Chapter 314

Blue blood soaked the sandbar. Abel’s headless body tilted slowly, and as he fell, the hilt fell from Ronan’s hand.
Pook. The ramancha, falling from its peak, sank deep into the white sand. Abel did not rise again. Ronan’s eyes fluttered open and closed, and he cursed.
“Whoa—itis—.”
The fatigue that had been building up was coming at me all at once. The curse was gone, but that was another matter.
Now I could instinctively sense that time was running out. Rin’s voice echoed in the back of my mind.
[Ronan. Wake up].
“You’re late.”
Ronan chuckled, his condition already deteriorating to the point where he could barely see. All he could hear through his foggy vision was the crashing of the red waves.
“—I’m exhausted.”
Shuffle. Ronan stared at the horizon and sank back into his seat. The feeling of the gentle ripples soaking his legs wasn’t so bad.
[Are you—going to die?]
“Maybe.”
[No–that’s a no-no].
Ronan replied grimly. Rin’s normally calm voice was tinged with bitterness. “Bitch, don’t talk about the holy sword.
“Thank you, Lynn. You’re the reason I’m here.”
[Don’t say that, there must be a way—!]
“Nothing, and you know it.”
Ronan smirked. He hated words like ‘sacrifice’ and ‘martyrdom’ as much as anyone. Better to be a coward who died alive than a hero whose name was carved on a memorial.
But I never expected it to happen to me. This is the kind of hero you hear about in legends, the kind that saves the world and oxidizes it.
“I’m going to be bad luck anyway—.”
Ronan grumbled. Of course, he only said it, but his mouth was smiling.
He would die here, but what he protected would live on for a long time. Exhaustion overcame Ronan, and he was about to lay down. Not far away, he heard a familiar voice.
“—I lose.”
“What the—!”
For a moment, goosebumps ran down his spine. Reflexively gripping the hilt of his sword, Ronan spun around. Abel’s head, sprawled on the ground, stared back at him.
“—are you dead yet?”
This was dangerous. Ronan pointed the tip of his sword at Abel.
My arms were shaking from the strain, but I had no choice. I had to finish him off, no matter what. Abel’s mouth fell open again.
“Forget it. My connection to the Source was severed the moment you cut my throat, and I will soon perish.”
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
“Well, actually, I’m already dying. Look at me.”
Ronan’s eyes narrowed at the words. It was blurry, but he could see Abel’s head slowly shrinking.
He was dispersing into particles of light, like giants stripped of their source. Realizing that Abel’s words were true, Ronan lowered his sword.
“Whoa–badass. I thought you were going to pass out.”
I thought my liver was going to fall off and shatter. Ronan was in great shape, but he didn’t have the strength left to take on the resurrected Abel.
“Hey. Let me ask you something.”
“Huh?”
“If we had done it your way, not mine, I wonder if people would have stopped killing each other someday.”
Ronan narrowed his eyes at the sudden question. They were all dying anyway, and he didn’t think they were up to any strange schemes. Sinking back into his seat, he shook his head.
“You never know, but it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.”
“Then why did you stop us both? I saw the memory when I closed your eyes. You were against your brother’s plan, not mine.”
Abel asked in a questioning tone. His perverse, axiomatic mind could not comprehend Ronan, who did not subscribe to the ideas of either the Savior or himself.
With a sudden outstretched arm, Ronan slammed the back of his sword into Abel’s forehead.
“Ew! What did you do—.”
“Dude. Is that what you call a question? Anyway, your dad and your brother are too much of an asshole.”
“What is?”
“People aren’t assholes. Sure, there are assholes, but there are a lot more sane people, and they would have done just fine without you wiping their shit.”
Ronan said. It was the first time since Ahayute that he had spoken to someone who had just had their head chopped off. Abel’s face fell, and he cried out in protest.
“You have seen nuclear war, you have seen shields designed to avoid fallout, you have seen the battleship Dynhar built to destroy other stars, and you think there is room for rebirth in the beings who create such things?!”
“Holy shit, what a surprise, won’t you shut up?”
Bam! Ronan struck him again with the back of his sword. With only his head left, there was nothing Abel could do but scream in frustration.
“Kwink—!”
“Shut up and just trust me. You and your father should have been bystanders, giving advice, not trying to move the horse yourself.”
“It’s an absurd indulgence. How on earth can you have such faith?”
Abel was now genuinely alarmed. “Having received the Savior’s blood, you should be able to think like an immortal,” Ronan replied without hesitation, having drained the blood once.
“Because I’ve changed.”
“What is?”
“I used to be an asshole of an asshole, but then something happened that made me give life a second chance, and I changed my mind, and as much as I hate to say it, I’m a different person.”
Ronan chuckled at the memory of his former life. Looking back on it now, it was the ultimate life of a bugger, he said.
“I realized then that people can change if they have the opportunity. I was a bit of an outlier, but most people have a better heart than I do, and they don’t need a big event to wake them up.”
“–Was that the only reason?”
“Don’t say that, man. What do you think is the reason you lost to me right now?”
Abel’s mouth fell open at the sharp question. No matter what anyone said, the results were already in.
It’s not funny, because I’ve changed. Abel chuckled to himself as he pondered the words. There was an awkward silence for a long time.
“I’ll tell you how to survive.”
“What?”
Ronan, who had been dozing fitfully, opened his eyes. What kind of nonsense is this, said Abel, who was now missing about a third of his head.
“My personality will soon be gone, but the power of the Source remains. Tear open my chest and take my heart, and you will become like me, enjoying power and eternity.”
Abel rolled his eyes and gestured to his sprawled body. Ronan raised an eyebrow.
“Are you getting senile or something? Why are you telling me all of a sudden?
“Well, I wonder why—.”
Abel trailed off. He couldn’t think of a response. Turning his gaze back to the sea, he smirked.
“You’re right, I must be getting old.”
“That’s unbelievable.”
It didn’t sound like he was lying. Ronan staggered to his feet. For some reason, he could feel a stirring around him.
“Spirits trapped in the Source.
If Abel’s words were true, his heart contained all the souls the giants had ever collected. Not only had he survived, but he had gained all of their power.
“—that’s the heart.”
Ronan reached the body and stopped dead in his tracks. There was nothing to think about anymore. He remembered the faces of his loved ones and thrust his sword down.
Poof! The tip of the blade plunged into Abel’s chest. Only it wasn’t a slashing motion, it was a piercing one. Abel gasped in horror as he realized the blade had pierced the source.
“Yes, you—! What do you think you’re doing!”
At this rate, the Source will be destroyed. Ronan twisted his sword instead of answering, and Abel’s body oxidized into light as the Source was completely destroyed.
At the same time, balls of light that looked like demonic fire poured out of his heart. There must have been billions of them, but he couldn’t count them. Ronan whistled in admiration.
“Spectacular.”
“Why—!”
Abel shed a tear of embarrassment. The freed souls were flying off into the starry night sky. I’m not sure where they’re going, but I’m guessing to their own heaven. Somewhere in the far reaches of the universe.
I could almost hear the cheers. There were as many souls as there were stars in the sky, and it seemed like there wouldn’t be enough time to watch them all disappear. Abel, now with only the lower part of his nose left, opened his mouth.
“Foolishness–you can’t be saved now. You kicked away your only chance.”
“It doesn’t matter, because that thing shouldn’t exist in the world—.”
Grunt. Ronan’s eyes flicked up to the sky. A familiar sensation took over his body. The descending darkness, the senses shutting down one by one. Death was trying to kiss him.
“—Damn, I’m going to have to get off my ass.”
If he was going to die, he wanted to die looking up at the sky. Ronan summoned the last of his strength and turned over. A vast sea of stars stretched out before him, unlike his previous life.
It was a world he protected. He could no longer feel the wind and waves. His vision was slowly darkening, focused on a bluish motherhood.
“But—it was fun.”
Ronan murmured. As in his first life, there was still so much he hadn’t accomplished, but he felt strangely free of regret.
Soon silence descended. Puzzled, Abel called out to him.
“Hey, Ronan.”
But no answer came. His eyes were long gone, but it wasn’t hard to guess what was going on. He smiled bitterly, his mouth a gaping maw.
“You are so much like your brother.”
It was a heroic end indeed. Now it was his turn to go. The words “last,” “Zuma,” or something similar were running through his mind. But it was Cain’s face that stuck with me the most.
“Brother—.”
Abel opened his mouth. In a blur of consciousness, he was walking with Cain across the cold earth of his homeland.
“I knew it. I wasn’t—not your brother—not anything.”
A belated confession washed over the waves. Abel had known long before that he was not Cain’s biological brother. In retrospect, it was probably around this time that he began to harbor feelings of resentment toward his brother.
“And yet you—always held my hand—.”
But Cain always sided with Abel. He encouraged his only brother, telling him that he could make a difference, even if the world pointed fingers at his cruelty.
Abel knew it. He knew that if he hadn’t betrayed him, they would have remained brothers forever. Now he knew what he should have done, but the end had already come.
“Type—.”
Abel gritted his teeth, saddened that he had no eyes to shed tears. His lips, disintegrating into light, uttered the last words.
“I’m sorry.”
That was the end. The last particles of light disappeared into the night sky. By now, the rising tide had erased any trace of their presence.
****
“Ugh—.”
Ronan opened his eyes. His head felt dizzy, like he’d just woken up from a long sleep. The starry night sky was gone, replaced by a stark white space.
“I see–I’m dead after all.”
It’s not hard to imagine the situation, because the body that was never going to get better, that was in a state of complete disrepair, was perfectly fine.
Even the sword was still there. He sat up, rubbing his forehead.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation in his pants pocket. He slipped his hand in and out and shook his head. A small, round sphere of unknown material was wedged between his index finger and thumb.
“—What is this, Al?”
I didn’t recognize it. He couldn’t tell when it had entered his pocket. Ronan slipped the sphere back into his pocket. He heard footsteps not far away.
“What, I wasn’t the only one—”
Ronan turned his head without thinking, then froze in place. Adeshan, dressed in the uniform of a warlord, stood behind him.
“Good job. Corporal.”
“Captain? Wait, you next to me are—.”
But it was the man next to Adeshan that truly puzzled him. There was a face he’d seen once, long ago, but never forgotten.
A believer I met in the Vaidian Mountains. The long-eared elf had obviously been turned to stone in the aftermath of the fight. Ronan’s eyes locked with the man’s, and he barely managed to speak.
“—Sarante?”