Chapter 63 : One Who Advanced Toward the Light
Chapter 63. One Who Advanced Toward the Light
At first, it felt like he had arrived in a completely different sea.
The Great Azure Ocean was vast and deep, a place that looked as though there was nothing at all above the surface.
But now, everything was completely different.
After the Heaven and Earth Resonance, all kinds of massive megaliths had surged up from the crust, and some of them had formed small islands.
‘My patrol routes are gone, too.’
The hideouts had vanished as well, and the Krelsite ore that had once carpeted the seabed had sunk entirely beneath the ground.
If he wanted to mine it now, he would have to go even deeper than before.
‘Wait. What about my island?’
He closed his eyes and focused his mind, and the Island of Boundaries came into view.
‘……It’s intact.’
The coastline had been flooded, but it did not seem to have suffered as much damage as expected.
Still, something was different.
‘What? Sea elves?’
The Sea Elf Tribe, who were said to live on ships and die on ships, were now partially settled on the Island of Boundaries.
In the deep jungle, they had even built houses, and on the side with the bay, they were living there after constructing a harbor.
‘What am I supposed to do about this?’
It was quite a distance from here to the southern seas.
‘Let’s leave it for now.’
The unauthorized occupation of the Island of Boundaries was something that could be dealt with later. For now, he headed toward the orcas’ village.
‘Gone.’
The terrain where the Orca Tribe had once lived had been reduced to ruins.
The enormous caves were all half-collapsed and destroyed, and there were no orcas to be seen anywhere.
‘They have to be somewhere.’
Even scattering ultrasonic waves was futile. Judging by the lack of any response, it seemed they had relocated the tribe a long time ago.
‘And I don’t even have the Mantra of Communication right now, so there’s no way to find out.’
He set this aside as well and moved on. Among the remaining places, the one he needed to visit first was to the east.
With a flick of his tail, he swam and, in an instant, covered an enormous distance.
It was as if the Horn of the Sea King were being applied automatically, as though the sea itself were responding to Yul and shaping the flow of currents.
‘So it vanished from the skill list and got applied like a passive instead.’
The Deep King Tribe truly was a transcendent species in many ways. They could even fly here.
After rapidly expanding the flow of the currents, he shook his body within them and leaped, shooting forward like a bullet.
Yul soared into the sky like a flying fish.
Buuuuuuung──.
Normally, gravity would take effect after this and drag him back down, but the body of a Deep King Tribe was different.
He continued to rise high into the sky. His body floated as if gravity did not exist.
‘Magic is being consumed, but the magic pouring out of my heart core is actually replenishing it even more.’
To put it another way, it felt like a phone plugged into a high-performance battery charger.
Unless he fired something like that insane UV Thermal Gun at maximum output, movement consumed almost no magic at all.
After flying around the clouds for a while, Yul spotted something floating far away at an altitude far higher than his current one.
‘A Sky Island?’
A mass of earth floating aimlessly in midair. It was as though a Sky Island were snagged somewhere in the sky.
Yul had briefly seen the Sky Islands when the Heaven and Earth Resonance began. The sounds flowing out from the six Sky Islands had resonated together.
There must be some function he did not know about.
Even when curiosity drove him closer, its altitude was extremely high. Almost outside the atmosphere. Perhaps the edge of the thermosphere would be the right term. As he climbed a little higher, the tips of his fins began to freeze.
‘This is impossible unless I go with my main body.’
It was an altitude that the Deep King Tribe's body, created by the Soul-Splitting Art, could not endure.
After all, the abilities listed in Yul’s current 【Status】 were in a downgraded state.
He stopped flying and looked down below. Far in the distance, he could see a continent.
It was the Randa continent, his original destination. As he descended lightly, he checked his status.
The continent appeared to have suffered enormous damage, enough to alter its coastline.
In particular, the damage around Frangia seemed severe—gigantic bays that had not existed before had formed, and ports he had once seen were gone.
Even so, he was not particularly worried, for several reasons. First of all, Frangia bordered the mainland. There was no way it could be completely submerged.
‘The Frangia Royal Bank contract hasn’t been nullified, so it’ll be fine.’
Another basis was that the bank contract listed in his 【Status】 was still intact. He decided to stop by Britain first.
As an island nation, it must have suffered tremendous damage. Perhaps the island itself had even vanished.
‘Huh?’
But there was nothing strange at all. Compared to the devastated Frangia coastline, it was almost strange how intact Britain was.
Even Skilg Brig Island looked as though it had suffered no damage whatsoever.
The massive lighthouse also stood there without a single scratch.
Yul descended immediately. He tried to activate magic, but it was useless. Since his ascension, neither magic nor mantras had been registered in the “skills” list.
When Yul emerged at the surface, one of the people living on the island shrieked in surprise and ran back toward the island.
Ian would probably come out to greet him.
What was strange was that Ian did not reach out through the Transmission of Thoughts formula, as he always had.
‘Did he step away for a moment?’
Soon after, a commotion broke out, and the one who came down to the shore with several mages was Celestia.
But she looked more mature now. Late thirties? Forties?
Yul was startled. It was the first time he had truly felt the passage of time since waking up.
With the support of the mage beside her, she spoke to him.
-Who are you?
Yul could not use the Transmission of Thoughts formula, but the moment he felt a tingling sensation, he was able to converse as before.
-I am Yul. My appearance is different now, though.
-……Just like when you were an octopus, your appearance changed again!
-Yeah. That’s how it turned out. I came to see Ian.
-He……
Celestia spoke with a longing expression.
-He is dead.
-What?! What do you mean by that?!
And then Celestia told him of Ian’s final moments.
* * *
After the Heaven and Earth Resonance ended.
Far in the distance, a pillar of water rose toward the moon, whose altitude had dropped low, then fell back down.
And everyone saw it. That colossal wave is surging in from the coastline.
A wave of truly monstrous scale, like a calamity unleashed to crush everything in its path.
If they were swept up by that wave, nothing would remain on the island.
“Th-the size of that wave!?”
"It’s... it's the end of the world!"
“O gods, please save us.”
As everyone despaired at the sight of the end of the world, there was one man who did not flee but instead stepped forward.
Mage Ian knew that no one on the island could escape. It was already too late to leave, and that wave might even endanger the mainland.
Amid those thoughts, Ian realized just how precious this island—where he had lived together with his family—was to him.
‘Life is fleeting, and I don’t know when I might die. If I can’t leave something behind, then what meaning does this wretched life of less than a hundred years even have?’
Ian had always thought like that, in such a pessimistic way.
Life was far too short, and moments of happiness passed in an instant.
Not only he, but his family as well would one day grow old and die.
If so, then every single moment was something to be grateful for.
The sun rising beyond the coastline every morning. The salty, fishy smell blowing from the sea. The times he studied in front of a quietly burning candle. When he observed the universe through an astronomical lens.
Meeting his wife. Meeting his children. The sight of his children toddling about. The times they called him Dad. Watching his children run around and play with joy.
Each and every one of those moments was, to Ian, something precious and invaluable, something that could never return.
Even the brief memories of the siblings he had lost to illness or accidents in his youth were no longer tragedies.
Those memories with them were golden moments he could never go back to.
He remembered all of it.
Reading through the traces of his short life as they unfolded like a revolving lantern, Ian steeled his resolve.
If the path toward death was already set, then let him enjoy this moment as much as he could while walking it.
Once, Yul, whom he had studied with long ago, had asked what would happen if the Great Balance were used against a massive natural disaster like a storm.
Now, he would find out. He never imagined he would verify it himself at the cost of his life.
If he used the Great Balance on that colossal wave……
Ian would surely lose his life.
But.
“If I can’t leave something behind, then how could I ever repay this happy life?”
Even if it was an incomplete eighth stage.
Sometimes, one must risk everything to protect everything.
To protect everyone. That was all Ian thought as he drew up his magic and recalled every inspiration he had ever received from observing the moon.
Unique Magic (固有魔法)
「Great Balance」
Everyone who followed him was witnessing it directly.
The incomplete magic Ian used for the first time was a success.
His inner self connected with the colossal tidal wave and then divided it evenly.
The wave, stretching for several kilometers, never managed to cross the Kingdom of Britain.
In an instant, the sea fell silent.
“Ian?”
“Dad?”
And in that moment, Ian Beltaine vanished in light before the lighthouse. He was twenty-eight years old.
* * *
After that, Ian Beltaine came to be known as the savior who stopped the colossal tidal wave and saved the Kingdom of Britain.
So many people flocked to the Great Balance school that he had founded that countless individuals came to follow his teachings.
-That was already ten years ago.
-…….
Yul was struck dumb. Shocked that ten years had already passed. And by Ian’s end.
He had faced an overwhelming force of nature and, in the end, sacrificed his own life to save Britain.
Perhaps not only Skilg Brig, but all of Britain would have vanished in utter destruction, and he had saved them all, sublimating into light…….
-I’m sorry.
-When the great disaster struck the sea, I thought you might have died as well. And you didn’t come back for ten years, either.
-After I took on this form, I was asleep the whole time.
-Still, I’m glad you’re alive.
Celestia seemed to have changed somewhat. Where she had once been tomboyish, she now appeared composed and serene.
Because of the trembling emotions coursing through him, Yul could barely convey his words.
-I’ll say it again. I’m sorry. Ian was my one and only friend.
While his relationship with the Sun King was closer to that of collaborators, Ian was a friend who helped without calculating gains or losses. To have lost him so abruptly was devastating.
Yul retraced his memories and wondered what would have happened if he had not used the Regulator.
Even so, it would probably have been futile. Judging by Rukit’s prophecy, by the Aeons descending and even changing the rules of the world…… in the end, it might have all fallen into Yul’s hands anyway.
At Yul’s words, Celestia instead comforted him.
-Don’t worry too much. All my memories with him are good ones. It’s already been ten years. I’m more worried about you. Are you right?
-I’m fine. My heart just aches, and I feel a bit gloomy.
From the beginning, Yul had prepared himself for parting with Ian. It was obvious their lifespans would be different.
But he hadn’t expected it to be this soon.
-Before he died, my husband said there was something he wanted to show you.
-What is it?
- The moon observation records from the astronomical telescope, Pathah Shile. Specifically, the records where he gathered his inspirations.
-I’m curious to see them.
-Just a moment. They should be in the old warehouse. Oh. That aside, your timing is good. Lucian should be arriving soon.
-Lucian?
That toddler who had just learned to walk?
-Yes. He’s majoring in magic engineering at Wigma University in Britain. He’s eighteen now.
-Ha. Has it really been that long?
-He said he’d be coming home soon for vacation. Ah, look, the ship’s coming in.
From far away, a single sailing ship was approaching.
At the prow of the massive vessel, someone was waving their hand back and forth.
“I’m home!!”
There was a young man, halfway between boyhood and adulthood, with red hair and blue eyes. He was wearing metal gloves on both hands.
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(T/N): Goodbye Ian 😢