Chapter 361: A Month VI
Everyone’s expression was solemn after Arya finished speaking.
Even the waves beneath them seed to lose their rhythm, as if pausing out of reverence. The purple-gold glow of the Sea of Thalassara reflected against the still air, its beauty muted by the weight of what had just been shown.
But the tiny figure floating before them, this little girl wrapped in starlight and soft cloth, did not stop.
“Haaah…” Arya sighed, puffing out her cheeks just a little as she waved her small hand. Another illusory screen blood behind her, silver-green light dancing with ethereal weight as she said with somber finality, “That’s not all.”
The screen flickered.
A vast, starlit battlefield appeared. King Edmond stood at its center, tall and lean, robes of ivory threaded with writhing Living Script that moved like serpents under his skin. Behind him were the mirror-faced soldiers, but they did not move. All attention was fixed on the horror he summoned.
With a flick of his wrist, King Edmond conjured sothing that defied all natural order- a black moon.
Its presence dragged down the light of the stars. Condensed and silent, it spun with a gravity not of mass and instead sothing far worse. Around it, the heavy pressure of the Relegation of Carnage thickened the air, staining existence itself. The black moon pulsed once.
Then it exploded.
The shockwave rippled and devoured absolutely everything!
Even before Achilles could reach it, the black moon erupted in a tide of obliteration. The Sea of Thalassara boiled. Mountains disappeared. Cities that had stood for millennia blinked out.
Millions perished.
The Adrastia Continent shook, and it did not stop shaking.
Achilles remained standing amid the chaos, Rose at his side. He held her hand as the Imperial Sun of Adrastia manifested above them, golden and defiant, shielding them both as it took on the brunt of the carnage. Yet even its might could not prevent the loss of so many.
As the illusion cald, the screen shifted.
King Edmond stood, blood spattered across his face, touching his temple with reverence as though savoring sothing sacred.
“Oh… magnificent,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “All those mories… all those years. Gone. Snuffed out in a breath. Their hopes… their dreams… gone to Carnage!”
He laughed- a broken, chilling sound.
But then, silence followed.
His body stiffened. His head tilted as if he were reading sothing invisible. And then he spoke a single word.
“…Adrastia?”
His voice trembled.
He said it again, this ti with more weight, as if the na reached into his spine and pulled his soul taut.
“…Adrastia?!”
His pale face drained further, and his smile disappeared completely.
“No. No, no, no… This can’t-”
The screen shook as King Edmond staggered back. His eyes, wide with disbelief, fixed on Achilles. And in a single blur of motion, his form shot backwards. He didn’t look at his army. He didn’t give a command.
He fled.
Upward, outward- toward the stars. His robes flickered out of the illusion as he abandoned the battlefield in full retreat.
He did not wait for his army, nor even tell them anything as he simply ran. That was how terrified he was from a single na that he obtained from mories!
Arya turned back toward her parents, floating softly as the screen vanished behind her.
Her face was serious, but her voice remained high-pitched and sweet. “That’s the biggest thing, Mother, Father. King Edmond knows about the Adrastia na… and I don’t know why. But when he saw it, he ran.”
She fluttered toward her father, chubby arms folded in front of her. “And that’s all I could find… but it ans sothing really, really bad. I think… if so people learn about you, Father… they might not fight. They might… all run. And it is what cos after that running, which is the worst as it seems like right after, everything turns dark.”
HUUM!
Achilles stared at her, silent.
Then he slowly raised his hand, palm upward, and beckoned her.
She blinked twice, adorably, and zipped into his arms. He cradled her gently, his face filled with sothing deeper than power.
“I don’t want you to worry so much, okay?” he said softly, brushing back the star-flecked strands of hair curling over her forehead. “You haven’t even been alive for long. I’m sorry you had to see all that.”
Arya’s wide green-silver eyes glistened.
“I…am just a baby…” she whispered.
Her small face pressed into his chest.
Those words. So simple. So human. So deeply wrong in this mont.
Achilles trembled.
She had just been born. No matter her lineage or how terrifying her power was… she was still just a child!
His arms wrapped tighter around her. He turned his face toward the starless morning sky above the Sea of Thalassara. There was no sun in that mont, only the stillness before war.
Who had dared to burden his daughter with fear?
Who had made his newly born daughter say such words?
He looked down at her. Then at Rose.
He pulled them both close, one arm wrapping around each.
“It will be okay,” he said. His voice was steady, but sothing old and storming stirred within it.
Arya sniffled against his chest, then looked up, tiny fists curled against his chest.
“Father… what will you do?”
Achilles did not answer imdiately. He looked across the horizon. Toward where the skies had burned. Where millions would supposedly die. Where a King of Carnage would flee.
He looked to his daughter.
Then to his Queen.
And then he answered.
“…Maybe we won’t wait for them to co.”
The words left him in a whisper, but they shook the air.
“Maybe I will leave this plane of existence… and ensure our enemies are dead before they arrive.”
…!
Above his head, the purple-gold sun spun like a vengeful on.
Above Arya, a silver moon rose, quiet and radiant.
And the sea below reflected two lights- Father and Daughter. Sun and Moon.
Ready to bring dawn and dusk to those who threatened them!
2/2 Onward!
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