The mountains shook with an inhuman, almost bestial roar, and Sunshine set off on his return trip.
***
A few people stood at the top of the hill, and below them, two villages had gathered. The Snow Giant Village and Brown Bear Village had merged while Sankesh had been away. Although it would’ve been more accurate to say that the Snow Giant Village had gradually absorbed its ally. The smaller village didn’t like it, but... the weak could only humbly accept their fate.
The two chiefs stood in front of two people: Roslar, and a rather plain girl of high rank. She was Ragar’s daughter, the daughter of the highest-ranked warrior after the chief.
Ragar wasn’t happy about the marriage. Roslar, aside from his fondness for bronze-skinned women, was a good-looking guy. But this marriage, which the chief of the Snow Giant Village, Daslar, had demanded, looked as if Ragar had betrayed his daughter.
The girl was sad. On her wedding day, when a bride should be happy and pleasantly nervous, his daughter was grieving. Grieving for her beloved who’d fallen in the last campaign. Coincidentally or not, Roslar should have been the one safeguarding his back. He had also been the one who had carried the lover of his present bride back on his shield.
“By right of being the strongest, Roslar, in front of the Great Warriors and Derger, marries young Ragneda! If there are any here who oppose this alliance, who can challenge the right of Roslar, speak now or forever hold your tongue!”
There was a second of silence. The onlookers began to hoot and congratulate the newlyweds when a terrifying roar sounded, filled with such power and strength that the snow shook under the northerners’ feet, and birds quickly flew away.
“I’m against it!”
A giant came up to them. His bronze skin shone in the sunlight. On the right side of his body, bloody wounds from fangs and claws glistened. It looked as if the warrior had only recently won a terrible battle against a huge beast. Even in this weather, wearing almost nothing, he didn’t feel cold. Unarmored, wearing only his bracers and trousers, he held a makeshift spear in his hands.
“Who are you?” Roslar asked. “Who dares challenge me? Give me your name!”
The stranger looked around, making even the bravest warriors tremble.
“I was once called Sankesh, son of Rahaim, the sultan of the Sea of Sand. You know me as Aril, Goonar’s slave. But from this day onward, I’ll be called Sunshine! The man who will burn the whole world down and erect a new one atop its ashes!”
“Aril...” everyone whispered.
“You miserable wretch!” Roslar roared. “A mere slave dares to challenge me? I don’t know what kind of miracle happened to you and turned you into an actual warrior, but if you think you’re strong enough to fight me, I’ll be glad to help you relearn your place!”
Roslar drew his battle axes and roared:
“Giant’s Body!”
As a practitioner at the Transformation stage, Roslar, after using the Technique after which their village was named, could grow five times larger. Now a thirty-foot giant stood in front of Sankesh.
“Look at me, slave!” He laughed. “Can you think of anything else I could make enormous?”
Sankesh roared. His aura of a Heaven Soldier surged out. He pushed off from the stone and charged his foe.
***
Sankesh was sitting on Roslar’s corpse. The snow was red with blood. No residents of the Snow Giant Village had left the celebration alive. Neither had Goonar. Sankesh had killed him after Roslar, for he had given Aisha to him.
“Sunshine.” Ragar came up to Sankesh and saluted. “What are your-”
“Where is she?”
“Where’s who?”
“Where’s Aisha?”
Sankesh’s eyes flashed with fury, and all the warriors staggered away. Even Ragar, who was on the verge of becoming a true cultivator himself, backed away.
“Don’t you know, Sunshine? She’s dead. She died a long time ago, in childbirth. She gave birth to a girl! She begged me to name her Arliksha…”
Ragar said something else, but Sankesh didn’t hear him. He had died twice before: the first time was when Rahaim had betrayed him. The second — when Roslar had taken Aisha. And now, he had just died a third time.
The sun was rising in the east. He’d lived to see another dawn. He had succeeded. However, he no longer knew what he was even fighting for.
Chapter 421
“Aisha,” Sankesh repeated, clutching the shards. “What have you done, Dragon?”
Hadjar didn’t understand what was happening. Why had this gigantic, terrifying man suddenly become so small? Sankesh’s skin turned gray. He was withering like a trampled flower, his death imminent.
“You’ve devoured my sun, Hadjar. My Aisha.” Tears rolled down Sankesh’s cheeks. “All I ever wanted, Hadjar… All I wanted was to create a new world. The world of the strong. A world where no one is weak. If no one is weak, no one can be abused and belittled. No one can take anything away from anyone. There’d be no lies. No deception. A world of equals. A world of the truly happy. A world where no one can separate lovers…”
Sankesh turned suddenly to Hadjar.
“Oh, now I see it,” his voice trembled, “now I see…”
The Shadow of the Immortal had told him that there were two ways for a true cultivator to perish: by being defeated in a deadly battle, or when their path was destroyed, causing their spirit to crack and die.
Sankesh’s path, the way to his goal, was broken. And now he was fading, and so was the flickering spirit behind him. They were both going back to the World River.
“Turn around, Dragon. Darkness itself stands behind you!”
Hadjar turned, but saw no one there but the silent Serra. When he turned back, Sankesh was gone. The shards of the crystal fell to the floor with a clatter. They rolled away from the golden halberd buried in the ground.
“Okay, we’ll sort that weirdness out later,” Hadjar jumped to his feet and grabbed Serra. “Run.”
The island was crumbling. Huge chunks of rock tore from the floor under them and fell into the abyss. Hadjar, standing on the edge of one such break, could see the white expanse beneath them. It was approaching fast. When they crossed the cloud line, they would have no chance of escape.
At the entrance to the library, Hadjar had seen a kind of flying machine. It was too broken and old to actually fly, but it would be possible to glide down in it.
After only two steps, Hadjar realized that his hand was clutching air. Serra had remained where she was.
“I’m sorry, Hadjar,” she tried to smile, but tears were rolling down her cheeks. “I can’t go with you.”
“What nonsense is this?” Hadjar ran to the girl. He grabbed her by the shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. Anything you want to tell me, you can tell me after we get down.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated, and spread her palm to strike Hadjar in the chest.
Hadjar felt a titanic power. It dragged him through a narrow tube of something invisible but indestructible. His vision blurred, and he struggled to inhale some of the air that had been knocked out of his lungs.
When Hadjar disappeared from the square, Serra turned and walked over to the halberd. The island was collapsing all around her. The stones began to flash. The ancient tree caught fire, lava flowed out the buildings. Serra sat quietly beside the weapon. You needed the Key not just to enter, but also to leave.