"No!" Valtos gasped, his voice cracking with sudden, desperate panic.
He threw himself completely forward, prostrating himself upon the cold white stone. He pressed his forehead against the floor, his hands gripping the smooth tiles as if the sanctuary itself were trying to pull him away.
"No, Lord Licht, never!" Valtos pleaded, his clinical, professional detachment completely shattering. "I could never have any doubt in our cause! The Eye of the Midnight Sun is my life. You are the light that guides me. I despise the Clover Kingdom and its corrupt nobility with every fiber of my being. I will gladly give my life to see the Royal Capital turned to ash in your name!"
He lifted his head just enough to look up at the radiant figure, his dark eyes wide and pleading beneath his mask.
"My faith is absolute, Master," Valtos swore, his voice trembling with fervor. "But the methods... the methods for the cause are..." He swallowed hard, struggling to find the words that wouldn't sound like treason. "It is merely Rades's vanguard. The slaughter of the weak, the peasants who hold no power, while the true monsters of this kingdom feast in their castles... It feels... undisciplined. It feels beneath the divine retribution you have promised us."
Licht watched the desperate, prostrate man for a long, quiet moment. The sorrow in his golden eyes slowly shifted back into that warm, enveloping compassion.
He stepped forward, his bare feet completely silent against the stone. He reached down and gently placed a hand upon the crown of Valtos's head. The touch was electric, sending a soothing, deeply calming pulse of pure mana straight into Valtos's turbulent mind.
"Rise, Valtos," Licht commanded gently. "Do not cower in the light. We are brethren, not master and slave."
Valtos slowly pushed himself back up to a kneeling position, his breathing ragged, his eyes fixed on the golden hem of Licht's robes.
"Your heart is troubled by the suffering of the weak," Licht said, his voice a soothing balm. He began to pace slowly around the kneeling spatial mage, his hands clasped behind his back. "That is not a weakness, Valtos. It is proof that you are not like the arrogant royals of the Clover Kingdom. You possess empathy. You possess an understanding of pain, because you have felt it yourself."
Licht paused, looking up toward the ancient stone tablet of the sefirot, his expression turning distant and grand.
"But you must remember the true purpose of the Eye of the Midnight Sun," Licht proclaimed, his voice growing richer, filling the sanctuary with an almost hypnotic resonance. "We are not merely a band of rebels. We are not just seeking to punish a few corrupt barons or dismantle a single generation of nobility. We are the architects of a new dawn."
Licht turned back to face Valtos, his arms spreading wide, gesturing to the brilliant, empty space of the sanctuary around them.
"Look at the world above us, Valtos," Licht urged, his tone laced with a beautiful, righteous sorrow. "Look at the Clover Kingdom. It is a land built on a foundation of lies, theft, and unspeakable cruelty. The royals and the nobles sit upon thrones of gold, hoarding the world's mana, while those they deem 'lesser' are left to starve in the dirt. If you are born without immense magical power, you are nothing. If your magic is deemed unnatural or dangerous, you are banished, hunted, and treated as a monster."
Licht walked closer, his golden eyes shining with an intoxicating sincerity.
"You know this truth," Licht said softly. "Rades knows this truth. Sally, Vetto, Fana... everyone who has joined our family has been scarred by the unforgiving, prejudiced blade of this society. The Clover Kingdom does not nurture its people; it consumes them. It is a diseased, rotting tree that poisons the very soil it grows in."
Valtos nodded slowly, completely captivated by the words. This was the gospel that had won his heart. This was the truth he had dedicated his life to.
"Our aim is not just destruction, my loyal friend," Licht continued, his voice swelling with magnificent promise. "Our aim is salvation. We will overthrow this corrupt kingdom, yes. We will tear down the high walls of the noble realm and shatter their prejudiced hierarchy. But from those ashes, we will create a new world. A perfect, equitable world where those who have been abandoned, discriminated against, and broken by society can finally thrive."
Licht knelt down so that he was eye-level with Valtos. The proximity was overwhelming. The sheer, divine presence of the man was like staring directly into the sun, yet Valtos couldn't look away.
"We are fighting for a future without pain," Licht whispered, his voice trembling with emotion. "And I promise you, Valtos... I promise all of my faithful followers... that your suffering in this dark, wretched era will not be in vain. Through your efforts, through your sacrifices, you will be rewarded beyond your wildest imaginations. When the dawn finally breaks, you will all be reborn."
Licht smiled, a smile so purely radiant that it brought tears to the corners of Valtos's eyes.
"You will shed the frail, painful shells of this human existence," Licht promised, his golden eyes locking onto Valtos's soul. "You will be elevated. You will awaken into your true forms, beings of pure mana and light, capable of living in the perfect world we are about to forge. This is the truth of the Midnight Sun."
Valtos's breath hitched. Reborn.True forms. The promise was intoxicating. It was everything he had ever wanted—to be more than just a tool, more than an outcast hiding in the dark. To be cleansed of his worldly doubts and elevated to stand beside his master in the light.
But as Valtos bathed in the glow of that magnificent promise, entirely surrendered to the religious ecstasy of his master's words, a dark, horrific reality remained entirely hidden from his view.
If Valtos had possessed the ability to look past the blinding, golden light of the sanctuary, if he had possessed the power to peer into the deepest, darkest recesses of the soul inhabiting the body before him... he would not have seen a savior.
He would have seen a ghost consumed by an ancient, bottomless hatred.
The man standing before him, radiating divine light and preaching of an equitable world for the outcasts, was not named Licht.
His true name was Patolli.
He was an elf. A survivor—or rather, a resurrected echo—of a massacre that had occurred five centuries prior.
Five hundred years ago, the Elf Tribe had been beings of immense power and deep, spiritual connection to mana. They had lived peacefully in the Forsaken Realm. Patolli had deeply admired the true Licht, the leader of the elves, who had believed that humans and elves could coexist in harmony. The true Licht had even married a human woman, the sister of the first Wizard King.
But that dream of harmony had been shattered by the ultimate, unforgivable betrayal.
Human royalty, consumed by greed and a lust for the elves' vast magical power, had orchestrated a brutal, cowardly massacre on the day of Licht's wedding. They had slaughtered the elves, stealing their mana and leaving their bodies to rot in the sun. Patolli had died that day, his heart filled with a screaming, agonizing hatred for the human race that had betrayed their trust.
When Patolli had mysteriously reincarnated centuries later into the body of a human—William Vangeance, the current Captain of the Golden Dawn—he had found his soul sharing a vessel with a human. But the ancient hatred had not faded; it had curdled and intensified.