Chapter 166 – Restrictions and Revival
Being suspended high in the air was not a pleasant feeling.
When Charles glanced downward, the mountain's hollow interior lay clearly visible beneath the blazing light. The jagged rock surface below made it easy to imagine what would happen if a human body were to meet it after a fall.
The dazzling light shone intensely nearby.
Thanks to his unusual constitution, Charles's eyes weren't blinded by it, but his vision was still affected.
Both of his arms were tightly wrapped around the Three-Eyed Raven's vine. He tried to block the glare with his forearms while the empty space beneath his feet made his heart tremble slightly.
Yet when he thought about what he might gain next, courage filled his chest.
---
A cluster of Source Light — a primordial force accumulated in this medieval world over tens of thousands of years.
Within this light, you cannot use any magic except those of the light element.
It represents the vitality of this world.
---
As he approached, the Eye of Reality revealed the nature of the blazing sphere.
Seeing that description, Charles felt certain that—with his Child of the Sun talent—he might be able to claim this power for himself.
That was why he had risked climbing up here.
"But how am I supposed to get closer?"
He raised his head.
The vine holding him extended downward from the Three-Eyed Raven's throne, swaying gently as the Raven drifted through the air.
Because of that motion, Charles himself was constantly drifting and swinging in midair.
It looked dangerous.
But compared to many things he had already survived, this was nothing.
"Give up," the Three-Eyed Raven's aged voice echoed through the vine.
"Unless you are the Lady of Light herself, you cannot even touch that power."
Charles neither agreed nor disagreed.
He had already considered several approaches, but none offered a clear solution.
In the end, left with no better options—
Charles sighed quietly.
Then he resorted to the simplest method possible.
He swung himself toward it.
Under the silent gaze of the Three-Eyed Raven, Charles began struggling in midair.
The vine swayed along with his movements. At first the motion was faint, but gradually it grew stronger and stronger. Finally, after aiming carefully, Charles used the thick vine as leverage and hurled himself forward.
He slammed straight into the glowing mass of energy.
—and ended up hugging it in his arms.
Warmth spread across his chest. Blinding light burst out beneath his chin, flooding his vision in white until he had to tilt his head back to avoid being dazzled.
The Three-Eyed Raven was already astonished that Charles could even touch the power. But what he saw next only confirmed his belief.
"I told you," the Raven said calmly,
"You cannot use it. As long as the Lady of Light still exists, this power can belong only to her."
Charles ignored him.
The moment he held the tiny "sun" in his arms, a strange urge stirred within him—as if what he held were the most delicious thing in the world.
But the feeling vanished almost immediately.
Abruptly. Completely.
As though some force inside his body had suppressed that instinctive desire.
"Suppression… a restriction?"
Charles frowned.
He swung himself over to a protruding rock near the cave's exit and climbed onto it. Turning back, he glanced at the many drifting figures in the cavern that had followed the light in his arms.
Then he lowered his gaze to study the glowing mass again.
Unfortunately, no matter how much he examined it—or even when he tried to bite into it, discovering it felt soft like cotton candy—the energy showed no reaction whatsoever.
In the end, he gave up.
"Forget it. My strength is already unstable enough. If I actually managed to swallow this thing, who knows what kind of trouble it might cause."
Comforting himself with that thought, Charles looked up at the withered corpse seated on the dead tree nearby.
"What should I do now?" he asked.
"Just take the power away," the Three-Eyed Raven replied, this time speaking directly rather than through the vine. His voice was faint but clear.
"And you won't fall?"
"No. We'll simply return to normal."
"Return to normal?" Charles frowned, puzzled.
Still, the Raven clearly understood the situation better than he did—and since it involved their lives, the Raven had no reason to joke.
So Charles decisively carried the little sun away.
---
The moment he stepped into the exit tunnel, the light in his arms became restricted by the surrounding rock.
Behind him, a loud rumble suddenly erupted.
Turning around, Charles stared in shock.
The hollowed-out interior of the mountain was restoring itself.
The cavern hall returned to its original dark silence. The deep tunnels reappeared, and the shriveled corpse sitting upon the dead tree returned to its former place.
The empty void inside the mountain was gradually filled again with solid matter, and the familiar damp chill of the underground seeped back into the air.
"The energy only reveals life," the Three-Eyed Raven's distant voice explained.
"In this world, anything dead cannot exist beneath its light. Of course, distance weakens the effect."
Charles instinctively looked down.
Sure enough, the rock beneath his feet was slowly fading, becoming thin… translucent… soft.
"What the hell?"
Seeing the ground about to dissolve beneath him, Charles immediately sprinted toward the exit while clutching the glowing sphere.
Fortunately, the tunnel was not far.
Within seconds, he rushed out of the cave.
---
What greeted him was a devastated military camp.
Across the snowfield, violent winds had ripped trees from the ground. Their roots hung exposed, tangled with frozen clumps of snow.
Rows of tents had collapsed or been torn apart, their fabric scattered across the ground.
Deep snow, abandoned weapons, and corpses everywhere.
Charles felt his heart sink.
Above, the clouds had finally parted, allowing a rare beam of sunlight to pierce through the gray sky.
But the land below made that sunlight feel meaningless.
"Your people… are not well."
The Three-Eyed Raven's earlier words echoed in Charles's mind.
At the time he hadn't fully grasped their meaning.
Now he did.
They were all dead.
Just then, a faint voice reached his ears.
"I… I can feel the power… of the Lord of Light…"
Charles turned quickly.
A red figure lay slumped against the steep side of the mountain.
He hurried over.
"What happened?"
"The… Other God… the Lord of Light… save me…"
The woman's face was pale, her voice weak. She leaned helplessly against the snow-covered rocks.
Clearly, the once dignified Red Priestess could barely speak anymore.
Charles sighed.
Looking across the camp, corpses lay scattered everywhere. Some wore expressions of terror, others anger—but whatever emotions they had died with were now frozen permanently on their faces.
He even spotted the Stark bastard among them.
Two thousand soldiers…
All gone?
It felt unreal.
If the Other God supposedly lacked the strength to face the army, how had it caused destruction on this scale?
"Desperation, perhaps…"
Charles wandered through the camp, searching for survivors.
After only a few steps, he suddenly stopped.
Something caught his attention.
One collapsed tent nearby was slightly bulging, shifting weakly beneath the fabric.
At the same time, a faint call echoed within his mind.
The voice felt familiar.
Charles hurried over, pushing aside the corpse pinning the tent down and pulling the fabric away.
A brown staff emerged from beneath.
The Scepter of Authority.
He picked it up.
At first he assumed the earlier call had been mere instinct. But once freed, the staff continued trembling, even more violently under the light from the glowing sphere in his arms.
Charles frowned—then understanding dawned.
"You want this thing?" he asked.
The staff could not speak.
But it trembled even harder.
Charles nodded.
He didn't feel any particular attachment to the energy anyway. Since he couldn't absorb it and the thing behaved like a volatile bomb, letting someone—or something—else handle it was actually a relief.
Besides, the staff had already recognized him as its master.
So Charles guided the crystal orb at the tip of the staff into the glowing sphere in his arms.
Blinding light exploded outward.
The brilliance turned the snow-covered mountain into something as bright as midday.
The ruins of the camp, the corpses scattered across the ground—everything stood exposed in stark detail.
Then the staff began to rise.
Still attached to the tiny sun, it floated upward… higher and higher…
Until it reached the summit of the mountain and hung suspended above it.
Charles watched from below, unsure what would happen next.
But the seven-pointed star badge hanging within his soul began to tremble faintly, quickening his thoughts as if something monumental were about to occur.
"What kind of change…?"
High above, the staff slowly absorbed the energy.
At first the light only surrounded the crystal orb.
Then it spread—
Until the entire staff was enveloped.
A torrent of light erupted.
Brilliant rays burst outward, turning the entire mountain white.
It felt as if the sun itself had descended upon the world, radiating endless heat and rapidly melting the surrounding snow.
Charles had to raise a hand to shield his eyes.
But before he could process what was happening—
A strange sound suddenly echoed around him.
Soft sobbing.
Followed by rough, ragged breathing.
The sounds rose one after another, countless voices blending together like some eerie symphony.
They came from the camp.
Charles turned sharply.
And then he saw it.
Under the blazing light—
The dead soldiers across the battlefield suddenly opened their eyes.