80. Cheers to your eyes
The entrance to the Elder Lich’s workshop was at the top of the peak. After opening the entrance at the highest point and entering, the underground passage dug into the peak continued endlessly below it.
A feeling of déjà vu for no reason. This shiny passage or anthill-like structure was similar to that of the Dark Church. As if it was made a long time ago, the years are smeared everywhere.
Well, it’s just that it feels similar to going down to the basement. I brushed off my unnecessary doubts and focused my eyes forward.
[Still, I decorated it similarly to the old days.]
The place where the elder lich led us down the aisle was the area located in the deepest part of the workshop. The moment the illusion made contact with the closed door, the door absorbed the image.
Soon, the door opened and the elder lich’s ‘body’ walked in. Unruly gray hair. Dark gray-blue eyes. Its appearance was like an illusion, but the momentum it radiated was on a different level.
[Welcome to my workshop, stranger.]
It perfectly recreated the appearance it had before it was alive, but its outer skin had no vitality. The elder lich turned his head and smiled at me.
[And a familiar one.]
The movement was so natural that it was hard to believe that what was inside was a skeleton without a single flesh. However, a strong person like us couldn’t help but feel a sense of difference in the action.
[It’s a bad hobby.]
The holy sword was simply evaluated. The elder lich’s body froze at that rude remark.
[It goes over once. Even if you look at my close friends.]
With his body turned, only the elder lich’s head creaked. Went back The furious movement tore the leather around his neck and flung it away. A pale blue bone could be seen through his outer skin.
[But, aren’t you guys here to ask me for a favor? Of course, I know that you, who were forged by the three gods, do not like a dark existence like me…]
Gray eyes flashed, and terrifying fraud swept everywhere. Vials and rolling bones around rattled and Cream took a step back.
I could stand against that momentum, but I deliberately avoided it. She was too low-key.
[At least, if you come as a guest, why don’t you keep basic etiquette?]
“Sorry.”
Seeing that, I felt bad. Cream is not apologizing because it is sorry. She is not a very caring or understanding person.
Even so, apologizing first on behalf of the Holy Sword was to avoid offending the opponent. In the end, there was only one thing she feared.
What I am not repairing. My wish not to come true.
In most situations, she has always acted for me, made choices for me, and made decisions for me. No contact, no emotional exchange. From the first time we met
Even when she ignored my wishes and acted forcefully, most of it was to be together as a result. Cream is always the same.
[Ha.]
The emotion that popped up in my heart was neither affection nor longing. At first, it was a feeling of displeasure that even I didn’t know, a feeling that gradually became clearer.
I’m not that romantic to believe favors without reason. Because of the sword that is not human, and the power it possesses is of the highest quality, originally, even if they were in the same space, they should have felt uncomfortable.
But at some point, little by little, the discomfort faded. Right now, I’m not offended even though I’m almost at the same level as Cream. Rather, I feel reassured and relieved.
[Really.]
[Friend?]
It is unpleasant because it is not unpleasant. I don’t like the intimacy and connection that has been taken for granted in my heart from a certain moment. Because I was a sword.
It was one thing for me to care for my master and to manipulate, kill, and devour his soul. Like a demonic sword, I have eaten countless masters who have been with me for many years.
[Don’t waste any more time, let’s start quickly.]
My hometown. Of course, this place was actually different from the workshop where I was created, but since the owner was the same, the nature and flow of the energy flowing there were almost the same.
Even if I live in a shabby situation with only a handle left, I become the strongest here. A radical change in existence. As a result, the clearer reason now has insight into my own state.
[Because it feels bad to be stuck like this all the time.]
“Carr, Val?”
The most terrifying thing is that even now, when I am fully aware of these emotions that have bloomed from a corner of my heart for no reason, instead of fading, the emotions are still more vivid.
Cream’s uneasy look at me is pretty. Intimacy, rather than love or lust, more like what twins feel for each other. We were once one, right?
Actually, maybe I’m overreacting. Cream was pushy at her first meeting, but after that she showed a devotion and obedience to me all along.
It is not easy to dislike a person who is infinitely kind to me, and it is natural for me to like him or her. If I were human Kim Si-woo.
However, that is not natural for the demonic sword Karbal.
*
[If it was completely broken, it would be hard for me too, but since you guys have gathered the wreckage, it shouldn’t be too difficult to fix it. If it’s enough to restore the shape, I’m enough.]
The Elder Lich, Shirefen continued, carving a huge congratulatory message on the empty floor.
The hero, Cream, was listening to her explanation in the chair she had prepared for her skull. On the floor, the holy sword that came out of the scabbard rolls around.
The white blade still radiated divine brilliance, but the sight of it rolling on the dirt floor was somehow bleak.
[However, even if you fix it right now, if the fundamental problem is not solved, isn’t it meaningless? You are both a warrior and a contractor of the demonic sword. There, it seems that he has no intention of breaking the bond of the soul.]
Cream hesitated for a moment, then she gave a small nod of her head.
“Can’t, loosen it.”
Those stern words made it sound like it was impossible to undo her bonds in the first place, apart from Cream’s own will. The elder lich nodded her head and explained.
[I thought so. That’s why I can’t keep my best friend and greatest masterpiece in pain… I just happened to have a groundbreaking plan, would you like to hear it?]
At the center of the paperweight she was drawing to fill the entire cavity, a clumsy-looking sword handle and black fragments that were once blades were floating in harmony.
However, no mental waves could be heard from the sword. To prevent variables from occurring during the restoration, Shire Pen put Karbal’s spirit to rest with magic.
In other words, the current story was something he couldn’t hear.
[If you add a little processing to the restoration process, I can grant strong divine resistance to the newly forged Karbal. In other words, my friend will no longer suffer from your protection as before. Not only you, but also less damage from other divine powers.]
It was a really convenient way to solve all the problems so far. However, Cream, hearing the story, instead of jumping for joy, only tilted her head.
“Instead?”
[hahahaha, as expected, you know the logic of the world. Yeah, if it was that easy, I wouldn’t have to speak at length. If you can handle this, there is a fatal problem.]
“What?”
[About the ingredients. What is required for this additional procedure is none other than the body parts of the three saints.]
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Scherepen, who had finished drawing the paperweight, raised his body with an exaggerated sound. Scheerpen, who hit me on the waist a few times, quickly took out a small box from his bosom.
[That, too, must be donated by the saint himself, not taken by force or violence. Now, this is my reliquary.]
The Reliquary is a vessel that holds the Lich’s soul fragment. A lich does not die until all the reliquaries are destroyed, but if any fragment of the soul is shattered, the damage is devastating.
The soul of an individual is not a commodity that can be recreated. However, Shirepen proudly took out the reliquary in front of the rare enemy of the warrior. When he opened the box, there was a small amount of white powder inside.
[This is the cremated powder of Mimir, the first saint of the sun. Since he cut himself from the neck down, he meets the conditions I mentioned earlier. However, the other two are the problem.]
The elder lich spoke nonchalantly about sacrificing a fragment of his soul. However, Cream wasn’t surprised at all, but rather just nodded his head as if it were natural.
[Parts of the body of the saint of the moon and stars. Can you bring It shouldn’t be obtained by force, and the saint himself should give up that body part.]
Unreasonable conditions. If it is a simple damage, it may be possible to restore it with the divine power of the source, but the body parts used in these shamanistic rituals damage the existence itself.
Of course, there is no way that someone with a spiritual status like a saint would not know that. Sacrificing a saint for the sword? It was impossible, not even a joke.
[Master! It’s a big deal!]
[Hmm, what’s going on? I’m in the middle of a conversation with an important guest…]
But before Cream could answer, a skeleton soldier ran towards him, tapping his jawbone. Shirefen expressed a slight displeasure, but he seemed so disconcerted that even he couldn’t feel it.
[Look outside the studio! What a crazy monster…]
[Okay, by the way, you’re too noisy.]
As Shirefen waved his hand gracefully, the skeleton soldier, which seemed to be alive just a moment ago, collapsed and returned to a pile of dirt.
Soon, the bone powder that formed the skeleton soldiers floated into the air and soon floated something like a window in the air. Soon, the outside scenery was projected through the frame of the window.
Outside the peak, a beast clad in golden lightning running across the army of lions.
“No problem.”
[What?]
“Me, Lament, Star, Saint. I didn’t know that you would follow me until here.”
Cream spoke in a nonchalant tone, but the meaning behind the words was quite frightening. Shire Pen, who was silent for a moment, opened his mouth cautiously, unlike before.
[Is this also your intention?]
“No, really, coincidence.”
But if it’s such an unfortunate coincidence, it’s safe to say it’s inevitable. Under the three gods ruling this world, all the nets of providence and reason are woven at their fingertips.
[You are…]
“Right now, I don’t know anything.”
Cream’s face showed a rare gloomy light. Is the reason why Shire Pen can read that emotion because Cream is so excited, or is it because she is used to that grumpy face?
“But, one thing, I know.”
However, mixed emotions soon passed over the girl’s indifferent face. Guilt, responsibility, hope. Emotions that even an old skeleton who has lived for over a thousand years cannot fathom.
“What he wishes for is my wish. I, always, for Karbal.”
It was a natural attitude, more like an absolute proposition than any resolution or oath. The elder lich, unable to speak for a moment, soon changed the subject.
[······Yes, but even if we have already saved the sun and the stars, what about the moon?]
“Here, you know.”
[What?]
The next moment, at the action that took place, Shire Pen was horrified that her jawbone had fallen out.
The holy sword vibrated like crazy. However, being sealed by the hero’s spell, she couldn’t even properly exhale her own mental waves. Cream ignored the fierce backlash.
As usual, Cream put his hand on my face. Her white fingers traced her eyes, then dug between her eyelids, and the starlight in her pupils expanded wildly.
Tuduk. Took. The optic nerve is torn. Half of the world is plunged into darkness. Would your world be like this? Were you in pain too? Unfamiliar thoughts pop up in my head and then disperse like fog.
It’s too pedantic for her now.
“Heroes, receive the blessings of the three gods.”
[Miss Madness·······. Are you insane?]
“And, of divine power, the hierarchy is equal to that of the saint.”
One side of the world is black. I can’t see anything, but instead I can feel something hot and thick running down my eye sockets and down to the corners of my eyes. The world seen through the other eye was still bright.
Cream stuck out her own freshly plucked pupils towards her shire pen.