How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 439

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The windows turn white and crumble. It’s due to mana saturation. Elias’s fingertips, which had been gathered in a circle at the bowstring, spread out into midair. A blue-glowing arrow flies fiercely and pierces through one rampage victim’s heart.

[Aaaahhhhh!]

A harsh, low scream bursts out from between the mud. Elias creates his next arrow and says quietly.

“Hit.”

“….”

“I’ve never been happy about something like this before.”

I silently looked at his face.

“No, I didn’t want to be happy about it.”

Silence flows. Elias silently nocks an arrow and draws the bowstring.

Kwang!

Again, a scream. And a person falls. I wrap mana around the pillar in front of the window and fly there, stepping hard on the desk. Before Elias loads his next arrow, I help him regain his balance by flicking his hand. Even if walking is too much, flying is possible. As long as the mana doesn’t cut out midway.

Leaping once more, I sit diagonally on the windowsill and throw the window wide open. The approaching vitriol dissolves in the divine power I scattered in the air. In the meantime, Elias draws the bowstring once more and releases it. Once more again. After bringing down two more, he now looks at me. I place the staff on my shoulder as I did before. After gripping the shaft with both hands at a distance, I open my mouth.

―He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

Kwaaaagwang―!!

Countless masses of divine power rain down onto the gymnasium track, onto the humans covered in mud. Screams scatter. I breathe in that air and draw out divine power once more.

“Elias.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m telling you this now… I’ve been to a world of only mana before.”

“What?”

Piing―

Elias’s arrow flies past a rampage victim’s head. Coming to his senses quickly, he readjusts his bow and draws the string. There’s no time to put down the staff for conversation. Elias must be simultaneously running magical formulas in his head for the bowstring’s elasticity and the different hardnesses of the bow, arrow shaft, and arrowhead, so it would be hard for him to accept conversation, but I had to talk about it now.

“It’s possible through astral projection. But―”

“We didn’t do astral projection.”

“Right. That’s what I wanted to say. We didn’t come in soul form, but fell together with those rampage victims while having physical bodies. If this is the astral plane…”

Kwang―! Pueok―

One of those who didn’t fall to divine power collapses. Elias’s arrowhead pierced the heart and then spread the condensed mana throughout the entire body. The mud that was once a body scatters in all directions. I squeeze my eyes shut and turn my head. Then I bend the staff I had resting on my shoulder downward and swing it upward as I speak.

“How is that possible? ―But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief!”

Kwaaaaaaa―

Divine power pouring like a waterfall covered the entire athletic field. Right after the light too bright to open my eyes to, my vision suddenly went black. I smelled blood. Even after the blackout of my vision cleared, I couldn’t see ahead due to divine power splashing and flowing throughout my body, but I could feel Elias turning his head all the way here. I wiped my nose and mouth with my left hand that had been gripping the shaft, speaking clearly between each word.

“Look ahead.”

I hope I spoke properly. My hand wouldn’t move as I intended and poked my cheek and eyes on its own. After finally wiping it clean, it was all for nothing. My vision went black again.

Still, only the flow of mana was clear to me. Elias’s breathing quickens. Suppressing his breath, he aimed at the hearts of rampage victims rushing from the street into the gymnasium. The rampage victims gathered on the athletic field track screamed at my divine power. The mud melts and disappears. I continue chanting spells while trying to suppress the vitriol they endlessly push out in all directions.

―You are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

[Keuaaaak! Aaaaah…]

As Elias said, I hear choking sounds. Breath is passing. The sound of life came from those who may or may not have lungs remaining. Disgust covers my entire body. Those who want to live well kill innocent people to do so. Just because they were all criminals imprisoned in the prison doesn’t mean they deserved to die as mud like this. I still couldn’t believe all this tragedy started from mere human desire. Petty wishes and meager beliefs were destroying the era. As always. What use is it to cry out that we all belong to the light―in a world where children of light must kill children of light.

Anguish always transforms into disillusionment only when it reaches the stark reality that human nature remains surprisingly unchanged whether in 21st century A.D. or here. What makes me always feel terrible powerlessness is that the source of this doesn’t possess uniqueness to this world alone. Humans adapted to circumstances and continued committing the same violence with different shells, packaging it with plausible names. Even when mana arrived in the world―what those with loose tongues babble about being God’s grace―humans remained the same. What grace. Whether I’m in the era of neoliberalism or the era of magic, humans are always―

Kwang―!

[Aaaaaaaak! Save me―!]

H, i, l, f, e―someone’s voice with vocal cords still attached breaks apart piece by piece. The voice pulls my mind back to this place. I contorted my face. I couldn’t understand why I had to destroy their world from this position. By whose fault, by whose greed? But tracing back to the source of all evil was unnecessary now. Now I had to end the situation facing me. I hear someone running up the stairs. More than one or two hands pound on the iron door. I spin my body around and strike the floor while chanting a spell.

Kwaaaang―!

―To those who suffered before, there will be no darkness. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

To those who suffer before, there is darkness, now, in this moment. Pure white divine power rushes under the iron door. At that moment, Elias grabbed my shoulder and pulled.

“Luca.”

He lifts me up and steps on the desk, jumping to the opposite window.

Kuung― Kwang!

The sound of the lab table ringing. Elias spoke breathlessly.

“That’s enough now. Those people keep increasing.”

Increasing, he says. I think so too. Elias opens the window wide to both sides and puts his foot on the windowsill. Then he pushes off the windowsill and leaps.

Kwang―!

“…!”

The outside wind hits us. I open my mouth and look down. Shrubs and sidewalk blocks rush past quickly. Even streetlights. He was running on rooftops. He crouches at the edge of the building, then jumps toward the next building.

Kwang―

I reflexively squeeze my eyes shut. Elias, like someone who’s done this often―according to what I read before coming here―speaks without caring at all.

“You know we’re gradually moving up toward central Munich?”

“I know, wor… Huh, but more than that, this kind of thing…”

For some reason, Elias said nothing. He put more strength in his hands. Then he muttered in a voice that sounded like acting to anyone listening.

“As someone who graduated elementary school not long ago, I should at least do this much.”

“….”

“There seems to be someone over there absorbing our mana.”

Elias said, gesturing backward with his head.

“And they keep increasing. It seems like all the people who were buried under buildings and about to die are going into rampage. I wanted to go that way to see if there were any survivors…”

“Impossible.”

“I know. Then, what exactly does astral―mean.”

Elias spoke with a hard rolled pronunciation like American English. I understand. I don’t know well either. This kind of thing is a new concept for me too. Astral plane, world of only mana, B World, whatever… What I know about it is all I heard from Maria and Riechthofen. As I was choosing words to answer, Elias frowned and continued speaking.

“No, don’t say anything. Not a word. This is talking to myself from now on. Is the astral plane the same as the world of only mana? Is there some rule that you must come in soul form?”

―”Otherwise it’s impossible.”

“…If you’re going to use divine power, there’s no point in not speaking. Anyway, I get it.”

If we drag our physical bodies from the material world in, where we stand must be the material world. In other words, if this hypothesis is true, we’ve fallen into a world where we can see ghosts while dragging our physical bodies. If there was a way to move in physical form, Maria Osterreicheste would have done so. Of course, he also wanted to appear like a ghost to Ecla Literer members, but there’s no way he wouldn’t have tried the experience of setting foot with a physical body. Elias reached his own conclusion.

“First, even if this is a world of only mana, it’s not the astral or whatever plane. You used them as the same meaning, but let’s shift paradigms and think of them as different things. Second, we hit our heads on stones and came here through astral projection, or third, these crazy bastards made it possible to enter with physical bodies to use the astral plane like some sewer.”

The second isn’t it. If we came in soul form, we should have passed through objects and I should have been able to walk too. More than that…

I raised my head at his last words. Elias continued running and speaking.

“Yeah, what’s important in the end is that there’s still no way out.”

“….”

There is one.

If I turn back time, we can get out. If I go back to before all this happened.

But…

Not only are the points worryingly few, but if I do turn back, it would be better to go all the way back to before Haike collapsed. It’s better to turn it all back at once rather than use points twice. Then I’d have to spend all that time again. It would be greed if I don’t want to lose the time we’ve built up. But giving up greed is something I’ve always done. The decisive reason for not turning back time is here. I’d always been considering it, but there was a problem that became truly real through the Brandenburg experience―what guarantee is there that this situation won’t be created again if I turn it back?

Would it be resolved if I don’t come to Munich? If I don’t come to Munich, I won’t be brought to an unknown world by the collapsing prison. But as long as we try to save Haike, as long as the culprit who made Haike like that is the holy relic thief, as long as the French royal family doesn’t want to be caught having stolen the holy relic themselves, this situation will occur in some other form anytime. The rampage of everyone in the prison happened to stop us from finding the holy relic. The newly arising problem will branch out in yet another direction we don’t know. Then I’ll have to turn back time again. Again and again.

The more than a month I spent in Brandenburg may have left scars on me. I may have been acting conservatively without knowing it.

‘But if I really use up all the points.’

From then on, we have no chances. True death awaits us. Therefore, until the very end, until the line where I don’t use Leo’s life, until the very last moment, I had to seek ways to defeat them here.

“Luca.”

I moved my gaze to look at him. Elias was looking down at me and smiling. I could tell his face held exhaustion.

“Sleepy?”

“I’m fine. Thanks to you jumping on rooftops.”

“Ahahaha! That’s rewarding.”

Elias laughed showing his uvula, then smiled and landed on the ground. There were no buildings ahead. He continued running toward central Munich. While he ran, I swallowed the blood trying to come up my throat. Now I noticed Elias’s hand skin was scraped and turned red. He’d definitely been hit by vitriol.

“You know, Luca?”

“What.”

“You used too much divine power today. You’ve been pouring it out nonstop since the prison.”

“You too.”

“Yeah, me too. So…”

While Elias ran, I smashed the door of a building I spotted. It was a magic museum. I just hope a few people go in there. After the collapsing sound, Elias whispered.

“What do we do now?”

People keep going into rampage and we have no way back. If there’s hope, it’s that when our stamina recovers, we’ll be able to handle attacks from these dozens, hundreds of people. And if there’s something desperate, it’s that buying time to recover stamina is no ordinary task. Right, we had no time. I opened the Dawn window to check the time remaining until death. After closing the window, I called Elias quietly.

“Elias. I need time.”

We were now at Marienplatz where we’d come with Leo and Elias. I spoke to Elias who was waiting for my words to continue.

“About 20 minutes, no, if things go well, it might be pulled a bit more.”

“You’re saying we need to buy 20 minutes.”

“Right.”

At that moment, I saw a muddy figure sluggishly walking at the end of the street. Elias hurriedly hid behind a building and muttered.

“Good. But first, it seems we need to avoid those things that have spread throughout Munich’s city center.”

I understood why he was holding his breath here. If we carelessly used magic now, the rampage victims would swarm to this location. Elias turned his head toward me and asked.

“Well, that aside. You do have a plan, right?”

“I don’t know if it will succeed or not, but yes.”

“Yeah, that’s at least hopeful. You’re really reliable.”

I couldn’t smile. Reliable? When I can’t even walk alone in this situation? My injury was hindering his free movement. I thought I had mastered managing my expressions, but Elias stared right through me and scolded.

“Don’t think strange thoughts.”

“What are you talking about.”

He ignored my denial and continued speaking while looking elsewhere as if playing dumb.

“I can keep carrying you and running. We can’t do close combat anymore anyway. You just need to keep shooting magic from my arms to take them down~”

“Yeah, I know.”

I waved my hand dismissively. Elias cautiously peeked his head around the building to check the situation on the main street. Fortunately, the rampage victim seemed to have passed, so he carefully moved forward.

‘Wait.’

I grabbed Elias’s collar. From behind, that is, from the end of the alley, I heard signs of someone.

Kwaang―!

“…!”

I reflexively squinted my eyes. Sky-blue mana that wasn’t mine sparked. It wasn’t Elias’s either. My spine gradually grew cold. If it’s not vitriol but mana, someone’s mana here, then why? Could it be….

Elias, who had lowered his body and taken a defensive stance, widened his eyes.

“Leo?”

“…Here….”

Someone holding a staff staggered toward us. I opened my eyes wide seeing him. Someone’s parched lips opened once more.

“You were here.”

Leo approached limping, with blood on his face and arms. Elias, quite flustered, stepped back.

“You….”

“There was a rampage victim over there.”

Leo said in a tired voice, pointing to the path leading to another alley. You should look behind you, he finished speaking with a faint smile. The corners of his mouth gradually drooped. It was a face that seemed to have no strength or anything to be happy about. Even his hair, which he usually swept back well, was all down. I asked him.

“Count Rothenhan is.”

“….”

Leo didn’t answer. His eyes were dejected. He passed by us toward the main street and gestured.

“Let’s find a place to hide. You must have thought so too, but we can’t continue like this.”

“Leo. Where were you.”

Elias shouted as he followed behind him. Leo answered in a dry tone.

“Right in front of the debris. I came out before the collapse, but I was hit by debris and was unconscious for a while.”

“Unconscious? Tell me more.”

“I came out of the prison immediately before the rampage victims regained consciousness. I tried to find you guys, but….”

“You didn’t know where we were.”

Leo nodded at Elias’s words. He was silent for a while, then looked at me and said briefly.

“You’re badly hurt. Did you injure your leg?”

It’s obvious just by looking. I had nothing else to say, so I didn’t answer that question and brought up another one.

“So, where are you planning to go.”

“….”

“I know you’re well-versed in Munich’s geography, but there’s probably no suitable place to stop them. Do you have a good plan?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have what you’d call a good plan. Hiding and creating distance is the best option.”

He answered with a slight cough.

Hiding and creating distance, like what Elias and I had been doing until now. Elias seemed to realize there was no hope to be found here either, as his energy completely drained and he let out a long breath. Leo spoke clearly even while walking with a gait heavy with fatigue.

“I did consider using the Isar River to isolate the rampage victims…. We could lure them, but isolating them would be difficult. We might end up isolated ourselves if we’re not careful.”

“That’s true. But with the three of us, wouldn’t it be worth trying despite the risk?”

“That’s just like you.”

I put strength into the hand gripping Elias’s shoulder. Elias looked down at me.

―”Elias. Get ready.”

Elias slightly furrowed his brow and raised his head. Then he spoke to the back of Leo’s head.

“First, Leo. Let’s try that Isar River thing. You scout Munich’s north. We’ll go check the east.”

“….”

“Then let’s meet at the river.”

“We might get isolated. I told you.”

“We’ll think about that when the time comes. The river is right in front of us anyway, you frustrating model student bastard.”

The moment he said those words, Leo turned around irritably. He narrowed his eyes with a face heavy with fatigue and asked.

“Do you really want to do that?”

“We have to try first.”

Then Leo let out a deep sigh. He answered in resignation with a half-hoarse voice.

“Fine…. Who’s going to stop you. In 30 minutes, let’s meet at Museum Island on the Isar River. I’ll drive them there.”

“How unusually cooperative of you.”

Then Leo showed a faint smile and turned around again. Elias stepped back one step, two steps. I cast sound-blocking magic and whispered quietly.

“I’m getting déjà vu.”

“Haha… Right. More importantly, what should we do. If we run away, he’ll chase us, and if we don’t run away….”

Kwaaaaang―!

There was no need to worry. Sky-blue mana exploded in front of us. An attack sparked in front of the staff held with both hands.

Damn, Elias had expected it, but experiencing it directly, he muttered curses with a disgusted expression. Right. That person is a high-risk rampage victim. More precisely, not a rampage victim, but the most ideal being that Pleroma seeks, someone who only gained vitriol after being injected with rampage drugs but didn’t go into rampage. Just like Emanuel Wittelsbach.

‘This one also seems to have transformation abilities as their unique ability, like our school friend.’

Whether it’s illusion or whatever. There’s no possibility it’s Leo. Didn’t Elias immediately realize he wasn’t Leo?

But the real problem lies elsewhere. The fact that this person is so intact even after being contaminated with vitriol means he was quite a skilled mage in life. That was the biggest problem. He possessed vitriol that produces stronger power than mana, while maintaining complete rationality and having the technical skills to work as a kingdom mage. Presumably.

Elias held me properly and started running in the opposite direction. I raised my body over Elias’s shoulder and aimed my staff at the enemy.

―O Lord, your name endures forever!

Kaang―! Kkagagagak―

I doubted my eyes. Blade-like mana, mana that couldn’t come from Leo, writhed and broke through the divine power. I struck the opponent’s mana with the decorative part of my staff and shouted once more.

―O Lord, your memorial endures through all generations!

Divine power split into several branches and rushed toward him. I heard the sound of the opponent being pushed far away. My ears went numb from the loud noise. My senses weren’t functioning properly.

Elias said while breathing heavily.

“You’re slow, Luca.”

“I want to avoid that, but I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”

“I’m not criticizing you. Don’t overdo it.”

Elias quickly turned his head and muttered.

“If we just go down like this….”

“We’ll encounter other rampage victims, so we need to escape in a different direction as much as possible.”

“Mm, right.”

Thud―

Elias sharply turned his body to the left and kicked off the sidewalk blocks. I flicked my staff. Something like glass painted with white light appeared in front of the approaching enemy. I changed my staff to a wand and swung it diagonally with force.

Kwaaaaang―!!

“Kugh…!”

The opponent who blocked the barrier debris kept using Leo’s voice until the end. Perhaps only we perceive it that way. This created more distance. I felt blood flowing into my mouth and put strength into my eyes.

―The Lord covers himself with light as with a garment.

Ssaek― Kwang―!

―He stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

The vitriol that was flying toward me, toward Elias, disappeared above my head. The enemy didn’t yield. Against the continuously flying vitriol, I gathered divine power in my wand and aimed it forward.

―He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes his messengers winds!

“Wait…!”

At Elias’s sharp cry, the moment I turned my head, I opened my eyes wide. My body tilted.

Kwang―!

My head rang. The stars embedded in the night sky shook finely. Blood flowed from my head that touched the ground. An instinctive thought struck my mind―this is the limit now.

‘No.’

This won’t do. Who decided this was the limit? I quickly turned my body and propped myself up with my elbow against the ground. Vitriol was wrapped around the legs of Elias, who had collapsed on the floor.

“Eli!”

I threw my staff to him. He changed the staff into a sword, cut away the vitriol, and barely managed to stand up. Damn, we’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Behind us is Pleroma in Leo’s form, and in front is a rampage victim who has lost his reason. And the biggest problem is my leg. If I weren’t here, Elias would live. I shouted with all my strength.

“Run away. Quickly!”

Elias held his sword and charged at the rampage victim before him. I felt completely deflated. There was no way he would listen to such words. An unfamiliar scream came first.

“Kuaaaaaaah―!”

Thud― Bang―!

Elias cut through the vital points where vitriol passages would be located one by one, then plunged his sword into the heart. The place where ribs should have been had turned into vitriol, and when Elias slashed diagonally downward, the empty space was clearly visible. The rampage victim collapsed to the floor. It was a speed I had never seen before. Elias’s condition was also not normal. He had lost his reason right now. I shouted with bulging veins.

“Elias!”

“We have to go together. Are you trying to die alone?”

Elias shook off the vitriol from his sword and stood in front of me. From the person in Leo’s form in the distance, vitriol came flying. He struck down with his staff. I quickly punched the floor. A white barrier rippled and blocked the vitriol. The moment the vitriol touched it, the barrier melted and swallowed it. Elias also changed his sword back to a staff.

[Jehovah.]

His movements are slow. I have the illusion that time is stretching long. If going together means going to the afterlife together, we could realize that right now. I shouted with all my strength once more.

“Think straight!”

“I am thinking straight.”

A quiet answer is heard. Elias spun his staff once in the air. Blue-black magical power crackled and sparked from the staff. He shouted at the top of his voice.

“Not for a single moment have I done otherwise! [Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you!]”

Cold magical power like deep-sea waves pierces the flesh.

Not for a single moment. That contains countless meanings. So many moments that I cannot even imagine. I gritted my teeth.

―…The Lord is my light and my salvation.

I cannot use neutralization magic. Elias’s magical power would also be neutralized. Even considering that, whether I could exploit the neutralized gap – in my current state, it’s impossible. So I had to push through with force. Pure white divine power sparked like flames from the ground I pressed.

―Whom shall I fear?

Crash―! Clang―

―The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid!

The vitriol covering the floor was swept away in an instant. Elias, who had covered the magical power the opponent poured out with his own magical power, changed his staff to a sword and leaped toward the opponent. The sound of clashing swords continued. I pushed divine power through my hand pressed to the floor and gripped the ground.

‘…Ha.’

Surely divine power should be bursting forth, but my vision gradually turned black. Time was so slow. It’s cold. Even in April, the night is cold. My body temperature began to cool gradually. I recited every magical formula I knew. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled, blessed are the merciful… I don’t know how much time passed. It felt like eons had flowed. I continuously sent divine power to them. So that at least Elias could face him with magical power alone, not vitriol, so that, even a little…

“Urgh…!”

Elias’s voice snaps me awake. My attempt to get up was futile as my head crashed to the floor. The blood I had clearly been shedding soaked one side of my face. My consciousness and body were acting separately.

‘No.’

“Aaaaaaaah! Ah, aaaaah…!”

‘No…!’

My body wouldn’t listen. My vision turned green, then black. When I opened my eyes wide, blood soaked my eyeballs. I had no strength in my limbs. There wasn’t much strength left. Even if there wasn’t much, it couldn’t be helped. I had to strengthen my core. I struck the floor with my hand.

―Truly, truly I tell you…

Beep―…

I tell you.

“…”

I can’t even hear breathing. The world was quiet.

Now I admit it.

It’s time to retry. I’ve endured to the very end. Someone kicks me and grabs me by the collar. I saw Leo’s face. Between my flickering consciousness, the retry window glimmers.

“…!”

Suddenly, I felt sensation in my right leg. Excruciating pain struck. I screamed a soundless scream. The mage was trampling on my leg. No, vitriol was seeping into my leg.

[…Count Ernst―]

Ah, ah, groans that I couldn’t tell if I was making burst out. My skin was burning. Vitriol was seeping between my blood vessels, burning them. The vitriol clinging to my leg crawled up to my knee. I curled up and gasped for breath, but it wasn’t enough to endure the pain. The mage with Leo’s face brushed back his hair and smiled refreshingly.

Crash―!

My body jerked and my neck snapped. A hand stained with vitriol pressed down on my heart. My remaining magical power was being sucked into him. Pain spread from my heart throughout my entire body. No, that’s wrong. This is…

―If you remain.

My mouth moves before my consciousness. If you remain in me and my words remain in you.

Craaaaaash―!! Thud―

I kicked him and slammed him to the floor. Or so it seemed. When I came to my senses, he was beneath me. I strangled his neck. Snap, something broke. What it was, I don’t know. I didn’t need to know. The magical power flowing into my hands was sweeter than anything. The choking sounds from beneath my hands, the vitriol covering me, all of it was everything.

―Peace I leave with you.

My hands, lighter than ever before, reach his core. Something was drawn in like a magnet. I drew strength from my shoulders and struck his heart while shouting.

―My peace I give you!

[…]

I thought I heard screams. My hands turn black. Is it an illusion? Yes, nothing matters. I threw off the corpse clinging to my arm and rushed to Elias, who lay on the floor like he was dead.

‘Not yet.’

It’s not too late. He’s still breathing. Elias’s eyes, his head buried in the ground soaked with blood, slowly move toward me. Seeing that I was alive, his lips seemed to curve up faintly. No, that wouldn’t be the only reason. I knew why he was smiling. I held him. My right leg, covered in vitriol, moves like my own muscle. I can see rampage victims running from far away. Not just one or two. It didn’t matter.

This is still Marienplatz. I ran to St. Peter’s Church that Elias had mentioned once. My leg hurts, but the view of Munich from there is really beautiful. The words I heard while lying in the plaza replay in my head. The observation deck. I had to find it. I pushed through the church doors as if smashing them, and ran with widening strides. Every time I stepped on the tiles, my right leg felt like it was being stabbed with thorns. The statue of St. Peter looks down at me. The Romanesque ceiling, far above my head, wavers in my vision. I looked around in front of the crucifix. Where should I go? The howls of rampage victims can be heard from far away. I ran looking for the entrance to the stairs and opened my mouth.

“Remember what you said about going to the bell tower earlier?”

“…Mmm.”

A groaning voice that could hardly be called an answer is heard. I held him close to my chest and increased my speed. Blood continuously flowing from his body thoroughly soaked my upper body.

“You wanted to rest. Right?”

“…”

This cannot be exchanged for other words. Neither wanting to die, nor wanting to live, nor wanting to be happy – nothing fits.

I climbed hundreds of stairs and only lost strength and collapsed when I reached the observation deck. I barely got up and laid Elias’s head on my knee. Dark red blood drips from my chin onto Elias’s face.

“What were you trying to do at the end?”

Elias was falling asleep. I felt for his chin and pressed the place where his pulse beat with my trembling hand. Then he tried to open his eyes and raised the corners of his mouth.

“…I should sing a song.”

His voice was slow. He closed his eyes with a dreaming face. And slowly opened them. He seemed to be smiling. It might not have been an illusion. I gripped his shoulder to wake him and asked desperately.

“What song?”

“Percy Shelley.”

He only moved his lips with his eyes closed. A voice as small as a ghost’s breath is heard.

“【Prometheus Unbound】.”

“That’s not a song, it’s a poem.”

“Hahaha…”

Who gave him permission to laugh? I wanted to ask that. Knowing it was time to die, he was laughing. This wasn’t right. I laughed along with him and asked.

“Elias.”

“…”

“Elias, are you comfortable?”

You would be.

You would be, if it’s you. Your resolve and will to change the world come from a lifetime of suffering. Can the world be placed on one person’s shoulders? If that’s possible, then this is the conclusion. The weight that never left his shoulders for even a moment since childhood created his beliefs, and made him seek rest.

The eternally unforgivable martyr of salvation, chained to a stone pillar, does not beg for forgiveness. The flame within him will burn eternally like when he gave fire to humans, but beneath it, pitch-black ashes from what has burned scatter. Eternally.

“Elias.”

“…”

Every time I spoke, dark red liquid flowed out uncontrollably. The world flickered black. My blood flowed onto Elias’s face. The magical power absorbed from the mage was also being depleted.

The view of Munich was truly beautiful. Moonlight shines on us. Rampage victims have entered the cathedral. Their sounds reach this high observation deck. If we’re still breathing, before turning back time, I had to wake Elias one more time.

Saying I would use your life for the next era. If so, you shouldn’t die here. But I couldn’t say that.

“I can’t ask you to live for me, Eli.”

“…”

“Because I know.”

Blood drips into his eyes. He was sleeping with a more peaceful face than ever. I felt his pulse slowing and moved my lips.

“I know you might want to become comfortable even this way…”

That’s my selfishness. My greed. Asking you to live for me. That’s something only someone who has never been desperately tired could say. It’s no different from pushing him into screams and stepping on him. Pain invades as despair. Because I love him, I cannot ask him to live. This was how I loved what I love. Now I realized. Once again through you. I cannot add fatigue upon deep fatigue. Because I am like him. Because I know what he must be feeling.

Ultimate rebellion is achieved through survival. Elias knew this all too well. He knew he had to endure his own pain. He was capable of that. So he has no intention of taking his own life. Not at all. He will resist life with all his might, struggle, burn himself completely, then fall. And he will accept it gladly. He wants that. Just as he wished to be consumed for the change of the era, like now when he’s doing his best for life.

Now it was time for me to do my best.

“Eli.”

I, in order to live as myself, in order not to forget my humanity, spoke the words I absolutely didn’t want to say. I had to, now.

“I need your blood.”

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