The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 119

119

“White Wolves……?”

But their condition was beyond terrible; it was miserable.

The young man leading, pulling on the reins of a pony foaming at the mouth, was missing his left arm, and the woman writhing in the saddle had both legs wrapped in bandages soaked with blood.

In that moment, the realization that something was terribly wrong flashed through my mind, and the hairs all over my body stood on end.

– I heard the wolf leader… the main force was annihilated.

Before I could even ask if the White Wolves were truly wiped out, the young man collapsed onto the snowy field, gasping weakly for breath as if his life was about to end.

“C-cold…….”

“Lady, fire!”

“O-okay! I got it!”

Amidst those urgent cries, the woman seemed to regain her senses, blankly lifting her head with unfocused eyes.

“Ah, Alakish-nim……!”

「What is it? What happened?」

“T-there’s no time to explain! We need to get to the barrier, quickly… that thing, that thing is coming……!”

Then, the young man suddenly grabbed Kasena’s wrist and burst into crazed laughter with unfocused eyes.

“Die, we’re all going to die, all of us, ha, ha, hahahahaha, hahahahahahaha……!”

Watching Kasena shake off his hand with a look of annoyance… a cold sweat broke out on my back.

“Ouch, what are you doing!”

Something, something is wrong… I felt like something, something important, was twisted to a chilling degree.

What on earth did they see?

What on earth did they experience?

These people aren’t ordinary people who are easily consumed by madness, but elite soldiers, the White Wolves, who have always fought in the lands of the abyss?

“Who exactly *is* that thing?”

As I asked that question, feeling a chill run down my spine, a heart-wrenching scream of agony erupted from far away in the pine forest.

“D-don’t, don’t come…… Aaaaaaagh───!”

That scream, which froze our hearts, was abruptly cut off with the sound of flesh being torn apart. The sight of birds fluttering up was ominous.

“There are more survivors in the back──”

“──Don’t go.”

As I instinctively tried to move in that direction, the woman grabbed my shoulder tightly and shook her head frantically.

“If you go, you’ll die, you’ll die! Hee, hee hee hee, hee hee hee hee! E-everyone, everyone is dead, the guys left behind there are all dead! Without the barrier, nothing can stop that monster!”

The fear writhing in her expression and voice was close to madness, stirring up the nerves in the listener’s heart.

“Alakish-nim, even you can’t stop that monster. We, we need to get to the barrier! Quickly!”

Even as the woman was ranting, screams echoed from the forest four or five more times. They were all different voices, and the distance was getting closer and closer.

「I cannot leave those who are still alive behind.」

Was I, until then, caught up in absurd arrogance?

Did the fact that I was once the great mage of the hero party, and that the true dragon Alakish was by my side, further fuel that unfounded confidence?

Of course, there was also a practical consideration. If I could gather the survivors and take them to the barrier, I could build great favor with the White Wolves.

“I-it’s coming…….”

A pure white frost, no, an extreme blizzard, came without any warning, and the surrounding pine forest was cut off from view, with terrifying screams constantly echoing.

And… it became so cold.

Like being completely naked…….

Since receiving Alakish’s blessing of fire, I had never felt such unbearable cold even once.

「……?」

Alakish, who had been narrowing his eyes and looking into the blizzard, widened his eyes uncontrollably the next moment.

「……Run!」

Then, turning around as if he had been flung, he thrust the basket containing the dragon egg into my arms. There was no hint of bloodlust in his eyes.

「Run away! Immediately!」

Alakish, who was always dignified and never lost his composure because his body and mind were so strong, was sweating profusely in a way I couldn’t understand.

“Let’s, let’s fight together! I can help─”

「─No, take Kasena and these humans to the barrier! Hurry!」

The moment of facing a surreal being head-on was the very next moment.

I thought I heard a light footstep, *sabak*, in the blizzard… but the ominous energy that the blizzard brought with it began to churn and rampage wildly.

At the same time, the concentration of the abyss became unimaginably dense. So corrupt and thick that I couldn’t even breathe.

「Oh ho?」

The moment I recognized that voice, something hot burst from my nose and ears, and my vision shook dizzily.

Eh, blood……?

Why, why……?

In that time, which felt like an eternity as if it had frozen, the only sound I could hear was the pony running madly towards the barrier.

「I didn’t think I’d find you this quickly; it’s the King’s grace.」

The appearance of the guy who walked out of the snowfield in wooden clogs, fluttering the sleeves of a robe made of the abyss, was at most an eight-year-old boy…….

「I’ve been looking for you, the avatar of Asura.」

That transcendent presence did not allow mortals to stand normally.

An invisible force roughly pressed my whole body to the ground with tremendous weight, causing my knees to bend halfway…….

Kasena, who had grown noticeably recently, was already lying on the ground, clutching her chest and painfully vomiting blood.

「No, should I call you the avatar of the avatar?」

The White Wolf who had been lying in the snow… vomited blood from all seven orifices the moment that guy passed by him and died instantly.

「Go quickly, Rain! I don’t have the *yoyu* [Japanese: leeway, margin] to protect you while fighting Shar’kas!」

Only Alakish was standing in front of us, and blood was flowing from the gap where the dragon scales on his side had been broken. I don’t know when he was attacked.

I’ve never seen it, never heard of it.

This, this monster, even when I was Rin.

What judgment has Alakish made now? Has he judged that I will only be a hindrance rather than a help?

‘No, that’s not it…….’

Alakish is trusting and entrusting me now. The safety of his daughter and Kasena, whom he cherished so much…….

Alakish is strong.

Beyond comparison with me.

If it were a similar situation, I would have made the same judgment. Now, creating a situation where he can fight to his heart’s content will be the greatest help to Alakish.

But even so, is it right to leave Alakish alone against such a monster?

At the end of a brief hesitation, just as I was about to take off my left-hand glove and build a mental barrier, Alakish smiled clearly.

「Kyu Al Nog, believe.」

That was a promise to return without fail, and at the same time, it was a binding spell that only a true dragon could use. I was completely caught off guard.

My body moved on its own, and I picked up Kasena in both arms and began to run towards the barrier with tenacity and determination.

The only control I had left over my body was my head. Oh, this is…… I looked back at Alakish in dismay and shouted urgently.

“Alakish, no, no! Let’s fight together, Alakishiiiiii───!”

On Alakish’s lips, as he watched Rain, Kasena, and his daughter moving further and further away towards the barrier, a bitter smile formed that could only be made at the end of life.

Joy.

Sadness.

And regret.

Just once, I wanted to hold that child in a warm smile when she hatched from the egg, just as Karenden and Tersia had done for me.

‘Farewell, my daughter…….’

And as he burned the spider web of the abyss that was secretly chasing after them with a breath of fire, Baekdoryeong (伯道令) [Korean: a high-ranking official title] Shar’kas asked with interest.

「You know my true name. Do you recognize me?」

If he wanted to, he could have chased after and killed them, but now that he had the best prey in front of him, Shar’kas was not even interested in such insects.

「I’m curious to know how much memory you inherited from Asura.」

「The great fire will guide this Alakish’s end today, and I will be loyal to my mission to the end.」

「You won’t answer? Hmph, it’s useless anyway. I’ll just have to look into it myself.」

Before those words were even finished, Shar’kas crossed his arms, and from his fingertips, disgusting spider webs wriggled out like snakes.

When the abyss of heaven and earth began to shake, Alakish’s body exploded into flames of annihilation, forming the sacred form of a dragon.

And the next moment, the ancient fire and the primordial darkness collided, and the entire pine forest was burned or rotted away, and cracks spread like spider webs across the ground, collapsing the strata.

As the night ripened densely, and the stars in the night sky began to shine more eerily than the moon, all sounds were cut off with a final, great earth-shaking rumble.

All sounds sank into the abyss.

* * *

From the beginning of its origin, the Papal Palace, which had soared high into the sky and scattered warm light throughout the world, was shrouded in a gloomy silence.

Because the abyss had left a deep scar on the heart of the light dragon Haraderiman, who was the ruler of order, the light dragon had been asleep for more than 90 days, and its body was slowly rotting away.

It was as clear as looking at the palm of your hand that the order of the human world would gradually collapse and face destruction.

“Is there really no way to heal His Holiness?”

When Feyquarterier [A high-ranking member of the Papal Palace] Casseline Alter Aradamantel asked in an incredulous tone, Cardinal Hagon nodded heavily.

「Who can atone for the King’s Abyss? Even the gods found it difficult.」

The meeting, which was attended by all the key figures of the Papal Palace, was originally presided over by Haraderiman, but now that sacred stone was empty.

It had been two years since the three existing Feyquarteriers had gathered in one place, following the summons of Hagon, one of the five true dragons performing the duties of a cardinal.

In addition, it was attended by Ocelot, the head of the Heresy Inquisition ‘Children of Gold,’ Yuliana, the maiden of the Star Cluster, and Doran Slade, the head of the Special Task Force, so there was no need to explain the importance of the meeting.

“To get to the point, we still don’t know why the Queen of Time’s seal was only partially released. The analysis was just completed yesterday, and Toureina’s magic circle was perfect.”

It was a great reversal technique that converted the power of radiance, which was extremely concentrated in the Papal Palace, into the power of the abyss, creating cracks in the world axis.

Therefore, it would be fair to say that ‘it was the Papal Palace that made such a thing successful’ rather than ‘how did they succeed in doing such a thing in the Papal Palace.’

I wonder if Toureina prepared it alone…….

“Is there a possibility that Toureina hesitated?”

At Yuliana’s question, Doran shook his head firmly.

“No. If that were the case, wouldn’t the Black Church have noticed and used it against us?”

Therefore, in the development of the situation, one part of the framework does not fit.

Space-time should have collapsed completely, and the Lord of Time should have clearly descended on this land. But something twisted that crack…….

Something that Toureina and the Black Church did not expect intervened in the situation.

“Even though it was incomplete, it is true that the King’s seal was broken, and there is no way there would be no repercussions.”

Mikara Alter Pladimarte, the current senior Feyquarterier, opened her mouth.

“Your Excellency Hagon, something must be happening in the Arctic or Antarctic as well. It seems necessary to form an investigation team with our Feyquarteriers.”

It was a reasonable proposal given the rapidly changing current situation, but it was perplexing that Hagon, who had dozens of times higher insight than humans, shook his head firmly.

“The reason His Excellency says that is because we cannot disperse our forces. Everyone knows that the body of the great mage Rin disappeared during this incident.”

When Ocelot, the head of the organization, defended Hagon’s intentions, Milonne Alter Gaumris, who was famous for his grumpy personality, crossed his arms and retorted.

“Who doesn’t know that? Both continents are in chaos.”

“That problem has become more serious. To be honest, I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

“So, what is it?”

Everyone’s reactions were slightly different, but they all had expressions asking why he was mentioning something they couldn’t possibly not know, but their mouths went blank at Ocelot’s next remark.

“The hero’s corpse has also disappeared. I’m talking about Rista Alter Shirpen.”