Chương 22: Fairy Tale

"So," Cyrus muttered, "that was a Witch." The group sat in silence near the edge of Medusa's territory. They had not even passed through the barrier yet. They had not entered the Black Witch's land. They had not reached her castle, her soldiers, or whatever traps she had waiting for them. And already, they had seen what someone with the title of Witch could be. Noah stared down at his hands. They had finally stopped trembling, but only barely.

"Erzsebet is absurd," he said.

"Even by the standard of Witches." No one argued. Noah slowly looked toward the barrier ahead.

"But if Medusa is even a tenth of that strong…" His voice trailed off. Could they win? He did not need to finish the question. Everyone understood it. Then Noah glanced toward Ava. She noticed. Her eyes narrowed.

"I'm going." Noah opened his mouth, but Ava stood before he could speak.

"I'll finish what we started." Her hands tightened around the handles of her daggers.

"I need to get stronger. I can't just be some hostage used against Noah." Her voice sharpened.

"If I have to become strong enough to slay a Witch, then I will." Noah stared at her. Ava did not look away. Adam watched them quietly, his usual smile thin and tired.

"So," he said, "do you two still want to continue?" Noah turned toward him. Adam's gaze moved between Noah and Ava, then to Cyrus.

"I understand how all of you feel," he said.

"But is this worth giving up your lives for?" His voice was calm. Too calm. Noah could not tell if Adam was trying to protect them or convince them to quit for some other reason. Cyrus lowered his gaze. For a moment, he said nothing. Then he spoke.

"My mother abandoned me and my sister when we were six." The others turned toward him.

"No," Cyrus said quietly.

"That is not quite right." His fingers curled against his knees.

"She froze us in time." Ava's expression softened.

"I believe she did it to protect us," Cyrus continued.

"At the time, the people of Yggdrasil were trying to kill Vanitas's wife and children." His voice remained steady, but Noah could hear the strain beneath it.

"A hundred years later, my sister and I woke up." Cyrus looked toward the rotting forest around them.

"We were found by Nox's father." He paused. Then he took a slow breath.

"If he had never found us, we might still be there. Frozen. Hidden away in that cave." Noah said nothing.

"I do not know what happened to my mother," Cyrus said.

"I cannot even remember her face anymore." His voice faltered.

"But for my adoptive fa—" He stopped himself. Then his expression hardened.

"No." Cyrus raised his head.

"For my father." His dark blue eyes were steady behind his glasses.

"And for the brother I cherish, I have to do this." The silence after that felt different. Heavier. But clearer. Noah looked toward the barrier again.

"I don't know if Medusa is truly as evil as everyone says." Adam's eyes shifted toward him.

"But it is a Hero's duty to find out," Noah said. His hand moved to the hilt of his sword.

"However, if she isn't evil, I won't kill her." Cyrus looked at him.

"I'll help Cyrus take the book," Noah continued.

"That's all." Ava smiled faintly. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Adam stared at the three of them for a long moment. Then he sighed.

"I see." He stood, brushing dirt from his coat.

"You're all resolved." Noah rose next. Ava followed. Then Cyrus. Adam looked toward Medusa's territory, his smile returning in a way that did not quite reach his eyes.

"Alright," he said.

"I guess we have no choice but to go." They marched on. The barrier came into view soon after. It stretched before them like a massive soap bubble, thin and translucent, shimmering faintly in the rotting air. Colors rippled across its surface with every passing breeze. From a distance, it looked fragile. Almost harmless. But Noah knew better. This was the wall that had kept gods and kings away from Medusa for years. Adam stopped in front of it first.

"So this is the barrier," he muttered. Cyrus adjusted his glasses, studying the surface carefully.

"It does not seem to be rejecting us."

"That means we pass the entry conditions," Noah said. Ava looked at the barrier, then at him.

"Anyone older than Medusa can't enter, right?" Noah nodded.

"Then let's hope none of us secretly aged a few centuries overnight." Ava smiled faintly. Then, one by one, they stepped through. The barrier gave no resistance. It felt like passing through a layer of cool water. For a moment, Noah's vision blurred. Then the world changed. They stumbled into something that looked like a fairy tale. The sky above them was purple. The sun was blue.

The ground was too bright, the colors too soft, as if the entire land had been painted by a child who only half understood what a town was supposed to look like. Poorly drawn houses leaned along crooked streets. Their windows were uneven circles, their doors too large or too small. The trees had round tops and twisted trunks, like something from a storybook drawn in crayon. Citizens frolicked through the streets. All of them were demons. The people of Helheim. Noah stared.

"What is this place?" No one answered. Then his eyes moved to the center of town. There was an execution stand. A gallows stood there, drawn in the same childish, uneven style as everything else. But despite its crude appearance, the bodies hanging from it were clear enough. A human. An elf. A dwarf. Noah's stomach tightened.

"Besides Lumiar and Olivia, who were demons…" His voice was quiet.

"The Seventh Hero's party had a human, an elf, and a dwarf in their ranks, right?" Cyrus did not answer immediately. His gaze was fixed on the gallows.

"Yes." His hands slowly curled into fists.

"Even with this awful drawing style, their faces are burned into my mind." He laughed once, bitter and hollow.

"How ironic." Noah looked at him.

"I cannot remember my mother's face anymore," Cyrus said.

"But I remember those bastards far too well." Ava's expression darkened as she looked around the town.

"Is there a chance the Black Witch idolized Vanitas?" Noah followed her gaze. Propaganda posters covered the walls of the poorly drawn houses. Each one was crude, uneven, and almost childish. But their message was clear. The Emperor was vile. Yggdrasil was the enemy. Vanitas Sanguine was the true hero of Helheim. Cyrus stared at the posters for a long moment.

"If Nox's father had not taken me in…" His voice was quiet.

"If I had lived through the fallout of Vanitas's death, through all the hatred that followed…" His hands tightened at his sides.

"I would have become just as bitter toward humanity." Noah looked at him, but said nothing. There was nothing to say. Ava's gaze moved across the strange town, her expression uneasy. Then Adam lifted one hand.

"Look over there." They followed his gaze. At the edge of the town stood something that did not belong. Everything else looked like it had been drawn from a child's imagination. The crooked houses, the painted citizens, the uneven streets, and the bright false sky all carried the same childish design. But the castle was real. It rose in the distance, tall and dark, its spires cutting into the purple sky. Snake-themed banners hung from its walls, swaying gently in a wind no one else could feel.

Noah narrowed his eyes.

"That's our destination, I bet." The castle was not far. Just far enough to make the path toward it feel deliberate.

"She's spelling it out for us," Noah said. Cyrus adjusted his glasses, his gaze fixed on the castle.

"I sympathize with her," he admitted.

"Looking at all this, I understand why she hates Yggdrasil." His expression hardened.

"But I need that book." He stepped forward.

"So let's go." The group made their way through the town. The poorly drawn citizens did not react to them. They continued their strange, cheerful routines, laughing, dancing, and greeting one another as if nothing existed beyond the script they had been given. Adam accidentally bumped into one of them. The demon stumbled, paused, then smiled blankly and returned to its place as if nothing had happened. Ava watched it with a shiver.

"This place is wrong." Noah nodded. It was not alive. Not really. It was a memory pretending to breathe. They reached the castle gates soon after. Someone was waiting outside. A man sat near the entrance, surrounded by piles of comic books. Each one had the same terrible, childish art style as the town, but the titles on their covers told stories from each of the seven eras. The rise of the First Hero. The fall of the Second. The wars, the betrayals, the apocalypses. All of history, redrawn as a child's story.

The man sitting among them had hair split evenly between red and white. His skin was dark, his eyes yellow, and a black robe flowed loosely over his body. Beneath it, he wore black pants, and an armored tail peeked out from behind the fabric. He looked up as they approached. For a moment, he simply stared. Then he sighed.

"Damn it." He closed the comic book in his hands.

"It has been ages since someone tried something as stupid as entering this territory." Slowly, he stood. The tail behind him twitched.

"Please leave," he said, glaring at them.

"Do not make me do my job." Noah's hand moved to his sword. The man's yellow eyes shifted toward him.

"My name is Johan," he said.

"And I really, really do not want to fight anyone today." Adam smiled faintly.

"That makes one of us." Johan sighed again.

"Great." He tossed the comic book aside.

"Annoying guests."