Chapter 92

‘Ahaha, ahahaha-!’

A girl’s laughter.

Amethus heard it too.

He thought it was an auditory hallucination, but the voice continued.

‘I was so lonely, my beautiful Prince.’

From deep within Shion’s mind, the girl laughed and opened a door to another dimension.

From there, a massive shadow flowed out.

‘You swallowed this Valziart and only used it in dribs and drabs…’

Until now, even if I wanted to use the Mana Armor Valziart properly, I couldn’t.

It was because of that eleven-year-old body.

But now that the ‘Hunchback’ had been summoned, it was different.

There would be no problem in taking out all of Valziart’s main body.

‘Now, use me to your heart’s content. To your heart’s content!’

Black mud poured from both of the Hunchback’s eyes.

The mud-like shadow covered his entire body, adding to his power.

Adding strength to strength, tenacity to tenacity, and making the monster even more monstrous.

‘I’m your property, so what would be the problem?’

The giant Hunchback grew even larger.

The powerful force grew even more powerful.

The sad wailing grew even sadder.

[You are adding filth to filth.]

The Breath of Light sneered and drove his chariot.

The Hunchback, born from pent-up resentment, and the Valziart from the shadow dimension, were both filthy.

In the presence of the incarnation of radiance and sunlight, they were nothing but dregs.

[Even more unpleasant.]

The Breath of Light's chariot charged like a comet.

The Hunchback had never been able to stop that charge.

He had only ever fallen helplessly before the scorching inferno’s advance.

That was how intense the charge was.

“-Ugh!”

The Hunchback groaned. He blocked the Breath of Light’s chariot, and a monstrous heat seeped into him. But he had blocked it. With hands wrapped in shadows, he held the chariot, preventing it from advancing further.

“-A-Aah!”

[This is unexpected.]

Two bizarrely large hands squeezed the chariot from both sides.

It was a motion as if trying to crush a clod of dirt.

The Breath of Light, caught in the middle, couldn't hide his annoyance.

A flash of radiance burst forth.

The charging sun chariot burned the Hunchback’s skin and slipped out of his grasp.

However, it had lost two of the four deer that pulled the chariot.

The Breath of Light’s frown deepened.

He radiated light to create new deer to pull his chariot.

It was a task of no difficulty.

However, he felt the tide had turned.

A monster that could not be suppressed, even when he led his sun chariot.

[How much more unpleasant do you intend to become?]

“-Ugh, ugh-!!!”

Both the Breath of Light and the Hunchback gathered even more momentum than before and charged at each other.

The Ancient God was on his sun chariot, and the Hunchback was wrapped in his Mana Armor.

They inflicted constant, severe injuries on each other.

Yet, they healed instantly.

They broke each other apart as if the pain was nothing.

That spectacle seemed to prove how far they were from human beings.

The Hunchback's fierce charge overturned the chariot.

The radiance shot from the overturned chariot shattered the Hunchback's head.

The monster, with its head broken, stomped and crushed the Ancient God.

The crushed Breath of Light exploded with heat in all directions, melting Shion’s Ars.

Indeed, injuries in various forms.

Their utmost destructive power clashed, trampling, crushing, tearing, ripping, and melting one another.

Yet, moments later, both stood unharmed.

The Breath of Light does not die.

Under the sunlight, he is an Ancient God.

The Hunchback cannot die.

His third secret will not allow it.

The two, rejected by death, merely exchanged pain and wounds.

There seemed to be anger, but that, too, was quickly forgotten.

It was clear that neither of them could be human.

Only the jade-eyed man watching was dumbfounded.

“Your Highness…”

Amethus continued to watch.

***

The battle was long.

It continued for half a day.

[…The sun is setting…]

The Breath of Light looked up at the setting sun.

The radiance around him was fading.

The sun chariot also began to dissipate.

When the sun set, he would return to being a monster without reason.

The Ancient God couldn't hide his bitterness and raised his head.

[…You have won. Monster of Cordis…]

“---Ugh---.”

The Hunchback groaned.

He wanted to scream at him not to call him the monster of Cordis, but he was so exhausted he couldn’t.

If the day had been just a little longer, the Breath of Light would have been victorious.

Instead, the Hunchback used his last bit of strength to kick off the ground.

Due to their battle, the island of Arete was already a mess.

It looked like a sandbox after children had played to their hearts' content.

The Hunchback added another harsh footprint to it and punched the Breath of Light.

The Breath of Light flew powerlessly through the air.

That one blow was fatal.

Because the sun had set.

A crack, crack, was etched onto the face on the light orb.

The Breath of Light did not resist, and the Hunchback raised his fist.

“…Ugh!”

The fist stopped.

The Hunchback wanted to unleash his fist with fury, but Shion held him back from deep within.

He desperately clutched at his pent-up rage.

“Gra, aaaaah-!!”

There was a struggle.

It was a fight between Shion, who wanted to stop the punch, and the Hunchback, who wanted to throw it.

Shion won.

The Hunchback ultimately failed to strike and his body gradually shrank. In place of a scream, he uttered words.

“…Ugh, Amethus…”

Shion held back the Hunchback and moved his lips.

It wasn’t an easy thing to do.

Amethus couldn’t answer immediately.

His mind was almost gone after watching the half-day battle.

But he soon raised his jade eyes.

“…Yes, Your Highness.”

“…This is the first gift… for your loyalty.”

Shion nodded his head.

He was still wearing the Hunchback, so he looked very menacing.

He gestured at the Breath of Light with his chin.

“You cut his breath.”

The Breath of Light was lying on the ground, unable to move.

The theatrical mask-like face was shattered, and heat was leaking out.

It was a tragic sight.

“With your own hands, finish your family’s long-cherished wish.”

He could not refuse.

It was the moment he had waited for.

It wasn't that he felt no pity for the Breath of Light.

No, he had so much compassion he couldn’t help himself.

But it was a life that had to be ended anyway.

“…”

It was not the first time Amethus had taken a life.

In fact, he was quite used to it.

To live a life with a sword has such a meaning.

As sharp as the sword is, the heart is bound to be dulled.

If the opponent was not human and if they had tried to kill you first, it would be strange to feel guilt.

But Amethus was a man of a strange sort.

Even with such a sharp sword, his heart was often wounded.

He even tried to never forget the weight of taking a life.

So, even though it was his family’s long-cherished wish, he felt a great burden in beheading the Ancient God who had been so harmed.

“…As I have already said.”

There was no tremor in his double-edged sword.

No matter what his heart felt, his sword did not tremble.

Amethus was that kind of man.

He moved his steps to take the Breath of Light’s life.

“I am only sorry for you.”

[…I hate you, child of Aretion…]

The jade eyes twitched in surprise.

He hadn't expected him to be able to speak when the sun had almost set.

The Breath of Light slowly turned his head to look at Amethus.

[…The thousand years I spent with you all, I hate them so much it hurts…]

The Breath of Light saw Amethus, his jade eyes.

All the eyes of the Aretion family were that jade color.

The servants who had served him, the bloodline he had loved dearly.

A thousand years of time, he hated them in equal measure.

He hated them and hated them.

[…But…]

Why this affection?

Why was it a feeling that wouldn't disappear, even when hatred boiled over?

[…I understand…]

The Breath of Light already knew everything.

The demands the Empire had made on the Aretion family, and that they truly had no other choice. In fact, he was proud of them.

That they had made such a decision for the sake of the islanders.

The hatred and fury were still there.

That's why it was even more wondrous.

How could this feeling, like looking at his own child, have come to be?

[…Take my face.]

The Breath of Light tore off his own face.

He took off the shattered mask and offered it to Amethus.

The jade-eyed man held the mask, imbued with heat and radiance, tightly in his hands.

The giant mask soon shrank to fit Amethus’s face.

[…Remember me. Live your life holding me close to the end, me whom no one will remember…]

The Ancient God wanted to cry.

But he had torn off his face, so he couldn't.

He had lost his name, lost his dignity and lost his face.

Now he was about to lose his very breath. His voice faded.

[…Don’t… leave… me… alone… so… lonely…]

The sun set on the island of Arete.

It was an evening so suddenly and terribly dark, as if the morning would never come again.

***

The Breath of Light collapsed.

The Hunchback then, finally, fell apart.

The ‘iron bloodline’ that formed his body was sucked back into his chest, and the ‘Hunchback’ vanished without a trace.

It disappeared in an instant, leaving no scream or anything else behind.

“Ugh!”

Shion slumped to the ground.

His mouth, which had been torn, looked perfectly fine, as if it were a lie.

The Reclusive Prince’s face was pale.

His already white skin was a lifeless, pure white.

“…Ah, this… I can't move a muscle.”

He had no strength left.

The ‘Screaming Hunchback’ was originally that kind of Ars.

Instead of summoning the monster of pent-up rage and resentment, it drew upon a monstrous amount of vital energy.

With the added after-effects of Lahukala, even breathing felt difficult.

“…What do you mean a few days? I won’t be able to walk for a few months.”

“…”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Shion laughed, lying on the ground.

He couldn't even move his head, yet he was as carefree as ever.

“Are you going to kill me, Amethus? Take my head and go back to Ferbias right now?”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“This is a real problem then.”

The Reclusive Prince kept chuckling.

He was annoying, but not that annoying.

The Diviner looked down at such a Shion, his new master and smiled back.

“Ah, this sunset is something else.”

Even in the darkness, the lingering trace of the sun made it red.

“Evening has come to the island where the sun never set.”

“With the Breath of Light’s death, the curse of the island of Arete will disappear too. The Hill of Storms and the Thorn Wave will collapse.”

“Will the people of Arete who became birds return?”

“It would be great if everything returned, but that’s not how things work.”

“…Sadly.”

His jade eyes looked at the sunset.

It was the sky his ancestors had looked upon.

It was vaguely sad.

This was because the unrefined emotions welled up like a haze.

Yet, there was a strange surge of emotion.

“…”

The sun was setting.

But it would rise again.

It wouldn't be a sin to hope for tomorrow.

No matter what secret, what long-cherished wish, what shame or wound, no one could blame the heart that wished to see the new sun.

That sky would surely do the same.

No, it might even be longing for a new sun more than anyone else.

He believed that.

That was his feeling.

“Amethus.”

The Reclusive Prince whispered.

He recalled.

The one vain dream in his heart, the promise to bring down the thousand-year-old Empire.

“Let’s go west. Let’s bring down the Empire, bring down Cordis.”

“As you wish, Your Highness.”

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