Chapter Text
Cale did not expect to see another person in his room.
Although the Necromancer Emperor's trial location is crowded with people from all factions, getting into his room would require breaking through a barrier set up by a thousand-year-old dragon. If not, at least Choi Han or his ancient power would be aware of the intruder's arrival, but nothing had happened. This alarmed Cale - anyone who could break through the shield must not be underestimated.
The candle on the bedside table glowed brightly, illuminating the faces of the two men. The intruder, dressed in a black cloak with only a pair of brown eyes showing, stared at him in the darkness.
‘Something was familiar,’ Cale thought. The shape and costume of the intruder was undoubtedly someone he'd seen at the celebration, but some of the features didn't match his records, like two puzzle pieces with the same shape but had different paint.
"I've been watching you for a long time." Cale was surprised to hear the voice that came from the holy relic of death only a short time ago. "You're the guy who took over the servant back then, right - the wanderer?"
The man in the black robe pulled down his mask, revealing a face that Cale is familiar with.
"...Alver Crossman?"
The person in front of him, despite having the same appearance as his sworn brother, had an unusually cold temperament, like a cold sword dipped in a frozen pool.
"Ha, you are really rude as always."
The other man's words seemed to have warmed up a bit, but Cale wasn't going to take it lightly. The reason why Eruhaben's shield was not triggered may be because the magic shield set up by the Golden Dragon subconsciously identified this Alver as a friend. Essentially, the Alver in front of him and his sworn brother were the same person, but from different worlds.
When he thought about it, the Sealed God's illusion trial was indeed full of oddities. If the trial was purely restoring his past memories, he could not have obtained information beyond his memories - yet the people in the illusion came to life and reacted to his actions in ways he could not have foreseen. However, the young and unconfident Alver should not be in this world covered by dead mana. The Ronwoon Kingdom in the illusion was not in danger of survival as this world.
The young man in front of him, Young Alver - that's what Cale decided to call this guy in order to make a distinction from his sworn brother - didn't pay any attention to his deep thoughts and talked to himself.
"I was a bit unsure, but judging by your reaction, I'm sure my guess is right."
The young Alver had a cheerful tone that didn’t match his age, and his eyes were shining like a crow that had found a treasure.
"... How did you recognize me?"
"The light of the fire, and the natural aura of your body, which is purer than that of a dragon. Although it was overshadowed by the thick mana, I could still smell it."
Cale, who had not trained his five senses, of course smelled nothing. It looked like he would have to ask his sworn brother if he could smell him from afar too.
Putting aside unnecessary thoughts, Cale cut to the chase: "Why are you here?"
"Is this what you really look like?"
They both spoke at the same time.
Cale knew the real question and answered simply: "I used a little magic to disguise it, but this is my real body."
Cale sat down on the side of the bed, pulled out a chair and motioned for the young Alver to sit down. However, he did not accept his kindness and even took a few steps back, moving further away.
Cale immediately understood that he was gauging whether he could be trusted, just as Alver gauged the motives of everyone he encountered.
In the light of the fire, Cale looked at the sharp, angular face of the young Alver. The cheekbones had become more pronounced and there were fine lines around the corners of his eyes. Although his outline was similar to that of his sworn brother, he did not have the gentle squirrelly look of Alver, which made the young Alver look older. The young Alver's temperament was more similar to that of Choi Han in ‘The Birth of A Hero’, who just experienced the massacre of Harris Village, lonely and desperate.
"The hunter is your enemy." The young Alver asserted with certainty.
"That's right." Cale replied, with a note of approval. King Zed, who disappeared without a word, would not have taken the initiative to tell the young Alver that the information about hunters, so this must be the answer he sought out himself.
"Is this your world?" The young Alver's eyes darted to the window, there was a wall created by black magic to isolate the dead mana cloud and dangerous monsters.
"No, but my world was attacked by hunters." Cale replied.
"You came to warn me because you knew the future?"
Cale did not know how to explain the sealed God’s trial and the time difference problem. "I knew they were a threat that could not be ignored."
"I... You gave me so many hints, and I still..." The young Alver took a deep breath and dropped a bomb: "The Ronwoon Kingdom is perished. The entire Western Continent is destroyed."
At the time of seeing young Alver, Cale more or less had a premonition of the situation. Yet, he didn't expect it to be so bad. In ‘The Birth of A Hero’, the Ronwoon Kingdom still resists until Alver is 45 years old.
"I kept my promise and always remember you all along - I thought you would come to my coronation... I looked for you, checking all the people who were at the ceremony, but you were nowhere to be found."
Cale opened his mouth to explain, but the young Alver reached out his hand to stop him.
"Now I know the price of moving between worlds."
The young Alver's eyes were as gloomy as the storm surrounding the Lake of Despair, a look his sworn brother had never had before. A cruel smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, his tone soft: "After all, I followed the hunters’ footsteps to here."
Cale was not stupid enough to assume that the young Alver was moving by the power of the God of Death as he was, and the young Alver was here alone.
"You used the hunters’ method to move between worldlines?"
"They can get a taste of their own medicine. Aren't they the perfect sacrifice?"
Cale sighed. The Alver he knew would never have used this method if he hadn't been so desperate. Cale was more worried about the young Alver's health than the brutality of the method: "Are you okay? Is this method going to hurt you in any way?"
The young Alver was speechless by Cale’s reaction. Cale frowned and rightfully said, "Your health is the most important thing."
"... The price is paid by the hunter."
"That’s good to hear." Cale smiled, "Since we have the same goal, you can follow us."
The young Alver replied by stomping his foot lightly, his lips faintly moving, so Cale did not hear what he said. Then, for a moment, the shadow beneath their feet seemed to turn into swampy mud, and white bones crawled out of it, one by one, with the same black threads wrapped around them, just as when Mary cast her spell. Such a commotion should produce a loud noise, while the room was so quiet that even the sound of breathing seemed loud, as if there was no sound transmission medium between them, as if they were in outer space, both extremely close and extremely far away at the same time.
The young Alver pulled out a corpse with some flesh attached on the bones, his bones had multiple fractures, but the broken clavicle seemed to be the fatal wound.
"Do you remember him? He's the dark elf who chatted with you back then. I asked him to spy on you." The young Alver pointed to the wound on the skeleton's neck, "He blocked a fatal blow for me from the White Star."
More skeletons stood up behind the young Alver, white bones were in the minority, most of the corpses were fairly intact, only significant fatal wounds and stiff movements gave away the signs that they were not alive. The small room was like an infinite universe. No matter how many bodies stood up, they did not fill up the whole room. Tens of thousands of shadows cast all over the floor, the walls, and the doorway, and Cale could see there were more people moving inside.
"I cannot save the lives of the people of the kingdom, nor can I save the Dark Elves who had been taking care of me since I was a child. So I could only carry them with me like this."
Cale knew what had happened and whispered, "... They sacrificed the Dark Elves."
"They sacrificed the entire Western Continent. The Dark Elves and the Ronwoon Kingdom resisted the most, so they were the first to be sacrificed."
From the young Alver's clenched fist, Cale could see that he was suppressing his anger, as if he was preparing for a tempest that would tear everything apart. The scene in the trial of anger became a reality in other world, and Cale felt the fire of purification in his body restless and agitated, like it was ready to burst out anytime.
"... I'm going to cut them into pieces." Cale gritted his teeth.
"That's exactly what I'm going to do." The young Alver said grimly, "From heart, brain, bones - everything they have will be a prop for my revenge. The hunters must not have thought they would be hunted by the prey one day."
"Those people around you, are they your companions?" The young man Alver changed the subject again. Unlike his sworn brother, who mistook Choi Han and other group members for his subordinates, the young Alver noticed the closeness between Cale and his companions.
"They're my family," Cale said.
For a moment, Cale saw a certain deep longing in the young Alver, purely like a boy who can't get the toys he desired behind the glass windows. That longing was like the shadow in the room, so huge that it could have swallowed Cale, but never hurt him.
Cale seemed to know what he hadn't said.
‘I also want you to be my family,’ the young Alver's eyes said.
The young Alver turned his eyes to the shadows on the ground, hiding the vulnerability in his eyes.
"... They are my family too. My people."
"You don't need..."
"I want my own revenge." The young Alver interrupted Cale and said insistently, "This is my promise to make them become something like these. My promise to my people. My promise to my family."
"You should have followed us-" Cale's attitude hardened, and it became clear that the young Alver had gotten himself into a dead end. As long as his sworn brother doesn't appear in the same world as the young Alver, he didn’t think there would be any problem.
"Before I leave, I have a request," The young Alver reached out his hand: "Can I hold your hand?"
Cale took his hand, and the young Alver's hands gently stroked the texture of Cale's palm, his eyes full of fondness and sadness. Contrary to the harsh ordeal the young Alver had experienced, his hands were warm as a cup of hot cocoa in winter. The hands underneath the black robe were covered with calluses, but the appearance was not covered with black lines as the usual human necromancer's veins.
The familiar face made Cale almost mistook the young Alver as his sworn brother. He almost wanted to simply give him a hug.
Nevertheless, the young Alver only asked for his hand.
The young Alver recognized Cale's intention and drew away his hand away first, saying in a hoarse voice, "Thank you. I'm glad to see an old friend again."
A knock on the door shattered the dream. In the blink of an eye, the figure of the young Alver blended in with the shifting shadows of the candlelight, as if everything was Cale's imagination from the beginning to the end.
The candle flame went out.
"Cale-nim?" Choi Han's voice came from outside the door, and he called out his usual name without thinking, "I think I heard something, are you alright?"
“I’m fine."
"May I come in?"
With permission, Choi Han got into the room and carefully inspected Cale's condition.
"Your face is pale," Choi Han diagnosed with conviction, "I will go to find Eruhaben-nim."
"I just had a nightmare. Let me go back to sleep and I'll be fine."
Cale thought, blankly, ‘Yes, he had a nightmare with his eyes open.’
Choi Han looked at Cale's face, still worried. He once again made sure that Cale didn't even have a bruise on his body before leaving at Cale's insistence.
Only the sighs of the Ancient Powers could prove that someone had indeed visited the room.
Their sighs reverberated through Cale's heart, like a hollow echo.