The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 165

129. Tinuviel (2)

*Fussuk… Fussuk…*

*Fussuk…*

The massive fortress crumbled, scattering black dust like ash in every direction.

“What… happened?”

“That Lich must have taken a liking to him. Or maybe he was swayed by his ridiculous words.”

“Ugh…!!”

Aiden flinched under the weight of Gordon, who was leaning on him, his arm slung over Aiden’s shoulder.

“To think he’d make even a Lich his subordinate. An absurd fellow has appeared.”

“Not yet. We don’t know if Zarka Hoch will listen to me or continue to feign ignorance and turn a blind eye forever.”

Kahlil picked up the Ice Claw that lay fallen on the ground.

“Whatever the case, it’s true that you sealed the master of Ghost Castle.”

The land, now free of the poison that had seeped through the broken barriers, was still a land of death. But with the fortress that had boasted its might now gone, all the undead had vanished, turning it into a barren wasteland.

[If Etheral finds out about this, there will be an uproar. To infuse necromancy into the Ice Claw, of all things.]

Kahlil’s Ice Claw had changed from its previous bluish hue to a whiter shade.

The Flame Tyrant, Raminu, watched the sword, its color altered by Zarka Hoch’s influence.

‘Etheral? Are there others like you among the Spirit Kings? Besides the light and darkness obtained from the Spring of Arcane?’

Kahlil responded to his words.

[Alive, Ra… Whether it’s right to say that a spirit, being an ethereal entity, is alive, I don’t know, but from the perspective of annihilation, it’s right to say they are alive, as you put it.]

Raminu continued.

[I’ve told you before. Even though the Spirit Realm has weakened, it hasn’t completely disappeared. Just as there are those who have chosen the human realm like me, there are those who have chosen the Spirit Realm.]

Kahlil nodded at his words.

‘Right. If I don’t have enough spirit power to open the Spirit Realm, I can’t draw out the true power of the two Great Lights and Nights I obtained before. I don’t think I need to worry for now. The Queen of Tides will be in the Spirit Realm.’

[I never said she was asleep in the Spirit Realm.]

Kahlil frowned at Raminu’s words.

As his expression changed, the people in the Fortress of Specters looked at him with puzzled faces.

‘…The Water Spirit King is in the human realm? Why didn’t you tell me such an important thing?’

[Because she’s in a place you can’t reach even if I told you. There was no need to tell you.]

‘Where is that?’

[I don’t know.]

Kahlil let out a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded by his confident answer.

‘…Are you making fun of me right now?’

[But the person who sealed Etheral knows. When he sealed Etheral, he left a box with the Ice Claw.]

“……!!!”

At that moment, Kahlil recalled Alun Zabis in the Gray Academy taking out the box that had been stored inside the coffin where the Ice Claw was kept and giving it to him.

Kahlil remembered what Alun had said to him when he gave him the box.

-Nardie Mauch took it in the previous life. This time, you’ll get the jump on him. He must have taken this when he came to you and the Gray Academy.

‘Right. That certainly happened.’

But it was quite a long time ago, and even after obtaining the box, Kahlil couldn’t find a way to open it, so he simply stored it in Tatur [Kahlil’s personal storage space] and even forgot about it.

‘Could it be… that Etheral is sealed inside that box?’

[That’s unlikely. The man from before said he would keep Etheral and the Ice Claw separate. But there might be a clue inside that box.]

Alun Zabis had said that the box could be opened with dragon magic.

But even now that he had acquired dragon magic, he couldn’t open the box. Alun Zabis certainly knew that there were other arrangements inside the box, but now there was no one to ask about the secret.

‘If Alun is right, Nardie Mauch hid the box in the previous life as well.’

Kahlil recalled his face after a long time.

When the oracle was given and Nardie Mauch appeared to humanity in human form,

He was as calm and inscrutable as his hair, which was the color of the boundary between silver and white, a color that seemed not to exist in this world.

‘That bastard… what on earth was he doing?’

Kahlil had thought of him in his previous life as the only comrade who had stayed by his side until the end in the face of death.

But the stories about him that he had heard since his regression only left Kahlil with questions and doubts.

“……”

Kahlil closed his eyes for a moment and recalled his conversation with Zarka Hoch a little while ago.

-Is that true? Did the Platinum Dragon really do that? Why would a dragon burn down the elven forest? What reason would they have to do that?

[Hmph, then what reason would I have to lie to you in this situation? It’s not to defend Nardie Mauch, nor is it to reveal his true nature?]

-But… why did the Platinum Dragon turn the elven land into this?

[I don’t know. All dragons are like that. Everything must look like a toy in their eyes. There’s no reason.]

Zarka growled as if speaking to the Platinum Dragon who was not here.

[Hundreds of years have passed since I became a Lich, and I heard that a Flame Dragon died at the hands of humans. Serves him right. I wish they would kill all the dragons left in this world.]

-The Flame Dragon and the Platinum Dragon are different. The Flame Dragon was an evil dragon that plunged the human world into terror.

Zarka scoffed at Kahlil’s words.

[Then what about the dragon who killed the elves? Does that make him a divine dragon instead of an evil dragon?]

-That’s…

[They’re all the same kind. After all, they are the race of gods. They must be carrying out what the gods ordered.]

-What do you mean? The gods’ orders.

Kahlil’s face hardened at Zarka’s words. Then, he pointed the Ice Claw at him and said coldly.

-Speak clearly. I won’t let you get away with trying to incite me with ambiguous words.

[Incite? Heh… Hehehe. You must have sensed something strange without me even telling you.]

-…Aren’t you elves the race of gods? You called yourselves the race of light.

Kahlil said to Zarka with a stiff face.

[That’s ridiculous. Who’s saying such a thing? It seems that human history has already been rewritten as Yula wanted.]

-Rewritten?

[The light that the elves follow is different from yours. The light we follow is the light of Lassis. There are two primordial lights: Yula and Lassis. But nowhere will they distinguish that light. Isn’t that right? Yula must have erased all the evidence.]

-The two Great Lights and Nights….

[Yes. And just as there is darkness when there is light, the light that the Dark Elves worship is the light of Duat. A light called darkness.]

The light of Lassis and the darkness of Duat.

Unlike the five Spirit Kings, they are the Spirit Kings directly sealed by God.

-…….

Kahlil felt a chill run down his spine at Zarka’s words.

In the past, Alun Zabis had told him.

In the process of establishing the system of magic, the five elements were named as all the elements that make up the world.

But he told Kahlil about the existence of light and darkness and also revealed the reason why they disappeared.

‘Because that power is like God’s….’

Kahlil suddenly opened his palm and looked at it.

If the dragons are a race that carries out God’s commands, as Zarka Hoch said, then the death of Alun Zabis, who could use arcane power with the attributes of light and darkness sealed by God, might really be related to Nardie Mauch.

‘But….’

His head was filled with numerous doubts.

Kahlil sensed one strangeness in Zarka Hoch’s words.

-Aren’t dragons essentially beings belonging to the Spirit Realm? I know that dragon magic also relies on spirit power?

[You know that? That’s a story that only the magicians of the Magic Era would know. You really are a unique human being the more I see you.]

Kahlil remembered what Alun Zabis had told him and said.

Zarka nodded at his words.

[You’re right. But even if the source of power is spirit power, it’s common for the race that uses that power to succumb to God.]

-The dragons moved by God’s command, huh….

Perhaps even before the oracle of mankind,

From the time when the elven forest was destroyed and the Council of Seven Elders was killed during the 1,000-year Magic Era….

‘Could it be that a separate oracle was given to the dragons?’

As soon as he thought that, Kahlil felt a chill run down his spine.

It might be a stretch, but if that were the case, the events so far could be sufficiently understood.

‘But….’

If he found the answers to those previous questions, it would lead to even bigger questions.

‘Nardie Mauch in my previous life knew what I was thinking about when I was trying to regress. Would a race of gods have left me, who was trying to harm God, alone?’

Gulp-

Kahlil swallowed hard.

He couldn’t even guess how much he knew and how much he didn’t know.

-Was there anything else strange besides the Platinum Dragon destroying the elven forest?

[Well… Nardie Mauch seemed to be looking for something. I don’t know what it is, but it’s been 1,000 years, so he might have already found it.]

Kahlil let out a low sigh at his answer.

-What about you? How did you learn necromancy?

Zarka Hoch shook his head at his question.

[I don’t know either. I was just a dead man back then. But… I opened my eyes again, and after that, I knew that I had become a Lich.]

-You don’t know who resurrected you, huh….

From the Gray Academy in Azor to the Fortress of Specters at the end of the continent, crossing the south.

At the end of a long journey, it seemed like he could find some answers, but in the end, there was nothing he could clearly know.

-I guess… I have no choice but to go meet him.

Kahlil realized that the time to meet Nardie Mauch, one of the plans he had thought of when he left the mansion, was approaching.

-So what’s your decision?

At his question, Zarka Hoch said in a low voice.

[…I will follow.]

* * *

“What should we do now?”

Miliána approached him and asked.

Kahlil clicked his tongue and ended his memory with Zarka, slowly looking around.

“He told me something before he disappeared.”

He held the Ice Claw that had sealed Zarka Hoch and pointed to the inside of the broken fortress.

“We have to get what we can get. Well, it’s a bit of an unpleasant feeling… but the most enjoyable moment is now. Isn’t that right? Zarka.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the blade of the Ice Claw began to turn white and steam.

As if answering his words, a deathly aura, not just a cold chill, was felt from the blade.

“You know? Elves are not as skilled as dwarves or gnomes, but among them, there was a member of the Blader [Elven artisan known for crafting weapons] who made the five great weapons.”

Kahlil slightly raised the corner of his mouth and said.

“It’s a place that hasn’t been touched for 1,000 years. I wonder what they’ve been hiding all this time… I should raid the warehouse a bit. Don’t you think?”