Chapter 433: Epilogue (2)

Tesranach entered the palace. Two attendants came out to receive him. It seemed Maloka had gone ahead and sent word.

"Her Majesty the Queen is waiting for you."

"This way, please."

The audience chamber was surprisingly familiar. It was the audience hall of the imperial palace of the Lacania Empire. a place Tesranach himself had once resided in. Since the afterlife was a mirrored world, it had been inverted and used as the palace.

A beautiful woman in a splendid dress, her red hair flowing down to her waist, stood waiting for him.

"You are..."

It was Serati Allen Serakal, the queen of the dead and the eighth goddess who governed twilight and dawn.

She smiled warmly upon seeing Tesranach. "You've finally awakened. But what should I call you? Lady Grateria? Lord Tesranach?"

Tesranach's expression darkened. "I have no right to call myself a guardian. The name Tesranach itself stands as proof of the sins I have committed."

"The sins you have committed..." Serati tilted her head. "It shouldn't be much of a problem, should it? After all, there is someone whose sins are incomparably greater than yours."

"W-Well, that may be true, but..."

Her unexpectedly calm reaction made Tesranach falter for a moment. She felt nothing like the woman he remembered. Despite her playful tone, every time her voice rang out, an indescribable pressure weighed down on his shoulders.

"So you've obtained true divinity."

"Yes, it just sort of happened."

"Do you not miss your life as a human?"

"Miss it or not..." With an awkward expression, Serati pointed into the air. "I'm still living a human life, you know?"

When she created the afterlife, she had fully prepared herself for death. She had opened the world of the dead with the intent of ending her life completely. But something unexpected had occurred, thanks to the fusion of twilight and dawn's grace at the final moment.

Twilight was the movement from light to darkness, and dawn was the movement from darkness to light. Through the union of the two, she had come to exist in both life and death.

"So when I get bored, I sometimes go back up to the living world. I can't do it often, though. If a goddess keeps wandering the mortal realm, it affects the balance of the world."

She said it so casually that one might think she was just stepping out to visit a neighbor. It was the demeanor of one who had transcended mortal fate. And because of that, Tesranach realized it anew, that she had truly ascended to the seat of a goddess.

And that the power of death he had feared so deeply was now firmly held in the grasp of this new goddess. A laugh escaped him. Only now did it truly sink in. There was no longer any need to worry about the end of the world. The world would no longer spiral toward destruction.

The one who had repeated time thousands of times, who had even abandoned himself to protect the world, finally let out a deep sigh of relief. "So, it's finally over."

Then, suddenly, Tesranach came to a realization. Someone who should have been present was nowhere to be seen. "Come to think of it. Where is he?"

He didn't say the name, but it was obvious who he meant.

Serati shrugged. "He's eating."

"Eating?" Tesranach blinked blankly. Eating? A dead man?

***

Tesranach had taken it as a metaphor when he heard that the dead were eating. But it wasn't. He stumbled into a magnificent banquet hall, with a beautiful chandelier glittering overhead and elegant candelabras cast light along every pillar.

A black-haired young man in a dark robe moved back and forth along a long table set at the center of the hall.

The table was laden with every delicacy imaginable. There were all kinds of bread, various cheeses, smoked fish dishes, uniquely prepared meats, and even desserts so beautifully arranged they whetted the appetite at a glance.

The young man wore an expression of pure delight as he savored every dish. It went beyond simple enjoyment. It was as if he were appreciating works of art.

"Ah, delicious as always."

Watching the scene, Tesranach let out a stunned murmur. "What is this?"

The young man, Karnak, turned his head with a piece of cheese in his mouth. "Tesranach?"

He muttered it without much surprise. "Just as expected. I figured you'd show up around now."

Only then did Tesranach understand why those he had met in the afterlife had accepted his return so naturally. Karnak must have mentioned it to them beforehand.

"What are all these?"

"These?" Pointing at the food on the table, Karnak replied proudly. "I get all sorts of offerings through the Twilight Order."

Thus was the doctrine of Twilight: The more food one offered to the goddess of twilight, the more abundant the afterlife would become, ensuring no one would go hungry. This was the very law of the afterlife.

So many people offered such tributes, praying for abundance after death. Simply put, it was ancestral offerings.

"Thanks to that, I've been enjoying gourmet life lately."

Every day, he received dishes prepared with care by chefs from all over the world, as well as all the finest delicacies. All Karnak had to do was sit here and eat. "It's heaven, really."

Tesranach's draconic eyes twisted strangely. "I thought you had sacrificed yourself."

Watching the afterlife open and the dead regain their rest, Tesranach had been honestly impressed. He had even thought that the immutable evil had finally changed, abandoning everything in order to atone. And yet, to think he would find a way to keep eating even after death?

"Truly... you never take a loss, even in death."

It was confusing. Could this really be called paying the price for one's sins? Even now, Karnak bore the immense burden of maintaining the afterlife. That was why Serati had become the queen of the afterlife and managed human souls. It was because Karnak himself had no capacity left, occupied as he was with sustaining the very existence of the afterlife.

He was clearly making sacrifices, so it couldn't be said that he hadn't paid a price. And yet... calling it atonement felt somehow off.

Karnak suddenly wiped his cheese-covered hand on his robe. "Ah, right."

He had just remembered something Serati had told him to do. He straightened his clothes, put on a serious expression, and bowed his head slightly. "Sorry for everything."

Only after a moment did Tesranach realize that this was an apology. It was absurd. In all his thousands of years, he had never seen such a half-hearted apology. What was even more absurd was that, by Karnak's standards, it was completely sincere.

"Well... I suppose I'm no longer in a position to blame others either."

With a hollow expression, Tesranach accepted the apology. Karnak broke into a wide grin.

"Since we're on the topic, how about helping us out if you don't have anything better to do?"

"Help you?"

"You saw it on your way here, didn't you? The afterlife isn't exactly safe." Karnak was asking him to return as a guardian of the world. "They say a man who's used to eating meat eats it best. Someone who's got experience protecting the world would probably do a good job protecting it again."

The living world was being protected by the Dragon Emperor Grateria. If Tesranach became the guardian of the afterlife, this world would be all the safer for it.

A pure smile formed on Tesranach's lips. To be asked to end his long wandering and return to his true self. "If anything, I should be the one asking. Will you allow me to protect this world?"

Karnak happily grabbed another piece of cheese and popped it into his mouth. "Great. That's one less thing for me to worry about."

Watching the lofty king of the afterlife chew cheese with his mouth full, Tesranach found himself sighing again. Everything seemed to have turned out well, and yet, why did watching that man still make him uneasy?

He thought he understood now why the others had set aside their anger toward Karnak and chosen to protect the afterlife.

I need to stay sharp. If I'm not careful, this afterlife we just gained might be in danger!

Just then, a sharp voice rang out from outside the banquet hall. "Hey, Karnak!"

It was Serati.

"What?"

"You're still eating? I told you to get ready! We have to go!"

The only reason she had spoken so politely before was because she had been his subordinate. Now they stood as equals. There was no reason for formalities anymore. What part of him deserved that kind of respect?

"Right, that was today."

As Karnak hurriedly moved, Tesranach looked puzzled.

"Where are you going?"

Karnak shrugged. "To meet some friends."

***

Serakal was the Goddess of Twilight and Dawn, and one who had defeated Tesranach, the Black God. She was the goddess who saved humanity and prepared a new resting place for the dead.

Using the body and soul of the Black God as a foundation, and gathering death energy and malice to shape heaven and earth, this new world of the deceased came to be called the afterlife.

With the clear separation between the world of the living and the afterlife, the world itself changed. Death energy and malice no longer lingered in the living world. As they belonged to the afterlife, they naturally flowed away from this world into that one, like water flowing downward.

Necromancy, which had once deceived people, largely disappeared. With death energy and malice being its foundation, necromancy could no longer exhibit its former power.

The presence of evil spirits faded. Monsters lost their ferocity and became ordinary beasts. Necromancers who had once used the Shadow of Doom to throw the world into chaos returned to being ordinary humans.

These were completely separated worlds, where the living could not interfere with the dead, and the dead could not interfere with the living. Now, people could live their lives with peace of mind, preparing for death without fear.

But this complete separation had a side effect. For three days and nights, from autumn into winter, the boundary between the living world and the afterlife grew extremely thin, and the two worlds overlapped.

During this time, the dead would visit the world of the living, seeking to revisit memories and soothe their longing. And so, people came to call this period the Day of the Dead.

In the headquarters of the Twilight Order, Ortus de Vespera, in this grand temple located at the center of the Zestrad territory, a mass was in full swing to mark the Day of the Dead.

"The God of Death descended upon this land in the form of a demonic dragon, and the Goddess of Twilight likewise took on the form of death to oppose him." A blond young man in violet vestments, with a gentle and unassuming appearance, continued in a solemn voice. "Abandoning her beautiful form and coming to this world clad only in the shape of bones, she taught us that no matter how fair one may be, all are but flesh and bone in the end."

With a sermon reminding the congregation of the vanity and transience of obsession with outward appearance, and urging them to cast off attachment to the material and physical and remember that a human's essence lay within, not without, the Pope of Twilight, Varos concluded the mass.

Then the choir raised their voices in a beautiful hymn.

—O Goddess, grant us your light and your darkness.

—Let all the living and the dead be with you.

As the hymn ended, the Saint of Twilight stepped forward before the assembly. She was Lapicel Allen, the new saint who had succeeded Saint Serati, who had ascended as a goddess.

"In the name of the Goddess, I bless you all." A gentle twilight glow descended softly upon the heads of the faithful. All were moved, offering earnest prayers.

From the back, watching the mass, Leven and Milia let out quiet admiration.

"Sir Varos has really gotten used to being a pope now."

"And Lapicel too. She looks completely natural as a saint."

"It still feels like a cult, though."

"At this point, can you even call it that? The whole world recognizes it now."

"Fair enough." Letting out a small chuckle, Leven rose to his feet. "Anyway, we should start getting ready to go meet them."