CHAPTER 3:
Khazar
Khazar caught Ernolfe just before he collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
‘What on earth is happening?’
Until now, he didn’t have time to think. But now he had to.
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t figure out what was going on.
All he knew for sure was this:
He had opened his eyes in the same mine he escaped from when he was young,
and his older brother—who had died—was now alive again.
‘So… am I empty-handed again? What happened to my land? My throne?
Did the Invincible King Khazar return to being a mine slave?’
Even though 50 years had passed, Khazar still clearly remembered everything from back then.
One day, the mine manager had called him and his brother Tirad and asked which one of them would go to the underground mine.
That place was dangerous, used only for useless or troublesome slaves.
Khazar was considered too wild to handle. Tirad was sickly and weak. Both were “useless” in different ways.
“The new tunnel is aboveground. I’ll go to the underground one.
You stay up top and look for a chance to escape.”
“What are you talking about? That place is dangerous!”
“I’ll go to the pit!”
Before Khazar could stop him, Tirad volunteered.
Khazar argued, but it was useless.
The manager sent Khazar to dig the new tunnel and assigned Tirad to the dangerous one below.
They had tried to escape a few days earlier. The manager was clearly separating them as punishment.
While working in the new tunnel, Khazar discovered a monster spider hatching from a large egg sack.
Startled, he accidentally spilled his water bottle—and the baby spiders scattered.
‘They hate water?’
He picked up the bottle and stayed alert.
Even though he couldn’t see anything, he felt like something was watching him from the darkness.
He later found more egg sacks in other areas. That’s when a plan formed.
‘I can use these monsters to escape.’
He just had to reach Tirad and hide with him in the underground water pit before the monsters attacked.
Luckily, a chance came quickly.
“The tunnel’s collapsing!”
“Aahhh!”
A spider monster must have lived in the tunnel walls, which were already weak.
The collapse caused panic.
“Tiry! Where are you?!”
Khazar ran like mad, calling out his only family member’s name.
But a guard blocked him. He fought and knocked the guard down before rushing to Tirad.
But when he finally arrived… Tirad was dead, crushed by rocks.
He was only 14.
Now, 50 years later, Khazar woke up in the mine again.
‘What’s going on? Where am I?’
Looking around, smelling the dirt… he realized he was back in the same mine from his childhood.
Was this a dream or real?
Either way, his body felt heavy and unresponsive—like he was underwater.
‘Damn, this was before I awakened my aura.’
Understanding why he was weak, he hid in a corner and began to concentrate.
Khazar was once a Sword Master, famous across the North. Awakening his aura heart wasn’t hard—but he had to hurry.
He could figure out what was happening later. For now, he had to save his brother.
‘It’s working!’
The moment his aura heart beat again, he ran. He was stronger and faster now.
“Tiry! Where are you?!”
Finally, he saw Tirad—not bloody and broken like before—but standing and alive.
His heart almost burst with joy.
Khazar tackled the manager threatening Tirad and smashed his head with a rock.
“I’ve been looking everywhere! Didn’t you hear me calling?”
Tirad looked weaker than he remembered—like a ghost. It made Khazar angry.
‘I won’t let you die here again.’
He slapped Tirad’s face to bring him back to his senses.
“Let’s go.”
Khazar grabbed Tirad’s wrist. It felt terrifyingly thin—almost breakable.
But Khazar’s own body was weak too, so he couldn’t use full strength.
‘Damn. I saved him, but now I’m stuck in this lousy body again.’
“Why are you just standing there? Are you scared?”
“N-No… I’m just confused. Don’t mind me.”
“Why are you talking like that? You sound like an old man.”
Something about Tirad was off.
His eyes kept shifting, and he couldn’t focus.
“Don’t worry. A monster appeared in the new tunnel, so the guards are panicking.
This time, we’ll escape for sure.”
“A monster? What kind? And what do you mean ‘this time’? Has this happened before?”
Khazar frowned. Tirad used to be smart.
But now, he seemed to forget their past attempts at escape.
‘Something’s wrong.’
Tirad should be dead.
And Khazar saw dried blood near his head. He must’ve been hurt.
‘It’s okay. As long as he’s alive, I can fix everything later.’
Khazar had already decided: this time, he would save his brother.
But the old hiding plan wouldn’t work.
After the spider monster appeared, a bigger and scarier one would show up at the exit.
Not that powerful, but too much for his current body.
‘This time, let’s head straight for the exit.’
Just then, Tirad said something strange.
“Can we find water somewhere?”
Khazar blinked.
Everyone knew the lower tunnels were flooded—why ask that?
“Are you thirsty?”
“Those things fear water. If we splash them, we can make a path to escape.”
“How do you know that?”
Khazar wanted to ask more, but the spiders were already coming.
He carried Tirad to the water pit and ran back with trembling arms full of water.
But Tirad was lying flat on the ground.
‘…Is he dead?’
Afraid, Khazar pretended to joke.
“You look pretty comfy. Don’t tell me you’re dead?”
But then, Tirad suddenly said:
“Do you know how red-spotted spiders hunt?”
“No.”
“They paralyze the prey, then slowly melt and suck them dry.”
That name—“red-spotted spider”—snapped something in Khazar’s memory.
‘Wait… how does he know all this? He never went to school or read books.’
Was Tirad possessed? He looked like Tirad, but acted different.
“How do you know that?”
“I just know. They look like spiders, so I guessed their behavior.”
It made a weird kind of sense.
Tirad had always been smart. Maybe it was just his great brain at work.
“Climb on.”
“You’re not planning to leave me, huh?”
“Shut up and get on.”
“Is there a cart? I’m too stiff to be carried.”
“Unbelievable.”
Khazar found an old cart and put Tirad in it.
As they headed toward the exit, other voices called for help.
‘Oh right, those bastards. They made my life hell.’
Khazar wanted to escape quickly—but leaving those guards alive didn’t sit well.
They might report him or chase him later.
‘Last time I was weak, but now things are different.’
Though his body was still weak, he had awakened his aura heart.
Khazar killed every guard he came across in the tunnel.
“Look, Tiry! The exit! Just a bit more—we’re almost free!”
He remembered the last time—when he had to escape alone.
It brought tears to his eyes.
But Tirad didn’t respond.
As Khazar checked his breath, the light disappeared.
A monster was blocking the exit again.
Khazar flipped the cart to hide Tirad and pulled out his dagger.
“Stay here! I’ll save you!”
If he had his real power, that monster would’ve been easy.
But now… he wasn’t so sure.
Then something unbelievable happened—
Tirad cast magic.
“Was that… magic? You can use magic, brother?”
Khazar nearly passed out from shock.
Seeing Tirad alive was one thing—seeing him use magic was another.
“Yeah. It’s magic.”
“Since when?”
“Just now.”
“Wow…”
Tirad wasn’t just a magician—he had awakened his mana heart by himself.
That was extremely rare.
‘Only a “Self-Awakened” can become a Transcendent… someone almost like a god.’
If he hadn’t died so young… Tirad could’ve conquered the continent.
Khazar felt bitter.
‘If my brother had lived… how different would my life have been?’
His past was full of betrayal. Even his own wife and children had turned on him.
But his brother—his true family—would never betray him.
Now, not only was he alive, he was also an incredibly powerful ally.
“Ha… things are getting interesting.”
Khazar stroked his unconscious brother’s hair and smiled quietly.
He didn’t know who gave them this second chance—
but he liked it. A lot.
