Lin Gui looked at her.
He was not touched by her everyday inspirational talk in the slightest.
Those idealistic words failed to stir even a single ripple within him.
He just sat there.
Moonlight fell upon his face, casting light into his indifferent eyes.
Then, he spoke.
“Why couldn't I find you the next day?”
Sivir froze.
“Why was the Heavenly Star Sphere gone from the secret box in your room—the one that only you could open?”
The smile froze on her face.
“Since you knew in advance about the impending slaughter...”
“Why... didn't you tell them before leaving?”
Lin Gui's voice remained soft.
Yet every word drove into the air like a nail.
“Do you know?”
He paused.
“Even before they were loaded into the Black Dragon Knights' prisoner carts...”
“...Uncle Barrett and the others were urging me to find you at all costs.”
“To take you away.”
“They said that as long as you were safe, Spark would never die out.”
He looked at Sivir.
There was no accusation in those eyes.
Only a statement of facts.
“What they didn't know...”
“...was that a clever fox like you had known about the coming massacre all along.”
“You had already slipped away from Spark City under the cover of night.”
“So...”
He paused.
“Am I right?”
Sivir was stunned.
She stood at the edge of the city wall, her back to the lights of the city, staring at Lin Gui.
Her amber eyes were filled with confusion.
Then, she smiled.
But that smile no longer held its previous light.
“Lin Gui, what are you talking about?”
She knitted her brows.
“The Black Dragon Army? How could the Black Dragon Army appear here?”
There was a hint of panic in her voice.
“The deployment of such an army couldn't possibly be hidden from our comrades in Dawn City.”
“If they had seen that army leave, the Spark comrades coming back to deliver the negotiation results would never have failed to tell us!”
She spoke faster and faster.
As if trying to convince herself.
Lin Gui watched her.
He did not argue.
He just watched her quietly.
He knew.
Those so-called comrades, the ones sent to Dawn City for negotiations...
The moment they stepped into the greatest human city, their eyes had been blinded by its majestic walls.
Their hearts had been seduced by the unimaginable luxury and decadence lining its streets.
The promises of nobles.
A place of their own in Dawn City.
Things they wouldn't have dared dream of in their entire lives were laid out right before them.
All they had to do was nod.
All they had to do was betray.
What were those comrades-in-arms who had chewed dark bread together, crawled through mine shafts together, and sworn under the moonlight to change everything?
What did they amount to?
Revolutionary friendship?
Bonds forged in life and death?
In the face of true temptation, none of it was worth mentioning.
But Lin Gui did not tell Sivir.
Nor did he press the matter further.
Because he knew.
He would get no real answers here.
The Sivir before him was merely a nightmare woven by the mist of the Voiceless Abyss.
A phantom constructed from his own memories.
She could not give him an answer.
Because...
...he did not know either.
Lin Gui sat cross-legged.
He silently closed his eyes.
In that void of spatial vision, those Spatial Coordinates remained.
The single truth he had placed step by step along his path.
He continued probing downward.
Toward his original destination.
Sivir stood beside him, completely at a loss.
She looked at the little mage sitting with closed eyes, unsure of what to do.
His reaction was far too strange.
And what he had just said sounded as if he were accusing her of something.
But what was she accused of doing?
What had she done?
She opened her mouth.
Wanting to say something.
Yet not knowing what to say.
Right at that moment.
Footsteps approached.
A figure walked up from the stairway of the city wall.
It was a Spark comrade returned from Dawn City.
The one sent to negotiate.
The one who had brought back news of "successful negotiations" and the so-called signed treaty.
And also the one who led the suppressing Black Dragon Army here...
A traitor.
He walked over briskly with a smile on his face.
Yet that smile looked awkward no matter how one viewed it.
Deep in his eyes lay a guilty conscience.
A profound sense of guilt.
“Sivir!”
he called out.
“The final banquet is about to start! The City Lord sent me to fetch you!”
He paused, looking over at Lin Gui, who was sitting cross-legged nearby.
Smiling, he stepped closer.
“Little mage, you come along too.”
“The City Lord knows you want to go to the City of a Thousand Towers. He said he wants to thank you properly before you leave.”
Lin Gui slowly opened his eyes.
He looked at him.
With that single glance...
...the man froze entirely.
It was as if he had been targeted by a dangerous beast.
A chill ran down his spine.
As if he had plunged into an ice cave.
He stood frozen, the smile stiffening on his face.
“U-Um...”
He gave a forced laugh.
“I-Is there something on my face?”
Lin Gui stared at him.
Then, he spoke slowly.
“Pips.”
The man froze.
“Huh?”
Lin Gui continued:
“When I return from this trip, I'll go to Dawn City to find you.”
“I hope you're living the high life the nobles promised you.”
He paused.
“That way, when I kill you, it will be all the more satisfying.”
Pips' face changed instantly.
He stared at Lin Gui, his pupils contracting violently.
“What?? What high life promised by nobles?!”
“You bastard! What on earth are you talking about?!”
Then, his face flushed red.
“Don't... don't slander me!”
His voice rose, laced with anger and fear.
“How could I possibly betray Spark?!”
“I've fought alongside everyone for so many years! I've bled more than anyone else!”
“You're not even one of us! You're just a traveler who joined halfway, a mere Mid Rank mage!”
He pointed at Lin Gui, his fingers trembling.
“What right do you have to slander me!”
Lin Gui did not say a word.
He just watched him.
His gaze was like looking at a dead man.
Pips trembled all over.
Then, he whipped around.
“Sivir, don't listen to his nonsense!”
“I... I'm going back down first!”
He practically sprinted away.
Rapid footsteps echoed down the stairs, quickly fading into nothingness.
Sivir watched his departing back.
Then she looked back at Lin Gui.
Her mouth opened.
In the end, she said softly:
“I'm sorry, Lin Gui.”
“I don't understand what you mean by suddenly saying all those things.”
She paused.
“Maybe you're tired.”
“You need to get some proper rest.”
“I'll tell Aunt Margaret not to overburden you with work.”
Then, she left as well.
Her footsteps gradually receded into the distance.
Lin Gui was left alone on the city wall.
He remained sitting cross-legged.
He remained with his eyes closed.
He remained immersed in the single truth.
Those Spatial Coordinates, those passageways slowly extending through the Voiceless Rift.
He was mapping it out.
Mapping out that abyss no one could truly see clearly.
Time ticked by slowly.
The revelry beneath the city walls gradually quieted down.
The cheers slowly turned into scattered clamor.
And then, lapsed into total silence.
Torches flickered out one by one.
The streets sank back into darkness.
The eastern sky turned pale white with dawn.
Sunset?
No.
It was sunrise.
A new day had begun.
And with it, the start of Lin Gui's true nightmare.
Lin Gui heard it.
A massive barrier enveloped the entire city.
The handiwork of a Legendary mage.
No one could escape.
The sound of iron hooves smashing open the city gates.
Screams.
Wails.
Piteous cries.
Furious roars.
All the sounds mixed together, deafening to the ears.
He heard the citizens helping the Spark members escape.
He heard those crushed by fear leading proud knights to the members' hiding places just to save their own skins.
He heard the City Lord of Spark...
...the man who had stood on the wooden platform just last night waving the letter and announcing the victory of the revolution...
...step out of his hiding place on his own initiative.
...surrendering voluntarily.
He knelt before the iron hooves of the Black Dragon Army, begging them to spare the citizens.
One hundred and twenty-six core members...
...stepped out of hiding on their own.
...surrendering voluntarily.
And then...
...their limbs were crippled.
They were thrown into prisoner carts.
And escorted away to Dawn City.
The moment the prisoner carts rolled out, the city gates slammed shut.
The citizens thought they had survived.
And then...
...the iron cavalry and sharp blades turned back once more.
Mages who had long taken control of every passage began casting spells indiscriminately.
Slaughter descended once again.
Raging flames.
Agonized wails.
In the end...
...all returned to utter silence.
Lin Gui just sat cross-legged atop the high wall.
With his eyes closed.
Silently listening.
Listening to the horrific screams that had awakened him from dreams countless times.
Listening to those familiar voices disappearing into the flames one by one.
Until...
...all the dust settled.
Until...
...the soldiers of the Black Dragon Army performing mop-up operations in the city finally discovered him.
Lin Gui heard footsteps.
Orderly.
Heavy.
Treading upon the charred ruins.
He opened his eyes.
And stood up.
His peripheral vision swept across the city below the walls.
Flames were still burning.
The shacks that were once crude yet warm were now reduced to pitch-black frames.
The streets once hung with colorful banners were now littered with corpses.
The air reeked of a sickening mix of burning ash and blood.
Then, he turned his gaze toward the source of the sound.
A squad of the Black Dragon Army was walking toward him.
At their head was a knight clad in black armor.
There was no unnecessary decoration on the armor, save for a black dragon with spread wings carved into the chest.
His helmet was tucked under his arm, revealing a cold, stern face.
His features were deep-set, his brow ridge high, and his eyes were a pale gray, like dulled blades.
He walked very slowly.
Every step was extremely steady.
The knights following behind him maintained flawless formation.
No one spoke.
No one looked around.
There was only the sound of boots crunching on gravel.
Lin Gui watched him.
It was the Sub-Legion Commander of the Black Dragon Army's Third Sub-Legion.
Visak.
At twenty-three, he led three hundred cavalrymen to wipe out three rebel strongholds in the Northern Lands, leaving neither man, woman, old, nor young alive.
At twenty-six, after exhausting the defenders' grain supplies during a siege, he nailed every surrendered soldier to the city walls so they would "serve as a lethal warning to future generations."
At twenty-nine, to eradicate a resistance unit hidden in a village, he burned the entire village down, sending seven hundred civilians to a fiery death.
At thirty-two, he was promoted to Sub-Legion Commander.
From then on, the territory under his jurisdiction never saw another rebellion.
Because anyone who dared resist was uprooted completely.
He was infamous for his ruthlessness.
He was notorious for leaving no survivors.
His creed was to achieve victory at any cost.
And this time, the massacre of Spark City was his stepping stone to a higher rank.
At this moment, Visak stopped.
Twenty meters away from Lin Gui.
He looked up, meeting the eyes of the solitary figure on the city wall.
In those gray eyes, there was no surprise.
No curiosity.
Only...
...an almost ruthless scrutiny.
Like looking at prey that had stumbled into a trap.
Then, he raised his hand.
And gave a slight wave.
Behind him, a knight drew his blade.
The blade reflected the firelight beneath the wall, gleaming with a dark red hue.
The knight strode toward Lin Gui.
His steps were heavy and steady.
His armor clanked softly with every movement.
He did not speak.
Nor did he need to.
A Mid Rank mage.
An unarmed, frail youth.
Killing someone like this required no preparation whatsoever.
The blade was raised high.
And then, brought slashing down.
Lin Gui moved.
He did not retreat.
He did not dodge.
Instead, he took a step forward.
In his hand, Gray Dagger slipped out from his sleeve.
The dagger was short, dull, and entirely lusterless.
A mage trying to defeat a heavy-armored knight with a dagger?
That was pure fantasy.
A sneer even curled at the corner of the knight's lips.
Yet how things unfolded defied everyone's expectations.
What should have been a single slash cleaving flesh and spraying blood...
...ended with the knight's blade cutting empty air.
Lin Gui stepped sideways.
The descending blade shaved past the tip of his nose.
He closed the distance instantly into the knight's chest.
Gray Dagger was held in a reverse grip.
It was not thrust toward a gap in the armor.
It was not thrust toward the throat.
Rather...
...he pressed the hilt of the dagger directly against the knight's chest.
The knight froze.
He lowered his head.
Looking down at his chest.
Where the dagger should have plunged into his heart.
No.
That wasn't the blade.
It was the hilt.
The opponent had held the dagger in a reverse grip.
Pressing the hilt against his heart.
Why?
The knight stared in total shock.
Meanwhile, Lin Gui slowly pulled back the reverse-gripped dagger.
He raised his head to look at the dazed knight.
On that pale face, a trace of emotion finally appeared.
It was not the joy of a mage overcoming a knight in battle.
Nor was it hatred toward the enemy who had razed everything and slaughtered everyone he knew.
Instead, it was sheer relief.
“I've come to get you out.”
he said softly.
“Lord Demon King Gusion.”
As his words fell, Lin Gui stowed Gray Dagger into his Storage space.
Within Lin Gui's Storage space, the Demon King Pillar vibrated slightly.
The pillar, long dormant, flickered with a faint red glow.
As if sensing something.
And on his own spatial perception Messenger's Chart...
...the 12-kilometer straight line extending from the exit aligned with the winding passageway on the chart.
In reality, he had reached the exact location of the Demon King predicted by Eve.
And in space, the sensation from the Demon King Pillar also pointed to the knight standing before him with blade drawn.
The knight looked at him.
The expression on his cold face slowly shifted.
Then, he smiled.
It was a faint smile.
Yet within those pale brown eyes, something was shattering.
The illusion began to collapse.
First was the sky.
The sky, painted red by firelight, peeled away piece by piece like a torn canvas.
Then the city walls.
The dark gray stone beneath their feet began to disintegrate.
Next was the city itself.
The burning flames, the strewn corpses, the pitch-black ruins...
...all began to break down.
Like a painting soaked in water.
Colors faded.
Outlines blurred.
Ultimately—
...vanished into nothingness.
Finally, the knight standing before him.
His form began to distort.
Like a clump of mist blown apart by the wind.
The black armor peeled away.
Revealing white hair underneath.
A posture scarred yet upright.
A face gaunt almost to the bone.
And those crimson eyes.
Rate on N.U.
