Chapter 111

Chapter 111

Chapter 111

In the relentless and bleak winter night, a solitary and colossal jet-black fortress stood with majesty.

Inside those walls dwelt the sole ruler of the fortification.

The main chamber, built under the parameters of a gloomy Flamboyant Gothic style, possessed the grandeur of a medieval basilica, imbued with an air of deep melancholy.

At the highest point, a throne forged in black and gold could be seen, designed to overlook the entirety of the territory.

The “Dark Prince” was perched upon it.

Not upon the freezing and gloomy floor below, but manifesting as the true lord and master of the building.

The Fortress of Solitude.

A newly crafted ideological environment, under the absolute domain of the “Supreme Lord of the Demon Realm.”

The mystic object of darkness that had been released and its wielder, the black sorcerer, were also in that place.

With the firm intention of banishing that undesirable intruder, the environment belonging to Dale began to shake violently.

That bastion, erected in the middle of the desert wasteland, was called “the Empire of Dale.”

“Arise, my knights.”

Obeying the command of their sovereign, the indefatigable and tenacious undead warriors emerged.

The “Order of the Dead Knights.”

At that precise moment, the dark weapon held by the mystic moved through the air, scattering a new flurry of dark petals.

Despite this, the descending leaves failed to disturb Dale’s environment at all.

The freezing wind and the darkness surrounding the exterior of the building began to seep in and swirl violently inside the great chamber.

The temperature dropped abruptly and frost made its appearance, coating the entire enclosure in a whitish layer.

That was the domain of the “Dark Prince,” his own nation, his bulwark.

The space that Dale, being barely fourteen years old, had built, was immune to the alterations caused by a simple mystic object of darkness.

The “Shadow Cloak,” crafted in the likeness of Dale’s black attire, shook violently.

The dark relic was in a state of frenzy and kept its puppet completely subjugated.

For this reason, Dale had only one path to follow.

Slash!

The death paladins, manifesting the combat proficiency of a paladin through “Automated Formulas,” broke in from multiple directions.

The black mystic’s limb, which held the weapon, ended up being severed from the shoulder area.

The dark blade, having lost its wielder, remained driven vertically into the marble floor of the chamber.

“Agh, aah…!”

The mystic, finding himself deprived of his limb, let out a shriek and finally regained lucidity.

Before he could comprehend the scene he was in, Dale uttered a few words.

“This is not your place.”

Dale’s declaration completely vanished the mystic’s essence from that “world of thought.”

A mandatory expulsion.

The task of healing the severed limb and reconstructing the physique would be left in the hands of those outside.

Dale averted his gaze.

The dark blade, devoid of an owner, remained embedded in the surface.

Dale advanced toward the weapon without exhibiting the slightest hesitation.

The “Shadow Cloak” continued to shake violently, emitting a sort of lament.

A sharp and sudden pang struck Dale’s mind, giving him the impression that his lucidity was being torn away.

In the same way it happened the time he first wore the Shadow Cloak… no, carrying an even denser gloom, the hostility of the steel attempted to break Dale to turn him into its new vessel.

“This is no ordinary artifact.”

Despite the circumstances, Dale’s countenance reflected no perturbation whatsoever.

“You want to subjugate me, right?”

Dale inquired, gesturing as if engaging in dialogue with a conscious entity.

The hilt of the mystic object vibrated thunderously.

“I’ll give you a chance, go ahead, try it.”

Dale decreed, pressing the hilt against the black and white mosaic tiles.

Simultaneously, the Shadow Cloak expanded, creating a sort of pool of gloom that covered the sector.

And from the bottom of that pool of gloom, a limb emerged.

A silhouette made of gloom, a “Shadow Walker,” stood up and tightly gripped the handle of the weapon.

─ Heh, heh, heh.

The entity of gloom gripped the handle, releasing a power considerably superior to the one manifested previously.

A “shadow knight” stood before Dale.

It had ceased to be a submissive entity before Dale, transforming into a new vessel mobilized by the hostility of the steel.

For the weapon, it represented the ideal vessel, positioning itself far above the organism of any mere sorcerer.

This caused the relic, overflowing with hostility, to manifest the entirety of its potential.

A reckless action, undoubtedly.

However, Dale remained impassive.

“There is no better way to understand the power of the artifact.”

The feeling that flooded Dale’s chest was the excitement of measuring himself against a high-caliber rival.

A steel molded in the glooms of the demonic hosts.

The designation “demon” did not refer to a particular lineage, but to beings such as orcs that possessed a certain degree of rationality.

The dividing line between common demonic beings and “superior demons” was based on the skill to employ the mystic arts.

In the same way that the inhabitants of this environment structure mystic methodologies based on components like fire, water, and light…

superior demons also execute the mystic arts through their particular methodologies.

They employ “shadows” as the central axis of their intellect.

The fear and disdain directed toward the mystics of the black tower stem from their assimilation and continuation of the superior demonic intellect.

Shadows, gloom, lack of clarity.

Strictly speaking, the survival of the current black tower and the Saxon family finds its primary origin in “demonic thought.”

The relics of the Demon Realm are entirely structured upon the “power of shadows” due to this situation.

In the event that the demonic hosts erected a tower within the empire, it would certainly be a “Tower of Shadows.”

In the same way that the mystics of the different towers are identified by shades (pyromancer, mage, necromancer, cleric, druid…),

Dale clearly retained in his memory the bad reputation of the “shadow casters,” the superior demons.

And among the relics imbued with such power was Dale’s valuable “Shadow Cloak.”

The dark steel in front of him did not represent an anomaly.

“The one who will overthrow the Empire of Fire and Light, and usher in the Empire of Shadows.”

“The Black Apostle, the Lord of Shadows.”

The statements made by the devotee of the “Church of Shadows” addressed to Dale rushed back into his memory.

“Why is everything around me so dark and gloomy?”

That casual thought represented the limit of his ponderings.

The “Shadow Knight,” manipulated by the dark steel, attacked fiercely, prompting Dale to draw his own steel to face him.

Clang!

The paladin’s steel collided with the dark steel, projecting the nature of the Peacemaker.

The “Impossible Peace” altered the rules of the zone, nullifying all offensives.

However, as the creatures of the deep labyrinth had evidenced, the power guarded by the dark steel was not going to yield easily.

Crash!

A crackle like breaking glass propagated, and the steel held by the Shadow Knight advanced with speed.

“It was to be expected, a fake is still a fake.”

The margin of separation narrowed and Dale uttered a curse, moving backward swiftly.

At the same time, the Shadow Cloak flapped, projecting a flurry of projectiles of gloom following the trajectory of the dark conduit.

Despite this, the offensive never impacted the Shadow Knight.

The projectiles of gloom were being assimilated by the steel.

Similar to a gravitational well consuming clarity, the attraction of the steel consumed Dale’s “shadow projectiles.”

Immediately afterward, the Shadow Knight executed a movement with the dark steel in space.

The multitude of “shadow projectiles” that had been consumed by the gravitational well were violently redirected toward Dale.

Bang!

Multiple projectiles impacted Dale’s physique, avoiding areas of vital importance but causing destruction to his tissues and bone structures.

Spectralization.

Dale’s damaged structure, now converted into an entity of gloom, retreated swiftly.

The dark blue mystic energy dancing in the lower area reconfigured into a spell focused directly toward the “steel” of the Shadow Knight.

However, this mystic manifestation fared no better.

“It is absorbing all my magic.”

Just like a gravitational well.

It was not limited to mere gloom.

A steel hungry with voracity that consumed the entirety of thoughts.

“Hunger…”

The Shadow Knight closed the gap with a high-powered leap.

The dark steel “Hunger” described a downward trajectory.

Clang!

However, an alternative dark steel interrupted its advance.

Rather, it was not just a single dark steel.

Dozens of dark steels, held by death paladins, moved in order to safeguard their sovereign.

Each death paladin, endowed with the courage of a paladin, surrounded and lashed out against the “Shadow Knight.”

“It seems it cannot absorb aura swords.”

Even though the death paladins belonging to Dale’s environment lacked real existence, constituting mere projections of his imagination.

When a high-ranking mystic manifests the environment of concepts and employs it as an “offensive resource” to completely eradicate their rivals, they possess the ability to manifest a power of divine characteristics within that space, in accordance with their skills. It is not disproportionate to qualify contests between high-ranking mystics as “collisions of environments.”

In the midst of the freezing wind and the darkness of the frozen wasteland, the bastion of isolation erected on the barren surface constituted a true “manifestation of power.”

That was the Empire of Dale.

No ordinary combatant could hope to prevail against a complete state. Even if they held a “steel capable of consuming the mystic arts,” that circumstance would not alter the outcome. A steel possesses the capacity to consume the mystic arts, but it would never manage to consume an environment in its entirety.

In Dale’s environment, the deathless combatants manifested uninterruptedly to safeguard their sovereign. The contingent of death paladins, the multiple dark steels of Saxon, lashed out against the obsidian demonic steel.

That was the Empire of Dale, and before its immensity, only “a solitary combatant” remained standing.

A combatant immersed in the glooms was struck by a jet-black aura steel, its structure undone by the work of Saxon’s dark steel. Despite this, no blood flow or fractured bone structures were observed.

The obsidian demonic steel it held impacted once more against the marble mosaic tiles of the main chamber.

Dale shortened the distance and took the grip of the demonic steel, “Gluttony.” No opposition occurred, only a faint hostility, similar to that of a frightened child seeking refuge.

An absolute capitulation.

“A steel that absorbs magic,” he conjectured internally. He lacked certainty about the limit of what it managed to consume, but it undoubtedly represented an item worth keeping.

Upon vanishing the environment of concepts, the scene corresponding to the labyrinthine town emerged once again in the surroundings.

“Baron Saxon has acquired the artifact…” muted murmurs spread through the surroundings as they fixed their gaze on Dale, who was holding “Gluttony.”

Despite the comments, Dale stated: “I have stopped the artifact’s rampage.”

He made a movement with the grip and embedded the blade into the surface.

“As expected of Baron Saxon…!”

“An artifact that not even a fifth-circle dark mage could handle!”

The scion of the Black Sphere, successor of the Saxon family… who would possess the audacity to question such a designation?

Dale shook his head. In the midst of the crowd gathered due to the unforeseen altercation, he spotted an individual who was impossible to overlook.

“Sir Drake, the monster hunter.”

Keeping his limb fixed on the grip of “Gluttony,” Dale proceeded to call him.

“Did you call for me, Baron Saxon?” Sir Drake, the monster hunter, made a bow filled with consideration. Dale drew a smile and proceeded with the exchange.

“This sword… for how much would you sell it?”