Free Web NovelThe outskirts of the Roxe Forest.
The very center of the forest drowned in dense fog.
Luciano, kneeling before the fallen World Tree, slowly lifted his head.
At what he had just sensed, his golden eyes trembled with ecstasy.
"...I see. So that’s what it was."
A smile spread across his lips.
As if the pain and hunger that had tormented him for years had finally reached their end.
"It has already awakened. Everything was already prepared."
Luciano’s face twisted.
"My sacrifice, my body, my... new heart."
Luciano’s fingertips touched the ground.
BOOM— freēwēbnovel.com
A deep vibration that shook the earth itself rolled through the entire Roxe Forest.
A moment later.
A man in a gray cloak burst out from between the trees behind him, gasping heavily.
"Hah, haa...! Your Holiness!"
It was Cardinal Mel, who had just escaped from the laboratory.
Without even turning around, Luciano spoke quietly.
"You’re late, Mel."
Confusion appeared on Mel’s face.
Catching his breath, he hurriedly dropped to his knees.
"I, I failed to prepare the King of the Dead... no. I couldn’t turn her into a sacrifice, but...."
Mel’s voice trembled.
He squeezed his eyes shut tightly.
"But I did at least learn who that child is! The King of the Dead possesses ‘holy power’! Pure and unstained, almost as though—"
"Yes. A power similar to the one the World Tree possessed."
Luciano slowly turned around.
His gaze already seemed to see through everything.
"Remarkably stable. And self reproducing as well."
Mel stared up at him in shock.
"Y Your Holiness... have you already seen it?"
Instead of answering, Luciano raised a hand.
The moment he clenched his fist, golden rays spread in every direction from beneath his feet.
The Roxe Forest shook heavily once more.
"I do not need to see it to feel it."
Luciano looked at Mel.
"In the underground labyrinth. The power I searched for all this time has finally revealed itself."
"Y Your Holiness...."
While Mel prostrated himself at his feet.
Luciano’s body slowly rose into the air.
Overcome with reverence, Mel swallowed hard.
"Do not fear, Mel. Nothing will change. A new god shall descend upon this land before this night ends."
Luciano’s voice rang low and clear.
"...Until then, your purpose has not yet been fulfilled either."
Mel flinched and lifted his head.
At that very moment, light exploded before his eyes.
When he looked up, the sky was splitting apart.
Something that had covered the entire world from horizon to horizon shattered in an instant.
BAAAAM—! freēwēbnovel.com
Only a moment later did the surroundings erupt with a thunderous roar.
Mel stared blankly ahead.
The thing that had tormented the Order for decades.
The Veil.
The force that suppressed the activity of magical creatures and Magic Crystals during the day, weakening their combat abilities.
The transparent dome shattered like gigantic glass.
"Now the distinction between night and day shall disappear forever."
Luciano smiled.
The Veil had been the final shell of suppression left behind by the World Tree at the cost of its last strength.
A kind of seal that restrained magical creatures so they could act only at night.
And now that seal crumbled into golden dust across the heavens.
"I have wanted to destroy it for a very long time."
BAAM—! BAAM—! BAAM—!
Explosions rang out one after another behind Luciano’s voice.
"But I could not. Completely destroying the Veil required far too much power."
There had only been one method Luciano could use.
Temporarily neutralizing the Veil whenever necessary.
It never lasted longer than three days, but during those periods magical creatures could move in daylight exactly as they did at night.
People called those days the Day of Ruin.
Luciano stared indifferently at his fingertips.
As expected, after destroying the Veil, they had turned pale gray.
"It is still too burdensome for me."
At his murmur, Mel anxiously stepped forward.
But Luciano raised a hand to stop him.
"Do not fuss. Soon, this imbalance will no longer matter to me."
With his other hand, he clenched his fist.
And then, somewhere at the edge of the forest.
Very far away, heavy impacts rolled through the ground once again.
BAAM—! BAAM—!
"The seed of the World Tree. The moment I obtain that child, the curse will disappear regardless."
Luciano lifted his head.
In the distance.
Through the shattered Veil, the light of dawn was breaking through.
And at the same time, the roars of magical creatures echoed from every direction.
"At last, the morning I truly desired is arriving."
As if savoring the pouring sunlight, Luciano closed his eyes.
A peaceful smile appeared on his face.
"Finally."
The Great Temple of Sercanos.
"Raul! This way!"
The exit of the underground labyrinth.
Morning sunlight poured through the passage where the ceiling had completely collapsed.
Basto desperately ran toward the opening together with Raul.
Three unconscious children hung across his shoulders and back.
"Sir Basto! The passage...!"
At that moment, a pile of rocks crashed down from above, separating Basto and Raul.
"Go ahead! I’ll find another exit!"
Sweat streamed down Basto’s forehead.
"But the other route is blocked off...!"
Countless branching paths they had crossed inside the twisted labyrinth flashed through his mind.
As it collapsed, the labyrinth had silently turned into a trap.
They had been lucky enough to escape the laboratory, but because of that, the mercenary squad had been scattered completely apart.
Kiiiiieeeek—!
At that moment, the shriek of a magical creature rang out nearby.
Basto’s heart tightened anxiously, and he hurriedly lowered the children onto the ground.
Then he started clearing away the rubble.
"Raul! We’re under attack! Be careful!"
From the other side came the sounds of impacts, screams, and clashing blades one after another.
"No, no!"
Basto dropped to his knees and slammed his fists against the ground.
"Raul, damn it!"
Like Basto, Raul had also been carrying two children rescued from the laboratory.
And if it came down to it, Raul himself was practically still a child in Basto’s eyes.
His body had simply grown up... he had only recently become an adult.
'Even if we split up, the important thing is to keep moving forward. Got it?'
Bale’s words resurfaced in his mind from when he had handed him the war hammer.
'You already know that yourself. Unless all those years as a mercenary meant nothing.'
All sounds became distant.
'You can’t save everyone anyway. So when the time comes to choose.'
Basto stood back up.
Grinding his teeth, he hoisted the children back onto his shoulders.
His face, smeared with dust and blood, was filled with despair.
'Think carefully about what matters more. ...You’re only huge on the outside. Your heart’s too soft.'
The front passage was where Tesetan and Tie had gone.
Now that Luciano had summoned magical creatures, Basto also needed to reach Astie as quickly as possible.
And right then—
"Uncle Basto! Get down!"
A sudden shout rang out above his head.
When he looked up, he saw something cutting through the sky beyond the broken ceiling.
"...Astie?"
The next instant, something plunged down from the surface at terrifying speed and gently scooped the children off Basto’s shoulders.
"Yahoo! Tie did it!"
Basto stared blankly as Astie shot off into the distance again.
"...Tie. What in the world are you even...."
Astie was flying through the air.
Riding something with rainbow colored branches that was so fluffy it had circled all the way back into being bizarre.
"Uncle Basto! Hurry and get down!"
The shout thundered overhead once more.
Only then did Basto snap back to himself.
He hurried behind a massive boulder ahead of him.
At the exact same moment, Tie dumped something directly onto the pile of rocks blocking the passage.
Basto blinked slowly.
Three utterly out of place objects rolled across the ground in front of him.
Three dolls.
Brown, white, and pink.
Apparently Tie had stuffed so many of them into her child sized backpack that each one had ended up crushed somewhere inside.
"They’re orbs. Then why are they...."
The moment he muttered that—
The brown teddy bear lying face down twitched.
Then the white and pink bears also creaked upright like reanimated corpses.
Standing on their stubby legs, the three teddy bears simultaneously turned their heads toward the rubble.
And then—
BAAAAM—!
Beams burst instantly from all three pairs of eyes.
The brown one unleashed crimson flames.
The white one released razor sharp frost.
And the pink one fired a wave of ominous black light.
All three elements crashed into the passage simultaneously and swallowed the pile of rocks whole.
"Papa! Tie home run! Home ruuun!"
Tie’s absurdly delighted voice rang out overhead.
Feeling the heat wash over him, Basto swallowed hard.
