Ch.198Ignition (3)

The Dawn Keeper.

Known as the fourth apostle of the Demon God.

A powerful being who could challenge even the stars under certain conditions.

Yet now, this Dawn Keeper couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

All because of the silver-haired girl standing before her.

“Haa, haa…”

A girl in tatters.

Her labored breathing revealed her condition.

But even in the depths of this oppressive nightmare, the light in her eyes hadn’t dimmed.

She merely glared fiercely at the Dawn Keeper.

The woman couldn’t help but express her surprise.

This was a first for her.

‘How?’

The Dawn Keeper muttered.

Until now, no living being had ever withstood her nightmare.

An ordinary opponent would have already been devoured by their inner darkness.

Yet the girl before her was desperately shaking off hallucinations and auditory delusions.

If anything, her consciousness seemed to be growing clearer by the moment.

How had she escaped from the nightmare?

‘This shouldn’t be possible…’

Her questions didn’t end there.

While she stood dazed, a blow struck her abdomen.

The girl had approached like a flash of light and swung her fist.

A powerful sound of impact broke the silence.

Thwack-!

“……”

The Dawn Keeper was pushed sideways by the recoil.

Not a trace of change showed on the woman’s face.

Though her reaction appeared calm, doubt flickered in her pupils.

Her gaze, with crimson tears streaming down, was fixed on Neria.

More precisely, on her fist.

‘Light…?’

An alien light writhed at her fingertips.

The Dawn Keeper caressed her abdomen.

Having entered an awakened state, she should have been immune to all physical phenomena.

Normally, Neria’s strike should have been meaningless, completely negated.

As if she couldn’t tell whether she’d been punched or merely felt a breeze.

But.

‘…Pain.’

A tingling sensation was gradually spreading.

The intensity of the pain was so minimal it felt like being hit with a pillow.

Yet the Dawn Keeper took this anomaly seriously.

No matter how small a number might be, there’s an enormous gap between 0 and 1.

A chill ran down the woman’s spine.

“Hnngh…!”

“…Run!”

Clang-!

A dagger thrust into the opening.

The Dawn Keeper, who had been lost in thought, reflexively deflected the surprise attack.

This was quite different from how she had been taking attacks with her bare body until just now.

The woman had begun to be conscious of the girl’s light.

The impact transmitted to her palm was even more intense.

‘The strikes… are getting stronger.’

The Dawn Keeper couldn’t help but contemplate this anomaly.

The girl before her was clearly unusual.

She was growing stronger in real time.

No, rather than growing stronger… she seemed to be returning to her original form.

Like a child born as a star, drawing the radiance she was meant to possess.

Neria’s light, which had been only faintly visible, was now illuminating the darkness.

The Dawn Keeper furrowed her brow and raised her blade.

In her hand, nightmares seethed, condensed to their limit.

‘This doesn’t look good.’

I need to kill her quickly.

Perhaps she sensed danger from the light.

The Dawn Keeper wanted to dispatch the girl quickly.

She scraped together the nightmares accumulated in the seed, pouring them onto a single blade.

Then she swung it with the momentum to sever Neria’s neck immediately.

But her judgment had come too late.

“…Ah.”

Their gazes crossed for an instant.

The silver-haired girl had opened her gently closed eyelids.

Beyond those pupils, a clear radiance flickered.

The dagger, drawn straight and true, blocked the nightmare.

Kwang-!

“……”

Silence descended coldly.

The Dawn Keeper froze in place.

It was because of the pressure weighing down on her shoulders.

Whooosh-.

Around the two of them, a mass of pure white light was swirling.

The girl was looking up at the woman with calm eyes.

Holding a star within them.

***

Neria Lightni.

A girl born with the blessing, or perhaps curse, of the stars.

She had always lived with loneliness in one corner of her heart.

Having lived through a cruel fate, she never found the courage to escape it.

Perhaps she had concluded that there would never be a place for her to belong.

That’s why she had been pessimistic.

‘Actually, I wanted to give up on everything.’

The pain of the past had become the house that made up her entire life.

For Neria, sorrow was the only home she had.

A home she could always return to and rest her eyes.

No other sanctuary was permitted.

More precisely, she believed none would be permitted.

-Perhaps Miss Neria has… more homes around her than she had despaired of.

So when she first heard the boy’s words, she couldn’t understand their meaning.

Many homes? For someone who had always lived with loneliness, it was a meaningless phrase.

Neria gently lifted her closed eyelids.

Her silver eyes remained quietly silent.

Scenes reflected in her pupils.

‘I…’

Neria had been avoiding it all along.

From her own fears.

-A child full of all kinds of malice.

-You were born with the fate of misfortune, so you will surely burn everything around you to white ash.

-Please don’t hope for happiness from the outside world.

The girl was afraid of light.

Would she hurt someone else again?

Would the place she had worked so hard to build disappear so futilely?

Would she end up alone again, like in the old days?

The words the monarch had left behind like a prophecy often felt like her destiny.

So she was afraid.

So, she had been avoiding it.

‘I thought I was alone.’

Perhaps she had unconsciously thought that way.

Despite having comrades by her side, there was a loneliness that surged at dawn.

Having nightmares again, sometimes crying, having weaknesses she wanted to hide.

The contradiction of pretending to be fine in front of precious people, but falling apart behind their backs.

The heart that ached especially during winters with heavy snowstorms.

And the self-loathing for all of it.

The girl was a coward.

‘But.’

In the midst of all this, she had a nightmare.

The Dawn Keeper’s ability forced Neria to stand up.

It made her face the fears she had been avoiding and her own pitiful self.

With the purpose of breaking her spirit.

But.

‘…I wasn’t alone.’

The nightmare instead made Neria stronger.

The malice that sought to break her instead knocked on the girl’s heart.

It made the girl who was trembling behind the tightly locked door come out.

Creak- With the sound of old hinges, she faced the world. Hesitantly poking out her head.

Scenes formed in her eyes.

-Miss Neria.

Standing outside the door was her master who had waited for her.

He whispers with a faint smile.

Like an ordinary day in their peaceful routine.

-Do you remember that mansion?

-The mansion where we lived together, even before Astro was established.

-After everything is over, I was thinking it might be nice to live like we used to.

-Despite everything… I sometimes miss those days.

-How about living there together again?

Softly, gently-.

As if it were nothing special, he talks about the future.

These were memories with the boy, stacked neatly in the office.

Neria closed her eyes tightly, then opened them.

With that, the scene changes.

-Hahaha!

-Our deputy commander is always so quiet.

-I wish she would mingle more with the other members!

Lord Kyle, bursting into hearty laughter.

Though somewhat chaotic, he was an adult who always cared for her.

As if she were his daughter, there was a gentle affection in his manner.

She blinks her eyes again.

-Deputy Commander, we’ll handle this task.

-Since the Commander has come to visit for once.

-That’s right! The Deputy Commander should be by his side!

-We’ll take care of the remaining work.

-Have a good time together… hehehe.

-Sigh. Don’t mind what that fellow says.

-Please go ahead. The Commander is waiting.

-Thank you… pfft, we’re family, aren’t we?

-This much is no problem.

A bustling atmosphere.

Members approaching casually, pulling her away from her desk.

Neria found herself standing up from her chair before she knew it.

Everyone around her was smiling at the girl.

Yes, it was always like this.

‘You all…’

They were always kind to her.

They treated her as if she were truly family.

Finally, her vision cuts off.

And then.

-I want to give up.

Whooosh-.

A snowfield with blizzards raging.

At the center of that winter stood a silver-haired girl.

Neria faces the remnants of the past before her eyes.

That girl is also staring back at Neria.

‘This is…’

None other than the nightmare she feared most.

And also the self she hated most.

Starlight flickering across her body, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Even the dagger she held against her throat, as if resolved to commit suicide.

It was an old memory.

“……”

Step-.

Neria, who had paused momentarily, subsequently takes a step forward.