The world inside the tree was so warm and comforting.
It was a world one truly wouldn't want to leave, like the arms of a mother embracing you.
"...Where should we go now?"
However, some of the children who had been sitting by the campfire were now following Joseph.
No matter how small they were, they knew they couldn't stay there forever.
-Mister, where are we going now?
-Didn't you know the way?
But this world they were wandering through was a world of trees without an exit.
Joseph, who had been unwillingly dragged here by a root that had pierced him, had no idea where to go.
"It seems that way."
He thought that if there was a way to enter, there must also be a way to leave, but all he could see was darkness.
Only the campfire behind them lit up the place, and as they moved forward and everything grew darker, the children began to cling to Joseph's clothing, one by one.
Crash! Crack!
"Eh?"
Suddenly, above Joseph's head, came the sound of something breaking.
A sharp noise echoed for the first time in this place where there had only been a comfortable silence.
Joseph looked up toward the light that appeared along with the noise.
- Stop already!
"...Vlad?"
The voice of someone who seemed far away, like an echo.
- I'm telling you to stop already!
However, the voice that was clearly audible, no matter how distant it seemed, was unmistakably that of the knight who had been by his side.
***
"Aaaaaah! They've got us!"
Along with Nibelun's screams, pieces of the carpet, which had been torn apart, flew through the air.
Vlad and Nibelun swayed back and forth as if their flight was an illusion.
They barely managed to stay standing on the mysterious piece of fabric but stumbled precariously as the carpet began to fall apart.
"Good job."
"What?"
Even as they fell, Vlad's eyes were fixed on the tree ahead of him.
More precisely, on the woman chanting a spell from the highest point of the tree.
"Even if it's broken, I'm sure you can get down by yourself, right?"
"Vlad? Sir Vlad?"
"Then go safely!"
"No, no, no! You're not really going to—are you?"
Shuaaaaaaa!
The world in Vlad's eyes now was the true path, as August had taught him.
That path led him straight toward a root speeding towards him.
As if there was no other way but this.
"I don't want to do this either!"
Vlad began jumping off the carpet, barely avoiding the roots.
The wingless dragon clenched his teeth at the dizzying sensation of falling, but now this was truly the only way.
"Aaaargh!"
Crunch! Crack!
Just as he was about to fall, Vlad seized the moment and drove his sword into a passing root.
The overwhelming shock that surged through his fingertips was painful, but Vlad didn't loosen his grip until the very end.
"I did it!"
Vlad climbed onto the root, using his sword as a handle, and began running toward the tree ahead.
Riding on vicious roots that snarled like snakes.
The headless knights in the tree began murmuring about Vlad, who was climbing the roots.
- He's coming!
- Vlad of Soara! That madman!
- Stop him! Cut the roots!
The roots began to shake violently, as if they hadn't expected anyone to use them to climb.
But a swordsman must never lose his balance, no matter the situation.
The heir to the one-strike technique, who must claim the battlefield as his own at any time and in any place, didn't lose sight of his goal despite the tremors.
[They're right in front of you!]
"Haaa..."
[What did I teach you? How did I tell you to take the lead?]
"Haaaaaa!"
With Kihano's voice ringing in his ears, Vlad's magnificent horizon sliced through the black roots like a wolf's maw.
From the end of that golden horizon, a brilliant world began to rise.
Though it was smaller than the moon above, it was definitely a light that everyone there could see.
"If you want to stop me, be prepared to pay the price!"
The golden world shone as Vlad leapt over the headless knights.
Ramashthu's limbs could only stare in disbelief as Vlad soared above them.
They didn't even see the golden wind of his sword approaching.
Thwack! Crack! Crack!
Wherever the wind of his sword reached, black roses bloomed.
This beautiful painting, drawn with rotten black paint, reminded me of the knight of the blue moon seen in the smile of the rose.
[Excellent! You've recreated it perfectly!]
Following the light of the blue moon, not revealed but deeply rooted in my world.
Vlad, who had recreated Godin's swordsmanship, began charging toward Ramashthu, leaving behind the shattered remnants of the knights.
"Ramashthu-!"
To reach the moon.
This time, to destroy it.
The path he wanted was clearly etched in Vlad's steps as he ran.
"Get out of my way, you bastards!"
Crash-!
He rolled to dodge the roots flying at him, breaking through the headless knights blocking his way.
Though the space inside the tree was filled with darkness and enemies, Vlad began to accelerate, his advance growing fiercer.
"Stop, Ramashthu!"
To fly, those who fall to the ground need a platform from which to leap.
Even if the ground beneath their feet is filled with mud.
"I told you to stop immediately!"
Vroom—vroom—!
And so, Vlad leaped toward the sky.
Toward the woman who had created this entire tragedy, stepping on the countless swords beneath his feet.
"...Vlad Aureo!"
The brilliance of his attack was undeniable.
Ramashthu halted her spell and hastily erected a barrier, but it was as fragile as glass.
Crash! Crack!
"Kyaaa!"
"Aaagh!"
Ramashthu's altar stood tall like an obelisk.
The small altar was now filled with shards of broken barriers.
But despite rolling over the sharp debris, Vlad's advance did not falter.
"I won't give you time this time!"
"...!"
The blonde knight charged forward as if he wouldn't repeat the mistake he made before.
Crack!
"Haa..."
Ramashthu's spell, incomplete due to Vlad's speed, had no time to finish.
Crash! Crack!
"Aaaah!"
"Stop, damn it! I said stop!"
The brutal strike of Vlad's sword reached the woman, slicing through her delicate fingers.
Faced with the fierce fangs of the dragon, Ramashthu let out a cry of pain.
"Ick!"
Sssss-
Though she tried to keep fighting, her malevolent hand clung to Vlad's armor.
Through that touch, sadness, pain, and all manner of curses clung to Vlad, but the dwarf armor, forged with the breath of a young dragon, burned fiercely, refusing to tolerate a single impurity.
"How many more people are you going to kill? You crazy bitch!"
"My...children...my children."
"I'm asking you, how many more are you going to kill for them?"
Grabbing Ramashthu by the hair, Vlad dragged her and forced her to witness the scene below.
The world below, where the black-toned trees took root, was quite like hell.
Now, in a place where you couldn't even trust the ground beneath your feet, it was filled with countless screams, with no distinction between the North and the center.
"Do you see those people? What's the point of killing more of them?"
The knight's voice was filled with a rage even he couldn't control.
But the eyes of the woman, darkened by her purpose, didn't see the screams, only a means to achieve her world.
"...It's too filthy, isn't it? No one can live there."
"Ramashthu!"
"I won't allow my children to live in such a horrendous place!"
The woman was shedding tears.
She cried for her dead children.
The tears the woman shed were clearly the same light as the black moon above.
"My children will live in a pure world, free from all this filth!"
Madness for her children and madness for God.
Vlad, who was watching both of them, was speechless as he witnessed the pure madness.
Fanatics who couldn't relate to each other because it wasn't their world.
Looking at them like that, the knight of this era felt as though he were going insane.
"...Do as you wish. I'll do what I have to do too."
However, unlike these people, the world that sustains Vlad is no one else's world but my own world, which I created myself.
My world, filled only with what I've seen, heard, and learned, kept Vlad standing even amidst all the madness.
"I won't go crazy. I'll never be like you."
I hope that in this mad world, I don't lose the color of the star I first embraced.
In the midst of Achiuk, filled with madness and pain, Vlad raised his silver sword with that promise.
Crash-!
"No!"
With Ramashthu's scream, Vlad's sword plunged into the sinister altar.
It was a sharp cry that felt as if his soul were being torn apart, but Vlad gritted his teeth and didn't show the slightest hesitation in his movements.
"This ends now!"
Jet-black tears began to flow from the tip of the blade, violently opening the wound.
Vlad's eyes, noticing those tears, filled with an unhidden sadness.
"I feel sorry for the children! Stop this now!"
Crash!
Vlad's sword pierced through the black, wolf-like altar.
Every time the sword flashed, the black moon above began to let out a silent scream.
Kuoooooo-!
A woman, a disaster, crying and a black moon falling.
As if it couldn't leave those poor beings alone, the tree in the sky raised its roots, but Vlad was no longer there.
Crash!
[Vlad!]
"Aghh!"
The altar crumbled beneath his feet.
An altar that fed off the countless deaths below and raised the black moon above my head.
[Don't be fooled! This altar is the connection between the worlds!]
The world of trees began to appear beneath my feet.
In that world filled with nothing but black, wolf-like space, only an endless abyss awaited Vlad with its mouth open.
"Shit!"
Vlad fell alone into a dark world without a mage to explain the mysteries.
No matter how much he moved, Vlad was slowly sinking into a world without a place to hold on to.
- Vlad!
"...!!"
But Vlad didn't know.
Even if you're falling into this dark place, you're like a shining star to those watching from below.
- Got it!
There was a hand reaching out to Vlad, who was endlessly falling.
The hand, unusually pale and thin, was clearly the hand of someone Vlad knew well.
"Joseph?"
The small hands that reached out countless times beside him.
The hands of the children emerging from the unseen darkness along with Joseph were clearly extended toward Vlad.
***
"…I'm sorry."
Andreas took the hand of the young deacon and looked up at the black moon above.
The current sight of the moon was clearly too harsh for the young ones, so Andreas had no choice but to apologize.
"Even so, I hope you don't stop."
But even so, the boys' song must continue.
No matter how hard the world in front of you may seem, you are the children who will have to live in this world from now on.
"If you don't sing, who will speak of hope in this world?"
"...Bishop."
The current scene was surely too gruesome and terrifying for the children of the next generation to witness.
However, Andreas was someone who understood well that there was hope only for the children.
"We will carry all of this, so please, keep singing."
To encourage those marching ahead, to comfort those who had already died.
With those words, Andrea's rosary glowed.
"Yes."
A woman wept beneath the moon that was falling from above.
It was so tragic that the world was sinking into this dirty world.
Yet, even in this world that the woman called filthy, a song resonated.
"I really searched everywhere for you! Why are you here?"
- I'm sorry. Everything happened for a reason.
The song the children sang echoed throughout the battlefield.
And a star began to rise upon hearing it.
"Now let's go home."
Vlad, who had been saved by someone who lifted him up, smiled grimly as he looked at Joseph standing right in front of him.
As all the children here were smiling too.