Wings of Icarus (6)
Icarus was a free man.
Nothing bound him. He never stayed in one place, and he always traveled the world as he pleased.
"Daedalus."
"What is it now, Icarus."
"That island out in the middle of the sea, doesn't it look strange? Want to go check it out?"
"What? How are we supposed to cross the Great Lake?"
"We'll... figure it out. Sohow."
A man with no plan.
A lunatic who acted first and thought about consequences later.
"Daaaaaedaluuuus!"
"Fuck!"
"Hahahahaha, fly, fly!"
Sotis he got by with Daedalus's help, and sotis with absurd flashes of wit. However it happened, he broke through every obstacle. Icarus always sailed in freedom.
"I'm going to rob that corrupt noble's vault."
"What? That's a cri, Icarus."
"But it's fun, right?"
"This is driving insane."
The two of them stirred up trouble all across the continent.
"Catch those bastards!"
"My lord? Those two are both at least Sword Seeker class powerhouses. One is a candidate to beco the next Grand Archmage, and the other holds the Empire-certified title of Master Craftsman..."
"Fuck!"
They caused big and small incidents and made their nas known across the land. Their fa did not stop at the continent. Icarus suddenly went out to the Outland and started gaining notoriety by hunting demons and witches trying to sprout again in the places Arthur had trampled.
"The man who flew with the princess of the Kingdom of Kalian."
"In her final mont, the princess closed her eyes with a smile."
"In response, the King of Kalian promised Icarus unlimited support..."
Thus, he was called the benefactor of Kalian.
"The city hero who saved the floating city, Bersia."
"The birth of the aerial city, Bersia."
"Savior of the free city Pavane. He swept away the magical beasts surging toward the city in a single blow and saved it."
"Savior of the port city Bershchia."
Thus, he was called the savior of Bersia, Pavane, and Bershchia.
"He killed a demon that crossed the Outland boundary."
"A madman, but a hero."
"Hero or delusional fool?"
"What is certain is that he saved countless people."
"A new hero."
Thus, he was called a new hero.
"The wind is good."
The strangest oddball of them all. A reckless maniac with no brakes.
People called him all sorts of ridiculous nas, but no one denied this one truth. Icarus was the hero who represented that era.
Arthur had ended the age of chaos.
Then the age of man began.
In that newly opened age of man, Icarus was the first hero to appear. After Arthur's legend ca to a close, the first star to rise was Icarus's, and he was also the first to beco famous enough for his na to spread across the whole continent.
He was the symbol that a new era had begun.
Not lofty and noble like Arthur... but still impossible to hate, a cheerful and playful hero.
"Let's go, Daedalus!"
Icarus was free.
"The sky is waiting for us!"
And Daedalus had thought he would stay free forever.
"..."
"Icarus."
"..."
"Get a grip, Icarus. This isn't your fault. This did not happen because you did sothing wrong."
That journey cracked on the day Icarus reached Transcendence. Many Transcendents wanted to keep in check an Icarus who was on the verge of it, and one of them attacked him.
A long, brutal battle followed.
At the end of that battle, Icarus defeated the Transcendent and stepped into Transcendence himself. He had won, but he could not accept it as a victory.
"Ah..."
Because one entire city had been annihilated in the aftermath.
That was what battles between Transcendents were.
Icarus stood in the city reduced to ashes, his expression rigid. A few children who had barely survived stared at him.
Those children's gaze.
Those hollow eyes.
He could not bring himself to turn away. Icarus, who had always looked ahead, always looked only to the high sky, looked back for the first ti. Maybe, for the first ti, he looked down. His eyes trembled.
That day was the beginning.
That day was the beginning of everything.
2.
Icarus tried to take responsibility for the children.
He built an orphanage for them, and often visited to spend ti with them. Up to that point, Daedalus thought things were still all right.
The problem ca after.
Icarus was an adventurer and a traveler.
He was away often, and people jealous of him burned the orphanage down. Icarus rushed back from his trip, only to find ruins and ash.
"..."
The children who had said, When I grow up, I want to go on an adventure with you, teacher, lay there in rows of corpses. They had lost their parents and hotown, and now they had lost their lives too.
Icarus hunted down the arsonists and killed them.
He took the few surviving children and traveled with them. Then he made a decision. He would build a ho for them himself.
"Hey, my friend!"
Icarus found the oldest whale and smiled.
"I told you I'd keep my promise."
Ocean of All Phenona.
To Icarus, the world was one sea. A boundless sea he could sail forever. The mont Icarus, now a Transcendent, opened his stage, everything beca sea.
"It's ti to swim through the sky, my friend."
Icarus kept his promise. The oldest whale did not turn away from his sincerity. The whale gladly beca his ship and began migrating into the sky with its children.
Hundreds of thousands of whales rose into the sky.
Leaving the Great Lake, they climbed into the blue heavens.
On the whales' backs stood rows of small houses Icarus had built, hos for the children. Now those children no longer had to fear threats. No sane person would attack whales floating in the sky.
"...Ah."
There were no such humans.
"Damn it."
But there were Transcendents.
There were several battles.
None were worth rembering. None were pleasant. None were true victories. After those battles, Icarus began to change.
"..."
Icarus, who once flew freely, caring about nothing, looking only at the sky.
"Daedalus."
"Speak."
"I have a favor."
"What is it this ti."
"Build a wall. One that can never be broken. One that can endure even battles between Transcendents..."
"That's a hard request."
"Impossible?"
"No. Not impossible."
At so point, he stopped looking at the sky and started looking at the ground.
He began walking while looking behind him, not ahead.
It had started with only a few orphans, but the fence Icarus built to protect ten children began to fill with more and more people.
"Lord Icarus."
"Icarus."
"Hero."
"Savior of the city."
"Icarus..."
"You are the one..."
Icarus was a hero. There are many words to describe a hero, but in the end they are similar. A hero, ultimately, is soone who takes responsibility.
As a young man, Icarus flew through the sky to his heart's content.
He ran where he pleased, never looking back.
But when he got older and looked back, abandoned people were there. If he had ignored them all, maybe it would have been different. But from the mont he took in those children, Icarus could no longer turn away.
"Icarus."
"Oh, Daedalus."
"When is your next trip?"
"Not sure. Give a little ti. I need to secure housing for these kids first... Ah, Daedalus? Could you build one more building over there?"
"...Yeah. Fine."
Countless people moved onto the whales.
Icarus took in children from the trash city where he was born, took in abandoned children, and as if determined to take responsibility for everyone he had saved, moved them one by one onto the whales' backs.
In that process, people began to follow him. Those drawn to Icarus's beliefs and values joined him.
As people gathered, they beca a group.
As groups gathered, they beca a city.
As cities gathered, they beca a nation.
Now Icarus was no longer just one man. What began as an orphanage had beco a country. From the highest point atop the oldest whale, Icarus looked down at the sky whales.
"Helios sounds good."
"What is that."
"The na of this country."
Helios.
An ancient word aning the sun.
"I sohow ended up making a whole nation."
"So it seems."
"Thanks to you, Daedalus. Or should I call you Grand Duke Daedalus now?"
"Call whatever you want."
Icarus founded a nation, created titles, divided classes, and split up districts to govern it.
"So when is your next trip?"
"I'll go once the country settles down. I can't leave my post right now."
Icarus postponed his journey.
"The next trip."
"Wait just a little longer, Daedalus."
He postponed it again and again.
Telling himself the country needed him.
"..."
"Ah, Grand Duke, you're here? It's been a while since I've seen your face. I've been so busy lately."
One day, Daedalus realized it.
His closest friend, the freest adventurer in the world, was no longer there. The one standing in front of him was not Icarus the adventurer and explorer.
He was a king.
A ruler responsible for a nation.
A ruler could not be free. He had too much to bear and could not leave his post. From that day on, Daedalus stopped visiting Icarus.
Ti passed.
It passed, and passed again.
Icarus, who had once flown free and unbound by anything, now had his feet chained by the nation he built with his own hands. He could no longer fly in the sky. A bird that built a nest had stopped flying and settled down.
Icarus no longer looked up at the sky.
The sky nation, Helios.
The sun lted Icarus's wings.
3.
Najin walked.
As he moved, he watched Icarus.
The Icarus who had always smiled with ease, pointed to the sky, and soared was gone. The Icarus who once wore light clothes now wore garnts that projected a king's authority, and he began adorning himself with ornants.
The face once full of laughter had hardened.
It had beco the face of a dignified, stern sovereign.
To Najin, all of it looked like chains. Countless chains were binding Icarus's body.
"..."
Najin walked in silence.
Daedalus stayed with his old friend in silence.
He hoped that one day his friend would fly again. He believed that once the nation stabilized, Icarus would leave on another journey. Daedalus never doubted that Icarus would once again fly freely through the sky and hang a star in the heights.
No such miracle ever ca.
But Najin knew.
He knew what would unfold after this.
"Sky Dictator, Heaven-Wandering Star."
"The Great War."
"Division."
"And a grand downfall."
It was a famous event recorded even in the Empire's history books. Helios, the nation built in the sky, kept expanding and clashing with many countries.
It was still an era before flight magic and magic towers had developed, so the concept of air superiority did not exist yet. Even so, plenty of rulers resented whales passing over their heads.
Those rulers ford an alliance. Several demons slipped into that alliance and fueled the conflict. Many Transcendents who had long envied Icarus joined as well, and the coalition took shape.
...It was a chaotic age.
Peace had co after the end of Arthur's story that crossed the world, but the world where the Empire had not yet taken firm root was still unstable. There was no power strong enough to contain a major war if one broke out.
And war broke out.
And Icarus, who had not moved, moved. The hero called Icarus had beco a ruler, and a dictator. He rose from his throne.
"Icarus."
"Ah, Grand Duke."
"It would be better not to go. If you step in, this will grow beyond control."
"I know."
"Then why go?"
"Well."
Icarus looked down at the land and said:
"Because I have to protect my country."
The boy who dread beca a hero.
The hero beca a leader who built his own power.
Then contradiction was born.
A boy and a hero can dream the sa dream, but a leader can never live the sa way they do.
"So I have to go."
Because a leader must trample others to protect what is his. The dictator who had once been a hero unleashed his power. A war among humans drew in Transcendents and expanded into battles between them.
The Great War erupted.
Countless people died.
The war dragged on for years. For Icarus, a Transcendent, years and even decades of war were possible. For ordinary humans, they were not. Different opinions began to spread, and the nation began to split.
"..."
Najin, Daedalus, kept walking.
The citizens of Helios began shouting at one another. So shouted that this war had to end, that their king had gone mad.
Others shouted back that no, the king was always right, had they forgotten the grace they had received from him, the path the king took was their path as well.
Then fighting broke out.
Conflict between factions, conflict between camps, and conflict that drew in outside forces kept growing.
Thud.
A horrific scene unfolded as citizens stabbed and killed each other. Icarus watched the fighting inside his own fence in silence. Blood began to flow through the castle garden. Screams echoed inside and outside the castle.
Thud.
Daedalus crossed the chaos and reached the top floor of the ancient castle. Icarus was there.
"Icarus."
"Grand Duke."
"I'm not a Grand Duke."
"Then what are you?"
"I'm your friend, Daedalus. Just a foul-tempered inventor who can swing a hamr."
"Ah, true enough."
Icarus laughed weakly.
Daedalus asked:
"Who are you, Icarus?"
"The king of Helios."
"I'll ask again. Who are you?"
"..."
"Icarus."
"Yeah."
The aged hero weakly lifted his hand.
"I used to be a hero. I used to be an adventurer."
His stars were crumbling.
The stars of adventure and voyage could not be satisfied with the life he lived now. The erosion that began from those two stars had spread through his whole body.
"I can barely rember that ti now."
"Is that so."
"It was fun, though."
"Do you miss it?"
"I do. Very much."
Daedalus gave a dry laugh.
A ball of thread was in his hand. As he walked up here, Daedalus had unwound it, as if marking the only path through a labyrinth.
"Take it."
With a flick, Daedalus threw the thread to Icarus. The mont he caught it, Icarus could not help but smile.
"A final gift."
"Yeah."
It was Daedalus's last invention.
"Icarus."
Looking at his oldest friend, Daedalus shrugged. His whole body was pierced with spears and blades from forcing his way up through the chaos.
"The next journey..."
He was not given ti to finish his last words. The rebels who had chased Daedalus, along with a Transcendent who had infiltrated the nation with them, cut off his head. That was how Daedalus t his death.
The adventurer Icarus's only companion died.
The mont Icarus saw his only friend's head roll across the floor, he let go of himself.
Icarus's stars shattered.
The erosion of a ten-star Transcendent was like a natural disaster. The sky convulsed, and countless cities built on the backs of sky whales vanished without a trace. What he had built with his own hands, Icarus destroyed with his own hands.
Countless humans died, and countless stars fell.
Only one ancient castle remained.
Only the first ancient castle Daedalus had designed, one that could endure even a Transcendent's assault, survived.
Thud.
Najin stepped out of the final mory. Looking down, he saw a long thread trailing under his feet. Following that thread, Najin moved forward. He pushed open a tightly sealed iron door.
Creeeeak...
With the sound of old hinges, the top-floor door opened. It was the audience chamber at the highest floor of the ancient castle, where the throne sat.
A man was there.
Chains were wrapped around the man seated on the throne, and those chains spread across the entire audience hall. Najin stopped in front of the chains stretched like a spiderweb.
"Icarus."
Najin, or perhaps Daedalus, said:
"When is the next journey?"
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