Toward the Goal
By the time Arahan arrived at the capital leading her forces, everything was already over. It was hollow, utterly hollow. They should have been celebrating their victory, but they couldn't. Sira Yunseul had lost half of her subordinates, who were like brothers to her, and Rowen stood with a grim expression, facing off against someone. Arahan could feel it. The stranger belonged to the Balenos family. Yet, she had no memory of anyone who looked like him.
Rowen raised his right arm. Everyone knew what that gesture meant. With a sharp ring of steel, they fell into a defensive stance. They were to maintain their distance while keeping themselves safe. Rowen refused to let Arahan come any closer. He's dangerous. Because of that danger, he had to protect her. He didn't know why he could sense so many different powers swirling inside the man. Not knowing the past of Judas—who had consumed a dragon, usurped the power of a god, and now coveted the throne of the Demon King—Rowen had no choice but to remain on high alert. And above all, his connection to the voice of Balenos had been severed.
"Hey, you son of a bitch. What did you do?"
"Hmm? Don't worry too much. I just temporarily cut the connection."
Did he possess a status high enough to interfere with the power of a Spirit King? Rowen had obtained his past-life strength and the ability to command spirits, but he hadn't recovered all of his power yet. The potential was there, but he was still far from reaching his full growth. That was why he knew better than anyone just how dangerous the man before him was.
"...You're dangerous."
"Hehe, but you still can't kill me."
"I will kill you."
Even if it wasn't right now, he would put an end to him eventually.
"How cold. I thought we illegitimate sons would have some sort of mutual understanding."
"It's sickening enough to see an old man who's lived far too long wearing a face like that. Do you honestly think I'd ever sympathize with you?"
And above all...
"Why does Balenos guard against you, and why did he summon Kajin?"
He was used to questions consuming his mind. Too many things were moving too fast. What did I miss? Rowen temporarily accelerated his thought process, constructing dozens of hypotheses in an instant. Yet, he still couldn't reach the truth. He had absolutely no information on Judas, and his only clues were Balenos and Kajin.
"Do you want to know?"
"...."
Judas chuckled. Rowen's Holy Sword remained pointed at him, and the circular Mandala of Frost targeted him from all angles. Even if his head was severed, this bastard would just reappear. As if the body that had met death had never existed in the first place, it would vanish, and he would stand before Rowen once more. This was an authority closer to a god's than a demon's.
"Well, our ancestor will explain it all to you eventually."
"What is your goal?"
"Originally, I wanted you to cooperate with me, but my goal has changed."
"...Hmm?"
The speed at which Judas closed the distance to Rowen was something even Rowen couldn't perceive. Do you know how fast a human blinks? A single blink takes an average of 100 to 150 milliseconds. That meant Judas had crossed a distance of over ten meters in less than 150 milliseconds. Rowen's body reacted instantly. A counterattack. It wasn't a calculated move, but pure instinct. A spike of ice erupted from the ground, skewering Judas through the chin. Rowen took a step back. Knowing that this wouldn't be enough to kill him, Rowen immediately erected a barrier of frost around himself.
"Haha, how vicious. I suppose a descendant is still a descendant."
Otherwise, there was no way an illegitimate son could have obtained such power. If so, Judas's own past must have been incredibly miserable. Bitter and infuriating. A faint spark of jealousy toward Rowen flared within him.
"Stay back and talk."
"I'm going to become the Demon King."
"...As I thought, your goal is different from the Prophets. You're an even more dangerous bastard."
Judas stared at Rowen for a moment before letting out a sigh. He realized he wouldn't be able to win him over. Moreover, there was a limit to how long he could wield his authority over time, so he had no choice but to retreat for now. Honestly, Arkansia held no interest for Judas. He had thought that by staying near the Prophets, he might be able to feel the power of a Demon King—specifically, the primordial demons he had seen in the past. He had joined them because he wanted to reach that realm, but all those fools did was play around to satisfy their own desires. In reality, the actual Demon Kings had absolutely no interest in the lands of humans.
Judas glanced at the motionless Kajin and smiled. He decided that the next time they met, he would definitely have to kill him.
"Where do you think you're going, you bastard?"
"Hehe, do you want to fight me?"
Rowen's words weren't entirely sincere. If they fought now, he would lose. That was a guaranteed future. Once he fully restored his power, it would be a different story. He hated letting the bastard go like this, which was why he spoke up. At the same time, a part of him desperately wished the guy would just get the hell out of here.
"See you later, Rowen."
"You're going to die by my hand."
"Haha. When that time comes, let's have a nice, long chat as fellow illegitimate sons."
"Rest assured, that's never going to happen."
Judas smirked and vanished from sight, leaving behind nothing but cold shards of ice.
It felt hollow. So many lives had been lost, and the end of the Prophets had been so anticlimactic. What had this war even been for? Everything had been going smoothly until a ghost of the past appeared and ruined it all. The cleansing of Arkansia was complete. The magi had been driven out, and every last demon had been hunted down and slaughtered. It was cruel, but it was the only way. It was what happened when they allowed magi to take root. "Paying for one's sins" was a fitting phrase.
"Young Master. What should we do with the remnants of the magic engineering?"
"Destroy them. That's what we did a thousand years ago, too."
Or, if not that...
"Throwing them into Pandemonium wouldn't be a bad idea either."
"...Is that even possible?"
"No, of course not. There's no way we could dump an entire continent in there."
Still, putting Judas aside, everything else had gone reasonably well. The humans of Arkansia had survived, and they even expressed their gratitude to our alliance. There were those who had lost their families. The children of those who had chosen to become Demon Humans wandered the streets, completely unaware that their parents were dead. It was the familiar, wretched face of war that he had seen countless times before. He silently gazed at the ruins of Arkansia. There was no life left here. It was all a wildfire ignited by the Demon Sect—scars left behind by that bastard Myuron, whom Rowen had personally executed. In the end, the unification of the Demon Sect had failed. The outcome was exactly what they had hoped for. Not a bad result at all.
"It's time to start wrapping things up."
"What do you mean by that?"
It was obvious.
"We need to untangle all these complicated threads. One by one."
The King of Extreme Cold showing signs of resurrection at the edge of the North. Lucius, who had followed Kain. Uba, who was holed up in Pandemonium. Mio, who had set off to find Lucius. Mio's corrupted disciples. The demons of Pandemonium. And... Abel's whereabouts. That bastard hadn't shown his face once. He hadn't even appeared in the Albrin Forest, the place he had wanted to visit so badly. Well, a thousand years had passed, so it might be hard to remember every single detail. But for the smartest, most cold-headed member of our party to have forgotten the Albrin Forest... it felt like losing too much. At the same time, he thought: I must reunite with Leah. He had hoped that slaying the Demon Humans of Arkansia would earn him enough merit to achieve the Angel's Status, but the Hero's Seal still remained completely silent.
"I need to kill more demons."
"You still lack the souls required to attain the Angel's Status."
"Yeah. Because we promised to meet again."
Whether it took decades, centuries, or millennia, he would wait. She had waited a thousand years for him, and he had failed to answer her wait. It was already too late to turn back time.
"This time, it's my turn to go to her."
"...The Saintess must be waiting for you as well."
"Yeah."
On one hand, jealousy flared within her. I have to endure it. Arahan suppressed it with all her might. She held back the dark emotions threatening to leak out, knowing that doing so was what would help him. She could never bring herself to tell her Young Master to forget the Saintess. For everyone to be happy, she had to take a step back. Still, if she had just one wish, it was for him to look at her first. That was all she wanted. Arahan gently took Rowen's arm and rested her head on his shoulder. They had shared too much to be considered strangers. Though he had yet to give her a definitive answer about his feelings, Arahan would wait for him until the very end. She wouldn't rush. If he wouldn't say it, she would just say it herself.
"Young Master."
"Hmm?"
"I love you."
Rowen shifted his gaze. He had been looking at the crimson-tinted ruins of Arkansia, so her sudden confession caught him off guard. At the same time, he felt deeply grateful to her. This woman, who always took his side and supported him, was far too good for a man like him. He felt proud that she had chosen him. Yet, he still couldn't give her a proper answer. To accept her feelings would mean rejecting Mio's. So, his response was always the same.
"...Yeah."
"Is that all? Do you have nothing else to say?"
"Nope. It's getting a bit warm."
"Fufu, I'm not letting go."
"...Ugh."
Tonight is going to be another long night.
A month passed. Although the internal affairs of Arkansia were still far from stable, the territory had officially become part of Kaliarun under Sira Yunseul's administration. Meanwhile, the imperial capital of Pentagon, which had been heavily stained with corruption, had collapsed, but it was now radiating the same pure, white light as it did in the past. As time went on, the Guardian was also resurrected. The Phoenix showed its respect to me, recognizing the imperial blood flowing in my veins. Fortunately, no one had dared to touch the North in our absence. No war broke out. However, it was reported that those who refused to accept Rowen, an illegitimate son, taking the throne had started a rebellion. There had been bloodshed, and some innocent people had been caught in the crossfire. Thanks to that, the pile of paperwork had grown. Since this was a matter directly concerning him, Rowen decided to handle it personally.
The local nobles cared only for their own interests and the honor of their respective families. That was why the king's lineage was such a massive issue to them. In Rowen's past, his mother must have lost her life in a coup staged by bastards just like them. No matter how he looked at it, they were parasites who deserved to be punished. But Rowen was generous. He didn't want to waste his time on such insignificant pests. His father, Kadan Balenos, had brought Rowen into his household under the guise of him being an illegitimate child just to protect him from these very people. Despite the blow to his own reputation, he had sworn to protect her child. It was a tribute to his brother who had passed away before him, and a desperate struggle to preserve his bloodline. However, Kadan had passed away. Very few people remained by Rowen's side now. Even his precious Leah had left this world.
Rowen decided he would no longer hide it. He recalled how his heart had ruptured during his battle with Nome, and how something had boiled up inside him. Dragon wings. Though Rowen had reacted calmly in that bizarrely natural moment, there was no denying it—it was the power of the Dragon race. Even the imperial bloodline had recognized him as a legitimate heir. Although his mana pool was smaller than that of his deceased brother Kael, Rowen still possessed the signature mana of the Balenos family. He was the legitimate heir of both families, the sole bridge connecting them. He looked into the mirror. One of his eyes was the crimson of the Balenos family, while the other was the golden hue of the Dragonic family. Between them lay a slit-pupiled dragon's eye. If he wished, wings and horns would naturally sprout from his body. At first, he had found it unsettling, but it was a body perfectly optimized for combat.
The truth about Rowen's bloodline spread rapidly across the nation. The local nobles who had rebelled against him vanished from sight, keeping their mouths tightly shut. That was how massive the storm was. The energy of the Land of Extreme Cold felt stronger than ever. Just like that, the month following the end of the war flew by. And now, Rowen and his companions stood on the top floor of the Magic Tower, facing Yuria.
"Are you really going~?"
"Yeah."
"Fufu, please take good care of Master. And my friends too."
"Leave it to me."
A massive dimensional gate opened. A dreary, ominous, and putrid energy—magi—drifted through. And so, we headed toward Pandemonium. It was the first step to resolving everything, a journey to plant a fist right in Kain's face. It was the beginning of our expedition to reunite with Uba and Mio.
"...You jerk."
By the way, Kajin was left to guard the throne. It's an open secret that he was also stuck handling all the paperwork alone.