Chapter 197: The Golden Companion (4)
A dark room filled with thick smoke.
Nicholas sat in the plush sofa in the middle of the room, stiff as a board.
He looked as if he was barely holding on, desperately wanting to rest from the stress he had just endured, but unable to due to work.
「Are you tired?」
Seven small lights flickered around him. The red light asked Nicholas.
“A little.”
Nicholas twirled a thick cigar between his fingers and put a thin cigarette recently made in the merchant city to his lips.
“Phew— The hero is insane.”
The taste and smoke were light, but it was a decent invention to have in his mouth when he had a headache.
「To the point where he’s too much for you to handle?」
This time, it was the blue light.
Nicholas stared at the light with half-closed eyes and nodded.
“He’s impossible to deal with. I don’t know what he’s thinking, or if he’s always ready to die. He’s not human.”
「…….」
The lights flickered again at Nicholas’s assessment.
Nicholas was the general manager of the Mytilene auction house.
Then who did he represent?
The seven trading companies that ruled the world.
He was the representative of the ‘Seven Wise Men’ who created the merchant city.
As their representative, Nicholas was exceptionally skilled and had their absolute trust.
「What’s the damage?」
“It’s fine for now. Everyone is coming in for the big summer auction, and few are leaving.”
「How much?」
While vague expressions were enough for ordinary people, merchants needed exact numbers.
At the following question, Nicholas exhaled a thin trail of cigarette smoke through his nose.
“I estimate the damage to be around 17 billion dels per day, but if the blockade continues for more than three days, it will increase exponentially.”
「Three days?」
This time, the green light flickered.
The green light spoke more confidently and triumphantly than any of the voices before.
「It only takes three hours to create a scapegoat. No, three minutes is enough.」
And the blue light.
「But I don’t know if the cardinal, let alone the hero, will understand.」
「Let’s just give up one big thing. That island is our foundation, but I’d rather cut off my arm than let the hero wander around there.」
The silent violet light began to flicker. Nicholas, who had been sitting rather sloppily, straightened his posture.
The other colored lights that had been arguing all closed their mouths.
「Our foundation.」
foundation…….」
「An empty lot with nothing left is no longer our foundation.」
「I apologize for my words.」
The green light quickly apologized.
The violet light flickered in understanding and spoke to Nicholas.
「Give me anything. Trillions of dels will be moving in this summer’s auction. We can’t let it be ruined—」
Thump, thump—!
The door to the room where Nicholas and the Seven Wise Men’s flames were meeting shook violently.
Nicholas turned his head in surprise.
Bang—!
The door flew open, and a subordinate rushed in.
The moment he laid eyes on the lights, he froze. Sweat instantly poured down his face from his scalp.
If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought it was a fire in a graveyard, but knowing how enormous the beings those lights represented were, he was even more flustered.
“What is it?”
Nicholas asked, putting out his cigarette.
He had a hunch that this was no ordinary matter, not with this subordinate barging in here.
“The golden passage has opened.”
Flash—
At that moment, the seven flames flickered simultaneously.
Nicholas’s jaw dropped.
He turned his head sharply to the east where the temple was and asked.
“Don’t tell me the hero…?”
“……Yes. He threw the holy sword into the center of the magic circle and opened it.”
“The shortcut to the foundation that we couldn’t open even after a thousand years, the hero opened it in an instant……”
Nicholas clenched his fists.
His thoughts stopped at the shortcut to the foundation that he never thought would open.
The other flames were the same.
At that moment.
「It would be fun to fight.」
The violet flame uttered coldly.
Nicholas’s eyes widened slightly.
「Let’s make both the foundation that has already lost its vitality and the hero disappear.」
“Understood.”
Nicholas reached into his clothes and pulled out a necklace. As he did so, his face slowly changed.
If the original Nicholas had strong features, the changed one was clean-cut and ordinary.
「With our flames, we shall renew the world.」
Whoosh—
A gust of wind blew, and the seven flames went out, leaving behind a single sentence.
Nicholas, staring at their empty spots, shook his head and walked out of the room.
“Things without blood or tears.”
He laughed bitterly as he cursed the people who had golden blood flowing through their veins instead of red blood.
He felt that he was no different from them, trying to lure Cain into a trap with someone else’s face.
🔹🔹🔹
[Discovered a fateful turning point.]
[World Line Fixation : ▲ 28%]
Cain blinked.
He turned his head to see Aurelia also blinking, her eyes adjusting from the brilliant sunlight to the sudden darkness.
“It’s not…… a dungeon.”
She ran her hand along a pillar that stretched up to the ceiling.
“It just seems like we’re very deep underground.”
Cain inhaled.
The air had a slightly salty tang to it, the air of the Mytilene auction house. But no matter where he looked, he couldn’t see a door.
‘They’re circulating the air with magic.’
Examining the technology of this place, he looked far ahead, where the two rows of pillars continued endlessly.
Twinkle—
He saw a faint golden light flickering.
“Did you see that?”
“Yes.”
“There doesn’t seem to be any special way to escape here…….”
Cain looked up at the ceiling.
It was too high to see clearly, but it looked like an ordinary rock stratum.
He considered breaking through the ceiling with Dark Sky and getting out, but shook his head.
‘I don’t know if it’s sky or sea above us.’
Since they came from the temple, it was natural to assume that there was ground above, but the fact that they had traveled by teleportation bothered him. If there was an immeasurably deep sea above, it would be suicide.
“I guess we have to go that way.”
Aurelia started walking towards the golden light. Cain readily followed her.
Saving breaking through the ceiling with Dark Sky as a last resort, they walked between the pillars that seemed to both welcome and repel them.
[‘Summer’ mutters that something feels strange.]
[‘Winter’ advises Cain to only think of himself.]
As expected, their reactions were contrasting.
Cain gripped the holy sword.
Aurelia tilted her head, wondering why Cain had stopped walking.
—I wished for a peaceful world.
A low voice could be heard from far ahead. It was the voice of a child, neither male nor female.
—The hero created peace with his sword, the Saintess with her faith, the Sorcerer King and the sages each in their own way.
“Cain-nim……”
Aurelia reached for her waist. She was holding what looked like the handle of a weapon.
Cain gave a small nod.
“Get ready.”
—But I was powerless. I had nothing. But the hero told me. He said there was a way for me to create peace too.
Rumble, rumble—
A strange sound was heard.
It was like the sound of a large stone rolling, but also like the sound of waves crashing.
The sound echoed through the vast underground cavity, and it was too far away to be clear.
But the voice was distinct.
—Gold.
━If I have infinite gold, I can create peace in this world!
—And he warned me.
—He said thieves like you would steal the gold and set peace ablaze!
Thud.
Cain tapped his left foot on the ground.
Aurelia, at Cain’s glance, immediately stood behind him and pulled out the handle.
Her radiant divine power surged, forming a warhammer.
Rumble, rumble—
The sound came again.
Cain narrowed his eyes.
Something was coming from the place where the golden light flickered.
—I’m weak.
—I can’t do anything.
—But I will create peace in this world.
—I can handle the hard part.
—So.
“…!”
Aurelia glanced ahead of Cain and her eyes widened.
Lava!
A wave of lava, invisible from afar, was pouring towards them as if to swallow them whole.
An overwhelming amount that could sweep away any ordinary building in an instant!
—Die, thieves.
—I’ll do anything for peace.
Fast.
“Hero—”
It seemed slow because it was coming from so far away, but the closer it got, the faster the wave of lava became.
Even slowed down by the pillars, it was approaching at a speed that made it difficult for Aurelia to finish her sentence.
Crackle, sizzle—
At the same time, a brilliant white lightning began to surge from Cain’s entire body.
『Samhain’s ‘Winter’……Activation.』
Cain’s night was dark.
Cain’s snowfield was white.
The pitch-black nights gathered to form jet-black hair, and the desolate snowfields gathered to form a crown atop Cain’s head. And the remaining pure white formed a snow-white cloak from his shoulders.
Winter of Night.
At first, just casting it had put his future on the line, but not anymore.
Therefore, Cain unhesitatingly activated ‘Winter’, which summoned the universe’s cold.
Fwoosh—
As soon as the lava touched the extreme cold emanating from Winter of Night, it froze solid black.
Crack—
But it was short-lived.
Like sprouts breaking through frozen ground, the relentlessly approaching lava shattered its own petrified form and advanced.
The overwhelming volume was suffocating to even witness; the cold seemed insufficient to stop it.
“—Nim!”
Aurelia, watching this, hurriedly turned to look at Cain.
A smile?
A smile graced his face.
She found his smile at this critical moment perplexing when—
Squeeze—
Cain tightly gripped ‘Summer’ as if to crush it.
[‘Summer’ advises that it’s better to create a single path to survival than to target everything.]
Cain’s lips curled up.
He had known that from the start.
What he needed to cut through the massive lava tsunami was a single, straight slash.
The most perfect vertical moonlight befitting the Sword of Beginning!
Dark Sky.
Original Style.
Kyrie.
As soon as the brilliant white winter settled on the holy sword, the crescent moon sword energy shot out.
An aura that froze and shattered everything it touched.
The best slash the current Cain could unleash!
Crackle, boom—!
Aurelia’s jaw dropped involuntarily.
A wedge.
The moonlight sword energy split the approaching lava tsunami in half right in front of them. Lava, the sight of which alone was overwhelming, flowed past Cain and Aurelia on either side.
An eternity-like instant passed.
And no more lava came.
But Kyrie did not die.
It continued to race towards the golden light in the distance.
—As the hero just said, you’re no ordinary thieves.
—But I’m not ordinary here either.
Thud—
Kyrie’s sword energy struck something jet-black and scattered.
Boom—
A resonating tremor.
The rumble of something heavy hitting the ground!
—I may be weak, but my friend is strong.
Thump.
The spot where the lava had disappeared.
A golem tens of meters tall was walking, crushing the newly solidified lava. Its sleek, obsidian-like appearance was unlike any ordinary golem.
—So—
Dark Sky.
Cross Strike.
Kyrie Eleison.
Cain’s holy sword cut through the air faster than sound, and the vertical moonlight and horizontal sunlight that erupted instantly intersected, forming a cross.
“That’s nothing.”
Cain remarked nonchalantly.
Fwoosh—
The enormous golem, which had seemed so imposing, was quartered by the cross sword energy and scattered to the ground.
[‘Summer’ shakes its head, wondering how it could be so easily defeated when it shouldn’t be this easy.]
[‘Winter’ is proud, saying this is our Cain.]
Thud—
And with a faint smile, Cain began to sprint, creating black and white trails in the air.
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