Side story 2
* * *
The final game has begun, and Shadow Lord Dale has raised his head.
Another Shadow Lord, the Shadow Queen, was there.
“Please stop sacrificing yourself for this world, Brother.”
“… … Lize.”
Lize, who calls herself the Blue Tower of Lies and Schemes, paradoxically fights for her truth more than anything else.
The truth she was seeing was only one. The world where her beloved brother suffered and atoned for the sins of the world.
The weight he carried as the king of humans and the king of monsters was so painful and pitiful that I couldn’t bear it.
“The black, white, and red towers have all been reborn as puppets of our ‘Council of Sorceresses’.”
Lize said. Following her, there were now sorceresses who were loyal to the new ‘Blue Curtain’.
“The Four Towers of Thought, the Tower Lords, and the nobles of the Empire that support my brother’s empire are all beneath my blue spider web.”
“… … .”
“This empire is no longer my brother’s empire. They are all puppets tied to the blue spider web.”
“You’ve prepared so many things without me knowing.”
“Because His Majesty the Emperor has always trusted me.”
“And then you use that trust to betray me like this.”
After the struggle between gold and shadow, Lize smiled silently as she watched Dale, who had now been reborn as the Lord of Black Gold.
“… … I am not doing this to seek your understanding or forgiveness.”
Lize said. Eight circles accelerated along her heart, and blue magic scattered once again.
“That was the way of the brother and the empire. The way of the ‘Emperor’ who did not need anyone’s understanding or permission.”
“Yeah, Lize. I’m glad you know.”
Dale laughed quietly at that. There was no telling what Shub was up to. She never responded to Dale’s calls.
Now, the girl with the goat’s horns was guarding the ‘Shadow Queen’s’ side.
But the power she had given him, the darkness of the beginning and the coldness of the end, had not disappeared. The Book of the Black Goat, the eight circles, and the eight circles of shadow still hung over Dale’s heart.
“And I think you’re mistaken.”
The Black Gold Monarch finally opened his mouth and accelerated the ‘Sixteen Circles’.
“It was I alone who built this empire from the beginning, and I am this empire itself.”
“I know, Your Majesty.”
Lize laughed quietly.
“So, unless I defeat my brother and prove my power, I can’t inherit that name.”
“This is your final warning. It’s not too late to back off, Lize. No, I’m asking you to do this.”
Dale said, showing off the power of the primordial darkness and the apocalyptic cold, signaling the beginning and end of the world.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I too am a proud Saxon wizard. And at the same time, I am also your younger sister.”
Lize smiled quietly at Dale’s words.
“I thought I was no match for my brother, who was called the greatest genius in the empire. However, I realized that in order to save my brother, I had to become stronger than him.”
“… … .”
“So it’s my turn to say that.”
At the same time, blue magical power began to scatter along Lize’s feet.
“I’m the one who doesn’t want to hurt you.”
And──.
Along with the blue magic, the ‘Shadows of the Circle’ began to accelerate below the eight circles.
Just like Dale’s mirror.
Dale’s expression froze as soon as he saw that sight.
“How on earth… … ?”
“Have you forgotten that I am your sister?”
But Lize shook her head quietly and smiled.
“The color blue symbolizes the wisdom of intrigue and lies. And that wisdom has made me who I am today.”
“… … .”
“This is the essence of the thoughts I have accumulated throughout my life.”
The primordial darkness that contained the possibility of creation that could become anything, and the cold air of the apocalypse that would come at the end of the world began to spread.
“The Book of Blood and Mirrors.”
At the same time, Lize’s world was superimposed around the area under her feet.
It wasn’t even the world that Lize had shown me just before.
It was a world filled with mirrors on all sides.
“From the beginning, what my mirror reflected was only one thing.”
And in that mirror, countless images of Dale were embedded. All the images of Dale that Lize could remember.
“I’ve admired you since I was little, and I wished to become a great wizard like you. And now, look.”
“… … .”
“The me now is a being that can never be distinguished from you.”
As the Lord of Black Gold, as the Lord of Shadows, as the Apostle of Winter who spread the chill of the end, Dale’s Mirror was there.
“The blood flowing through our bodies, our magical talents, our thoughts as magicians, nothing is different.”
In the mirrors that filled Lize’s world, the Shadow Queen smiled.
As soon as he saw that sight, Dale scattered his cold air. To shatter the mirrors that filled Lize’s world.
But it was almost at the same time that Lize’s darkness engulfed Dale’s coldness.
Phew!
Immediately afterwards, Dale’s world was engulfed in flames.
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
The white and dark winter night scenery spread out from the center of her feet, and at the same time, the mirrors that filled Lize’s world were also reflecting that winter night scenery.
“Shoove, did you help her?”
─Why do you think so, brother?
─Why do you think so, brother?
Dale asked, and Shub’s voice returned.
“… … !”
There were two voices, two Shubs.
There were countless Shuves silently beside Dale and Lize, and in Lize’s mirror.
“Let me ask you one thing. Does Miss Charlotte still love her brother as she used to?”
“… … .”
“Is Sepia still by your side?”
I couldn’t answer.
“Yes, all my loved ones are afraid of me or have left me. I am the only one who can understand me.”
Lize said in the mirror world.
Darkness and cold, the eight circles and the shadow circle, the incredible presence of Lize was Dale’s own mirror.
However, it would have been impossible for her to obtain this power in the first place without Shub’s help.
This is her game.
I remembered her words, that she couldn’t stand to wonder which truth was truer.
But at the same time, this was also Lize’s will.
It was not a fight between gold and shadow, a struggle between truth and lies.
Shadow Lord and Shadow Queen, a fight between truth and truth.
He finally realized that his sister was not someone he could defeat with a simple mind, not wanting to hurt her or anything like that.
She was by far the strongest and most threatening opponent Dale had ever faced.
That would be the case, because it was literally a mirror reflecting oneself.
“You’ve grown so much, Lize.”
“Yes, that’s why I don’t hesitate even more.”
To the Shadow Lord’s words, the Shadow Queen smiled and answered.
“I hope that my brother can finally get rid of his heavy burden and live for his own happiness.”
Darkness and coldness swirled around. Dale’s coldness, Lize’s darkness, Lize’s coldness, and Dale’s coldness.
The eight circles and their shadows accelerated, and the thoughts of the two wizards clashed.
The darkness that could become anything clashed with the possibility, and the coldness of the end that would come at the end of the possibility swallowed up each other’s possibility.
Darkness and cold intertwined like a chain, tail biting tail.
But in the midst of that clash, the duel that should have been a mirror-like duel without a single error was slowly tilting.
“Why… … .”
Dale gasped in disbelief.
“You still don’t understand?”
The Shadow Queen smiled coldly and asked back.
At the same time, one of the mirrors spread across her world was overlaying a landscape.
He was a son who showed weakness in front of his aged father, Alan of Saxony.
‘I can feel that the expressions they are looking at me with are not the same as before. They are afraid of the empire I have built, they are afraid of me, and even those I trusted most are looking at me with awe.’
‘Tell me, Father. Have I become nothing more than the Emperor you so fear?’
‘Fighting monsters and becoming another monster myself, is that my ending?’
“… … !”
The Dale there was never the black gold lord that people revere.
There was a human being there who was so weak that he looked like he would break at any moment.
‘I just feel so pained by the fact that what I fought for had no meaning, and that it ended up being no different from those I fought for.’
“My brother… … ”
The Shadow Queen continued coldly.
“You have become weak.”
“… … .”
“But I never have that kind of weakness. Do you understand, Brother?”
The truth that can never be escaped.
“The me now is closer to you than you are.”
The Black Gold Empress, who once asked for no one’s permission or understanding, said:
“So, brother, please don’t hurt yourself for the world anymore. Just live for your own happiness.”
Dale knelt helplessly, and his sister Lize looked down at him and said.
One fight has finally come to an end.
“Wait, Lize… … !”
At the same time, a cold wind swept through the area, engulfing Dale’s existence.
It wasn’t the cold of the apocalypse that announced the end of existence. It was just literal ice that trapped Dale in the ice wall, and that was it.
* * *
One empire collapsed, and a new one arose.
After a while, the ice melted and Dale woke up.
What greeted Dale there was a new world he knew nothing about.
As the warrior from the other world had once been, it was a world that was extremely unfamiliar.
In that world, there was no one who remembered Dale’s existence anymore. It was a peaceful world where there was no need to sacrifice anything.
But it was still a world where wars continued unabated, and meaningless bloodshed and slaughter continued unabated.
Into the new world, Dale walked silently.
A journey began without even knowing where to go or what to do.
