Chapter 198
Chapter 198
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 198
Chapter Title: Eternal Unquenchable Flame (4)
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Kadim cradled the melting lump of ash in his arms.
His robes were soaked through with black sludge, but he paid it no mind. He supported her sticky back and personally wiped away the mucus dripping over her features. The face of the girl magician, barely holding onto her shape, was revealed.
"Ah... Kadim."
"......"
Even so, her eyes, which held a warm flame, had not lost their light. As she stared blankly at the man before her, the corners of her mouth slowly curved up into a wide grin.
"Even after all that time... you still look as rough as ever."
"......"
"Anyway... it's good... you came back safe... from hell..."
The moment she finished speaking, the collapse accelerated uncontrollably. Her body was severely damaged, and the holy power infused within had run dry. Melissa's clone soon melted into a pitch-black mush.
Kuruk, kurururuk...
Kadim carefully laid the remains on the ground.
"......You did well. Rest now."
Regretting briefly that he hadn't stopped her from using this clone, he heavily rose to his feet.
He gripped the axe handle tight and turned his back. On the charred wooden throne above, he saw the figure of a woman who resembled the vanished girl but was entirely different. She hadn't spared a single glance at the clone's end and was calmly reading the records she'd stolen.
"No particular thoughts on it? Even after killing your past self."
"Nope. It was pretty well made, but in the end, just a fake."
"Weren't you consoling yourself in dreams with fakes like me all this time?"
"Ah, that."
A sidelong glance that dismissed the World Tree's dream.
"I smashed it. Turns out fakes have no meaning after all."
"......"
A long silence.
The scene from their first reunion in this hall replayed.
Not because there was nothing to say, but because there was too much, leading to deadlock. Now, at its base, a far more precarious fuse had been laid. As the man's golden eyes gleamed coldly, the woman merely rustled through the record sheets for a while.
The silence was broken by the woman reading the records. A discordant laugh echoed.
"Heh heh heuk, hahaha... Kadim, did you see what I wrote when I first met you in these records?"
"......"
"Listen, I'll read it. Beyond the mountains... from the wasteland... Atalan... bronze skin... incredibly tall... ogre-sized build... human-monster hybrid...? Possible...? Requested to travel together right away... High chance of criminal, caution advised..."
That playful voice sounded no different from the girl who had grinned and teased his fierce looks. But Kadim knew it was only skin-deep.
"Ah, not all bad though. Later I added, 'But doesn't seem like a bad person!'"
After finishing the recitation, Melissa smirked sourly and ripped out the page with a tear.
Fwoosh - !!
Flames cleanly burned an unforgettable memory. The fingers that held the paper scattered fine ash.
"Hm, I was pretty stupid back then. Never kept a lifetime promise... failed to lure you to hell so casually popped out... yet brazenly claims he kept his promise to return... and I wrote he doesn't seem like a bad person."
"......"
Kadim's face darkened. Muscles soaked in bloodlust twitched.
Still too early to ignite the fuse of explosion. He steadfastly suppressed the surging impulse. Despite such villainy, Melissa calmly continued as if nothing had happened.
"Of course, that doesn't mean I'll give up on you. Unlike you, I vowed never to abandon you no matter what."
"Touching. But your prepared nest seems already taken by its true owner."
"Lilia? She won't hold out long. Now that she knows smashing the World Tree's dream wasn't an empty threat, if she has any brains, she'll crawl out soon."
"......Do you think I'll let that happen."
"Well, what will you do if I don't? Didn't we settle things long ago?"
Kadim exhaled a red breath and narrowed his golden eyes. Melissa deemed such changes trivial.
"Give up, Kadim. No matter what you do, you can't oppose me with just your power. Well, that weird thing inside you might be different, but you can't control it at will, right?"
"......"
"Hm, yeah, we'll figure out how to extract that thing later... Anyway, come here. Let's not waste energy on pointless fights and chat until Lilia shows."
Twitch, twitch—the muscle pulsations intensified. Yet still too early to ignite the fuse. Kadim pretended to comply meekly. Melissa smiled and closed the records.
"Kadim, want me to tell you a boring story?"
"......"
"It's so boring I didn't even write it down, but you don't seem to like fun stories anyway."
No choice given. The story began on its own.
As promised, it wasn't fun. A childish tale like a folktale or fairy story.
"Once upon a time, a wooden doll lived in a forest. The woodcutter who carved that doll..."
The wooden doll loved the woodcutter who made it dearly. The woodcutter also cherished the doll that did chores for him. Days they felled trees diligently in the forest, nights they warmed by a hearty firewood blaze in the cabin.
But one day, the woodcutter suddenly left the cabin.
The reason was unknown. Left alone, the doll wandered the forest endlessly seeking the vanished woodcutter. But no trace anywhere. Returning to the cabin, weeping bitterly, the doll suddenly thought:
Yes, if I light a fire, he'll come back. Like before, pile up the flames, and he'll know I'm waiting and return soon.
The doll set branches ablaze. Woodcutter didn't return. Doll ignited log piles. No return. Set the cabin ablaze. No. Forest ablaze. No. Villages, mansions, cities, castles, screaming humans, wailing elves, howling spirits, raging demons' corpses—all burned.
Woodcutter didn't return.
Having burned all the world, the doll realized the only fuel left was itself. Thus, igniting its own body and blazing—
The woodcutter returned to the doll's side.
"......How's that? Totally boring, right?"
"......"
It truly was. Especially one-dimensional in metaphor, blatantly obvious who mirrored whom.
But not bad as kindling for an explosion.
"That doll probably wasn't left alone in the cabin."
"......What?"
"A woodcutter wouldn't carve just one convenient doll. Likely left many before departing. The doll, fixated on one, mistook its friends for firewood and burned them."
"......"
Crackle, crackle—a silence burning like dry flames.
Charred wind blew. All around mere ashes, yet felt like sitting by a hearth piled with logs. Melissa lost in thought with vacant eyes.
Kadim steadied his breath, finally lighting the fuse for explosion.
"Why lie, Melissa."
"......Huh?"
"You didn't know where that rift led. Why lie to me that you deliberately opened a hell rift."
The dazed look vanished instantly. The woman donned her blank mask again.
"......No idea what you mean. Didn't I clearly say last time I thought you went to hell?"
"No use denying. Your dark elf sisters spilled everything."
"Lilia, hm, yeah... no wonder her mind's frayed. Locked away rotting over 150 years..."
"More logical than your side despite that. You think by bearing intended and unintended alike, ruining yourself, I'd eventually see the truth and pity you?"
"......"
As expected, the blankness twisted. The converging fuse burned faster.
"What bullshit... you spout so prettily, Kadim? How'd you come up with such nonsense?"
"Snap out of it, Melissa. If someone erred irreparably but struggled a lifetime to fix it, I'd bless them in the martyr's name gladly. But pity for a weak fool jumping deeper into the pit? Not a speck."
"Heh heh, heh heuk... Spinning delusions so eloquently. But... even if I char your tongue to coal, could you keep it up?"
Fwoosh, fwoosh - !!
Faced with deadly threat and savage flames, the man remained serene. Rather, the woman faltered in momentum. Despite fierce aggression masking it, she couldn't fully hide the anxiety of exposed depths.
The relentless assault reeked of blood even without wounds. Kadim repeatedly stabbed her weaknesses, pressed, burned the fuse like wildfire.
Finally, shattering the heart's lock with explosion.
"Your goal isn't just finding me and preparing a haven."
"......What?"
"I saw it too. What you saw in hell."
Melissa froze like a cremated corpse.
Ashen eyes trembled faintly. Cracks split the blank mask. Sharp gaze pierced mercilessly.
"Then I understood. Post-ruin haven is important, but not your sole goal. Otherwise, you wouldn't have truly tried smashing the dream earlier. Probably third priority. First was finding me... already done."
"......"
"In other words, your top priority now, even at haven's cost... is withering the World Tree's roots and 'collapsing the rift' itself."
The mask shattered. Pupils shook wildly unfocused, heat haze distorting her face.
"What... what are you saying. Why would I want the rift collapsed and world destroyed...? I'm not some archdemon of that horrific demon realm..."
"Never said world destruction is your goal. It's a price. Great Cataclysm's hellscape world, godless extinct elves, bug-like humans dying to hell—all prices. What you arbitrarily decided to pay for your goal."
"......"
"So, you who burned world's lifespan as fuel, now seeking to burn the world itself for your ideal... is this."
The grand magician desperately hoped the blunt exposure missed truth, but the warrior's words coldly crushed it.
"......"
"......Right, Melissa?"
Golden blade-piercing gaze.
In that brief moment, convulsion wracked her like a spear through the heart.
"......"
The trembling stopped.
The ashen woman no longer wavered. Her locked heart already gutted piecemeal. In the memory warehouse swept by explosive tirade, scarce secrets left to hide.
......Save one nightmare bound deepest.
Melissa smiled resignedly and asked.
"So... you'll stop me?"
Before answer returned, she self-answered forlornly.
"No, stupid question. Of course, of course you would... You won't let the world perish. You need a way back to your original world here... and now bonds beyond me and old comrades."
"......"
"Then from now... you know how I'll respond?"
Guuuuuuung - !!
Space warped crimson-black, vortex flowed unstable, black flames blazed halo-like majestic.
―――― Kuhooooo...
Kadim had foreseen this. Yes, inner explosion too weak to snap her out.
No more talk needed. Muscles tensed. Twitch, twitch, twitch—pent bloodlust raged like unleashed beast. Fangs and shoulders emanated thickening aura.
Melissa sneered at it.
"Surely your prepared 'means' aren't just that? Dragon blood alone can't oppose me, Kadim."
"......"
The grand magician grasped it. What 'means' opponent prepared. Guessed a dragon-like special power, but not exactly how to wield 'that means'.
Made sense. In first playthrough, Kadim used this 'realm' when she lost consciousness to a high demon.
Thus, how fiercely the amassed blood would blaze...
An unknown realm even to a master of flame mysteries.
Kadim gripped Judgment of Atala firmly.
Whoooosh...
Pouring soul. Recalling mission, endlessly drawing divine ki.
Wringing muscles. Vaporizing blood to endlessly raise bloodlust.
Controlling diffusion. Mastering chaotic smoke, gathering to one point.
Blending energies. Using immovable mind as catalyst, fusing rampant flows into unity.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh - !
Yellowish haze and deep red mist intertwined massively. From body-enhancing aura to hair-trigger incendiary, irreversible change. Squeezing golden blood deepened hue, contracting around center.
Denser, denser, denser, denser.
Intenser, enough to make dying embers blaze madly in one breath.
Then finally, hue opaque obscuring vision, ambient air shuddering unstable, skin resisting from extreme compression.
"......"
Ignition.
―――― Fwoooooosh - !!
This blaze in these hands is flame kindled by the warrior's resolve sworn to eternal struggle.
Ignition.
―――― Fwoooooosh - !!
This blaze in these feet is flame kindled by the man's regret leaving the ashen woman's side.
Ignition.
―――― Fwoooooosh - !!
This blaze in this heart is flame kindled by demons' despair condemned as prey.
Ignition.
―――― Fwoooooosh - !!
This blaze in this soul is flame kindled by a great dragon's indomitable spirit defying even absolute judgment...
Behold.
All you feeble embers.
I am flesh that cleaves flesh, soul that burns souls, blood that devours blood, fire that consumes fire.
―――――――― Kwaruk, kwarurururuk - !!!
Conflagration erupted from his form. Crimson flames fiercer than dragon breath engulfed heaven and earth. Before its heat and radiance, the grand magician's black flames mere sputtering embers. Living fire reigning over all flames scorched hellfire everywhere.
"What have you..."
Melissa gasped, unleashing hellfire. Black flames surged as one, merging into obsidian waves annihilating all.
―――― Kuhooooo - !!
Crimson flash cleaved the black inferno in one stroke.
Shing - clang!
――――――――― Ku gu gu gu guwang - !!!
Massive explosion along the axe blade's path. Blast whirlwind raged, pervasive black flames extinguished without trace. By one stroke burning vital blood.
The warrior ablaze with blood asserted, straightening the axe blade's fiery mane.
"[Clash with your hottest flame, with all your soul, Melissa.]"
"[Or you'll burn out vainly like a moth to flame.]"