Chapter 126
With his aged body, he forced the words out with difficulty.
“The royal relic of the Kingdom of Manoa was lost along the way… No one—no one knows what it truly is.”
“It was a fact concealed even from the king, out of fear that people might deify the righteous man Jake and fall into idol worship.”
The man coldly cut off King Berian’s words.
“What? N‑No, even if that were true, how on earth would you know such a thing?!”
The man did not answer Friedhen’s furious shout.
His black eyes remained fixed solely on Ilena.
Lowering his voice, he whispered to her,
“It is sleeping beneath this royal palace.”
“Ilena! You mustn’t listen to him! He’s a cunning and sinister man!”
“This—this is it.”
Without further delay, he lightly flicked his left hand beneath his cloak.
Kuuuuung—woooong—.
The ground of the Manoa royal palace began to tremble faintly, and then, astonishingly, the courtyard before the white palace split apart as if struck by an earthquake.
The man’s claim—that he possessed divine power capable of controlling the weather—was truly real.
But before anyone could even recover from the shock, something began to rise slowly from deep beneath the cracked ground.
A perfectly square blue stone, utterly untouched by the passage of time.
It was unmistakably the same kind of Record Stone as the royal relic Ilena had seen in the Rihu royal palace.
And—
It’s… beautiful.
Even in that moment, Ilena found herself genuinely awed.
Etched upon the blue stone was the figure of a man.
Beautiful black hair reaching his shoulders. Soft light‑brown eyes like warm spring sunlight.
So vivid it looked as though he might step out of the carving at any moment—without a single worn or faded trace.
He was beautiful, like an angel placed at the highest point of a temple.
Ilena stared blankly at the Record Stone.
“Ilena! Snap out of it! Don’t fall for it!”
“Stop playing filthy tricks! We won’t be deceived anymore!”
The companions’ desperate shouts echoed faintly in her ears.
Yet Ilena stood speechless, her gaze moving back and forth between the image of Jake carved into the stone and the man standing before it.
Kuuung—. Kuuung—.
The tremors intensified, pounding in her head like a war drum.
“…A trick, you say.”
The man slowly raised a hand and grasped the mask covering his face.
Kuuung—. Kuuung—.
The mask fell to the floor with a dull thud.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
“That’s… impossible…”
Roderick was the first to break the silence.
The others, too, were frozen in shock, unable to speak.
Ilena couldn’t tell whether she was surprised—or whether she had somehow anticipated this.
That strange sense of déjà vu she’d felt earlier had not been wrong.
The man finally revealed himself.
Smooth black hair. Brown eyes.
That angelic face—
“It’s… identical…”
It was exactly the same as Jake’s face in the portrait.
“H‑How…? What kind of trick is this… ah!”
Ruuuumble—!
Roderick’s frantic muttering was cut off as the ground beneath them began to shake violently.
This was on an entirely different level from before.
This time, Ilena knew for certain that everyone else felt it too.
They all staggered, pressing their hands to the ground with panicked expressions.
Kuuung—. Kuuung—.
Yet the deep, drum‑like pounding rising from the very depths of the earth—she was certain that no one but her could hear it.
“W‑What’s happening all of a sudden?”
“The ground is roaring!”
Ilena instinctively snapped her head toward Mount Auphus.
Her ominous premonition was correct.
From the summit of the long‑dormant volcano, black smoke was rising into the sky.
Without hesitation, Ilena closed her eyes and focused her mind, trying to control the weather.
“That smoke…!”
Only then did the others notice the mountain, crying out in alarm.
“How can this be?! We gathered all five fragments of Honoa’s Heart!”
Amid the chaos, Ilena struggled to concentrate.
She sank inward—sitting cross‑legged in the depths of her mind, observing and acknowledging her emotions.
But no matter how hard she tried, the volcano would not obey.
It felt like riding an uncontrollable racehorse.
More clearly than anyone else on the island, Ilena felt the enormous power writhing beneath the volcano.
If that erupted, the island would be destroyed.
Every living thing on this land would perish, and this paradise would sink forever beneath the sea.
“…Jake.”
With despair in her eyes, Ilena looked at the man standing before his own portrait.
He gazed calmly toward the mountain, his face utterly expressionless.
A fierce rage surged up within Ilena, and she screamed.
“Jake! Jake! Is it really you?! Does that even make sense?! I followed your words all the way here!”
She barely held back her tears as she shouted.
“Answer me! Who are you?!”
The man showed no reaction at all.
No—he looked like a being devoid of emotion itself, one who knew neither sorrow nor fear nor guilt.
With an indifferent expression, he slowly spoke.
“I am Jake.”
“Liar!”
Ilena screamed.
“You’re not him! I—I met him on that mountain!”
“That was me. And this is me.”
Despite Ilena’s desperate cries, the man’s face remained dull and bored.
“What… what kind of nonsense is this…?”
The angelic‑looking man said flatly,
“Jake shaped clay with his own hands to create a body, and tore off a part of his soul to place within me.”
“A human is made of body, mind, and soul. Ilena, your body was created so I could house your soul.”
Jake’s words from before…
Did that mean Ilena wasn’t the only doll he had created to fulfill the prophecy?
At last, the scattered pieces of the puzzle fit together in Ilena’s mind.
That man was not some “first awakened possessor.”
He had come there that day knowing everything in advance.
Knowing that six possessed souls would arrive from the world before destruction—and intending to lead them here to bring ruin to this island.
Yet one question remained.
“Why… Jake? He was the only righteous one…”
Amid the hellish scene of rising black smoke, Ilena stammered as she looked at him.
“Didn’t you see it too, in that vision?”
The man spoke calmly.
Her vision shifted, as though she had entered the illusion again.
“No… no! The world—oh God!”
Jake screaming as he watched the Earth where he was born and raised be consumed by molten lava.
Enduring countless divine trials, finally reaching paradise.
Yet in the end, unable to trust God, secretly breaking apart Honoa’s Heart and hiding it.
Living alone on My Island, wandering in solitude, his lonely eyes.
Jake.
No—Jaik, as he had once been called.
An ordinary man.
“Jake—no, I—was certainly a good human being. But humans are still human.”
The man—Jake—said calmly.
“As I endured God’s trials, weakness, anxiety, fear, anger, and hatred toward my enemies accumulated within me.”
He slowly raised his hand and touched his pale cheek as though it belonged to someone else.
“In the end, I created a doll and placed all my weakness and evil inside it… That is me.”
Staggering closer to Ilena, Tail groaned in confusion.
“That man is Jake? A fragment of his soul?”
Roderick muttered, his face pale with terror.
“Then… just how many thousands of years has he lived…?”
“……”
The man lowered his gaze without any change in expression.
Even in the face of their fear and confusion, his face showed no emotion at all.
Iago glared at him and asked harshly,
“If mana, magic, and the sword don’t work—then how do we kill you?”
“I am a being born from the original sin of a human who could not believe in God.”
Jake answered calmly.
“To disappear from this land, the proof of that original sin must be returned.”
Amid the rising black smoke, Ilena repeated his words in a daze.
“The proof… of original sin…”
“No!”
At that moment, Iago let out a desperate shout.
He had realized it too.
The way to redeem this evil soul.
The way to calm the erupting volcano and save the island.
The original sin of distrusting God.
And the proof of that sin—breaking apart and hiding Honoa’s Heart.
“There’s only Honoa’s Heart inside my own heart.”
Ilena said hollowly.
Then the only way to return it was—
“To throw myself into the volcano…”
Her face had grown eerily calm.
“Yes. At the beginning and the end of everything.”
As soon as his words ended, the man snapped his fingers once more.
A brilliant light instantly enveloped Ilena.
It was the familiar sensation of teleportation.
“No, Ilena!”
Iago’s shout faded as though from far away.
Her vision turned completely white, her body lifting into the air.
Amid the nauseating sensation, she felt a strong hand seize her wrist.
When she opened her eyes again, the first thing she heard was a deafening roar.
The ground trembled violently, and scorching heat washed over her face.
“Where… am I?”
Ilena frowned and looked around.
