Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 536

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 306.
Beneath the Almond Tree (49)
Boris set Cardi down and gestured for him to retreat further back, then turned toward the cave. He drew the sword he had sheathed moments before. Seeing this, Tichiel pressed her palms together and closed her eyes. In an instant, the air around her swirled violently. Simultaneously, white radiance erupted skyward.
“What are you two doing?! Does that thing look like something you can handle?”
Maximian cursed aloud in protest. Joshua called out to him then.
“Makgun… put me down.”
“Are you in your right mind?”
As Joshua descended, he swayed slightly. Yet his eyes conveyed complete awareness of the situation, as though he had never lost consciousness. His face contorted with pain as he struggled to focus his mind.
The thunderous footsteps had nearly reached us. The creature burst from the dark cave like a lightning bolt. Boris, sword already drawn, crouched low and slid his feet leftward, charging forward. His blade traced a semicircle, severing the creature’s right arm cleanly. White energy erupted from the wound like frozen snow. In the same instant, a crushing force descended toward Boris’s head—only to collide with a luminous barrier extending from Tichiel’s hands and ricochet away. The collision left a deafening boom that resonated like a massive gong across the entire meadow.
Boom!
Grass in the meadow shredded and scattered everywhere. It was a tempest. While Tichiel maintained the barrier of light, Boris rose again and gripped his sword upright.
Though its arm had been severed, the monster made no sound. It crouched and writhed like some ancient, gnarled tree—or rather, it bore no discernible form at all, merely a twisted mass. Tichiel withdrew her barrier, then expanded it anew to encompass the entire group. But as it widened, it weakened. When the monster lunged, the barrier shattered. Boris rolled across the ground to evade, and where the creature’s hand came down, the rocky plateau crumbled, sending stone fragments flying.
“Boris!”
Tichiel drew a short staff from her robes and raised her arm high, tracing an elaborate seal. A luminous formation appeared vertically in the air. Dozens of brilliantly glowing arrows erupted from it. The moment they struck the monster’s body, they detonated with violent force. The creature was driven back to the cave entrance in an instant.
Maximian’s eyes widened as he muttered.
“What? Our side has a monster too?”
Yet Tichiel cried out in frustration.
“The explosions aren’t affecting its body!”
Boris sprang to his feet and bent his sword behind him, gripping it tightly. White energy like a blizzard swirled around his blade. Yet he did not attack immediately. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and steadied his breathing—a stark contrast to his aggressive movements moments before.
The monster rose again and charged toward Cardi, who stood between Boris and Tichiel. It happened so suddenly that Tichiel had no time to erect a protective barrier. Cardi made no attempt to dodge. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut as if bracing for impact.
But in the next moment, he lay sprawled in the grassland several paces away. Joshua had embraced him and pulled him clear.
“How…?”
Joshua struggled to rise. His body had not yet fully recovered from the aftereffects of necromancy. But there was no time to hesitate. Maximian shouted.
“Back… no, forward! Run forward!”
Cardi, who had regained his senses first, embraced Joshua in turn and pulled him along. They took three steps forward and fell together—and in that instant, a deafening crash erupted behind them, accompanied by heat so intense it felt as though flesh would sear. We could not turn to look. Maximian’s voice urging us further ahead sounded distant and muffled.
Crash!
Another thunderous boom, and this time a biting cold swept over us. A massive block of frost engulfed our lower bodies. Tichiel cried out in distress.
“The position was slightly off. Are you alright?”
Had the preceding heat not been there, we might have suffered frostbite in that moment. Yet we managed to stand. Looking back, a ball of fire blazed in the center of the meadow. The flames began spreading in all directions.
As the monster raised its hand again, another fireball ignited at its fingertips. Once it grew large enough, it cut through the air with a whistling sound. But the fireball aimed at Boris shattered into fragments, scattering in all directions—he had struck it upward with his sword.
The other fireballs, however, left us no choice but to leap and dodge. The meadow became a sea of flames.
“At this rate, the entire mountain will burn!”
Soon the monster paused, as if deliberating which of its scattered enemies to target. Boris spoke.
“Tichiel, extinguish the fire first. Leave this to me.”
“Will you be alright?”
Boris did not answer, but Tichiel soon stepped back and began concentrating. Boris walked forward. The white energy swirling around his blade had grown noticeably calmer. When five paces remained, Boris kicked off the ground and charged.
“Ha!”
The monster raised its arm to strike. Boris twisted his body to evade, grazing one shoulder. A dark, murky liquid—whether blood or something else—sprayed outward. But in the next instant, the severed hand transformed into something sharp as a blade and thrust toward Boris. Maximian shouted.
“Don’t let that hand touch you!”
Boris barely dodged and raised the hilt of his sword to assume a defensive stance. At that moment, Joshua, having struggled to his feet, squeezed his eyes shut once more and gathered every ounce of remaining mental strength. The instant he opened them, he moved at a speed the eye could not follow, launching himself upward to sweep his leg across the creature’s neck. It was as though he had taken flight. The neck snapped, and the monster’s body collapsed backward.
“….”
Joshua landed on the opposite side and watched the Monster rise and turn toward him. That alone was a success. Joshua had no weapon. Even if he had, it would have been useless. According to the research conducted at the Vineyard, a body invaded by malevolent artifice could not be wounded by ordinary weapons. When I thought of that, what Boris held was no common blade. So giving Boris the opportunity was the best course of action.
Boris took his stance to deliver the final blow against the turned Monster. Whether it would die from this, I could not say, but by conventional logic it should have. Taking two quick strides forward, Boris rushed in and cleaved the Monster’s shoulder. It was the arm into which fragments had first seeped. In that instant, a cry rang out from behind. It was Cardi.
“No!”
A wave of tremendous pressure erupted from the Monster’s body. Stone and grass rose like waves. Boris, and those nearby—Joshua and Cardi—were all hurled backward and crashed to the ground. Where the pressure struck directly, clothing tore to shreds like sails weathering a tempest.
At the same moment, Tichiel’s magic took effect. Centered on her, a vast surge of water essence rose and became a whirlwind that swept through everything. Not only were all the fires across the Meadow extinguished, but the entire area transformed as though caught in a downpour.
Boris lifted his head and looked at the Monster. Countless lacerations marked the skin beneath his torn clothes, but he found his thoroughly soaked hair far more bothersome. As Boris rose to his feet, Cardi struggled up beside him and called out.
“Boris, wait….”
Cardi removed the cloak Boris had lent him. The portion covered by the cloak had survived the recent attack unscathed. But the arm that had borne the original wound was a sight almost unbearable to witness. Beneath the tattered sleeve, skin had been flayed away, and blood and serum were matted together—it resembled the body of a beast with its hide torn off.
“Wait. I want to speak with him.”
It already seemed as though communication would be impossible with this opponent. Boris answered without turning around.
“It’s dangerous.”
Cardi shook his head and approached the Monster.
The Monster, its arm completely severed, was catching its breath, though whether it was dying remained uncertain. As Cardi drew near, the Monster tried to rise. It attempted to extend its remaining arm. To any observer, it appeared to be preparing an attack. Yet before anyone could stop it, the moment Cardi reached its side and spoke, all movement ceased.
“Father.”
Everyone flinched. It was a name no one had imagined.
“You are the only father I have. The father who gave me blood and bone and flesh, and even the words of a promise.”
Joshua’s Father had not wished to be Cardi’s father. The name “father” was a word that had hidden itself within him.
“I have always resented that you created me, but not at this moment. Do you know why?”
The Monster’s body seemed to have even stopped breathing. Or perhaps everyone was mistaken.
“Because of an emotion I could never have known had I not been born. I was separated from myself, and I harbored an adversary within me. When I came to recognize that adversary, I began to shatter. Just as the demon promised. The person I thought was my father abandoned me, my friend turned away, and I hated myself—the self separated from me. I hated his rights. I hated the future that belonged only to him.”
My voice was calm. With both hands extended, the fragile Puppet looking up at the enormous Monster shed no tears.
“Had I not endured all of this, I would never have known the value of those things I could not love before. Only through being abandoned by them did I realize how pathetic my emotions were—I, who thought myself capable of living alone. I have returned from a demon to a human.”
Cardi raised his own mangled arm high. Between the dried bloodstains, white powder scattered thinly and fell away.
“By becoming a Puppet.”
As I spoke, a gradual transformation began in the Monster’s body. Whether it was due to Boris’s attack or merely a change of heart, no one could say. The swollen body gradually shrank back to its original form. Yet the twisted and warped places did not return to what they were. The lost hand did not reappear. One could not say it had returned to being human. It now possessed a face, but it had no mouth to speak.
Cardi moved forward. I placed my right hand within my garment.
“So you may rejoice, Father. You have created something complete. Look. I am a creature of mankind. Yet I am also human. Therefore, Father.”
Cardi’s hand embraced the man who had once been human, then a Monster, then something else entirely. I held him tightly with my tattered arm.
“You were a god.”
Even those standing behind could see moisture gathering in the eyes within the twisted flesh. The next moment, Cardi’s right hand moved.
“….”
Not dark blood as before, but crimson blood flowed. Cardi’s hand and arm became stained with blood. Soon the hand fell away. A short blade was embedded where the heart would be. It was the same blade that Anistan had dropped beside the coffin at the beginning.
Time seemed to stretch endlessly. It did not thrash. It did not push away the Cardi who held it. The surge of blood gradually slowed. What had been a stream became rain, and eventually transformed into a flow thinner than tears. A long breath faded. Slowly yet swiftly, like the evening sun of afternoon, it faded away.
Soon Cardi rose, his right arm and lower body drenched in blood. In that brief span, the skin beneath his eyes had hollowed. He turned and bowed to everyone. As he always had, with grace.
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 14 Months Publishing
The copyright for this book belongs to the author and 14 Months Publishing.
To reuse all or part of the contents of this book, written consent from both parties is required.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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