* * *
* * *
The sun rose in Arcadia.
In a cursed land where the sun had not risen for a thousand years, a wizard created the sun. The gray sun burned away the darkness that consumed the ancient kingdom. A fierce fire burned a thousand-year curse.
The kingdom was covered in fire.
However, what the flames burned was not the kingdom, but the darkness that was eating away at the kingdom. The gray flames that burned only darkness were closer to holy fire than to fire. The gray wizard laughed, recalling the church’s old doctrine of purification by burning.
Burning, everything.
The flames swallowed up everything that was left behind that day, including regrets, remorse, and remorse. Amidst the burning flames, the wizard let out a long breath.
“···Phew.”
The gray wizard, Cardi, leaned against the wall.
Even though he had returned as an archmage after a thousand years, there was not a single drop of mana left in his body. Because he used up all his mana to create this huge flame.
‘All the mana that can be used in the future, that is.’
I brushed it all off.
Because it was nice not to be a wizard anymore. Cardi returned here with that promise from the beginning. So, I had no regrets about leaving Mana.
‘In the first place…’
The time spent living without mana has become longer than the time spent without it. Now it was nothing new. Cardi saw the mana leaving his body. The mana that left his own soul and body became firewood.
Crack, crack, crack.
Using his 1,000 years as firewood, the fire grew stronger. In the midst of the fiercely burning fire, Cardi inadvertently burst into laughter. The laughter that came out was light. Light laughter scattered through the flames.
The wizard who had endured for a thousand years felt relieved.
Cardi tapped my ear as I looked at the burning things. It probably wouldn’t reach the guy who jumped into the demon lord’s source… but it was good even if it didn’t reach him.
“Don’t leave it to me, Raniel.”
Please, Raniel.
The sun of Arcadia.
The lord of this land whom we served that day.
It precipitates. Down, down again.
Raniel, who jumped into the black lake at the center of the Demon King, felt his body sinking. Raniel sank into the endless darkness.
How far did it come down?
And how far down do you have to go?
Is there such a thing as a floor?
In the black lake where nothing was known, Raniel barely managed to hold on to his senses. Screams were echoing from all directions, and the darkness that filled all directions was reaching out to scratch him.
The center of the devil, the source of the devil.
Recalling where he was, Raniel ignited flames from his body. The one path is still alive and well. Raniel fell down, fighting the flames. Then suddenly, Raniel looked at his right arm.
■■, ■■■■■■. ■■■■.
The queen’s soul held in her right hand.
The blackened soul was letting out a bizarre cry and clawing at Raniel’s arm. The fire wrapped around his arm didn’t really hurt, but it was very annoying.
“Use it.”
Raniel clicked his tongue.
At Cardi’s request, I tried to choose a humane method if possible, but if I couldn’t come to my senses like this, there was no way.
At that moment, the bottom of the seemingly endless lake was approaching. Raniel fell towards the floor, her arms flaring behind her as she clutched her Queen. Suddenly, the flames burned a little stronger in his hands.
“Tap,” he said.
The cheerful sound that rang out as soon as the tip of the foot touched the floor soon changed to the sound of the foot being driven deep into the ground. With his feet firmly planted on the ground, Raniel swung his raised arm towards the ground.
Quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Grabbing the queen’s soul, Raniel sunk his right hand deeply into the ground. There was a loud noise and the ground was deeply dug. The flames billowed loudly. The swirling flames spread out in a circle around Raniel.
Hwareuk.
The fire did not spread very far.
Even though everything here could be burned, my master said it was not yet time. The circular flame created a small space with Raniel at the center.
“Slowly.”
Her own space created at the source of the shadow.
“Are you out of your mind?”
Raniel took a few steps back, lightly shaking off his right hand that was clutching the spirit’s head. Her gray flames rose from where she retreated. In the shape of a bonfire.
“······.”
Soon, someone slowly raised himself up from the deeply dug floor. It is a soul covered in soot. However, the moment I approached the bonfire in front of me, the soot from my soul slowly peeled away.
The human soul was revealed through the peeling soot.
The first and last queen of Arcadia.
Archriel Clen Arcadia slowly opened his eyes.
* * *
Acriel slowly raised his arm.
She groped her body and groped her ears. The soot that was supposed to be on her body wasn’t there. The voice of cursing that should have been heard was no longer heard.
…It was impossible.
Your soul must have been completely mixed up with the shadows? As far as she knew, there was no way to purify her soul from its shadow. To be precise, the information did not exist at the time she was ‘maintaining her consciousness’.
A soul stained by the shadow cannot return.
I will live forever twisted and twisted.
Because they realized that fact, some of his subjects knelt down in front of him and said that they would go with him. Because that was the loyalty they were talking about.
Abaddon, the giant tree of the land that carries a curse.
Tristan, the sun that illuminates the curse.
Akelm, a lake engulfed by a curse.
She remembers her subjects whose souls were dyed black by her touch. She also remembers the fact that Ganikhalt cut them down because she couldn’t find a way to turn them back after they had changed.
‘And… so did I.’
——————
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That was the scenery she remembered.
Even if you were stained by the shadow and no longer were yourself, it was possible to maintain consciousness when your body existed. She had memories of seeing and judging her world in its brokenness. Her memories tormented her.
With my own hands, I destroyed what I was trying to protect.
With my own hands, I led my subjects down the wrong path.
And, since the day my body was cut by my servant’s sword, all memories have been cut off. Since the day my body split, I have been unable to maintain consciousness.
‘It just becomes one with the shadow and sinks into the black lake.’
I wandered among their curses and screams, listening to the whispers of the shadows. Now that I opened my eyes after such a long time…
“You…”
Acriel opened his mouth as if moaning.
She saw her soul.
Although the end was crumbling, my mind was clearer than ever. Screams and curses no longer echoed in my ears. As of this moment, he was completely himself.
“What about you…?”
Acriel looked at the woman in front of him.
The sight of a woman standing beyond a burning gray bonfire felt mysterious at first glance. She is a gray woman who may or may not resemble Cardi.
That person turned himself back into a human.
It gave me freedom from the shadows.
Before my eyes was a person who had found the answer that his subjects and even Cardi Van Armiel could not find. In Akriel’s eyes, the person in front of him even looked like a god.
“Shall we sit down first?”
however.
“I ran so hard that my legs hurt.”
That illusion didn’t last long.
Raniel let out a long breath and sat down in his seat. He was sitting down in front of the bonfire, massaging his ankles and moaning.
“It’s so huge that it takes a year just to run to the center. Do you know how much trouble I had to endure to get here?”
As I watched him sigh, I couldn’t help but think that he was a god.
“Sit down, for now. This is going to be a long story.”
Akriel, who was blinking, did as she told him and sat down across from the bonfire. The burning gray bonfire was warm. Looking around, it was full of vengeful spirits, but they were unable to overcome the circular flames that surrounded the place.
“You asked what I am?”
Raniel raised his head.
I faced Acriel across the campfire.
“Raniel van Trias.”
She revealed her name.
“He is the first hero, a warrior who inherited the will of Ganicalt van Galatric. He is also an gray wizard who inherited the will of Cardi van Armiel.”
There are more names to introduce, but I’ll stop here. Raniel smiled while muttering that.
“Acriel Clen Arcadia, the last queen of Arcadia.”
The queen’s eyes narrowed when her name was called.
“One thousand and one hundred and seventeen years have passed since your body was cut by Ganicalt’s sword and you were reduced to nothing more than an imperfect god.”
Raniel said calmly.
“Do you want to listen?”
Things that have happened over the past thousand years.
Acriel took a deep breath at that question. However, it didn’t take long for him to exhale again. She slowly opened her mouth.
“If time permits, can you listen?”
Raniel laughed bitterly.
“There will be plenty of time.”
With a crackle, the bonfire ignited.
The slow-burning bonfire seemed to signify the queen’s remaining time. Looking at the burning bonfire, Raniel began to talk.
That was the path taken by a gray wizard.
The road started from Cardi van Armiel and continued to Raniel van Trias.
I heard the story.
Acriel heard about a thousand years of history. There were a lot of stories he didn’t want to believe, but the more he heard them, the more he had no choice but to accept them.
Split memories, split fragments.
Because every time I heard the story, it was put together.
After hearing all the stories and piecing together the fragmented memories to complete a puzzle, she let out a long, very long breath. It was a lament, a regret, and a scream.
“like that.”
she moaned.
“So, that’s it.”
His beloved subjects became a disaster.
The subjects who cut them down and reached him were also unable to avoid the tragedy, which ended in disaster. Arcadia fell by their hands, and they became a nightmare of human history for a thousand years.
Black Storm, Black Dragon Belial.
Gletus, the apostate.
The sword of death, Ganicalt.
The queen moaned as she thought over that name.
It was a tragedy. It was an absolute tragedy. She stroked her face and looked ahead. There, there was someone who calmly told her the truth.
A person who identified himself as Raniel.
A hero of this era, and a person said to have carried out the will of Ganikalt and Cardi. Looking at her, the queen opened her mouth.
“Why did you tell me all this?”
Acriel asked.
It wasn’t an accusation. It was an innocent question.
“You are not my subject. There is no reason to save me. You could have burned me with those vengeful spirits, but the ship would have been simpler…”
she asked.
“Why are you turning me into a human and telling me all this?”
To face the mistakes I made?
Or, face the tragedy caused by your actions? I couldn’t figure it out. For me to come this far just to scold myself… it was a very difficult path.
“why···.”
“Because you need to know. As much as you.”
Raniel said.
“You’re right. I came here to free you, but not to save you. It’s not up to me to save you.”
She spoke calmly.
“As you said, I am not your subject. I have only read the records of your life. I have never met you or even talked to you. To me, you are just a stranger.”
But, do it.
“But I know.”
She laughed bitterly.
“The Rugran secretary who founded a new nation, Cartedia, to carry on your will. And the Rugran Clen Cartedia who ultimately forged the dagger that would kill the madman.”
The queen’s gaze wavered.
“The leader of the guardian group, Ganicalt van Galatric, who never lost his loyalty to you until the very end.”
Before she knew it, she lifted her head from her lowered position.
In front of her was Raniel, sitting the same way as before. However, unlike the first time, Raniel was smiling faintly.
“I know a foolish elf who endured a thousand years to keep his promise to you and to his comrades.”
Foolish elf.
Although it was an unsuitable nickname, Archriel felt like he knew the owner of the nickname.
“Cardi asked me to save you.”
Cardi van Armiel.
“The way to turn you back into a human wasn’t easy, really. It was trickier than the others.”
The altar deep within the kingdom had to be burned.
It had to be done at the same time as the subjugation of the Demon King, at the moment when the Demon King’s power was greatly weakened. That’s why Cardi headed there.
But, that’s only part of it.
Raniel knows. The thousand years that Cardi has endured. A contract made by ancient heroes. What sacrifices did they endure to stop the king they served? Raniel knew all of that.
“so that.”
Because I knew.
“I said I should know at least as much as you.”
Even if everyone in the world doesn’t know it.
I needed to know as much as the person in front of me.
There is an elf who has endured for a thousand years to reach this place. There are heroes. Their lives and the path they took.
“And that’s it.”
Raniel let out a long breath.
Raniel spoke to the queen who was looking at him and to a mere human with a pained expression.
“The story isn’t over yet.”
“···It’s not over?”
“You only said one thousand and one hundred and ten years. You haven’t talked about the remaining seven years yet, have you?”
Raniel stretched out his arms forward.
He spread out his seven fingers and thrust them in front of the queen.
“These seven years are the key. Are you not going to listen?”
If it’s a novel, I think there will be about 500 episodes.
“More than anything, this story has a happy ending.”
Raniel smiled mischievously.
fantasy,
