Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: To the Edge of the Cliff
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The Black Dragon Lord fled, gasping for breath.
He didn't know where he was going; he just used all his strength to escape from the Tyrant Lord.
"Haa... haa! It can't... end like this...!"
He didn't know where it had all gone wrong, but his life was filled with too much regret to end like this.
"I... I can't die yet...!"
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he fled into the wreckage of a collapsed building.
A sharp wooden splinter pierced his foot.
"Ugh."
Normally, his energy would have protected his body, and such a trivial thing wouldn't have harmed him, but he now lacked even the minimal strength to do so.
"Damn it... Damn it all!!"
Just a little time.
'If I just had a moment, I could recover a little internal energy through meditation and use my lightness technique to escape.'
He scanned his surroundings, searching for a place safe from the Tyrant Lord.
As his eyes swept the area, he saw the room of his eldest son, Yong-ok, down the hall.
He rushed over and threw the door open.
Yong-ok, who was inside, was quite startled to see his father return, his body a complete wreck.
"...Lord Black Dragon?"
In the room were Yong-ok and his other children, who hadn't left the Black Dragon Pavilion despite the great commotion.
It seemed they had been hiding to avoid the battle.
He hurriedly closed the door and spoke to his children.
"I'll hide here, so go out and stop the Tyrant Lord! If you can't stop him with force, at least beg for sympathy!"
"..."
Hearing this, Yong-ok calmly looked at his father and asked.
"Did you, by any chance, lose the fight?"
"Shut up! I didn't lose!"
Yong-gak, feeling a surge of anger at those words, shouted fiercely.
"It's because that bastard, the Tyrant Lord, used a vile trick! How dare he suspect me!"
To that, Yong-ok replied with a faint, mocking smile.
"...I remember you teaching me that all that matters is winning, no matter how. But your words are a little different today."
"What did you say?!"
He glared at Yong-ok, his eyes filled with rage, but then he suddenly realized the atmosphere was strange.
The gazes of his children watching him were endlessly cold.
Realizing something was wrong, he urgently shouted at his children.
"Hurry, why won't you obey your father?! Stop him! Go stop the Tyrant Lord...!"
*Clank.*
Just then, the door was thrown open violently.
Fearing the worst, Yong-gak slowly turned his head and saw the Tyrant Lord, smiling cruelly like a predator that had found its prey.
"Lord Black Dragon, where are you running off to? Don't be so unsightly. Meet your glorious end."
"Hnngh! Tyrant Lord! Do you really think you'll get away with this?! The Alliance Leader won't stand for it!"
"I don't care. The Heretic Alliance Leader will die by my hand anyway."
"W-What did you say?!"
So stunned was the Black Dragon Lord that he couldn't control his expression as he asked again.
"You bastard! Are you daring to betray the Heretic Alliance?!"
"Tsk, you're annoyingly loud. It seems you're trying to beg for your life, but it's useless."
As the Tyrant Lord raised his glaive, Yong-gak backed away and said.
"W-Wait! Just wait a moment! I have children! They're all useless without me!"
Wi-ak glanced at the children trembling in fear behind Yong-gak.
But there was no way that would work on Wi-ak.
"So what?"
"So, for my children's sake, just destroy my dantian...!"
Just then, Yong-ok replied in a cold voice.
"Lord Black Dragon, where exactly are these children of yours you speak of?"
At those words, Yong-gak felt a chill run down his spine.
He slowly turned his head to look at Yong-ok.
"What... did you say?"
He met Yong-ok's gaze, who was looking down on him with cold eyes.
"You..."
Those were by no means the eyes of a son looking at his father.
Even with his father facing death, they held no trace of sadness or pity.
Come to think of it, Yong-ok had been calling him "Lord Black Dragon" this whole time in the room, not once calling him "Father."
"Weren't you, Lord Black Dragon, the one who never acknowledged my siblings and me as your children? Why are you looking for your children now?"
"You... you bastard..."
Yong-gak was at a loss for words.
Everything he had said to his sons and daughters over the years flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.
"I have always lived buried in your shadow. It was so vast that no matter how I tried to escape, I could see no end."
He had always subjected them to beatings and verbal abuse for no good reason.
Would they truly see such a man as their father?
Yong-ok replied with a twisted smile.
"If I had known it was this small, I would have run away long ago."
Yong-gak faced the monster he had created.
Only Yong-ok had spoken, but all the children present held the same thought.
They were silently waiting for their father's death right before their eyes.
"You were the one who abandoned us. So please, do not resent us too much."
"How dare you bastards...!"
*SPLAT.*
His shout was never finished.
The Tyrant Lord's glaive had fallen upon his head, shattering it.
Blood and flesh splattered in all directions.
Yong-ok and his siblings watched as their father's head burst open, killing him.
Their eyes showed shock, perhaps, but no pity, compassion, or sadness.
Finding this scene rather interesting, the Tyrant Lord, Wi-ak, laughed and said.
"Hahaha! That bastard Black Dragon Lord certainly raised his children well. To just stand there and watch as their father's head is smashed to pieces."
"That man was not our father. He was merely an oppressor."
The Tyrant Lord flicked the blood from his glaive and said with a smile.
"Originally, since you're the Black Dragon Lord's children, I was planning to kill every last one of you. But you lot are quite amusing. I suppose I can let you live."
Hearing that he had intended to kill them, Yong-ok and his siblings flinched, but the quick-witted Yong-ok was the first to express his gratitude.
"Thank you, Lord Tyrant."
Just then, Gwiyeong, who had followed him in, glanced between the dead Black Dragon Lord with his smashed head and the Tyrant Lord, then spoke.
"It seems you've finally finished it."
"Of course. Didn't I tell you the likes of the Black Dragon Lord were no match for me?"
"I have no choice but to admit it."
"So, what do you say?"
The Tyrant Lord extended a hand to Gwiyeong, his energy swirling with black and gold, and asked.
"Will you not join me in devouring the Heretic Alliance?"
Seeing him, seemingly glowing with an aura, Gwiyeong took the Tyrant Lord's hand and replied.
"Very well. I accept your offer, Lord Tyrant."
"Haha! Excellent!"
He beamed with genuine delight and said.
"Then you go outside and wait for me. I'll stay and investigate the area a bit. And though he was an enemy, I'd like to pay my respects as a fellow Black Heaven Lord."
Gwiyeong glanced over her shoulder at Yong-gak's children behind the Tyrant Lord and asked.
"Those children seem to be Yong-gak's. Are you letting them live?"
The children flinched at Gwiyeong's words.
The Tyrant Lord answered.
"Well, it's a bit much, isn't it? They don't seem to have any love for their father, so I don't see any problem in letting them live. They're too young, anyway."
The eldest son, Yong-ok, was fifteen, and the youngest was a kid not even ten years old.
Gwiyeong felt a little uneasy about leaving loose ends, but since their eyes showed no signs of vengeance or sorrow, she simply accepted it.
"I see. Understood."
Gwiyeong turned and headed toward the manor.
"Then, as you said, I will go handle the situation outside."
After she left, the Tyrant Lord glanced at Yong-ok and the children and said.
"Are you planning to stay and mourn your dead father?"
At his words, Yong-ok led his siblings and hurriedly left the room.
On his way out, he glanced back once at his father's corpse, but it was only for a moment; there was no expression of mourning.
Left alone with Yong-gak's corpse, the Tyrant Lord's smiling face slowly hardened into a cold mask.
He slumped into a chair in the room and stared intently at the dead Yong-gak.
Spreading his senses and confirming that no one was around, he murmured softly.
"It's a little tiring. Isn't it?"
He spoke as if conversing with the already-dead Yong-gak in the empty room.
"You must have been led here by greed. As was I."
His eyes were filled with emptiness.
Power, authority, attention, money.
The endless hunger of his heart, which could never be filled, was revealed through his eyes.
"Your story ends here. So when, exactly, does my story end?"
All the things listed above were endless, no matter how much one acquired.
No matter how much money, authority, and power he gained, it no longer brought him joy as it once did.
That was why he aimed for the highest position.
He thought that perhaps, only when he reached the summit, something might finally change.
"No matter how much I fill it, my thirst is never quenched."
He couldn't stop now.
Even if destruction awaited him at the end, he had to press forward without hesitation.
Because that was the role he had been given.
Wi-ak placed his hand on Yong-gak's dead body.
"Then, I will continue this charge, straight to the edge of the cliff."
An energy mixed with crimson and gold swirled around his body.