A rookie with a great deal of experience.
Tae Gwang-hwi, who had defeated the Demon King.
That man had become Solacius, a wandering knight in another world.
―――――!!
His ultimate skill, Descendant of the Sun, unfolded from his body.
BOOOOM!
The incarnation of the Sun, clad in armor of light, devastated the entire area.
The Shadow Core was nothing before an incarnation of light that had even defeated the Demon King.
[!!]
Massive light and scorching heat.
The mass of the abyss could not even scream.
It lost the black flames that had surged around it beneath the radiance wielded by Solacius.
‘Quickly. All at once.’
Solacius hurried after activating Descendant of the Sun.
He had not intended to use his ultimate skill.
WHEW!
He could already feel the side effects.
No matter how powerful the Shadow Core was, it was not an opponent that required Descendant of the Sun.
Even so, the reason he had chosen to become an incarnation of the Sun was—
‘Let’s try to save her.’
For a hope no larger than a speck of dust.
He created a Light Sword and charged into the center of the black flames where Isabel was.
BOOOOM!!
The Shadow Core’s black flames could not stop Solacius’s Light Armor and only continued to vanish.
SHWAAASH!!
At last, the skin made of black flames burned away completely.
A witch whose body had turned black appeared before Solacius.
The witch and Necromancer, Isabel Reverse!
VROOOOM!
Without any hesitation, he swung the Light Sword.
FWOOSH!
The Authority of Light shot toward Isabel, who was wrapped in black flames.
A wave of light swept through her brain, heart, and spinal cord, purifying the abyss of the Shadow Core that had consumed them.
“Haaah!”
Isabel’s human voice could be heard.
The witch’s body, which had been filled with black flames, was returning to normal.
Her black skin became pale skin.
Her red eyes became brown eyes.
Her rough, disheveled hair became glossy, straight black hair.
“......”
But Solacius’s expression did not brighten at the sight.
***
The battle ended in the blink of an eye.
Less than a minute had passed since he activated his ultimate skill.
The surroundings were a mess of wreckage, heat, and smoke.
FLASH.
Solacius quickly released the Light Armor.
“......!”
A more intense backlash than ever overwhelmed him.
“Rina!”
He called the apprentice witch, who had been watching from a distance.
“Air conditioner! The air conditioner is ready!”
Rina, who now called herself an air conditioner, ran toward Solacius.
“No.”
Solacius pointed with his chin toward the place where the cottage had stood.
“But the side effects!”
At his gesture, Rina stopped and hesitated.
“I am fine.”
Solacius chuckled at the young witch’s concern and opened his inventory.
Two magical devices emerged.
FWOOSH, FWOOSH!
He threw two Ice Booms at once, and powerful cold burst forth.
Everything around Solacius froze solid.
He stepped into it as though enjoying a sauna and tempered the heat in his body.
“Go quickly. There is not much time.”
Solacius’s troubled voice came from within the steam.
“!!”
Understanding what he meant, Rina burst into tears and ran toward the cottage.
The cottage had been completely destroyed, leaving only its site behind.
The witches’ workshop where the two had lived together in harmony until recently now remained only as a trace.
At its center, a witch lay panting.
There was not a hint of focus in her restored brown eyes.
“Master!”
But when the dying witch heard her beloved disciple’s tearful voice, a small amount of focus gathered in her eyes.
“Master......”
A girl with gray hair and gray eyes.
She had originally had golden hair and golden eyes, but her colors had changed because of the Shadow Core.
Yet to Isabel’s eyes, she was still as beautiful and lovable as ever.
“Rina......”
She was only grateful to the being who had given her such a final moment.
It had been a being clad in Light Armor......
She wanted to see his face and thank him, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“My beloved Rina, you must live well. Be happy and proud!”
Isabel smiled brightly as she spoke to her disciple.
The young witch buried her face in her master’s arms and wailed.
“My disciple, my daughter, my everything. The time I spent with you...... was a true blessing.”
HUMMMMM.
Isabel closed her eyes.
Using the last of her life and mana, she placed her hand atop Rina’s head.
Magic formations and mana began to blow like a gust of wind.
It was a succession ceremony.
A modest succession ceremony.
Even when conducted in good health, a succession ceremony would leave one bedridden for days.
Now that it had begun, it completely severed Isabel’s already short remaining lifespan.
Rina cried out loud before her master’s body.
And then—
SSSSS.
A black mass of black flame began moving from Isabel’s corpse.
The small, fist-sized, secretive mass slowly approached the distracted Rina, who was crying uncontrollably.
—I cannot disappear like this. I will take revenge. Certainly! Certainly!
It was the Shadow Core.
To give Isabel and Rina their final moment together, Solacius had weakened his radiance as much as possible, allowing it to escape complete annihilation.
—A part of me is inside that half-complete Rosario.
The Shadow Core could not immediately enter Rina’s body.
Whenever it tried to parasitize her, the Rosario in her clothes stopped it.
—First, let us recover our power inside that Rosario.
But for the Shadow Core in its current state, entering the Rosario was better.
FLASH!
The Shadow Core lunged at Rina.
“?!”
Rina, who had been crying uncontrollably, was startled by the Shadow Core that suddenly appeared.
FWISH!
The Rosario in her inner pocket leaped out and swallowed the Shadow Core.
“......!”
Caught off guard by the sudden situation, Rina did not know what to do.
The Rosario that had swallowed the Shadow Core shook as though it might shatter at any moment.
SSSSS.
Rina’s hair and eyes, which had been gray, became completely black.
“Th-this......!”
Rina clutched the shaking Rosario in both hands and fell into a panic.
She could sense that the seal was unstable.
‘I need the other half!’
She instinctively realized that she would only be able to complete the seal by finding this Rosario’s counterpart.
If she left it as it was, it would one day regain its power and devour her, just as it had done to her master.
‘If it is Sir Roan......!’
The handsome wandering knight with golden hair and golden eyes naturally came to mind.
Perhaps he could destroy it without her needing to find the Rosario’s counterpart.
Rina carefully held the Rosario in both hands.
She would take it to Roan and ask him for help.
“Was that it?”
At that moment, a voice came from behind her.
Solacius’s shadow fell over Rina as she held the Rosario.
Plop.
An identical Rosario appeared atop the one she held.
“?!”
The two Rosarios, which had finally met, immediately merged into one.
FLASH!
Light burst from the merged Rosario and completely sealed the Shadow Core.
SCREEEECH!
Amid the abyss’s scream.
“......!”
Rina turned around with trembling eyes.
At the same time, certain memories began returning to her mind.
“Older Brother......?”
Memories she had forgotten for so long illuminated Rina’s mind like sunlight piercing through dark clouds.
“Solacius...... Older Brother......?”
“......Yes.”
As he looked at his younger sister, now grown into a witch with black hair and black eyes, Tae Gwang-hwi felt his heart surge.
‘This feeling is probably Solacius’s emotion.’
Solacius looked down at his younger sister and smiled brightly.
“I searched for you for a long time, Luna.”
Luna.
It was the nickname of his younger sister that he had not spoken in a very long time.
“Yeah......”
Lunacirne, the First Imperial Princess of the fallen Empire and a witch with black hair and black eyes, wiped her tears away.
The siblings had reunited.
Lunacirne buried her master, Isabel, deeply in the clearing where the cottage had stood.
After placing a small headstone, the siblings mounted their horse and set off on their journey.
***
Half a day later, someone appeared before the place where Isabel’s grave stood.
Tap!
A witch in gray robes and a gray hat landed from a broom floating through the air.
It was Aria Desmo, the gray-haired, red-eyed witch; Luhan’s Chancellor and a Duchess.
“The Shadow Core...... My Shadow Core......”
Aria, who had flown in on a broom, contorted her face.
“Isabel...... You incompetent bitch!”
By the time she noticed something was wrong with the Shadow Core, it was already too late.
Recently, the Queen had been making many sudden moves, and Aria had learned of the matter late while checking on them and responding.
‘I thought she was a clueless brat holed up in the palace who knew nothing. Did she hear something somewhere? Did that rat bitch Vanessa put ideas in her head?’
Lucas Evergarden’s return as Regent, in particular, had come as a great shock to Aria.
‘The Queen is wary of me. She decided on Lucas’s return without even consulting me! Who is putting ideas in her head? Vanessa? Haimar? Or Lucas?’
For a moment, she worried that the Queen might have discovered her true identity.
‘If she had, she would have frozen me solid with the Authority of the Snowfield and shattered me in an instant.’
That did not seem to be the case.
Even now, Aria met the Queen in audience two or three times a week, but she could not feel hostility.
The Queen merely seemed more reluctant toward her than before.
‘This is not pleasing.’
The gears of her plans were suddenly going awry.
The Witch of Ashes felt deep irritation.
Aria put aside her thoughts about the royal capital.
She decided to focus on the problem before her.
‘Now, trouble has erupted here as well.’
With blood-red eyes, she surveyed the clearing where ash was blowing in the wind.
Her expression gradually hardened.
An even more irritating situation than the Queen’s defiance and the emergence of a Regent had occurred.
She saw what appeared to be Isabel’s grave.
‘I heard that Isabel had a disciple. She never told me the disciple’s name, though.’
Judging by the look of it, the disciple seemed to have made the grave before leaving.
‘That child’s life will be difficult as well. She will have to live in hiding forever as a half-complete Necromancer who could not even undergo a succession ceremony.’
Aria gave a cold sneer.
She considered digging up the grave, but decided against it.
The grave was very small.
‘She was cremated. Just like a Necromancer.’
An urn was buried inside instead of a coffin.
“My plan to breach the Blessing of the Snowfield...... My plan to create a new one of the Four Heavenly Kings......”
The gray witch, seized by a headache, pressed one hand to her forehead.
The Shadow Core.
It was an ancient evil sealed in the deepest section of the Imperial Palace archives.
She had hoped that if she raised it well, it might be able to breach the Blessing of the Snowfield.
Though it had caused massive slaughter in the outskirts, where the Blessing of the Snowfield was weak, it had remained unharmed.
She had believed that if she raised it properly, it could cause such a rampage even in Wintella, the royal capital.
But that entity had vanished pointlessly.
Since it could no longer be sensed, it had clearly been destroyed.
“Who was it? Who in the world?”
Even incomplete, it was a being that required a Grand Witch to subdue.
‘The Second Subjugation Force? The Church? That is impossible.’
No matter how much divine power held the advantage in compatibility, the Church members deployed in the Second Subjugation were merely Luhan’s second-rate forces.
At minimum, Saints from the Holy Kingdom would have needed to step forward to face it.
‘Roan Shalut?’
The exiled royal whom the Queen had recently taken an interest in suddenly came to Aria’s mind.
At the same time, she recalled the Queen’s reaction, which had been filled with inexplicable certainty toward the Second Subjugation Force.
‘The name Roan Shalut is not in the Imperial lineage. Is he a bastard? Or a wanted royal?’
There were some royals who used aliases while evading the pursuit of Evil Empress Octana.
The Chancellor tilted her head.
But why had such a skilled person not acted until now?
If he had stepped forward earlier, the Empire would not have fallen.
‘Did he attain enlightenment late and suddenly grow much stronger?’
For now, there was a high chance that he was a wanted royal.
Aria decided that, once she returned, she would compile a list of the most skilled among the wanted royals.
‘This is truly bad.’
The emergence of an unexpected powerhouse.
No matter how she looked at it, it was not a good situation.
‘I need to prepare the Grand Magic Formation Innocentia quickly.’
She gave up her lingering attachment to the lost Shadow Core.
‘The most necessary materials are the Sunwell Ring and a World Tree Sapling......’
Rather than miserably lament its loss, it was better to find another alternative.
‘A World Tree Sapling will be difficult to obtain immediately. The Sunwell Ring is the one with a chance.’
The Chancellor’s eyes, as she considered an alternative, were red as blood.
‘It has been a long time. I should contact the Imperial Palace.’
Volka Mine was a mine at the far southern end of MarquessMoonlight’s territory.
The Sunwell Ring was there, and because it was at Luhan’s outermost edge, the Blessing of the Snowfield was weakest there.
‘There is an Ancient Demon in Volka Mine. To deal with that Demon, he will have to come. He will not like it, but if it is an order from the Imperial Palace, he will obey. It has been a long time since I have smelled such a thick scent of blood.’
The alternative the Witch of Ashes had devised was one that would spill more iron and blood.
Hee, hee, hee.
At the promised scent of thick blood, the witch chuckled softly.