When ‘Darkness’ first appeared in the world and the monsters born from it covered the entire world, something unexpected happened.
‘Darkness’ gained consciousness.
“Where is this?”
“Who am I?”
Initially, the consciousness of Darkness was like that of a child just starting to walk, but over time, it became clearer.
“They call the things born from me monsters.”
“Humans are in pain.”
Darkness observed the world with interest. What it liked the most was watching the monsters attack humans.
“The screams of humans are pleasant to hear.”
“I wish the monsters would take over this world.”
“I need to create more monsters.”
Darkness was born from human malice. Because of its nature, it could only find human suffering sweet. During this time, a shocking event occurred to Darkness.
“Who are those people? Who are they to destroy my monsters?”
Transcendents helping humans began to directly eliminate the monsters.
“Goddess Dinute? Dragon Sigmund? Are those the ones attacking me?”
“How dare they burn my monsters. I will never forgive them….”
Unfortunately, Darkness’ dream was not easily realized. The loss of the monsters dealt a huge blow. However, Darkness did not give up. It could not give up. Human suffering was its only joy. It could never go back to a time when it did not know that joy. As it pondered over ways to get revenge, Darkness found a rather plausible path.
“I will take away the most important things from Dinute and Sigmund.”
“I will take away the wings of Goddess Dinute. I will completely ruin the fate of her most cherished successor.”
“I will make the humans loved by Dragon Sigmund live in hell. I will make him shed tears of blood, regretting the time he abandoned humans.”
“You two will become arch-enemies, hating each other, and the world will be covered in despair.”
Darkness prepared for revenge for a very long time. The wait was long, but it was excited instead. Time was on its side anyway.
All it had to do was one thing. After a long wait, it just needed to enjoy the fruits of destruction, or so it believed. Suddenly, fate began to twist. The long-prepared revenge started to go awry. The two beings, prepared for annihilation, sacrificed everything to turn back time.
Darkness had no inkling of this. The idea of being prepared for annihilation to protect others was beyond the selfish Darkness’ imagination. It was just disturbed by the increasingly twisted fate.
* * *
“Remember. You must not kill them gently. An ordinary death will not satisfy the greedy law of causality. To leave this world, I must create the most terrible death.”
“I will remember.”
The holy knight Seidel bowed her head. Her pale face was eerily like a doll. Seidel’s sister, Della, standing beside her, glanced at Rehir.
“Sir Rehir, Seidel has not fully awakened as a wing yet. How about entrusting this mission to me?”
Della and Seidel, the two sisters, were Rehir’s false wings. The older sister, Della, was the seventh, and the younger sister, Seidel, was the eighth. Neither of them was a perfect wing yet. This was due to Rehir’s insufficient sacrifices. Simply extinguishing the soul of the true high priest was not enough to seize the power of the wings. A sacrifice that satisfied the causality law was needed.
According to the original plan, the price was to be paid with the death of Dietrian and the suffering of Leticia, but it failed. There was still a long time left on the curse’s deadline, and the curse that was manifested to inflict suffering only resulted in backlash. His anger naturally turned to the remaining two wings.
“Della. Are you, a half-baked wing, questioning my orders?”
Just seeing the faces of the two wings made his anger surge. If he hadn’t lost the other wings, he would never have relied on these incomplete wings. Leaning on them felt like proof of his downfall.
“Do you think you have become a real wing just because I am using you as one?”
Rehir scolded.
“Snap out of your delusional thinking. You are just dolls. Dolls that I can replace anytime I want!”
“I’m sorry, Lord Rehir.”
Realizing Rehir’s anger, Della paled and bowed her head. Seidel, still tilting her head, seemed not to understand what the problem was.
Like Rehir’s other wings, Della and Seidel had lived committing horrendous sins. Seidel, who had been unable to feel emotions since birth, killed others without any guilt.
Della was similar. She felt fear and anger but had no sense of guilt or empathy. Instead of stopping her sister from killing people, she joined and concealed the murders.
They committed all sorts of evil deeds until they were caught and sentenced to death. Just before dying, they met Rehir, awakened as wings, and gained new identities. These heinous criminals became the leaders of the Holy Knights.
“A knight of the Principality is approaching, Lord Rehir.”
“Move now, Seidel.”
“Understood.”
Seidel silently followed behind Julia, who was walking around the lodgings. Della, anxious, kept an eye on Rehir. Unlike her emotionless sister, she knew that Rehir could destroy her anytime he wished.
“I apologize for my arrogance, Lord Rehir. I will never disturb your peace again.”
Della, who had been groveling repeatedly, said.
“Lord Rehir, what should I do now? Just give me an order. I will do anything.”
“Wait until Seidel returns. We can’t move for now anyway. Leticia’s hounds are searching for me. If we move hastily, we will be discovered.”
Water, fire, wind, earth, and even beasts. All forces specialized in finding people. He could feel that hundreds, thousands of spirits were looking for him at this very moment.
[Where has Rehir gone?]
[We must catch him!]
[We’ll destroy him!]
[For Lady Leticia!]
[Ahaha!]
Rehir’s face twisted at the spirits’ laughter that echoed right beside him. Della stood frozen like ice, watching Rehir’s reactions.
Rehir was currently hiding his aura using the power of causality. This was the very power he obtained by offering Josephina to the beasts as food. According to the original plan, he should have crossed the walls with that power.
But he failed. The power provided by causality was too little. After barely escaping the imperial palace, he could only hide for a few hours.
“Curse this causality. Why is the calculation so flawed? I killed Josephina! I offered up the fake saint! And this is all I get? Is this a joke?”
Was it not enough to simply reveal the truth about her son to Josephina? Should he have inflicted more suffering? Was the problem that she was devoured by beasts? Should he have tortured her for a longer period before killing her?
“Could it be that Josephina is still alive?”
Rehir, who had been grinding his teeth at causality, flinched. If that were the case, this hellish situation would make sense. His face contorted horribly.
“Damn it! Should I have confirmed Josephina’s death with my own eyes? What confirmation! How could Josephina, having lost all the power of the wings, escape from so many beasts?”
Even as he thought this, he couldn’t shake off his suspicions. If by any chance Josephina was still alive, she needed to be brought here immediately. He would kill her in the most excruciating way possible. With that power, he could escape the city.
“I must check Josephina’s condition.”
Rehir quickly formed a hand seal. He still had a means to monitor the imperial palace: Princess Dana’s earrings.
“It even takes power to activate these damn earrings.”
Rehir ground his teeth. He was furious about wasting his remaining power. But there was no other way. The noose tightening around him had reached its limit. Having lived a life far from patience, this was especially true for him.
“Just for a moment, just a quick check.”
With that resolve, he chanted the spell. But then, something incomprehensible happened. Nothing appeared. More precisely, there was only pitch-black darkness in the void.
“What? What’s going on?”
Panicked, Rehir poured more of his dark power into it. The precious dark power seeped away. But it was futile. It all vanished like pouring water into a broken vessel.
“Could it be, could it!”
Suddenly, a dreadful thought crossed his mind. The reason the earrings had not responded to his call. If he had lost control, it made sense.
“No way! I couldn’t have lost my power again! I would have noticed before it happened. I would have destroyed it beforehand!”
At that moment, he felt something explode. The previously rigid Rehir burst into laughter.
“Haha, of course! I couldn’t have lost my power!”
Just now, Princess Dana’s head had flown off. Rehir chuckled and wiped away tears. Although he regretted killing the princess too easily, it wasn’t bad. He felt the pent-up rage recede.
[Your Highness, we have sealed off all the temples. Not a single ant can escape.]
But at that moment, something began to appear on the previously pitch-black screen. A torch-like flicker beyond the broken wood fragments.
[Do not let your guard down. That demon still has two wings left. Seidel and Della! Sir Naim! Have you found their hideout yet?]
Rehir, who had been savoring his triumph, widened his eyes. That voice just now. It was Princess Dana. The princess, whose head had been blown off, was giving orders to the knights!
“What? What’s going on!”
He wanted to understand the situation, but all he could see were the wood fragments. Rehir stared at the screen, half-mad.
[Commander! We heard an explosion from the box just now.]
[Bring it here immediately! Show it to Her Highness!]
The view from the earrings rose suddenly. It wobbled as it moved, then revealed the princess on horseback. Rehir was horrified.
[Your Highness! As you predicted, the box just exploded!]
[What? Did that lunatic really set it off! I knew it! We were almost in big trouble if we hadn’t handled it quickly.]
The princess shuddered and scratched one of her ears.
[Shall we open it to check?]
[What check? Throw it away immediately. Throw it in the river! No! Burn it right now! Burn it so thoroughly that not even ashes remain!]
Rehir collapsed into his seat. The knight threw the earrings into the fire. Watching the screen turn bright red, Rehir could not move a finger.
The princess was not dead. Far from having her head blown off, both her ears were intact.
