Turning Chapter 846

Chapter 846

"There you are."

Yuder immediately ceased exerting his power and, stepping on the wind, dashed towards the shadowy figure lurking in the darkness.

A massive fire illuminated the darkness, revealing beneath it the bloodied body of Nahan, hunched in the shadows. His body, swollen and bulging as if about to burst, was hidden behind an illusion, tears streaming from his eyes.

In that brief moment when their eyes met...

"----!!!"

As Yuder unleashed his sword and powers toward Nahan, a cacophony of indistinguishable, enormous sounds overlapped in hundreds and thousands, assaulting his ears and mind.

Illusions, incomprehensible and targeting only Yuder, poured down like a colossal tidal wave.

All senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - surpassed the limits of his mind's comprehension. A terrifying sensation, as if his brain were screaming, engulfed him.

'This is...'

Yuder instinctively realized this was the final move Nahan had never used against other Awakeners, but had efficiently employed in killing the non-Awakeners. In the past, an Awakener of Yuder's level would not have been affected this much, but now, with his amplified power, it was different.

The brief blink of an eye stretched into days, years, an eternity.

• YudrainYudrainYudrainYudrainYudrainYudrainYudrainYudrain...!
• YuderYuderYuderYuderYuderYuderYuderYuderYuder…!
• The sinner, hear! You forget your duties and responsibilities. When the truth is revealed, you shamelessly accept your deserved punishment.
• 
  
• Execution...
• If only it were all a joke...
• Ahahahahah.

Though he knew these were not real, his body refused to move. Suddenly, his vision whirled, and blood burst from his eyes, nose, and mouth. His knees buckled.

His entire body felt as if it were being scorched with a branding iron. His breath was stifled as if submerged in a water prison. His leg bones felt as though they were being extracted. Nails, hammered into his pierced stomach, twisted painfully, preventing healing. It was as if his neck was being severed by a blade.

All the pains he had ever experienced overlapped, reaching their limits.

At that moment, amidst the pain filled with agonizing noise, Yuder suddenly found a familiar silence.

Drinking monster blood wine, sitting alone in the dusty, Cavalry Commander's old office.

Watching the damp, dirty walls of the prison, feeling the torture on his body as if it were happening to someone else.

Every time he witnessed such scenes, he delved into his deepest self, strangely observing the empty and quiet things within him, counting the passing time.

The place was desolate, barren, and always silent. Where something once filled, now nothing grew ever again.

But it was his only sanctuary.

He didn't know then, but he suspects now. Those empty holes inside Yuder Aile. At the core of that place, where nothing else could intrude, there must have been something related to Kishiar.

Kishiar.

As he faintly recalled that name, a tickling sensation stirred inside his chest. Golden light flickered momentarily in his pitch-dark vision, then faded.

'Kishiar.'

Longing for it, he called out louder in his mind, and again, golden light was born. Gazing at the light that blossomed like a mirage and warmly enveloped him, Yuder felt the pain and cold gradually recede.

Just like that time when he was held in someone's embrace without a single gap, and they looked at the blazing stove together.

It felt as if only he and Yuder were the sole existences left in the world, on that particular day.

Yuder stretched out his unmoving hand, trying to grasp the light. And once more, he called out a name.

The moment he had lain prostrate before the guillotine, briefly looking up at the sky, recalling the last name as petals beautifully fluttered around him.

“...”

His ears, clogged and overwhelmed with blood, failed to hear the name he uttered.

But that alone was enough.

-…!

Responding to Yuder's call, the brilliant golden light, now a complete flame, began to push away everything that oppressed Yuder. Curses, pain, and even the black emotions that spread like stains, dared not approach the power and were repelled, liberating Yuder.

He could finally breathe properly. Sensation returned to his hands and feet. His ears gradually cleared, and lastly, his vision.

Only then did Yuder fully perceive the golden protective magic of Kishiar that enveloped him. He had thought it vanished with time, but it hadn't. The magic shone beautifully, difficult to look away from, like immense wings wrapped around Yuder.

“Haah... Haha... Ha.”

As he stared blankly at the protective magic, a faint, cough-like laughter reached his ears. Lowering his gaze, he saw Nahan, his chest impaled by his sword. Nahan was completely immobilized, bound by the powers of earth and water, unable to move an inch.

The force Yuder had unleashed while swinging his sword at the moment Nahan cast the illusion had done its job precisely, even amidst the chaos.

What had felt like an eternity was, in fact, not so. Yuder only fully realized this now.

Yuder took a deep breath and, with the remaining strength, released it into the air. A yellow flame flowed like a ribbon, cutting through the darkness, rising higher and higher.

That was the 'signal'.

'Once found… the curtain will finally lift.'

All that remained was to wait until then. Lacking the strength to change his position, Yuder decided to simply wait, half-mounted atop Nahan.

“...Let me go.”

Nahan murmured, barely moving his lips. The illusion power around him still faintly ebbed and flowed but was incomparably weaker than before.

Yet, Nahan continued to mutter, trying to convey his intent. Though few words were clearly audible, the surrounding illusions amplified his meaning.

“I finally know who I must take revenge on... I can't be defeated like this.”

“...”

“All the things I intended to do, were they really such grave sins?”

“What were you intending to do?”

As Yuder spoke, something pooled in his mouth slid out. The liquid, not clear but sticky and dark red, trickled down his chin.

A complete mess, but still, Yuder did not release the hilt of the sword impaling Nahan’s chest.

“Taking revenge... cleaning up all the trash, and then moving on to a new world..."

Yuder suddenly recalled a part of the conversation he had with Nahan in the caves of the East. Nahan's words seemed unchanged from then to now.

But was that really so?

“A new world, huh? Who exactly is in that world?”

“...”

“Tell me. What is that world, and who will you go with?”

Engaging in conversation with a rampaging Awakener, whose rationality was hardly intact, seemed like a fool's errand. Yet, witnessing this figure, still so fixated on revenge even in such a state, Yuder found it impossible to remain silent.

A new world solely for the Awakeners. The concept sounded appealing. But who, indeed, could actually join Nahan in this world he spoke of?

Nahan's followers were gone, and more than half of them had been abandoned by Nahan himself. Even Hosanna, the last one remaining, was now caught in his own rampage, facing imminent death. Did Nahan even fully grasp this reality?

"Do you remember the non-Awakeners you tried to kill in the West?"

Yuder asked quietly. Nahan did not respond.

"Are you aware that many of them later became Awakeners?"

Of course, he wouldn't know.

Yuder's thoughts drifted to Marty, who had struggled to accept her newfound status as an Awakener. Like her, many who had narrowly escaped death found it hard to endure their own awakening.

Those who feared and loathed their own power and desperately needed a suppression device. The man before him refused to consider that anyone could become an Awakener.

The divide between the Awakeners and the non-Awakeners was vast, yet also incredibly close.

"I once thought... that some of what you said before might have been right."

The words of Nahan from before had seemed to have their own reasoning and conviction.

Perhaps, if someone championing such beliefs had dedicated themselves to aiding the wounded and struggling Awakeners that were beyond the reach of the Cavalry, they might have formed a decent, implicit alliance.

But Nahan had succumbed to revenge, forsaking everything.

The 'new world' he now muttered about was no different from the ramblings of a brainwashed individual.