Chapter 673: The Darkest Moment (7)
[What do you see me as?]
Merlin forced his way into the narrow gap, only to be blocked by Oliver, who posed the question for the first time.
Merlin, who had been on the offensive moments ago, froze instantly, his every movement halted upon hearing the question. It felt as though an unknown power was tightening around his body and mind, like a noose. This was despite him having drawn on the might of the First Archive to prepare for the end.
The difference in their inherent levels.
Then Oliver asked again.
[I asked, what do you see me as?]
Merlin, who had been crouching and advancing, dropped his stance and met Oliver’s gaze directly. White strands streaked his hair, and his eyes were as black as the depths of night. His face bore traces of childhood innocence, yet was blank and expressionless. In that expression, Merlin could detect an unprecedented sense of clarity and arrogance.
"...I see you as my temporary disciple."
[That’s a lie.]
Wham━!
Oliver moved his hand in a simple, disinterested sweep from left to right, as if brushing off dust. The air cracked and shattered in the wake of his hand, scattering fragments in all directions. Rather than aiming solely at Merlin, he shattered the very space Merlin occupied, yet Merlin was nowhere to be found amidst the fragments.
“That’s correct.”
Merlin had leapt across space to reappear behind Oliver. A new book opened by his side, releasing a surge of intense magical energy that suffused Merlin, cloaking him in a brilliant white light. Drawing upon the power of the Ancient Archive, Merlin channeled the entirety of that energy to forge a blade of razor-sharp magic, which he then slashed toward Oliver.
Crackle...
But before it could even reach Oliver, the magic blade crumbled and vanished. It was just like his last attack. Rather than simply neutralizing his power, it felt as though the world itself refused to allow any attack.
Nevertheless, Merlin did not relent and unleashed a torrent of assaults, opening several books to amplify his might. He fractured the space around Oliver, then conjured countless swords from seawater above, letting them rain down like a storm. Even the paper, imbued with the will and magic of the Archive, sliced through the aura surrounding Oliver.
Each of these attacks was deadly enough to steal lives.
But not one of them harmed Oliver in the slightest. At most, they barely held him back.
This was remarkable, considering Merlin already knew they wouldn’t work.
The true purpose of these attacks was to buy time... specifically, time to convey what he needed to say.
“You’re right. That was a lie.”
Merlin denied his own words just now. Oliver did not appear to him as a mere temporary disciple. He was sincere.
Seeing through his emotions, Oliver questioned him once more.
[Then, what do you see me as?]
“I don’t know what I’m seeing.”
[Lie.]
“It’s not a lie.”
Merlin responded, unable to convince even himself. While his mind had already reached a conclusion, his heart refused to accept it. He questioned himself, wondering if his thoughts were merely a delusion, hope, or stubbornness. No answer came.
"However, I do know how your first friend would see you."
Oliver’s movements paused briefly. Seizing the opportunity, Merlin invoked a power over space itself, attempting to propel Oliver to the opposite side of the world.
Anything to make him take a few steps back.
Crack━!
Just as Merlin anticipated, Oliver retreated only a few steps backward. Thankfully, Oliver didn’t immediately move forward again, and Merlin used this brief pause to catch his breath and continue speaking.
“Haa... Your friend would still see you as a friend.”
[......]
“He may appear clumsy but is sharper than anyone. Seemingly weak yet stronger than anyone. Cold yet kinder than anyone. Always trying to head in the right direction... That kind of friend.”
Merlin spoke, recalling his conversations with Kent. His voice carried a note of genuine respect—because he truly respected him.
Even after Merlin, as the Archive, shared the truth and his theories with Kent, his attitude toward Oliver never wavered.
Unlike Merlin, who was constantly in turmoil.
Perhaps his thoughts reached him, for Oliver stood there in silence. Merlin felt a sliver of hope, wondering if he might be able to escape his current predicament. But then, Oliver spoke.
[In my eyes, I see a sinner.]
Oliver’s gaze bore into Merlin.
Merlin met his gaze, seeing the reflection of his own sins in Oliver’s eyes. There, he saw his own foolishness and arrogance, an unforgivable transgression that would forever stain his soul.
The weight of this sin, which had burdened Merlin’s shoulders his entire life, was now made manifest by Oliver’s will. The heaviness pressed down on Merlin, along with Leviathan and the Flesh Chef below him.
━━━━━━━━!!!
With a deafening roar beyond human comprehension, the leviathan of the sea and the titan of the land, locked in battle and changing the surrounding terrain, both succumbed to the unbearable weight of Merlin’s sin, plummeting to the earth. A massive earthquake spread across the entire central continent, shaking it to its core.
The land contorted and heaved, sending massive waves of soil rippling outward and filling the world with thick dust clouds...
And that was not the end.
The shock that had shattered the ground even affected the sea above.
Swoooosh━!
Salt-laden rain poured down across the entire continent, proof of the impact.
The rain washed away the dust filling the air, revealing the newly laid barren earth.
The forests that couldn’t withstand the clash of titans had turned to wasteland. Amidst the desolate ground, the two fallen beasts lay entwined like Ouroboros, their red blood flowing from ruptured flesh like rivers, staining the earth. In the midst of this, Merlin knelt on one knee, panting with a pale face, evidently shaken from the impact.
[I can see your sins. Not only yours, but the sins of others as well.]
Oliver approached Merlin, who remained on one knee, struggling to lift his head to look up at him. Though the earth had crumbled, rain had poured, and blood painted everything red, not a single speck of dust, water, or blood clung to Oliver.
Not a single grain of dust, not a drop of water, not a smear of blood.
It was as though he was both there and yet not there.
Looking down at Merlin in that unbelievable state, Oliver spoke.
[Archive Merlin... A mage of exceptional talent. And a sinner who committed the sin of arrogance, intoxicated by that talent.]
Still kneeling, Merlin lowered his head.
[Do you remember the sins you committed?]
With his head still bowed, Merlin raised it slowly, eyes closed.
Around him, the blood-soaked earth began to pool, drawing close.
[Do you know how many lives you took in your intoxication with talent?]
Merlin opened his eyes.
From the blood pool surrounding him, manifestations of his sins began to rise, one by one.
[Under the pretense of understanding God’s creations, under the pretext of advancing humanity, you dissected them alive.]
These sins emerged in the form of humans with gouged eyes, flayed skin, bellies sliced open to reveal bones and organs. The figures manifested from the blood all wore expressions of unimaginable suffering, crawling toward Merlin on one knee, pleading as they gripped his clothes.
[Please... Please...!!]
[Aahh... Save me!! Mommy!]
[Argh...! Please...!]
Merlin remained silent...
These figures, forged from blood, grasped Merlin’s clothes, each one a twisted reflection of agony, despair, hatred, resentment, and rage, trying to pull him down into the blood pool beneath him.
[You recorded the process of their death by injecting poison and disease, observing as you harvested their organs to see what would happen.]
New figures emerged from the blood, each one infected with different plagues—plague, cholera, sea water, arsenic. These twisted, suffering forms crawled forward on all fours, grabbing onto Merlin's legs.
[It hurts... It hurts so much...]
[Save me... Please, give me medicine...]
Again, Merlin remained silent.
[And all this to witness the birth of life—cutting open the stomachs of pregnant women, dissecting children and preserving them in formalin, attaching limbs and bodies together, separating them again... all in front of their loved ones.]
Out of the blood pool rose pregnant women, bellies split open, and small, dissected infants. With exposed organs, they dragged themselves toward Merlin, their voices a litany of horror.
[Not my child! Please, no...!!]
[Please! Please, just spare my child...!]
[Aaaah!!! Aaaahhh!!!]
[Waaah! Waaah! Waaah!]
Still, Merlin remained silent.
An uncountable number of these blood-forged figures clung to Merlin. Their pleas and cries blurred into a cacophony of horror and despair, pulling him closer to the blood-soaked ground.
[You forced their parents, their children, their friends to watch these experiments, to observe them as a means to understand the effects of fear, rage, hatred on both body and soul... How could you have done such things?]
This time, Merlin remained silent...
“…Because I did not see them as people.”
At last, Merlin broke the silence from within the blood pool, his voice carrying a somber weight.
Rising to his feet, he lifted the knee that had been kneeling, standing fully upright from within the blood that sought to drown him.
[Aaaaah!!! Aaaah!!!]
[Die!! Die, you monster!!!]
[Save me! Mother!! Mother!!!]
[My child!! My child!!]
[Waaa! Waaa!]
Those same twisted figures clung even tighter to him, pulling with all their might to drag him back down. Yet Merlin neither shook them off nor allowed himself to be pulled, instead standing amidst the onslaught of hands that gripped him, enduring their torment.
Oliver observed him in silence. Merlin’s face was pale, beads of cold sweat clung to his brow, and a torrent of emotions swirled in his tear-streaked eyes: remorse, guilt, self-loathing. But within those feelings lay a measure of conviction, responsibility, and resolve.
[Why didn’t you see them as people?]
“Because their skin color was different from mine, because they couldn’t use magic like I could, because they hadn’t received the same education, because they were poor, because they lacked talent… That’s why I did not see them as people.”
[And now you do?]
“Yes, now I do. I came to realize that they, too, were human. Just like me—they could feel pain, sorrow, joy... They were people. I only realized this truth too late.”
One by one, the tortured figures released their hold on him and receded back into the blood pool. Yet, even as they vanished, curses spilled from their lips.
Why must I bear this suffering alone, they cried. Why are you still alive?
Amidst this background of curses, Oliver questioned again.
[And yet you still live on, brazenly, despite your horrific crimes as a sinner.]
“There is still work to be done.”
[And this work involves standing in my way?]
Merlin paused, considering. After a brief silence, he replied.
“...No, my task is not to stand in your way, but to prevent your mistakes. Even if temporarily, I am your teacher.”
[How laughable, coming from a sinner.]
Oliver’s words were laced with disdain, but Merlin smiled sadly as he responded.
“You’re right. I am a sinner. I deserve to be cast into the deepest pits of hell to suffer for eternity. But even a sinner may, on rare occasions, be able to do something right. If sinners were barred from doing good, there would be nothing left in this world but sin. So, I will prevent you from making any further mistakes.”
For the first time, Oliver responded with his own voice, rather than using his mental projection.
“I no longer make mistakes.”
With the sound of his voice—
Gush…
—Merlin began bleeding from all seven orifices: his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
Unperturbed, Oliver continued.
“Now, I understand just how deeply sin has infiltrated this world.
Now, I see how deeply the darkness has stained everything.
Now, I know how insignificant and feeble beings like you all are.
Now, I realize I was merely trapped in a web.”
There was a bitter anger and emptiness in Oliver’s tone, as though he’d awoken after years of deceit.
And with each word, Merlin bled more, as though his very soul were unraveling. Oliver’s gaze met his, and he asked:
“But not anymore. The web that bound me has been severed. So tell me, aside from stalling for time, what can you do? How will you stop me? Or do you have something you’re relying on?”
Merlin swayed, blood pouring from all seven orifices. He looked vulnerable, like he could be shattered with a single blow.
Yet Oliver refrained, sensing the sincerity in Merlin’s resolve to stop him. He waited, listening for Merlin’s answer.
Wiping away the blood streaming from his eyes, Merlin finally replied.
“Yes, I have something to rely on.”
“What is it?”
“It’s you.”
At that moment, faint lights appeared in the distance, tiny but unwavering.
“Oliver!”
It was Joanna, Kevin, and Yareli, each wielding a quarterstaff.
Seeing them, Merlin spoke once more.
“The connections you’ve forged.”