Ch.237Report on the Downfall of Restraint (2)

More light ascended to the sky.

Yet most, no, almost all of them simply stood still, clutching their hope.

They watched those ascending to the sky with somewhat envious eyes. Though they knew they could do the same, they couldn’t bring themselves to leave. It was hesitation that held them back.

Something large crawled out, pushing them aside.

It had a human face and human body, except it had no lower half. Its insides were concave and empty like the inside of a jar, and even glossy.

It threw away its share of hope.

“So what can this little thing possibly do?”

The unaccepted light spun around, but it didn’t even look at it.

“Look. What has actually changed? Our grudges, pain, suffering—what has been resolved? Nothing has changed. The world remains the same. The world that ruined, deceived, and tormented us remains unchanged.”

It raised its right hand, pointing at the fallen Laios and Ismene.

“Look at those two. We staked everything on them. They fed us hatred and clothed us in shadows.”

“For the first time, we had power. Power to oppress the oppressors, death to the killers, revenge against the frauds!”

“But now, they lie there. Even they deceived us. Even they used us as they pleased and then collapsed! This is not what we wanted!”

A groan escaped from Laios. It was from pain. It would be cruel to ask which hurts more—being stabbed by a lover or stabbing the one you love with your own hands.

They couldn’t give up either. If they did, one would become a beast and the other would become the Demon King again. But how long could they hold on?

The cursed venom that grew by consuming all the world’s suffering couldn’t be contained in just two bodies. It clawed at their open wounds, trying once again to escape into the world.

Seeing this, the agitator shouted triumphantly.

“Are you telling us to abandon all we’ve suffered and take only this hope? Hope is meaningless. No. I cannot go like that. This is not what I want!”

“That’s right.”

Kairos answered, blocking the path in front of Laios and Ismene.

“Hope doesn’t save people, erase pain, or solve hunger. It doesn’t fill emptiness. It doesn’t know how to recover what’s lost. If anyone claims hope can do these things, that would be a lie. However.”

Kairos knelt on one knee. He picked up a small hope from the ground. He dusted off the dirt and carefully held it in both hands.

“Hope is not something that waits endlessly in a future that hasn’t come. Nor is it a savior that pulls me out of suffering. It couldn’t possibly be. All it can do is walk alongside you.

Does a happy, comfortable person need hope? No. Hope is needed by those who suffer and are in pain, those who wander endlessly lost in darkness. People don’t move forward to grasp hope; they need it to overcome yesterday and today.

And when hope eventually becomes a new today. When you reach your destination and look back at all the paths you’ve traveled, when you realize how precarious the road was, how luckily you escaped, and that despite everything you’ve endured, you finally made it here, when you understand that all that pain and suffering was for this moment.

Then, hope finally completes its task and disappears. Hope is meaning. And meaning is something that I myself give to myself, not someone else.

Because I didn’t know myself, I wandered around looking for hope elsewhere, but not anymore. So I will do what I must do.”

Kairos planted the hope at his feet. The shining seed planted in the ground sprouted. Rising again, he stretched out his hands. The steel Imperial Sword was in his right hand, and the solid staff in his left.

“These two behind me are victims deceived by the world’s schemes, and also villains who committed evil crimes.

How each of you came here may differ, but they are not so different from you.

But I cannot condemn them.

If the people of Iscariot had not betrayed these two, they would not have come this far.

If they hadn’t stolen the sword thinking they needed to survive, if they hadn’t believed they were the true heroes because of a misunderstanding, they would have given up early.

If the Seven Heroes hadn’t deceived them all, if Laios hadn’t fallen for Günther’s whispers, they wouldn’t have traveled across the Empire turning villains into monsters and destroying the lives and property of good people.

I cannot judge all these causes and effects, the things they did and the paths they didn’t take, the choices they could have made but turned away from. Because I too am a foolish, ignorant human with limited vision.

So I will only do what I know, what I can do. Therefore, I speak to you with the authority given to me.”

He planted his staff firmly. He drew his sword and aimed it at the beasts.

“The people of the Empire turned away from them. Just as they ignored them, they ignored you too. So I will not look away. Since I’ve come, albeit late, I will do what I can now.

I say to you: grasp hope and return to being human. Only by living can you face judgment, salvation, or resentment. But do not let go of your souls. Do not surrender to hatred that erases you and others. Do not become beasts without reason.

These brave ones behind me have chosen to be human. So I protect humans and fight beasts. If you are human, stand behind me. If you are a beast, step back.”

The beasts howled in unison, as if realizing this wouldn’t work. The knots of curses and pain tied to the land rushed toward them. The darkness that gathered again gave them strength.

They targeted Laios and Ismene. The massive power swirling inside their bodies tempted the destroyers. ‘Release me. Release me. I will give you power!’

But still, most did not join in. They hesitated and wavered, caught between the writhing shadows and the small hopes in their hands.

Finally, the large one stood tall. Looking down at Kairos, it declared:

“Death to the hypocrite!”

It brought down its enormous hand. As if that were a signal, those who had not accepted hope leaped up all at once. They were excited by the thought of tearing apart the barely breathing lovers in the back and taking the power within them.

Kairos jumped.

Like a leopard, he leaped up and struck the creature’s head upward with his staff. As its chin tilted back, he thrust the Imperial Sword into it and cut it down. The creature collapsed, spraying black blood.

Following it, an angel with broken wings charged. It wielded a long spear that would be heavy even for two people to carry. Kairos, who had observed its trajectory to the end, slightly pushed the spear aside with his staff at the last moment and rushed toward the angel.

The angel threw away the spear. It lowered its body deeply, trying to ram with the horns on its head. But Kairos was nowhere to be seen.

Instead of standing straight to block, he slid down and cut off the angel’s ankle. The angel lost balance and fell. Its horns pierced through another demon’s body.

Kairos didn’t stop. He plunged the Imperial Sword into the body of a nine-headed hydra flapping bat wings.

When the dragon’s nine heads tried to bite him, he quickly moved behind it and struck its back with his fist. He straightened his fingers and thrust the steel gauntlet into its body. The hydra screamed and twisted its body, but he crushed its spine and threw it out of its body.

Finally, the nine-headed hydra collapsed. Kairos swung his sword. The blood covering the sword splattered on the ground.

The beasts of darkness retreated hesitantly. But soon they let out triumphant roars. Those filled with anger had finally found a worthy opponent.

“Look, this is his true nature. He talks about survival and whatnot, but this is his real self. He will kill you all just as he killed our brothers!”

The beasts gleefully charged. But then,

Snap.

Suddenly, pitch-black flames shot up from the ground. It was a black fire that devoured light. It was a fire of complete annihilation that seemed to erase all traces of the world and pull everything into the void.

It surrounded Kairos, Laios, and Ismene in a circle. No one could enter from outside, nor could anyone leave from inside.

Except for one black wolf.

Kairos hesitated. It was a familiar wolf. The protector of the wolf cub he had seen on the mountain path in his childhood hometown. A large body with a black mane, but with silver fur growing along its chest.

A person jumped down from it. With a leap, they came down below the wolf. As they gently stroked it, the wolf’s form disappeared.

Golden-red hair. A slender body. A gentle smile. She looked down at the fallen Laios and Ismene with pity.

“Young ones are always hasty, but these two are exceptional. It seems nowadays people get married without a priest?”

“…Lady Elisabet?”

With her hands clasped behind her back, Elisabet strode forward. She jumped in front of Kairos and tapped his black helmet with her finger.

“What’s this? It’s ugly. So gloomy.”

“Why are you here?”

“What do you mean? I’ve been here for a while.” Elisabet rolled her eyes. She looked at the fallen Laios and Ismene, and then at the demons surrounding them one by one.

“How could I leave when I was so worried? They’re not children left by the water’s edge. Have you thought about how much those precious people would worry when you disappeared? And you were the one who didn’t recognize the signal I sent.”

Kairos suddenly remembered the light he had seen earlier. The faintly glimmering light when the mob attacked. And the wolf cub that appeared when he fell.

“You came here because of me…?”

Kairos swallowed his words. Elisabet was smiling. She flicked her left hand, and a leather strap loop caught on her wrist. The last remaining seal.

“There’s no ‘because of’ anyone. I came because I wanted to. Just as you have something to do here, so do I.”

He tried to stop her. But Elisabet shook her head and grasped the strap.

“I know the curse tied to this place. Only someone who has completely given themselves up can enter this deep. Either mad or given to evil. There’s no way to save those whose hope has been sealed. That much even I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know?”

“They said that among the Seven Heroes, only Arianne of Humility didn’t eat a piece of the Demon King. I don’t know why. Whether it was because of her last remaining conscience, or simply because she disliked it, or if it was neither, perhaps it was a small rebellion because she knew it was wrong but lacked the courage to stop the others.”

Since Maria and Lily were there when Günther spoke, Elisabet must have seen and heard it too. But Kairos couldn’t understand why she was talking about Arianne. Nor why she was gripping the leather strap so tightly that it seemed about to break.

“Were such people only in that era? People who saw something wrong but deliberately looked away, yet couldn’t completely turn a blind eye and suffered internally, and then belatedly tried to do something small.

Yes. My ancestors were like that. They were here in the wasteland too, and were outraged by the Empire’s atrocities, but they didn’t have the courage to stop their fellow dark priests. They were their last remaining family, and betraying them meant becoming completely alone.

So they took a different approach. They said that when the time came and the seal binding hope was broken, someone should clean up what was righteous but wrong, what was correct but excessive.

After a very long time, when people could look back on today’s events and say what was right and wrong, when they would understand the meaning of all this, they should return.

Of course, I had no such intention. The Empire still persecuted us, and the world was still not ready. At least that’s how I felt before I met and got to know you.

But not anymore. Just as you bet on them, I’ll bet on you. That somehow things will get better. So how could I just sit still? While you’re doing your part, I should do mine.”

Kairos realized what she was trying to do. He reached out his hand belatedly. But Elisabet jumped back. She narrowly escaped Kairos’s hand.

“And I won’t pass this difficult task on to my daughter.”

The last leather strap broke.