Episode 265
The clash between the king of humans and the king of monsters had begun.
To determine who the true humans were, and the defeated would be branded as monsters, forever remembered as the villains of history.
History belongs to the victors, and strength is justice.
This land was not theirs, yet nothing would change.
The Shadow Lord willingly embraced the ugliness of gold, accompanied by two goddesses.
The Black Gold Lord, with eight circles and the Shadow Circle accelerating, Dale raised his head.
Mana filled the earth, and the ancient darkness of Shub began to scatter in all directions.
These beings called themselves ‘humans.’
“Aaaah!”
“Monsters, they’re monsters!”
The true rulers of this star, these beings were rising one by one.
Emerging from the depths of the world, they began to massacre the people of the Sahae Archipelago indiscriminately.
It was a scene as horrifying as the end of the world. Yet, to Dale, it was a familiar and unforgettable sight.
The ravenous monsters were hunting their prey.
“This is rightfully ours to take.”
Amidst the screams echoing from all around, the king of monsters spoke. The swirling sea carried the scent of salt.
“This is a battle to reclaim what you invaders have stolen and taken away.”
“I can’t let that happen.”
“Do you refuse the truth and resist, false king of humans?”
”…”
“We are the true humans of this star. And you are nothing but monsters invading our world.”
“Why should I believe your words?”
“You know the truth as well.”
“At this point, truth and lies don’t matter.”
“Was the truth you shouted about all this time not important? Truth and Shadow Lord.”
The true king of humans mocked. In the end, what Dale held in his hands was the ugliness of gold.
”…”
The Black Gold Lord stood there.
Opposing him was the king of monsters, wearing the guise of the drowned Barbarossa.
With the endless slaughter unfolding around him, Dale reached out his arm.
Eight circles.
The power that surpassed the combined might of the five mages once hailed as the pinnacle of the continent finally rose.
Whooosh!
Darkness enveloped Dale’s body, and the armor of the abyss covered him.
Simultaneously, tentacles of pitch black burst from the ground, wrapping around the monsters.
One by one, they rose from the sea, countless in number.
The Black Gold Lord gripped his sword tightly and lowered his head.
In his shadow, a truth he himself did not know was reflected like a mirror.
”…Mother of the ancient darkness.”
Why did she love humans and stand by him? He finally understood.
“Were you our mother all along?”
─ You have finally realized, my child, my black young lamb.
Dark Young.
Dale and his kind, as the ‘true humans’ here claimed, were never of this land.
“What do you desire?”
─ I only wish for my children and my seeds to spread far and wide.
The Mother of Ancient Darkness replied joyfully.
That was why Shub was by Dale’s side, and why the Shadow Lord could be with Shub.
─ Now, go and claim this star. You have the right and the power to do so, my black young lamb.
”…”
The Mother of Ancient Darkness spoke, and Dale did not respond.
He simply could not understand why he had fought so fiercely for truth and lies until now.
Unbidden, Charlotte’s face came to mind. In front of her, Dale had not hesitated to reveal the truth.
It was a cruel truth, and Charlotte and Dale could never return to how they once were.
In the battle of truth and lies, where Dale stood was ultimately a lie.
As the Shadow Lord had always done, he had to accept the inescapable truth and let the lie retreat.
But he couldn’t do that.
He watched the endless army of monsters rising from beyond the sea. The true humans. When they took what rightfully belonged to them as the rulers of this land, he imagined the catastrophe that would befall the false humans.
He recalled the old world that the hero from another realm could not protect and had to give up.
”…Do not forgive us.”
As the king of the false humans, Dale reached out his arm for those he must protect.
“And so began the ‘Fourth Empire,’ hailed as the greatest in the world.”
Said Lize, the Blue Tower Master.
“Against the invaders who sought to take the world, my brother fought willingly. And he won.”
“──Long live the Emperor!”
At those words, a child shouted the name with a laugh.
“How did His Majesty defeat the monsters alone?”
“With the blessing of the goddess and the grace of mana, he drew a sword filled with his nobility.”
A child asked, and Lize answered.
“And he fought against the army of monsters trying to take our land, continuing the struggle until the last one fell.”
“──Lize.”
It was then.
A voice was heard. The children held their breath for a moment and turned their heads.
”…Brother.”
“Are you telling old stories, Lize?”
Lize smiled silently.
“Your Majesty!”
“We humbly greet His Majesty the Emperor!”
The children were the offspring of noble families honing their magic under the Blue Tower Master. And the ruler of the empire to whom they owed their loyalty was there.
“Yes.”
And his sister, Lize of the Saxon royal family, smiled as she answered.
“I was telling them how you protected this world and fought against the invaders.”
“Just stories from childhood.”
Dale, the Black Gold Lord, replied with a bittersweet smile.
Dale had no way of knowing what stories Lize had told the children. The only certainty was that the stories were not the cruel truth.
“My brother is someone who would do anything to protect the world.”
“Yes, that’s the truth.”
Lize said. Dale replied with a bittersweet smile.
It was a sunny day in the imperial capital.
The Black Gold Lord was there.
Facing the endless army of monsters filling the sea beyond the horizon, he stood alone.
But his hunt was never to protect the world. It was to take their world.
The black young lamb finally revealed his true self.
The power of a monster hunter, the alien abilities awakened one day, none of it was alien.
It was the true form their race had possessed from the beginning.
Awakened, indeed, as the word suggested.
The black young lamb finally ended his childhood and grew up.
By becoming a being more monstrous than the monsters claiming to be the true humans.
The Black Gold Lord reached out toward the night sea teeming with monsters.
A waterspout rose, and countless columns of water began to swallow the monsters like a black hole.
Simultaneously, the Black Gold Lord kicked off the ground toward the monsters on land.
The night of the hunt had begun.
It was when Dale was talking with the children learning magic under the Blue Tower Master.
“Your Majesty.”
Charlotte Orhart, now the Empress of the Empire and Charlotte of Saxon, appeared there.
“You don’t have to call me that.”
“People are watching, Your Majesty.”
Dale said awkwardly, and Charlotte replied with a smile.
Charlotte was no longer a child who knew nothing of the world.
And now, no one in this world remembered the past of the Shadow Lord and humans, nor the truth of the monsters.
Just as the truth of the hero in the Third Empire had been.
Charlotte was one of the few who knew the most truth, aside from the person involved.
In the end, she too chose silence.
“From the beginning, we never had the right to measure justice.”
By tacitly agreeing to the Shadow Lord’s lie.
“Even the old empire we believed to be evil was the same.”
Recalling the enemy they once united against and fought.
The Golden Emperor and the false empire he ruled. They believed without doubt that they had to be defeated.
“Mind your words, Empress.”
At Charlotte’s words, Lize’s expression turned cold. As the ruler of the Blue Tower, the master of schemes and lies.
“Enough, Lize.”
But it was Dale who interrupted Lize.
”…Brother.”
“How are we any different from them?”
“We are not different at all.”
Charlotte replied with self-mockery. Lize’s expression froze again, and the children tilted their heads, not understanding the tension between them.
”…This empire does not exist for us.”
Dale quietly shook his head. And looking at the children beside Lize, he continued calmly.
“Everything I’ve fought for and built is for all of us.”
“Your Majesty is right.”
Lize smiled and nodded. Charlotte also remained silent, affirming his words.
“We humbly greet His Majesty the Emperor!”
In the heart of a new empire, the formidable fortress once built by Dale of Saxon stood proudly in the northern duchy.
Beyond the fortress stretched an endless, frozen tundra, yet no one dared to grumble about the biting cold.
This was the heart of the world’s most powerful and mighty empire, known also as the Saxon Imperial Domain.
Countless vassals lined up, bowing their heads in reverence to their sovereign.
The grand and somber Gothic-style hall was awe-inspiring.
At its far end, on a throne of black gold, sat the Emperor of the Empire.
Once the Black Prince of Saxon, he had succeeded his father as the Duke of the Midnight and had taken it upon himself to be the watcher of kings.
In the end, he rose to become the ruler of a new empire.
He had repelled the invaders from the edge of the world, becoming a hero in the process.
The sailors rescued by the Emperor’s hand in the Sea of Isles still recount his exploits as legendary tales.
To them, it was an army of monstrous beasts threatening to devour the world, and the Emperor had stood alone against them, willingly defending the realm.
That was their truth. Nothing would change it.
─ Truly a beautiful sight.
A young girl with horns like a mountain goat smiled sweetly, but Dale did not respond.
Nothing was ending. Not a single thing.
It had always been this way, and it would continue to be so.