Ch.248248. Gift

Sitting at the piano, he presses the keys with slender hands, offering beautiful melodies to the world.

That was the talent possessed by the boy named Owen Baltani.

It was also one of the reasons I named Owen as my successor.

The boy’s performance is a gift to the world, but that gift wasn’t only for the living.

While all we could offer the dead was a funeral dirge, Owen Baltani gave them something more.

The boy’s performance had a magical power that attracted not the living, but the dead.

As the boy’s gentle performance begins to flow, I activate the magic circle engraved on the royal palace’s massive rooftop.

A call to the continent.

Compared to Luanes’s method of trying to annihilate all spiritual beings, this is a gentler beginning.

Extending magic toward the continent is much easier than extending a voice rather than annihilating souls.

Since I’ve previously asked for help from the souls in Greyfond to stop Romuleus, I clear my throat more skillfully than before and open my mouth.

“Countless ones sleeping across the continent.”

My voice doesn’t echo with the same aggressive volume as before. But even a small ripple will reach the end of a lake.

My voice will surely reach the ends of the continent.

“From those who died just yesterday, to those who have fallen into such a long sleep they’ve forgotten themselves.”

I believe without doubt it will reach all the dead.

“Awaken, and hear my words.”

A strong wind blows.

The clouds of holy power no longer approach and remain fixed, perhaps thanks to Stella and Lucia handling them.

Thinking this should be enough for souls to reach me.

“I am the spiritmaster of the Griffin Kingdom.”

I introduce myself.

“Deus Verdi.”

In the end, most of what I can say to the dead doesn’t have a happy ending.

No matter how much comfort I offer, how much I empathize with their hearts, or wipe away their tears.

In the end, there’s only one thing I can say.

Rest in peace.

“Those who sleep.”

This time was no different.

I awaken souls that have been sleeping for thousands of years, one by one.

“You who have lived on this land are now.”

And once again, I had no choice but to offer them a cruel truth.

Because ultimately.

They are dead, and those who remain must continue living.

“Leading this continent down the path of destruction.”

The truth flowed from my lips once more.

* * *

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

At first, I thought hail was falling from the clouds. But they were too heavy and rough to be hail, yet too strange to be called a disaster.

“What the heck?”

Those that couldn’t land properly crashed onto the ground instead of the royal rooftop and shattered into pieces.

The ones that managed to land on the royal rooftop all had bizarre forms.

Some had three hands, others had six legs.

Monsters with bodies pieced together like corpses. I wondered if “chimera” would be the right term, but their basic framework was all human.

Findenai looks up at the sky. He realizes that the corpsemaster Yoon is controlling them from above the clouds.

“Just corpses?”

The cold flowing from Baekseol and the heat emanating from Warshuz collide and swirl in the air.

Since his opponent is a corpse, Blood Claw won’t activate, but Findenai firmly grips Baekseol with both hands and swings it widely.

“You dare challenge me with this?”

WHOOSH!

The corpses are cleanly cut in half horizontally by Findenai’s strike. Even though Yoon wasn’t an ordinary corpsemaster but Dante’s corpsemaster, his corpses were mere chunks of meat before Findenai.

I won’t let anyone carelessly interfere with my master.

If you want to pass, defeat me first.

With that meaning, Findenai stomps Baekseol on the ground and looks up at the sky.

“If you just keep watching from up there, you’ll end up accomplishing nothing, you vermin.”

Did they hear Findenai’s voice? Another man fell.

But unlike the previous corpses with multiple body parts attached, this man was missing his left arm.

A warrior holding a spear.

Han Empire’s Black Mage Jangroon.

He boldly points his spear at Findenai with one hand.

“I am Jangroon of the Han Empire! I ask for your name.”

“Are you here to play? If you don’t want your head split open like your arm, use your spear instead of your mouth.”

“Haha! How amusing! Surely your skill is as sharp as your tongue.”

CRACK!

Something bizarre pours out from the man’s empty left hand. It would be more accurate to say a neck extended rather than a hand.

GROWL!

A suddenly sprouted left hand.

Where the palm should be, a black wolf growls roughly, barking at Findenai.

“A monster mage?”

“I watched your fight with Dina with great interest.”

Having fought Dante’s monster mage Dina in Claren before, Findenai knew well how troublesome monster mages could be.

Jangroon thrusts his spear into the ground. Then the halved corpses behind him stick back together like magnets and rise again.

“I ask once more! What is your name!”

“Ah, this bastard talks too fucking much.”

Facing both the corpsemaster’s corpses and a monster mage, Findenai puts tobacco in his mouth and lights it.

“Huff.”

Considering the difficult day ahead, it was quite regrettable that he had few cigarettes left.

“Findenai Verdi, you son of a bitch.”

* * *

“Nngh!”

While Findenai began fighting Jangroon with Baekseol and Deus was sending his voice across the continent through the magic stone.

Between them, Lucia was letting out desperate groans with both hands raised.

Normally this would be a posture for praying to God, but today it was the opposite.

She was blocking the footsteps of God that had come to this land.

Using various methods she had learned from the former Saintess Stella, she was blocking the massive clump of holy power, handling holy power so skillfully that she could now rightfully be called a Saintess.

But.

Even she couldn’t block the holy power wielded by God alone.

Above the sky.

If it weren’t for the support of former Saintess Stella blocking it in front of the clouds, Greyfond would have already been crushed under God’s holy power.

[……]

Stella’s expression was serious.

The situation was completely different from Romuleus. Unlike him, who had helplessly lost control of holy power, this time the holy power was clearly siding with the gods.

[I won’t be able to hold it for long.]

Stella sighs with a bitter smile. She would try her best, but could she hold out until Deus received all the souls?

It would be a precarious time, but Stella steeled her resolve.

In fact, Stella was in the most danger right now. The fact that she, a soul, was standing directly in front of holy power and resisting meant she could be annihilated at any moment.

But.

[We’ve already said our goodbyes.]

She had no more regrets.

She had enjoyed her time.

Ironically, only after death did she make friends and find someone to love.

In a way, it could be called a tragedy.

But she considered it a blessing that such a time had come to her, even after death, when she had no choice but to live as a Saintess.

[Vellica, I’m sorry.]

She apologized in advance to Vellica who was with her, but Vellica said nothing.

She simply stood silently with Stella.

Even if it meant a bitter end, she would stay by her side.

With that faith, Stella looks at the woman standing above the clouds.

The woman in white who came to Greyfond with Dante’s Black Mages behind her.

However, she was closer to flame than light. The brilliance of the flame was so sublime that it appeared white rather than red.

The longsword in her hand is thrust into the ground, and white flames burn at her feet.

Ironically.

[So we meet like this.]

The owner of the name Stella had called upon most often in life.

The goddess of hearth and fire.

[Lady Hertia.]

The goddess Stella had served looked at her and declared coldly.

“Step aside, Stella.”

[……]

It is said that followers of the goddess Hertia become her angels after death, receiving love and praising her for eternity.

Yet Stella, who served Hertia more devoutly than anyone, stands here now.

With bitter emotions, Stella asked.

[Why are you interfering with Deus?]

“Stella, the continent has a predetermined fate.”

[……]

“Souls that have entered rest must ultimately either destroy the continent when they become saturated or be annihilated. It must result in one of these two outcomes.”

[Among the sleeping souls are your children too.]

“Even so, that is fate. Stella, the time all of us gods have been waiting for is coming. Deus… no, that outsider cannot be allowed to throw this land into chaos.”

The desperation in Hertia’s voice revealed how much she was worried and afraid about the current situation.

[Please trust him. If that’s not possible, then at least me, who was once your daughter.]

“Stella.”

[……]

“We cannot entrust one of the continent’s greatest destinies to an outsider.”

The gods are ultimately beings bound by fate (the main story). There was no compromise to be found with them.

[So your choice is the annihilation of all souls? Did you want to stop him so badly that you brought down the god Romuleus and killed people?]

“Sigh.”

Thinking that further dialogue was pointless, Hertia extends her sword-wielding hand toward Stella.

The white flames burning from the blade are holy fire.

Just brushing against the sword would annihilate Stella.

“Are you trying to lecture me while harboring a great demon?”

[……]

“Is this because I took away your holy power?”

[Huff.]

“It’s unfortunate for you, but that was predetermined fate. I had to give holy power to Lucia.”

In the original story, Stella doesn’t appear. There is only one Saintess, Lucia.

Taking Stella’s holy power was done without any malice, simply because that was the flow.

[I’ve had many conversations with the man you call an outsider.]

She couldn’t say she never resented having her holy power taken away, but that wasn’t why Stella was blocking Hertia.

[While being with him, I suddenly wondered. As you said, Shinwoo Kim is an outsider, but.]

While sleeping inside him, Stella kept wondering.

Why?

For what reason?

[Why is he so dedicated to this continent?]

An undeniable outsider.

Not born, raised, or lived in this continent.

A man who suddenly dropped here from another world.

Though he lives through Deus Verdi’s body, that’s no reason to live for the continent.

“……”

A reason unknown even to the goddess Hertia. The content of the conversation Stella and Shinwoo Kim had when they briefly faced each other.

During the brief silence, Deus’s voice echoed toward the continent.

– Awaken, look around you. There is no more room on the continent.

Countless souls begin to rise from the ground. They soon fill the entire city, to the point where buildings are no longer visible.

It was a scene that made it immediately clear why he said there was no more place for the dead to sleep in this land.

Back to the conversation.

Not Deus Verdi.

The reason Shinwoo Kim dedicates himself to this land.

Stella recites his calm voice she heard that day.

[Because he is grateful.]

“…Grateful?”

[Yes, to this world that became a brief shelter in his terrible life. And to the continent that accepted him.]

“……”

[So he lives for us. He’s trying to save this continent.]

Toward a future unknown to the gods.

Toward another happy ending he envisioned.

It was a pitiful life.

Ultimately sacrifice.

No other word came to mind for the goddess Hertia, but.

Stella smiles gently and corrects what the goddess Hertia is thinking.

[He doesn’t want to call it sacrifice.]

In fact, when she heard this story, Stella mentioned the word sacrifice, but Shinwoo Kim corrected her.

This is not sacrifice, but.

[A gift.]

– Dead ones, will you destroy the continent or save it?

Hearing Deus’s voice echo again, Stella couldn’t help but smile.

[Do you hear? What he is doing? What gift this outsider you speak of is trying to give us?]

The tightly closed lips of goddess Hertia.

She couldn’t organize her confused thoughts.

– All of it ultimately depends on your choice.

[Ah.]

– As spiritmaster Deus Verdi, I appeal to you. For the salvation of the continent, come to me.

[How.]

– I will become your new resting place.

Stella couldn’t hold back her bright smile.

[How could anyone not love that man?]