Chapter 23: The Side Story
“Revenge for my mother.”
The demon wearing Mikhail’s face spoke, and Dale responded with a wry smile.
“You certainly have the right.”
Just as Dale had once faced his own reckoning, it was only natural for the cycle of vengeance to continue unbroken, like a chain that never ends. The world remains unchanged, and so does the endless pursuit of retribution.
Mikhail Lancaster, clad in armor of red and white, rose from the throne. Watching him, Dale asked again.
“Why are you wearing Mikhail Lancaster’s skin?”
“I have witnessed countless histories, from before you brought down the Third Empire to this very moment.”
”…”
“Just as my brother remembers history through the ‘Book of Blood,’ I record my own history based on the genetic information etched into living beings.”
Mikhail Lancaster spoke.
Even though the Fourth Empire and Dale had vanished, not everyone from that era disappeared. And now, after countless years, the specters of the past reappeared before Dale.
“Humans are creatures who learn nothing from history.”
“Ah, but unfortunately, I am not human.”
Mikhail Lancaster, or rather, the demon of evolution, laughed.
“Human history is a history of possibilities. The possibility of blooming their seeds on barren land, the possibility of fighting against impending doom without giving up—this struggle for life is the beauty of both life and humanity. Just as you, the king of humans and monsters, did on this land.”
”…”
“And I have recorded the history of life up to the Ninth Empire, waiting for the day of vengeance to come. Silently, patiently, I sought desperately to become the ‘ultimate being’ that could reach you.”
Mikhail Lancaster continued.
“You asked why I wear Mikhail’s appearance.”
“I did.”
“The hero from another world was strong. Yet, he could not surpass the original you.”
”…”
“That’s why I turned to human history. A history of possibilities—Mikhail Lancaster is the answer.”
Dale remembered the power Mikhail had once shown as the ‘Apostle of Fire and Light.’ As Mikhail had said, he was a formidable adversary who could have grown to be a significant threat to Dale at that time.
“Mikhail Lancaster had potential. Across the history of life, he held the only possibility of standing against you, the Shadow Lord turned Black Gold Lord.”
Thus, Dale had uprooted him early on. Yet, the root that should have been eradicated had revived here once more.
“Fortunately, my brother recorded his existence in the history of blood. That’s why I could remember and reconstruct Mikhail’s life information, allowing me to mimic him.”
“Are you referring to Ray Uris’s ‘Book of Blood’?”
“Ray Uris and Mikhail Lancaster. Even you, the great one, feared they would grow into the worst threats, and indeed, they had potential. That’s why you didn’t hesitate to bring them down.”
“That was when I was inexperienced.”
The history of blood and life.
“We were all inexperienced. And unfortunately, my name is no longer Mikhail Lancaster.”
The demon wrapped in red and white armor spoke.
“Then what is it?”
“Mikhail Uris, that is my name.”
“Have you become a close brother to Ray Uris?”
“With Mikhail’s name, I have honed this sword since the day your presence vanished from history. I pursued the ultimate potential within this being, training relentlessly over countless ages, while you and your empire were frozen in absolute zero, isolated from the world.”
‘Mikhail Uris’ spoke. Dale coldly questioned in response.
“From the start, was the Ninth Empire or the revolutionaries just a facade for your schemes?”
“My brother and I have been waiting for the day you would awaken. We waited for you to realize yourself as the Black Gold Lord, not as someone who fled from the world.”
“So you helped me face Lize and revive the old empire?”
“From the beginning, what I had to defeat was the ‘Black Prince,’ the Shadow Lord, and ultimately, the Black Gold Lord. Not a coward who ran from the world.”
”…”
“And standing before me now is the undeniable ‘Black Prince,’ Dale of Saxon. I have awaited this moment.”
“Quite the long-winded speech.”
Hearing this, Dale waved his hand dismissively, as if losing interest.
“Nothing will change. Do you think the ghosts of the past can do anything to me now?”
The god of meaninglessness spoke, as if returning all the world’s significance to nothingness.
“As I said, humans are creatures of possibility.”
At that moment, red and white aura began to swirl around Mikhail Uris’s feet.
“Even in an era where magic is dying, you can still use an aura avatar?”
“Did you say magic is dying?”
Mikhail Uris sneered coldly at those words.
“Unfortunately, magic in this world is not dying.”
Mana in the air had thinned, the magic towers had lost their color, and knights’ auras no longer shone as brilliantly as before. This was the era where magic was thought to be dying.
”…!”
As the Apostle of Fire and Light, an unimaginable light exploded, akin to facing the sun’s corona.
“Could it be…?”
A light as bright as the sun illuminated the world, and flames of destruction, rivaling the sun’s heat, began to envelop Mikhail Uris’s body.
An aura so absurdly powerful that it was hard to imagine, even in Dale’s world.
“Day after day, I devoured the mana of this world, accumulating it as my body’s aura. Just as my brother did. Throughout countless ages, as countless empires rose and fell.”
”…”
“While my brother, Ray Uris, devoured the colors and magic of every magic tower left in this world, I devoured the swords and auras of every knight.”
The endless hunger and desire of the Uris vampire clan manifested in the form of a ‘sword.’
And Ray Uris likely satisfied that hunger and desire in the form of ‘magic.’
The ominous premonition Dale had felt was confirmed.
“In the meantime, people of the world began to mistakenly believe that magic was dying.”
The one who claimed to be of the vampire clan ironically donned the armor of dawn, illuminating the dark pre-dawn.
The demon of evolution.
He sought the ultimate being that could defeat the Black Gold Lord throughout the history of life, and finally, that form had emerged.
The one who held the possibility of defeating the ‘Black Prince,’ seeking the ultimate potential within Mikhail’s body.
Just as Dale was no longer the inexperienced ‘Black Prince’ of the past, Mikhail was no longer the same either.
The Lord of Fire and Light, Mikhail Uris.
In response, the Black Gold Lord, the Lord of Gold and Shadows, Dale, extended his arm.
Nothing would change.
Tendrils of darkness writhed at his feet, and a lake of shadows spread. Darkness descended upon the world.
Yet, within that darkness, a knight of dawn shone brightly. The light of dawn, burning like blood and occasionally flaring pure white, scattered.
The tendrils of darkness surged, and the dawn aura surrounding Mikhail Uris swallowed the darkness.
“Ho.”
For the first time, Dale smiled with genuine interest.
In this world, there was finally a worthy opponent who could match him. This realization ignited an unknown flame within Dale’s heart.
“I have awaited this day, to finally face you.”
“Then I suppose I should indulge in this entertainment.”
With those words, Dale replied coldly.
Simultaneously, skeletal knights formed from the darkness of the shadow lake rose.
Abyss Knights.
Knights formed from the abyssal darkness charged forward, and Dale extended his arm. A chilling frost swirled from his fingertips, scattering bullets of ice.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he had cast a spell with such embellishment. Yet, before Mikhail Uris, Dale willingly adhered to his old fighting style.
Was it the proper etiquette before an old rival, or merely a fleeting amusement? Even Dale didn’t know.
Ice bolts imbued with the chill of the apocalypse were fired, and the sword of dawn in Mikhail’s hand intercepted them.
It was not the old hero’s beloved sword, Peacemaker.
“Have you acquired a new sword?”
“Many things happened to forge this blade.”
Mikhail adjusted his grip on the sword’s hilt, showcasing the gleaming edge. It was clear that the magic within the sword was far from ordinary.
“What is the name of the sword?”
“Lucifer.”
A specter from the past, a formidable figure from the era when Dale faced countless powerful foes, had reappeared before him.
At that moment, Mikhail Yuris stomped the ground. In his hand, the Dawn Blade, “Morning Star,” swung with a fierce arc. Opposing him, Dale conjured the “Blade of Midnight,” scattering ancient darkness around him.
“Does your sword have a name too?” Mikhail asked.
“Despair,” Dale replied, his voice steady, as if denying the light of the Morning Star before him.
“I, too, know much about possibilities. The darkness given to me by the Mother of Ancient Shadows is proof of that.”
In the beginning, there was darkness, not light. It was a darkness that could become anything, and from that darkness, the world was born.
Thus, darkness is the original possibility.
To say that humans are creatures of possibility is, in essence, to say they are creatures of darkness.
Gripping the Morning Star, there stood a demon of hope, seeking the sole possibility against an unbeatable foe.
And against that demon, the king of humans tightened his hold on the Blade of Midnight. Enveloped in the primordial darkness that could become anything, he was the apostle of despair, denying all forms of meaning and possibility.
The Morning Star of hope clashed with the Blade of Despair.