The Legacy of Der Held: The Red Haired’s Journey in Das Bernsteintal

The rays of the early morning sun did not warm the bodies in Das Bernsteintal quite as much as they captivated the soul. I stood at the edge of the abyssal cliff, feasting my eyes upon a marvel that stood tall as the absolute greatest creation forged by the Supreme Creator in the lands of Wunderwald, this wondrous, magnificent world. The walls of this ancient valley were not made of lifeless stone or dead sand; rather, they were formed of a transparent, golden amber that bewitched hearts before minds, plunging down to depths unseen by human eyes.

When the creeping threads of light finally struck those walls, the entire valley ignited with a grand, golden-orange glow—as if the sun itself had been trapped inside a colossal crystal. Behind those ancient, glass-like layers loomed the phantoms of a forgotten city: towering structures and silent statues frozen in time forever, meticulously preserved within the amber since the dawn of eternity.

I smiled, brushing a hand over my pristine white armor while my red hair fluttered in the valley’s refreshing breeze. I had read much about the wonders of the world in the halls of Weltarchiv , but seeing these walls—which trapped the very fragrance of history and radiated an indescribable light—made me truly understand why this place was considered the crown jewel of our continent. Here, where ancient magic met the enchanting beauty of nature, our expedition was about to begin. Little did I know then that the golden tranquility of this valley was merely a fragile veil, covering a storm just waiting for someone to awaken it.

"You have been leading us for hours, you Lazy Student. Did you lose the way?"

I heard that voice I loved so much, the voice that had been like a second mother to me when I was a child. Yet, it seemed endlessly eager to bark provocative remarks at me.

"Ahhh, Liebe -sensei, we are perfectly on track. Please don’t mock me in front of the students."

"I cannot believe they assigned an inexperienced, lazy knight like you, Anselm , to an expedition for a prestigious institution like Das Institut für Weltarchiv-Erbe ," my Sensei replied with her usual sarcasm, grumbling at me as was her permanent habit.

I turned to her with a wide smile, ignoring her familiar complaints. Despite the harshness of her words, I couldn't help but feel a blend of awe and respect whenever I looked at my Sensei, Liebe. She appeared as a youthful young Elf, standing with features completely untouched by the passage of time. Her face was as pure white as snow, framed by soft, cascading silver hair, from which protruded the long ears that distinguished Elves from a thousand other races.

But what captivated me most were her pale blue eyes. They were identical to the clear blue of a winter sky—cold, strict, and heavy-lidded—yet I knew they concealed nearly half a millennium of wisdom behind them. She wore her usual practical attire, completely unchanged since my days as her student: a light brown leather jacket over a white linen shirt. Wrapped around her neck was that long, pale grass-green scarf, fluttering behind her in the valley's breeze like a spring bud amidst this enchanting wilderness.

"I'm not lazy anymore, Sensei! Haven't you seen how energetically I'm leading this expedition?" I declared, resting my hand on the hilt of my sword with feigned arrogance, only to watch a long, exasperated sigh escape her lips.

Behind her stood a few university students, panting from exhaustion and dragging their feet with difficulty, accompanied by guards trying to guide our caravans. We were utilizing giant desert lizards with crystalline shells to carry our heavy equipment and manuscripts. They were among the rarest mythical creatures tamed on our continent, capable of enduring the ruggedness of this valley.

We weren't on a student picnic. The university administration had sent us into the depths of Das Bernsteintal to document and study mysterious engravings recently discovered on the walls of its deepest point. As the university's foremost historian and researcher, Professor Liebe sought to decipher the ancient legends that told the story of this sunken city. And as her escorting knight... and her former student who frequently slept through her lectures, my mission was simple: to protect her and the students from any danger lurking around us, even if she still viewed me as just a reckless, lazy, and unreliable boy.

To be honest, my eyes never truly left my Sensei. During my childhood and adolescence, nothing brought me warmth quite like the stories told in the orphanage about the tale of Der Held , the legendary hero who met a mythical end. Back then, the book read to us at the orphanage had been authored by an esteemed Sensei, researcher, and historian known as "Liebe the Elf." Since my earliest days, I held profound respect for only two people: the legendary hero whose tales and heroics echoed throughout our world, and the historian who dedicated herself to gathering and documenting all of his stories so they could reach us whole, rather than scattered and fragmented as they once were.

So, I set two goals for my life: to meet that researcher and study at Das Institut für Weltarchiv-Erbe, and to become a valiant knight and hero just like the one in those tales. Well, I wasn't exactly the brightest student, and I slept a lot, which infuriated my Sensei greatly. She never even called me Anselm; she only ever referred to me as the "Lazy Student." But she was always gentle with me once she learned I was an orphan... which constantly made me feel that in my Sensei and Der Held, I had found the father and mother I had always lacked.

A soft sound interrupted my train of thought. Our caravans had finally halted.

Das Bernsteintal suddenly widened, forming what looked like a colossal circular plaza. Its walls were dark, radiating a faint golden light. At the core of these massive amber walls were deeply sunken, incredibly complex engravings—completely different from any ruins we had seen on our path.

Liebe-sensei kept running her hands, illuminated by a faint magical aura, over the sunken letters. They began to glow with a dim crimson light the moment her spells touched them. She half-turned toward us, a trace of anxiety crowding the inherent passion in her usual tone:

"This is Ur-Klein , the language of the First Era that predates the construction of Weltarchiv by many centuries. The sentences written here were not carved to glorify kings or record history, as you might assume. Rather, they were written as explicit warnings. This entire amber wall is not a natural formation as you imagine, but rather a colossal prison, forged to seal away something the earth swallowed thousands of years ago."

One of the female students whispered in fear, taking a step back while clutching her books to her chest. "A prison? Professor Liebe, do you mean there are creatures still alive behind these walls after all this time?"

My Sensei didn't answer her directly. Instead, she continued reading the inscription, her voice growing sharper and more stern:

"The lines here say: 'When the wall is touched in ignorance, the seal of darkness shatters, and the sins of Das Bernsteintal will awaken to swallow the light.' This seal is incredibly thin and fragile, relying on the balance of pure mana. Any interference from incompatible energy, or a single wrong touch, could destabilize its foundation and destroy the balance."

My face paled, and I tightened my grip on the hilt of my sword as the instinct of a knight sensing approaching danger washed over me.

"Sensei, if the place is perilous to such an unknown and suspicious degree, wouldn't it be better to withdraw immediately and inform the institute so they can send elite knights? As you know, something like this shouldn't be faced with beginner students," I asked, trying to hide my mounting anxiety behind a forced smile.

She sighed in annoyance as she pulled out her quill and manuscript. "We will retreat as soon as I copy this last cipher. Just a few minutes... and don't any of you dare move."

I was sitting, leaning against a nearby rock, watching our surroundings with boredom, when one of the female students caught my attention. She was a young girl, trembling with excitement and nervousness, trying to lean in closer to copy one of the glowing spells into her notebook. Her foot tripped over a rock, and in a desperate attempt to regain her balance, she slammed her hand heavily against an ancient, pitch-black stone that my Sensei's purification spells had not yet touched.

There was no initial sound of shattering. In the blink of an eye, a raging black flash swallowed the golden amber light, followed by a deafening, dull crash of breaking glass that ruptured the eardrums.

My Sensei, Liebe, screamed, her voice losing all its usual coolness at once: "What have you done, you fool?! Fall back, immediately!"

The colossal amber wall splintered, unleashing a roar that shook the very foundations of the valley—a roar that belonged to no natural living creature. From amidst the flying shards of amber, a massive body emerged, as if carved from the purest darkness of night; it was Der Onyxstier . It was a majestic, winged beast, its muscles bulging like black onyx, its eyes burning with crimson fire. Despite its sheer terror, it was not alone. As soon as it broke free, similar stone creatures began pouring from the rifts in the walls, joining in to defend their cave against us. They were some of the most hideous Monsters I had ever read about in the records of Weltarchiv during my years of study.

The screams of the novice magic students echoed through the scattering amber dust, while the guards scrambled backward in terror, crashing into one another. In that single moment, every ounce of laziness in my body vanished. I drew my broadsword from its scabbard in one fluid motion, stepping forward with steady strides to stand as a lone white shield between this beast... and my Sensei and her students.

I leaped forward in a desperate bid to protect them, brandishing my greatsword against one of the lesser onyx bulls. I channeled my mana into the blade, causing it to erupt in a blinding, luminous glow, and struck with all my might, cleaving the beast squarely in half.

But they were too many, swarming me from all sides. A sudden tremor ran through my body, and for a split second, I lost my composure... only to see a devastating mana blast slam into one of the beasts. I turned to see my Sensei soaring through the air, striking them down. I cannot deny the profound relief—like cooling snow—that washed over my heart in that instant, and I shouted at the top of my lungs:

" Sensei!!"

"Don't slack off and watch your own back, you Lazy Student!"

My Sensei yelled back as she flew higher, darting back and forth while bombarding the beasts with magical blasts.

At that, I raised my hand high toward the heavens, brandishing my sword and flooding it with mana. The pure white light that surged from my blade decapitated several more of the beasts.

For a moment, we thought we had turned the tide in our favor, that my Sensei and I could annihilate them all. She unleashed a barrage of scattered mana shots that decimated a huge number of them. I felt a genuine surge of joy at her actions, despite her normally mean-spirited demeanor toward me.

But as soon as the dust from her attacks settled, a savage, thundering rumble echoed through the cavern, as bitter as gall to the ears. My heart stopped for a beat, and my feet froze. I stood there, mouth agape in shock, just like every student and guard who had accompanied us.

Looming before us was a terrifying, awe-inspiring presence. Just a few of its heavy breaths were enough to invert the cold cavern's temperature into an intense, suffocating heat that nailed us to our spots in sheer dread. We looked as though our tongues had been devoured, our eyes bulging, our legs trembling.

The colossal, four-legged Der Onyxstier revealed itself. Broad-chested, its crimson eyes overflowing with malice and pure hatred, it stood before us and stomped its four hooves into the earth.

From the fractured ground, it spewed a black fire that struck terror into our hearts. Several students and guards were violently thrown back, trapped by the encroaching flames amidst their own wails and cries. The fire surged forward, erecting a blazing wall that separated me from my Sensei.

What a truly terrifying and majestic sight it was. Here I stood, entirely alone before the colossal Der Onyxstier , the ferocious lord of beasts, holding nothing but my sword. An overwhelming fear gripped me as the monster glared down at me with unbridled malice.

I looked down at my blade and asked myself, "What would Der Held have done in a dire situation like this?"

That hero, whose name was endlessly repeated in the orphanage's tales, whose heroic deeds were my only comfort in my loneliness—what did he do? Did he feel the same fear I felt right now? Did he feel just as helpless?

"You Lazy Student!"

My Sensei's screams pierced through my racing thoughts. She was shouting from behind that black wall of fire, from behind me. Even in the darkest of circumstances, she refused to drop that nickname.

I smiled when I heard her voice, that motherly voice I had always yearned to hear when I was little.

" Sensei!" I yelled back, following it up with, "The legacy of Der Held does not die!"

I slammed my sword into the ground with every ounce of my power, flooding the fissures created by the beast's flames on the cavern floor with mana.

Rumble!

A radiant light burst forth, filling the cracks and erasing the black flames from the earth. I formed a massive barrier of light for my Sensei and her students, shielding them from the encroaching evil.

"Liebe-sensei, order the students and guards to hold their ground and not panic! I will handle Der Onyxstier !"

I thought to myself, Awesome. I'm acting so much like Der Held right now. Sensei is going to be so impressed by me.

But Der Onyxstier did not give me time to marvel at myself or my sudden bravery. The moment the wall of white light erupted from my sword to cover the cracks and form a colossal shield, the beast charged at me with everything it had, exhaling thick black smoke from its snout.

Its massive horns slammed into my barrier. In that instant, it felt as though an entire mountain had crashed onto my shoulders. I coughed up blood, splattering my pristine white armor, as my feet were dragged backward, digging deep trenches into the solid floor. The wall held, yes, but my body was the one paying the toll.

From behind the walls that isolated me from them, I could hear the students' screams and wails, tearing at my heart. But the voice that truly shredded my soul was that of my Sensei, Liebe. For the first time since my childhood, her blue eyes had lost their brilliant shine. She was hammering the black barrier with her spells with all her might, her slender hands visibly trembling.

"You lazy fool! What do you think you're doing?!" she screamed, her voice cracking as she saw the hairline fractures beginning to web across the blade of my sword—the pulsating core of the mana barrier.

I realized then what was racing through her mind. She was watching her oldest nightmare manifest before her eyes all over again: another hero standing as a human shield, bleeding to death to protect those behind him. In her eyes, in that exact moment, I was no longer the "Lazy Student." She was seeing the ghost of Der Held .

It was then that I realized an answer to a question I had never asked myself before... What does it truly mean to be a hero? Do I just act like Der Held ? Will history immortalize me like him? And what is the price? That my loved ones will mourn me and miss me?

In a desperate move that drained a colossal amount of her mana, Liebe-sensei managed to tear a tiny rift in the black fire. Through it, she tossed a small silver crystal that rolled and came to a halt right at my trembling feet.

"An individual teleportation spell!" she screamed, panting heavily, tears pooling in her eyes—tears I had never, ever imagined seeing. "Use it right now! Run and leave them! That is your Sensei's order, you Lazy Student!"

I looked down at the glowing silver crystal at my feet, then raised my eyes to look at her. Blood coated my face, my strength was fading, and my sword was groaning under the consecutive, shattering blows of the beast... but I couldn't help but smile.

I offered her that reassuring smile I had read about time and time again in my childhood; the very smile my legendary hero wore as he faced his demise. I kicked the crystal far away from me and shook my head slowly.

"I am sorry, Liebe-sensei..." I whispered. Despite the roaring chaos of the battle, it felt as though the entire cavern had fallen silent just to carry my words to her. "I cannot fail this test... If I flee, who will protect you all?"

Her eyes widened, and then she broke into hysterical, frantic screaming. Witnessing this kind of self-sacrifice, seeing the blade of my sword fracturing completely, shattered the final pillar of my Sensei's sanity. It was as if history were repeating itself. She realized she was about to lose another knight, another hero, in the exact same cruel manner her hero—and mine—had died. What a gruesome way for history to repeat itself.

My great Sensei, the strict and stoic researcher, collapsed to her knees. She abandoned all her composure as hot tears cascaded down, washing over her pale face. And for the first time in my life, she did not call me by my usual nickname. She screamed at the top of her lungs, a desperate cry that pierced through the walls of fire and reached the heavens—the scream of a mother refusing to lose the one she loves:

" Anselm ! Don't you leave me too!"

I gasped, my eyes flying open in shock. And in that exact fraction of a second, my sword shattered.

The shards of the blade scattered into the air, and the white mana barrier collapsed entirely. Der Onyxstier lunged forward with its massive horns to end my life, and the lives of everyone behind me. It was the ultimate proof of my failure; my will had broken along with my sword, and my Sensei's pride had shattered with her scream. We were nothing but fragile humans facing the tyranny of this monster, devoid of tricks and stripped of any path to survival.

In that moment, I realized just how truly weak humanity is, no matter how much strength we claim to possess. I realized how unimaginably brave Der Held had been on that fateful day. Perhaps he had cried on the inside. Perhaps he had wailed, perhaps he wanted to retreat, but he possessed the profound courage to hide it all and present a smiling face to the world.

That was his path to heroism: to die for the sake of those he loved. All I had ever wanted was to follow in his footsteps and carry his legacy. But...

This is not my path. If his way of being a hero was to die for those he loved, then I want to forge my own path: to live for those I love.

These thoughts raced through my mind as death closed in on me in the form of Der Onyxstier . Time slowed to a crawl as my dying breath approached.

"My God, Supreme Creator, I beg You one last time. Man is weak without You."

When all hope vanishes, when earthly ties are severed, and when souls confess their ultimate frailty... the heavens answered our prayers.

Light erupted before us from where we thought there was only irreversible darkness.

The amber ceiling of the cavern split open, and from high above descended giant wings of pure light. Gnadenflügel .

Some ignorant folks call them Divine beings, but in my faith and what I believe, we call them Gnadenflügel —the Wings of Mercy—for in my religion, there is only one Creator of the entire world of Wunderwald .

The wings did not attack the bull at all. Instead, they descended to embrace me with love, as though the mercy of the Supreme Creator had enveloped me. I felt an overwhelming warmth wash over my wounds. An angelic energy surged through my veins, reaching out to reshape the shattered fragments of my sword suspended in the air, fusing them with celestial light to forge a blade of pure radiance. The Gnadenflügel wrapped around me and the students. The moment Der Onyxstier made contact with them, it was violently repelled backward, its black flames extinguished as if they had never existed.

What a truly magnificent miracle. This kind of thing only happened in those fairy tales about heroes. The scales had tipped in our favor; the Lord had answered me. It was a miracle.

My hands gripped the luminous, radiant blade. It now felt as light as a feather, stripped of all the crushing weight it once held. Just by grasping it, all my pain vanished, and my wounds and bruises were entirely healed. I was not struck by the arrogant ecstasy of knights obtaining new gear; rather, I was intoxicated by an absolute tranquility, deeply humbled before the gift the Supreme Creator had bestowed upon me.

The lord of beasts and monsters standing before me, Der Onyxstier , was now terrified. It cowered and trembled, shrinking back with every step I took forward. The black smoke that had been furiously venting from its pores and snout sputtered out. It roared, desperately trying to reclaim what was left of its dignity and dominance, stomping its hooves against the earth to intimidate me. Yet, it looked like someone possessed by a demon—projecting fake strength to mask its deep-seated weakness, fear, and impending doom.

I raised my blade and looked at it with immense pride.

My prayer had been answered; my hope and supplication fulfilled. It was as if the Divine had told me, You are with Us today in the highest heavens, Anselm, and you are under the protection of the All-Knowing, the Almighty.

I had no desire to kill it. My heroic calling was not to mete out death like Der Held , but to deliver the very mercy that had been gifted to me when I was lost and thrashing in fear.

I advanced with calm, steady steps. My feet did not tremble, nor did my pulse race with fear. The Gnadenflügel fluttered around me in luminous transparency, scattering a golden mist into the cavern's air. Every step I took erased one of the jagged fissures Der Onyxstier had carved into the amber floor.

The beast backed up until it hit the cavern wall. For the first time, its eyes lost their pride and malice. It looked at me in terror, silently pleading for mercy as well. How pathetic creatures become when they lose their tyranny; their stances completely reverse.

I glanced over my shoulder one last time, looking at my Sensei, and smiled at her. Her eyes shifted from absolute terror to overwhelming joy, and as I saw her smile back, I shouted at the top of my lungs:

"Liebe... listen to me!"

"I'm going to make sure to say some incredibly cool things today, so you'll remember me for the next five hundred years!"

I raised my sword high. I made my choice, and then, moving slowly to show mercy rather than torture or kill, I thrust my blade into the beast’s weakest point—the center of its forehead, right into a piece of embedded peridot. The sound of the strike was deafening.

This was the mercy I sought for the bull. It did not bleed, nor did it scream in pain. It was like a clear teardrop of dew rising upward on the first morning of spring, only to settle back into the water. White light cascaded from the blade of my sword, coursing through the bull's veins, illuminating it from the inside out and reflecting onto my face. The malicious crimson faded from its eyes, replaced by a pure, golden gleam that perfectly mirrored the purity of this ancient valley. It was as if the beast had always been, and would forever remain, an inseparable part of the valley itself.

The bull let out a long sigh, sounding like the death rattle of a mountain finally resting after centuries of exhaustion. It slowly bowed its massive head before me, as if thanking me, before its limbs stiffened and its muscles turned to unyielding stone. The mythical creature reverted to being nothing more than a statue of golden amber, a silent guardian of the valley just as it had been since the dawn of time. The rest of the stone monsters crumbled, turning into golden dust that sparkled under the cavern’s lights.

It was a breathtaking sight, one I met with a gentle smile.

Once everything fell perfectly still, the light dissipated from my blade and my hands, transforming into swarms of glowing butterflies that fluttered upward to vanish into the cavern's ceiling. The Gnadenflügel faded away peacefully, leaving behind a profound sense of peace that washed over the entire valley.

The shattered metal hilt of my sword dropped to the floor, and I fell to my knees alongside it. Yes, I was utterly exhausted, but it was a happy exhaustion—the exhaustion of one who had flawlessly fulfilled a trust and managed to stay alive.

" Anselm !"

This time, her voice was not accompanied by the title "Lazy Student." I laid there, watching Liebe-sensei sprint toward me. She threw herself onto the ground beside me, wrapping her affectionate arms around me and pulling me against her chest with such force that I gasped in surprise. She was trembling all over, her hot tears falling onto my shoulder and my ruined armor.

"You're alive... you're alive, you fool!" she whispered in a broken voice, her hand stroking my red hair with a lightness and tenderness I had never, ever known from her.

Ever since I entered the orphanage, ever since I first read the tales of Der Held , this was the very first time I felt I wasn't just some lonely orphan—I felt I actually had someone who cared for me. I raised my trembling arms and returned her embrace, resting my heavy, exhausted head upon her shoulder. I smiled, a smile of warm sincerity capable of melting all the ice in the world.

"I finally broke it... Liebe ... my Sensei," I murmured. "I shattered the cycle of blood and death by my own hands. The legacy of Der Held has not been broken—I protected it, but in my own way."

She tightened her embrace around me upon hearing my words, as if she had been waiting for this exact promise for five hundred years. In that singular moment, I realized that the ancient wound left behind by the death of Der Held had finally healed. Today, we had permanently shattered that vicious wheel—the wheel of blood, fear, and sacrifice. And by my hands, a new era would begin: an era of living heroes.

The students hurried over to help me to my feet, while Liebe -sensei stood by my side. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and smoothed out her clothes, attempting to reclaim a shred of the strict dignity she had discarded just for my sake. But that pale, sorrowful gaze that had forever haunted her blue eyes had melted away entirely, leaving in its wake a warm, radiant smile that blossomed whenever she looked my way.

"Well then, Sir Escort Knight," Liebe -sensei said. Her voice carried a warm, affectionate tone despite her best efforts to sound like her usual stern self. "It seems you have successfully fulfilled your duties this time... but do not think for a second that this exempts you from writing a comprehensive report on these amber engravings the moment we return to the university!"

The students chuckled softly, and I laughed along with them, completely forgetting my aches and pains. I cast a glance toward the now-dormant statue of Der Onyxstier , and then up at the illuminated ceiling of the cavern—the very sky from which the heavens had sent down their mercy in our darkest moment of frailty, answering our desperate prayer.

At the end of this journey, I finally grasped the elusive truth that had always escaped me. Heroes are not exceptional entities, nor are they supernatural beings immune to fear and weakness. We are human. We tremble, we cry, and we break. True courage lies in our ability to stand back up despite that frailty, fueled by the faith that we are never truly alone in this vast universe. No matter how close we are pushed to the brink of despair, there is always a divine gaze watching over us.

The legacy of Der Held is not dead, and it never will be. It was the seed planted in my heart, destined to finally bloom here in this valley. But today, I am no longer just a shadow of that departed hero, blindly attempting to mimic his every move. I have forged my own path—the path of a hero who understands that his greatest triumphs are not etched into the sunken walls of ancient ruins, nor are they found in the bedtime stories told to lonely orphans... They are found in the eyes that look upon him with gratitude, and in the hearts that beat with safety, simply because he chose to live for them.

We began our march back out of Das Bernsteintal . I walked side-by-side with my Sensei and her students, our footsteps strumming a sweet melody of life and hope. I carried with me my greatest victory of all: in her eyes, I was no longer the rebellious, "Lazy Student." I had finally become Anselm , the red-haired knight, the living heir to the heroes and to Der Held himself. And I was living proof that the mercy of the heavens is always near... incredibly near to anyone who acknowledges their weakness, and chooses to live with a heart full of love.