I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 697

A flash of white light, followed by a bright red glow, appeared outside the dark window.

“……!”

Verdandi, who had been enjoying a peaceful time with her sisters Urd and Skuld, jumped up.

“That light is….”

Skuld grabbed Verdandi’s sleeve as she rushed to leave the oak palace.

“Where are you going, sister!”

“…….”

“Are you leaving me again? Are you going to abandon us all again?”

Verdandi turned her trembling head. She saw Skuld, who was on the verge of tears, and Urd, who had a troubled expression.

“Don’t go, sister. You said you’d stay with us….”

“…….”

Verdandi slowly turned back, knelt down, and lowered her gaze to meet Skuld’s eyes.

Then, in the kindest voice she could muster, she said to her younger sister,

“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen, Skuld.”

“Huh?”

To the puzzled Skuld, Verdandi recited the cruel truth one by one.

“I will leave, and the war situation will only worsen. Eventually, the fairy kingdom’s army will be defeated, and here in this palace, Urd will fight to the end without surrendering… and die honorably.”

Verdandi bit her lip as she spoke of her sister’s end.

“And Skuld, you will be forced to become queen… leading the survivors, leaving this homeland, and being forcibly relocated to the autonomous region. And for a hundred years, you will endure all sorts of humiliation and disgrace while leading the race.”

“…….”

“And in the end, on the front lines fighting for the world… you will risk your life to save people, and then die.”

Blood trickled from her tightly closed lips. Tears streamed down Verdandi’s face as she recalled her sister’s end.

“Urd died to protect the honor of the race, and Skuld, you died to protect the future of the race.”

“…….”

“With a noble heart that I cannot even fathom, knowing you would die… you went down that path.”

Verdandi looked around the interior of the oak palace, which had been so peaceful and cozy in those days.

“If I stay in this dream, I would be happy. But I can’t make that happen just to make myself feel better.”

“…….”

“That kind of lie would be an insult to you and to her….”

Sobbing, Verdandi hugged Urd and Skuld tightly.

“I love you, I love you, I love you. I truly love you both. So… I have to go.”

“……Verdandi.”

Urd, who had been silent, slowly took off her crown and handed it to Skuld.

Skuld took it… and with both hands, respectfully passed it to Verdandi.

“Take it.”

Following Urd’s soft whisper, Skuld smiled brightly and held up the crown.

“It’s yours now, sister!”

“But, I….”

“You are qualified, sister.”

Urd also smiled kindly.

“You just proved it. You have the qualifications to bear that weight.”

“…….”

“Please, Verdandi. Please, for our sake….”

Be happy.

With her sisters’ whispers.

Verdandi took the crown and slowly… placed it on her head.

The crown that held the lives of her sisters, filled with humiliation, disgrace, glory, honor, and—

The last survivor of the fairy royal family, the second daughter of the World Tree, who was newly born as a queen, Verdandi, smiled. She smiled with a tear-stained face.

And turning around, she grabbed the closed palace door—

And flung it open.

***

“You said you’d play with me today!”

Little Kellyson burst into tears, yelling at Kellybay’s back as he tried to leave the cave.

“It’s always like this, Dad! Always, always! You always abandon your family and go do your own thing!”

“…….”

“What’s so important about the Golden Branch? The race’s long-cherished wish? The kingdom’s future? Always those incomprehensible stories! You just follow those empty dreams, going far, far away…!”

Kellybay pressed his lips together. Kellyson screamed.

“Is that more important than our family… than me?”

“I have things I must do.”

Kellybay gripped the entrance of the cave tightly with his rough hand.

“But know this… nothing in this world is more important than you.”

“…….”

“The day will come when you will understand this contradiction, my pebble.”

At that moment, the voice from behind changed.

“……No, Father.”

Surprised, Kellybay turned around and saw a grown-up Kellyson standing there.

The dwarf king scratched the back of his head with a wry smile.

“Actually, I already understood.”

“…….”

“The things I couldn’t understand when I was young, I naturally came to understand as I got older.”

Kellyson continued, feeling awkward.

“Why Father was so stubborn, why Father was so single-minded, why he never told us anything and always kept it all to himself… I understand now that I’ve become an adult and am in a position to take responsibility for many people.”

Tears welled up in Kellybay’s eyes.

“……This is just a dream I made up, isn’t it? An illusion I created to feel better in the face of your death?”

“Haha. Maybe so. Father is a coward, after all.”

Kellyson, bursting into a hearty laugh, strode closer.

“But who knows? Maybe it’s also the small, unspoken truth of a son who grew up to be a cowardly adult, swallowing his words instead of expressing them.”

Kellyson, who had come closer, placed a small key in Kellybay’s hand. It was the key to lock the entrance of this small cave.

The next moment, when Kellybay looked up, the door in front of him was no longer the entrance to the cave.

It was the royal family’s treasure vault, sealed with a golden door, and the key in Kellybay’s hand had turned into a golden key that could open that vault.

“You should take it.”

Kellybay’s thick fingers gripped the golden key as he laughed in disbelief at Kellyson’s words.

“A father receiving the throne from his son, how pathetic.”

“You were a truly pathetic and terrible father, but you were the best blacksmith and the best miner….”

Kellyson lightly patted his father’s back.

“You were always my idol.”

“…….”

“Let’s go, Father.”

Kellyson gestured with his chin.

“If there’s a hole to be punched in the sky, we dwarves can’t be left out, can we?”

After closing his tear-filled eyes tightly once.

Kellybay grinned, showing his beard, and immediately inserted the key into the lock on the door.

***

The Ivory Tower was burning.

All the ancient books, all the research papers, and all sorts of artifacts were turning into ashes.

And so were the young mages who filled the Ivory Tower.

With their robes on fire, they stood silently in the lobby of the Ivory Tower, their faces swallowing tears.

“That’s how mages are.”

Deermudine, regaining his senses in the light illuminating the outside, immediately realized that this was a nightmare. So, to regain his senses, he set fire to this place without batting an eye.

“All those young lives, smarter than me, more talented than me, more virtuous than me… they always faded away before me.”

Deermudine looked back at his burning disciples.

He saw all the young lives that had left this world before him. The phantoms of the pitiful and apologetic children, whose names, faces, and everything else he had never forgotten even in his dreams, were flickering.

“But what an old man like me has to do is not to regret.”

Shedding tears of blood, Deermudine turned around. Leaving the burning interior of the Ivory Tower behind, he reached out his hand towards the closed door.

“For the sake of the other children who will follow, I must record, research, pave the way, and build the foundation.”

He builds a bridge with blood and lives, continuing knowledge and research.

“That is the work of a mage, that is the work of a scholar, that is….”

Deermudine, enduring the pain of the burns, grabbed the melting front door of the Ivory Tower with both hands and muttered as if spitting out blood.

“The history of mankind.”

And, the moment Deermudine was about to open the door and go outside.

“Everyone, attention-!”

The children in the flames shouted in unison.

“Salute to the master-!”

Thump-!

The young mages all saluted the archmage.

“Go forth to the great tomorrow, Master!”

“To the great tomorrow!”

“To the great tomorrow-!”

“…….”

Deermudine wiped away the tears of blood that had soaked his wrinkled face with his hand.

Then, with the most dignified and handsome face he could muster, he spoke in the most magnificent voice he could.

“Let us meet in the great tomorrow, cornerstones of history.”

And Deermudine grabbed the door of the Ivory Tower, which was engulfed in flames, and flung it open with all his might.

***

Inside the temple corridor. In front of the goddess statue.

Torkel quietly offered a prayer. Margherita sat next to him, holding his hand and praying with him.

After a while, Torkel finished his prayer. Margherita asked cautiously.

“What did you pray for today?”

“It was a simple request.”

Torkel, who had opened his closed eyes, slowly spoke.

“To restore the original warmth to this Crossroads, to my sunny land….”

And slowly rising from his seat, Torkel walked out of the corridor.

Margherita, kneeling in front of the goddess statue, asked.

“Where are you going, Torkel?”

“To where I need to be.”

Torkel took a deep breath.

“The last struggle is not over yet.”

Margherita asked worriedly.

“Are you not in pain?”

“I am in pain.”

“Are you not suffering?”

“I am suffering.”

Torkel clenched his fist.

“But it’s okay. Because that day, you prayed with me.”

“……Torkel.”

Margherita, with a somewhat relieved tone, asked Torkel’s back as he walked away.

“What kind of expression does your goddess have now?”

To that question.

Torkel, instead of looking up at the goddess statue, turned around and smiled faintly at Margherita.

And answered.

“It’s okay now, I don’t need to check one by one.”

Then, Margherita also smiled.

Torkel left the corridor, walked down the hallway, and headed towards the main gate of the temple.

His once clean skin was now covered in leprosy, and his once light body was now weighed down by heavy armor.

The helmet, which he had worn his whole life to hide his hideous face, was placed on his head, obscuring his vision.

Cheerfully enduring the weight of his life, Torkel murmured.

“Now, it’s just the right weight.”

When he picked up the broom next to the main gate, the broom transformed into a huge shield and was held in his left arm.

Torkel forcefully opened the door and stepped out of the temple.

Then—it was on the deck of the airship La Mancha.

A space of darkness where black tentacles flickered with evil gazes from all directions.

Chain, Kuilran, and Emperor Traha, covered in blood, were panting, and Verdandi, Kellybay, and Deermudine were glaring ahead, emitting their respective auras.

“Hoo.”

After taking a breath,

“Let’s go-!”

Torkel roared, and in response, La Mancha scraped together the last of its fuel from the rear thrusters and spewed out flames.

While Torkel blocked all the swarms of tentacles falling from all directions, Verdandi, Kellybay, and Deermudine unleashed a dazzling barrage of light attacks straight ahead.

The layers of darkness that constantly appeared were cut, pierced, and burned. Breaking through the layers of darkness, La Mancha soared upwards, upwards, upwards.

And—

***

Lukas did not hesitate.

Between the summer of memories where all his loved ones were, and the winter of betrayal with its cold and harsh reality. He did not hesitate for even a moment.

Clang-

Lukas opened the door.

The assassination squad that had rushed in from the winter outside poured into the summer garden.

Screams, shouts, and the sounds of blood and flesh splattering echoed from inside the garden. But Lukas did not even glance in that direction.

With an emotionless face, he simply took a step forward to leave the garden.

That was when someone blocked Lukas.

“You always regretted it!”

It was Lukas himself from his childhood.

That foolish and immature self who had opened the winter garden on the night of betrayal. The young Lukas cried out.

“You ruined everything! Because of you, Empress Dustia passed away, and Prince Ash was broken!”

“…….”

“It’s not too late. It’s still possible now. Close that door now. And go back to the summer garden, back to the happy times….”

The young Lukas, who was about to say something, had to stop.

Thwack!

Because the real Lukas grabbed the young Lukas’s neck with his left hand and lifted him into the air.

“Gack, cough, what is this-”

“Get lost.”

Lukas glared at his younger self with his eyes blazing blue….

No, he glared at his old regrets.

“I overcame old guilt like you a long time ago.”

“……!”

“No matter how hideous and terrible it is, this is the result of my choice. This is my life, and this is my banner.”

With his back to the blood-soaked summer garden, Lukas gritted his teeth.

“All those wounds and regrets… ultimately brought me here.”

Lukas looked down at the tattered black flag that was tied to his left arm and swaying.

He recalled the words his lord had said while tying this black flag.

– Do not forget what we were looking at.

To save the world.

Ash had been running towards this absurd goal, and Lukas had always stood before him.

Knowing that this path was drawn with his lord’s blood and tears.

He could not turn back just because of his own regrets.

“I will pave the way for my lord with my own will.”

Snarling fiercely, Lukas stepped out of the garden.

“Do you think there’s room for regrets to interfere…!”

“……Haha.”

Then, the young Lukas laughed faintly.

“I really have to admit it….”

And when Lukas’s footsteps left the summer garden and reached the snow-swept winter outside.

The surroundings had changed to the deck of La Mancha.

And in Lukas’s left hand, instead of the young Lukas, the demon sword Excannibal was held.

Gooooooo…!

In front of the airship, a thick and powerful darkness, exuding an evil aura that could not be compared to any of the darkness barriers they had broken through so far, was rushing in.

It was the last, final barrier of this swamp of darkness.

Taat-!

Lukas did not hesitate and dashed forward. He ran like a bird, stepping on the deck and rushing to the end of the ship.

Everyone on the deck, who were covered in blood from clearing the barriers and blocking the darkness that was attacking from all directions, looked at Lukas.

“Sir Knight!”

“Lukas!”

“Sir Lukas!”

“Go-!”

Everyone shouted at the same time. Lukas gritted his teeth and shot forward with all his might.

“Cut it down-!”

At that moment, the demon sword in Lukas’s left hand began to vibrate wildly.

The demon sword that the Fallen King Pendragon had used since he was called the Knight King.

This hideous demon sword, which had been blackened by his regrets and guilt, which had been tainted by darkness….

Charrrrrrk!

Shedding the crimson filth that covered it from the handle to the blade in an instant, it regained its original beautiful form.

From the demon sword Excannibal,

To the holy sword Excalibur.

At the same time, a dazzling light exploded from [Excalibur] in Lukas’s left hand and the [Bestowed Sword] in his right hand.

“Step aside, night.”

Lukas, who had run to the end of the deck, poured his soul into it and swung the two long swords with all his might.

“It is the procession of my lord-!”

Flash-!

A cross-shaped sword strike was dazzlingly engraved on the onrushing darkness.

And the next moment,

Thwack-!

The night, which seemed like it would never end, was split apart.

The last darkness, which was so thick that it was impossible to even fathom, was torn to shreds in one blow.

The curtain of darkness that had covered the sky of the entire world was swept away, and the sky that had been hidden above it was opened.

The sun scattered its brilliant and warm light over La Mancha, which had soared through the endless swamp of darkness.

It was the dawn sunlight that they thought they would never see again.