Chapter 66

The black swamp fell silent once more. The blue flare Hector had produced by burning his own soul faded, extinguishing even the Weeping Tree’s cursed lullaby. What remained on the lakeshore were scorched, blackened earth, broken pieces of armor, and a void that seemed to have swallowed everything.

Cypher staggered as he crawled away from the threshold of that hell. His whole body creaked like shattered glass, and each exhale carried the metallic stench of blood. The mortal wounds from the collapsing cavern and the ominously throbbing crystal shard in his chest were ravenously draining his life.

‘…I must return.’

That single thought filled his mind: for the Empire, for His Majesty the Emperor, he had to bring this Dragon’s Heart back to Ethernom. He crawled through the swamp mud. Rotting water seeped into his wounds, delivering a flesh-tearing pain, but he did not stop—like a snake dragging itself forward, he abandoned his comrades’ corpses and his own honor, clutching only the prize.

Days later, he miraculously reached the swamp’s edge. He no longer looked human. His skin, consumed by the crystal shard’s curse, had gone corpse-pale, and his red eyes glowed with an unnatural light. He forced out a final signal to the Valerian intelligence’s secret rendezvous point—and then lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes, he was lying in a secret chamber in Black Dragon Harbor. Around him were medics and Magic users dispatched from Valerian. A crystal shard that still emitted an ominous glow was clutched tightly in his hand.

“We succeeded…”

Cypher murmured hoarsely, smiled with a satisfied expression, and sank into a deep sleep. He had completed his mission. In doing so, however, he had sold a part of his soul to the cursed swamp.

At the same time, thousands of kilometers away at the Aster estate.

Rian sat in his study reviewing new weapon blueprints sent from the Shadow Forge. The estate was peaceful and his plans were progressing smoothly, yet a corner of his mind remained unsettled over the vanguard that had departed for the Eastern Continent.

He fiddled with a small mana crystal on his desk—the communication device Hector had taken, linked directly to his life force. For days the crystal had emitted only a faint light and sent no signal.

Then it happened.

Plink.

With a very small sound, the crystal’s faint light went out completely. Like a candle snuffed, the spark of life within it had been extinguished forever.

Rian’s hand froze in midair. A suffocating silence filled the room. Motionless, he stared for a long time at the crystal that had lost its life and turned cold as stone.

“Master…”

Kael, who had quietly entered the room, called to him in a worried voice.

Rian slowly lifted his head. His face showed no grief or anger—only an expression of emptiness, like a void stripped of all color.

“Hector and… the other operatives?”

“Just before the crystal’s signal cut off, the last detected location was the center of the black swamp. There we detected a massive surge of Magic—like the great mana explosion that occurs when your aura-amplifying armor overloads. Most likely…”

Kael could not bring himself to finish the sentence and bowed his head.

Total annihilation.

The blades Rian had personally forged and raised—his most loyal—had all been shattered. Hector. The steadfast knight who first pledged loyalty to him after being cast aside by the Marquis of the Reinhardt family. The image of his final moments flashed through Rian’s mind.

Rian rose and moved to the continental map on the wall. He quietly picked up the black knight token representing the Shadow Blade that sat atop the black swamp, and squeezed it until it cracked. Blood welled from his palm, but he seemed not to feel the pain.

“Kael.”

Rian’s voice was lower and colder than before.

“Halt all production lines at the Shadow Forge.”

“Yes, Master?”

“From now on the forge will operate for a single purpose alone: prepare for war.”

Rian set down the broken knight token and placed in its stead a red token symbolizing vengeance.

“Mobilize all Argos intelligence networks. Dig up everything on the Ashen Worm cult. Find every one of their breathing holes. And watch closely how the Valerians toy with the Dragon’s Heart.”

His eyes were no longer those of a player enjoying a game; they were the merciless eyes of a hunter targeting those who had trespassed into his domain and stolen what was his.

“I will exact Hector and the operatives’ blood price… even if it costs me their entire Empire as a sacrifice, I will take it.”

For the first time, the Shadow had lost something precious. In return, he cast off the last of his remaining human feeling and was being reborn as a colder, more ruthless lord of the abyss.