TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 56
The Chaos Spirit, burning with desire to find its master.
Kraush exhaled softly.
‘It’s much weaker than I expected.’
The Chaos Spirit, which only responds to skills, was a nuisance to the Skyborne Generation.
The reason the Chaos Spirit could destroy a city back then was because the absence of such skills was the biggest obstacle.
Therefore, Ignis, which turns aura itself into a skill, was undoubtedly the most advantageous against the Chaos Spirit.
However, despite this, Kraush found it surprisingly easy to defeat the Chaos Spirit, showing a hint of confusion.
He had thought that a few holes would be pierced through its body.
‘…Could it be that the Chaos Spirit was somewhat purified in the Spirit King’s Forest?’
Kraush took note of how unexpectedly weak the Chaos Spirit was.
Perhaps releasing the Chaos Spirit into the Spirit King’s Forest by Crimson Garden was a good decision.
‘Come to think of it, the Chaos Spirit became a real monster because of several overlapping incidents.’
There were several reasons why the Chaos Spirit became uncontrollably strong.
From the mage group that tampered with the more dangerous Spirit Amplification Magic than Spirit Magic.
To the world being engulfed in various wars and World Erosions, spreading chaos wildly, causing the Spirit King’s Forest to proliferate uncontrollably, which the Chaos Spirit then devoured.
It became an uncontrollable monster in a short time compared to when the Chaos Spirit wandered the Spirit King’s Forest after the death of the Primordial Spirit Master.
‘It’s fortunate that I can catch it now.’
Having organized his thoughts, Kraush took a deep breath and raised his hand.
Though it’s currently unable to regenerate due to Ignis’s fire, the real problem with the Chaos Spirit is its regenerative power.
No matter how much you attack it, over time, it will eventually restore itself around its core.
Therefore, to finish off the Chaos Spirit, its core must be destroyed.
The problem is that the core cannot be destroyed with normal attacks.
‘Black Hood.’
Thus, Kraush immediately activated Black Hood.
With the power gathered in his hand, a black, round sphere was firmly grasped in Kraush’s hand.
The moment the core was in Kraush’s hand, the black liquid that made up the Chaos Spirit began to crawl towards Kraush.
Just as before when he defeated the Chaos Spirit, destroying the core in this way would kill it.
Kraush’s eyes touched the core.
Inside the core, darkness writhed, watching Kraush.
This core, having absorbed too much of the World Erosion’s power, is a lump of malice that cannot be used anywhere.
So, in the past, he destroyed the core immediately upon obtaining it.
But Kraush had another method.
‘Ultimately, its origin is World Erosion.’
This meant it could be absorbed with Extreme Blood Immersion Poison.
“Crimson Garden.”
Hearing Kraush’s call, Crimson Garden emerged from between the debris of the collapsed black wall.
“Get ready to say goodbye.”
Kraush instantly devoured the World Erosion contained within the core.
At that moment.
Kraush looked up, feeling the sunlight above his head.
Then, a scene he had never seen before unfolded before his eyes.
On a peaceful field.
A boy and a girl with emerald light were spending a cozy time under the shade of a large tree.
“Agni, how is it? Cool, right?”
The girl created a breeze to cool Agni’s face as he lay down.
Agni’s hair fluttered gently with the breeze, and he smiled in response.
“It’s rather ticklish.”
“What? If it’s ticklish, then it’s like this!”
Then, the girl raised her hand and started tickling Agni all over.
Agni burst into laughter from the girl’s sudden attack and soon pulled her in to tickle her back.
Aside from those cozy moments, the two experienced countless events.
Sometimes they saved people as heroes, and at other times, they were praised as the founders of Spirit Magic.
However, time did not stop and continued to flow, and before long, the boy became an old man.
Unlike the boy who had become an old man, the girl beside him remained unchanged.
In front of a crackling bonfire.
Agni, now an old man, slowly closed his wrinkled eyes.
“E, ri.”
“Yes, Agni, I’m here. Did you call me?”
“I’m sorry. My time isn’t endless like yours.”
A spirit that lives by the power of World Erosion.
A human that lives by the lifespan of the body.
No matter what, their timelines could never be the same.
“I wanted to show you more. My world couldn’t expand as wide as yours.”
“Agni?”
“Eri.”
Agni called Eri’s name with difficulty.
He could no longer open his closed eyes.
“My time was happy because you were there.”
The boy who dreamed of the world as a spirit master had become an old man, reaching the end of his lifespan.
Thus, at the end of that lifespan, the old man wished.
That his happiness would reach her.
That she would not grieve after he was gone.
At the end of that wish, Agni took his last breath.
“Agni? Are you sleeping?”
The girl called Agni’s name innocently.
She did not understand the death of living beings.
So, she thought Agni had fallen asleep as usual.
From that day on, the girl stayed by Agni’s side every day.
Calling his name gently as he lay asleep, waiting eagerly for him to wake up.
“Agni, it’s cold today. You might catch a cold.”
Sometimes, she would blow a warm breeze and cover him with a blanket.
And she would brew his favorite cocoa, placing it on the table in front of him, waiting for him to wake up to the sweet aroma.
“Agni, it’s summer. You can hear the cicadas outside. Delon’s daughter from next door, who was born not long ago, is getting married. Time flies so fast.”
Sometimes, she would blow a cool breeze to lower the heat and place a watermelon she had found somewhere on Agni’s table.
Because it was in season, the watermelon he always enjoyed for its coolness.
And then, spring, summer, autumn, winter.
Time continued to flow again.
Every day, the girl stayed by Agni’s side, telling him about various things that happened that day, helping him sleep comfortably.
The girl always waited for him.
She waited and waited.
But Agni’s body gradually turned into a skeleton, and he never opened his eyes again.
“Agni, I’m getting tired. I want to talk to Agni again.”
The girl missed the days she spent talking with him.
She missed his smiling face, his sad face, and even the days he got angry.
“Agni.”
She missed him terribly.
“I miss Agni so much.”
Though she did not want to believe it, the girl realized.
That her master would never open his eyes again.
And that this was farewell.
On the day the skeleton corpse collapsed, the girl’s heart crumbled at the same time.
The first farewell for a spirit unfamiliar with farewells was an unbearable reality for the spirit.
There is no place for the girl in a world without the boy.
[Oh, Agni.]
The girl was swallowed by chaos, longing for the boy until the very end.
Flash-
Kraush’s eyes slowly opened.
What he saw in his eyes was a sphere that had turned completely white.
As Kraush gazed at the pristine sphere without a hint of darkness, the figure of a girl appeared before him.
Her emerald hair had lost all its color, and more than half of her face had crumbled, making it difficult to recognize her.
However, the emotions contained in that face were still readable.
Resignation and acceptance, mixed within those emotions.
The girl slowly smiled as she looked at Kraush and Crimson Garden who stood beside him.
Crimson Garden removed the respirator from her face and walked over.
“…I am sorry. I thought I should not interfere with your farewell, but someone to comfort the farewell was needed.”
Then she reached out to the girl and embraced her.
She believed the girl would realize the farewell and leave.
Once the paper died, Crimson Garden could no longer see the world.
However, the feelings she had for Agni were stronger than she had thought, and they led the girl to her doom.
After Agni left, taking care of her might have been her responsibility.
Crimson Garden deeply regretted not being able to take care of her until the end.
Within that embrace, the girl slowly vanished.
In the arms of Crimson Garden, who radiated the same energy as Agni, she quietly turned into light dust and flew high into the sky.
Kraush looked up at the light dust ascending into the sky.
At least, he hoped that much of the light dust would reach the one she longed for so much.
* * *
After carefully putting the sphere in his pocket, Kraush and Crimson Garden left the Spirit King’s Forest.
The soldiers saluted her and said she did well, and Crimson Garden responded appropriately.
As Kraush walked beside Crimson Garden, he glanced at her and asked.
“Are you okay?”
Kraush had only glimpsed fragments of the spirit Eri’s memories while absorbing the power of World Erosion.
But Crimson Garden was different.
She must have seen and experienced the world through Agni’s eyes.
So, even though she could have ended Eri with her own hands, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“I’m okay.”
Crimson Garden said so and exhaled once.
“That’s just how immortality is.”
Crimson Garden is an immortal who has lived longer than Eri.
Kraush cannot fathom how long her life has been.
He only knows that it was far too long.
She must have experienced countless farewells.
And she must have witnessed and lamented the deaths of her beloved papers.
Yet, she created another paper.
Because that was the only way she could see the world.
An infinite life repeats endless farewells with those who live finite lives.
Perhaps the reason Crimson Garden so desperately wanted to erase her immortality was because she no longer wanted to experience such farewells.
“I will take your immortality.”
So, Kraush turned to Crimson Garden and said.
Seeing that, Crimson Garden, who let out a bemused laugh for a moment, raised her hand.
Then a crow flew over and landed on her hand.
“Yes, I must make you strong for that reason as well.”
To break the shackles of immortality, Crimson Garden needed to make Kraush strong.
Because that was the only way to break immortality.
After placing the crow on Kraush’s shoulder, Mirsys bowed her head and left.
[Now, go and revive that spirit called Dorothy.]
“I will.”
Kraush took out the sphere that he had put in his pocket.
It was none other than the Spirit King’s Egg.
The core that comes out when a spirit is destroyed and dies.
That was why it was the Spirit King’s Egg.
Thanks to Kraush absorbing all the power of World Erosion, the Spirit King’s Egg was in a clean state.
Now, all that was left was to find Dorothy’s core to revive Dorothy.
The problem was the location of that core.
‘…Flame Mistress.’
The mother of Aslan and the Vice Matriarch of the Igrit Family.
She must have Dorothy’s core.
So, Kraush had to steal Dorothy’s core from her.
But it was impossible for Kraush alone.
He would surely be caught before even entering the Flame Mistress’s room.
‘I don’t necessarily have to steal it myself.’
All he needed was a comrade to steal the core for him.
And Kraush had already met someone who could introduce him to that comrade.
“I’m going to meet Lirina.”
It was time to be introduced to that Aslan guy.