◈ 688. [STAGE 40]
24 hours before the Ice Fortress.
Immediately after the nameless Dusk Bringer Ash’s decisive battle against the Night Bringer.
“Ha ha ha ha!”
Nameless let out a rough breath.
He fired all the light remaining in his soul at the Night Bringer. It was truly a full-body blow, but Night Bringer managed to twist his body to avoid it.
The mere swipe inflicted a large wound on the Night Bringer’s chest, but ultimately missed.
The missed blow was shot in vain into the air, touched the curtain of darkness in the sky, and then disappeared.
The moment the sword missed, Nameless realized that he no longer had any means to confront the Night Bringer.
So, while Night Bringer was suffering from a chest wound, he quickly left the place, taking Dusk Bringer and Ash with him.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…!”
Fortunately, the Night Bringer did not pursue him, probably because the wound on his chest was severe.
Only after fleeing to the deep darkness of the southern forest did Unmyung breathe a sigh of relief.
“Unknown sister….”
“Dusk!”
When the Dusk Bringer in his arms let out a moan, Nameless, startled, looked at her.
Dusk Bringer, who had returned to human form after the dragon blood rampage, was trembling in pain.
Since the final stage of the dragon blood runaway, ‘Myth Reproduction’, has been used, the body will gradually collapse.
He even received an unknown blow while holding onto the Night Bringer and creating an opening.
Dusk Bringer’s small body bore clear scars from the strike of light.
If I hadn’t been engraved with the curse of immortality, I would have collapsed and died a long time ago. The body collapsed in real time and was restored by the curse.
Dusk Bringer looked to the side with a face covered in cold sweat.
“I’m fine… But Ash…”
Ash, who was lying down next to him, was also not in good condition.
He was hit hard by the Night Bringer’s attacks, and his ego began to collapse.
Even now, he was lying unconscious. It won’t last long like this.
And anonymous too.
“Ugh…?!”
Unknown suddenly discovered a long, dark chain wrapped around his ankle.
The chains extended endlessly from the black lake far to the south, restraining Nameless.
Creep, creak,
even more and more the name was being pulled.
“Tsk…!”
Only then did Unknown realize why the Night Bringer did not pursue them.
All three… they’ll die soon anyway.
If you just leave it alone, it will die on its own or become a worse bug, so there would be no need to go through the trouble of getting rid of it.
“For now, just Ash.”
Dusk Bringer dragged his body to Ash’s side with trembling hands on the floor.
“At least this child… must be saved.”
“But how?”
Nameless had already received an explanation from Ash in the village below.
Ash’s soul is broken. In the meantime, a surrogate personality was put on top of that soul.
However, the surrogate personality has been destroyed and there is no way to restore it. And Ash’s soul is collapsing again.
“…There is a way to turn it back.”
Dusk Bringer chewed his pale lips and stretched out his hand.
“The day Ash came to ask me how to become a dragon, he told me in case something like this happens.”
“what?”
“It’s in here.”
What Dusk Bringer picked up was… a ceremonial longsword that could be converted into a flagpole worn on Ash’s waist.
It was a Nightmare Slayer [Light and Shadow] made from the twin magical cores of the midnight sun.
“Ash preserved his personality in this.”
“…!”
Just as Byakuya clones itself and continues to create new doppelgängers, this equipment has the ability to duplicate the owner’s traits and apply them twice.
And to achieve this replication performance.
[Light and Shadow] replicates the personality of its owner and carries it inside the equipment itself.
Like a shadow created by light… the equipment itself is a doppelganger.
Unknown’s mouth opened slightly after hearing the explanation. Dusk Bringer nodded.
“The memories of the Ash we knew… remain here.”
“Can we call that memory Ash?”
As the unknown muttered incoherently, the answer came from somewhere else.
“In theory, yes… Ugh!”
The real Ash, who had fallen, was breathing hard and getting up.
Ash put a cigarette in his mouth with trembling hands, but he smiled weakly, the corners of his mouth trembling as if he didn’t even have the presence of mind to light it.
“In the first place, the guy you know is someone who copied me from an alien world and put his personality on me.”
“….”
“If only I could superimpose the personality preserved within the Nightmare Slayer… The principle itself is the same. That guy can come back. Oh, I guess they dug a hole to escape like this…”
The real Ash, who was laughing as if it was ridiculous, brushed back his bloody bangs.
“But how do you plan to access that device, take out that personality, and put it on me?”
“That…”
“I don’t have the mental strength left to carry out such a difficult task right now. Ader, that damn thing… I don’t think it would help even if it existed, but I can’t even see it.”
Dusk Bringer, who had been swallowing his words, exhaled.
Finally, as if he had made up his mind, he placed his hand on his chest with a determined expression.
“I will pass on my heart and blood to you.”
“….”
“At the moment of succession, the previous successor and the next successor are connected in the mental world. “If I place this Nightmare Slayer as a magical bridge between the two mental worlds… I will be able to take over the search for that person.”
The real Ash, who had been quietly listening, spat out his cigarette on the floor and smiled helplessly.
“Hey Grand Duke. “Why did that guy not succeed you, but instead steal the blood of the black dragon and forcibly gain the power of the black dragon… Do you know?”
“….”
“It was to save you.”
Duke Bringer’s dragon blood is passed down to one person.
The moment the heart, blood, power, and rights are passed on to the next generation, the previous Duke Bringer dies. I have no choice but to die.
Ash, who learned about the law of dragon blood succession from Dusk Bringer that day, gave up on inheriting the blood of the red dragon.
Instead, a plan was established to steal and use the blood of the black dragon.
Ash said, ‘Wouldn’t we be stronger if we had two dragons on our side? So, let’s go like this,’ he smiled carefreely… but Dusk Bringer knew very well.
For that child, the option of sacrificing Dusk Bringer did not exist from the beginning.
So, you chose this difficult path and that’s why you ended up in this messed up situation.
“…In order to inherit the Bringer duchy, one condition is necessary.”
Dusk Bringer took a deep breath.
He spoke the same words he had heard from his predecessor, Duke Bringer.
“A strong mind that will not give up on living as a human being.”
“….”
“In the span of my life of a little over one hundred and twenty years… I have never seen anyone who fits this condition better than Ash.”
Nameless, who was listening to the story, also nodded silently.
The reason why Nameless gave Ash the Black Dragon Legion’s Dragon Heart without hesitation was also similar.
Dragon Heart can raise the status of the person who consumes it, but it also corrupts it. It is common for people to be consumed by the karma tied to their blood and become living dead.
However, Ash had incredibly strong mental strength.
That’s why he trusted and administered it and was able to maintain himself even after taking the dragon heart of the black dragon army.
Dusk Bringer raised his voice.
“So, as Duke Bringer, I want to make that child my successor. No, it can’t be anything other than that child.”
“….”
In the end, it was just a declaration of suicide with different expressions.
Dusk Bringer’s face had the nobility of a queen in charge of a country. So the real Ash decided to stop arguing.
Because I knew him well through our long-term relationship over the past numerous episodes.
The fact that no one can stop the Dragon Lady’s determination.
“…The inside of this equipment is probably purgatory. Since it is a storage facility for confining cloned personalities, it must be a closed world completely separated from the outside world in time and space.”
The real Ash pulled out the ceremonial long sword and put it into its scabbard.
The Nightmare Slayer turned into a flagpole and scattered a disturbing and strange light.
“Besides, it’s equipment made from the magical core of the midnight sun. “No one knows what kind of nightmare is unfolding inside.”
“….”
“Even if I connect safely, I don’t know where the cloned personality is stored. We have to search… but it’s going to be very difficult because you, who are not the person and a complete stranger, will have no clues. “I might have to wander around here for a very long time.”
“Does not matter.”
Dusk Bringer took a deep breath and declared.
“If only I could get that child back.”
If only I could meet that warmth again.
If only I could return it to this world.
“He is truly loved.”
Smirking, the real Ash picked up the flagpole and touched one end to his heart. Dusk Bringer lifted the other end of the flagpole to his chest.
“…Dusk’s younger brother.”
Unknown hesitated, not knowing what to say next to Dusk Bringer.
Dusk Bringer looked at Nameless and said,
“Unnamed sister.”
“huh?”
“Thank you.”
Dusk Bringer covered her mouth and giggled like a teenage girl.
“It’s been a really long time since I called someone ‘sister.’”
“….”
“It was fun. “Really, while I’m with my sister.”
Unknown’s mouth, which was dazed for a moment, slowly brightened and said,
“…Me too, Dusk.”
He smiled dazzlingly… as if there was no darkness around.
“It was the first time in my life that I called someone my younger brother. “I was happy while I was with you.”
After exchanging smiles with each other.
Dusk Bringer looked at the real Ash.
“Let’s begin.”
“…I don’t have the presence of mind to say anything, so I’ll just say one simple thing. grandee.”
“Tell me.”
Dusk Bringer glanced at the person in front of him, who was also Ash, but was completely unfamiliar to him.
Then the real Ash slightly lowered his head and said,
“I hope you have a nice trip.”
That’s what I said.
Dusk Bringer looked surprised for a moment, then said,
“…Please, you too.”
He silently bowed his head in response.
They both took a breath at the same time.
And in the next moment, Ash and Dusk Bringer gritted their teeth and took a step forward –
poop!
The flagpole pierced both of their hearts at the same time.
***
Dusk Bringer slowly opened his amber eyes.
Whioooooo….
It was a pure white frozen world with swirling snow and wind.
All you can see is snow and ice, and mountains of frost and hail that stick to the sky.
A world on a glacier filled with biting cold under a dark, pitch-black sky.
Nightmare Slayer [Light and Shadow] A nightmare kingdom built inside.
“Somewhere in this world…”
Her long hair blew carelessly in the frosty wind.
Clenching his molars that were shaking from the cold, Dusk Bringer stepped forward, clutching his instantly freezing shoulders with his fingers.
“If you are.”
Every time my bare feet touched the ice, I felt a burning sensation, as if I had been burned. But Dusk Bringer did not stop walking.
Dusk Bringer declared, letting out whitish, frozen breath.
“wait. “I’ll have to find it.”
Thus, Dusk Bringer began wandering in this frozen nightmare cut off from the real world in time and space.
The world trapped in endless winter was endlessly wide. Maybe it was expanding forever.
But Dusk Bringer did not give up. She wandered endlessly, traversing and traversing this frozen world.
Climbed every mountain and crossed every desert. We looked down every valley and dug into every cave.
Many years.
Decades.
Hundreds of years.
Maybe thousands of years…
Dusk Bringer wandered endlessly.
To find the child’s bonfire shaking somewhere in this frozen world.
Any cold, any pain, any loneliness were weak compared to her will to protect that child’s warmth.
Dusk Bringer walked continuously without giving up even for a moment.
At the end of such a long period of penance….
***
“…Ah.”
Finally.
Dusk Bringer was found.
“That thing…?”
On the white frozen sea.
A fortress was built made of solid ice.
Dusk Bringer had a hunch that this was the place he had been looking for. Dusk Bringer staggered towards the ice fortress.
Thump
…
Let’s push open the huge ice gate and enter the fortress.
Inside the fortress, I saw a huge tomb-mound covered in white snow.
《….》
And there is a shadow sitting on top of the burial mound.
He wears a robe with wide sleeves and an official cap decorated with small beads, and his face is covered with a large amulet attached to the cap.
It was a shadow that exactly resembled the magic emperor Byakuya.
The shadow clicked its tongue and glared at Dusk Bringer.
《I finally reached it. It’s disgusting.》
Dusk Bringer moved the corner of his frozen mouth and let out a hoarse voice through his dry throat.
“I see, Nightmare Slayer… Is he the master of the nightmare that resides within him?”
《….》
“White night, it’s you.”
Without bothering to answer, the shadow of the midnight sun tapped the snow-covered mound with its fingertips.
《The personality sleeping here is mine.》
“….”
《After I ate this personality and took away its owner’s body. Because we will be reborn as a new midnight sun again. So don’t interfere, half-dragon.》
“You’re the one I’m really sick of, undead…”
After barely clenching a fist with his fine, stiff fingers, Dusk Bringer slowly prepared for battle.
“Get out of the way. “She is too beautiful for something ugly like you to touch.”
Then the shadow of the midnight sun laughed out loud.
《Isn’t it ugly for you too, half-dragon?》
“…You’re right. “I am equally as ugly.”
Dusk Bringer laughed bitterly.
“But no matter how rotten and moth-eaten the body is… wouldn’t it be able to be at least firewood for that child’s bonfire?”
The shadow of the midnight sun no longer continued the conversation.
Instead, he spread his arms wide and aimed the Dusk Bringer at the ice fortress he ruled – and at this entire frozen world.
The entire fortress shook, its outer wall of ice rose into the sky, and spears of ice and awls of frost rained down like a blizzard from all lands and all heavens.
In the midst of the rushing winter, Dusk Bringer kicked the ground without retreating.
And…
***
….
….
…a hazy warmth.
It wraps around my frozen body.
A small and faint but unmistakable fever caresses my forehead.
I slowly opened my eyes.
I saw a cloudy sky with falling snowflakes.
I realized that my body was lying in a transparent ice coffin.
That the coffin was buried in a white tomb and that the lid of the coffin was wide open.
That someone was digging up the grave with their bare, blood-covered hands, breaking the coffin, taking out the me who was sleeping inside… and embracing me.
“wait for a sec.”
Like caressing a camellia flower found on a snowy mountain.
Someone gently touched my face and whispered in a tearful voice.
“Just for a moment…let me hold you like this…”
“…”
I slowly stretched out my arms and hugged her frozen body.
The white frost on Dusk Bringer’s closed eyelashes melted and flowed down as transparent water droplets.
After miraculously escaping from the ice-covered nightmare, we held each other for a long time.
It was winter.
It was warm.
