Ch.991Star Flower

I gather the fragments of stars, shattered like sand, into my hands, molding them into one mass, and from these collected fragments, I shape them neatly into stairs.

One step, then another.

Forgetting everything else, I endlessly collect the fragments scattered throughout the world, building stairs without end as I advance.

Until I reach the star.

—-

I gather fragments, and build stairs.

I advance.

Again I gather fragments, and build new stairs.

I take another step forward.

And again, the fragments.

Again.

Again.

Without rest, without stopping.

I simply repeat this action continuously.

Endlessly.

…How much time has passed?

When I finally regained my full consciousness, awakening from a dreamlike, distant sensation.

Before my eyes was a star.

A tiny blue afterglow, just a small fragment remaining after sacrificing flesh, divinity, and even life itself.

The final fragment of Ausrine, Goddess of Stars and Dawn.

【 Child who embraced the star and reached the stars. I ask you. What do you desire? What do you want, and what do you seek? 】

The Goddess of Stars asked me.

What do I desire?

What do I want that makes me seek to obtain the star, her remnants?

【 Speak your true desire. Not the false desire that Heaven’s Grace planted in you, but your own true heart. 】

Heaven’s Grace, the desire implanted by Elpinel.

It was a belief, like an imprint, to protect this world even at the sacrifice of myself.

The sense of duty that seeped into me through the sword she bestowed, Durandal.

Through this, I awakened the power of fragments of stars scattered like sand—the power of Karma—and became what they call a Master, fighting according to Elpinel’s will.

Without even realizing that this heart was someone else’s intention, not my own.

But now I could understand. That I had been led by Elpinel’s intentions.

From the moment I regained my senses after seeing the inscription on the sword when I was about to go mad from the psychological shock, surrounding environment, and impulses from the Karma of Murder during the Great Fire of Extrashafel.

No, perhaps even before that. From the moment I went berserk after wearing Frosting while engaged in a bloody battle with Knut.

Whenever I was about to be swept away by the impulses of the Karma of Murder, Elpinel intervened to calm me down, and simultaneously instilled in me the idea that I must protect people.

The imprint of this instilled ideology began to gradually fade from the moment I crossed the wall and reached the realm of heroes, and now, at this moment, it has completely disappeared.

I am now free.

Complete freedom, unaffected by the bodily impulses filled with the Karma of Murder—the malignant star of Vanirgand—and even shaking off Elpinel’s will flowing through Durandal.

The Stigmata of Astraea only suppressed the malignant star of Vanirgand, having no effect on my mind itself.

I smiled, feeling the liberation of being unburdened from everything.

And I answered.

What I desire. My pure impulse.

“I want to see what comes next.”

【 Next? 】

“Yes. After fighting, fighting, and preventing even destruction to protect this world. I want to see the world that follows… that’s what I want to see.”

The epilogue after preventing destruction. What I wanted was to see that. Together with everyone gathered by my side.

The story that follows will surely be dazzlingly beautiful enough to forget all the hardships and pain so far.

Where’s the guarantee that it will be so?

What nonsense. That was already a certainty.

Because I will make it so.

“To see that sight… I will protect this world. No, not just this world, but all those who will see that sight with me.”

That is my desire.

【 The desire to protect the world is not yours. That desire is the result of Elpinel putting a leash on you and guiding you. 】

Ausrine disparaged this as a manipulated wish.

If Elpinel hadn’t instilled a sense of mission in my heart, I would never have had such a desire in the first place.

“You know nothing.”

I just laughed with a light heart.

“Such things, the starting point doesn’t matter anymore.”

Yes. It doesn’t matter.

Even if this goal isn’t my pure will, but the result of being led according to someone else’s intentions.

Because even after crossing the wall and being half-liberated from Elpinel’s shackles, I was still walking this path of my own volition instead of choosing another path.

This heart. This desire had already become a signpost within me, illuminating the path ahead.

【 ……. 】

Perhaps it wasn’t the answer she wanted, as Ausrine fell silent.

It wasn’t my concern.

Come to think of it, making up an answer that she might want to please Ausrine would be like lying that a desire distorted according to a god’s intention is my true heart, wouldn’t it?

So I was confident.

Ausrine told me to reveal my honest desire, and I told her my true heart without any lies.

“What matters is that I truly desire this myself. Isn’t that right?”

I reached out toward the star with a grin.

And.

【 Excellent. 】

With a voice filled with satisfaction and joy, like a parent praising the growth of a young child.

【 My beloved demigod, my child who is stained red yet still beautiful. 】

The starlight caught in my grasp seeped into me with a gentle smile.

No, this light had been sleeping deep within my soul from the beginning.

As I endlessly gathered the fragments of starlight, the power named achievement, waiting for the time to finally summon her.

【 With this, you shall become a new star to brighten the dawn. 】

And so, at this moment.

Finally.

The star bloomed.

========

Elpinel in the heavens looked down at the mortal realm and smiled.

Because the moment of revenge had finally arrived.

========

It began without any warning.

At least, that’s how it appeared to those who weren’t directly involved.

They couldn’t watch, hear, or notice what was happening deep in Haschal’s unconscious, until the star seed she carried was about to fully bloom.

– Goooo….

Hersella, who had been fighting fiercely with the red nebula half-stripped from her body.

Her movements suddenly stopped. As if she had fainted while standing.

Then, a faint blue-white haze began to seep out from her frozen body, gathering at the center of her chest to form a small sphere that rippled.

Varnir, who had been thrown off by her sword and was rolling on the ground, broke out in a cold sweat from an inexplicable sense of unease.

Something was beginning.

Something he should have prevented, but ultimately failed to stop.

And so.

The next moment, with a sound like the world splitting apart, a massive pillar of light shot up toward the heavens.

Announcing to the whole world the blooming of a new star, the birth of the successor to the shattered divinity.

【 KRRRRRR…. 】

The malignant wolf that had been drooling while waiting for the moment to devour lowered its head, squinting at the radiance.

【 Success…! 】

The Goddess of Order rejoiced, having anxiously awaited the outcome of her gamble. So intensely that it reached the other four gods who had agreed to Elpinel’s plan.

【 This sensation. This starlight… could it be…! I see, so that’s what it was! This is what you were aiming for! 】

The World Tree, who had created a temporary avatar body to fight the owner of Gram, raised its head in astonishment.

It felt the return of the divine nature of the goddess who had sacrificed herself to bestow the blessing called Karma upon all humans. The divine nature of the extinguished star.

The World Tree realized. A new demigod had been born on earth.

The successor of Stars and Dawn.

—-

Right after the blue-white pillar of starlight that had shot high into the sky subsided.

Varnir, who had clenched his teeth at this unexpected turn of events, stared with hostile eyes at the source of the fading light pillar and groaned lowly.

There was a star there.

A divine entity in human form walking the earth. The avatar of a star that had suspended the constraints of the heavenly barrier with an incomplete vessel.

A halo in the shape of a crown of thorns illuminating behind her head.

The deep blue remnants of divinity flickering like shadows.

The fur armor on both shoulders was torn and loosened, half-flowing down below her shoulders, and her tied hair was completely undone.

– Hwaaaak

A purple sacred light containing the star envelops her entire body below the neck.

Light streams that slowly undulate like an aurora, coming down to her feet floating in the air.

The newly born demigod of Stars and Dawn had wrapped herself in the dawn sky itself, cut out like a dress.

And, in the center of that translucent purple dress, the proof of her divinity was emitting a light so brilliant it was dazzling.

The morning star that erases the darkness of night.

The cross-shaped divine core seated in the center of her chest burned with a blue-white radiance.

The demigod of Stars extended her right arm to the side.

The silver-gray longsword stuck in the ground was drawn into her grasp. From the moment the hilt touched her fingertips, it emitted a brilliant golden light.

The demigod of Stars opened her left hand and directed it forward.

Something like tentacles made of ashes coiled around her gauntlet like a snake. Emitting the cold air of the netherworld, cold as frost.

The golden and silver-gray sword. The snake of frost and ashes.

The two weapons, having shed all constraints and bloomed with all possibilities, submitted to the demigod walking the earth.

Worshipping the finally bloomed flower of the star.

—-

“…This is the worst. Of all times, now, a divine awakening at this point…!”

Facing the demigod of Stars looking down at him with a hardened expression, Varnir let out a lament filled with dejection.

To face a demigod as an enemy under Elpinel’s heavenly barrier…

‘Were you aiming for this moment all along, Elpinel…!’

For him, it meant facing an unavoidable death.