Chapter 432 - A Slight Hope

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They wanted a strong child, they stole the corpses of the two strongest clans in the galaxy, and then used their very bones to create it, a chimera with the essence of both of them, with the DNA in their bones. Ainz used the bones he used for his body while his wife took the bones she saved from her corpse, Belphegor saw their son slowly form from a small lump of stitched body pieces, slowly taking a shape from a large fetus all the way into a young adult form…

He continued to grow stronger, to maintain the castle and serve his masters… He didn't envied this creature, he looked forward for his young master to be born, so he could one day see how he slowly develops and grows. Belphegor waited for him patiently.

For many years… even when his master and his wife were gone now, even after all this time, when the lights of the manor vanished, when the undead slowly stopped functioning, and when everything was dark… He floated in silence in there, waiting… and waiting… for the child of his master's love to be born.

Belphegor had lived his entire life as a servant, a man that dedicated his life to others. He dedicated his life to his masters, and then to their son, Chaos. And now, he was falling, his soul was torn apart, and his body shattered into pieces…

He had fought bravely, he had grown stronger than he never thought possible, and reached heights he never considered he would ever achieve… He had done it well, he fought well, and he… he did everything he possibly could.

Despite feeling sorrowful for having to leave his master and all the friends he made through this journey, he felt rather fulfilled. If he could smile, a smile would emerge on his lips.

Belphegor recalled the past with a faint smile on his soul, as tears from his soul slowly began to fade away. His mind, his emotions… they all felt as if they began to fade away through the endless river of existence.

He suddenly felt a sudden pull, a force that called him elsewhere, he felt strange, he felt… oddly calm. He felt like this was his time, despite having many regrets, everyone has a time at the end. Perhaps… this was his time as well.

Someone that was born as an Undead, someone summoned as one that died… what would they truly experience? Death? Nonexistence? What would it be like? Belphegor, as he saw his allies die over battles, always wondered this.

What he saw… was something wondrous. An endless wondrousness he had never seen before, he saw what was beyond the soul itself…

And it was beautiful.

"So this is… what it feels like… I see… I wish you the best… Lord Chaos…"

And like a fire that had no longer any oxygen to consume, he extinguished. His soul slowly dissipated into nothingness, his shattered skull fell into the floor, and Natalia stretched her hands, trying to catch Belphegor, but without being able to grasp his soul before it were to be too late.

"N-No…"

Natalia who had known Belphegor for very long kneeled in the floor, seeing his shattered skull… She grasped each piece as her eyes began to grow redder, tears started to flow from them.

"W-Why… No… B-Belphegor… Y-You can't… go… like this… It's unfair…" Natalia began to cry. Her journey had just started just some time ago, she was rescued from being a slave, even her mother was helped… but at the end, she never thought she would feel so sad for a floating skull dying.

Because that floating skull was the one that was always at the beginning, the one that guided every new person, a cheerful butler that always was there to give a hand to everybody… because he… was like a father to some of them.

As the battles continued and Brutus was defeated, as Lucia was defeated, and as things happened before Natalia's back, she kept looking into the rubble where Belphegor's "corpse" was… and suddenly found something.

A very bright jewel, it was a sphere, an orb. It was incredibly bright, and had two colors, blue and red, spiraling together. It emanated a strong essence of divinity and soul… Soul…

"Soul?!" Natalia opened her eyes wide open. She looked into this sphere. Could this be… Belphegor's core?

Belphegor had a core, a red-colored core that he was born with, it contained his soul, and also all his power, when Chaos gave him a cosmic core, he fused it with his original core, and it gained this blue color as well. Natalia looked into this core as she hugged it tightly. She suddenly felt the slight presence of Belphegor within it.

Belphegor had fought Brutus using his soul, and it was damaged, his soul was mostly outside of his core when this happened, and he was unable to pull it back in time before it dissipated… However, why was this core… still having such a faint presence?

Was he dead… or not?

Well, as they say, Undead never die, they're already dead.

"Belphegor! Can you hear me?" Asked Natalia.

"…"

"Belphegor!"

"…"

"Bel…" Natalia muttered, as her eyes showed her melancholy.

What does she do now?

…

She had to fight.

Belphegor might be dead, or he might not be dead… She would find out eventually.

She looked into the battlefield as she saw Brutus and Lucia defeated, however, things were not over yet.

Natalia stood up as she cleansed the tears, and then, she felt someone behind her, she looked and saw Rot who had just recovered, and the body of Brutus behind her… which was now a zombie, missing an arm and more.

"Rot?!" Asked Natalia in surprise. Rot looked into the orb.

"Belphegor?" Asked Rot sorrowfully, as she felt that something bad had happened.

"…I don't know if he's dead or not." Sighed Natalia.

Rot looked into the orb for a few seconds.

"Belphegor is strong, he won't die so easily." Said Rot, she grabbed the orb with her hands, as the power of death began to permeate the air…

"W-What are you doing?!" Asked Natalia.

"Belphegor won't die so easily!" Said Rot.

FLUOOOOOSH!

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