The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 508

“Do you really have to drag others into your perverted tendencies like that? There are ways to enjoy it alone, you know? Even Lord Astader succeeded in rehabilitation. Didn’t you feel even a shred of hope seeing that?”

“This is another delicacy, you see. Forcibly dragging the people of the whole world, even the Emperor, into my perverted tendencies!”

As Zekt said that, he lunged forward, swinging his sword.

A direct head strike, the most obvious attack, but one that’s easily blocked with a longsword or similar weapon.

Azadin retreated, deflecting the attack with the Executioner of Azure, but Zekt kicked off the ground, stomping his foot and twisting into a head strike, then unleashing a series of slashes.

Even when Azadin defended, the blade bypassed his defenses, cutting through Azadin’s leather armor, slashing his upper arm, and drawing blood.

“How disappointing, Your Majesty! Shall I lend you a sword?!”

Zekt mocked the cornered Azadin, unleashing a barrage of attacks.

“I cannot become like Lord Astader! To have everyone remember and insult my disgrace, to try to forget the shame by relying on alcohol and becoming numb, and then suddenly have a great awakening… I am not that productive! The only way to prove the heat within me is to fight against the heat of others! Lord Astader! You, the Emperor! If I steal and destroy the heat of everyone in the world, then my existence will be proven!”

The words of someone who had never felt passion in their life, without any particular crisis, unfolded with refined and sophisticated swordsmanship.

Azadin was barely managing to block with his short weapon, retreating until he stepped off the ceramide platform and onto the insects.

‘This is the end. I wanted to enjoy it more, but I can’t just let it slide. Is this the end?’

Zekt watched as Azadin’s foot left the ceramide raft, certain of his victory.

But then, it happened.

“I don’t want to get caught up in the perverted acts of someone who can’t stand on their own.”

The moment Azadin said that, a golden flash erupted from beneath Zekt’s feet.

Zekt, startled, tried to block it, but it was molten metal.

Melted ceramide had engulfed Zekt.

Surprisingly, another ceramide platform, besides Azadin’s, had been hidden inside the insects and had sprung out to cover Zekt.

The reason Azadin had been helplessly overwhelmed by Zekt’s swordsmanship was that he had been splitting his focus to move this ceramide longsword from within the insects’ ground.

“Kuh!”

Zekt was trapped in the burning ceramide melt.

Startled, Zekt tried to shake off the ceramide clinging to his body, but this molten metal, remotely controlled by Azadin’s will, continued to stick to Zekt’s body and wouldn’t come off.

Rather, even the ceramite that had formed the raft moved, flying towards Zekt and hitting him.

The heated metal burned Zekt’s flesh, gripping his body.

Then, what if he attacked Azadin?

If Azadin had to concentrate to move this molten metal, wouldn’t attacking Azadin be the solution?

However, the molten metal clinging to his body would harden when needed, hindering Zekt’s movements.

So, Zekt tried to increase the aggressiveness of the insects attacking Azadin by manipulating them.

However, the insects that touched Azadin’s body couldn’t bite his flesh and were burned away.

Azadin’s body, filled with sacred white mana, burned the swarms of insects as soon as they touched him, preventing them from daring to bite him.

‘If that was possible, there was no reason to use the longsword as a platform because of the insects from the beginning… Ah, was it a trap from the start?’

Zekt realized that Azadin had known his characteristics, the characteristics of the Nether Reaper who had mutated his body, and had prepared all of this from the beginning.

Azadin knew from previous experience that Zekt used Nether insects, and if he was still human, he would have tried to quickly eliminate him with the attacks of the Herald Clan.

He had tried to destroy Zekt by quickly destroying his head and heart with the Herald Clan’s Black Steel Arrow fire.

However, Zekt had already become an entity closer to an insect swarm than a human.

Realizing this, Azadin immediately called for other reinforcements while setting a trap to capture Zekt.

“I am pleased that Your Majesty has prepared so much for me.”

It wasn’t an empty compliment; Zekt was genuinely happy.

From the moment he was struck by the Black Steel Arrow to the trap laid with ceramide.

To lay such groundwork in that one moment?

The more Azadin’s amazing talent, determination, and decisiveness shone, the more Zekt’s proof of existence also shone.

He proves himself by hindering Azadin’s achievements.

Azadin was disgusted by the sight of Zekt feeling joy.

And he also felt pity.

“If you could be happy with such trivial things, you should have enjoyed other pastimes instead of doing this….”

Zekt didn’t answer, but Azadin felt like he heard him say, ‘That’s why it’s absurd.’

A deformed monster who could easily master swordsmanship and magic that others found difficult, yet failed to properly cultivate the desire to live.

That was what was struggling to prove its existence while defiling the world.

“So? Aren’t you going to turn your whole body into insects and run away?”

“Ah, I don’t think I can maintain my ego if I do that. At least my head must remain in its complete form.”

“Then, is the match over?”

“No! You must continue to be my opponent! Your Majesty!”

This time, Zekt began to absorb the surrounding insects.

While protecting his head, he covered the ceramide that was restraining his body with countless insects.

But at the same time, Azadin’s halo of light also began to shine.

Wings of light appeared from the halo, flapping, and a terrifying power gathered at the tips of the wings.

It was the very technique that Azadin had used to slice through the Nether beasts all at once.

To unleash that power, which had cut down mountains and dismembered giant beings from afar, so close?

Zekt tried to stop Azadin, but he was helpless, trapped by the ceramide.

“Hahaha. Isn’t that using a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken? Your Majesty. That’s a bit….”

“Perhaps….”

“Yes?”

“Perhaps there might be a way for you to be saved too, Zekt. If I put in a lot of care and effort.”

“……….”

Zekt made a subtle expression. To talk about salvation to someone who doesn’t want it is an insult. Because it’s saying that you are wrong and need salvation.

However, Azadin had no intention of insulting him, and Zekt himself, even if he couldn’t empathize emotionally, could objectively understand what Azadin meant.

“The sins you have committed are too great, and I don’t have time. I don’t have the time to give you care and effort, Zekt. I’m sorry, but disappear.”

“Haha. That’s good. A feeling much more insignificant than hatred or pity….”

At that moment, a blinding light, two rays of sacred light that could cleave even monsters in two and cut through mountains, were released towards Zekt.

Even if not directly hit, the insects were burned, and the blinding light blinded the surroundings.

Zekt created a dimensional rift to protect his body, but the rays of light poured into the dimensional rift, burning even the beings beyond the second dimension all at once.

Zekt’s entire body was burning from the heat and indirect light radiating around him. On top of that, the ceramide burned even hotter the moment it received this indirect light.

The sacred energy resonated with the ceramide made from the blood of angels, obliterating Zekt’s impure body.

The light that Azadin emitted faded.

The light that had illuminated the whole world disappeared, and darkness came.

*********

The mountain of insects was completely burned to charcoal and collapsed, and Azadin landed on the ground.

“Tch.”

Azadin spat out blood-mixed saliva.

His whole body ached as if it would break. His joints creaked, and his ligaments groaned inside his body like old ropes.

“Is it over? Haa. I can’t be a complete saint either. And I don’t want to be.”

Would a saint have saved a broken human like Zekt? But Azadin doesn’t have time.

Considering efficiency, it’s right to abandon a human as broken as Zekt.

Considering the mistakes he made too. But the act of abandoning someone for efficiency shouldn’t be justified either.

Goodness exists in different forms for everyone, so in the end, any good deed or decision is bound to contain absurdity.

“Even if I had the same opportunity a hundred times, I would still execute him all hundred times. But I can’t be a saint after all. Even being an emperor seems a bit too much. People’s expectations are getting too high.”

Azadin watched as Zekt’s body disappeared without a trace and the halo of the dimensional rift he had left in the sky gradually shrank, holding the empty hilt of his sword.

The ceramide flowed in and solidified again into the shape of a longsword.

“Cough, cough….”

Azadin coughed, staggering as he restored Aurelia Dawn. Blood spurted from his mouth.

Azadin turned his body, staggering. The sky was still dark, and dawn showed no sign of appearing.

“It seems that defeating Zekt doesn’t solve everything right away. The Age of Jupiter….”

The night was not over yet. Azadin felt it and moved.

But…

“No, it’s not over yet!”

A dark shadow covered Azadin’s back.

Azadin dodged the shadow’s attack while staggering, but the dark shadow grabbed Azadin’s ankle.

Zekt, with only his upper body, or rather, half of it, remaining, had grabbed Azadin.

He had clearly been burned to ashes, but Zekt, resurrected from those ashes, was holding onto Azadin’s ankle.

“Persistent, Zekt.”

“Yes! At least I’ve decided to end it with you!! Resisting you is what proves my existence….”

“I’ll have to refuse.”

“Yes?”

“You can’t do anything alone, so you’re trying to leech off of someone else’s achievements, right? Even if an angel clung to me with such impure intentions, I would kick them away, let alone a man whose whole body is a mass of insects….”

-Crack!

Zekt’s hand pierced through Azadin’s leg.

Azadin raised Aurelia Dawn, but his hand trembled just from lifting it due to the backlash from using divine magic earlier.

“You’ve become weak. Yes, that’s right. You were always dying! What a waste. For someone with both strength and will like you to be caught up in such absurdity and fail to achieve your goals!”

Zekt enjoyed digging into Azadin’s wounds.

While Zekt held onto Azadin, the Nether’s minions approached. Wendigo snowmen, deep-sea octopuses made of tentacles, and indescribable, horrific monsters made of bones, blades, and melted flesh were gradually approaching.

But suddenly, an explosion occurred among them.

A mana bomb made from Elemental Wailing’s magic stone exploded, sweeping away the Nether’s minions.

And a sword came down on Zekt’s head.

Jibek had struck Zekt’s head with his sword.

“Are you alright, Your Majesty!?”

Azadin’s subordinates, reinforcements, had arrived.