Chapter 615 – Regained Trust and New Resolution

000

Chase Chase It started to rain.

A huge explosion and blazing flames covered all sides, and another huge pit was created in the vast wilderness, leaving scars on the land.

What you see is the ground, dust, and ashes that have been caught up in a sudden explosion and have become such a mess that there are no fragments, fragments, or even ruins left.

Just a few years ago, there was a pretty good castle right on this ashes.

It must have felt like a lie, but the king, the soldiers, and the people were living there.

Although, everyone, regardless of rank and low, was suffering because of the long-running war.

It was a place with a history of its own, and at one time it was a place where people enjoyed peace and prosperity to the extent that it could not be defeated even compared to the Eastern countries or the present kingdom.

All of that was destroyed by human greed, and then disappeared without leaving a trace by a madness that far surpassed even that greed.

In a way- she thought that this ending itself might be telling the nature of human beings and their destiny, she stood quietly and looked at one side of the ground even in the rain.

Lizard scales exposed on the skin, and horns growing on top of the head.

The stomach was bandaged, but the wound beneath it had already mostly healed.

Considering that it was pierced cleanly, rather, the sharpness of the knife must have helped to heal the wound.

Is it indifferent- or is it waiting for something.

If you stand in a space where the sound of rain resonates with your gaze fixed without causing any change in expression—

A part of the land she was looking at seemed to be shaken, albeit for a moment.

It wasn’t an earthquake or anything like that, but something down there was about to pop out.

Seeing that, Gaios seemed to be a little relieved somewhere, but with a complicated expression on her face, she walked slowly in front of the shaking soil…

Lightly, she placed her feet on it and trampled it down to calm the soil.

“…”

Since there was still no change in expression, it was hard to know what the meaning of the act was, but surely there was no reason for the dragon—the dragon of the earth that governs the elements of the earth—to step on the ground.

However, the ground she was stepping on with a little of her weight still swayed and something hidden below was trying to come out.

One minute to repeat the quiet and meaningless battle.

Finally, with a ‘grasp!’, It was a human hand that broke through the waterlogged mound and emerged from the ground.

It wasn’t rotten either, and it was only dirty because it absorbed moisture and was buried in the sticky soil, but it looked fresh.

Then, first of all, it was not the hand of the undead, but why the hell did a living person come out from under the ground?

Confirming the appearance of her hand, Gaios narrowed her eyes, removed her foot from the shaking ground, and wiggled his fingers.

Then, as if the earth followed her command, the earth split itself apart and its arms spread out to the sides around the protruding earth.

Then, what appeared in it was covered with dirt and was buried under it—no, it was sandwiched in.

It was a young man clad in tattered clothes.

“Keheuk, keuk…”

Naturally, there would be a lot of dirt in his nose or mouth, so he would spit out those things from his mouth.

You’d better consider yourself lucky that you didn’t choke to death, he.

And, without showing the slightest surprise at the appearance of such a young man, Gaios looked down at him and spoke.

“The corpse is coughing.”

At the sound of her slightly cold voice, the young man brushed the corners of her mouth and looked up at her.

“Gaius…”

“How was your time under the ground? Rachal.”

A young man called Rakshala tries to move his arm to escape from her words, but his attempt fails as the pile of dirt that surrounds him tightens his body.

“I haven’t told you to come out yet, Nachal.”

“Kuh…”

In Gaios’ words, the dark feelings she had for Rakshasa could be felt in her voice.

“Yesterday, there was a huge explosion here. The castle that used to be here has disappeared without leaving a trace. As soon as I recovered, I flew to this place after you.”

While Gaios said that, he looked up at the sky and looked around.

“And what I found after coming here is… A sea of ​​fire that is spreading with the momentum to burn all the surrounding forests and grasslands to ashes. And, between them – you, lying face down with severe burns all over your body. It’s tolerable that he didn’t die.”

The cause of her anger—perhaps the scars left by the explosion so intense that the land around here is severely sickened, Rakhar thinks.

“The traces of destruction I felt around me were the same as when adamantite exploded. That’s why… Of course, I thought that the cause was you in the mine- the man who took you… The dark horse from the previous life. If you’re lying here, it means that something happened between you two.”

Saying so, she waved her hand once more.

Then, the soil that binds Rakshasa’s body rises up from the bottom of the ground, and at the same time Rakshara is also pulled up to the ground.

“Since I have to listen to you, I buried it in the ground and treated it… Can you answer me?”

“Tta, what was buried in the ground… Cure…?”

She talks as if she can’t understand her actions, but she wants to quickly shake off the dirt that has entered her nose and ears.

Of course, if Gaios, the Dragon of the Earth, is like that, it might really be like that.

Either way, the rachal was talking about what had happened between herself and her brother to Geyers, who was pressing her eyes toward her.

001

Gaios, who had heard Rakshasa’s explanation, nodded her head as if he understood, and stepped back from Rakshasa a little.

Then, he put his hand on her chin, seemed to be thinking about something, and then looked back at her and spoke.

“The imprint on my shoulder… Do you know what kind of imprint it is?”

“…About the fact that it’s what my brother uses to manipulate others…”

At Raksha’s words, she nodded her head, went closer to Raksha again, and removed the shoulder part of her tattered clothes.

Then, traces of intricate patterns remained there, as if engraved with a hot seal.

“I have to apologize to you a little. What you’ve done so far, it’s possible that it wasn’t your will.”

“…”

Nachal didn’t answer her words and avoided her gaze.

Because it was a story that she could not be happy even if she received an apology.

After all, it is said that she was a puppet for her brother.

“This is a special magical stamp called the stamp of dominance. In this world, there are only two beings who can engrave this seal.”

While talking like that, when she puts her hand on the inscription on the shoulder of Rakshasa, she refuses Gaius’ hand with a pop, and her spark bounces.

It’s like saying ‘don’t touch mine’, obsession, everything like that is felt nakedly.

Gaius felt a bad brotherhood.

A tsk, when a click came from her mouth, she continued her explanation.

“One side is, strictly speaking, an entity that cannot be called a person. After all, the people who can engrave the stamp of dominance are limited to one of your older brothers. And what that ability says… Is that your older brother is a member of the dark horse clan with a ‘reincarnation factor’. …The story got a little more complicated.”

“Reincarnation factor…?”

Rakshasa said the words she had never heard before, as if demanding more explanation from Gaios, but Gaios shook her head.

“It is too long a story to tell here. More importantly, though, we need to stop him. According to you, he intends to destroy Asteris with a bomb made of adamantite, right?”

Since I said that in front of Rakshasa, that part must be true.

When Rakshasa nodded, Gaius looked at Raksha for a while, then released the hands of the soil that had bound him.

As the strength to support his body was gone, Rakshal spoke to Gaius while barely surviving a fall.

“…Are you okay? You can release me.”

“As long as I don’t know which side you are now. I can’t hold you Of course, that won’t happen. If you say you’re still on your brother’s side-“

Gaios, who added one more word, looked at Raksa with sharp pupils and spoke with the dignity of a dragon.

“Here and now, I might make you regret surviving.”

“…Do not worry. I too… Think I have to stop him.”

If she says so, it’s not just a threat, it’s that she can really do it.

But rather than being intimidated by that, Rachal was a little relieved that he knew what he really needed to do.

“… Rachal.”

Then, she quietly called Rakshaka by name.

When Raksha turned her head to Gaios, who called her name in a much softer tone than before, she spoke.

“If the mark of dominance has stained your thinking and taken away your original will. Right now, I want to hear the truth from you.”

“…”

“Who is the person who is really important to you?”

“—I am”

Rachal, right before answering her question, took a few deep breaths to organize her thoughts.

She survived the crisis of almost dying at the hands of her brother, everything she saw, felt and learned in Asteris.

Even at the beginning, even if it was a deception by her brother, what she experienced there was obviously true to herself.

To herself, the teacher named Gaios and the lover named Nayuta were the most important beings.

“…I will protect Nayuta. Even in exchange for this life.”

One day—the lines of this oath she had spoken when she decided to become her escort warrior—she repeated them in front of Gaios as she did then.

As if satisfied with hearing the story, the dragon turned around and his whole body was bathed in intense light-

It was to reveal her true self.

Then, sneakily, she turns her head and talks to Rachal.

[…Now that you’ve seen that determination, I’ll forgive you for riding on my back. Carrying a human on my back has never happened before in history.]

While saying that, Raksha tried to approach Gaios who slightly lowered his body.

But soon, she says ‘ah’ and as if she realized something, she looks down at her waist and talks to her.

“…Come to think of it, the adamantite sword that was given to me… My brother melted it and turned it into a bomb.”

And, when he was given the sword, he remembered the story Gaios had told him.

Adamantite is a very difficult thing to handle, and since it is custom-made by adjusting it to the user’s body, there is no such thing as a substitute.

So, breaking or losing it means disqualification as an escort.

——The situation itself was reversed before and after, but as she said, without a sword, wouldn’t she have no qualifications as Nayuta’s escort?

[If it’s a sword, you know.]

However, Gaios says so.

At the words of Gaios, Raksha looked around her, but Gaios let out a sigh of hers, put him on her back with her own magic, and spoke.

[No matter how dangerous adamantite is, even if the sword you wielded is a ‘famous sword’. The most powerful sword for a magic swordsman like you – the most powerful weapon is your magic sword.]

The reason I entrusted you with the adamantite sword is that your heart is still weak.

Because I needed more training, and I had to become stronger.

Only then will your demonic sword become a truly powerful weapon, and it will be able to protect itself—and Nayuta.

[Now, if you have finally decided to do something with your own will. Certainly, the sword will answer your will. You and your sword are such a relationship.]

And, after listening to Gaios’ advice, Rakshasa, as if trying to hide her weak self, took out a demonic sword that was invisible in front of people.

It was called that name.

“…Ioh.”

The next moment, a sword that he hadn’t seen in a long time appeared on Rakshasa’s hand.

A long, single-edged sword, he was almost like the adamantite sword he had wielded and become accustomed to for two years.

The only difference was that it felt much lighter than that sword.

“…Was it like this?”

[It changes depending on what you think of me.]

If he was so old that he couldn’t remember when the last time he took out his sword, he would look at his own sword and talk.

In my head, a voice I had heard before burrowed into my head.

Raksha recalled that the voice was a voice that spoke to him in the mine and in the fight with his brother.

A sword of his own, he realizes that from the beginning he was trying to free himself from his brother’s spell.

[You decided to wield me to protect Nayuta. My appearance is an expression of your determination.]

“…I see, thank you. …And I’m sorry. Until now, I didn’t notice your voice.”

To Rakshasa’s words, Io seemed to respond with a faint glow.

[No, there is no need to be sorry, Rachal. Because you were a kind person, I was able to become a kind sword. Same root, but opposite.]

“Same root…?”

When Rakshara asks what Io’s words mean, Io replies.

[It’s not just your brother who has the reincarnation factor. Neither do you. It’s just- your older brother, possessed by uncontrollable rage and hatred, was consumed by the voice of the factor of reincarnation. Because it was the first time that I was born as a ‘twin’. It must be the result of one soul splitting into two.]

In other words, originally, if Raksa had lived with a hatred for the world, like his brother, he might have run amok with the power to dominate humans.

However, even beings with the same root, depending on the mindset, the manifestation of power and its direction change.

“…Tell me, oh. What should I do to stop you?”

In the eyes of Raksha who said that, there was an unprecedented determination.

It’s to protect someone dear to you, and…

In order to free another really important person from that hatred.

Those were the eyes of a man who was determined to shoulder everything.