Ch.543The Difference Between Six and Seven

Heaven’s Wall.

According to Rotholandus, it was like a massive barrier created by adding the power of six gods to the boundary that originally separated heaven and earth.

A wall designed to make it difficult for celestial beings to intervene on earth and to weaken creatures who gained strength through divine blessings. It was a grand plan that would transform the entire world.

“If completed, it could have perfectly separated the two worlds and blocked them forever. In a world where no god could interfere with the mortal realm, all races would have been immensely weakened. Even their strongest individuals would be unable to face even a hundred soldiers.”

In other words, they couldn’t complete it. The world that Elpinel and Carlos the Great desired was apparently one where even Master-level powers couldn’t exist.

“Was there some kind of problem?”

“The six Holy Grails alone lacked the power to complete Heaven’s Wall. Therefore, His Majesty planned to perform a ritual to create a seventh Grail at the highest peak of the Sky Mountains. The plan was to create a new divine artifact using the holiness contained in the sacred sword and His Majesty’s own soul as sacrifices.”

After finishing his words, Rotholandus narrowed his eyes and looked at me. It was almost a glare. A gaze filled with inexplicable passion.

“The Heaven’s Wall plan was the highest classified secret among the Empire’s confidential matters. Blocking the connection between gods and earth would incur the wrath of all races, and even among humans, there would be many who wouldn’t welcome it.”

“Why is that?”

“The world that the majority of the weak would welcome differed from what the minority of the strong desired. Since the blessing of Karma was also a protection bestowed by the gods, once the connection with heaven was severed, even they would become merely ordinary people.”

That’s right. If the power of Karma disappeared, that’s what would happen.

As knights, they would still be stronger than others due to their experience and skills even without Karma’s power, but facing hundreds or thousands alone would become something possible only in dreams.

“It wasn’t a welcome development for those who pursued desire over the greater good. That’s why fewer than twenty people knew about Heaven’s Wall, including all of us.”

Well, unless it was during the time when everyone was a slave, the point when the six Grails were recovered would have been when human dominance was already established.

Since there was no risk of becoming a slave race, it makes sense that the number of people pursuing personal advancement would increase.

What Carlos and the Twelve Knights were trying to do was essentially taking away everything from them under the pretext of securing the future.

“However, though I still wonder how they found out… when we arrived at the highest peak of the Sky Mountains, there were visitors who had arrived ahead of us hiding there. They were black-haired assassins from the distant eastern wastelands—something we never anticipated as we were only wary of movements from the Empire and the Ain race.”

…Wait a minute.

Black-haired people from the east, could that be…

“Yes. They called themselves Ka’har. Barbarians from the eastern part of the continent, thought to be a wasteland, a world of rock giants and earth dragons. Each one was a warrior comparable to a Hero, and also a mage capable of strange and mysterious magic.”

…It is Ka’har. Though it’s a bit unusual that they were both warriors and sorcerers.

Did the Ka’har of that time not have a culture that despised sorcerers?

“We didn’t notice them and began the sacrifice ritual… and were attacked during the ceremony. It was an ambush we never expected. The sacred sword fell into the valley below the Sky Mountains, and we had to face the enemies while suffering various injuries.”

Rotholandus let out a short sigh.

“Moreover, they outnumbered us more than five to one, and their leader was truly a transcendent powerhouse. A man who called himself ‘Death of the Sky.’ A warrior and mage who emanated such an ominous aura that he seemed like an evil god wearing human skin.”

Death of the Sky. That’s quite a grandiose name.

Comparable to Hersella who went on about being the Heavenly Demon.

‘Could it have been your ancestor?’

[…Surely that couldn’t be. If an Aishan-Gioro ancestor had been a sorcerer, the clan would have been exterminated long ago.]

Perhaps Hersella herself wasn’t certain. Her tone denying my joke lacked her usual confidence. Yeah, even you think it’s similar, don’t you?

“After a fierce battle, we were able to defeat them… but His Majesty suffered serious injuries, and having lost the sacred sword, creating the seventh Grail became impossible. As enemies continued to pour in, we had no choice but to retreat back to the capital, carrying our severely wounded comrades.”

So the reason the sacred sword was beyond the Sky Mountains was because it was lost that day. That solved one mystery that wasn’t explained in the original work.

“Our dream ended there. His Majesty gradually weakened from wounds that couldn’t be healed even by the Saint’s miracle, and old age was catching up to us as well. The Heaven’s Wall, which should have been completed with the power of seven Grails, remained in an incomplete form.”

…Now I understand why he glared at me. The Ka’har of that time weren’t just raiders; they were the ones who ruined humanity’s grand salvation plan.

—-

Whether overcome with emotion, Rotholandus remained silent for a while.

Respecting his feelings, I didn’t press for the rest of the story and waited, just puffing on my cigarette. Now that I knew the truth, I could understand how gentlemanly his attitude toward me had been.

If such a thing had happened, his hatred for the Ka’har would have been bone-deep, so how absurd it must have felt when someone claiming to be a Ka’har half-blood descendant showed up.

It wouldn’t have been strange if he had hurled all kinds of insults and condemned me on sight.

However, Rotholandus’s reaction to me was just slight bewilderment and reluctance. Far from expressing rage, he readily acknowledged me as his successor.

Except for the dark history engraved on the mausoleum wall, his attitude was so noble it could be called exemplary of knighthood.

After enough time had passed for a third of my cigarette to burn down, Rotholandus, having composed his emotions, began the rest of the story with a deep sigh.

—-

Upon returning to the capital, Carlos and the Twelve Knights performed the Heaven’s Wall ritual with just the six Grails.

Though they couldn’t reach their ideal, once the wall was fully established, it would make it difficult for gods to intervene in the mortal realm, significantly weaken existing powerhouses, and solidify humanity’s dominance.

“Olivier calculated that it would take about a hundred years for the Heaven’s Wall to completely envelop the world. Whether his calculations were correct, we couldn’t know as our lifespans ended before then.”

So after Carlos and the Twelve Knights died, the Heaven’s Wall was completed, fixing the world’s limit at the Master level, and after hundreds of years passed, today’s humans came to accept the common sense that the Master realm is the human limit. Valenstein’s words were true after all.

He had a fit saying it was Elpinel’s fault that he couldn’t reach the Hero realm despite decades of training. Strictly speaking, Elpinel, Carlos, and the Twelve Knights were all accomplices.

Anyway, after completing the ritual, Carlos and the Twelve Knights sealed the empty Grails deep within this Alhebron and created this mausoleum to prepare for the distant future. To convey their warning to descendants who would reach this place.

“What warning?”

“If the Heaven’s Wall was created using the Grails, it would also be possible to destroy it using the Grails. Elpinel left a final revelation that the Heaven’s Wall would break before the Empire’s history reached a thousand years. Your arrival here is proof of that.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Destroying a Colossus single-handedly is impossible without reaching the Hero realm. The fact that you stand before me means that the power of Heaven’s Wall has weakened to the point where it can no longer prevent the birth of Heroes. As we feared, it means someone has started using the Grails to break the Heaven’s Wall.”

…So the removal of the level restriction wasn’t a natural phenomenon.

And considering the principles and significance of the Heaven’s Wall that Rotholandus explained, those who benefit most from this are the Empire’s enemies.

Which means… if we find the one misusing the Grails and recover them, can we prevent powerful monsters like dragons from appearing in this world?

“So find them. Find the enemy of humanity who stole the Grails, destroy them, and recover the Grails. As a Knight of the Oath.”

Rotholandus advised with a solemn voice. The Heaven’s Wall had already begun to break, but he urged me to somehow prevent it from breaking further.

“If you cannot find them, then prepare. For the dragon’s flames that burn the earth. For the return of monsters that shatter mountains and freeze rivers. For the armies of other races seeking to reclaim their former glory. For the voices of gods hostile to humanity.”

The second warning was almost like a prophecy of the latter half of the original work.

A terrible future where formidable enemies that even a single Hero couldn’t face would appear one after another, and deaths in the tens of thousands would become commonplace.

“That is the warning that Rotholandus, Knight of the Oath, conveys to you.”

With that quiet conclusion, Rotholandus’s spirit began to fade.

Like a candle burned to its end, his dissolution was approaching.