Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Volume 30: Conclusion (3)
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Sears gently stroked her sleeping daughter's head while gazing at the darkness lifting outside the window.
Though she hadn't slept a wink, sleep refused to come.
Her heart still pounded painfully, and anxious thoughts swirled chaotically in her mind.
Her beautiful features had grown haggard through the night, dark shadows forming under her eyes.
"Jamie."
Her young son.
She had heard that Jamie had returned from Mirene Forest with Beryl.
She was overjoyed at the news, but the soldier who delivered it also said that Beryl, Jamie, and the Bell Marquis had immediately set off to rescue the apostle of the goddess in peril.
Her son had headed into danger once more.
"Why must you..."
She clutched the hem of her skirt tightly.
This was no place for a child to step in. He should simply stay quietly by his parents' side and sleep until everything resolved safely.
"God, please..."
Sears pressed her clasped hands to her forehead, pleading earnestly with her god.
"Please return my child safely."
Her precious split image, whom she cherished more than anyone. If anything happened to Jamie, she felt she couldn't go on living in this world.
"I won't scold you even if you come back, so please just return safely... Please, I beg you."
It was then.
Light began to flow in from outside the window.
Was it because the direction of the rising sun aligned with where she sat?
Sears shaded her eyes with her hand and looked toward the window.
'It's not sunlight.'
It was too intense for sunlight.
After a moment, the light gradually faded.
Sears rubbed her bleary eyes and peered ahead.
Someone stood there. A woman dressed in a familiar gown.
"Who... are you?"
The woman who appeared with the light.
Sears instinctively sensed she was no ordinary being.
But her vision was still too cloudy to make out the face clearly.
The woman approached.
Sears flinched slightly, but felt no hostility from her.
Only warmth.
The footsteps drawing near, the hand reaching toward Sara's head.
The touch gently stroking the sleeping Sara was exceedingly careful, as if not to wake the child.
Sears felt that hand was familiar.
'My childhood.'
The memory of dozing on someone's lap under the shade of a great tree on a day bathed in warm sunlight.
The pleasant sensation of soft hands stroking her forehead and hair.
The clothes she wore then were a blue dress embroidered with pretty spring flowers.
Just like the gown the woman before her now wore.
Sears's eyes trembled. She lifted her head to look at the woman's face.
Her vision had cleared. The woman, who had been gazing at Sara with a happy smile, now turned to her daughter.
"Mother."
Sears shot up from her seat.
Her young and beautiful mother, who had passed away from illness in her childhood.
She caressed her daughter's cheek and opened her mouth.
No sound came, but Sears knew what she was saying.
-Everything will be fine. So don't worry.
With the light, she scattered into the air.
Sears stared blankly at the scene until her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor.
Then she began to sob like a child.
Sara woke at the sound of her mother's crying and clung to her, weeping together.
This moment coincided exactly with the resolution of all events.
Jamie slowly opened his eyes and lay still for a moment.
'What happened?'
The last thing he remembered before losing consciousness was Sable shaking off Ras and raising his sword to kill him.
'Where's Sable?'
He was nowhere in sight.
Since he was still alive, something must have happened.
Or perhaps this was the afterlife.
'The whole forest didn't move to the afterlife, so that's impossible.'
The place where Jamie lay was exactly where he had been before blacking out.
His heart was still beating too.
He decided to get up and check his surroundings.
He didn't know how long he'd been out, but his body ached all over.
"You're awake?"
At that moment, Ras emerged from the bushes.
"Where did you go?"
"I searched the area thinking the bastard might have fled, but he's nowhere to be found. More importantly, what happened?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You don't remember?"
Ras squinted one eye as he asked, but Jamie looked utterly confused.
"Short-term memory loss?"
"What happened?"
"An immense light poured out from you."
"Light?"
What light was he talking about?
He had squeezed out every last bit of power to hurl the final Lightning Spear.
After that, he couldn't even twitch a finger and had only awaited death.
"It was a massive light that enveloped the entire forest. When it faded, Sable was gone. I thought maybe he'd taken a fatal wound and fled, so I was searching the forest."
"......"
"Now that I think about it, it's strange. It was an incredibly warm light. It didn't seem capable of harming anyone..."
Only then did it come back to him.
The moment Sable swung his sword to kill him, light had burst from the necklace.
After that, someone's figure appeared, but he couldn't recall exactly.
Jamie hurriedly pulled out the necklace.
The blue gem had turned gray.
Jamie narrowed his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
Even as Ras asked, Jamie couldn't respond for a while.
The necklace had done something.
He didn't know exactly what, but the important thing was that it had saved his life.
'It helped me.'
Beryl's words had come true.
What on earth was this necklace that allowed him to survive a Sword Master?
And where had Sable gone?
"Hey. Jamie?"
"Ah, yes. Sorry, I was lost in thought..."
"But where did that guy disappear to?"
Ras looked just as baffled.
"He couldn't have died."
Sable was a skilled Sword Master and a monster who wielded Zenith's divinity at the archbishop level.
Jamie didn't think the necklace's power alone could have eliminated him.
It would be nice to know the material of the blue gem, but with the necklace depleted, that seemed impossible.
He resolved to ask the marquis once they returned.
"Let's head back too. He won't show up again."
"Yeah. But where did you send the others?"
While Sable was blocking Gremia’s light beam, Jamie had teleported everyone except Ras.
"Somewhere they'd be found safely."
"Where's that?"
"It's faster to go there yourself than explain. It's not far."
Jamie grabbed Ras and used teleport.
At that moment—
Beneath a scorching sun that felt like it would blister his skin, across vast golden sands.
Sable frowned at the expansive desert before him.
"Where... where the hell is this?!"
Just moments ago, he had been in a forest atop towering cliffs.
And in the midst of swinging his sword to kill Jamie.
Yet when he came to, he was here.
Was he dreaming right now?
For some reason, he thought maybe Jamie could have subdued him in that moment.
But he quickly dismissed it as absurd.
A kid who'd exhausted all his power wasn't some grand sorcerer—how could he pull that off against him?
But did this situation make any sense?
From forest to desert. Who could accept traveling an immeasurable distance in the blink of an eye!
"......"
In over fifty years of life, this was a first.
Maybe a mage had hidden a warp spell somewhere in the forest long ago.
"......Desert. A damn desert."
The continent where humans dwell is divided into five regions.
Central Continent , Eastern Continent <cariren>, Western Continent <arisha>, Northern Continent <olbia>, Southern Continent <brion>.
Deserts existed only in .
The Seldam Kingdom where Uptown lay was in , in the north no less.
In other words, he had been moved from the northernmost point to the southern continent.
Even estimating roughly, over 10,000 km. His mind reeled.
"This... this..."
Sable let out a furious roar as he stared at his trembling hands.
"You fucking bastard!!!"
The Sword Master's bellow shook the entire desert.
His rage was that immense.
It had been the perfect chance to end everything.
They had no means left to resist, and killing them all would naturally lead to the Pyro Church's self-destruction.
There would be no complications for the Zenith Church either.
But everything had gone wrong.
He still didn't know what had happened to him, but one thing was certain.
"I have to get back. I have to get back now!!"
The longer he was absent, the worse things would get for the Zenith Church.
Not because of the contract with the demon race.
That was trivial in the rapidly changing world ahead.
The great war centered on the Zenith Church.
On the battlefield for world hegemony, demons were mere minor catalysts.
Most preparations were already complete, alliances solidified.
And it was set to begin with the Pyro Church.
Yet some unknown force had transported him to the opposite side of the continent.
'The war can't proceed properly without me.'
Sable was the leader of the Seven Knights, a Sword Master, and an archbishop of the Zenith Church.
Equal in status to the pope, and in martial prowess, a one-man army.
He was to be at the center of the impending holy war.
Without that center, could they wage a proper war?
The initial surprise attack might succeed, but once the enemy's superhumans joined, it would change.
The allies had superhumans too, but none at Sable's level.
In the end, they'd be overwhelmed qualitatively and suffer defeats.
This was the result of the church's war simulations—indisputable.
'If we delay the war...'
Impossible.
If the demon contract leaked, many factions would demand answers.
Under fierce political pressure, the Zenith Church would inevitably resort to 'war' and ignite the holy war.
Just as originally planned.
"No time to waste here."
He had to escape the desert quickly.
Sable traversed the sinking sands as if walking on firm ground, moving swiftly.
'The war aside, slipping out of the southern continent quickly and discreetly is crucial.'
The strongest order that had ruled the southern continent alone for millennia.
Those who worshipped 'Ra', god among gods, symbol of sun and light—their power was formidable enough for even Sable to acknowledge.
And currently, a church at odds with the Zenith Church.
'If they catch wind of me here, it'll be trouble.'
If they discovered his presence, that horrific monster would pop up before him.
He who overwhelmed even Beryl, another Sword Master—but he wanted no part of Ra's monster.
Better to face him after fully conquering the north and center.
'How did I end up like this...!'
Jamie.
He would never forget that insolent brat.
Vowing as much, Sable increased his speed.