CHAPTER 187
A GUARDIAN'S SIN
Waves crashed against the side of the ship.
WHOOOOMMMM!
The sky was still filled with cosmic eyes.
But to Arga, it all suddenly felt distant.
There was only one image occupying his mind—
Kai's sword piercing the back of the woman in white armor.
Her final gaze.
And the face of a younger Kai, shattered by tears.
Arga rose from the platform, his breathing heavy.
Sinta caught his arm.
"What did you see?"
Arga didn't answer.
He strode toward the main deck, his footsteps hard and deliberate.
His anger was even harder.
The others turned as he approached.
Bimo immediately sensed that something was terribly wrong.
"Okay… that look on your face tells me none of us are getting any sleep tonight."
Arga stopped directly in front of Kai.
The sea wind swept between them.
Kai didn't move.
He made no attempt to defend himself.
Arga gripped the MBG Lunchbox so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"I saw everything."
Silence fell.
Farhan watched from a distance.
Lila covered her mouth.
Dika stiffened.
Sinta arrived a few steps behind Arga.
Arga continued, his voice trembling.
"The war from thousands of years ago."
"Terra Ultima sealing itself away."
"And you…"
He swallowed the anger threatening to explode inside him.
"…you stabbed the woman standing beside you."
Bimo looked at Kai.
"Kai…"
Kai closed his eyes briefly.
Then opened them again.
He didn't deny it.
"Yes."
That single word carried more weight than the storm itself.
Arga stepped closer.
"Who was she?"
Kai gazed out at the sea.
"Her name was Elyra."
The wind turned cold.
"She was the leader of the Order of Ancient Guardians."
He paused.
"And the person I trusted most."
Lila whispered, barely able to believe what she was hearing.
"Then why?"
Kai clenched his fists.
Even after thousands of years, the answer still hurt.
"Because I chose the world…"
"…and sacrificed her."
Everyone fell silent.
Farhan frowned.
"That doesn't make sense."
Kai turned toward him.
"Two Guardians could seal Terra Ultima away and force it into slumber. But the world's wounds would never fully heal."
His gaze shifted toward the sky.
"The planet would remain unstable. The same catastrophe would return every few centuries."
Arga held his breath.
"And if one Guardian became the living core of the seal?"
Kai slowly nodded.
"The world's wounds would finally begin to heal. Its balance could be restored."
Bimo stared at him in disbelief.
"So you made her the sacrifice?"
Kai didn't try to defend himself.
"Yes."
Sinta looked at him, her eyes glistening with tears.
"You killed your own friend."
Kai shook his head.
His voice broke for the first time.
"No."
He struggled to draw a breath.
"I destroyed the best part of myself."
A wave slammed against the ship harder than before.
As though the ocean itself had heard his confession.
Arga was still angry.
But now, his anger was tangled with something else.
Pain.
"What about all the people who died because of you?"
Kai met his gaze.
"I sealed it too late."
Old memories flickered in his eyes.
Cities sinking beneath the waves.
Children consumed by fire.
The sky collapsing.
Screams that seemed to go on forever.
"Millions died before we finally brought the war to an end."
He drew a trembling breath.
"And some of them died… because I hesitated."
No one spoke.
There were no words that could possibly be enough.
Kai continued.
"I've lived far too long with only one purpose."
He looked directly at Arga.
"To wait for a chance to make things right."
Arga stared back at him, his expression hard.
"So I'm just a tool for your redemption?"
"No."
Kai's answer came instantly.
There was nothing cold or composed about it.
Only emotions he had buried for far too long.
"I began protecting you because I was drowning in guilt."
He stepped closer.
"But I stayed because of who you are."
Arga froze.
Kai held his gaze.
"You make choices I could never bring myself to make."
"You help others without calculating what it might cost you."
"You still trust people, even after I've long since forgotten how."
He paused, his voice growing quieter.
"You remind me… that this world is still worth saving."
Bimo turned away, pretending to look at the ocean.
Dika remained silent, his jaw clenched.
Lila wiped away her tears.
Farhan lowered his head.
Sinta looked at Kai differently now.
Not as the mysterious figure who always seemed to know more than everyone else.
But as someone who had spent far too long carrying his own personal hell.
Then Kai did something none of them had ever imagined.
He knelt before Arga.
An ancient Guardian.
A being who had lived for thousands of years.
Kneeling on the deck of a ruined ship.
"If you hate me after this…"
He lowered his head.
"…I will accept it."
"If you want me to leave…"
"…then I will go."
He paused before slowly raising his head.
His golden eyes trembled.
"But until my final breath…"
"…I will keep protecting you."
Suddenly, the sky pulsed.
Every cosmic eye opened at once.
The ocean roared.
The MBG Lunchbox in Arga's hand blazed with light.
Then a voice echoed inside the minds of everyone aboard the ship—
cold.
Ancient.
And hungry.
"Redemption…"
The largest rift in the sky began to widen.
The voice continued—
"…is always paid for in blood."