Chapter 28: Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Night

“Let’s go.”

Althea regained her shattered confidence and took the final steps toward the mountain peak.
She expected ambushes from the Mistmoon Cult or more beasts along the way.
But the path was eerily safe, almost unnervingly so, as if something awaited them at the end.

When Althea saw the scene from her dream, all her prior thoughts were eclipsed by the colossal creature before her.
“This is the guardian beast? It really exists?”

A dragon-like creature slept beneath six curved black stone pillars, its breaths slow and steady.
What now?
Break the array and wake it?

As Althea reached for the array’s edge, its protective mechanism shocked her, numbing her body.
Brute force wouldn’t work.

At a loss, she noticed several Mistmoon Cultists behind the array, focused on casting an unknown spell together.
“Let’s watch and plan.” Tina pulled Althea behind a tree to observe, having already sent the little girl to a safe spot down the path.

The cultists chanted counter-spells and destructive incantations. Althea realized they, too, aimed to break the array.
“Let them do it, then we take them out after.”

After nearly five minutes, the cultists finished their chant, unleashing a terrifying laser that shattered the stone pillars.
The beast, sealed for a millennium, awoke, slowly rising.

The cultists began another array, light pillars encircling the beast to control its ancient power.
“Now!” Tina struck, knocking the unprepared cultists unconscious. Althea channeled magic to take over the array.

“A control array?”

Through it, Althea sensed the beast’s weakened state after centuries, yet it retained enough power to last a while before perishing.
But it was consumed by rage, uncommunicative, its body dominated by curses, with only a small core still pure.

“Tina, can we do this?”

Althea’s excitement was palpable. If the beast absorbed Tina’s curse, she could walk again, and they could live happily together.
But even the cult’s refined array underestimated the beast’s strength. It showed signs of breaking free.

“No, we can’t fail!”

Althea poured her remaining magic into the array, briefly controlling the beast’s actions. It began drawing the curse from Tina’s legs.
Dark lines flowed through the air from Tina to the beast.

Soon, the darkness on Tina’s legs faded—she seemed to regain mobility.
“It worked!”

But before they could celebrate, the beast, stripped of its last shred of sanity, attacked the array. Its brute force shook Althea, who was low on magic, making her cough blood.

The light pillars held for a second before shattering, unable to contain the beast.
“Oh no…”

Instantly, the dragon’s scales turned into a tangible wave of curses, spreading from the peak down the mountain.
Worse, Kellivir’s lands appeared at the mountain’s base as the witch’s array broke—revealing they were one and the same.

“Tina? Tina!”

The girl behind the tree was gone, lost in the curse wave.
Panic and a hollow buzz overwhelmed Althea, driving her to the edge of sanity.

The curse spread to the world below, filling it with wails of despair.
She thought she heard the little girl’s screams, tormented by the curse’s soul-searing pain.
The beast’s roar, carrying centuries of curses, nearly deafened her.

Why was she unaffected?
Looking down, Althea saw a golden glow shielding her from the curse.

Was this Tina’s doing? Where was she?
The wave held only rising black shadows—no trace of life.

Monsters formed from old phantoms, the curse’s source, surged toward Althea.
She was going to die here.

The golden circle dimmed under their attacks, but each counterstrike felled a monster.
Finally, as the circle shattered, one last indistinct monster approached.

“Stay back!”

Out of magic, Althea’s body was her only weapon.
With all her strength, she drove a hand strike through the monster’s chest.

“It’s over?”

The monster’s black sludge melted onto her hand, but it felt… warm.
Human-like warmth made her pause.

Wait—
Althea rubbed her eyes, realizing the curse wave had vanished—or perhaps it was never tangible, only an illusion.
What had she seen?

An impossible truth hit her.
The beast’s mental influence had caused hallucinations.

But the warmth in her hand was real.
It was…

“Tina? How—how could this be!”

She had struck the one she loved most?
“This is an illusion, right? It’s fake!”

She tried to convince herself, but the blood before her was like an invisible hand crushing her heart, suffocating her with powerlessness.
“You’re… awake? Good…

Feeling free to walk again… wasn’t bad.”

Tina gave Althea a relieved smile.
Behind her, the maddened dragon-beast, drained of life, soared into the sky, scattering its curses across Kellivir.

In the intangible curse tide, Althea fell into mental disarray. To protect her, Tina cast a shield, then absorbed all the leaking curses, giving Althea’s mind respite.
She walked to Althea, becoming the final “monster” in her hallucination, killed by her hand, taking the curses with her from this world.

Tina’s mission was complete.
Whether hiding information or luring Althea, it was all for this moment of closure and release.

“It’s my fault. If I’d listened to you, this wouldn’t have happened…”

Althea clutched Tina’s frail, curse-ravaged body, overwhelmed with regret.
If she could take Tina’s pain, she’d rather be the one dying here.

But until the end, Tina never once blamed her.
She’d hurt Tina’s heart, yet Tina followed, helping silently.

In her memories, Tina was forever youthful, vibrant, always by her side.
“Althea, don’t cry…

A princess shouldn’t shed tears for her knight.”