Chapter 1850: The Umbra Sanctum: Part-2

No.25’s POV

"I told you to kill me when you had the chance... You should have listened."

She tightened her grip around the wooden staff.

The pain was deeper than any wound I had ever received, but that wasn’t what frightened me. There was something else hurting me, something buried deeper than flesh and bone.

I blinked and looked down at my chest before slowly raising my eyes toward her. Her face remained hidden beneath the hood, leaving me unable to read the expression behind it.

I couldn’t understand why she had suddenly done this, or what had driven her to plunge that staff into my chest.

But there was one thing I knew for certain.

The hand holding the staff was trembling.

Not violently. It was subtle, almost imperceptible, but I could feel every tiny tremor travelling through the wood and into my chest.

It was the trembling of someone trying desperately to convince themselves that what they were doing was necessary.

Not the trembling of someone who wanted to kill.

The trembling of someone who was hurting.

"It’s... alright, child," I muttered.

Blood gushed from the corner of my mouth, warm against my lips, but I still forced myself to smile at her.

Her hands trembled even more.

Then she pushed the staff deeper into me.

The pressure sent another wave of pain through my body, yet I didn’t resist. I didn’t have the strength to fight her, nor did I have the desire to.

Instead, I slowly raised my hand toward her.

My fingers were shaking as they reached her cheek, touching the skin hidden beneath the edge of her hoodie. She could have moved away. She could have stopped me.

But this time, she didn’t.

My fingertips rested gently against her cheek.

There was something different about her... I felt something wrong on her face.

Then I felt it.

Something warm and wet slipped beneath my fingers.

I froze.

She was crying.

For a moment, I simply looked at her.

Then I smiled.

"I can see... You have a wonderful heart, child. That is why this hurts you so much."

My voice grew weaker, but I continued.

"You’ve been suffering alone, carrying something far too heavy for someone to bear by themselves. What a pitiful child you are..."

I gently wiped away the tear beneath my fingertip.

"But whatever greater cause you are fighting for... whatever future you are trying to reach, I hope you find happiness there. I hope that, when everything is finally over, you can look back and... believe that all this pain was worth enduring."

Chcckkk

The staff penetrated deeper.

Her body shuddered.

"S....p," she mumbled painfully, her voice barely escaping her throat.

I looked at her for a long moment.

Despite the blood filling my mouth and the agony tearing through my chest, I gave her the gentlest smile I could.

"I... forgive... you."

Her entire body froze.

For a brief second, everything between us seemed to freeze with her. She simply stood there, staring at me from beneath the darkness of her hood.

Then,

Slucck!

She pulled the staff out.

A gaping hole remained in my chest, and blood immediately spilled down my body. The sacred flames that normally burned beneath my skin stirred instinctively, trying to reach the wound.

But they couldn’t.

Even though the sacred flames could heal wounds far worse than this, the wound on my chest refused to close. The flames touched its edges, flickered desperately, and then vanished as though something was preventing them from reaching it.

As if I was missing something.

"No use. You haven’t refined it to its finest form. You cannot heal a wound inflicted by the Primordial."

She spoke quietly as she turned her back toward me.

I blinked several times, slowly processing her words.

"I see..."

A small, gentle smile appeared on my face.

So that was it.

"You have failed..." she said, her voice carrying a strange loneliness as she stared toward the horizon.

"Now, they are going to erase everything."

She lowered her head slightly and shook it.

They?

Who was she talking about?

Gods?

Before I could ask, she suddenly turned toward me.

Her voice changed.

For the first time, something painfully gentle.

"Aether... you will always be their God."

She paused, her fingers curling slightly beneath her sleeves.

"You will be the only God... that I have ever acknowledged."

There was something in those words that hurt more than the wound in my chest.

As she spoke, her hand slowly moved toward the edge of her hoodie, as though she had finally decided to lower it.

But she stopped.

Her fingers remained there for several seconds before slowly falling back to her side.

She shook her head.

"I’m sorry..."

Her voice cracked faintly.

"Even I am ashamed of myself."

There was genuine pain in her tone.

For a moment, I thought she wanted to show me her face.

Perhaps she wanted me to know who she truly was.

But she couldn’t.

Instead, her hand moved toward the blindfold covering her eyes.

She slowly untied it.

The ribbon slipped loose and fluttered gently in the wind before falling from her fingers.

"I... don’t have a name."

Her eyes remained closed.

She stood there silently, as though gathering the courage to reveal the one thing she had hidden from everyone.

Then her eyelids slowly opened.

Her gaze met mine.

And in that moment, she spoke with a quiet certainty that carried the weight of something far older than either of us.

"They call me..."

She paused.

"The Fate."

From within the hoodie, though I couldn’t see her face, I could see two gorgeous eyes staring at me.

Ba-dump.

I didn’t know why, but something inside my heart felt different now.

I, who had never expected anything from anyone... now wanted those eyes.

I needed those eyes to look only at me.

I needed those eyes to stare at me all day.

I needed those eyes so I could love them for eternity.

I needed...

Those eyes weren’t just gorgeous... they stirred something inside me, something I had believed had long since died within my heart.

It felt... like I could die for them.

She stared at me with those wonderful, gorgeous eyes I had never seen in my life. There was something strangely beautiful in the way she looked at me, something I couldn’t name, something that reached deeper than words ever could.

Then she said lovingly,

"Goodbye... No.25"

As she said it, she struck her staff against the ground, and she disappeared right before my eyes.

"N-No!" I tried to reach for her, but she had already left... leaving only the ribbon that danced before me in the air before slowly falling into my hand.

I stood there, using the spear as my support, staring at the empty space where the Prophetess... or Fate... had stood.

The world around me felt strangely quiet.

A gentle smile appeared on my face as I muttered, almost as if I knew she was somewhere out there, watching me.

"Forgive me... But your eyes outshone your soul."

I clenched the white ribbon in my hand, feeling its soft fabric against my bloodstained fingers.

"I wish... I could see them again..."

I whispered those words to myself. Then wrapped the white ribbon around my wrist.

Just then,

Crack!

A violent cracking sound suddenly echoed across the heavens.

Clang~

A terrible metallic sound reverberated through the surrounding space, deep enough that I could feel its vibration within my bones.

Something was coming.

I could feel it.

Something dangerous was approaching.

Something so overwhelming that even my instincts screamed at me.

And... I could feel something far worse.

I couldn’t protect my people.

I forced my legs to move and dragged my body toward the place where my beloved children were resting.

Clang~

Crack~

Clang~

The sounds began to echo louder and louder, as if the very veil separating our world from something beyond it was being torn apart, inch by inch.

The sacred flames inside me trembled violently.

They had never trembled like this before.

Whatever it was... I couldn’t leave my children alone.

Not them.

Not the people who had placed their faith in me.

I needed to save them... even if it cost me my life.

I needed to go there.

Come on!

Move!

Those poor children...

I dragged my body forward.

Every step felt as though my bones were being crushed beneath an invisible weight. Blood continued to trail behind me, staining the ground with every step, but I kept moving.

One step.

Then another.

I didn’t know how long I could continue.

I didn’t know whether I would even reach them.

But I had to.

Because I was their Archpriest.

Because I was their hope.

Because I was their love.

Because I was their... God.

And a God had no right to abandon his children.

I dragged myself forward until the familiar walls finally appeared through my blurred vision.

The Umbra Sanctum.

The moment I saw it, something inside my chest tightened.

"My Lord?"

Someone shouted when they saw me.

"Everyone, Lord Archpriest has arrived! He—"

His words died in his throat.

His eyes fell upon the gaping hole in my chest.

For a moment, he simply stared.

Then his face drained of colour.

Everyone around him followed his gaze.

Their expressions changed one after another.

Shock... Disbelief... and Fear!

It was as though they were looking at something that should never have been possible.

Their God was bleeding.

Their God was standing before them with a wound that refused to heal.

"MY LORD!!!"

The cry erupted through the Sanctum.

Thousands of people rushed toward me.

Some abandoned what they were doing. Some stumbled as they ran. Others simply stood frozen for a heartbeat before following.

The sound of their footsteps quickly became a thunderous roar.

Just as my legs finally gave out, several children rushed forward and caught me before I could fall.

Their tiny hands grabbed my robes, my arms, anything they could reach.

Their eyes were filled with tears.

Some were crying openly.

Some looked at the blood on my chest with terrified expressions, unable to understand how the person they had always believed invincible could be wounded so terribly.

Everyone around me knelt.

One after another.

Thousands of people lowered themselves to the ground before me.

Their heads bowed.

Their hands trembled.

Their tears fell onto the earth beneath them.

The people who had once looked at me with reverence now looked at me with something far more human.

Fear.

They were afraid of losing me.

"M-Mom... Is our Archpriest alright?"

A small child asked her mother, tears trembling in her eyes.

The mother said nothing.

She could only pull her daughter into her arms and hold her tightly against her chest.

Her lips trembled, but no words came.

Perhaps she was afraid that if she spoke, her voice would break.

The High Priests stepped closer.

Their eyes were filled with tears, yet they tried desperately to hold them back.

They knew they couldn’t cry like the citizens.

They were supposed to remain strong.

They were supposed to be the pillars that held everyone together.

They were supposed to give hope when hope itself was beginning to crumble.

But even they were only human.

One of the High Priests lowered himself onto his knees before me.

Then another.

And another.

Soon, they were all kneeling.

Some clenched their fists against the ground.

Some bowed their heads until their foreheads nearly touched the earth.

And some could no longer hold back their tears.

They cried.

Not because they were weak.

But because the one person they believed would stand until the end was now standing before them, bleeding.

"My Lord..."

One of them whispered, his voice trembling.

"Please... let us bear this burden for you."

Another pressed his forehead against the ground.

"Take my life instead."

Then another followed.

"Take mine."

"Mine as well."

One after another, their voices rose through the Sanctum.

They weren’t merely priests anymore.

They were children begging their God not to leave them.

And for the first time, I understood how terrifying it must have been for them to see me like this.

They had never seen their God bleed.

They had never imagined that I could be hurt.

To them, I was the one who stood between them and the darkness.

The one who protected them.

The one who gave them hope.

But now...

Their God was bleeding before them.

And they were terrified that, if I fell, the world they had known would fall with me.

I waved my hand, and the children helped me stand. Their small hands clung desperately to my robes, some of them still trembling from fear. I looked at all of them, at their tear-streaked faces, their swollen eyes, and the countless people kneeling before me.

For a moment, I simply looked at them.

I wanted to remember this sight.

Every face.

Every trembling voice.

Every pair of eyes that had looked toward me with faith.

Then I said softly, "Forgive me..."

"NO!!"

"WE CANNOT ACCEPT THIS!"

"WE COULD HAVE COME WITH YOU!!"

"PLEASE, TAKE MY LIFE!!"

"PLEASE DON’T LEAVE US, LORD!"

"PLEASE... WE BEG YOU... WE... WE... BEG YOU..."

Their cries erupted again and again, filling the Sanctum until their voices seemed to become one enormous lament.

Seeing them like this... I could only smile.

There was something painfully beautiful about their desperation.

These people had nothing left to offer me except themselves.

"I never asked anything from you."

My voice was quiet.

Yet somehow, every person heard it.

Before I could say anything more, they shouted again.

"TAKE OUR LIVES IF YOU WANT!"

"YES! WE WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR YOUR LIFE!"

"OUR LIVES ARE BUT ALMS GRANTED BY YOUR HAND!"

I slowly shook my head.

"Please... don’t say that."

My voice carried no anger.

Only sadness.

Everyone bit their lips as they trembled inwardly.

I looked across them once more.

"I want you all to get inside the Umbra Sanctum. Whatever is coming... you will all be safe there."

The words brought silence.

Everyone blinked.

Then one of them stepped forward.

"But you, Lord?" he asked hesitantly.

"You’re coming with us, right?"

"..."

I didn’t answer.

I didn’t need to.

My silence told them everything.

Their expressions changed immediately.

"N-No! We cannot! We won’t!"

"You gave these lives a purpose to live, and now you want us to abandon you?"

"We cannot leave you when you need us!"

"Forgive us, Lord, but we cannot obey this... We cannot leave you alone!"

Their voices became louder.

Then one voice rose above all the others.

"WE SHALL ALL FACE DEATH TOGETHER WITH OUR BELOVED GOD!"

"YAAAAHHH!"

"YESHHH!!"

The cry erupted across the Sanctum.

From children to the elderly, from men to women... every single one of them shouted together.

Their voices shook the air.

Their faces were soaked with tears, but their eyes burned with an unmistakable light.

Faith... Love... Devotion!

The kind of devotion that made people willing to walk willingly into death simply because their God was walking there first.

Seeing them...

Made me happy.

A genuine smile slowly appeared upon my bloodstained face.

There was no way I could extinguish that light in their eyes, was there?

They needed to leave.

They needed to live.

They needed to move forward without constantly carrying the shadow of my death upon their shoulders.

They needed a future.

And the only way to preserve that light in their eyes...

Was to make certain they survived.

I looked toward the High Priests. My eyes silently begged them.

Help me.

But they refused.

Their expressions were filled with grief.

They understood what I intended to do.

And they couldn’t accept it.

Some shook their heads.

Some clenched their fists.

Others simply stared at me through eyes filled with tears.

They didn’t want to leave their God alone.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

Then I lowered my head.

"Forgive me... My dear children"

My fingers tightened around the spear.