[The conditions to start the Awakening quest for the Knight ‘Lumen Dominic’ have been met.]

[If Knight ‘Lumen Dominic’ wins a personal battle, the final Awakening is complete.]

[On failure, the Awakening quest disappears. Knight ‘Lumen Dominic’ is unable to fight.]

An unexpected Awakening quest popped up. Flustered, Cadel blinked, forgetting his excuse.

Winning a ‘personal battle’ meant sending Lumen to the top floor of the tower. It also meant not letting him remain on this floor, fighting the traps.

If he won the fight with Elvie and finished the quest, it would be the final awakening. Lumen would finally become an S-grade. But if he failed.

“Leader is thinking of going to the next floor. You plan to deal with the demon alone, right?”

“Wait, Lumen…….”

Cadel, confused by the sudden appearance of the Awakening Quest, rushed to Lumen’s side.

“Are you going to make that damn sacrifice again? Or is it just because I’m not trustworthy?”

“Don’t be mistaken. I’m just—”

“You always try to do the dangerous stuff yourself, and don’t tell me it’s for your subordinates. Because every time you do, I feel like I’m losing your trust.”

Countless what-ifs and what-ifs filled Cadel’s mind. Countless rings of thought spun, narrowing his vision. He wished a trap would pop up and shut Lumen’s mouth, but it hadn’t been triggered since he’d stood in the doorway.

“If that’s what Leader wants, I’ll stay here until the end. If that’s the order, I’ll obey.”

“…….”

“If that’s the best you can come up with, I’ll bend to your will. But if you’re willing to lay down your life for the safety of others.”

A cold, sunken gaze met Cadel’s. He squeezed Cadel’s shoulder and spoke in a threatening voice he’d never used before.

“I will never forgive you.”

With that short word, the thought circuit that had been running like crazy was suddenly cut off. The gray eyes that reflected Lumen trembled slightly.

His awakening was not guaranteed to succeed. If he failed, not only would Lumen die, but so would everyone else in this tower. There was no way Lumen didn’t know that.

Yes. This was far-fetched.

In hindsight, Cadel realized that he knew the strategy for this tower. He’d deployed his subordinates accordingly, and he’d gotten to the top floor without much trouble, but then he’d come to the end and tried to ignore it.

Quite naturally, at the cost of a damned sacrifice.

“Answer me, Leader. Tell me what to do. Give me orders.”

He feared for the safety of his subordinates, but as much as he worried, he trusted them. He knew they would survive. His subordinates would also believe in him.

That their commander would lead them right, not by sacrificing his life to save them all, but by making the best choices.

‘When have I ever enjoyed sacrifice so much?’

As a transmigrator, he had information that only he could know, and faith in his allies. Those were the two things he needed to make a choice. He had learned the hard way that he couldn’t do it all alone. He couldn’t do anything alone.

Cadel lowered his eyes and took a calming breath. He had to make a decision he wouldn’t regret.

“You can’t handle Elvie now, and you have no one to help you. If you lose, everyone left in the tower will die.”

“…….”

“But the sword you’ve wielded all your life will prove to you that victory is closer to a determined swordsman than a frail magician. So…….”

Cadel lightly turned around and pushed Lumen back to where he was. When he looked at Lumen again, his eyes sparkled, not with the resolve of one determined to make a sacrifice, but with a firm belief in his man.

“It’s an order. Bring out more than you can, and win at all costs.”

* * *

The air on the top floor was colder than any of the others, and beyond the breath that came with his deep exhalation, Lumen stared at the ‘heart’ that covered one wall.

Encased in transparent ice, it glowed bluishly and emitted a faint light. Delicate, thick veins intertwined with the wall, and the tower’s interior vibrated with a regular beat.

That was the goal of this floor. That was the ‘evil’ he needed to destroy.

“You, you are the one who made it to the end……? So weak, and frail…… I, I can’t even look forward to it.”

The heart wasn’t the only thing on the top floor, as Elvie, who had suddenly appeared in front of the heart, laughed hysterically and mocked Lumen.

Stripped of his snowy coat, he had dark red wings on his back, almost as small as his body. It was the mark of a High Demon.

As he stared at Elvie wordlessly, Lumen’s figure suddenly disappeared. After a moment’s hesitation, Elvie jerked his head to look to his side, where Lumen stared down at him with a half-sheathed sword.

A blue flash of light flashed across Elvie’s shoulders and waist in a diagonal line above his unfocused eyes. Elvie’s body slid along the afterimage of the flash, his icy flesh falling to the floor and shattering, then melting into the ground.

“You, you can’t kill me. If you give up…… I might let you die a little more comfortably.…….”

Unsurprisingly, Elvie did not die with his heart intact. A jagged pillar of ice sprang up from where the body had melted, and soon, as if touched by a passionate sculptor, it took on the appearance of Elvie.

Lumen, who had watched the process in silence, turned his head with an expressionless face.

‘There is no need to deal with this one.’

The heart, which contained the life force of a High Demon, emitted a suffocatingly intense aura that belied its beautiful appearance. It was as if he had finally come face-to-face with the power of a High Demon, a power he hadn’t felt from the frail boy’s appearance.

Lumen gripped his sword and assumed the stance of a sword-drawing technique. His back was lowered, and his bent lower body tightened. A chill ran down his spine as he stared at the heart.

Shriing―

A streak of light carved through the heart. It did not condense all its power. Lumen was going to test the sturdiness of the heart with this one blade.

And the moment the flash faded away.

Rumble!

The heart, which had been quiet, trembled and fired a shock wave toward the front where Lumen was located.

“Kugh……!”

“I, idiot! With, with just such an attack? Me?”

Despite his scale armor, a dull pain shot through his body, and Lumen ignored Elvie’s laughter as he examined the heart.

‘……It didn’t even leave a scratch.’

Even if he had conserved his power, it wasn’t enough to leave a scratch. What was that shockwave from earlier? A counterattack? Or a phenomenon that repeated itself at regular intervals? Whatever it was, it was a disadvantage.

As if he had read Lumen’s thoughts, Elvie said, twisting his body in a passive gesture.

“My heart bounces, bounces back all your stupid, weak attacks. No matter how hard you struggle…… the only one who gets hurt is you……!”

A sullen gaze searched Lumen’s reaction, hoping to draw out his despair, but there was no change in his expression.

‘Is he saying it can reflect attacks, then…….’

If he didn’t have a technique that could shatter the heart at once, the damage would be returned. The shockwave of a controlled attack was enough to cause this much pain. Lumen wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.

‘I must bring out the most powerful technique I can.’

If he couldn’t do it all at once, he wouldn’t win. Pulling himself together, Lumen calmed his breathing.

The most powerful technique he could muster. It was an unfinished technique he hadn’t used since the Forest of Enchantment. But it was only the unevenness of the cut that was a problem, the destructive power itself was as complete as it could be.

‘I don’t need to cut it in two, I just need to break it.’

It was the best he could do. Calming his mind, Lumen prepared his technique.

He wouldn’t count on luck to reach its peak just when he needed it. In the heat of battle, the one thing he never lost was a handful of coolness. That cool sensation always helped him to draw a more perfect isle.

‘Not twice. It must be done once.’

A muffled resonance emanated from his gripped sword. The sword energy had been thoroughly condensed, the power of an explosion contained within a thin membrane. All of it poured into a single blow.

Moonlight Swift Sword.

A flash, sharper than ever, cut through the heart. An unparalleled amount of energy pulsed through the afterimage, quieter than the darkness.

And the next moment.

Crack.

A thin crack appeared in the ice covering the heart.

“Stu, stupid.”

A shockwave, massive enough to shake a tower, swept through the interior.

“Keuheuk……!”

As if struck from head to toe by a giant hammer, Lumen’s body was sent flying out the other side by the shockwave, his bullet-like body slamming into the cold icy wall. A handful of blood poured out from beneath his head as he was thrown back by the recoil.

“I told you to just…… give up.”

Elvie chuckled softly, glancing back at Lumen, who had flown off into the distance.

Deep inside the wall, Lumen lay motionless, as if dead. Blood dripped from his severed head, and shards of shattered armor fell from his body.

The wall that had swallowed Lumen slowly regenerated, covering his body in ice. A lifeless chill coursed through his crushed flesh, and his lips, now damp with blood, curled into a small smile. Beneath the slowly lifting eyelids, unfocused blue eyes revealed themselves.

Failure. That was all he could think of.

The last of Cadel’s warnings rang in his ears.