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 - Star's Sacrifice, Trembling Half
The color of the sky was somehow wrong.
The sky over Graustadt, once called the city of eternal night, hung low with ink-gray clouds even in the middle of the day, blurring even the outline of the sun. What the wind carried was the smell of burning wood, rotting vegetables, and faintly, the iron-rust scent of blood.
Three weeks had already passed since the night of the First Sword.
Since that pale blue light had surged through the ley lines and extinguished the light of mana across the world, the city had been dying—slowly, like a breath being drawn out, but surely. The merchants' calls had vanished from Starlight Street in the mid-tier district, replaced by pleading voices crying "Please, sell us mana crystals" that could be heard somewhere from morning till night. In the White Fang Castle above, the Seven Pillars Council had convened emergency session after emergency session. But in the end, they had decided only one thing.
—Kill Eris.
Kaito Veldorunt stood in a room of the White Fang Castle, staring out a dark window. His cheeks were slightly hollowed, and deep shadows were carved beneath his burning reddish-brown eyes. The deep crimson tips mixed faintly into his black hair were still sticking up on the right side alone. The star crest on his left shoulder—the mark of one attuned to the mana of the stars, etched into him from birth—throbbed dully beneath his clothes. Each pulse sent pain racing through his left arm, faintly twisting his expression.
*(It's been five days since that battle in the forest.)*
His first encounter with Eris. The blades they had crossed deep in the Nowa Great Forest, at the ley line nexus. She could have killed him then. But she hadn't.
"Why...?"
He let out a small breath at himself for muttering aloud. He still hadn't found the answer. No—perhaps he was afraid of finding it.
The door opened without a knock.
"Sir Kaito, how are you feeling?"
A cold, smooth voice made the air in the room tremble.
He turned. Standing there was an old man with silver-gray hair carefully smoothed back, narrow pale-blue eyes, and a mouth shaped into a soft smile—while those small eyes behind it held no warmth whatsoever. On the ring finger of his right hand, a massive ring embedded with a mana crystal gleamed dully.
Cassius Heidel. A member of the Seven Pillars Council of the Kingdom of Feldorunt, and Director of the Crystal Extraction Institute. The man closest to mana crystals in this entire country.
"...My left arm is still..."
Kaito raised his head slightly and met the old man's gaze head-on. Cassius deepened his smile. Kaito already knew that smile was the prelude to his usual rhetoric.
"That will not do. The arm of the star's chosen child is a treasure of this nation. It must be healed at once."
"Healed how? I've heard even the cathedral's recovery arts can barely be used now because there isn't enough mana."
Cassius's thin lips curved slowly, like an old man about to share a secret.
"There is a way. Everything is for the stars. It is precisely because we think of the country, of the people."
What lay behind those words—Kaito did not yet know.
——
The lower district of Graustadt. The Ashsmoke Ward.
Once, even here, there had been a faint light. Poor as it was, children had run through the alleys under the glow of mana lamps, and women had gossiped at the well. But not anymore.
The daytime alleys were as silent as a graveyard. People wrapped in rags lay against the walls, impossible to tell whether they were corpses or still alive. Mana deficiency—the gray discoloration creeping from the tips of their limbs—had already consumed more than half the district's residents.
Some of them clutched rusted kitchen knives or farming tools.
"They say the shops in the mid-tier still have stockpiles."
"Yeah. The merchants are refusing to sell until prices go up."
"Then we take it. I'm done starving to death."
Those voices carried a quiet rage, like water seeping into parched earth. No one had the strength left to suppress it.
A short distance away, Celestina Mireth stood still.
A girl in the robes of an apprentice shrine priestess, her softly waving pale golden-brown hair tied in two bunches above her ears. Her large young-leaf-green eyes held a strong light. But the cheeks that supported that light had visibly hollowed over the past few days, her lips were dry, and only the white flower ornament in her hair looked strangely clean.
"There's no medicine left."
She spoke to the elderly priest beside her, her voice wrung out.
"No. Healing salves, recovery potions—the church's stores are empty. The rations from the upper tier stopped days ago."
"Wait, please. Tell me. What is the upper tier doing?"
Her voice quickened slightly. It always did when her sense of justice flared.
"The star's chosen child is preparing to slay that witch. So we must endure until then."
"Endure...? How many people do you think died in the Ashsmoke Ward today while we 'endure'?"
The old priest slowly shook his head, his face full of anguish. It was the gesture of a man with no answers.
Celestina looked toward the alley ahead. An old woman lay motionless against a wall, eyes open. On her lap sat a single empty wooden bowl. Hunger and cold had quietly but surely taken that old woman from the world.
*(According to church doctrine, this would mean she simply wasn't chosen by the stars.)*
Something inside her chest felt like it snapped audibly.
*(No. I can't believe that anymore.)*
The old scripture. The one she'd found in the underground archive, over seven hundred years old. That book said the kin were divine children who protected the stars. If so, then what was this doctrine the church now taught—that humanity alone was the race chosen by the stars?
She wanted to know the truth.
That desire burned within her now, hotter than any doctrine, stronger than any authority.
"...I have to go to the underground archive."
She spoke her resolve in a voice so small no one could hear.
——
That evening.
Kaito descended into the depths beneath the White Fang Castle, led by Cassius.
The stone staircase was long and deep, damp air clinging coldly to his skin. In place of torches, mana crystals embedded in the walls gave off a barely-there pale blue light—but even that glow was less than half of what it had once been.
"This way, Sir Kaito. Mind your step."
The old man's voice was strangely buoyant this deep underground.
An iron door opened. From within poured a powerful stench—disinfectant, scorched metal, and something rotten all mixed together.
Kaito's feet stopped for a moment.
"What kind of facility is this?"
"A classified treatment ward of the Crystal Extraction Institute. It is equipped with cutting-edge medical technology. The damage to the mana meridians in your left arm can be fully healed here."
Cassius directed his small pale-blue eyes toward the depths of the entrance. Several figures in white clothing seemed to be preparing something. Masses of silver instruments. Leather restraints. And copper pipes running across every wall.
*(Treatment... is it?)*
Something in Kaito's chest sounded an alarm. But immediately after, he noticed his body growing strangely heavy. His legs wouldn't move. No—his body wouldn't move.
"Damn... what did you..."
"My apologies. If your mana reaction is too strong, it interferes with the treatment. The air in this room contains a very small amount of sedative."
"Treatment...? Did you think I wouldn't notice? I... I listened to you, came here..."
"Of course. You have been most obedient. But you see, treatment is often a thing for which it is difficult to obtain the patient's cooperation. Enduring screams is not something just anyone can do."
Cassius's voice remained soft as ever, and yet carried not a shred of emotion.
The men in white seized Kaito's arms. Dragged him down and pinned him to a metal table in the center of the room. Leather restraints were wrapped around both arms, both legs, his chest, even his forehead.
"Wh-what are you going to do...!"
"As I said before: treatment. The mana meridians in your left arm—the pathways that carry mana through the body—will be cleanly burned through once, then reconstructed. There is no anesthesia. Please let us hear a good scream. The sound will not reach the floors above."
The next instant, a man in white drove a long, thin silver needle into Kaito's left arm.
Something took root inside his arm.
That needle was burning. From the inside, it burned through the mana meridians, one by one.
"U-uaaaaaahh!!"
Kaito's scream echoed off the stone walls, shaking the entire underground space.
Pain like molten lava flowing through the inside of his bones, from fingertips to shoulder. His consciousness flashed white, stars exploded behind his eyes, and he felt himself biting through his own tongue.
"Sir Kaito, what a fine voice. As expected of the star's chosen child. An ordinary human's heart would have stopped long ago."
Cassius looked down at the young man writhing in agony with the eyes of someone observing a laboratory animal. The thin smile remained pasted on his lips.
—How long did it go on?
When Kaito's consciousness surfaced again, he had been propped against the cold stone floor, his back to the wall. His left arm was wrapped in bandages, but sensation had not yet returned to his fingertips.
"You're awake. Remarkable recovery. The treatment was a success. You will be able to wield a sword again."
Between ragged breaths, Kaito glared up at the old man. His body was heavy as lead, his head splitting with pain. But even so, a burning rage made his eyes glow red.
"You... you monster..."
Cassius showed not the slightest sign of being affected. If anything, he gave a small nod, as if finding that reaction pleasant.
"Have I upset you? My apologies. As recompense, allow me to share some good news. We have arranged for the remains of your parents and your younger sister to be reinterred from your hometown of Helden to the royal cemetery in the capital."
Kaito's breath stopped.
Fifteen years ago. His hometown burned in a demon attack. He had lost his family inside that burning house. Taken in by the White Fang Castle and raised as the star's chosen child, he had never once been permitted to visit his family's grave.
Now, his family was here—in the capital—
"You must wish to mourn them. To pray to the stars for your parents, your little sister, in a quiet place. Please, think nothing of it. This is a small gift to you from the Seven Pillars Council. Of course, you will be the one to perform the reinterment. With your own hands, return your family to the earth."
Cassius held out a single document before Kaito's eyes. A permit for use of the royal cemetery. The paper was terribly white, terribly light—thin, as if something had fallen away from it.
"...What's the condition?"
Kaito asked through blood-seeping lips.
Cassius's small eyes narrowed. As if he were truly, from the bottom of his heart, delighted.
"Bring back Eris's head. That is all."
"...In that forest, I lost to her. There's no guarantee I can win."
"There are no guarantees anywhere. But you see, we would be troubled if you did not win. If you lose, we will be forced to take extreme measures."
"Extreme measures."
"Yes. You know the Ashsmoke Ward, the lower district of this capital. In recent years, refugees have flooded in, public order has deteriorated, and it has become a breeding ground for plague and mana deficiency. A nest of pathogens disturbing the order of the stars."
Cassius's voice changed color there. It became light, quiet—as if discussing the day's weather.
"If you let Eris escape, we will blow that entire district sky-high with gunpowder. Buildings and residents alike. Tens of thousands of pathogens will vanish overnight. This is a painful decision made precisely because we think of the country, of the people."
Kaito couldn't believe his ears.
No.
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