Chapter 569.1: Edavia (1)
Chapter 569.1: Edavia (1)
A penetrating beam of light carrying Roel’s blood, flesh, and soul pierced across space, shattering the distorted temporal laws and restoring the natural flow of time to the frozen world.
The melodious hymns of the Angels returned to the world. The footsteps of the fleeing Beastmen finally fell to the ground. The anxious shouts from the High Elves echoed throughout the battlefield.
Little did they know that the world had already changed while they weren’t looking.
Beautiful specks of light reminiscent of the starry sky covered the plains and the mountains. These were the lights nurtured by the mana devoured from the battlefield, but they were also the manifestation of the final will of Light Devourer’s fallen comrades.
Light Devourer had a vastly different nature from Shrouding Fog.
Unlike the latter, which consumed physical entities, what Light Devourer consumed was mana. Of the Six Calamities, it was the only one with the power to shatter the cage that had imprisoned the Mother Goddess.
Unbreakable barriers and Divine Domains were meaningless concepts before Light Devourer’s authority… and it was now at its strongest ever. The aurora had become omnipresent after having absorbed the mana on the battlefield and the remnants of its comrades’ power.
Meanwhile, Roel’s hair had turned completely white after lighting the final torch.
It was only after seeing his state that it finally dawned on the Savior what he had been up to.
Born from Sia Herself, the Savior was an existence incomparable to other beings in the world. He had inherited not only the strength but the authority of the Creator too. Neither the oldest gods nor the strongest Race Sovereigns could ever hope to threaten Him, and this included the Kingmaker.
The Kingmaker might be Sia’s most favored child, but they was ultimately still Her creation. Even when Roel had put his soul on the line to turn the Six Calamities against the Savior, he still couldn’t hope to pose a threat to the latter.
To draw an analogy, it was similar to how a person couldn’t hope to punch themself to death. From the very start, Roel’s challenge was a hopeless one.
Yet, Roel had shattered this absolute rule.
Sia had bestowed a sliver of Her soul upon Her most beloved child in the form of the Crown Origin Attribute. This power should have only taken up a small portion of the Kingmaker’s soul out of safety reasons, thus granting them limited access to Sia’s authority, but that had changed when Roel’s own soul was shaved off by the death of the Six Calamities.
Refinement.
The sacrifices of the Six Calamities had been a calculated move right from the start, albeit a highly risky one with a low chance of success. With the brilliance of the Genesis, the Savior had unwittingly baptized Sia’s third successor, forging his soul to completion.
From the moment Roel emerged from his metamorphosis, the distorted temporal laws couldn’t hold him down any longer.
A new supreme being had awakened.
A beautiful aurora instantaneously enveloped the earth and began permeating the sky, forcing back the Savior’s Third Light of Genesis. At the same time, His Divine Domain started to shake. The startled Savior raised His hands and channeled the entirety of His powers to suppress this single attack Roel had poured his everything into.
“What foolishness! You might have temporarily reached Our level through this method, but how long can your meager remaining soul sustain you for? You’re courting your own doom!” the Savior roared angrily as He struggled to fend against the aurora.
His words were both a prophecy and a curse.
Roel’s body was swiftly disintegrating.
While the refinement of Roel’s soul had granted him the Creator’s authority, it had also shaved off so much of his soul that he had become incapable of bearing the cost of the great power he was exerting.
Power came at a cost.
This was an ironclad rule that even Sia was unable to circumvent, as well as the reason behind Her eventual demise.
In the Savior’s eyes, Roel was repeating the errors of his predecessor. All He had to do was to withstand this attack and the latter would surely crumble to his death. With His authority as the Sun God, He channeled one last burst of power from the sun towering at the peak of the sky.
In contrast, Roel was exceptionally silent.
Blood was swiftly draining from his body, and his outstretched arm was dissipating bit by bit amidst the aurora. Yet, the white-haired man wasn’t reacting at all.
With less than a sixth of his soul left, he had become incapable of perceiving his surroundings. From the moment he launched his final attack, he had already lost most of his senses. Neither the two floods of light that divided the world nor the deafening rumble that ensued from their clash managed to register to his senses.
He was still alive, but he was as good as dead.
His determined will scattered with the wind, and his unyielding spirit returned to the void. Death stung him like the frigid winter wind. How cold it was that his sacrifice failed to bring him even the slightest warmth in his final moments.
Yet, Roel wasn’t flustered at all.
Flipping pages of a book echoed in his ears. Candlelight lit up before his eyes.
…
Roel had unknowingly returned to a familiar dark room, with countless rows of towering bookshelves neatly lined up behind him. In front of him, an orange-haired girl fiddled with an hourglass while gazing into the distant darkness.
Edavia placed the hourglass on the table before calmly looking at Roel.
“…You don’t have much time left. Your soul will dissipate once the sand runs out.”
“…”
Roel quietly nodded as he awaited the evil god’s final decision.
Edavia was the final puzzle piece missing in his plan.
He had managed to catch the Savior off-guard through the refinement of Sia’s soul, which granted him the power needed to fight back via Light Devourer, but these were only enough for him to match the Savior. The key to defeating the Savior had always been sitting right in front of him.
The shadow whom even Sia feared; the being who accidentally came into existence during the creation of the world; the evil god who brought terror and panic to countless.
Edavia.
Roel needed her powers right now, but to the orange-haired girl, this was not a decision easily made. Allowing Roel to die posed no risk to her, but should she choose to help him, her existence would be endangered.
The Kingmaker Clan’s Inner Sanctum was both her prison and her sanctuary. It allowed her to escape the senescence of time when others had to make huge sacrifices just to remain alive. Should she contract with the Kingmaker, her existence would be anchored to the real world. Her sanctuary would no longer keep her safe. She would become vulnerable to the Savior’s threat.
Silence fell between the two of them. Only the flowing sand in the hourglass could be heard.
Edavia looked at Roel with an unreadable glint in her eyes.
“There’s a question I have always wanted to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“‘Why are you doing this?’ You should know that this is an illusion. The past can’t be changed. Everything you are sacrificing yourself to achieve is nothing but a bubble that will burst once you return to the real world. Is there any meaning in gambling your everything on this?”
Edavia looked at Roel with eyes filled with incomprehension.
In her endless life, she had never seen a person shaving off their soul of their own volition. Such pain should have been unbearable to a mortal. It made her more curious to know what Roel was fighting for.
Roel spent a moment in thought before answering her question.
“…Salvation.”
“Salvation?”
“What I’m seeking is salvation. I don’t think my actions are meaningless.”
“Who are you looking to save?”
“The Kingmaker. My Mother. Our entire clan,” Roel replied with a hoarse voice.
Edavia slowly widened her eyes.
“Salvation… Do you know your current state? You’re about to die. Your body is tattered, and your soul is dissipating. Even a candle flame in a storm would have a better chance than you. Not even Sia will be able to revive you once the sand in the hourglass runs out. Who can you save like that?”
“I don’t have to. My salvation is already complete.”
“What?”
“From the moment I appeared here, my salvation was already complete.” Roel looked at the confused evil god and calmly explained himself.
“From the moment I showed up on the battlefield, it meant that the Kingmaker didn’t betray his mother. The Mother Goddess who saw Her child as Her everything wouldn’t fall into despair. The regrets our clan has shouldered for generations can finally be put down. I can raise my head, knowing that I have upheld my conscience. I might die as a result, but my mission has been completed. If the Kingmaker Clan was destined to meet its end here, the least I can do is to sweep off the dust cloaking its tomb.”
“But… what you have done will only be limited to the Witness State. Is there any meaning in that? I truly can’t understand why you would pay such a heavy price for a transient dream…”
“Edavia, would you intentionally err just because you know that a consequence is transient?”
“!”
Edavia fell into deep thought upon hearing Roel’s question. The latter shook his head.
“Nothing is eternal in this world. You are the only one left of the once powerful Spiriteers. Even Genesis Goddess Sia has met Her end. Transience is a concept for the material world, but it won’t change the choice of the soul. Even if everything I have achieved here will unravel itself once it is all over, I will still choose to do what I think is right. Rather, Edavia, I should be asking: what are you waiting for, spending eons alone in this dark chamber?”
“…”
Not expecting to hear such a question, Edavia stared at Roel in a daze. So much time had passed for her that she seemed to have forgotten the answer.
Time ticked by, but she remained stumped by that question. It was only when she raised her head and looked at Roel once more that she was suddenly reminded of something.
“I see. I finally know why we met.”
“Hm?”
“I have met someone like you before.” Her voice sounded a little sorrowful as her expression slowly mellowed. “I was probably waiting for someone who can overlook an existence who threatens them just because they believe it is the right thing to do. Someone who is an utter fool through and through.”
“!”
Looking at Edavia’s sorrowful smile, Roel was taken aback.
Edavia finally snapped out of her reminiscence and glanced at the hourglass on the table. Then, she rose to her feet.
As she stood up, shadowy silhouettes could be seen creeping behind her. The countless books stored in this seemingly infinite room trembled. The candlelight on the table flickered despite the absence of wind, as if bidding farewell to its owner.
She gently waved her hand, and the hourglass abruptly shattered. The sands within seeped into the darkness, filling up the blanks in Roel’s soul.
“Let’s go.” Edavia loosened her braids as a sinister smile emerged on her adorable face. “Let’s show that rascal what I’m capable of.”
The dark room crumbled as the two of them returned to the world.
…