Chapter 784: Curtain Call
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 784: Curtain Call
As the last glow of sunset faded, the world finally welcomed a true night. Stars to guide the way lit up from the edge of the sky. Their ancient radiance seemed to have changed slightly compared to a thousand years ago, yet across the vast expanse of time, they still illuminated this abandoned land.
A massive hollow pierced through the earth like a hideous, terrifying scar reaching down to the very marrow.
But it had finally reached the source of the blight that had been festering in the darkness for a millennium. The pure starlight fell, burning as hot as a raging fire, ensuring that the "plague" which had threatened so many would spread no further.
"So beautiful..."
Divine Will gazed at those stars.
He didn't know how long it had been since he had last seen them.
During the early years of his life, he had lived in the cramped, oppressive underground, never seeing the sun, let alone the stars.
And during the much longer second half of his life, this Abyss had been completely cut off from the rest of the world. Looking up, he saw only a dim haze and endless yellow sands.
The only times he had been able to see the stars were when he followed her.
Divine Will could still clearly recall the words she had spoken.
"One day, I will lead every one of you to stand tall under the sunlight, the moonlight, the starlight... under all the radiance of this world."
What beautiful words they were—so beautiful that one couldn't help but dream, couldn't help but stake everything to follow her.
And compared to those words, she herself back then—despite being immersed in the deepest night—was more dazzling than the sunlight, the moonlight, the starlight... more dazzling than all the radiance in the world.
"Ah... that's right, I can't slack off yet... I haven't... I haven't resurrected her... resurrected our King..."
Divine Will finally remembered his heavy responsibility. He flipped over abruptly, using his mangled arms to slowly push himself up.
But as soon as he straightened his upper body, a violent pang of agony struck his soul. He hadn't felt such intense pain in a long time; he couldn't help but hunch over and vomit. A black, foul-smelling, viscous liquid was expelled along with chunks of his internal organs. That tainted blood tried to make one last squirm, but it could no longer pollute even the smallest speck of dust.
"Blargh..."
Two other people were also vomiting, though unlike Divine Will, what those two spat out was actually just last night's dinner.
Consequently, they recovered much faster than Divine Will. After a moment of lightheadedness, the blond human ant was the first to stand in his way.
"Respected ruler of the Demon Race, thousand-year-old monster, the strongest Grand Duke Divine Will... where is that high-and-mighty Crown of yours?"
Muen sneered as he stared at Divine Will. However, the reflection in his eyes was no longer that of a fearsome Crowned-level powerhouse. Divine Will's Crown had been lost somewhere; he now looked more like a withered, ordinary old man.
A pathetic, wretched, homeless old man.
"Get lost!"
Divine Will snarled, "Muen Campbell, if you don't want to die... get lost!"
"How rare. The great Grand Duke Divine Will actually giving such 'gentle' advice? I thought you'd just crush me with one hand, like squashing an ant."
A mocking curl formed at the corner of Muen's mouth. "So, even now, have you still not realized your mistake?"
"Mistake?"
Divine Will's wrinkled old face twitched. In a voice that had begun to grow hoarse, he barked, "I only did it to resurrect her, to resurrect our King! What mistake have I made?"
"...Is that so?"
Muen's smile suddenly vanished, replaced by a mask of indifference. "It seems you really have gone quite mad."
"Shut up! I'm not mad, I—"
Divine Will's pupils shrank. He saw Muen, who was standing not far away, suddenly blur. With fists clenched, Muen closed the distance instantly.
Wisps of Black Flame coiled between Muen's fingers, though not to devour anything; he simply didn't want to directly touch the disgusting filth on Divine Will's body.
Seeing Muen's movement, Divine Will was moved to a fit of angry laughter. Since when did an ant dare to—
"Ugh..."
Divine Will's expression froze, and his body hunched over once more. Muen's fist slammed hard into his abdomen, causing him to double over like a cooked shrimp.
It was strange. He was a Crown Bearer who had lived for over a thousand years; his physical toughness shouldn't be something a weak human like Muen Campbell could shake. Yet, when Muen's punch landed, Divine Will felt as if his body were a precarious stack of building blocks that could collapse at any moment.
Was it because of that strike from the Calamity Dragon earlier?
"I'm not done yet."
Before Divine Will could process the disparity, Muen's second punch arrived. This time it hit his cheek. His world spun instantly; though his body hadn't moved, his vision felt as if it had rotated a full seven hundred and twenty degrees from the impact.
"Holy shit, I want in on this!"
At that moment, the other little ant in Divine Will's eyes, Ariel, finished vomiting and excitedly joined the fray. She brandished the Heavenly Fire Greatsword, raining down sharp strikes upon Divine Will's body. Although she couldn't leave even a single scratch, the thrill of pummeling a top-tier powerhouse was immensely satisfying.
"This is for sending people to hunt me down! This is for causing all this trouble! This is for being so ugly! This is for shattering Miss Muse's illusions!"
"Enough!"
Divine Will suddenly roared, "You insects, enough!"
The Gray Curtain spread out from within Divine Will again, violently repelling Muen and Ariel. The two had no power to resist, blown away like dust in the wind.
Divine Will panted heavily.
It was true that he was severely wounded by the Calamity's strike, but he was still alive, which meant he was the winner!
He won... he won... Since he had won, how could he possibly be stopped by those two ants?
"Ridiculous... truly ridiculous."
Divine Will expressed his mockery and disdain for the two ants without mercy. He didn't even bother to look back at them; they had surely been crushed into meat paste by his casual strike.
"Wait for me... my King..."
Divine Will continued forward.
This path was longer than he had imagined, and this night in the Abyss was colder than usual.
His gaze searched further ahead... but he could no longer see that far. Neither the Dragon nor that old bastard were in sight; he didn't know if they had already left.
Would they come back? It must be hard to accept being defeated by him. If that old thing Mela Domir came in her true body, it would be real trouble...
No, it didn't matter. It really didn't matter.
Because as long as she was resurrected... as long as she was back, everything would be fine. No problem would be a problem. Just like a thousand years ago, in the midst of such desperate straits, she would still lead them in the right direction.
Even that final incident... that wasn't her fault.
Finally, after walking for an unknown amount of time, Divine Will suddenly looked up. He had finally found what he was seeking—
Upon the Obsidian Throne, the Feather-Robed Skeleton still sat in silence. Above her head, the Eternal Cycle, woven into a Crown of Thorns by coiling chains, rotated slowly. An indescribable radiance gathered and dispersed along the ring; it was so enchanting.
It was right there. She was right there...
Divine Will was ecstatic. He hurried forward, step by step. Flesh fell away, bones snapped, and foul-smelling clumps of blood scattered across the ground, but Divine Will was completely oblivious. He only moved forward, forward, forward.
Then, he reached out his hand. For the first time in a thousand years, he reached out with such infatuation to touch that magnificent Eternal Cycle.
As long as he touched it, as long as he touched it, he could...
He actually touched it.
In that instant, Divine Will felt the unique, icy sensation of the Eternal Cycle. His perception extended along the chains, and he sensed the existence of the souls at their ends.
"Finally... finally..."
Divine Will murmured in excitement. This old man who had ruled the Demon Race for a millennium now lost control of his emotions like a child.
A thousand years of longing, a thousand years of plotting, a thousand years of endurance... at this moment, it was all finally complete.
In this moment, he seemed to see a blinding radiance rising; he seemed to see a heat like the warm spring sun descending. He even heard a roar like a tsunami and felt a divine wonder that surpassed all the miracles in the world—the sensation of death returning to life.
Finally, when all the visions in his eyes vanished, Divine Will saw a young girl appear before him.
Her dress fluttered, her aura gentle yet resilient. She stood there in the light, looking exactly like the woman in his memories.
"King... my King... I have finally... finally waited for your return..."
Divine Will was so excited he could hardly contain himself. Though his legs could no longer stand for some reason, he still crawled and scrambled to her feet. He looked up, gazing at that blurred face, waiting with immense anticipation for her lips to part, waiting for the first words she would say to him after a thousand years.
"What do you think she would say to you, if it were really her?"
Before she could speak, that annoying voice rang out again.
Divine Will frowned. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Muen Campbell, who was wincing and rubbing his clearly kicked backside while trying his best to maintain a cool expression.
Him again!
How was he not dead? He hadn't died even after taking a hit; this guy was less like an ant and more like a cockroach.
"I'm asking you. If she were resurrected, what would be the first thing she'd say to you, Divine Will?" Muen pressed on, still curious.
"Shut up! You have no right to speculate about my King!"
Divine Will barked in displeasure.
As for what his King would say... although he had said before that as long as his King was resurrected, it wouldn't matter if she killed him in endless hatred or even destroyed the world, the words he truly wanted to hear were...
"You are wrong, Divine Will."
But "she" spoke coldly:
"You are such a disappointment."
"...Eh?"
After a moment of stunned silence, a confused, bewildered sound escaped Divine Will's throat.
Why would it be...
"Of course it would be that."
Muen walked to Divine Will's side and looked down at the hateful yet pitiable old man with a look of "it goes without saying."
"You can forget how she died. You can even use the ravings of the past thousand years to imagine ten thousand tragic ways she might have perished, just so you can listen to her 'hateful' cries. But how could you forget... why she died?"
"..."
Divine Will's eyes snapped wide. Black blood flowed from the corners of his eyes, but he had no time to care about that. He could only think, over and over.
Why did she die? Why did she die?
What "why"? She was clearly murdered. She was cruelly killed by those who hated her. For a thousand years, her voice had been in his ear, speaking of her hatred and rage, telling of her tragic fate. Mela Domir's words were nothing but lies...
But suddenly, images flashed.
[Divine Will, one day, I will lead every one of you to stand tall under the sunlight, the moonlight, the starlight... under all the radiance of this world.]
[I will make it so you no longer have to endure this oppression and pain. I will make it so you no longer have to experience unnecessary, bloody slaughter.]
[Though I am not a King... I will lead you forward like a true King, until we reach a place where everyone can truly smile.]
[I'll do my best...]
[Danger? It's fine. It's fine even if I die... Besides, don't I have you? If I die, you'll keep walking this path, right?]
"Ah..."
A wind blew from somewhere, carrying the slight chill of the night, etching that bone-deep, heart-consuming agony into Divine Will's soul bit by bit.
In his pupils, which were nearly burnt dry, confusion and clarity alternated. One moment it was her smile from a thousand years ago; the next, it was the weeping corpse on the throne from the past millennium.
But in the end, he saw her stop smiling and look at him with a face full of pain.
What kind of pain was it? Disappointment? Self-reproach? Sorrow?
Whichever it was, it was clearly reflected upon Divine Will's soul, causing a pain far greater than when the God-Slaying Spear had fallen from the heavens.
He remembered.
That's right. How could he have forgotten?
How could she ever have thoughts of anger and resentment, or even a desire to destroy the world?
She was her.
The gentle, brave, persistent woman who had led them forward a thousand years ago... Her death could only have one purpose: to light the way forward for them.
Whether she was killed or took her own life.
She would never, ever hate this world or anyone in it.
She was not a Demon King.
The thing he had wanted to resurrect was.
"It's you!"
Divine Will's face suddenly turned hideous. He abruptly thrust his mangled hand directly into his own chest.
His heart had long since vanished, yet he pulled a mass of pitch-black, writhing, viscous matter from his chest. Divine Will's eyes were bloodshot, as if he wanted to tear this black sludge to shreds.
It was this Demon God's Blood that had deceived him, making him destroy everything!
But then, Divine Will slumped back to his knees in dejection.
"No... it was me..."
The souls of the Demon Race were never meant to be so broken.
Compared to the wear and tear of reincarnation, the primary reason their souls were shattered was that too much soul power had been extracted from them.
Furthermore, it was under Divine Will's deliberate manipulation that the entire Demon Race, led by the eight Grand Dukes, had been divided into different tribes and engaged in a millennium of meaningless mutual slaughter.
Countless Demons had died in that slaughter, experiencing even more meaningless deaths and meaningless cycles of reincarnation... until they finally became these creatures that lacked even basic sanity.
"The Demon God's Blood turned into a shadow and stayed by your side for a thousand years, but it only began to completely corrode you recently... That means you instinctively felt something was wrong, didn't you?"
Muen watched the changes occurring in Divine Will and said calmly, "That's why you rejected the encroachment on a subconscious level and held out for an entire millennium. But in the end, you still..."
Still lost to yourself.
Divine Will finished the sentence in his heart.
Because from the very beginning, it was all because of his cowardice.
Because of cowardice, because of confusion, because of fear, he had frantically wanted to resurrect her, even at any cost—causing the Demon Race, who should have one day been reborn in the light, to crawl in the darkness for a full thousand years.
His feelings for her weren't pure love, but a dependency born of cowardice.
He relied too much on her radiance, so much so that after she died, he didn't even dare to look at the real sun.
"My King, will you still forgive me?"
Divine Will looked up, instinctively wanting to follow that figure once more.
But when the radiance of those hallucinations faded, all he saw was the human girl named An, born from a part of her.
The girl stood before him. Her every movement held a faint shadow of her, yet there was a massive difference.
At the very least, her gaze would never be this cold, as if she were staring at an insect that had soiled her favorite thing.
He just didn't know if her words just now were spoken based on the memory fragments flashing in her mind, or if they were her own will.
"I see... Mela Domir was right. This was all just a farce."
Divine Will gave a self-deprecating laugh.
In reality, it was difficult for him to even form the expression of a smile, because the flesh on his face had already decayed into separate clumps of meat.
The illusion of victory receded. Candlelight flickered on the stone walls once more. Under the swaying, dim light, Divine Will could barely even maintain a "human" form.
The Demon God's Blood had been completely pierced by the God-Slaying Spear. Although it couldn't truly be called "slain" due to its immortality, its activity had been thoroughly erased. In a sense, it was no different from being killed.
Now, he was truly no different from an old man who had lost everything.
Looking back at what he had clung to for a thousand years, he had merely been sitting on a stage like a clown, performing a solo dance, while dragging those suffering puppets along to perform with him.
He had truly become the person his former self hated most.
"Should we finish him off?"
Ariel walked up to Muen. Although she had just been pushed back by the old man, she was still eager to feel the sensation of pummeling a Crown Bearer again.
"I don't think that's necessary."
Muen shook his head, glancing at the key in his hand—the one woven from a tiny chain that she had given him in the dream.
"If he's the Divine Will from a thousand years ago, he should know what to do."
As soon as Muen finished speaking, Divine Will suddenly held the Eternal Cycle in his hands. He raised the already-shattering artifact high, and faint flames began to rise from his body.
The flames were milky white, without substance or heat, completely different from normal fire... because these were the flames of Divine Will burning his own soul power.
In truth, his flesh had long since completely disintegrated. Now, he could only be considered a mass of writhing, rotten meat. His attacks could only make Muen and Ariel look a bit disheveled; not a shred of his Crowned power remained.
Fortunately, the Demon God's Blood had ultimately failed to lay its hands on any souls other than his own.
The souls he had originally intended to use to resurrect her.
These soul-fires followed the chains upon the Eternal Cycle, returning to the Demon souls that were on the verge of shattering.
No—from this moment on, the cycle was broken, the chains were snapped, and the shackles were released. They would become human once more.
"Come to think of it, I almost forgot the true meaning of the name 'Divine Will'..."
Divine Will. Shenyi. The Will of the Divine. The Meaning of the Divine.
The name had been given to him by her, in an era before the First Evil God had descended, representing a certain earnest expectation of hers.
But what he followed had never been any god; he had never believed in that Demon God.
That was the true reason why, for an entire millennium without a single cycle of reincarnation, he had never been completely corrupted by the Demon God's Blood.
"My King... can I still follow you?"
Divine Will murmured softly. In the rising, illusory firelight, he seemed to truly see her figure.
She was the same as always—gentle, brave, and kind, standing in the dazzling radiance.
She smiled and reached out her hand to him.
...
A few minutes later, under the silent gaze of the group, Divine Will's soul completely turned to ash.
This ruler of the Demon Race for a thousand years, the source of so much pain and disaster, this Grand Duke who had been blinded by obsession for a millennium... ultimately died by suicide.
Just like his King.