Ch.329109. I Have Never Forsaken You.

“Rio…”

Elina accepted his sword with her blood-soaked hands.

As Rio thrust the sword, he wept in grief, cursing the heavens, the demon cult, and all enemies associated with it.

And when he pointed his sword at the throat of the woman who had brought things to this state—the Great Witch Eras—Rio was shedding tears of blood within his invisible heart.

“Kill me! Just kill me! What are you waiting for?!”

Eras scratched her throat against the blade pressed to her neck, demanding her own death. Blood trickled down, but she paid it no mind.

“Hurry! Kill me now!”

“……”

But.

Rio did not thrust the sword.

In that moment, he realized.

This was the only salvation possible for her.

Rio saw it.

The immense malice residing within her.

A massive evil that could neither be erased nor buried.

‘Divine punishment…’

Rio inadvertently understood its essence.

She was being punished for sins committed against the divine.

Then… what about me? About us?

What about those of us whose lives became curses after being caught in her malice?

“……”

Rio realized.

There was no path forward anymore.

Even revenge was meaningless.

That meaninglessness came from understanding that executing her here would not be revenge but salvation.

Disillusionment welled up, and frustration surged within him.

“…No.”

He abandoned his revenge.

More precisely, because he calculated that his abandonment would frustrate her even more.

Besides.

‘Elina… has committed too many unforgivable sins.’

Although it wasn’t what she wanted or wished for.

Everything was accomplished by her hands.

She must surely be suffering in hell.

‘……’

He couldn’t leave her like that.

Therefore.

“Wh-what are you… trying to do?”

Eras was shocked to the point of fainting when she saw Rio pointing the sword at his own throat.

It was all over.

At last… she would be freed from this cursed immortality.

Only he could do it.

Only Rio could wound her.

The pain still lingering near her heart.

It remained as a wound, pressing down on her heart.

Despite coughing up blood every day, she was filled with hope.

She could die.

She could finally die!

At last! She could go see her children who were never even born!

Finally!

“Stop. Don’t do it. I said don’t!”

“……”

Rio glanced at Eras with somehow compassionate eyes.

Then, he thrust the sword into his own throat.

“Nooooo—!”

Inside the burning church, the witch and the forgotten, nameless hero each produced their own tragedy and screams befitting their lives.

“Aaaaargh—!”

The living.

Only the living, who cannot even die, pour out and produce screams.

And so, as the burning church building collapsed.

Even those screams were buried in the ashes.

****

“Ugh!”

The man of pitch-black darkness opens his eyes.

With trembling hands, he ruminates on the dream and memories as if he had experienced them himself.

“…Damn it.”

Rage wells up.

Anger, frustration, and even despair bloom within him.

As if everything in the world were hopeless and malicious, choking his breath and neck.

The young man, Aurezah, unconsciously bit his lip.

Blood trickled down, but he paid it no mind.

“Why must I be shown this, after all?”

Aurezah, draped in a pitch-black robe.

As he opened the wooden door and stepped outside.

“Lord Patriarch, did you cough?”

“Yes.”

A woman approached and wiped the dried blood from his lips with a cloth.

“……”

As Aurezah proceeded outside.

A pure white landscape unfolded before his eyes.

“…Is it today?”

He stands on this vast plateau, this plain.

And once again, he enters the great temple, the grand hall.

The small shrine built to honor their founder and teacher, which serves as both a training ground and a lecture hall where everyone gathers to receive teachings and guidance.

Aurezah entered that place.

An incense burner placed on the small shrine.

He lit the incense and placed it in the burner, causing white smoke to curl upward into the air.

“……”

The woman stood behind him, kneeling and watching silently as Aurezah performed the ritual.

“Will you go again today?”

“Yes. I must go. Until I see his face and get my answers. Again and again.”

But even that wouldn’t last much longer.

Once, he had seen it before.

The sea of stars.

And the pitch-black being residing there.

…It’s a path he has traveled before.

Although he has only repeated failures for days…

This time it would be possible.

Somehow, he had that premonition.

“……”

Aurezah sat in a half-lotus position with his back straight.

With his palms spread out on his knees, he closed his eyes and began to chant mantras again.

Eventually, as his consciousness blurred and the incense fully stimulated his sense of smell, he lost his five senses and fell into a state of deep concentration, forgetting himself.

……

………

…

And so.

Unlike before, he found himself on a vivid sea of stars.

“……”

And.

Before his eyes, a pitch-black being was watching him with golden eyes.

“Founder, I have finally arrived here today! At last!”

He proclaimed.

The being showed little reaction to Aurezah’s proclamation.

It merely watched him quietly, silently.

“Say something, please.”

……

He remained silent.

Perhaps it wasn’t yet time for that.

Is this all he could do—to face and gaze upon him?

Perhaps even this was just an illusion, a fantasy born from Aurezah’s desperate longing?

…It doesn’t matter.

In truth, Aurezah didn’t care whether he received permission or not.

This was merely a formality… a process to strengthen his resolve.

“We possess power.”

Yet why.

“Why have you instructed us to seclude ourselves in places like this, practicing asceticism, instead of properly guiding the secular world?”

This is, in other words, a curse.

Yet the founder, and all who became patriarchs after him, firmly maintained that rule.

…And.

Aurezah, who had ascended to the patriarch position at a young age, could not comprehend it at all.

Therefore, he stood here to abandon his position as patriarch.

“We have power and a duty to lead the world righteously. Isn’t that why we were given such power? If my words are wrong, please say something proper.”

……

He remained silent.

Still looking at him, merely casting a pitying gaze.

That was unbearable, and Aurezah questioned and denounced him.

“What are you trying to do?! Or do you not even want to speak with me?”

He still remained silent.

Just looking at him with pity.

…And.

His eyes suddenly opened.

“……”

When the incense smell had become so pervasive that it felt no different from the surrounding air.

“Did you achieve anything?”

“Halfway.”

He was able to face him.

But communication with that being remained impossible.

…It was said that only the founder’s first disciple, who became the second patriarch, was the first and last to achieve this.

He who had guarded this place for 200 years.

However, his successors essentially just maintained the patriarch position without demonstrating the overwhelming powers and achievements of before.

And.

Aurezah. His era had arrived.

His master had disapproved of his boldness and vigor… but still lamented that he was the only one.

[Is this also guidance? Providence? I do not know. But… it must also be fate.]

Those incomprehensible words were left as his master’s last testament before he breathed his last.

“Do you intend to wait for the next opportunity?”

“No. I’m done with patience.”

He had directly seen the founder.

Although he hadn’t obtained his permission.

…He had made his declaration.

He had given his notice.

If he was so great and omniscient.

‘Even my temperament and determination would have been fully understood by one who can glimpse the future.’

So if he still didn’t prevent this, then that too must be fate. Destiny.

“Then what will you do first?”

To the woman’s question, the young man answered as if it were obvious.

“First, we must reclaim our name.”

The name Black Star Cult that the mage faction had stolen. That designation.

But it cannot be said to refer solely to us.

After all, our true meaning was those who follow the black star.

“Dark Star Cult. It’s appropriate for a faith and order that imparts teachings, so let’s name it that.”

An immediate decision, but one made after long deliberation.

“Everything according to the Patriarch’s will.”

The woman bowed her head.

“……”

The Dark Star Cult will intervene in the secular world to guide it righteously.

This world like a living hell, buried in garbage and filled with malice and despair.

If there are those who can correctly rectify and guide such a world with power and principle.

It would be us.

Only us…

****

“The Lord has never forsaken you for a single moment.”

A nun continued her sermon-like address to the gathered people.

“He loves you always and at every moment, embracing and providing for you.”

However, even if He wishes to save you.

“If you do not properly respond and answer to this, it would be like stepping off the path He has laid out for you and throwing yourself into that distant underworld.”

Therefore.

“Never forget His teachings at any time, and pray that He will save us from evil. And let us pray and pray again to our Lord that He will show mercy so that we, weak and young, will not be led into difficult trials, but will guide us only with love.”

He has never abandoned us.

“Therefore, we too must respond to Him properly. With all our hearts. With all our strength.”