Chapter 1037
“Nova, you need to listen,” I declared. “He’s the Demon Lord Aberis. After Xin defeated the demon lord, his soul abandoned his body and hid within her. Then, she became pregnant by the Hero King, he took over one of her children. Your current king is that child!”
As I spoke, Demon Lord Aberis’s expression grew increasingly dim. I was revealing more about what I knew from his history. It was probably far more than he could have ever predicted. However, I felt if I didn’t do everything I could now, there wouldn’t be a later. I grew slightly hopefully as Nova stepped back, clearly caught off guard by some of my words. However, a moment later, he regained his momentum and raised his sword.
“You dare slander the name of our King?” He made a face. “To-to make such a ridiculous claim!”
“He is the reincarnation of the demon lord!”
“Who cares about that?” He growled. “To suggest our great lord is half-human… that is appalling! Not only do you say the king is half-human, but so is my wife? Your lies have no limit!”
Given the dark expressions on many of the Osterian’s present, I began to realize that being the demon lord didn’t spook them as much. He was Osterian. Who cared if he was a demon lord? He’d bring the Osterian’s power and glory. The thing about what I said that caused him alarm was the fact he was the child of King Edward Aberis. If they accepted this as true, then it would truly shock the Osterians. While most immediately assumed I was lying, a few looked at each other questioningly.
“His words are a falsehood. My husband was an Osterian general of great renown!” The puppet known as Xin spoke up. “Do not listen to this beast’s lies. He has always confused and led my daughter astray. Now, he attempts to use lies to confuse all of you as well!”
This seemed to be enough to settle them. At this point, I had no means of proving anything. It wasn’t like this world had DNA tests. When Xin had cut her soul, she had also cut away the human aspect. That was why she was a human in the Twilight Dungeon. It wasn’t the dungeon forgetting how she originally looked like I had thought, but the fact that the Xin who went to Alerith cut away the humanity from her children. Perhaps she saw humanity as the weakness that would keep her children from living. The surviving form ended up a human with the human Demon Lord Aberis, while the other side ended up completely Osterian.
“This man is extremely dangerous.” Demon Lord Aberis’s words cut in. “Kill him.”
“Yes, my lord.” General Nova pulled a sword and threw it to my feet. “I won’t fight an unarmed man.”
I considered not picking it up, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t matter. I grabbed the sword and stood up. No sooner had I straightened than he attacked. Gritting my teeth, I went to meet him. I still had the dungeon skills. Their power was fueled by my blessings. That’s what I had hoped, but I found that other than blessings that had a particular cooldown time, they weren’t functioning.
I began to realize that the blessings were sort of like a storage unit for mana. They were an extension of my soul. The reason there were limits on cooldowns was that blessings could only store so many mana reserves used to cast the spell. So, while I could still cast a portal, that would use all of the respective mana stored up in a single powerful burst.
Here was the kicker. I wouldn’t be able to restore it. After my first portal was used, I not only lost the ability of one of my dungeon points, but I wouldn’t regain that ability without consuming a mana potion, as I had no mana regen without a soul. That meant that all of my current skills were on a timer, and once I used up the mana stored in my blessings, even maintaining extra jobs would be impossible.
I managed to fight General Nova for about a minute, but I was quickly growing overwhelmed. On top of that, the growing weakness and pain made it impossible to keep up. He struck me across the chest, and while I wasn’t cut open, I knew from experience it was a grievous blow. I stumbled back and collapsed to the ground.
“Too easy.” Nova grinned, and then his face looked above my shoulder and turned to horror.
I spun around, hoping for a miracle. Alysia had gotten back up. She was bruised and battered, having previously taken several cuts when she jumped out the window, and then further was surprise attacked and thrown against the wall. She had kneeled directly next to the blade that was stabbed into the stone. Her eyes met mine, and in a moment, I knew exactly what she was thinking.
“No!’ I shouted.
“I’m sorry, my love. It’s the only way.”
“Noooo!” This scream came from Aberis as he realized what she was doing.ｂ𝚎ｄｎ𝚘ｖ𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ
Before anyone else could react, she slammed herself against the blade. The blade struck at her neck with her full force. Her head came off and then fell down the pedestal, red hair rolling until it stopped at my feet. Alysia had killed herself.