Ch.332332. The Conclusion

The weight and pressure of a man who had carried tragedy for 200 years was truly beyond imagination.

As Luanes expressionlessly stretched out his hand, the giant magical beast behind him roared and slammed its fist down.

Erika was able to fly through the sky with the help of spirits to avoid it, but the moment the fist hit its target, it released a violent aftershock.

KUUUUNG!

The wind pushed everything around as if an explosion had occurred. People below lost their balance, staggering or even being thrown backward in severe cases.

“I’ll support you!”

Looking up at Erika facing Deus Verdi alone, Tairne shouted urgently.

But there was no one who could respond to him.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried.

The mages desperately gathered mana, and warriors from an empire tried to climb up using the spear of light Erika had created.

Various efforts converged as attention suddenly focused on Deus Verdi.

“You bastards!”

The woman whose powerful presence had been momentarily forgotten by the Spiritmaster let out another fierce roar.

With her threat, the swung Baekseol spat out ice fragments, blocking any path toward Deus.

“How dare you! While I’m watching with my eyes wide open!”

Darius, who had been blocking Findenai, was already collapsed on the ground.

Blood was flowing from his chest, but it was a self-inflicted wound he had made when people weren’t looking.

‘This should do it.’

His role was now over.

It should be enough that he had fought responsibly on the front lines as the head of the family and even sustained injuries.

Before coming, he had considered cutting off an arm or leg, but Deia had strongly objected, saying it would be excessive.

‘Still, she’s truly… remarkable.’

With his eyes half-open, Darius looked at Findenai’s back.

Even in their first meeting, Darius had experienced an overwhelming defeat against Findenai.

But now, the gap had widened to the point where a fight couldn’t even be established.

Darius didn’t think of it as simply a difference in talent.

From his position of knowing the difference between her starting point when she entered the Griffin Kingdom and now, calling it mere talent would be mocking her efforts.

‘Is it because of Deus?’

Because she had trained and fought with the desire to protect the man she held in her heart.

In the end, she could face the world as a massive enemy without kneeling, weapon in hand.

‘I should also strive to improve.’

While Darius was experiencing his own realization and another change in his life…

The battle continued.

Thanks to Findenai’s fierce activity, those below couldn’t freely go up to help Erika.

Additionally, the ghosts spread throughout the academy separated Erika from the main force, preventing approach.

If they tried to climb up through the spear of light, they would be blocked by Findenai, and when mages tried to fly into the air or shoot magic, the ghosts swarming like clouds formed a massive wall.

“What is her name?”

Black Mage Coleman asked with a frown as if tasting something bitter, and Knight Commander Gloria, who had retreated after being injured in battle with Findenai, answered.

“Erika.”

As if savoring the name.

“Erika Bright.”

As she spoke the name of the woman who carried the only possibility of ending this battlefield.

Coleman gripped his staff with both hands, unlike a typical Black Mage.

“Please.”

It was the first time he had felt so powerless as a mage.

Because he felt and had to acknowledge such a difference in level with Deus Verdi, another Black Mage.

He muttered as if praying.

“May the blessing of mana be with Erika Bright.”

Voices erupted around him as Coleman murmured.

“Lady Erika! Stay strong!”

“Please! Please defeat that Black Mage!”

“God! Watch over that woman!”

Coleman wasn’t the only one feeling helpless. Everyone wanted this situation to end so badly they felt the need to pray to someone.

In the end, there was only one thing they could do.

“Erika Bright!”

“Light Mage of the Bright family!”

“You are our hope!”

“Don’t give up!”

They shouted encouragement with all their might.

The wall created by hundreds of millions of souls was truly thick, and the number of people who could fight against Findenai was limited.

In the end, what they could do…

Was just this much.

And ironically…

Their shouts and cheers breaking through the souls and rising up were Erika’s greatest torment.

“Indeed.”

Luanes, still standing on the academy rooftop, nodded with satisfaction as he heard their voices.

“He set the stage well. If you kill me here, you’ll become a great mage succeeding him.”

“……”

“What do you think?”

Though she knew there was no malice in the question itself, Erika glared at him with anger, gritting her teeth.

“Stop imitating his way of speaking. It doesn’t suit you at all.”

“Well…”

Luanes awkwardly scratched the back of his head at the unexpected criticism.

“I was trying to imitate Deus Verdi, but was it that strange?”

The atmosphere lightened a bit.

Luanes couldn’t properly imitate the heaviness that Deus possessed.

And in that aspect, Erika could tell that he wasn’t the real Deus.

“I don’t know how that guy’s way of speaking is older than mine, even though I’m from 200 years ago.”

“Don’t insult him.”

“…Don’t do this, don’t do that. You’re quite demanding.”

Saying he couldn’t keep up, Luanes moved his giant magical beast made of souls again.

“The fact that my soul has taken this form isn’t simply because I’ve lived for 200 years.”

As he had mentioned several times, the form of a soul changes according to will. The fact that Luanes’s soul took the form of such a hideous magical beast…

Was because he thought of himself as that kind of monster.

“I’m a monster who has swallowed so much human blood. Come to think of it, trying to save the continent by destroying souls was a role that didn’t suit me at all.”

A kind of confession.

Luanes also hadn’t expected to say such things to someone he was meeting for the first time.

Was it because he was inside Deus’s body?

Strangely, it wasn’t difficult to pour out his true feelings toward Erika.

Or perhaps it was because there was no one else who would listen to Luanes’s last words right now.

Whatever the reason…

“Finally, I’ve found my role.”

Luanes smiled brightly.

With a radiant smile that Deus would never make, he spread his arms wide on both sides.

“As the evil that threatened the continent, Heralhazhad, who couldn’t find a place to die… can finally die now.”

“……”

“Please, Deus’s fiancée. Kill me and become a hero.”

It was a desperate request.

A heavy wish containing 200 years of time.

But Erika answered, clenching her fist.

“I… don’t want to.”

Her voice didn’t come out properly.

Her body trembled, and her eyes became moist.

She had come with unilateral faith.

She had reached this place with trust in Deus Verdi.

The people who were now cheering for her like worshippers?

Suddenly, a mass murderer from 200 years ago seeking to settle his karma?

None of that mattered.

Whatever role it was, Erika Bright was confident she could endure it.

She was confident she could even give her life if that was what he wanted.

But just one thing…

“Wasn’t there another way?”

She couldn’t kill Deus Verdi.

“Isn’t that why you asked me to come here first?”

She had come here before anyone else to kill Deus, but paradoxically, Erika had made that effort because she thought that was the way to save Deus.

She thought Deus would surely have prepared a solution in a way she didn’t know.

But…

“If I kill you here now… what about him?”

That wasn’t it.

The reason Deus had placed her in this position was just one.

For what would come after his death.

“Shinwoo Kim. There’s no body for him to inhabit, right?”

“……”

Luanes calmly looked at Erika. Tears were flowing down the woman’s eyes as she asked for an answer to her question.

That was evidence that she already knew the answer.

“That is…”

Therefore, he couldn’t lie. To her, who was as desperate as himself, Luanes revealed the calm but devastating truth.

“His choice.”

Even if Deus’s body died, the souls could remain inside it.

Deus would be buried in the ground, merely becoming a shell containing souls.

The remaining Shinwoo Kim would live on the continent without a body, unable to find rest.

For a lifetime?

No, for eternity.

As a necessary existence, he had to hold onto the souls he had accepted.

Because of the existence of Shinwoo Kim, the continent could be safe from the saturation of souls.

Like the story of a boy who blocked a hole in a dam with his hand.

“I don’t want this…”

She knew she was being childish. But who would welcome such a future for their loved one?

“Even if you say that, already…”

“I said no!”

Erika had already lost her fighting spirit.

Her heart ached so much that tears flowed.

It was a pain like her heart was being squeezed.

“You want me to pull the trigger for the tragedy he’ll experience? You want me to do such a cruel thing?”

She resented him.

She resented Deus Verdi.

She resented Shinwoo Kim.

Why did she have to love that man…

And experience such tragedy?

Why was he leaving her with such pain?

Despair was coloring Erika’s face, but…

Luanes calmly and too simply put the answer into words.

“Because no one else can do it but you.”

“……”

“No one can replace the role you have now.”

“Ah.”

“And he wouldn’t have given you such a role lightly.”

Mana surged from Luanes’s body again. The giant soul in the form of a magical beast roared roughly toward the sky, urging the end of today.

“Therefore, Erika Bright. Light Mage who will pierce through today’s darkness and become a brilliant sunrise.”

The magical beast’s body grew even larger.

The beast raised its hands high and interlocked its fingers.

It began to slam them down as if it would crush all humans on the battlefield.

A thunderous sound erupted as if a meteorite was falling.

“Kill me.”

Despite the magical beast’s strike falling right above her head, Erika didn’t raise her head.

Hiding her tears with her bangs, she held a thin spear of light in her hand.

“Hic.”

With a sob…

The light shot out swiftly, cutting through the darkness.

It pierced precisely into the heart of the man who had plunged the continent into crisis.

The man fell backward slowly with a smile filled with liberation.

The giant soul in the form of a magical beast dispersed like mist.

The souls that had been blocking the sky began to rapidly return inside Deus’s body.

When everyone’s gaze followed the fleeing souls to the academy rooftop…

Through the hazy mist that had settled…

A blonde woman was holding her lifeless fiancé in her arms, crying pitifully.