# Chapter 70
At the moment Levi reached his other hand toward Raziel’s collarbone-covering clothes.
A small black bead fragment, about the length of one finger joint, captured his attention. Levi’s gaze left Raziel and settled on the black fragment he held out, and the Black Hand that had been gripping the neck went limp and moved toward the fragment.
Raziel willingly handed the fragment to Levi’s Black Hand.
The fragment placed on the scarred black palm seemed to crumble into tiny pieces, then instantly turned into black ash. The powder seeped into Levi’s wounds right before his eyes. As if each grain of powder was alive.
After the powder completely absorbed and disappeared, Levi’s body, which had seemed ready to go berserk, collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
Raziel, who gently picked up the unconscious Levi and laid him on the bed, covered him with a blanket up to his neck and spoke calmly as if nothing had happened.
“I heard that both the Iron Fortress and Antarbo have completely fallen.”
Chepel, who only put away his sword after seeing Levi lose consciousness, showed no sign of remorse at Raziel’s words. Raziel also seemed to have no intention of questioning him about that.
“You’re the only ones who succeeded in retreating, I suppose?”
“Yes, everyone else was either killed or taken prisoner.”
Raziel, sitting on the edge of the bed, finally looked at Chepel. There was no darkness regarding this defeat in either of their gazes.
“That level of loss should be enough for the kings at the secret meeting place to recognize the danger of the Delos Empire.”
Anton, the imperial representative sent by Raziel, was currently instilling a sense of continental crisis among the kings of other countries, excluding the Delos Empire, at the secret meeting place. The fact that the Iron Fortress, which had been called invincible for decades, and Antarbo, the second capital and port city, had been thoroughly conquered by the Immortal Army had more impact than the damage to any other territory of the Caron Empire.
‘Besides, I was able to get rid of those troublesome nobles.’
Raziel wanted to get rid of the Marquis of Husdinen, who was the representative of nobles who didn’t favor him. The same was true for his son, Baron Husdinen, the long-time commander of the Iron Fortress. Both used the symbolically important Antarbo and Iron Fortress as shields to exert considerable influence among the nobles.
In the first place, sending Levi and Chepel to the Iron Fortress was less about helping them and more about confirming a few things by using Ion Verdit. Additionally, it was to make him obsess over conquering the Iron Fortress at all costs.
If it were Ion Verdit, he could have penetrated the password designs that opened each secret passage entrance, and after secretly infiltrating the Iron Fortress, he would have gained information about Levi.
‘I thought he might rush at Levi in excitement without thinking, but fortunately he’s not stupid.’
Thanks to that, things had gone well.
The Iron Fortress and Antarbo thoroughly destroyed by the Immortal Army commanded by Ion Verdit, the kings of various countries more agitated than ever, the overconfident Delos Empire, and Levi, the only one who could kill the immortal soldiers, plus Ion Verdit who was still blindly devoted to him.
Raziel, watching Levi dancing earnestly on the stage he had set, recalled Ion Verdit who had called out to him so desperately.
❖ ❖ ❖
Levi, who had completely lost his reason from the moment the bracelet was removed, regained consciousness to the sound of harsh wind coming from somewhere. However, neither the bright light nor Raziel that should have been visible was anywhere in his sight.
―…don’t want…
His own voice mixed in from the thick darkness.
―Take me… if not…
Though the voice was so faint it was difficult to sense emotion, it contained an intensity deeper than anything else.
Levi was fully feeling the sensation of his voice, the ice-cold wind, and the distant darkness all interlocking and beating against his chest.
A faint light gradually penetrated the darkness enveloped by the cutting wind. Only then did the pure white thorn trees surrounding him start to become visible, and something equally white positioned in the middle of them appeared.
It was a strange monster made of enormous bones. Though similar in form to the winged lizard Etlun, its size was hundreds of times greater. It also seemed even larger due to the white thorn trees that had penetrated between the bones.
Crouched with its wings drooping as if it had died in that position, it looked more weary and pitiful than frightening.
Looking at the monster, Levi focused his gaze on the skull-like head part of the lizard. Each of the two hollowed-out holes where eyes would have been contained a bead.
‘That is…’
Though it looked like a simple black bead on the outside, Levi could instinctively recognize that the one in the right eye part was the same black bead, or “core,” embedded in his collarbone.
While Levi was struggling to understand why his core was in such a place, he realized that another bead was in the left eye part. Unlike his own, which was a dull and pitch-black stone-like bead, this one was like a pearl with a golden glow, so uniquely gorgeous and beautiful.
“Here it is.”
An unfamiliar voice came from somewhere.
A group of people walked into the cutting wind. Dressed like pilgrims in white robes with long sashes engraved with golden patterns, they paid no attention to the sharp wind.
The man leading the group of more than ten people eventually reached the skull. He gazed quietly at the golden bead before wrapping it in a cloth that emanated a strange energy and picking it up. Unmistakable anticipation settled in the man’s golden pupils visible above his white mask.
The man turned around, holding the cloth containing the golden bead close to his chest.
―Don’t go.
At the sudden voice, the man and the others stopped abruptly. They each looked around vigilantly with surprised eyes, but only the man with golden pupils seemed to have recognized where the voice had come from.
The man looked at the black bead in the eye socket opposite to where the golden bead had been.
―Don’t go. Don’t leave me behind.
The monotone voice held the man more clearly.
―Take me with you too.
“No, you need to stay here.”
The man spoke soothingly from within his mask.
“No human desires ‘death.’ All they desire is ‘life.'”
The man left only those words and turned away.
―Don’t go. Don’t go…
The black bead repeatedly voiced its attempt to hold the man back. But not one person from the man’s group looked back.
―Take me too. I want to live too.
The emotionless voice gradually gained strength, becoming as desperate as it was sorrowful.
―I don’t want to be alone…
Watching them exit one by one from the space where the cutting wind was swirling, Levi found himself uttering the same words as the black bead.
‘Don’t leave me alone.’
Remembering the golden bead that disappeared in the man’s embrace, Levi felt a pain as if his heart was being torn apart.
‘If you can’t take me… at least give that child back.’
However, Levi was completely ignored by them and abandoned alone in the cutting wind.
Levi pulled out a part of the memories hidden deep within his fragmented memories.
After spending an immeasurable amount of time together, the golden bead was taken by human hands and left his side on some distant day. Even though he said don’t go, even though he said take him too, even though he said if not that, then at least return that child, in the end, he was left alone.
For tens, hundreds of years, he repeated only those words. Even until the cutting wind weathered the monster’s bones away, leaving only the black bead alone in the place where it had been, Levi could only yearn, long for, and shout.
Just as it had stripped everything outside the forest and made it desolate, the cutting wind was busy painfully carving the black bead in various ways throughout those long years. But the thorn trees, which grew larger day by day feeding on the monster’s bone dust, eventually became able to completely block the painful cutting wind.
When the cutting wind stopped, the thorn trees revealed green leaves and blocked the sunlight entering the forest with their bodies. Moisture gathered in the place where the monster had been, and as the ground gradually sank, a puddle formed. This soon became a pond, and the black bead lay in the middle of it, endlessly gazing up at the hazy sky.
Even then, it never stopped making sounds. Although it was a place where thorny trees were so dense that not only people but even animals found it difficult to pass through, it still continued to call out.
Anyone, please hear my voice.
He knew that during the hundreds of years that had passed, no one had set foot in this forest. Even knowing this, this was all he could do.
Then, a crackling sound came from somewhere. Levi’s voice, which had been calling out without rest, finally stopped.
