Episode 224
“Rey is…”
The bond of consciousness that connected them had been severed, and the Blood Duke, left alone in the chamber of the Blue Tower, muttered weakly.
The Blue Tower’s shadowy figure, Arachne, remained silent.
The Blood Duke, Marquis Eurys, turned his head towards Arachne.
“It’s truly unfortunate, Eurys.”
”…”
“The last mercy I can offer you is to let you leave here safely.”
“Do you intend to remain a servant of lies and shadows until the end?”
“Do you want to know why I serve the Shadow Lord?”
“Not particularly.”
Marquis Eurys shook his head coldly.
“A war is coming, and in that war, we will be enemies.”
The master of the Blue Tower smiled sadly, while Marquis Eurys stood in silent contemplation. For the first time, his shoulders trembled slightly.
“The Shadow Lord was right.”
“About what?”
“That I was nothing more than a third-rate villain.”
With that, the Blood Duke began to laugh, a mad, cackling sound. His exaggerated gestures were like those of a third-rate actor, and then, suddenly, the laughter vanished.
“And this trivial villainy ends here.”
With an expression devoid of any emotion, the Blood Duke spoke.
“One last question. Will you betray the shadows and lies to fight alongside me?”
“I’m afraid I cannot.”
Arachne replied, and the Blood Duke nodded. At that moment, letters of blood began to inscribe themselves upon his body.
“Then, as your lord said, there’s no reason for a third-rate villain like me to wait for another day.”
“Oh my.”
“I won’t make empty promises about meeting again as enemies.”
The continent’s greatest dark sorcerer began to accelerate the eight circles of magic, aiming to eliminate the Blue Tower’s master with all his might.
But just then…
“Unfortunately, even now, we are not truly seeing each other.”
“Do you think I’ll fall for your tricks?”
“The idea of meeting again as enemies is a story for when we can actually meet again.”
Arachne laughed, seemingly amused.
”…!”
At that moment, the landscape beneath the Blood Duke vanished.
Marquis Eurys found himself standing on a barren land. To an outsider, he might have seemed like a madman, muttering to himself in the empty air.
In the northern empire, the land of ice. The Blue Tower he thought he was in did not exist there. There was no tower at all.
A cold wind blew across the empty, desolate land.
At dawn, in the bedroom of the Saxon Ducal Castle.
For a spy of the Blue Tower, the most important thing is to never realize that they are a spy.
This rule applied even to the rulers of the Blue Tower.
“Ah…”
Elena, the Duchess of Saxon, awoke with a start. Beside her, her beloved lay sleeping.
“What’s wrong, Elena?”
“I just… had a nightmare.”
Elena smiled as if it were nothing. The Duke of Saxon reached out, wrapping an arm around her neck with concern.
Nothing had changed. Beside her lay the man she adored, and her son was the ‘Black Prince,’ unmatched by anyone in the empire.
“I dreamt of our son.”
“Was it a nightmare?”
“Yes.”
The reason the Blue Tower, masters of deceit and intrigue, served the Shadow Lord was surprisingly simple.
The Blue Tower never truly existed. Or rather, it existed, but it was never something with form or substance.
There was never an Arachne weaving webs in the shadowy chambers of the Blue Tower.
The Blue Tower itself was not real. From the beginning, nothing was built on that land.
When the children of noble families learned the magic of the Blue Tower, the Blue mentors conveniently appeared. But even those mentors could not truly be called Blue magicians.
They were merely puppets, like Sepia, moving according to their will.
The true essence of the Blue Tower existed only within their minds.
Only when the sorceress council, including the Blue Tower’s master, defined themselves as the Blue Tower, could it exist.
An entity that is everywhere and nowhere.
Yet, in this moment, the Blue was undeniably present.
“There’s nothing to worry about with Dale.”
“Haha, yes. Worrying about your son is as foolish as it gets.”
Elena smiled as she spoke.
Dale of Saxon, her beloved son. A mother’s love for her child does not change, even if that child were to turn a sharp blade towards her.
From the moment he was born, he was destined to become the Shadow Lord.
Elena, the master of the Blue Tower, gently buried her head in the Duke of Saxon’s chest.
“Our son is truly proud and beloved.”
One day, he would inherit the mantle of darkness, death, deceit, and intrigue.
And he was finally trying to step out of his mother’s embrace in the truest sense.
As a mother, it was something to celebrate, yet it was also deeply bittersweet.
Rey Eurys had died, and the ‘Book of Cold Ash’ embedded in his heart went berserk, revealing its true form.
But what fueled the rampage of the grimoire was also the power of Dale, who had awakened to the sixth circle.
A grimoire is a vessel that contains the thoughts of a sorcerer. It is not unusual for a being that should have died long ago to manifest as the incarnation of a grimoire.
It is not the true Demon King, but merely the essence of his thoughts left behind.
Thus, its value cannot be underestimated.
A sorcerer’s existence is defined solely by consciousness, and a grimoire is the product of that consciousness, the very gene of magic.
The Ashen King raised his head. It was undoubtedly the Demon King Balor.
The Lord of Cold Ash, ruling over the world of ashes.
“Why have you awakened me, foolish human?”
“Do you wish to fall back into eternal slumber?”
Dale retorted. At the same time, aura surged within him, and the pinnacle of his swordsmanship revealed itself.
The Black Knight clad in the armor of the Night Raven. But the Demon King was not one to be unaware of what lay hidden within.
The world of ashes began to tremble violently, as if ready to blow him away with its hostility.
“The hero from another world…”
“Ah, now you remember the old days?”
Dale adjusted his grip on the hilt of the Peacemaker. Seeing the light of peace beginning to shine from the tip of his sword, the ashes around the Demon King began to swirl with the storm of annihilation.
It was a storm of destruction incomparable to what Rey Eurys had shown.
The title of Ashen King was no lie. Even the hero had not defeated the Demon King alone. It was a hunt with countless strong allies from the empire, including the former Holy Sword Bearer.
“You are merely a fragment of consciousness within the grimoire. Once my power supply is cut off, you will fall silent again, sealed away in the depths of the church.”
“I have seen many things through the eyes of this child who possesses me.”
The Demon King spoke. For the hero from another world, death was not the end, and the same was true for the Demon King. The consciousness and self within the ‘Book of Cold Ash’ were unmistakably the Demon King’s.
“And I have come to know the existence of the Shadow Lord through you.”
“Good thing Rey Eurys couldn’t unleash the grimoire’s incarnation.”
“So you killed this poor child?”
The Demon King sneered.
“This child’s words were true. You are a fraud. And this poor child, never knowing the truth, struggled his whole life against the wall of talent and inferiority, only to meet a miserable end.”
”…”
“The Lord of Lies is truly a title meant for you, hero from another world.”
The Demon King spoke, as one of the few who knew Dale’s true identity in this world.
“I didn’t awaken you to discuss trivial matters of truth and lies.”
“Then why did you awaken me?”
“The land of darkness beyond the Demon King’s domain.”
Dale began.
“You fled from the Eldritch of Saxon there.”
”…”
“Do you not wish to reclaim that land with me?”
The hero from another world asked. At last, the world of ashes surrounding the Demon King began to stir.
“I will place you as the rightful ruler of that land.”
“What do you hope to gain from this?”
“We must overthrow the usurpers currently occupying that land.”
Dale said. The likes of the Undying Frederick and the former lords of Saxon.
Against them, the hero extended his hand to the Demon King.
“Very well.”
The Ashen King laughed coldly and shouted.
“But first, we have a debt to settle between us.”
“Yes, that’s how it should be.”
The hero from another world adjusted his grip on his sword.
Simultaneously, the halted world of ashes began to swirl again, creating a vortex of ash.
“Mother!”
As soon as Elena appeared in the courtyard of the Saxon Ducal Castle, her daughter Lise ran to her with a beaming smile and embraced her.
Sepia, standing beside her, chuckled with delight.
“Your daughter is growing so quickly. It’s as if blue magic is in her very nature.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Elena replied with a soft laugh.
Elena, the Sorceress of the Blue Tower, a woman of magic straight out of a storybook.
“She is, after all, the daughter of someone truly remarkable.”
With those words, Elena gently embraced her beloved daughter, Lize, and smiled quietly.
“Sepia, could you give us a moment alone?”
“Of course.”
Without a hint of suspicion, Sepia stepped away. As Elena watched her retreating figure, her expression briefly turned unreadable. But it was only for a fleeting moment.
Turning back to Lize, she met the innocent sparkle in her daughter’s eyes.
“What do you want to be when you grow up, my dear Lize?”
“A great magician, just like my brother!”
Lize answered without a moment’s hesitation, and Elena’s smile deepened.
“I can’t wait to see what an extraordinary magician you’ll become, my darling daughter.”