Chapter 164

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*Seria’s first pov*

<…> = Tuban, the writing on the wall.

“…” = Seria and others.

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<…… What are these? Are they the offerings to me from Berg?>

<Is it an offering? It is a wedding gift… mermaid’s … spring, this is….>

It was a muffled voice. I couldn’t hear clearly. Tears trickled down my face as a pain rang hard in my head.

My legs felt weak. When I was able to barely raise her head, I saw Lina staring at me, shivering.

I stumbled like a fallen leaf in the rain, and the land I was standing on began to shake violently.

“Aah!”

Lina’s scream echoed in my ears. It was Tuban who grabbed my hand as it stretched out into the air because there was nothing to hold. Lina was not worried as she stared reflectively. Because just as Tuban had caught me, the monster caught Lina.

As a result, I was finally convinced. Like my guardian was Tuban, the monster was Lina’s guardian.

It was not long before I wondered why there were two guardians of stars. The soil of the sacred tree began to crack and crumble.

“Tu…..”

I looked back at Tuban and froze in place.

For the first time, Tuban’s face, which had always been covered with long, messy hair, was revealed.

My face whitened at the sight of Tuban’s face in front of me.

“Lesche…..?”

Because Tuban had Lesche’s face…..

At the same time, the ground completely collapsed and we crashed.

***

“Myote Stern!”

Myote, who had calmly changed into Stern’s formal attire, walked in quickly. Not only High Priest Jubelud but also four other priests were present there. 

The news that had just come in was of a terrible disaster. Myote hurried out, closing the button on her wrist that she had not yet filled.

“The end of the world is exactly today? I can’t believe that Sterns were buried alive under the sacred tree.”

“…….”

This was the terrible news that raged the Great Temple just a moment ago.

In a one-kilometer radius around the sacred tree, everyone had collapsed.

The problem was the fact that two Saints were there together, of all people. The Great Temple was like a buzzing beehive at the news that Seria and Lina had been buried together when the land near the sacred tree collapsed.

The shocking story of the discovery of a large number of magi on the sacred tree was also reported one after the other, but the urgent news that arrived first was so terrifying that it shook people’s hearts. 

It was shortly afterwards that the sound of iron crashing was heard in the wake of the urgently summoned Myote Stern.

“Grand Duke Berg! Are you here?”

Lesche was already wearing his constellation gold armor.

“The Saints are confirmed to have fallen over here….”

After confirming Seria’s fall from High Priest Jubelud, Lesche turned away without saying a word. The knights of the Berg who came with him were also nervous, as his expression was too bleak for words.

As Alliot followed Lesche, the knights moved in perfect order.

***

“Aaaaaahhhh!”

I woke up with a start, feeling like I was rolling around on the floor.

There was nothing there as if I had walked into a cave. Fortunately, it wasn’t too dark because there was a swarm of firefly-like lights floating around the sacred tree.

Where am I? I am sure the ground collapsed and I fainted…. Am I under the sacred tree?

 I lifted my head and sighed. I could not sort out anything, perhaps because it was night time. If it had been daytime, I would have been able to identify it in the sunlight.

Suddenly I realized that it was not soil that I was holding in my hand. Tuban’s hair was all over the floor.

At that moment I slapped myself in the cheek. After I felt the pain, I was convinced. This was not Tuban’s world, but the real world.

”Tuban…”

Why does Tuban have Lesche’s face?

I sat up. Tuban’s hair was tied around my left wrist from earlier. Then he pulled me as if he wanted me to follow him.

I had to go and check with my own eyes what Tuban was trying to show.

At first, the hair pulled slowly, as if it was trying to be attentive to me, who had just noticed it, but gradually the pull became stronger. As if to tell me to walk faster. “I don’t know why you are urging me like this,” I tried to open my mouth.

I heard a strange sound coming from behind me. A chill ran down my spine. I couldn’t help but turn around and immediately my eyes widened.

‘Demons? Why are the demons here?’

The demons were chasing me. I had goosebumps. The demons tried to grab me, but Tuban’s hair under my feet wound around their ankles.

Every place I passed was contaminated with magi. It was horrifying, I felt like I was walking on a poor wooden bridge between cliffs where the ropes were breaking and crumbling one by one.

But no magi could be here. They shouldn’t be. This was a sacred garden where the sacred tree had taken root and made its mark. It was a blessed place where sacred power was always in the air and flowers and grasses, buoyed by life force, bloom from season to season.

‘Is it because of that monster I just saw?’

Because before the crash, the sacred power and the unidentified magi that sprang from the sacred tree attacked each other. So, it was easy to predict that the temple had been turned upside down.

It was the moment when we entered a certain large space, unable to walk easily to avoid the demons.

The flow of air changed. It was a sacred force that was strongly felt. I knew it when I saw the roots of a sacred tree extending between the ceiling and the earthen walls. This was directly under the sacred tree.

And in the center of it, there was Tuban.

“Tuban!”

Tuban with no gag in his mouth. Tuban with hands and an unbound body. I rushed madly to him and lifted up his bangs. I saw his red eyes. I asked in shock.

“…. why do you have Lesche’s face?”

Tuban looked down at me with strange eyes.

“There won’t be any more tricks. Talk to me! Are you really going to watch me go crazy? Tuban, you punk….”

I could not finish my words. Suddenly, Tuban’s eyes sharpened and his long hair wrapped around me like a cocoon. His hair hid me completely.

It was right after I blinked.

Bang!

I looked out through the cocoon and covered my mouth with my hands.

I was so shocked because that monster, the very one that had just tried to grab me, had chewed off the roots of the sacred tree and went inside. Magi and red blood fell constantly from the monster’s mouth.

“My moon! Give me my moon!” (Liegel)

At the same time, the monster leaped at Tuban with great speed. The cocoon shook with a loud roar. My wrist was still tied to Tuban’s hair, and I knew it the moment Tuban and the monster collided. The monster was coexisting with Lina’s divine power and magi.

How could such a thing exist?

Earlier, Tuban called that monster Liegel.

As I nervously looked at the situation outside, I suddenly looked back at the powerful divine power felt behind me. Soon my eyes opened wide.

The cocoon that Tuban put me in was definitely a small space enough to barely fit even an adult. But when did the space expand? A huge semicircle of space had formed behind my back.

It was like a night sky where all celestial bodies were spread out.

Tuban’s hair pulled me in that direction.

At the same time I jumped into the semicircular night sky. Numerous constellations were painted on the pitch-black walls and ceiling. 

“……!”

<Originally Liegel was a small, dark star.>

At the same time, glowing letters appeared on the walls.

<Liegel greedily grew light by eating all the constellations.>

I was astonished. As soon as the letters changed, a giant constellation that I didn’t know where it sprang from greedily swallowed the shining constellations.

“Why is it so vivid?”

I frowned when the scene of the stars being eaten was vividly depicted. 

<Liegel, who was the darkest, became one of the brightest stars, but could not win the heart of the moon.>

The disgustingly distant moon was vividly depicted on the wall. The huge constellation sat as if frustrated as if its brightness would hurt its eyes.

‘Did Liegel love the moon?’

With a question in my mind, I heard a vivid voice from outside the cocoon.

“It can’t be.”

Reflexively, I looked to the side and my shoulders shook. It was because I could see the situation outside through the walls as clearly as if I were looking through the cocoon. Both Liegel and Tuban were covered in blood, but Tuban was a little calmer.

Tuban continued in a calm tone.

“The moon has died before, Liegel.”

“…….”

“Didn’t you kill it?”

“……!”

Liegel’s eyes bled.

“Shut up, shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up…!”

At the same time a tremendous roar pounded in my ears, the sacred power and magi attacked each other. 

Then the night sky semicircle shook violently, so I held on to the wall. The constellations steadily carved letters in the midst of it all.

<Liegel killed the moon because he wanted it to see only him.>

The moon, made by his own hands, had to see only him.

I looked up at the sky with cold eyes. The scene depicted a constellation, obviously Liegel, brutally stabbing the moon and knocking it down.

<Before it died, the moon divided its blood and bones and sprinkled them over the world.>

<The moon’s bones were turned into jewels and given to the House of the Watchers*, while the moon’s blood pooled in mankind to create the only star.>

(*Lesche’s family= the watchers of the demon tomb)

<The moon asked its most important guardian star to protect it, and that star is Stern.>

“Stern?”

<Liegel, who lost much of his power to slay the moon, was all but seized by the moon’s bones, which were soon sealed in a jewel.>

Moon bones, and jewels.

As I read out my thoughts, the constellations in the night sky painted a jewel that was all too familiar.

It really was a familiar gem.

It was the circlet of Berg that was in the basement of the green Laurel Manor.

“…….”

I took the circlet that I wore on my neck and gripped it tightly. The back of my powerful hand turned white.

‘What Mies said was true.’

Annoyingly, the story of Mies came to my mind. He called it a bone stigmata.

<Liegel awoke one day from the seal through Stern’s blood, which happened to be attached to the bone stigmata.>

<Liegel then realized that the owner of the blood was the most suitable vessel to revive the moon.>

<It was Seria, the very Stern who first promised to marry Berg.>

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*So you’ve learned about Liegel’s and the moon’s origins.

*The circlet’s origin is made of the moon’s bones. And Seria was the moon’s blood so no wonder she had such a strong power when she used the circlet.

*Seria and Lesche were meant to marry each other in the first timeline, not Lina. You will learn more about why they couldn’t successfully get married and more details about the ‘book’ , Lina’s origins , and other things in the .