Episode 264
The Drowned One had taken them to the deepest part of the world.
In that abyss, Barbarossa, the Drowned One, spoke.
“Behold, O King of Conquerors.”
Bubbles escaped his mouth with every word, yet his voice remained clear.
Dale was no longer the naive youth he had been when they first met. Ancient darkness enveloped him, and the crushing pressure of the deep threatened to obliterate him, yet he stood firm in this submerged world.
“From the bottom of this world, they shall awaken.”
Barbarossa’s words resonated, and Dale could sense it too. In the pitch-black void, something stirred, faint but undeniable.
How could he forget?
The creatures that once brought down the ancient world of this planet. They had not yet awakened, but when they did, the world would face the same fate.
“They were the original rulers of this star. They are merely reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.”
”…”
“You are the pests of this world. Ruthless invaders who trample and destroy the land at will. Every time you build your empires, the planet groans, and you paint the earth with each other’s blood. That’s what you are.”
“To hear that from a mad pirate,” Dale scoffed incredulously.
“The time has come.”
At that moment, Barbarossa spoke again. The entities in the darkness began to wail from the world’s depths.
A chill ran down Dale’s spine. He reached for his sword, but Barbarossa’s gesture was quicker.
The world shifted beneath them.
Suddenly, they were in the fortress of the Dead Sea Archipelago.
“This is a just war. A holy war to reclaim what was stolen by you vile invaders.”
Crack!
Barbarossa shattered the obsidian box in his hand. As it broke, the heart within burst forth.
Blood gushed as the heart was crushed, and Barbarossa lifted his head.
What stood there was no longer human.
The man once known as Barbarossa was gone, replaced by an alien presence.
“Who are you?”
The man laughed.
“Ah, I remember you, King of Conquerors.”
A chilling, deep voice emerged.
A man, drenched like a wet rat, stood there. From his body, water-soaked tendrils began to sprout.
“And the hunter of our kin.”
”…!”
A humanoid monster. A ruler with intelligence and power to command the beasts. Instinctively, Dale knew this creature was special, possessing a power that matched its uniqueness.
“The King of Monsters…”
“Monsters, you say?”
The King of Monsters laughed at Dale’s murmur.
“That’s what you call us, it seems.”
A grotesque beast. That was their name.
“But the name we call ourselves, and the name we call you, is quite different.”
“What do you call yourselves?”
“We are human.”
”…!”
Dale’s expression froze at those words.
“And do you know what we call you?”
“I wonder.”
“One day, a meteor crashed into this planet, enveloping it in a storm of annihilation. The end of the world came. We fled to the deepest parts of the world to escape the apocalypse, falling into an indefinite slumber.”
The self-proclaimed King of Monsters and Humans spoke.
“In the meantime, ‘invaders’ parasitizing the meteor took root on this land. As they have done on countless stars, they destroyed and overlaid their existence upon them, draining the life of the stars. They were locusts from outer space.”
“Are you saying that’s us humans…?”
“Humans? Don’t make me laugh.”
Finally, the entity borrowing Barbarossa’s form showed emotion.
“You are the real monsters.”
A grotesque beast. Dale did not respond to the man’s words.
The man, drenched like a wet rat, was no longer there. Countless tendrils sprouted from his body, forming a carapace, revealing the being Dale knew.
“In the entire universe, there are no parasites as nauseating as you.”
The King of Monsters, claiming to be the ‘true humans,’ declared.
“I will fight to protect our home from the monsters.”
“I can’t let that happen.”
“Of course not, King of Conquerors. And the greatest ‘human hunter.’”
”…”
Dale chuckled at the irony of the title.
What was truth and what was falsehood? In a world where truth became lies and lies became truth, nothing was certain anymore.
“I am still human.”
Yet, nothing would change.
He recalled his promise to Shub. The resolve to remain human until the very end.
“Even if we lack justice, nothing changes.”
Dale spoke.
“Survival knows no good or evil.”
“Do you truly believe that?”
The King of Monsters and Humans laughed.
“Is it not evil for the strong to take and trample the homes of the weak? Can you witness the suffering of your kin crushed by your destruction and still claim it is not evil? Do you think those who take and those who are taken from can truly escape good and evil?”
“Even if it is evil, nothing changes.”
“Indeed, King of Conquerors. You are no different.”
“In what way?”
“The empire of monsters you deemed evil and destroyed. They said the same thing.”
”…!”
“The strong are justice, and the strong can take everything from the weak. How is your claim any different from theirs?”
The empire he believed evil and overthrew, and their cause.
Ironically, Dale’s claim here was not much different from theirs.
The King of Conquerors, who revered the justice of strength and resolved to fight for survival, stood there.
“Was that the real truth?”
The Lord of Truth and Shadows smiled bitterly.
Yet, nothing would change.
The King of Humans and Monsters, and the King of Conquerors, gripped his sword anew.
Behind him, Shub’s laughter echoed.
“Now you finally reveal your true self.”
In response, the King of Monsters and Humans sneered.
“Monsters are really bad!”
A child couldn’t hold back and shouted during the story. The sunlight was dazzlingly bright.
“Why do they want to trample and take our human homes?”
“Indeed, that’s the question.”
At those words, Lize, the Blue Tower Master and sister to the Lord of Shadows, smiled.
“Yet my brother, the King of Humans, stood against them to protect us.”
History belongs to the victors. Truth is of little consequence. History and truth are always painted by the victors.
“He fought to protect us against the evil conquerors who sought to trample our planet and homes.”
The victors stood there.
And on the land of the victors, there was only one empire.
The empire had no other name.
It was the sole nation on this terrestrial continent, not a common noun for that reason.
Simply, for convenience, it was called the ‘Fourth Empire’ to distinguish it from past, extinct empires.
The justice he believed in had crumbled. From the start, the Lord of Shadows was not the savior of the righteous.
The empire’s claim of the justice of strength, where the strong have everything and the weak lose everything. Thus, the only justice in this world is one.
Survival of the fittest.
It was no different in any world. The past world was like that, the present world is like that, and the future world will be like that.
The Lord of Shadows was merely the strongest and most powerful among them.
Thus, he could claim justice. Because he had power. That was all. The reason the Lord of Shadows could claim justice was not moral integrity or anything else, just the power he possessed.
Not even a laugh escaped him.
Still, nothing would change.
“I will fight to protect what I must.”
Dale declared.
“Even if it means taking everything from you.”
At those words, the King of Monsters laughed.
Simultaneously, the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.
In the storm that seemed to engulf the entire Dead Sea Archipelago, the fortress crumbled.
Beyond the collapsed fortress, the outside world was revealed.
It was a scene reminiscent of the end of the world.
Countless ‘true humans’ were slaughtering the island’s inhabitants.
To Dale, it was no different from the past scenes of monsters devouring people.
Justice was irrelevant. Even if it was evil, he didn’t care.
The seven circles and the shadow circle accelerated and accelerated again.
Facing the brutal truth before him, it was as if they would explode with ferocity.
As always, it wasn’t some grand revelation. But after piecing together the final truth, Dale had no hesitation.
Crack!
His heart throbbed as if it would burst.
“I’m with you.”
At that moment, an ethereal touch grazed Dale’s neck.
“Noah…”
The goddess of love and mercy, who cherished humanity, placed her hand over his arm.
“I’m here too, brother!”
Young Shuv beamed beside Dale, unwilling to be outdone.
Quite literally, the two goddesses were present. They blessed the lord of conquerors, as the mana in the air and the primordial darkness enveloped Dale’s heart and shadow.
The power of the two goddesses finally took root within Dale.
Light and darkness, gold and shadow, truth and lies. None of it mattered to Dale anymore. He was the lord of shadows, and at the same time, a being tainted with the corruption of gold.
The Lord of Black and Gold finally raised his head.
With the eight accelerating circles in his heart, and the eight shadow circles alongside them.
This was not a battle to protect the world.
The battle to seize the world had begun.