Chapter 165
Chapter 165
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: A Human Phenomenon
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When the heads of House Sachsen inherited the wisdom they had accumulated over generations, and when they used that power to attain the strength of a monarch, none among them bore the name 'Shadow Lord.' Even Dale's father was no exception.
For they did not possess *The Book of the Black Goat*. But Dale was different.
Therefore, just as the first Shadow Lord, the Undying Duke, had called Dale a 'usurper'... it was time to live up to that name and seize the throne.
***
It was the workshop of a certain black magician.
In the past, House Sachsen were deep-rooted apostles of darkness, feared by all. The Black Magic Tower, which inherited their ideology, was no exception. They were monsters of truth, blinded by the secrets beyond death, stopping at nothing to uncover them.
On an operating table, a human body lay cut open. Like a surgeon, the black magician stirred its innards, beginning to test his black magic in sequence.
Simultaneously, the knowledge and information he obtained flowed into Dale's mind.
The essence of magic, built up by generations of Sachsen heads, was fueling Dale's growth as a mage.
Without a shred of conscience, remorse, or morality... just as the darkness of the Black-Red Brigade had once been.
By shedding blood, the wheels of history turned, and through it, the accumulated knowledge of Sachsen was being passed down.
That man was one of the old heads of House Sachsen.
***
Blood, blood! The wheels of history turn only through the shedding of blood!
***
An unbelievable degree of insight was literally being carved into Dale's mind.
With each succession of their accumulated darkness—the applications of black magic—he was experiencing indescribable growth as a mage.
An accumulation of knowledge impossible to achieve in a single lifetime began to seep into Dale's four circles, refining them.
Like accelerating the process of a seed sprouting and a flower blooming by thousands of times, the 'truth of Sachsen' flowed in endlessly.
The essence of magic, which one could not hope to even imitate after a lifetime of study, passed down through generations.
The knowledge accumulated and built up by these monsters of truth was causing Dale to grow endlessly as a mage.
How to increase the acceleration efficiency of the circles, methods to refine the purity of black mana, formulas to efficiently control the dead...
This was already beyond the level of a mere fifth circle.
It was the power of a monarch.
The power of the monarchs who reigned as rulers of this empire.
He couldn't bear the urge to test this power immediately.
As if quenching an insatiable thirst, endless power flowed into him.
Even so, the atrocities of the Sachsen heads unfolding before Dale did not stop.
Each time a victim bled, the wheels of Sachsen turned. At the same time, their blood was fueling Dale's current growth.
Watching this, Dale thought to himself.
—In a way, isn't the blood shed by these victims a 'worthy sacrifice'?
The essence of magic flowed endlessly into Dale's mind.
Is this power not, in the end, obtained through the blood of victims?
Isn't the reason the current House Sachsen can afford its vile hypocrisy because it is built upon the foundation of these sacrifices?
In a river of blood rising to his chin, Dale thought.
The heads of Sachsen were truly monsters of truth.
But weren't the monsters of the Black-Red Brigade, who committed unforgivable atrocities, ultimately human as well?
What does it mean to be human?
Just then, he recalled the sixth-circle black magician he had once defeated. The deputy commander of the Black-Red Brigade, and his atrocity of rotting a mother's legs to experiment on maternal love.
That man was a demon. Walter of the Blazing Blood was the same.
Not human.
“…”
Dale fell silent.
“That’s enough, Shub.”
Dale spoke after the silence, without a hint of hesitation. Shub smiled, seemingly amused, and asked back.
—What is?
“I don't need any of this.”
Dale said, rejecting the essence of magic that was still seeping endlessly into his mind.
—You're saying you won't inherit the dark knowledge accumulated by Sachsen?
Shub tilted her head as if she couldn't understand.
—You're going to abandon the power that could make you a monarch?
The power of a monarch, which Dale's father, Lord Black, had obtained.
“Even if it is a priceless, irreplaceable secret of magic…”
Dale answered.
Finally giving voice to the realization he had reached.
“It's not worth abandoning my humanity to obtain.”
They were not human. And he didn't just mean their physical state.
Monsters of truth, demons wearing human skin. Beasts.
“With this power, I might be able to draw infinitely close to the monarchs, but I could never defeat the Golden Monarch.”
Even if the heads of Sachsen had not yet become Eldritch, it would have made no difference.
Because at that point, it was already a power gained by forsaking humanity.
“I made a promise to you, didn't I? That I wouldn't give up on being human until the very end.”
Dale could finally understand the weight of that promise. It wasn't because of some grand morality or sense of guilt.
This way, he could never reach the Golden Emperor, the Golden Dragon.
—Then what do you think a human is, brother?
Shub asked.
“A human isn't a creature.”
And Dale voiced the realization he had come to.
“It's a phenomenon, like water or a liquid.”
And that phenomenon is so precarious and unstable that it can undergo a phase transition from the slightest trigger.
Just as one might abandon their humanity by becoming blind to the truth, or by succumbing to the temptation of immense wealth.
Just as the mages of the Black-Red Brigade abandoned their humanity for the sweet fruit of academic inquiry.
It's like water vaporizing into steam above one hundred degrees Celsius.
People can give up being human over a single, trivial trigger.
Therefore, being human is a phenomenon that only exists so long as one insists on being human.
Furthermore, the only way to defeat the Golden Emperor is to persevere in that phenomenon of being human.
“I will remain human until the very end.”
And so, Dale turned his head without a hint of hesitation.
Rejecting the power of Sachsen, the power of a monarch, obtained by abandoning humanity.
Hearing Dale's answer, Shub remained silent.
After a moment of silence, she burst into laughter.
—Ah, how utterly lovely! How can humans be such foolish and lovable creatures!
Before he knew it, what stood there was the mother goddess of darkness.
The mother of ancient darkness and black abundance was smiling, truly enraptured.
—I am truly pleased, child of man!
It was then.
“Kuhk!”
The jet-black tentacles coiled around Dale's heart... *The Book of the Black Goat*... began to writhe madly.
In an agony that felt like his heart was being crushed and about to burst, the tentacles slithered and squirmed between his four circles.
A pain like an alien creature parasitizing his body was about to burst through his stomach.
Dale desperately bit his lip.
Suddenly, a tentacle moved between the four circles and began to coil into the shape of a ring.
This was not an ordinary circle, fixed and built through the flow of mana.
The source of darkness, the jet-black tentacle, was gripping Dale's heart and declaring itself the 'fifth circle.'
A living circle.
At the same time, Shub's actions didn't stop at merely constructing another circle.
Going beyond the relationship of host and parasite rooted in his flesh... *The Book of the Black Goat* began to fuse with Dale's body, becoming one.
A sudden rush of blood erupted from his mouth.
It was not crimson. Like the substance that once coated the Armor of Dark Blood, it was a black, dark, corrupted blood.
What now flowed through Dale's veins was not human blood.
The source of darkness was absorbed into Dale's body and began to reconstruct his physique from the inside.
*Crack, crunch!*
His consciousness blurred from the pain of every single cell being reassembled, his body literally twisting.
Shub gently coiled around Dale's neck and smiled.
—Now, nothing can ever separate us, brother.
This held a significance far beyond what could be compared to a mere mage building a single circle.
—I believe in your promise to remain human until the end, brother. What's important isn't your outward appearance.
The dark blood pulsing from his heart began to spread throughout Dale's entire body.
*The Book of the Black Goat*, which could be called another source of darkness, shed its parasitic form in his heart and finally became one with Dale's body.
The fifth circle, made of jet-black tentacles, interlocked with his heart and the other circles like gears.
A living, biological circle.
Just like that, the five circles began to rotate.
Not a ring of mana, but jet-black tentacles began to spin in his heart, and once more, black blood gushed from his mouth.
*Whoosh!*
At that moment, an amount of black mana he could never have imagined began to rage.
It hadn't been this intense even when he created a heat engine in his body using the Igniter.
He had renounced the monarch's power accumulated by the heads of Sachsen, and that very act, paradoxically, had granted him the power of a monarch.
The only power that could achieve victory against the Golden Emperor.
It was then.
Amidst the storm of raging black mana, the world around him shattered like glass.
Looking around, he found himself back on the top floor of the Black Magic Tower.
Before Dale stood the throne of the Master of the Black Magic Tower.
“The test…”
Beside it was Eris, the Agent of Black, and another face was there as well.
“You have truly passed the test.”
Dale's father, Lord Black, was there. Though he still had the appearance of a twelve-year-old boy, his expression was anything but.
“Father.”
“You've finally found the answer.”
Lord Black smiled quietly.
He looked at his son, who had now formed five circles and, moreover, fused as one with *The Book of the Black Goat*.
“The meaning of not abandoning one's humanity... I didn't understand it back then.”
Lord Black smiled bitterly. Beside him, Eris could only remain silent.
“That is why I, too, forsook my humanity and obtained the 'power of a monarch'.”
As the monarch of darkness and death.
“But you did not.”
He recalled what he had feared would happen when his son, who possessed a talent for slaughter, encountered the darkness of Sachsen.
He had been so afraid that his son would succumb to that darkness and the fruit of its truth, becoming a monster of truth himself.
“Thank you, Father.”
But even if his body was now twisted, fused with the most terrifying darkness in this world.
The son standing before Lord Black was, without a doubt, 'human.'