Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 170

Was what was given to you destiny?

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“Of course, there’s no way you lot could possibly do it.”

Aleon swept back his hair, then stroked the horn on the left side of his temple. He tilted his chin up arrogantly and looked down at the two Familiars. He stood confidently, treading on the body of a being who had once ruled the world.

“······.”

Lord Isletrione was a living god. Even if he didn’t consider himself a god, he was a being with godlike abilities. The only things he couldn’t do were revive a body whose soul had departed, or kill the old god and his own daughter.

The latter was the same for them. If the Lord hadn’t divided his power to seal the old god and hadn’t suffered Tiamar’s betrayal, he wouldn’t have fallen to mortality.

‘It was a foolish thing to do, Lord.’

Aleon thought.

‘Did you think that thing was better than me? If you had made me your successor instead of that soft-hearted bitch, you wouldn’t have ended up in such a miserable state.’

Lord’s first successor, Tiamar.

She, in a human body, was down below.

“······.”

Tiamar looked at Aleon with eyes full of anger. Daring to resent anyone when she was the parricide [one who kills a parent or close relative] who made her father mortal? Aleon sneered inwardly.

Sss···

The flow of magic around her changed. Following that, the gaze directed at him also changed, and a faint golden light emanated from her body.

“Who are you?”

Aleon narrowed his eyes, realizing the cause of the change.

“Aleon.”

The Emperor dwelling in Tiamar’s body spoke.

It was a deep, masculine voice, thick with magic.

Twitch

Aleon flinched. It was because of the magic contained in the voice. The old god’s magic he possessed shook when it came into contact with the Emperor’s magic, like a dog smelling something disgusting.

“······.”

If he hadn’t possessed the old god’s magic, he would have felt a different emotion. But having gone beyond merely possessing the magic and even changing his body, he felt discomfort just from seeing the Emperor’s light.

“How does it feel to be a slave?”

He frowned and looked at the Emperor. He glared, intending to scold him for daring to call anyone a slave, but then paused. It was because his vision was momentarily covered in light.

‘What?’

When he blinked, the light disappeared.

However, the trace left by the light was clear.

‘Is it an illusion?’

He felt pain as if a needle had been stabbed into his heart. As if a strong wind had blown away the dust clinging to his body, the light emitted by the Emperor pushed away the old god’s magic within his soul.

The pupils, which had been the same color as his irises, trembled, revealing their original color clearly and vividly.

– Aleon.

However, as Karkas, possessing the Lord’s body, called Aleon’s name, the old god’s magic soon filled his inner self. The trembling of his pupils stopped, and his pupils became clouded again.

“I am not a slave.”

The Emperor looked at Karkas at his reply.

“Who are you looking at?”

“Your master.”

“Master?”

The Emperor closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.

“Aleon, foolish one. You don’t even realize that you’ve been deceived, that you’ve fallen into slavery, as always.”

Aleon frowned again at the lecturing tone.

“You are being controlled.”

“You’re mistaken. I am the one who controls. I control the old god.”

“You only believe that to be true. Even the Lord couldn’t control those beings. What makes you better than the Lord that you can control them? You are not the Lord.”

“······.”

“You are even worse than the Lord. Aleon, you are a slave of the old god.”

Magic surged within Aleon. It was a movement beyond his control. The magic coursed through his entire body, stimulating his emotions and causing agitation.

“Shut up! You’re fearless because you’re not in your true body!”

Aleon raised his foot and slammed it down on Karkas’s back.

“What does a race that lives for a mere hundred years know, daring to spout such nonsense!”

Karkas reacted, opening his maw and spewing fire.

Whooooosh—

The breath shattered the golden hemisphere that had been surrounding the Emperor and Calliope. Just before the fire engulfed them, the Emperor grabbed his sword and plunged it into the ground. The breath failed to reach the two and spread to the sides.

“Kuaaaaaaak!”

“P-Pheet!”

The three races that had been surrounding the two Familiars were engulfed in the split flames, screaming. The leaders raised their magic to push back the fire, but they couldn’t hold out for long and fled.

“You are the Lord’s successor! The one who chose you is beneath my feet! I control what he couldn’t control, and I have even taken his body. Can you do that? What makes you better than me?”

Seeing the breath that couldn’t advance from the precarious distance, Aleon kicked Karkas’s back repeatedly. As the breath continued without showing any signs of stopping, the Emperor rose in front of the fire.

“Much. Very much.”

With a swoosh, the Emperor stretched out his left hand, and the fire receded several meters. Then, with his other hand, he pulled the sword he had plunged into the ground and threw it at Aleon.

Whoosh!

“Hmph!”

Aleon lightly twisted his body. Just as he was about to sneer at the sight of the sword passing by his side, the Emperor arrived before him.

“······!”

There was no time to be surprised. In an instant, the Emperor stomped on Karkas’s head and climbed onto his back. In the Emperor’s right hand was Calliope’s sword.

Thud!

Aleon dodged the attack, but just like Raeragon had fallen earlier, he fell from Karkas. The dragon stopped breathing fire and retreated, and he landed on the ground, pointing his sword at the Emperor.

“You have a hidden talent!”

Aleon thought the Emperor would dodge his attack. There was enough distance to do so, and the prowess he had shown earlier was sufficient. He intended to continue the conversation if the Emperor created distance to avoid the sword strike.

Clang!

However, the Emperor did not dodge. He caught the sword with his bare hand.

Crack···!

Aleon’s eyes widened.

Crackling···

The sword warped.

“What!”

It was impossible. His sword was made of orichalcum [a mythical metal]. Moreover, it had been touched by the hands of an ancestor god who had become a dwarf, and it contained the souls of two old gods.

The Emperor crumpled such a treasure like a piece of paper. The blade did not inflict any wounds on the Emperor. Overwhelmed with bewilderment, he stopped moving and saw fire spreading along the sword’s blade.

Blaze···

It was as if fire had been set to high-proof alcohol. The fire was dim and faint, so it seemed insignificant, but the sword’s blade began to melt.

“Kugh.”

He hurriedly let go of the sword, fearing that the fire might transfer to his hand. As soon as he let go, the sword melted down. His eyes, which had widened greatly at seeing the orichalcum being crumpled, bulged as if they were about to burst.

How could a mineral that didn’t easily melt even in the dragon’s breath melt so easily?

The human Emperor had left his own body far behind and borrowed a human body. Even if that body was strong enough to contain Tiamar, it wasn’t his own, so how could it exert such great power?

“Human, Edar, was it?”

Aleon looked at the Emperor. His eyes looked at Tiamar’s body, and at the same time, at the Emperor’s soul dwelling in the body. A slightly taller man was superimposed on a slightly taller woman in a translucent form. And when he concentrated a little more, he saw the light he had seen a little while ago again.

“······.”

The fog in his eyes began to clear.

“You···.”

And just as he was about to say something, magic stirred within him.

– Aleon.

Karkas’s call.

– Do not think useless thoughts.

The old god’s magic surged a second time and coursed through his entire body. He trembled. The emotions that had been shaking him disappeared. The expression that had held astonishment erased emotions like a doll.

“The great Emperor of Humanity was hiding his skills.”

He exhaled. There was a stench. A stench of rotting from the inside.

“Just because I don’t have a sword doesn’t mean I can’t fight!”

Aleon lengthened his nails and swung his arm. It was a distance that couldn’t be reached even if he held a sword and stretched out his arm, but when he stretched out his hand, his arm lengthened.

Thud!

The nails, reaching dozens of centimeters, didn’t reach the Emperor and were cut off, but they immediately grew back repeatedly.

“It’s useless! It’s useless!”

Aleon regenerated his cut nails and cut hands over and over again, attacking the Emperor. He laughed mockingly, saying it was useless, but what was truly useless was him. All of his attacks were useless. The Emperor moved before him, as if he knew the future.

Clang—

The nails were blocked by Calliope’s sword. The sword that the Emperor borrowed from her was also an object containing the soul of the old god. The blade reflected the opponent like a mirror, which was why it was treated as a demon sword.

The sword reflected the opponent’s inner self. It revealed what was hidden deep inside, shaking the mind, and if it saw an opening, it would dig in and try to seize the body. But for Calliope, that meant nothing. She was a Familiar, and the only one who could mentally shake a Familiar was its master.

“Aleon.”

Aleon was not a Familiar. Just as the Emperor had grabbed his sword and melted it, the moment he grabbed Calliope’s sword, he saw himself reflected in the clear blade.

“Traitor.”

The reflection in the sword whispered.

“What?”

He looked at the Emperor and asked.

“Are you talking to me now?”

He asked, even though he knew the Emperor hadn’t spoken. He was spouting nonsense to avoid revealing the emotions he had hidden deep inside.

“No.”

The corners of the Emperor’s lips lifted slightly.

“I didn’t say it. But I know what you heard.”

Traitor, the Emperor said.

“I am not a traitor!”

He moved violently, denying the truth. As the warrior wielding the power of the old god and the human god clashed, even Calliope missed some of the movements.

Aleon’s appearance changed rapidly. His skin peeled off, revealing muscles that were as hard as an insect’s shell. And two arms sprouted from his back.

“Kiaaaaaaak!”

The sound he uttered also turned into a shriek.

The Emperor hardly moved his feet. The only times he moved his feet were not to avoid attacks, but to chase after the retreating Aleon. When the Emperor didn’t chase at one point, the distance widened.

“I, can see.”

The monster that had been Aleon made a sound, opening its torn mouth.

“Your, movements, I can see.”

“Have you thought about the reason?”

“Reason?”

The monster tilted its head, making a creaking sound as bones collided.

“Why can you see what you couldn’t see before?”

“That’s—”

Because I’ve become stronger, he was about to answer, but the Emperor preempted him.

“You have become a monster. Aleon.”

“······?”

“Do you believe that you have grown while fighting me? Or do you believe that the evil behind you has given you strength? Which do you think it is?”

The monster did not answer.

To be precise, it couldn’t answer.

Its thoughts weren’t working well.

“Of course, he has given you strength.”

“He? Karkas?”

The Emperor nodded slowly.

The monster hooked its torn mouth to its ears.

“Karkas, is mine. Therefore, no problem.”

“Do you really think so?”

“A, ren’t I?”

“Do you believe that everything that has happened so far is due to your will, your plans, and is under your control?”

“Yes.”

“That is a lie.”

The Emperor held the sword with both hands and raised it in front of him. The blade that the Emperor saw only reflected Tiamar’s face, but the blade that the monster saw was not Aleon.

An old elf, not a goblin, was reflected in the blade.

“······.”

Aleon slowly lowered his head and looked at his hands. Four hands greeted him, spread wide open. He touched his face with his four hands. He felt the wrinkles of muscles, not the wrinkles of skin. The squelching sound made by the flowing mucus too.

“W-When, did, this···.”

What was the shock? He had had an appearance far removed from an elf even before coming here, so what made him surprised only now?

“Why didn’t the Lord choose you?”

Aleon raised his head at the Emperor’s words.

“Looking at the results, I can only think that he was right.”

“No, no···.”

“Because you sowed all the seeds of sin.”

“If the Lord had chosen me, it would have been different!”

“Was the Lord’s choice destiny?”

The Emperor looked at Aleon without any expression. Aleon felt that the coolness dwelling in Tiamar’s face was more painful than the faint light emitted by the Emperor.

“The environment can make a person. The environment given at the moment of birth, it has a really big impact. And since there is no choice in the given environment, in other words, it is destiny.”

But, he added.

“Was what was given to you destiny? Wasn’t the Lord’s choice of Tiamar as his successor, not you, a result? A result of your actions. A result created by your past.”

Aleon was silent. He trembled more violently than an aspen tree. The Emperor’s light was intensifying, and as the light enveloped him, Karkas’s magic was leaving him. And as the magic left, the sins he had forgotten surfaced.

“Cause? I don’t know. I don’t even want to know. Whatever the cause, the result of your actions is clear. You are a traitor. Aleon, child of the World Tree.”

“I, I am···.”

Aleon, wearing the monster’s shell, stammered.

“I am···.”

The torn mouth and split tongue tried to say something with clumsy pronunciation. It was a confession of the sins he had accumulated throughout his life. The confession hanging below his throat hesitated, as if it would come out but wouldn’t.

“My sin—”

– Aleon.

The confession was not made. Thud, Karkas took a step forward. As the ground shook greatly, the monster straightened its bent waist and looked at the old god with surprised eyes.

– What are you hesitating about?

Karkas breathed out. Then, the magic contained in his breath permeated the monster. The monster no longer trembled. It widened its eyes and looked at the Emperor with a deep smile.

“You! Do not, confuse, me!”

The monster raised one of the two arms that had grown again from its back. Reacting to that, the forces of the different races that had been retreating reacted.

Bang! Thump! Bang!

The dwarves’ artillery unit fired cannons. The cannonballs fell between the human armies that were facing each other, and when they hit the ground, their shells cracked open, releasing yellow smoke with a hissing sound.

“Scatter! Don’t get close to the smoke, retreat!”

The humans shouted and scattered their ranks. And taking advantage of that gap, the forces of the different races began their advance. The monster cheered at the sight.

“Kill them all! Kill!”