It was the process of attaining Divinity.
It was the journey to become a god.
Thus, she wanted to revive Hio.
But the road toward the temple was so painful it brought tears to her eyes.
Perhaps she even cried.
Others pointed their fingers at her and called her a sociopath with no blood or tears, but didn’t this clearly prove them wrong?
When her skin cracked, she bled; from that pain, tears also flowed.
It hurt.
With every step she took, the pain doubled, and she knew instinctively that the moment she stopped walking, the pain would stop as well.
However, she could not stop because of the one person who filled her mind even at this very moment.
A person she wanted to see even through the pain of melting flesh and crushing bones.
It was love.
No matter what anyone said, it was love.
‘Does a creepy child like you dare to know love?’ she asked back, taking another step toward those who pointed their fingers.
‘Do you people know love?’
‘Have you ever experienced a love this painful?’
‘How far have you actually gone for the sake of love?’
‘I can’t do this because of this. I can’t do that because of that.’
‘Haven’t you always postponed love while making such trivial excuses?’
‘Have you ever truly put love before yourself?’
When she asked those questions, those who had been pointing their fingers eventually vanished, leaving Airlights alone to continue her steps.
Petty tests did not work on Airlights.
‘Can you truly do anything for love?’
Airlights was one who could stand before that question without a single shred of a lie.
However, things changed from the moment she took her first step into the white temple buried in the snow.
Her body began to melt.
It was not a hallucination.
In reality, her body was repeating a cycle of melting, regenerating, and melting again.
Even in such extreme pain, her mind remained perfectly clear.
She could distinctly feel the pain of every single cell as it cracked, broke, melted, and regenerated.
‘So, how could she possibly stop the tears from bursting forth?’7
Even in that state, what leaked out instead of a scream of pain was a name.
“Hio…”
It was a name of longing.
The name of the love she so desperately craved.
Her steps did not stop.
A crimson energy circled and enveloped Airlights’s body intensely, and her physical form continued the endless cycle of destruction and regeneration.
It was like a tempering process.
Divinity was being forcibly bestowed upon her.
A physical body capable of containing the power of a god.
It was a violent miracle that forcibly elevated the status of her flesh.
In that process, the Divinity of Love was engraved.
The Authority of Love was engraved.
The beginning of love is the beauty of the flesh.
It is the pleasure of attraction and an ecstatic flutter.
Such authority of beauty was engraved step by step into Airlights’s tempering body.
As she forced herself to keep walking while enduring the vivid agony, even her mind eventually became submerged in pain.
The status of her soul was being forcibly elevated.
Love is a series of pains.
Love is a repetition of joys.
Love is anger. It is resignation.
Love is a momentary flame. It is a fleeting instant.
Love is an eternal snowy mountain. It is unchanging.
Love is obsession, anxiety, and stability. It is the disconnect that occurs within those things.
Love is life, birth, and ferocity.
The definition of love is, ultimately, chaos.
It is a future where no one can predict whether the end will be heart-wrenching sadness or peaceful happiness.
It was an open ending.
‘How much time had passed?’
It felt like hundreds of years had gone by, yet it also felt as if only a few minutes had passed.
The world looked and felt different.
She could feel Airlights’s own powerful soul and the strength of her robust body.
The newly created body was soft, white, and clearer than anything else.
The light pink soul, which had been forcibly elevated, was so potent it seemed it would not allow for any contamination.
“…”
“…”
However, for some reason, her beautiful crimson eyes looked blurry.
The Divinity of Love and its authority, which should have been completed in harmony, had been finished in a slightly distorted state.
One could call it a side effect of the forced process.
In the first place, no one but Airlights would have even been able to endure it.
“…Ah…”
What flickered within her eyes was chaos.
Her memories became jumbled and entangled.
***
After the temporary chaos subsided, what surfaced was obsession.
The clearest thing within her tangled memories was Hio.
And his death.
What followed the light of obsession was anger.
“How dare they.”
Anger at those who dared to let her god die.
Anger at the incompetent people.
Anger at the fact that even with her current power, she could not revive Hio.
It was the wrath of a Goddess of Love who had lost her love.
*Rumble —*
The temple vibrated at Airlights’s anger.
Crimson energy enveloped the temple, and the pillars making up the structure, the snow on the floor, and the ice on the ceiling scattered before congregating again to take shape.
It was Venus’s final arrangement.
An army of ancient golems rose up, sympathizing with Airlights’s anger.
The Authority of Love, which dominates emotions, was manifesting.
“Useless people of the Empire.”
A world without Hio was a world without love.
To Airlights, it was a world that didn’t matter whether it existed or not.
“Let them all die.”
Crimson anger rose up.
An army of snow and ice swarmed behind her.
***
Thus, she arrived at the Empire.
Thousands of knights could be seen in the distance.
At their front stood the Imperial Golden Lion.
Perhaps because she had obtained Divinity, she could clearly feel the arrogant eyes of the lion and the ferocious power latent within him.
A massive presence was filling the Empire’s camp.
“Witch.”
The lion approached.
The Ideation contained in his words was so potent that it easily pierced through the thick crimson energy surrounding Airlights and was delivered clearly to her.
“Why do you head this way?”
Of course, it was merely loathsome.
The fact that he possessed such power yet failed to protect her god.
It made her furious.
She felt as though she would only be satisfied once she cleared away all those useless things.
“What is the reason you have come down this far?”
Therefore, she smirked and increased her speed even more.
The Imperial Golden Lion, realizing her intent, also accelerated.
Sword Saint Vitalianus Mahel.
A Superhuman of the 8th Rank and a swordsman said to split mountains with a single blade.
Normally, no matter how strong Airlights was, she would have died without lasting a single exchange if she faced a serious Vitalianus.
The opposite was also true.
Airlights had obtained Divinity and inherited the authority of the Goddess of Love.
If Airlights had properly realized her own power and inherited all of it without side effects, no matter how strong Vitalianus was, he would not have been able to overcome her authority.
Though he was a superhuman who had surpassed human limits, his soul and body were ultimately those of a human, were they not?
However, Airlights’s condition was not normal.
Her memories were still in chaos, her emotions were a mix of obsession and anger, and she had not yet properly realized her own authority.
Vitalianus’s sword could not reach Airlights.
Airlights’s authority could not control Vitalianus.
A golden aura roared as it thrust forward, but Airlights was not in that spot.
In her place, the bodies of dozens of Ice Golems were pierced through in a straight line.
Vitalianus swung his sword horizontally immediately as if there were no need to even check, but…
“…”
The crimson authority had already enveloped his body.
His emotions fluctuated.
All sorts of emotions he thought were already dead came crashing in like a tidal wave.
It was the prestige and authority of Love, which encompassed all emotions.
It was a horrific feeling, as if his very mind was being forcibly manipulated.
However, it was not perfect.
A gap existed.
“…How dare you.”
He was a hero.
He was a warrior who always stood at the very front and never wavered.
He was a knight who stood firm as an example for everyone.
“Do you dare try to manipulate my heart?”
The steadfast Golden Lion roared amidst the swirling torrent of emotions.
The torrent subsided, and within his calmed heart, the golden aura surged once again.
*Boom — !*
Dozens of golems that had reached his immediate vicinity were cut to pieces and exploded.
The lion roared from within that explosion.
He had released his power and burst forth, but due to that slight hesitation from being seized by the authority, the battle had become agonizingly disadvantageous.
*Boom — !*
The surroundings were already infested with Ice Golems.
He had been swept into the crimson domain.
Perhaps because of that, he had even lost the witch’s presence.
‘…I lost her location?’
‘How long had it been since he had lost an opponent’s presence while fully focused?’
Even though the only things lurking in all directions were Ice Golems that were chilling to the bone, he could not expect any support.
If even his own heart was fluctuating this much, what would it be like for the other knights?
Setting foot here would only lead to a dog’s death for them.
*Boom — !*
Therefore, he simply pushed forward.
The answer was always in the sword.
He had no choice but to trust his sword, trust himself, and cut, cut, and cut again.
— “Vitalianus Mahel.”
The witch’s voice echoed from all directions.
It was a dreamlike resonance.
— “The old lion of the Empire.”
Sadness began to seep into the voice.
It became a thorn that pierced into his heart.
Vitalianus’s heart also became gloomy in response.
— “Just what were you doing?”
*Boom — !*
Even so, he swung his sword.
Even though he did not even know where she was located.
Though the emotion of sadness was being forcibly swirled within him, he did not stop his blade.
The Empire was behind his back, and he carried the future on both his shoulders.
He was a man who could never be allowed to collapse.
— “Why are you people even alive?”
Anger shook his heart like a lightning bolt.
He felt tempted to surrender his body to this emotion right now, to rage with all his might and sympathize with the witch.
But the more that happened…
*Thud —*
He put more strength into his steps.
He gripped the sword handle tightly and moved forward silently.
He cut, cut, and cut down more golems.
Golems from the age of myth that would not die no matter how much they were cut?
Those were not words to be uttered in front of the great Sword Saint.
In the wake of his sword’s passing, the Golden Lion invariably appeared and tore the golems to shreds.
*Boom — !*
Because an explosion resembling a roar burst out without fail.
An opportunity would come eventually.
If he cut them down one by one, the end was certain to appear.
— “No, why does this world even exist?”
Suddenly, a terrible sense of futility emptied his heart.
It was loss.
The emptiness of loss was so sorrowful that he felt tempted to throw his sword away and collapse right then and there.
The reason he did not was simple.
Because he was a hero.
Because he had decided to live as a hero and leave this world without shame.
Because he had promised to tell the story of a hero.
No matter what emotion seized his body and mind, such conviction did not waver in the slightest.
That was why he could move forward.
Even if he was manipulated by the witch’s emotions, his own essence could remain steadfast.
It was the reason he could finally stand face-to-face with the witch after advancing step by step.
“…Asking why the world exists.”
The witch’s sad crimson eyes turned toward Vitalianus.
“That is a very bitter question.”
Eyes of sadness, loss, and anger.
A crimson chaos where everything else was mixed together.
A brilliant sword was slowly raised.
Its tip aimed at the witch and thrust forward in the blink of an eye.
A golden aura leaped out, and within it, the Golden Lion opened its maw wide.
It mercilessly tore through the crimson blocking its path.
Stretching out without hesitation.
— “I’m telling you to bring him back to life!”
The Golden Lion ruthlessly bit the witch’s neck.