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Black Spire (2)
Merlin's eyes always sparkled. Even though she’d lived for a thousand years, energy suffused her voice, and every movement she made brimmed life. When you thought about it, it was a strange thing.
A hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred years, when seeing a human who’d lived for so long, the idea isn’t of someone living but of dying. Although there were a few exceptions, most transcendent beings who’d lived for so many years were more simply enduring than anything else.
To keep from eroding, to keep from breaking, to keep from becoming one of the Forgotten, to keep from becoming a Fallen Star, they endured an eternity but still flaked away.
Merlin was different. Despite having lived several times longer than other transcendents—for a full thousand years—she was always full of life and living each day to the fullest.
"You are… You, who are you?"
However, Najin couldn’t possibly describe the Merlin before him as alive. Her ghastly blue eyes were voids; the stars always visible within were nowhere to be seen. Those dead, empty eyes couldn’t have possibly felt a meaning to life.
"I asked you a question." Merlin gestured at Najin. Crossing the distance of several dozen meters in an instant, Najin was pulled right in front of her, unable to resist in any way. Grasping his neck, she spoke. "Who are you?" Her dark-blue eyes bored into him.
* * *
Looking at her up close, the difference between the Merlin before him and the Merlin Najin knew wasn’t just in the aura she gave off; her appearance was also slightly different.
If the Merlin he knew looked like a girl in her teens, the Merlin before him was closer to her twenties—a slightly more mature woman who’d lost her youthful look. Unlike his Merlin’s short hair, the Merlin of the past’s hair grew out long, reaching down her back.
Najin felt Merlin's fingers on his neck. They were cold, not the warmth of a living person.
"I am…" Najin spoke. "I am the Free Knight, Najin."
"A Free Knight?"
"You should be able to tell by my clothes.” A thousand years might have passed, but Free Knights hadn’t changed their uniform once in that time. He never thought the fact would be helpful in this way. With that thought, Najin pointed to Merlin's fingers gripping his neck "I'd appreciate it if you'd let me go."
Merlin silently let go of Najin's neck. "Why is a Free Knight here? Didn't you hear from the Round Table? They should have warned you never to approach the depths of the Outlands."
"I did hear that."
"Then why are you here? Do you not value your life?"
To be honest, it wasn't that he wanted to be there; it was closer to being dragged, but instead of saying that, Najin thought for a moment before speaking. "My guide pointed this way."
"Ha. I don't know who your guide is, but it's clear they're incompetent." Merlin scoffed. She turned her gaze away as if she had no interest. Grabbing the fainted witch by the hair, she dragged her off somewhere.
"Where are you going?"
"What does it matter to you? Why? Do you feel some sort of sympathy for this witch? Do you think I'm being too harsh?"
"I didn't think that. You must have your reasons for doing what you're doing. You aren’t the type of person to do something without reason."
Merlin halted in place and turned. "What am I?"
"You're Merlin. Great Archmage Merlin."
At Najin's answer, she gave a precarious smile. "Right. That's right. I'm Archmage Merlin, the holder of the second seat of the Round Table and Arthur's guide. No, I guess I can't be called a guide. How is this a guide?" She scoffed at herself. Sneering in self-loathing, Merlin threw the unconscious witch into a deep pit.
A foul stench billowed up from the corpse-filled hole. There wasn't just one or two of those pits. Everywhere he looked, there were only corpses. Of course, Najin realized all those corpses were witches, demons, and demon contractors.
'Slaughterer.'
He remembered something Merlin had once said. She often used the expression 'slaughterer' when she spoke of her past with a self-deprecating laugh, saying she was the one who had killed the most demons and witches in history.
Regardless of whether Najin was watching, Merlin continued with her task. She stretched her hand toward the sky; then, she clenched it as if grabbing something. The fainted witch twitched and convulsed violently. As if having regained consciousness, the witch struggled. Since her mouth was frozen, she couldn't scream, making her movements look all the more desperate.
The witch’s face contorted in pain.
It took a little while for Najin to realize what was happening to the woman. He looked at Merlin, who had her hand stretched toward the sky, and then at the sky above. The moment he looked up, he couldn't help but gasp at the scene that surpassed all imagination.
A giant hand was ripping a constellation made of seven stars from the sky, scattering starlight as if tearing away flesh.
Merlin swung her clenched hand, the seven stars following the swing, one after another. When Najin looked around, he saw it wasn’t just those few stars, but dozens of stars were plummeting. The frozen land where Merlin stood was filled with the corpses of stars. Though the night sky should have been filled with them, but a single star remained: Arthur's star.
Merlin was tearing out all the filthy stars that dared to position themselves near Arthur's star.
"You there." Merlin pointed at Najin. "If you don't want to die, you'd better leave this place. They'll be here soon."
What was coming? There was no need to ask such a question. The sky began to tear, and witches on broomsticks appeared in rows.
Dragons, witches, demons, those who fed on chaos and confusion filled the sky. As if they could no longer stand by and watch Merlin's atrocities, they had come to kill her.
A sneer hung on the lips of the lead witch. "Do you really think you can handle all of us by yourself, without Arthur?"
Dozens of constellations and their hundreds of apostles filled the sky with their stars.
"Your story is over, Merlin." Still in the air, they looked down on her.
Merlin didn’t even do them the courtesy of returning their stare. Without giving them a single glance, she raised her hand to the sky and swung down.
As if unable to replicate the scene, the dream recreating Merlin's memory shook violently. The world started to creak and then collapse, echoing in Najin’s ears with its death cries.
Before the world completely ripped apart, Najin saw the sky itself falling as Merlin brought down all of those who dared to look down on her.
Finally, he saw Merlin’s face, looking so fragile that she could collapse at any moment
With that last image, Najin woke from the dream.
* * *
Blink.
As soon as he woke from the dream, Najin gasped for breath. His heart was pounding like crazy.
'Just now...'
He wasn't just waking up from a dream but had been thrown out. Still, the Black Spire seemed to recognize even that as a clear, as it didn’t block his path. Najin barely managed to steady his breathing and looked around.
Anton was there, kneeling with his head bowed. It seemed he hadn't woken from the dream yet.
– Hey, hey! Are you okay? Can you hear me? Your mind is...
Merlin was urgently trying to speak with him.
Najin looked at Merlin. The Merlin he knew well, different from the one in the dream, was there. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. The words didn't come out easily. How should he explain this?
In the end, the first thing Najin said was neither here nor there. 'Did you see it too, Merlin?'
– What? You lying there completely limp?
'Not that. A hand or something pulled something out of me and showed me a dream...'
– I remember up to that point, but was there more after that? All I saw was you lying there.
It was Merlin's memory, but it seemed Merlin herself hadn’t been there. Najin gave a bitter smile at Merlin’s worried gaze. It was a familiar sight, and he felt a sense of relief as he spoke. 'I saw your memories, not my own.'
Merlin's body stiffened.
– Wh-what?
She was horrified, her eyes wide.
– When? Memories from when?
'Let's talk about that later.' Najin looked toward the next floor.
When Merlin had explained the Black Spire, she’d said that a single dream continued on and on. If so, would the dream continue from where it was cut off if he went to the next floor? If that was the case, there was something he had to ask.
'Merlin…'
– No, just when did you see?
'Can I use Excalibur in a dream?'
She went silent for a moment and gave him an intense stare.
– I don't know why you're asking that, but you probably can. It wouldn't have been possible if the witch Malkuth was alive, but now that she's dead, the dreams you have in this tower are nothing more than illusions.
Right. That's all he needed. Najin nodded and slowly got up.
– So what did you see in the dream?
'The Merlin from when you had twelve stars.'
The moment he said that, Merlin's face turned deathly pale.
– How… did you? I don't even remember that.
'You said it yourself, Merlin. The memories this tower shows are from the most painful times.'
The Mystique that resided in the Black Spire, Reminiscence—the Mystique the witch named Malkuth possessed—was overlaid onto the tower after she died. Just as its original owner had wished, the Mystique presented a nightmare to all challengers who entered the tower.
The most terrible memory, the most intense memory, the happiest memory—the memory changed depending on the challenger or the floor, but in Najin's case, for some reason, he seemed to be seeing Merlin's most terrible memory, a past that even Merlin herself had forgotten.
Merlin's face went from pale to ghostly white. It was far from the shame or embarrassment that came from someone else seeing one's past. Najin, who shared some of his emotions with her, felt terror and fear.
Merlin was feeling fear.
'Merlin?' Najin looked at her. The moment his eyes met with the fidgeting Merlin's, she bit her lip hard.
– Let's get out.
She grabbed Najin's arm and pulled. Although her body had no substance, he could feel her urgency.
– Let's get out, quickly. Huh? We've come this far, so that's enough. You don't have to climb all the way to the top of the tower.
Merlin's eyes were trembling.
– I said let's go. Please, huh? Can't you just listen to me for once?
'Merlin, calm down for a second...'
– I'm telling you, let's go!
As if surprised by her own shout, she covered her mouth. Not knowing what to do, she looked at Najin as her fingers trembled. Her gaze trembled with anxiety. Hands shaking, she gripped his arm and pleaded.
– Please. Can't we just… stop here. Just here?
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