"I can still remember its blood-curdling screams as its own father ate it."
"…"
"He—the man with a baby's blood all over his face—looked at me with a disgusted expression and said 'A failure. Was this prophecy a lie by the gods!? I feel no different!' as if I was the one to blame for it."
"…Did he eat his other children as well?"
"No… He said that the reason he felt nothing when he ate our child could've been because its power didn't awaken yet."
"The waiting game, huh. Then… did he bring other women home and marry them?"
There is no way someone with a goal as grand as "surpassing the normal limits imposed on us by the Timeline Gods" only had one plan and one tool.
"Yes, after witnessing his power, the king asked him to impregnate his wives and daughters, the reason for this being obvious. It was around that time that I was free to roam around on my own, on the condition that I return home immediately once my bump starts showing." Guinevere clenched her fists hard, "It felt like I was thrown aside. That wasn't how I imagined my married life would be. He showed those women a side of himself he'd never shown me. I can still remember the youngest girl coming up to me one day when I was gathering my things. She told me how special he made her feel when he took her purity, making sure not to hurt her. I…I wanted to tear her apart… Why did I almost take out my hatred on a human…? I would've been no different from him…"
Arnold hesitated for a second as he looked at her trembling shoulders. With a deep exhale, he moved closer to her and put his arm around her. Of course, his arms were still a wreck so it was a rather awkward embrace.
"I know this makes no difference now that so much time has gone by—"
"No," Guinevere cut him off and put her hand on his that was on her shoulder, "Remembering all of these things right now makes it feel as if it happened yesterday… It makes a big difference to me…"
"Alright… What did you say to that girl?"
"…I told her to never let him go… Maybe I was thinking of Gederick in that moment and how I always seem to let him slip through my fingers… Regardless, that innocent smile on her face as she hugged me made me regret my words but I didn't have the courage to correct myself. I quietly left the kingdom and went on my own travels. I let my frustrations on any monsters that crossed my path. Of course, human bandits and gangs were also a troublesome bunch but I merely avoided their territories since I did not have it in me to crush weaklings to soothe my own feelings. If I had to kill humans, then I needed to test if they were redeemable… I have seen many evil people throughout my travels but none could come close to that man, the abyss that confined me… Due to the fact that all nations were on high alert of each other, there was a lot of unrest and unnecessary conflict so avoiding battles became quite difficult. The people of that era, how do I put it… They were quite surprised to see a woman put up a fight. I learned the reason for this when I visited the Theocracy, where knights were the most common than anywhere else."
'Hmm, I forgot that the Theocracy is the oldest nation on Diacree. By the time the empire grew into a small kingdom, the Theocracy was already ruling several regions around the Great Ridge.'
Were it not for Promethius being stationed in the kingdom then the empire wouldn't have grown at such a rapid pace. Everyone was looking to get close to the "Hero" so they offered alliances to the empire and married off their daughters to Promethius' royal harem.
Arnold looked closer at Guinevere's face and wondered why she was telling him so much. How much time does she have left? Did she think of that at all?
Well, maybe her talking about the Theocracy leads somewhere that involves Promethius.
"—The Theocracy had sophisticated training methods for their knights that no other nation had so they had the best army out of all the nations and settlements on the continent. However, these methods were only taught to men since they had physically stronger bodies than women and have more aura channels regardless of the type of aura they possess. This is common knowledge for humans but I had the mindset to train them like my tribe trained me. There were a lot of talented female trainees looking to join the army in the Theocracy but were all rejected for obvious reasons. And I could see why. The men were trained hard, and their physical strength was undeniable but their aura was left untouched, meaning the nation relied on nature to make up for their soldier's other lacking areas. The methods used by the Theocracy had shaped them into formidable warriors by human standards, each more disciplined than the last. But as I observed the women who were turned away, I saw something that piqued my interest—potential that was being wasted due to strict traditions.
Instead of adhering to the established rules, I started working with those rejected trainees. I trained them using techniques from my tribe—methods designed to push the body and mind beyond what the Theocracy's regimen offered. But instead of working on their bodies alone, I taught them to circulate their aura and Ki to make their bodies naturally stronger without the need for physical training,"
'That's the same method Sebas taught me… I never thought that even demigods follow this kind of training regime seriously.'
It was rare to find people at Arnold's who can regulate their aura seamlessly throughout their bodies and use its full potential. This is what made him a 5th Star Knight according to the academy's ranking system.
"I trained them in secret, making sure they were prepared to handle anything thrown at them in combat. Their progress was undeniable. They quickly adapted, becoming more versatile and efficient in ways that the traditional training didn't emphasize. With continuous circulation throughout their bodies, even their aura pools and Ki control improved. Their results spoke louder than anything I could have said, and whispers of their skills spread through the ranks. Eventually, I helped these trainees complete a campaign which showed the higher-ups that they were capable to be included in the army. My identity as the Hero's—that man's wife—wasn't revealed. I merely told them my birth name—Guinevere. Eventually, those trainees became leaders in the army, all of them outperforming their seniors in many ways."
A gentle smile appeared on Guinevere's face.
"That was the first moment I truly felt happy. They were the clay that I molded into perfection."
That smile vanished, "My deeds were recognized by the Oracle of that time who wanted me to visit her in her personal chambers, a room only her servants and the Pope were allowed to enter. I wasn't given the opportunity to meet with other higher-ups so I knew what she wanted to tell me was something no one else could know. The moment I stepped into her chambers, I heard her call my full name and the tribe I was from. She told me the next moment that Melis spoke to her about my arrival in her world. 'I know you have questions', she said, 'but please let me tell you why I called you here first'."
**
"The gods lacked judgment because they were blinded by power they wanted to control. They were so blind that they could not see beyond their own selfishness." The black-haired Oracle said to Guinevere, "Don't look at me like that. I am well aware that I am disrespecting the gods but Melis is clearly different since she was the one who entrusted me with a certain task that will surely upset them…"
The confused Guinevere was taken aback by that.
"Melis… She wants you to kill Promethius and become her champion."
**
"…." Guinevere sat in silence.
"…Melis is an incompetent goddess so how did she plan for that…?"
Guinevere looked towards the Gardtree that bathed this dark world in its divine radiance, "The tree that consumes all. That is what I needed, is what she said. But in order to get it, I needed the help of a certain… demon lord… That would be the demon called Ekterina Foruthflame."
"…"
"Do you know her?"
"I know that she's the weakest demon lord out of the other two. And Oriel was the strongest."
"Ah, yes, Oriel… I recall her being very loyal to him. So loyal that she would kill anyone and do anything if it's an order coming from him."
"Wait, you were there? In the demon world?"
"Yes. Melis and Ekterina had an agreement. The war was inevitable but a factor had to be taken out of it for the realms to not be given to a tyrant once it's over. Allowing Promethius to achieve his goal meant allowing him to surpass the gods and becoming an evil greater than the Demon King, Star Beast, and Progenitor. Knowing that, I couldn't refuse the offer. Should I have succeeded, Ekterina would inevitably face me if the blessing of the [God's Champion] was given to me. But she was given a choice: leave the Demon World and live her life in some faraway world. Only she was given this salvation because she was a half-blood demon."
'What? Did Lilith sleep with a human or something?'
Lilith was the name of the Succubus Queen from hell who was basically the breeding machine for demons and devils. She comes up to the demon world a few times every few years or so to breed powerful offspring for the demons. Were it not for her then many of the powerful Greater Demon clans wouldn't exist.
"…Is Ekterina related to Oriel in some way?"
"I'm not sure. She was conceived from Lilith's womb directly while Oriel was born from a relationship between two greater demon clans. I do recall her calling him brother since he was always looking out for her."
"The strongest demon lord looking out for the weakest link… This is really ridiculous, especially for demons."
"Well, Oriel was not a savage. I could tell that much but he was not an innocent demon either."
"No demon is innocent in your eyes, are they?"
"…."
"Alright, what led to you taking Promethius' blessing?"
"The Oracle and I met up with Ekterina later on. No greetings were exchanged so we just silently followed her, until we came to a place where a certain tree was growing. It was located in a damp, dark place without sunlight all year round. But this did not stop it from becoming what it is today." She looked back at the Gardtree, "Instead of the soil in the ground, it was growing from the ceiling of its dark cave."
The ceiling…? Since when do trees grow like that?
"…Where was this?"
"The Dragon God's lair."
"?"
'Is that where the Gardtree comes from? I've never cleared the dungeon on my own so I'm not sure…'
"Was that tree fully grown when you found it?"
She nodded, "But it could not stay there for Melis' plan to go forward so I broke off a branch and planted it where the war between humans and demons was predicted to take place. It feeds off life force so a battlefield where millions die was the perfect location for it."
"How did Ekterina know about it? What was her role in all this?"
"I told you already that she's half-demon. If you find out where the rest of her blood comes from then you might have the answer to your question. She is currently the adopted daughter of the Demon Monarch Watcher—the demon that watched over the Demon King until she hatched, which has been the case for all the demon kings before her as well."
"Hmm…"
'I'll need to speak to either Melis or that demon father of hers… Lilith was never the kind to be attached to her children since she's a whore that can't survive without fucking someone all day every day. Taking care of a kid would ruin that.'
"After the task was done, it was time for me to return home… 20 years passed by and I had already given birth to thirty children. I never met with either the Oracle or Ekterina again but I still continued on my travels, helping people whenever I could. Traveling was something I looked forward to the most. Even though I was chained to one world, there were so many people I could meet and so many locations to discover. One day, across the mountain ranges that divides the continent in half, I discovered a barren land with corpses piled up in every settlement."
'I'm not at all surprised that she was able to cross those dangerous mountain ranges…'
"I found survivors who told me that the demon lord Ekterina commanded they pledged their allegiance to the Demon King. Upon refusing, anyone who couldn't escape was killed. I knew Ekterina was no saint and had no compassion for humans but I also know that she does not mean to kill humans of her own volition. She was merely following orders. Regardless of what I think of her, that was a sign that the demons were getting ready to invade. When I returned to the empire, I heard that the Oracle was going to visit. It was around this time that everyone already found out that Promethius was the champion of the gods. It took fifty years of idling in the kingdom for him to do what he was ordered to…"
"He didn't save anyone or stop any wars during that time?"
"No, he was just an ordinary subordinate of the emperor during his idle years. He only moved when demons were discovered."
"For a guy who wanted to surpass the gods, he was really an obedient pet who followed orders. Why was Melis the only one who wanted him dead?"
"I'm certain that she was not the only one. Someone with the ability to see into the future must've told her what that man could've become if he reached his goal."
That was either the Destiny or Fate Goddess. But why put the responsibility on Melis? She wasn't the only one who blessed Promethius.
"For the uninformed, he seemed like a diligent hero who was prepared to lay down his life for humans but this was far from the truth. He made the children—who were capable of using aura, Ki or magic—train under the empire's best fighters and scholars. Everyone was preparing for the upcoming war so that itself wasn't strange but I noticed as time went on… More and more of our children kept vanishing. I asked the other wives but they wouldn't tell me, which I assumed was due to that man. I searched the empire desperately. Even though I could sense and differentiate the signatures between up to a million people at once, I could not detect them. Strangely, I could not detect that man either." She grabbed her face, "I almost went mad. All those 20 years I never treated my children as a mother should, never showed them love, disciplined them, helped them… Traveling was more important to me than my own family. At the back of my mind, I had this thought that they were disposable so why go out of my way to nurture them as the human mothers around me did? I could always have more because we Valkyries pride ourselves in our fertility and strong bodies that can have hundreds of children without issue… But I was wrong… I could not stand to lose my children, not after what happened to my first child.
I flew to the Theocracy and sought an audience with the Oracle. I… I wanted to kill every soldier that tried to stop me but before that could happen, she appeared in front of me. Her kind smile was enough to tell me that she knew why I was there. She told me that the Demon King and the rest of the demon lords were in a ferocious battle with one of her demon lords so the Demon Army was unorganized of sorts. The time is nigh for the perfect opportunity to strike, she told me. I knew she meant I had to kill that man but I asked her why now? Why after so long and not while I was sleeping right next to him after he violated me and put his child in me? Why could I not strangle him in his sleep…? Fate has finally allowed you to kill him, that is all I can say. That is what she told me. If I killed him earlier, would a great misfortune have befallen me?"
Misfortune… Fate…
Madilith's face appeared in his mind when he closed his eyes. He killed Madilith and not long after he was also killed. If he waited long enough, would she have died regardless? Not by the curse itself but other misfortune that even fate was blind to?
"…Didn't you need his blessing? If you managed to kill him in his sleep, it would've died with him…"
"Yes, you are quite right. I would've ruined Goddess Melis' plans. But even if I waited, I was still not confident enough to kill him. The Oracle told me that there was a way but only if I accepted power to stand equal to him. You must know that Valkyries are a proud race and we do not accept power from others nor do we take shortcuts. We train and fight for our strength. Even though I made up my mind, my body and spirit were still hesitant, which is why the oracle told me to accept the power. I could never achieve true equilibrium due to this dissonance between those three things. I wanted to be different from my people but I could never escape this reality, even 300 years later." She looked at her hands as if they didn't belong to her.
"…What did the oracle tell you next?"
Guinevere lowered her hands and closed her eyes, "If I wanted to see them again, I'd need to find the White Dragon Lord."
'The most powerful dragon lord and the eldest of the Seven Kings…'
"That's the same dragon that Promethius used as a mount."
He recalled hearing that the White Dragon Lord vanished soon after Promethius' death.
"Yes. That's the one. I needed to prove to her that I could face Promethius when I found out the truth."
"Did you have to fight him?"
She nodded, "Asking questions is akin to being someone's equal. Dragon lords do not answer, only ask, because they are above every single mortal and demigod race. Even my people fear them as the gods of the mortal realms."
"If Promethius was the strongest of that era then the second strongest is obvious…"
Thalgrimm Krydrak, the White Dragon Lord, the firstborn son of the Dragon God.
So, Guinevere had to fight Thalgrimm to gain his acknowledgement. Promethius was his master who he vowed to serve and was entrusted with many secrets in return. This might also mean he knew what kind of man Promethius was but perhaps due to some duty, Thalgrimm still aided that man.
"I cannot speak about the whole fight because it lasted days so I will only tell you the conclusion…" Guinevere said that as she brushed her hand along the edge of her cracked skin around the hole.
"I understand…"
"Thalgrimm flew me to a castle that stood near the Intermid Border but it was located across the Great Ridge on the outer regions of the continent so it was isolated from basically every nation or settlement. Due to its location—in a place among many monster zones—no one attempted to visit it before. Even without the monster zones being in its region, the dread coming from the castle itself is enough to dissuade anyone from drawing near."
'A castle… I'm sure the only castle in that area belongs to a Vampire Lord but with Selia's appearance on Diacree, I think she already killed the vampire and took the castle for herself.'
Vampire Lords like taking the spoils of war—the belongings of their opponents—once they win against them. Depending on how far Selia plans to expand her territory, it's likely possible that no other vampire lord is living in the castle at the moment.
As mentioned before, you will almost never find two monster lords in the same regions or country since they are highly territorial. Of course, the size of said territory depends on the monster's strength. Vampire Lords are the third strongest lords in the game so they can possess a country's worth of territories. Orc, troll, insect lords and so on, are different since they aren't exactly the top of the food chain outside their own races.
'I never heard that Promethius used that castle as his base. What else is there that I don't know about?'
"…If it's a place like that then whatever he was doing inside is something he didn't want others to see."
Guinevere silently nodded, her eyes distant, as though trapped in the nightmare she was retelling. Her voice trembled with the weight of memories she had tried so hard to bury.
"The Demon-Human War was drawing close, but the people's hero... the one everyone relied on... was nowhere to be seen. Portals had already begun to open across the continent, and terror gripped every village, every city. I could have done something. I could have saved countless lives in his stead, taken his place, become the protector the people needed." She paused, her hand trembling slightly. "But I didn't. My children were more important to me. Why did I only realize that when it was almost too late? Why did it take the threat of their own father for me to finally understand? I could've sent them abroad, let them grow up safely under the guise of studying... but I didn't. I let my fear of him, of that monster, dictate my every decision. I was a prisoner of my own terror."
Her breath caught, and for a moment, it seemed as though the weight of her guilt would suffocate her. "I remember the castle that night," she whispered, "the stench... gods, the stench of blood, of torn flesh, it was everywhere. It clung to the walls like something alive, something malignant. I felt sick, but I couldn't stop. The halls were silent, but... I knew. Somewhere deep in my soul, I knew what I would find, but I kept moving, kept hoping I was wrong."
Her hand clenched into a fist, nails digging into her palm. "There was blood—a trail—leading from the dining room. It stained the floors in thick, glistening lines, guiding me... pulling me toward the stairwell. I should have turned back, but instead, I followed it down. The smell of death grew stronger, almost suffocating, and the sound... the sound of meat being chopped echoed up the stairs. Every step felt like an eternity, but I couldn't stop myself. There was a light at the bottom... a faint glow. I reached the bottom, and that's when I saw him."
Guinevere's voice faltered, her throat tightening as tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill. She swallowed hard, but the memory forced itself out, relentless. "He had a butcher's knife in his hand... and in the other, he was holding down our youngest daughter, barely five years old. She had just awakened her divine power... she was so special, so full of life."
The tears came now, freely, her voice cracking as she spoke. "Her eyes... she looked right at me, her little body shaking. There was a moment... just one brief, horrible moment when I thought I could save her, that I could stop him as his back faced me. But then, in a single, brutal motion, he struck her neck. I watched... I watched as her head rolled across the floor like she was nothing more than a piece of meat."
Her whole body shook as the tears streamed down her face. She gritted her teeth, the anguish and self-loathing pouring out of her. "I... I did nothing. I could do nothing. Why did I even go there? Did I truly believe I could stop him? That I could save them? How could I have been so blind, so foolish?" She choked on her own sobs, her voice barely a whisper now. "I failed them... my children. I was their mother, their protector, and I failed them. I let my fear rule me, and because of that... I lost everything."
A brief moment of silence passed by before she spoke again, this time in an eerily calm voice:
"I knew this even before I entered the castle but my reason for going against my vows and duty as a demigod was never about one god's order but my own feelings. I wanted to kill that man. I wanted to save people in his stead and be seen as their hero. I WANTED TO SEE THE EXPRESSIONS ON THE GODS' FACES WHEN THEY HEARD I KILLED THEIR PRECIOUS HERO!!"
Her powerful voice made the surroundings rumble and the entire world tremble.
"Haa… Haa…" she fell back against the tree, her eyes unfocused. The hole had already begun breaking off her left breast but instead of her lung, muscle tissue and ribs, there was a dark abyss inside her body. Her body appeared to be an empty husk since the blessing had eaten way most of everything inside.
An eerie laughter came from Guinevere.
"…Promethius ordered me to prepare him a meal using the meat that he had chopped up in that basement."
"…"
"In his own words, 'I will savor the taste now then the power later so I will dine for several days before heading into the battlefield'. During my years on that world, I wasn't just travelling around meaninglessly. I was looking for methods to consume another person's power without having to kill and eat them. The only safe method I had found was Soul Bending… But this wouldn't just take the power lying dormant in one's body but also their entire self. Separating both was and still is impossible."
"Didn't you seek out the Archmage of that time? If it's the greatest magician in existence of his era then he might've been able to create what you were looking for…"
The Third Archmage might've been a traitor to his people but he was genuinely intent on helping others when it's a magic-related ordeal. Maybe he was the kind of person who liked to show off his many abilities which is why he accepted nearly every task the populace threw at him—at a price, of course.
"No one was allowed to see him during the preparations for the war, not even kings. Commissioning such a ritual spell was impossible."
"I see…"
Guinevere looked at Arnold with a bitter smile, "What's with that face? It's almost as if you're the one telling the story."
A bitter laugh came out of Arnold, "…We're not so different… Nothing goes as we hope, does it? But you're the one who's lived with this realization for centuries. We're just playthings of fate."
Even though he appeared calm on the surface, a desire was inside him to rip apart every single person who wronged him.
No one would be able to stop him and he wouldn't care of the consequences because he is strong enough to crush even those.
He is a Martial God—the strongest mortal in all the nine realms at this very moment.
Guinevere definitely felt the same as him at this moment, making them no different. If fate was a person, both of them would kill it. They would savor watching the light in its eyes slowly die.
"…" she went silent.
Arnold waited for her to continue.
How long have they sat there? How long has Guinevere been retelling her past?
"The Gardtree is withering…" Guinevere's words made him look towards the Gardree. It was indeed losing its divine radiance—its bark now scorched but its leaves still as vibrant as gold.
"That means—"
"My time is almost up…" her face was turned away from Arnold so he couldn't see her expression but he could see her shoulders trembling, "I doubt there's anything nearby to satisfy the Gardtree's hunger. Even I am outside its reach but I do not have the strength to go towards it…"
"Even so… I still want to finish this story…"
"Alright."