Chapter 3: The Whole Armada Empire is in Flames! {Original Abellion's Flashback} (3)
The period immediately following the chance meeting with the spectral Demon King, Personia De Fallenia, was one of intense, exhausting change for the original Abellion. In the immediate aftermath of his coming-of-age celebration, the Hero, Abrellios, sensing a latent power in his son that had finally awakened, acted swiftly and decisively. He didn't understand the ability, but he knew Abellion was now a Ghostaker—a rare, specialized class.
After a year the original Abellion learn a lot how to use the powers of the ghostaker. His training was a unique blend of formal, structured lessons provided by the finest instructors the Empire could hire, and secret, primordial instruction from the ancient spirit floating beside him.
The formal training taught him the basic disciplines: how to perceive the subtle flow of residual energy, how to prevent lost souls from becoming malignant phantoms, and the intricate art of spiritual mediation. This primarily includes leading the lost souls to rest, comforting them, and offering them closure. This process was profoundly draining, requiring not just magical energy but immense emotional labor. Each soul carried the weight of its life, its regrets, and its unresolved tragedies, and Abellion had to absorb a fraction of that burden to guide them toward peace.
But the true treasure of his training lay with Personia. She possessed primordial knowledge about ghostakers that no living instructor could ever teach. Personia explained that a Ghostaker, through repeated spiritual contact, could inherit one of their skill or all of it ofc if that soul lets you to. This was the forbidden knowledge—the ability to siphon the essence of a soul's life experience and skill directly into the Ghostaker's own body. No reputable Ghostaker would ever risk this, as it often led to possession or insanity, but Personia was teaching him the precise, disciplined method required to control the transfer.
With the help of Personia from her primordial knowledge about ghostakers and Abellion's father hiring ghostaker instructors he become an expert using to it. He devoured the knowledge with the desperation of a starving man. He practiced tirelessly, often spending entire nights in the old, unused sections of the castle, patiently guiding the lingering spirits of former soldiers and servants toward their final peace. This rigorous training was not just a quest for power, but a means to prove his worth.
The sun was setting, casting long, bruised shadows across the immaculate Von Nazaric estate.
"Haah, haaah, haaah" the original Abellion exhausted from the training lean on a big tree outside of the mansion's courtyard. His body was sweaty, his clothes stained with dust and faint spectral energy residue. Even though he had gained incredible power, the training still left him physically depleted.
He spoke to the invisible companion only he could see. "I really thought being a ghostaker is easy but there's so much fundamentals learning through it and there's many abilities to learn too before you become a certified ghostaker." He rubbed the ache in his shoulders. "I mean, there are tiers and certifications! It's like being a glorified celestial therapist who occasionally fights spectral bears. But it's worth it. Thanks you Personia and my parents hiring ghostaker instructor I become an expert rank ghostaker." The pride in his voice was clear. Expert Rank was an achievement most people took a decade to reach.
Personia, floating gently near him, looked radiant, even in her ethereal state. She smiled, a mournful but beautiful expression that made Abellion's heart ache. Personia laugh on the original Abellion then touch his head—a gesture that passed right through him, yet felt warm and real in his mind—and replied "It's all thanks to you Abellion because you are too eager to learn how to become a ghostaker and you are really serious on helping lost souls."
The original Abellion look on Personia and said "Well I need to become a ghostaker to help to get you rest right? All this for you Personia."
His statement hung in the air, transforming the simple interaction into a declaration of love. Personia flinched, a subtle flicker in her spectral form. Personia shocked but she knew he all did this for her after a year staying with the original Abellion she realize that he has feelings for her. His devotion wasn't just admiration; it was a desperate, burning affection that she saw every time he looked at her. He had fallen in love with the ghost of his father's greatest enemy.
But she knew she can't develop feelings for him because she is already dead and ghost like her already don't have emotion when it comes to love only sadness and anger left for ghost like her. She was a creature of sorrow and past malice, her capacity for living emotions burned away in the fire of her defeat.
Her spectral voice softened with pity as she gently refused him. "Abellion, you know what I am. I'm a ghost, a remnant of the past. You know I can't develop feelings for you Abellion."
The original Abellion shook his head, his face a mask of determined conviction. "I don't care about the rules of life or death! I'll find a way, reincarnation exists right? Also even if it takes a thousand of years I'll wait just to have Personia." His love was pure and desperate, the kind of absolute devotion that only someone starved of familial affection could develop. Personia was his teacher, his secret, and the only person who had ever truly focused on him.
The original Abellion tried to touch Personia's face but his hand get through of it. The cold rush of spectral energy was a constant, brutal reminder of the impossibility of his dream. The original Abellion knew he can't touch her but he will find a way to revive or even wait a thousand of years on her to get reincarnate. His path as a Ghostaker was now singularly focused on the Demon King's soul.
A familiar, annoyingly cheerful voice broke the tender moment.
Someone appeared and it's Yulen "Brother are you talking to ghosts again? Mom and Dad said it's lunchtime." Yulen, the protagonist, was the epitome of kindness and competence. He genuinely saw Abellion as his brother, completely unaware of the nobles' slander or Abellion's deep-seated feelings of inadequacy—feelings he himself had fueled by his regression.
The original Abellion scratch his head and said "Yeah sorry, let's just go now." The warmth and easygoing nature of Yulen softened Abellion's anger instantly. It was hard to hate Yulen; he only hated the shadow Yulen cast.
Yulen soften and replied "It's alright, let's go."
The original Abellion then hurrily get up and walk with Yulen to the mansion and then he look back and look to Personia and wave his hand as a gesture of goodbye.
Personia, left alone under the fading light, returned the wave slowly. The moment the two figures disappeared into the massive stone structure, her ethereal composure crumbled. She sighed "I just hope you will not wait for me even for a thousand of years Abellion."
A sound, faint and thin like glass cracking, escaped her. Personia cried for the first time of her life "Hic hic, it's because it's impossible for me to reincarnate and I will not be here forever."
Her tears weren't just sadness; they were cosmic despair. Personia knew she can't get reincarnate because of her sins and it's also because if she gets reincarnated another Armageddon will happen because she is the personification of destruction after all. She was not just a powerful being; she was the physical manifestation of an essential cosmic balance—as long as she existed in a living form, chaos and devastation followed. As long as she's alive destruction will happen which she can't even stop.
"I just hope I will says my final goodbye to you."
"My dear Abellion."
Her time was limited. She was an anchor that was slowly dissolving, and she knew she would eventually fade into nothingness, long before Abellion could ever find a way to resurrect her. The thought of his endless, pointless wait crushed the ancient Demon King.
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After 5 months of relative peace, filled with Abellion's continued Ghostaker duties and Yulen's training, the domestic tranquility of the Von Nazaric manor was shattered. The Von Nazaric receive a letter and it's the letter for the grand tournament of Armada Empire.
This wasn't an optional competition. It was an edict.
"It seems the emperor order that all men who are already in the coming of age will be participate on the tournament," Abrellios said grimly, tossing the imperial scroll onto his large oak desk. The paper crackled with an air of absolute authority.
Lutiana, the Saintess, stood by the window, her face pale with worry. She was renowned for her divine serenity, but now her eyes flashed with fierce protectiveness. Lutiana replied "Yulen is already alright to be participate but how about our dear Abellion? He is a ghostaker, ghostakers are not focus on combat." The tournament was a brutal spectacle of martial power, requiring sword skills, combat magic, and physical strength—none of which were Abellion's specialty. His Ghostaker abilities were useless in a public arena against a living, breathing, armored opponent.
Abrellios, the Hero, usually decisive and strong, looked tired and trapped. Abrellios sighed and replied to his wife "What can we do, also even if our son lose it doesn't matter as long as he lost fairly." He was trying to minimize the disaster, seeking a quiet, honorable exit for his son.
But Lutiana exploded. The years of suppressing her rage at the nobles' slander burst forth. Lutiana sighed and replied angrily "Are you serious?! Do you know our son is always the center of gossips? You know already the rumors right that they say he is not our son but a fraud and fake, do you know how painful it is for me to hear that?!" Her voice cracked. She was bound by her duties as Saintess to uphold peace, but as a mother, she was ready to burn the whole palace down. "Sending him into the arena, where he is guaranteed to be humiliated because his powers are subtle, is exactly what they want! It confirms the rumors!"
Abrellios sighed he knew the rumors, he felt the sting of them every day. He really wanted to kill those nobles who instigate that rumor but he can't do nothing even he is a hero he is not powerful when it comes to politics and social maneuvering. His power was physical, direct, and useless against whispers and scorn. And he even needs the emperor's help if he wanted to stop the rumors. He knew the Emperor was indifferent, or perhaps even secretly encouraging the rumors to keep the Hero's family in check. He knew even with the emperor's help the rumors will still exist because of how hardheaded the nobles are. The court loved nothing more than seeing the high and mighty brought low.
Abrellios look on his wife and sighed 'What should be the right thing to do?' The father in him wanted to shield Abellion; the Hero in him was bound by duty and political reality.
Meanwhile outside of his father's office the original Abellion and Yulen heard that. They had been walking past the door when the Saintess's raised voice cut through the silence. Abellion's face went white. He didn't hear the desperation in his mother's voice; he only heard his father's passive surrender: "Even if our son lose it doesn't matter..." He felt utterly abandoned, sacrificed to public opinion.
Yulen tried to comfort his brother by reaching out and placing a gentle hand on Abellion's shoulder. But Abellion slap his hand and look on Yulen angrily and walk to outside of the mansion. That simple touch, coming from the one person who never had to worry about losing, felt like a deliberate insult. He didn't want comfort; he wanted capability.
He ran until he reached his sanctuary. There he is in the same tree where he always rest after training on becoming a ghostaker. He fell to his knees beneath the massive, gnarled roots.
"Why?!" he screamed into the night, heedless of the open windows of the manor.
"Why I was always being compared to Yulen, even after getting the achievements on becoming the best ghostaker of this empire they still put rumors on me." The Expert Rank certification meant nothing against Yulen's effortless mastery of the sword. "They-they still comparing him to me, why why I was so weak why did you allow me to be born goddess if you just wanted me to be the shadow of his?!"
The anger dissolved into searing, wet tears. The original Abellion cried "Why did I even exist if my role is to be a shadow of my own brother?"
Personia appeared she saw the original Abellion crying and try to touch his back to comfort him but her hands get through of his body. She hovered over him, heartbroken, her spectral touch offering no physical solace.
"You know Abellion?" she whispered, her voice resonating only in his mind.
The original Abellion look on his left side and it's Personia "Personia?"
"I always thought that too, why was I even exist? Just to spread destruction and evil so there would be balance on this world or just be a stepping stone to peoples like your parents." She confessed her own history, the shame of being the 'Demon King'—the necessary evil.
"But I realize we can't control our own roles and our own fate because we are too weak and we are just part of the cog of the machine the Goddess Of Light created of." She was resigned to this cosmic truth. The world needed Heroes, and to make Heroes shine, it needed villains to be crushed.
The original Abellion replied "Then all of my life was just a shadow? A stepping stone of Yulen?!"
Personia want to shook her head and disagree but if she lied or not tell the truth it will just be worse for Abellion, that's why she just nod and didn't replied. Her silence was the loudest confirmation. His life, in the grand scheme of the novel he was a character in, truly was just a vehicle for Yulen's development.
The acceptance of that fate—that he was just a tool—was unbearable. But he reject this fate, he decided. He wouldn't be a sacrificial lamb in the Grand Tournament. He wanted to prove he is not weak that he is worthy to be called the Son of the Hero and the Saintess. He didn't need their quiet pride; he needed power, his power, to silence the world. That's why he decided to ask Personia a suggestion that would change his life forever.
He stood up, wiping the tears and grime from his face. His eyes, though red from crying, were suddenly clear and terrifyingly focused.
"Personia," The original Abellion look on Personia with intent—the intense, calculating focus shining through the boy's desperation.
"The Ghostaker training is too slow. I don't have years. You told me that a Ghostaker can inherit skills from a soul that allows it. And you, Demon King, are the strongest soul I know. I don't want to be a shadow anymore. I want to win."
He made his demand, a cold, brutal bargain for glory.
"Teach me your two skills of yours, the "Flick of the Demon King" and one of your ultimate move the "Whirlwind of Flames"."
Personia just gape her mouth because of the absurd suggestion Abellion had just made. These were not mere Ghostaker abilities; they were cataclysmic powers that had been banned from existence. To teach them to a living host was madness—it was treason against the world that had killed her.
And just said "What?!"
This was the point of no return. The original Abellion had crossed the line from being a victim of fate to becoming a challenger of destiny. His desperate request sealed the contract that would turn him into the 'fraud' son the nobles of the empire mocked—but now, he would change his fate, who was anything but weak.