Ch#204
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'......Gasp!'
Tese tan's eyes snapped open.
An unbearable chill immediately surged over him.
'Tie!'
Without knowing what had happened, he called out to Tie first.
But there was no response.
Feeling his pounding heart, he urgently looked around.
'What......'
Astie was gone.
Marbas, who had been making a fuss beside him, was gone too.
The golden eyes floating in the air, the moss covering the floor.
'......'
And even he himself.
He blinked.
No, he tried to, but couldn't.
Because he had no physical form, he couldn't do anything.
At that moment, someone rushed past him, shouting.
"Tese tan! Get out of the way!"
Blonde hair covered in filth and blood.
A familiar face emerged through it.
Clear blue eyes like the sky.
Terrified pupils.
It was Ardiana.
"Ah......!"
In that instant, a root slicing through the air grazed Ardiana's right arm.
Red blood quickly spread over her brown robe.
'Ardiana!'
He shouted, but no sound came out.
Ardiana staggered in place.
Another root shot toward her from the opposite side, as if to pierce her.
"Get down!"
Someone else entered his view, grabbing Ardiana's arm and rolling across the floor.
He quickly stood and slashed away the surrounding roots at once with his greatsword.
'......Me?'
It was Tese tan himself.
But a self with form, alive and moving, unlike his current state.
Tese tan stared blankly at himself.
Like a shadow.
Like a soul gazing at its husk.
"Get over there!"
His living self supported Ardiana.
He took her to a spot that seemed relatively safe.
Only then did the surroundings gradually come into view.
Water-soaked dirt floor.
Stone-covered walls.
Pillars supporting all sides and the imperial palace emblems carved atop them.
'Old Palace......?'
This was undoubtedly the Old Palace.
Precisely, the underground passage of the Old Palace.
The place where he and Astie had been until they were pulled into South Korea.
"Stop the bleeding first! Drink the antidote!"
His self handed Ardiana a torn leather pouch.
Then he dashed forward again to deal with the roots threatening him and Ardiana.
By then, he had no choice but to realize.
'......Clock Tower Mana Stone?'
He and Ardiana were sieging the Clock Tower Mana Stone.
Precisely, confronting the Mana Stone's main body underground, its heart.
The roots gleaming with demonic energy.
The pillars in the underground space were undoubtedly those from the Old Palace tunnel.
'But the Clock Tower Mana Stone siege is already over?'
He had seen with his own eyes Ardiana endure the demonic poisoning and pierce the heart dead.
So why were he and Ardiana sieging that Mana Stone again?
As if returned to a different situation at that moment.
'......Where's Leonardo? My brother?'
Sensing something off, Tese tan looked around.
'Astie, Aleric and Libia.'
To find the other members who had been nearby during the Mana Stone siege.
But.
"Tese tan! Cover me!"
In the space he was watching, there were only Ardiana and Tese tan.
No one else besides the two.
"It's dangerous! If you approach the heart recklessly......!"
Ardiana began running somewhere.
A sharp dagger was gripped tightly in her hand.
The place she headed was the center of the underground space, where the Mana Stone's heart was.
A root narrowly grazed her.
A lock of hair was severed, sparkling blonde strands falling into the mud.
"Don't come closer!"
The next moment, Ardiana plunged the dagger into the heart.
At the same time, a grotesque scream filled the underground space.
"Kieeeaaaaa-!"
An enormous amount of demonic energy erupted from the Mana Stone's heart.
The demonic energy quickly spread along Ardiana's hands and arms.
Dark red veins bulged over her exposed skin, and the movements of the roots Tese tan was facing slowed.
"Ardiana!"
Tese tan ran toward Ardiana.
Ardiana was enduring the demonic energy with her entire body, gripping the dagger with both hands.
"Don't come closer!"
Ardiana glared at Tese tan.
"Go get the members......"
Her lips trembled.
"Bring the members! If you get corrupted too right now, it's over!"
Tese tan stepped back at her desperate voice.
His face twisted in pain, gripping the sword hilt as if to break it.
"......Won't take long."
Then he turned toward the secured escape route.
Tese tan watched his retreating back, then stared at Ardiana again.
Amid the scattered roots on the floor, Ardiana panted for breath.
Her skin was growing ever darker red.
Dark purple demonic energy gushed from the heart pierced by the dagger.
"......I can't die."
Ardiana murmured in a fading voice.
"Not now, of all times."
But that hoarse, cracked voice grew quieter.
Ardiana was speaking to herself as if casting a spell.
"This much, easily......"
But in the end, strength left her arms.
Her hands slipped from the dagger, dropping to the floor.
Her head bowed forward, tears welling beneath her trembling eyelids.
"I......"
Red blood poured from between her lips.
Along with the demonic energy flowing from the Mana Stone's heart.
Ardiana's life too was finally coming to an end.
"Not like this......"
However, just before her voice completely faded.
A faint golden light flowed from between the heart where the dagger had pierced.
The light floated before Ardiana, who had closed her eyes, and
"......!"
Plunged into her heart as if absorbed.
Just like it had flown into Tie's chest right before crossing to this world.
And then, something strange happened.
"Ha......?"
The demonic energy that had risen to her jaw began exiting Ardiana's body.
Like the tide receding, as if fleeing from the sun.
"How......"
Ardiana lowered her gaze in disbelief.
She placed her trembling hands on her chest.
An unidentified light shimmered beneath her collarbone.
"Ardiana!"
At that moment, the vanished Tese tan reappeared.
"Found her! Found the Association President!"
Libia.
"What are you doing! Bring a stretcher right now!"
Victor, his entire body covered in blood after battling monsters.
"Association President! Are you okay?!"
Even Aleric, with a severe injury on one arm.
"......Ardiana."
Tese tan pulled Ardiana into a tight embrace.
"You......!"
In disbelief, he repeatedly stroked her cheek, now returned to life.
Ardiana, held in Tese tan's arms, lowered her gaze.
The light shimmering inside her body had vanished at some point.
She barely mustered her voice.
"Te, Tese tan. Suddenly from the Mana Stone's heart...... something strange......"
Tese tan looked at the Mana Stone's heart.
The heart had already crumbled to ashes.
Tese tan, who had furrowed his brow, stood from his spot.
He scooped Ardiana up into his arms.
"......Give me a blanket."
He took the blanket from Victor and covered Ardiana's face.
He pushed through the Trebaga members parting left and right and advanced forward.
"Is the Communication Orb working again?"
"I just checked, and it seems to be!"
"Then contact the base, have the Holy Knights on standby, and tell them to prepare antidotes just in case."
Ardiana poked her face out from the blanket.
"Tese tan. The monsters outside......"
"They're gone."
Ardiana closed her mouth.
Tese tan let out a sigh.
Then he spoke in a voice laced with complex emotions.
"Thanks to you."
Ardiana couldn't respond.
Instead of words, she quietly leaned her head against Tese tan's chest.
At that moment.
A ripple-like wave occurred over the two.
Tese tan, who had been observing the entire scene, finally regained his consciousness.
At the same time, the scene fast-forwarded rapidly.
One day, two days.
And then years passed by like a montage.
At some point, the flowing time stopped abruptly at one moment.
"......I'm sorry."
Tese tan drew a short breath at the changed scene.
Thick tears endlessly fell over sunken cheeks.
With a gaunt face, Ardiana raised her head.
"I can't raise her."
She slowly looked down.
In her arms, she held something very small.
"Don't come looking anymore."
It was Astie.
Astie, bearing a faint golden light in her chest, one that could only be seen in this moment.