Just a few months ago.
The expedition heading to the 71st floor had once entered a strange space where night and day, past and future, and present coexisted.
There, Vitalianus and the entire expedition passed through a place called the “Memory Gate,” and only after that did the proper space of the 71st floor emerge.
Hio saw Abelard’s memories.
The Airlights heard a conversation between Venus and Liphyue.
Freya read Aerial’s memories.
Regarda retraced his own memories.
Antipus experienced the memories of the previous Abyss.
And Vitalianus…
[You have passed through the ‘Memory Gate of Beltesia’.]
A battlefield.
What Vitalianus saw was a battlefield.
However, it was not the kind of battlefield thick with the stench of blood.
It was unspeakably terrible and gruesome, but no heavy scent of blood wafted through.
The ground was stained black, and the air was overflowing with the energy of the Abyss.
He wondered if this was the Abyssal space he had only heard of, but the scenery around him was too familiar.
‘This is…’
It was the imperial capital of the Empire, Ivenia—familiar to the point of being intimate.
And that place was in complete ruins.
Even the word “ruins” was insufficient.
‘Gale, Melissa… Damon…’
All the faces he knew were lying dead on the ground.
Black smoke poured from their noses and mouths.
Their bodies were emaciated, consumed by the Abyss.
Vitalianus kept walking through the center of that carnage.
In truth, he was not moving his own feet.
What he was seeing was someone else’s memory.
He was merely watching through the eyes of the memory’s owner, witnessing what that person had done.
Nevertheless, Vitalianus did not even realize the state he was in; he was absorbed in examining the faces of the countless heroes fallen at his feet.
Because the sight was so horrifying and shocking.
After a while, he arrived at a place that was little more than a ruin.
It was not hard to guess what this collapsed place had originally been.
How could he not recognize it?
This place was his pride, his honor, his very life.
Even if it was burned, broken, and collapsed—this place he had devoted his life to protecting.
How could he not recognize the Imperial Palace?
The palace, which had always stood lofty and proud, was now destroyed and collapsed in misery.
As he walked through it in despair, a familiar face he had forgotten caught his eye among the rubble.
‘…The Crown Prince?’
The Crown Prince, who should have lost his head in the succession war he himself had started years ago, was buried in the rubble with a desperate expression, dead.
But he looked a little older than Vitalianus remembered, and the clothes he wore were those symbolizing the Emperor.
He could not understand.
A world destroyed by the Abyss—a fallen Empire.
And in such a world, the face of the Crown Prince appearing out of nowhere.
At first, it did not make sense, but he took a few more steps.
His gaze moved with him, and when he discovered another corpse—
When he found a body that had died more miserably than anything else, a corpse so full of lingering resentment that its eyes would not close—
The lips of Vitalianus, who had been silent for a long time, finally opened.
No, the owner of the body Vitalianus was watching—the owner of this memory—spoke.
Looking down at the wretched corpse lying before him, he murmured a name quietly.
“……Vitalianus.”
It was none other than Vitalianus’s own corpse.
Only then did Vitalianus begin to understand everything.
What he was seeing.
Whose memory it was, and how it had come to be this way.
“If I knew you’d die like this, you should’ve asked me to fight with you.”
This was the memory of none other than the magician, Hio Pavlenko.
Not the current hero Hio Pavlenko, but the memory from the time he was called the Sovereign Heavenly Demon.
Hio had explained it as a memory from his past life.
“You always had to act all impressive by yourself, right to the end.”
He lowered himself, knelt, and closed the resentful eyes of his own corpse.
“Well, I’ll keep my promise anyway…”
Hio Pavlenko.
‘Why was Vitalianus seeing his memories?’
He did not know, but there was one thing he understood.
The world in which the Sovereign Heavenly Demon had lived was too terrible and too miserable.
“Don’t worry, and rest in peace.”
With that, he rose and turned his back.
The Sovereign Heavenly Demon left the capital and headed to an unexpected place.
It was the stronghold of Heuka, a place designated as a Forbidden Land of the continent.
The Ba’al Forest, also called the Forest of Black Mist.
The place where his old friend served as its leader.
It was also the place where Hio and Vitalianus had brought down Heuka together.
But the Ba’al Forest he headed to as the Sovereign Heavenly Demon was very different from what he knew.
There was no mist to deceive sight and senses, and no traps or traces of other forces could be felt.
The Gray Castle at the center of Ba’al Forest was also clearly visible, and the Sovereign Heavenly Demon climbed it as if it were only natural.
At its peak, he saw a familiar face again.
“Atawolf.”
Atawolf of the Black Mist.
He sat wearily at the highest point of the Gray Castle.
“What brings the famous Lord of Flames here? Have you come to take my head now?”
The Sovereign Heavenly Demon shook his head.
“I just have a promise to keep.”
“A promise?”
Whether he was the continent’s worst villain or a criminal, the Sovereign Heavenly Demon sat down on the floor naturally, as if it meant nothing.
Then a rather odd remark came out of his mouth.
“Breakfast is forbidden. It’s a symbol of overeating, overdrinking, and luxury. Even if you’re hungry as soon as you open your eyes, you have to endure it.”
Atawolf did not reply to the sudden remark.
He just stared into the void with slightly hollow eyes.
“As you well know, training must be done at the set time. Neither too early nor too late. Keep your back straight at all times, but don’t look too far ahead or too low.”
“Live for honor and glory, and stay away from gold coins. No, wait—you need gold coins to live, so isn’t it strange to say stay away from them? And that’s not all. You must protect the honor of your fellow knights and never insult an enemy with ignoble means. Always be fair, and despise cowardice and deceit. Never show your back to the enemy, and fight for the well-being of everyone. How can a person live by all that? I’ve been scared and wanted to run away more than once myself.”
This was not Hio Pavlenko’s tone of voice.
He was merely conveying someone else’s words through his mouth.
And it was all too obvious whose words those were.
“So, how is it? The life of a hero. Actually, it wasn’t anything special. From afar, it seemed so brilliant and noble, but when I actually became one, it was different. Every day was hard, and it felt uncomfortable like wearing clothes that didn’t fit. And also… lonely.”
This was Vitalianus’s own life.
He could not help but recognize it.
Because it contained every word he had wanted to say if only he could meet again someday.
“I really wanted to say this.”
For the sake of protecting mere trifles like these, he had turned away from everything.
He had not even properly looked at the face of a friend suffering right beside him.
“I’m sorry. For delivering this only now, and for not being able to face you directly.”
It might be too late.
No, it was definitely too late.
“Can you forgive a worthless friend?”
With that, silence fell.
The Sovereign Heavenly Demon closed his mouth as if he had said all he needed to, and Atawolf simply sat there with even hollower eyes.
***
‘How much time passed?’
A heavily cracked voice slowly rang out.
“That guy… is he dead?”
The Sovereign Heavenly Demon nodded.
Atawolf lowered his head.
“I see.”
Heh heh… a low laugh came from his bowed head.
“How did he die?”
“He died defending the Imperial Palace, along with the Emperor.”
“Is that so… That really is a death befitting him. To protect trash like that… Ah, I shouldn’t be the one saying that, should I? Heh heh…”
Atawolf’s laughter grew louder, until he was shaking his shoulders.
“Isn’t it funny? Even in death, he acts all noble, saying he’s sorry. That guy lived thinking he was something special. Hahaha!”
“True.”
“Heh heh heh. The message he sent me must be all lies too. He was a perfect, picture-perfect hero. And he said it felt uncomfortable like wearing clothes that didn’t fit? Hahaha! What a deception!”
“You’re right. It is a deception. Vitalianus was a hero right up to the moment of his death.”
“Hahahahaha!”
It was so amusing that Atawolf started holding his stomach and laughing.
It was such a refreshing, hearty laugh that even the listener could feel a sense of relief.
He laughed so cathartically that he couldn’t even stop the tears flowing, laughing for a long time.
Then suddenly he raised his head and looked straight into the Sovereign Heavenly Demon’s eyes, saying,
“I cannot forgive him.”
That gaze seemed to look directly at Vitalianus himself.
“…I see.”
“I just find it annoying. His calm, golden eyes. His vast generosity that even asks for forgiveness from the worst trash in history.”
The metallic voice, already inhuman, echoed even more harshly through the room.
“It’s just suffocatingly annoying.”
Atawolf’s true feelings, which could never be heard before, came through.
“That’s why I avoided him. Because of the massive damage if we clashed head-on? No. It’s because I felt like giving up everything. My lost rage and hatred seemed to fade whenever I saw him.”
“Then why didn’t you just give up?”
“How could I? My family! My efforts! Those imperial trash never even gave me a sincere apology. They didn’t even try to find the culprit. Do you think the citizens were any different? They mourned in front of me, but behind my back, they pointed fingers, saying they knew it would happen!”
That was why Atawolf’s rage had to be an eternal, unquenchable fire.
He had to constantly burn hatred toward the world and show his presence.
The Black Mist, stirred by Atawolf’s emotions, blazed violently.
His pitch-black eyes were the very embodiment of rage, but to Vitalianus, even that seemed like an act.
As if he had to be this way.
As if his rage toward the world had long since burned out.
“Do you know this?”
Atawolf spoke again, calming his momentum.
“I, too, once wielded a sword.”
He picked up an old sword beside him.
It was rusty and dull all over, but the gem embedded in the center still sparkled.
The Sovereign Heavenly Demon nodded.
Vitalianus himself must have told him that.
“Hahahaha! Is that so?”
Atawolf burst out laughing.
“Then do you know this too?”
And he pointed the old sword at his own heart.
“Actually, I wanted to become a hero.”
The sword, which should have been dull and rusty, pierced the skin all too easily.
A cruel sword that accurately pierced the heart and was unhesitatingly pulled out again.
The Sovereign Heavenly Demon did not stop him.
He only stood for a long time before Atawolf’s slowly cooling corpse.
“I knew that too.”
And then he simply turned away.
After that, there was no word other than “tragic” to describe the Sovereign Heavenly Demon’s actions.
Everywhere he went, Strange Entities swarmed; all the food was contaminated; and even when he occasionally found an intact village, there was no one alive.
Only the bodies of mothers and children who had taken their own lives.
And traces of being butchered by Strange Entities.
Still, the Sovereign Heavenly Demon moved silently.
What was it for?
No matter how he looked, this world was already hopeless.
The land was polluted, and no living person could be found.
Even if someone survived somewhere, they would starve to death, die contaminated by the Abyss, or be brutally killed by the Strange Entities roaming the continent.
Yet the Sovereign Heavenly Demon kept moving.
Sometimes he was surrounded by hundreds of Abyss Monsters and Strange Entities, but he broke through with flames covering the heavens and the earth.
He searched tirelessly for survivors somewhere.
‘How could he do this?’
‘No, could anyone endure all of this in their right mind?’
Only then did Vitalianus understand all of Hio Pavlenko’s actions.
Why he made the Imperial Princess the Emperor, and why he made a street girl the Holy Maiden.
The eyes that had been unreasonably friendly from their first meeting, and his somehow comfortable tone.
He had already experienced a hell that Vitalianus did not know of, and had reached the present.
How ridiculous it was that Vitalianus had been acting as if he knew, giving advice.
Even in a world that had already perished, the Sovereign Heavenly Demon moved to become hope.
‘Could Vitalianus do the same?’
A true hero, not a fake hero with only a nice appearance.
Vitalianus was deeply lost in thought within the Sovereign Heavenly Demon’s memory.
And the Sovereign Heavenly Demon kept moving for the world that had already perished.
***
And so.
This kind of thing can hardly even be called a sacrifice.
Sizzle-
A sound burning from inside his body filled his ears.
The Ideation of the Golden Lion, far surpassing its limits.
Compared to the Abyss, which could be called the world itself, it was an infinitely small size.
Yet the weight contained within it was heavy enough to shake the entire Abyss.
“When you all saw the memories of the past.”
His body burned away endlessly.
Proportionally, the Ideation swelled to a scale barely controllable.
But he had to keep his mind together.
Because this was his final plea and advice.
“I alone saw the future.”
What he first saw in the Memory Gate of Beltesia was the memory of the Sovereign Heavenly Demon.
And after that memory ended, Vitalianus saw the real future.
‘While everyone else saw memories of the past, why did he alone see the future?’
‘Why did the Ancient God show only him the future?’
“There, you were smiling so happily.”
That was a lie.
He did not see such a future.
What he saw was a future of utter misery.
The future of one unfortunate person who would face after the Airlights used the Authority of Sacrifice.
So.
“Please, don’t lose that smile.”
He could clearly know what he had to do.
With his final words, he slightly bent and then straightened his knees.
Then, in an instant, he reached the front of the Abyss.
Among the falling stars, one star soared alone—the most brilliant star.
The master of the Abyss called Kreutzvalt.
Piercing into its massive eye was the sword of the Golden Lion.
At the same time, everything of the hero named Vitalianus.
Kwaaaaaaang-!
Overwhelmed by the immense power and weight, the Abyss burst helplessly.
Kwaaang-!
The Great Star of the Sword also fell along with it.