Chapter 135
It was a character who appeared at a completely unexpected moment.
Cheshire was so surprised that she froze with her eyes wide open.
Why had Hailon appeared in Remi’s memory?
And covered in blood, no less…
As Cheshire carefully examined the scene unfolding before her, she suddenly realized something.
‘This isn’t Remi’s memory.’
It was a memory left behind in this strange white space.
It seemed to have been entangled with fairy power and lying dormant, only to awaken in response to Cheshire’s power.
Thump, thump—her heart raced.
Feeling a faint, aching pain in her chest, Cheshire gazed at the youthful face of Hailon.
He looked like he had just reached adulthood.
There was still a boyish innocence about him compared to now.
Hailon stood in the middle of the white space.
He wore the uniform of a holy knight, but it was soaked in red blood, with no trace left of its original pure white.
Even his silver hair, which faintly glowed in the darkness, had turned grim, stained with blood.
The blood hadn’t stopped flowing yet; even as Hailon stood motionless, the red hue was gradually deepening.
“……”
His gaze, which had been fixed downward on the floor, slowly lifted to face forward.
Beneath silver eyelashes, blue eyes trembled finely as they came into view.
It felt like her heart was sinking.
Even though she knew this was a fragment of the past that had already flowed by.
Even though she knew there was nothing she could do but watch.
The moment she saw the pain etched in those eyes, Cheshire wanted to run to him.
‘Hailon!’
She called his name, but naturally, no sound came out.
In this place, Cheshire was a powerless spectator who could make no interventions.
Hailon, standing atop the blue pattern, slowly opened his mouth.
“…I can do it.”
The anguish seeping into his voice felt unfamiliar.
He, who rarely showed emotions to others, was pleading with someone.
“I will definitely succeed. So…”
“Don’t be stubborn, Hailon.”
The voice cutting off Hailon’s words sounded strangely familiar.
As Cheshire furrowed her brow, Hailon clenched his teeth tightly.
Clang!
A sharp metallic sound rang out.
White chains extended in all directions.
As the chains filled the vast space densely, Hailon’s face contorted in pain.
Blood gushed out between his fingers as he hurriedly clamped his mouth shut.
A white bracelet was visible on his trembling wrist.
It was the holy relic of Hilderd in the Holy Empire—the Chains of Condemnation.
The chains, infused with divine power, glowed white.
But the light seemed precarious, as if it might flicker out at any moment.
“…!”
A surge of blood soaked into Hailon’s uniform.
New wounds had appeared on his body.
‘Stop it! You idiot!’
Cheshire stamped her feet in frustration.
His body was being damaged from overusing divine power.
He could just say he couldn’t do it—why was he being so stubborn?
‘Is he going to die like this?’
Even as she fretted anxiously, Hailon stubbornly extended the chains further.
But in the end, he couldn’t hold out.
The moment Hailon collapsed as if crumbling, the chains shattered into fine pieces like glass.
The scattering fragments turned into light and vanished.
Despair etched itself onto Hailon’s face.
He struggled desperately to rise again, but only fell back down once more.
A cold command was issued.
“Bring them in.”
Eight people dressed in holy knight uniforms entered the room.
They all appeared to be around the same age as Hailon.
These young knights, fresh into adulthood with their youthful innocence still intact, unusually each held a dagger.
As Cheshire scanned the knights carefully, she spotted a familiar face among them.
‘Daren…?’
It was Hailon’s adjutant, Daren.
Unlike now, he wasn’t wearing his monocle, and the scar on his face that he always hid with glasses was absent.
All the knights were trembling.
None could hide their fear, and some even had tears welling up.
Yet they forced their feet to move, positioning themselves at the outermost edge of the blue pattern drawn on the floor.
Hailon, encircled by the eight in a circle, panted for breath.
His blue eyes met each of the knights surrounding him one by one.
Each time Hailon made eye contact, the terrified and frozen knights managed faint smiles, forced as they were.
Daren moved his lips silently.
It’s okay.
But the corners of his mouth, barely lifted, trembled pitifully.
A voice like a pronouncement fell.
“It is the sacrifice of the few for the sake of the many.”
The holy knights simultaneously slashed their palms with the daggers in their hands.
As the falling blood was absorbed into the pattern on the floor, a ominous hum resonated through the white space.
Pure white divine power flowed out from the eight knights.
The divine power was fully absorbed into the pattern on the floor.
The blue pattern began to turn red.
The red color slowly extended from the outermost part inward, heading toward Hailon at the center of the pattern.
It was around the time the blue pattern had completely turned red.
Thud—one of the eight knights collapsed lifelessly.
The light vanished from her eyes.
The white divine power flowing from her body also disappeared.
Starting with that, the knights fell one by one like broken dolls.
The fallen ones looked like dried-up wooden stumps.
The meaning behind their lifeless appearances was clear.
Death…
Each time a holy knight’s life ended, the red glow of the pattern became increasingly vivid and distinct.
Hailon thrashed desperately.
He shed bloody tears, trying to reject the divine power pouring into him.
But his already broken body couldn’t even writhe properly.
All he could do was scratch the floor with his broken nails.
Before long, seven of the knights had all stopped breathing.
The last remaining knight was Daren.
As if accepting his predetermined fate, Daren was about to close his eyes.
From Hailon’s crouched body, a blinding light burst forth.
What appeared after the white light passed was…
Eight wings.
The moment she saw the wings unfurled purely from light, only one phrase came to Cheshire’s mind.
Proof of divinity.
It was a scene so holy that even a fairy branded as a heretic would hold her breath for a moment.
In that unbelievable moment, even as she saw it with her own eyes, a man leaped in with an exclamation.
“Ah!”
Though his face was much younger than now, she recognized him immediately.
It was Holy King Sianor.
He looked at the wings sprouting from Hailon’s back and shed tears of ecstasy.
“At last, I can create a holy relic for myself.”
He rolled up his sleeves and grabbed the wings.
Divine power swirled in his roughly clutching hands.
With his other hand, he seemed to caress the wing joint, but then a horrific sound rang out along with the stench of blood.
Crack.
He had torn off a wing.
Hailon’s body, which had been limp and motionless as if exhausted, convulsed violently.
Sianor pulled off the wings one by one, reciting prayers praising God.
Flesh was gouged out, wings were ripped away.
The bloody stench tightened around her throat, making it feel like she was suffocating.
‘Hailon.’
She reached out desperately.
‘Hailon…!’
She wanted to reach him.
She wanted to pull Hailon out of that horrific moment right away.
She wanted to tear Sianor to pieces and kill him.
But there was nothing she could do.
She could only watch the time that had already passed.
Hailon, who had been out of his mind from the pain, suddenly clenched his teeth at some point.
He stared ahead with bloodshot eyes.
In the sea of red blood, his sole blue eyes fumbled around, scanning the surroundings.
Upon confirming that Daren was still alive, his rigidly tense body relaxed just a little.
“……”
Hailon’s gaze sharpened.
He endured the horrific pain.
He held on, even as he vomited blood from the agony.
And the moment Sianor ripped out the last wing.
White chains extended in all directions.
“Aaaah!”
A scream burst from Sianor’s mouth, who had just been praising God in joy.
Cheshire saw blood gushing like a fountain.
The Holy King’s arms had been severed.
It was the first condemnation of the chains.
