[Edanian Journey] Sylvia

Chapter 7: A Moment for One Last Breath

Markthanan was ashamed that, after warning me to protect myself, he had been the one to lose himself. When I severed his bonds, he had not known that his own body had become a vessel for a fragment of darkness.

The power of the Eighth Witch had been forging that fragment within him into a flame, and Deian, once thought dead, had returned and taken part of it away. The flame Jordine had encountered was tied to that same darkness.

Drawn to the power that remained, Deian bound Markthanan once more and tried to extract every last fragment. When Markthanan lost control of himself, he froze his own time, turning his body into a prison so that the power could not be taken. At last, I understood why I had found him frozen in place.

He asked me to set his time in motion again. But if the barrier of time fell, tragedy was sure to follow. Footsteps were already drawing closer outside the castle. Even knowing that he would awaken only to meet the end recorded for him as a monster, Markthanan did not want to remain frozen, waiting for the Great Freeze.

He told me not to save him. Instead, he asked me to tear Deian's roots from his heart and return to him <b>the path toward the end he had chosen</b>. I could not promise to erase the tragedy that awaited him. So, before his final breath, I reached out to the Black Spirit.

Just as we merged and prepared to strike the final blow, Grey appeared. In that instant, a sacred light enveloped me and carried me elsewhere. Watching Markthanan recede into the distance, I vanished beyond the light.

Then, within a memory I had already lived through, the words Grey had left behind changed.

"Come to the dawn, bearing the Legacy of Heavens."