Episode 158
The battlefield, once a cacophony of clashing steel and magic, fell into an eerie silence. Every knight, mage, soldier, and noble on the church’s side froze in place, oblivious to the blades descending upon them.
A young boy stood amidst the chaos, having dimmed the celestial light that had enveloped the area, ushering in an indescribable realm of darkness.
There was no rational evidence to confirm his identity, yet the moment Dale laid eyes on him, he knew. The Saxon blood coursing through his veins and the tendrils of Shub entwining his heart began to writhe uncontrollably.
How could he not recognize it?
The being before Dale was none other than the other Saxon his father, the Black Duke, had spoken of—the true ruler of the Dark Land.
“Order the entire unit to retreat.”
Dale spoke without a hint of hesitation, addressing Sir Yones and the Black Armor Company beside him.
“Pull everyone back immediately.”
“Understood, Captain!”
Simultaneously, the church’s forces began to withdraw, mirroring Dale’s movements.
“Saxon Frederick.”
As both sides retreated, the Shadow Lord spoke, as if representatives from each faction were meeting face to face.
“Saxon Dale, I humbly greet the progenitor of our lineage, the Immortal Duke, here.”
“Ho.”
The other Shadow Lord before him responded.
“Truly remarkable, child.”
“Is it true that the Eldritch of the Dark Land have finally broken their silence?”
“Ah, that day will come soon enough, but not yet.”
The Immortal Duke Frederick replied with a smile.
“I am here merely to reclaim what is rightfully mine.”
The meaning was clear. Dale glanced sideways. Beside him stood a girl with the horns of a black goat, as always.
“Shub…”
Dale called her name softly, and the Immortal Duke spoke gently.
The Book of the Black Goat, said to have been created by sacrificing Frederick’s daughter.
“Please, come back with me.”
The Immortal Duke requested, while Dale remained silent, waiting for Shub’s response.
It was not a decision Dale could make, nor was it one the Immortal Duke could enforce.
─ Why should I return?
At that moment, Shub tilted her head, puzzled. Dale swallowed hard, and even the Immortal Duke was taken aback.
─ You know, brother, I like humans.
Shub turned to Dale.
─ Their foolishness and ugliness, struggling to the end like moths to a flame, are so endearing I can’t resist. So…
She wrapped her arms lovingly around Dale’s neck.
─ I have no interest in a Saxon child who abandoned humanity.
No longer a mere girl, she stood as a mature lady in a black dress, her large black goat horns on display, her expression cold and devoid of emotion.
Beneath her skirt, countless tendrils writhed.
“Is that truly your will, Mother of the Black Abundance?”
The Immortal Duke Frederick asked, the gentleness in his voice gone.
“Are you abandoning me?”
Like a child yearning for a mother’s loving answer.
No response came. Instead, shadows opened their eyes in place of his bandaged ones, and what Frederick saw was not a girl or a lady with goat horns.
It was the most terrifying and abhorrent being imaginable—a monstrous entity of tendrils from another realm.
Yet to Dale, she appeared as Shub always did.
“Was it inevitable from the start?”
Understanding the situation, Frederick removed the black bandages from his eyes.
As the Shadow Saint had once done, there was nothing beyond them. Empty black eyes stared back.
“Are you trying to reclaim the Book of the Black Goat from me, regardless of Shub’s decision?”
“Do not dare to speak that name lightly.”
Frederick replied coldly, as darkness began to swirl at his feet.
“That being has always been both my daughter and mother, and she will understand me willingly.”
In response, Dale’s Shadow Lord avatar, the armor of the Abyss, twisted like liquid metal.
Frederick’s ‘black eyes’ focused on Dale.
Pupils of pure darkness.
“This is your last chance. Surrender what is rightfully mine.”
“I cannot.”
“A fake who doesn’t know his place, how amusing.”
Frederick laughed.
The world of darkness he commanded began to tear apart.
From the rift in the darkness, the eyes of the One-Eyed Gods began to gaze upon the earth.
Not just one, but countless eyes tore through the celestial rift, peering down at the small, insignificant beings below. Like a person observing ants through a magnifying glass.
The Watchers of the Heavens.
A mass of madness began.
Screams echoed everywhere. Minds shattered upon facing those beings, and people began to wail and thrash like children. Some regressed to infancy, curling up like fetuses and sucking their thumbs.
Just as humans do not love ants, these gods did not love humans.
And these gods had countless tendrils.
Dale, too, looked up at the celestial rift. The mere act of facing it was enough to crush his sanity under its overwhelming pressure.
In that moment, Dale had only one option.
“You said you found the ugliness and foolishness of humans struggling against ruin endearing.”
He spoke softly to the girl beside him.
─ Yes!
Shub laughed joyfully, unfazed by the madness unfolding at Frederick’s hand.
“Then let’s make a promise.”
Dale quietly resolved.
“Protect me and my people.”
─ In exchange for what?
Shub, now a lady, asked. As the Mother of Ancient Darkness and Black Abundance.
“I swear here and now, I will never cease to show the most foolish and ugly struggle a human can muster until the very end.”
Offering himself as her source of amusement.
“I will never abandon my humanity.”
Dale declared.
“Iä Shub-Niggurath.”
─ Ah, how lovely! How noble, foolish, and endearing humans are!
The Mother of Darkness smiled blissfully.
Shub’s arms gently caressed Dale’s cheek, and she turned her head.
At the same time, the tendrils of the One-Eyed Gods surged toward Dale.
It was akin to a person crushing an ant with a finger. Circles and auras held no meaning before such cosmic horror.
Then, it happened.
─ Withdraw, ancient ones of the heavens.
Shub commanded, waving a black fan in her hand.
─ This stage is not for you.
Simultaneously, tendrils erupted from beneath Shub’s skirt.
Black tendrils surged forth, striking at the celestial Watchers.
As the Mother of Darkness, an overwhelming presence incomparable to anything before swept over them.
Her power was enough to nullify the madness and terror the Watchers spread.
Shub’s tendrils pierced the retinas of the One-Eyed Gods, causing their eyes to bleed and convulse. The pupils spun wildly, and soon, the eyes retreated beyond the rift, one by one.
Dale lowered his head.
“It seems…”
Watching this, Frederick laughed coldly, moving countless eyes within the shadows.
Frederick waved his hand, and darkness surged.
Before the vortex of darkness, Dale’s Shadow Lord avatar crumbled.
The armor of the Abyss shattered into pieces, revealing Dale’s body beneath.
“Though I understand the Mother’s will, it seems the ‘vessel of humanity’ is too small and insignificant to handle your amusement.”
Frederick mocked, and Dale collapsed to his knees.
To stop him, Shub used her power, and the cost of her power was Dale’s own black magic.
Dale, who could hold his own against a seventh-circle white mage, was now gasping for breath, squeezing every last drop of power from his depleted circle.
In his current state, Dale had no strength left to counter even the simplest gesture from the Immortal Artisan.
“But I am not like you.”
The Immortal Artisan sneered at Dale, who was kneeling before him, and addressed the monstrous entity from another realm.
A being that had forsaken humanity and even cheated death—an Eldritch.
─ …….
“Not yet, Shub.”
Shub remained silent, and it was at that moment.
“Now it’s time for me to fulfill my promise.”
Dale rose to his feet.
“I promised to show you the wretchedness and folly of a human struggling against ruin.”
Like squeezing a few drops of water from a dried-up rag, Dale desperately activated the circle in his heart and the engine of his will, and the Shadow Lord spoke.
“No matter how grand your words, nothing will change, usurper.”
Frederick, another Shadow Lord, mocked him.
“You may steal my blood, my ideas, my titles to cloak yourself… but in the end, you’re just a poor imitation, a counterfeit.”
Hundreds of eyes flickered along his shadow, twitching erratically in every direction.
“Let me prove it to you here, Mother. And to you, my daughter.”
At the same time, the Immortal Artisan’s hollow black eyes fixed on Dale.
“To show how fleeting, insignificant, and fragile humans truly are in this world.”
Once more, a pitch-black darkness swirled at the Immortal Artisan’s feet.
Simultaneously, Dale used the Peacemaker as a support to stand, and Shub’s tendrils wrapped around his body.
The shattered avatar of the Shadow Lord, the armor of the Abyss, known as the ‘Black Death,’ began to envelop him once more.
Proclaiming himself the most wretched and foolish being in existence.