I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 123

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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 123
“Both planets are in unobserved regions, apparently. Kirges said that even peering through the Observatory reveals almost nothing, so we have no choice but to go there directly and verify.”
The air around me shimmered with oppressive heat. Flames towering well above the height of an adult man swept across the space—a veritable inferno of hellfire.
Luize dodged the threatening sparks erupting around him and spoke with displeasure.
“Alpien Kirges and the other Sorcerers have narrowed down the candidates to two locations. One is Mercedes—a world where a race called the Demon Folk supposedly dwells. The second is Alfheim, the planet of the Elves. The odds are nearly fifty-fifty, he said.”
Only the metallic clang of something colliding echoed through the flames; beyond that inferno, there came no discernible response.
Whether silent or not, it was equally ominous.
‘I thought he’d surely rush forward with delight if I brought news of a clue.’
Rather, it was Luize himself who had come rushing the moment he heard from Alpien Kirges, and he was far more excited.
For the first time in a full five years, he had discovered Rosien’s whereabouts. She had not died—she had escaped alive.
But if he had no interest, so be it.
“If it’s not particularly welcome news, never mind. Come again next time.”
[Keep talking. I’m listening.]
But the moment Luize turned to leave, a hoarse voice seized him by the ankle. The resonance was extraordinary—inhuman.
Beyond the flames, something vast shifted its form.
Luize grimaced and turned his gaze away from that grotesque shape.
No matter how many times he witnessed it, he could never grow accustomed. His complexion drained pale, and cold sweat beaded on his skin.
“The conversation will be long. Couldn’t you return to human form?”
Since Rosien disappeared, Kalian Wynack had scarcely resumed his human appearance. With no one beautiful to impress, he seemed to harbor no particular desire to conceal his true form.
Only when the Transcendents occasionally visited did he don the human guise—and each time, they were reminded anew why he despised that shape.
[You ask for much.]
The immense presence, whose true nature remained inscrutable, began to diminish.
The flames extinguished with a whoosh, revealing stone beneath the ashes. A golden head rested upon it.
“…Anyway.”
Luize resumed the interrupted conversation.
“Which of the two locations she’s in is secondary. The real issue is the matter of travel. Right?”
The moment he broached the subject in earnest, a sigh escaped him. The figure seated on the rock had curled himself into a tight ball, embracing his knees with both arms.
His face was buried in his knees, so Kalian’s expression was hidden. Instead, tears fell in droplets from beneath where he sat.
The broken human faucet lifted his head from where it had been buried in his knees.
Damp cheeks and tear-laden lashes came into view, along with eyes swollen transparent with gathering tears—a vivid crimson hue.
A tear traced down his pallid cheek, clinging precariously to his chin before slipping away with a soft tap into the collar of his garment. His complexion was devoid of all color, yet his eyes burned red.
‘Still at it, I see.’
Luize clicked his tongue in irritation.
When he first witnessed that creature weeping silently like this, he had assumed it was crocodile tears.
He had shuddered at the revulsion countless times, but watching him persist for five years straight now left him only bewildered.
Kalian murmured in a hoarse voice.
“What’s the problem….”
“If you’d brought good news, you should be more delighted about it. Don’t deflate everyone around you—stop crying already.”
“There’s no one to wipe them away.”
Kalian rubbed beneath his eyes with his sleeve. The tears pooled again at his eyes despite the effort. Apparently irritated with himself, he scrubbed at his eyes roughly with the back of his hand.
“When I take this form, tears keep falling. As if I’m frozen on that day.”
It made sense. Since I couldn’t escape into sleep or unconsciousness, I must have reverted to my true form—one incapable of shedding tears altogether.
Moreover, he wasn’t even an entity permitted to forget. Inside that skull of his, the horrors of five years ago were replaying with vivid clarity every single moment, as if they were happening now.
In essence, he hadn’t taken a single step forward since the day Rosien Wynyak disappeared.
Not knowing how to govern himself, he grew increasingly hypersensitive with each passing moment. It wasn’t particularly endearing, but it did stir a sense of pity.
Of course, concern came with it too. While the conflagration was burning across all of Rahnar, if his judgment twisted even slightly and he ended up incinerating innocent people, that would be problematic.
Luize pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and tossed it toward Kalian Wynack.
“Don’t fumble about like that. Wipe properly. Aren’t your eyes stinging?”
Even so, he found it absurd. Why was I the one consoling this creature?
“You’re not even a child… and you’ve lived for hundreds of years.”
“No one ever taught me how to stop tears when they keep coming. You’re not going to teach me either.”
“Have I lost my mind?”
“Yes, so shut up and get to the point.”
Kalian Wynack, wiping his wet cheeks roughly with the handkerchief, shot back with a barbed tone.
“I found two planets that appear to be where Rosy fell. What’s the problem with moving there?”
“It’s simple. Whether it’s Alfheim or Mercedes, the problem is how to travel from Rahnar to either of them.”
“Explain in detail.”
“Your sister was able to set coordinates outside Rahnar because the Omniscient Word Sorcerer infused power into the Planetarium and she wove sorcery with it. But the sorcerers currently in Rahnar don’t have nearly enough power. The distance is simply too vast. Even traveling by portal would take four or five days.”
“Rosy opened a portal using Manyeon’s power. Then we just need to ask Manyeon to open one for us.”
“The Guardian Stars erected a protective barrier so that their rank cannot penetrate Rahnar. How exactly do you propose to ask the Stars for help?”
“Why do you think I’ve been doing this for years?”
Kalian Wynack cast a look of contempt at Luize.
As he spread his palm over the stone, writhing black shadow tendrils coiled around it. They were fragments of the Lost Soul he had destroyed.
【Krrgh… Karr… Iirruh, kodoh. Krrgh, neega irruhgo duh meoljjang, hal…】
The remnants of the Lost Soul hissed like serpents in incomprehensible sounds.
Kalian Wynack drew the Great Annihilation and mercilessly drove the blade into the black masses that writhed and gathered at his feet.
The tendrils oxidized to black, releasing silent screams.
It was at that moment Luize witnessed Kalian Wynack’s brow furrow in anguish.
‘His condition isn’t good.’
What Kalian Wynack was currently dealing with was a kind of shell protecting the rank of Broken Chaos.
The conflagration and the Great Annihilation had burned away every trace of the Lost Soul’s shell and annihilated the darkness that emerged, one after another.
However, the rank of the Dark Castle itself could not be completely eliminated no matter what. Sealing it in the Absolute Abyss was the only way to kill the Lost Soul and the End.
And the only beings capable of freely entering and leaving the Abyss were the Absolute Gods—the Guardian Stars of Rahnar.
Kalian Wynack straightened his crouched body and leaped down beneath the rock. He gestured without even turning to look at Luize.
“If you don’t want to be crushed by the Star’s rank, step back, little one.”
“What? You’re not seriously thinking of summoning the Guardian Stars again, are you? Have you lost your mind? If the enraged Stars were to shatter Rahnar…”
Five years ago, the Guardian Stars were expelled into the cosmos as if cast out by Rosien Wynyak’s power.
As if that weren’t enough, Rosien Wynyak had wrapped Rahnar in a barrier. Humans had dared to defy the Stars—surely they wouldn’t have refrained from wrath?
Kalian Wynack replied as if it were no laughing matter.
“If they truly felt threatened, this place would have shattered long ago.”
Rosien’s defensive barrier had partially shattered. The fire of terror forced its way through the gap, widening the fracture.
Through the opening, the blessing of the Guardian Star began to seep in faintly.
“The Omniscient Word Sorcerer.”
Light descended from the heavens in a perfectly straight line, illuminating Kalian.
A crushing pressure, as though gravity had intensified several times over, bore down upon his entire body.
The will of the Star, tinged with laughter, struck the ground with devastating force.
【I wondered when you would call upon me, Avatar of Lost Soul.】
After a moment to steady his breathing, Kalian replied with displeasure.
“Drop that title. The covenant has been broken.”
【The Formless Messenger mentioned you had forged a fusion contract with The End. Thanks to that, you donned a new body and wielded tremendous power—so I suppose you’re rather powerless now?】
“I never knew Manyeon possessed such a warm disposition as to personally concern himself with my physical condition.”
【Your fearless conduct is merely intriguing. My, does it pain you?】
I could not deny it. Facing the majesty of the Guardian Star directly was overwhelming even for a body that was no longer human.
Merely exchanging a few words with the Omniscient Word Sorcerer had twisted my organs. A metallic taste of blood rose in my throat.
This was an overwhelming presence I had never felt when I fused with Lost Soul and wielded the majesty of the Dark Castle as my own. Utterly wretched, and yet exhilarating.
Kalian’s voice cracked as he spoke with irritation.
“Yes, as you can see, the Young Master is currently exhausted and fragile in many respects, so I would be grateful if the Star would exercise its magnanimity and go easy on me.”
【Mm, so it appears.】
The multitude of Stars wound around his entire body in a manner most disagreeable.
【Pitiful creature, weeping like a fledgling bereft of its mother.】
Kalian’s eyes narrowed to their absolute limit, sharpening with intensity.

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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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