The darkness shaped itself into a living entity, moving like a ferocious magical beast. It was larger and more threatening than any creature dwelling in the Forest of the Demon Realm.
“Wh-what is that?”
“What’s happening?”
The army led by Hobaek stared blankly at something devouring the royal palace, completely forgetting they were in the midst of an advance.
“Rin!”
Naturally, I was the first to react. The moment I saw the swirling darkness, my feet moved forward instinctively.
Caught up in the thought that I had to stop the rebels, I had left behind the most important child.
I had thought it would be okay since Adriana and Sen were together.
‘I should have been there.’
I berated myself as I raced towards the palace. I could hear Kurika calling my name from behind, but, sorry, there was no time to stop.
That child was looking for me right now.
“Daniel!”
“Uuuugh!”
Sen came down from the building rooftop with Adriana. He landed gracefully like a cat, while Adriana barely managed to avoid falling with the use of mana.
“Rin! Where are you!”
I immediately asked Sen. It might have sounded a bit coercive, but knowing the urgency of the situation, Sen responded right away.
“I don’t know. We barely escaped!”
“Is it possible that Rin… is dead?”
It was painfully difficult to force the question out, but this time, Adriana shook her head vigorously beside me.
“She’s not dead. I’ve been nursing her, so I’m sure of that.”
“If that’s the case…”
Holding onto a small glimmer of hope, I pulled out a dagger from my bosom—the sealing dagger Kurika had mentioned.
He said it could only be used after Rin awakened to the apocalypse, which meant Rin had to die for the awakening to happen.
But what if Rin awakened without dying?
‘If I stab her with this dagger now, I can seal the apocalypse without Rin dying.’
Thinking that, I turned my body.
“Head towards Kurika. I’ll stop Rin.”
“I’m coming with you, Daniel!”
Sen immediately shouted, pulling out the dagger, but I shook my head. This wasn’t a battle she could carelessly involve herself in.
From what I knew, touching that darkness would turn her into the army of the apocalypse immediately. More people would only be a burden.
Knowing that, it was now Adriana who grasped Sen’s wrist and rushed towards Kurika.
“Daniel, please.”
“W-wait a moment!”
It was pitiful, but there was nothing they could do. I was grateful for Adriana’s determination as I pushed forward again.
The darkness was now rising from the palace, reaching the city streets. I didn’t know what happened to the people in the palace or the Beast King, but finding Rin was the priority.
“Rin!”
I spotted Rin standing on the highest ledge of the palace, overlooking the city. In her hand was the sword wielded by the earliest apocalypse from my past life.
She was fully awakened.
I still didn’t understand why such a situation had suddenly occurred, but I had to resolve it here.
Much damage had already been done, and I had to take responsibility, but if this didn’t stop, a reincarnation from my past life could truly happen.
“The darkness is already…”
The streets were already engulfed in darkness. The moment you carelessly stepped on that viscous apocalypse, you would be dragged away, turning into an unconscious soldier.
“Daniel!”
I couldn’t just charge forward recklessly. A crystal-clear voice, like a precious gem, called out to me from above, where the darkness couldn’t reach.
“Eris?”
I jerked my head up and saw Eris flying in the sky through wind magic.
She seemed slightly worn from her escape from the prison, but her eyes were filled with resolve.
Eris landed in front of me and urgently pointed at Rin.
“I won’t ask what’s happening. We need to stop that child first.”
In response to her desperate words, I held up the sealing dagger Kurika had given me.
“If I stab her with this, it can stop her. Eris, take me over there.”
“…Got it.”
Eris tightly grasped my hand. A green wind began to blow softly around us. The darkness rushed in as if to snatch at our ankles, but Eris was a step faster.
With the darkness flailing helplessly below us, it seemed she wasn’t anxious at all, even without a weapon after just escaping from prison.
At that moment, I wanted to ask how the others were doing.
Dwarf Hatsim Velok and beastman Jaegyua Baekplin had been imprisoned with her.
But in the silence, the answer was already clear.
I could feel her resolute belief in her eyes, but she kept her lips tightly shut.
They were likely…
“They are watching us.”
At Eris’s words, I snapped back to attention and looked at Rin.
She truly gazed at us with hollow eyes, while the surrounding darkness surged like a beast, ready to devour.
“To be honest, this is really scary.”
Eris forced her lips into a smile, but I also tried to reassure her with my own smile, though…
The darkness began to take shape near Rin, and just seeing that made my expression harden.
“The Beast King…”
The Beast King, consumed by darkness, blocked our path, wielding his massive sword. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just him.
“Hatsim and Jaegyua too.”
All three stood in front of Rin, determined to keep her safe, having become undead soldiers. I took a deep breath and gripped my sword, but Eris grinned and threw me high into the air.
Suddenly, a green wind swirled around my feet, propelling me even higher.
“E-Eris?”
“I’ll clear the way. You just deal with Rin.”
“Wait! Even if they’re consumed by darkness, they still have their original fighting power! No matter what, that’s too dangerous for you!”
In response to my words, Eris glanced up at me and winked.
“Let’s give it a try.”
A fierce wind whipped around us. Without a weapon, Eris found it hard to even engage the three.
Yet, her wind seemed to assist the Guardian’s advance, pushing them back.
It even coiled around her feet like a whirlpool, preventing the darkness from reaching Rin on the ground.
I wondered how that was possible, but the answer was drawn in the imprint of the Goddess Artemis in her eyes.
With Artemis’s power, she was resisting the Goddess of Death, if only just a little.
Once Eris landed cleanly, she glared at the three.
“I won’t kill you, just in case you’re still alive.”
Thus began an extremely disadvantageous battle of 3:1. Plus, since Eris couldn’t let the darkness touch her, the terrain was unfavorable.
It was like she was fighting on lava by herself.
But even so, it would be foolish for me to run in to help Eris now. It was precisely because she drew their attention that I could fall directly in front of Rin.
As I fell from the sky, Rin raised her sword to meet me.
With one hand gripping the sealing dagger and the other drawing my sword from my waist, I…
Thunk.
I stopped time.
Everything in my sight froze. The Beast King’s strike swung towards Eris, and Rin’s sword raised to block me.
As soon as my sword hit Rin’s blade raised to defend her, time resumed.
Fwoosh!
The sealing dagger pierced precisely into the imprint drawn on her chest.
“I did it!”
Rin stared at the dagger suddenly embedded in her chest with vacant eyes.
Drip, drip.
Slowly, Rin began to melt away.
Starting from her hair, then her face, chest, and legs.
Rin melted like a mud doll hit by a torrential downpour. The surrounding darkness dissipated quickly, as if someone had suddenly turned on the lights in a room.
A chilling female voice echoed.
“Fake.”
*
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a blind sword pierced from behind, and Kurika quickly twisted his body. Having persuaded Hobaek’s rebellion troops, he was searching for a way to push back the darkness while evacuating the citizens.
It seemed he had managed to stop the overflowing darkness by closing the fortress wall.
However, looking at the sword rising from his own shadow, Kurika felt dizzy.
“Could it be…?”
Is this even possible?
Fwoo! Fwoo! Fwoo!
Like a rainstorm of arrows, the sheer number of swords poured out from his shadow. Unable to evade them all, Kurika coughed up blood and fell to one knee.
“K-Kalios the Emperor!”
Hobaek, bemused, tried to run to Kurika, but he raised a hand urgently.
From one of the swords lodged in his back, a hand formed from darkness, soon transforming into a beautiful girl with long black hair.
“It was a hassle when you were together.”
However, the one speaking wasn’t the girl named Rin that Kurika knew.
“Goddess of Death… I see, is it because of the imprint left by the Priestess?”
The reason Rin was able to ride directly on Kurika’s shadow was simple.
It was because the Priestess of Time had implanted an imprint into Kurika when she was dying from an encounter with Sharcarl. At the time, he thought that the imprint would disappear when the priestess died.
In reality, the mark of death still lingered within Kurika.
“Having either Daniel McLean or you would make conquering the continent easy. But since the Goddess of Time may engage in unnecessary meddling, I can’t choose McLean.”
Her hand slowly reached out.
“In the end, what I’m saying is that you are now appointed as my General, Kurika.”
The darkness, resembling the hand of a goddess filled with ambition to claim Kurika for herself, began to envelop him.
Crack!
Kurika tore through the darkness with his teeth and ferociously carved through them with his claws and sword.
In a normal situation, this would have been impossible.
No one could touch or break the very darkness.
“If you think you can take me freely, you’re mistaken.”
The dreadful gaze of Kurika shot towards the goddess.
“Hmph, how amusing?”
Behind Rin, a multitude of beastman soldiers and citizens, led by the Beast King, began to rise from the ground like a majestic army.
