Awakening the Great Chapter 109

Chapter 109 — Coward

Marik swept aside the frozen weeds and began to speak.

"I have seen sothing like this before."

This is the story of a boy born in the East.

* * *

Marik had grown up alongside poverty. A barren field, a violent father, and an estate manager too busy exploiting everyone around him. In so ways, he was just an ordinary farr's son.

Then, around the age of sixteen, he made up his mind to escape reality. It was after a terrible fight with his father. Lucky or not, both talent and fortune were on his side.

"Boss!"

He drifted through the streets of the city, gathered a crew, saved money, and had a Neural Accelerator implanted. After that, he began robbing in earnest.

A life of tearing down mountain roads and taking what belonged to others.

His number of followers quickly exceeded fifty, and with the northeastern mountain range as his base, he built a reputation as the head of a bandit crew.

All of it had been for nothing.

Aaaaargh!

"Boss! We're under attack!"

"Which bastard is——"

The 'Anomaly' ca with no warning whatsoever. Sothing that cleaved through the darkness tore apart human flesh. Whether toward the base of the cliffs or the edges of the forest, there was no direction one could flee to escape death.

And so he ran.

He rode until foam dripped from the horse's mouth, until he reached the ho he had despised so bitterly.

"Marik!"

Remarkably, his family welcod him with warmth. His father was already buried behind the mountain, and his younger siblings had each built lives of their own.

"What? Did you co all this way to rob us too?"

"That's not——"

"Ah, shut up."

His younger brother responded curtly, yet at the sa ti gave him the most help of anyone. He arranged a place for his elder brother to sleep and promised him work.

But the way he had co back had been wrong from the start. The shadow of calamity had followed him.

That night, the village well turned black all at once. Yesterday had brought a downpour; today, snowflakes fell. And through that snow, an unknown presence descended.

Clunk!

Shutting the windows and locking the doors was useless. The villagers saw sothing evil.

Through a hazy silhouette, elongated arms and legs bent at two joints flickered into view. Whether the head belonged to a human or a beast was difficult to tell. Only the three-parted lower jaw was visible with any clarity.

Tztztztztz—

And with that, the breath of humans dissolved into the air.

Cold spread wherever it passed, and no one could flee or resist. A silent slaughter unfolded.

At the end of its path stood the young man's childhood ho.

"Marik, go, quickly!"

On his way back from gathering firewood in the mountain behind the house—

His mother had suddenly appeared, leading a donkey. She pressed the reins into her son's hands and demanded, point-blank, that he run.

It had been livestock his younger sister cherished. The very creature that had made Marik's nephew beam with joy when she spoke of using it at his wedding when he ca of age.

"This is the one Aira was raising—"

"I said go!"

Then, it ca.

"Brother—!"

His younger sister was being chased. She held a newborn in her arms and reached one hand out toward Marik.

"Aira!"

Paradoxically, it was his mother who ran forward. Without a mont's hesitation, she charged toward her daughter, whose legs were already beginning to freeze from the ground up.

Marik could not move.

'I have a Neural Accelerator. I can fight.'

Yet even knowing he had to save them, even knowing he must not leave his family behind, he could not make his feet move. Both legs were planted in the earth like stones.

His mother charges forward, screaming. His sister cries out.

'It is not too late yet.'

In that mont, his eyes t the monster's. The three-parted pupils were stained black without so much as a trace of white. Cold sweat ran down him, and his heart pounded as though it might burst at any second.

His eyelids clamped shut.

Yes.

He turned his back.

* * *

Marik continued, his voice composed.

"I saw the bottom. The very bottom of who I am as a person. My mother's final face, my sister's tears, a night tangled in screams and cries. That night, I left everything behind and walked away."

Calix let out a brief murmur. He understood the aning with his head, and felt the pain of it in his chest. He thought he could now understand why the man had been acting so unlike himself lately.

'This man has been unable to forgive himself from that day until now.'

It was trauma. Soone who had shown no outward sign of it, who had quietly carried out his role, was now wavering. Perhaps, Calix thought, the man was also asking sothing of Calix himself.

How had he managed to rise again, every single ti, through countless crises?

Still, he did not press for an answer. Marik tossed a pebble toward the riverbank and added the rest of the story. It was about his early encounters with the founding mbers of the 'Mountain Rabbits'.

"Honestly, I had no drive whatsoever. I had just drifted around and ended up joining the rcenary group. But the leader always saw sothing good in . It was laughable."

"In what way?"

"When I was withdrawn, he praised

and said a rcenary ought to have that kind of caution. When I didn't answer the others—well, at least I listened well, he'd say, and clap

on the shoulder. That beca, sohow, a comfort to . Strangely, it gave

the strength to keep going, so I tried to be like him. And before I knew it, I had beco Vice-captain."

A faint smile settled on his face. He spoke with warmth as he recalled the ti he had spent alongside Royce. He had supported the leader's leadership, looked after the mbers, and at so point had co to be called the 'Second Head'.

But through those layers, the remnants of the past seeped through. No matter how many tis he covered it over or buried it, he could not erase it. The corner of his mouth trembled finely.

Calix could not stand to watch. He looked away and turned his gaze to the night sky, laying out his own story in return.

"I was born into the Ashapel Marquis family. Born a bastard, I never once saw my father's face."

If one has received, one must give in kind. Above all else, the man deserved it.

"Actually, only my mother ever called

by my na. Other people called

'hey', 'you', 'over there', 'there'—sothing like that, always."

"……You didn't have it easy either."

"I'm a Mountain Rabbit too."

They comforted one another by sharing the past plainly between them. Calix laid bare his childhood honestly—being ignored, never receiving recognition, feeling pressed down from all sides.

Back then, he hadn't even been able to eat properly. Every ti a maidservant brought him food, his body would hurt. His mother had raged at all of it, and fought back with everything she had.

"Worse than dogs, the lot of them."

Marik flinched visibly—but it was just a story like any other.

"I'm alright. So, Vice-captain…… What if you let go of that day? At the ti, no one could have said that any choice was the right one."

This was what Calix had wanted to say.

But of course, a few words were not enough to convince him.

"……There are things in this world that cannot be let go. It was an irreversible mistake. I cannot ask for forgiveness, and so I cannot receive it either. That much, at least, is a truth that will never change."

The two fell silent for a mont. In the darkness, each stared in a different direction and felt the weight of life pressing down on them. Then, soon, it was the young man who turned first.

"Perhaps so. But…… People change. You are proof of that."

Only then did their eyes et. Calix continued in a firm tone. Woven into it was an absolute conviction.

"I have not forgotten. Soone who stood against Imran Akran. I will not forget that in the days ahead either."

"That is different. He was human."

In an instant, Marik's expression hardened. He recalled the form of that alien creature. The monster that had sealed living things within ice.

Human skin turning an ashen blue and going rigid. Fingers that had turned ice-cold snapped off one by one, and even the breath that escaped between lips transford into ice crystals. On the ground, droplets of blood had already been scattered like tiny frozen shards.

'Even if I were to fight again—could I win?'

He had reached the realm of Falling Fire, yet the doubt still gnawed at him.

But Calix said it was possible. As though he had read his thoughts, he spoke with a steady voice, certain as a declaration.

"One who does not fear death is not human. We live afraid, striving to overco that fear. And when we are not yet ready, we beco cowards. When we face sothing beyond what we can bear, we put instinct first."

"……"

"And yet—is that wrong?"

The other man could not easily answer, but that was fine.

"It is certainly sothing to feel ashad of, sothing humiliating. You may feel a helplessness as though you have been swept away by fate. Even so, we must rise. If we are not to remain fallen forever, we must press forward toward the next step. The pain of the past will cling to us viciously, but we must believe that even that will beco a foothold for tomorrow."

The answer was already decided. Only, he had to find his way up through his own strength. What the man before him needed was 'courage'. It was not a matter of whether it was small or great, but whether the ember of it still burned within him.

With that, Calix drove the nail ho. He too had once known similar regret and self-reproach.

"Vice-captain. You said that what you had encountered before lies just beyond that place."

"……Yes."

"Then choose. Whether to overco it, or to fall again."

Marik stared at him.

When had this little one grown so much?

The feeling of crisis and terror transforming in an instant into a second chance. It was not imagination. He had not known that the simple truth—that people change—could reach him with such warmth.

Relief and sha washed over him at the sa ti. It was not that all his worries and anxieties had vanished, and yet he had been comforted without rcy.

While he was lost in thought, the light in Calix's eyes gradually faded. Had he crossed a line, or gone too far— he studied the other man's expression and moved his lips hesitantly.

If left like this, he was liable to end up being the one apologized to.

At that, Marik, for the first ti, smiled a purely genuine smile. He looked at the young man before him and held both the past and the present up to the sa light. The faces of a young Royce and Calix overlapped.

'If I simply follow along this ti too, will the answer co?'

It was still unknowable—but he would know before long.

If the mont ca when he would once more ask for the way forward.

* * *

The following dawn.

The capital of the Astria Kingdom, Star Haven, faced a crisis of absolute desperation. Though the sun had not yet risen, flas erupted from every direction.

BOOOOM!

The thick, massive steel gates were wrenched from their foundations and sent flying. Finally, the outer wall defenses had collapsed.

Krrraaargh.

The Corrupted and monsters poured into the streets. There was no stopping them any longer. People sprinted down the stone road, and so simply sank where they stood, swallowing their sobs.

"To the inner wall—everyone into the inner wall!"

Adrian Deconti, Prince of Latia, shouted. The man who had once been a mber of the investigation unit had put himself in harm's way to aid Astria.

But the enemy forces seeped into every corner of the residential district. Screams ran rampant in the alleyways, and soldiers were cut down before they could do anything.

"Kyaaaargh!"

Crack!

"Over here! The wounded and the children, further inside the plaza!"

They cut down the Corrupted, and cut them down again, for so ti.

Adrian reached the inner wall's entrance and felt firsthand that chaos had reached its peak. Civilians ca flooding in and collapsed, wailing as they cried out the nas of their children and parents.

"Push! We can't hold any longer! We have to close it now!"

Even so, there was no capacity left to help. Reaching out a hand was unthinkable with the surging crowd. The outer city had fallen—they had to lock the inner walls tight and hold on.

Boom, boom, boom.

"No! Just , just until ——"

"Please! Save !"

The screams of those who had not made it through before the thick gates closed echoed like a reverberation. The city appeared to have already reached its end.

The one small comfort was that his companions were still alive. Just then, the sound of prayer rang out.

It was Isabela—a mber of the investigation unit and a Rank 5 Cleric.

"O Kriya, send down your light upon this land covered in darkness. Console those who tremble in fear, and grant those who are fading one last asure of strength."

From the tips of the woman's fingers, a soft beam of light blood. One ring and then another overlapped, one layer, two layers…… A circling ring of light took hold of the surrounding area.

Wherever the sacred power touched, the malevolent force was pushed back, and the cold too dissipated rapidly. Thanks to this, the people within that space were barely able to catch their breath.

But only for a mont—the body of the one who had summoned the miracle swayed. She bowed her head, gasping, and blood ran from the corner of her mouth.

"Th—this is my limit. No more……"

Isabela gritted her teeth, her complexion drained to white—but when all was said and done, she had already done her share. There were simply too many enemies.

Boom, boom, boom.

Sothing was already approaching the gates. The remaining defensive forces gathered before the inner gates. The knights and soldiers of the Astria Kingdom packed densely around the fountain.

It was the final stand.

"So this is how it ends. The enemy's numbers still number in the tens of thousands."

At the murmur of one knight, several soldiers quietly broke into sobs. Only Adrian Deconti maintained a composed expression, fidgeting with his wrist.

"Still, we saved half the residents. You could say fortune was on our side."

At the nonchalant reply, a squire knight could no longer hold back and burst out:

"Fortune was on our side? Who is going to hold back the enemies that remain? Will you cut them all down yourself, Your Highness? Or is Duke Saitz, holed up in the royal palace, finally going to make an appearance?"

And then, truly, the Prince of Latia smiled. He swept back his blood-matted hair and let out a low chuckle.

But his eyes alone had settled into a deep, still calm.

"No. Neither." "……?"

It was then.

Bwaaaaaaaaang——!

From far beyond the outer wall, far further still, ca a long, sweeping sound. A great resonance born from a war horn. Then, the sentinels atop the walls pointed toward the horizon and cried out in trembling voices:

"Mountain Rabbits—it's the Mountain Rabbits!"

"The Alliance Forces are here! The Mountain Rabbits are here!"

A brief flash of relief passed through Adrian Deconti's eyes.

"O fate, I offer thee my praise."

A murmur spread. Those who had collapsed rose to their feet. They wound cloth around the fists gripping their spear shafts and readied themselves for the battle to follow. An unannounced visitor had overturned everything.

Yet in that mont, his Neural Accelerator trembled finely.

An early model passed down through the Latia royal line for generations—an artifact that guides its user toward the rightful fate. The 'fortune' housed within it was pointing in the direction outside the inner wall.

The way to live was there, it whispered—plainly and unmistakably.

To this, the prince of Latia replied briefly.

"Ha…… You absolute bastard son of a bitch."

A quiet murmur that reached no one's ears.