The place where all the filth converges.
A land for those without faith, Alkeia.
In Alkeia, accessible through a massive vertical tunnel, the light from the surface does not reach. The darkened shaft looks like a passage to the abyss, and observing what lies within from above is impossible.
···In the primordial era, it was the site of a divine shrine.
Once a symbol of religion housing countless gods, ‘she’ claimed this place as her domain. The divine shrine became her workshop, and the beautifully cascading blue waterfall below turned into disgusting sludge.
No longer is Alkeia a holy site of religion.
It is certainly no longer land for prayer.
This is a land for those without faith.
A sanctuary for those betrayed by the god they once served, in their final moments, having lost all belief. A altar made to curse the star in the highest sky from the lowest place in the world.
The workshop of the apostate, Gletus.
Thus, Alkeia rejects all beings of sanctity. Even if it is the primordial god.
*
Plummeting into the abyss.
Is it because too much blood has been shed, or perhaps due to poisoning? Or maybe it’s both. In any case, my mind felt hazy. Bellnoa blinked, feeling like a fog had settled in her head.
···I can’t hear it.
The goddess’s voice is no longer audible.
Her form remains unseen.
Though she hasn’t entirely severed the connection, Bellnoa felt it dimming infinitely. Is this a characteristic of this land?
“···Huh.”
As Bellnoa exhaled softly and extended her arm.
She confirmed the shadow thread extending from her fingertips was lodged into the wall, and pulled on the shadow. With her body clinging to the wall, Bellnoa focused on her breathing.
The tracing didn’t reach the vertical shaft.
Looking up didn’t reveal the outside. The same goes for looking down. It was filled only with a darkness that threatened to swallow her sense of direction.
‘···Surely, in the final moment.’
The goddess had said.
Being led here was a trap. Now that the connection with the goddess is severed, the likelihood of that statement being true is high. Should I leave this place?
‘For now, I should go up.’
Bellnoa projected her shadow towards the slightly higher wall. Just as she was about to move her body while fixing the shadow.
Crumb, crumb, crumb.
The wall shook. It was impossible to tell where the tremors started, but the vibrations were nearing. When the vibrations grew strong enough, Bellnoa’s instinct screamed a warning.
“···!”
She retrieved the shadow connected to the wall.
The moment she kicked off the wall and jumped down, something burst forth from the wall she was just clinging to.
Crack-a-lack-a-lack!
Bursting through with the force that shattered the sheer cliff was a massive Carapace Dragon. Unlike the ones known to the world, this dragon was covered entirely in sharp carapace. Bellnoa knew what to call such a creature.
‘···Carapace Dragon!’
The Carapace Dragon that leaped from the wall burrowed into the side wall, vanished, and then reappeared again. The moment one Carapace Dragon revealed itself, the entire wall vibrated.
Crack-a-lack-a-lack!
A horde of Carapace Dragons erupted from the wall.
Among at least five of them, Bellnoa broke out in a cold sweat and, instead of going upwards, shot her shadow down. Fixing her shadow in the wall and pulling her body, she fell into the depths of the abyss.
The Carapace Dragons were all facing upwards.
They were oblivious to the falling below the vertical shaft, only reacting to what was trying to ascend above. As if they could never go back.
“···Ugh.”
As the rubble was swept away by the Carapace Dragons, Bellnoa gritted her teeth. Those abominable beasts were the very symbol of disaster.
The apostate, Gletus.
Then, does that mean this abyss is her domain?
Now that Bellnoa fully understood the goddess’s words about this place being a trap, it was already too late. There was no way out from where she entered, and she had to descend further into the ground.
The abyss hidden in darkness.
Even knowing what lies within, Bellnoa had no choice. As she fell, she pressed on her side, where a wound oozed yellowish fluid.
···I must keep my promise.
I must uphold my promise to return, but now I have no confidence in keeping it. Bellnoa let out a long sigh.
2.
Thunderous roar, heat, chill, and brilliance.
Artiya, which should originally be shrouded in darkness, shone brightly as if it were midday, thanks to the sources of light created by spells. The wreckage left by the clash of spells. Heat and luminescence.
As scintillating mana mingled about, once more KA-WHAM! The fierce roar shook Artiya.
‘···How astounding.’
The First Light, the nameless one.
Shooting out seventeen spells and manifesting thirty spells, he wielded his shadows while consuming the energy to enhance his spells. Blinking flashes fluttered from every direction, encompassing the area in heat. However, not even that heat could halt the enemy’s advance.
Wham!
Piercing through a fireball, Raniel accelerated, pushing off the melting ground that had become a sea of flames. The light was easily breaking through the highest-tier spells, and the Braver couldn’t help but admire it. Astonishing. Really astonishing.
‘Has it already been four years since then?’
Four years ago, when they met in the Royal Capital’s Tower, the Braver hadn’t exerted his full power. More accurately, he couldn’t fully do so in the land of humans.
Of course, this holds true for this place as well.
In this area, far from his base, the Braver could not unleash his original strength. Yet, this was also a domain influenced by shadows. That meant he could handle far more spells than back then.
However.
Even so, the pressure still mounted.
Back then, Raniel had been seriously injured after failing to counter ancient spells. He had borrowed the power of the Watcher and engaged in a short-term battle, ultimately unable to avoid severe injuries.
‘But what about now?’
Despite facing more spells than then, and without borrowing the power of the Watcher… she was piercing through all ancient spells. Even dismantling the core of them. The Braver frowned, watching the circuits unraveling and scattering.
How on earth?
“···Seems you’ve picked up ancient circuits in my absence?”
Raniel let out a chuckle at the Braver’s muttering.
“Picked up? Not a chance.”
She merely could see through them.
Even without borrowing the eyes of the Watcher, Raniel had reached the realm of the superhuman. Her vision had expanded, her thoughts accelerated, and now she could read even the laws of nature.
‘Is one little ancient spell too much for me to read?’
Raniel glided past the Braver.
As her swinging hand carved through the air, she grabbed the Braver’s head. Though originally made of shadows that aren’t affected by physical forces, the claw-like hand wrapped in ash mana somehow seized the intangible shadow.
“Finally got you.”
Gripping the Braver’s head, Raniel slammed him down onto the ground. With a mighty CRASH, debris surged up in all directions. The subsequently manifested spell brought forth light.
Smash.
Ashes to Ashes.
A brilliance so blinding it could take your vision.
The ground split apart. Amidst the shock and heat, the Braver tried to cast a spell…
BZZZZT!
A flash appeared without warning, piercing through the Braver’s circuits. In an instant, the circuits shattered, and a shimmering two-meter platinum-like spike impaled the Braver. Dozens of flashes transformed him into a pin-cushion of shadows.
A jolt, and the Braver’s shadow trembled.
Unannounced spells striking down.
Such incomprehensible spells were truly the most irksome.
“I’m losing my mind, really.”
The Braver let out a hollow laugh.
As he gazed at Raniel, her eyes glimmering dreadfully through the gaps of her fingers that gripped his head.
The Braver detached one of his fingers.
Offering the severed digit, the Braver cast a spell. An obliteration. A ray of light surged toward Raniel’s head from her blind spot…
“What are you doing?”
Ka-kang, without even turning her gaze, Raniel swung her arm, swatting away the charging brilliance. The deflected ray veered vertically and pierced the ground.
The Braver chuckled, looking up at the empty sky.
The huge circuit that had been floating in the air—in the midst of the Braver’s descent—was coated in a platinum chain, trapped in mid-air. Abundant unknowns surrounded it. Both the unheralded spells and that strange platinum chain.
“This is quite wondrous.”
The Braver’s body flowed downwards.
His waning form slipped past Raniel in the air and reconstituted itself. The sludge he had expelled merged back together, taking shape again.
“What in the world has happened over these four years?”
“Ask the god you serve.”
Dusting herself off, Raniel looked up.
“Thanks to you, I’ve suffered in every imaginable way.”
The shining platinum within her azure eyes.
Watching her now able to manipulate starlight, the Braver let out a long sigh.
“Skebal must be screaming.”
He shrugged.
“Twenty, no—what is it now, thirty? To have reached this level by merely thirty years old…”
“I’m still in my twenties, you bastard.”
Raniel snapped, riled by an odd comment, snapping her fingers. As chains flew from all directions, the Braver detached a chunk of his shadow. The moment the shadows sunk into the ground, it shook violently.
Hundreds of corpses rose from the earth.
Once human inhabitants of this city, now transformed into sludge and absorbed by the ground, had all revived and began to grab onto Raniel’s body.
“It’s impressive, but don’t you know?”
Both the Braver bound by chains and Raniel held down by the dead. The Braver sighed and said.
“No matter this ordeal, it’s futile in the end.”
The Braver shrugged.
Whether it’s the platinum chains or the unheralded spells, they might inflict harm on him… but the Braver would certainly not die.
“I cannot die. You know what kills me, don’t you? None of this will do any good.”
Only by using weapons beyond common sense, like the First Holy Sword, could one hope to repel him; complete obliteration belongs to an entirely different realm.
“In a war of attrition, I’m the one with the advantage.”
Thus, the Braver felt at ease.
“Let’s skip to the point of making a deal…”
“You know…”
Raniel looked up.
Even in this situation, held back by the corpses, she was at peace. Despite the dead biting and clawing at her body.
“Do you even understand that if that deal makes it to the ear of that senile lizard, it’s over? There’s nothing but risk in that deal.”
A transaction concerning taboos.
The moment that deal is made, the Ancient Dragon will overtly constrain him. That’s what Raniel was saying, and the Braver only laughed dismissively at those words.
“Do you think I can’t blind that blind lizard? If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to weave a god.”
The Braver gestured at the sky.
The core of the barrier had been shattered, but the mana he had scattered remained.
“My mana blinds the Ancient Dragon’s eyes. The flow reading the present and future through the Ancient Dragon’s eyes can never observe me. This place is no different.”
Raniel questioned.
“So, this place is not under the gaze of the Ancient Dragon?”
“Never.”
“Is that so…”
Raniel smiled slightly.
“Why didn’t you mention that earlier?”
She let out a short sigh.
“In that case, it’ll do nicely.”
···Do? What for?
For a brief moment, the Braver was puzzled, as Raniel’s lips moved. She pronounced something, and in that instant, the Braver felt as if time had halted.
Amidst that halted time.
Raniel’s hand pushed through the waves of corpses that gnawed at her arm. She peeled off her gloves. What was revealed on the back of her hand was an engraved circuit.
A circuit never seen before.
Rotating counterclockwise.
With a crick, crack sound as it turned, a flash surged upward. At that moment, using the hand with the engraved circuit, Raniel suddenly grasped the air tightly.
The instant altered the lightning.
The color of the leaping lightning, the arrangement of mana, the very essence of the spells, began to turn against the defined natural laws of the area. The space creaked and screamed.
“···What is this?”
“What do you think?”
In the stilled instant, Raniel smiled.
“Your failure.”
The sapphire-blue lightning containing starlight shot up, transforming into a platinum hue, burning down to crimson, crumbling to ashes…
What remained at the very end was a bizarre shape and color of lightning. Whether to call it lightning was already questionable.
With her hand wrapped in lightning, Raniel lightly swung it.
The corpses grasping at her disintegrated the moment they touched her hand. Stepping beyond the crumbling corpses, she took a step forward.
“I needed a test site anyway.”
Gotcha, bastard.
3.
As Bellnoa continued to descend, she passed through some sort of barrier. The moment she did, the darkness that had filled her surroundings suddenly dissipated.
“···Ugh.”
Finally, touching the ground, Bellnoa blinked. What was revealed in the fading darkness was light. It wasn’t the crimson light of a blood moon but a warm light akin to the sun shining on the land of humans.
Not used to the light, Bellnoa blinked as she glanced upwards. Though she had descended through a vertical tunnel, what unfolded was vast open grasslands.
The sky was even blue.
As Bellnoa pondered if she was dreaming while gazing up at the blue sky, she lowered her head. As her vision, unacquainted with the light, gradually recovered, the moment she could see properly, she gasped.
Occupying half of the vast prairie, still somehow needing more space, a temple was embedded inside the walls.
At the entrance of the temple stood someone.
An oddly small human was protecting the enormous door. Not a beast, but a middle-aged man with a sword strapped to his waist. Upon recognizing the man’s face, Bellnoa couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat.
Even if a Carapace Dragon guarded the temple’s entrance, she wouldn’t feel as fearful as she did now.
What stood at the temple’s entrance was once called the strongest knight. The Sword Master who had stood against Death’s Blade. A human who reached the pinnacle with just one sword, without holding any blessings.
The Sword Master, Kuntel.
Now a servant beast, he glared at Bellnoa.
The moment Bellnoa absentmindedly took a step back, a chilling sound echoed through the air.
Kuntel drew his sword.
Instantly, Bellnoa’s vision split in two.
