Episode 164
Dale nodded at Eris’s words, and a fierce wind swept through.
The wind was biting cold, as if it could cut through flesh, and before he knew it, Dale found himself standing not in the Black Tower or Eris’s world, but somewhere else entirely.
A frozen wasteland of ice and darkness.
Dale tried to turn his head to look around, but his body wouldn’t obey. It moved on its own, beyond his control. It dawned on him then—he was inhabiting another being’s body, sharing its vision.
Before him stood a man he recognized all too well. There was a moment of dissonance, but soon he realized who it was.
Frederick the Undying, the founder of Saxon, was there.
“The truth shall set us free.”
Beside him stood a girl in a dress with goat horns.
As the Shadow Lord with the Book of the Black Goat, she lifted her head toward the enemies before them.
A light so intense it was impossible to look at directly swirled there, as brilliant and scorching as the sun itself.
But upon seeing it, Dale gasped in shock.
That man was there.
An enemy he could never forget.
The Golden Lord, the Sword of the Sun… Emperor Arthur Pendragon Magnus.
And those standing by his side were also unforgettable.
The Lord of Fire and Blood, Marquis Eurys. And the Red Witch, Lady Scarlet.
Alongside them were countless powerful warriors and lords he had once defeated as a hero from another world.
These mighty figures who now ruled the empire existed casually in this ancient scene recorded in history.
In a time when black and white were one tower, and no other towers existed.
Back then, black did not mean the Black Tower of today, nor did white mean the White Tower of now.
It was shadow and gold.
Only then did he understand.
This was the war of shadows and gold, where Frederick the Undying and his black faction were defeated and fell. All the colored towers ultimately stemmed from one original tower.
And as the leader of the shadows opposing the gold, the Shadow Lord of that era was there.
Shub’s tendrils wrapped around his body, and just as Dale had experienced, the armor of the Abyss enveloped Frederick’s form.
The avatar of the grimoire.
The armor of the Abyss that Frederick wore exuded a power and intimidation far beyond what Dale’s avatar could ever compare to.
“Humans, mere insects…!”
The Golden Lord laughed, unable to contain himself.
The human form began to twist. Skin turned to scales like a fish’s, and wings burst from his shoulder blades.
His body, meant to stand on two legs, contorted like a beast’s.
It grew endlessly larger, emitting an indescribable golden light.
Swallowing the crimson light behind him, he declared himself another sun, scattering radiant light across the land.
A golden dragon, bearing the name of Pendragon, spread its wings and roared.
“By the light of the divine, you children of darkness shall be consumed!”
Before him, the Shadow Lord created a ‘Black Blood Sword’ with the armor of the Abyss and gripped its hilt.
A black knight wielding a sword before a dragon hundreds of times his size.
It was a scene straight out of ancient myth, unfolding before Dale’s eyes.
The Shadow Lord, Frederick the Undying, launched himself toward the golden dragon.
At the same time, the armor of the Abyss wrapped around Frederick’s body, generating countless tendrils that began to envelop him once more.
The tendrils coiled and coiled, forming a 《Shadow Colossus》 that rivaled the golden dragon.
With a grandeur and madness that defied description.
‘Is that the Shadow Lord’s avatar?’
The overwhelming scale was incomparable to when Dale donned the armor of the Abyss.
Two kings at the pinnacle of their realms, the Shadow and the Golden Lords, revealed their true forms and clashed.
And with each clash, an unknown flood of sensations began to seep into his mind. Knowledge was forcibly injected into him, causing excruciating pain.
Knowledge that was violently hammered into his mind.
At that moment, the girl ‘Shub’ standing by the Undying’s side turned her head.
─ Welcome, brother.
She smiled at Dale.
─ This is the true power you’ll have. Isn’t it magnificent?
Frederick the Undying, facing the golden dragon, had his armor of the Abyss transform into the 《Shadow Colossus》.
In a way, it was like a giant robot, a massive avatar.
And the golden dragon opened its mouth toward the Shadow Lord’s avatar. A searing heat poured forth like the solar wind.
Simultaneously, tendrils began to sprout from the armor of the Abyss. Not from a human-sized form, but from a colossal armor that seemed to reach the sky.
These massive tendrils wrapped around the armor of the Abyss, countering the heat spewed by the golden dragon.
At the same time, a light of annihilation surged from the dragon’s mouth.
The tendrils, each hundreds of meters long, crumbled like ash, and black blood scattered like a flood, engulfing the area.
At that moment, the golden dragon flew toward the Shadow Lord, biting into the armor of the Abyss.
The Shadow Lord in his colossus form roared, and madness began to consume his mind.
It was a cosmic clash that shook the heavens and the earth.
Yet, up to that point, Frederick the Undying had not given up being human.
Squelch!
The black tendrils wrapped around Frederick the Undying’s heart were torn away. It was like a surgical room forcibly removing parasites from a body.
The Book of the Black Goat, fused with the Undying’s body, was ripped away, and he struggled in agony.
But the Golden Lord watching him, and the ‘Blood Duke’ conducting the surgery, showed no emotion.
The pain of defeat and the bitter despair he felt were imprinted onto Dale’s mind.
‘A human body cannot defeat a dragon.’
‘Without transcending humanity, that being cannot be defeated.’
‘Without becoming something more horrific and loathsome, it cannot be reached.’
Despairing at the frailty of humanity.
‘──I will abandon being human.’
In the agony of defeat, Frederick the Undying muttered as he lost the Book of the Black Goat.
The world was swallowed in darkness.
When he lifted his head, Shub was there. Tendrils writhing beneath her skirt.
─ I liked the old dad.
Looking down at the struggling Frederick, Shub smiled.
─ You know, brother, I like humans. Their most vile and foolish struggles are so endearing I can’t resist. And back then, dad was truly lovable.
“Is watching our destruction so enjoyable?”
Dale asked coldly, recalling the despair and pain Frederick the Undying felt, desperately steeling his resolve.
─ Why do you think that?
Shub tilted her head, puzzled.
“Frederick the Undying gave his all to fight the Golden Lord and lost. Because a human can’t defeat a dragon.”
─ No, you’re wrong.
Shub shook her head, puffing her cheeks in mock annoyance.
“Wrong?”
Dale asked, and Shub smiled as she replied.
─ Only a human can kill a dragon.
The Golden Lord, the leader of dragons.
“Then why did Frederick the Undying lose?”
─ Because he gave up being human.
“Frederick gave up humanity as a result of his defeat.”
─ No.
Shub shook her head in response.
─ You’ve got it backwards. Think back to that battle.
He recalled the overwhelming scene of the black-and-white war, where the Golden and Shadow Lords clashed.
Facing the golden dragon… the Shadow Lord wrapped in the armor of the Abyss, reborn as the Colossus of Darkness.
“Could it be?”
Dale murmured softly, and Shub laughed as if delighted.
In that final moment of the battle, Frederick the Undying transcended humanity.
─ When he faced the dragon, dad believed he had become a god. That’s why he lost.
And so he was defeated.
”…Then what exactly is a human?”
Hearing the question, Dale asked.
─ A creature that knows courage.
Shub answered. It was a truly absurd answer.
─ Courage is an emotion only humans can possess. Do you know why?
Dale paused for a moment, then finally spoke.
“To understand courage, you must first know fear.”
The strong do not fear the weak. Dragons and vampires never feel fear toward mere humans. Lacking fear is not the same as having courage. But humans who stand against dragons and vampires are different. They must be afraid. And that’s why they need the courage to overcome that fear.
“Yes, humans are indeed fragile creatures.”
At those words, Shub clapped his hands and laughed heartily.
“Yet, in the end, my father couldn’t muster the courage. So he chose to abandon his humanity and become a god.”
“Even gods couldn’t defeat the dragon?”
“Only the weakest beings in this world can slay a dragon.”
Shub chuckled.
“Courage belongs to cowards. And I adore cowards. Their desperate struggles are so endearing, I can’t help but love them.”
”…”
Dale remained silent, his expression unreadable.
The empire was ruled by these extraordinary beings, with the golden sovereign at their pinnacle for one reason alone.
Those who do not know courage or fear can never defeat a dragon.
At the same time, the only ones capable of defeating the dragon are those under the dominion of these extraordinary beings.
Realizing this, Dale couldn’t help but laugh.
“Is that so?”
Finally, he began to grasp the meaning behind Eris’s words, and what they meant by “human.”
His heart felt remarkably light.
Reaching beyond the third circle was not a matter of skill or technique. It was about one thing alone.
Enlightenment.
What Eris and Shub had given Dale was precisely that enlightenment.
The rest was simply a matter of how far he could carry this resolve.
Right now, before Dale lay the entrance to the fifth circle. And it was fundamentally different from what the other Saxon lords possessed.
They did not have the “Book of the Black Goat.”
Thus, Dale’s inheritance of Saxon’s legacy held a singular meaning.
To carry on the will of Saxon’s founder and first Shadow Lord… the immortal Frederick.
It was time to truly ascend to the throne of the Shadow Lord.