Chapter 21: Holy Light
Why…
Nelly’s thoughts came to a halt, her mind filled with only that one sluggish word.
Why…
She couldn’t speak. When she opened her mouth, only something salty flowed out.
Why…
Her body had no strength, and her breathing slowed.
Gradually, she could feel nothing at all. Only the touch on her face, his cool fingertips caressing and rubbing. The dull pain in her chest suddenly became clear, heart-wrenching. Nelly coughed, and more scarlet blood came out of her mouth.
Karsus caressed Nelly’s face, licked the blood that had splattered on the corner of his lips, and a violent gold appeared at the edge of his pupils, his smile crazed and fiery. “We’ve reached the limit. I have no other choice.”
Nelly managed to curve her lips, but felt more salty, fishy liquid trickle from the corner of her mouth. Her consciousness cleared a little. She thought, This is fine too. Whether I do it myself or Karsus does it, the result is the same. She had finally found release.
Seeing through her thoughts, Karsus let out a cruel, low laugh. His voice was gentle and lingering, but the undercurrent of his laughter was colder than the snow on the mountaintop. He looked into her eyes without blinking.
He said, “You think you’re free? That you can finally escape from me?”
Karsus softly uttered the short syllables, his slightly seductive demeanor, coupled with the red on his lips, exceptionally bewitching. “How… could… that… be?”
The Demon King’s two-handed sword pierced through Nelly’s chest and into its master’s.
They were so close that Nelly could even clearly hear the sound of his organs and bones shattering. Karsus deepened the fatal embrace, pressing against her, his body completely swallowing the sharp blade.
Blood also flowed from the corner of his lips. So red. But even hotter, even redder, were his eyes.
Those red eyes were the gates of hell.
Karsus laughed hysterically, his blood-stained fingertips lingering on Nelly’s cheek. He spoke a curse in the tone of a lover’s whisper, “I will not allow anyone but myself to end your life, not even you. The one who kills you can only be me.”
“It’s alright, Nelly, don’t be afraid. No matter how many times, I will kill you with my own hands, and we will start over together. There will be one time when you will fall in love with me, Nelly. At that time, not even the will of this world will be able to separate us.”
He sealed it with a kiss.
The kiss was filled with the taste of blood. Their blood mingled and intertwined in the embrace, indistinguishable from each other.
Nelly’s whole body grew cold, her vision blurred. She had no strength to break free, and even her breathing slowed. Inhale, exhale, exhale, only exhale.
Her vision went black. Karsus’s low, charming voice lingered in her ear, refusing to let her go even in her final moment. “You are mine. You can only be mine, Nelly.”
It was the most vicious, most desperate curse, but it was read as a vow.
Nelly used all her strength to open her eyes. The lights around them had been extinguished at some point, but a pure white light appeared in front of her, from Karsus’s chest.
It was a light of extreme warmth. It was the warm glow of a fire that a beggar freezing to death in a sewer would feel at the end, the heat of a chowder swallowed after entering a port through a storm, the guiding light to heaven.
Nelly couldn’t help but want to touch this light that held all hope, but her body couldn’t move, her arms completely unresponsive.
Along with the strengthening light, there was a clicking sound, like gears turning.
Something was shining in the center of the white light, even more dazzling than the blinding holy light.
I want to touch it, just a touch… Nelly struggled to concentrate her remaining willpower and drive her stubborn arm. Extremely slowly, she reached out, her hand extending toward the center of the light.
It was only for a moment, but Nelly knew she had done it. Passing through the warm light, what she held in her hand was a long, slender object, bone-chillingly cold. She fumbled with it and slowly understood: it was a key.
The cold, hard key began to turn on its own, counter-clockwise.
The clicking sound was deafening. It turned out to be the loud noise of a lock core turning.
With the key as the center point, the entire space began to distort. Nelly felt as if she were stuck to the key, about to be sucked into the counter-rotating ripples at any moment. But in this pressure that was about to squeeze the last bit of air from her lungs, Nelly actually felt a sense of ease. Her whole body was light, finally free from its heavy shell.
Something incredible happened before her eyes.
The ripples of space-time, twisting with the reverse turn of the key, slowly unfolded before her. She could clearly see every fine wrinkle in them.
One turn.
—She was back to the first time she had met the hero Kal. The expressionless, black-haired young man turned crisply, his red cape fluttering.
Two turns.
—The faces of the previous 99 heroes flashed by one by one. Time rewound to the moment Nelly had just arrived in Wildia. She angrily questioned the system, only to receive the same answer: “Please kill the Demon King 100 times to save the world.”
Three turns.
—Time continued to rewind. It passed the beginning that Nelly knew, leaping to an even earlier encounter and entanglement.
The clicking stopped. Nelly held the key, feeling her consciousness was everywhere. She finally focused her attention in front of her. This was the main hall of the Demon’s Lair, Sloth, in a state of chaos.
The throne, encrusted with priceless obsidian, was toppled. The ruby-carved eyes of the golden raven on top of the scepter lifelessly reflected the raging flames around them. Smoke filled the air, and gravel continuously fell from the ceiling. The colorful stained-glass windows shattered into a rain of sharp and expensive shards, the beautiful fragments covering the black stone tiles, which were scarred with sword marks.
The Demon King Karsus lay in the middle of the hall, his black wings spread out stiffly, submerged in a pool of crimson blood.
He was face up, his mask having fallen to his side, revealing a handsome and pale face. His eyes were tightly shut, and his long, black lashes looked harmless.
The sound of light footsteps was heard. A young girl’s hand picked up the terrifying mask and carefully placed it back on the Demon King’s face. The girl hesitated for a moment, then, as if startled by her own unexpected act of kindness, she stumbled back a few steps and turned to flee.
The hall was instantly filled with only the lonely licking of the flames.
The eyes under the mask slowly opened, two pools of brilliant, deep red, calm and waveless. Karsus slowly sat up, held the mask in his palm to look at it, but then his fingers turned to his chest, and he almost gently picked up a fallen strand of hair.
Light brown, soft to the touch, as if it still held the girl’s gentleness. The Demon King looked in the direction the girl had left, his eyes gradually brightening.
He brought the strand of hair to his lips and kissed it reverently.
“Her name is Nelly, isn’t it?” the Demon King, with the voice of a young boy, murmured.
A light shone from his blood-stained chest. Karsus clicked his tongue in annoyance and covered the wound. He was bathed in a soft light.
The clicking sound of the lock core turning was heard. The ripples of space-time spread out, circle by circle, healing his wounds and restoring the surrounding scenery. The scattered stones of the throne flew back into place, the fragments of the stained-glass window returned to their precise positions, and the scepter slowly stood up straight. Karsus stood up, unharmed, and looked around the empty main hall of Sloth. The flickering firelight danced wildly in his eyes. He covered his eyes and couldn’t help but let out a hoarse laugh.
The world had returned to zero again.
The Demon King Karsus, the scourge of Wildia, continued to wait day after day to be defeated by a hero.
But this time was different. He had finally found the meaning of his existence, the only light that guided him:
The young girl named Nelly.