◈ 698. [STAGE 40] Man of La Mancha (3)
Outside the dark window, a white flash followed by a bright red light flashed.
“…!”
Verdandi, who was having a happy time with her older sister, Urd, and her younger brother, Skuld, suddenly stood up.
“That light…”
Skuld grabbed Verdandi’s collar as he was in a hurry to leave the Oak Tree Palace.
“Where are you going, sister!”
“….”
“Are you leaving me again? “Are you going to abandon us all again?”
Verdandi turned his trembling head back. I saw Skuld crying and Urd with a confused expression.
“Don’t go, sister. “You said you would stay with us…”
“….”
Verdandi slowly turned around, knelt down, lowered his gaze, and made eye contact with Skuld.
And he spoke to his brother in as kind a voice as possible.
“I’ll tell you what will happen next, Schooled.”
“huh?”
To the puzzled Skuld, Verdandi recited the cruel truth one after another.
“I leave and the war situation worsens. In the end, the Fairy Kingdom army was defeated, and here in the palace, Urud did not surrender and fought until the end… and was imprisoned.”
Verdandi bit his lip as he spoke of his sister’s final moments.
“And you, Skuld, are forcibly ascended to the throne of Queen… and are forced to lead the survivors to leave their hometown and move to the Autonomous Region. And for a hundred years, he led the tribe, enduring all kinds of indignities and humiliation.”
“….”
“And in the end, on the front line fighting for the world… you risk your life to save people and then die.”
Blood flowed from his closed lips. Tears poured from Verdandi’s eyes as he recalled his brother’s final moments.
“Sister Urd died to protect the honor of her race, Skuld. “You died to protect the future of your species.”
“….”
“Even though I knew I was going to die… I went down that path with a noble heart that I couldn’t even imagine.”
Verdandi looked around the interior of the oak tree palace, which was peaceful and cozy back then.
“If I stay here in my dream, I will be happy. “But I can’t make that happen like it never happened just to put my mind at ease.”
“….”
“Because such a lie would be an insult to her sister and to you….”
Sobbing, Verdandi hugged Urd and Skuld tightly in her arms.
“love you love you love you. I really love you both. So… I have to go.”
“…Berdandi.”
Urd, who was silent, slowly took off his crown and handed it to Skuld.
Skuld took it… held it with both hands and politely handed it to Verdandi.
“Take it.”
Following Urd’s soft whisper, Skuld smiled brightly and raised his crown.
“It’s yours now!”
“But I…”
“Your sister has what she deserves.”
Urd also smiled kindly.
“You just proved it. “You deserve to bear that weight.”
“….”
“Please take care of me, Verdandi. Please do our part….”
Be happy.
With the whispers of her older sister and her younger brother.
Verdandi took his crown and slowly, with his own hands, placed it on his head.
Shame, humiliation, glory, honor, and-
The sisters’ lives are bittersweet. That crown.
Verdandi, the second daughter of the World Tree, the last survivor of the newly crowned fairy royal family, laughed. She smiled, her face wet with tears.
Then she turned around and placed her hand on the closed door.
***
“You said you would play with me today!”
Young Kellyson burst into tears on Kelly Bay’s back as he opened the crypt door and went out.
“It’s always like this, Dad! Always, always! “They leave their families behind and go off to do their own thing!”
“….”
“What is the Golden Bough? A race’s longing? The future of the kingdom? It’s always such a story that I don’t understand! “Going far away, chasing only illusory dreams…!”
Kelly Bay pursed her lips. Kellyson screamed.
“Is that more important than my family… more important than me?”
“Dad, I have work to do.”
Kelly Bay held the entrance to the crypt with her strong hands.
“But know…nothing in this world is more important than you.”
“….”
“The day will come when you too will understand this contradiction, my pebble.”
Then the voice coming from behind her changed.
“…No, father.”
I turned around in surprise, and before I knew it, a grown-up Kellyson was there.
The Dwarf King scratched the back of her head with a wry smile on her lips.
“Actually, I already understood.”
“….”
“My father’s actions that I couldn’t understand when I was young, I started to understand them automatically as I got older.”
Kellyson continued speaking, looking embarrassed.
“Why my father was so self-righteous, why he was so single-minded, and why he always kept it to himself without telling us anything… Now that I have become an adult and am in a position to take responsibility for many people, I understand.”
Kelly Bay’s eyes filled with tears.
“…I guess this is just a dream I made up on my own, right? “I guess it’s just an illusion I created to feel comfortable in the face of your death, right?”
“haha. Maybe so. “Because my father is a coward.”
Kelly Thorn, bursting into laughter, strode forward.
“But you never know. Likewise, my son, who grew up as a cowardly adult who swallowed the words inside rather than expressing them… may be the small truth that he was unable to convey.”
Kellyson approached and placed a small key in Kelly Bay’s hand. It was the key that locked the entrance to this small crypt.
The next moment, when Kelly Bay raised her head, the door in front of her was no longer the entrance to the crypt.
It was the royal treasure trove sealed with a golden door, and the key in Kelly Bay’s hand had turned into a golden key that could open the trove.
“You should take it.”
Kelly Bay laughed helplessly at Kellyson’s words and grabbed the golden key with his thick fingers.
“It’s really ugly to be a father who is inheriting the throne to his son.”
“He was truly the worst father, but he was the best blacksmith and the best miner…”
Kelly Thorn patted his father on the back.
“He’s always been my idol.”
“….”
“Let’s go, father.”
Kellyson gestured.
“If there’s something to be done about making a hole in the sky, we dwarves can’t be left out, right?”
After tightly closing my tear-filled eyes.
Kelly Bay raised his beard, grinned, and quickly inserted the key into the lock on the door.
***
The ivory tower was on fire.
All old books, all research books, and all kinds of artifacts were turning to ash.
And the young wizards that filled the ivory tower.
The hem of their robes was on fire, and they stood still with tears in their faces… gathered together in the lobby of the Ivory Tower.
“That’s what wizards are.”
Diarmudin came to his senses from the light shining outside and immediately realized that this was a nightmare.
So, in order to come to my senses, I set fire to this place without blinking.
“Smarter than me, more talented than me, better than me… all those young lives always died before me.”
Dier Muddin looked back at his burning disciples.
He could see all the young lives that had left this world before him.
Visions of poor, sorry children whose names and faces I had never forgotten even in my dreams were flickering.
“But what an old man like me should do is not regret.”
Diarmudin turned around, shedding bloody tears. She left the burning interior of the ivory tower behind and stretched out her hand toward the closed door.
She said, “By recording and researching, I am paving the way and building a rock for other children who will come after me.”
She builds bridges with her blood and her life to carry on her knowledge and research.
“That’s the wizard’s job, that’s the scholar’s job…”
Diarmudin muttered as if he was vomiting blood, holding on to the front door of the ivory tower with both hands as it heated up and melted in the heat of the fire, enduring the pain of the burns.
“Because it is human history.”
And the moment Diarmudin opened the door and was about to go out.
“Everyone, pay attention!”
The children in the flames shouted in unison.
“Salute to Master!”
chuck-!
The young wizards all saluted the archmage.
“Go forward to a great tomorrow, Archmage!”
“To a great tomorrow!”
“To a great tomorrow!”
“….”
Diarmudin wiped away the bloody tears that had soaked his wrinkled face with his hands.
Then, I turned around with as solemn and handsome a face as possible and did my best to put on a nice voice.
“Let’s meet in the great tomorrow, rocks of history.”
And Diarmudin grabbed the door of the ivory tower covered in flames and opened it with all his strength.
***
The inner corridor of the temple. In front of the goddess statue.
Thorkel quietly prayed. Margerita sat next to him, held his hand, and prayed with him.
After a while Thorkell finished his prayer. Margerita asked with a smile.
“What did you pray for today?”
“It was simple.”
Thorkel opened his closed eyes and slowly exhaled.
“Here at Crossroads, my sunny land… I ask you to bring back the original sunshine.”
Then Thorkel slowly stood up and walked out of the corridor.
Margerita asked while kneeling in front of the statue of the goddess.
“Where are you going Thorkell?”
“To where I need to be.”
Thorkel took a deep breath.
“The final struggle is not over yet.”
Margerita asked worriedly.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It hurts.”
“Isn’t it painful?”
“It’s painful.”
Thorkell clenched his fists.
“But it’s okay. “Because you prayed with me that day.”
“…Thorkell.”
Margerita asked in a somewhat relieved tone as she looked at Thorkel’s back as he walked away.
“What does your goddess look like right now?”
To that question.
Instead of looking up at the statue of her goddess, Thorkell looked behind her and smiled darkly at Margerita.
And he answered.
“It’s okay now that you don’t have to check everything.”
Then Margerita also laughed.
Thor Kell left his cloister and walked down the corridor towards the temple’s main entrance.
Before she knew it, her once clean skin was covered with leprosy, and her once light body was covered in extremely heavy armor.
To hide his ugly face, a helmet he wore all his life was worn on top of his head, obscuring his vision.
Thorkell chanted as he bravely endured the weight of life.
“It’s a bit heavier now.”
When he picked up the broom next to the front door, it transformed into a huge shield and was held in his left arm.
Thorkel opened the door with force and came out of the temple.
Then – it was on the deck of the private ship La Mancha.
A dark space filled with swirling darkness, with black tentacles flashing their evil gazes everywhere.
Chain and Emperor Traha, who were covered in blood, were breathing heavily, and Verdandi and Kellybey Diarmudin were glaring straight ahead, emitting their own auras as if to protect them.
“after.”
After taking a breath
“let’s go-!”
Thorkell roared, and in response, La Mancha gathered the last of the fuel from the rear thruster and burst into flames.
While Thorkel was blocking the hordes of tentacles falling from all directions, Verdandi and Kellybey Diarmudin were bombarded with dazzling attacks from the front.
The ever-appearing curtains of darkness were cut, pierced, and burned. La Mancha soared upward, upward, upward, through layers of darkness.
and-
***
Lucas did not hesitate.
Between the summer of memories with all loved ones and the winter of betrayal with the cold, harsh reality. He didn’t hesitate for a moment.
Cheolkeong-
Lucas opened the door.
The assassination squad that rushed in from outside the winter poured into the summer garden.
Screams, shouts, and the sound of blood and flesh splattering rang out from inside the garden. But Lucas didn’t even look back.
With an emotionless face, I just took a step forward to get out of the garden.
It was then. Someone stopped Lucas.
“You always regretted it!”
It was Lucas himself as a child.
He was himself, the foolish and immature man who opened the winter garden on the night of betrayal. Young Lucas screamed.
“You ruined everything! “Because of you, Empress Dustia died and Her Majesty Ash was ruined!”
“….”
“You can still turn it around. It’s possible now. Hurry and close that door. And then I went back to the summer garden and was happy again….”
Young Lucas, who was about to say something, had to stop himself.
Sigh!
This was because the real Lucas grabbed young Lucas by the neck with his left hand and lifted him into the air.
“What the hell is this-”
“Get away from me.”
Lucas looked at his younger self with sparkling blue eyes…
No, he glared at his old regrets.
“Because I overcame old feelings of guilt like you a long time ago.”
“…!”
“No matter how ugly and terrible it is, this is the result of my choice. “This is my life and this is my banner.”
Lucas gritted his teeth as he turned his back on the summer garden that had become a sea of blood.
“All those hurts and regrets… ultimately brought me here.”
Lucas looked down at the torn black flag that was tied to his left arm and shaking.
I remembered what my lord had said while tying up this black flag.
– Don’t forget what we were watching.
To save the world.
Ash has been running towards this absurd goal, and Lucas has always been standing in front of him.
Because I know that this path was created with my master’s blood and tears.
You can’t turn back just because of your own regrets.
“I pave the way for my lord solely through my own will.”
Growling fiercely, Lucas took steps outside the garden.
“Do you think there’s room for regrets and such…!”
“…haha.”
Then young Lucas smiled faintly.
“I really have to admit this….”
And when Lucas’s steps left the summer garden and reached the snowy winter outside.
The surroundings had been transformed into the deck of La Mancha.
And in Lucas’s left hand, instead of young Lucas, he was holding the magic sword Xcarnival.
Gooooooo…!
In front of the airship, a thick and strong darkness, exuding an evil energy incomparable to any veil of darkness that had been breached so far, rushed in.
It was the final curtain of this dark swamp.
Taaa-!
Lucas ran forward without hesitation. He stepped onto the deck and flew towards the end of the ship.
Everyone on the deck saw Lucas, who was covered in blood from pulling back the curtains and blocking the darkness coming from all directions.
“Knight!”
“Lucas!”
“Lord Lucas!”
“song-!”
Everyone shouted at the same time. Lucas gritted his teeth and shot forward with all his might.
“Cut it down!”
At this time, the magic sword held in Lucas’ left hand began to vibrate wildly.
It has been used since the days when the Corrupt King Pendragon was originally called the Knight King.
This vicious demonic sword, stained black with his regret and guilt, stained with darkness…
Churrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The black and red stain that covered everything from the handle to the blade was immediately removed and its original beautiful appearance was restored.
In the magic sword Excannibal
With the holy sword Excalibur-
A dazzling light exploded simultaneously from the [Excalibur] held in Lucas’ left hand and the [Granted Sword] held in his right hand.
“Move over, night.”
Lucas ran to the end of the deck and swung his two long swords with all his might.
“The lord’s coming!”
Flash!
A sword strike in the shape of the character 十 was dazzlingly engraved on the rushing darkness.
And the next moment
Toukwaaaak-!
The night that seemed like it would never end came to an end.
The last darkness, which I could not even guess how thick it was, was torn apart in one blow.
The curtain of darkness that had covered the skies of the entire world was swept away as if it were swirling, and the sky that had been hidden above it was opened.
The sun scattered brilliant, warm light over La Mancha, which rose up through the endless swamp of darkness.
It was the dawn sunlight that I thought I would never see again.
