The Meaning of Protection (1)
The Meaning of Protection (1)
A sign of divinity.
The light was not quite worthy of being called divinity itself. Yet it was magnificent. It glittered, cold and blue like a glacier hit by a spotlight.
It was like a festival in some northern village.
But Blue Sirius’s heart felt none of that. She became reacquainted with the sensation of her blood running cold, a feeling she hadn’t known for a long time.
Rage was a fine motivator, bringing out strength beyond the ordinary.
Even more so when that rage was born from love.
Even the dust cloud that had blurred the surrounding landscape became a snowstorm, chilling the air. Inside that frost-laden wind, Blue Sirius’s hair whipped coldly.
“Jae-jung... I’ll save you soon. Wait for me.”
Crack!
The moment she took a step, a massive ice crystal in the shape of a snowflake formed around her foot. The snowflake-shaped ice gradually lost its original form and shot outward like blades. The vicious edges of ice stabbed at Contradiction’s feet.
Feeling that sensation, Contradiction laughed as if intrigued.
“Hahaha! That’s almost at the 6-star level! Libra, isn’t he nearly your equal?”
“Shut up. As I am now, I am no longer bound by the mere count of stars.”
“Right. That’s true.”
Contradiction chuckled again and opened his palm. The spear that had been deflected far away flew back into his hand. The long handle shortened as one rod retracted inside another like a baton being stowed. The spearhead folded in on itself. Through this process, it reverted to its original form: a shield.
“Then I shall take my leave now.”
“...What?”
Libra asked in return, and Blue Sirius’s brow twitched.
“What’s the problem? Didn’t you just tell me to fall back? I’m merely honoring that request.”
Contradiction dusted the grime and frost from his shield as he continued.
“Besides, there are two of you, and each of you has one star. It’s a perfect balance, so there’s no reason for me to interfere.”
“Do you think I’ll let you leave?”
“If you don’t let me leave, then I’ll kill this man right now.”
He raised a red steel boot. Then he immediately brought it back down. The boot brushed past Han Jae-jung’s cheek and stomped the ground. It was an unmistakable threat.
Blue Sirius thrust her rapier forward swiftly. A spear of ice was launched. It was an ice shard intended to cool her boiling insides. Contradiction smoothly bent his back to avoid it. An icicle shot past where his face had been a moment ago.
“Do you want to die?”
“I apologize. Please try to understand. I don’t possess any exceptional mobility skills. If you pursue me, I’ll be forced into an unwanted fight. The best I can do is run fast. Hmm? No, that’s not quite right... I retract that statement.”
Contradiction smiled brightly, as if a new hypothesis had come to mind.
“Haha, I didn’t even need to seek your understanding to run away.”
One of his blue eyes bled into red. Perfect balance had been achieved.
The Contradiction principle activated.
He replicated an ability.
A set of golden scales materialized on his shoulder before anyone knew it. He had replicated Libra’s star.
“This solves the problem, then. I really am sorry about this.”
Contradiction bowed his head. It wasn’t directed at Blue Sirius, but at Han Jae-jung. Standing over his head, Contradiction whispered quietly.
“Let’s have another bout later. I’ll look forward to seeing your full power then.”
Giving a sermon and encouragement to a man drifting between life and death—this guy really was kind while being a complete asshole. Han Jae-jung gave a weak laugh.
Contradiction straightened his back and this time addressed Blue Sirius.
“Let’s meet one-on-one next time.”
It was an indirect declaration of battle. Blue Sirius would now be unable to avoid a fight. A single sphere rose up over the shoulder of the bowing Contradiction. It wasn’t hard to see that it was one of the stars of Scutum.
“The transaction is concluded.”
Clank. With those words, the golden scales on Contradiction’s shoulder balanced themselves horizontally.
Red and blue smoke scattered everywhere. Just as Libra had done before, this was a teleportation using a transaction. Considering the price was a single star, it could be seen as a grossly unfair trade, but when one factored in Contradiction’s abilities, it wasn’t significant damage.
Starlight recovers over time anyway.
“Everyone, goodbye.”
And so, Contradiction vanished calmly.
“He actually left, the crazy bastard.”
Only Libra remained. Blue Sirius’s expression crumpled. To leave so leisurely without receiving any punishment—that was deeply unpleasant.
But she set aside her displeasure for the moment. There was still work to be done.
The unending rage blazed and froze the world.
Blue Sirius moved the rapier she was holding. Slash. A blue sword wind swept between Libra and Han Jae-jung. A wall of ice rose up along that sword wind’s path.
“It’s a shame I couldn’t tear that guy apart...”
It was regrettable that Contradiction had escaped. But now was not the time to dwell on it. The entire floor had already become an ice rink. Under her boots, she formed thin, skate-like blades out of ice.
After shielding Han Jae-jung, Blue Sirius immediately charged at Libra.
“But I’m so glad you’re still here.”
The tip of her sword, frozen cold by rage, was fixed on Libra. Blue Sirius reached out and thrust into the empty air. There was no need to physically touch Libra.
Snow-Blossom Path.
A glittering path of snow rushed over him. It was a path made of a blinding light, and it was a sword. An ice storm with the mass of a missile slashed apart everything on that path.
“Ugh...!”
Libra leaped into the air using the high-speed movement characteristic of the Pseudo-Divinity State to evade it.
“You have to suffer at least as much as you made Jae-jung suffer.”
A faint shadow fell over Libra, who had jumped into the air. It was a shadow as if the sun was shining through a thin piece of glass.
Phantom Frost Sword.
The Binary Star Clone was best suited for stabbing an enemy in the back. The glass-like ice clone swung its sword once more. The second strike of Snow-Blossom Path.
Kaboom!
The second Snow-Blossom Path struck Libra directly. Having felt the full impact of a hit that felt like being ground in a blender, Libra endured the pain and gathered starlight in his fist.
Once it was ready, he swung that fist without the slightest delay.
Noble Radiance Convergence.
A massive golden spear, one that could ignite anyone’s desire, pushed the ice away.
An overwhelming heat ray, bright enough to temporarily erase the sun’s light, shot up into the sky. Its sheer presence stole Blue Sirius’s gaze. She had been delayed by the slightest fraction of a second.
Libra, landing on the ground, gathered golden light in his fists again. This time it was both hands, not just one. His gaze was not directed at Blue Sirius.
Divinity. That viciously explosive light compressed itself. It was so dense it looked ready to erupt outward at any moment. Two extremely small golden disks floated above his two fists.
Libra struck those two disks.
His target was Han Jae-jung.
Heavenly Scales, Falling Chaos.
As the scales of heaven fall, all things are plunged into chaos.
It was as if a star fell from the sky. The difference was that what fell was not a star but destruction made of starlight, and the direction of the fall was not from above to below, but from side to side.
The light moved as fast as if it were being pulled by gravity in a direction where no such force should apply. Violence that tolerated no survivors within its trajectory was executed.
“Sacrifice yourself for the greater good!”
At this very moment, Han Jae-jung’s body was still in a critical state. He was absurdly too weak to move. The ice wall looked far too thin to block the beam of light. It was a moment where neither movement nor defense was possible.
I must not die. That thought alone filled his head. There was fear there. A terror that surpassed instinct.
Blue starlight scattered at the edge of his vision. He turned to look at it for an instant.
He saw a star.
A beautiful blue star.
[ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION.]
Even as the overwhelming golden light erased every other source of brightness, only that one thing remained vivid to him.
I must not die.
If I die here and now, I will leave a wound on her that she can never wash away for the rest of her life.
Just one moment would be enough. When everyone was blinded by the light, if only he could defend his body for that sliver of time.
“No!”
Blue Sirius swung her rapier. Her clone did the same, simultaneously, from both directions. A three-meter-thick ice barrier blocked the path of the light. It was a desperate resistance. But it was meaningless.
A star that was infinitely close to divinity had been condensed to its limit and fired. She was still one step short of being able to block all that light. The ice wall melted like candy and scattered into fragments.
The light reached right in front of Han Jae-jung’s eyes. The power had diminished slightly, but it was still enough to melt a single person. His vision went white. Terror descended.
But with it came resolve.
In that instant, Contradiction’s words flashed through his mind.
Are you ruled by the star, or chosen by it?
Which will you shoulder, desire or duty?
He was neither of those.
[THE BIG DIPPER.]
Just before the light touched him, green armor encased his body. For some reason, there were cracks running through it.
[ORIGIN.]
Kabooooom!!!!
Simultaneously, the light slammed into his body.
That was the end of Han Jae-jung’s consciousness.
The place where the light had swept through seemed as if it could harbor no remaining life. The asphalt road had melted entirely, giving off an acrid smell. The street was thick with flames. The debris of buildings, collapsed not from a direct hit but merely from being nearby, decorated the road.
There had been light, and then darkness came. The smoke from the melting and collapsing obscured the view in a different way.
“Jae-jung!”
Blue Sirius, thrown into a panic, ran toward that spot.
She froze and pushed aside the obstacles around her as she raced toward the end where the light had reached.
Libra had already vanished.
“Please... God... don’t do this to me... please...”
The moisture thick in her voice gave an idea of the pain she was currently feeling.
[Guardian, please calm down.]
“Can’t you see what’s happening right now?!”
She even snapped at her mascot, whom she normally never got angry with.
The smoke gradually cleared.
[I say this with good reason.]
The mascot, in the form of a loyal dog, continued without the slightest waver.
Inside the smoke, a human figure was revealed, not ash. Every inch of the road the light had fallen on had melted, but this one person had maintained their form.
[Life signs are detected.]
The body was covered in wounds everywhere, but it was not a corpse.
[He is still alive.]
He was alive.
**
In the dark depths of his unconsciousness, Han Jae-jung felt a warm touch. It was a sensation he knew from having nightmares. Someone had held his hand like this when he was suffering from a dream about the time he lost his entire family. It had been his lover.
Why.
He couldn’t remember his family’s faces or his lover’s face now. Had they all been apart for so long that they’d evaporated from his memory? Feeling a sense of sadness, he groped for a name.
“Seol-hwa...”
His eyes flew open. Had he finally lost his mind? Why did that name come out? Startled, Han Jae-jung sat up.
“Sorry to disappoint you that I’m not Seol-hwa.”
A sarcastic voice. He turned his head toward its source.
“Pink... Deneb...?”
“We meet again, old man.”
Pink hair flowing down to just above her waist, a short stature evident even while sitting, and small, soft hands to match that small frame—one of those hands was holding his right hand. It wasn’t just her appearance that caught his eye, but also her attire.
A dress mixing white and pink, the kind that looked hard to wear around normally, and a celestial feathered robe that flowed from her shoulders.
It wasn’t her everyday look. It was her transformed appearance.
“Are you really disappointed that it’s me?”
Contrary to her soft-looking clothes, her attitude wasn’t particularly gentle.