The alleys of Soara have always been dark and dirty places.
However, Vlad always kept the memory of that landscape close to his heart.
Perhaps it wasn't so much out of nostalgia for the alley, but because of the few memories he still had of his mother.
"Your mother is fine."
One of the few memories from his childhood.
On that occasion, his mother had come through the door with her face completely swollen.
Her face, which could be considered the final outcome of her line of work, was swollen and red, but at least she smiled at her son as brightly as she could.
"Eat quickly. It's going to get cold."
The bowl of soup she offered contained thick chunks of meat.
Judging by the madame's shouting outside, she had probably stolen the meat to give it to her son.
"Did you steal this?"
"Yes."
A mother who stole meat for her son.
But in the soup she offered, there was only warmth.
"It doesn't matter. It's to feed my son."
To some, she might be a filthy prostitute and a thief, but to me, in that moment, she was the only person in the world who mattered.
Young Vlad sat there in that tiny room, staring at the soup she was offering.
"...Thank you. I'll eat well."
The soup she brought was made of sin, but also of love.
Yet the young Vlad, knowing nothing, only felt pity for his mother's pale face.
***
"Someone has to give it to me."
In the total darkness, a woman who was losing her shape reached out toward Vlad.
That hand gesture, which seemed somehow futile, felt like the last struggle she could show to the world at that moment.
"They promised to give me something."
It wasn't the dragon in front of her, but the oldest dragon and the resurrected emperor who had promised her something.
They had promised to give her a fragment, since, having been separated from perfection, it could become anything.
"...So someone in this world has to give me something."
But in her hand, there was only the black moon, fading.
A murderer and heretic.
The founder of evil who spread a poison that the world could not bear for long and dragged countless people into hell.
"Don't you think so too, Vlad Aureo?"
But now, the face of Ramashthu that Vlad saw wasn't that of a madwoman corrupted by evil, but of a mother concerned for the children.
Seeing the small hands reaching toward her, still crying, Vlad clenched his teeth.
-Why are you crying, sister?
-Don't cry.
In this dark space where no one else looked at her, Ramashthu was someone's mother.
However, Vlad was someone who had already witnessed her countless sins.
"No."
The aspects that make up each world are all colorful.
Although every person has their own side that others cannot see, the world of Ramashthu had already committed too many sins.
"No matter how much you cry, I won't change my mind."
There were children now climbing up the right path, the one that the knight of this era had created for them.
But in this dark place, there were still many children left, trapped in pain and unaware of where to go.
If he left them with her, they would surely sink into a hell they could never escape.
"That's why you'll stay here, Ramashthu."
"..."
Ramashthu's face, which had been falling, froze at Vlad's firm words.
"You'll stay here to pay for what you've done."
Zum-zum-zum
The sword was vibrating.
As he drew the dragon fragment that resided in his world.
The most perfect world that had been his foundation, but was no longer needed.
The oldest dragon, the world that not even the resurrected emperor had handed over, suddenly shone like a star in Vlad's hands.
***
Boom-boom-boom!
A moon was falling toward Achiuk, a town filled with tragedy.
The moon, which had been lifted with great effort and collected tears, was simply falling toward the ground, despite someone's futile wishes.
"Hahaha!"
And one of the oldest dragons under the shadow of the moon.
The face of Sarnus, smiling with his helpless roots scattered behind him, was filled with a joy he had waited hundreds of years for.
"Though it hurts... this is the dagger prepared by the finest duelist."
"...Cough!"
Sarnus was still clutching his heart as if in pain, but his face was filled with a joy that was hard to hide.
"Finally, I have you at my feet, Frausen."
Because beneath him lay the knight he had hated the most in his time, Frausen.
Though his light, envied even by the most perfect dragons, had faded, the feeling of conquest still persisted, even in his decaying body.
"You've sucked the blood of your own son... you've become a monster, not a dragon."
"As if you, returning from death, are any better."
Crunch!
As if those words were unpleasant, Sarnus' sword pierced through Frausen's abdomen.
"Look, you don't even feel pain."
"..."
However, Frausen's severe wounds were filled only with thick, rotting blood.
A dragon who had killed his son to survive.
An emperor who had abandoned his beliefs to return.
Knights of an era who had fallen for their purposes, now looked at each other with eyes full of madness.
"I'm going to extract the fragment lodged in your heart. Then you'll just be a rotting corpse."
However, no matter how enraged he was, Sarnus was now stomping on Frausen, and as the victor of this battlefield, he deserved to enjoy the spoils.
"After that, I'll fly to Bastopol to collect the fragment from that ridiculous Duke."
"Ugh..."
"And I'll also retrieve the Bayezid fragment from Sturma. That damned Ravnoma who stole it!"
"Grrr!"
"And once I have them all, finally..."
The sword piercing Frausen's abdomen began inching closer to his heart with every word Sarnus spoke.
And as the coldness of the blade reached the heart encasing death, Sarnus laughed, savoring the sensation.
"...I'll take the potential of my most beloved son."
The oldest dragon smiled.
A dragon closer than ever to his most perfect potential.
Frausen had done everything in his power to stop that smile, but he had failed in his attempt to use a dragon fragment to stop another dragon.
"Thank you, Frausen. For taking such good care of my son."
Sarnus' final words seemed directed at Kihano, not Frausen.
However, Frausen, lying there, had no energy left to correct him, and simply stared at Sarnus' sword hanging high in the sky with vacant eyes.
"Let's end our wretched relationship with this."
With a laugh filled with madness, Sarnus raised his sword for the final blow toward Frausen's heart.
The sound of his laughter, heavy and viscous, was darker than any of the debris left on that battlefield.
Boom!
"...Ugh!"
But suddenly, a tremor caused Sarnus' sword to waver.
"What now?"
Sarnus glared furiously at Frausen as the ground began to shake, but the resurrected emperor was only looking at the sky.
"Haha."
With an empty laugh.
Because in the sky he was looking at now, the red rays of light he had wanted to hide were flying.
"I lost, but so did you, Sarnus."
"What?"
The fallen tree unleashed its final, brightest red beam of light.
Seeing the possibility he had never believed in, Frausen began to laugh.
Boooom!
There was a thunderous sound that seemed to split the world, and a red light shot toward the black moon that was gradually collapsing.
Everyone on the ground lifted their heads toward the light shooting from a place no one could see.
"That's also a good option."
The black moon, which, once ascended, would disappear from this world forever.
Watching the perfect fragment that the moon would consume, Frausen smiled.
***
Thud!
The tree from the inverted lands was collapsing.
Because there were no more tears left to absorb from its branches.
The evidence of sin, created through the sacrifice not only of Ramashthu but of countless others, was falling toward Achiuk, which now lay in ruins.
"Now… let's go as well!"
And Vlad was leaving this precarious space where everything was falling apart.
Vlad, walking through his own world with Joseph on his shoulder, finally spotted the group of lights visible above.
-They are children.
There was a reflection in the corner of Joseph's eye, growing paler as they ascended.
Tiny fireflies glimmered above the two of them, as if signaling the exit.
The souls of the children who had been waiting for them shone, as if they had finally arrived.
-I can hear a song too.
Upon seeing the two of them approach from below, the fireflies seemed relieved and began to flutter, carried by the children's song from afar.
God's voice, now understandable.
Joseph began to smile as he watched the children flying toward her.
Thud!
"Still, it seems like we are headed into the arms of God in the end…"
Vlad, who had ascended into a world growing increasingly chaotic, could grasp the boundary between life and death.
"So let's go home now!"
He supported Joseph along that dark path, one that was hard to climb alone.
And as they ascended, above their heads shone a black moon, though it looked somewhat different from before.
Doo-do-do!
-Yes, we should go.
However, even in this place beyond death, Joseph's hand still felt cold.
But the smile Joseph gave Vlad, who had found him at last, did not fade.
-I'm sorry for dragging you here.
"I told you we'd talk about that later."
Boom!
The tree where Vlad and Joseph stood was collapsing.
It was a tree that fell because it could not bear the weight of the accumulated sins.
-······ From the moment I matured, I always wondered how my end would come.
But even as everything crumbled around him, Joseph's face remained calm.
The young man, with the shadow of eyes that had always lived intensely, now smiled as if he had finally found total peace.
-Though I didn't choose to be born weak, nor to live this way, I at least wanted to imagine my final moment.
"...Let's talk about that later."
Vlad clenched his teeth amid the falling debris.
Even though it was dark, there was something beside him now that he could no longer ignore.
-Perhaps that's why I always thought the culmination of my life would be death.
The further Vlad moved from the edge of death, the colder Joseph became.
The hand that held his shoulder, the smile he gave.
Vlad gently stroked Joseph's hand, which was slowly growing rigid, until finally he lowered his head.
-But now I see that wasn't right.
With an open wound in his abdomen, Joseph kept smiling at Vlad.
A few fireflies still floated above his head, as if to tell him it was time to go.
-You made the moon shine, for the children.
"…We did it together."
-Yes, together.
Joseph spoke as he looked at the black moon they had raised one last time together.
-Yes, we did it together.
Sharing the sword I could not possess and the stars I always wanted.
Now that they had shared everything, it was time to say goodbye to the moon in the sky.
-Thank you, Vlad.
Joseph Bayezid.
The man who couldn't live the life he always desired.
-You completed the end of my life.
But the man who, at least, had achieved the death he had always wanted, smiled at Vlad.
Leaving behind a farewell that Vlad would have to hear one last time.
"...Thank you too, Joseph."
With those words, Vlad held Joseph tightly, whose body was slowly stiffening.
As he shielded him with all his strength from the dust that was closing in on his death.
"Thank you for finding me in that garbage heap."
A small light began to drift away from above Joseph's head, who slowly closed his eyes as if satisfied.
In the final moment of his death, Joseph's world finally glowed with a radiant black.
Though it was black, the light shone as intensely as the shadows in his eyes, now rising slowly toward the sky.
"Truly, thank you so much."
The black moon ascended.
Along with the small, bright lights.
Worlds that could no longer reach each other said their eternal goodbyes as they watched one another.
"...Goodbye."
Like a woman waving at the children as the tree crumbled around her.
Like a knight crying while murmuring a prayer he couldn't even remember.
Like a dragon roaring at a perfect piece that would disappear forever.
"Goodbye, Joseph."
Everyone said goodbye to the moon that was leaving this world.
A radiant blue star bid a final farewell to that moon, as it drifted away along with the fluttering fireflies.