Two stars shone atop the fortress.

Najin's star was a nova, only recently risen. Still untarnished, it scattered pure white light. Schlein's, by contrast, was an ancient star, worn with age. That eroded star could not shine as Najin's did.

If a star was something that gave off its own light, then what Schlein possessed could no longer be called a star. But if a star was simply something that shone...

Then it was unquestionably a star.

Schlein accepted the light Najin's star produced. If he could not shine on his own, he need only borrow someone else's light. Even an old, crumbling star could reflect starlight.

And so, two stars shone.

Schlein raised his sword beside his head, holding it level. Bending his knees, he steadied his breathing. This was the technique he trusted most, the one with which he had cut down countless foes. In other words, it was the best he had to offer.

One's best deserved the best in return.

Najin readily took his stance. At the sight of it, Schlein could not help laughing.

"Atanga!"

Schlein cried out. He could not have held it back. Atanga—a name he had missed so dearly. A smile settled on his lips. So, Atanga, was it? Wasn't this far too worthy an opponent to grace a broken knight's final moments?

But Najin extended his right foot straight forward. This was not the sword that punished knights, but Atanga's sword for facing a worthy rival. At that sight, Schlein could no longer even laugh.

Really. To go this far...

Their gazes met. They needed no signal, much less any words. Almost simultaneously, they kicked off the ground. The distance closed in an instant, each watching only the sword in the other's hands.

Both Najin and Schlein were Sword Seekers.

But they had not reached the same level.

Schlein might have fallen below Najin while surrendering his body to instinct, but when he swung his sword of his own will, he was by no means inferior. He was a warrior who had already undergone Sprouting.

Sprouting—the emergence of a shoot.

A Sword Master suffused the surrounding area with their mental image, establishing a domain, while a Sword Seeker imbued their sword aura with that image. What, then, could a warrior do after taking one step further and undergoing Sprouting? Schlein demonstrated the answer.

His sword aura blazed fiercely. It was modeled on the starfire. Within his mental image stood the eternally burning starfire. He poured that landscape into his sword aura and swung.

The world turned red along his sword's path. His aura had merely imitated its shape, yet whenever his sword advanced, the crackle of flames rang out. Where his sword passed, starfire remained, burning.

He could not suffuse the entire area with his mental image as a Sword Master could, but he could at least cause it to sprout wherever his sword passed. That was the level of a warrior who had undergone Sprouting.

It had yet to flower, much less reach full bloom, but the sprouting mental image had taken root in the world. The flames burning there were the landscape Schlein had been unable to relinquish, even as he eroded.

["I don't know why we protect it either."]

A voice sounded in his ears.

["It isn't a sacred fire. There's no star dwelling in it. It's just ordinary fire."]

["Then why do we protect it?"]

["Because people regard it as the starfire."]

["Because it's the pride of the Order of the Starfire Guardians."]

Reflecting on that conversation over drinks, on the life he had lived, Schlein swung his sword. The fire he had guarded for over two hundred years swept across the fortress summit.

His sword aura swallowed everything: the corpses strewn all around, their foul stench, the starfire that burned as it consumed them, and the brazier that held it.

But there was something the fire could not swallow.

SHHHHRAAASH!

A flashing star swept aside the flames surging like waves. Cutting through those fiery waves, the star approached Schlein. Yes, that was how it should be. As though he had known it would happen, Schlein swung again.

"Come!"

He shouted, intoxicated by past glory.

Recalling his forgotten pride, he swung his sword. As long as he swung, as long as starfire rippled at his blade's tip, he could be a knight.

Of course, he knew.

He was no longer a knight.

This was only a dream that would not last even a single night. Before long, he would have to wake. And when he did, a cruel reality would be waiting. He knew all of that. But what did it matter?

This was the first freedom he had felt in two hundred years. He would not let such paltry feelings spoil it.

'Ah...'

Schlein groaned.

It was coming. Reality approached, cleaving the fire. Najin finally burst through the waves of flame. Soot covered his body, but the boy's eyes were clear.

CLAAANG!

Constellations and fire collided and scattered. Amid the dispersing sword aura, blade clashed against blade. Najin's eyes widened. How could they not? Half of Schlein's body was burning away.

Najin had never seen someone's own mental image harm them before. Why on earth? Before long, he understood.

To Schlein, the starfire was a flame that burned away all that was wrong. Schlein himself was no exception. As the parts of him that had become Lost burned away, his body grew lighter. He swung his sword, pressing the bewildered Najin as though to say he had no time to worry about that.

Sword struck sword.

Sword aura collided with sword aura, repelling each other.

They traded several exchanges. Najin laughed incredulously as he met Schlein's sword. Rather than merely block, he counterattacked, facing Schlein head-on.

'I won't accept a victory by default, even if you offer it.'

'Is that so?'

'My sword will be faster than the fire burning you to death.'

He would settle this before that body burned away completely and could no longer swing a sword. Najin could win simply by stalling, but he had no interest in such a paltry victory. He attacked Schlein even more aggressively.

His sword aura was weaker, and he could not wield it as deftly as his opponent. But that was no reason for Najin to fall behind.

He only had to make up for what he lacked.

With what? Split-second judgment, technique, and Atanga's sword. With each exchange, Najin moved forward. Sweeping aside the fire, he advanced without cease.

CLANG!

Najin's sword knocked Schlein's aside. At last, he shattered Schlein's technique head-on and took another step forward. He put an end to the exchange that had seemed as though it would last forever.

SHICK.

Najin's sword cut Schlein.

2.

Schlein dropped his sword with a clatter.

He ran his hand over the long sword wound stretching from his shoulder to his heart.

His body began to erode rapidly.

But this was different from becoming Lost. What was coming for him now was death. Eternal death, met as his entire body crumbled away. It was a rest that Schlein ordinarily could never have obtained.

An eternal rest he could not attain on his own, without another star's help.

Facing his approaching death, Schlein let out a long breath. It was time to wake from the dream. He looked around with a human eye, not the eye of the Lost that had burned away. There lay the reality he had always refused to face.

Though a wave of fire had swept through, corpses that had not yet turned to ash still filled the place. A foul stench rose from the bodies whose hearts had been stolen. All of it was a horror of Schlein's own making.

Awake from his dream, Schlein groaned.

Evidence no words could excuse lay before his eyes. The price of losing himself in that brief dream was heavy. He suffered as he faced the reality he could no longer ignore.

But precisely because of that,

Schlein could choose.

He looked at Najin, and Najin looked back. Despite his pain, Schlein's expression was one of relief.

"Thank you," Schlein said.

"For letting me make the choice I've put off."

He grasped the sword he had dropped.

Then he touched it to the fire burning his body. Imbued with starfire, the blade blazed. Leading the burning flames with him, Schlein leaped down from the ancient fortress.

Najin followed him down.

The Lost whom the Helmeted Knight had knocked aside lay scattered there. Others were still charging at him. But the moment Schlein stood before them, every one of them stopped moving.

They looked at the sword in Schlein's hand.

The moment they faced the starfire burning on his blade, they became knights rather than the Lost. Their rusted armor clanked loudly. They formed ranks and stood straight before Schlein.

The Helmeted Knight lowered the spear with which he had been fighting the Lost. For a brief moment, his gaze met Schlein's. Schlein's eye widened, then he smiled bitterly.

"We are the Order of the Starfire Guardians!" he cried.

"Knights who guard the starfire and burn alongside it."

Schlein made the choice he had put off all this time.

Unable to let his comrades go, he had postponed ending their unfinished journey again and again. But now he had to bring it to a close.

"Let us go forward together."

The time had come to let them go.

Perhaps to let himself go, too.

Squeezing out the last of his strength, Schlein swung his sword. The starfire bursting from it swallowed the knights. It burned their bodies, blazing fiercely. The starfire was not atop the fortress. The fire burning before their eyes now was the true starfire.

Of course, it might have been a fire that had nothing whatsoever to do with stars. Perhaps it was merely an ordinary fire that could go out at any time, with nothing particularly sacred about it.

But that did not matter.

What mattered was that those gathered here regarded it as the starfire.

The knights willingly accepted the fire. Making kindling of themselves, they kindled one final blaze. As it consumed the starlight remaining in their bodies and burned them away, platinum-colored particles leaped from the flames. The last fire they kindled was unmistakably starfire.

Najin and the Helmeted Knight silently watched the knights turn to ash.

That was the end of the Order of the Starfire Guardians.

Not every moment of their lives would have been beautiful, but the flames they kindled at the end were.

3.

Schlein's corpse, which had burned fiercely to the very end, collapsed without a sound. Amid the ashes remained only the sword he had held all his life.

"..."

The Helmeted Knight retrieved the sword from the ashes. Then he planted it upright in the ground. It was an improvised sword grave. After briefly bowing his head before it, he let out a long breath.

"In the Outer Lands, people eat people," he said.

He was continuing the conversation they had had before arriving at the fortress.

"People eat human hearts to survive. Some say honor and pride should come before survival, but in the Outer Lands, you have to survive to preserve them."

The Helmeted Knight turned to Najin.

"Death cannot bring you rest here. If you don't want to become Lost, you must value your life."

"Can't you die permanently if your heart is taken?"

"That's half right and half wrong."

He started walking. Roaming the fortress as though searching for something, he continued.

"The more stars people possess and the higher the level they reach, the more monstrous they become. Even stripped of their hearts and stars, they may keep moving until every last bit of starlight in their bodies runs out. They become beasts that crave nothing but starlight. If they're lucky enough to consume some, that life lasts even longer."

But could that really be called life?

The Lost, bereft of self, moving only in pursuit of stars. Come to think of it, Najin thought he had seen Lost moving even without their hearts.

"So if you encounter one that moves without a heart, you should assume it's quite strong. It will have reached a high level during its life."

"I see."

"Yes. Schlein was the same. That fellow once had as many as four stars. He's lost them all and grown weaker now... but he was once a fairly powerful knight. That's why he couldn't choose death on his own."

Schlein had been unable even to choose his own death. Even if he pierced his heart, he would surely become Lost.

"In the end, he chose to survive. If he became Lost too, then every member of the Order of the Starfire Guardians would be Lost. He couldn't bear to see that."

"So..."

"Yes, that's why he hunted humans. He wanted to protect his order's pride, even if he had to cast aside his own honor and pride. A foolish thing to do. The moment their commander made that choice, they became no different from a band of Lost."

The Helmeted Knight searched the fortress's interior.

Finding something, he reached out.

"What do you think of that choice? Was it right? Wrong? Did it deserve condemnation? Was Schlein a sinner?"

"..."

Najin remained silent. To be honest, he did not know. Schlein had certainly done things deserving condemnation. But it was difficult to explain by drawing a clean line between good and evil. At least, that was how Najin felt.

"You don't have to give an answer. Just remember that people like this exist in the Outer Lands. See and experience as many different things as you can, and wrestle with them. That is the path to transcendence."

The Helmeted Knight chuckled and patted Najin's back. Then he pulled something from a chest inside the fortress. What emerged in his hand was a banner.

The battle standard of the Order of the Starfire Guardians.

Unfurling it, he said,

"Still, thanks to you, Schlein was able to meet his death. At least at the end, he could choose as a knight."

"Thanks to me?"

"A pure white star. Only a radiant, uneroded star can give an eroded star the gift of death. A glorious death. Though I don't know why."

The Helmeted Knight said he did not know the reason, but someone beside Najin did.

—Stars also symbolize the natural order. By their nature, stars resist things that defy the world's rules, such as Mysteries, demons, and witches. And the Lost, who cannot meet a proper death, are also beings that defy the natural order.

Thus, a pure star could grant the Lost a complete death. But, Merlin said:

—Stars take on the nature of their owners. Just as demons and witches can possess stars, those stars become colored by their owners. Then they lose their purity.

From the moment they lost their purity, stars did not resist the natural order. They were reduced to nothing more than a means of defining the world however their owners pleased.

—My stars are like that, and so are most others. Even if they start out pure, as they erode or their owners gain more stars, their sense of self grows stronger, drawing them away from the essence of stars.

There was exactly one exception.

Arthur had retained that essence even after obtaining thirteen stars. Whether Najin could do the same remained unknown, but his recently risen star was pure.

"It's a paradox," the Helmeted Knight said.

"Because their stars have eroded and become tainted, they want to end their lives. But paradoxically, because they've lost their radiance, they can no longer do so. A complete death requires radiant starlight."

He looked at Najin.

"I wondered when I first saw you, but it seems your star really does still retain its purity. Well, you can't have had it long. I hope you keep that purity for a long time. Few things are as precious in the Outer Lands."

With those words, he knelt on one knee before the Order of the Starfire Guardians' banner. Bowing his head slightly, he spoke in a solemn voice.

"The Order of the Starfire Guardians. The order that defended the Rohast domain and guarded the starfire. They did not abandon their duty, even at the end."

It was a eulogy.

A eulogy recited for the Order of the Starfire Guardians.

"Though they failed to protect their domain, they did not turn away from their responsibility. They ventured into the Outer Lands. They did not advance because they could not retreat. They simply chose to advance. They chose to struggle for eternity, and thus fulfill their responsibility."

The Helmeted Knight recited the knights' names from the roll wrapped within the banner. Krenkel, Kallias, Torres, Selache, Schultz, Yubel, Karlsen... and Schlein.

"In their final moments, they were knights."

May they find rest.

With those words, the Helmeted Knight draped the Order of the Starfire Guardians' battle standard over himself. Only then did Najin realize that what the knight wore was not rags.

Those worn scraps of cloth that had looked like rags—

Every one was a knightly order's battle standard.

The banner of the Order of the Starfire Guardians joined the many others. As the Helmeted Knight rose, the banners draped over him fluttered in the wind.

"Let us go."

Were those words meant for Najin, or for the banners draped over his body?

Probably both.

Bound to the Helmeted Knight's body, the banners that had lost their masters continued their journey.