Eris, born as a kin of the Star Crystal Beast Orleon, the very source of Mana that governs the world, carries an innate destiny. To stop the world's destruction brought about by human greed, she unleashes the forbidden magic 'Apocalyptic Seven Swords.'
Her sole purpose is to eradicate the exploitation of Mana by humans and to protect the life of the star. This is her answer to the countless cries of life she has witnessed over centuries. But humans call her 'the Last Boss who will destroy the w
Last Peril of the Supreme Star - Whispers of the Decayed Scripture
Frozen cobblestones lay beneath the thin light of early morning. But that light no longer held any warmth. The sky over the city of Graustadt had hung heavy as lead ever since the mana crystal lamps had been lost.
Seven days had passed since that night.
The night the First Sword had been unleashed, and the ley lines had been sealed. From the day every last trace of artificial light had vanished from this city once called the Sleepless Capital, the people had been living in darkness, holding their breath. The nobles of the upper tiers still lit parts of their mansions with stockpiled old mana crystals, but the merchants of the middle tiers and the laborers of the lower tiers had no such luxury.
The devastation in the Ashsmoke District, especially, had long since passed beyond words.
The lower city was a place of cold gray stone and soot, utterly removed from the warmth of a birthplace. The small mana lamps that had once lit its streets had grown old long ago, ignored by everyone. But even those faint lights had now gone out completely. In alley after alley, frozen corpses had begun to pile up.
Celestina Mireth knelt alone upon those cobblestones.
Her white shrine maiden apprentice robes were stained with mud and blood, as though they had never suited her at all. Her softly waving pale golden-brown hair clung damply to her forehead, and the white flower ornaments tied on either side of her ears looked almost unnervingly pure in this place.
"Why... again..."
In her arms lay the body of a small child. The skin across its entire body had turned gray as if coated in lead, and the body was already cold, and heavy.
The recovery potion distributed by the church had certainly been in her palm. But the mana power that should have dwelled within it was nearly gone. Raising a barrier, circulating mana through the body—none of it had been in time.
*(There was no way it could have been in time.)*
A cold voice spoke from the depths of her heart.
Yesterday had been the same. And the day before. Most of the poor brought into the infirmary were already beyond help. Mana deficiency syndrome. A disease that drained the life force from within the body once the star's blessing had been severed. First the skin turned leaden, then sensation left the limbs, and finally the heart stopped. For the people of the lower tiers, there was no means at all to cure this illness.
The priests who had studied medicine merely said coldly that it was the fate of those not chosen by the star.
In her arms, the small body moved, just slightly, and then stopped moving altogether.
*(The fate of those not chosen?)*
Such words could never be enough to dismiss this tiny life.
Celestina's lips trembled. Her large young-leaf-green eyes fought back tears, and yet she could not stop them from spilling over. Her vision blurred and warped.
Beside her, a woman screamed.
"Give her back! My child is still alive!"
A young mother clung to her, trying to snatch the infant from Celestina's arms. Her eyes were no longer sane. Her clothes were in tatters, her cheeks hollow, and her fingertips were raw and bleeding where the nails had peeled away.
"Please, let go... this child is already..."
"Liar! She's still warm! She was crying just a moment ago!"
The woman shook the infant's body violently.
—Several priests in white vestments watched the scene from a short distance away. Their hands, folded for prayer, hung uselessly at their sides.
"The lower folk are at it again, clinging and clamoring."
"It's the karma of those not chosen by the star. If they wanted mana, they should have offered their prayers."
"Unsightly. We should have this cleared away quickly."
The voices were deliberately loud enough to reach Celestina's ears.
Something cold spread down her spine. It was anger.
*(Did that child die because she didn't pray enough?)*
No. That child's family simply had no money to buy mana crystals. That was all. Without mana light, they could not endure the winter cold. Without money, they could not warm their bodies, nor heal their sickness. The star's blessing had become something bought with coin, not prayer.
And the church was abandoning them, calling it the fate of those not chosen by the star.
Where in the doctrine was that written?
Celestina rose unsteadily to her feet. Something surged up from the pit of her stomach. A nauseating anger burned her throat.
She could not remain there any longer.
She ran. She turned down an alley, dashed through a dim corridor, and finally, bracing both hands against a wall, she vomited up the contents of her stomach.
The tears would not stop.
—The top floor of Whitefang Castle.
The chamber of the Seven Pillars Council, the *Starview Hall*, was wrapped in an atmosphere of solemn gravity, utterly removed from the misery of the lower tiers.
At the center of the hall stood a massive round table. Carved into its surface was a map of the continent of Tirnade, inlaid with silver filigree tracing the flow of the ley lines. Those silver lines had now lost all their light. Everyone present was witnessing firsthand the effects of the ley line seal.
"Then it is decided. To subjugate the kin Eris, we dispatch three thousand regular troops and the entire Twilight Lance to the Great Forest of Noa."
The heavy voices of the Seven Pillars Councilors echoed oppressively through the chamber.
Whitefang Castle was a chalk-white royal castle towering over the central heights of Graustadt. Seven spires stretched skyward as if piercing the heavens. The Starview Hall at its top floor was guarded at all times by two hundred knights, but now even those knights' faces showed deep lines of exhaustion.
Cassius Heidel sat quietly smiling at one corner of the round table.
The sixty-eight-year-old man carefully smoothed back the silver-gray hair that remained thinly across his receding forehead. His small pale-blue eyes were smiling. No—only his mouth was smiling. The depths of his eyes were cold as ice, reflecting nothing. On the ring finger of his right hand gleamed an enormous ring set with a mana crystal. It was the emblem of the Director of the Crystal Extraction Institute.
"Everyone, please take heart. This is not a retreat, but an advance."
His voice was terribly smooth. The voice of a wily old politician. There was an eerie calm to it that, paradoxically, stirred the wariness of all who heard it.
"It is for the star. All of it, for the nation, for the people. The only one we must strike down is that accursed kin. The severing of the mana supply is entirely the doing of that witch. We must turn the people's hatred upon that woman."
A stir ran through the chamber.
Cassius's words were always like this. The right words, in the right voice, in the right place. But beneath those words there was always a faint mockery. He was a man who had held the mana concessions in this country for seventy years. He had privatized the Crystal Extraction Institute and wrung the star's life from the ley lines. And the reckoning for that was now threatening to destroy this world.
But Cassius Heidel was not afraid.
Even the world's destruction could be used to prolong his power. That was how this old man lived.
Against the wall of the chamber stood Kaito Veldorunt.
Short black hair with a faint tinge of crimson. Burning reddish-brown eyes. Those eyes alone blazed with heat in the dim chamber. The twenty-two-year-old youth had been raised in Whitefang Castle as the star's chosen child.
From his shoulder, a pale blue-white star crest faintly surfaced.
Cassius turned around.
"Ah, Lord Kaito. Thank you for waiting. Come, this way."
Kaito's brow twitched for an instant.
*(Lord Kaito, is it.)*
This old man always called him that. No—perhaps everyone else was called the same way in front of this old man. Cassius was a master of the art of cornering his opponent while praising them. Kaito often could not see what lay behind that excessive politeness.
"What do you want with me?"
His voice was earnest and hot.
"I would like you to calm the people's unease. Show the people the figure of a hero, striking down the kin Eris in single combat."
Cassius spoke softly, as though addressing an old friend.
"You are the star's chosen child. The only one in this nation who can stand against the kin. The people await your sword. Only your sword can slay that witch and restore the mana."
Cassius's tone was courteous to the very end. Yet within his words was an unnatural pressure that brooked no objection.
Kaito quietly clenched his fist.
*(Wield the sword for the people.)*
That was the vow he had carved into his heart since the day he was born.
His hometown, the village of Helden, had been burned by a horde of magical beasts. His parents, his little sister, his friends—all of them had died before his eyes. In that moment, he had been able to do nothing. He had no power. He could not protect a single thing he should have protected.
So he had taken up the sword.
This time, he wanted to protect. He never wanted to taste that helplessness again.
His justice was nothing more than that—pure, and fragile.
"...Understood. I'll go. I'll defeat her and bring back the mana."
Kaito's eyes blazed like fire.
Cassius nodded deeply, with satisfaction.
—After the meeting ended and the heavy doors had closed.
Kaito walked down the corridor leading to the Starview Hall.
His feet stopped suddenly.
From around the corner, he heard a voice. It was Cassius's voice.
"It's quite all right. That young man will die anyway. I don't care if he dies. No, rather—we may be able to obtain an excellent specimen."
A chill ran down Kaito's spine.
*(What did he just say?)*
He could not believe his ears. But that slick, oily voice was unmistakably Cassius Heidel's.
Cassius seemed to be speaking with one of his aides.
"Killing the kin is of no consequence. Whether that power—that mana backflow—can be weaponized. That is far more important. The star crest of the star's chosen child resonates with the kin's mana. Use that man as bait to capture the kin. Killing her can come after."
—Bait.
Kaito stood rooted to the spot.
The sound of his heartbeat pounded unpleasantly loud in the depths of his ears.
*(What have I just heard?)*
He clenched his fist hard. His nails bit into his palm.
No. I heard nothing.
There was a part of him trying to believe that. Right now, he would defeat Eris to protect the people. That was all.
But in a corner of his heart, something cold had settled in, small and stubborn.
—At the entrance to the Great Forest of Noa, Kaito stood alone.
The soldiers of the expeditionary force refused to advance beyond the forest's edge. That was only natural. This forest was a sanctuary where the kin had once administered the ley lines, and a barrier that rejected humans had been placed over it. But Kaito could feel that barrier clearly.
Something within him was trembling, reaching toward the depths of the forest.
The pale blue-white star crest surfaced on his left hand. And the forest's barrier did not reject him. As if he were being invited in.
Kaito stepped into the forest.
The air changed instantly.
The air of Graustadt was thick with soot discharged from magical engines and the stench of mineral poison. But the air of this forest was clear. A sweet, refreshing fragrance filled the back of his nostrils. It was the dense mana scent of earth, trees, and countless living things.
*(This is... the scent of mana?)*
Kaito felt the star crest surfacing on his skin. The forest's mana was being drawn into his body.
The leaves of glowing trees swayed in the wind. Sunlight filtering through the branches fell around him as golden particles.
He heard the clear chirping of birds, like the sound of small bells.
—Thud!
Suddenly, a white shadow burst from the underbrush.
Kaito reflexively reached for his sword hilt. But the next moment, his eyes went wide.
It was a Luminous Elk. A beautiful magical beast in the shape
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