Chapter 2: The Final Game
The final game had begun, and the Shadow Lord, Dale, lifted his head.
There stood another Shadow Lord, the Shadow Queen.
“Please, brother, stop sacrificing yourself for this world.”
”…Lize.”
Lize, who claimed the title of the Blue Tower Master of lies and deceit, paradoxically fought for nothing but her own truth.
The truth she saw was singular: her beloved brother bearing the sins of the world, suffering for it.
As both the king of humans and the king of beasts, the weight he carried seemed unbearably painful and pitiable to her.
“The Black, White, and Red Towers have all become puppets of our ‘Sorceress Council.’”
Lize spoke, and behind her stood sorceresses now loyal to the new ‘Blue Shadow.’
“The towers and nobles that support your empire are all caught in my blue web.”
”…”
“This empire is no longer yours, brother. They’re all puppets tangled in the blue web.”
“You’ve prepared quite a lot without me knowing.”
“His Majesty always trusted me.”
“And you used that trust to betray me like this.”
Lize silently smiled at Dale, who had become the Lord of Black Gold after the struggle between gold and shadow.
“I’m not doing this for your understanding or forgiveness, brother.”
Lize said, her heart accelerating the eight circles, scattering blue magic once more.
“That was always the way of the empire, wasn’t it? The way of a ‘sovereign’ who needs no one’s understanding or permission.”
“Yes, Lize. I’m glad you understand.”
Dale chuckled quietly. He couldn’t fathom what Shub was plotting. She never answered his calls.
Now, the girl with the horns of a goat stood by the Shadow Queen.
Yet the powers she had given him, the primordial darkness and the chill of the end, had not vanished. They still lingered in Dale’s heart, along with the ‘Book of the Black Goat’ and the eight shadow circles.
“And it seems you’re mistaken about something.”
The Lord of Black Gold finally spoke, accelerating the ‘sixteen circles.’
“This empire was built by my power alone from the start, and I am the empire itself.”
“I know that, Your Majesty.”
Lize smiled quietly.
“That’s why I can’t inherit that name unless I defeat you and prove my strength.”
“This is your last warning. It’s not too late to step back, Lize. I’m asking you.”
Dale said, displaying the power that heralded the beginning and end of the world.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’m a proud Saxon sorceress, and your sister as well.”
Lize smiled gently at Dale’s words.
“I once thought I couldn’t compare to you, the empire’s greatest genius. But I realized I had to become stronger than you to save you.”
”…”
“So it’s me who should be saying that.”
Simultaneously, blue magic began to scatter beneath Lize’s feet.
“I don’t want to hurt you either.”
And then—
With the blue magic, the ‘shadows of the circles’ began to accelerate beneath the eight circles.
Like a mirror of Dale.
Seeing this, Dale’s expression froze.
“How…?”
“Did you forget I’m your sister?”
But Lize shook her head gently, smiling.
“Blue symbolizes the wisdom of deceit and lies. And that wisdom is what made me who I am now.”
”…”
“This is the essence of the ideology I’ve built over my lifetime.”
The primordial darkness, holding the potential for creation, and the chill of the world’s end began to scatter.
“The ‘Book of Blood and Mirror.’”
Simultaneously, Lize’s world overlaid the ground beneath her.
It wasn’t even the world she had shown just before.
It was a world filled with mirrors.
“From the beginning, my mirror reflected only one thing.”
And within those mirrors were countless images of Dale. Every version of him that Lize remembered.
“Since childhood, I admired you and wanted to become a sorcerer as magnificent as you. And now, look.”
”…”
“I am now an existence indistinguishable from you.”
As the Lord of Black Gold, as the Shadow Lord, as the emissary of winter scattering the chill of the end, Dale’s mirror stood there.
“Our blood, our magical talent, our ideology as sorcerers—there’s not a single difference.”
In the mirrors filling Lize’s world, the Shadow Queen smiled.
Seeing this, Dale unleashed his chill, aiming to shatter the mirrors filling Lize’s world.
But Lize’s darkness swallowed Dale’s chill almost simultaneously.
Whoosh!
Immediately, Dale’s world overlaid the area.
The landscape of a white and dark winter night spread from beneath his feet, and the mirrors filling Lize’s world reflected that winter night.
“Shub, did you help her?”
─ Why do you think that, brother?
─ Why do you think that, brother?
Dale asked, and Shub’s voice returned.
”…!”
There were two voices, two Shubs.
Beside Dale and Lize, and in the countless silent Shubs within Lize’s mirrors.
“Let me ask you. Does Miss Charlotte still love you as she once did?”
”…”
“Does Lady Sepia still stand by your side?”
He couldn’t answer.
“Yes, all those who loved you either fear you or have left your side. I’m the only one who can understand you.”
Lize spoke from within the world of mirrors.
Darkness and chill, eight circles and shadow circles, Lize’s existence was Dale’s mirror itself.
But she couldn’t have gained this power without Shub’s help.
This was her game.
She had once said she couldn’t resist finding out which truth was more genuine.
But at the same time, this was Lize’s will.
It wasn’t a battle of gold and shadow, truth and lies.
It was a battle of the Shadow Lord and the Shadow Queen, truth against truth.
He finally realized. His sister wasn’t someone he could defeat with a mere sentiment of not wanting to hurt her.
She was stronger and more threatening than any opponent Dale had faced before.
Because, quite literally, she was his mirror.
“You’ve grown, Lize.”
“Yes, that’s why I won’t hesitate.”
The Shadow Queen smiled as she answered the Shadow Lord.
“I hope you can lay down your heavy burden and live for your own happiness.”
Darkness and chill clashed. Dale’s chill, Lize’s darkness, Lize’s chill, and Dale’s chill.
The eight circles and shadow circles accelerated as the ideologies of the two sorcerers collided.
The darkness, holding the potential to become anything, clashed with the chill of the end that would come at the end of that potential.
Darkness and chill intertwined like a chain.
But in that clash, the duel that should have been a perfect mirror match was slowly tipping.
“Why…?”
Dale gasped in disbelief.
“Do you still not understand?”
The Shadow Queen asked with a cold smile.
Simultaneously, one of the mirrors in her world overlaid a scene.
An aged father, Alan of Saxon, and a son showing weakness before him.
‘I can feel that the way they look at me is no longer the same. They fear the empire I built, they fear me, and even those I believed closest to me look at me with reverence.’
‘Tell me, Father. Have I become no different from the emperor you all feared so much?’
‘Is my fate to become another monster while fighting monsters?’
”…!”
The Dale there was not the revered Lord of Black Gold.
He was a fragile human, seemingly about to break at any moment.
‘I am just so pained by the fact that everything I’ve fought for holds no meaning, and that I’ve ended up no different from those I’ve fought against.’
“My brother has…”
The Shadow Queen continued coldly.
“Become weak.”
”…”
“But I have no such weakness. Do you understand, brother?”
The inescapable truth.
“I am now closer to you than you are to yourself.”
The Black Gold Empress, who never sought anyone’s permission or understanding, spoke.
“So, brother, please stop hurting yourself for the world. Live for your own happiness.”
Dale fell to his knees, powerless, and his sister Lize looked down at him and spoke.
A battle had finally reached its conclusion.
“Wait, Lize…!”
In that instant, a chilling wind swept through the area, engulfing Dale completely.
It wasn’t the icy end that signaled the demise of existence. It was simply ice, encasing Dale within a wall of frost, and that was all.
An empire had fallen, and a new one had risen in its place.
Some time later, the ice melted away, and Dale awoke from his slumber.
What greeted him was an unfamiliar world, one he knew nothing about.
Much like the heroes of other realms before him, he found himself in a bewilderingly strange land.
In this new world, no one remembered Dale. It was a peaceful place, where there was no need for sacrifice.
Yet, war still raged on, and senseless bloodshed and slaughter continued unabated.
In this new world, Dale began to walk in silence.
A journey commenced, one where he had no idea where to go or what to do.