Chapter 489: Running Hounds (2)

Chapter 489: Running Hounds (2)

The blood of the Imperial Family, who possess astrology, astronomy, and other abilities to foretell the future.

The first crown prince, Jack, is the one who inherited the abilities of the founding Emperor, whose ability to see the future led to the beginning of the empire.

Andras is currently using Jack's body as a host to maximize the abilities in his bloodline.

[Keulleog!]

Pieces of crushed internal organs and black dead blood are gushing out from under the lower jaw, which has fallen all the way to the chest.

The cracks all over his body burned brightly.

Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk...

His body was slowly, gradually, in real-time, crumbling like ash from a burned-out volcano.

However.

[...I see!]

All the while, Andras continued to emit angry streams of mana from his eyes like dark clouds.

The flow of mana gathers in one place, creating red blood veins.

The veins converged again, forming the shape of a giant eyeball.

The eyeball floated high in the air, casting an eerie glare down at the ground.

In a situation where the life of the body had reached its peak, this one evil demon was squeezing out all the vitality that was depleted and showing off his foresight that had risen to an unprecedented limit.

[...See! see! Your future!]

And then, with a foresight so accurate that even the demon shuddered, it flowed out of the crown prince's body.

A swamp of blood and gore, a mountain of bones, an atmosphere drained of mana, and a massive mushroom cloud rising over the distant horizon.

It was a common sight in the Age of Destruction, one that had been seen many times before in the Hell Tree.

This is what Vikir's mental image of the world was like floating in the residual thoughts of Amdusias.

However. what was about to unfold was certainly unlike anything Vikir had ever seen before.

...An endless, barren desert.

...A massive tower towering in the middle of the desert.

...An old man in black walks lonely and alone toward the tower.

Each vision pierces Vikir's mind, fragmented and disjointed.

They are unfamiliar memories that Vikir has never experienced firsthand.

But they were also memories he'd experienced many times before, often indirectly.

'...I'm sure it was when I faced Amdusias in the Hell Tree when Piggy's blood closed the Hell Tree, and when I faced Cimeries.'

A world in flames, the Age of Destruction.

A moment of apocalypse, when the ground melted and the breath of all living things burned away.

But the future that Andras's blood was showing him now was a much later landscape.

[See! You look old as time goes by! your shadow all alone!]

Of course, what Andras sees is what Vikir sees as well.

A desolate desert that stretched for miles and miles. An old man pacing in solitude with nothing around him.

He coughed dryly as his long, gray beard and black fringe of hair blew in the dry wind.

There is no one, nothing, in sight as the old man traverses the vast desert.

A few images flashed past him, but they were too fleeting to be sure.

[See it! See it clearly! You say you value your relationships with those around you now, but in the end, you are alone! You're all alone in your old age, wandering around alone and rooted nowhere!]

Only Andras burst out laughing.

In the meantime, the landscape continued to move quickly.

The old man crossed the desert.

The old man, bravely wading through strong winds and quick quicksand, looked solitary and lonely.

Even at this very moment, when he thinks of them fighting bloody battles with monsters outside the Imperial Palace, he can't just sit here and break out in a cold sweat.

"Demon Kills."

Despite the string of dire prophecies about his graying hair, Vikir was undaunted.

For the sake of his colleagues, he can't afford to wallow in sentimentality.

A single praying mantis cannot stop the gigantic wheel of cause and effect.

But even so, he must resist the reality at hand as best he can.

That was a much better choice than being swayed by the demon's tricks.

But Andras smiles from ear to ear.

And with a final flick of his tongue at Vikir, he said.

[Think carefully, all you see in your words is a 'grave'! Only the terrible fate of having your body and mind cut into five pieces awaits you! If you change your mind even now, you can change this future!]

The demon does not stop playing tricks on humans until the last moment.

...huug!

At the same time, a thick darkness rose from Andras's entire body.

All the illusions that Vikir had ever seen, including Nymphet, were blooming there.

The comrades he had failed to save, the friends he had sent on their way, and the countless dead he had mourned stared back at him.

As before, he raised his tongue like a dagger and aimed forward.

However.

... Flash!

The red light emanating from Vikir's eyes saw right through all of these illusions.

A void of nothingness.

A being like the dark nothingness that forms the abyss of magic.

Vikir realized with a startling realization.

In the end, Andras is empty.

Nothing (Nevermore).

He was nothing more than The Raven, visiting a frail and weary body in the dead of night.

"...."

Suddenly, Vikir was about to say the words he had always repeated dogmatically, 'Demon Kills'.

The emotions that were boiling inside of him now would not be resolved by the words alone.

The hatred of the demons that had accumulated over the course of his two lives, the self-pity he felt for himself, the regret he felt for what he hadn't accomplished and what he couldn't do, the regret and guilt he felt for the relationships he had lost, and the complicated thoughts he had about his father, Hugo.

The frustration, sense of isolation, resentment, and anger about all of these things swell greatly with each inhalation.

...Pakang!

Vikir drew his sword at full length.

He slashed straight through the visions in front of him, forcing all of those old, stale emotions he'd been storing up in his lungs to come out of his bloodied throat.

[...!?]

Andras's eyes widen to tears.

jjeoeog-

Vikir's sword fell like a bolt of lightning.

A final leap to slice through nothingness. The will of man.

Just before the head of the last enemy, the last demon falls off from the body and flies away.

The hound, who had been biting and killing demons all his life, opened his mouth with a sigh of relief.

"Fuck you."

It was his personal feelings revealed for the first time.