Ch.850Impossible.

After the death of the previous clan leader due to old age, Meiharin took over the position at the young age of 18.

Shortly after establishing herself as the new leader of the White Valley, she entered into a political marriage with Orhan, who was showing unprecedented growth compared to anyone else on the steppes at that time.

Despite their twelve-year age difference, she chose that man for two reasons.

First, through the achievement of forming a marriage alliance with Clan Aishan, which had grown into one of the steppe’s major powers, she aimed to silence the elder sorcerers within the tribe who had been subtly disrespecting her due to her young age.

Indeed, after her marriage to Orhan, the elder sorcerers obeyed her orders completely, like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs.

As long as her identity as a sorcerer remained undiscovered, the White Valley tribe members could live under the support and protection of the powerful Aishan clan as one of the Khan’s maternal relatives.

The second reason was that she suspected Orhan might be a survivor of the Black Lake bloodline—a divine bloodline—due to his unprecedented talent.

Though she couldn’t be certain without evidence.

‘The divine blood of the Sky Wolf…’

While the previous leader of White Valley had tried to exterminate those with divine blood, considering them dangerous beings, Meiharin held the opposite view.

‘The dangerous thing is the Star of Calamity, not the divine blood itself. Without the Star of Calamity, it’s just a bloodline superior to others.’

She focused on the utility value of divine blood.

Except for the risk of a Star of Calamity being born every two hundred years, mixing with the divine bloodline meant an opportunity to produce exceptionally talented descendants for generations.

Moreover, the blood of those with divine blood was highly valuable as a medium for sorcery.

For these reasons, she married Orhan and gave birth to a healthy boy three years later.

Aishan-Gioro Sahakal.

Meiharin named the child Sahakal to test whether Orhan was truly from the Black Lake (Sahakal Omo) bloodline.

However, Orhan showed no particular reaction, merely commenting, “That’s a good name.”

Meiharin finally gained certainty nearly twenty years later, when Orhan’s daughter from another woman reached the level of Champion.

Haschal, who achieved what even Orhan couldn’t—the manifestation of red murder karma.

Though she hadn’t awakened to the essence of power to reach the level of “glory,” that red light was undoubtedly evidence of the Star of Calamity—the divine among divine bloodlines.

—-

For Meiharin, who was now certain through Haschal that Orhan was of divine blood, the most urgent task was to eliminate Haschal herself.

What she wanted was for her descendants with divine blood to inherit exceptional talents for generations, not the return of the Star of Calamity that would only bring chaos and discord to the world.

Having proven that the Aishan-Gioro clan possessed divine blood through the harbinger of the Star of Calamity, Haschal had served her purpose as far as Meiharin was concerned.

There was no reason to keep alive a dangerous element that would eventually go mad, so Meiharin tried to eliminate Haschal before she awakened the power of the Star of Calamity.

Like an unfaithful woman who, after confirming her pregnancy with a test, throws the positive test where her husband will never find it.

Going mad would actually be the better outcome.

Considering the enmity between her and Haschal, there was a significant possibility that the madness of the Star of Calamity would focus entirely on Meiharin herself.

After all, she was the culprit who had killed Haschal’s mother, Imelia de Median.

For Meiharin, it had been unavoidable.

Perhaps due to the bloodline blessed by the western goddess Elpinel, Imelia de Median would tilt her head in instinctive aversion and discomfort whenever she encountered Meiharin.

There was a risk that she might discover Meiharin’s secret identity as the grand sorcerer of the White Valley tribe.

So Meiharin killed Imelia.

She never imagined that this would become the catalyst for Haschal—who would otherwise have lived a life uninvolved in conflict—to take up the sword, throw herself into slaughter, and begin to bloom into the fate of the Star of Calamity.

In any case, having killed Imelia, Meiharin had only one path left.

She had to assassinate Haschal before she awakened her powers and came seeking revenge.

And Meiharin failed.

When she ordered her spies to assassinate Haschal, they were all detected by Haschal’s beast-like senses and killed instead.

Even when she incited warriors from other tribes or those within Aishan who disliked Haschal to attack her—

“What’s this, is that all? Not even enough to whet my appetite!”

Despite not having awakened the glory of the Star of Calamity, Haschal had become strong enough to overwhelm other Champions, and all attackers were swept away by her hand.

Realizing that mediocre warriors would only serve to strengthen Haschal’s skills rather than kill her, Meiharin eventually mobilized the sorcerers of White Valley instead, but…

“Finally found you…!”

As soon as Orhan sensed something like sorcery near Haschal, he rushed out and crushed the numerous sorcerers like insects.

Meiharin had thought killing a child who had just become a Champion would be simple enough not to require much consideration of methods, but this was a grave misconception.

It turned out to be as difficult as hunting a mythical beast.

Not only was Haschal’s own skill enough to overcome the combined attack of at least three Champions, but Orhan had also been secretly protecting her since she manifested her concrete murder karma.

Though he didn’t interfere in fights with warriors, he would either personally intervene or send his most trusted warrior captain to slaughter all sorcerers as soon as he sensed traces of sorcery.

With all direct assassination methods failing, Meiharin finally decided to eliminate Haschal through sorcery rather than the sword.

The death curse—the highest grade among numerous curses.

The ritual of death magic that had killed even Imelia, who was protected by Elpinel’s blessing, was prepared once again.

To confuse any potential tracking, the White Valley sorcerers disguised themselves as a group unrelated to Aishan and contacted Orhan’s third son, Amin.

Amin, who had been waiting for an opportunity to kill Haschal since losing an eye to her, reacted exactly as Meiharin had predicted—brightening at the mention of death magic and providing all the necessary materials for the ritual.

Like a wealthy heir caring for his father who was preparing his will, he cooperated with such an eager attitude at the promise of killing Haschal that the sorcerers found it almost servile.

Thanks to this, the White Valley sorcerers were able to complete the preparations for the death ritual with surprising speed.

And then the day of the ritual arrived.

That night, the sorcerers used a spy planted among Haschal’s guard cavalry to mix drugs and poison that weakened mana resistance into the liquor she enjoyed, and then cast the death curse on her—

“…Failed again?”

Sure enough, they failed once more. At least, in the eyes of the spies and sorcerers, the death ritual had undoubtedly failed.

Aishan-Gioro Haschal, who should have died in agony, was seen the next morning, perfectly fine, ordering the execution of prisoners.

After that, assassination became impossible.

Haschal suddenly returned to Ordos, and not long after, left for the western empire for some nonsensical reason.

With Meiharin’s forces positioned in the east, she couldn’t touch Haschal who had fled west.

Whether she sent assassins, warriors, or sorcerers, they would first need to cross the Wall of Berengaria just to meet Haschal.

Even Frosting, the cursed object she had enchanted with a curse hoping that if Haschal were to go mad, she would do so quickly and die of weakness, seemed to have no effect.

There was no trace of the madness curse, and the cold of the netherworld didn’t seem very cold at all, as Haschal wore it casually like ordinary armor.

Additionally,

‘Because of that cunning dog Peirous…!’

The western necromancer Peirous Haransior, with whom she had formed a loose alliance, also consistently opposed assassination proposals, insisting that Haschal should be left to flourish rather than be killed.

In the end, Meiharin had no choice but to completely abandon the assassination of Haschal.

—-

And so, now.

“Kyahaaaa….”

The ominous star of calamity loomed before Meiharin’s eyes.

“How…?!”

Appalled by Hersella’s form, which had transformed into a red nebula, Meiharin took half a step back while gripping her bone staff with both hands—

– Crack! Crack! Crack!

The defensive sorcery protecting her body shattered like glass struck by a hammer.

A movement that transcended Meiharin’s cognitive speed. In the blink of an eye, Hersella’s fingertips, which had shot forward leaving deep scars in the earth, stopped right in front of Meiharin’s solar plexus.

– Whoosh!

Burning all ten talismans in a single strike.

‘Even without using that mental technique, such speed…!’

Meiharin hurriedly activated spatial movement to create distance, breaking out in a cold sweat.

A speed she couldn’t even react to. Movements that showed no trace of the netherworld’s cold or the curse of weakness. The red nebula enveloping her physical body.

The glory of the Star of Calamity.

There was no room for doubt.

That appearance perfectly matched the descriptions in ancient texts warning of the threat of the Star of Calamity.

‘Impossible. How could she awaken the glory of the Star of Calamity…!’

It was an impossible thing.

At least according to Meiharin’s knowledge.

In fact, Meiharin had long concluded that it was impossible for Haschal to awaken the glory of the Star of Calamity and go mad.

It was a conclusion drawn from information provided by Peirous and information she had collected herself.

Confirmed information that as a descendant of Rotholandus, one of Great’s Twelve Knights, she had been recognized as the owner of Durandal, which Elpinel had bestowed upon him… and later information that she had even received the Stigmata of Astraea and become a saint of the Order of Order.

Such a being could not possibly awaken the glory of the Star of Calamity.

The glory of the Star of Calamity was ultimately a blessing like the authority granted to the avatar of Vanirgand, the wolf of hatred and predation.

How could Elpinel and Astraea, who regarded Vanirgand as an evil god and opposed him, allow a woman abundantly blessed by them to fall into the wolf’s embrace?

The blessing of Elpinel dwelling in the Oath Sword, Durandal, would become chains to suppress the power of the ominous star, and the Stigmata of Astraea would be a wedge to further strengthen that seal.

While she might somehow manage the manifestation of concrete murder karma, which was merely a harbinger of the Star of Calamity, it would be impossible to manifest power beyond that.

However, when impossibility is adorned with a flower, it becomes a flaming possibility.

Meiharin’s judgment that someone who possessed holy relics and stigmata could not awaken the power of the Star of Calamity was close to the unvarnished truth without a trace of error, but…

A variable she could not have known—a variable named Ha Sungwha—overturned the very premise of that judgment.

How could Meiharin have known?

The owner of the holy relics and stigmata was not Orhan’s daughter as she had known, but an outsider who had settled in that body, someone she had never heard of.

The moment that outsider returned the body to its original owner and retreated to the back of consciousness, Durandal and the stigmata withdrew all their powers and fell silent.

For they had recognized as their master not the divine bloodline marked as the avatar of the Sky Wolf, but the soul from beyond the world that dwelled in that body.

Therefore.

The woman born as the Star of Calamity—’Aishan-Gioro Haschal’—was able to awaken the divine blood power within her flesh, the glory of the Star of Calamity, without any interference.

Contrary to Meiharin’s expectations.