After leaving the A rank party, I aim for the deep part of the labyrinth with my former students
"W-What are you doing!? ──Ugh!?"
Ilwen suddenly stood up and stabbed something into Silk.
It looked like a small dagger, but also resembled a thin stake made of glass.
"Heh heh heh, I don’t care if everything goes to hell. This whole world can rot. I’ll wash away everything that doesn’t go my way with the 'True King of the Forest'."
"No… I can’t… hold it back──!"
Silk’s crouched eyes gleamed amber,
just like they had when she was chanting earlier.
"What’s happening to her!?"
Marina, who had been watching the situation unfold, asked in a panic.
But I didn’t know either.
I just understood that the liquid inside that stake-like object had entered Silk’s body.
"Just as I thought! Always keep your trump card in reserve!"
"What did you do to Silk!?"
"I poured a spirit-infused potion into her! When a spirit enters an elf’s body… they go out of control."
Ilwen spun around cheerfully and looked back at Silk.
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"
Ilwen placed one foot on the screaming Silk and laughed gleefully.
"I should’ve done this from the beginning. Everything’s a pain. Come on, scream louder! Call it from beyond the door──the ‘True King of the Forest’!"
"Stop!"
I dashed toward Silk.
But once again, a barrier of wind blew me back and stopped me.
Meanwhile, the door began to creak open slowly.
"This is bad!"
"But we can’t get close…!"
Nene and Marina tried to step forward, but they too couldn’t get near.
As I frantically searched for a way to break through, Rain slowly stepped forward in front of me.
"I can do it."
"Huh?"
"I’ve been watching all along. The wind barrier… it’s not something spiritual."
Rain raised a staff adorned with a crimson gem and gently kissed my cheek.
"Yuke, go. Save Silk… and come back."
"Yeah, of course."
"Then I’m sending you. Believe in me, and go."
I nodded to Rain, cast several enhancement spells on myself, and prepared.
Then I sprinted toward Silk with everything I had.
Behind me, Rain’s voice chanting magic.
As it faded, and just as the wind tried to rise again—I slipped through.
In return, I heard a small cry from Rain behind me.
When I looked back, she had collapsed to the floor.
"Rain!?"
"I’m fine, go!"
Her unusually firm tone made me look forward again.
I didn’t know what kind of trick she’d used, but I knew she’d pushed herself.
So I had to make sure the result was worth it.
"Silk!"
"Yuke…!"
Silk reached out toward me.
Seeing me, Ilwen was shaken by my entry into the barrier and instinctively stepped back one, two paces away from Silk, leaning against the [Abyss Gate of the Deep].
"Sensei, I…!"
"I know. It’s okay, Silk."
I scooped her up and held her tightly.
Finally reunited with the one I loved, I gave her a small kiss—then reached into my own darkness.
"Silk, I’m about to do something… not exactly good."
"Okay."
"It’ll have a big impact on your future."
"…Okay."
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes…!"
Silk nodded over and over in my arms, and I smiled in return.
Then I slowly let the life flowing within me slip into her.
Through the Stigma of Existential Proof, the boundary between us began to dissolve.
As I felt that sensation, I couldn’t help but feel conflicted.
As long as the Stigma exists, we can no longer be strangers.
This was a scar—a curse—I had etched into her.
"Yuke, your eyes…!"
Silk looked up at me, startled.
"Why… why do you possess the 'Amber Eyes'!? That was supposed to be mine!"
"You're wrong, Ilwen Pearlwood. Silk is entirely──mine!"
A torrent of sensation and power surged from Silk into me, unlike anything I'd felt before.
I began to control it using Existential Conversion.
I’d never communicated with spirits, nor used spirit magic. But the wild energy coursing through the 'Amber Eyes' felt akin to the Achromatic Darkness that lies beyond the Abyss Gate.
If that’s true, then this power is also something that someone like me—someone with the traits of a Walker, one who crosses between realms—can wield.
I should be able to regulate the overflowing power from Silk by acting as a filter.
The space around us shimmered. Flowers and plants burst into bloom, flowing outward beyond the garden.
As though the bleakness of winter had ended and spring had begun to blossom.
As the labyrinth transformed into a place of color and life, at the very center of it all, Ilwen screamed.
"…Unnecessary, all of it, unnecessary! Why does everyone keep getting in my way!? Taking from me! Looking down on me! Just once… can’t I be the main character…!?"
Still sobbing, Ilwen pulled out one of those stake-like magical potions,
and without hesitation, stabbed it into his own neck.
With the temporarily granted Amber Eyes, I understood exactly what had happened.
"Everyone—battle positions!"
I shouted on instinct, still holding Silk in my arms as I ran full speed toward my comrades.
My legs wobbled slightly from using a power I wasn’t used to, but Nene stepped in and steadied me.
"Something’s wrong. It feels… twitchy? Unsettled?"
Rain, ever sensitive to magical presence, made a low sound in her throat as she scanned the area.
I felt it too, thanks to the Amber Eyes.
An exceptional spirit user, Silk—the Amber Priestess—was blessed as a provisional caretaker of the World Tree.
And now, right before our eyes, it was starting to lose control.
Drawing from within the Abyss Gate, it was absorbing fragments of the True King of the Forest—the embodiment of natural judgment and purging.
"Ah… hahaha… I see. That’s it… That’s what it is… It was me all along…!"
As branches and leaves sprouted from every part of his body, Ilwen began to morph—
no longer man, but beast.
He was transforming—truly becoming the True King of the Forest.
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