Episode 206
“Whoa, what the hell? Did you have octopus for breakfast or something?”
With a sudden, slithering sound, inky black tendrils erupted from Mordred’s throat. Master Baro muttered to himself, as if it were none of his concern.
”……!”
Gasps of shock echoed around the room. But the imperial faction remained unfazed, as if they had anticipated this all along.
The tendrils, emerging from Mordred’s throat, wrapped around his entire body, much like when Shub enveloped Dale. The armor of the Shadow Lord, the avatar of darkness, encased the body of the seventh prince, Mordred.
Yet, unlike before, there was no fiery red or icy blue. It was pure black, interwoven with a dazzling gold.
It was armor of black and gold.
The armor and helmet encased Mordred, scattering an unparalleled darkness.
“Hah, haha.”
Mordred, now clad in the black and gold armor, chuckled softly.
“I wield both the power of shadow and gold.”
“The power of shadow, you say?”
“Ah, yes. The power that ‘Immortal Prince Frederick’ bestowed upon me that day.”
Mordred murmured quietly.
“To be honest, you damned Saxon brat, I still haven’t overcome the defeat and nightmare of that day.”
”…….”
“Every day, I struggle against this cursed black darkness writhing within me, fighting through hellish days. But, but… my father, the Great Emperor of Gold, never abandoned me!”
With the black and gold armor enveloping him, Mordred drew his sword. It was a golden blade, unmatched by anything in this world.
“I will conquer this shadow power and become the champion for the Golden Empire!”
“Oh, is that so?”
Dale laughed at his words.
“Quite the dream you have.”
At the same time, the ‘Book of the Black Goat’ fused with Dale’s heart began to throb wildly, and the dark blood within him exploded, forming into armor.
It wasn’t the avatar of an ‘Aura Master.’ It was the avatar of the Shadow Lord, with magma-like, fiery patterns beginning to etch themselves onto it.
With the chilling cold that heralds the end of the world, the red and blue magic layered over the dark armor.
“For a warrior of the Seven Swords of the Continent, to have no abilities beyond aura would be absurd.”
The Shadow Lord spoke with a cold smile.
“Even if that power was acquired from elsewhere.”
The stage was set for the first duel at the pinnacle of swordsmanship, the place that determines the greatest sword on the continent.
The Shadow Lord drew the black magic sword ‘Gluttony,’ and Mordred, clad in black and gold armor, charged forward.
But it was not the Lord himself who would block his sword.
A lord has knights. And the empire’s finest swords, who claimed to be the Shadow Lord’s knights, were there. They had once sought to prove themselves through the trial of the sword, and now they were death knights, dancing in the ancient darkness and the cold of the apocalypse.
Dale’s death knights surged toward the black and gold knight, Mordred.
Moreover, the Shadow Lord’s ‘Eye of Truth’ began to illuminate the area.
The first prince Lancelot, the ghost sword Sephilia, the celestial sword Grand Duke Lancaster, the seventh prince Mordred.
”……!”
The Eye of Truth revealed the secrets they hid. But human history is long, and the secrets Dale could see were not something he could choose at will.
A brain-splitting headache overwhelmed him. Through the pain, Dale desperately turned his gaze toward Mordred’s shadow.
On a white, dark winter night, the Immortal Prince Frederick stood before a trembling Mordred.
The watchers from the heavens gazed upon him, and the madness Mordred felt tore through the Shadow Lord’s mind.
But he had to see. What the black and gold knight before him had witnessed, what had happened to him.
The black tendrils sprouting from the Immortal Prince’s mouth slithered like leeches toward Mordred’s body.
It was at that moment.
Clang!
Mordred swung his golden sword against the death knight’s strike.
“Our lies are truer and more beautiful than the truth.”
His resolve was undeniable.
From within Mordred’s shadow, a voice echoed again.
─ Your Majesty, is it true that I am truly the blood of the Holy Sword Count Brandenburg?
Young Mordred trembled before an unbearable truth. But the Golden Emperor, who looked upon him, was unperturbed.
─ Is ‘truth’ so important to you? Does it matter so much that I cherish you as a son and you serve me as a father?
The Golden Emperor, the Lord of Lies, whispered gently. It was a fatherly, tender smile.
─ You are my proud son. Even if the blood of our dragons does not flow in you, nothing changes. You are undoubtedly my son and the golden champion who will bear this great empire of fire and light.
─ But Prince Philip…!
─ That child’s truth is more false than your lie.
At the same time, the expression of Emperor Arthur lost all emotion. When he spoke of his true-blooded son, there was no trace of fatherly affection in Emperor Arthur.
─ Incompetent, weak, without a shred of talent or worth. Do you think that child, just because he carries my blood, is more suited to be the ‘Emperor’s son’ than you?
Emperor Arthur said.
─ Remember. Our lies are truer and more beautiful than the truth.
Finally, the truth shown by the shadow came to an end. The Shadow Lord, with the Eye of Truth, turned his head.
There stood the black and gold knight, the champion of lies and gold, with an unmatchable resolve.
Watching him, Dale waved his hand. The death knights of cold and darkness halted their movements, and within them, Dale, clad in dark armor, began to walk.
He glanced at Philip, who was slumped on the ground. The true prince who believed without doubt that he was the son of the Holy Sword.
It was a fact that mattered little.
To claim the title of celestial sword, Dale had to defeat the seventh prince, Mordred, before him, and that was all.
Nothing would change.
“Ignite.”
The Shadow Lord murmured softly. At the same time, the magma etched into the dark armor blazed red-hot, as if about to erupt, and two ‘heat engines’ overlaid the mana circle and aura heart.
A mechanical device capable of converting thermal energy into mechanical energy.
With five circles and the aura heart in the lower abdomen, the essence of mechanical engineering from another world finally began to operate.
It didn’t just process mana energy into magic and aura; it began converting the thermal energy supplied by the red magic into both magic and aura.
Exploding with two kinds of power, the Shadow Lord charged forward. Although the avatar Dale was overlaying was a power derived from the ‘Book of the Black Goat,’ it was not yet Dale’s avatar as an ‘Aura Master.’
But one cannot reveal all their strength from the start.
The magma-like, blazing sword, the red aura blade, swung toward the black and gold knight.
Clang!
The radiant gold and blazing flame clashed. But the Shadow Lord’s attack didn’t end there.
The shadow prosthetic, now an inseparable part of his body, began to writhe.
A barrage of dark projectiles began to rain down from point-blank range.
Amidst the endless shower of shadow bullets, Mordred, clad in black and gold armor, swallowed hard.
Simultaneously, the armor encasing his body began to writhe like a living creature.
With a slithering sound, tendrils erupted from the dark armor, wrapping around Mordred’s body and forming a shield.
The tendrils acted as a meat shield against the relentless shadow bullets.
’…He’s using the power of shadows.’
What the Immortal Prince Frederick did to him, and what happened afterward, remained unknown. But the Eye of Truth does not allow one to pick and choose what it reveals.
The being before him was merely mimicking the power of the Shadow Lord that Dale had once shown.
Whatever the Immortal Prince Frederick intended by implanting the power of shadows in him was unclear. But nothing would change.
A fake could never surpass the real thing.
Clang!
Their shadows entwined, and gold and flame collided. As soon as they clashed, the Shadow Lord’s aura blade, now imbued with a chilling blue light, began to scatter icy cold.
The cold of the universe’s winter surged along the blade’s edge.
Clang!
The two swords clashed.
Gold and ice.
”……!”
Crack, crack!
The blades crossed, and the cold from Dale’s sword began to engulf the golden blade in Mordred’s grip.
The two blades, locked together, began to freeze over.
Mordred tried to pull back his sword, but it was already too late.