Chapter. 14. One Empire, Three Legends (45)
****
Flowers fall.
A sky that silences even the wind. Like petals frozen in the cold air shattering into pieces.
Maria’s dreams were falling along with her star.
‘love you.’
at last. She was defeated by the selfish God of Light.
As if her body was being pierced by a spear of light and flame and was falling apart. Her stars and her people also became stars. All the souls that were together were also scattering.
Maria was counting and letting go of all the soul leaking from her heart.
‘love you.’
The soul that was once good is now pierced by countless curses and malice like daggers. Her sanity was never fully restored. Words that stayed in my heart. To the point where I can only say the words she whispered from beginning to end to the cursed souls who will wander aimlessly around this world and turn into a handful of dust if they leave her hand.
However, even such a broken soul is a fragment of God and a fragment of a once perfect being.
The witch Mea Maria will begin again. The soul that was once a saint will cross the border of death and find another body.
It may be close to the obsession of a ghost who has lost all power and even the good intentions of the beginning have been tainted.
Because she is the only one who can take care of those poor souls that everyone has abandoned.
The saint’s soul was leaving her body and scattering towards the world. Someday as Mea Maria, the goddess of the outcast. To give her people another chance.
When will it be time to raise up a broken soul? Mea Maria will once again live the life of a witch.
For then, it was time to go to sleep.
Sarah.
‘….’
but. Like stars attracting each other. There was an unknown force pulling her feet as she left.
Her spirit world, where there should be no one, but now everyone has left. A haven for the outcast.
[Give it back.]
In the gap between life and death, there was one soul left that caught her eye.
“okay. Neria. Now. “Now… we’ve arrived.”
No, there was one more. A girl’s vividly fluttering soul and an old man’s soul that seems to be dying out.
‘ah.’
A reunion so unexpected that it gave a brief exclamation to her who lost Izzy.
“mother.”
After entering the Witch’s Tower. As soon as he saw with his own eyes the reality of her being surrounded by countless souls, the soul mage prepared a spell just for this moment, forgetting about his own safety in the battlefield.
Aldrich. The soul chain tied to his wrist was pulling on the witch’s soul.
****
Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.
Aldrich approached the witch’s soul, which was faintly waving across the space described as the spirit world or unconsciousness beyond consciousness.
As a soul mage, I have seen and dealt with the souls of countless good people and even more evil souls and demons.
I have never seen a soul as ugly and damaged as the one in front of me right now.
Just like I saw in my mother’s eyes when she went crazy that day. The appearance of a terrible monster made of flesh and blood with thousands of eyeballs and tens of thousands of arms.
People get hurt a lot in their lives. Not a huge tragedy like the loss of a family member, but a small quarrel. Petty anger. Even small hurts, such as overheard criticism. In the end, what is engraved in our hearts remains unchanged.
The reason people can live with it is because time covers it like warm snow.
Aldrich described it as ‘soul-healing.’ Do all emotions and memories leave a trace on the soul in some form? The reason why the human soul can live steadily in a round and soft form is because other traces are piled up on top of it. This is because the time that connects traces covers up the wounds. As a soulmancer, Aldrich thought so.
That is why. Mea Maria’s soul was like hell.
“Without forgetting a single thing. Are you trying to hug me like that?”
The saint’s soul constantly wanders around the world, but it is difficult to determine whether it is a past life. When a saint dies, her soul goes to the body of a suitable believer and permeates the human soul within it. The newly-made saint remembers her normal life before becoming a saint, such as being a farmer or the second daughter of a baker, but she cannot remember anything about her life as a previous saint. It is because of the small blessing prepared for the saint who will have to spend eternity in mortal life.
The world is such a difficult place to live with all the traces of hundreds of years of emotions and memories. To prevent the saint from collapsing under the weight of time, the memory is relieved when the saint leaves her body and briefly returns to her arms.
but. Such blessings did not reach Mea Maria, who escaped God’s guidance. She herself did not want to miss a single memory of the countless wounded souls she held in her arms.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
52 years. It’s 52 years.
How much had happened before the noble boy, who escaped from the temple and lost everything in an instant, became a warlock.
I had to hide from the temple people chasing me. I was beaten to the point of death for not paying the rent on the piece of bread I barely got. Crawling, vomiting and dying on a rain-soaked street as cold as a winter pond.
Until the moment when he killed someone to take someone’s place.
As his soft hands became stained with blood and evil, Aldrich recalled his mother’s eyes, which he had seen in the stone chamber that day, and pondered over the feelings welling up inside him.
What did you think about? anger? fear? longing? Even now, as an old man full of wrinkles, I still don’t know what emotions he was chewing and swallowing back then.
But one thing was certain. That the reunion with his mother he had hoped for back then was never like this.
It wouldn’t have been so frustrating if the spirit of an evil witch wielded a thousand eyes and a thousand arms and used evil.
The soul before your eyes. It was still a soul in the form of a terrible monster with its eyeballs and arms glued together just like the one I had seen in the stone chamber that day, but the monster’s torn and torn eyes did not have the same full of malice as before. All that remains is the soul of a saint who has lost all of her strength and soul, and has been irreparably twisted.
Aldrich unleashed the curse he had prepared for her.
The saint’s soul repeats its life. If that is the law established by God.
It would only make sense if the curse that cut it off was also decided by heaven.
Something that can never be cut off. At first glance, in the eyes of a warlock, the form resembles a curse. No one considers this free bondage a curse and embraces it.
A thread that never breaks.
“Haeju (解呪) Cheonryun (天倫).”
A thread of soul released from Aldrich’s fingertips. It gathered together and formed a small, solid shape. A dagger so small and thin that only a child could hold it. It even has an empty handle without a blade.
The target is the person who reaches the end of the thread.
The spell is 52 years of agony and conflict. The curse and longing that appeared in Aldrich’s mind every time he touched the memory of that day. All the conflicting memories.
The catalyst is…
[Give it back]
52 years. Neria is an evil spirit who was born with soul magic, but in lieu of that talent, she grew into a vicious body and only displayed monstrous strength. Another Blade of Heaven’s Wheel forged from all of her soul’s innate talents.
From girl to monster. Dress and Fangs Neria, who was reborn as a terrible evil spirit, held the cursed blade born from the wishes of two blood relatives in her hands.
A blade forged from heavenly law that never disappears to cut off an inescapable fate.
.
.
.
.
Phew.
The girl’s distorted blade pierced the hideous saint’s soul.
[Give it back]
Phuuk.
[Give it back]
Sigh. Puuk coouk-
[Give it back][Give it back][Give it back][Give it back]
.
.
.
.
[Give it back…give it….]
Tears welled up in the eyes of the daughter who had pierced her mother’s heart, and in the ugly eyes of an evil beast.
Evil spirits cannot think much. Only because it is like a fragment created by the swelling of a piece of emotion and memory from that moment when the soul was distorted.
A desire that cannot be fulfilled. He looks like a child who has escaped into his imagination rather than the truth before his eyes.
The ugly mother’s soul collapsed in front of the girl’s evil spirit, which collapsed as if hanging on a sword.
[Give it back]
‘I love you’
[Give it back]
‘I love you’
[The stone…. give it back…. give it to me….]
‘Ah….’
Like a tower made of sand collapsing. Twisted souls swollen with misaligned desires began to crumble.
The soul of a girl who knows she can’t get it back but can’t stop saying it.
A mother’s soul crumbling over her beloved who was held in her arms at the end after letting go of everyone she loved.
Even in the eyes of a soul mage who has run his whole life to achieve that ending, knowing that no one will ever reach that happy ending.
Tears filled with unresolved emotions fell endlessly.
[I love you….]
Grumbling.
at last. The saint’s soul disappears without incident.
Passyuk –
The evil spirit of the girl who collapsed in front of him also made eye contact with her half brother with blank eyes and disappeared into ashes.
Aldrich broke the soul jar with his own hands. They fell to their knees, scattering the fragments in the direction they had disappeared.
Mother and Neria. Since he is a corrupted soul tainted by a curse, he will not be able to reach the rest he longs for or reach his star.
Ah my mother. Ahhh. my little sister My family, who are so unfortunate that I have no choice but to wish them happiness in this ending where they have achieved nothing.
“Rest in peace. Now… free from eternal pain… in peace…. and sleep in peace….”
Nevertheless, Aldrich hoped that their lives, which should have ended only in tragedy, would bring at least a little rest.
At least for Aldrich himself, who is preparing for the end. Because the rest was prepared enough to remind us of those who stood before his body with sad faces.
“also. “It’s a good thing I didn’t tell you.”
Push.
As the last traces of the two distorted demons disappeared, a long stab wound appeared in Aldrich’s abdomen, and his body fell apart.
dump.
Even after half a century, the scar is still vivid. The wound in my abdomen was pierced by my father’s sword in the stone chamber that day 52 years ago.
A warlock is a being who lives by filling the cracks in the soul with contracted evil spirits. Now that Neria, who achieved her wish in a twisted way, is gone. There was nothing to stop the life force flowing from Aldrich’s broken soul.
That’s just it. They barely survived by intertwining their two souls, and now that half of them are gone, they go back to where they should have been. Even though it should have died that day, the life that was overcome through expedient means is now returning to its proper place.
Lucilla is an emotional child, so she will cry a lot. Every time I saw that child, I thought of Neria and wanted to be nice to him.
Hydrasil. What did the elf learn from human life, a mixture of life and death? The faster you learn, the more anxious you become.
Ottoman. A friend with a soul as clear as a clear wave. I never thought I would have a friend at this age. He had a talent for permeating everyone like water. This friend is old, so if I do well, we might meet again soon.
Borca. Will the werewolf finally find peace? If he becomes a spirit and ascends to heaven, as the light says, will he be able to see his family’s peaceful home?
Notum. I’m sure they won’t be collecting my soul.
professor. Ah, something I thought I would never reach. A grateful friend who helped me reach the end of the story of the Teldemire family. He’ll probably get angry and run wild all the time. If you had told me, I would have found a way. This is a friend who is so talented that he can’t just ignore places that are out of his reach. It would be nice if you could take a little more time.
With his eyelids drowsily closing, his life flashed through his mind as if he was walking the same path from the beginning. It must be something that people say is a flash of light.
Do you regret it? Is it unfair? Are you afraid? Or…was it fun?
“Hehehehehe…. Even at this age, I still don’t know…”
Aldrich slowly closed his eyes, watching his blood spread across the surface of his consciousness.
Strangely enough, I didn’t think anything of it.
If you have just one thought.
“…I don’t know if that friend can make it and eat it alone….”
A companion who cannot let down his guard even for a moment and a friend who will remain in this world. All he could think about was whether he had made enough grey-brown potion for his friend who was with him in his later years.
The image of him growing older in his memories. Aldrich’s wrinkled eyes closed for the last time, thinking that the color of his memories had become particularly dark from the moment he met the professor.
….sparkle.
In the end, two small pieces of light intertwined flew like cotton and landed on the wound that had remained unhealed for 52 years.
The end of another long story.
Rest has come.
****
