Yustia looked at Vlad and Jean lying on the bed and gently wiped their foreheads.
A damp sensation was felt at the fingertips, a feeling of moist sweat.
Though the bed was soft, both of their expressions were heavily contorted, especially Vlad, intermittently tossing and turning as if plagued by a severe nightmare.
"······."
Yustia brushed Vlad's blond hair with her fingertips and finally glanced at the armor he was wearing.
A phrase she personally wrote for a young squire when the Northern Orthodox Church was still Saint Rogino.
At that time, Vlad had climbed up to the highest spire of the church for the village children.
And Yustia was one of the closest people who had watched that scene.
"Let's begin."
"But, Lady Yustia······."
Seeing Vlad in agony, Yustia nodded as if determined, and the priest beside her opened his mouth with a worried expression, but now it was inevitable.
Even if they were to fall into the deep darkness, they could only believe that He would be with them.
"I'll go in. Please prepare."
"······Understood."
The room, which had been full of priests until a while ago, now had only a few remaining who followed Yustia.
However, those who remained until the end began to pray fervently to fulfill their duties.
-For He knows the times when I sit and rise; even from afar, He discerns my thoughts.
Yustia closed her eyes quietly, listening to the gentle prayers echoing in her ears.
Through the held hands, Yustia slowly slipped into Jean's dreams.
Though she may not have become a shining star like Günter, she had resolved to become a bright beacon, shining more closely.
"······."
As Justia leaves reality and descends into pitch-black darkness, she becomes smaller and weaker.
However, her platinum blonde hair, which shines brighter in the dark, has still not lost its shine.
When she finally broke through the dark clouds and came down to the world of dreams, she was already a free bird.
※※※※
-Get out of here.
Andrea in the dream said, using his entire body to block the shaking door.
His fingertips, constantly shaking due to the rough vibration, were pointing at the bookshelf right in front of him.
"But that's not a door?"
[How many times do I have to say it, you idiot...?]
Looking at Vlad with his eyes wide open, Quijano beat his chest in frustration.
Even though he said that physical appearances had no meaning, it seemed that Vlad had not yet become accustomed to the world of dreams.
-Pull out the Bible. There will be a path within.
The world of dreams is composed of symbols and meanings.
Just as Andrea's room had been the last refuge for young Jean, the way out of this crumbling place would not be through visible doors and paths but through a meaning held within one's heart.
Shh-
"······Hng!"
Vlad quickly pulled out the Bible from the bookshelf and stopped being surprised.
The old Bible he held seemed to come alive, automatically flipping its pages.
Boom boom boom!
-Read. There will be a path within.
As Vlad hurriedly glanced at the open page, he saw numerous passages written densely, but one sentence stood out boldly, as if urging him to read it.
"It is the light in the darkness that guides the path of the blind. Is it not a song?"
Gugugung-
As Vlad stumbled through reading the Bible verse, the bookshelf on the wall began to slowly roll up, as if it were made of paper.
Startled, Vlad took a step back and looked around. It was like a Milky Way floating on a cloud.
"This is..."
[That's the exit. Let's go!]
The only way to escape from the dream.
A faint path, like white sand scattered over a black sea, lay before Vlad.
It was as narrow and shallow as it appeared, fragile enough to disperse with a single breath.
[Hurry!]
"······!"
Urged by Quijano, Vlad quickly scooped up Jean and glanced back one last time.
Andrea nodded as if urging them to go, amidst Jean's crumbling dream.
Until the end, what had protected the world of the young deacon was a strand of teaching passed down by his teacher.
"Thank you!"
Embracing Jean tightly, Vlad followed Quijano, rushing towards the path Andrea had shown them.
Though the sky above was dark, the starlight underfoot was as soft as the sand on a white beach.
Rumble!
As soon as the group left, Andrea's room completely collapsed, as if it had been held together forcibly.
But it wasn't just Andrea's room.
"The church is collapsing!"
[Then run!]
Like a shattered glass bottle, the church of Varna was breaking into pieces.
Behind the collapsing debris, the trees of the defying natural order began to roar.
Kaaaaa-!
"Where are we going? Where should we go?"
[Didn't Günter or something tell you to follow the starlight!]
It is light and song that guide the blind man's path.
Yet, although the path they tread upon was bright, the sky above held no starlight, only darkness.
[There!]
"······Huh?"
Behind them, the trees were roaring.
The path they walked on was a white sand path scattered by the wind.
The two were perplexed as they lost their direction for a moment there, but soon a light began to come down through the dark clouds.
"A bird?"
What Günter had instructed them to follow was starlight, but what Vlad now saw was a small bird.
A canary breaking through the darkness with its platinum-haired wings unfurled.
"······Yustia."
Though the visible form was that of a bird, the presence it carried was familiar.
Vlad, who recognized the being flying towards him, bit his lip tightly.
The sight of the small bird struggling through the darkness bore a striking resemblance to the figure depicted in the painting by the priestess of the World Tree.
※※※※
"Damn it all······."
Günter's gaze was fixed upon the mist above, into the empty air.
Even now, beneath his feet lay a man writhing and groaning, shedding black tears, but what mattered to him now was the mysterious woman who had blocked the Holy knights.
Swoosh!
The man's struggling ceased abruptly, collapsing limp.
Yet, even in his final moments, he was desperately calling out someone's name.
-My son······. My son, Noah.
The name he called out in desperation was that of the child he had lost.
The tragedy, unnoticed by anyone, came to an end with the man's movements.
"Who are you?"
"A person without blood or tears. Aren't you sorry for him?"
"This is ridiculous. Wasn't all this tragedy your doing?"
The Holy knights surrounding Günter quickly formed a defensive formation and began to push their swords towards the woman hovering in the air.
"······."
They were Holy knights who had cut down all kinds of strange beings until now, but now, facing an unknown woman, they could not hide their nervousness.
Her appearance, seen through the world of God, was so distorted that it was difficult to put into words.
"Still, he must have found happiness in the end. He must have realized what truly mattered."
"I won't ask twice."
In the world of God, where even the slightest emotion is visible, there stood before the wide-open eyes of the knight a being so evil that even God's touch seemed to avoid it.
"I, Günter, second-in-command of the Northern Orthodox Church Holy Knight Order, shall now hold you accountable for all the tragedies that have befallen this place."
Before anyone realized it, Günter's thumb was soaked in his own blood.
However, his blood drops, which did not fall even though they had formed, were slowly being drawn into the air.
"O glorious commander of the Heavenly army and next to God, Saint Rogino······."
We are sinners who cannot do anything in the face of this evil being, so please inflict cruel wounds on us.
"Before crushing the enemy, please etch upon us a stigma that can never be healed."
"Ugh!"
"Gah!"
As Günter's drops of blood formed a single pattern, cruel stigmas began to form on the foreheads of the surrounding knights.
The stigma, which looked as if it had been drawn with a blade, clarified the spirits of the knights who had been intimidated and made the aura flowing through the sword they were holding even brighter.
"Fear not, knights. God is always with us."
The Holy knights, marking the blessing of always being with them as holy stigmata on their foreheads, began to slowly step away towards the fog, amidst intense pain, reaffirming the existence of God.
"It's been a while since I've seen this. The man in front of me was a noble knight."
"Today, I shall burn you and end this curse."
The world I inhabit is that of God.
The world I tread upon has already been shaped by His will, so I will see the perfect world without having to close my left eye.
"But do you know about that?"
As the approaching Holy knights drew closer, headless knights began to appear, attempting to stop them.
Holy Knights heading towards the Tree of Qliphoth and headless knights trying to prevent them.
"That ritual of the holy stigmata."
Two opposing factions stood facing each other.
However, their stigma was so similar.
"I made that."
The woman's last words were not heard in response to Günter's loud charge order, but it did not matter.
After all, once they got closer, they would see.
It speaks to how ruthless the will of the God they follow truly is.
Clang! Crash!
Within the tumultuous collision of swords, the holy stigmata of the knights were shining.
However, there were shining stigmas even on the severed necks of the headless knights.
Ahhh!
Commander! The holy stigmata is being consumed!
The woman was laughing as she watched the stigmas slowly burn as if feeding on the blessings of God.
Holy Knight Commander Günter was a shining star, but the woman floating in the air was someone who had shined even brighter than him.
Even though it has cooled down now.
※※※※
"Ha, ha..."
Even though he thought they had been running for a long time, the endless white sand path showed no signs of ending.
'Darn it, darn it!'
The weight of carrying Jean, the exhaustion from the endless path—all of it was heavy, but what weighed on Vlad even more was his growing sense of urgency.
'We need to hurry! Quickly!'
The canary, growing visibly tired with each passing moment, continued to flutter its wings, illuminating the path for the group, its color resembling that of Yustia's hair.
[There! I see something!]
"······!"
As if to calm Vlad's growing impatience, a faint figure began to appear in the distance.
Golden waves shimmered like aura, announcing the end of the darkness.
Yustia's strenuous guidance had finally brought Vlad to the edge of the world, and reaching the place ahead meant they could awaken from their deep slumber.
-······!
But then the little bird began to falter.
"Yustia!"
As if struck by a great shock, the tiny canary slowly began to dissolve into the darkness, feathers scattering with the wind.
"No!"
Vlad reached out to grab her as she fell towards the ground, but all he grasped were small pieces of feathers slipping away.
Vlad was greatly shocked as he watched her slowly melt away.
Thump-!
"What, what is this..."
[Keep running! Vlad! Don't stop!]
The pounding of his heart grew louder, following the ominous disappearance.
Yet even in the face of Yustia's vanishing symbol, Vlad couldn't bring himself to stop.
[The path has ended! Now you must find your own way!]
"······!"
Looking back, Vlad could see a tree in the distance approaching from the edge of the darkness with great strides.
"Darn it!"
While it had been barely visible from afar when he was with Yustia, the moment she disappeared, it was now right behind him, relentlessly pursuing him.
[It's right in front of you! Close your right eye!]
With the left eye closed, see my world.
With the right eye open, see the real world.
But this time, do the opposite.
"Hmph!"
There is no point in walking or running anymore.
This was the world of dreams, and what he had touched was merely a symbol.
'Yustia!'
Thump-!
Vlad closed his right eye as he listened to his heart beating harder.
Pushing Jean forward, Vlad began to concentrate, guiding himself and the young Jean to the boundary of the world.
[······!]
The ominous presence was right behind him.
And before that, someone swung a sword.
The tip of the root that had crawled was groping the nape of Vlad's neck, but Vlad was already able to look at the real world with his closed right eye.
She had guided him right to the threshold of reality.
"······Ugh."
And thus, he finally reached his own world.
Vlad barely lifted his eyelids and could see the platinum-blonde hair filling his field of vision.
"Yustia······?"
The sensation upon returning to reality was not someone's welcome, but rather the pungent smell that pierced his nostrils.
Thump-! Thump-!
And all he can feel is his heart starting to beat uncontrollably.
"Kwaaaa..."
Vlad began to let out a groan-like cry, squeezing his stiff neck forcibly.
Yustia is lying down as if covering Vlad.
Blood continued to flow from her back, but Vlad's trembling hands couldn't even grasp Yustia as she slowly slipped to the ground.
"Are you awake? Young dragon."
"Ugh······."
Now, between the focused sight, there stood a white-haired man leaning against the window.
At the tip of his sword, fresh drops of blood began to form.
"You bastard······."
"But you'll fall asleep soon."
The voice was all too familiar, yet the hands of the man holding the sword exuded unbearable dread.
Despite everything they each held, their hearts pounded in sync like the same blood running through them.
"Aaargh!"
Yustia fell helplessly under the bed.
Vlad ended up crying in helpless anger and fear without even being able to catch her.
"I'll kill you, you bastard!"
"....As expected, you are the dragon."
The greatest dragon slayer was smiling as he looked at the young dragon fluttering before his eyes.
Every time Vlad struggled, his heart began to beat and slowly warmed his body.
It was a very old heart that could only beat in the presence of a dragon.
[T/L: You can read more chapters and support me here: - https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans ]