The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 215

Azadin rose to his feet. Even after killing Aldis, he didn’t know what compelled him to stand again, but he couldn’t leave Hatir alive.

“A foolish daughter? She was forced into a fight she didn’t want because of your clan’s responsibilities. All because of your incomprehensible atrocities!”

“Are you blaming me for Aldis’s death? You’re the one who killed her.”

“Damn it! You should have compromised! If you had just usurped the throne, I wouldn’t have…”

Azadin wouldn’t have stopped the clan.

He would have simply left the clan, and he wouldn’t have had to kill Kazas and Aldis with his own hands.

“That’s because Aragas would perish that way. If we don’t conduct harsh selection training, Aragas’s abilities will be diluted and disappear. But the selection prevents the population from increasing. If it’s hard to increase our population, we should reduce theirs.”

“Is increasing and decreasing the number of people a game to you? If you’re going to say such things so casually, you deserve to die! It’s better for Aragas to perish for the sake of everyone in this world, Hatir! Especially if Aragas is led by you!”

“But it seems to me that you’re the same. I’m doing this for what I believe in, and you killed the person you loved with your own hands for what you believe in, didn’t you?”

Indeed, Hatir was right. The realization that he had killed Aldis washed over Azadin.

“Ugh!”

As his anger intensified, dizziness overwhelmed him.

He had lost too much blood. Even with the king’s healing magic, even if the regeneration magic remained in his body and his regenerative powers were activated, anemia wouldn’t be cured immediately.

Hatir, seeing Azadin panting, raised the black steel sword.

“I never thought that the child I picked up that day would trouble me this much. But it ends now, Azadin.”

Hatir raised his sword to kill Azadin, but there was still fear in his eyes.

This was the guy who had defeated him and even overcome Aldis. Even if he looked injured and exhausted to the point of not being able to kill a bug, it could be a trick.

If Azadin were in his position, he would have been suspicious too. The Aragas were trained from childhood to naturally use all sorts of tricks.

“Kazas created a troublesome one. Why did he put so much effort into raising a guy who could have been raised carelessly?”

Hatir tried to take out his bow and shoot, but his quiver was empty. Instead, he took Aldis’s spear, cut off the shaft, and placed it on the bowstring. It was a spear without fletching [the feathers on an arrow that help it fly straight], but at this close range, it was more than enough to hit.

Azadin couldn’t avoid Hatir, who was aiming at him, right in front of his eyes. Anemia weighed heavily on his limbs.

That’s when it happened.

-Kwaang!

Suddenly, a large arm burst out from behind Hatir.

A Nether emissary had materialized, tearing through the earth.

“What?!”

Hatir shot the bow behind him, which was aimed at Azadin, and jumped forward to avoid the arm.

The spear of Aldis pierced the arm, but it only slightly penetrated. As the blood vessels pulsed along the emissary’s arm, the spear shattered.

“Fool! I am not the enemy!”

Hatir said that, but the emissary’s arm mercilessly spewed poison at him. It was a terrible poison that even turned the silk curtains decorating the Butuma Royal Castle black.

But even if he had been fatally injured and survived, he was the leader of the Emissary Clan, a formidable figure.

“So, you’re still just a beast that can’t understand words… Ararat!”

In a hurry, Hatir used the Emperor’s magic.

The sword of light, Ararat, was swung horizontally, cutting off the emissary’s arm and slicing through the pouring darkness.

A giant sword of light cutting off the emissary’s arm from myth, it was a scene worthy of divine majesty. Even Azadin, who had no good feelings for Hatir, thought it was a magnificent sight.

The emissary’s arm was cut off, and it spurted blood like a fountain. Light flickered in various parts of its body, and soon the entire arm burned away.

“Did I get it?!”

No sooner had Hatir spoken than the ground cracked, and countless arms burst out. Each arm was the size of a giant tree, making the sight chilling. A chilling aura that would drive an ordinary person mad just by looking at it emanated from the arms.

-Lightning of the Holy Light!

Hatir once again cast the Emperor’s magic, dropping lightning of light in all directions. The lightning struck in a chain reaction, causing explosions that overwhelmed the emissaries.

“……”

Azadin was looking at Hatir’s back, who was defenseless while fighting the emissaries.

Now that he was somewhat accustomed to the dizziness caused by anemia, he could harm Hatir if he just thrust his weapon.

However, it felt strange to attack in this situation.

Aldis and Kazas, and many other clan members, had died loyal to him, so Hatir was clearly responsible for the clan’s corruption.

He was hateful.

If only this guy had been in his right mind, Azadin wouldn’t have had to be at odds with Kazas or Aldis. He wanted to blame everything on Hatir and kill him.

But at this moment, his conscience wouldn’t allow him to ambush someone who was fighting the emissaries.

‘What a damn conscience…’

Azadin was dumbfounded by his own stubbornness and stood up.

“I will purify the throne! You have no complaints, do you, Hatir!”

“You… that was made by Arael, wasn’t it? Can you trust Arael?”

“I don’t know!”

Azadin said that and took out the magic book made from the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture that Arael had given him.

The world was full of darkness, but this magic book alone emitted a pure white light, dazzlingly illuminating the surroundings.

Of course, Azadin didn’t know it was dazzling because he had no eyes, but when he saw this light, he knew that Arael hadn’t used any evil tricks.

“Kuh!”

But as Azadin tried to approach the quartz throne, the Nether emissaries began to interfere.

The corpse of Aldis rose.

*********

Summer cicadas were chirping loudly.

“Nether emissaries are high-dimensional beings. They are beings from a truly different dimension with a completely different perception than ours.”

Kazas said that and spoke a little of the Nether language. Just that was enough to make the bug in the glass jar start to change.

It wasn’t just the bug that started to change. Changes also occurred in Kazas’s skin as he spoke the Nether language.

Something sprouted and wriggled like a bug, alive and moving.

Kazas took out a small blade made by breaking obsidian [a type of volcanic glass] and cut his own flesh, dissecting it. When he put it in the glass jar, the mutated bug and the bug that had grown from Kazas’s body fought each other, and the glass jar began to crack.

“M-Master! It’s going to escape!”

“Right?”

Kazas slapped the mouth of the jar with his palm. The inside of the jar was stained with blood, and both bugs were completely dead.

“Huk.”

Young Azadin watched the scene, his hands sweating. He even felt awe at the terrifying power of the Nether language, its dreadful and evil power.

“Who recorded this Nether language?”

“It is the slave of the emissary.”

“Huh?”

“Just as we don’t understand the essence of the emissary, the emissary also has a hard time understanding us because we are too small and insignificant. So, there are those who have offered themselves to the emissary and become its vassals. What they have recorded of their knowledge is the Nether language, but…”

Kazas gave a bitter smile.

“It is an act of offering one’s knowledge and soul to the emissary. A destruction more terrible than death.”

“But there are followers of the Nether, aren’t there? Why do they worship such a terrible thing?”

“Because we will someday reach the age of Jupiter.”

“?”

“You may not understand it well, but in big cities, there are buildings with more than 10 floors, like towering spires. People who are trapped on the rooftops of such spires when they catch fire, seeing the flames coming, with no way to escape, are often so afraid that they would rather throw themselves into the flames.”

“Ah.”

“It’s the same with Chang-gwi [a type of malevolent spirit]. If you are cornered by a beast like a tiger and think there is no way to escape, sometimes you are possessed and willingly run into the beast and give your neck to die. People who don’t understand magic think that the beast is using magic to possess people, but a mere beast can’t use magic. It’s just that people whose hearts have been broken in the face of too much despair cannot even bear to resist and actively choose self-destruction.”

“That’s terrible.”

“If you lose your fighting spirit, you will submit to despair. So, no matter what happens, don’t lose your fighting spirit. That’s what I want to say, but… I’m ridiculous. I’m not in a position to say this to you.”

“What do you mean you’re not in a position?”

“I have already lost my star.”

“Huh?”

It was hard to understand, but Azadin had learned from Aldis, so he vaguely knew what the star meant.

“Can’t you find a new one?”

“I don’t know.”

Kazas smiled weakly at Azadin’s words.

“Well, it’s time to shoot the bow. You foolish disciple.”

“Huh?”

“I had the nearby goblins catch some and make arrows. This reed field is perfect for making reed arrows. If you shoot and shoot and shoot until this reed field is gone, even you, who haven’t mastered the Isun Palace [a martial arts technique], will master it, won’t you?”

“…This reed field?”

Azadin was horrified as he looked at the vast reed field.

The bow was so strong that his arms and legs trembled and his face turned yellow like jaundice after shooting only 50 arrows. And now he was being told to shoot all of this reed field with arrows.

“Well, if you lose your fighting spirit, you will submit to despair. Have fighting spirit, Azadin.”

“……”

The cicadas were chirping loudly.

*********

Azadin grabbed the bow with his ruined left arm and recalled that day.

Unlike other Nether followers, Aldis hadn’t submitted to the approaching despair. However, being taken over by the power of the emissary while still a fresh corpse was a terrible destruction in itself.

“Azadin?”

That which had taken over Aldis’s body called Azadin in Aldis’s voice.

At that moment, Azadin could understand why people threw themselves into the flames, why they threw themselves into endless despair.

He wanted to believe.

That Aldis had come back to life.

Even if she was now a revenant or a vampire-like being, even if she was consumed by an evil aura, if her soul, her continuity, was still her, he was willing to submit to this darkness.

But even in this situation, Azadin shot an arrow at that Aldis.

Indeed, Kazas, Aldis, and Azadin had been raised too well. When despair that would break his fighting spirit approached, Azadin would reflexively resist.

Perhaps it was a behavioral mechanism that Kazas had planted, hoping that Azadin would overcome the despair he had felt.