Episode 165
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When the heads of Saxony inherited the wisdom they had accumulated and gained the power of a monarch based on that power, none of them had the name of ‘Shadow Lord’. Even Dale’s father was no exception.
They didn’t have the Book of the Black Goat. But Dale didn’t.
That is why, as the first Shadow Lord, the Immortal Lord, had called Dale a ‘usurper’… …it was time for him to take the throne.
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It was the workshop of a black magician.
They were the deep-rooted apostles of darkness that the Saxon people of the past feared. Furthermore, even the Black Tower, which inherited their ideology, could not be an exception. Monsters of truth who were blinded by the truth beyond death and did not hesitate to use any means necessary.
A human body was cut open on the operating table, and the warlock began to experiment with his dark magic one by one, manipulating the body like a surgeon.
At the same time, the knowledge and information he had acquired flowed into Dale’s head.
The essence of magic accumulated by the Saxon lords for generations was helping Dale grow as a wizard.
Without any conscience, remorse, or moral code to worry about… …just like the darkness of the Black Red Prisoners once was.
By shedding blood, the wheel of history was turned, and through this, the accumulated and built-up knowledge of Saxony was passed down.
The man was once one of the old lords of Saxony.
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Blood, blood! The wheel of history only rolls by shedding blood!
* * *
An incredible insight was literally engraved in Dale’s mind.
The use of black magic, each time the darkness they had accumulated was inherited, they experienced unspeakable growth as magicians.
The accumulation of knowledge that could never be accumulated in one lifetime began to seep into Dale’s four circles and become more sophisticated.
The ‘Saxon Truth’ flowed in endlessly, as if accelerating the process of planting seeds and making flowers bloom a thousand times.
The essence of magic that cannot be imitated even after generations of research and a lifetime of exploration.
The knowledge accumulated and piled up by the monsters of truth was endlessly helping Dale grow as a wizard.
How to increase the acceleration efficiency of the circle, a processing method to increase the purity of black magic, a formula to efficiently control the dead… … .
This wasn’t even at the level of the 5th circle or anything.
It is the power of the monarch.
The power of the monarchs who exist as rulers of this empire.
I couldn’t wait to test this power right away.
Endless strength was flowing in, as if filling an unfulfilled thirst.
Meanwhile, the evil deeds of the Saxon lords unfolding in front of Dale did not stop.
As the victims shed blood, the wheels of Saxony rolled. At the same time, their blood helped Dale grow into what he is today.
Looking at the sight, Dale thought absentmindedly.
──Isn’t the blood shed by these victims a ‘sacrifice worth it’ in some sense?
The essence of the magical path endlessly flowing into Dale’s head.
Isn’t this power ultimately obtained through the blood of victims?
Isn’t it because of their sacrifices that Saxony can now display such ugly hypocrisy?
Dale thought, in the river of blood rising to his chin.
The Saxon lords were veritable monsters of truth.
But weren’t the monsters who committed the unforgivable atrocities of the Black Red Priesthood also human after all?
What is a human being?
At that very moment, the 6th circle black magician that Dale had defeated came to mind. As the leader of the Black Red Training Corps, he was an evildoer who wanted to experiment on maternal love by corrupting the legs of pregnant women.
The man was a devil. So was Walter the Bloodthirsty.
Not human.
“… … .”
Dale remained silent.
“That’s enough, Shub.”
After a moment of silence, Dale spoke. Without a moment of hesitation. Shuv smiled pleasantly and asked back.
─ What?
“I don’t need these.”
Dale said, denying the essence of magic that was still seeping endlessly into his mind.
─ Are you saying that you will not inherit the dark knowledge that Saxony has accumulated?
Shuv tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand.
─ Are you willing to give up the power to become a monarch?
The power of the monarch that Dale’s father, the Black Duke, once obtained.
“Even if it is a magical secret that is precious and cannot be exchanged for anything else… … .”
Dale answered.
He finally put into words the enlightenment he had gained.
“There is nothing worth giving up on humanity.”
They were not human. I am not just talking about the physical state.
A monster of truth, a devil in human skin. A beast.
“Through this power, I may be able to get infinitely closer to the monarchs, but I will never be able to overthrow the Golden Monarch.”
Even if the Saxon lords had not yet been reborn as Eldritch, it would have been no different.
At that point, it was already a power gained by giving up on humanity.
“I promised you that I would never give up on humanity until the end.”
Dale finally understood the weight of that promise. It wasn’t some grand moral or guilt-based thing.
In this way, you can never reach the Golden Emperor, the Golden Dragon.
─ Then what do you think a human is?
Shuv asked.
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“Humans are not living creatures.”
And Dale put into words the realization he had come to possess.
“Like water or a liquid, it is a phenomenon.”
And the phenomenon is so precarious and unstable that it can cause a phase transition with the slightest trigger.
Just as we become blinded by the truth and give up being human, and give up being human by being tempted by the temptation of valuable wealth.
Just as the wizards of the Black Knights gave up their humanity for the sweet fruits of scholarly inquiry.
It is similar to water evaporating into steam at temperatures above 100℃.
People can give up on humanity because of one very small trigger.
Therefore, human justice is a phenomenon that can only exist when one asserts that one is human.
Furthermore, the only way to overthrow the Golden Emperor is to penetrate the human phenomenon.
“I will remain human until the end.”
That’s why Dale turned his head without any hesitation.
He denied the power of Saxony and the power of the monarch that he had acquired by giving up being human.
After hearing Dale’s answer, Shuve remained silent.
After a moment of silence, he burst into laughter.
─ Ah, how lovely! How foolish and lovely can humans be!
Before I knew it, the one there was the Mother Goddess of Darkness.
The mother of old darkness and black abundance smiled as if in true ecstasy.
─ How satisfying it is, human child!
It was just then.
“Cough!”
The pitch-black tentacles wrapped around Dale’s heart… … The Book of the Black Goat began to shake madly.
In the midst of the pain that felt like my heart was being crushed and about to burst, the tentacles slid and wriggled between the four circles.
The pain of feeling as if an alien organism living inside your body is about to burst out through your stomach.
Dale clenched his lips desperately.
Suddenly, a tentacle moved between the four circles and soon began to coil itself into a ring shape.
It wasn’t a normal circle that was fixed and built up through the flow of mana.
The source of darkness, the pitch-black tentacle, was clutching Dale’s heart and calling itself the ‘Fifth Circle’.
The circle of the living body.
At the same time, Shuve’s actions did not stop at creating another circle.
Beyond the host-parasite relationship that had taken root in the body… … The Book of the Black Goat began to merge with Dale’s body into one entity.
Choaack!
Blood gushed out in agony.
It wasn’t blood red. It was black, dark, rotten black blood, like the blood that once covered the armor of the Dark Blood.
What was flowing through Dale’s body now was not human blood.
The source of darkness was absorbed into Dale’s body, and began to rebuild Dale’s body from the inside.
Crunch, crunch!
Every cell is reassembled, and the pain of literally twisting my body makes me lose consciousness.
Shub smiled, wrapping his arms around Dale’s neck affectionately.
─ Nothing can separate us now, brother.
It had a meaning that could never be compared to a single wizard building up a circle.
─ I believe in my brother’s promise to remain human until the end. What’s important isn’t appearance.
The throbbing blood in Dale’s heart began to spread throughout his body.
Another source of darkness, the Book of the Black Goat, has finally become one with Dale’s body, free from its parasitic form in his heart.
The fifth circle, made up of pitch-black tentacles, meshed like gears with the rest of the circles, including the heart.
A living bio-circle.
Just then, five circles began to rotate.
Instead of a mana ring, a pitch-black tentacle began to spin around its heart, and black blood poured out of its mouth again.
Phew!
At that very moment, an amount of black mana that I had never dared to imagine before began to surge forth.
Even when I created a heat engine inside my body through an igniter, it wasn’t to this extent.
The Saxon lords gave up the power they had built up as monarchs, and paradoxically what that act gave to Dale was monarchical power.
The only power that can defeat the Golden Emperor.
It was just then.
In the midst of the black magic that swirled like a storm, the world shattered like glass.
I looked around and soon I realized that I was at the top floor of the Black Tower.
In front of Dale stood a black tower throne.
“The test… … .”
Next to her was the black agent Eris, and there was another face there.
“You have indeed passed the test without a hitch.”
Dale’s father, the Black Knight, was there. Although he still looked like a twelve-year-old boy, his expression said otherwise.
“father.”
“I finally have the answer.”
The black ball smiled quietly.
He creates five circles, and furthermore sees his son who is fused with the Book of the Black Goat.
“At the time, I didn’t understand what it meant to not give up on humanity.”
The black ball smiled bitterly. Beside him, Eris remained silent.
“That is why I too gave up being human and took possession of the ‘power of the monarch.’”
As the lord of darkness and death.
“But you didn’t do that.”
He recalled the consequences of his son, who had a talent for murder, encountering the darkness of Saxony.
I was so afraid that I would succumb to the darkness and the fruits of truth and be reborn as a monster of truth.
“Thank you, Father.”
But even if that body is twisted and fused with the most terrifying darkness in this world.
His son in front of the black ball was undoubtedly a ‘human’.
