Ren stepped forward, black flas coiling around his armored fists, his new power radiating raw nace. "Then I’ll burn myself away if I have to. I told you I’d go to any lengths to make you see what you’ve beco."
Yuuto’s gaze hardened, his claws flexing as molten mana surged across his arms.
An ode of darkness...
It was a fragnt of the Aspect and Affinity of the House Head of Oboros, granting whoever consud it access to an Authority—a mythos—established throughout history as having the power to consu all things.
Or better yet,
known for exterminating dragons.
Through eons of dragonkind losing every war to the encroaching darkness, Oboros carved a single truth into the fabric of existence:
Dragons can die, and we are the ones who kill them.
That law, that mythos, had embedded part of itself into his very being, and the armor he wore was what caused it to turn abyssal black.
Ren fixed Yuuto with a gaze brimming with bloodlust.
"Then I’ll stop you," Yuuto said quietly, sorrow lacing his voice. "Even if it ans ending the last man who still believed in ."
Ren’s blackened flas erupted in response, twisting violently around him.
"Then co try," Ren snarled.
Yuuto gritted his teeth in pain upon hearing those words.
The two of them moved at once.
Silver and black collided in a blinding explosion, the sheer force of their clash tearing the courtyard apart as the ground split open beneath their feet.
...
...
Alister’s gaze dropped to the spear jutting from his chest, golden blood dripping steadily from its edge. The weapon thrumd with a low, hateful resonance that gnawed at the air around it.
His pupils constricted. Recognition dawned in an instant.
"...Oboros."
The word left his lips like a bitter curse.
His eyes widened further as the realization solidified. The runes etched into the spear weren’t random—they were alive, writhing faintly like black serpents etched into tal. It wasn’t just any weapon.
It was an Abyssal Spear, a weapon born of the sa Authority as the Ode of Darkness.
His breath ca sharper now, the weight of what it ant settling on him. The spear didn’t just wound him—it was suppressing him, tethering his power, bypassing his divine resilience entirely. It carried the sa mythos as the fragnt Ren had consud, the sa reality-warping rule that dragons could die.
His detached composure cracked for the first ti, his jaw tightening as he realized just how deliberate this mont was.
Yanzi saw the recognition in his eyes and laughed softly, cruelly. "Ah... so you’ve figured it out." She tilted her head, amusent flickering in her gaze. "Good. I would’ve been disappointed if you hadn’t."
Yanzi’s grin widened as she twisted the Abyssal Spear sharply inside Alister’s chest. The runes flared with a sickly black light, and a jolt of pain tore through him. Then, with a deliberate pull, she yanked the spear free. Golden blood poured from the wound, hissing as it struck the scorched ground.
The mont the weapon left him, Alister’s vision faltered. The battlefield—the burning skyline, the falling castle above—seed to blur and collapse around him.
A flashback.
It was brief, no more than a heartbeat, but it was enough.
Alister was no longer standing. He was kneeling beneath a descending black castle identical to this one, its once-proud spires crashing into the abyss. The land around him was drowned in darkness, as though the world itself had been hollowed out.
The mory disappeared.
And then, they descended.
Multiple figures with vast black-feathered wings dropped from the broken heights of the castle, their silhouettes frad against the crimson glow of the dying sky.
At their center stood a hooded man with deep brown hair streaked with silver. His presence exuded unnatural delight, his hands coming together in an eager, mocking applause.
He chuckled—a sharp, sinister sound that echoed across the shattered landscape.
"That was quite the show, Alister," the man said, his voice filled with cruel amusent. "A sha to see that puppet perish... but then again, I can always make more."
Alister’s eyes widened in recognition, his voice breaking past his ragged breath.
"...Kai..."
The man smiled.
"No. The na is Helexor, an Apostle of the Abyss."
He and all the other hooded figures present then chanted, "From nothing all was birthed, to nothing all shall return. The abyss shall claim all that existence owes, bathing all in radiant darkness."
As they spoke these words, movent stirred behind them.
A colossal shadow spread across the ground, accompanied by the faint rattle of chains.
Alister turned slightly, his gaze falling on her...
Another mory flashed before his eyes.
A mory of one who was shackled yet free, who could soar yet was made to glide, destined to ascend yet cursed to forever fall.
A woman wearing a black skull mask, purple eyes ever radiant behind it, her very presence radiating a dreadful majesty.
Enormous, tattered wings stretched as wide as the castle’s highest peaks, feathers shedding motes of darkness as they moved.
Chains hung from her wrists and ankles, glowing faintly with runes—cracked and broken in places, yet sohow still binding her.
Despite how free she appeared, the chains still held her captive in so cruel, unnatural way.
The Death of Purpose.
Her true form laid bare.
Her na was Eli’Erel, Holder of the 11th Seat - "Death of Purpose."
The sight of her, standing amid ruin with those broken bindings, made Alister’s chest tighten with a mixture of dread and familiarity—an echo of a mont he had lived before, in another life, another failure.
Eli’Erel’s purple eyes glimred darkly behind the black skull mask, her massive, tattered wings spreading wider as if to blot out the burning sky. Her voice carried the weight of inevitability, cold yet resolute.
"We et again, Overlord," she said, each word echoing like a verdict. "Just as I promised, now you shall forfeit your life... so that this millennia-old war may finally end."
The mont her words fell, the hooded figures surrounding her raised their hands in unison.
The ground beneath Alister cracked and writhed like a living thing. From the abyssal fissures, black chains erupted, twisting violently through the air. They coiled upward in an instant, moving like serpents, and lashed tightly around Alister’s limbs, chest, and neck.
Each chain burned cold, their runes flaring with the sa abyssal power as the spear that had pierced him. They weren’t just binding his body—they were suppressing his very existence, locking down the divine light that had made him seem untouchable.
Alister’s golden flas sputtered, struggling against the overwhelming flood of darkness.
And in that instant—
Deep within the quiet vastness of his soul sea, a ripple of malicious delight stirred.
From the shadows of that inner realm, a voice erged—smooth, cruel, and triumphant.
"Finally," Alack whispered, his smirk widening as he stepped forward from the black fog that had always lingered in the corners of Alister’s being. His golden eyes glowed with unholy hunger as he tilted his head.
"The opportunity I’ve been waiting for... has arrived."
User Comments
0 comments from readers