Chapter 211 - Black Spire (2)

Merlin’s eyes had always shone.

Despite having lived a thousand years, her voice was always full of energy, and every movement brimmed with vitality. Thinking about it, that was strange.

A hundred years, two hundred, three hundred.

Looking at humans who had lived that long, the first word that came to mind was not living, but dying. There were a few exceptions, but most transcendent beings who had lived through such long years were enduring rather than living.

To keep from eroding, from breaking, from becoming one of the Lost, from becoming a fallen star.

They endured an eternity as they slowly died.

But Merlin was different.

Even after living several times as long as they had—a thousand years—Merlin was always brimming with vitality. She was always living each day.

“You.”

But...

“You, who are you?”

Najin could not possibly describe the Merlin looking at him now as alive. There was no vitality in those chillingly blue eyes. The stars he had always seen when he looked into her eyes were absent.

Dead eyes. Empty eyes.

Eyes that seemed to find no meaning in life.

“I asked you a question.”

Merlin gestured at Najin.

He was dragged across dozens of meters to stand before her. There was no way for him to resist that pull. Gripping his throat, she spoke.

“Who are you?”

Vivid blue eyes glared at him.

2.

Up close, the difference between the Merlin before him and the Merlin Najin knew was not merely the air surrounding her. Her appearance differed slightly as well.

If the present-day Merlin looked like a teenage girl, the Merlin before him looked closer to her twenties. She was a little more mature, without that girlish look. Unlike her present short hair, the Merlin of the past wore hers long, down to the small of her back.

Her grip tightened.

Najin felt Merlin’s fingers against his throat. They were cold. Not the temperature of a living human.

“I am...”

Najin began to speak.

“I am Najin, a free knight.”

“... A free knight?”

“Can’t you tell from my clothes?”

The attire of free knights had not changed in a thousand years. He had never expected that fact to help him like this. With that thought, Najin pointed at Merlin’s fingers around his throat.

“I would appreciate it if you let go.”

“...”

Merlin released his throat without a word.

“Why would a free knight come here? Didn’t the Round Table tell you? They should have warned you never to approach the depths of the Outer Lands.”

“I did hear that.”

“Then why come here? Don’t you value your life?”

Strictly speaking, he had not come because he wanted to. He had practically been dragged here... But rather than tell her the plain truth, Najin thought for a moment before speaking.

“My guide pointed me this way.”

“Ha. I don’t know who your guide is, but they’re clearly incompetent.”

Merlin scoffed.

She turned away as though she had no interest in Najin. Grabbing the unconscious witch by the hair, she dragged her off somewhere.

“Where are you going?”

“What business is that of yours? Why? Do you feel sorry for this witch? Think I’m being cruel?”

“I didn’t think that. You must have a reason for doing this. You aren’t someone who would do it without a reason.”

Merlin stopped abruptly and looked back.

“And who am I?”

“You’re Merlin. The archmage Merlin.”

At Najin’s answer, a precarious smile crossed Merlin’s face.

“Yes. That’s right. I’m the archmage Merlin. I hold the Second Seat of the Round Table, and I’m Arthur’s guide. No, I suppose I can’t call myself his guide. How is this being a guide?”

She sneered.

It was mockery directed at herself. With that mocking laugh, Merlin threw the unconscious witch into a deep pit. A foul stench seethed within it.

A pit filled with corpses.

And there were far more than one or two such pits. Everywhere he looked, there were corpses. Najin could tell that all of them were witches, devils, and demon contractors.

'A slaughterer.'

He remembered something Merlin had once said.

When speaking of her past, Merlin would sometimes call herself a “slaughterer” with a self-deprecating smile. She would describe herself as the one who had killed more devils and witches than anyone else in history.

Whether Najin watched or not, Merlin continued her work.

She reached a hand toward the sky. Then she closed it tightly around something. At that instant, the unconscious witch jerked and convulsed violently. Apparently regaining consciousness, she began to struggle. With her mouth frozen shut, unable to scream, her movements looked all the more desperate.

“...! ..., ...!”

Her face twisted in pain.

Only a little later did Najin understand what was happening to the witch. He looked at Merlin, her hand reaching toward the sky, then at the sky she was watching.

The moment he looked up, he could only gasp. A sight beyond imagination awaited him there.

CRUNCH.

An enormous hand was tearing a constellation out of the sky. The constellation of seven stars scattered starlight as it was ripped from the heavens, as though flesh were being torn away.

With a swift sweep, Merlin swung her clenched hand. The stars plummeted in the direction she swung it. Seven stars fell one after another. Looking around, he saw that far more than one or two constellations were falling.

Dozens of stars were plummeting.

The frozen ground where Merlin stood was filled with the corpses of stars. In the center of a sky that should have been filled with countless stars, only one shone.

Arthur’s star.

Merlin was tearing out every filthy star that dared take its place near Arthur’s.

“You there.”

Merlin pointed at Najin.

“You’d better leave if you don’t want to die.”

She murmured,

“They’ll be here soon.”

What was coming?

There was no need to ask. The sky split open, and witches riding broomsticks began to appear in ranks.

Dragons, witches, devils.

Those who fed on chaos and confusion filled the sky. As though they could no longer stand by and watch Merlin’s atrocities, they had come here to kill her. A sneer curled the lips of the witch at their head.

“Without Arthur, do you really think you can handle all of us alone?”

Dozens of Constellations.

Hundreds of apostles following them.

Hundreds of stars filling the sky.

“Your story is over, Merlin.”

Hovering in the sky, they looked down at Merlin. Merlin did not look up at them. Without giving them so much as a glance, she raised her hand toward the heavens.

Then, with a swift sweep, she swung her hand down.

BOOM.

As though unable to reproduce what happened in that instant, the dream recreating Merlin’s memory shook violently. The world did more than creak—it began to collapse. The sound of the world tearing apart echoed in Najin’s ears.

SCREEEEEECH!

In the tearing world, Najin saw one final sight.

The sky falling.

Merlin casting every last one of those who dared look down on her beneath the ground.

And Merlin’s face, wearing a look so precarious that she seemed about to crumble at any moment.

With that as his final sight, Najin woke from the dream.

3.

Najin blinked and gasped for breath the moment he awoke. His heart was pounding madly.

'Just now...'

He had not woken from the dream; he had been forcibly thrown out. Yet the Black Spire seemed to recognize even that as “clearing” the trial, and did not bar his way. Najin barely managed to steady his breathing as he looked around.

Anton was there, kneeling with his head bowed. He seemed not to have awakened from his dream yet.

“Hey, hey!”

Then came Merlin’s urgent voice.

“Are you okay? Can you hear me? Are you conscious...”

Najin looked at Merlin. The Merlin he knew so well was there, different from the one he had seen in the dream. For a while, he kept opening and closing his mouth.

The words would not come easily.

How should he tell her?

In the end, the first thing Najin said was neither one thing nor the other.

'Did you see it too, Merlin?'

“What? You slumped over?”

'Not that. Something like a hand pulled something out of me and showed me a dream... '

“I remember that much, but did something else happen afterward? All I saw was you slumped over here.”

It had been Merlin’s memory, yet it seemed Merlin herself had not been there. Najin smiled bitterly at her as she watched him with concern. This was the familiar Merlin. Inwardly relieved, Najin spoke.

'I saw your memory, Merlin, not mine.'

At those words, Merlin went rigid.

“W-what?”

Merlin recoiled in alarm. Eyes wide, she questioned Najin.

“When? A memory from when?”

'We’ll talk about that later.'

Najin looked toward the next floor.

When explaining the Black Spire, Merlin had said that a single dream continued throughout. Did that mean climbing to the next floor would take him back to where the dream had just broken off?

If so, there was something he needed to ask Merlin.

'Merlin.'

“No, just what period did you see...”

'Can I use Excalibur inside the dream?'

Merlin fell silent for a moment at his question.

“I don’t know why you’re asking that, but...”

She stared at Najin.

“You should be able to. You couldn’t have if the witch Malkuth were alive, but now that she’s dead... the dreams you experience in this tower really are nothing more than illusions.”

Good. That was all he needed.

Najin nodded and slowly rose to his feet.

“So what did you see in the dream?”

'You, when you had twelve stars.'

The moment he said it, Merlin’s face turned deathly pale.

“How could you see that? I don’t even remember it myself.”

'You said it yourself, Merlin. This tower shows memories from the most painful time in your life.'

The Mystery residing in the Black Spire: Recollection.

The Mystery the witch Malkuth had possessed had been overlaid upon the tower after her death. And, just as its original owner had wished, it gifted nightmares to every challenger who entered.

The most horrific memory.

The most vivid memory.

The happiest memory.

The memories shown varied with the challenger or the floor... but for some reason, Najin seemed to be witnessing Merlin’s most horrific memory. A past that even Merlin herself had forgotten.

And...

Upon hearing those words, Merlin’s pallor deepened until her face was white as a sheet. This was far removed from the shame or embarrassment of having someone else see her past. Najin, who shared some of Merlin’s emotions, felt terror and dread.

Merlin was afraid.

'... Merlin?'

Najin looked at her. The moment his eyes met those of the restless Merlin, she bit down hard on her lip.

“Let’s leave.”

Then she grabbed Najin’s arm and pulled. Her body had no substance, but he could feel her urgency.

“Let’s leave, quickly. Please? We’ve come far enough. You don’t have to climb all the way to the top.”

Merlin’s eyes wavered.

“I said let’s leave. Please, okay? Can’t you listen to me just this once?”

'Merlin, calm down for a moment... '

“I’m telling you, let’s leave!”

She shouted.

As though shocked by her own outburst, Merlin clapped a hand over her mouth. She looked at Najin, her fingertips trembling, as though she did not know what to do. Her gaze trembled with anxiety. Breathing hard, she spoke.

“Please.”

Merlin pleaded.

Clinging to Najin’s arm, she pleaded.

“Can’t we just... stop here? Just here?”