Episode 231
How many days had passed in the darkness?
In the ruins of the Shadow Empire, defeated and crumbled before the Golden Empire, a father and son finally emerged.
They stood at the site where the trials for those who dared to claim the title of Shadow Lord were held, a test to determine the rightful emperor of the Shadow Empire.
There were immortals cloaked in robes.
Before the Immortal Duke Frederick stood the heads and descendants of the Saxon family, who had pledged their loyalty for generations.
The swirling darkness beneath their hoods was ominous, so much so that even discerning the true nature of the shadows within was a daunting task.
“We’ve been expecting you.”
A young girl appeared among them, her eyes covered with black bandages, much like the Immortal Duke.
“To the one who seeks the name of the Shadow Lord.”
”…”
Dale bowed his head silently.
“Please, come in.”
The girl extended her arm, and the former heads of the Saxon family bowed before Dale and the Black Duke.
“A trial awaits, for you and for all of us.”
In the freezing cold and darkness, the father and son moved forward, not for the ancient faiths of gold or shadow, but to claim what they were meant to protect.
It was a trial not unlike that of the Black Tower.
A tower, modest and almost laughable in its mere twelve steps, yet each step held a weight that was anything but trivial.
“Current head of the Saxon family, Black Duke. Have you come here to claim the name of the Shadow Lord?”
The girl with the black bandages asked. The Saxon Duke shook his head quietly.
“I am merely here as a standard-bearer for the lord I serve, just as my ancestors here have served as standard-bearers for the Immortal Duke.”
At his words, a sound like a soul escaping echoed among the robed Eldritch.
“As you block my son’s path for the Immortal Duke, I too will pass through the floors you block for my son.”
“Father…!”
Understanding the meaning behind those words, Dale swallowed hard.
“No matter how ancient the tradition, you cannot climb this tower to its end alone.”
The Black Duke spoke, and Dale remained silent.
“Do not worry, Dale.”
His father’s voice was as steady as ever. Hearing it, the girl with the black bandages laughed.
“Allen of Saxon, the proud child who chose to remain human.”
“Lady Persephone.”
“I wished for you to attain immortality and sit at the pinnacle of this tower.”
“Regrettably, that is not a place suited for me.”
“You possess the talent and qualifications more fitting for the name of ‘Shadow Lord’ than anyone, even more than my brother, the Immortal Duke.”
“As I said, it is not worth giving up my humanity for.”
The Black Duke replied, his voice filled with unwavering conviction.
“And what of the child beside you?”
Lady Persephone turned to Dale.
“Do you wish to forsake your humanity and sit at the top of this Shadow Empire?”
“I have already given up much.”
Dale answered, as a proxy of the beginning and end, holding the primordial darkness and the chill of the apocalypse.
“But just as my father did, I have no intention of giving up my humanity.”
“Look at your body, young Saxon.”
Lady Persephone laughed.
“The color of the blood coursing through your veins, the shadow cast over your heart—who could look at you and call you human?”
A body of dark flesh and a shadowed heart. The grotesque form was indeed a monstrous portrait, far from anything human.
─ Ah, it is I.
At that moment, a voice echoed. With it, the air around them froze.
“Ah, ah…!”
Lady Persephone’s expression turned to stone.
“Mother, our ancient mother of darkness…!”
A dignified lady appeared beside Dale, visible to all but him.
─ This child is undoubtedly human. And before those who have forsaken their humanity, he seeks to sit on the throne of a fallen empire filled with shadows.
Persephone and the former heads of the Saxon family knelt in unison.
“The trial to determine the king of shadows will be conducted fairly, according to ancient tradition.”
─ Indeed, I shall watch over it as well.
Shub laughed with delight. Dale remained silent, and soon Persephone and the Saxon heads raised their heads.
“Black Duke.”
“Speak, Lady Persephone.”
“My brother, the Immortal Duke, resides at the top of this tower. And the former heads of Saxon will block your path and that of the son who seeks the name of the Shadow Lord.”
“I understand that.”
“You, too, will be granted the right to break through those who stand in your way as the standard-bearer for the lord you serve.”
“That is enough.”
The Black Duke nodded solemnly.
In the ruins of the Shadow Empire, a battle for the throne began.
Beside the challenger Dale stood the most reliable father in the world, and watching the challenge was Frederick, the Immortal Duke, once hailed as the progenitor of Saxon.
And for him, countless former heads of Saxon stood in the way.
The trial of shadows had begun.
The first trial, the first floor.
There were former heads of Saxon who served the Immortal Duke as the Shadow Lord and claimed to be his standard-bearers.
Facing them was not a servant of a king, but a father devoted to his son.
Before the Saxon Duke stood an ancestor he could scarcely comprehend. A master of shadows who deceived death and ruled this land of darkness.
Eldritch.
Facing them, a man who never fled from death raised his head.
Dale’s father, the continent’s greatest necromancer, and the one who stood at the pinnacle of the Black Tower.
“Allen of Saxon, I greet the former head of our Saxon ancestors.”
The Black Duke bowed his head respectfully. Before him stood an Eldritch.
Beneath the hood lay endless darkness, and his voice was nothing more than the sound of a soul escaping, like a whispering wind.
A shadowy wraith unable to speak by its own will.
‘…….’
Seeing it, he finally understood. The price of forsaking humanity and fleeing death to attain immortality.
What stood there could no longer be called a ‘person.’
Without even a fragment of self, he recalled what had been lost over the eons.
The former head of Saxon, the Eldritch, extended an arm. Simultaneously, a circle began to spin around his heart.
There were eight.
The eight circles, a symbol of the tower masters known as the continent’s five great wizards.
Yet, he understood.
‘Is that truly the realm of the eighth circle?’
It was not awe.
‘It can’t be.’
It was an indescribable disappointment.
Yet, he could not deny the eight circles accelerating from the Eldritch’s heart. Equal to Dale’s father, the Black Duke, and the realm of the continent’s five great wizards.
But as the Eldritch’s eight circles surged, the Black Duke’s expression remained unmoved.
To forsake humanity and attain immortality. To hone magic over eons.
At first glance, it seemed the ultimate state for a wizard, yet the magic wielded by the former head of Saxon over those eons was not.
What the wraith had gained by forsaking humanity was something utterly ephemeral.
‘Why?’
The Black Duke accelerated his circles, and darkness swirled at his feet.
The former head of Saxon cast magic against the swirling darkness, but it was not even a contest.
“Why have you fallen so?”
The Black Duke spoke calmly, voicing the same question Dale held.
Unable to hide his disappointment, his expression was filled with bitterness.
“Why does the proud ancestor of Saxon wield such feeble and futile magic?”
Before the Black Duke’s derision, darkness swirled beneath the Eldritch’s hood once more.
Whoosh!
Simultaneously, the two vanished from the spot. It was clear at a glance.
‘The world of ideas…’
Yet, in their world, there was no place for Dale or anyone else.
Left behind, Dale remained silent, watching the trial alongside the ominously whispering Eldritch.
‘…They are strong. But they lack the overwhelming presence of my father.’
For the first time, Dale pondered the former heads of Saxon. Why had those who once reigned at the pinnacle of the Saxon family and the Black Tower declined so pathetically? What was the ‘humanity’ they had forsaken?
It was a mystery. Yet, it was a mystery that demanded understanding.
Whoosh!
The silence that had settled moments before was shattered as a storm of magic swept through the area.
Emerging from the swirling magic was his father, the Black Duke.
Flap!
He unfurled six ominous black wings.
At the same time, a scream that could tear through the air echoed around them. It was a sound that seemed to drain the soul, and Eldritch was thrashing desperately in front of the Black Duke.
The darkness within the hood twisted violently, and as the distortion reached its peak, Eldritch collapsed to the ground, utterly defeated.
“Is this all you have?”
The Black Duke’s voice was as cold as ice.
“Is this truly worth the price you paid to escape death?”
No answer came. Only Lady Persephone broke the silence, speaking with a calm detachment.
“The trial has only just begun, child of Saxon.”
Meanwhile, far from the trials at the world’s end faced by Saxon and his father, others began to move.
Not for gold or shadows, but driven by their own convictions.
The White Tower Lord, Celestial Duke, invoked the name of the Holy Maiden Aurelia, declaring the independence of the ‘Sistine Theocracy’ against the Empire.
Simultaneously, Barbarossa, the Sea Duke and one of the Empire’s three great dukes, proclaimed the independence of the archipelago he ruled.