“Halt.”
That’s when it happened.
A man cut through the crowd and stepped onto the red carpet leading to the throne.
Everyone’s gaze turned to him.
“Who are you?”
The guards blocked Sungchul’s path with their spears and axes. No one recognized his face.
Arkaard was late in following Sungchul and was just about to announce him.
Sungchul’s left hand gently cupped his face.
Crack. Crack.
The sound of twisted bones echoed in the King’s audience chamber.
The other hand was raised towards the sky.
The Dwarven King’s eyes grew wide.
The weapon he had so desperately sought appeared from the void.
Fal Garaz.
The pride and symbol of the dwarves once again appeared in the dwarven court.
And it was in front of the empty case that lost its content.
The left hand that covered Sungchul’s face slowly receded from his face.
The moment the shadow of the left hand disappeared, people could recognize him.
The man who held Fal Garaz.
Sungchul.
The man who had stolen Fal Garaz and fled from this very audience Chamber nine years ago had returned.
“That scroll must not be accepted under any circumstance.”
Sungchul spoke in his original calm voice.
The Dwarf King abruptly rose from his seat.
His beard and hair stood on end.
The shock was equally felt elsewhere.
The exposed half-face of Sarasa Xero, who had been relaxed and observing the situation, was colored with surprise, fear, and nostalgia.
“Sungchul Kim.”
Sarasa spoke with a lingering affectionate tone.
“How dare you show your face here?”
The Dwarf King roared like a lion.
Sungchul met the king’s gaze with an unwavering look and bowed his head.
“I’ve only come to speak.”
Even in a space filled with hostility, Sungchul remained steadfast.
Like a peak standing tall in the midst of the great mountain range.
Sungchul spoke again, looking at the scroll that was held out before the dwarves.
“That scroll is sacrilegious. It might even be capable of destroying this kingdom in its entirety.
“I do not want to hear one word from you.”
The Dwarf King yelled.
His anger had already surpassed its limit.
“Return what is rightfully ours back where it belongs, Enemy of the World!”
What the king wanted now above all else was neither the scroll nor the salvation of his kingdom, but the return of a single hammer.
There was no room for compromise.
The king of the dwarves, Daincraft, was as stubborn as ever since the first time they met.
A hint of disappointment flashed in Sungchul’s eyes.
‘Is there nothing that can be done except to return Fal Garaz?’
In the silence, reinforcements of dwarf soldiers were rapidly flooding in from the entrance of the audience chamber.
It was not just one or two dwarves.
The whole kingdom was flooding in to try and capture Sungchul.
Even amidst the encirclement, Sungchul gazed silently at Sarasa, who was looking back at him.
“Why do you choose that life?”
Sarasa’s expression changed instantly.
A cold light surfaced in one of her eyes.
“What do you mean by that question?”
At her question, Sungchul stared at the scroll and then glared at her as if he could see right through her.
“Do you think I asked out of ignorance?”
Sarasa seemed shaken under the weight of his cold criticism.
She seemed shocked.
“You… You know nothing.”
Then it happened.
A desperate shout came from outside.
It was from a dwarven soldier.
Until that moment, no one currently in the audience chamber could shout or speak due to the heavy and cold atmosphere.
However, as soon as the meaning of the shout could be understood, the atmosphere inside transformed once again.
“Barbarians! The Barbarians have appeared!”
“Where? From where are they coming?”
Arkaard yelled at the guards.
“I can’t be certain! But the Barbarians are almost at the citadel!”
A bestial roar filled with madness echoed from not too far away.
An undisguisable fear appeared on the faces of the dwarves in the audience chamber once the roar became audible.
“It’s the Barbarians!”
“Have they really appeared?”
The sound of hornpipes and bells, announcing the appearance of the Barbarians, filled the air.
The city beneath the bedrock, built over an unfathomable period of time, Daintite, was facing its worst crisis since its creation.
The situation was escalating quickly due to this critical development.
“Your Majesty. We will stop the Barbarians who have invaded the capital.”
Sarasa declared to Daincraft.
Despite being momentarily flustered by the sudden appearance of Sungchul, her beautiful face quickly regained its calm, composure, and dignity that once again concealed anything she might be thinking.
‘That man.’
Sungchul glared at Deckard who was holding a scroll.
When Deckard and Sungchul’s eyes met, Deckard broke into a grin.
“It’s been a while. Number 34.”
Arkaard, who had been behind Sungchul, couldn’t hide his surprise upon recognizing Deckard’s face that had now become faintly visible beneath his hood.
“Deckard. You joined them too?”
To Arkaard’s question, Deckard merely responded with a smile.
Sungchul kept a mental note of where Deckard was in the room before turning to the key figure of this situation, Daincraft.
Daincraft remained standing at the throne, frozen.
However, the moment Sungchul saw Daincraft’s face, especially his gaze, he could once again feel the stubbornness in Daincraft’s heart.
Daincraft only saw Fal Garaz. Even though the current situation could lead to not only his own death, but the end of his entire Kingdom, the only thing he was interested in was only Fal Garaz.
“Return the hammer to its original place.”
The bells and horns as well as the roars of the Barbarians and the cries of death of the Dwarves that rocked the entire city grew ever louder, but it failed to interest the Dwarven King one bit.
“Return Fal Garaz to me, Enemy of the World.”
“…”
Sungchul was well aware of the distorted stubbornness of the man known as Daincraft.
However, Sungchul felt frustrated seeing the man’s stubbornness persist even through this situation.
“Daincraft. Is that what’s important right now?”
Sungchul asked.
“The Barbarians reached the Palace Gates!”
Another shocking news that plunged the entirety of the audience chamber into fear was announced, but Daincraft didn’t bat an eye.
“If you won’t return Fal Garaz, then there’s no helping it. Hear me! Recall all soldiers into the audience chamber! Go take back our holy hammer from that accursed human thief!”
The king commanded.
It was an absurd order.
One of the elders approached the king and spoke his frank opinion.
“Your Majesty. Now is the time to focus on the Barbarians who are attacking the capital, rather than Fal Garaz.”
It wasn’t just the elders.
All the dwarves gathered in the audience chamber shared the same thought.
However, the King thought differently.
The King’s solemn voice echoed throughout the hall.
“If the life of our race is physical, then Fal Garaz is like a soul. Soul and body. If I have to choose one, I would gladly choose the soul.”
After saying this to the elders and advisors who tried to persuade him otherwise, he pointed at Sungchul and raised his voice again.
“Return Fal Garaz immediately. I won’t hear anything else.”
There was no room for negotiation or compromise.
That Dwarf King was a man who remained steadfast to his belief.
Even if his distorted stubbornness was to eat away at him, he was a man who would die thinking he was right to do so.
‘How can anyone be like this?’
If the king had only been risking his own life, Sungchul could perhaps understand. But on the shoulders of the Dwarven King hung the lives of countless people whose lives he was responsible for.
Despite that, the only thing the King wanted was to simply see his wishes, his stubborn desire come to fruition at any and all cost.
This level of pure undiluted selfishness was something that could only be observed in children. Nothing more, nothing less.
Frustration transformed into rising anger, and that anger in turn became a sense of nihilism.
In the midst of this, Sungchul heard a voice within.
[A fleeting existence destined to perish. How about reaping it all here?]
The voice of temptation was so sweet that it was hard to resist.
What was even more terrifying was that Sungchul found himself wholeheartedly agreeing with the thought without hesitation.
It was the same when he heard a similar voice in the midst of confusion earlier.
For a moment, Sungchul felt his heart sink.
‘Is it really my own thoughts? Or is it someone else’s whisper.’
For a moment, there was nothing around Sungchul.
At some point, a deep darkness had settled around him.
In the piercing darkness that he could not see an inch before his face, Sungchul could feel it.
The black giant, existing in another world, turning its head towards him.
‘This is bad.’
That’s when it happened.
There was an intense movement in the heart.
“Wake up! Snap out of it!”
It was Bertelgia.
She shook Sungchul with all the might she could muster to rouse him.
In the darkness, Sungchul was able to escape to the outside world by using this as his sole source of sensation as a beacon to guide him.
“Ah!”
The darkness lifted and the colorful hues of the sky, and the face of Daincraft standing before the throne, once again came into his view.
“Is there a problem?”
Bertelgia asked from within the pocket.
“No, no problem at all.”
That was a close call.
In reality, nothing had changed, but Sungchul could feel it. The horrifying hole that existed within him, ready to swallow him up at any moment.
“Are you sure there’s no problem?”
Feeling Sungchul’s heartbeat, Bertelgia asked cautiously.
“Bertelgia. How do you know? That there’s something wrong with me?”
“Your heart… how should I put it. It’s a bit odd.”
“There’s no way. My heart is fine.”
Sungchul paused in his breath and felt the powerful beating of his heart from within.
There was nothing wrong with his body.
Yet, thanks to Bertelgia, he was able to snap out of whatever it was afflicting him.
Sungchul felt a renewed gratitude for Bertelgia’s existence, before he brandished the Fal Garaz towards the Dwarf King who glared at him.
“What are you going with the hammer if it is returned?”
“What do you mean what am I going to do? That hammer is stolen from us. We are simply getting back what rightfully belongs to us. What we do with the hammer has nothing to do with you, theif.”
The King of the dwarves remained frustratingly stubborn in his ways.
Sungchul could feel it.
The gazes of the dwarves looking at the king were not the same as before.
Then, a scream echoed from the door.
It was from a dwarf soldier.
Blood splattered, and the dull sound of someone falling reverberated vividly within the audience chamber.
Soon, a man appeared beyond the door.
A massive, hulking figure over two meters tall.
Filthy, crude armor and an axe stained with blood.
The Barbarians from the north had pushed all the way into the throne room.
“It’s… It’s the Barbarians!”
The dwarfs, who knew the power of the Barbarians, all stepped back in unison.
“Daincraft. What is right in front of you, over there.”
Sungchul asked in a quiet voice, gripping the hammer. Though it was spoken softly, it was holding back a great deal of rage, with the intensity of stilness before a great earthquake.
All eyes of the dwarfs were on Sungchul.
But the king of the dwarfs simply could not be persuaded in any way.
“The only thing I see is that which you have stolen.”
The King shouted before looking around him once more and barking another command.
“What are you waiting for? Go forth and reclaim Fal Garaz from the clutches of the enemy foreigner!”
King’s shameless actions once again brought a powerful sense of nihilism in Sungchul once more.
Darkness seeped in, accompanied by a sense of ennui.
Feeling the encroaching darkness in his mind, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
Sungchul felt a presence of an anchor.
This lonely anchor connected his terrible past, riddled with pain and suffering, to his present self.
And it was this that was just barely keeping his present, unstable self together.
If it had been like before, he would have long since succumbed to temptation and given up.
But at some point, that anchor had become stronger and heavier.
A few fleeting connections would breathe life into this precarious lifeline.
The faces of countless people flashed before Sungchul’s eyes.
People who had met unjust deaths, those who died honorably, those who Sungchul had tested, and the face of the Emperor discussing his ambitions at a modest dining table with a woman named Largo from La Grange appeared and disappeared in the darkness.
At the center of it all was a single book.
It was Bertelgia, neatly tucked inside a pouch, covering a heart where the Cross of the Covenant was engraved.
“…”
He resisted it.
Moment of despondency passed, melted away like butter by the firework of emotions born of his interactions and relations with others. And the darkness that had threatened to swallow him from all sides dissipated into nothingness.
It was all so simple, refreshingly so, what he had to do. Sungchul looked up at the King of the Dwarves.
No longer was there any anger, irritation, nor resentment in Sungchul’s eyes.
“There!”
Without a trace of regret, Sungchul threw his divine artifact towards the King of the dwarves.
The moment the hammer left his hands, Sungchul noticed a peculiar sensation. But it wasn’t enough to pay too much attention to it.
Fal Garaz, after leaving his hand, flew over the crown atop Daincraft’s head, and precisely landed onto its stand beyond it.
Click, Clang.
The irregular stand made of the fragments of the sky was finally reunited with its content, sealing the sacred hammer.
Immediately after this, the great sword Krumbui appeared in Sungchul’s hand once more. Krumbui was making a big fuss.
“The main character always appears exactly on time! The greatest sword to replace that cheap hammer, Krumbui is here!”
Sungchul approached Deckard, whose location he had kept in mind all this time, at an unbelievable speed and pushed him aside slightly.
“Kuargh!”
Deckard, struck by an unexpected blow, fell backwards and dropped the scroll he had been holding.
Sungchul immediately reached out for the scroll.
However, the moment his hand was about to touch it, a voice of caution echoed from within.
[Be warned. That is a poison that will sap your will. You mustn’t touch it.]
Sungchul withdrew his hand and instead swung Krumbui, slicing the scroll in half. The scroll and the floor below it were sliced clean through. However, the scroll soon returned to its original shape.
It must be a form of God’s Letter that cannot be destroyed by any means.
Sungchul pointed Krumbui towards Sarasa Xero and the Order of Extinction.
The King of the dwarves immediately intervened.
“I shall not permit any harm to befall my guests!”
The king’s minions surrounded Sarasa and the Order of Extinction, as if to protect them.
“Is that so.”
He already did everything he could.
From this moment forward, it was up to the foolish King to figure out and solve.
Sungchul already granted one demand from the king.
Now it was time for Sungchul to act as he pleased.
Sungchul looked around with his sword in hand and spoke in a resonant voice filled with strength.
“I know I am the number one enemy of your entire people as the first entry in the Book of Grudges. I apologize for my actions in the past. Of course, I don’t expect my apology to be accepted so easily.”
Once again, Sungchul looked around and finally settled his gaze on the King of the Dwarves.
The King could no longer look Sungchul straight in the eyes.
Now that the King had gotten what he wanted, he was a much lesser man for it.
Sungchul withdrew his gaze from him and continued to speak.
“I will atone for what I’ve done in my own way.”
Krumbui began to emit a faint blue light.
Sungchul walked forward with everyone watching.
The Barbarian who appeared before Sungchul let out a cry before swinging its axe towards him.
Sungchul took on the Barbarian’s axe without ducking or moving out of the way.
Clang!
A battle of strength against strength.
But no mere Barbarian could hope to win against Sungchul’s god-like strength.
The moment the god-like power flowed through Sungchul’s body, the Barbarian who had been pushing his axe blade into Sungchul with all his might, crumbled under Sungchul’s overwhelming strength, getting mercilessly crushed onto the marble floor.
Boom!
Sungchul’s military boot stepped on the Barbarian’s head and blew it apart instantly.
Blood and brain matter spread everywhere, followed by the cheers of the dwarves.
Amidst the clamor, Arkaard, with an ax in his hand, closely followed Sungchul.
“What are you doing, brothers? Are we not going to protect our homeland, our territory, alongside the Imperial… no, the Commander of the world? It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for honor and valor!”
The man who had somehow become Sungchul’s most fervent supporter shouted at the crowd.
The dwarves, stunned as if struck by a hammer, each began to unsheathe their weapons and follow Sungchul and Arkaard, one by one.
The sound of clashing weapons and roaring battle cries echoed in the corridor beyond the Audience Chamber where Sungchul had disappeared to.
The dwarves in the Audience Chamber soon drained out like a tide. Even the elders who needed to serve the king followed the warriors, dragging their old bodies.
All that remained were the king, the royal guards protecting him, and the Order of Extinction.
The once-empty case above the crown was now filled, but the Audience chamber was now left empty.
Daincraft who was all but left alone, stared at the empty Audience Chamber for a moment before returning to his seat at the throne as if collapsing.
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