Side Story Chapter 211

The voice belonged to a man wearing a black hooded robe trailed by a horde of undead.

“I’m really sick of the undead now...” Anna grumbled.

“Jack Steropes?” Kireua said.

The man’s eyes gleamed.

-Oh, I didn’t know someone still remembered me.

“I knew it...” Kireua grunted.

Cain positioned himself between Kireua and Jack. “I see that an old monster has made his nest in the middle of Avalon.”

-You still talk to me like that even though you know who I am? Hehehe, that’s interesting.

Black sparks erupted out of Jack.

-You seem to know a thing or two about fighting... What’s your name?

“Cain de Harry.”

-Cain de Harry? I’m sure I’ve heard that name before...

Jack tilted his head in confusion.

“I’m sure you have. My master is the one who killed you.”

Jack’s deathly energy intensified.

-Come to think of it...

Jack turned to look at Kireua.

“I’m Kireua Sanders, his son.”

Kireua had expected Jack to fly at him in anger as soon as he finished introducing himself, but Jack calmed his energy instead.

-You take after your father.

“Let me just ask you a question: are you responsible for these people’s deaths?” Kireua asked.

-You’re arrogant, boy. Do you get that from your father, too?

“...Just answer the question. Are their deaths your doing?”

-What if they are?

Jack chuckled.

“I should kill you right here.”

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

-I’m already dead.

“I’ll make sure you wish you’d stayed dead.”

Kireua’s harsh threats didn’t seem to bother Jack.

-Judging from the size of your forces, I don’t think I’m your original mission... Where are you headed?

“I ask questions here,” Kireua said firmly.

-You seem to be in a hurry.

“Busy people have taken time out of their schedule to deal with a lich like you,” Anna shot back. “Consider it an honor.”

-Hehehehe. By busy schedule, do you mean the war?

Jack knew everything that was going on in the outside world, it seemed.

Anna frowned. “Is that why you’re so relaxed? You’re making a big mistake, then. Now that they’ve discovered you’ve sacrificed Avalon’s people, every single person here wants you gone.”

-Relaxed? Quite the opposite.

“What?”

-I don’t think there’s anyone else on the continent as worried as I am right now.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Anna spat.

-Don’t you want to know why they ended up like this?

Jack extended his bony finger toward the pile of corpses that Kireua and the others were preparing to bury.

“It’s obvious. You gave up your pride and became a lich, but you aren’t even sure you can get revenge. That is why you’re taking out your anger on innocent people like a coward.”

-Well, I won’t deny that I became a lich for the sake of revenge. That’s all I had when Evergrant came to me.

As Kireua expected, Evergrant con Aswald was responsible for bringing Jack back from the dead.

“Hmph,” Anna sneered. “Even if you play cool and act like you don’t want—”

-This world is collapsing.

Anna immediately stopped talking. Even Kireua and Cain couldn’t dismiss that.

“What the...”

-Hear me out. Humans are simple, so they look at the world in black and white. However, black and white have to coexist, just like how the Demon Realm collapsed after the Angel Realm’s fall.

No one could object to that fact.

-As a result, all gods in the universe have been annihilated—no, maybe annihilation is better than what they’re going through because now they have to leech off of humans by lending them their power.

“What is it you want to say?” Cain asked.

-Are all of you sure that the Human Realm is safe?

That was the nightmare scenario.

-When light disappears, darkness vanishes too. These relationships are everywhere in the world even though we may not be able to see them. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of them affect each other like the cogs of the world. With two of the central gears gone, there’s no way that the Human Realm would be safe.

“...What’s your point?” Kireua interrupted.

-Do you know why I stayed in the Black Monster Forest after becoming a lich?

“Do we need to know?”

-It does no harm to hear me out.

They were on the clock, but Kireua wanted to let Jack finish at this point. However, he couldn’t make such a decision alone, so he turned to the rest of the group. Cain, the lords, and everyone else who met his eyes nodded, to Kireua’s surprise.

-The Black Monster Forest is the center of the continent.

“What does that have to do with what’s going on?”

-You still don’t get it? When a problem occurs in the Human Realm, this place is the first to be affected. My original plan was to get stronger here so I could take revenge on Joshua Sanders, your father, but...

Jack bent over and scooped up dirt from the ground. The dirt in his hand had the same dark brown color as was usual in the Black Monster Forest... but then it vanished into thin air.

Everyone there was a formidable and skilled individual who was respected around the continent. Had there been any shifts in demonic power or mana, they would have noticed it, but they detected absolutely nothing.

-The realm’s collapse used to progress much more slowly; we had one hundred years at least. That was why I tried to ignore it since Joshua Sanders will die of old age after a hundred years.

“Well, yeah. Revenge won’t mean anything when the continent is collapsing.”

-Yes, but things changed—the collapse began to accelerate right after the Demon Spirit was sealed.

Anna’s lips trembled. At that point, everyone understood what Jack was saying.

-Idiot. He didn’t even realize that annihilating the Demon Spirit would accelerate the collapse of the Human Realm. Hehehe. I left him be because I didn’t think it was such a bad idea to let him kill his family with his foolishness, but...

Jack suddenly flicked his finger, moving a significant amount of demonic power.

Cain tensed.

‘He’s at least an Eighth Circle mage!’

He positioned himself in front of the group protectively.

-Relax. I’m just trying to show you something.

Jack waved his other hand, unleashing a torrent of lighting behind him. All of the nearby trees collapsed, revealing a deeply unsettling black portal. However, it seemed faint, as if it wasn’t complete.

And exactly seventy people were scattered around the portal, writhing.

“They’re the missing survivors!” a knight realized.

“You bastard... What have you been doing here?”

-I had no other choice. Human vital force is an essential, irreplaceable ingredient for completing the portal.

“What in the world is that portal...!”

Jack spread his arms with gleaming eyes.

-It’s a portal to another dimension.

The humans’ jaws dropped.

-I won’t be slaughtered like the gods after all the trouble I’ve gone through to become a lich. Anyone who wishes to go to a new world, join me now!

* * *

-You’re insane!

Creshua hastily gathered his mana, but Joshua seized control of his body and stopped him.

-Eeeek!

Although Creshua could eject Joshua’s soul and then use his mana, he didn’t have the time, so he tried to leap into the volcano.

However, Creshua was too late. The ice boulder disappeared into the magma. Creshua flew into a rage.

-What in the world have you done!

“Why are you angry?” Joshua asked.

-That’s your body! Yours! Are you going to squat in my body for my entire life?!

“If you don’t like it, then you can kick me out right now.”

-What?

“You can’t, can you? My body disappeared, so you have no hope of getting revenge once you kick me out.”

Creshua fell silent, but only because he was too dumbstruck to form words, not because his rage had vanished.

“You loved—no,

love

Crevasse. That’s why you’re still angry.”

-...Joshua Sanders, you must be out of your mind to pull a stunt like this just to make me face my emotions.

“It’s not meaningless. You need to accept your emotions and learn to value yourself; it’s your purpose and reason in life.”

-Value myself? You’re the last person who should be telling me that.

Joshua chuckled. “You might not believe it, but I value myself more than anyone else.”

-Bullshit—!

Creshua’s eyes widened as the ice boulder floated back to the surface of the lava, unmelted.

-H-How...?

Despite giving Creshua both the greatest surprise and rage of his life, Joshua grinned.

“It’s seven, not one.”

-...What?

“There were seven primordial stones born alongside the continent of Igrant.”