Chapter 103

“...You’re awake sooner than I expected.”

“It seems I can’t afford to sleep the day away...”

Cody and the newly awakened Vincent exchanged light banter. Harold thought he saw Cody’s eyes glistening with a hint of moisture, but commenting on it would have been unrefined.

More than that, Harold was genuinely surprised that Vincent had regained not just his consciousness, but his sense of self.

He had considered the possibility during the heat of battle, but he’d had no real conviction it would work. He still didn't understand exactly why the brainwashing had broken. Because he had assumed a full recovery of the self would be a much slower process, Harold felt a flicker of confusion.

“...You have a rather... troubled look on your face.”

Though speaking clearly must have been an ordeal, Vincent was quick to notice Harold’s expression.

Harold certainly had things he didn't understand—things he wanted to confirm with Vincent. But there was something more pressing to attend to first.

“Hey, the patient is awake,” Harold barked at a nurse who happened to be passing by the room.

The nurse looked utterly flabbergasted. She clearly hadn't expected a man with such severe injuries to regain consciousness within the day. She hurried off to fetch a doctor. The subsequent examination left the physician baffled; apparently, Vincent’s recovery speed was so extraordinary that sitting up was already trivial for him.

The doctor mumbled things about "the mysteries of the human body," but in reality, Vincent’s regenerative capabilities were simply inhuman. He was a boss-class character, after all. Harold’s healing magic had likely provided a significant boost as well.

About an hour later, the three of them—Harold, Cody, and Vincent—began to review the situation. In practice, this meant Harold spoke while the other two listened.

“I need to know, Harold. What exactly is Dr. Justus’s goal?” Vincent asked, his voice noticeably stronger.

Harold found himself at a loss for how to even begin broaching the subject. However, his mouth was fundamentally incapable of soft preambles or vague hints. He decided to give it to them straight.

“The bastard is trying to bring the dead back to life.”

“Wait, how?” Cody asked, his confusion warranted.

Resurrecting the dead was a tall enough tale on its own, but the proposed method was even more far-fetched. It was a scheme that reached down into the very origins of the planet. Harold decided to skip the exhaustive technical details and stick to the essentials.

“Do you two know what an Astral Body is?”

“I’ve heard the term, but I don't know the specifics,” Cody admitted.

“If I recall, it was one of Dr. Justus’s research themes...” Vincent added.

“Right.”

The word "Astral" carried meanings like "star-like" or "the world of stars." In this context, the "Astral Body" was defined as the vessel that governed emotions within mental activity. The nuances were complicated by the game's unique lore, but Harold simplified it: it was the component integrated with the body and spirit that constituted a human’s ego.

Astral Bodies were said to be diffused throughout the universe, present in every living human. Upon death, a person’s Astral Body was drawn toward a specific location.

That location was the Planet's Core—an ultra-gigantic mass of Solid Astral Body. As an aside, the energy leaking from that core served as the fundamental source of magic power. The energy gushing from the Dragon Holes in the Sumeragi Territory was a prime example of this.

“Uh, this is getting a bit too academic for a simpleton like me,” Cody chimed in.

“You don't need to grasp the physics of it. Just understand that such a thing exists,” Harold snapped. He didn't know much more than what the game had explained anyway.

“Justus intends to sort through that accumulated mass of Solid Astral Body, isolate the Astral Body of a specific deceased person, and bring them back.”

“...Is such a thing even possible?”

“The man has spent over a decade preparing this plan. I doubt it’s prone to failure.”

It was a strange form of trust. In the original story, the plan would have succeeded if Rainer’s party hadn't intervened. There was no room for optimistic hopes of a technical error. If they didn't stop it before activation, it would be a catastrophe.

“The real problem is that if the plan succeeds, there is a high probability the entire continent will sink.”

“What?”

Cody’s voice was hollow with shock. Vincent looked equally incredulous. It was a natural reaction to such a sudden, apocalyptic claim.

“...Why would that happen?”

“Isolating a single ego from the core is an impossible task for an outsider. Therefore, Justus intends to synchronize himself directly with the core.”

In the original game, he had been defeated before the synchronization was complete, but he had still been able to harness the core’s energy to spam devastatingly high-output attacks.

“If Justus achieves full synchronization, he will begin purging 'unnecessary' egos from the Astral Body to facilitate his search. That process will cause the core to collapse. Without the core, the continent sinks, and the vast majority of humanity dies with it.”

“That’s madness... If the world ends, even the doctor and his resurrected subject won’t be able to survive.”

“For ordinary humans, yes.”

“Meaning... what, exactly?” Cody asked.

“There are those who can survive in a world where the continent has vanished and only the debris of a shattered core remains. They are the Stella Clan.”

“No...!”

The mention of the name seemed to make the pieces click for both of them. They finally saw the link between Justus’s master plan and the battle in the Bertis Forest. Beyond the experimental data, that battle had been designed to disgrace the Knight Order and break Vincent’s spirit, while simultaneously consolidating power within the Kingdom Army via Justus’s puppet, Harrison. The layers of deception were truly malicious.

“To be precise, I’m talking about their ancestors—the ones known as the Star Children.”

As Justus had explained previously, the Stella Clan possessed unique organs. These organs allowed them to use magic differently from normal humans, and they were the key to surviving in the Astral world.

Justus called this organ the "Oracle Organ." It was a bitter irony that a man who didn't believe in the divine would name a biological part after a "divine message."

“But if they’re ancestors, doesn't that mean the Star Children are extinct?” Cody asked.

“Yes. Which is why Justus has been kidnapping members of the Stella Clan for human experimentation. He’s trying to trigger a biological atavism.”

This hadn't been depicted in the game, but Harold had learned through his position as Justus’s pawn that these secret experiments had been ongoing since long before the original story began. The Bertis Forest incident hadn't just been about collecting test subjects; it was a final calibration. That was likely why Justus could afford to "waste" vessels like Ventus and Lilium despite the heavy resource cost. Their emotional suppression was likely a side effect of having their Oracle Organs—the seats of ego and emotion—tampered with. It was a revolting realization.

“The Oracle Organ in the modern Stella Clan allows them to layer emotions onto magic power to amplify its output. But that’s a degenerate version of its original function. Apparently, the Star Children used the organ to draw energy directly from the Planet's Core to fuel their magic.”

“So that’s why they’re ‘Star Children,’” Cody murmured.

“If the Planet's Core is a collection of egos, I don't even want to imagine the raw power of magic fueled by those collective emotions,” Vincent added.

“The vessel for that power is already complete. All that’s left is for Justus to synchronize with the core, perform his selection, and then use the vessel’s Oracle Organ to funnel his own ego into the new world.”

“The more I hear, the more terrifying this gets. I see now... so this is what you’ve been fighting to stop all this time, Harold.” Cody let out a long, heavy breath.

Vincent, taking over for the silent Cody, posed a follow-up question. “If all of this is true... how exactly does the Oracle Organ allow them to survive in a world without land?”

“I don't have all the details, but I’ve heard the Oracle Organ had more than one function. There’s likely a mechanism we don't understand yet.”

The game had never touched on that specific lore. Fan theories suggested that the Star Children could become astral projections by synchronizing with the core, maintaining their sense of self even without a physical world. It was pure occultism—out-of-body experiences—but in a world of magic and monsters, it was hardly the strangest possibility.

“Enough of that for now. Vincent.”

“Yes?”

“How did you snap out of it? And for that matter, how did you end up like that in the first place?”

“I’m afraid my memory is hazy. I remember Dr. Justus calling for me and speaking with him in his research room, but everything after that is a blur...”

“What did you talk about?”

“Nothing of consequence, as far as I recall. He said I’d seemed depressed lately and suggested a chat to clear my head.”

“When was this?”

“Um... what is today’s date?”

“The eleventh.”

“Then... that was four days ago.”

In those four days, Justus must have drugged him and performed the brainwashing procedure. Combat wasn't Justus’s style. It was possible the brainwashing had been rushed and therefore unstable, allowing it to break under the strain of combat. However, something about that explanation didn't sit right with Harold.

“What about your memories leading up to your awakening just now?”

“I have fragments. I remember fighting you. But I wasn't really ‘there’—it was like a fever dream. Ambiguous and distant.”

“So you only truly came to just now?”

“Yes... No, wait. At the very end of our fight, just before I blacked out, my mind and senses became crystal clear for a fleeting moment.”

“Maybe you just woke up from the pain?” Cody suggested.

“If that were the case, I should have woken up long before the final blow...”

Harold had to agree. Considering Vincent had been slashed multiple times and hit with the full force of Crackling Thunder—Harold’s most powerful technique—it was hard to believe simple pain was the trigger. The very last thing Harold had done was strike him in the gut with his sword’s hilt.

(...The hilt?)

A sudden thought struck him. Harold reached for the two swords leaning against the wall and drew the dull-colored straight sword from its sheath. Embedded at the junction where the blade met the hilt was a jade-colored crystal.

That crystal was proof of the sword’s cursed nature. It supposedly enhanced the user’s combat ability by absorbing their magic power, at the cost of their life span. Harold had felt the effects firsthand, so he had never questioned the description.

(But is that really it? If it’s truly absorbing magic, shouldn't my magic power drop? Shouldn't I struggle to maintain my physical reinforcement spells?)

He was an "original character" with an absurd mana pool, so perhaps he just hadn't hit the limit, but losing a life-threatening amount of energy should have caused some visible strain. It would make more sense if the sword absorbed life force directly to boost combat stats.

But if it simply drained life, there was no reason to bring up magic power at all.

What if the sword was absorbing something else entirely? Something that wasn't magic or life force, but was so vital that its loss felt like dying? And what was the true nature of the crystal that did the absorbing?

Once the doubt took root, a wave of dark premonition followed.

“Harold? What is it?”

Cody’s voice snapped him back to reality. He had been staring at the blade in silence for too long.

“...It’s nothing.”

“You sure? You had a look on your face like you were about to murder that sword.”

“I said it’s nothing.”

“You really are incapable of being honest, aren't you?” Cody sighed, shaking his head. It was his usual playful tone, but Harold could tell the man was genuinely worried. He was trying to lighten the mood.

Sensing the shift, Vincent asked one final question to close the topic.

“May I ask one last thing?”

“What?”

“The person Dr. Justus is trying to resurrect... who is she?”

Harold looked Vincent straight in the eye. He spoke with the cold, hard conviction that, regardless of the "why," Justus Freund had to be stopped.

“Estelle Lakes. The only woman that madman ever loved in his life.”