TL/Editor: raei
Status: ongoing
Illustrations: none
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As the brilliant light that had enveloped the world faded away, the shadow sky that had threatened to devour everything was gone. All that remained was the pitch-black night sky visible through the gaping ceiling, and beneath the streaming moonlight, the Shadow King slowly dissipating.
"I..." Stigma slowly spoke, looking at Zion whose eyes had returned to their usual gray after expending all authority through that final strike.
"Have I lost again?"
His voice carried nothing but emptiness. The spark of life in his eyes had completely extinguished. Having consumed most of his lifespan with his previous attack, the remnants of Zion's light had shattered what little remained.
"Though I devoted everything to surpassing you for hundreds of years... in the end, I couldn't achieve it."
As Stigma's eyes slowly closed with these words-
"You know what?" Zion smiled as he watched Stigma. "Even if you devoted not hundreds, but thousands or tens of thousands of years, you could never surpass me."
This wasn't arrogance or speculation. It was certainty - the absolute conviction of an emperor who had devoured the world and precisely understood a dragon's level and limitations.
Stigma's eyes wavered with emotion at Zion's words, but he dissipated without responding.
Then silence fell over the cavern.
Everyone - the Light Watchers, imperial forces, and even the Shadow Nest mages - stared at Zion wordlessly.
"He really defeated Stigma..." Ackendelt's trembling voice expressed what everyone felt.
Though they had believed Zion when he said he had a way to handle Stigma and followed his plan, none had imagined that method would involve direct confrontation. Let alone that he would actually succeed in destroying the dragon.
While both the darkness and Obergia's power Zion had used were questionable, Stigma's death was so shocking that nothing else registered.
'Even for a direct descendant of Agnes known as monsters, this level is...'
Just as Ackendelt tried to steady his trembling body-
"You can handle the cleanup yourselves," Zion turned and addressed him.
With the Shadow Dragon's death, the nest's mages had lost both their strength and will to fight, making Zion's further involvement unnecessary. In truth, he couldn't fight right now anyway due to the recoil from using both the Light Dragon's power and Eclipse.
"Eliminate the remaining forces!"
At Zion's words, Ackendelt finally snapped out of his daze and shouted.
The final battle began.
"Don't stop! Today we must erase every shadow from this world!"
BOOM!
"AAAAAGH!"
As Zion had predicted, the battle became completely one-sided in favor of the Light Watchers.
Meanwhile, Ahmad, who was helping eliminate the nest's mages, couldn't fully focus on the battle.
His distraction stemmed from Prince Zion - specifically, from a single word Stigma had shouted during their battle.
'The Shadow Dragon definitely called Prince Zion the Eternal Emperor.'
He hadn't been able to dwell on it during the urgent situation, but now it seemed incredibly strange. Even though Prince Zion was the Eternal Emperor's descendant, that cry had been completely out of place.
'I can't understand what that cry meant.'
The only possible connection he could think of was Prince Zion's unique darkness, but even that was mere speculation without evidence.
'Prince Zion... what exactly are you hiding?'
Ahmad's eyes sank deep in thought as he watched Zion's retreating back leave the cavern.
* * *
After the battle ended, in the ruins of the Shadow Nest where no one remained-
"What an interesting fellow."
A girl appeared, muttering to herself.
She wore an elaborate dress with crimson lace trim, her lips stained purple.
Her eyes slowly traced the remnants of Zion and Stigma's battle. Though she had rushed here immediately upon detecting her target, everything had already ended. Now she could only gauge the level of combat from these traces.
"How can one person use such opposing powers? And both at such mastery."
"Ask anything. I'll answer whatever I know."
"You must know that when I was Aurellion, I already fought one war with the demon realm?"
The Light Dragon quietly nodded at Zion's words.
"Of course. Though it wasn't called the demon realm back then... I was one of those who helped erase that fact from the empire's history."
"...You erased history?"
"Yes. Don't you remember? It was at your direct request."
Of course he wouldn't remember.
That event must have happened after Zion had entered this body.
"Why?"
Obergia shrugged at the question.
"Shouldn't you know better? You weren't the type to explain your reasons when giving orders."
"..."
Zion had no response since this was true.
After a moment of silence, he asked what he had originally intended to ask the Light Dragon.
"Then let me ask something else. Do you remember anything notable about what I said or did back then?"
He was looking for clues about why he had acted as he had in the scene from his recent dream.
"Hmm... not actions, but you seemed to be troubled by something back then."
"Troubled?"
"Yes, troubled. Though it wasn't visible on the surface - this is purely my intuition. Perhaps you should take it with a grain of salt."
But Zion didn't dismiss these words.
The intuition of an ancient dragon who had lived nearly ten thousand years wasn't something to be taken lightly.
'What could I have been troubled about?'
He couldn't guess.
Before entering this body, Zion hadn't had any particular concerns. There had only been emptiness from having nothing left to achieve, and the boredom that came with it.
'Then it must have developed after I entered this body...'
Zion instinctively felt these troubles had influenced his contract with the gods and the scene from his dream.
'Even so, there's no way to know for certain now...'
"You seem troubled even now."
Obergia slowly spoke as he watched Zion lift his cup, lost in thought.
"Somehow I feel these troubles relate to yourself... perhaps this might help."
Zion looked at him questioningly.
The Light Dragon met his gaze with knowing eyes and continued:
"Not long after your reported death, I happened to have a conversation with a certain deity. Naturally, talk turned to you, and the deity used a particular word to describe you."
Though it had been said in passing and seemed unremarkable in meaning, the word had strangely stuck in the dragon's mind for hundreds of years.
His intuition whispered that it would help the current Zion.
"What was it?"
Zion prompted him to continue.
"Outside."
The single word finally left Obergia's lips.
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