Awakening the Great Chapter 89

Chapter 89: The End and The Beginning

By the quiet water's edge, Minebris could not find her words for a long ti. As her teal core humd with a gentle vibration, she steadied her breath in rhythm with its pulse.

What followed was a quiet confession.

"Long ago, I decided to protect at least the things cradled within my embrace. I sought to keep this mountain range wholly as my own. And so I raised the barrier, and gave wretched souls a new place to call ho."

Slowly closing her eyes, she continued in a near whisper.

"But now, the end draws near. As you said, I will fall. The collapse began long ago, and what remains is nothing but a precarious remnant. Before long, this wall will crumble completely. Perhaps tonight itself, despair may co crashing in. Just as you reached this place without much resistance, so too will wicked things seep deep within."

Hearing those words, Airien squeezed her eyes shut. She too had sensed, dimly, that the barrier was faltering. But having it confird through the lips of the mage made anxiety and dread spread through her veins like a slow poison.

Calix spoke in a calm, soothing voice.

"So you endured all those long years alone. Even as the darkness of the east consud itself. Truly, you were compassionate—and resolute."

Regrettably, the praise aid at her did not reach her heart.

"It was my choice. Simply, that."

At her answer, tinged with resignation and quiet pride, Royce and Airien bowed their heads. Respect and reverence, astonishnt and sorrow all crossed their faces.

Minebris's gaze turned once again to Calix.

"If you have pointed to what lies within , you must have a plan. Is there a way?"

He drew a deep breath, then laid out his thoughts without reservation.

"……If Elvra has fallen, the central continent is close at hand. With Niboria and Astria waging war, the flas will spread swiftly. We must respond to this proactively."

"How do you propose we respond?"

Analyze reality with cold clarity, trace past experience, and seize upon a thread of possibility.

"So ti ago, I had occasion to et Sier Lagrin, Elvra's Doctrinal Chancellor. He was envisioning a picture where Viale and Kalahim are bound together, with Latia drawn in as well to apply pressure on Niboria. The idea is to unite the continent and stand against it as one. I still believe that plan holds."

Having sorted through the information given to him, Calix arrived at his answer.

The conditions before him were clear.

‘Yelayen and Minebris both. If the mages speak the truth, a great war is coming. It's not a matter of Duke Saitz or the Niboria Empire. Wicked things are pouring out of the Land of Shadows. In that case, the Viale Mountain Alliance must ultimately be drawn out into the wider world.’

He had to complete the picture painted by Ella's master, Sier Lagrin. He had to bind Viale and Kalahim—and the other nations beyond—and raise a tide to stand against the darkness.

That, in turn, aligned perfectly with the Mountain Rabbits' own purpose.

The blurry picture was gradually coming into focus.

Of course, the mountains ahead were high and steep.

"How reckless."

Minebris replied coldly.

"The Corrupted Lord, De Generitum, is not a being that mortal strength can stop."

Despite her negative tone, Calix did not waver. On the contrary, he sensed a tremor within her words. She was desperately demanding that he give her an answer.

"Even so, we must fight."

"Even granting that were possible, the children of Viale will not move easily. Humans, divided as they are, will put nothing ahead of their seething desires."

She was right. But whether it was possible was not what mattered.

If it was sothing that had to be done, then it would be done.

"The persuading is my part."

"……Can you truly do it?"

"It is not a question of possibility. If what you say is true, we must resolve ourselves and move forward. Whether we can prevail—that I cannot say. But soone has to begin. We cannot simply hold our breath and wait for ruin to arrive."

Imdiately after, a terrible silence followed.

Longing and regret played across that beautiful face for a ti.

Minebris let out a long, slow exhale. It was a dense, heavy sigh—as if she ant to breathe out every misguided emotion in a single breath.

"……Very well. Then I shall ask again."

At last, she gave a nod.

"For what purpose did you set foot in this mountain range?"

Finally, the mont had co.

The question of what it was she wanted from him.

Calix raised his head and looked directly into her eyes.

"Please—lift the barrier that surrounds the mountain range."

* * *

Silence fell. The composure she had maintained as a mage across hundreds of years shattered. It was as though, for just a mont, she had slipped outside the flow of ti and stopped entirely.

That was how shocking the demand was.

Minebris stared fixedly into his eyes. At the end of it, her voice opened with great difficulty. A complex state of mind was plainly evident in her heavy tone.

"The barrier is a wall that keeps wrongful beings at bay. Your request is no different from asking

to invite darkness into this land. If even the last remnant is withdrawn, countless intruders will slip in along the spine of the mountain range."

Even an all-powerful mage could not hide the desire to turn away.

Alongside her, Airien stepped forward and cried out. Her voice trembled finely, soaked through with anger and fear.

"You……. You're mad. That could turn all of Viale into a battlefield!"

"……."

"We don't know the outside. We could die without ever knowing what that fight out there is for—or who it's for!"

The elven woman finally released the emotions she had been suppressing all this ti.

Nations of humans she had never once visited, war against monsters whose very existence she hadn't known, and De Generitum—who brought with it a vague and creeping dread. She could not easily accept that all of that chaos was bearing down from beyond the mountains.

Calix did not deny it. It was a sharp point. He could make his choice, but those who had made no such choice would be drawn into this fight as well. He could not pretend to be unaware of that weight.

And yet, at the sa ti, he knew it was necessary.

If Minebris's words were true, the barrier around the mountain range could vanish as soon as tomorrow. The darkness had already co, and even this land was no longer safe.

If so, a ‘direction’ had to be set. If the wall had already crumbled, a passage had to be made before it fell completely. Rather than eting ruin, it was better to face it with prepared resolve.

He had chosen this.

The responsibility that followed—he would accept it squarely.

"That too is only a matter of ti."

Minebris's eyes flickered faintly. She knew that her opponent had not co forward out of re hot blood.

Still, there was one more thing that needed to be asked.

"Is this the will of the Mountain Rabbits? Or is it the conviction of you alone?"

The question was short, but its weight ran deep.

In that mont, Royce t Calix's gaze.

‘That look in his eyes.’

He understood. Calix had seen sothing.

Though he himself could not see quite the sa picture—

‘He's not soone who'd say things recklessly.’

He gave a small nod. As leader, there were monts when he had to move forward on faith in his companions. This was precisely one of those monts.

That was answer enough.

Airien's reaction, by contrast, was far more intense. It seed for a mont as though the raw emotion had ebbed, but the traces of feeling were still etched across her face.

"You truly……. You believe the flas of the east will spread even here."

A quiet voice rippled through the air. It was not the heated response of before. Rather it was calm—and precisely because of that, all the more bewildering.

"But, O Embracing One, I still don't know. Whether this is truly the only right choice—or whether it is a delusion born of fear. You, falling……!"

"……."

"I, I……. We……."

Airien gazed at the protector of the mountain range, then unknowingly lowered her eyes. It was because she had read a forlorn expression in those pupils. It was an emotion ill-suited to a mage who had lived for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Yet to Minebris, it was sothing close to a revelation. She saw herself reflected in the figure before her.

In her overwhelming fear, she had been on the verge of choosing to sink down and stay rooted to the spot.

"……I cannot bring myself to deny that change is needed. I have co to understand that your words spring from truth, and that they carry a righteous intent. I, too, cannot turn away from reality."

Pure acknowledgnt.

But a decision had not yet been made.

"However, that alone is not enough."

Airien startled and raised her head, and Minebris turned her back toward the water's edge and continued.

"I know. What it ans to stand before De Generitum—how deeply, and into what endless darkness, one must cast oneself."

Then, slowly, the core began to rotate.

"And so I will ask one final thing, Calix."

The power of the Embracing One surged. Mana swelled and filled the floor beneath them. It pressed in from all sides, and even the air grew heavy.

"Can you resist that darkness? Are you truly resolved to press forward toward tomorrow—even if you lose everything?"

The question was simple, but far from light. Calix felt the current of mana pierce into his very core.

And—

She turned to face him, and pointed directly at him.

"The answer—I will hear from within you."

In that instant, his vision blurred.

The abyss had opened.

* * *

The light vanished. After the teal mana rippled and scattered, Calix was left alone in quiet darkness. It was a space of nothingness. No up, no down—a world where even ti had stopped.

Then, sothing cleaved through a crack in the floor and rose upward.

Crack.

The fissure spread in an instant, and beyond it the sight of a ruined battlefield revealed itself. On the blackened, parched earth lay countless corpses scattered about.

Those who had wielded flashing swords, those who had prayed in reliance on their faith, those who had carried wisdom within them. All who had stood and fought in their own way had t an equal end.

They had fallen asleep forever in terror.

Crunch.

And at the center of it all, there was a being walking forward—flesh and bone grinding and warping in its wake.

De Generitum.

It did not swing a blade. It did not tread upon the ground. Yet everywhere it passed, the space simply collapsed.

Grotesquely twisted horns and dark crimson robes, skin oozing with putrid blood, eye sockets filled with nothing but darkness—all of it converged upon a single aning.

Death, against which there is no resistance.

In the sa instant, Calix knew it instinctively. This was unmistakably the being he had encountered in a dream. The one who had bored through into his innermost self, questioned his identity, and pronounced his fate. It was exactly the sa this ti as well.

Only—his na was not called.

[Minebris.]

It was certain that the present situation had its origins in her past. Even so, a chill ran down his spine. The voice did not echo outward, yet simply being in the sa space left wounds upon the soul.

Then De Generitum extended its hand. Fingers protruded from the end of its sleeve. Long, emaciated, a shape through which corrupted blood ran in reverse. An overwhelming sense of despair in the face of an absolute being flooded the depths of his heart.

There was no one to help. He was the sole survivor.

It was then.

[Go and hide. Never let yourself be seen again.]

Those words were not an act of rcy. It was a declaration—a contemptuous reprieve granted to one who could not even qualify as a worthy opponent. A worthless existence undeserving of even being killed. That was how Minebris had been treated.

Plop.

Just then, rain as red as blood fell and touched her cheek.

De Generitum did not move at all. Instead, a cascade of afterimages flashed before his eyes.

Blackened fingertips slash through empty air. Everywhere they pointed, spaceti was torn apart. Iron helts were crushed like fruit, and renowned blades of legend were split into hundreds of fragnts of tal. A hole was punched through a chest—yet the heart remained, still gasping.

Valor and justice, faith and honor—all fell into slumber just like that.

Overwheld, and broken.

Hoo.

And then, Calix's silhouette splits in two. He remained standing where he was, but the Minebris of that day had fled. She had yielded to the darkness and retreated into the farthest mountain range. After that, she never faced the outside world again.

[……I said, leave.]

And in the place where she had vanished, Calix now stood. Everything up to this point had been a mory of the past—but from here on, it was his own trial.

Rrrumble.

The ground beneath his feet shook violently, and the wind was shredded into fragnts. De Generitum's gaze turned toward him. His lungs twisted with a wrenching sensation as his vision lurched—

In this mont, it was not a fabrication.

The abyss was truly trying to swallow him whole.

Then, once more, that vile voice reached him.

[Hurry and hide. Bow your head, and submit.]

Soft and quiet. A voice that whispered as if in concern. Yet beyond it, only a single intent was carried.

‘That it would be better for you to simply be forgotten, just as you are.’

His throat seized shut. For a mont, his breath stopped. His heart clenched, and his consciousness flickered. Then, from all sides, his inner weakness—past pain—wounds that had never healed—surged upward.

[Run away. All you have to do is turn your back. You are nothing.]

At the end of it, Calix opened his eyes.

Fear flickered within his pupils. His two legs trembled finely. He looked on the verge of collapsing at any mont. But still, he refused to kneel.

"I…… Will not run."

His voice cracked—but rang out more clearly than anything else. The sa backbone that had refused to retreat even before the Master, Imran Akran, blood painfully once more.

"I will stand against you."

He is one who rises.

He may break—but he will not bend.

Whoooosh!

In that instant, a pure white light seeped out from his heart. The blade of awareness that pierces through the essence of despair—the symbol of hope.

Divinity.

That warm power erupted from within and pushed back the darkness surrounding him. The wind that had been driven away returned. The ground that had glead black cracked—and then the entire space convulsed.

De Generitum's form began to dissolve.

Minebris's magic could no longer twist the fabric of ti and space.

* * *

As the abyss receded, the texture of water and wind was felt once more. The teal core fell silent as if asleep, and the interior of the temple was hushed as though holding its breath.

Calix slowly lifted his head. Before him, the Embracing One, Minebris, stood watching him in quiet stillness.

Without a word, for a long while, only birdsong echoed through the air.

Airien's lips stirred, but no sound escaped. Royce, who had had his hand raised to the hilt of his sword, only now lowered it.

And at last, Minebris spoke.

"I…… Wish I could stop you. The darkness is deeper than the abyss, and the world is crueler than death. It is a far, far too grueling path."

Remarkably, she wore a sorrowful expression.

"What I am able to give you is limited. After the barrier is gone, you will need to persuade the elves and dwarves. You will also be battered by the countless desires of humans. At the end of all that, you will co face to face with the wicked lord."

It was an ill-oned prophecy.

"And yet, I cannot bring myself to tell you to stop."

Calix does not avert his eyes for even a single mont. At that simple act, the mage could not help but sigh.

The next instant—

Shhhhhhhh.

Minebris's core began to rotate rapidly.

Simultaneously, a beam of light stretched out along the temple walls. The threads of mana that had been wrapped around the mountain range returned one by one toward their source of power.

The great ancient trees of the forest swayed wildly and shed their leaves, and the wind that had been circling in a steady rhythm flowed off in a new direction. The force that had held wicked beings and strangers at bay had vanished utterly.

A path had opened.

The light faded, and silence descended. As if every living thing in the mountain range had held its breath in a single mont, all movent stilled. Contrary to this, a asure of vitality had returned to the mage's face. She had bought herself ti.

"Now……. There is no going back."

"……."

"Is there anything you wish to say?"

She asked with a wry smile, and Calix's lips began to move. There was a hint of hesitation about him. Minebris waited with a composed expression.

And soon, the young Mountain Rabbit opened his mouth.

"Yela…… I'm going to kill Yelayen."

"……?"

"……."

In a manner unlike himself, Calix's face turned red. It was because, belatedly, he had recalled the ssage from the Pointing One, Yelayen.

'Say it word for word, without leaving out a single syllable—'I'm going to kill Yelayen.' The temperant is truly, dreadfully terrible…… But just hearing those words will calm them down.'

As the glare boring into the back of his head needled him, just as he was beginning to think he had blurted out sothing foolish—

Ahahaha.

A woman's laughter rang out in the heart of the forest.

Minebris smiled like a young girl. Even knowing that his absurd declaration was Yelayen's doing, she could not contain the gladness that welled up inside her. After no less than hundreds of years, she laughed until tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.

She laughed, concealing her tears within the laughter, as she recalled a day from long ago.

The young man before her was the spitting image of Ranita.

Hopelessly stubborn—he never listened. He had clear convictions and was certain of his own path. He sought to fight things beyond his capacity to handle, and found his strength within his weakness.

That was why.

She raised one hand into the air. At her fingertips, a tiny, delicate thread of mana—barely perceptible to the eye—condensed.

Within it, a single point of radiance was born.

It shone like a sun inside a transparent orb, and hanging from a slender chain, it ca to a stop before Calix's eyes.

He extended his arm. At the touch of his fingertips, the necklace settled into his palm as if it had at last found where it belonged.

"This is……."

"It is called Oros. It is a treasure for those who move forward. When you find yourself on the verge of losing who you are, it will lend you its aid."

The tal casing its surface was cold—but within it, a warm power was unmistakably swirling. In particular, the radiance at its center pulsed like a heartbeat.

"……May I truly accept this."

"You already have."

Minebris smiled and nodded. In her eyes, both affection and compassion were held together.

Whoooo.

Just then, the wind ca. This ti, it ca from beyond the mountain range. The world that had been severed until now, that isolated flow, had been reconnected.

Airien watched all of this with a complicated gaze, while Royce gave a small nod, expressing his respect. Calix, in turn, responded with clear conviction.

"Thank you. I will……. See it through."

With those words, from the western sky, a single ray of sunlight seeped into the water's edge. As the thick-piled mist was swept away——

It was not an ending, but a beginning.