Chapter 614: Grave of the Fallen [2]

He lived as a genius, a scientist, a mechanic, and a schoolteacher. He experienced virtually every category of human existence that could be lived. And in every single life, meeting the red-eyed girl remained an absolute, unchangeable anchor in the timeline of the world.

Just as the red-eyed girl falling in love with the blue-eyed boy acted like an absolute trigger that ensured her inevitable death.

Every time he opened his eyes to a new life, he felt as though he had awakened directly into hell.

To him, continuing to live was a form of damnation beyond anything else in existence. It was a terrible curse that could not be broken by any earthly means.

To him, living was Sin.

His very existence was a Sin.

***

Sophia’s eyes snapped wide open. She sat up abruptly in her bed, gasping loudly for air as though an invisible hand had been choking her throughout her sleep.

Unknowingly, her heart lurched with profound pain from the haunting vision she had just witnessed. The perspective of the boy in the dream had filled her chest with an agonising grief unlike anything she had ever felt before.

The boy in her vision had looked eerily similar to Axel, and the girl had borne an unsettling resemblance to herself.

She placed a trembling hand against her chest, murmuring to herself in deep apprehension, “What a disturbing nightmare…”

Before she could process the dream any further, her gaze caught sight of a freshly printed newspaper left on the small stand beside her bed.

With shaking hands, she picked up the paper. She paid no attention to the bold, sprawling headlines on the front cover regarding the massive catastrophe that had swept through human lands due to the dark machinations of Demon Osiris.

Instead, she flipped through the pages frantically, her eyes searching past wartime reports until she reached the page listing the influential figures who had fallen during the disaster.

She searched the list line by line for a specific name, a name she desperately prayed not to find.

Yet her search came to an abrupt end near the top of the page.

The name she had prayed not to see was pinned at the very peak of the deceased list, the words written in glowing, red runic script.

The sight of those letters pressed down on her chest, feeling heavier than any mountain could ever be.

The newspaper slipped from her numb fingers, fluttering down to the floor. Her mind was so thoroughly rattled that she temporarily lost the physical strength in her limbs.

She gritted her teeth tightly as anger and intense sadness collided within her mind like a devastating storm.

In fact, the disastrous turmoil cutting through her heart was so unbearable that she could barely understand why she was feeling such boundless agony.

Yet no tears fell from her eyes. She refused to let a single drop fall, holding the sorrow deep inside because she felt entirely to blame for the tragedy.

Guilty for everything that had transpired.

“If only I were strong enough…” she whispered into the quiet room, her voice trembling. “Strong enough to break the Soul Brand.”

She clenched her hands into tight fists, her nails digging into her palms. “If only I were strong enough to oppose the king,” she uttered, her voice rising with bitter emotion. “STRONG ENOUGH TO KILL HIM.”

“Then, I… could have saved you.”

“I could have saved you from that fucking Demon!” she cried out in a broken, raspy voice.

With a heavy, aching heart, Sophia stood up and walked out of her quarters.

She wore a thick black veil over her face to conceal the enormous sadness and bitterness that threatened to break through her stone-cold expression.

She moved down the grand, busy corridors of the Royal Palace. None of the guards or passing nobles dared to stop her.

Darkness gathered around her form like coiling serpents, and the chilling bloodlust emanating from her frame was a clear warning that she would not hesitate to strike down anyone who crossed her path.

She walked past the massive palace gates completely unchallenged, her figure melting smoothly into the morning shadows.

Moving like a rapid blur across rooftops and through quiet alleys, she traversed the capital city of Suncrest until she reached its outer boundaries.

She arrived at a vast, desolate stretch of land that had been designated as a mass graveyard for the countless fallen victims of the disaster.

People from every background, rich and poor, old and young, were permitted to bury the remains of their dead in the muddy earth.

Because many of the deceased had left behind no physical bodies to lay to rest, their grieving loved ones buried personal belongings in the dug soil and erected stone markers with the names of the dead inscribed upon them.

Sophia had come here with a single purpose: she wanted to build a grave in the name of Axel.

With her face hidden behind the black veil, she moved toward a quiet, distant corner of the mass burial ground to find a suitable patch of earth. However, she suddenly froze in her tracks.

She spotted a familiar figure a short distance away, already hard at work digging into the damp ground.

Heinz Gil, the famed Calamity Warlord, was thrusting an iron shovel into the dirt like a mundane labourer, completely refraining from using a single trace of his supernatural strength or aura.

His face was contorted in a grimace, reflecting the storm of unexpressed, boiling emotions raging within him.

Sophia approached with slow, hesitant steps, drawing nearer to the warlord.

She did not utter a single word, standing in complete silence as Heinz continued to dig through the heavy mud.

Rain began to fall steadily from the dark sky above, washing over the graveyard. In the pouring downpour, it was impossible to tell whether the moisture running down Heinz’s face was merely drops of rain or silent tears.

****

Seeker’s Note – (Arc-3 title… The Sky Beyond The Sky)