Chapter 134: Sincerity

The silver light streaming down was as breathtaking as a waterfall of stars and carried the purity of holy water.

Everyone stood frozen, unable to grasp the sudden brilliance pouring from the night sky—

Everyone except one.

Hellic alone threw back his head, blood-shot eyes blazing, and screamed until his voice tore.

“Again—! Is it you again?!”

His boundless hatred swelled so violently it seemed his veins would burst, and the red aura swirling around him thrashed in sync with its master’s anguish.

There was almost pain in the fury he hurled.

The starlight—the radiance of the Silver Clock—was warm, filled with unmistakable goodwill.

A voice carried on that light lapped against Isaac’s ears.

[So, you have come.]

“…!”

It was warm and gentle, yet urgent.

The impatience woven into that soft tone betrayed the weight of the speaker’s years.

[I am truly glad to greet a kinsman who has come so far.]

[Now… please return.]

White light surged from the ground around Isaac, sweeping away Hellic’s ritual and red aura.

“Again—! You bar our way again, traitorous witch who doomed our world!”

Tears pooled at the corners of the eyes that spat such wrath.

Hellic swung his staff and charged straight at Isaac.

“—!”

KWA-A-A-ANG!

Uldiran’s spear struck down, blocking him.

Eyes narrowed, Uldiran gave a sharp grin.

“With Arandel gone, another fool shows himself.”

“Move—AAAH!”

This time Hellic was different; he fought not as a swordsman but as a ritualist.

Crimson aura burst into hundreds of serpents that lunged for Uldiran.

“Whose path do you think you can cross?!”

A guardian god who had lived as a wall all his life now stood before Isaac, blocking every spell like an unbreakable rampart.

Isaac watched the fierce clash of Hellic’s spells and Uldiran’s spear—yet he himself could not move.

[I’m acting as the ritual’s conduit…?]

His legs felt rooted to the earth, and light spread outward through him.

Non-combatants—humans untouched by the Transcendents—were slowly wrapped in white light and began to fade.

“They’re—”

Returning.

She was sending them back—

To the mortal realm.

“My love—!”

Seleny Caldias reached for Uldiran, but he only smiled while repelling Hellic’s spells.

He had confirmed his wife’s safety.

“I’ll be right behind you. We still have snow-field strawberries to pick together, remember?”

“Yes— I’ll wait…!”

Tears shimmering, Seleny nodded as she vanished.

The blacksmith Antonio, the mage Vivian—one by one, those who had struggled this far disappeared into the light.

“Nameless! That man is the spell’s keystone—stop him!”

At his master’s order, Nameless bent low and drew her sword—

CLAA-A-ANG!

But a massive greatsword barred the way.

“…”

No words were exchanged.

After only a few days together, Rihanna had no intention of hesitating or pleading.

Nameless likewise obeyed the hand that held her leash.

Two women swung their blades in silence.

While the white light sent people home, the battlefield grew even more brutal.

Safe return was a blessing—

But it also meant their fighting strength dwindled by the minute.

“Hold—! Everyone, hold!”

White light began to swirl around Silverna.

If she stayed still, she would be taken home, but she kept moving, resisting the spell.

If she left, the battlefront would collapse.

“If I’m going, it’ll be last.”

Resolved, Silverna met the Transcendents flooding up the stairs.

SHRIIIEEEK!

Something burst from the darkness and slammed into her.

Overpowered, Silverna hit the floor hard, sliding back.

The figure pinning her was the bat-winged woman they’d met earlier.

Fangs gleamed.

Pinned like this, Silverna couldn’t overpower a Primitive Transcendent.

It was a perfect ambush.

“Kh—!”

“Who is Jonathan?”

Silverna’s eyes widened in bewilderment.

The woman’s hand clamped her throat—she could have snapped it.

But she didn’t.

Instead, she looked down, intrigued, urging an answer.

“You said I looked like Jonathan.”

“As if— I’d tell you!”

Silverna shoved with her spear shaft, but it didn’t budge.

Even facing death, she tried to fight, but when she scraped the bottom of her mana, nothing remained.

She had fought too long.

Not even dregs were left; perhaps she should accept death—until…

“Go tell that Jonathan fellow this.”

Grinning, the woman slowly rose.

“We—called Blood Fiends among the Primitives—”

There was no time to resist.

“—say his family is waiting.”

“Wait—! No! Isa—!”

Silverna was swallowed by the pure white light.

Isaac could do nothing, even as he saw it all.

As the conduit, he could send others away—yet protect no one.

All he could do was watch them depart.

Even Anna, knocked unconscious by the Transcendents, vanished in the glow.

The soldiers guarding the entrance were taken as well.

“W-wait—?!”

Sharen, who was hugging Nureumdol tight, was carried off by the light along with him.

Numbers dwindling, the crisis tightened its grip.

In that spreading helplessness, Isaac looked up at the star and asked,

“Why… me?”

The star answered simply.

[— Because you carry a karmic burden.]

To shoulder karma.

Nameless had said the same kind of thing.

Only those burdened by karma could wield it.

Could it be—

“Was it… you?”

His voice shook.

“Are you the one who sent me back in time?”

Forcing his stiff lips to move, he voiced the question. The star replied, calm as ever.

[Do not misunderstand. I have no wish to claim humanity’s creations or glory as my own.]

[ Merely, watching you lets me know my sacrifice was not in vain.]

Wait. That means—

[I am not the one.]

[Rituals may seem to pierce all things, but they exact a matching price.]

[Just as I paid mine, becoming a star in their sky.]

“….”

The lone star of the Abyss Realm—a woman turned into starlight.

Yet the Silver Clock was not what triggered his return?

Not rituals, then. The theory he and the Grandmaster had built was wrong.

And she had spoken clearly of

“Humanity’s creations and glory.”

By that, the Silver Clock meant—

“Magic?”

My regression… is magic?

A splitting pain hammered Isaac’s skull.

“Damn it—”

BANG!

A heavy crash rang out.

Uldiran, blood-soaked, fell to one knee.

The Primitive Transcendents had pressed in; seven of them loomed over him.

Among them stood sword saints—and the woman who’d called herself a blood fiend minutes ago.

“He killed five of our, did he?”

Grinding his teeth, Uldiran forced himself up.

Isaac and Rihanna were still here.

He meant to guard them to the end and be the last to cross over—but perhaps because there were fewer to move now, the white light surged faster.

While he hesitated, it swallowed Uldiran whole.

Only two remained.

Because Isaac was the conduit, Rihanna had to leave first before he could go.

“Right to the bitter end—!”

Cursing the Silver Clock that had ruined everything, Hellic finally played his last card.

PUSHUUUUK!

A razor-sharp red aura bit its master—Hellic’s left arm was sliced clean away.

Even the other Transcendents stared wide-eyed, but the madness in Hellic’s gaze was fixed not on Isaac but on the star beyond him.

“Watch closely, Silver Clock! The man you chose will become mine!”

The moment his arm hit the ground, the red aura that the white light had been pushing back roared to life again.

Rituals always exacts a price.

A Primitive Transcendent—and a caster at that—had just fed his own arm to the spell.

The enslaving rite went berserk, howling as it streaked toward Isaac.

PHEOK!

Red hair scattered like blood.

The dull, body-piercing thud was not Isaac’s.

“Rihanna—!”

Isaac’s motionless body flared with heat, as if flames licked his skin. He poured every ounce of strength into moving a foot—but nothing budged.

“Isaac….”

Rihanna’s voice was fading.

She tried desperately to shove back the Vassalization ritual wrapping around her with streams of red aura, yet the spell only tightened its noose.

GRITTT!

Hellic ground his teeth until they creaked, rage bursting loose.

He had sacrificed his left hand to cast the rite on Isaac, yet somehow the spell had snared the wrong prey.

“Kill him. Kill that wretch.”

Hellic’s order spilled out hollow—spent, despairing.

BANG!

Rihanna’s great-sword swept a long arc, halting the Transcendents.

The blade aura darkened as red veins bled into it, but the desperation inside that aura only grew more savage, more fierce.

“This time is different—”

Rihanna felt her body refusing to obey.

Arms heavy, lids drooping, legs ready to fold.

Even so—

Not one step,

Not a single pace would she yield.

“This time… It’s different.”

Cracked voice, unshakable resolve.

Only the regret sliding down her cheeks kept her moving.

Every moment of the past—

All the days she wounded him.

If any of this could count as the least bit of atonement—

“I will protect you. No matter what.”

Isaac’s eyes quaked.

Still living inside a heart flayed by despair and remorse—

At the sight of his former wife, he struggled with all his might.

“RIha! Please! I never wanted this! Stop—!”

But the light that had wrapped Rihanna was already retreating.

The way it pulled away from her body seemed to proclaim she now belonged to the Abyss Realm.

Agony ripped his heart, but when Isaac tried to scream, a white shimmer softly sealed his lips and stole his voice.

“……”

Rihanna gazed at him silently, lips quivering.

Vassalization.

An absolute leash the Transcendents put on humankind—

So brutal it shatters all restraint and drags forth only primal truth.

Rihanna clamped her mouth shut.

‘No.’

She must not speak.

‘No.’

She must not let it spill out.

‘Please…’

She couldn’t bare her heart.

She had to endure to the end.

She could not force an even heavier burden on Isaac.

‘I beg you… please.’

Yet the Transcendents’ cruel leash brushed her tongue like a mocking feather.

Hopelessly trembling, her lips parted—slowly.

A pure, noble truth, free of any lie.

“I love you, Isaac.”

In that instant, Isaac’s eyes turned to ice.

Tears slid down his cheeks—but never reached the ground.

The light swallowed him whole.

– – The End of The Chapter ––

 

[TL: Damn these onion ninjas are attacking again 😭😭

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