Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Chapter 21: The Side Story

In the vicinity of that individual, any notion of coherence vanished.

His mere presence inspired absolute irrelevance.

That could not be categorized as a combat; it was a one-sided annihilation. In the face of that entity, the systems of the latest-generation Type 2 armor, the technological legacies of the ancient empire, and the ideals that drove the insurrection lost all their value. Nothing remained standing. The liberation movement, the armed conflict, the principles of righteousness, and any concept provided with value disintegrated like structures of fine sand, incapable even of articulating themselves in a logical expression.

The sovereign of futility ruled the space.

“You are… a monster…!”

Before his figure, the agonizing efforts of mortals resulted, in the strictest sense, devoid of any purpose.

“Do you consider me a monster?”

The subject inquired, addressing the combatants wearing the Type 2 armor, who remained petrified by panic.

“Ah!”

The garments of the night raven took on a movement of their own, unfolding the edges of his cape into multiple tendrils. Evoking the ancestral legends of Shub-Niggurath, the dark prolongations agitated beneath the fabric, harassing his rivals.

With the cold distraction of an infant manipulating insects, those extensions of gloom advanced toward the sophisticated Type 2 armor, seizing it without any complication.

“A highly crude attempt.”

That magic-imbued protection was never conceived to serve the rebel factions. It had been a piece of engineering created by the sorcerers of the Fourth Empire to equip the imperial heavy infantry, the grouping that in past times was known under the name of the “Black Armor Company.”

It represented the core of the mystical knowledge consolidated by the splendor of that magical empire, nothing more and nothing less. Due to this, Dale externalized a gesture of disdain.

“Did you truly suppose you would manage to defy me using simple trinkets manufactured for my own troops?”

The monarch of the demonic hosts continued his advance, tracing a path covered in gloom.

The soldiers trapped in their metallic frames found themselves completely immobilized. Dale transited between the ranks with absolute parsimony.

Beneath his jet-black clothing swayed an unfathomable ocean composed of darkness and shadowy prolongations.

“Perish, damned monster…!”

One of the restrained combatants extended one of his limbs in desperation. His arm, covered by the dark metal, transformed through a mechanism that emulated the armored artillery pieces of the 21st century, shaping into a muzzle.

Boom!

The roar of a detonation shook the surroundings. Despite the disturbance, Dale did not alter the cadence of his march. As was foreseeable, the action lacked any effect.

“Useless.”

“You… you are nothing but a monster…!”

Right in front of his position.

The member of the troop who had triggered the weapon uttered those words with bewilderment, prompting Dale to tilt his head, intrigued.

“Do I give you the impression of being a monster?”

“Look at yourself! Do you suppose that a peer would classify you as human after witnessing such a nature?”

“Undoubtedly, a human being.”

Dale’s dark tendrils coiled around the joints and the throat of the combatant. Simultaneously, the inhabitant of the shadows perceived the underlying reality in the surroundings. It was not a secret that the factions were attempting to safeguard. That slaughter was being executed under the banner of the insurrection.

“Under my condition of human and undeniable monster, I have traversed the barren wastelands of this world pursuing a purpose throughout my entire existence.”

Manifested the sovereign of futility.

“Express your truth, mortals. Does your insurrection enjoy any real purpose? Do you consider that the subsequent period will transform into the meaning of your lives?”

Snap!

The shadow extensions violently detached the components of the armor along with the limbs of the combatant, finally clamping around his respiratory tract.

The fatal outcome that awaited the entirety of the armored forces.

Neither the doctrines nor the courage of the insurrection retained validity in the face of the demonstration of absolute emptiness propagated by this sovereign of futility.

As a result of this, panic dominated those present.

“I keep the memory of those individuals who in the past genuinely pursued knowledge and purpose, each managing to find their own certainties.”

Evoking those memories, Dale recalled a specific subject.

The eternal Frederick and his progenitor, who remained awaiting his return in the Saxon fortress. That entity known as the blue spider, who placed its entire trust in Dale before vanishing into nothingness.

Likewise, Lize, who demonstrated to Dale the emptiness that resides in the act of detachment by surrendering her own existence.

Each of them obtained a particular conclusion.

“My ancestor, the eternal Frederick, maintained the premise that emptiness itself constitutes our only certainty and purpose.”

Dale continued with his dissertation.

“Nevertheless, my progenitor argued that those elements that remain unaltered by emptiness, even when confronting death, represent the authentic purpose of this existence.”

In the same way that Dale sabotaged the relevance of facts in the present, the eternal Frederick had executed it previously.

However, the reflections uttered by Dale failed to be assimilated by the armor-protected troops gathered in the place. This caused Dale to show a grimace of disappointment.

“I too achieved a resolution of my own regarding the purpose of things and, due to my obstinacy in that search, I inflicted pain on those around me.”

Manifested the individual, accentuating his gesture of bitterness.

“This journey has reached a point of absolute exhaustion.”

Dale made a disinterested gesture with his upper limb, emulating the attitude of an infant who has lost the liking for a plaything.

“The precious resources and the gloom, the figure of the sovereign and the movements of insurrection, the purposes you pursue with such eagerness are so empty and mundane that it is no longer possible for me to tolerate them.”

Decreed the sovereign of futility. Immediately afterwards, the bearers of the insurrection’s banners collapsed, struck by the frigid environment that foretold the outcome of the times.

Their libertarian proclamations and their agonizing attempts to defend their cause dissolved into the purest emptiness.

The Ninth Empire, the revolutionary factions, the riches, and the gloom; the earthly surface continued to be saturated with all kinds of purposes.

For that individual, that translated solely into the monotonous and heavy course of the eras.

The only lesson that the human species extracts from the study of past events is that men never obtain any knowledge from their own precedents.

Even in the case of a chronicle cemented upon armed conflict and bloodshed, the panorama remained unalterable.

Under this scenario, Dale’s obligations presented themselves with total clarity.

He would take absolute control of the earthly plane in order to bequeath it to his own person and his close ones.

He would not opt for self-sacrifice in favor of the world, nor did he require compensating for the vicissitudes experienced by his close ones.

──His only purpose consisted in ensuring that both he and his close ones would enjoy a full and blissful existence for the rest of their days.

Without regard to the nature of the impediments that might interpose in his path.

Dale directed his steps toward the core of the Ninth Empire, finding factions determined to obstruct his march.

On certain occasions it was the revolutionary hosts and, in other circumstances, it corresponded to the inhabitants of the Ninth Empire, who desperately sought to safeguard the integrity of their ruler. Each group possessed its particular motivations to cross the path of the walker.

In each of those encounters, the figure of the sovereign of futility emerged to deprive them of any vestige of purpose.

“What reasons compel you to obstruct my advance?”

Multiple combatants lay lifeless in the vicinity. A military campaign directed against a single individual had been organized and, at the end of it, he moved among the remains of his opponents questioning them with serenity.

“It is impossible for us to allow your access to the enclosure where His Majesty the Emperor is located…!”

“Is that the reason why you congregated this monumental military contingent?”

Inquired Dale, sketching a grimace of contempt before a member of the nobility who failed to sustain his firmness to the ultimate consequences.

“Did you suppose you would manage to contain my advance by desperately uniting members of the court, cavalry officers, hired combatants, and even workers of the land?”

“You… you are nothing but a monster…!”

“Allow me to reveal to you the destiny and the use that the acts you have carried out will have.”

After uttering these words, Dale produced an icy snap with his fingers.

An absolute gloom emerged from the surface he stepped on, extinguishing the luminosity of the firmament.

In that precise instant, the event occurred.

The countless inert bodies that populated the combat terrain ended up covered by the gloom and began a process of reanimation.

“A… ah… ah…!”

“Did you summon them for the purpose of supplying me with a personal army? At least your efforts did not turn out entirely sterile.”

The accumulation of human remains that reached the horizon line, along with the stagnation of vital fluid, gained structure and stood up.

Countless reanimated bodies, death knights, artificial constructs forged with vital fluids, and multiple death-exempt beings prostrated themselves, paying homage to their conductor.

Simultaneously, an imperceptible energy operated on the reanimated entities, inducing the unification of their structures. The tissues, the fluids, the bony elements, the metallic protectors, and the cutting weapons integrated as if they were attracted by a gravitational collapse.

An aberrant creature.

In that site, a colossal and immortal entity took shape, endowed with a horrifying and indescribable appearance.

The definitive outcome of those subjects who dared to firmly defy the determinations of the sovereign of futility.

The member of the court put up a last and agonizing resistance, signifying the final point of his actions.

Dale looked up with total tranquility. Even considering a spatial separation that looked insurmountable, he possessed the capacity to perceive him with total clarity.

The regent of the Ninth Empire, who flaunted his own denomination in the past, the self-proclaimed Lord of the Shadows. Next to the epicenter of the domain he administered.

“Be welcome to the domains of the Saxon family, Miss Yufi.”

Lize spread her upper limbs bearing an expression of rejoicing. Nevertheless, Yufi experienced indecision and held back the impulse to respond to the embrace immediately.

“My, what is the reason for that behavior?”

“… I offer my apologies.”

Yufi held her breath, incapable of deciphering the motives of her own conduct. Lize remained contemplating her with an expression of warmth.

“It gives the impression that I am not entirely to your liking, Miss Yufi.”

“It is not like that!”

Lize manifested a smile loaded with subtlety, causing Yufi to shake her head in a sign of denial with haste.

“There is no reason to manifest unease. You already constitute a formal member of the Saxon family and you represent an individual for whom my brother holds a profound appreciation.”

“…”

Upon hearing Lize’s assertions, Yufi’s cheeks adopted a highly flushed coloration.

Lize, Dale’s blood relative. Every occasion that Yufi brought her image to memory, she evoked the grimace of sorrow that used to be reflected in Dale’s features.

In the same way, she recalled Dale’s physiognomy at the moment of fixing his gaze on her and when he solidified the reunion with his close affections.

Lize pointed out on one occasion that Uncle Dale constituted an individual whose nature Yuffie found impossible to conceive in her previous existence. It had been Lize’s detachment and mental acuity that fostered Dale’s metamorphosis into the subject that manifested currently.

Through Lize’s mediation, Yuffie established a relationship with Dale, managing jointly to advance to the present scenario.

Despite this, for what reason did that uncomfortable premonition persist when finding herself in her vicinity?

It was a hint as disturbing as the transit of an arachnid moving over her own skin.

In that space stood an “aberrant creature,” a monstrous amalgam constituted by organic tissues, fluids, bone structures, cutting weapons, safeguarding elements, and metal protections.

Thump, thump!

With each advance it made, the earthly surface experienced tremors, forcing the combatants to retreat in multiple directions. Even the large-scale fortifications, the fortified defense points, and the artillery pieces lost all their relevance before its passage.

No individual manifested the courage required to stand in the trajectory of that monstrous colossus. In factual terms, no one possessed the faculty to achieve it.

And occupying a position on the upper zone of that giant was located a subject.

His dark clothing, ornamented with the strokes of a night raven, agitated with the wind while he oriented his attention toward the most distant points of the horizon.

An entity that reduced to nonexistence any kind of setback. An individual devoid of affection toward the human lineage.

Firmly resolved to close the constant return of the sterile cycles that composed the chronicle of the world, he continued his march.

With a fixed course toward the Lord of the Shadows and the epicenter of the Ninth Empire that he led.