Will

“We need to get farther away! Hurry!”

Though he was worried about Pernok, soldiers were swarming from all directions.

Even getting the children evacuated while avoiding their eyes was burdensome.

Armin dressed the children in cleric robes and tried to get as far from this place as possible.

Then, Marco suddenly stopped.

“Move, Marco!”

Though Armin urged him, Marco, who hadn’t budged, suddenly looked up at the eastern sky.

“Why…?”

Something was flying toward Marco riding the darkness.

“Origin.”

Marco reached his hand toward the familiar Origin.

It was the ring Pernok had worn and something long wrapped in cloth.

Whoooong!

Origin flowed from the ring and naturally mixed with Marco’s.

[It’s me.]

“…!”

Marco looked around in surprise, but no one was there.

[It’s a method for Origin owners to transmit memories to each other. Don’t be surprised and listen.]

“Boss?”

When Marco gripped the ring and muttered, the children gathered around.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Boss.”

“Where is he?”

“Here.”

Marco held up the ring, but the children tilted their heads.

Because aside from darkness Origin flowing, there were no particular features.

On the other hand, Armin unwrapped the cloth and was shocked.

“An, an arm!?”

When the children looked back as well, they were surprised by the unfamiliar arm bone, and Klein’s memories flowed in from the ring again.

[I don’t know where to start, but first, that arm bone I sent with the ring. Guard it very carefully. It’s the Saint’s remains.]

“He says it’s the Saint’s remains.”

Armin and the children turned their gazes to Marco.

“He’s telling us to guard it well?”

When Marco spoke reluctantly, Armin hurriedly wrapped the bone in cloth again.

[And you’re quite cheeky, brat. No wait, you’re probably 20 now. My memory’s hazy, but you’re still the brat in my memories.]

Marco grinned while recalling the day he first met Klein.

He still cherished the image of Klein stroking his head and caring for him like a son.

[I know you all came to rescue me. But the one who actually rescued me is Pernok. You’re fleeing thanks to us, so in the end, you still haven’t repaid the debt. Aren’t I right?]

How does that lead to such a conclusion?

Even in this situation, thinking it’s just like Klein to still be playful, he clutched the ring.

[I told you repeatedly to repay what you receive. So let me make one request. I’ve placed all my memories and the abyss in this obsidian. If you look at these, feel them, judge them, and think this power that was like hell actually isn’t so bad…]

The will dwelling in the obsidian was transmitted to Marco.

[…Won’t you guard the Saint’s remains and carry on our Origin?]

Marco’s heart pounded with an inexplicable anxiety.

But he couldn’t reject Klein’s request.

The moment he breathed Origin into the obsidian, all the moments Klein was born, saw, grew, and felt were organized as memories and passed to Marco.

* * *

“If not for you, I would have brightened Dawn!”

Klein, who had surrendered his body to rampaging Origin, was truly close to a madman.

What was there to hesitate about?

It was already irreversible and wouldn’t be reversed.

As resolute will was transmitted, Pernok drew up the last remaining strength.

‘That Origin will now burn itself and disappear.’

As time passes, Origin is shaved away and eventually devours even the owner’s flesh.

Especially, darkness Origin annihilates all existing things in exchange for life offered, and his soul is included in that.

Lord of Despair was the only existence who escaped this Origin’s judgment.

That was why he possessed feats no one else achieved and entered the Netherworld as an absolute being.

But his disciples couldn’t escape judgment.

In exchange for holding and using Origin, the darkness annihilated even their souls.

Thus, Lord of Despair never once saw his disciples’ forms after rising to the Netherworld.

Even the last remaining Lyle had his soul annihilated, and the will passed down through generations swallowed the successive inheritors in turn.

Now it was Klein’s turn.

‘At least, I’ll save your soul.’

The moment he confronted Klein relying on one faint mana that might extinguish anytime, the watching priests tried to step in.

“No one can interfere here!”

It looked like a wounded beast glaring.

The priests whose eyes met Pernok’s felt inexplicable chills and stopped unknowingly.

“I am Named’s guild master, Pernok!”

Not only the priests but even Arisha couldn’t hide her surprised expression.

Named, the first S-rank guild recently making waves in the world.

Hearing that the one confronting the darkness was history’s youngest S-rank guild master, their thoughts scattered at the unexpected encounter.

“I followed the darkness scattered in the mountain range all the way here! Having witnessed the priest’s tyranny, I won’t seek your help! Anyone who steps into this fight! I’ll judge as an apostle cooperating with the Silver priest!”

When Pernok shouted resolutely and rushed at Klein, the priests flinched at the word silver. Then Pernok and Klein collided.

Bang!

He was blown into the air along with the arm he guarded with.

Origin’s strength hadn’t run out yet.

The Mana Reinforcement raised with faint mana couldn’t properly capture Klein’s movements.

Nevertheless, Pernok kept rushing in.

He blinked his Observation Eye trying to follow Klein’s movements as much as possible, and the pattern of constantly getting hit continued.

But as time passed, Pernok drew spiritual power while Klein’s Origin scattered.

Whoooong!

Dodging Klein’s movements by a paper-thin margin, Pernok struck at the gap.

With just a hardened fist, he couldn’t break Origin’s shell.

“…!”

But when time passed again, Klein staggered.

The Origin in his heart was running out.

There seemed to be no more life to suck in, and his eyes began returning to a clear color.

“How was it?”

Klein, who clashed at close range, whispered in a low voice.

“Wasn’t it embarrassing that I possessed this power?”

Skin that fell away from Klein turned to dust.

Collapse began.

A body that had exhaled all life no longer bleeds.

Flesh and bone, all things forming the body merely scatter as a handful of ash.

“You may have pride.”

Klein’s shoulder, which Pernok struck with his glove, crumbled like dust.

“You accomplished what Lord of Despair couldn’t.”

Before he knew it, Klein, whose supporting ankles had also vanished, knelt before Pernok.

“Didn’t you save someone with the power to kill?”

Marco’s eyes lost their color.

Though he saw nothing, he raised his head upward.

As if trying to meet Pernok’s gaze, he wore a smile.

“Thank you.”

Eventually Marco’s body was washed away by the wind.

In the spot where his body turned to ash and vanished, only one clear soul remained.

When pitch-black stems tried to spread from around the soul’s chest, Pernok unhesitatingly extended his hand.

As Origin struggled to annihilate the soul, Pernok let his spiritual power flow and forcibly destroyed it.

‘Disappear.’

The transcendent’s will that flowed through the soul shook the providence that should rightfully annihilate.

Origin’s remnants screamed and vanished, and the soul was liberated.

“…”

Only Pernok bid farewell with silence to the sight of the very clear and brilliant soul rising to the Netherworld.

* * *

“Hello?”

At an unfamiliar voice, Klein opened his eyes.

In a wasteland-like space, someone wrapped in black cloth strips was looking down.

The moment Klein raised his upper body, he realized.

That this place was the Netherworld and that he had died.

“Who…?”

“I’m the origin of the darkness planted inside you.”

Klein’s eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me, that Lord of Despair Pernok mentioned?”

“Right. I’m that person who governed your Origin.”

“Why is someone who died over hundreds of years ago here?”

The moment the dead rise to the Netherworld, they realize their death and enter the path of reincarnation.

Klein already accepted this knowledge naturally like part of his body.

Since Lord of Despair, who rose before him, remained here, he found it strange.

“I was curious how those who inherited my Origin would live.”

“Ah! Then you didn’t see Master?”

“All those who held darkness Origin are swallowed together with their souls and can’t come here. Your master, and Lyle, and my disciples couldn’t rise here either.”

“But why am I here? I clearly fought to the point of bursting all my Origin.”

“Our lord protected you.”

“Lord? Do you mean Pernok?”

“Hahaha, that person is the ruler who governs this place.”

Klein smiled brightly.

“That’s fortunate!”

“Hm?”

“Just in case, I passed the abyss to a child named Marco. If Pernok is nearby, that means Marco can come here too!”

“You passed on… the abyss?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because it was the will I inherited. And Marco will probably carry on the will too.”

Klein brushed himself off and stood to face Lord of Despair.

“Because it’s a grateful power that taught us, who could only smash things, that we could also embrace someone.”

Lord of Despair silently looked into Klein’s eyes.

To those pure eyes without a speck of doubt, he carefully asked.

“Did you not regret it?”

“Not at all.”

If he could meet his beloved person again after death, Klein wanted desperately to see his master.

He wanted to meet him and talk about things after his death, laugh and chat together.

And there was something he wanted to tell him.

But when he learned that was impossible, Klein was looking at the somewhat lonely-seeming Lord of Despair.

“Ah, right.”

Perhaps if fate exists, it means he should say these words to this person rather than his master.

“Thank you.”

Klein shouted sincerely.

“Your Origin let me, who was a wanderer, live like a human.”

“Is that so?”

“Your lord said so. That I may have pride. So I should also walk around with my shoulders back proudly. And if Marco rises someday, if you’re still here then, please tell him.”

Klein grinned.

“That I didn’t regret even a single moment of rescuing him.”

“Right. I’ll remember.”

“Oh right, upholding that person Lyle’s will, I continued guarding the Saint’s remains. They were stolen briefly but now we’ve retrieved them, and probably Marco and Pernok will guard them.”

Klein turned back with a relieved expression.

A procession of the dead extended long.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Shall I show you the way?”

“Hahahaha! Maybe because I wandered the streets from childhood. I’m used to finding paths, so don’t worry.”

Klein, who bowed his head to Lord of Despair, joined the procession.

When he was blankly watching him follow the path, a one-armed old man appeared beside him.

“It seems my disciple isn’t here.”

“Your tomb was being guarded by my successors.”

Lord of Despair asked the Saint.

“What you’re waiting for in the mortal realm doesn’t exist.”

“Right, since those guarding the tomb are now your successors…”

“Will you follow Klein?”

The Saint shook his head.

“Isn’t there a child named Marco remaining? He says he’ll guard my remains, so I should at least see that child. What about you?”

“I’ll wait too.”

“Haha, will Marco rise before our lord?”

“Well. Perhaps they’ll rise together.”

Lord of Despair and the Saint looked at each other and laughed.

“Then let’s go together then.”

The two entered the middle side by side.

It seemed they could deliver good news today to the absolute beings eagerly awaiting the mortal realm’s situation.