I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 116
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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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Chapter 116
A torrent of thoughts crashed through my mind all at once.
It wasn’t reason that decided what came first—it was instinct.
Obeying that primal command, I shoved Kalian away with all my strength, even as he held me.
A sickening crack echoed through my ears. Then came a familiar, excruciating pain that spread through every cell of my body.
The horrific sensation of something tearing through skin and shattering bone in my back, piercing straight through my chest. Pain crashed over me like a tidal wave.
“Ah…?”
My scream never made it past my lips. I stared blankly at Kalian. His eyes were wide, fixed on me in shock.
Slowly, I let my gaze drift downward.
Something protruded from my chest. A silver-white blade, drenched in blood, gleamed with a desolate sheen. I couldn’t comprehend what it was.
The Great Annihilation—the weapon I hadn’t removed from my body for a single day in the past seven years.
‘But only I can draw it….’
Had the Judge of Darkness and Chaos pierced through the protective barrier Rahnar had placed on me?
Before I could process the answer, I coughed violently. A metallic lump surged up my throat and burst past my lips.
I heard the sharp intake of breath nearby.
“Ro… Rosy?”
My head dropped forward. In my narrowing vision, something appeared on my left chest.
Between the blade edges protruding from my clothes, writhing tentacles were rising. Like a serpent’s tongue, they licked around the wound where the blade was embedded, their movements deliberate and methodical.
The licked flesh was being carved away in real time.
‘Ah… it’s not the Guardian Star.’
With that realization, my body collapsed beyond my control.
“Rosy!”
In that brief moment, I was able to grip the Planetarium because I had imagined and prepared for this exact scenario dozens, hundreds of times in my mind.
I heard Kalian shouting something, but my hearing vanished as if it were a lie.
I moved my lips, desperate to convey something—anything—to him. But I couldn’t hear what sounds were escaping my own mouth.
‘…So this is it.’
No matter how much I’d steeled myself, I never wanted to experience this again….
The barely completed incantation fell onto the spell circle.
[ᚳᚱᛖᚨᛏᛖ ᛈᛟᚱᛏᚨᛚ]
The spell activated by the narrowest margin, unleashing blinding light. A violent tremor rippled outward, centered on me, accompanied by a dazzling flash.
My body was wrenched by a powerful force and dragged away. Simultaneously, something was torn from my body.
With that horrifying sensation as the last thing I felt, my vision went black.
All sensation severed abruptly, as if cut off entirely.
‘Did I… succeed?’
Or was I simply being annihilated?
In my fading consciousness, shadowy tentacles undulated like dark water.
The corners of my mouth rose slightly.
‘So it was you all along. Lost Soul.’
Now the cause of Rosien Wynack’s death and the identity of the killer had become clear. Ha… there was no need to tremble in uncertainty anymore. In a strange way, it was almost a relief….
Had I properly told Kalian that I would be all right…?
The moment the blade pierced through, a face as pale as a wax figure froze in my darkening vision.
‘Will it be alright.’
Even as I died from the worst of causes, my mind kept returning to his expression.
That twisted face, unable to comprehend what was happening in this moment.
I should have comforted him.
Only I could do it. I should have been by his side….
That was the limit. My consciousness was severed as cleanly as if cut by a blade.
And I did not open my eyes again for a very long time.
* * *
The flash that erupted from Rosien Wynyak’s Planetarium faded as swiftly as it had burst forth. The darkness that rose like a tidal wave swallowed the light as it extinguished the flames.
When the surroundings brightened again, chaos reigned.
The table where the Continental Conference had taken place was split in half. Chronos Yeljewa gasped for breath.
‘This scene…!’
The podium ravaged as if by a tempest, the collapsed table—it matched exactly with a scene from the premonition dream.
So the prophecy was unfolding into reality this very day.
Rosien was nowhere to be seen. Immediately after she was pierced by the blade, a massive light erupted from an unknown source.
By the time the light faded, she had already vanished without a trace.
Only the remnants of a colossal sorcerous circle, seemingly activated by Rosien in her final moments, remained faintly in the ruined conference hall.
‘Then she must have escaped safely to that other world shown in the prophecy, right?’
I could not be certain. It was not just any weapon—it was the Great Annihilation.
That Sacred Relic’s greatest power was to annihilate its target without leaving a trace.
I could only pray that the displacement sorcery she had woven at the end succeeded. Above all, I needed to calm that young man who now stood alone!
Kalian Wynack stared down at the floor with a pallid expression. The Transcendents’ gazes followed his downward.
Something was rolling at his feet.
It was a jewel the size of two fists, drenched in viscous blood.
Kalian slowly bent his waist and picked it up. As the drops of blood clinging to the jewel slid downward, the opaque surface gleamed with radiance.
Railo stammered.
“The… Crystal of Resurrection.”
The Sacred Relic that had lived and breathed within Rosien’s body lay there, stained with blood.
It had been torn from her.
All emotion gradually drained from Kalian’s face.
“What happened?!”
Luize growled and stepped forward. He snatched the crystal from Kalian’s hand.
The opaque crystal was still warm, like a real human heart. When he closed his palm around it, a faint pulse could be felt.
But soon it gradually ceased.
The blessing of the “Creator of Time and Endings” that had poured forth infinitely from the crystal was now being sealed back within it.
Even though the crystal had been taken from him, Kalian remained standing motionless in place. Luize seized him by the collar.
“What did you do to Rosien?!”
“….”
Instead of answering, Kalian stared at his hands, opening and closing them, drenched in blood.
Both of my arms, which had held Rosien, were drenched in blood, as was my chest.
When I rubbed my cheek with the back of my hand, a thick, reddish liquid came away. The blood was still warm.
Owen, Alpien, Dorian Raylo, and Chronos Yeljewa exchanged glances with one another.
‘So it’s come to this after all.’
The very situation that they—and Rosien himself—had feared had finally come to pass.
“If anything happens to me, I need to stabilize my older brother first. If I’m damaged, Kalian will inevitably become unstable through our Elixir connection.”
“Even without the Elixir, that would be true….”
“Especially the Broken Chaos. While Kalian is confused, it might try to creep out. We have to stop it from tempting him.”
Rosien had taught them all the methodology of how to handle Kalian Wynack with urgency.
But now, in this moment, none of the methods she had taught them were of any use. Kalian was nothing like the person she had described.
“If he gets angry, or is greatly shocked, or cries, make him recall his promise with me. Force him to repeat it. Make him keep saying my name….”
All of it was wrong.
He was remarkably composed. Like that fleeting instant before a storm breaks, he sat in an eerie, suffocating calm.
Those watching him in silence felt unease coalesce thickly in their chests.
Still gripped by Luize’s collar, Kalian moved only his eyes, scanning the conference hall. His gaze soon fixed upon something.
The edge of the hexagonal glass conference hall. Directly in front of the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the entire capital.
The sword, bent at the waist once more, had bounced far away to that spot.
Kalian spoke quietly, his eyes never leaving the window.
“Let go. Now.”
Luize flinched as he met those eyes, now completely transformed into the color of blood.
Kalian did not ask twice. It had never been a request—it was a command. He seized Luize’s wrist in an instant.
“…!”
Luize gasped as Kalian’s grip tightened with bone-crushing force.
‘This one’s momentum….’
Something was deeply wrong. An inexplicable dread began to creep through him.
What stood before him was unmistakably human in form, yet it felt nothing like a human at all.
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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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