Chapter 78
The Temple of Shakal.
The “Prophetic Child” had been kidnapped through a portal. Everyone who witnessed it was frozen in shock.
“Cough, cough!”
Only the students’ coughing—harsh enough to sound like they might spit out their lungs—broke the silence now and then.
Ehin sat collapsed on the floor and barely opened his eyes. His first disciple had vanished.
“H-How… did this….”
Tera’s trembling lips finally moved.
Her hair, normally tied in one neat bundle, was completely undone.
She had narrowly avoided the Stone Golem’s attack, and her hair had been sliced off in the process.
Now, unwillingly turned into a short-haired girl, Tera gathered what little breath she had left.
“We have to… we must… save her…”
But how?
She had disappeared through a portal right in front of their eyes.
The Stone Golem’s corpse was evaporating into gas, and that gas itself was toxic.
With their internal injuries already severe, they had to avoid breathing as much as possible if they wanted to avoid further damage.
Get a hold of yourself.
Tera repeated to herself.
She shut her mouth and held her breath.
But even if she didn’t want to think negatively, her mind moved on its own.
If the Prophetic Child dies…?
Her vision spun.
Then everything ends.
Yes, the grief of losing the girl she adored should have come first…
But Adel was the Prophetic Child.
It wasn’t just one person’s life.
It was the life of all humanity on the continent.
Adel, Michael, Kasmahan, and Shuzer had all disappeared together.
That was the only consolation.
But how long could they endure?
If they had been teleported through a portal, it must have been to at least the Demon Realm.
“Is it… because of me?”
Madeleine’s face had gone completely pale.
Realizing she had accidentally spoken aloud, Madeleine slapped both hands over her mouth.
Adel tried to save me…
Strictly speaking, Adel had been the target of the portal from the beginning.
Her jumping in to save Madeleine had nothing to do with the reason she was kidnapped.
Everyone had been too distracted by the Stone Golem to notice the trap.
But Madeleine believed it was her fault.
No one knew how long time passed.
Just when everyone was still dazed in despair—
A new portal opened.
This time, it glowed green.
It spat out Michael, Shuzer, and Kasmahan one after another.
“Ugh!”
“Your Highness…! Are you alright?!”
“My lady—where’s my lady? Where is the Prophetic Child?!”
Tera hurriedly ran up to them but froze mid-step.
Because the instant the portal disappeared, a massive green light shot upward and dyed the sky.
BOOOM!
Like fireworks exploding.
It happened in an instant, with a thunderous roar.
It was nothing like the usual blue sky.
Nor like the red sky of sunset.
It was as if the entire sky woke up—
as if the world had flipped—
as if something tremendous had changed.
A radiant, vivid green sky.
“….?!”
“The sky… is green.”
Madeleine murmured blankly.
It was unbelievable even as she saw it with her own eyes.
Yet it was mystical. Terribly beautiful.
The entire sky looked like it had turned into a jewel.
“…The prophecy.”
The first to grasp the meaning was Crown Prince Kasmahan.
“When the Prophetic Child awakens the Divine Beast, all will look up upon a green sky.”
His whole body broke into goosebumps.
This had already been foretold in ancient times.
Long before Kasmahan was born.
Long before anyone he knew had been born.
Hundreds of years ago.
Berregon—the prophet who lived up to 124 years, far beyond normal human life—
had written these words in his will.
“Did the Divine Beast… awaken from its seal…?”
Michael whispered, trembling.
The sky glittered in a breathtaking brilliance.
‘The courage to pierce the heart with the key.’
That was not a courage just anyone could muster.
Michael realized it—
That Adel’s courage also held warm consideration for him.
Why?
…Because she was a kind person?
Did she not want to force him to kill his father with his own hands?
Michael felt as though a hammer had struck the back of his head.
Adel… had survived.
Tera, too, sensed it instinctively, her eyes widening.
The green sky shimmered in her irises.
“M-My lady….”
The Crown Prince had already witnessed Adel’s unreal powers up close in the Black Market.
But now, seeing the entire sky turned by Adel’s power—
Kasmahan felt not fear, but overwhelming awe.
Even if she had been prophesied, it had never felt real until this moment.
Now he knew all the prophecies would truly unfold in reality.
She is the one who will save humanity.
Just then, Madeleine collapsed.
People had only just begun to relax, instinctively knowing Adel was alive—
and the sudden fall alarmed them.
Shuzer rushed in, “I’ll heal her!” and began treatment.
Meanwhile, Kasmahan thought—
This is…
Terribly, horrifyingly fascinating.
Would a human like this ever exist again in the future?
Would he ever meet such a person again while he lived?
Impossible.
Only Adel.
Even as he answered himself, chills ran along his skin.
To be breathing as a participant in the greatest turning point history had ever pointed to—
It was overwhelming.
He knew that spies had appeared today, a victim had fallen, and retribution was necessary.
He knew all the practical obligations.
But setting that aside—
He suddenly laughed.
The Crown Prince loosened his grip on his sword.
Adel used her own wits to overcome the crisis.
Kasmahan was living history at Adel’s side.
Adel herself was history.
* * *
Warm…
Adel thought.
Where was this…?
I don’t want to get up…
After a long while, she slowly opened her eyes.
The yellow key she had clutched so desperately was gone.
Her hands were empty.
And when she looked down, her heart had nothing embedded in it—not a trace.
But she had just stabbed it in… hadn’t she?
Her academy uniform was gone.
She was wearing a simple white garment.
Did I… die?
Was she dead?
Adel didn’t really know what death meant,
but this place didn’t feel like the real world.
It wasn’t the suffocating Demon Realm from moments before.
Nor the human world she lived in.
She was just floating in a green-lit space.
Too vivid to be a dream.
I can’t die…
Adel blankly looked around.
She was not alone in this green space.
There were countless soap bubbles.
Each bubble contained a moment from some time or place—replaying like a memory—
but the young Adel didn’t understand that yet.
“…?”
She tilted her head.
If she touched the bubbles, she felt they might burst.
So she stopped her hand just before contact.
Every bubble held something different.
In one, a younger version of her father kissed a woman Adel had never seen before.
Probably 8 years ago.
In another, a child who looked like young Kasmahan sat expressionless at a funeral.
When Adel moved closer, the sound became clear.
Even at the Empress and Princess’s funeral, Kasmahan did not shed a tear.
“What… is all this?”
Finally gathering her senses, Adel spoke into the air.
And she realized—
This place was filled with memories from the past, edited into visible form.
Like soap bubbles for her to understand.
The green-lit space was far too warm to harm her.
Every moment playing all around her.
Where was this place?
<Three gifts I give to you.>
“Who are you…?”
The voice that had whispered for her to stab her heart with the key did not answer.
But Adel somehow understood.
<I will soon forget you. When we meet again, I won’t remember you.>
“You’re… the Divine Beast…?”
The mysterious voice didn’t answer—
but Adel felt it smile.
<Next time we meet, don’t call me ‘Divine Beast.’
Give me a pretty name.>
It was the Divine Beast.
Because Adel had not made a pact with it,
it could not show a physical form yet.
The appearance set by its previous contractor had already dispersed into the green sky.
The Divine Beast would soon lose all its memories.
Probably when we meet again, it’ll be a newborn beast that can’t even talk…
But before dispersing,
it wanted to leave three gifts for the Prophetic Child.
It offered Adel a choice between three “gifts.”
If she touched a bubble, she could transcend time and space—
existing there omnipotently for a brief moment.
Adel didn’t fully understand, but that didn’t matter.
She would eventually understand everything.
<Hurry. Run through time.>
First Gift.
Imperial Year 827.
Rehas, born into the Alkibiades family, was miraculously still alive.
[He has survived eight years under the “Curse of the Gods.” He may still become the heir—we can’t give up hope…]
[Just kill me already! It hurts! It hurts—please kill me…]
Rehas’s pleas were always ignored.
In his short life, he had attempted suicide so many times he had lost count.
When he was sane, he was extraordinarily intelligent.
But when the curse swallowed him in agony, he was a small, violent monster.
He had torn apart more than ten personal physicians alive in fits of rage.
That was when they finally locked him in the tower.
“It hurts… I want to die…”
Only moonlight entered through the small window.
Rehas was classified as a dangerous antisocial threat, his arms bound in chains.
Today his frenzy had been unusually severe, so he had been given twice his normal dose of painkillers.
Even with his mind drowning in vile drugs, his cursed body still refused sleep.
His whole body burned as though on fire, and the young boy gasped in torment.
“….”
But something was strange.
This tower was guarded so thoroughly that no intruder could possibly enter.
Was he hallucinating?
A small girl in a white dress suddenly stood before him.
“…Who are you?”
He asked with cracked lips, and the girl looked around as though startled.
How had she gotten here?
She had appeared with a burst of green light, as if she had fallen from the sky.
A reaper come to take him at last?
But such a tiny girl, a reaper…?
His drug-addled brain struggled to process.
Her pink hair curled softly—cute—
Her blue eyes sparkled like the universe.
“…I’ll save you. I promise.”
“You?”
“Wait for me. Don’t die. You must… stay alive.”
Was she a fairy?
When her trembling hand touched his cheek—
When she cried and fiddled with the chains binding him—
Why did the pain wash away instantly?
Who… are you?
How did you make my eyes close,
which hadn’t shut even once in over three days of agony?
“Oppa…”
She smelled nice.
She hugged him.
Who was this girl?
Why was she crying for him?
Rehas didn’t get to ask.
He fell asleep.
