Reno gripped his sword even tighter in his right hand.
This time, he had calculated that it was the moment when the mage needed to conserve his resources.
Reno leapt from the ground with force and reached the warrior's height in less than a second. However, just as he was about to bring his blade down, a massive column of water struck him at full speed.
Reno crashed into the ground in the distance. But fortunately, none of his bones were broken.
The young man shouted at him:
"What kind of monster are you?!"
Reno pushed himself back up with a single motion. Holding his sword, a smile filled with battle lust and madness spread across his face.
Then he looked his opponent straight in the eyes.
"I am the Ogre of Nozras."
Suddenly, he gripped his sword again and swung it, as if slicing through the air with a swift motion.
The young man was hit head-on by a massive wave of air.
"How?!"
In the next instant, Reno had vanished from his sight.
The young warrior panicked and looked around—but Reno was right below him. He had jumped again, aiming to grab him and drag him down.
However, at the last moment, the young man sensed the danger and saw him coming from above. He unleashed a burst of wind to slow him down.
Reno took it head-on, but unexpectedly, the ogre's smile didn't fade. He kept pushing through the winds as he descended.
Reno grabbed the young man's ankle and suddenly hurled him toward the ground.
Though surprised, the young man managed to cushion his fall in time by creating a compact mass of air beneath him.
The magician's abilities allowed him to perform far more technical feats than the warriors of the capital expected. In truth, having never seen such magic before, their understanding of it was clearly limited. The young man wasn't just controlling wind—his mastery extended to subtle pressure differences, allowing him to float in the air or soften a fall from any height.
Moreover, Reno had noticed that he didn't need incantations for most of his spells. Everything flowed seamlessly, as if air and water were semi-independent entities acting to protect him and assist his attacks.
He was clearly an even more troublesome opponent than Rita, who relied on her awareness and agility to deliver lethal strikes without warning.
But despite all these advantages, what followed happened far too fast for him.
Reno suddenly descended from the sky, his sword held in both hands.
Using the speed from his fall, he sliced through the air with a vertical strike, putting the full weight of his body into it. The young man dodged gracefully in panic, sweat mixing with the rain. He desperately tried to launch two serpent-shaped jets of water at his opponent, but Reno cut through both of them like butter.
Then, propelling himself forward, he quickly closed the distance. The young man hadn't had time to retreat far enough.
Reno raised his sword to the sky once more with both hands, a wide grin on his face.
The young mage turned pale, staring at the ogre's overwhelming build.
But suddenly, he disappeared, absorbed into a puddle of water.
Reno froze mid-motion, surprised.
"Huh? That's new."
But the impact of Man-Eater striking the ground had created such a crater that a small tremor rippled through the area.
Rita didn't understand.
Why hadn't Reno killed him yet?
He didn't even seem to be struggling. If anything, he looked like he was enjoying himself, as if the young man was no match for him. He had seemed to dominate him for months—so why hadn't he returned?
Reno slowly turned to look for where the young man had gone.
The young warrior emerged from another puddle further away.
'This is annoying. If he can do that… with all the puddles around, this fight will never end.'
It seemed either the warrior had been holding back his abilities this whole time—or, more troubling for Reno, he was evolving mid-fight.
The young warrior looked paler than ever. Reno walked calmly toward him, then pointed Man-Eater at his face.
"Who are you, really?"
Rita didn't understand. The boy looked defeated. So why was Reno insisting on asking questions?
She then shouted toward her husband:
"Reno, kill him."
Her eyes burned with anger. She needed to know why she had come all this way when he seemed perfectly fine. Why he had stayed in the capital for more than eight months ? And why her instincts were screaming at her to be careful… even though the kid looked beaten.
But Reno slowly turned his head and this time, Rita panicked.
She had never seen him with such a desperate expression.
His face looked like a silent storm, frozen in that instant where fear and sadness intertwined, neither overpowering the other.
His eyes were wide open, not in a scream, but as if something inside him had just shattered. His gaze trembled, shining with a faint moisture that refused to fall as tears. Rita could see a restrained panic there, a distress struggling to escape.
His brows were drawn together, forming that painful curve seen only in those who had endured too much. The skin around his eyes was tense, as if every muscle hesitated between fleeing and collapsing.
His mouth remained slightly open, voiceless. No cry, no word,just that cut-off breath, that moment when even speaking would hurt too much. His lips barely trembled, as if holding back a sob that hadn't yet found the courage to exist.
And his entire face carried an expression he couldn't fake...
...the expression of someone who had just lost something essential… while fearing what might come next.
Rita turned just as pale.
And to make things worse, Reno said the words that froze her blood:
"You shouldn't have come…"
Maybe it was finally time to understand what had really happened in that capital… since Reno arrived.
**
Reno arrived at the capital with his three heavily armed men. Whatever the threat was, they were going to crush it quickly.
Arriving in front of the wall, Reno noticed that the hole he had made last time had been sealed again.
One of his men then spoke to him.
"What do we do, boss? There doesn't seem to be any entrance."
However, Reno stepped forward without even looking at him.
"Same as last time."
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Reno violently tensed all his muscles. The three members of his group stared at him, shocked by the sheer mass of muscle visible on his body.
Reno violently grabbed the sword on his back, let out a deep breath, and in one swift motion, brutally slashed the wall. A massive shockwave, accompanied by a deafening sound, made the entire area tremble. The most durable material in the world was nothing more than butter in front of the ogre's strength.
The three men stared at the enormous breach created by that single strike.
"H-How…?"
Reno lowered his sword, exhaled slowly, then placed it back before moving forward.
"You coming?"
Overcome by the fear of opposing the ogre rather than entering the arena, the three warriors followed Reno straight into the lion's den.
But the moment he set foot inside the arena, Armes appeared in the pouring rain. Still as ghostly as ever, he gave a faint smile and looked at Reno as if he already knew everything.
But maybe he truly did...
Reno stared him straight in the eyes before speaking.
"What is it? You got something to say?"
Armes slightly narrowed his eyes, as if mildly displeased by the tone.
"Now, now. No need to be so tense. I come in peace."
"That's for me to decide."
Armes was tall, but no one in all of Nozras could compare to Reno. The long man looked at him again, this time with a darker gaze.
"I see. You do not hold me in high regard, I'm afraid. I shall make an effort to improve. But in any case, I have come to bring you terrible news."
Reno raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.
"That so-called invisible warrior has received a bit of support. He appears to be in possession of the book."
Reno was stunned. The famous king-making book, left behind long ago by a mysterious man. Every warrior had heard of it, especially when coming to the capital. A legendary book… that had supposedly disappeared.
"Wasn't it burned?"
Armes smiled.
"No. We preserved it."
Reno was stunned once more.
"In truth, Reno Gazor, the king-maker was already present during Nozras' rise to the throne. He had always been there. To make a long story short, Nozras had a rival known as Ethen. However, Ethen only managed to reach Nozras' level thanks to the book. He still died. Nozras was not human. Even without touching the book, he defeated Ethen easily and claimed the throne."
Reno listened carefully.
"But Nozras knew the king-maker was behind Ethen, and the king-maker knew that Nozras was aware of him. So they came to an agreement. It was simple. Nozras had to keep the book, him and his nation, until a certain date. He entrusted it to the Kinra clan. However, Nozras never intended to build a stable kingdom with a lineage. After his death, clans and warriors tore each other apart, and the king-maker reclaimed the book shortly after. But then… that's where the story changes."
Reno leaned in slightly.
"In truth, Nozras knew Kinra would seize the book to rule, and knew that one day, the king-maker would leave. Yet he still wished to keep his promise. So he entrusted the Valon clan with the task of preserving the book until the appointed time. Of course, retrieving it by force would have caused problems, so we let it circulate among warriors over time. The day someone tried to burn it… was a staged act. We sent someone to retrieve it, replace it with a fake, burn the fake, and shift the blame."
Reno was shocked by the cruelty with which Valon operated. They respected orders, yes, but it was disturbing to hear that all of Nozras' history had been manipulated by these people.
"But we had a problem."
Hm? That was the first time Reno saw such a complicated expression on Armes' face.
He lowered his head as if ashamed, his gaze lost in the ground. For the first time, he didn't seem so confident.
"The book… is a source of disease… in the literal sense… The murderous frenzy… comes only from it. After we obtained the book, the clan went through a dark period where we only killed each other over it."
This time, Reno could not believe what he was hearing.
"What…"
"The book, Sir Gazor, is nothing more than a source of disease. A horror brought to us by the kingmaker. I do not know whether he was aware of it or not, but this frenzy spreading across Nozras since its arrival, this madness that every warrior feels, comes from that damn book."
Reno was shocked. He could no longer speak. His brain spun, trying to process the information.
"We tried to destroy it. No success. To burn it: no success. To bury it: even that failed, because after some time it simply rose back to the surface."
Reno stepped back, shaken…
"No… it's impossible…"
"Then we gave it back to the warriors so they would fight each other again. Valon lost half of its members in the meantime. It was a long tragedy. But now, it is in the hands of a warrior, and something is different, something…"
"IMPOSSIBLE!!"
Reno had shouted. Rage rose to his head.
All the history of his country, all its great figures, all his dreams, were nothing more than a cursed from a magic book.
He refused to believe it.
His whole life, his dream, his motivations, what he was, what he truly was, was nothing but an infection programmed all this time. He who fought with a smile thinking it was normal. He who massacred clans thinking it was his original dream. He who saw combat as if his life depended on it. He whose prodigious strength had given him access to sovereignty, was in fact nothing but… sick.
Was he sick? Was he infected? A zombie. A dream copy rooted in his mind. He, his father, and his ancestors before him had torn each other apart because of a book…
"So you're telling me that all of Nozras is nothing but a damn manipulation from this book. Don't talk nonsense, Armes. How the hell do you know this?!!"
Armes looked at Reno for a long time with a dark expression, then closed his eyes. He took time before speaking:
"It was all written."
"What…"
Armes trembled slightly before letting out a smile, stretching his arms wide and lifting his head to the sky in a moment of madness.
Reno might have been shocked, but it did not stop him from seeing how much Armes had actually snapped.
"In that famous book, Reno, everything is written. Everything we should have known and everything that must be known for the future. Everything is written, Reno Gazor. The fact that Nozras would win the throne, the fact that Zvrag would be the false king, the fact that the Valon clan would be tasked with guarding the book and tear itself apart, the fact that you would come here to ask me this question, the fact that it is me telling you this story, the fact that your children would become legends, the fact that we should never have read it. Because yes, GAZOR, we should never have read it."
The calm, precise Armes from before had vanished, replaced by a madman waving his arms everywhere, his expressions twisted with insanity, leaving Reno speechless.
"You and I, future, present, past, apocalypse and beyond, everything is written, Reno Gazor, everything is written. Soon, the world will collapse and the chosen one will arise to intervene, he will take the sword, defeat with it, forge his strength on others and we will then see the end."
Then Armes calmed down under the lost and troubled gaze of the small group.
"That's how it ends. So technically it's not the whole future, unless our world ends there. Given the precision of this mess, I'm sure it's true. After all, it happened to us."
He slowly wiped himself as if he had never had that outburst.
"Anyway, the Valon clan kept the book and yes, the warrior who has it now is ready to destroy everything. However, rest assured, he will not win. You will kill him… but at a heavy cost."
Reno could no longer speak. It was too much information at once. Shocked, the rain seemed louder in his ears, pounding his head. Armes' voice grew more distant, as if he had just awakened, as if he was finally seeing the world…
"I apologize for what you just saw. It's just that the truth is very hard to contain. It drives you mad quickly, you know."
Armes took a step, then walked away, turning his back on the group, hands behind his back.
"Don't be too shocked, Reno Gazor, your aura is shaking."
With those words, he disappeared.
The Valon clan leader always had the habit of vanishing like a ghost. As if he had never been there. But the trace of his presence could still be seen on Reno's face.
"Con… Let's continue…"
Reno struggled to take the first step toward the throne. It was the first time his leg trembled before moving forward. Suddenly, one of his men, shaking like a leaf, asked him:
"Is it true, sir? Is it true…"
They had no reason to believe Armes, no reason to believe such madness. And yet, they could not help but believe it.
Reno took a moment to respond, as if the information needed time to be processed by his own brain.
"Don't listen to that madman. As if the end of the world could scare me…"
Even though he was indeed shocked after hearing the dark truth about his country's history, Reno could not worry about it more than that. He was already trembling, and that was the limit. Beyond that, beyond the end of the world and its history, Reno thought about the heavy cost...
The heavy cost he would have to pay to face that man…