Chapter 24: The Clash of Stars and Despair
Clang!
A brilliant star collided with despair.
After their swords clashed, Dale asked, as if he couldn’t comprehend, “Even if you could harness all the mana in this world, you still couldn’t defeat me. Have you forgotten that?”
Mikhail, clad in the armor of dawn, silently launched himself forward, swinging his sword. Once again, the star was enveloped in the light of dawn as it struck down towards Dale’s ‘Despair.’
Clang!
Once known as the ‘Black Prince,’ Mikhail Lancaster was someone who had the potential to become a threat to Dale in the future.
But to the current Dale, he was neither a threat nor anything else.
Even with the world’s mana turned against him, not even his own reflection or the goddess of the world could bring him down. Neither the winter of the apocalypse nor the kings of men were exceptions.
Nothing could topple Dale, the lord of gold, shadow, and black gold.
“You’re right,” Mikhail Yuris said with a calm smile.
“When I once took on the guise of a hero and faced you, even with all the world’s mana in my grasp, I couldn’t defeat you.”
“Then you must understand that even if you devoured all the mana in this world, you still couldn’t bring me down.”
“Perhaps. Yes, perhaps that’s true.”
Yet, there was no sign of resignation or loss of determination in Mikhail Yuris, who held the star.
That was what made it all the more incomprehensible.
“Then you must also know that my engagement with you now is nothing more than a game to me.”
The god of meaninglessness sneered, gripping despair.
To return all the hope, revenge, and everything Mikhail Yuris held to nothingness.
“I understand that you are beyond the reach of mere mana.”
Despair’s sword struck, and the black darkness it scattered swallowed the star.
As Dale had said, it was nothing more than a one-sided game. Facing an old rival, recalling the battles of the past, as if reminiscing about the days when the ‘Black Prince’ faced Mikhail Lancaster.
What stood before Mikhail Yuris was not the lord of black gold. It was merely the ‘Black Prince’ of those days.
For a brief moment, he was confronting memories so distant they were almost forgotten. It was, quite literally, just a game.
If Dale were to awaken from his reverie, the despair in his hand would consume both the star and hope entirely.
“After the goddess Sistina, whom you call ‘Noah,’ fell into slumber, the mana of this world… the nanomachines ceased to multiply. Thus, every time we use the mana that has stopped multiplying, its quantity diminishes.”
At the end of a sword, Mikhail Yuris spoke.
“Though I said it wasn’t an era where magic was dying, in a sense, that statement isn’t entirely wrong. As long as the total amount of mana is fixed, every use of it leads to the death of the world’s magic.”
“I don’t wish to awaken her from her slumber.”
Dale replied coldly, recalling his old partner sleeping in the deepest part of the Fourth Empire after fulfilling his ‘hero’s mission.’
“So, did the two brothers join forces to monopolize the remaining mana in the world?”
Dale asked icily, and Mikhail shook his head.
“I have no intention of using mana to deal with you.”
Yet Mikhail Yuris smiled.
“Neither Ray nor I had any grand plans or goals when we voraciously consumed the world’s mana. As I said, I don’t believe mana can affect you.”
“Then why are you consuming the world’s mana?”
“Possibility.”
Mikhail answered, looking at the blade of the star.
“Every day, I swung my sword until I coughed up blood, absorbing mana and refining it into aura, seeking out strong opponents to hone my blade without fail.”
Simultaneously, the ‘world’s mana’ he was consuming began to stir again in his heart.
“Mikhail Lancaster harbored the possibility of defeating the ‘Black Prince.’ Believing in that slender thread of possibility, I trained and trained until I consumed all the world’s mana.”
His sword, the star, began to shine again with the light of dawn.
“I have no grand plan to defeat you. I simply breathed mana, accumulated aura, and swung my sword every day until this moment arrived.”
”…Possibility, is that really all?”
“That’s all.”
“How meaningless.”
“And I realized.”
Mikhail said.
“What did you realize?”
“That true possibility, as you said, lay not in the light but in the darkness.”
With those words, Mikhail’s sword, the ‘star,’ lost its light. The armor of dawn followed suit. The light that had illuminated the dim dawn and claimed to be the world’s light faded, and darkness descended. A darkness that was pitch-black yet brimmed with the potential to become anything.
“This is the ‘horizon of possibility’ that Mikhail Lancaster has reached.”
There stood the apostle of fire and light, shrouded in primordial darkness.
Holding the ‘star,’ also enveloped in darkness.
”…Shub, was this your doing again?”
At those words, Dale spoke with exasperation. By his side, a girl with goat horns appeared, puffing her cheeks in defiance.
─ No, it wasn’t.
Before the black knight of darkness, the ancient mother of shadows spoke with delight.
─ Ah, how lovely is the possibility blooming within a human.
“That is a demon wearing the guise of a human.”
─ But look at that child. Just as you defeated the humans of this world and claimed the name of humanity, is it so strange for that being to defeat you and usurp the name of humanity?
”….”
─ Just as there are humans closer to demons, is it so strange for there to be demons closer to humans?
“Of course not.”
The ancient mother of shadows spoke, and Dale sneered coldly. It was so absurd that he couldn’t even muster a laugh.
Indeed, the being before him was not, strictly speaking, of ‘Dale’s kind.’
And it wouldn’t be strange for that different species to try to defeat Dale and take the ‘name of humanity’ he held.
Mikhail Yuris, the black knight made of the darkness of possibility, charged forward.
Clang!
The black sword, the blade of the star shrouded in darkness, clashed.
As soon as they collided, it was palpable.
Only someone who wielded primordial darkness could understand.
The mass of possibility he faced. The immense, indescribable potential writhing within that darkness.
There was only one thing embedded in that darkness: the possibility of defeating Dale.
And even while Dale was trapped in the ice of absolute zero, wandering lost, ‘Mikhail Lancaster’ never let go of that possibility.
Every day, he dedicated his entire being to that possibility. He trained without fail, accumulating aura to the point of depleting the world’s mana, swinging his sword, and consuming the existence of the strong.
“Can you feel it?”
”…!”
Through the primordial darkness, as if a blue tower mage were peering into another’s memories, ‘Mikhail Yuris’s’ memories poured in.
Like the emotions of a rampaging opponent in the world of thought.
The primordial darkness that made up Mikhail Yuris began to resonate with Dale.
──A scene appeared.
Having defeated the winter of the apocalypse and the true kings of men, the lord of black gold, who had realized himself as the child of the ancient mother.
Before him, Lady Scarlet caressed him, the touch of a mother.
‘Ah, what a lovely child.’
Thus, the demon of evolution was born. A perfect being in the touch and love of a mother.
Afterward, following his mother’s command, he took on the guise of a hero from another world and faced Dale alongside Sistina.
And he was defeated.
Strictly speaking, it was the Yuris family’s mistake in not understanding the ‘ultimate being.’ The demon of evolution, the ultimate being, was never about the strength of the individual.
“The value of a living being lies in passing on its genetic material. As the ultimate being, preserving and continuing information (DNA) throughout history.”
Thus, Mikhail Yuris spoke again.
“In other words, paradoxically, I was not your match in terms of ‘individual strength.’ Therefore, when I, disguised as a hero, was defeated by you, that defeat wasn’t particularly strange.”
After all, that level of power couldn’t kill the demon of evolution, the ultimate being.
But his mother, Lady Scarlet, was different.
That loss, for the first time, brought anguish to the demon.
Yet, as the ultimate being, he lacked individual strength. He could preserve and continue the species’ information over eons but could never confront the lord of black gold as an ‘individual.’
“Even so, I couldn’t forgive you for taking my mother away.”
Mikhail Yuris said, gripping the black star anew.
Thus, he resolved to defeat that being for the sake of avenging his mother.
“It was a possibility so far-fetched, it bordered on the impossible.”
At first, it was so faint and fragile that it was barely visible.
“But paradoxically, you were the one who taught me.”
“Taught you what?”
“To never give up, even when faced with insurmountable despair, and to believe in your potential until the very end.”
Ironically, that very fact gave hope to the demon.
Thus, in exploring the limits of that possibility, he finally reached the existence of Mikhail Lancaster.
A being who had once severed the arm of the ‘Black Prince’ and held the potential to grow into the greatest threat.
Each time he defeated a strong opponent and claimed their sword, his potential swelled.
The demon staked everything on that potential. He abandoned the essence of life itself, forsaking even the ‘rational thought’ of a living being for the sake of revenge, choosing the ‘irrational.’
To defeat an entity that seemed utterly unbeatable.
It was an act that defied the rationality of a creature whose primary purpose was the replication of its genes.
“Truly foolish.”
“That’s what it means to be human.”
Mikhail Yuris, the demon of evolution, replied.
“And now, it’s time to prove the fruits of that labor.”
”…”
Mikhail Yuris launched himself forward, a being composed entirely of ‘possibility,’ wielding his sword solely to bring down Dale.
─ Ah, how foolish and endearing they are!
The ancient Mother of Darkness watched the ‘human’ before her with delight.
And yet…
With each desperate clash against the starlit blade, with every irrational struggle of possibility, an indescribable emotion welled up within Dale.
And he found himself recalling the name of the sword in his hand.
Despair.
He remembered, and then simply smiled bitterly.