“Factor-cloud density readings continue to fall. The Tower of Babel is nearly fully charged.”

From the Charon command tower, looking toward the horizon, one could see a sharply defined circle in the clouds around the tip of the Sky-reaching Tower. At the summit of the Tower of Babel, a crimson glow—the harbinger of destruction—was steadily gathering.

Standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows atop the command tower, the adjutant gazed at the battle raging before him, his feelings tangled. Countless soldiers who’d carried their ideals into battle had all fallen beneath the overwhelming firepower of the Academy Federation forces. He couldn’t come to terms with it, and yet he couldn’t help but feel moved.

That’s right. We managed to push Academy this far. We’ve successfully lit the spark.

“Adjutant, how are things?”

Bravo-01 headed straight for the adjutant as soon as he reached the top floor. He glanced at the adjutant’s conflicted expression, then looked toward the distant Tower of Babel. As if he understood, he too let out a breath of relief.

“Looks like we achieved our goal.”

“Where are the others from Bravo?” The adjutant turned to face Bravo-01. “And... General Aleph?”

“K.I.A. Killed by the Blade of Babel,” Bravo-01 sighed. “General Aleph is fighting her now.”

“So it really is the Blade of Babel... But which one?” The adjutant sighed helplessly. The Blade of Babel’s arrival had been expected. “Is it the Scavenger, Ivar Saikepasi, the one the general’s always talking about?”

“No... It’s the Pure White Fireworks.” Bravo-01 seemed a little uncomfortable saying the name. “Perlis Hafu’erjiade.”

The adjutant’s body gave a slight jerk. Of course he knew that name. It belonged to the daughter of the general’s late friend.

“The general always said he owed that little girl a great debt.” The adjutant sighed and looked into the distance. “Looks like it’s time for him to repay it.”

The red light atop the Tower of Babel grew ever brighter. The hellfire that, since the Academy War, had existed only in dark nursery rhymes now blazed across the horizon of the Ademir Continent, shining above the heads of every sleeping soul.

......

“You’ve got to be kidding...”

Perlis stared blankly at the diary in her hands. There was no doubt about it: every stroke on the page was written by her father. Every word dancing across the paper proved that Edward von Valantia had truly existed in this world.

Perlis could never forget her father’s handwriting. Even after all this time, she still remembered the funeral in the icy rain, and herself, crying behind the white marble gravestone.

“W-why do you have...” Perlis’s voice trembled. Her slender, pale fingertips slowly brushed across the diary’s rough pages, and yet the simple gesture gave her a strange sense of comfort.

“He gave it to me, beneath the Tower of Babel,” Aleph said quietly, his steady voice tinged with regret. “I was wounded and couldn’t follow him up the tower. He never came back.”

“Th-then why didn’t you...?”

Perlis couldn’t go on. Her voice caught in her throat, but Aleph seemed to understand what she wanted to ask and answered on his own:

“After that incident, I knew I was too weak to avenge him, and I couldn’t face his daughter either. So I selfishly kept this diary with me... I’m sorry.”

Aleph smiled as if freed from a burden, as if the pain of his wounds no longer mattered.

“But since it ended up in your hands, maybe this is how it was always meant to be...”

A storm of emotions crashed against the reason she’d cultivated as a Blade of Babel. If this diary really belonged to her father, then Aleph hadn’t been lying. If so, had the Federation truly kept her in the dark, making her serve her father’s killer all this time?

Ivar Saikepasi... The man who’d lifted her into his arms in the icy rain... The man who’d found her a new home... Was he really the one who’d killed her father...?

Tears slipped from the corners of Perlis’s eyes, leaving her at a loss. She kept rereading the line her father had written on the first page. Why? Why did those words hurt so much to see?

Aleph touched the wound in his stomach. His bloodied hand told him how this would end, but he only smiled.

“Guess this old man’s time is up... I hope your old man won’t blame me for not giving his diary to his daughter sooner. I really was an idiot.” Aleph’s voice grew strained, but the Rock wasn’t so easily brought down. “If you can beat me... then there’s still hope...”

Suddenly, Aleph reached out with a trembling hand, took Perlis’s hand, and held it tight. Perlis didn’t resist. She only stared helplessly at the man before her as a tear slipped from the corner of her eye and caught the light.

“Ivar’s in Lodun... Find him... and confront him face-to-face...”

“But...” Perlis stared at Aleph, utterly lost. For the first time, she looked at an enemy she’d wounded in such a panic. “Y-you... How can you...”

“I’m staying here. The spark’s been lit. I can die without regrets...” Aleph staggered to his feet, bent down to pick up his double-headed spear, and planted it on the ground like a cane. “Now go. Hurry.”

Perlis stared blankly at Aleph, hesitation written all over her face.

“But...”

“Go!!!” Aleph roared. “Give that bastard Ivar my regards. Tell him we’ll settle the score in hell.”

His golden eyes fixed firmly on Perlis. A rare flicker of emotion crossed her beautiful red eyes. Perlis stood frozen for another moment, then gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, clutched the diary to her chest, and ran for the hall’s exit. Aleph watched her go and smiled with quiet acceptance.

“Edward, your daughter’s just like you... indecisive and a handful...”

......

“They... they’re retreating...”

The adjutant gazed toward the third front line. All the Academy Federation’s war machines were slowly withdrawing from the Charon Special District. The few surviving soldiers clung to life in their trenches. For a fleeting moment, it seemed as if everything had reached the best possible ending.

But when the adjutant looked up, he saw that the distant Tower of Babel had finished charging. The enormous crimson light at its summit was like a second sun rising over the Ademir Continent. Its glare was so intense that, for a moment, no one could keep their eyes open.

“Ah... So it’s coming.” Bravo-01 murmured. Maybe dying in the hall downstairs would’ve been a better end for him.

“Yes. It’s over.” The adjutant closed his eyes and slumped into his chair. “It’s over...”

His hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and a violent wave of nausea rose with them. The adjutant pressed a hand to his throat, fighting to keep from throwing up. He knew that, at the moment this glorious mission was fulfilled, he was supposed to stand tall and face it.

But death at arm’s reach was nothing like the distant possibility it had been when he chose this path. Now it hung above him, impossibly real. At a time like this, he couldn’t seem to face it all with such calm.

Had all that courage been fake?

The soldiers in the trenches raised their heads to face the fierce glare on the horizon. As they realized what was about to happen, some broke down sobbing, some vomited, and others went mad and tried to run, though there was no point.

But within the Tower of Babel’s range, all were equal.

The adjutant stared at the ground, struggling to suppress the urge to vomit. Suddenly, a familiar voice came through his earpiece:

“Hey, you’re not throwing up, are you, my adjutant?”

The adjutant jolted and hurried to his feet.

“General Aleph?”

At the entrance to the command tower, Aleph Stello emerged, unsteady on his feet. He used his double-headed spear as a cane and dragged his battered body forward.

“We’ve done enough. We really have.” Aleph gazed at the second sun rising on the horizon. Facing death, he felt nothing but peace. “We’ll become fuel, and that great matchstick on the horizon will set us alight. Then we’ll be the sparks in people’s eyes, guiding those asleep in a false peace.”

Aleph’s voice crackled through the radio like a shot of adrenaline. Something inside the adjutant loosened. He stared at the crimson orb growing larger at the edge of the horizon, and for an instant, it was as if he understood everything Aleph was feeling.

“That... that girl?” the adjutant asked. His voice no longer shook so badly. “You didn’t kill her, did you?”

“Kill her? Hahaha...” Aleph let out a ragged laugh, sounding a little worse for wear. “Her blade’s a lot sharper than her old man’s. If she hadn’t been just like him, I probably wouldn’t be here talking to you.”

“Then... she...”

“We’ll become the sparks that guide the world,” Aleph said, his voice growing heavier as life slowly drained from his body. “But she... She’ll become the raging fire that burns away all the rot in this world.”

“I believe in her. Even if those bastards at Academy kept her in the dark, she’ll choose what’s right, just like her old man.”

“After all, she’s Edward’s daughter.”

The red glow on the horizon grew brighter. The air seemed to shudder with something unstable, making everyone deeply uncomfortable. Aleph’s knees could no longer bear his weight. He stumbled and fell to one knee, but a moment later, he put all his strength into his double-headed spear and shakily pushed himself back to his feet.

How could the Rock die on his knees?

“Time to say goodbye, adjutant.” Aleph smiled calmly. In the final moments of his life, he stood tall and faced the Sky-reaching Tower that sought to rise above all mankind. “You coward. Pick a different line of work in your next life.”

“It’s been an honor to follow you, General...”

The adjutant’s voice caught in his throat. Aleph rolled his eyes. What kind of man got so sentimental?

“We grew up in the Tower of Babel’s range,” the general murmured. His trembling hands braced the double-headed spear. His golden eyes remained fixed on the Tower of Babel, filled with one last show of contempt for the usurper—

“Come on, you bastards.”

......

On a small hill outside Charon, Perlis gazed toward the distant horizon. A second sun blazed at its edge. She knew it was about to happen.

In an instant, everything in the world seemed to fall silent. The vibrations in the air stopped humming, replaced by a low rumble that seemed to press against her eardrums.

Then Perlis saw it: at the far edge of the horizon, the attack from the Sky-reaching Tower—

“Vmmmm—”

A massive supernova erupted in an instant. A gigantic red beam, as if capable of cleaving through space and time, hurtled from the edge of the horizon. The next second, the enormous crimson beam of destruction engulfed all of Charon—

“BOOOOM—”

The earth split. The trees and grass shook. Before Perlis’s eyes, the entire Charon Special District was swallowed by red light in an instant. The walls, the houses, even the outline of the command tower—all vanished beneath that searing crimson glare.

Seen from above, it would’ve been a vision of hell enough to drive anyone insane.

“BOOOOM—”

The crimson light melted everything. Then came a violent shockwave. Though Perlis was already far from the Charon Special District, the blast nearly knocked her off her feet and onto the grass. With the Charon Special District as its epicenter, the shockwave ravaged the entire plain. Countless trees were uprooted, and their wreckage, mixed with melted fragments of the Charon Iron Curtain, left the plain in ruins.

“So this is...” Perlis stared blankly at the sight before her. The beam looked like a giant sword piercing the heavens and earth, connecting the Tower of Babel to the Charon Special District. “The Tower of Babel...”

Perlis had lived in the Academy Federation for many years. She’d looked up at the legendary Sky-reaching Tower from close by countless times. But just like everyone else, this was the first time she’d witnessed the Tower of Babel’s power to destroy.

In an instant, every doubt that had circled her mind was cleared away. Why had Academy defeated the four-nation alliance during the Academy War? Why was the Tower of Babel in the Dark Nursery Rhyme so dark and terrifying? Why had Aleph started this rebellion?

The Tower of Babel’s terrifying power had gradually faded into the river of time. This false peace had lasted far too long.

Academy’s transport planes and troops had already withdrawn. Pollyce had switched off the radio in her ear long ago, vanishing completely from the Academy Federation’s view.

Had Aleph really told her the whole truth? Was she truly just a pawn, toyed with by Academy? After countless powerful emotions had burned away the doubts in her heart, Pollyce had only one goal left: to uncover the truth behind it all.

Ivar or Academy—she had a score to settle with both, and she’d take her time doing it.

The lies told in that freezing rain demanded an explanation.

When the smoke cleared, the plain before her had become a wasteland of scorched earth, just like every land the Tower of Babel had swept across. Charon Special District had been reduced to ashes, along with every warrior who had sparked the Charon Revolution.

Beneath the Tower of Babel, all were equal.

Pollyce clenched her trembling hands, closed her eyes, and forced herself to take deep breaths, trying to steady her breathing.

Now wasn’t the time to panic. She had to stay calm.

Pollyce turned around. The Mountain of Myriad Blades loomed before her, range upon range of peaks blotting out the sky.

On the horizon at the continent’s far north, the Dibite Alliance waited in silence.

Go to Lodun. Find Ivar. Confront him somewhere outside the Federation. This would be where it all began.

Pollyce slowly opened her eyes, steadied her slightly trembling legs, and strode forward with determination.

...END...