The Blood Flame
In the original story, Eunhwa’s first appearance remains etched vividly in my mind even now.
Tens of thousands of troops gathered on a vast battlefield. It was the first deployment of the princess who had received the kingdom’s blind adoration. Expectation filled the air; with her power, surely this long, drawn-out war would end in a single stroke. That conviction and reverence saturated the entire camp.
The world’s beloved child. Was that praise permitted only for her?
—Clack.
It was the sound of arrogant certainty shattering.
In the exact center of the headquarters, surrounded by layer upon layer of soldiers, a white shadow descended. The owner of that shadow, dragging a blood-red blade, approached the princess with leisurely steps.
—Slice.
Like weeding out the grass sprouting from the ground. In the blink of an eye, the neck of the revered princess fell helplessly to the earth.
It was only after that moment that the tens of thousands of soldiers registered her death. And what came next?
—Whoosh.
Fierce flames erupted in succession from every soldier’s body. The dark crimson fire spread endlessly, consuming their flesh without a trace. If a fragment of hell had fallen upon the earth, it would surely have looked like this.
Eunhwa’s Authority, Blood Flame.
The five members of the Creation Society were each granted an Authority that could be called a providence. A rule that only those who held heaven within them could possess. Just as shadows deepen when light falls and all living things inevitably return to dust, could this be called a law of the world?
Beneath an Authority, an inevitable rule applies regardless of one’s existence.
If even the tiniest hatred toward her bloomed, the Authority’s punishment would descend instantly. Crimson flames that burned like blood. What scattered at their end was nothing but a handful of ash. That was the fate of everyone who had stood before her.
An enemy you had to fight without looking at? There might be some way to manage it. But then—
Was it even possible to enter battle without harboring any enmity at all?
“Deluge!”
With a sharp splash, the moment Eunhwa sliced through the enormous sphere of water she had manifested, a torrent surged up from the ground as if in reverse, completely obscuring her vision. She immediately twisted her body, extending her right leg behind her. Sword energy carved through the air in an instant. The blood-red blade cleaved the cascading waterfall in a single stroke.
Beyond the parted mist, the female mage’s figure appeared once more.
“—?!”
Before the powerless stream of water could even touch the ground, Eunhwa pivoted on her toes and kicked off the earth toward the mage. She had no intention of giving her opponent time to prepare the next move. Just as her blade closed in—
“—Hup!!”
“!”
Clang! A sharp rupture rang out as Eunhwa’s sword was knocked aside by a blow from the side. What filled her stumbling vision was a metallic circular shield that had interposed itself between them. A man with flowing dark hair now gripped that shield and charged forward. The bloodstains on its surface were clearly from the soldiers she had cut down earlier.
Eunhwa was startled once again. Twice now, resistance against her had been permitted.
‘Is the Authority not working?’
No. That couldn’t be.
Eunhwa immediately readjusted her grip on her sword, preparing for the counterattack that would surely follow.
“..?”
Yet her opponent performed no follow-up motion. The two figures simply held their stances, wary only of her next action. Strangest of all was the man’s gaze. He refused to meet her eyes directly. He kept his breathing suppressed and fixed his attention solely on her feet.
“….”
Eunhwa’s eyes narrowed. She decided to test them with one simple action. She immediately poured heavy strength into her lower body. Her blade sank low.
—Tap.
Her sword shot toward the water mage at blinding speed once more. As expected, the dark-haired man immediately threw himself forward to protect her.
“?!”
In that instant, Eunhwa’s arm twisted with unnatural flexibility. Her true target had never been the mage to begin with. Her blood-red eyes had already locked precisely onto the man. In a flash, the blade that had changed trajectory mid-air came crashing down toward him. It slipped into the blind spot the shield couldn’t cover—an attack too late to react to.
“Noriel!”
Bang—!
A jet of water exploded from the side. The hydraulic pressure struck only the man, shoving him in the opposite direction, and the resulting shock barely twisted the sword’s path. Eunhwa did not dodge from her position. And once again, no counterattack came against her.
‘So that’s how it is.’
The magic’s target had not been her true self. Eunhwa used the recoil to leap backward and create distance. Her brow twitched faintly. Was it displeasure at having her Authority analyzed?
“…You understood my heavenly grace in such a short time? Truly, facing one who sees ahead is wondrous indeed.”
“Is that so? Since you’ve enjoyed that strange amusement, I’d appreciate it if you’d be satisfied and withdraw now.”
“How arrogant. Even without the providence, I myself have not grown weak.”
Eunhwa quietly stared at the metal shield the man clung to as if it were his lifeline.
“Yes. That scrap of iron was the clue, Foreseer.”
“…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“No matter how overwhelmingly weak one may be, the moment they grasp a bladed weapon, killing intent inevitably sprouts.”
If what the man had gripped and appeared with had been a sword, he would have unconsciously harbored the intent to attack. Eunhwa raised the blood-red blade she held toward the man.
“Such is the nature of existence. Just as every thing in creation is given its own meaning, the moment they become entangled, one naturally recalls that essence.”
What the dark-haired man held was an exceedingly crude shield. It was nothing more than a lump of iron that could be shredded like paper by her blade at any moment. The man had instinctively sensed this truth, and the psychology of a loser had crushed the spark of enmity, allowing him to evade the Authority’s gaze.
“…You used your head quite well. Well done. At least, there has been no one like you for several years.”
Then Eunhwa’s gaze shifted past the man to the female mage behind him. The extremely restrained mana despite possessing such a vessel—the alien sensation brushed against her senses.
“Did you instruct that woman as well? At best, she can only barely hold onto you, it seems?”
“…You talk quite a lot, surprisingly.”
“It must be moving. Everyone who has ever stood before me turned to ash before they could take more than a few steps.”
The idle chatter was over. Eunhwa began channeling sword energy into her blade once more. Just as a blood-red haze started to ripple behind her—
Clink.
“…Wait.”
Eunhwa’s movements froze for a moment. An expression as if something had occurred to her crossed her face.
“I have one question for you, Foreseer.”
“…?”
“Gluttony. Was its disappearance perhaps also your doing?”
“—Gluttony?”
In that instant, a different light flickered in the man’s black eyes. Eunhwa did not miss the change. Her suspicion drew close to certainty.
“Originally, the world was not yet ready for their awakening. Yet the conditions were met far earlier than the trajectory engraved upon the stars had indicated.”
She spoke of the kin of Calamity. The man seemed to already understand.
“We wished to observe what choice that shaken trajectory would make, so we awakened an Outer God in the vicinity and released it.”
“—!”
“However, as expected, the descent was imperfect. Therefore, rather than indiscriminate predation, we urged it to first forge its might.”
The man’s shoulder twitched once. It was clear a memory had caught on him.
“Even taking that into account, Gluttony met its end far too soon. At the very least, it should have swallowed half this country—or even the arrogant queen’s eyes—before facing its demise.”
For a moment, the man glanced back at the female mage behind him, as if checking her reaction. The concern was brief. He slowly turned his gaze forward again and spoke in a far more rigid voice.
“…Why are you telling me this?”
“Because it is the root of the dissonance we felt. We intended to confirm it even if it meant postponing the plague we planned to bestow upon the north… but it seems we have found the cause.”
The plague to be bestowed upon the north. That too was surely a fragment of the Creation Society’s Authority.
“Foreseer. If we assume you intervened, it still does not explain why Gluttony was twisted.”
“……What exactly have you been watching until now? The delusion that I possess such power…”
“Do you truly believe opposing a Calamity could be accomplished with mere brute force? Rather, would not one such as yourself have found that exceedingly slim answer?”
The man offered no reply to her assertion. The silence was short before he slowly parted his lips.
“…Then I have one question as well. If that thing had not been stopped… what fate was that place meant to meet?”
When Eunhwa heard the man’s question, she quietly closed her eyes, then opened them and continued.
“It would have become Gluttony’s fertilizer. That was its original purpose, after all.”
“—.”
“However, it was unexpected that it could not even bring a single village to ruin. Perhaps I placed too great an expectation upon the vessel of Calamity.”
Even as she spoke those words, Eunhwa suddenly sensed something. The air surrounding the man had changed. As expected. Eunhwa shook her head slightly. So her conviction had been correct.
“When looking down upon this trajectory… if all of this was your doing, Foreseer……”
Her words cut off mid-sentence.
—Fwoosh.
“…You. You continue to present no small amount of surprise.”
“N-Noriel—?!!”
It was because she had seen the man whose upper body was half-consumed by dark crimson flames, yet who glared at her like a vengeful demon. And that man spoke in a low, broken voice.
“You… son of a bitch.”