Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Life
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"Don't move!"
Her voice was still too young to call her a saintess. Elis clung to her fading consciousness with that fragile, vibrant tone-like grasping the last thread of salvation circling around her as she drowned.
"Haa."
Through her blurred vision, she looked behind the wolfkin aiming his bow at her.
A fortress, or rather a citadel built like a proper city with sturdy walls. Promnaine, the destination at the end of this pilgrimage route, peeked out just beyond the encircling mountains. No, up close, it looked precariously perched midway up the mountainside.
And then.
Puk!
Elis nearly dropped her sword as the arrow struck her right shoulder.
"That was just a warning shot. Come any closer, monster, and I'll blow your head clean off."
Monster?
Anyone could see she looked mostly human right now. Did they call humans monsters in Promnaine?
"Haa."
Puzzled, Elis slowly made her way toward the riverbank. The menacing steel longbow tracked her, but thankfully, it seemed he had no intention of firing as long as she didn't get too close. The moment she reached the riverbank, where thin ice floated lazily, Elis knelt and peered into the stream.
"Haa."
No, she gazed at the monster reflected in the stream.
It was the first time. Not some hazy image in the ice after her rebirth, but seeing her true self directly.
The face staring back from the gently flowing water felt so alien. Was this hideous thing really her? How much of the Elis she remembered remained in this rippling visage?
The Demon King must have felt the same.
"Monster......"
One arm severed, clad in black and red garb, face pale white-whether from hair gone fully gray or snow in her eyes, she couldn't tell. Eyes like fathomless abysses. No spark of life in that face. It was so utterly foreign that Elis plunged it into the icy water.
"Eup."
"Hey, what are you......"
"Puha!"
The cold intensified the closer you got to the frozen earth-not just from the falling snow, but from the hardening ground itself-and the sensation of her face freezing solid the instant she pulled it from the water reminded Elis of that fact all over again. She rose slowly once more and spoke.
"Is that Promnaine over there?"
The young wolfkin seemed flustered by her question, then lowered his bowstring and answered.
"Yeah. Who are you? What business do you have, wandering around covered in the blood of the undead like some living being? Are you even really alive?"
"I don't know."
Elis answered honestly, unsure if she was truly alive.
Not expecting the young wolfkin to understand her incomprehensible state, she raised her sword, letting madness flow from it.
"But I've come down from the mountain peak to deliver this madness."
A sword-blue glow rose from her blade, and the young wolfkin dropped to his knees at once, shouting.
"Forgive my insolence! Mercy, Kin of Sin!"
He trembled like an aspen. Seeing him, Elis felt a strange pang. Fear, the monster that caused it, and the fear of herself for becoming that monster. The fear spreading like cycles of birth and death felt like an inexplicable déjà vu.
Was it because she'd grown numb to death? The young life that had shot an arrow at her seemed pitiful, and she feared herself for making him quake in terror.
No, this wasn't the time. Head to the human city, and all truths would reveal themselves. So she pointed to the bridge and asked, eager to cross this river quickly.
"I want to cross over there. Will you guide me?"
"Ah, yes! Cross the river, and there's an entrance to Promnaine along the bank. The fortress sprawls across the mountain, so even after the entrance, you'll climb a winding spiral of stairs for a while-but once you reach the gate, you can head up quick enough!"
What kind of mental gymnastics was that? Elis just nodded silently and followed the young wolfkin. The river's current wasn't too fierce, aside from the floating ice.
She didn't know its name, but flowing from the massive range she'd traversed, it led toward the frozen lands-and Promnaine, hidden behind the swirling mountains, felt like a divine natural fortress concealed in this world.
Elis crossed the creaking iron bridge slowly, built to withstand the ice. And then, dawn broke.
"Ah."
The sun-veiled world's first light: orange glows piercing retreating night clouds, and the ice river sparkling in return. It was truly beautiful.
Elis offered a quiet prayer at the sight. She didn't know which god received it, but she gave thanks for the end of this pilgrimage path.
"We're here."
Stepping off the iron, Elis trudged through the snow again. Right after crossing, a gray woodland stretched beneath Promnaine. Bare of leaves, twisted thorns or branches coiled grotesquely, letting her clearly see the fortress behind and the clearing drawing near below it.
And even the clearing's master in its midst.
"You've come, Kin of Sin."
A snow-white wolfkin with deep navy fur splaying out like a cloak or wings. No ornate jewelry, but proper armor adorned him, one hand wrapped in black bandages-no, Iveldra's wings-and he scratched his deer-like long antlers with his claws as he spoke.
Elis realized those horns came straight from the Demon King, like the Night Phantom Queen's. The small wolfkin from his final memories, the last king's sole blood kin.
Levanaharon, son of the bluer-than-indigo moon, Saharon.
"Did the horns make you grow?"
"You know me?"
Levanaharon rose from his boulder perch. His frame dwarfed Elis's by two or three times at least.
She glanced around him. Massive stone pillars that looked human-made, the sheer rock wall at the clearing's end behind him, and the darkness beyond. To her senses, Levanaharon was unmistakably Promnaine's gatekeeper.
"From the Demon King's memories... I lived within him. Even reborn as Kin of Sin, by the gods' will or not, I've reclaimed them. As Elis Hope."
"I see."
Levanaharon took up the massive trident by his feet and continued.
"I came here bearing his horns to fulfill his final command. Hearing the situation from the Night Phantom Queen, I gathered my kind in this place hidden by mountains and rivers, safe from undead assaults, using Promnaine as our base. I guarded it, waiting only for his return."
"But I came instead. I'm the Demon King's knight. I'must go where the truth lies."
"Yes, the truth."
Now full morning, snow nowhere in sight, the Demon King's mightiest horn glared at Elis with murder in his eyes, speaking the truth he'd learned in Promnaine-and his role.
"Lady Iveldra commanded me to deliver the Kin of Sin. But I already knew the truth about you here. Offer the Kin of Sin, and the Demon King revives. Do you understand?"
He leveled his ice-cold steel trident at Elis.
"What? You mean... I'm the Kin of Sin that brings the Demon King back to life?"
"Exactly. And you, who called yourself Elis Hope, will die."
Elis finally understood why she'd been revived. She was the Kin of Sin-originally a being within the Demon King. She'd awakened only to return to him in the end.
Whether Iveldra intended it or not, the wolfkin king before her would kill her, offer her corpse, and do anything to revive the Demon King.
"I, Levanaharon-son of Saharon the Blue Moon, Demon King of all wolfkin-will slay you, offer your corpse, and revive our Demon King."
And perhaps Iveldra had led her here to die as well.
"I see."
Everything felt murky and suspicious, but amid this life's déjà vu, one thing crystal clear: the horrific killing intent crashing over Elis. Yet she didn't falter.
Even if delivering the Kin of Sin revived the Demon King, even if she must one day return to him. She had to reach the human city.
So overcome this gatekeeper-no, this final trial. That was all.
She could win with strength, or even his own logic of sacrificing the Kin for the Demon King. If offering it revived him, she could deliver herself unharmed right now. Didn't she have two such existences within her?
"I am the vengeance that delivers madness."
Elis drew her sword with her remaining arm. As the killing intents of two mighty warriors clashed wildly, the young wolfkin beside her vanished into the woods.
"And this is my final descent."
"Yes, come here and die. That's the meaning of your life."
"No, Levanaharon. I'must reach the human city and learn the truth. And discover what I alone can do, what only I'must do. That's why I was revived."
"Foolishly single-minded. You've forgotten nobler quandaries for one goal."
No matter what she said, the wolfkin king wouldn't believe her. Nor could she demand explanations from anyone else. Subduing him and pressing on was fastest.
"Come at me."
"Very well, bearer of the Kin of Sin."
Elis aimed her sword at the final foe blocking her descent and replied.
"I am Elis Hope, the Demon King's knight who bears the Kin of Sin."
And so the Demon King's knight charged at the Demon King's horn.