What hurt Pablo the most was to lose this kingdom.
"Light will always shine on Pleast Kingdom!" Pablo raised his sword. An immense glow burst from his body, spreading like a lighthouse cutting through the pitch black sky.
Just by witnessing the strongest light magic from the strongest paladin of the kingdom, desperate knights were invigorated. Civilians who had given up before had a glimpse of hope reignited in their eyes.
However, Pablo, who was casting this magic, knew well that there was no hope for this kingdom anymore.
"I hate light!!! DIE!!" King Althem slashed his devil sword, once. The light magic Pablo had cast with every ounce of his strength was split in half and dissipated. The side effect of the forbidden weapon that could cut through anything had taken sanity away from Pleast's righteous king.
"This kingdom needs you." Pablo pounced towards King Althem. His wrist was severed along with rune blade Zertyr, torn like paper by that single stroke from the king. Pablo's only way to stop him was by not allowing the devil sword to be swung again.
The only blade that could have stopped the invasion of 8 arcane tower archmages now bared its fang at the people of this kingdom instead.
Pablo gritted his teeth and fought over the devil sword with his king on the ground, aware there was no room for mistake. This wasn't the first time he had wrestled with the king, but having a blade that could end his life at any moment — or face public execution for treason — made it another thing entirely. It didn't take long before he seized it from the lethargic Althem.
Even Pablo, who had been through countless wars and fought 7 days and nights without rest before, nearly fainted the moment he got hold of the devil sword. "It was meant for me by duty from the start." Pablo raised the devil sword, with even more respect now for how much his king had endured for so long — and still scrambled to take it back with powerless hands.
Pablo clenched his left hand and wrapped armament light around it. "Please, hold on a little longer." He swung the sword out into the battlefield once again.
Five archmages were still wreaking havoc on Pleast. Quicksand swallowed the center of the palace area. Meteors fell into the city one after another. Hordes of venomous insects hunted every life they could find. The aching pain of losing his right hand and the screeching sounds of those clinging to life in this living hell were all that held Pablo's consciousness together against the headache of being soul-sucked into the devil blade.
Pablo cut through everything and saved every person of Pleast along his way to each archmage, but he never slowed down, never turned his head to any voice calling him. He wished he could, but time was running out. The 4 light magic circles orbiting his arm, suppressing the dark energy of the devil blade, were getting corrupted. Their pristine white color from decades of cultivation was turning purple and half into black.
The war that should have been a complete annihilation had turned its tide around. Cut after cut, archmage after archmage, Pablo overexerted his magic channel until all his magic circles were cracking.
The last archmage alive cast a series of void gates. "Hmm... Destroying your own arcane circuit just to briefly wield that nefarious blade? Your resolve does exceed your reputation, Lord Pablo Gaius."
Two of those infinite gravity void gates would have been enough to fold this kingdom inward to nothing, but Pablo cut down every one of them. "You've all betrayed the love and respect of our people. Every life you took, every future you stole, every drop of blood shed on this land — why commit such heavy sin you shall repent for until the end of time?" He approached the last archmage survivor, cutting through every void gate and obstacle pulled up by their gravity.
As Pablo laid the blade before the archmage's neck, all 4 of his orbiting magic circles shattered as the black particles consumed and overtook them all. Nothing could stop him from ending this war except his own restraint. Pablo needed to know why the 8 most powerful mages on the continent had gathered and brought this calamity upon the kingdom he served.
Despite his worn-out state, Pablo's gaze was so determined it shook the archmage to the core. The archmage replied in the same calm manner. "I'm not the first archmage you've asked. So how much have you learned from those before me?"
So calm it boiled Pablo's blood. "Don't test my patience — spill everything!!" Pablo drove the devil sword into the archmage's shoulder, barely suppressing his rage for what they had done to his people.
"Arghhh!!... hahahaaa." The archmage squealed at the top of his lungs before laughing faintly and beginning to weep. Then he moved his body so the devil blade passed through his heart. "Omni blesses us... There's actually someone capable of stopping this atrocity... But this is just the start. Our mother earth is crying for help. We only—" splashh
Before the archmage could finish, his body exploded like a firework of blood as a blinding light radiated and materialized into a humanoid figure. A voice as clear as a heavenly bell rang out. "That's my part! ...oops, maybe I went a little too far." As the light dimmed, a stunning glowing lady appeared, levitating above the ground. She prayed briefly for the remains scattered across the battlefield, then glared down at Pablo. "Greetings, the overcomer of the quickening. You're c—" something Pablo failed to catch in his current state. Despite not knowing whether an enemy or ally stood before him, the familiar warmth of that light magic unconsciously made Pablo let his guard down. His orbiting magic circles shattered as the black particles from the devil sword drew them in and completely devoured them. Losing one's own arcane circuit brought a crippling headache crashing down on him. He let go of the devil sword and fell over it.
"I was captured as a slave when I was 6 and sold to a mining site. Saved Madam Gaius from a landslide when she was on a business trip. Resold across the ocean to the Gaius family, survived the waves and became an adopted son of the house at 9. Excelled in trading by 14 and led the family's merchant team to win the rice supply deal for royalty. A rebellion occurred that same year, and the Gaius family spent everything to rebuild the kingdom afterward. Got a chance to meet and befriend the crowned prince Althem. By 21 I became a knight of Pleast. A paladin when I was roughly 30..." Before Pablo could complete his entire biography, a maiden interrupted him. "Paladin sounds impressive, and likely with heavy pockets. A night's stay for two won't hurt you then."
It should not have hurt Pablo's pocket at all, back when he was a paladin. "You know, I once heard my squire talking about a spacious barn with a comfy haystack that cost nothing if you offered to groom their horses a bit." Now that Pablo had become the hero of the world, he was just a crippled veteran, a former mage without magical power, a wanderer with no home to go back to.
"Ugh, not again, you broke hero." At least he had a round-eyed, blonde maiden as his company.
They had met the other day.
The day Pablo defeated 5 archmages by himself. A maiden of light appeared before him. "Greetings, the overcomer of the quickening. You're crippled? ...ahem, I mean you're the one that all those archmages placed a bet on, orchestrated an apocalyptic trial with everything they've got. Though you're not in your prime shape, this is enough to hasten the mother earth's hero cycle by... 122 years?! Impressive! But more importantly," she kicked the unconscious, face-down Pablo to flip him over, then conjured a radiant magical hand to continuously slap his face. "How dare you black out before your Omnia?! Wake up! Witness my unparalleled beauty!" slap!! "There's something important I've got to tell you!" SLAP!!!
The slap's impact was so loud it drew the attention of the surviving soldiers around the battlefield. Some even woke up from it — everyone except Pablo, who was being slapped himself.
One knight couldn't stand the humiliation and charged toward Pablo and the maiden of light. "Hey! The heretic witch is trampling on our lord Pablo's corpse! Catch her!" Those survivors who could still move gathered as they heard the name 'Pablo' and fervently followed that knight.
"Avenge our Pleast's Greatest Paladin!"
"For our hero, Lord Pablo!"
"Unforgivable!"
Until a thunderous SLAP shook the air and sent the leading knight spinning 3 times mid-air before flying back into the crowd.
"Insolence!" The levitating maiden readied herself with a handful of glowing magical hands, as if hurting injured knights was her specialty. She wasn't just any mage, but a vessel of the Omnia of Balance, the divine being revered and worshipped by the people of the mother earth since ancient times, widely known by the name Ranyu.
Before her overwhelming presence, even the bravest ones were overtaken by fear. Pablo's dignity guardian squad was disassembled in the blink of an eye.
Though the Omnia seemed to have forgotten to bring her sympathy along for this descent. "You think those who turn their blades at your radiant Omnia could simply run away like that? You're completely wron—" But then suddenly the glow around the maiden flickered as she dropped to the ground. poof
"Alright, I'll forgive you cowards this time, for my compassion is wider than the ocean. Ouch... a human's body sure is fragile." It was the first time this Omnia had descended in her own face. Knowing the maiden's body couldn't hold her presence for long, Ranyu reluctantly grabbed Pablo's severed wrist, tied it with the flat of the devil sword using his own cape, then piggybacked him as they escaped from the battlefield. "Why did I, the Omnia of Balance, have to overwork myself for the sake of this insignificant life form? What a tragic fate this kindhearted one has to bear." She said this with wobbling arms and legs in the maiden's body she possessed. It must have been karma.
Though Ranyu saw no necessity for an Omnia to dwell in such pain. "My lovely intermediary, I shall bestow upon you the task of keeping the precipitated hero alive and delivering my message on behalf of what this unlucky fellow has missed. Wealth shall find you along the journey." The maiden did 3 full turns with Pablo on her back as her body lost its glow and left.
"As you command, Lady Ranyu." Nicol pledged as soon as she regained control of her own body, only to find a large paladin strapped with a heavy sword on her back. But as long as riches awaited, she was willing to carry even two more paladins on that tiny frame of hers. Nicol ended up carrying Pablo to an abandoned village nearby.
At dawn, Pablo woke up beside a well with Nicol sleeping on top of him.
He still had a severe headache, trying to grasp where he was and why there was a lady embracing him like a body pillow. Judging from Nicol's uniform, Pablo immediately pushed her away and tore his cape just to get a hold of the devil sword. "What's your deal, mage of the light arcane tower?"
Nicol drowsily sat up in a nonchalant manner and raised both hands in surrender. "Calm down, sir. Lady Ran... I mean, I just saved your life. So don't move so much or your wrist will bleed even more. If you die, my dream of becoming wealthy and bathing whenever I want will die too."
Sensing no ill intent from Nicol, Pablo calmed down and began interrogating her. As they talked, Pablo kept pounding his own chest as unbearable rage filled it with everything he heard. "All this bloodshed was to disturb the divine cycle and test if I'm worthy to fight a world-ending monster? If you had only asked, I would have helped. Now what do you expect from a crippled paladin who can't use magic anymore, after you summoned hell onto Pleast and the people he swore to protect?!"
Nicol's body glowed as Ranyu knew it was her time to step in. "Please restrain your anger, precipitated hero. The eschaton is not a being anyone could stand a chance against without a hero's blessing. Only the hero who emerges when the time has ripened can receive that blessing. But this eschaton is nothing like anything that has come before. It manifested nearly a century faster than the usual 400-year hero cycle, breaking the world's balance. Without the massive destruction set up by those farsighted archmages, and someone of your caliber to overcome it, the mother earth would not have been deceived into allowing me to grant a hero's blessing this early."
"Then grant me the blessing and we'll set out with all speed." Pablo got up and tied the devil sword handle to his back.
"You've already been blessed." Ranyu glanced at the devil sword. Pablo realized then that he felt no pain or headache holding the sword compared to the day before. His face went pale and he started sweating profusely. "What?"
Ranyu was slightly annoyed, thinking her hero was being ungrateful. "Look at you — without it, how would you fight in such a sorry state? You said that yourself!"
Pablo frowned. "You can't do that. This sword is the royal forbidden treasure. I'll be in serious trouble if I don't return it to my king."
"If you return the devil sword before you defeat the eschaton, this world will certainly be doomed. Which includes your beloved Pleast kingdom." Ranyu threatened her hero with the peril of the kingdom he loved once again. That frustrated Pablo. "Alright. But before that, have you ever been beaten while inside a human vessel?"
Ranyu responded with an alluring face. "Ooh, you naughty, naughty boy."
Nicol, her forehead swollen from a flick, waved at Pablo's shrinking silhouette.
He was heading towards Pleast Castle, welcomed as the paladin who saved the kingdom. The atmosphere of the ruined great hall was as packed and warm as it could be.
In the throne room afterward, King Althem was revising the law with his advisors. They were in such a hurry because an enacted law stated that anyone who laid hands on Nilrend, the devil sword that had almost wiped Pleast off the map under the former kingship, would face a 5-generation execution sentence. And no one wished to see that exercised on Pablo.
Though Pablo insisted on cutting ties with the Gaius family. "Well, then this is our goodbye."
Confused, King Althem had royal guards surround Pablo. "Don't be silly, Pablo. I'll finish the new legal provision by today. You'll be more than fine with 2 extra resting days. I and our knights will set out to distribute rations from what's left in our vaults first. You can go direct the town rebuilding squads when you feel better..."
Althem stopped when he felt something different from Pablo this time.
"My king, I need to borrow your devil sword a little longer."
"Pablo was expelled from the Gaius family and committed treason. Only a death sentence awaits him."
Althem wasn't really sure why he didn't ask anything further. Perhaps it was a hunch from over 20 years of friendship. He decided to let Pablo go. In his own way. "Catch him now, this is the king's order!"
The 2 royal mages formed a barrier around Pablo. Fellow paladins, royal guards, and royal knights started dashing and leaping around the castle trying to catch him. A game of chase where everyone used their swords and magic to immobilize Pablo while he was the only one who solely evaded without fighting back. Then standing on the window of Pleast Castle, Pablo took a last glimpse of his brothers in arms and this familiar place. "I won't cry," said Pablo, with tears jerking out of his eyes like a waterfall. "But thank you for everything. Please take care of my family — I mean, who cares about that Gaius house that the king so graciously expelled me from." Pablo jumped off the castle. Every knight and mage dropped their weapons and bawled their eyes out. Althem was no exception, perhaps a little louder than anyone.
And so Pablo was on his way to defeat the eschaton in the far eastern continent, with Nicol following him everywhere he went. They either slept under trees or helped out villagers with chores to earn a night in their barn or spare room. On day 3, Nicol started whining as she brushed a villager's horse. "I'm an apprentice mage of the prestigious Light Arcane Tower, and you're Lord Pablo Gaius, the greatest paladin of this era. How did we end up in this old, stinky barn?"
Pablo raked up hay with one arm and turned to Nicol. "Now I'm just a rootless man. Also, coins from every valuable I traded might not cover our traveling costs and rations. Unless you do a magic show to earn some for your own luxury."
From what Ranyu had told him, they needed to travel for over a year to reach the land of a thousand cloud-crowned mountains where the eschaton resided. Nicol was conscious that time when Ranyu descended into her body. It was just that she didn't want to accept a reality so different from the fantasy she had imagined when she was chosen by the archmage of light for this task.
That night, Nicol started conjuring a pigeon out of light and had it flying around the barn. Pablo peeked at the trick she was practicing. But instead he found an illuminating bird so big it blew the barn open.
"Hey, Nicol!" Pablo was about to stop her but then saw her caught in the grasp of a giant talon. "A gryphon?!"
A barbarian with a flaming sword was riding it. Pablo cut him down. The barbarian's upper half fell. Pablo launched himself midair to catch Nicol as she fell from the panicked gryphon's talon, but the gryphon recovered and snatched her before Pablo could reach her.
"Ha ha ha, a clean cut like this. It's the real devil sword. MY DEVIL SWORD." The severed barbarian spoke with ecstasy. His severed surfaces had stretching fiber-like strings reaching out, connecting and pulling toward one another. Pablo cut him again into pieces, but he kept reconnecting his body — and now at an even faster pace. Pablo's plan for a free mount was ruined and Nicol was now held captive. He had no choice but to lower the devil sword and begin his greeting. "You really are as undying as they say, Bovorn. Is this the first thing you sought after regaining your freedom?"
Witnessing his characteristics, Pablo knew immediately he was facing the devil sword's former wielder, the worst criminal on the continent, sealed away in the deepest dungeon beneath Pleast Kingdom. Now that this man had broken free, it was most likely due to the damage from the recent invasion. Pablo needed to buy time and assess the situation.
"Bovorn the walking calamity?!" Nicol exclaimed before covering her mouth. She never thought the ancient barbarian solely responsible for the fall of empires and kingdoms in famous folktales was still alive after his defeat decades ago.
Pleased by the recognition, he waved his hand for the gryphon to carry Nicol far above him and Pablo.
Pablo glanced at Nicol briefly and refocused on Bovorn as if she didn't matter to him. "Your gryphon is strong. That lass sure is heavy."
"H-hey!" Nicol was mortified but too afraid of heights to throw a tantrum.
Not getting the reaction he wanted, Bovorn had his lower severed parts jump off the gryphon. "You were dead right." sniff sniff "The smell of my precious Nilrend is irresistible. I need it. GIVE IT BACK."
With his body parts close together, Bovorn reattached even faster than before. Pablo cut him into even tinier pieces at different angles and alignments, varying the speed and sizes, but nothing could stop this undying man from regenerating.
"Let's bring havoc to this world like we once did. Come back to me, Nilrend." After Bovorn finished speaking, the devil sword no longer cut through him. With the blade stuck in Bovorn's torso, Pablo couldn't swing it any further. Bovorn shove-kicked Pablo flying meters away. "Nilrend picks only the strong!! I'm stronger!!" Bovorn's shout reverberated as a black and shadowy purple aura seeped from the devil sword in his torso. That aura condensed above his shoulder and manifested as an adorable winged girl with horns. "I missed you, my warrior. With your special body we shall travel anywhere once again."
Sensing the powerful presence of the shadow devil, Ranyu descended into Nicol's body to intervene. "O devil behind the sword. Your kind sure loves a stronger wielder, but this time you shall lend the crippled hero your edge. Otherwise this world would be set on fire — and I won't let that happen." Still in the gryphon's talon, Ranyu summoned numerous glowing hands to threaten Nil.
Nil had no interest in following anyone's orders and exuded a suffocating pressure into the air. The clash of Omnia and devil power was so intense that Bovorn's skin was cut deep all over his body. Nicol felt a burning light as though she were about to explode, the most pain she had ever felt. So much that she regretted accepting this task and was certain she would die before getting rich. Her soul wept quietly somewhere in the background while Ranyu wore her tears. Her last thought was that ever since she had been with Pablo, she had known nothing but danger and hardship.
By then, Pablo, whom everyone had forgotten, gave Bovorn stars with one sucker punch right to his face and knocked him out with a second. "So you're immune to cuts, but are you immune to blunt force too?" Pablo grabbed Bovorn's head and smashed it into the ground repeatedly, then choked his limp frame from behind. "Seems like you're not."
Bovorn was rendered unconscious completely, though he had already slept at Pablo's second shot. Pablo overdid this solely to avenge his kingdom. Not only did Bovorn rack up a kill count among Pleast's people comparable to the 8 archmages invasion, he also made the late king and the kingdom's former strongest mage sacrifice themselves to seal him away. He was the type of individual Pablo had always trained to handle. He was the milestone — if a guy like this ever appeared again, Pablo would be sure to crush them completely to keep his people safe. With that determination, one of Pablo's daily routines as a paladin was carrying 2 boulders in one arm and sparring with 3 knights using the other.
His overwhelming victory made all 3 ladies' hearts skip a beat. One mage felt safe, one omnia saw him as dependable, one devil was fascinated by his strength. But this was just a normal thing Pablo always did. Winning every battle against forces that dared to attack Pleast or the provinces under Gaius family.
Ranyu couldn't contain herself, broke free from the gryphon and flew towards Pablo. "Good job, hero. Want some 'extra' reward from your omnia?"
Nicol thought her omnia might act indecent so she took back her body. "Apologies, lady Ranyu. You might want to get some rest already. By the way, are you perhaps single, sir Pablo?"
While Nil embraced her newer and stronger wielder of the sword. "Are you interested in the shadow realm? With that determination, I shall grant you the perfect body here."
The perfect beauty of the divine, the flawless gorgeousness of a maiden, and the irresistible charm of the devil — despite all these gorgeous ones fighting for Pablo's attention, he found no interest in them. Maybe from his childhood and upbringing, Pablo only bore the weight of duty and enjoyed the beauty of gratitude. Ironically, that indifference of his urged those beauties to find the key to his heart even more.
After being humiliated by a one-handed guy, struck by the fear of complete defeat, and losing affinity over the devil sword that could cut anything, Bovorn folded. Sparing the gryphon's life was also the best financial decision Pablo made to save on traveling costs. All three of them rode it to the closest city with Bovorn as the driver.
Then went straight to the market. "I can't believe you're selling him after overworking it like that. It might be the first time in the history of our civilization to have 3 people riding on a single gryphon. Don't you find his strength useful and worth the praise?" Bovorn pleaded with Pablo not to sell the gryphon that had been sealed together with him. So Pablo changed his mind. "Good sir, he's got the strength to carry 3 people at once. I need to raise the price up a bit."
"You heartless!" Bovorn tried to hold on to his gryphon. But there was not even an ounce of mercy from Pablo for him. "No one knows how to ride it except you anyway. Now strip."
They were out of the shop with coins that made them feel like nobles, despite how underpriced Bovorn's necklaces and artifacts went. Nicol was grinning counting the money and dancing around with the amount of coin sacks she had never seen before. Bovorn was crying in the corner hugging his gryphon. Lucky for him, it was too valuable for any merchant in that city to dare buy it.
With that, Pablo, Nicol, and Bovorn as their gryphon driver travelled much faster, like they were the wind. They had more time to rest, ate better, and Nicol got to bathe whenever there was a chance in the area.
Things went smoothly until they reached the far east continent. The trio got to see new people, new places, try new things, and even learn a bit of the local languages for haggling. Nicol was obsessed with tasting new food and sometimes Ranyu took over her body just to have a taste of some sweets. Nil enjoyed watching the scenery from the devil blade over Pablo's shoulder. She often dared him to interact with some life forms and cut something open to see what was inside. As for Bovorn, he always looked for an opportunity to escape after a countless string of failed ambushes on Pablo. Then the day Bovorn heard the party was heading for the eschaton, his eyes flared up with interest and he became surprisingly cooperative. It was like a long fun trip until they were close to the thousand and one cloud-crowned mountains area, the region where the eschaton resided. It was packed with forest and dangerous beasts that could easily destroy a gryphon. Bovorn cried for about 3 days after it was sold when it had no use anymore.
Deep in the thousand and one cloud-crowned mountains, the trio were now hiking up and down one after another, looking for a clue to the eschaton. Pablo single-handedly cut down every monster that attacked them. Nicol and Bovorn discussed the geography and marked out the mountains they had visited. According to Ranyu, the eschaton was eccentric and could hide its presence so well that even she and Nil couldn't sense it. The only way to find it was by seeing it head-on.
The talk about the map died out fast when the place was so vast. Nicol then spiced things up with talk about romance. A maiden who had only studied magic for a living couldn't hold her excitement over what kind of love life the 2 experience-packed warriors had. But her fantasy was ruined real quick when she learned about the centuries of dreadful assaults from the animal called Bovorn. The only reason a stunning beauty like herself was safe from him was Pablo beating him down to a pulp 4 times a night. Seeing this would have cast a permanent panic attack on Nicol, so Ranyu showed up with her own love stories each time she descended, spinning a steamy life every girl would be jealous of. But after her thirteenth story, Nicol passed out with a constant nosebleed. Nil listened to them all but was only perplexed by Pablo's. "I know you're a conceited human. But seriously, why are you still alone?"
Pablo kept walking silently with Nicol on one of his shoulders and Nil manifested on his other. As he had just told them, he did not care about romance. Also, by his age, Pablo strangely thought he was too old to have one. With an overwhelming love and respect from girls who had just discovered love all the way to elders who were head over heels for him, he only ever saw that as gratitude. Discontented with his reaction, Nil stuck her tongue out taunting. "You're no fun."
"And you're in my way." Pablo grabbed the devil sword and slashed to his front. Nil jolted, "What do you think you're doing?!" Then she noticed a gigantic shadow cast over them.
Looking up, Nil found a massive azure dragon baring its fangs before her. It was different from any beast they had faced. Its speed was terrifying for a being the size of 3 mountains, dodging Pablo's sword at this close a range. Pablo calmly did a cross cut, but the dragon still closely evaded it. It conjured endless streaks of thunder like a rain no one could escape. If not for the devil sword, Pablo and Nicol would have been fried long ago. As for Bovorn, he was cooked well-done. Still on his way to recovering. The dragon was highly intelligent. It never got close to Pablo after seeing the devil sword's ability. Flying around, precisely controlling its thunder and concealing itself behind a lightning rain, the dragon trapped Pablo in its hunting ground. Pablo cut incoming thunders one by one until he noticed the dragon's shadow. Knowing his cross cut was not fast enough, Pablo delivered the tri cleave slash. This time one of his blade waves caught the dragon's wing. The massive dragon fell, causing impact wind and a ground tremor so strong it woke Nicol up. She got down from Pablo's shoulder and both of them walked up to the pile of a mountainous being. Pablo then placed his sword on its neck. "What's this? Is it the eschaton?"
"No!! This is the guardian of the east, the azure dragon. It's a mythical beast protecting this part of the mother earth. You almost cursed this land with great disasters by ending it!" Nicol was surprised by how fast Pablo defeated the guardian. As Pablo was about to pull back his sword, an extreme force was directed at his arm. It was so fast Pablo only managed to move back a little before it hit his devil sword's hilt. That attack was also so immensely powerful that the sword he held yanked him up so high they disappeared into the sky.
"Pablo?!" Nicol was taken aback. Standing where Pablo had been was a sage with one leg kicked high. She had bright red long hair swaying in the wind, the plain hanfu of the locals, and an overpowering presence that knocked Nicol unconscious and forced Ranyu to descend. "It's good to see you still strong and energetic. Long time no see, Tianqi."
The sage looked at the omnia in Nicol's body. "Ranyu? What are you playing at, bringing these folks to disturb the peace of this land?" She planted her bamboo stick into the ground, creating a strong tremor. Ranyu did not flinch at the threat but also did not look into Tianqi's eyes. That alone was enough for Tianqi to get her answer. "Get lost. I'll take care of it myself." She took the bamboo stick, turned around and started casting a spell. Then a long thread of light began to form from thin air and wrapped around the azure dragon. Pablo sensed the highest magic level he had ever felt and rushed back towards that mountain. "Five, six?! Seven???...twelve... seventeen?!!... how many magic circles were there?!?!"
Dumbfounded by the number of magic circles surrounding the dragon, Pablo hastened his climbing speed. Normally, a mage with 4 magic circles in their arcane circuit was considered among the best in the world of magecraft. 5 magic circles were those like the archmages of the arcane tower, whose magical power was comparable to the entire army of a large kingdom. Six or seven circles was unimaginable. Yet he was seeing magic on a scale he couldn't comprehend.
As Pablo reached the top of that mountain, the azure dragon's wing was fully healed. It swooped up into the sky and disappeared among the clouds. Then the maiden's body came flying towards him. Pablo caught her just to see how beaten up Ranyu was. She lost her glow and left Nicol's unconscious body as soon as she landed in Pablo's arms. In front of him was Tianqi, pointing the bamboo stick at him. "Leave the thousand and one cloud-crowned mountains. With that meager power of yours, that blade of the devil will never reach the eschaton."
"If I don't, then are you going to defeat it for me?" Pablo readied his sword after provoking Tianqi. But he did not expect it would mark the end of his journey.
"I'll defeat it. I've done that before." Tianqi flatly replied. Pablo was confused and felt betrayed. "Then good luck. I didn't know Ranyu also tasked someone other than me. Ah... I thought I was special. Anyway, Nil, do you want a new owner? Lady, do you need this devil sword to fight that eschaton?" Pablo awkwardly spoke his mind.
"Never mind, she looks bland." Nil seemed uninterested in Tianqi despite her power. Tianqi also declined. Pablo then laid Nicol down behind him and grabbed his stance ready. "Very well. Now do you want to tell me the reason you had to hit her this badly?"
Tianqi did not respond to Pablo's guard. She calmly turned around, ready to leave. "Ranyu tried to stall me with her vessel. I only stopped her from this foolish act."
"Then she must doubt your capabilities to defeat the eschaton." Pablo approached Tianqi's back and slashed the devil sword upward. He knew the sage in front of him was exceedingly strong. But given that Pablo was blessed by the omnia as the hero despite her existence, along with the devil sword that could cut through anything, he would never give up his responsibility easily. The spar was necessary for Pablo to prove whether he was still needed here. Tianqi used the bamboo stick to intercept his incoming slash without looking back. The devil sword easily cut Tianqi's bamboo stick like cutting paper. But Pablo staggered when his blade kept sinking deeper into the stick like it had infinite breadth. He pushed further and finally cut through the bamboo stick but never moved any closer to Tianqi's back. Pablo felt a vast amount of strength squeezing his sword from both severed bamboo stick parts at his sides. Pablo, who was always confident in his physical strength, couldn't budge his sword a millimeter no matter how hard he tried. Tianqi then used the pinching bamboo stick to fling Pablo and his sword flying aside at a speed that would certainly crush him into pulp with whatever he landed on.
However, Nil, who was watching everything from the blade, was so fascinated the blade glowed with a purplish aura. "Last time I didn't notice how you managed to survive from that height. Now I won't miss what trick you're using!" Her eyes gleamed red with excitement as she watched how the human from another realm would use her power. Pablo's heart raced too. Last time, his instinct had kicked in so he had no idea and could recall nothing about what he did with the devil sword. As Pablo was about to hit a mountain, he cut around his landing spot and kicked it away to create a tunnel that passed through it. Entering the tunnel, Pablo stabbed the devil sword down into the surrounding rock and turned the blade slightly to let its flat part disperse the impact force. Slowed down enough, he cut the mountain open to escape. "Good job surviving that!" Nil enjoyed Pablo's struggle.
In the sky above him was Tianqi, levitating. "I have no interest in killing. But you seem to be the type who needs to learn when to stop." Above her was also a flying mountain. As Tianqi breathed in and clasped her hands, that flying mountain was compressed and crushed into a glowing yellow light. The crunching sound rumbled like a sequence of massive explosions as the strong gust formed a whirlwind. The condensed glowing light fell down into Tianqi's grasp as it dimmed into the shape of a bamboo stick. Pablo shivered. "No wonder it took so long to cut. Is it now just the thousand cloud-crowned mountains left?"
Though he did not have much time to be afraid before Tianqi approached. Pablo clashed his devil sword with Tianqi's bamboo-stick-shaped mountain. This time Tianqi pushed the bamboo stick through and used the severed part to hit Pablo's shoulder before the blade reached her. Pablo's bones were crushed in an instant. He couldn't lift his arm anymore. But he still grasped his sword tight and used his other arm to support his swing. Tianqi dodged that effortlessly. She then landed another barrage of attacks on Pablo from all sides. Despite the injuries, Pablo still found a way to retaliate. When his arms gave in, he grabbed the sword handle with his calf and thigh behind his knee. When his legs gave in, he rolled down to grab the sword with his mouth. When his jaw gave in and Tianqi was about to kick the devil sword away, he somehow managed to get up and catch that sword once again. Tianqi had held back, but she was certain the warrior in front of her was in no state to move anymore. Even so, Pablo was still standing.
"Why don't you give up?" Tianqi stopped before she actually ended his life. This was the first time Pablo had faced a total defeat. Speed, strength, technique — there was nothing he could match the sage before him on, not even one bit. Such an experience he had never felt before made him wonder where the limit of his opponent was and what ridiculously powerful fighting he would see next. Before Pablo knew it, his body had already gotten up on its own. "Why did Ranyu choose me as the hero over someone as strong as you? I feel like the only way to find out is by holding on to this sword."
At Pablo's weakest moment, Bovorn came out of nowhere and snatched the devil sword from him. "My Nilrend!" He had been waiting patiently all this time for this single moment. The moment to unleash his true power. Nil was thrilled. "Hi there, Bovorn!" She had been watching from the other dimension of the blade with pure joy. Whoever could entertain her, she was down for all of them. Even without monstrous physical strength or magic, he had wielded the devil sword for centuries and destroyed empires solely by his swordcraft. Bovorn's sword dance was efficient and deadly.
Few clashes were made but Tianqi still couldn't get to him. Bovorn even managed to cut the bamboo sticks in both of her hands shorter. "Bwa ha ha ha, I never tasted a sage this strong before. With your durability, we're gonna have plenty of fun while I learn ultimate destruction from the eschaton!! Ha ha he hehe he..."
Bovorn with his devil sword was invincible. Unless there was a light pillar spell with 24 magic rings that pinned him down to the earth's mantle. That was how the tale of a horny undying barbarian ended, returned to the mother earth and eternally burned by her molten magma.
Nicol came back to her senses and looked around just to see a fading light dispersed over the smoke and a newly formed lava pool. Ranyu then swiftly took over Nicol's body and ran towards that smoke. There, she found Tianqi casting a healing spell on Pablo.
Without the devil sword, without magic, Pablo was just a strong man, not even considered a threat to the sage who had lived for millennia. But as soon as Pablo was healed, he grabbed Tianqi by her hand. It should have hurt his self-esteem but all he felt was relief to finally be humbled. Instead of despair, he found challenge. Instead of humiliation from being saved, he felt compassion through every particle of the healing he received. Instead of fear, "I think I finally felt the sensation of love."
Pablo fell in love under the most bizarre circumstances and confessed in the most unlikely way. This caught Tianqi off guard. Ranyu, running close behind, tumbled headlong. Ptooey. "What deranged madman are you?!" Ranyu spat out the grass and crawled up from the ground. Tianqi slapped Pablo's hand away after her astonishment subsided, then leapt away faster than any eye could see. Pablo was about to follow her trail but was stopped by an incoming double-footed light-enhanced dropkick from Ranyu to his face. "Stop your lunatic head right now! She's a sage!"
"But you're also an omnia with plenty of love stories, aren't you?" Pablo did not understand why Ranyu was so against it. Was it because she was envious he found Tianqi beautiful but not her? That must be it. That was why Ranyu was now slapping his face nonstop with her light magic hands. "Get yourself together!" Slap! "Get out, you devilish mind!" SLAP! Slap!
But this wasn't right. Pablo had finally found someone who didn't just respect his deeds or fall for his charm but treated him with care regardless. The more he looked at Tianqi, the more beautiful she got. And there was still so much mystery behind her that he wanted to discover. If she went to fight the eschaton, the being that would destroy the world, by herself, she wouldn't succeed without a hero's blessing according to Ranyu. But she had said she had beaten eschatons before. And this time the hero cycle had been hastened by a century.
But whatever reason Ranyu was hiding from Pablo, he wouldn't let Tianqi fight it alone. He might not be of much use right now, but at least he could be there for her even as a lucky charm with his hero's blessing.
Ranyu read Pablo's mind and kept hitting sense into him until she got out of breath. "Every lady has their own mysteries. She can take care of herself for the time being. Stop obsessing over her and focus on retrieving your devil sword already!"
But Pablo had decided. "Fine, we will get the sword. After I make sure Tianqi did not head out to fight the eschaton all by herself right now."
Ranyu stopped her hand. "Hm... Who would've thought you could be such an idiot after having a taste of love. Haven't you learned something from sparring with her power? She's beaten a bunch of eschatons long before your great great grandparents were born. A small fry like you is a million years early to worry about Tianqi."
"Then why choose me over her? What's the meaning of all the sacrifices made up until now?!" Pablo grabbed Ranyu's collar and clenched the only fist he had. His death stare straight into Ranyu's soul told her he wouldn't accept her answer lightly. But Ranyu looked back at him with a determined, glowing gaze. "Insolence, to doubt your omnia for the balance she maintained. Tianqi was the greatest hero this world has had and would ever have. I'd have chosen her again any day over anybody else!!" Ranyu shouted. This only made Pablo angrier. "Then what's stopping you? What made you think someone who stood no chance against your favorite hero would defeat the eschaton in her stead?!"
"Because she has become the eschaton!!" Ranyu hugged herself, shaking. Her eyes were full of sorrow yet full of resolve. "You and your devil sword are the only choice we had. To save us, you have to defeat her. You need to kill Tianqi."
"I wonder if you ever felt pain when you descended, lady Ranyu?" Nicol applied a compress to her 3 stacked swollen forehead. "Indeed, consider it a blessing I took a moment of suffering away from you." Ranyu replied with telepathy, trying to make herself sound compassionate. It had been 2 weeks now that Nicol had been following Pablo quietly.
After Ranyu told Pablo that Tianqi was the eschaton who would put an end to this world, Pablo fell into denial and never said a word since. She tried to explain how close she was with Tianqi and how hard it was for her too. She told him how long Tianqi had been fighting eschatons and that it was for her sake before she could no longer fight the cycle of fate. Nothing got through to Pablo, as Tianqi was his first love. If it took someone in his mid-30s to fall in love for the first time, no one could imagine how hard he fell or how long he would take to recover from the fact that he was the only one who could take her life.
As for Nilrend, the devil sword, it seemed to cut down through the earth and oscillated back to the same spot at the same height it had fallen from Bovorn's hand. Pablo found it and had it back that same day. Their next destination was to find Tianqi's whereabouts. With the gap in power, Pablo knew he wouldn't overpower her even if he spent a lifetime practicing elsewhere. That was why when they finally found Tianqi, he immediately knelt before her. "Please, take me as your disciple." Tianqi declined and disappeared faster than any eye could catch her once again.
"What's with that request? Who in their right mind would take a disciple who's fated to kill them?" Nicol was curious. Pablo then got up on his feet. "Call Ranyu, and I'll answer that afterward."
After being ignored for so long, Ranyu descended almost immediately and pounced at Pablo with excitement. "Your omnia has arrived, my solemn hero~"
Pablo then knuckled her forehead once again to stop her approach. "She crushed 7 eschatons from 7 eras without a second thought, but hesitated when she became one herself. Did she perhaps seek..." Before he finished his sentence, Ranyu hushed him with her finger on his lips. "Immortality was never her intention. She's just a lost girl who's waiting for someone and wished she'd stay long enough for their return. And my apologies, it's not you. You're just someone who'll trample on the dream she's cherished for millennia by killing her to save your people and the world."
"Thank you for not giving me hope." Pablo felt his heart wrench, now that he had finally felt something other than duty and gratitude. "My aim is still unchanged. Tianqi is the fastest one who can make me stronger. Rational or not, I have to be her disciple."
Nil was against Pablo's idea of placing himself under someone else and revoked the power of the devil sword as a boycott. Nicol and Ranyu couldn't imagine how Pablo would succeed, but still followed along quietly.
Pablo looked out for Tianqi mountain after mountain, asking her to become his master every time they met. From being told to go away, to getting beaten up, to watching her leap away, Tianqi finally stopped avoiding him after 6 seasons. "Your dialect has gotten a lot clearer now."
That amount of time was enough for Nicol to have memorised the terrain of all thousand cloud-crowned mountains. But little did they know there was a special enchantment on the area until Tianqi undid one that had concealed her home's physical dimension from everyone. Pablo and Nicol were invited in for tea.
"I heard that this world is already too old. It should have died after the 996th hero fell. Yet a once retired hero defied its fate and fought even more powerful cycles by herself to lengthen its lifespan for almost another 3,000 years." Pablo paused and looked into Tianqi's deep ocean-blue eyes. He flushed. Her beauty and proportions so perfectly balanced, like an illustration, that Pablo had to punch himself in the cheek to get a hold of himself. Pow. "As her junior, I want to help her as much as I can. Even if that means defying my role as a hero. If you teach me the way of the sage, I can live long enough to calm you down whenever you need it. Maybe not now, but I promise I'll train hard enough to be strong enough. Nicol will work hard to make you live comfortably."
"Hey, who said I'd do that?" Nicol hit Pablo's back though he still continued with his offer.
"Think of us as companions to make sure you're not going through hard times alone before the one you're waiting for arrives. How does that sound to you?"
Tianqi knew Pablo was partly trying to be close to her and to guarantee he could deal with her if she lost to the destructive force within. "I can live off meditation and exercise alone." Tianqi closed her eyes. Pablo and Nicol lowered their teacups deflated.
"However, I do respect your dedication in this pursuit all this time. Either way, this is the most solid guarantee we have for the world if things go wrong." With Tianqi's acceptance, Pablo's and Nicol's faces lit up as they sipped their tea eagerly.
It was her own attachment. An attachment to a promise to meet someone once again.
No matter how slim the chance was, Tianqi was wholeheartedly willing to take it.
She faced every hardship and endured every pain just to live another day. Just to take one step closer to fulfilling that promise. Through the ages, that determination forged a shackle of will too strong for Tianqi to break free from even if she tried. The memory may have faded, contrary to her ever-growing cultivation of power. Tianqi's only way to resist a power far exceeding her own capabilities was the hope of keeping her promise. The promise of which only a hazy face was left for her to hold onto.
On the other hand, Ranyu was furious at Pablo. He had actually gotten a few chances to strike Tianqi down while she was in deep meditation during the 6 seasons of the chase. Pablo refused every time and declared he would only defeat Tianqi head on. Though these days, Ranyu was the one who never missed a chance to have a moment with her old friend. Whether it was a tea break from training Pablo, a stretch after a meditation session, or even bathing, she would hog Tianqi's time so completely that Nicol felt like she was living in a trance all the time.
Pablo always felt awkward whenever he wanted to spend time with Tianqi outside of training. Before asking her somewhere casual, like watching the rainbow view from above the clouds, it would frustrate Nicol so much that she had to drag him to Tianqi to make sure it wasn't the third time they missed the chance before he worked up the nerve to speak. But sometimes Pablo's inexperienced attempts also made Tianqi adore his effort, so much that she reached out her hand towards his head before she knew it. Then pulled back once she came to her senses.
Living under the same sky for so long, things did not change much and not many things could interest Tianqi anymore. Perhaps only Ranyu could understand her. "That's why meeting new people changes everything. Endless possibilities, unpredictable interactions over time that might even change how you see the world..." Seeing Tianqi's worried face, Ranyu paused. Then she conjured a light-guarded bell around them. "Speak your thoughts. I want to hear them. No one will hear us in this luminous bell."
Tianqi spoke. "Pablo, Nicol — they're good kids. I'm going to miss them."
Ranyu wasn't so sure who would outlast whom this time, but she had to lift her old friend's spirit. "You know, help them become adults, then you might not have to worry about them anymore once you see them mature. I could show you all nights they'd never forget, that might be eye-opening even for yo—"
Nicol woke up again with an overwhelming headache as she heard Pablo's voice.
"Five, six?! Seven???...twelve... seventeen?!!... how many stacked bulges on your forehead were there?!?!"
Nicol was so annoyed that she chased Pablo for hours. "How have you kept tampering with this maiden's beauty like this?! Will you take responsibility if I can't find a groom?"
"It's a state of the art I have no idea how to do either. I might ask master to teach me sometime too, bwahahahaha." Pablo ran away as he mocked Nicol with Bovorn's laughing style. After that, Ranyu was refused descent for a week after Nicol found out why Tianqi hit her.
Those peaceful days passed by like a fleeting moment of sweet dreams. So sweet that even the omnia and the devil forgot how they had become friends, and so cozy it even warmed the once freezing cold heart of a sage. "The river is not going anywhere. You don't have to be in such a hurry." Tianqi was grabbed by the wrist and dragged to the riverside by Nicol. When Nicol was enthusiastic about taking a bath, she could muster a monstrous strength, and if Tianqi wasn't careful her wrapped towel might fall from her chest from the wind caused by this maiden's movement. "Cool river, clear water, how can I resist being embraced by it any later than now? No way~" Splash. Nicol was so comfortable with Tianqi that she could playfully tease her without a second thought.
Years before Tianqi met Pablo and Nicol, she had never imagined having any friends. Now she would visit sweetshops in town and volunteer to help townsfolk with Ranyu during the day, then follow Nicol to this spot and bathe together by night. The devil sword had been placed on a nearby rock by Pablo before he left for an isolation practice. "If only I could possess you the way Ranyu does Nicol, the first thing I would do is punch that foolish Pablo's face. That way he would stop showing that face of pity before he took my suggestion to go travelling somewhere." Nil's spirit body started dipping into the river alongside Tianqi and Nicol. Even with her power revoked, Pablo still used the devil sword for practice like it was a normal sword. It annoyed Nil that he even looked cooler in her eyes for it. The girls always talked about everything and often gossiped about Pablo's growth and his demeanor. "Then, should we try that sometime?" But today Tianqi was a bit more proactive than usual. It may have been because years had passed and she wanted to try something new. But most likely Tianqi simply wanted to make memories with them more deliberately.
Earlier that morning at a sweetshop, Tianqi had suddenly leaked a fearsome aura. As she swayed and swept all the sweets on their table away, her deep ocean-blue eyes started to turn red. It was only a brief moment before Tianqi got a hold of herself. But that alone was enough to drain the colour from Pablo's face. He knew the time they had to enjoy together was not forever. Witnessing calm and collected Tianqi become the thing that confirmed she was the eschaton was not something he had been prepared for. He never would be. Ranyu had seen it coming, but the part of Nicol still in her subconscious made her shed tears nonstop.
From that day, Tianqi's aggressiveness and the reddening started to show up more and more frequently. From a few months between episodes to a few weeks, to a few days, to a few times a day, until it stopped Tianqi from leaving the thousand cloud-crowned mountains area entirely. The reddening aura grew strong enough to burn things around her, and the life nearby started wilting and slowly breaking down.
One day after training, Tianqi called Pablo over and handed him an enchanted envelope. "I'd like you to keep this for me."
It was a light piece of folded paper with a tiny wax drop seal, but it felt so heavy it was almost unbearable for Pablo to hold. "Master... Don't tell me it's a love letter?! Isn't our 9th year master-disciple anniversary tomorrow? Aww, you don't have to be this impatient to let this student know your feelings. I thank you kindly." By that time Pablo had completed the trials of the four guardians in all directions and ascended to the pre-sage level. His power and combat prowess had improved a thousandfold. Yet it was not even a question whether he could stand a chance against Tianqi head on.
"Enough of your jests. I want you to deliver it to someone when the time—" Tianqi stopped, seeing Pablo raising his hand. This might have been the first and last time he ever interrupted his master. "I understand. Please say no more, master." As Pablo stood before Tianqi, her heart still belonged somewhere further from him, to someone long lost in the past. He knew it had been decided even before they met. Even so, Pablo wished he could spend more time with her regardless of how she viewed him. But that would be too selfish of him. For someone like Tianqi to pass the torch to him, it could only mean she was on the verge of the end. She could fall at any time. Pablo had watched Tianqi suffer, fighting the unimaginable power raging from within. Day and night, their talks after training grew shorter and shorter. Her laughter got interrupted more and more until there was none left to be heard. It was hard to accept she was about to go, but even harder to ask her to stay.
That night Pablo leapt through the sky like a series of comets. After a long journey, he stopped by the balcony of king Althem's bedchamber in Pleast. "I've fallen in love with someone."
"Is this how you greet your king?" Althem got up from his bed with excitement. His best friend was back after a decade with no news to be heard, now sitting on the window of his room. They talked about what had happened during each other's absence. Pablo told him about how he was chosen as a hero by Ranyu, his companion Nicol, the end of Bovorn's terror, finding his love and walking the path of a sage, everything. Althem praised the knights Pablo had trained and how flourishing their Pleast kingdom had become. "Gaius missed you, but they thrive well. Their trade routes have expanded wide to the south and east to an extent that I've spent more time welcoming foreign guests than seeing my own children." He looked tired, but happy, believing his hard work would help his people live more comfortably. Seeing his smile, Pablo was resolved. He would protect without fail. All it took was a single late night talk to fill the gap of their decade of absence.
This time, Althem bid farewell to Pablo properly. "May the light of prosperous Pleast bless you with victory." Pablo bowed to his king and disappeared into the sky in one leap.
In the colossal misty hills where the guardian of the west resided, Pablo knelt before a mythical beast with a size bigger than the hill itself. "Master white tiger, please lend me your strength." The white tiger looked at Pablo silently before letting out a long sigh. The wind from its sigh was so intense it whirled into twin hurricanes. But Pablo at the pre-sage stage did not move a millimeter. Feeling pride in his endurance, the white tiger pawed at Pablo. "Good. We shall hurry while Tianqi can still be reasoned with. I still want to converse with her once more." It grabbed and threw Pablo onto its back, then soared through the wind with clouds supporting every step it landed mid-air.
The terrain around Pablo changed faster than he could blink. In no time they had reached the hottest volcano vent of the south. Pablo jumped from the white tiger's back as it clashed with the vermillion bird in greeting. The vermillion bird spread its wings as if stretching. "Answer me, Pablo. Who's the love of your life?!" Its feathers all ignited, shining bright as the sun. Pablo inhaled for a moment before shouting, "TIANQIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" at the top of his lungs. The heat of his burning passion could even warm the vermillion bird before him. "That's hot enough for someone who loved Tianqi far later than me. Let's go, my disciple." It summoned a pillar of lava to push Pablo up onto its neck.
Flying with 2 mythical beasts, the sky was illuminated like daytime wherever they passed. Even the sunken grand palace at the bottom of the blackest ocean of the north was lit up like a giant underwater lantern. The black tortoise rose from its throne. "With birth...," a serpent wrapped around it answered, "...comes death." Hiss. The tortoise crawled forth towards Pablo, who knelt before the white tiger and the vermillion bird. "What exists...," the serpent coiled around Pablo, hiss, "...shall suffer." Then the black tortoise and the serpent exuded a dark aura that blacked out the palace. "Life..." "...is a flow of cause and effect." As Pablo finished the riddle, the pitch black atmosphere faded.
The serpent wrapped around him and placed him onto the black tortoise's shell. "Good answer." Hiss. "Next, show me if you truly understood it." The black tortoise crawled past the 2 other mythical beasts and out of the palace. It started to spin. Faster, faster and faster, faster and faster. The giant currents coiled up and shook the entire ocean before three streaks of water launched each of the mythical beasts straight up over the golden heavenly clouds of the east.
There, the azure dragon was waiting for Pablo's arrival. Pablo leapt off the black tortoise's shell, flying up even higher. The azure dragon soared up alongside him. They both pushed themselves higher and higher until they reached the space among the stars. The azure dragon then slapped its tail to fling Pablo onto its mountainous frame. Without a word uttered, the dragon acknowledged its strength disciple by having him ride on its back.
Upon reaching the thousand cloud-crowned mountains, hundreds of them had been crushed down to nothing. Tianqi could no longer hold back her destructive force. Pablo dropped off at the mountain foot while all the guardians of the mother earth advanced to where Tianqi was.
There, Pablo found Nicol hugging her knees, crying. "Why? We've been through everything together, we're all companions. You're a good man. Tianqi is not an evil monster either. Why does it have to be either her or the rest of us?" Nicol's eyes were reddened and swollen. Yet the tears never stopped flooding, as if crying was the only thing she had left to do. These days she had been pleading with Ranyu. A coin lover like her begging to trade her blessing of a lifetime of wealth for just a little more time for Tianqi, over and over again. Woefully, her offer couldn't even afford Tianqi another hour. The repeated rejections from Ranyu had also made Nicol raise her voice against her beloved omnia. She was desperate. Ranyu was so guilt-ridden she had not descended into her since.
Pablo knelt down and hugged Nicol from behind. "Nicol, you've always led me to the place I needed to be. This time, please trust me, for I'll bring the best outcome for us like I always have." With his comforting words, and the Gaius family emblem placed in her palm, Nicol could sense something terrible was certain to happen. But within Pablo's embrace in that moment, she still felt that whatever was going to happen after this, everything would be fine. With that, the brief exhaustion caught up with her and Nicol let out a faint goodbye as she fell unconscious.
Ranyu seized this opportunity to possess Nicol's body. She took the devil sword resting beside Nicol's shoe, unwrapped the cloth around it and handed it to Pablo. "To think this would be the last time you entrust this sword to me. I wonder when it would be the first time you thrust that sword into me? Wouldn't you regret it if you didn't win, or were so badly injured you couldn't use it?" Ranyu started to draw her finger from Pablo's muscle-packed chest down to his refined abs. "We still have time for a quick—"
Pablo couldn't hold himself back anymore. His broad hand grabbed Nicol's cheek with Ranyu feeling every bit of him pulling her close. Then Pablo swiftly gave her a barrage of finger flicks, leaving 5 stacked swellings on her forehead. "Don't you want to see her one last time?"
Ranyu rolled on the ground with Pablo's new highscore in forehead flick. She slowly answered after a brief recovery. "I can't. We've known each other for so long it's going to be too complicated to say goodbye. Tianqi would also prefer it this way."
Looking at Pablo in the eyes, she finally let out a distorted frown. A face so twisted that no amount of glow or beauty could hide the depth of sorrow she felt.
Pablo had never thought the almighty omnia could make such an ugly, mournful face. He brought his face closer to Ranyu's once again. It made her heart skip a beat. Then he lightly poked the swollen part of her forehead.
"Ouch! You meanie!" Ranyu had both hands guarding her forehead.
"Mortal pain, resentful wasn't it? Don't you worry. This time, I'll certainly end Tianqi's interminable suffering without fail." Pablo lifted Ranyu up and got them out of the thousand cloud-crowned mountains area in a few leaps. Ranyu bestowed Pablo a light spell seal. The glowing rune characters formed around his severed wrist, growing him a hand-shaped light. "Nicol invented this spell. It was able to store every ounce of my magic that your mother earth allowed through. Good luck."
Pablo nodded. As he turned back, he saw the burning and decay spreading in every direction. Pablo drew the devil sword and leapt towards the center of the damage. "Nil, I need your help."
All the time Pablo had been training under Tianqi, he had only used Nilrend as a normal training sword. They had talked and adventured together like good friends among the party. Nil had been watching Pablo the whole time. Unlike Bovorn, Pablo had never asked for her power in exchange for an adventure to satisfy her curiosity. Nil had almost come to believe that true generosity existed. Until she read Pablo's mind this time. "You're even greedier than Bovorn. But a devil won't form a pact they'd lose on. It's a good deal." Without another word, the devil sword began to emit a sinister aura. The runes on Pablo's wrist were tainted as his magical light prosthetic hand was consumed by darkness and transformed into a cursed shadowy hand. Pablo glanced at Nil's reflection inside the blade.
"What? You know I hate light... Alright, alright, how about we make it a combined gift for you?" Unable to stand Pablo's gaze, Nil readjusted her dark power to resonate with Ranyu's light in the prosthetic hand, forming a chaos purple hand packed with energy.
Pablo practiced swinging his sword with both hands a few times and arrived at the battlefield. The four mythical beasts were surrounding Tianqi. The fire vortex talons of the vermillion bird coordinated with the earth-shaking claws of the white tiger. The million thunder fangs of the azure dragon intertwined with the black tidal waves of the seven seas. All incoming attacks rendered no damage to the sage. "How adorable of you folks, trying to destroy the eschaton itself." Tianqi's eyes turned red. Her movements seemed restrained and limited. Though a mere stomp on the ground caused a sinkhole that transformed the mountainous terrain into a massive lava basin. Pablo joined in with twentyfold slashes.
Sensing the danger, Tianqi's instincts took over and let out a shockwave that pushed everyone away. Pablo raised his devil sword, signalling the four guardians to wait. He then rushed towards Tianqi, who was no longer herself. Her severed pieces now had explosive power seeping from them to pull themselves back together. Without her conscious restraint, she went berserk. Tianqi kept smashing the lava basin beneath her, generating vibrations throughout the entire continent, followed by strangely formed weather and earthquakes that shook the entire globe. Pablo got chills up his spine. At this rate, even the people of Pleast would not be safe from this fight. No one would be.
He had to make haste. Then as he approached Tianqi, something from below floated up at high speed. A blinding white pillar like a lighthouse, burning with heat that exceeded even the sun. It was a gigantic rod forged in the core of the mother earth. Pablo cut it into 2 pieces. Yet the energy was so overpowering it nearly burned him. Pablo kept cutting through the heat around him to survive. But then the burning pillars began closing in together as Tianqi clasped her hands. The rod was compressed down into a war staff in Tianqi's hands. Her body also recovered as the mysterious energy wrapped around her, turning her pitch black. "Quit your futile struggle, disciple of the sage."
Pablo would have been vaporized in the making of the war staff. In his critical state, Pablo saw lines of force pulling the sun-hot rod together. He cut them to break free and cut a way out. Not only that, his vision was now tangled with lines of force he had never seen before.
The four mythical beasts witnessing Pablo simultaneously from afar bowed before him. "Paying respects to sage Pablo."
Pablo's skin glowed faintly. His body felt lighter than air yet he felt the presence of lives around him stronger than ever. "By chance and fate, I am richly rewarded!" Nil danced around in the reflection of the devil sword out of exhilaration.
Now Pablo could truly feel the extent of power the eschaton had built, feeding on Tianqi's inner energy cultivated from the 7 other eschatons she had defeated. He flew higher into the sky and cut the atmosphere apart, sucking the eschaton up into space. "Your level's too much for us to fight on the mother earth." As Pablo spoke, he saw the eschaton swing the war staff to get a foothold. He soared down to cut those impacts away but one got past him and carved a long crushing streak that could be seen from space. Pablo couldn't stand any more destruction. He cut through space over and over, creating a cluster of voids that pulled the eschaton from every direction.
This should have stalled even a star within it for a while. The eschaton was caged inside. Mindless smashing and attacking had no effect. Until it found a weaker void spot at the top and finally unleashed its full power. The blast radiated out as far as the horizon.
After the explosion faded, the eschaton was faced with the flat of the blade held in both of Pablo's hands. He struck the eschaton with a blunt hit back down into the earth. As the eschaton and Pablo fell together and entered the deepest deserted vale, the magic runes carved on every inch of the cliffs around the place all lit up. The activated cliffs formed a closure, turning the place into a sealed cave with no opening. There, the guardians of the mother earth were already standing by in their positions. The azure dragon in the east, the vermillion bird in the south, the white tiger in the west and the black tortoise in the north.
"What is this frail feeling. What did you do to me?" The only reason the eschaton couldn't break free was the draining ability gained from the devil's pact Pablo had made with Nil. "Something that cost me about 2 thousand years of my lifespan." Pablo said with a smile. Before the eschaton could recover, Pablo kept draining the destructive force out of it. Even with only enough power to destroy half a planet seeping into him, the pain was so excruciating that his transcended sage body nearly passed out right away. "Ughh!!" Pablo was about to fall to his knee, but a hand pulled him up. "I should have added a few more regimens to your endurance training." That amount of force taken away was more than enough for Tianqi to regain her consciousness.
The first thing she sensed was the overall damage to the life force of the mother earth. With a sympathy crushing her heart, Tianqi squinted against the feeling before casting the highest form of binding magic to restrain herself. The endless magic circles of every color interlocked and tightened as pure magic chains constricted her along with every inner energy gate. "End me." She looked at Pablo. Pablo would have liked to joke about buying her about 200 more years, but he couldn't even think straight with a part of the eschaton's power inside him.
Pablo gritted his teeth, trying to cut Tianqi. Though he knew he couldn't do it. Tianqi urged him to hurry so Pablo finally gave in. He signalled his four other masters and they all nodded. Pablo pointed the devil sword at Tianqi and cast a devil's sealing magic. Tianqi was shocked. "What are you doing?!! Stop that right away!" She knew what Pablo was going to do. She struggled to break free, but the binding magic she had cast on herself was so strong she couldn't do anything. "Guardians of the East!!" "Guardians of the West!!!" Tianqi called out for the azure dragon and the white tiger, but they were looking at her with compassionate eyes. "The North!..., even you too? The southern guardian?" Every mythical beast and Pablo absorbed the power of the eschatons from Tianqi all at once.
The incoming force that could have wiped the mother earth out of existence 7 times coursed through every nook and cranny of them. Even the guardians who feared no death couldn't stand the agony for long. Pablo lost consciousness and was awakened by the pain again and again until he couldn't count how much time had passed. But then he started to notice his skin turning dull and his hair turning white. He didn't know how much of his lifespan was being consumed but the incoming power seemed to have no end.
All four guardians were roaring and writhing in pain, their eyes turning red, on the verge of going berserk as well. "Stop it! Pablo! I said stop!!" Tianqi kept pleading with Pablo to quit the blasphemous act that would corrupt the four guardians of the mother earth.
Now that he knew a fraction of the pain Tianqi had been enduring, he was jealous. But he also respected Tianqi and the one who had made her gather this much patient resolve to hold on for so long. "He must have been someone great. Maybe I should thank him for making you wait long enough for us to have met." Pablo felt his physical body reaching its limit. "Ten thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I don't know how many years of my life this has cost. But I've had just a decade with you while you've been thinking about someone else for 3 millennia. That's cheating. How can I have a chance when I've only had this much time?"
"Quit your nonsense! You're going to die! Cut it out right now!!" Tianqi knew it was pointless to draw out the destructive power no one could hold. The end of the world was fated to come. It was undeniable.
"Cutting you down, the next cycle is going to come anyway. I didn't think hard enough about whether Pleast kingdom would still exist in the next 400 years. But I also can't stand watching you live in this pain any longer. You deserve a love that rewards your dedication. If the omnia alone can't give you that, I'm going to beg the devil to do it for you." Pablo was frail but determined. As he sang an unintelligible song, Nil chimed in.
With most of the destructive force drawn out into Pablo and the four guardians, they were lulled to an eternal slumber, burying all that destructive power along with them. Tianqi was appalled. "Pablo, you fool..." Tears started to fall from her deep ocean-blue eyes. "This much of a feat, what did it cost you?... What did you give?" She might not have seen him as a man. But as her first disciple, the love she gave him was nowhere near lacking. The joy and the people he brought, the sense of purpose he gave her to distract from the pain she had endured alone all along. His stories from a distant homeland. The feeling of being cared for, the tender gestures they shared through hard times. The banter they had, the laughter they exchanged — it had already exceeded the point of romance. Family.
"Please take care of yourself, master." Pablo bowed to his master one last time with his old and weakened body. Suddenly, the hand of the devil stretched out of the devil sword and gripped him tightly, slowly dragging him into a shadowy gate that opened from the blade. Tianqi finally broke free of her binding magic, putting every ounce of her strength into pulling Pablo back. But she couldn't interfere with the dimension of the devil.
Nil couldn't stop clapping and bouncing her legs on her throne. Her newest toy was about to arrive. A rare one with a hero's blessing still on him, and her first ever. Tianqi could see that not only his physical body but also his soul was vanishing. Pablo had sold them both to serve Nil until the end of time. So that the cycle of hero and eschaton would be frozen forever. Tianqi couldn't accept such an unfair trade. "You were once a merchant too. Why did you let yourself take such a loss? Aren't you ashamed of it?" Tianqi started rambling and kept trying everything. Any spell she knew, any technique she had practiced up until today — nothing she tried could stop her from watching Pablo disappear before her eyes. As if to comfort her, Pablo asked her a question. "Master, do you know what would hurt me the most?"
"Losing your kingdom?"
"That's right. Now, can you guess what would make me the happiest I've ever been?"
"I... I..."
"Time's up. It's seeing your dream come tru—"
Pablo did not know if Tianqi heard all of it, but he was now fully consumed by the devil sword, and even the devil sword consumed itself and disappeared from the mother earth. Even though Pablo had failed to win Tianqi's heart till the very end, he had finally learned how to love someone in that way.
Years passed. The mother earth healed herself. So did people's civilizations.
Nicol had fallen in love with the beauty of Pleast kingdom. With every coin left over from their journey, Nicol opened a magic academy in the city not far from the house of Gaius. The people here were kind and carefree. Combined with her wealth and her standing as a mage, she was loved and welcomed. She could eat as many sweets as she wanted without anyone nagging that she would get a toothache. She could bathe twice a day without being drenched in sweat from the road. But surrounded by this land of chivalrous spirit and streets full of lively markets, she started to miss Pablo. At times like this she would find herself in the town square, looking up at a copper statue of a former paladin who had been branded a criminal and later became a legendary hero of the Pleast kingdom.
There, Nicol saw a hooded woman whining in frustration as she crossed out the word criminal on the statue's description plate. "He was never a criminal! This hero only borrowed the devil sword to defeat the eschaton and destroy the sword at the same time!" Her words were clear enough, but the cadence carried something faintly unfamiliar.
But it was not long before a lightning bolt struck right in front of that woman. "You! Don't make a mess of this statue, or I'll give you a nightmare tonight!" Nicol looked up towards the source of that voice and found a levitating, translucently glowing lady with her hands on her hips. Then the lady went still after her lightning tore the woman's hood down. Nicol followed her gaze only to see a stunning woman's bright red hair swaying in the air.