Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Chapter 24: The Clash of the Stars and Despair

Clang!

A twinkling star collided head-on against the desolation.

After the violent clash of their blades, Dale questioned him, his words reflecting utter incomprehension: “Even if you were capable of absorbing the entirety of the mana of this plane, you would never have the strength to defeat me. Have you forgotten?”

Mikhail, wearing the armor of the dawn, advanced silently, executing a slash with his weapon. Once again, the star shone with the clarity of the aurora as it fell heavily upon Dale’s “Despair.”

Clang!

The one who in the past was recognized under the title of the “Black Prince,” Mikhail Lancaster, possessed the necessary qualities to transform into a real danger to Dale later on.

However, to the Dale of the present, he represented no risk at all.

Even if the mana of the entire world turned against him, neither his own doppelganger nor the ruling deity of the planet would manage to subdue him. The harsh winter of the end times and the monarchs of humanity shared the same fate.

No one possessed the power to overthrow Dale, the sovereign of gold, shadow, and black gold.

“You are entirely right,” stated Mikhail Yuris, sketching a subtle and serene smile.

“In the past, when I took the identity of a paladin and stood before you, having all the mana of creation in my hands, I was incapable of overcoming you.”

“Therefore, you should understand that, even if you absorbed every last drop of mana from this earth, you would still be incapable of defeating me.”

“Perhaps so. Yes, it is very likely that you are right.”

Despite his words, not the slightest trace of surrender or weakness could be perceived in the will of Mikhail Yuris, who firmly held the star.

That attitude made the situation even more indecipherable.

“If that is so, you should also be aware that this confrontation represents nothing more than entertainment for me.”

The god of insignificance scoffed, gripping despair tightly.

His objective was to completely vanish the faith, the desire for revenge, and every achievement that Mikhail Yuris had built.

“I perfectly understand that you are beyond the limits of conventional mana.”

The steel of despair charged, releasing a dense blackness that ended up burying the star.

Just as Dale had expressed it, that was nothing more than a completely unequal contest. A reunion with an old opponent, evoking the battles of yesteryear, just like the days when the “Black Prince” measured strengths with Mikhail Lancaster.

The being standing before Mikhail Yuris was not the sovereign of black gold, but a simple recreation of the “Black Prince” of those times.

During a brief blink, he relived memories so distant that they already gave the impression of having been erased. It was, in the strictest sense, a simple distraction.

The instant Dale returned to reality, the desolation concentrated in his fist would extinguish both the star and the remaining faith.

“After the moment when the deity Sistine, whom you dub ‘Noah,’ entered a deep slumber, the mana of this plane… the nanomachines stopped their replication. Due to this, every time we use the mana that is no longer generated, the total volume decays.”

Keeping his sword steady, Mikhail Yuris continued speaking.

“Although at the time I assured that we were not in an era where the mystical arts would be extinguished, looking at it from another perspective, that judgment is not wrong. Given that the total reserve of mana is immutable, every action that consumes it channels the planet’s magic toward its extinction.”

“I have not the slightest intention of interrupting her rest.”

Dale replied bluntly, bringing to his mind his former ally who lay inert in the depths of the Fourth Empire after concluding her “heroic mission.”

“Is that why both brothers united their paths, to hoard the remaining energy of the planet?”

Dale inquired severely, to which Mikhail responded by shaking his head in denial.

“I do not possess the purpose of using mana to confront you.”

Despite everything, Mikhail Yuris showed a smile.

“Neither Ray nor I pursued a majestic goal when we excessively absorbed the earth’s mana. Just as I mentioned to you, I do not consider that ordinary mana will manage to affect you.”

“What is the reason then for consuming the planet’s mana?”

“Possibility.”

Mikhail declared, fixing his gaze on the edge of the star.

“Day after day I executed cuts with my steel until spitting blood, capturing mana to transform it into aura, seeking high-caliber opponents to tirelessly perfect my technique.”

At that precise instant, the “planet’s mana” that he had been harboring began to agitate once again inside his chest.

“Mikhail Lancaster possessed within himself the option to defeat the ‘Black Prince.’ Clinging to that remote option, I subjected myself to relentless training until exhausting the mana of creation.”

His steel, the star, began to emit a new brilliance with the hue of dawn.

“I do not have a complex strategy to defeat you. I merely absorbed mana, accumulated aura, and directed my sword day after day until consolidating this moment.”

“… Is that truly all there is?”

“That is all.”

“How absurd and irrelevant.”

“And I managed to understand it.”

added Mikhail.

“What was it that you understood?”

“That the true option, just as you mentioned, was not sheltered by the light, but hidden in the shadows.”

Upon uttering those words, Mikhail’s sword, the “star,” extinguished completely. The armor of the dawn underwent the same transformation. The brightness that previously gave clarity to the faint dawn and that intended to be the beacon of the plane dissipated, allowing the entrance of the penumbra. An absolute darkness, but one that overflowed the capacity to mold itself into any variant.

“This represents the ‘horizon of possibilities’ that Mikhail Lancaster has managed to reach.”

In that place awaited the emissary of fire and clarity, covered by an ancestral blackness.

Wielding the “star,” which likewise remained submerged in the shadows.

“… Shub, is this another of your interventions?”

Upon noticing the change, Dale expressed himself with evident annoyance. Right at his side, a girl endowed with goat horns made her presence known, gesturing with puffed cheeks in a sign of discontent.

— No, on this occasion I have not intervened.

Facing the dark warrior emerged from the shadows, the progenitor of the penumbra expressed herself with joy.

— How fascinating is the option that manages to mature inside a mortal.

“That is nothing more than a spawn under the guise of a mortal.”

— However, contemplate that young man. In the same way that you subjugated the mortals of this earth and appropriated the title of the human race, would it be crazy if that individual defeats you and seizes the title of the human race?

“…”

— Just as there are mortals whose natures approximate those of spawns, is it so inconceivable that there are spawns whose natures approximate those of mortals?

“Of course not.”

The progenitor of the penumbra continued with her speech, receiving a cold mockery from Dale. The situation held such a level of incongruity that it prevented him from forming a single smile.

In strict terms, the rival standing before him did not belong to “the same lineage as Dale.”

And it was not unreasonable for a different lineage to seek a way to defeat Dale to strip him of the “title of the human race” that he held.

Mikhail Yuris, the dark warrior constituted by the penumbra of the option, initiated his charge.

Clang!

The dark steel, the blade of the star wrapped in penumbra, collided strongly.

At the very instant of impact, the sensation became evident.

Only an individual with mastery over the ancestral blackness would be capable of assimilating it.

The accumulation of options he was facing. The colossal and diffuse potential writhing amidst that blackness.

There only existed one fixed goal at the center of that penumbra: the option of overthrowing Dale.

And even during the period when Dale remained a prisoner in the absolute zero ice, wandering aimlessly, “Mikhail Lancaster” never neglected that option.

Every day, he gave his entire being in favor of that option. He practiced obsessively, gathering aura to the point of consuming the mana of creation, wielding his steel, and absorbing the vitality of formidable warriors.

“Are you able to perceive it?”

“…!”

Through the ancestral blackness, emulating the way a sorcerer of the blue tower examines the experiences of others, the memories of “Mikhail Yuris” were transferred.

Just like the sensations of an enraged rival within the mental plane.

The ancestral blackness that constituted Mikhail Yuris began to generate a vibration within Dale.

──An experience took shape.

After subduing the winter of the end times and the authentic monarchs of humanity, the sovereign of black gold understood his identity as a descendant of the original progenitor.

Before him, Lady Scarlet offered him a caress, with the warmth characteristic of a mother.

“What a creature so worthy of affection.”

In that way, the spawn of evolutionary change originated. A perfect entity molded by the touch and maternal affection.

Subsequently, obeying the directives of his progenitor, he took on the features of a paladin of foreign origin and confronted Dale in the company of Sistine.

And was defeated.

Looking at it precisely, it consisted of a mistake by the Yuris lineage not to assimilate the nature of the “supreme being.” The spawn of evolutionary change, the supreme being, never centered its nature on individual vigor.

“The merit of a biological entity lies in transferring its genetic inheritance. In its role as a supreme being, safeguarding and prolonging the information (DNA) over the course of the eras.”

Under that premise, Mikhail Yuris resumed speaking.

“Put another way, ironically, I did not represent a rival for you in terms of ‘individual strength.’ Therefore, when I, under the disguise of a paladin, fell defeated before you, that outcome was not out of the ordinary.”

At the end of the day, such a scale of power was incapable of extinguishing the spawn of evolutionary change, the supreme being.

Nevertheless, his progenitor, Lady Scarlet, represented a different case.

That loss, for the first time, sowed pain in the entity.

However, due to its condition as a supreme being, it lacked vigor at an individual level. It enjoyed the faculty to safeguard and prolong the inheritance of its lineage for eons, but it could never measure itself against the sovereign of black gold in the capacity of an “individual.”

“Despite that, it became impossible for me to condone the fact that you deprived me of my progenitor.”

sentenced Mikhail Yuris, gripping the dark star once more.

With that driving force, he resolved to defeat said entity to take revenge for his progenitor.

“It was an option so distant that it bordered on the unrealizable.”

Initially, it manifested itself so faintly and delicately that it was almost imperceptible.

“But, ironically, it was you who was in charge of instructing me.”

“In what way did I instruct you?”

“To never yield, even when you find yourself facing an unreachable desolation, and to maintain faith in your own potential until the ultimate consequences.”

Paradoxically, that very same event injected faith into the spawn.

In this way, by delving into the frontiers of that option, he finally stumbled upon the identity of Mikhail Lancaster.

An entity that in the past managed to amputate the arm of the “Black Prince” and that held the conditions to be the severest danger.

Every time he subdued a high-level rival and confiscated their steel, his potential increased.

The spawn entrusted its entire destiny to that potential. It detached itself from the very foundation of biological existence, setting aside even the “coherent judgment” of a living entity in order to consummate its revenge, opting for the “incoherent.”

All with the end of defeating a being that showed itself to be entirely impregnable.

It represented an action that broke with the coherence of a being whose main goal consisted of the duplication of its genetic traits.

“A total senselessness.”

“That is the true meaning of being a mortal.”

replied Mikhail Yuris, the spawn of evolutionary change.

“And at this moment, the time has come to exhibit the gains of that effort.”

“……”

Mikhail Yuris projected himself forward, an individual constituted entirely by the “option,” swinging his steel with the exclusive goal of extinguishing Dale.

— What foolish and endearing creatures they are!

The ancestral Progenitor of the Penumbra contemplated with joy the “mortal” located in front of her.

And, despite everything…

With each anguishing clash against the steel that received the brilliance of the stars, with each incoherent battle in favor of the option, an indecipherable feeling emerged in Dale’s chest.

And he found himself bringing to his memory the title of the sword he carried in his fist.

Despair.

He evoked it in his mind and, immediately after, merely showed a grimace of bitterness.