The scream was so agonizing, it etched sorrow deep into the hearts of all who heard it. The sobbing of Duke Axid, who had followed the Duke of Shildras, could be heard as he held down the convulsing man.
Through his dimming vision, Ressas witnessed the fierce battle that continued to unfold. The Duke of Shildras protected the sacred relic while shielding Zion’s corpse, and Duke Axid, alongside Duke Bridehit, drove the serpent into retreat. At last, when Seiyad arrived with Aster in tow, the tide of battle seemed to shift.
Whether it was from having just ended a grueling fight himself, Seiyad was drenched in blood. Spotting Ressas barely holding his eyes open, Seiyad rushed to him. Warmth touched the body that had been growing steadily colder.
“…Ressas, it’s okay. I’ll protect you. Just a little longer, hang in there… please…”
His vision was too blurry to make out Seiyad’s expression. What he could feel was that the voice of his beloved was trembling terribly. In a voice cracked and dry as sand, Seiyad murmured as he tried to stop the bleeding from Ressas’s wounds, when Aster grabbed him by the arm.
“The Devil must be killed first, Eid.”
“I know. I know that, but at least let me stop the bleeding—!”
‘I’m okay. You’re right, Hyung-nim. Don’t worry about me—just do what you have to do, Eid… It’s too dangerous here. Go…’
He wanted to say it. But his mouth wouldn’t open. A crushing wave of drowsiness overtook him, impossible to resist. His body felt heavy, desperate as he was to see Seiyad’s face even a little longer. In the end, Ressas closed his eyes.
“If you keep this up—”
“Your Highness! Behind you—look out!”
Just as consciousness slipped away, frantic voices rang out from all directions. Before the darkness closed in, he thought he saw the shadow of a massive serpent loom over where he lay. Through his fading awareness, voices echoed—perhaps hallucinations.
“Not Aster! Aster must live! Capture him alive, no matter what!”
“Serena, I told you to kill the Crown Prince! If you don’t, I will! Don’t waste the chance my son gave his life for by hesitating under that kind of order!”
Screams of accusation clashed like thunder until, all at once, a heavy silence fell. What pulled Ressas back from unconsciousness was a voice that rang out inside his mind.
‘I’m too late… Far too late.’
The sound had no discernible source, and it made his head throb. Ressas blinked, slowly opening his eyes—and realized everything was deathly still. The hall, once a battlefield echoing with screams and chaos, now lay in eerie silence. Raising his head from the blood-slick floor, he braced himself with a hand. Sticky, half-dried blood clung to his palm.
‘I never imagined that one who inherited a fragment of me could be this selfish. It was my failure. I see now—I never truly understood humans. To risk the stars just to preserve a bloodline…’
The voice was soaked in self-reproach, heavy with regret. Ressas managed to sit up and looked around. Scattered across the floor lay the cold corpses of the Tithers—Bridehit, Vetria, Nova, Stella, Cecilia…
Seeing those familiar faces among the dead knights made his heart plummet. A wave of cold swept through him, and his hands trembled violently. Overwhelmed by dread, Ressas rose with a jolt, almost in a panic. He spun around, scanning the area. In the desolate center of the hall, where the winter wind pierced through, he saw the Duke of Shildras and Duke Axid. The two were locked in a deadly embrace, as if they had killed one another.
It was incomprehensible.
Then a small voice called out.
“Ressas.”
It came from not far off—somewhere near where the Grand Duke lay. Ressas whipped his head around like a madman, eyes darting in every direction. Though faint, the murmuring was unmistakable—he knew exactly who it belonged to. The moment he heard that fading ember of a voice, terror surged through him.
“Eid? Is it you, Eid? Where are you?”
His voice quivered as he called out, and a faint chuckle responded. A harsh, rattling cough followed.
Seiyad was near a broken section of the wall, buried beneath the dead, hard to spot—but Ressas knew at once. He ran with a limp toward the sound and found him—one leg bent slightly, a sword buried deep in his abdomen, gripped tightly in both hands.
His silver-gray hair whipped in the biting wind, rising and falling in rhythm with each gust. His skin had gone so pale, all color drained—he was dying.
The moment Ressas saw him, his entire body began to shake. He collapsed in front of him, hands moving instinctively to stop the bleeding from his abdomen. His heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst. His body froze as though drenched in ice water. Sobs escaped him uncontrollably.
“Hyung… Hyung-nim… Where are you? I… I’ll go get you. Eid, please, just a little more… hold on…”
If he could find a Guide, everything would be fine. If they performed a Purification, then wounds like this—wounds like this could be healed. It would be okay. Eid would survive.
Clinging to that fragile hope, Ressas tried to rise, but Seiyad stopped him.
“His Highness… it swallowed him.”
Seiyad’s voice was barely audible, even if one strained to hear it. Ressas stared in disbelief, trying to piece together the fragmented murmurs. He gasped for breath, like a man losing his mind, and frantically looked around. Aster was nowhere to be seen.
“Mother… made the wrong decision. We shouldn’t have obeyed His Majesty’s command. We should have just… let His Highness die… I wronged the Duke of Shildras…”
“Eid… I’ll bring Hyung-nim back. I’ll find him right now. So just—just wait a little longer, okay? Please?”
Even as he said it, the moment he thought about leaving Seiyad’s side, it felt like he would die right then and there. Ressas couldn’t bring himself to rise. One of Seiyad’s bloodstained hands trembled, brushing faintly against his fingertips. With the last of his strength, he reached out and touched Ressas’s hand.
For a moment, Seiyad’s eyes opened. Under heavy lids, those gray eyes glimmered faintly as he smiled.
“It’s okay.”
He wasn’t okay at all, but Seiyad was trying to comfort him. Just like that first night when he gently soothed him, he wore the same tender expression, his fingertips brushing softly against Ressas’s hand. Even as his warmth slowly faded, Seiyad used that dying hand to console him.
“You’re alive… That’s enough.”
The affectionate hand that had been touching him went still. The life faded from the gray eyes gazing up at him. Just before his final breath, Seiyad whispered,
“Don’t cry, Ressas.”
“Everything’s going to be okay…”
His voice, beautiful as ashes scattered by the wind, vanished into the air. His long lashes fluttered briefly, then stilled completely. Seiyad said nothing more. His eyes were closed in a half-smile frozen in time, gently stroking Ressas with a hand gone cold.
Ressas stood there, frozen—unable to even blink, unable to move—stupidly waiting for Seiyad’s next words. As if, if he just waited a little longer, Seiyad might open his eyes and wake again. Holding his breath for what felt like an eternity, his throat choked as though filled with stone. Any sound might shatter that fragile moment.
So he waited. And waited endlessly.
Then, when the wind became unbearably cold and he feared Seiyad might feel the chill, Ressas finally spoke.
“Eid, it’s really cold outside… Let’s go back in. Come on, okay? Let’s go somewhere else.”
Ressas whispered softly, carefully, and tugged at his arm. But the body, stiff and rigid, showed no sign of movement. He’d catch a cold like this—if he stayed like this, he’d definitely get sick. A creeping sense of panic overtook Ressas, and in the end, he decided to lift him.
“I’m sorry, Eid. Even if you don’t like it, bear with me for a little while.”
Muttering to himself, Ressas forced his trembling hands to move, lifting Seiyad’s upper body. But he froze the moment he saw the sword still lodged in his abdomen. He couldn’t bring himself to touch it. If he moved him the wrong way, Seiyad might be in pain.
I have to find Hyung-nim. I have to…
Forcing his unmoving legs to function, Ressas began scouring the area. He walked through the halls, checking each body one by one. Then he found them—his mother and younger sibling, cold and lifeless. Even in death, his mother’s arms clutched her child so tightly that they seemed fused together. Perhaps that fierce love had reached her, because the child looked peaceful, as if simply asleep in her embrace.
Ressas looked down at the scene with a blank expression, then dragged his limp leg forward once more. He had to believe Aster was still somewhere. Somehow, he would find him. Though his body screamed in pain, cold sweat soaking his forehead, he felt nothing. He simply moved forward.
‘It’s already too late. Your moon is dead.’
The voice echoed in his head again. He ignored it—just another stupid hallucination—but then it said something he couldn’t ignore.
‘There is a way to bring him back. A way to undo the ruin your father caused. Return to him.’
Ressas tilted his head and stared at the empty air. Was he going insane, hearing voices like this? And yet… for some reason, it was difficult to disregard the words.
‘You are the vessel for my will. You can do what no one else can. There’s no time. It’s already sensed my presence and is returning. Hurry!’
The voice shouted, snapping him back to his senses. Ressas turned and retraced his steps. Whatever the hell this damned thing in his head was, he didn’t care. It said he could save Seiyad—and that alone made him move.
When he returned to the spot, Seiyad lay there peacefully. Ressas had once snuck out at night just to watch him sleep from a tree branch. Seiyad had always slept so quietly, just like his calm personality. He’d been so beautiful in sleep that Ressas used to watch for hours without ever getting bored.
Now he slept just like that again.
Standing silently before him, Ressas lowered his head. As he looked at Seiyad’s unmoving chest, his completely bloodless face, the awful truth surged through him like madness.
He’s really dead.
A reality he didn’t want to accept even if he died a thousand times over now stared him in the face—and his mind went blank. As if in a seizure, Ressas covered his mouth with a trembling hand and hunched over. He felt himself collapsing straight through the floor into a bottomless pit of despair.
Never again. Never again, never again, never again will I see you smile.
Never again will you touch me, whisper to me in that sweet voice, look at me with those beautiful eyes.
Your warmth… it’s all gone.
That silly chuckle when I say something stupid, the way only you called my name—none of it, nothing—I’ll ever hear again…
Realizing that he would never feel anything again made his whole body feel like it would explode. The scent of that gentle forest-sweet skin, the solid arms that used to hold him so tightly… It was all gone. That man, Seiyad—no longer existed in this world.
I miss you so much it’s unbearable, but no matter how fast I run, I’ll never reach you. I already feel like I’m dying just from wanting to see you again… But no matter how hard I shake you, no matter how many times I call out, you won’t wake up…!
Ah… Ah! Ah!
The impulse to scream and stab himself surged up—but he managed to hold back. He clenched his teeth, choking down the sobs that clawed their way up his throat. Harsh, broken gasps echoed inside him as he swallowed them down.
Seiyad told him not to cry. Eid told me not to cry. No matter what happens… I must not cry.
It was the kind of pain that should’ve knocked him unconscious hundreds of times over. Blood surged up from deep inside. His bitten lips split open, blood trickling from the cracks, and his clenched fists bled from how hard he gripped them. The torment was so overwhelming, he nearly threw himself off the castle walls right then and there—but a voice stopped him.
“Take up the sword. I will grant you my power. Do whatever it takes—protect your moon.”
If he opened his mouth, he would scream. So Ressas answered only in his thoughts.
“I have no power.”
“No—you possess the power to undo everything. You can restore what has been broken.”
Bullshit.
Ressas stared into the void with vacant, unfocused eyes. The serpent, which had been circling the ruins outside the shattered castle, was now returning to him.
“Why now? If you’d made me useful just a little sooner, everyone could’ve been saved, couldn’t they?”
“Human flesh is too fragile to accept a piece of me before reaching maturity. Had I tried to use you any earlier, you would’ve melted away long ago.”
“I don’t care. Even so, if it meant killing that thing, then I should’ve been used.”
“You know nothing of my power.”
“You’re right. I don’t.”
Ressas locked his bloodshot eyes onto Seiyad, then clenched his teeth and gripped the sword embedded in his abdomen. The blade everyone had risked their lives to protect felt absurdly light. As soon as the serpent saw him take hold of the sword, its massive body swelled and began charging toward him. Staring into its pitch-black maw—so dark nothing existed beyond it—he pulled the sword free.
“All I know is that you showed up pathetically late.”
As he grasped the sword, power began to seep into him. A heat as if to melt him from the inside surged through his body, and he realized the voice hadn’t lied. The power flooding into him was so unbearably intense, it felt as though even his soul was being scorched. Just holding it was agonizing enough to kill him.
“Your authority is [Restoration] . But your power can be used only on yourself. You must kill yourself and bind together the time you’ve been wounded.”
Listening to the voice that had the nerve to arrive late only to demand his death, Ressas burst into laughter. His brows twisted in grief, but instead of crying, he laughed—gripping the sword harder as if to keep from falling apart. A hysterical, blood-choked laugh echoed into the void.
This was what he had wanted.
The man to whom he had long since given his heart was already dead, so he had no desire to go on living. If he thought about it, he’d been saving this fragile life of his just for this day. If this worthless breath of his could bring Seiyad back—even if it meant dying a thousand, ten thousand times—Ressas would do it without hesitation.
There was no pause in the hand that struck himself down. Like someone who had been waiting for this moment all along, Ressas plunged the blade straight into his own heart. The piercing pain split bone, and at the same time, the serpent devoured him and the world fell into darkness.
Just before all his senses were severed, the voice spoke to him again.
“I’ll shift the circumstances around you slightly. My intervention will alter perception, though that creature will likely stir the souls drowning in despair in response…”
Trapped in perfect emptiness—without sound, without light—Ressas felt his soul shudder and awaken.
And when he opened his eyes…
Everything had changed from what he remembered.
