I Became the Youngest Prince in the Novel

Chapter 17: The Black Forest (8)

From the moment I was born, a hunger gnawed at me, a thirst to kill. At first, I didn't know I was different. Not until a seer told me of my fate - 'Heavens' Slaughter'. A fate marking my path from birth.

I accepted it. There was no rejection. No need for it. Why turn away from something that gave me such joy? Even when that fate turned me into an enemy of the world, when it led to my sealing, I felt no regret.

How many did I kill? Thousands? Or perhaps tens of thousands?

"Are you a descendant of Dranir?" A woman stepped on the remains of Lian, headless and gone. She was nearing Rain. The Church of Purification, its followers, including Lian who had worshipped her, meant less to her than dust.

She never had a hand in creating the Church of Purification. Humans made their own religion, idolizing her. To her, humans were only prey, whether they followed the Church or not.

"Hmm... You don't seem to be," she finally said, scanning Rain top to bottom with her glowing red eyes, her head tilted to one side. "You're too weak for that."

A blow to one's pride, but Rain did not react. Was she frozen with fear? Or was she rejecting reality? Losing everything built up to this point was too much, even for someone as mentally strong as Rain.

"Boring." The woman lost interest. She turned her gaze toward Ruin, where the Purification Festival was still going on. "Do you know? After I kill you, I'm going to destroy that city."

Rain's finger twitched.

"I've been holding back for so long. So I'm very hungry." But it wasn't food she craved. It was the satisfying rush of ending a life. "Hmm... I wonder if one city will be enough?"

As she said that, her hunger flared up again.

Crack!

A spark of lightning flashed in Rain's eyes.

"Huh?" Confusion flickered in the woman's eyes.

Crackling!

Dozens of lightning bolts fell from the sky, striking the woman.

At the same moment, Rain shouted, "You damn creature!" and hurled her spear at the woman, now covered in lightning.

Thunder Dragon Spear.

A spear glowing hot-white in a storm of immense lightning. In an instant, it pierced the woman's heart. But it wasn't enough.

Crackling!

Lightning erupted, blanketing the field in a brilliant white. Rain, her spear wrapped in a storm, launched another strike at the woman.

'I must stop her.'

The city of Ruin was her home, her family and friends lived there. She couldn't lose them too. She had to stop this 'evil', by any means. There was no room for fear.

"So you've come to your senses?" The woman grinned at Rain's charge. Struggling prey amused her. The more they fought, the sweeter the despair when they fell.

Growl!

The woman's pierced chest bubbled and warped into a hideous beast's head. It sprang forward, gulping down the lightning Rain hurled at it.

'If I collide, I'll die.'

The feeling sent a shiver down Rain's spine. Using her momentum, she twisted to the side. The attack grazed her shoulder and whooshed past.

Crack!

From her skewed stance, Rain thrust her spear towards the woman, faster than before.

Rain's spear, gleaming with white lightning, followed a beautiful arc, aiming for the woman's head. But as it was about to pierce through...

Snap!

The beast's mouth from the woman's shoulder snapped at Rain's spear. The spear, forged of black iron, known to be one of the toughest materials, broke.

And as if that wasn't enough...

Snap, snap, snap, snap!

Many beast mouths popped up around the broken spear, rushing towards Rain. Yet...

Crack!

Rain was gone.

Her figure disappeared with a streak of lightning and reappeared high up in the night sky.

'I have to end this with one blow.'

Rain knew it. She knew that this was her last chance to kill the monster while she couldn't use her full strength due to the seal. She had to strike before her power faded further, while the monster was still off guard.

That's why Rain threw everything into her attack.

Crackling!

Dozens of lightning bolts fell from the sky, gathered in her hand, forming a spear. A spear not of metal, but of pure lightning.

"Please...!"

In a prayer to a god she didn't believe in, Rain gathered all her waning strength, pulling back the spear of lightning. The air around her tensed.

"…Oh."

The woman, finally looking up, let out a sigh of admiration as she watched the white lightning fill the sky.

-------------!

The forest ignited.

The darkness, brought about by the intense evil energy, suddenly evaporated, replaced by a world alight in white. As the flash of lightning faded, Rain plummeted from the sky in the ensuing silence.

"Cough!"

With a violent cough, red blood poured from her mouth. She crashed into the ground, unable to control her fall.

The Beginning.

A technique she could hardly execute in her current state. The consequences of forcing its use were inevitable.

'She is….'

Struggling, Rain turned her head, glancing at the place where the woman once stood.

In her sight, nothing but remnants of the woman remained.

'It's done. This is enough.'

Just as Rain was about to sigh in relief and surrender to the darkness...

"You can't use your full strength because of the seal."

A chilling voice pierced her ears.

"This is your last chance to kill her. So you mustered all your strength now, while she's off guard... You thought that, didn't you?"

The voice echoed from the direction she was looking. An impossibly grotesque sight met Rain's eyes.

The scattered remnants were pulling themselves together.

Crunch, crunch, crunch!

Bones righted themselves, organs reunited, and skin covered them.

"Do you know something?"

Hair growing rapidly from the scalp reached down to the waist, and red eyes glared at Rain from the hollowed-out sockets.

"The seal was broken a long time ago."

A distant past.

The moment the woman's seal was undone.

That she had been immobile until now was nothing but a whim.

However, even that was nearing its end. Today's events prompted the woman to make her return to the world.

"From the beginning, there was no chance of you winning."

From the fully regenerated woman, six monstrous heads emerged, and with them, blood-red eyes began to fill the sky.

A fragment of the true form of the woman once deemed the most monstrous.

"Ah…"

Despair seeped into Rain's eyes.

This wasn't something a human could face.

How had her ancestors managed to seal such a creature?

Roar!

A beast's head shot out from the woman, charging at Rain, its maw gaping open.

Rain should have dodged, but due to the recoil of the overused technique, she couldn't lift a finger. Her vision blurred.

'Father.'

Just as the beast's head reached her, its maw ready to consume her.

Whoosh-

An abyssal darkness descended around Rain.

Not the darkness born from the malevolent energy of the black forest.

It was a distinct, ominous, and alien darkness.

Crack!

This profound darkness crushed the beast's head, simultaneously enshrouding Rain in its protective folds.

As her consciousness teetered on the edge and her eyes began to close.

She saw him.

"Am I not too late?"

Zion stood tall, darkness swirling around his form.

---

Raei Translations

---

Zion studied the unconscious Rain Dranir, her body limp.

'This should suffice.'

Originally in the Chronicle of Frosimar, after further devastation of the city of Ruin, Rain Dranir survives by the woman's whim, awakening as a dragon slayer after witnessing the cataclysm.

But Zion had no intention of letting it progress to that point.

His plans wouldn't allow it.

"I remember telling you that you would die if you came."

A voice echoed in Zion's ear.

Turning towards the source of the voice, he saw six monstrous heads and a sky filled with red eyes.

All eyes were fixed on Zion.

The malevolent energy pouring from them was suffocating.

Zion knew the woman's identity.

Liushina Bloodwalker.

Two centuries ago, she manifested in this world and was dubbed the most powerful and sinister witch.

The entity responsible for the most human deaths singlehandedly.

One of humanity's primary foes, she bore many titles - Queen of Evil, a one-woman army, Mother of Beasts, and countless others.

But one moniker stood out.

The Witch of Heavenly Murder.

A mid-boss of the Chronicle of Frosimar, fated to be sealed once more by the hero's party after awakening as the 'Witch of the Apocalypse' later.

She was beyond the reach of an unawakened Rain Dranir and Chilgol.

She was such a being that even the future hero's party could not kill her, only seal her.

The notion of a mere extermination team defeating her was laughable.

"Was my warning not clear enough?"

Liushina, edging closer to Zion.

Her smile, as mesmerizing and eerie as the first time he saw it.

"Why should I heed your words?"

Zion responded, a slight smirk playing on his lips.

"Because otherwise, I'll kill you?"

"Really? I had no intention to kill you."

"...What?"

For the first time, uncertainty flickered in Liushina's eyes.

It was not just surprising, but utterly absurd. He spoke as if he could surely kill her, yet he did not plan to do so.

However, compared to the words that next tumbled from Zion's lips, that was a mere shockwave.

"From this day, you serve under me."

"..."

In the present circumstance, such a declaration could only be seen as madness.

But Zion was earnest.

Because from the outset, 'Liushina Bloodwalker' was a part of the 'move' Zion had planned.

That was why he undertook such a perilous journey, and why he ventured into the Black Forest.

The Witch of Heavenly Murder in front of him held that much value.

He was indifferent to her temperament, the powers she wielded, or how many lives she had claimed in the past.

To Zion, a subordinate was simply a tool, nothing more, nothing less.

Therefore, he was willing to enlist even a demon if it proved useful.

Initially, he had considered Rain Dranir, but chose not to interfere because Rain was destined to be a companion of the hero.

"...Kahahahaha!"

Laughter erupted from Liushina, who had been gazing blankly at Zion.

But her eyes betrayed her discomfort.

"I am to serve you?"

The malevolent energy circulating around Liushina began to surge exponentially.

The power was so overwhelming it sent shivers down his spine.

How long had it been?

Since anyone dared utter such words in her presence.

"Alright then... Let's see if you can make me serve you."

Craaack!

With these words, the beast heads sprouting from her body coalesced into one and lunged straight at Zion.

An attack so all-encompassing that it dominated the surrounding space and left no room for evasion.

"..."

Zion watched the onslaught of the beast heads with calm eyes.

Just as the beast's head was about to shred him.

Ping!

Zion extracted something from his bosom and tossed it into the air.

A small stone marked with intricate runes.

Soon after.

Fwaaahhh!

Brilliant light exploded from the runes, swallowing both Zion and Liushina.

The spirit-binding spell attached to the gravestone in the grey swamp that Zion had visited earlier.

Zion had transferred this spell into a high-grade spell storage stone he had received from Nari and triggered it here.

The spell was so immense and intricate that he only managed to bring the core part, but that was enough.

Waaaaaah!

Feeling a force grip and tug at his hair, he was pulled into somewhere else.

His vision flickered uncontrollably.

How much time had passed?

A sight starkly different from the forest he was in just a moment ago came into focus as Zion's vision stabilized.

'It activated correctly.'

A realm awash in monotonous grey.

Trees, air, water.

In this desolate world where nothing else existed, only Zion and Liushina stood.

Soul Extinction Grand Array.

An immense spell previously wielded by the Dranir hero to seal the Witch of Heavenly Murder.

A formidable incantation that secludes only the souls of the caster and the target in an isolated realm.

That spell was being reignited here.

However.

"So… you place your faith in that?"

Liushina's eyes brimmed with derision as she surveyed the ashen world entrapping her.

Gradually, the witch's gaze swiveled to Zion.

"Do you realize? The moment you trespassed into the forest, I became privy to every step you took."

She couldn't have been oblivious.

The Black Forest was akin to her own entity.

That was why she had grasped Zion's strategy.

Even the act of translocating the sealing spell from the swamp spirit to the storage stone.

"But have you wondered why I chose to turn a blind eye?"

Because it was a useless exercise.

"The Soul Extinction Grand Array you rely on is not fundamentally a sealing spell."

Thud Thud Thud!

The world of grey shuddered at Liushina's words.

"It's a magic that obliterates the soul of the adversary, using the caster's soul as a form of collateral. If the caster's soul does not outweigh that of the opponent's, it's useless."

So, even the hero of Dranir, one of the most potent entities in the bygone world, could only succeed in sealing Liushina, not annihilating her.

Centuries have since elapsed, and her soul has burgeoned in strength.

Who could possibly obliterate her?

No, even a partial seal was implausible.

That's why she disregarded the demonic spirits and merely observed.

Because there was a certain amusement in watching the futile struggles of insects before crushing them.

Poohahahahak!

Liushina's malevolent energy erupted, as if the constraints no longer mattered, transforming the entire grey world into a crimson abyss.

Within it, thousands of beast heads and tens of thousands of scarlet eyes manifested.

If evil deities were existent in mythology, they might resemble this.

"Can your soul truly overpower mine?"

The millennial witch gazed down at Zion, his head lowered, her smile as crimson as fresh blood.

The answer to her inquiry was preordained.

At least, that's what Liushina believed.

Then.

"Well."

A composed voice emanated from Zion.

The emotion mirrored in Zion's eyes as he slowly lifted his head was neither disorientation nor trepidation.

Elation.

A look of unbridled delight, despite the dire circumstances.

"So now, I shall put it to the test."

Zion proclaimed.

Ever since he was thrust into the world of the chronicles, he had always been intrigued by one question.

Was he, trapped in the body of Zion Agnes, truly the Emperor who once reigned over the world?

Or was he merely an impotent prince who had inherited the Emperor's memories?

Had his soul genuinely relinquished all its potency?

This realm was a dimension where only the soul held sway, bereft of corporeal influence.

Consequently, Zion held faith that he could unearth his answer within these confines.

A world entirely transfigured into a crimson abyss by the evil energy.

In such a realm.

Drip drip.

A veil of darkness began to descend.

***

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