Chapter Text
“Hu–Huh?”
Raon’s wings stuttered as he almost lost balance while he was flying in the air.
“What is happening?” Eruhaben approached the black dragon, but Raon’s eyes were stuck on the glowing light above the temple. Specifically, Cale’s light.
“I, I can’t feel the human anymore!”
Eruhaben snapped his head to the light and grew anxious as it started to flicker. Like a match touching water, the light disappeared completely.
“What?” Alberu stepped up. A hardened expression was seen on his face.
“The human is gone!” Raon announced panickingly.
“Did he give up?” Alberu asked out loud. If Cale did give up, which wasn’t something Alberu could imagine he'd do, he should be thrown out of the temple. However, the fact that nothing changed made Alberu nervous. Something is wrong.
“You unlucky bastard...” Eruhaben closed his eyes. Like the crown prince had informed them earlier, there shouldn’t be a possibility of death unless the people inside the temple kill themselves. Despite Cale’s obsession with living a peaceful life once everything was over, his sacrificial tendencies are worrying. However, the ancient dragon had come to know Cale and how strong the human was. Not through physical strength, but through mentality. The possibility of him killing himself because of the illusion is illogical.
Everyone present watched intensely how the light disappeared until nothing was left behind.
“The Commander... is dead?” A soldier muttered, feeling despair at the realization. Another knight accidentally dropped their weapon. No one had it in them to comment on it.
“Be okay, you bastard,” Alberu muttered.
Cale had a hard time breathing properly. He was falling, and everything hurt.
He felt this sensation before. A wave of déjà vu washed over him as he remembered his time transmigrating back to Earth during the Sealed God’s test.
He was supposed to go to the next stage of the temple. Why is it different now?
— I won't let you go so easily. Accept the despair to enter your body, Cale Henituse, and become mine.
Cale flinched as the voice of the God of Despair echoed in his mind.
‘This damn god...’
“Ugh!” Cale clenched his eyes shut as he felt a terrible pain taking over his body. His senses became paralyzed and all connections he had with the world started to break down.
Cale desperately tried to move in order to breathe again.
“Argh!”
However, the pain became even more intense, making his whole body freeze in a hunched state.
‘What the hell is happening?’
Cale’s mind was a mess and the pounding headache got worse. He could not think straight. He felt two invisible hands on each side of his body, pulling him in different directions and battling for dominance.
Yank!
“Ugh!”
One hand let go and Cale felt himself fall again. Luckily, the pain was slowly disappearing. He felt somewhat relieved at this odd situation, but he could still not open his eyes. Cale was prepared to hit the ground hard as nothing was preventing him from falling.
Suddenly, a different voice was heard in his mind.
— I’m so happy I could reach you.
Cale lost consciousness with his eyes closed.
“Gasp!”
Cale immediately started to take deep breaths as he could finally breathe properly again. Both the suffocation and the pain was gone. His eyes were closed and he felt exhausted enough to not be able to move.
The first thing Cale noticed was the unbearable scent of death around him. The lingering smell of burnt wood was almost unnoticeable because of the dizzyingly stench of blood.
‘What the hell is going on? Should I open my eyes?’
He wasn’t sure he wanted to. Cale didn’t know where the Sealed God had taken him. He might be watched by enemies and mistaken as a corpse based on what he could smell and hear.
Cale was lying down with grass touching the left side of his face. He tried to breathe as silently as possible despite his lungs screaming at him.
“Cough! Cough!”
Still, it was hard to avoid coughing every time he accidentally breathed in smoke. This was the worst. He felt like he was burning from the inside.
Cale was exhausted. Just breathing was hard, let alone open his eyes. On the other hand, he needed to know what happened and where he was. Therefore, he tried to open his eyes despite the extreme fatigue he was feeling.
In front of him was a boulder. No, it was a stone wall.
A giant stone wall Cale was quite familiar with. When the realization washed over him, he let himself close his eyes again and focused on his breathing.
Harris Village.
The stone wall that separated Harris Village and the Forest of Darkness, but there should not be such a strong smell of corpses in this place. After all, it had been rebuilt at Cale’s request and was now a home for the Wolf children and the Tiger Tribe.
Something must have happened, and Cale was probably in danger, but he could not move.
“Cough! Cough!” Cale could also not stop the cough that erupted from him. While his breathing had calmed down, it would not slow down with the smoke entering his lungs every time he took a breath. Cale could only think of one incident where Harris Village would be like this.
‘Was I brought back to the past?’
The incident that came to mind was the massacre of Harris Village caused by the White Star right before Cale transmigrated into this world. Choi Han had only shown up after everything was destroyed. Overtaken by despair and rage, he ruthlessly killed all of the remaining assassins, and buried the villagers’ bodies before heading towards Rain City.
The bloody image made Cale shudder. The dead citizens and assassins would explain the scent of death, as well as the burning wood from the destroyed buildings.
‘I really am in the past.’
This was problematic. Something had gone wrong, and Cale wasn’t sure if this was an illusion anymore.
“Cough, cough! Cough!”
Smoke seeped into his lungs again as the wind blew by, and Cale’s throat hurt from coughing violently. He mustered up his strength to open his tired eyes and look around again. All he saw was ruined houses and rubble laying around. Nothing was still burning, but blood was painting the ground red, and the smell was impossible to ignore.
‘This must be right after Choi Han left. The corpses are still here.’
Cale needed to figure out what time it was, and moved his head to search for the sun.
‘Afternoon, most likely.’ he concluded. ‘How long do I have before Father’s investigation team arrives?’
Deruth Henituse should have sent an investigation team for Harris Village the morning after Choi Han had reported the incident. Cale could only guess how long it had been since then.
‘They should probably be on their way by now. I need to move.’
If the investigation team found him here, it would be bad for Cale. No matter how different he looked, anyone could recognize his striking red hair. Cale recalled the familiar voice he had heard earlier.
‘I won't let you go so easily. Accept the despair to enter your body, Cale Henituse, and become mine.’
It was undoubtedly the God of Despair. It sounded like the god would forcefully get Cale to accept the despair. He wanted to laugh at the irony, however, it only caused him to cough again.
“Cough! Huuuuuu.........”
The second voice he heard before falling unconscious reminded him of the God of Death.
‘Ugh.. why the fuck do they do whatever they feel like doing?’
It annoyed him. He just wanted to complete the tests as fast as possible and get to the end, what was he doing here?
The coughing would still not stop unless he moved away from the smoke, but he also didn’t have any energy left in his body. Luckily, his hearing had started to return.
It was at that moment he heard the voices of people and the sound of horses.
‘Fuck...’