Time passed. Or maybe not?

Kaden had no idea. The surrounding space hadn't changed since he started this quest.

There was no sun to speak of. No moon. No stars. So he couldn't tell if days passed, or months, or even years.

There was only him, mountains of shredded corpses, and a Will who was watching him silently.

It was eerie. And in a way, it was stressful to have the gaze of such a being fixed on you, watching with expectation, as if anticipating what you would create.

Kaden couldn't help but feel concerned. He suddenly felt the need not to disappoint. The need to prove he had what it took to create his own Will.

It was a weird feeling, honestly.

He didn't know how to handle this kind of emotion, one he had never actually felt before, but he shoved it aside for now.

Now he needed to think. No, there was no thinking about what he was going to do.

There was only one thing.

Connection.

He had to connect with his sword… he had to connect with Reditha.

Just for the sake of his own ego, Kaden moved and sat on the corpse of the dead dragon.

It was huge. Enormous. Its scales were as white as a newborn's teeth, flawless and glistening with brilliance even in death.

On its head, two protruding sharp horns, the same color as its body, pointed skyward in menace.

Its gigantic wings spread wide across the rocky surface, but the whiteness of its body was tainted by the blood of countless corpses crawling on the ground.

It looked like something sacred, holy, profaned by the wretchedness of the world.

It was a pitiful sight.

But Kaden couldn't care less.

He mounted the dragon and sat between its two horns, cross-legged. He closed his eyes, breathed calmly and steadily, and sank deeper, deeper into his connection with Reditha.

Reditha responded with eagerness. Joy and happiness radiated through her, obvious in the way she finally held her master's full attention. She clung tightly to that connection, showing nothing but love and devotion.

Kaden was happy. But also sad, to see how happy Reditha was for something that should have been natural between them.

Reditha was his Origin.

He didn't know much about Origins, how they came to be, how their ranks were formed. But he knew at least this: each Origin was different.

They might share types like Weapon, Conceptual, Elemental…

But the Origin itself, the name, the skills, the essence…were never the same.

That meant the Origin was a part of oneself. A deeper part of your being you were unaware of, or perhaps had ignored.

Reditha was a part of him. She was a sword of blood. She was born to kill. To wage war, to burn empires, to shatter families.

Yes, she was a sword that killed.

And that made Kaden a killer.

'So does my Will have to be tied to that? Kill?' he thought, but confusion weighed on him.

Fortunately, he was not alone. He already knew that. He knew Reditha was alive, he knew she could understand him and even act on her own.

But a part of Kaden always looked at Reditha as just a sword. He couldn't be blamed, she was a sword.

But that kind of thinking wouldn't bring him closer to what he wanted.

He needed to see Reditha not as a weapon to wield against enemies, but as a being with emotions.

And every being with emotions has fears, has hopes, and therefore… has dreams.

And with the soil of a dream, Will sprouts.

So,

'What's your Will, Reditha?' he asked, her blade resting quietly on his lap.

Reditha seemed to pause. The crimson hue glowing from her dulled, static for a moment.

She was surprised. But more than that, she was happy.

Her master finally acknowledged her.

Her master was finally beginning to see her as more than a sword. More than a tool.

She was Reditha. She might not be human, might not be a being of flesh and blood… but emotions and dreams were never limited to those with beating hearts.

Suddenly, her crimson hue retracted inward, until she emitted nothing.

Her master had asked about her Will.

But to her, that was a silly question. Her Will had always been obvious from the beginning.

It was in her very description.

Reditha's Will…

'…to devour.'

She wanted only to devour.

Kaden was shocked as a voice resonated inside his mind. He didn't need to think to know it was Reditha's voice.

It was soft. But beneath it was a hunger he had never felt before. A hunger so overwhelming it threatened to consume him.

And instead of recoiling from it, Kaden embraced it.

It was the hunger of his sword. The hunger of his companion. The hunger of his Origin.

So it was his hunger too.

'What do you want to devour?'

'Blood and soul… the blood of everything. The souls of everything.'

Kaden paused.

'You want me to slaughter.'

'We are made to slaughter.' Reditha echoed sharply. 'Anyone blocking our way. Anyone who oversteps their boundaries. Anyone who dares what they should not. Be they gods or mortals. Be they kings or beggars. Be they adults… or babies.'

'No mercy then?' Kaden wondered, eyes still closed.

'Mercy is the duty of gods, Master. We are not gods. We are killers. We are killers for our goal.'

Kaden paused again. Then slowly, he opened his eyes and parted his lips.

"What's our goal?"

The Slave looked up at him, still smiling faintly.

A soft crimson glow began to cover Kaden's body.

It was not his Intents.

It was his Will—or rather, their Will.

The crimson mist swirled, twisted, and began to take form. A womanly shape emerged — curves and edges formed of pure blood-red glow. Her hair, her body, her eyes, all crimson, but her gaze burned a deeper, more terrible red.

She wrapped herself around Kaden from behind, arms soft but binding, like a devout lover. She leaned close, whispered into his ear…

Yet her voice echoed across the entire space, like the hymn of a demoness from the deepest pit of Hell.

"Our goal… our goal is simple, dear Master. Our goal is to be stronger than anything the worlds have ever known. To break every chain that dares bind us. To prove that everything can bleed. That anything has a soul. And that we hold dominion over them."

The Slave's faint smile widened.

"So… a path of blood and death?" Kaden asked, his face splitting into a demonic smile.

Reditha mirrored him.

"You are a Warborn. You are Kaden. You were not born, you crawled out headfirst into a world littered with corpses. The first thing you witnessed on the day of your birth was not a safe hall with healers…"

"…but blood, death, and war."

The space shook.

"You were not born for peace. You were not born for tranquility. You were not born for ease."

The very air around them began to bleed. Crimson rivers dripping down from the void, reality itself staining as Reditha's voice seemed to tore through the fabric of existence.

"You were born to slaughter. You were born to harvest the blood and souls of your enemies."

"That is your Will. That is our Will."

The Slave rose to his feet, unsheathing his blade. He could feel it…the final duel was close.

An intense red light enveloped Kaden. All the blood across the battlefield lifted, drawn into the air, and rushed toward him.

Kaden opened his mouth wide, drinking the flood of crimson, his eyes shut in bliss. Reditha's projection smiled, opened her mouth too, devouring alongside her Master.

[The Breaker is being merged with your budding Will.]

In seconds, every drop of blood had been consumed.

And Kaden's Will was born.

A Will that fed on blood and souls.

A Will that grew stronger the more his Master feasted.

The Will of the Harvester.

Kaden rose from the dragon's skull, standing tall, crowned in blood.

He looked like an accursed man, robed in profaneness.

Reditha still clung to him, crimson arms tight around his shoulders, her bloody eyes fixed on the Slave.

They smiled together.

"Let's end this, Sla—!" Kaden stopped mid-sentence, chuckling instead.

He said nothing more. He stepped down from the dragon, planted his feet in front of the Slave, raised Reditha in his stance.

No words were needed.

The Slave smiled.

He raised his blade too.

"You have learned your first lesson well. Now let's see if you've learned the rest."

Kaden smiled.

"Yes, Master."

The Slave laughed.

And the last duel began.

—End of Chapter 237—

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