He clutched the button tightly and bent over the desk.
Something poured down upon the ruins that had crumbled to the limit. It did not take long to realize that it was his own thoroughly destroyed soul.
Feeling himself crumble without a trace, he staggered around. Then, he took something out of the desk drawer, picked it up, and left the bedroom.
He could feel the servants lined up on one side of the hallway looking at him with surprised eyes.
Barcas gave them instructions in a calm tone.
"I'll be right back, so don't follow me."
The servants, who had been moving their lips as if to dissuade him, flinched at his fierce gaze and bowed their heads in unison.
He walked through the hallway and down the stairs at a steady speed.
It was still raining in the rear garden. Barcas walked along the path, cutting through the relatively lighter rain, and approached the chapel building. Perhaps because it was early dawn, there was no sign of human presence.
Barcas crossed the main hall, which was shrouded in silent darkness, passed through the back door, and stepped into the rear garden. Soon, a cemetery with two tombstones came into view.
Barcas's unfocused eyes, having stopped in front of him, slid across the rain-soaked marble.
His wife was asleep next to their child, amidst a pile of countless flowers.
Barcas, who had been gently wiping away the raindrops clinging to it with his hand, soon drew out the dagger he had concealed in his sleeve. The pure white blade was thoroughly soaked in the rainwater.
As he slowly brought it near the nape of his neck, he heard a rustling sound from somewhere.
As Barcas slowly turned his head, a huge, gaunt wolf came into view.
It was emaciated and looked unsightly as if it had been starving for a long time, but he recognized the beast at a glance.
It was her wolf that he had left somewhere in the Armund Forest last autumn, unable to bring himself to kill it.
The beast, standing precariously as if it were about to collapse at any moment, slowly walked out from among the thick bushes.
Barcas watched the scene in silence. The beast's eyes flickered with despair, sorrow, and pain. Reading the desperate hatred directed at him within them, Barcas lowered the blade he had been holding to the nape of the neck.
Immediately, the wolf's mouth contorted, and its sharp teeth were bared. At the same time, the body of the huge beast flew toward him.
Feeling long, sharp fangs dig deep into his neck, he lay down as if collapsing into the muddy water.
The sound of the direwolf's huge mouth crushing his neck echoed vividly in his ears. With that as the last sound, all sounds faded away.
He looked up at the dark sky with eyes that were losing their light. Cold rain constantly moistened the corners of his eyes.
He wanted to wipe it away, but his arm wouldn't budge, as if the nerves had already been severed. Feeling the blood rising from his throat moisten the corners of his mouth, he let out a long, final breath.
At that moment, the wolf raised its head and looked down into his eyes. The sorrowful blue eyes seemed to be desperately pleading with him for something.
He gazed quietly into those sorrowful eyes, then mustered his last remaining strength to shift his gaze to her grave. However, before he could even register her name on his retina, his vision suddenly darkened.
He desperately reached out his hand toward her tombstone. But his arm, having already lost all sensation, did not move.
He desperately tried to picture her face in his increasingly hazy mind. Even that soon faded. Now, the only thing he could perceive was the bone-chilling cold.
The heart, which had been gushing blood from the torn nape of the neck, finally stopped beating. Soon after, an ice-cold darkness washed in.
He felt his consciousness sinking endlessly into a deep, distant swamp.
Is this death?
While he was lost in thought, a river flowing from somewhere swept over his body.
The body, stripped of its life force, instantly deviated from its original flow and began to drift like a floating weed along the red current.
A river of blood, whose end and beginning were unknowable, flowed slowly, cutting through the darkness.
After drifting aimlessly down the slow current for an unimaginable amount of time, something snatched him up by the nape of the neck.
He was dragged somewhere like seaweed caught in a net. A moment later, the rough, dry earth touched his cheek. As he lifted his eyelids, which felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, he could faintly see the unidentified being that had pulled him out.
The first thing to come into view was the massive body of a beast covered in knife scars. Next, several pairs of red eyes were visible.
He knew this beast.
It was the beast he had butchered with his own hands a very long time ago.
Did you come to take revenge for the past?
While he was lost in thought, a huge head came down toward him. Crunch- he heard the sound of his flesh and bones being chewed.
He twisted his body violently in dizzying pain. However, he had no mouth left to scream.
His limbs, too, did not move an inch, as if half-dissolved in blood. All he could do was helplessly watch his body being torn apart and eaten.
Each head devoured his limbs in an instant and began to bite his body. That vivid pain continued until his head was chewed and eaten.
Barcas, having flowed into the monster's belly crushed into pieces without a trace of form, felt his existence slowly melting into the beast's body.
With that strange and eerie sensation as the last, he sank back into the darkness.
It was after a long time had passed that his consciousness rose back to the surface.
He felt something warm surrounding him. The slow, even beat of his heart and faint breathing echoed quietly in the darkness.
However, that peaceful moment did not last long. A flash of light flashed, and something huge snatched him away.
He was shaken back and forth, trapped in a narrow, dark space where he could not tell where the sky was and where the ground was. Shortly after, a heavy shock struck his entire body.
Before he could even react to the excruciating pain that made his vision go white, a huge hand came down and began dragging out the living creatures in the same space as him one by one.
At the same time, mournful cries, the smell of blood, and fierce shouts rang out.
He could not understand at all what was happening. Only a vague speculation that he had fallen into purgatory crossed a corner of his consciousness.
He waited helplessly for his turn amidst the confusion he had never felt before.
Not long after, a random hand snatched the back of his neck. He instinctively opened his mouth wide. Then, a bizarre scream, unbelievable to have come from his own mouth, pierced his eardrums.
He glared around with his eyes wide open, as if covered in frost.
The shadows of giants in iron armor faintly came into view in his strangely widened field of vision. He was overwhelmed by that surreal sight for only a moment, before a cold blade pressed down on the nape of his neck.
A sharp scream involuntarily burst out from the suffocating pain. However, the pressure on his neck only intensified. Eventually, he gave up resisting and lowered his eyelids.
Just then, hurried footsteps were heard, and the strength holding him back vanished.
As he snapped open his closed eyes, the figure of a fallen giant came into view across the wide field of vision. A massive man in iron armor was shouting loudly at someone. However, he could not understand what he was saying.
Amidst the deafening sound of rain, various humming voices mingled chaotically. He wanted to cover his ears immediately, but his body would not obey.
Lying face down in the muddy water, he desperately writhed his limbs. At that moment, he felt something warm and soft envelop his body.
He suddenly stopped breathing.
A dazzling wave of golden light surged into the vision that had been filled with gray.
He saw fine streaks of rain flowing down, soaking his long eyelashes and pale cheeks. As I followed the stream upward, an endlessly deep and blue world came into view.
Looking into that clear and transparent light, he pleaded inwardly.
Oh God.
If this is a dream, please...
Before his prayer was even finished, the scent of heaven enveloped him.
The woman who pulled him into her soft, warm embrace whispered in a dreamy voice.
"From now on, your name is Khan."
The deep blue eyes, wet with rain and tears, sparkled with a poignant joy.
He was staring at her without even blinking when a cold, frozen cheek touched the nape of his neck.
A woman with a smile of pure happiness whispered softly.
"Let's stay together forever."
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