EP.215 Traces of disaster (2)
I stepped on the remains of the collapsed castle wall and walked beyond it. Even if half of it collapsed, the wall was huge, and it took a long time to get over it.
Patter.
Standing at the edge of the collapsed castle wall, I looked down. Cardi said. If you cross the wall, you will find the capital of Arcadia.
“···Hey Cardi.”
I called Cardi.
Cardi, who climbed the castle wall a beat later than me, answered while shaking off the dust from her robe.
“What.”
“This is the capital?”
“okay. The heart of Arcadia. “It is a place where there was once a royal castle, and it is true that it was called the capital.”
“···this?”
I pointed beyond the castle wall.
“This was the capital?”
What catches your eye is ruins.
The ground was cracked, and fragments of buildings and towers were floating in the air. The debris floating in the air did not even move slightly.
‘As if it was stuffed.’
There are hundreds and thousands of them.
I took a deep breath and looked further down. Beneath the debris, a gap in the cracked ground. Something was leaking from there.
Fog.
A gray fog that resembles dark clouds.
A thick fog seeped out of a gap and crawled across the ground, and flashes of light flashed periodically in the fog.
Kwarung!
There was a flash of light, and a roar followed it a moment later. The sound of thunder hit my eardrums. I flinched and trembled at the sound of thunder that came out of nowhere.
“···Lightning?”
Lightning struck from the ground toward the sky.
Black lightning that is neither blue nor white. The afterimage of a single black flash heading towards the sky remained long in the air.
It is a sight that defies common sense.
It is a place where providence does not work.
I stretched out my hand and read the flow of mana that existed beyond the castle wall.
‘Magic energy.’
Dense demonic energy vibrates everywhere.
The flow of mana swallowed up by the demon energy was extremely sharp, and it was clear that the moment the arrangement of the mana was disturbed, it would be swept away and torn apart in an instant.
‘I don’t know if it’s Cardy without mana…’
It was quite a difficult environment for me.
“under···.”
Demonic landscape.
I swallowed dry saliva as I pondered the first word that came to mind. The thick magic energy that vibrates in this place, the capital of Arcadia, brought back terrible memories to me.
A memory that makes me tingle just thinking about it.
Just by tracing that memory, I felt a phantom pain that felt like my heart was throbbing.
‘Black Field.’
An endless field that faced the devil.
That place also had the same atmosphere as what I see now. The point was that you could feel death just by taking a step.
‘The only difference is…’
I slowly looked up at the sky.
‘It must be that there is no devil.’
Looking up at the sky, I remembered the day I faced the devil. There was no such thing as sky there.
Black debris swallowing up the sky.
Something unknown blocking the light.
That day, from the moment we stepped into the field, rain fell from the sky, and the black raindrops that fell endlessly began to pool in the furrows carved in the meadow.
A lump formed by stagnant sediment.
The shape of something that poured down from the sky.
『■■, ■. ■■■■■■.』
Fortunately, that lump of waste that was making an inexplicable noise was not here.
The surroundings were dark, but that was because starlight did not reach this place, not because something swallowed up the sky existed here.
“Why, is it more than I imagined?”
As I was swallowing dry saliva, Cardi made a joke. I smiled bitterly and looked at Cardi.
“uh. The scenery of the capital city is very avant-garde. “Do you think the architect had a unique way of thinking?”
“Are you the only one who can do it?”
“what?”
Sighing, Cardi burst out laughing.
“Then let’s go.”
Leaping from the wall, we landed on the nearest floating debris. With the sound of thunder ringing in succession as the background, I leapt after leap.
widely.
Cardi didn’t give much explanation, but I instinctively knew where the destination was. My vision turned to a huge castle shrouded in fog.
‘Ancient royal palace.’
A royal castle located in the center of an ancient kingdom that has been transformed into a demonic realm. It resembles the White Night Palace seen in the north, but is several times larger than that.
That place shrouded in fog would be the destination.
‘and···.’
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If you get there.
‘You might know something.’
What Cardi wants to tell me.
Something I have to see and realize with my own two eyes.
It was clear that it was in that castle.
2.
It is the moment when we are leaving Delohim’s main church and trying to escape the land of ashes. Kyle stopped walking as if possessed by something and looked behind him.
“······.”
Traces of the fall of a kingdom.
Where the traces continue, there is a huge castle wall. Although it is very far away, Kyle feels uneasy about ‘something’ beyond the walls.
A feeling as if something is crawling up my spine.
A feeling of burning in the throat.
It’s a feeling I felt a long time ago. Kyle recalls the moment she felt that sensation. It is an unforgettable memory.
‘···Devil.’
Because that was the feeling I felt when encountering that monster. Kyle casually smoothed the hilt of the holy sword.
“Kyle, what are you doing?”
“···It is nothing.”
Remia, who was walking ahead, looks back.
Kyle shook his head. Whatever sensation she felt was none of her business. I had no intention of going beyond that castle wall anyway.
“…Kyle, you know.”
As he started walking again, Remia came to Kyle’s side at a fast pace. Then, he whispered in a low voice into Kyle’s ear.
“Sarah, you look really upset.”
“···is it.”
“You have to do something. “If you leave it like that, I think it’ll be sulky for a few weeks.”
Kyle looked ahead.
The back of Sarah, who was moving forward as if she was tearing down the remains of a building, came into view.
“…I will try my best.”
“Sarah is simple, so I guess I can buy you something? “While you’re at it, please take care of something for me too.”
After saying that, Remia walked away from Kyle at a brisk pace. Remia arrives next to Sara, who has already gone a long way, and puts her arm around Sara’s neck and whispers in her ear in a low voice.
The distance was far and the voice was small… but Kyle’s sensitive hearing was able to accurately pick up even the smallest sounds.
“Well said. If you show that you want something, Kyle will probably buy it for you. So, right now…”
“···really?”
“huh. “Have you got something in mind?”
“Ah, now that I think about it… the design on the Black Magic Tower this time is really pretty…”
“That one that doesn’t have any function, but just has a good design and feel of the fabric?”
···The reward for this subjugation will be completely lost again.
“Whoa…”
Kyle sighed and smoothed the hilt of his sword.
When I closed my eyes, the image of the girl I had met moments before appeared before my eyes. The image of a girl who stabbed her viciously, breaking her ribs and crushing her shins.
A girl who resembles Raniel.
However, the girl says that the star is not Raniel.
Kyle continues to be concerned about the girl’s identity. However, she only has a strong intuition that further involvement would not be good for either of them.
‘Ashen hair, blue eyes.’
It’s characteristic, but it doesn’t look like him.
A girl who resembles him in everything except her appearance.
“different.”
No matter how many times you ask, the star just answers like that. Kyle sighed and put his hand, which was smoothing the hilt of the holy sword, into his pocket.
“Training a hero party to replace you.”
The girl’s last words.
The plan that Raniel was making rang in Kyle’s ears. Funny enough, the moment Kyle heard those words, it was a sentiment he had felt for the past five years.
It’s still the same.
Really, it doesn’t change.
Even at this point, she is still thinking about catching the devil. He sincerely wants to subdue the demon lord, who lost half his lifespan and all he could do was run away.
It’s not a pipe dream.
It’s not a delusion either.
What everyone said was impossible, he achieved it all. He defeated an ancient lich that had lived for hundreds of years with a spell, and succeeded in creating a class that overcame the weaknesses of the wizard.
‘It’s always been like that, always.’
Everyone praises his name, but Kyle knows himself better than anyone else. What made you special wasn’t just your ability.
The Gray Wizard, Raniel Van Trias.
Kyle knows that this achievement was possible because there was someone who reached the level even though he was not chosen by a star, was not born with a special blessing, or was not born with racial strengths.
This guy doesn’t break.
It never gave up.
Even in the face of death, he was the same as always.
‘Unlike me, unlike me.’
That bothered Kyle.
Kyle looked at his palm, which he lifted without thinking. It’s clean now, but there was a time when these palms were covered in calluses.
There were days when training was repeated until scars remained on the warrior’s body, which had no scars.
Kyle let out a bitter laugh as he recalled that day that was now a long time ago. Even though she made it up into dozens of sentences, it was ultimately a surprisingly simple story.
‘I have changed.’
The guy hasn’t changed.
It has not changed until now.
Kyle is disgusted by that fact, but he is also happy about it.
“That’s right.”
That’s because it’s you.
Because that’s the you I’ve seen.
“Because you have to.”
Kyle muttered.
The murmur floated in the air and disintegrated. Only the stars heard the voice.
3.
“Didn’t you run with great energy earlier?”
“It was like that.”
“I thought you could run around in a demonic world like this. Hey, even though all the mana is gone, her physical abilities remain? After all, he is a great sage. “She was amazed at the thought of that.”
“Unfortunately, I thought so too.”
Raniel looked at Cardi with cold eyes. Right now, Cardi was hanging on the chain held by Raniel, and it was by no means the image of a great sage living with dignity.
To summarize the situation, it was as follows.
Cardi, who had been leaping with great vigor, lost his footing and fell right before the castle. The situation was such that Raniel wrapped a chain around Cardi, who was slipping, and hung her upright…
“Hey, Cardi…”
Looking down at Cardi, who was hanging on chains, Raniel spoke in a very sad voice.
“You look so shabby right now…”
Since it was true, it could not be refuted.
Cardi sighed and opened her mouth.
“It’s not a question of my physical ability. They have physical abilities unique to elves, and as a result of repeated training, they have reached a level similar to that of a superhuman, although they do not fall short of that level. “It means you won’t do anything stupid that will cause you to trip.”
“But why are you doing this now?”
“···It is the effect of the contract.”
That again?
Cardi responded to Raniel’s pitiful gaze looking down at her, feeling a little shabby.
“It’s a contract penalty. “If I try to intervene in anything related to the Demon King, I will become infinitely powerless.”
“…Aren’t you just saying something because you’re embarrassed? “Did you just trip?”
“no.”
Because the voice was so serious, Raniel did not ask any more questions. Without a word she pulled Cardi up by her chain as if fishing.
“I guess there’s something there.”
Feeling like a fish on a hook, Cardi looked toward the royal castle. The moment I was about to enter that place, or more accurately, the moment I was about to intervene in the barrier set up in the royal castle… all strength went out of my body.
‘There’s something in there.’
The last time I visited this place, something that did not exist even hundreds of years ago… is stirring inside that royal castle.
“I feel uneasy.”
“Oh, I’m really anxious. Don’t I have to carry you around?”
They both felt anxious for different reasons.
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