chapter 48: The Unwavering Gaze: Ileia’s Authority

The dawn sea of Baiton.

Gentle waves washed away the remnants of night.

The darkness receded, leaving a faint silver shimmer on the water’s surface, and the sky slowly regained its azure hue.

A small figure approached from beyond the horizon.

Simon sat on a rock, watching.

His golden eyes flickered.

“Hmm…is that…Ileia?”

The silhouette was familiar, yet…different.

The Ileia he knew radiated an overwhelming presence, impossible to conceal.

Everything around her bent to her will. An oppressive aura, a palpable force emanating from her very being.

That was gone now.

She was…quiet. Unassuming.

As if…

reborn.

Simon frowned.

“Someone else?”

Whatever enlightenment she’d achieved, this wasn’t the Ileia he knew.

Then…

‘Were there two people who could go to such a place?’

He was inwardly surprised, then redirected his gaze.

The dawn sea of Baiton.

Gentle waves lapped against the shore, a soft whisper against the sand.

As the first rays of sunlight painted the sky, Simon saw her approaching.

One step.

Then another.

With each step, a faint, holy inscription seemed to appear on the sand where her foot landed.

The pure breath of the untouched sea enveloped her, the air itself swirling respectfully around her.

It wasn’t simply a presence.

It was an overwhelming, complete beauty.

An otherworldly aura that threatened to stop his heart.

She was beyond human.

Her long silver hair, stirred by the gentle sea breeze, shimmered with a platinum radiance.

Like a constellation descending from the heavens, or moonlight dancing on the ocean’s surface. Pristine, perfect.

And her eyes.

No sapphire, no matter how mystical or beautiful, could compare.

A deep, mesmerizing blue that threatened to pull him into its depths.

Not just blue.

The serene glow of a timeless night sky, the brilliance of dawn illuminating the vast ocean.

And above all,

a benevolent radiance, embracing all.

She was different from the Ileia he knew.

The sharp, combative aura that once emanated from her was gone.

Replaced by a serene tranquility, as if she were embracing the world.

But that didn’t make her weaker.

On the contrary, she was stronger.

She no longer needed to assert her presence.

Without any display of power, without any effort, her mere existence drew everything towards her, stripping them of their weight.

That was true strength.

With each step, space itself seemed to tremble.

An illusion, perhaps, but it felt as if the world was rearranging itself around her.

And then…

her lips moved, a soft whisper,

“I’m back, Simon.”

Her voice, low and gentle, like waves rolling in from the deep.

A peaceful resonance, as if everything had ended.

But within it lay something deeper.

Enlightenment.

She no longer existed to fight.

She had transcended combat.

Simon instinctively understood.

She was

truly ‘complete.’

“Aha…so, you’ve returned.”

My god.

Ileia quietly looked at him, her blue eyes calm, radiating a gentle light.

“Simon.”

She took another step closer, the air itself flowing respectfully around her.

“We need to summon the academy.”

Simon’s breath hitched at her words.

An undeniable power resonated within them.

“…Summon the academy?”

“Yes. All the students, all the knights. And the Heroes.”

Ileia’s voice was still soft, but it held an unwavering certainty, an absolute command.

She no longer hesitated.

She had chosen to become the center of everything.

The true path of a god.

Simon chuckled.

“Finally making your move?”

She nodded.

“I’ve come to understand…the past me.”

The sky brightened, her long silver hair dancing in the wind.

“Not fighting for the sake of fighting,”

She closed her eyes, then slowly opened them.

“But fighting to change the world.”

She stood with her back to the sea, as if the sky and the ocean were connected through her.

Her mere presence was changing the world, bit by bit.

“We will now…eradicate the demons.”

Simon slowly inhaled,

and quietly knelt.

“Yes, your will be done.”

She looked down at him.

Not a single trace of hesitation remained in her eyes.

Now, the god began to walk her path.

 

***

 

“Hey, do you know why we’re gathered here?”

“No. I want to go home…”

“Aren’t you a dorm student?”

“My dorm was destroyed in the last attack…”

The academy auditorium was bustling with students for the first time in a while.

But strangely, it wasn’t just students.

“…Are those…knights?”

“Those over there are court mages…”

Key personnel, practically the entire nation’s forces,

stood outside the academy auditorium.

Silence fell over the auditorium.

Everyone held their breath, their gazes fixed on her.

She stood there.

No wind, no presence.

Yet, by simply standing there,

space itself seemed to rearrange itself around her.

She spoke.

“I am Ileia.”

Her voice was soft,

yet it was an absolute declaration.

At that moment,

everyone in the auditorium unconsciously straightened their backs.

Hundreds of students, professors, and knights—the entire force of the academy—were gathered here.

None had foreseen this,

none knew why she stood before them.

But the moment she spoke,

they understood.

The world was changing.

Ileia stood on the podium,

a brilliant white light radiating from behind her.

It wasn’t simply light.

“I declare, here and now,”

Pure, benevolent, like the warm sunlight.

Her gaze swept across the crowd.

No one questioned who she was.

No one questioned why she stood there.

Her mere presence,

her every word,

became truth.

“We stand at a crossroads of change.”

She took a slow step forward.

That single step seemed to shake space itself.

“Until now, we have watched. We have waited. We have endured. But now, the waiting is over.”

Her voice was resolute.

“We are no longer passive observers.

We are no longer hesitant shadows.”

She raised her gaze.

Her blue eyes met each and every person in the auditorium.

Those who met her gaze couldn’t help but feel chosen.

“The history of the past proves that we have lived under the weight of blind fear.”

Her voice was calm,

yet it resonated like a prophecy of judgment.

“We have remained silent in the face of evil. We have turned away from disaster. We believed that someone would save us. That someone would vanquish evil.”

She paused.

The air stilled.

Everyone in the auditorium unconsciously held their breath, waiting for her next words.

It was instinct.

An instinctive understanding that her words would become the fate of this world.

“But I ask you,”

she quietly began,

“For whom did we wait all this time?”

Not a single breath could be heard.

“Did the hope we clung to…truly exist for us?”

They understood.

Her words revealed the truth they had long ignored.

“Our fear…has nurtured evil.”

She spoke with conviction.

“Our silence…has deepened the shadows that consume this land.”

“Leaving unchecked the likes of Valentina of Wrath, Aner of Sloth…and so on.”

It was a secret that she didn’t know all their names.

“This…is our choice.”

Everyone in the auditorium

unconsciously clenched their fists.

“We will wait no longer. We will tolerate evil no longer. We will remain silent no longer.”

Her voice rose,

more than a mere speech.

It was a declaration that would shake the very foundations of this world.

“Let everyone gathered here remember,”

she declared,

“We were not chosen. We chose.”

She raised her right hand.

And space itself trembled.

Light converged.

The air crackled.

Her presence,

her declaration,

rewriting this space.

“We will change this world.”

She lowered her hand.

Only then did those gathered there instinctively understand.

There was nowhere left to run.

The war had begun.

And—

finally,

she spoke.

“The total war…”

She took one final step forward.

That single step

shattered the world’s balance.

“…begins.”