Star-Embracing Swordmaster - Chapter 252
Children’s Song (1)
Doo-duh-duh-
The world of Ramasht was emerging with a dizzying feeling of floating.
Like a bubble trying to float to the surface of the water.
Every time the bubble rose, deep cracks were carved in the purple sky of Ramasht, and the false concentric circles under that sky were collapsing helplessly from the outside.
“…It’s emerging as a reality! “Soon, this world we live in will collapse!”
In the collapsing world of Ramasht, only this island, where the trees were rooted, was firmly established.
Looking at the concentric circles outside collapsing as if they had been waiting, Vlad could tell that this whole scene had been planned from the beginning.
‘I was planning on throwing it all away from the beginning.’
It seemed that the only thing that mattered to Ramasht was the children’s safety.
The warlocks who followed him were also being thrown away with dark screams as if they were nothing more than a means to an end.
Rumbling!
“be careful! Reality is coming soon!”
Vlad raised his head in response to Nibelun’s sharp shout of warning, and his eyes widened as he looked at the scene above him.
“……What is that?”
The strange sight of the sky above me falling apart.
However, Vlad was even more surprised by the huge shadow that was getting closer and closer from beyond the shattering sky.
“belfry?”
A pitch-black church in Achiuk that I had seen before coming here.
The bell tower of the church hanging at the highest point there was approaching from beyond the purple sky.
Towards this world that is collapsing like the scenery outside the window.
“This is crazy!”
Dang! Daeeang-!
Between the borders of worlds that are colliding, the sky is collapsing and the bell tower is falling.
In this unrealistic situation, all I can understand is the loud sound of the bell ringing in my ears.
In the midst of worlds colliding that I could not do anything about, all Vlad could do was bow his head.
Cuguagaga River!
“Aaaah!”
“Damn it! shit! “Why on earth did I come all the way here?”
There was a heavy sound coming from between the gap between reality and the world that had collided so violently.
It was like a harsh nod from worlds that had no choice but to push away because they could not be together.
However, this time, what was pushed aside was not the black tears that Ramasht shed, but the real world.
“…Ugh! “Cluck, cluck, cluck!”
Vlad lowered his head as the rubble of the church rained down on his head.
The only thing visible in the thick dust, which is difficult to breathe, is the church bell rolling around here and there.
Seeing Achiuk’s servant lying helplessly, having done his duty, Vlad was only then able to realize that he had escaped into the real world.
[Vlad! Come to your senses!]
“Wake up, you bastard!”
In the thick dust that hung like that, there were voices calling out to Vlad.
Vlad came to his senses when he heard a voice inside him and turned his head when he heard a voice behind him. Only then was he able to see the old priest calling out to him.
“Look over there! “I don’t have time anymore!”
“…!”
In front of the group that rose up from the middle of the battlefield was an army of pitch-black dead men who had been fighting the Northern Allied Forces just a moment ago.
However, Pierre’s finger was not pointing to an immediate threat, but to something writhing above.
“…What is that?”
A tree that rises is a branch, and a root that rises is a flower bud.
The woman standing above her was shouting loudly with her hands raised.
It was her last struggle to reject this world and a great rebellion against God.
“It is the art of world creation! “This is the worst way to try to become a god!”
An apostate who tries to create his own world, not the world created by God. Ramasht.
There were black water droplets rising from the spell she was shouting.
The pitch-black water droplet, which started from a small dot, was growing little by little as it consumed the black tears collected by Ramachut.
“…I never imagined I would see something like this in my life.”
The appearance of black water droplets that makes both the dead and the living look up in silence.
However, even with this distant scene in front of him, for some reason only a strange smile appeared on Bishop Pierre’s face.
“Pierre?”
Even in moments of despair, his smiling face was like that of a fanatic.
An exorcist priest and heretic inquisitor who wandered into the darkness he had spent his entire life wandering around. Bishop Pierre.
He was smiling as if he had finally found the reason for his birth amidst a crisis that felt like a revelation.
“……This very moment, standing under the darkest sky. “Isn’t the torch that rises in moments like this the true will of God?”
Pierre’s face was frowning in an indescribable way, as if he was laughing or crying.
Why is it that the blind joy on that face overlaps with the smile of Ramasut that I had just seen?
“Maybe God prepared me as a person for this moment? Don’t you think so? “Vlad?”
With those words, white light began to leak from Pierre’s baton.
That was the faith and will that Pierre had his whole life.
Although it was shiny and mixed with madness, the light seen now was also the will of God coming to the darkest places.
“I guess this is the destiny God gave me. “Burn as brightly as possible!”
Taang-!
Pierre’s divinity remained unwavering even as he burned countless non-believers.
The divinity was spreading through the sword the dragon was currently holding.
“So go ahead and cut down those evil things. Vlad Aureo!”
Mystery and divinity were alive and breathing between the swords that embraced my world.
However, Vlad’s face, which was clutching a sword that was brighter than ever, was filled with frowning wrinkles.
“…I’m really only looking for God until the end.”
“what?”
A blonde knight who seems somehow profane even though he carries the will of God.
Vlad, who was glaring at Pierre with his closed left eye, slowly stood up and started pointing in the direction of the tree in the sky.
“Can you only see God above and not the people dying behind you?”
The places Vlad pointed to were filled with black deaths.
Soldiers dying from the army of the dead and ugly roots.
And from the lake where the trees are rooted, to the white bone fragments of the women emerging.
These were all unsparkly worlds that died in places where no one cared.
“…If this is truly God’s will, then they are both the same.”
All causes are justifiable.
However, in the end, the extreme ends did not discriminate even the means, so in Vlad’s eyes, both Ramasht, who killed the women for their children, and Pierre, who said that Ramasht was an opportunity to prove God’s will, all looked the same.
“Nibelun. “I guess I’ll have to go up there.”
So, you should recognize me too.
The black tears that women shed and the images of children playing under the bonfire.
“Because God wants it. Then you should do it.”
Even now, the black water droplets of Ramasht continue to grow, blocking out the sun.
Vlad, who knew full well what kind of sadness the droplets came from, quietly raised his head and looked at the evil roots wriggling towards him.
※※※※
Boom! Quang! bang!
“Duke! “Roots are coming up from underneath the ground!”
“…….”
Allied soldiers were crying out as pitch black roots suddenly broke through the ground.
However, instead of feeling the pain the soldiers were causing, Timur the Steelmaster just looked at the flag of Dragulia above.
“Strengthen your formation.”
“But Duke!”
“I told you not to break the formation!”
In front is the army of the dead, and behind is the army of the central army.
Steelsmith Timur, who was caught in the middle, knew very well that the current formation should not collapse under any circumstances.
“Don’t give any space. “You have to back off very slowly.”
Even now, soldiers were dying from the rising roots, but Timur did not waver at all.
Because the Duke of Steel, who represented the North, had a great duty to shoulder.
“…A little sacrifice is unavoidable. “If the army disintegrates here, the North will soon be finished.”
For my own cause rather than someone else’s screams.
It was a very reasonable decision, but the price for that decision had to be borne by the soldiers who were still screaming.
bang! bang! Bang bang!
-Ugh!
-Roots! Roots!
-help me!
“……Frausen.”
Tree roots swaying over Dragullia’s flag.
The emperor and the oldest dragon, who had come back to life after leaving behind the deaths of the soldiers devoured by the roots, were glaring at each other.
“You’re not as cool as before. “Where has the divine power gone that time when it split the most perfect dragon?”
Frausen and Sarnus were finally looking at each other, and countless roots were still wriggling behind their backs.
These were the roots of Ramasht, who were hungry for sculpture to create a new world.
“…I ended up swallowing a piece of the imperial family. Sarnus.”
“It is the most perfect dragon sculpture, so it is justifiable to me.”
Sarnus is smiling and Frausen is frozen as they clash between swords.
However, the revived emperor seemed to have grown stronger as he survived, but it seemed difficult to deal with the oldest dragon.
Because his sword was getting pushed out more and more dangerously.
“okay. “I knew you would do that.”
But Frausen remained calm even in an increasingly unfavorable balance.
It was because he knew that he still had a chance left.
“That’s why I deliberately left it in the imperial family. “I tell you to swallow it.”
“what?”
The swordsmanship that kills with one strike begins with surprise.
However, the unexpectedness did not necessarily start with the sword he was holding.
“You will remember well how I slain the most perfect dragon. Sarnus.”
A drop of dark red blood began to flow down the swords they were clashing with.
It is one of the proofs of the emperor’s blood oath.
Sarnus’ eyes widened as he saw drops of Frausen’s blood gradually approaching him.
“…Of all the memories I lost, I still held on to that one.”
Although it was already broken, the pieces of the emperor who had broken him once again were flowing along the blood drops.
As if he couldn’t hear the countless screams coming from behind him, Frausen just smiled as he watched the drops of his own blood seeping towards the dragon.
Watching his world spread to the dragon who dreams of perfection.
“Frausen-!”
※※※※
A woman trying to create a new world for her children.
A priest who only looks at evil beings for the sake of God.
A monarch willing to make sacrifices for his land.
A dragon struggling to become the most perfect being, and even an emperor who was revived to stop the dragon.
“run! Nibelun! “Run!”
All of the causes they put forward were right and just, but in the end, there were sacrifices that had to be made in order to achieve them.
Like the soldiers who are dying now, like the women who are already dead. These are the beings that everyone ignores because they have never shined at all.
“I said go faster!”
“No! “This is the limit!”
However, Vlad, who was currently climbing a tree on a carpet, was seeing their sadness.
The boy in the back alley, who was in a place where no one could see, understood the feelings of those standing in the mud better than anyone else.
“Everyone will die! At this rate!”
Not a dragon, not a servant of God, not a noble, not a successor to the emperor, but just a boy from the back alley.
However, only the insignificant boy at that time was running towards the sky to stop the pain everyone was feeling.
“This was my grandmother’s favorite carpet!”
Climbing an ugly tree so tall that it was difficult to even dare to look up, barely avoiding the waving roots.
There was a star rising up into the sky on that messed up carpet.
Even now, the star, barely able to cut through the ugly roots that were attacking it, did not stop moving towards the dark night sky above.
“……infuse.”
“……”
As he climbed up the messed up carpet, a pitch-black moon was waiting for Vlad in the sky.
The moon, which stood blocking the sun like an ominous solar eclipse, stood with an arrogant appearance, covering everyone on the battlefield with its shadow.
“I hate the moon.”
“yes?”
Just like the blue moon that destroyed my nest.
Although the color was different, Vlad was reminded of the old scene as he looked at the still floating moon.
That place is the smile of a rose.
The intestines were completely filled with blood.
And the place where the boy’s world was shattered.
“I hate the moon.”
And even now, as he watched the world of Ramasht devouring someone else’s world, the blue moon from back then was rising from Vlad’s closed eyes.
My blue moon, which I cried out for so long that I would kill it, but in the end I could not reach it.
However, today, Vlad raised the sword that held his world towards the moon, which seemed to be within reach.
“So this time, I’m going to destroy it.”
For the stars that no one can see that all the heroes here have turned away from.
The name of the star that rose for them was Vlad of Shoara.
Vlad’s world, twinkling alone in the dark night sky, was suddenly mixed with the blue moonlight I had been looking up at.