Chapter 18

Chapter 18: The Interlude

“What… what is that supposed to be…?”

The sovereign of the false people and the monarch of the beasts remained motionless in place.

“It is an abomination! An absolute monster!”

“You call me a monster?”

A sneer of disdain formed on Dale’s face upon hearing the shout. Numerous dark, filamentous limbs, like coal, enveloped his anatomy, while an infinity of eyeballs agitated in the shadows; it was an aberrant entity devoid of any human trait.

“Does this appearance really cause you so much horror?”

Dismissing the shadowy appendages that intertwined around him, a silhouette with the features of an infant made its way through and advanced.

It was the child version of Dale.

That lord of the human impostors and true sovereign of the nightmare creatures radiated madness and deployed an infinity of tentacles.

“Observe what you have become, my peers.”

Beneath his footwear, thousands of blinking pupils watched attentively through the darkness. Each of their faults, perversions, and aberrant crimes were exposed to the light.

“There is no distinction between us; monstrosity defines us all.”

Those present could not assimilate Dale’s speech.

Before their eyes, only the most terrifying mass of appendages the earth had ever seen came to life, guarding a small infant at its center.

“Could it be possible that the myths told the truth?”

“It is the very Mage Emperor of the Fourth Empire himself!”

“Are we beholding the Lord of Black Gold…?”

“It is impossible, madness!”

Panic seized the armed warriors. Nevertheless, their laments were irrelevant.

Acting as a perverse deity who amuses himself at the expense of mortals, he initiated an absolute ruin fraught with desolation.

Dark extensions emerged both from the ground Dale tread upon and from the night sky that seemed to shatter.

Madness spread swiftly like an epidemic, driving several mounted soldiers to charge in a frenzy.

Crack!

The black limbs projected forcefully, trapping both the mounts and those who guided them. They shattered the steel protections, causing an end so bloody that death, accompanied by bone remains and organs sprouting from the deformed metal, seemed like a merciful blessing.

Through the fissure in the firmament, entities equipped with countless fixed eyes contemplated the earth’s surface.

Those eyeballs flickered, and thin extensions descended abruptly upon the mounted soldiers.

Crunch!

The head protections gave way, the bone structures fractured, and the dark fibers pierced the brain mass. These fine intertwined bundles twisted inside their heads, causing a dark and dense fluid, similar to pitch, to emerge from their nostrils and lips.

Unhinged laughter began to echo amidst the chaos. Finding themselves overwhelmed by an unbearable anguish, the lucidity of many collapsed, giving way to uncontrolled and constant laughter.

Many others broke into childish weeping.

Surrounded by a desolation so immense that it destroyed any trace of reason, Dale continued his advance with total serenity.

However, a group of fighters retained their lucidity until the last moment, swinging their weapons with desperation. They stood up to the cosmic filaments falling from the sky and the dark roots sprouting from the shadows of the earth, resisting stubbornly.

“Shield Marquis Maximil! Hold the line until your last breath!”

“Even with such strength, his mystical energy must have a limit! Hold out until he depletes his reserves!”

They clung tooth and nail to a minimal illusion of salvation.

That scene seemed absurd to him, which was the reason he did not annihilate them immediately.

The wave of limbs harassing the warriors, who had already dismounted their horses to group into a combat formation, began to wane.

“Behold! His magical arts are losing strength!”

“Do not stop fighting! Grip your blades firmly!”

Human faith was an indecipherable enigma, a highly strange force.

Those mortals grouped before him seemed alien to all logic.

The memory of the pact agreed upon with Shub began in his mind, where he committed to preserving his human essence until his final days. That purpose remained firm; the young man still valued the human facet he so treasured within himself.

Nevertheless, he found it impossible to find any empathy for the soldiers present there.

Just as a cosmic entity observes mere mortals from the heights, or an individual examines bugs, he perceived them as distant and highly fragile.

Under that premise, Dale questioned:

“Does the end of your lives terrify you?”

“Damn… you…!”

The boy advanced with a firm step toward the warriors trapped in their last defense, prompting one of them to charge directly in his direction.

“Hold your positions, do not scatter!” exclaimed a voice from the rearguard, but the warning was in vain. Crack! The dark appendages seized his arms and legs, breaking them brutally along with the metal plates of his protection.

The vital fluid splattered the surroundings.

“Do you truly assume that if my spells cease and my strength falters you would have a single chance of making it out alive?”

Dale shot them a smile laden with contempt. His attitude evoked a ruthless deity devoid of affection for mortals, who rejoices in the suffering of others.

Rip!

The mantle of the night tore completely, successively revealing perverse divinities from alien dimensions.

This time it was not about mere flexible limbs; the rift in the night sky widened and entities equipped with articulated limbs began to descend toward the ground.

“Nooo…!”

“What is the reason to inflict pain and subjugate others?” inquired Dale, caught in a dilemma he did not understand, formulating a highly sarcastic question given the scenario.

“Why do you snatch away the existence of those who beg for mercy? Do you perhaps find joy in the agony of others? It is evident you do not. That being so, why did you sow misfortune upon the inhabitants of this region?”

“Have… have mercy on us! We promise absolute loyalty to His Majesty, the Sovereign!” exclaimed a fighter who, laying down his weapons, began to beg.

“We declare our obedience to the Fourth Empire, to the Great Magical Empire, and to the Mage Emperor! For whatever you love most, grant us your pardon!”

“My Lord!”

Gradually, everyone understood the harsh reality. The expectation of a miraculous salvation or a fortuitous triumph if the young man’s power vanished was nothing more than a wild fantasy.

The breach in the heights expanded, allowing the passage of monstrous vermin from the outside that began to tear their allies to pieces. In the face of such aberrations, the militia’s steel and the principles of reality lacked meaning.

The Ineffable manifested itself.

Faced with such horror, there was no other option but to prostrate oneself and implore.

Dale raised his arm and the deformed entities froze their movements. The eyelids of the cosmic deities watching from above sealed shut, and the dark limbs ceased their activity.

Having subdued the unnameable entities of the cosmos, the Lord of Black Gold raised his gaze.

“There was a time when I dominated this land making use of terror and absolute force. In that era, individuals of your same ilk also prostrated themselves at my feet promising submission.”

“We offer you our devotion, Your Excellency! We will surrender our existence to the service of the Great Magical Empire!”

“I accepted the words of loyalty and the pacts of vassalage from men identical to you. However, after the fall of my dynasty and the subsequent rise and ruin of nine other sovereign nations, your behavior did not experience any modification,” stated Dale.

“And I realized something. In the same way that I subdued you through force, you sought to subjugate the defenseless appealing to the same resource. What I do today is in perfect harmony with your own acts.”

The young man meditated on his past delusions and the madness shared by past generations.

“Therefore, I will stop reproaching the clumsiness of mortals. I will not fall again into the illusion that ruling through terror and oppression will modify the essence of the world.”

“That being so… what is it that you intend…?”

“I have decided to overlook your perversions. I will not use my authority to correct the vices of men,” decreed Dale, emulating a celestial entity with the power to absolve the faults of the human race.

Hearing that, the fighters rushed to bow their bodies and touch the ground. Moved by Dale’s supposed clemency, they reiterated their vows of submission. Contemplating the scene, the young man subtly moved his hand.

The surroundings, previously paralyzed, resumed their usual course. The beasts proceeding from the confines of the cosmos resumed their butchery, pouncing on the prostrate soldiers to conclude their banquet.

“Why… what is the reason for this…?”

“You assured us that you would grant us your pardon! This is a betrayal of your word!”

“You have dared to step foot in my domains,” sentenced Dale.

“Did you perhaps imagine that breaking into someone else’s home would bring no consequences?”

Despite the previous far-reaching reflections, the boy’s motivation to punish them boiled down to a single fundamental principle.

Despair replaced ephemeral faith, and the screams of agony buried any trace of illusion.

“Is it your desire to take the northern region of the kingdom as our property?”

During that evening, Charlotte questioned Dale as she gently passed her hand over her belly, where her future descendant was gestating.

“Is it your intention to revive your ancient sovereignty in this place?” the woman inquired with a hint of false alarm, to which the young man responded with a negative gesture.

“I will not do it for the well-being of mortals nor for the order of the earth.”

“What is the motive then?”

“I will build a kingdom destined exclusively for you, for me, and for the infant on the way,” Dale asserted, seeking to convince himself of his determination.

“There will be no other purpose than our own well-being.”

“…”

“I give you my word that my appearance will never again transform into a fearsome aberration before the eyes of those I love.”

The young woman kept a moment of stillness before replying. Dale intertwined his fingers with hers.

“I assure you that I will maintain my identity and be the man you know until my last breath.”

“… That seems fine to me.”

A smile of happiness illuminated Charlotte’s face after hearing the oath.

“It causes me some sorrow not to be in a condition to wield my weapon to march alongside you to the front.”

“It saddens me not to have given a safe roof to our descendant yet.”

That reply provoked a light laugh from Charlotte.

“Once the infant arrives in the world, I will resume my sword training,” she affirmed with joy.

“When it is my turn to leave for war, it will be your duty to remain at home guarding our little one.”

“You are right, I will have to take on that task.”

Dale showed an affable gesture full of affection at the comment. The burden of saving the earth had disappeared from his shoulders; he no longer intended to sacrifice himself, focusing solely on achieving his most intimate desires.

Having clarified his course, Dale gathered his subordinates in the stronghold known as the Saxon fortress.

Positioned firmly upon the seat of the Great Magical Empire, the deity dressed in Black and Gold expressed himself with an extremely serene temper.

“Prior to any order, I require each of you to seal a commitment with me.”

Prostrated before his position were the valiant fighters belonging to the Fourth Empire, a formidable host ready to subjugate the continent under his command.

“Under no circumstances are you to offer your lives in my name.”

The surprising request provoked a sepulchral silence among the militia.

“Do not surrender your existence for any earthly ideal. Avoid replicating the mistakes I made in the past.”

Having uttered this, the supreme leader of the hosts of Black and Gold stood up. The soldiers, coordinated in a single movement, took a knee and sank the tips of their weapons into the surface of the ground.

“Keep this pact in your memory at the moment of wielding steel.”

In the enclosure of the Saxon fortress, the number of fighters and shadow mages barely reached a few hundred.

“It is time to conclude this devastating conflict that consumes the continental lands.”

Despite the scarcity of his ranks, Dale valued the immense worth of each individual present, an unquestionable truth for him.

As much as he tried to flee, it was impossible to detach himself from earthly reality; it was a lesson he was only just fully assimilating.

No sacrifice or conflict would manage to transform the environment into a perfect place.

Due to ello, the nascent monarchy of Dale lacked luxuries or excessive pretensions.

In this way, motivated by his own being and by his people, guided by the most earthly desires of the spirit, the tale of the Tenth Empire began within this Chapter 18.