The Azure Sky.
A mystical realm located beyond the mid-slope of the Sky Mountain Range. It was known as the Adventurer’s Graveyard—the point closest to the heavens that no one, save for the dragons, had ever conquered. In the memories of Ascension that I had consumed, it was the final destination the old adventurer had reached.
Once I set it as my goal, there was no reason to hesitate.
However, there was one thing I had to do first.
“Tom.”
“Yes. Have you finished your deliberations? Please, just say the word. I will follow your will, Young Master. I have already prepared everything. If you are to climb the mountain—”
“Please, go back.”
“…Pardon?”
Climbing the mountain.
That was something I had to do alone. Without anyone’s help.
“May I ask why?”
“I want to be with you as well, Tom. You are a precious friend to me, and our party is always better when you are part of it. But to obtain what I desire, I cannot have any companions. To fully understand the soul contained within this blade… I must be alone.”
The final memory of Ascension .
What I had felt from the old adventurer was a terrible solitude. His longing for light and flight had blossomed within that very loneliness. To achieve complete absorption, I had to embrace that same isolation.
Hearing my words, Tom looked troubled. “It is dangerous.”
“I know. But please, listen to me.”
“….”
“Instead of staying here to protect me, go back and protect my estate. The continent is going to descend into chaos soon. It will be difficult for my territory to remain safe. If you protect the Caravan estate, I can be at peace. Knowing my precious friend is guarding it would mean everything to me.”
“…But still.”
“I will definitely return, Tom.”
I didn’t know how long it would take to digest Ascension . I didn’t yet know how vast a Legend truly was, nor how grueling the climb from the Sky Mountain Range to the Azure Sky would be. I was surrounded by unknowns.
While I was holed up on this mountain, uncontrollable chaos might sweep across the outside world. Ian Chervil would not stop, and as time passed, that chaos would ravage the world with insane intensity. But for now, I decided to focus on my sword rather than the world’s turmoil. Just as my Master said: I would follow the way of the Caravan to achieve what I desired.
“Do you remember the conversation we had back then?”
“Which conversation?”
“When I met you before my promotion match against Seol-yoon. You said then that sometimes it is wise to avoid a struggle. You said it’s okay to hide until the waves pass.”
“….”
“Back then, I acted like a brave warrior who couldn’t avoid a fight. But the truth is, I’m a coward. I’m full of doubts and afraid of many things; I get scared over nothing. Even now, I’m afraid to climb this mountain alone. Deep down, I’m terrified that my life might crumble away meaninglessly in an unknown land.”
I looked at Tom and smiled. “So, lend me a handful of courage, just like you did then.”
Tom was momentarily lost for words. Soon, he spoke.
“Caretaker Tom… As a man who loves the Hall of Fame, a fan of the fighter Liam, and a friend of Young Master Arhan, that is a request I cannot ignore.”
“….”
“Promise me one thing, Young Master. You must return. You must come back and have a long discussion with me about the soul contained within the sword. There are still so many stories I haven’t told you, and so many I haven’t heard. There is no other young man besides you who will chatter with this old man.”
Tom pulled me into a firm embrace.
“I promise.”
And so, I sent Tom away as well.
Tom said he would descend the mountain, stop by the Sky Empire to deliver the news to the rest of the party, and then return to the Iron Kingdom. It was a wise decision. Sherizik and Audrey would be waiting for me without knowing what was going on. As he left, Tom added one last thing.
“Young Master.”
“Yes.”
“If you encounter a true dragon, remember only one thing.” His voice trembled. “A dragon never shows mercy. Any mercy they seem to give is a lie and a deception. If you remember only that, you will be able to escape any crisis.”
*
Everyone was gone.
With this, I was separated from everyone who had left the Iron Kingdom with me. Left alone, I felt more lonely and hollow than I expected. It was funny. I had spent a long time alone dreaming of revenge, but after being with companions recently, solitude had quickly become unfamiliar.
Yes. Humans are animals that cannot live alone. Because we are incomplete and weak.
For some reason, I felt like I had returned to the very beginning. To the time right after the Caravan estate became a land of death, when I had neither neighbors nor Liam, and I forged the flames of revenge entirely on my own. Back to those terrible days when I swung wooden sticks in the mansion garden for no reason…
“Everyone has left.”
“Yes.”
But that was why I could be more certain. After passing through this time, I would be different. Just as Seol-yoon had left for the Eastern Continent certain of her own change, I would be a different person afterward.
How long would it take? I didn’t know.
When I asked the monks, they said heading for the Azure Sky was nothing short of a suicidal act. They said the time to climb that far alone would take several months. They even said that if I went without a party, the climb alone could take over a year.
A year. It was a long time.
In the year I turned fifteen, I lost everything. I spent years training alone in the backyard after buying a swordsmanship manual, wasting a year to become sixteen. Now, my time as a sixteen-year-old was almost at its end. I would soon be seventeen. I had gained much during this past year, but once the next year passed, there might not be another one after that.
The moment I turned eighteen, Swordmaster Carlos would no longer leave me alive.
Two years.
Somehow, I had to become a Swordmaster within two years. At the very least, I had to be able to carve a scar onto that bastard’s noble face.
‘All my worries will be resolved the moment I become a Swordmaster.’
War. Chaos. To a Swordmaster, such things were nothing more than trivialities. Hugo Rhapsody had been pushed to the sidelines because he committed a foolish act, but as long as they followed the laws and rules, Swordmasters did not interfere with one another. And no one, save for another Swordmaster, could stand against one. My Master’s words were right in the end. The sword would decide everything.
“I respect your decision.”
The old monk, Butcher, spoke.
“It will be an ascetic journey. Even if you had become a monk, you would have achieved great things. The path you walk from now on will be arduous, but light will be waiting at the end.”
They were heart-warming words. As I listened, I thought to myself, ‘I want to try sparring with him.’
When I fought Monk Helen during the Gold Medal promotion match, I had won by a very narrow margin. I wondered what it would be like to spar with a monk again. Of course, I wouldn’t be fighting Helen; this time, I would have to fight a stronger monk. Someone like the Butcher in front of me…
「Don’t even think about it.」
But my Master stopped me.
「Even in my era, there were no monks like that, young descendant.」
“….”
「If that monk throws a punch, that new sword you got might just snap in half.」
Those words made my desire to fight vanish instantly. Having regained my peace of mind, I bowed my head in farewell.
“May the Eternal Day be with you.”
“May the Eternal Day be with you.”
The greeting of those who served Rebrua, the Goddess of the Sun.
As I gave the greeting, the other monks joined their hands and returned it. The monks I met at the temple were truly good people. They offered many words of encouragement and, upon hearing my decision to climb the Sky Mountain Range, packed various items for me. Food, clothes, and even blankets and pillows. Even though I already had enough from the supplies Tom handed over, they insisted on stuffing my magic pouch to the brim. It made my heart feel warm.
「Be careful, young descendant.」
“Pardon?”
「They might ask you to pay for all that.」
If only my Master hadn’t spoken.
“…That might be true.”
Since it didn’t seem like an impossibility, I hurried my preparations.
*
Just before the night ended and the day began, I set out at dawn as the first light was rising.
Helen offered to follow as a guide, but I refused. Instead, I asked her to hand me one Torch of Tranquility . Helen seemed worried about me, but Butcher stopped her.
“Let him fly up on his own.”
And so, for the first time in a very long while, I began a journey alone. It felt quite awkward to have no one chattering around me. It felt like navigating a vast ocean relying on a single torch.
‘The torch’s effect has diminished a bit.’
Just as Helen had said, the Torch of Tranquility lost most of its grand authority the moment it was held in my hand. First, the light itself decreased significantly. As it shrank to something barely more than an ordinary torch, the surrounding plants and large beasts no longer fled. However, driving them away wasn’t difficult.
“…!”
By contracting with the Dragon Aion, I had essentially come to possess a portion of a Dragon Heart. Thus, a dragon’s aura radiated from me. The wild beasts, sensing the aura of the master of the sky and the being at the top of this ecosystem’s food chain, fled far away immediately.
As for the plants?
“Whoa, easy there.”
When I radiated the authority of Gaia, the Earth Spirit King, they all bowed their heads. Gaia’s authority combined with a piece of a Dragon Heart—with the two combined, this place felt less like the Sky Mountain Range and as trivial as the hill behind the Caravan estate. Of course, I didn’t say such thoughts out loud. Given my incredible luck, the moment I spoke it, misfortune would surely unfold.
It was while I was climbing the mountain in such comfort and silence that something strange happened.
“Uh, what is this?”
The Torch of Tranquility in my hand suddenly flared up intensely.
The flames surged high above my head, becoming a literal pillar of fire. The rising pillar resembled the one I had seen in the center of the temple—the one they called a divine object symbolizing the Sun Order.
And then.
「Caravan. The last Caravan.」
I heard a voice I could not resist. A voice similar to my Master’s, but one that carried a holy, undeniable power that I had never felt from him. No one had explained it to me, and the voice hadn’t identified itself, but I knew instinctively whose voice this was.
「Go back. Do not climb the heavens.」
A God.
「Fragment of a being that should never have been born. Go back as you are, and vanish as you let yourself be taken by the years. Your existence is a tragedy, shard of Steel.」
The burning pillar of fire soon took on a human shape: a woman with hair made of fire. The woman who bloomed from the torch stared straight at me, pouring out a divine voice. I could feel the great will contained within that voice.
「Rebrua, Goddess of the Sun, speaks to you. Please, climb only this far. If you go further, there is no turning back. No one will be able to undo it. So, stop here.」
One of the Nine Goddesses. Rebrua, Goddess of the Sun.
The Great Goddess had descended directly before me.
