Ch.166The Helmeted Jester (6)

The sky stained with paint tore apart.

The torn sky screamed like a living being and bled. The scream from the sky resembled the sound of breaking glass.

Drip.

Blood flowed from the sky. The blood flowing from the sky was red, but not merely red. Red, yellow, blue, green, purple—blood of all colors flowed. The paint that had colored the sky streamed down along the torn gap.

Plop, plop plop plop…

The paint falling like rain gathered and formed shapes. Star shapes. Ten stars made of paint hung lower than the sky. Stars that seemed within reach if one stretched out a hand glimmered.

And then.

Click.

The sound of footsteps echoed across the wasteland.

Click.

The sound of heels touching the ground rings out. With each click of footsteps, the laughter grew louder. That laughter was no longer an auditory hallucination. With each click, shadows rose from the ground.

Click.

The shadows rising from the ground wore masks. They were dressed in ridiculous attire. Each held an instrument in their hands. They were clowns.

Click.

The clowns danced to the rhythm of the footsteps. They played their instruments ridiculously. They began to perform at will, roaring with laughter. There were dozens of such clowns. Dozens of clowns played instruments, but their performances never harmonized.

Not the harmonious sound created by notes intertwining, but cacophony where all sounds ran wild in disorder. Noise that made listeners frown and cover their ears filled the wasteland.

Click.

But even among such noise, the footsteps echoing with “click” were never obscured.

“……”

The woman walked, leading dozens of clowns. Her steps were slow, but speed is inherently relative. From the moment she revealed herself, Najin couldn’t even breathe.

She walked toward the frozen Najin.

Rustle.

Flowing black hair. Long trailing garments. The demon took the form of a beautiful woman. Eventually, she bent down and reached out to pick up something that had fallen to the ground.

It was a helmet.

She picked up the helmet that Alderan had removed and thrown away.

Holding that helmet, she walked toward Najin. All of Najin’s senses screamed. Breaking free from the restraints constricting his body, Najin leaped backward. He gripped the sword he had dropped and immediately assumed a stance.

Tremble.

The hand holding the sword trembled. Najin couldn’t tell whether this trembling was an aftereffect of his battle with Alderan or instinctive fear of the opponent before him.

Overwhelming. Beyond overwhelming, something of a different caliber entirely.

Najin sensed it.

That the figure before him was the Empress of Bliss. The demon with 10 stars, the constellation called the ruler of the Outer Continent. The one who had defeated Alderan stood right there.

-……

Merlin, standing beside Najin, also stared with wide eyes, surrounded by an atmosphere different from usual. Eleven blue stars glowed brilliantly in her hand. As if ready to descend upon this place at any moment.

“Ah.”

And then, the demon spoke. She smiled, looking not at Najin but at Alderan’s corpse before her.

“So you finally met your death as a knight, didn’t you?”

As if greeting a long-lost lover.

Her voice was soft, like welcoming a dear friend. With a voice that tickled the ears, she continued.

“I lost the bet. I should keep my promise, shouldn’t I? How regrettable. The beast that blows the horn, the goat with golden horns, the sword shining with sunlight… it’s sad to give them up. Truly, it’s unfortunate.”

But, she laughed.

“I’ll be satisfied with having you.”

Najin couldn’t understand what she meant.

But soon, he did understand.

The moment the Empress of Bliss gestured toward Alderan, a massive curtain draped across the sky. Like a curtain falling before the start of a play, a black curtain covered half the night sky. Wearing that curtain like a cloak that divided the stage from the audience, the Empress of Bliss raised her arms.

Rustle.

Threads flowed from her slender fingertips. The flowing threads bound Alderan’s body and his fallen star. Erasing the period of a story that had already ended, the Empress of Bliss opened the next page and wrote down sentences.

“A clown lives by laughter, so even his death must be ridiculous.”

“Laugh, shout, sing, dance, clown.”

“Forever, forever, forever!”

Alderan’s body rose. His fallen star was pulled by threads and hung in the sky. However, where Alderan’s star hung was the sky yet not the sky.

The artificial night sky created by the Empress of Bliss.

The curtain resembling the night sky that she wore.

There, the constellation of Alderan Basaglia was taxidermied. Simultaneously, Alderan’s body began to move with cracking, popping sounds. Not by his own will, but like a puppet caught in the threads cast by the Empress of Bliss, Alderan moved.

Najin watched the entire process in a daze.

Najin’s pupils trembled. What am I seeing right now? Najin couldn’t understand the scene before his eyes. No, he didn’t want to understand. Najin’s mind refused to comprehend.

But the Empress of Bliss didn’t leave Najin alone. She gestured. Holding the helmet bound by threads, she gently cradled it with both hands. As if handling a precious treasure.

Then, click.

The Empress of Bliss placed the helmet on Alderan’s head.

The Helm Knight became a knight by removing his helmet. Only after throwing away his helmet could he declare himself as Alderan Basaglia.

Then, what is he now that he wears the helmet again?

Alderan Basaglia becomes the Helm Knight again. No, he can’t even be the Helm Knight anymore. He’s merely a clown wearing a helmet. A clown dancing ridiculously to please his master. An instrument without a will of its own.

Snicker.

Caressing the clown wearing the helmet, the Empress of Bliss smiled. The corners of her mouth tore. Her eyes, stained with paint, half-opened. What was contained in her crescent-shaped pupils was mockery and ridicule.

The Empress of Bliss mocks Alderan Basaglia’s end.

She laughs at, ridicules, and insults the end he met as a knight. Did he meet a noble end? So what? Where is it written that nobility can’t be laughable? Everything depends on how it’s directed, how it’s expressed.

She directed this stage as a comedy.

Hahahahaha.

The master of the stage turns the knight’s death into mockery. Laughter echoed from the audience. The clowns dancing in the audience and on stage doubled over with laughter, mocking Alderan’s death. They roared with laughter.

—————From the beginning.

From the beginning, Alderan Basaglia “himself” was not included in the deal.

What the Empress of Bliss offered as compensation was only Alderan’s companions. The Empress of Bliss never intended to let go of the hero who had pierced her heart and dropped her star. Whatever end he met was irrelevant to her.

Struggle. Writhe. Agonize and agonize again.

I will turn all of that into mockery.

Your 150 years were merely a ridiculous comedy performed on a stage I created.

“…Ah.”

And Najin.

Najin, who witnessed it all, felt his mind turn completely white. It was, truly, an emotion Najin had never felt before.

Until just a moment ago, Najin’s mind had been filled with countless judgments and calculations—how to escape from the Empress of Bliss, how to survive here, whether to call Merlin, whether to draw Excalibur.

But not now.

A massive flame devoured all those thoughts, judgments, and reason. What replaced them was anger. An anger he had never felt before. Anger that turned his head white and numbed his reason consumed Najin.

Grind.

Najin ground his teeth.

Blood vessels appeared in Najin’s eyes.

“…Don’t.”

His voice, spat out as if chewing, was cracked. Najin released the sword in his hand. However, it wasn’t because he had given up the will to fight. Quite the opposite.

Najin’s hand grasped the empty air.

Najin gripped the empty space where Excalibur was stored as if to break it. The space entangled in Najin’s fingers distorted. Merlin widened her eyes and grabbed Najin’s wrist. She shouted in Najin’s ear, but her voice didn’t reach him.

With bloodshot eyes, Najin saw.

Alderan wearing the helmet, creaking beside the Empress of Bliss. He saw his master who, after enduring 150 years, met the end he desired, only to have even that end insulted. He saw the clowns laughing, mocking, and bursting into laughter that could wash away the world, ridiculing his master.

The place where Alderan had gloriously triumphed.

This sacred place where he closed his eyes as a knight.

The end that Alderan Basaglia had desired.

The Empress of Bliss was trying to transform all of that into a ridiculous farce. Najin couldn’t bear it. He absolutely couldn’t bear this situation where a knight was insulted and even his end was mocked.

Eventually, Alderan’s body moved, pulled by threads.

Creak, rattle, crack…

The clown wearing the helmet dances ridiculously. He laughs mockingly, rattling his helmet. From the mouth that once discussed knighthood, ridiculous laughter spills out, and the sword that was the symbol of the Empire’s hero and the helmet that was the symbol of the Golden Horn Knights lose their original colors, stained with paint.

The Empire’s First Horn has become a clown.

Hahaha, ha, hahaha!

Alderan moves, guided by the Empress of Bliss’s hand. He bursts into laughter, ridiculously swinging his sword in the air.

The moment he saw that.

Snap.

Najin heard something break in his mind.

———.

Najin let out a roar. Najin didn’t understand what he had shouted. He only knew what he had to do.

Boom.

Najin kicked off the ground and rushed at the Empress of Bliss. Chances of winning, rational judgment, calculations—all of that was meaningless now. He simply couldn’t bear not charging at her right now.

Excalibur was being drawn from the void, and Merlin’s stars were about to shine in the sky above. None of that had happened yet, but… at the moment when just one step forward would make all of that not the future but the present.

Flash.

Just as the situation was about to reach the point of no return, another star shone before Najin and Merlin.

Matyr of Thorns.

The star of the constellation with 8 stars, who had long ascended to the sky, burned red.

2.

Descent, a power called as such.

It’s a power possessed only by high-ranking constellations, and this power carries its literal meaning.

A power akin to teleportation that concentrates starlight to move one’s true form to a specific place. Although it has the limitation that it’s only possible where one’s starlight reaches, it’s still an overwhelmingly advantageous power.

However, few constellations use this power.

The reason is simple.

Descent consumes an enormous amount of starlight and weakens the constellation’s true form at the moment of descent. And for a constellation to reveal its true form is equivalent to exposing its weakness, attracting the attention of other constellations.

A weakened constellation. A massive star. A delicious prey.

Since it would expose oneself to numerous stars targeting oneself, descent is almost suicidal for a constellation.

But the Empress of Bliss attempted descent.

And to a place that was forbidden to her, where she had been defeated by Alderan Basaglia. The Empress of Bliss didn’t miss that fleeting moment when the boundary of the forbidden area had blurred due to Alderan’s death, and she descended her true form into the forbidden area.

A place where she had been defeated. A place where she couldn’t be herself. A place where just standing there would wear away her soul and body. She willingly descended there.

An act bordering on suicide.

The Empress of Bliss, who hadn’t given away her opening for hundreds of years, now revealed her weakness at this moment.

Flash.

There was a star that didn’t miss that moment.

A star that hates demons and, not content with dedicating its entire life to killing demons… even after ascending to the sky, continues demon hunting by creating an order.

That star had been watching the Empress of Bliss’s star, and didn’t miss the moment when her star moved significantly.

A constellation with 8 stars.

Matyr of Thorns.

A fire that burns for a thousand years.

And a fire that will continue to burn.

A flame of hatred that won’t die down until it burns all demons in this world.

Whoosh!

The star surrounded by flames calls its apostle. Not just the apostle, but also the star it has contracted with, it brings them to this place. Even at the cost of consuming all its starlight, she doesn’t miss this moment.

Screech!

As the sky tore, a massive sword strike separated the Empress of Bliss and Najin. The threads that the Empress of Bliss extended toward Najin rushing at her, her clowns, were finely dismantled by the sword energy.

Six stars suddenly appeared in the wasteland where only the Empress of Bliss’s star had been shining.

Star of Destruction, Juel Lazian.

“Duck.”

Falling toward the ground from the tear in the sky, she swung her sword. A sword energy hundreds of meters in size bisected the battlefield. The sword’s cry, resembling human screams, buried the laughter of the clowns.

The sword strike doesn’t stop at one. The sword swung repeatedly fell like a guillotine aiming for the Empress of Bliss’s head.

As the sword energy slashed the area, another new star appeared in the sky.

Just one star.

A single star that didn’t have multiple stars like Juel, but shone blue with a brightness no less than hers.

Grab.

A man who suddenly appeared in front of Najin grabbed his nape and threw him backward. As if to say, this is not a battlefield for you to interfere. Then, with one swing of his sword, he cut down all the approaching clowns and spoke.

“Empress of Bliss.”

Najin had heard that voice somewhere before. But unlike then, deep anger was felt in that voice.

“Do you remember me?”

Sword Master of Ruin, Kirhov.

Kirhov pointed his sword at the Empress of Bliss, one of the three constellations involved in the fall of Rondinell.

Two Sword Masters had intervened in the battlefield.

And the Empress of Bliss.

Bursting into laughter, she covered her face with five fingers. By the time those fingers left her face, the Empress of Bliss’s face was covered with a clown’s mask.