Chapter 131: The One Who Was Not Forgiven (6)

“We’re screwed…”

Cory covered his mouth after accidentally blurting out those words.

It wasn’t the time to say something like that. He looked again closely at the character. For some reason, upon seeing its form, he felt a kind of familiarity.

It was a character he had never seen before—so why did it feel familiar?

“Mandate…”

As he murmured that word, Cory suddenly looked up.

Everyone had read it that way, but he felt like something didn’t quite fit.

To pronounce that word correctly, he believed a vocal structure different from a human’s was required.

Cory began pronouncing the character in different ways, gradually adjusting the intonation. Little by little, the sound began to mold into the shape he wanted.

It wasn’t perfect. But Cory didn’t give up and kept repeating it.

At some point, he felt the meaning, the sound, and the mana resonating in unison.

Even though he didn’t know how to fully combine them, he pronounced it with all his heart.

Mandate.

***

While fighting against Gert, Yuri noticed the burning light in his eyes beginning to fade.

His movements had also become slower.

Yuri looked inside the Domain of the Soul. In the core, which only showed scars as if its spark had burned out, tiny embers began to flicker once more.

Had Cory succeeded?

But just as it’s hard to light firewood when it’s wet, the light wouldn’t easily return to Gert’s core, which was completely sunk in darkness.

Yuri looked up.

“Gert.”

When he called his name, Gert, who until then hadn’t responded, stared at him. Heat once again surged from the character engraved on his core.

“Do you remember what I told you?”

Gert’s body was already shattered. He forced a broken skeleton to move, with cracks everywhere. Bone dust fell from many parts.

The ribs that surrounded his core were completely broken, leaving his interior exposed.

Even the mark revived by Cory barely glowed faintly.

With a dark red glow, as if it were fading, Gert spoke to Yuri.

[I… re… member.]

“Yes.”

[It… was… true… right?]

“Of course.”

Yuri rested Guilty on his shoulder.

“Everything I told you was true, I swear it.”

It would’ve been ideal to return with Gert alive. Maybe he could’ve become friends with a cool skeleton.

A death knight as an ally against the Empire would’ve been a formidable force.

But that future was no longer possible.

Just as Gert’s life didn’t end with the story of an honorable knight who overcame dark magic, this time would be the same.

“So, Sir Gert…”

Yuri looked at the demon flower that was already approaching.

“Leave it to me.”

Gert stared at him. Then he approached and took Yuri by the wrist, guiding him to place his hand over his chest.

Yuri, pulled along, held his core.

It was warm. And at the same time, cold.

Yuri understood that Gert had fulfilled his promise first. Over Gert’s back, as he turned around, the image of that stubborn knight with a billowing cape overlapped.

Back then, Gert had also silently walked toward the Grand Library.

‘Sir Gert, you must retreat first.’

‘It’s dangerous!’

‘Let’s fall back first, and then…’

But he didn’t stop.

The demon flower had fully taken root in the Grand Library. The rumor that it devoured people was no longer just a rumor.

Now, openly, it enchanted people and stole their lives as if they were automatons.

The more lives it stole, the more power the demon flower gained. The army attacked, but it only made things worse.

It had become so powerful that even high-level knights were mentally controlled, walking like hypnotized souls and willingly offering their bodies.

The demon flower turned into a monster beyond control. Its suffocating scent spread throughout the kingdom.

No one could keep their sanity. Adelein was on the verge of extinction.

The king summoned Gert.

He was preparing for the final battle.

The last king of Adelein was not a wise ruler, but he had enough virtues to earn Gert’s loyalty.

‘Gert, my most loyal knight.’

‘Yes, Your Majesty.’

‘I’ll give you an order.’

‘Yes, Your Majesty.’

‘I’m sorry to give you this command.’

‘Whatever it is, I will obey it gladly.’

‘Prevent anyone from approaching the demon flower.’

‘Even if…?’

‘You may kill them.’

The king held his head in his hands.

‘We must prevent that cursed thing from growing any more. That’s why…’

He rose from the throne, helped Gert up, and hugged him.

‘Will you be able to forgive me for giving you this order?’

His voice was calm. As if he had already accepted his fate.

Gert simply placed a hand over his chest and replied.

“Yes, Your Majesty. I accept the mandate.”

Gert led the order of knights and patrolled the surroundings of the demon flower.

He cut down endless lines of people. Even when someone died right in front, the crowd wouldn’t stop.

The more blood stained his hands, the darker his heart became. But that measure had an effect.

Since Gert began the massacre, the demon flower started to weaken.

However, they couldn’t continue killing people forever. When it was considered that the flower was weak enough, the king of Adelein marched with his army toward the Grand Library to destroy it.

It was a long battle.

They lost.

Gert crawled to where the king had fallen. He was blinking slowly.

Gert tried to lift him, but it was too late. He had a large hole in his abdomen.

With blurry vision, the king murmured to Gert.

‘Gert… my most loyal knight…’

‘Yes, Your Majesty. It’s me.’

‘You must… stop that…’

‘Yes, Your Majesty.’

‘You must stop… that…’

He couldn’t go on. Before the light disappeared completely from the king’s eyes, Gert bowed his head and whispered one last time.

“I accept the mandate.”

The king’s head fell.

When the war ended, the same process repeated. The survivors once again walked toward the Demon Flower and became its food.

Even knights who had previously resisted with strength could no longer do so.

Gert resisted that temptation.

When he escaped from the Grand Library and found himself among the ruins, he suddenly realized he was already dead. His heart had stopped and his body was beginning to decay. Perhaps it was from being exposed too long to dark magic.

But he didn’t die.

The only thing that moved him was a single thing.

‘Mandate.’

He was dead, but not completely, and he fulfilled the order he had been given.

He killed anyone who approached the Demon Flower. It could be called obsession. The only thing that drove a knight who had already lost everything was the will to carry out the command entrusted to him.

And in the end, he collapsed to his knees.

He no longer had the strength to hold up his body nor the will to resist the magic spreading from the Demon Flower.

Everything had worn down. But one thing he had not forgotten.

The scene of Adelein’s fall that day, and the one order given to him just before death.

He had to stop the Demon Flower.

Even if it meant annihilating every form of life that approached.

He leaned on his sword to rise. But he fell. He stood again and fell again and again.

Amid all that, the only thing he did was repeat the order given to him. Gert was nothing more than a formless corpse.

And then, someone appeared before him.

Red scales.

Massive wings.

Bright yellow pupils. That being spoke.

“You’re insane.”

It wasn’t a human voice. There was something different about it.

“I came just in case, and I find a madman struggling.”

“Life… annihilate…”

“Humans are truly clumsy and curious beings.”

That being observed him for a good while.

“I see. That’s what drives you. ‘Mandate’, huh?”

“Life… annihilate…”

“I understand. Let it be you who protects this land.”

And then a miracle occurred.

Word of Authority – ‘Mandate’.

His shattered body began to reconstruct itself.

The broken bones reassembled, the rusted sword was reforged, and light returned to the core that had gone out. The armor and helmet he had lost long ago returned to his skeletal body.

And on his core, a single character was engraved.

Gert stood up.

His broken body and shattered mind were held together by the character engraved on his core. And what sustained that character was an almost obsessive will that ceaselessly surged from his soul.

He moved once again.

He wandered for a long time. He cut down and killed all life that approached.

While starving the Demon Flower—the cause of Adelein’s fall—he endured an eternity of wear.

And in the end, he met a group of humans. One of them claimed he could kill an existence born of dark magic.

It was hard to believe, but Gert no longer had the energy to doubt. Even the miracle that had been granted to him was crumbling. He had very little time left.

So he asked for an oath. That human gladly swore it.

Thus, Gert entrusted his memories to that human and launched his final assault. That entire chain of events flashed through Yuri’s mind.

“Gert!”

Yuri shouted.

Without realizing it, Gert had already overcome all resistance in his path and was advancing toward the core of the Demon Flower.

There was no time to reflect on the memories Gert had passed to him.

Yuri gripped Guilty and rushed after him. It was obvious at a glance how Gert was burning out.

His body decomposed in real time, and his core lost its light. His bones turned to dust and scattered in the air.

But each time it seemed to be the end, the character ‘Mandate’ on his core glowed intensely.

And then, he took another step forward. Yuri and the others watched breathlessly as Gert fought, carving a path toward the heart of the Demon Flower.

Inside, there was a massive heart. With every beat, a blood-like fluid spread in all directions.

It was such an immense life force that it seemed greedy. And then Yuri saw something else.

A mass of humans that had been absorbed by the Demon Flower, all fused together, screaming in agony. Intertwined mouths and eyes moaned in utter chaos.

So many accumulated lives that mere layers weren’t enough—it had become a pulsing mass of black and red.

Standing before it, Gert looked at Yuri.

He had burned his final spark to guide him there. And now he was asking.

Can you really cut it?

Yuri let out a laugh. If he’d known something this absurd awaited him, he wouldn’t have spoken so lightly.

But there was no turning back now. He had already sworn.

He raised Guilty. In his chest, the Cut of the Soul and the Heart roared wildly.

Like a rabid dog that had found its mortal enemy, it wanted to leap in and tear it apart.

Yuri restrained it.

Now even Gert’s body was beginning to fuse with that heart. His madness and obsession, built up over so long, were becoming nourishment for the Demon Flower.

If they let it go on, he would truly become an uncontrollable monster. Yuri raised Guilty.

The sword buzzed with vibration.

He felt as though he would be crushed by the sheer sorrow he faced, by the weight of all those layered souls—but even so, Yuri pressed on.

“Your Highness, if you go any closer, it’ll be dangerous.”

Laurent tried to stop him, but Yuri took another step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Now Gert was completely absorbed by the heart. Yuri’s eyes turned white.

He saw something else once again.

A knight with a stern face, his cape in tatters, knelt on one knee. Then, from within that mass of lives, an old man emerged.

The knight bowed his head, and the king placed his hand upon it.

They remained that way for a long time.

Yuri looked up. Over the image of those two, more figures appeared. They were faces he didn’t recognize.

The entire landscape of Adelein—crying, laughing, mourning, celebrating—was contained within that place.

What he had to cut was all of Adelein. It was too much.

Yuri gripped Guilty tightly.

All those souls. All the feelings they had held onto.

So vast, he couldn’t even face them head-on.

And toward that—

Yuri swung his sword.