Chapter 10

Gart grabbed the woman’s wrist and pulled her toward him. She was dragged without resistance, colliding into his firm chest as if falling into his arms. She lifted her head. At a distance close enough to feel each other’s breath, their eyes met.

Gart gazed deeply into her eyes. Her pink irises glowed transparently, even in the dark.

“You have beautiful eyes.”

He spoke his thoughts aloud and brought his hand to her neck. Despite the threatening gesture, the woman didn’t blink—not even once. In fact, she wasn’t blinking at all.

The moment he realized something was off, her eyes began to roll upward—then completely flipped back. Like a puppet with cut strings, her slender body collapsed. Gart gently caught her as she fell into his arms. The hand that had intended to kill her hovered in the air for a moment. He could have gone ahead and finished the job, but…

“Hm.”

Letting out a short breath, Gart looked down at the woman draped over his arms. Instead of choking her, he pulled out the dagger still embedded in his heart and tossed it to the floor.

Gart roughly laid the woman across the sofa. He picked up the candle that had been rolling on the floor, lit it, and placed it on the table. As the room grew faintly brighter, new details came into view.

A beautiful face, yet her nose and cheeks were flushed red. Elegant, delicate fingers and toes like fine carvings, also reddened. She looked like someone who had weathered all the world’s cold alone.

Gart moved toward the window she had entered from. He leaned his head out and looked down. A discarded coat was slowly vanishing beneath the falling snow. She must have tossed it aside while climbing the wall because it got in the way. 

Tilting his head with a raised eyebrow, Gart mused, What… even is that?

As time passed, imperfect gods began to appear across the continent. They weren’t all-knowing or all-powerful, couldn’t speak to nature, and even had short lifespans. Though the world was full of such incomplete gods, Heimdrix was different.

The frozen primordial mountains were the domain of complete gods who had escaped the flow of time. The frost giants from the birth of the world still roamed in packs, and ancient gods with power enough to twist the laws of nature still breathed in hiding. Complete and perfect. Powerful and beautiful. Great and mysterious. They could kill or save mortal life with the same ease as natural disasters or miracles. They were the closest beings to what humans envisioned as “gods.”

So then, what was this god of Heimdrix lying unconscious before him?

A meager divine power, just enough to be considered godlike. A laughably physical body that felt cold. On top of that, the faint-heartedness to faint from stabbing a dagger into a human heart.

It made Gart question if she was truly born of Heimdrix. But all signs pointed to that origin. Though her divine power was small, its purity was among the most refined he had ever encountered. Such a being could only come from Heimdrix, where the most pristine divine energy was born. A bit defective, maybe, but the material itself was excellent.

Gart sat at the table and stared at the woman lying on the sofa. Her brows furrowed tightly as she let out quiet groans. She showed far more expression in sleep than when awake.

As he leisurely observed her, Gart realized something. The curse that had reached its peak had now calmed. The agony that had rained through every nerve from head to toe was now only faintly felt. A ridiculous prophecy echoed in Gart’s mind like a ringing bell.

“Yes, she who arrived like the wind is the destiny you’ve searched for all your life!”

***

Mariax blinked. She was standing in a wide field. How long had she been there? An hour? A year? No, perhaps more than a hundred years.

A sweet scent touched her nose. She turned her head in the direction of the wind. There stood a giant tree, tall enough to blot out the sky. The wind blew again. She reached out and caught a fluttering leaf.

Boom!

Suddenly, the ground trembled. Startled, Mariax froze. A massive shadow fell over her. When she turned around, her eyes widened. A colossal land tortoise, big enough to hide a mountain, was slowly moving. On its shell—like a patch of transplanted forest—trees, stones, flowers, and moss thrived in abundance. Butterflies and birds flew peacefully over its back.

As she stared, the tortoise’s eyes met hers. Though she was usually wary of large gods, this one didn’t scare her. Even if she’d be crushed in an instant, she felt she could nap at its feet in perfect peace.

Boom. The tortoise stepped forward. From its shell, a small bird took flight and brushed past Mariax’s head.

She closed her eyes as the breeze softly stroked her hair. When she opened them again, she was in a different place. Bubbles escaped her lips—she was underwater. She looked around the pitch-black surroundings. Nothing was visible, so she looked up, knowing that light usually came from above.

But the light came from below.

A brilliant blue glow shimmered upward from beneath her feet, spreading outward like moonlight painting the ocean floor.

Soon, the light took shape. A giant jellyfish. Its round, transparent body glowed with beautiful, fluorescent patterns. Hundreds of long, lacy tentacles waved beneath it, glowing like a dress swaying in the breeze.

As it appeared, smaller lights began to flicker to life. Tiny creatures, glowing just like the jellyfish. The deep sea, which the giant couldn’t illuminate alone, became bright with the light of hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of little stars. Mariax thought she had entered the night sky she’d always looked up at. She had assumed it would be cold—but it was warm. She gently closed her eyes.

The peaceful sensation of floating faded. In its place came a familiar chill. When Mariax opened her eyes, the world was blindingly white. A stark contrast to the dark sea. A place she knew well. The land of the gods, Heimdrix, covered in snow that had never melted for thousands of years.

A fierce blizzard blocked her view, but she knew exactly where she was—at the center of a frozen lake atop the highest mountain in Heimdrix.

In a rush, Mariax dropped to her knees and began clearing the snow piled thickly on the lake’s surface. Heavy flakes pelted her like fists, and her fingertips turned red. But she didn’t stop, as if she felt no cold. Soon, her fingers touched the ice of the lake beneath. Frantically, she cleared the rest of the snow. With the surface exposed, she leaned in close, nose nearly touching the ice. Narrowing her eyes, she peered through the hazy frost. Beneath the ice, a being more beautiful and greater than any other slept with his eyes closed. The most noble figure in the world. Ruler of Heimdrix. Her god.

Mariax let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness—he was still asleep.

At that moment—crack. A hard sound echoed as something fractured along the grain. Goosebumps rose down her spine. The breaking grew louder, sharper, faster.

Her pink eyes followed the sound. And she realized—it was coming from right below her. Slowly, she looked down. A deep crack had split through the only window through which she could see her god.

Her breath caught. Dozens of fractured surfaces from the split reflected a single image—his eyes. Closed. Calm. Still. Dozens of lids, peacefully shut. Mariax could only stare, frozen.

Then—crack. The dozens of reflections multiplied into hundreds.

And the god opened his eyes.

“Gasp!”

Mariax jolted, sucking in a breath and blinking hard. The short dream left only a trace of emotion behind as it evaporated. In a sudden panic, she panted for a moment. As her breath steadied and her vision focused, she realized she was in an unfamiliar place. A strange room, a strange bed—and a strange face.

Everything that had remained unchanged for a hundred years was suddenly different.

A man was sleeping right in front of her. Mariax stared at his face. A few meaningless seconds passed before she finally remembered who he was.

Last night, she had infiltrated the humans’ village to rescue Ulri and Ba’en. She waited until evening, avoided the building where the feast was held, and climbed the outer wall, fumbling in the dark. She even threw away her only coat, and finally succeeded in slipping into a dark, unlit room.

But the joy was brief. Like melting into the darkness, a man had been sitting there silently, and their eyes met.

He was strong. She knew without needing to test his strength. The divine energy radiating from within him filled the air as if it would swallow her whole. Equal to the gods of Heimdrix—perhaps even greater than most gods. At that moment, Mariax understood.

He was the hero Lawidy had spoken of.