Chapter 138

Camelia discarded the sword she had been using and pointed a blade with a blood-red edge toward Lancelot. That sword… it was clearly the one I had given her…

“That sword… that damned thing is playing a shallow trick.”

“Father, there’s something I want to ask you.”

Camelia swallowed hard. Despite everything, it seemed she still held a bit of lingering affection for her father. Well, even so, I’m going to kill that bastard Lancelot.

“Why are you doing this? You who hated slaughter and war so much… who loved peace…”

“A foolish question, my daughter. I still despise evil.”

Lancelot wore an extremely calm expression, as if he were casually discussing some trivial gossip about a neighbor’s dog giving birth during teatime.

“You there, sorcerer, I’d appreciate it if you listened as well. What are the ten elements that form the origin of magic and the foundation of this world?”

“Suddenly, what are you…?”

“Fire, water, ice, wind, earth, steel, light, darkness, wood, lightning. All are the origins of magic and the foundation of the world. To know the origin is to know everything. How do these things truly exist in the world?”

Lancelot continued in a voice that was different from before—a chilling, unsettling voice that grated like metal scraping, filling the air with dread.

[Fire, which should bring warmth, becomes the flames of war, burning homes to ashes. Water, which should bring life, turns into floods and drowns lives.]

[People freeze to death in the bitter cold, and wind becomes typhoons, trampling the places where people live.]

[Steel is forged into sharp spearheads and arrowheads, and wood becomes the shafts of arrows and spears, killing and wounding people.]

[The homes of the poor are filled with darkness, while light only shines on the trash of the wealthy.]

[The earth remains silent, yet brings famine and swallows countless corpses. Thunder roars, yet never strikes the heads of the guilty.]

His words flowed smoothly, like a recited poem, but the voice brought not inspiration, only terror and disgust. It was like hearing the sound of a disgusting old lady’s image from an internet site being forced into your ears.

“Suddenly reciting poetry? Is this your last will?”

“If the world’s foundation is like this, our God remains silent. He tolerates war, slaughter, disasters, tyranny, and evil itself.”

“You’re the evil one, you bastard. You killed Count Holstead’s family, slaughtered people, and used children as experiment materials. And now you’re spouting this bullshit philosophy?”

“Yes, I am evil. But what about our God?”

He pointed his sword toward the sky—well, more accurately, toward the ceiling since there was no actual sky in the room.

“Even I am tolerated. No matter what evil I commit, our God does not punish me. That means our God condones and affirms evil. I simply cannot tolerate such a God or this lax world.”

“If the world’s so messed up, why don’t you just eat a poison mushroom and kill yourself? What’s the point of all this?”

“I will change the world. That is the mission I was born with. I will kill God and take His place.”

For that reason… you killed the Heavenly Demon Old Man… made the Holstead family suffer… and dragged Olrag, who could have been my friend, into this evil?

All for such a stupid, idiotic reason?

I pulled out Enok.

“Enok, open page 221, the Seal Chapter.”

“Werner! That’s…!”

“Older sister, I’m sorry. You’ll have to die with me.”

Enok was not only a relic that could store magic but also one that could seal dangerous beings.

“Awaken, specter of the plague.”

The ghostly image engraved in the book faded, and a black mist began to rise.

What was sealed within this page was the collective spirit of a village annihilated by the plague. This specter, taking the form of a black mist, was incredibly powerful—it couldn’t be killed and was eventually sealed within Enok.

Just touching this black mist would cause one to contract a horrific plague, melting their body until they died.

The room began to fill with the black mist, but Lancelot didn’t panic at all. Instead, he calmly adjusted his grip on his sword. This specter couldn’t be cut or exorcised. It wasn’t an enemy that could be defeated with mere swords.

“Devour it.”

At his command, his sword began to absorb the black mist. More accurately, it was devouring the powerful specter.

“How are you absorbing that specter…?”

Lancelot then pointed to the gem embedded in his sword. The gem glowed with a radiant purple light.

“This is a fragment of the heart I stole when I stabbed our God. Surprisingly, even a fragment holds an astonishing amount of power.”

This bastard was now showing off someone else’s mother’s heart to mock me. Another reason not to forgive him.

“It seems one of your prepared tricks has been nullified. What do you plan to summon next? A dragon? A demon? Or perhaps an Apostle of God?”

“No…”

I forced myself to stand. I was still bleeding, but it wasn’t life-threatening.

“Older sister…”

“Werner, don’t speak. Rest. I’ll handle him.”

Camelia charged at Lancelot with her sword. Her stance was clearly the “Cherry Blossom Petal Slash,” a technique with an unpredictable trajectory, like scattered cherry blossoms, and an unblockable effect.

*Clang!*

But Lancelot easily blocked the attack.

“I wonder who you think taught you that technique. And you’re still putting too much tension in your shoulders.”

Lancelot then swung his sword at Camelia. That technique was one of his ultimate moves, “Camellia Branch Slash.” Normally, it took time to activate, but Lancelot used it without any delay.

“Older sister!”

*Clang!*

But Camelia also blocked the attack.

“Who do you think watched your swordsmanship up close, Father?”

“…Bold of you.”

“Father, I’ll ask you one last time. What was Mother to you…?”

Lancelot swallowed dryly.

“She was a woman who didn’t suit me. Pathetic, foolish, and idiotic.”

“What did you just say…?”

“She was a woman who didn’t realize she was being used, foolishly believed in God, naively thought the war would end, blindly trusted in peace, and whispered love to me until she died. A pitiful woman.”

Camelia dropped her sword. I knew how much she loved her family, how much she loved her mother and father. The betrayal must have been immense.

“At least if she had left behind a useful child, it would have been something… but she only gave birth to half-baked children who split between swordsmanship and magic. And her body was too weak to bear more. She was never useful, not even once.”

“…Shut up.”

“That’s why I killed her. I had no need for a hindrance.”

“Shut up!”

“Her last moments, crying and whispering love, were laughable. You take after her, so you’re swayed by such trivial emotions. Truly… she was a woman I should never have embraced.”

Camelia picked up her sword and tried to stab Lancelot, but it was easily blocked.

“You, your mother, the Heavenly Demon, the sorcerer… all of you are swayed by meaningless emotions. That’s why you’ll die like trash.”

Camelia was no longer in a state to fight, her vision blurred by tears. Then… it was solely my role to kill this bastard.

“Hey, Lancelot.”

“Hmm…”

His gaze turned to me.

“You’re the worst trash I’ve ever known. And it’s my creed that trash should be taken out by the one who sees it.”

“Quite a good creed. But what can you do, unable to use great magic, limited to the weakened great magic recorded in your spellbook?”

“Haha… you idiot… it’s not that I can’t use great magic. It’s that I can’t handle the aftermath.”

“Nonsense. It’s all the same to me.”

The part of Werner’s magic circuit that was damaged wasn’t the organ that activated great magic. It was the cooling mechanism that relieved the burden on the body after using great magic.

In other words, activation itself was possible.

“All it takes is accepting that my body will be wrecked… so I can use it once…?”

“Hmm, interesting. Even if it’s great magic, you think a single use can kill me? For the sake of the future, I’d like to see this.”

“Older sister, I’m sorry. It seems we’ll have to die together.”

Camelia silently nodded and grabbed Lancelot’s arm, likely to prevent him from making any unnecessary resistance.

The only magic Werner could use, resonating all ten elemental magics at once.

“Ars Magia.”