EP.188

“Your soul’s structure has been twisted.”

“…What?”

“Oh, it doesn’t mean you’ve become a god. I don’t know any magic that turns mortals into gods. It’s just that I was able to make it possible for you to ‘absorb’ fragments of the divine. Did you feel anything unusual?”

Back then, everyone who had been with me died, and everyone who attempted the same thing failed.

Was it because I kept moving until I could finally kill Abiditas?

And now. Even in a state where my body is being torn apart, even when I could collapse and close my eyes at any moment.

Why am I still not tired?

Why can I still move?

“Yes. Even at this moment, you are inhaling fragments of the divine. So I have no choice but to apologize.”

“Apologize? Why?”

To apologize means there’s something wrong, but just based on that statement, isn’t it a good situation? Just looking at the fact that I can continue fighting without getting tired while slaughtering the Seven Dragon Lords.

“You know about the curse you get when you kill the Seven Dragon Lords, right? Because you’ve done it.”

“Yes.”

“That’s not a curse. Ivan. To be precise, it’s closer to a blessing. The mortal body cannot withstand the divine blessing, which is why it appears to be a curse.”

Since it wasn’t a curse, it couldn’t be healed by the saint’s baptism. It was a type of blessing bestowed by a god.

“A blessing that shaves down human souls and transforms them into conceptual beings. In other words, anyone who kills the Seven Dragon Lords steps onto the first stairway to divine status.”

“Given that, I….”

“Yes. It’s only the first step. After achieving an extraordinary feat and soaking your body in divine blood, you ascend that stairway. You become a conceptual being and finally strip away the remaining ‘mortal part’ of your soul. Yes, you can become such an existence.”

Or perhaps you elevate your achievements by killing the ‘Seven Dragon Lords.’

The stature of a soul. Once it rises, it can no longer maintain the form of a mortal.

“Therefore, I forced you up that stairway. Your soul will gradually draw closer to divinity.”

“What if I defeat that one?”

“Perhaps that will solidify it even more.”

“How do I defeat it?”

At Ivan’s blunt words, Veolgrin was taken aback, which was unlike him.

“Are you not angry? I have just made you time-limited! Is that not clear to you?”

“Was it necessary?”

“…Yes. But…”

“That’s all that matters.”

Ivan looked straight ahead again. With Beolgrin’s appearance, the movement of ‘that’ was gradually slowing down. As if wary of him right in front.

He had bought some time to catch his breath.

“But, Ivan Petrovich. I must reveal that I have used you. You and your companions, even my daughter!”

Was it guilt? He hadn’t expected to see this side of the old elf. Ivan looked at Beolgrin with fresh eyes.

Could it be yet another proof that even elves could not escape dementia? The sane Beolgrin was someone who would never apologize or feel guilty.

“I have used your daughter as well. Your relatives… yes, ‘our’ companions too.”

“What?”

“I wanted to go back to my hometown. That thought alone consumed me. Perhaps these guys might show me the ending of this story. Perhaps, they could take me out of this hellish world and send me back to my hometown.”

He thought that if a hero killed the Demon King, he could return. So, he willingly took on the role of the hero party’s vanguard, risking his life to defeat the Warlord of the Seven Dragon Lords.

When that ended in failure, he remained in this world.

When the hero’s children form a new hero party and complete the new story, could he return then? If he taught these guys well and finished the remaining ‘stories’ in this world, would that be possible?

He made many attempts. He saved many people. And as many died.

He still remained in this world.

Kim Sun-woo finally gave up. He no longer said anything. He did not scream, nor did he comply.

He wanted to go back to his hometown. But still, he remained in this world. Yet, would he give up? No, he had learned many things, but he had not learned how to give up.

So he decided to use them again.

He would save them when they were in danger.

He would teach them when he felt they lacked knowledge.

When the journey began again, he would willingly perform the role of the vanguard.

And at times, he would assist them to be prepared for the approaching threats.

So…

“I have no right to blame you, Veolgrin.”

“Haha… Hahaha!!! You’re making me feel ashamed, really, really… How do you foreigners who have fallen into this world manage to make me so pathetic every time?”

Maximilian too, you as well. Why?

Veolgrin covered his face and sobbed. Soon, when he lowered his hands again, there was a sense of ‘determination’ shining beneath his eyes.

“My last determination has been made. I am also but a mortal, unable to resist the temptations. Please forgive me.”

“Just the conclusion.”

“Defeat that. I will handle the aftermath.”

Ivan silently gazed at Veolgrin. In his gaze, Veolgrin lightly smiled and shrugged.

“With this body, I can no longer engage with the material. I am also pushing myself quite hard right now.”

But.

Veolgrin trailed off, raising his head. He reached out. Towards the sky.

A morning star shines through the rift in the sky. The celestial mechanism twists.

The aurora descended, rippling.

What he looked at was beyond the sky. Among the constellations, the flowing magic encompassing the whole world. The movement of the celestial bodies. The rotation of the heavens and the grasp lurking above them.

Reaching out over it, grasping it. Pulling it down again.

Crushing the omens of disaster, stirring them into auspicious signs again.

Now the whole world was in a chaotic mix of great disaster and great fortune.

So turbulent that those grasping hands could not dare to reach for the world—.

“Now listen.”

Veolgrin slowly faded away.

Behind the dimming silhouette, the stormy snow gradually calmed. The night remained harsh, but no snow fell anymore—.

-Startled.

The foot that was about to step forward halted. No, the foot moved onward, but the body stopped. As if someone was pulling it back.

With the sense of touch gone, Ivan couldn’t immediately perceive the anomaly.

With the sense of hearing vanished, Ivan couldn’t hear the noises around him now.

But with sight still remaining, Ivan turned his head to look beside him.

“Senior!!”

Dmitri. You’re alive. Well done.

I could see a man gripping his shoulder and shouting. Other men were lined up behind him.

The emotions in their eyes were vividly apparent. They were the men of Krasilov, with no fear.

Everyone here had once invaded the Warlord of the Seven Dragon Lords and returned alive. The intimidation of the Seven Dragon Lords couldn’t bind them.

A trained agent should have no difficulty repeating an action once done.

All of them were sufficiently trained even by Ivan’s standards.

“What is the total number?”

Therefore, the last senior officer of the Cleanup Unit prepared to relay the operation again.

“Thirty-one. No total strength loss.”

“No, it’s seven hundred and thirty-two.”

Ivan turned his head again and looked at the group of people walking from afar.

At the forefront, with black hair fluttering in the rough wind,

an elf, glaring directly at him with one shining eye like a hawk, was grinning fiercely.

That glance was proof of the achievement of facing the Dragon Lord alone and surviving.

“Under Elpheira Cohenulf, the total number of the Swordsmanship faction is six hundred and ninety-four. We are participating.”

“You’re bad with numbers. Then why seven hundred thirty-two?”

“Because we are here too.”

Elpheira responded with a tired smile.

“The Hero Party is originally one body. We won’t leave anyone behind again.”

I see.

Ivan nodded calmly.

The snow cleared, revealing the frozen landscape of Ydranhill. A massive branch burst out, smashing a pillar of the Eternal Palace, towering like it was stabbing the sky.

Finally, the Warlord of the Seven Dragon Lords had been unleashed upon the world. But, yes.

The current Hero Party, along with all the members who faced the previous Dragon Lord, were gathered here.

This should be doable.

Ivan nodded at the gaze of Veolgrin felt from somewhere in the sky and said,

“The immediate task is the death of ‘that thing.'”

Somehow, I felt a little cheerful.

“The top priority is survival.”

So don’t die. Ivan finished with a faint smile.

“The grand strategy is the end of winter.”

*

“Ku Geor. Yes, let winter die. For there is no eternal season.”

Veolgrin looked down at his increasingly fading form and smiled.

“Now the harsh season of the gods will come to an end, and the season of man will arrive. That is enough. That is all.”

Is that really so?

Did you truly devote your whole life for such a noble ideal?

You, mortal who greedily consumed wisdom. Is that truly enough?

Whether it was an echo or the whisper of his own desires, or perhaps a true trial set upon him by the gods, none of that mattered. Veolgrin nodded with a smile.

“Indeed. Would a great elf be inferior to a human?”

You all will meet your end in solitude. No god will help you now. All your prayers will be disregarded. You will perish lonely in silence.

“The gods have never answered our prayers, and we have never hoped for their help.”

Veolgrin concluded as he gazed at the shimmering sky.

“Moreover, does solitude not signify standing alone? Those who can stand and walk on their own legs are, in essence, their own gods. Now the mortal realm shall finally be free.”

You will perish. Your soul will be torn apart and scattered as dust.

“That’s a pitiful last will. As parents, should we not bless our children’s independence? Now be silent, you forgotten ones. Just watch.”

The first sight of your child gaining independence.

With a smile, Veolgrin looked down at the earth, at the people scurrying about, fondly.

Finally severing all the desires that almost clung to him grotesquely, he smiled.

Yes, act.

That burden I shall bear. And then.