Chapter 346: Destruction (1)

Louina persisted in her analysis of Deculein's lighthouse, whose impeccably created spell—already having understood the fundamental essence of the world—elicited only wonder and respect from her, yet she found herself compelled to continue, propelled by the innate intuition of a mage.

Something more was held within the lighthouse—a deeper, grander meaning lay concealed, and like a Mosaic artwork, the sum of those minute fragments within the grand spell was distinctly the most harmonious and beautiful...

"Are you still studying?"

At the voice that reached Louina's ears, she flinched and turned around, finding Yeriel, Deculein's younger sister.

"Yeriel...?" Louina replied, tilting her head.

“Yes, it's been a while.” Yeriel replied, pouting her lips as she settled into a chair, then pointed to the magic spell Louina was analyzing. "... They say that spell is Deculein's work, don't they? Are you making any sense of it?"

“I did figure out something, yes. But all of that has already been made public,” Louina replied, a bitter smile touching her lips.

“The one about the destruction of the continent—is that it?” Yeriel said, her tone blunt.

Well, she does hate Deculein,

Louina thought.

“Yes, but...”

“But?” Yeriel repeated.

Louina hesitated because she didn’t yet know Deculein’s hidden meaning within the lighthouse, believing it proper not to voice her thoughts prematurely.

"... No, nothing," Louina said, shaking her head with a faint smile.

Yeriel bit her lip without a word, her face conveying a sense of resentment and frustration.

"What do you mean, nothing?" Yeriel replied, placing her palm flat on Louina's desk.

Louina's eyes were drawn to Yeriel's fingernails, which looked as if she had chewed them like a child, with not a single one of her ten fingernails whole, and it seemed she had bitten not just her nails but also some of the flesh.

Well, then, the House of Yukline's standing will surely be shaken because of Deculein,

Louina thought.

“I know you hate Deculein. But could you please not take it out on me?” Louina said.

Then, Yeriel's heated breath escaped between her teeth. Louina belatedly looked up at her face, finding an expression that was a twisted blend of sorrow and anger, which left her momentarily speechless.

“... The House of Yukline will be safe given that you are cooperating with Her Majesty.”

Louina had made an assumption and said it, suggesting that Yeriel's sorrow and anger stemmed from the fate of her house.

However, Yeriel remained trembling throughout her entire body, her face buried low as if she were forcefully repressing her emotions, or suppressing the words that strained to escape her throat.

"Does Deculein inspire such hatred in you?" Louina continued, taking Yeriel's hand from the desk.

At that moment, Yeriel shook off Louina’s hand and narrowed her eyes, which had already filled with moisture.

"... Why would I hate him?" Yeriel replied, her voice trembling as she continued. "Thanks to him, I'll become the head of the family."

The head of the family,

Louina thought.

Louina nodded, as if she understood.

“... Well.”

Louina knew Yeriel, and although they had only coincidentally met and conversed two or three times a week since Yeriel attended the academy, their clearest common ground was their mutual dislike for Deculein.

"You've always been that way," Louina continued.

Yeriel always prioritized her house and dedicated herself for its benefit, bearing hatred for Deculein yet holding Yukline in love.

“I understand.”

Boom—!

At that moment, Louina sensed both the vibration that shook the world and the walls and the resonant echo that boisterously agitated the atmospheric mana, causing her whole body to stiffen instinctively.

"It's begun," Louina muttered, her eyes wide as she glared out the window.

"... What has begun?" Yeriel asked.

Louina turned to Yeriel, then burst out laughing.

“That...

hah.

”

"... What is it? Why are you laughing?"

Due to the mana flaring up erratically, Yeriel’s hair bristled upwards as though she had been hit by lightning.

No, there is no time for this,

Louina thought.

"

Ahem

, Deculein's lighthouse has begun its operation," Louina said, clearing her throat.

Yeriel's expression, too, hardened back into seriousness.

"Therefore, we must go now, to the lighthouse." Louina continued, gathering her documents.

Being stuck in the office, Louina realized there was nothing more for her to discover, and it seemed only by witnessing the physical lighthouse that any insight would come to her.

"... I'm coming too," Yeriel said.

"

Hmm?

" Louina muttered, her face betraying considerable surprise as she looked at Yeriel.

However, Louina, without delay, shook her head with an air of strictness.

"No, it's too dangerous," Louina added, pulling a robe over her coat.

"Dangerous, you say? Don't speak beyond your place," Yeriel replied.

"... Beyond my place?" Louina said, her brow furrowing.

“Yes, you've done nothing but speak beyond your place this entire time,” Yeriel replied, gritting her teeth.

"... What are you talking about? Anyway, you stay here."

"Who says I hate him?"

Yeriel's words held back Louina, who was about to leave the office, and Louina, clutching the doorknob, turned to face Yeriel.

Unconcerned by her messy bird's nest of disheveled hair, Yeriel continued speaking to Louina, “... I don't hate Deculein.”

Louina’s eyes turned slightly blank, and a tiny bead of moisture gathered in Yeriel’s eyes while the tear—a concentrated sphere of her accumulated worries and sadness—faded like scattered starlight as Yeriel shook her head.

"I don't want Deculein to die."

Yeriel began to confess, her voice trembling faintly as she deliberately disregarded the tears welling in her eyes.

"That stubborn bastard."

Despite being a complete stranger biologically, Deculein had accepted her as Yeriel, for they were connected by heart, and the love she held for him, which ran deeper than blood, was impossible to hide, nor did she wanted to.

"No, I don't hate him. I really don't. That is why..."

Deculein had wished for his own death, and that wish was soon to come to pass, however...

"I hope that bastard doesn't die," Yeriel concluded.

How could a younger sibling hope for their older brother's death?

Yeriel thought.

... And Louina gained some inspiration from Yeriel because the single trigger that had been missing for her was present in Yeriel.

“If it were not for destruction..."

Louina's eyes shimmered blue, and in the space around Yeriel—at whom Louina stared—spells sprang up everywhere in the air.

"But for preservation," Louina concluded.

Calculations, magic circles, circuits, and lines—unknown to anyone—appeared, blooming as if taking over before assembling themselves at will.

***

Empress Sophien selected those who would shatter the Land of Destruction alongside her, including Scarletborn, adventurers, knights, commoners, and even the leader of a principality.

While her proclamation naturally stirred considerable commotion, all bowed their heads before the greater cause, for if the Altar could not be stopped, the continent would face destruction, and if the meteor were to fall, humanity would be crushed into cosmic debris.

"I shall personally uncover the truth of the lighthouse," Sophien declared.

It was Sophien's declaration that she would personally engage in the war.

Immediately, the Imperial Palace declared martial law and legions were assembled, yet Sophien had no intention of moving with such weak individuals, and late at night she summoned only her most reliable confidantes to the Imperial Palace's underground, preparing for a clandestine entry into the war.

Boom—!

At that moment, the wail of mana, signaling the beginning, echoed through the Imperial Palace. Sophien settled herself but glanced beside her to see Maho trembling as she read some documents—the whistleblower report on Deculein from Yeriel.

"How could this be true...?" Maho muttered, a serious look clouding her features.

Though Sophien said nothing, Gawain, who was beside her, spoke in her stead.

"The report contains no deception whatsoever. Deculein had murdered every Purgers of the Floating Island, and from their very corpses, he crafted a staff. This evidence was delivered directly by Yeriel herself," Gawain said.

For Maho, it was an unbelievable truth because Deculein was her savior, and he was not the type of person to sacrifice himself for a mere Altar.

"Might there not be some misunderstanding...?"

"

Shh

," Sophien murmured, a finger rising to her lips.

At that very instant, footsteps echoed in the Imperial Palace's underground and an individual appeared, causing Maho to flinch in surprise at the sudden arrival while Gawain drew his sword, only for Sophien to restrain him.

"She is a Scarletborn, one who will lend us assistance."

The Empress's words—that the Scarletborn would help the Empire—were rather strange and difficult to accept, but in the face of impending destruction, it was perhaps the most sensible approach.

"I present myself before Your Majesty."

The woman, whom the Empress addressed as Scarletborn, knelt on one knee.

"I am Ellie, Your Majesty."

It was Ellie, offering a respectful introduction.

"You would do well to anticipate the peculiar talent of this Scarletborn," Sophien said, letting out a laugh as she glanced over the knights at her back.

The knights considered what it would be like if a peculiar talent were added on top of being Scarletborn—already monstrous enough.

The moment Delic and Gawain, along with the other knights, swallowed hard...

"Lead the way," Sophien continued.

Ellie nodded, stood, and took a step that distorted the very ground, and as the Imperial Palace's underground seemed to flip upside down, their sense of balance shattered instantly, their organs felt as if they were being wrenched, and a violent nausea rose, forcing them to close their eyes with a choking agony.

"... We have arrived, Your Majesty," Ellie said.

When they opened them again, Ellie’s voice announced their arrival.

"A convenient talent, indeed. Is this not typical of a Scarletborn?"

While the Empress was commending Ellie, Gawain and Ihelm blankly looked around their surroundings.

Though merely three seconds prior they had been in the Imperial Palace's underground, now a thick demonic energy clung to their skin, the dark sky was marred by a venomous aura, and the desolate landscape of the Land of Destruction, a land already fallen to death, stretched out in every direction.

"Your Majesty, is that...?" Gawain asked, a startled expression crossing his features.

Sophien's expression was rather cold, and she merely raised a finger, pointing into the distance.

"There is no time for surprise. Look for yourself—is the lighthouse not moving?"

Deculein’s lighthouse, enveloped in a halo of light and silently vibrating as a guide awaiting its final moment, stood while Sophien looked around.

“Let us proceed to the lighthouse then, for I am to meet someone at that place,” Sophien concluded.

Moving her legs, tying back her long crimson hair like a mare's tail, and drawing her sword to let it hang in one hand, Sophien repeated someone's name to herself.

Deculein, Deculein, Deculein,

Sophien thought.

After Sophien repeated the name three times, her heart, feeling somewhat constricted, appeared to become a little more at peace...

***

The lighthouse's activation sent refined mana piercing the sky, creating a path to guide the celestial bodies. Inside the Sanctuary, the followers prostrated themselves in prayer, while the Altar's high priests prepared their ranks to repel the imminent disruptor.

Meanwhile, those who had been watching me began to approach, whether for the outcome I desired, out of faith in me, or out of hatred for me.

And I waited until those who sought me could reach me.

"... It is quiet," Yulie said.

Today, the Land of Destruction and the lighthouse were more serene than ever, accompanied by a silence stretched with tension and a solemnity filled with faith.

"Yes, soon everyone will be captured upon this canvas," I replied, planting my staff on the ground and nodding.

"...

Hmm?

" Yulie murmured, her eyes growing wide and innocent as she turned toward me. "Are you telling me about it now?"

"...

Ah

," I murmured, a faint smile touching my lips.

Now that I think about it, I had never informed Yulie of my intentions.

Epherene would, of course, know, and by now, Louina and Idnik would have dimly suspected...

"Yes, this lighthouse, in truth, serves as an amplification device. With it, I will confine all people of the continent within this canvas."

"Before the meteorite falls?"

"That is right. All of humanity must be preserved."

The meteorite collision was an unavoidable fate, but the annihilation of humanity would not be part of that destiny because, even if the meteorite struck, humanity could be preserved, and that was Epherene's idea which I agreed to.

“And...”

The moment I was preparing my explanation with a touch more warmth...

—

A serious matter, sir! An intruder has appeared!

The urgent cry of the priest reached me, carried from the crystal orb at the peak of the lighthouse.

—

Two individuals are ascending to that location! Please proceed with caution!

I offered a low smile at the urgent report that the one they called an intruder, who in truth was a savior, was making their way up to me.

"... This final moment, with you, Professor," Yulie muttered under her breath, her hand tightening on her sword as her eyes met mine.