[Vol. 8] Chapter 342: Beings Hold Attachments, Gods Have No True Form
Violet gave a helpless smile and neither agreed nor disagreed.
“So, through the Serpent’s descent, you managed to draw out the thing connected to the true Primordial Light. By observing it, what conclusion have you reached now?”
“…It’s different.”
After thinking for a moment, the dragon girl shook her head seriously.
“It does look similar, but there is a very clear difference between you and it. I can’t explain exactly what it is, but the feeling is absolutely right. Master, you are not like the being behind that thing, so you cannot be the Primordial Light.”
“Different, huh…”
Violet repeated the conclusion softly, looking thoughtful. Something stirred in her heart, and without meaning to, she let out a hypothesis that almost felt meaningless.
“Tell me, Xiao Guang… if, just if, you really confirmed that I am connected to the Primordial Light, the one who might be the mortal enemy of the Dragon Emperor, then what would you do?”
“?”
The dragon girl looked at Violet in surprise, clearly not expecting that question. She thought for a moment but did not avoid answering.
“I don’t know. But there’s one thing I’m sure of.”
Her expression was so serious that, even though Violet could already guess her answer, her heart still trembled slightly, giving rise to an indescribable warmth and relief.
“Master, I promised you. No matter what happens in the future, no matter how things change, Xiao Guang will always stand by your side. No matter who you are, that will never waver or change.”
“So in the end, everything comes down to just two words, choice and loyalty.”
………………………………………
When the divine descent attached to Nitila ended and Violet’s main consciousness returned to her body in the [Ironblood Arena], the battle there had already finished.
That strange wooden puppet had stopped moving and stood silently in the center of the arena. The soul-shadow representing Leonis had completely vanished, as if it had evaporated into nothing.
With a thought, the images her true body saw quickly replayed in her mind. Violet instantly understood the cause and effect. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but in the end only sighed lightly and walked toward the poorly crafted wooden puppet still shrouded in faint light.
This battle’s outcome had never really been in doubt.
Leonis Frederick’s inheritance of the Serpent’s Authority was incomplete, and the reason came down to the method he used.
There are two ways to inherit the Serpent’s authority. One is to use part of the Serpent’s body as a foundation and slowly evolve, step by step, toward ascension. This path is full of difficulties, and one mistake could bring total destruction. But at least the power gained this way truly belongs to oneself, with no risk of losing control.
The other method, the one the Emperor used, given by the World Sustainer, is different. By gathering all five remains of the Serpent and performing a ritual of heaven-defying creation infused with immense [Origin Power], he could ascend much faster, even gaining strength comparable to the original Serpent itself. But…
The condition was that the ritual must be completed perfectly, with no errors or flaws.
And clearly, Leonis failed to meet that condition.
Of the five needed Serpent relics—Fang, Scale, Body, Blood, Heart—the ruins only held four. The missing Serpent’s Heart and part of the Serpent’s Blood had been stolen three hundred years ago by the rock dragon Fern Knox, and lost within the Holy Empire’s territory, in the place now called the Chaos Magic Valley.
The reason and method behind the rock dragon’s theft are no longer known. Perhaps it was for selfish desires, or maybe it sensed something unusual about the White Dragon Emperor of that time and desperately wanted to stop the World Sustainer’s plan. Whatever the truth, its actions had a huge impact on the present situation.
Leonis knew very well the requirements of the ritual. That’s why he sent his elite forces to the Chaos Magic Valley long ago, hoping to use the power of the Wind Sword Saint who guarded the valley to slay the Earth Demon Dragon and seize the missing parts. But because of the group’s interference, his plan failed.
Now, the Serpent’s Heart is hidden within the Sword Saint’s disciple, Rowan Nilin. The Emperor does not know this. But the ritual could not wait, so he had no choice but to take another path, using the heart of his own daughter, Princess Cheng Frederick, as a substitute. With this flawed replacement, he completed his ascension in a damaged way.
This method could still help him reach his goal, but the effect was clearly far weaker than a complete ritual, and it also left behind a hidden problem.
That problem was, the World Serpent’s authority had not fully merged with him. Instead, it faintly split into two parts. Leonis, representing the human side, and the serpent body, representing the [Ring of Heaven and Earth]. That was why he could separate a humanoid shadow from his body. It wasn’t a special ability at all, it was actually proof of an imperfect fusion.
Of course, this hidden flaw was very small and normally wouldn’t cause much trouble. But in certain situations, it could become different.
For example, the [Ironblood Arena] of Violet.
At first, Violet intended to directly pull the Serpent itself into the [Ironblood Arena] and end the problem once and for all. But maybe because the [Ring of Heaven and Earth] was too powerful, it resisted her force. During this struggle, the part of consciousness belonging to Leonis was accidentally torn away and dragged into the domain in place of his main body.
This was an accident, but in another sense, it was also fate. From Leonis’s decision to inherit the Serpent’s authority, to the incomplete ritual caused by the events at the Chaos Magic Valley, and then the special situation during the Arena’s activation. It was as if an invisible thread connected the whole story from start to end. The beginning was already the end, and the result seemed destined.
Just like… fate itself.
And in fact, it really was so. Once or twice could be called coincidence, but from what Violet knew, this Emperor’s luck was unbelievably terrible.
“Do you have anything else to say?”
Violet shook her head and looked silently toward the puppet not far away.
That place wasn’t truly empty. A faint, almost invisible illusion sat cross-legged with closed eyes. Weak as it was, who else could it be if not the disappeared Emperor of the Austre Empire, Leonis?
Hearing Violet’s voice, Leonis slowly opened his eyes and looked at her.
At this point, the ending was already clear. But he looked much calmer than expected. He didn’t go mad with despair at his obvious failure. Though his eyes carried some unwillingness, he only shook his head lightly and said:
“Do you know? Before all this began, someone once told me that you would become my greatest obstacle and enemy in this plan. That person gave you an evaluation higher than anyone I’ve ever heard before, and even declared that no matter what, I could never defeat you. That my failure was guaranteed.”
“Oh? And who was it that thought so highly of me?”
“Since you already guessed, why bother asking?”
The Emperor stared deeply at the black-haired girl, as if he wanted to pierce through the clear barrier of her silver-blue eyes and see her true heart. But no matter how hard he tried, all he could glimpse was a faint golden light.
Soon, he spoke again.
“I knew what it meant when that person spoke that way. That one never lies, never says empty words. Though unpleasant, everything they say carries unquestionable weight. So, from that moment, I understood, the chances of success this time were already very, very slim.”
“But even so, I still refused to give up. I had neither the right nor the chance to give up. I imagined many times how our battle would go, maybe we’d shake the heavens, maybe a nation would collapse. So I made many preparations ahead of time.”
“Even if failure was unavoidable, I wanted to lose with dignity, to fight a grand battle that would leave no regrets and shake the world.”
At this point, he lowered his head and gave a bitter laugh at himself. His normally stern face now carried traces of sorrow.
“But after all my preparations and all my plans, I never thought it would end like this. Such a laughable result. I lost without even truly fighting you.”
The Emperor raised his head and looked seriously at the black-haired girl, who only listened quietly without interrupting.
“If you ask me who I really lost to… it wasn’t that strange puppet, nor that white dragon outside, nor the Twilight Council. In the end, it was still you.”
Violet of course understood what he meant.
In truth, if she hadn’t unintentionally exploited a loophole in the [Ironblood Arena] that separated his soul from his body, Leonis would not have been defeated in such a humiliating way. With his strength almost unused, he was crushed. Otherwise, even with the Serpent’s power only half-fused, he was still not an enemy that could be easily beaten, let alone killed.
But, the one who couldn’t be killed was the World Serpent, not Leonis, whose human soul had yet to fully merge. And besides, Violet had just expelled the [Ring of Heaven and Earth] from this world with her [Ultimate Art: Radiance], in order to stop the World Sustainer’s invasion. With his body and soul separated into two realms, Leonis quickly lost his power, becoming weak and close to death.
Even inside the [Ironblood Arena], he must have been able to sense the reason for this change. The awkward part was that Violet didn’t actually intend to target the Emperor specifically, what happened to him was only a side effect…
At this point, of course, the priestess wasn’t going to waste time kicking someone who was already down. She only shook her head and spoke honestly.
“Actually, you didn’t lose to me. In a sense, you lost more to that invisible thing called fate. Your family and your bloodline are tied to enormous cause and effect. Some things you could do, but others… no matter what, you could never do. And yet you touched that red line.”
“What you did, at its core, was to fight directly against certain great laws of the world, against destiny itself. You had power, yes, but the level of the other side was far deeper than yours. That’s why nothing went smoothly, and why things ended the way they did.”
“Fate… is it?”
Leonis gave a faint laugh, a light shining briefly in his eyes, then showed understanding.
“Perhaps. But even if I could do it all again, I would still make the same choice. Standing between heaven and earth, how could I live like a puppet, doing nothing, letting fate decide my life? Even if it means breaking to pieces, at least I would feel that I truly lived.”
“I… do not regret it.”
Violet smiled just as calmly. She didn’t judge or criticize his choices, only looked quietly at the emperor’s soul, which was now so faint it could hardly be seen. She knew he had only moments left before vanishing completely.
From start to finish, this emperor had never left himself any way out. He gave up everything, paid any price, just for that tiny chance to leap like a fish over the dragon gate. From the moment he turned his body into the [Ring of Heaven and Earth], he had already lost the chance to retreat.
Now the Serpent was his body, while his soul was heavily damaged, and his main body was sealed outside the world by both the [Ironblood Arena] and the [Ultimate Art: Radiance]. He could not connect with it at all. For a rootless soul to last even until now without vanishing was already a miracle brought by his obsession.
He had stayed behind, clearly because he still had one last unanswered doubt.
“Goddess, I have a question. Can you answer me seriously?”
“I already told you I’m not a… ah, whatever, go ahead.”
Seeing the black-haired girl’s helpless look, Leonis’s soul flickered slightly as he spoke in earnest.
“I want to know, through it all, did you ever truly hold everything, hold this world, in your heart? You, the goddess worshipped by the Holy Empire, what is the true reason behind everything you have done?
“To save the world? To protect and guide all beings? Or some other goal I never knew? Is your existence really as sacred and noble as the legends sing?
“Are you… truly the Primordial Light?”
“…?”
The priestess tilted her head, surprised that in his final moments, he would care about a question like this. But soon she spread her hands, looking a little helpless.
“Why do you people always shove your conspiracies and ambitions onto someone else? I was just pushed into this position. Primordial Light, End Light, goddess or whatever, anyone who wants the title can take it, it’s not like I’m dying to have it…”
She continued, “I don’t have any special goal. I just see things, run into things, and act as I feel like. If you must ask for a reason, it’s simple, because I felt like it. That’s all.”
“…You’re not joking, are you?”
“Hah? Who has the time to joke with you?”
Leonis was visibly stunned.
His gaze crossed with the black-haired girl’s calm, slightly annoyed silver-blue eyes. He still tried to find something inside them… but soon his face showed surprise and disappointment.
He saw something, and at the same time, nothing at all.
So that’s how it was. Beneath that clarity, there was only emptiness. The golden flash he thought he had glimpsed before, it was only a false image reflected from himself.
All beings see what they cling to, yet do not know, the divine has no fixed form.
Suddenly, the emperor laughed.
“Heh… hehehe… hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!”
His laughter grew wilder and freer, as if he had finally gained the answer he had chased his whole life. He poured out all the frustration and weight in his heart in one burst, completely unrestrained.
“I understand! I finally understand! So this… this is what it means to be a god! Hahahahaha!!!!!!”
Light flickered, illusions shattered.
With that final wild laugh, the emperor and his obsession completely vanished, leaving no trace behind.