Chapter 15: The Whole Armada Empire is in Flames! {Ymir's Grand Plan and her Grand Manipulation} (13)
The portal known as Parhelion swirled shut, sealing away the sight of the hundreds of Dark Cubes raining down upon Yulen. Abellion stepped onto the stone floor of the hidden fortress—the Emperor's "Small Castle." It was a misnomer; while smaller than the Imperial Palace, it was a fortified bunker designed for the Royal Family's absolute safety.
But safety was a concept Abellion had long since erased from the dictionary of the Armada Empire.
The air inside was thick with the copper scent of fresh blood and the charred smell of ozone. The walls, usually adorned with tapestries depicting the glory of the Armada lineage, were now splashed with gore. The monsters Abellion had commanded—chimeras stitched together from nightmares, goblins with eyes full of madness, and shadow beasts—had done their work efficiently.
Abellion walked through the carnage with the casual gait of a man strolling through a garden. His boots clicked rhythmically on the marble floor, a sound that terrified the few survivors huddled in the corners.
Suddenly, a hand shot out from a pile of debris.
A woman hold Abellion's feet and she said this. "MONSTER!"
She was a noblewoman, perhaps a countess or a high-ranking maid, her fine silk dress torn and stained. Her face was a mask of pure hatred and terror, her grip on his greaves desperate, as if she could hold back the tide of darkness with her fingernails alone.
Abellion look at her like looking an insect.
There was no pity in his purple eyes. There was no anger. There was only the cold, detached observation of a higher being looking at a speck of dust.
Then he forcefully let go her hand using his right foot. He didn't kick her away; he simply stepped forward, breaking her grip with undeniable strength. She fell back, gasping, but before she could scream again, Abellion brought his boot down.
And then Abellion smash her head using his right foot.
-SQUELCH!
It was a gruesome, wet sound that echoed in the silent hall. And he spit on her dead body. It was the ultimate insult, a rejection of the humanity she represented.
The blood gushing out towards his face.
A spray of crimson mist coated his cheek and forehead. He didn't flinch. He didn't blink.
Abellion wipe the blood of his face using left hand, and he look at it. He examined the red liquid on his gloved fingers, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger as if testing its quality.
And then use the blood to comb his messy long hair.
He slicked his golden hair back with the blood of his victim, creating a terrifying visage. He looked like a fallen angel, beautiful and grotesque all at once. The golden locks, now streaked with red, framed a face that had forgotten how to smile.
The monsters and chimera kneel infront of him.
As he entered the main throne room of the small castle, the beasts stopped their rampaging. Great wolves with three heads, snakes with arms, and creatures of pure shadow bowed low, pressing their snouts to the cold floor in submission to their master.
Abellion ignore them.
He walked past his army of nightmares, his eyes fixed on the center of the room. There, surrounded by a magical barrier that was flickering and failing, was the last stand of the Empire.
And then he saw the reinforcements encircling and protecting the Emperor.
A handful of elite Imperial Knights, their armor dented and broken, stood in a protective ring. And in the center of that ring sat Emperor Augustus Le Armada V. The tyrant who had ordered the death of the Elves, the man who had caused so much suffering, was currently a weeping mess.
Who is crying while holding his dead son the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince lay limp in his father's arms, a spear wound through his chest. The Emperor rocked back and forth, sobbing, his crown askew, looking nothing like the mastermind villain of the novel.
Abellion stopped ten paces away. He tilted his head, unimpressed.
"Pathetic as always."
Then Abellion raised his right hand and.
-BOOM!
A shockwave of pure telekinetic force erupted from his palm. It wasn't magic; it was the raw authority of the Ring of End. The magical barrier shattered like glass. The elite knights, the furniture, the debris, and even his own kneeling monsters were blasted backward, slamming into the walls with bone-breaking force.
All of the people of the castle including the monsters were thrown away.
The room was cleared in an instant. Only the Emperor remained in the center, shielded momentarily by the corpse of his son, but now exposed.
Abellion left his finger and pull the Emperor using the power of force.
The Emperor was yanked into the air, his son's body tumbling from his grasp. He flew across the room, an invisible hand dragging him by the throat.
The Emperor appeared infront of him.
Abellion caught him by the neck, his grip like a vice of iron. He lifted the fat, sobbing man off the ground until their eyes met.
"HE-HELP!" The Emperor calling for help but no one did. The knights were unconscious or dead. The monsters were watching. The gods were silent.
And then.
-CRACK!
It was a sharp, final sound. Abellion twisted Emperor Augustus neck sideways.
The Emperor's eyes went wide, then blank. His body went limp. The man who had terrorized the continent, the man who had caused the death of Olivia, died without a speech, without dignity, and without mercy.
After a while twisting his neck many times, Abellion finally stop. He wanted to be sure. He twisted it until the vertebrae were dust. Then, he dropped the corpse like a sack of garbage.
And then order the monsters and the chimera to get up.
"GET UP! Clean this mess and."
He turned his gaze to the corner of the room. There, slumped against a pillar, bleeding and horrified, was the Saintess Lutiana—his mother. She had arrived with the reinforcements, only to witness her son murder the ruler of the nation.
Abellion look to the knights and his mother.
His eyes softened for a fraction of a second, then hardened again into ice.
"Leave them be and don't hurt them, they won't do anything because they are too injured to do so."
It wasn't mercy. It was the arrogance of a predator who didn't fear the wounded prey. Or perhaps, deep down, Johan—the soul inside Abellion—couldn't bring himself to kill the woman who had birthed this body, even if he hated her choices.
"PARHELION!"
-VROOM!
The air tore open again. A portal opened infront of Abellion. It swirled with colors of violet and black, a gateway to the final battlefield.
And gesture the monsters and the chimera to go the portal and they obeyed. The army of beasts marched through, disappearing into the void to join the fight against the Goddess—or to die as fodder.
Abellion look back.
He saw his mother in horror while her tears are still falling. Lutiana reached out a hand, trembling, unable to speak, unable to call him her son. He was a stranger. A monster. A Dark Lord.
And then he continue to go inside of the portal.
He stepped into the darkness, leaving the ruins of the castle and his shattered family behind.
---
The scene shifted outside, to the main courtyard of the Imperial Palace, where the greatest battle in history was taking place.
-CLANG
-CLANG
-CLANG
-CLANG
The sound was deafening. Abrellios together with Yulen jump Ancalagon but he easily deflected their attacks.
The Hero of the Empire and the Protagonist of Time were fighting with everything they had. Abrellios swung his sword with enough force to shatter mountains. Yulen wielded Navarium, slashing at the speed of light.
But Ancalagon, in his Hybrid form, was an immovable object. He stood twelve feet tall, his obsidian scales deflecting legendary weapons as if they were twigs. He moved with a speed that belied his size, parrying blows with his forearms, his wings, and his tail.
Yulen screamed and said. "DIE!"
Yulen thrust his sword forward, aiming for the dragon's heart, channeling all his remaining mana into a time-accelerated strike.
Ancalagon just yawn and kick both of them.
It was a casual, dismissive motion. He caught Yulen's blade with two fingers, shattered the momentum, and delivered a roundhouse kick that sent both heroes crashing through the palace walls.
"You pathetic mortals, really thought you could kill me?!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Ancalagon's laughter shook the very foundations of the capital. He spread his wings, casting a shadow over the burning city.
"The Goddess of Light struggle to sealed, the Evil God of Death Thanatos struggle to kill and devour my soul, how can both of you mortals could try and defeat me?!"
He looked down at them with genuine amusement.
"No you can't because you two are the true definition of weaklings."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Ancalagon keep laughing on both Yulen and Abrellios.
He wasn't just fighting them; he was humiliating them. He wanted them to feel the gap in power. He wanted them to despair.
Then Ancalagon pointed his claws towards the heavens.
The sky above was churning with dark clouds, lit only by the fires of the city below.
"GODDESS OF LIGHT! LOOK AT YOUR CREATION, ARE YOU GONNA KEEP WATCHING AND LET YOUR HEROES DIE?!"
Ancalagon said as a retort so the goddess could finally descend on this world. He was baiting the supreme deity. He needed her here. He needed her physical manifestation to appear so that the trap could be sprung.
And so both Abellion and Ancalagon will do their role to kill the goddess as their fated role for Ymir.
This was the secret truth of the war. After all both Abellion and Ancalagon are just pawns for Ymir's revenge.
Time seemed to slow as Ancalagon's internal thoughts revealed the true scope of the cosmic game being played.
Ancalagon knew he was a pawn of Ymir's game. Most beings would resent being used, but Ancalagon accepted it. He hated the Goddess of Light more than he loved his own freedom.
While Thanatos and his fellow evil gods, and Goddess of Light and her forces are playing checkers. They were making simple moves: capture territory, kill enemies, gain faith. They thought this was a war for dominance of the mortal realm.
Ymir was the one who played chess not just a normal chess but a 4D Chess.
The Goddess of the Elves, thought to be dead or dormant, was manipulating the timeline itself. She knew this would happen and she used her pawns Ancalagon as the Knight and Abellion as the King for her revenge.
Even Ymir is dead from the hands of Abellion, her plans are still in motion. Abellion believed he had killed Ymir and burned Yggdrasil to gain power. He believed he was acting on his own revenge. But even that matricide was part of Ymir's design. She allowed herself to be destroyed so that her power would flow into Abellion, turning him into the Dark Lord necessary to break the system.
Her plan hadn't failed at all because Ancalagon knew this attempt to kill the Goddess of Light will fail.
Ancalagon looked at Yulen, who was struggling to stand up from the rubble. He knew that today, the bad guys would win, but the Goddess of Light would eventually overpower them because her faith battery was too high in this timeline.
And he will be sealed again. That was the price Ancalagon was willing to pay. Defeat today was necessary.
But Ymir promised him in the new timeline which will be caused by the Hero Yulen to regress again.
This was the crux of the plan. They needed Yulen to use the Eye of Dragon of Time. They needed to push the Protagonist so far into despair that he would reset the world.
He will be unsealed but in a different manner because the fake prophecy and the eradication of all will not happen in that timeline. In the next loop, the variables would change.
But from Abellion who fully embrace himself as the Dark Lord and later both Ymir, Ancalagon and Abellion together slay the Goddess once and for all.
In the next timeline, Abellion wouldn't be a confused boy seeking revenge for a dead wife. He would be a focused avatar of destruction from the start.
This plan that the Goddess Ymir had was just a fake, a deceit for the Goddess to believe that they both Ancalagon and Abellion want the destruction.
The Goddess of Light thought they wanted to destroy the world. In reality, they wanted to free it from her tyranny.
Of course Ancalagon was the only person who knew this plan and Abellion has no knowledge through it. Abellion was a tragic figure, raging against a fate he couldn't see the edges of. He thought this was the end. Ancalagon knew it was just the prologue.
'THIS IS ALL FOR OUR REVENGE YMIR, I PROMISE TO YOU OUR PLAN WILL BE SWIFLTY IN MOTION.'
Ancalagon's amber eyes glowed with fanaticism.
Ancalagon look on Yulen and continue to speak on his thoughts.
'After all Abellion's death will be the key for the Goddess and this brat to reset the timeline again.'
Yulen had to kill Abellion. The trauma of killing his own brother, combined with the destruction of the Empire, would be the trigger for the regression. It was a cruel, brilliant loop.
Ancalagon laugh, the Goddess really could thought she could turn the tide of this war.
No, she was falling on the trap that Ymir had made, after all the Goddess of Light was already on Ymir's grasp.
'Pathetic really pathetic.'
Ancalagon decided it was time to push the Protagonist to the breaking point. It was time to show them true despair.
Ancalagon then raise his left hand and a big circle that were summon the heavens appeared.
It was a magic circle the size of the city itself. Complex runic formulas burned in the sky, turning the clouds blood red. The mana density became so heavy that gravity began to distort. Buildings started to float. The air became unbreathable.
Ancalagon look both of Yulen and Abrellios.
He looked at the broken Hero and the terrified Regressor. He smiled, exposing rows of razor-sharp teeth.
And he utter a word.
It wasn't a shout. It was a whisper that was heard by every living soul in the Empire.
"Apocalypse of End."