flap again.

"Struggling changes nothing. Rather, because you struggled, I was able to learn one lesson from your foolishness."

The ground heaved violently once more.

Claws rose from the earth. Something was being born, gripping the ground.

"We patented that, you know? Pay up if you're going to use it."

From the earth, white dragons were born.

Four of them.

"We'll each take one," I shouted.

Even the Star Engraving Group weren't crazy enough to try and negotiate with that thing. They wanted a piece that would follow their orders, not a king that would devour them and rule over them.

I quickly drew my bowstring and used Moonlight Arrow.

A torrent of moonlight shot toward the dragon, tearing through its body.

When the dragon swung its massive claws, I pierced it with dozens of arrows, blowing holes through its limbs to dodge.

"You keep struggling meaninglessly."

Light began to emanate from the dragon.

It was the Starlight that one of the bastards chasing me had used.

It was a simple ability—nothing more than stirring wind around one's body—but when activated by such a huge dragon, it became a storm of devastating gales.

With a gesture, I raised walls of glass around me to block the wind.

Some of the thinner walls shattered with a crash, unable to withstand the gale.

To break through my defense, the dragon took a deep breath.

A technique that was the very identity of a dragon.

It exhaled, releasing mana of truly destructive power.

It was just raw energy, unrefined, but its power rivaled the greatest archmage spells.

I hastily erected dozens of layers of glass walls.

The walls in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠front of me began to shatter and break apart in an instant.

Behind the crumbling walls, I drew my bowstring.

Moonlight gathered toward me like a spotlight.

The moment the last wall gave way, I released the bowstring.

From my bow, dozens of strands of Moonlight Arrow scattered, meeting the glass fragments in the air and reflecting again.

From dozens to hundreds, from hundreds to thousands.

A light like a full moon swallowed its breath, swallowed the dragon.

The dragon fell, and the glass fragments rained down like the dragon itself.

I approached the fallen dragon.

And there I found a child, collapsed and unconscious. A small, fragile child.

I rushed toward the child.

A king with the same face as mine forced me to my knees and looked down at me.

"Don't you already know? You've already given up your independence and accepted your dependence on me. You're a half-pint. Even the results of what a half-pint accomplishes are only half of what they could be. You didn't even complete your foundation properly. Do you seriously think that just because a single spirit completes its foundation, you'll gain the power to resist a king? If that's impossible in the first place, how do you think you can reach me with half a foundation?"

"Look at me."

He looked exactly like me. Not the me before I started actively using the Authority, but the me after.

"You already know. You know that a being like you cannot defeat me. You surrendered, but you simply struggle because you don't want to admit that fact. You're just thrashing meaninglessly against the power lent to you through your contract."

He shoved my head into the ground and stomped on it.

"You claim to be human, but now there is nothing human left in you."

White blood flowed from my wounds, and even that began to regenerate through the Authority.

I opened my mouth.

"Is that possible because of the contract?"

"Yes. So you can understand after all."

The chains released and my body collapsed helplessly.

"You are not human. From the moment your spirit was devoured, you joined our ranks, but you're only stubbornly denying it. Abandon your self and submit to the king. You are a half-pint who can achieve nothing. But if you are absorbed into me, you can become part of a king that can do anything. Do not reject the assimilation you are desperately blocking. Accept it."

"Assimilation…"

My body moved weakly. My hand reached toward my pocket.

"Assimilation sounds good."

Inside my pocket was something still intact and unbroken. I clutched it.

"Accept it. Stop being a trash half-pint and become a part of the noble conquering star of the Starry Sea."

The fact that I was connected to Luna meant I was also connected to the Conquering Star.

The very power I was wielding now was coming from being assimilated into that star.

"Accept assimilation, and use the last remaining Authority you have left."

The moment the Sage of the Starry Sea had gone berserk, I had already crossed a line I never wanted to cross and became something other than human.

"From the moment you crossed the line, you cannot go back."

He reached out his hand toward me.

I stretched the hand clutching something toward him.

"Take my hand and become fully assimilated with me."

My hand opened, and something fell onto it. I covered it with my other hand.

The object between me was not something grand.

Just a single seal — obtained by tricking a naive friend.

A seal I had to cut off my own finger to replicate because I couldn't even bring that one.

Yes.

A seal made from a part of me that hadn't yet crossed the line.

The part of me that could still remain human.

The only way for me to become myself again.

"What have you done!"

I felt the power within me fading away.

The sense of omnipotence that made me feel like I could do anything grew faint and vanished, and my flesh became that of a lowly human again. But my body was no longer dyed a pale white.

My skin returned to a vibrant color, and my hair, once bleached white, turned black again.

"How does it feel to come down from that noble throne?"

But even so, something remained.

In one of my hands was a small shard of glass.

I swung it and embedded it in his chest.

"You pathetic…"

He tried to swing his hand to do something, but nothing happened.

"You said it yourself. I'm a half-pint. Can't do anything properly."

The embedded glass shard stained red.

Not the white blood that used to flow freely as if everything would return to normal, but red blood gushed out, struggling to survive.

"But even if I'm a half-pint, at least I'm not as arrogant as you."

He tried to do something, but nothing happened. He couldn't adapt to his powerlessness and slowly died.

The star of the Starry Sea, once radiating brilliant light, thrashed about, refusing to accept that it was breaking apart.

It could not accept that its light was no longer great.

"How…! How could…!"

The Conquering Star that had once dyed the world white cracked.

I watched the ugly struggle of a once-noble existence.

"You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bastard…! Don't look at me like that…! Me…! Don't!

I don't know what he was trying to do, but the red hole in his chest wouldn't close.

And so, the white star that seemed destined to shine forever in the Starry Sea shattered into pieces.

The dragons nearby also vomited red blood and died—swallowed by shadows, crushed by tree trunks, devoured by light, impaled by spears.

But even then, I didn't have time to stop and watch.

I walked slowly.

Following the senses that had found the one child in that white space.

The white that had dyed everything slowly returned to its original state.

There, once again, I could see a single child sitting alone. Her hair was also white, but her skin was no longer a pale white, and her eyes were not lifeless white but a faint pink.

What should I say?

"Luna."

I am a half-wit prophet.

Even when I know the future, nothing ever goes as expected.

But is that so bad? Is that wrong?

What I've been trying to do from the beginning is to make things I predicted would happen not happen.

So what if I'm a half-pint? So what if unexpected things keep happening?

After all, life is always full of surprises.

Even if the path I'm on is always a thorny one, and even if I'm chasing an ideal so far away it feels absurd,

Even so… what awaits me there won't fill me with gold and treasure like abundance.

Even so, the reason I head there is—

"Let's go home."

—because if I go there, I won't be alone anymore.

Luna ran to me and hugged me.

"I'm dirty right now," I said, but despite my words, her arms tightened around me. As if she wouldn't let go.

The assimilation I had used might have been meant to comfort Luna, who never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠belonged anywhere,

But it was also a story about my past, spilling out the loneliness I had always felt beneath the surface of abundance.

Now, I no longer have material abundance.

But that doesn't matter.

Because I—no, we—will no longer be desolate or alone.