Chapter 11 – The Sun and the Moon

Aylia had been watching Pleiades for a very, very long time.

And so, she did not let her guard down.

Her plan was not improvised; she had even made a great sacrifice to ensure its success.

And indeed, until now—no, until just a moment ago—everything had proceeded according to her plan.

But not anymore.

Yuder and Cordelia had returned.

The very premise of her plan had been to exploit their absence. Now that its foundation had been overturned, the right thing to do was to abandon it.

But Aylia thought otherwise.

If she gave up here, it was all over.

The death of the Azure Dragon would be nothing but a meaningless sacrifice.

No, even if she did give up, it was unlikely that Yuder and Cordelia would simply let her go.

With Amita on their side, it was only a matter of time before the location of the Broken World was revealed.

Aylia smiled.

With a smile laced with a thousand emotions, her eyes sharpened.

She glared at the western sun, a light so warm and gentle it was the very essence of life, and sought the consent of the Outer Gods.

The Outer Gods responded.

They were of the same mind.

Having already lost their own worlds, they chose a life-or-death gamble over a wretched existence.

[Aylia.]

The War God whispered.

Though he had touched the Sword Principle, he had been pushed back by the blade of a mere mortal. He wanted no further humiliation.

The War God gave his power to Aylia.

The Outer Gods unsparingly burned what little divinity they had left.

The Outer Gods who had been facing the Golden Dragon King flew to join them.

Even the Outer Gods maintaining the Great Barrier, which had already lost its purpose, transferred all their power to Aylia.

Aylia let out a ragged breath.

Her entire body was stained black.

The turbid power of the fallen gods corrupted her purity.

But she didn’t care.

All that mattered now was power.

Aylia spread the wings of an Outer God and raised the Outer God’s Sword.

The skies above the royal capital began to fill with black clouds once more.

Under a sky half-blue and half-black, the people of the capital trembled in fear.

“Landi…”

At the faint voice, Landius lowered his gaze.

Lena, covered in blood and breathing shallowly, was cradled in his arms.

Landius knew what Lena had sensed.

The divinity of the Outer Gods emanating from Aylia was truly immense.

Their divinity, blooming in defiance of death, was imbued with a resolve to kill at any cost.

‘Stronger than Auriel.’

Even the Archangel of Judgment who had descended upon the imperial capital had not been this powerful.

The Aylia of this moment seemed capable of overwhelming the archangels even in the Heavenly Realm.

Of course, it was not a power that could last.

It was a momentary flame, created by the Outer Gods burning their own divinity. It was clear she could only maintain that immense power for a few hours at most.

The domain of the black clouds grew wider and wider.

A black shadow covered the world, replacing the sunlight that had illuminated the capital.

But Lena did not tremble in fear.

Instead of weeping with a terrified face, she wore a faint smile.

It wasn’t just because she was in Landius’s arms.

Well, that was part of it, but she had one more reason not to be afraid.

Landius smiled back at Lena.

After kissing her forehead, he raised his head and looked up at the western sky.

“A heart of steel, an indomitable will, a body unrivaled under the heavens.”

Lena smiled faintly again at the words he recited like a habit.

She rested her head on Landius’s broad, firm chest and quietly closed her eyes.

Landius held Lena gently and stood up.

He gazed at the western sun, which shone all the brighter for the darkness that surrounded it.

The Goddess of Nine Heavens and Nine Gates—Amita—had told Yuder many things.

Her identity, her homeland.

The reason Aylia had been able to come to Pleiades.

Amita was a woman born in Aylia’s world.

She was brilliant and beautiful, but she was not a god.

She was merely an ordinary human.

But through the Nine Heavens and Nine Gates, she had transcended humanity.

The first transcendent being born since the founder of the Nine Heavens and Nine Gates.

A legendary figure who, born a human, had attained immortal divinity.

[Aylia was very fond of me.]

Aylia was the god of humans, and she loved her race.

That was why Aylia had been so delighted by the birth of a divine being equal to herself from among the humans.

She was proud of the fact that her race held the potential to become gods.

Amita, too, loved Aylia, the mother of her race.

But she left her world to see the greater universe.

Having attained divinity on her own, she was not a being bound to her world.

Aylia was very sad to see her go but respected Amita’s wishes.

She bid Amita farewell, telling her she could return anytime.

And much time passed.

Amita spread the Nine Heavens and Nine Gates to various worlds and met Yuder in Pleiades.

[Aylia must have learned of Pleiades through me.]

Left alone in the Broken World, Aylia remembered the transcendent being who had left her world long ago.

Worn out by loneliness, she tracked the transcendent’s path and finally found a world that had captured her interest.

What happened after that was easy to guess.

By now, Yuder and Cordelia also knew what kind of beings the Outer Gods were.

Beings who had gone mad with longing for their lost worlds and people.

Beings who floundered in an unquenchable thirst.

Yuder and Cordelia lifted their heads and looked straight ahead.

The divinity emanating from Aylia and the Outer Gods was truly terrifying.

That power seemed to surpass not only the Auriel who had descended upon the royal capital but also the Overlord Asmodeus, who had wielded his power in his own domain.

But instead of fearing the encroaching darkness, Yuder closed his eyes and once again unleashed his divinity.

The Beast of the Black Moon.

A lonely being, all alone in the empty night sky.

But not anymore.

Cordelia took Yuder’s hand.

She filled the black world with brilliant light.

And a change occurred.

A divinity, two as one.

A miracle that should not exist, but was possible because it was Yuder and Cordelia.

A golden sun rose in the world of the black moon.

The Girl of the Sun gently embraced the Beast of the Black Moon.

The sun did not suppress the moon.

The sun and moon were together.

Another miracle occurred in the skies of the royal capital.

The sun and moon occupied the western sky at the same time.

Day and night became one, pushing back the black sky.

And beneath it stood two people.

The two who were one.

The Queen of the Sun and the King of the Moon smiled at each other.

One of them alone was not enough.

They were two people who could only unleash their true power when they were together.

“Let’s go, Yuder.”

“Alright, Cordelia.”

Together, as they always had been.

Aylia shrieked and charged forward.

Yuder and Cordelia stepped forward to meet her.

The two divinities collided head-on.

The First Sword swung his blade.

His body was covered in blood, but his face was full of smiles.

It was so much fun.

Swinging his sword, advancing toward the horizon.

The First Sword looked straight ahead.

He saw the horizon.

He saw Lucas.

Sword clashed against sword, then parted again.

As if missing each other, they immediately turned toward one another again.

The dazzling exchange was more than what it appeared to be on the surface.

A single sword strike contained hundreds, thousands of possibilities.

The new paths of the sword that branched from a single clash were also endless.

The First Sword found the answer among them.

His own answer.

The path of the First Sword.

The one true path of the sword that would lead to the horizon.

The sky began to glow with sunset.

The First Sword did not look back at the sky where orange and violet mixed as darkness encroached.

But he could feel it.

Though he was very far away, he instinctively knew that the battle in the royal capital was ending, and that the time given to him was now truly short.

But he did not grow impatient.

He looked at Lucas again and swung his sword.

He presented his own answer to the one Lucas had offered.

The First Sword was a villain.

He was a cruel man who thought little of the lives of others.

But he was undeniably a born swordsman.

The First Sword remembered his many repeated lives.

The times when he had relied on poison, depended on demonic power, and instead of heading for the horizon, had only walked in place.

That was why he could swing his sword in this moment.

Why he could face the horizon once more without being led astray.

Fwaat!

Sword met sword.

But it was different from before.

The First Sword took a step forward.

His sword sundered the Holy King’s Sword.

And in that moment, the First Sword knew.

What was reflected in his eyes was not the imperial capital, but a world filled with light.

The Horizon of Swords.

The ideal of the sword he had endlessly yearned for since childhood.

The Realm of Principle.

The First Sword smiled.

There was nothing he could do but smile.

Lucas swung his sword again.

The First Sword watched Lucas’s blade.

His eyes, having reached the Sword Principle, could now see a new path that had been invisible before.

The First Sword swung his sword.

It was a sword imbued with the Sword Principle.

Lucas’s sword was parried with unbelievable ease.

But that was as far as it went.

The First Sword did not swing his blade again.

Standing on the horizon, he briefly glanced in the direction of the royal capital.

It was time.

It was a pity, but this was the end.

The Outer God’s energy that had moved his dead body was fading.

The First Sword let his sword hang low and looked forward again.

The view from the horizon was different from before.

He thought it was the end, but beyond the horizon lay another.

“The horizon… it’s magnificent.”

Whispering softly, the First Sword saw reality from within the horizon.

Lucas Hresvelg.

The one who had shown him the path to the horizon once more.

“You, too, will be able to reach it someday.”

You, who raised your sword again despite witnessing a blade imbued with the Sword Principle.

You, who possess the unyielding will of the Holy King.

The First Sword looked at the horizon one last time.

Though he had regrets, he let out a great laugh instead of lingering on them.

The power of the Outer God vanished.

The soul of the First Sword dissipated.

The battle in the imperial capital was over.

The monsters that had been attacking the Holy Nation lost their strength and collapsed.

The black clouds that had covered the skies of the royal capital were no more.

The royal capital.

A land upon which a miracle had descended.

Having lost all the Outer Gods who were with her, Aylia collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

Her soul, slowly breaking apart, was scattering with the light.

Yuder and Cordelia stood before her.

The King of the Moon and the Queen of the Sun.

A divinity, two as one.

The guardians who protected Pleiades.

Aylia shed tears.

Aylia had wanted to be like the two of them.

She had wanted to resurrect her ruined world, to fill her star with life once more, and to live happily as before.

But she couldn’t.

Because her methods were unjust.

Because instead of asking for help, she had tried to destroy Pleiades.

It was just as Amita had said.

She had only been broken because she had gone mad; Aylia was originally a pure and kind goddess.

On the verge of annihilation, she was able to reclaim her former self, the one from before her fall, if only for a brief moment.

That was why she wept.

There was repentance for the lives she had taken in Pleiades, but what pained her heart the most was the existence of the Azure Dragon.

When she had forced the sacrifice upon him, calling it the most promising plan, he had not refused.

Even in the moment before his death, he had not resented her, but had wished for her to achieve her desire.

Why had he done that?

Was it because he wanted his remaining people to live in her world?

Was it because he wanted revenge on the world itself?

Neither was wrong.

They were among the reasons.

But the biggest reason lay elsewhere.

“His name is Muhyul.”

What if I had gone to the Broken World with him instead of destroying Pleiades?

What if, with Athalia’s help, we had restored the world, little by little?

For a moment, Aylia dreamed of a future that could never be, and clutching her broken heart, she squeezed out her voice.

“It’s shameless of me… but may I ask for one favor?”

At the plea of the fading goddess, Yuder remained silent, but Cordelia nodded.

Aylia thanked the benevolent Queen of the Sun and voiced her final wish.

“Please look after Muhyul’s people.”

Their revenge was just, but too much blood was shed in the process. Now that the power of the Outer Gods is gone, they will become sacrifices to those who will try to conquer the East again. I’m not asking you to let them maintain their current power in the East. Just let them continue their lives in a quiet place. They are pitiful children.

Cordelia nodded.

It was a request from a goddess who had caused much harm to Pleiades, but the people of the Azure Dragon were, in the first place, residents of Pleiades.

“I will.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much. And… I’m so sorry.”

Aylia’s divinity vanished.

The goddess of the Broken World met her end, whispering the Azure Dragon’s name one last time.

Cordelia sat for a moment, gazing at the spot where Aylia had disappeared.

Yuder put an arm around her shoulder, and Cordelia soon nodded and stood up.

“By the way, Yuder.”

“Yes, Cordelia.”

“Don’t you think you like me a little too much?”

How can even our divinity be two as one?

The Queen of the Sun and the King of the Moon, which had manifested during the battle with the Outer Gods, was, strictly speaking, closer to ‘Yuder’s divinity.’

This was because Yuder’s complete divinity, drawn out by the Nine Heavens and Nine Gates, was in the form of two being together.

When Cordelia asked with a triumphant look, Yuder, instead of getting flustered or embarrassed, responded as he always did.

In other words, he nodded with a shameless face.

“I like you that much. Don’t you?”

Why is the embarrassment always mine?

For a moment, Cordelia imagined herself saying, “Nope, I don’t,” with a mischievous face, but it was impossible.

So, Cordelia gently tugged on Yuder’s ear and whispered in a small voice.

“I like you very, very much.”

No, I love you very, very much.

Yuder, smiling in satisfaction at the expected answer, swiftly lifted Cordelia into his arms. Cordelia let out a small shriek, but her face was full of a bright smile.

And watching the two of them with their usual lukewarm gazes were two others.

[Well… it’s the same as always, so I suppose that’s a good thing?]

[Let’s just think of it that way.]

Valencia and Melissa looked at each other and smiled bitterly, while Yuder and Cordelia shared a kiss.

Beneath the sun and moon that were two as one, they beamed with bright smiles.

---

Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

Please do consider subscribing to my Patreon or donate to my Ko-fi if you like this work or to get early access to chapters