Chapter 201
Chapter 201
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 201
Chapter Title: The Eternal Unquenchable Flame (7)
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The Great Forest had lost its beautiful night.
The infernal flames and meteor shower had reduced Myriad Birth to ashes. The glowworms that once lit the darkness and the self-luminous plants had vanished without a trace. In this land overrun by death and ruin, it seemed the starry nightscape would never return.
Yet, for just this one day—the day destruction had come—it was an exception.
―――――― Wooong, wooong, wooong, wooong - !!
A dazzling blue light pierced the night's darkness. It floated about like a swarm of lively spirits, dyeing the entire forest in a dreamlike hue.
The source of that light cluster was 'mana'.
The ancient mana, known to have been depleted by the great magic of old, scattered and replaced by the meteor shower's great magic, finally returned to the world as the grand archmage's heart split open.
Roarrrrr……
Around that time, Kadim also extinguished his 'Blood Calamity Flame'.
"……Hup."
True to its advanced realm beyond ordinary divine arts, the backlash was dizzyingly intense. A searing pain like being burned alive assaulted him every single second. But after one brief groan, he didn't show any sign of agony.
At his feet lay a woman truly nearing the end of her life's journey.
"Cough, cough, heuk……."
Melissa gazed at the light cluster rising from her cracked heart, slowly awaiting death.
―――――― Wooong, wooong, wooong……
The 'Blessing of Mana' was barely clinging her life thread together, but it wouldn't last long. Kadim silently watched the flame of her life flicker out.
Then, a face suddenly came to mind, and he spoke.
"……Do you remember the Lord of the Magic Tower you left behind at the tower?"
"Cough, heuh…… Ah, Acula…… you're talking about……?"
"Yes, that was the name."
"Why Acula…… all of a sudden……."
"Something that guy asked me before he died came to mind. He told me to embrace you, understand you, and not cast you out. And if I had no choice but to kill you, to grant you peace with my own hands."
"……."
"It wasn't what I wanted…… but that's exactly what happened."
Melissa's lips twisted bitterly.
"Yeah…… Acula said that, huh…… You're right, that child…… thought of me that way…… such a good kid……."
"……."
"I did terrible things to that child too…… He always did his absolute best, like a 'human'…… Just because his roots were demonic…… I never properly looked back at him……."
"……."
"Well…… it wasn't just Acula…… Over the years…… I've ruined and lost so many precious bonds with my own hands…… Cyril, Gordon, Lilia…… They were all people who could have been on my side anytime, cough, cough……."
"……."
"You were right, Kadim…… Yeah, the wooden doll with eyes only for the woodcutter…… burned even her friends like firewood……."
Her body's condition was perilously dire, but Melissa's inner heart was more serene than ever.
Whether it was because death was imminent, because she'd poured out all the flames within her, or because she was resting by the side of the man she'd longed for so desperately—no one could say. What was certain was that she finally resembled the young girl mage Kadim remembered.
Melissa continued in a quiet voice.
"In the records I left behind…… before the part where I parted with Cyril…… do you remember the preface I wrote?"
"……Something about regretting why you acted that way, roughly."
"Yeah, I still think about that…… If I could go back to the old days…… maybe I could handle everything better…… My emotions…… my devotion and efforts…… that unquenchable fire inside me…… Even if you didn't stay by my side…… I could have used it all much more wisely……."
"……."
"But one thing's for sure…… This is not your fault…… No matter if you swallowed my fire, that doesn't change…… It's not your doing…… So, heung, no need to blame yourself at all, Kadim……."
But his emotions were already too deeply entangled for that. Kadim just pressed his lips tight without replying.
Melissa slowly scanned his form, then changed the subject.
"Oh, right…… those tattoos with effects like demon blood…… Did Cyril leave those?"
"……Yes. Cyril left ruins across the continent with relics that bear those tattoos."
"Yeah, I knew it…… Cyril, huh. Heung…… Damn, I can't help it…… Even now, I feel like I don't want to lose……."
She beckoned him with a shaky hand. As Kadim drew near and lowered himself, she gently caressed his neck.
Tzzzzz……
A chilling heat and a warm coldness washed over him at once. As the contradictory sensations settled, a pattern of mystic runes etched itself, glowing red and blue simultaneously.
"This isn't a spell with a particular name…… but, well…… 'Blessing of Fire and Ice' fits, I guess…… Cough, cough…… Now, nothing short of the abyss's hellfire or glacial blizzards…… will harm you with ordinary heat or cold……."
"……."
"So…… don't rely too much on those tattoos or the demon blood…… The powers from the blood, and the frenzy…… They seem connected to something 'inside your body'…… If it fully awakens…… like in the demon realm, your mind will be in great danger, I have a feeling……."
"……I understand. I'll be careful."
"Oh, and one more thing I want to give you……."
Melissa suddenly pulled Kadim's body close. Then, she softly kissed the other side of his neck.
"This is…… the 'Blessing of the Grand Archmage'…… The effect is…… you'll earn the envy of stealing the first kiss from a lovely grand archmage……."
"……Your lips are so rough, it feels like it'll scar my neck."
"Heh heung…… Who was it that wrecked a lady's lips so terribly…… If not for those brutish punches, they'd have been soft as petals……."
"You kept saying it didn't hurt, so I thought you could take it."
"……Sigh."
For a moment, they bantered like in the distant past. But with their bloodstained appearances and the heavy weight of reality pressing on their shoulders, it felt like children playing house on a battlefield—the disconnect couldn't be shaken off.
Melissa, as if this brief coquetry fully repaid her long wait, quickly wiped away the playfulness. She gazed endlessly at the distant night sky and brought up tales of old bonds.
"So, what happened to Cyril……? We parted so foolishly…… I really need to meet her again…… and apologize……."
"……That was the question I wanted to ask you. Other than Gale in hell, have you ever seen Cyril?"
"No, I haven't seen Cyril…… Cough, cough…… You're right, that makes sense…… If Atala's sane…… when a good person like Cyril dies…… he should take responsibility and bring her to heaven……."
"……."
"But if by some chance she's still alive…… the clue to her whereabouts might be in the 'wilderness'…… That's the homeland of all Atalans…… If she hoped you'd find her…… she'd surely leave something there, cough, cough…… timely……."
"……."
It was a plausible guess. He'd heard the stone tablet chasing ruins from Ilenia was found in the wilderness too. Kadim added it as a candidate destination for later.
"Oh, right…… That doppelganger just like my childhood self…… Gordon made it, right?"
"Probably, that's the most likely."
"Heh heung…… So he was alive, that dimwit priest…… But 'most likely'? You haven't met him yourself……?"
"You might not know, but Gordon left the Elga Church. Circumstances suggest he joined the Forgotten God cult, but maybe because of Elga's eyes watching from the sky, he never showed his face directly."
"Hm, I vaguely heard he apostatized from Elga…… So that's what happened. Well, maybe that priest has changed quite a bit from before, like me…… What do you think of him?"
"For now, I see him as closer to an ally. Even without showing his face, he sent a subordinate priest who helped quite a bit on the journey."
"I see…… Yeah, well, he'll manage…… but still, don't let your guard down. Whether that priest is truly helping you…… or sees you as a 'means' for some purpose…… that's unknown……."
"……I'll keep that in mind."
They'd covered all the others in the party; only one remained. The one comrade both had met, but who wasn't in this world anymore.
Melissa's pale lips trembled. Peace faded from her face bit by bit, replaced by a haunting nightmare. She covered her face with her palm and asked Kadim in a quavering voice.
"Kadim…… when you met Gale in hell…… did he tell you how he died?"
"No. I was in frenzy then, not in any state to talk."
"……."
"Come to think of it, he didn't look like he'd died of old age…… What happened to Gale after slaying that archdemon? Did you hear anything?"
"……No, I haven't heard yet either. Guess I'll have to ask when I get there, cough, cough……."
She slowly removed her palm from her face, staring beyond the rift. Her words just now reminded them both of the truth they'd been trying to ignore.
The woman reduced to ashes would go to hell.
"Yeah, well, no helping it…… Because of me alone, demons rampaged, countless people died, elves lost their lifespans, and the world nearly ended…… Of course I deserve to fall into hell's pit and suffer……."
"……."
No matter that she'd saved the world before, or that the man would share her sins, that fact remained unchanged.
For a moment, Kadim wondered if Melissa had committed heinous acts on purpose to go to hell where her comrades lingered. But he quickly realized it was futile thinking and let it go. Whatever the circumstances, the weight of her sins was unforgivable.
A silence as heavy as the abyss descended. Her eyes lost their light, the mana grew faint, her heartbeat slowed. Life's signs were rapidly fading from Melissa.
Before her heart fully stopped, Kadim commanded firmly.
"Atone."
"……Huh?"
"Your journey isn't over. When you fall to hell, find a substitute for 'mana' somehow. A grand archmage surely won't fail where a half-demon succeeded. Once you reclaim magic, devote your body to slaying demons and saving those innocently fallen to hell like Gale, and atone."
"……."
"Don't collapse in despair. Even if you engrave 'I want to give up' on every page like in your childhood, don't give up till the end. If you cling on fiercely in hell…… I will definitely come to save you and Gale."
"……."
"The place we all promised to reunite isn't in hell's pit, is it?"
For an instant, a smoldering flame flickered in her fading eyes.
Her lips curved softly. Her eyes welled red. Her frail, trembling hand caressed the man's rugged face. She stared piercingly into his black eyes gleaming serenely in the dark.
Just looking into his eyes was enough. The promise she'd repeated like a mantra in the demon realm's grueling times, that worn old promise, bound their hearts as one.
The woman like fire spoke first.
"Someday…… in a field…… where the sun never sets……."
The man like steel followed.
"……May we meet again, all together, smiling like the moon."
As the broken phrases connected into one complete sentence.
Her slender hand dropped with a soft thud.
The grand archmage closed her eyes peacefully.
―――― Wooong, wooong, wooong……
Mana flowed from her heart like a final breath. The drifting blue aura merged with the light cluster illuminating the forest, then carried away by the indifferent night wind, vanished into the distant, radiant starry clouds. It looked, for a moment, like the soul's final dance to a place of no return.
Kadim didn't shed tears, sigh quietly, or sink into grief.
His words against collapsing in despair weren't just for her. Calmly, he lifted the woman's cooling corpse, bracing her neck and ankles.
But as he picked her up, something slipped from Melissa's hand.
A half-burned scrap of pristine white paper.
"……."
Kadim set her down briefly and picked it up. The scrap's contents revealed themselves at once.
Pretending to burn it to provoke him, but unable to fully do so, she'd secretly kept it hidden in her hand.
A fragment of an unforgettable memory.
*
In the outskirts of a quiet rural village in the continent's east.
"Hng…… Ahhh, really…… I can't believe it, seriously……."
Long hair fluttered like shaking off a red carpet. The girl mage, brimming with youthful innocence, clutched a book as big as herself and fussed. Before her walked a barbarian who'd suddenly appeared and wrecked the village.
"Wait, hold on a sec! You can't just smash everything to bits and leave like that? How am I supposed to live in the village from now on, you barbarian mister? Huh?"
"……."
The girl had thought this barbarian, who from the start bluntly asked to travel together, was a human trafficker. Hearing the village chief—someone she was friendly with from various helps—warn her to beware the dangerous barbarian had nearly confirmed it.
The truth was the opposite. The one trying to sell the girl mage was the chief.
The continent's east was rife with power struggles, driving up the strategic value and price of mages. The chief had been kind to the rootless girl for a while to lower her guard, then planned to sell her to slavers by having the village men kidnap her.
But this barbarian burst in, smashed the house to pieces brutishly, broke the men's limbs, split the chief's skull with a handaxe, and rescued her—foiling all plans.
In short, to the girl, he was near-savior…… but the destruction's scale left her at a loss for aftermath. Chasing the aimlessly departing barbarian to demand responsibility, he turned slyly and asked.
"……Do you really need to keep living in that trash heap of a village? The other villagers seemed in cahoots with the chief."
"Uh…… well, yeah, but…… I don't really have anywhere else to go right now……."
"Perfect. Then, as I said first, follow me."
"No, hey! Who'd follow a barbarian who splits heads like firewood?!"
"I did it because you were in danger. Didn't I say you have a very important job only you can do? I had no choice to save you. I don't particularly…… like seeing human blood either."
"……."
Suddenly, she stared long at the man who'd turned un-barbarian-like.
The girl mage sighed deeply, shaking her head like she'd lost.
"Ugh, fine! I'll follow! I'm coming along!"
"……Really?"
"Yes, really! Calling you barbarian all the time is awkward anyway—what's your name?"
"Kadim. Your name is surely……."
"Melissa! I'm gonna be a grand archmage, so let's drop formalities and use casual speech right away!"
The girl mage shrugged proudly. The barbarian, as if he'd seen that gesture many times before, didn't flinch and just snorted.
"Oh, right, right! Wait a sec, go on ahead! I gotta do something quick and catch up!"
As the man went ahead, the girl slyly opened her record.
She had a habit of meticulously noting everything new she learned. So, checking her prior entry on the man to edit……
'Atalan from beyond the mountains' wilderness, copper skin, huge height and ogre-like build! (Human-monster hybrid? Possible? → See research topic 31), suddenly asked to travel together upon meeting…….'
……Reading it, nothing major needed changing. Mostly just appearance and actions.
After a brief ponder, the girl mage grinned and added just one line at the bottom.
"……What'd you write there?"
"Huh? No, nothing!"
As she hurried to catch up, the man eyed her suspiciously, but the girl mage didn't care. She pulled a straight face and hummed a tune onward.
With light steps like that, her hair shimmering in the warm spring sun, they took the first steps together on the journey to save the world.
*
Before the paper scrap crumbled, he read the contents one last time.
'……Still, he doesn't seem like a bad person!'
The man smiled bitterly like ashes.