Crunch.
Rene slid down and collapsed beneath the wall that had cracked in many places.
“Ah.”
Startled, Rene let out a strangled scream as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened to her.
Carlton’s eyes trembled in small spasms as he looked at Rene, who was spitting out clots of blood.
“Why… me…?”
Rene glanced between the blood on her hands and Carlton.
“Why?”
Carlton flicked his right hand once more.
Paang—.
Magic whooshed past Rene’s cheek and ripped the plastered wall into ruins.
Not satisfied with that, Carlton sent magic here and there. Cracks spread through the walls and several ornaments crashed to the floor.
Amid the chaos, Carlton shouted.
“Argh!! Ah!!!!!”
Rene, who had never seen Carlton like this before, was so bewildered that she forgot her pain and pushed herself up.
“Carlton, what’s wrong…?”
“You!!! You—! Someone like you—!”
Rene froze at the sight of Carlton’s contorted, anguished face.
“You, are you—crying…?”
Carlton wrapped his arms around his own head, writhing in pain. Rene watched him dumbfounded.
“I… I did it to ease my guilt….”
Carlton collapsed onto the floor.
For a long time he had shoved away the guilt, but now it overwhelmed him.
It was thanks to Carlton that Vane had been able to bring everyone here. In the hell of the temple, Carlton had tried to take out children who were in the same situation as him. He’d wanted to bring them to a place of freedom, but contrary to his intentions, every child he tried to help fell into hell—into a far crueler, more vicious place than the temple.
“Belia, I shouldn’t have done that! I….”
Carlton gasped for breath.
Despite Belia’s objections, he’d cloaked his guilt with cheap pity. In that short time when they were preparing to escape, Belia had grown unbelievably. She had learned to use the power of regeneration the way he had taught from the start. And that power was clearly effective against Vane’s black magic. He had been convinced that this time they could actually get out.
Yes, they could have escaped. If things had gone according to plan, he would have led everyone out of this hellish place. By now they would be under a blue sky they had never seen before, breathing with arms outstretched—not stuck in this damned mansion.
There was no need to trace exactly where it had gone wrong. The cause was right in front of him.
“How could you do this!! Rene!! You—!!”
Carlton lifted his head in a flash; his eyes were filled with contempt and reproach.
“Call Vane back?! We could have left. If it weren’t for you!!”
“I… I was just worried you’d be in danger.”
“For me? You say it was for me?”
“You tried to escape before and got caught by Vane. So I thought… even if you went out this time, could you really escape? You’d be caught again, wouldn’t you?”
“There were ways! If it weren’t for you, those kids wouldn’t be dead! We could have left! This time for sure!”
Seeing the dead children Carlton pointed at, Rene clenched her teeth.
“How is that my fault!! Belia, it was because you made that weird plan!! If we left it would be more dangerous! I did it to protect you! For you and the children!!”
“Don’t lie, Rene.”
“It’s not a lie…!”
“You only couldn’t stand the sight of it! That the children would turn against you!”
“What?”
Rene instinctively avoided the red eyes that stared at her.
“Why say things like that. That’s not it….”
“For me? No—no, exactly for you. You wanted things your way! Wanted to have things! Wanted to do what you wanted, but they were in the way—so you got rid of them. Isn’t that what you did?”
“I… that’s not it! I was worried it would be dangerous!”
Rene glanced involuntarily at the dead children.
The kids she had been talking with just yesterday were all gone. Rene’s gaze wavered, then suddenly she bit her lip.
“Is this my fault? That child started it! Even if father hurt us, it was for our own good! If we had stayed just a little longer—”
“Shut up.”
Carlton rose to his feet.
When he raised his right hand, Rene curled in on herself as if terrified.
“I really did it because I worried you’d get hurt!”
Rene stubbornly stuck to her defense to the end; Carlton looked tormented.
He had no right to punish Rene. At least, not until today.
“Rene, you died today.”
Carlton’s right arm dropped limply.
“What….”
He raised a finger and pointed at the corpses of the children.
“You died here with those kids. I dragged them here; I tried to save them but failed and in the end I killed them.”
A terrible coldness remained on Carlton’s face as if any trace of earlier pain had vanished. Only the tears streaming down his face revealed the sincerity he hid.
“Carlton!”
“I will never forget the guilt of causing the deaths of those children, including you. Even if I go to hell, I will atone.”
Carlton clasped his hands and quietly traced the sign of the cross, as if the Rene in front of him were truly one of the dead.
“Hey!…! Ugh!”
Carlton swung his hand and Rene clamped her mouth shut.
Ignoring the struggling woman, Carlton moved on.
“Get up.”
“…Huh?”
He walked past Rene and stood before Karin, who was sobbing endlessly.
“You want to get out.”
Karin nodded quietly.
“I’ll let you go. At least you.”
With those words, Carlton moved at speed. Karin followed clumsily behind him.
As that scene played out, Belia’s vision blurred and she saw vines entering through the gap of the window that had opened.
The vine tasted a faintly glowing orb of magical energy and then vanished.
The scene shifted immediately.
“Carlton!!!!”
From within the swirl of pitch-black light came Vane’s scream.
Before him, Carlton held Belia with a pained expression. Something black swirled above his left shoulder. Beside them, Karin muttered something in terror. Belia’s pale face gradually regained color as her hair darkened at the same time. As the black reached the tips of her hair, a tremendous explosion engulfed them.
“Ah.”
Belia, who had been staring blankly at the vision, was startled—everything had vanished with the explosion.
For a moment the surroundings went completely dark, then slowly brightened.
Belia saw the tree again as if to tell her that this was the present, not the past. She reached out toward the tree stained red.
“What do you want….”
“No!”
Someone snatched Belia’s hand away as she tried to touch the tree.
She flinched at the sight of the person panting, drenched in cold sweat.
“Karin?”
“You….”
Karin’s face was ashen as she stared blankly at Belia.
“How are you… alive?”
“What?”
Karin hurriedly rolled up Belia’s sleeve.
“No, what are you—!”
“…Nothing.”
“What?”
“This isn’t right… this….”
Karin looked at Belia with confusion in her eyes.
At that moment, the tree trunk moved.
Avoiding the trunk that sought to entangle them, Karin grabbed Belia’s hand and hurriedly pulled her along.
“We have to get out.”
“Huh?”
Karin pushed Belia—who looked like she knew nothing—forward.
“Ah!”
As Belia stumbled to the ground, the tree trunk planted itself where Belia had been standing.
“Get away! I won’t carry you and jump!”
At Karin’s words, Belia immediately rolled aside.
“Why is the tree—”
“The forest wants you! Specifically, it wants your power!”
“My power?”
“Did you recover memories of being here?”
“Yes!”
Karin and Belia moved frantically and spoke to each other.
“Yes. The forest is what supports the space Vane created. The forest covets your power. Ugh!”
“Here!”
Belia seized a branch with Karin’s wrist and struck it down against a rock.
“Ah, thanks.”
“Hurry and get away!”
Karin ducked immediately.
“But why did the forest show you memories if it wants your power?”
“To shake your mind.”
“Huh?”
“What about Carlton?”
Belia scanned the area.
It was clear they were near the place where he had lost consciousness, but Carlton was nowhere to be seen.
“They’ll remove the biggest obstacle.”
“So what happened to Carlton?”
“We have to find him. Belia! Do you see it?”
“Huh?”
“Do you see that hollow at the center of the tree?”
Belia nodded at Karin’s shout.
“Yes!”
It was a hollow large enough for one person to enter easily.
“I’ll stall them—go in there!”
“What?”
“Carlton is probably inside. Go and wake him. Somehow make him come to his senses.”
“Alone?”
“No one else can do it but you. And if not Carlton, we’re all dead. Now—go! Quickly!”
Karin took a sack from her bosom and scattered its contents into the air; the tree vines shrank at once.
“Careful!”
Belia dashed through the retracted vines and, without hesitation, threw herself into the hollow.
