Karnak, Monarch of Death

Dozens, hundreds of fragments scattered like sparks in every direction before fading away. Amidst the light drifting like ash, Karnak smiled bitterly. “It’s done.”

The giant of light vanished without leaving even a corpse. It was a clean, thorough kill.

“Yes, it’s done, but...”

That didn’t mean everything had been resolved. There was still a problem.

The small girl was holding a blue aura blade, her cold eyes fixed squarely on him. The girl spoke his name. “Karnak.”

Karnak answered with hers. “Lapicel.”

She began walking toward him. Varos quickly stepped in front of her to block her path. Lapicel’s aura blade flared even brighter in response. Serati and Leven stood on edge, glancing nervously between both sides, unsure of what to do.

“U-uh...”

“Right now... this is...”

Karnak murmured softly toward Lapicel, “Are you here to punish me?”

He nodded, gathering mana into both hands. “You certainly have the right, but I don’t plan on going down without a fight.”

This was not like during the Marada incident. Karnak had grown far stronger since then, and Varos, too, had now reached the level of a blue knight. Serati and Leven, as his vassals, ultimately could not go against him. It was four against one, and Lapicel, for that matter, was weaker now than she had been back then.

At the time, she had forcibly drawn out purple-tier aura using the cursed sword, but now, blue-tier was her limit. In truth, she should be the one fearing Karnak.However, Karnak knew she wouldn’t back down. If she were the type to yield just because she lacked power or faced unfavorable odds, she would never have suffered so terribly in the first place.

Karnak hesitated. If they fought, he could win. But that wasn’t an ideal outcome either. If he pushed Lapicel now, her mind would not remain intact.

I don’t want that, he thought immediately.

He found himself startled by the thought. Why didn’t he want that? He didn’t know. Their gazes met in the air. Both of them wore complicated expressions, unable to grasp the other’s thoughts.

Silence stretched between them. In the stillness, only the cold moonlight quietly illuminated the charred remains of the city.

Lapicel finally broke the silence. “Even if I were to face you now, my fate would already be sealed.”

Yet, it didn’t matter. If she could erase this burning hatred and pain from her mind, she would gladly let her soul shatter again and plunge into an eternity of torment. What worth was left in her soul? It was already so tattered and broken?

But this child’s soul is different. She was talking about the soul of this era’s Lapicel, the small, young Lapicel. She could not allow even this fragile child’s soul to be dragged into the same suffering.

The Martial King of Cyphras lowered her killing intent. “I will withdraw for now.”

Incredulous, Karnak asked, “Withdraw?”

Varos reacted much the same way. Both of them wore expressions of disbelief, as if they were witnessing the impossible.

Lapicel’s voice came softly. “I cannot bring myself to harm the child.”

Humanity was something that had to be protected, and her younger self of this era was included.

“Eternal evil...” Her voice began to tremble faintly. Even now, she was tormented by the memories of her soul being torn apart. She was enduring it only through sheer superhuman will. “I do not believe you can change.”

“If you had been able to change, no, if you had even the faintest possibility of changing, then I do not believe you could ever have unleashed such hell upon the world.”

However, the young Lapicel had seen a different Karnak. He was changing.

“You were kind to this child... you never brought her any harm...”

Lapicel’s words grew increasingly disjointed. “You were not the one... who sent me to this era...”

The pain of her memories had risen to an unbearable level. “The sin of violating a child’s soul... must fall upon him...”

Slowly, Lapicel’s eyes began to close. “The price of this sin... he must pay it...”

Strength drained from her limbs, and her head drooped. “Eternal evil... I wonder if you truly... can change...”

In the end, Lapicel collapsed on the spot. Varos rushed over in alarm and caught her. Hurrying after him, Karnak cried out, “Wait! Lapicel!”

There had been something in her words that he couldn’t ignore. She had said it was not Karnak who had sent her to this era, that the sin of violating the young Lapicel’s soul lay with someone else.

“Then who? Who sent you here?”

Lapicel’s eyes fluttered open faintly. Karnak pressed her urgently, “Was it Tesranach? Was it another version of us, from a different era?!”

“Ah...” She parted her lips. Her gaze drifted between Karnak and Varos. “Another version of you two, from a different era...?”

Her eyes closed once more, and she spoke her last words. “Tesranach... is not you...”

***

Lapicel’s body, lying limp, convulsed slightly. “First, we need to heal her.”

Karnak immediately placed his hand on her forehead. “Sin of pain, sleep beneath the darkness of rest.”

Just as he had done before, he cast his spell to seal her memories. Having done it once already, it didn’t take long for Lapicel’s condition to stabilize. As he worked the spell, Karnak sank into thought. Her last words had been deeply troubling.

“Tesranach is not us?” he murmured.

It might have seemed like nothing at first glance, but her words carried layers of meaning. First of all, Lapicel had not asked who Tesranach was. “In other words, she knows about Tesranach.”

Of course, even young Lapicel knew of Tesranach, so it could have been something she remembered from her sealed memories. But the nuance was different. She had spoken as if she came from a future where Tesranach already existed.

Varos tilted his head. “But Lapicel knows about our past selves too, doesn’t she?”

Which meant she came from a future where both the Monarch of Death Karnak and Death Knight Lord Varos existed. That suggested Tesranach’s future and Karnak’s future belonged to the same timeline.

“Does that even make sense, young master?” Varos wondered.

“That’s why it’s strange,” answered Karnak.

Demphis’s account had sounded reasonably coherent. There had been gaps in his story, enough not to take it as gospel, but for the moment, it had seemed like the most plausible theory. But if what Lapicel said was true, then Demphis’s entire tale might have been a lie.

“If Lapicel is right, then the story goes like this!” A third party had stolen Karnak’s power, Astra Shunaph, and, claiming the name Tesranach, posed as the Monarch of Death. That same entity had altered everyone’s memories, contracts, even history itself.

After hearing Karnak’s explanation, Serati frowned. “Does such a being even exist?”

Could anyone truly steal the power of Astra Shunaph, usurp the throne of the Monarch of Death, and manipulate memories and history itself? If such a thing were possible, that would mean they were truly a transcendent entity...

“If such a being existed, I doubt you would have ever become the Monarch of Death, Lord Karnak. You would have been crushed by them long ago.”

At that, Karnak and Varos exchanged odd glances.

“Uh, well...”

“Come to think of it... there is such a being, isn’t there, young master?”

“Right?”

In Karnak’s timeline, such a transcendent truly did exist. They were referring to the guardian of the world, the Dragon Emperor Grateria. Of course, Karnak had defeated him, and he had fallen, becoming the Death Dragon Grateria. Like Lapicel, he had lost all intelligence and become little more than a beast.

But unlike Lapicel, who was still merely a human hero, Grateria possessed the soul of a great dragon. It was possible that a sliver of reason had returned to him after Karnak’s dominion faded and he had fallen as the Death Dragon.

“Then perhaps, he might have reclaimed his throne as Dragon Emperor. He was a monster beyond comprehension, after all.”

If Grateria had regained the power of the Dragon Emperor, he would indeed have been capable of such feats. Even considering Lapicel and Demphis’s reactions, the pieces fit together rather well. And yet, there had been a reason Karnak had never suspected that possibility until now.

“Why?” There was a fundamental flaw in the theory. “Why would the Dragon Emperor do this?”

The Dragon Emperor had been the guardian of the world. He was not a petty man drunk on power like Karnak, who had sought to destroy the world.

“I know I’m not really one to talk, but... there’s no way that mighty Dragon Emperor, having regained his senses, would stoop to something this vile.”

Serati cautiously suggested, “Maybe... he was tainted by darkness?”

“That state of corruption would’ve been when he was the Death Dragon.”

If he had been corrupted by darkness, that meant he was still under Karnak’s control, and thus, he wouldn’t be doing something like this of his own will. But if he had broken free of Karnak’s control, then his consciousness should have returned as well, and he would never have abandoned his duty as guardian to commit these atrocities.

“If anything, with me gone, he would have destroyed the Necropia Empire, worked to restore human civilization, and done everything he could to heal the world. That would’ve suited his role as guardian.”

People often say that a good man doesn’t need a reason to turn bad, especially when it comes to misplaced trust. But the truth was, there was always a reason, though it was difficult to accept.

But in the case of the Dragon Emperor, though, there could be no reason at all. If Grateria returned to his senses, why would he commit acts that not even Karnak would contemplate?

Leven asked, “What if he didn’t fully regain his senses?”

“Then he wouldn’t have the power to do this,” responded Karnak.

“No, I mean... what if he only regained half of his senses? Enough to do something like this?”

“So you’re saying he ended up as some evil Dragon Emperor under my influence, something like that?” Karnak shot him a glare. “What part of me would ever inspire someone to want to pull off something like this?”

As he’d said before, what Tesranach was doing now was something Karnak himself had never even considered. Returning time and space to the beginning to dominate both light and darkness?

“From my perspective, that’s completely unappealing! I’ve never once thought about it.”

What Karnak had wanted as the Monarch of Death had been clear. Even now, having abandoned everything, his desires were no different. Neither had ever involved this bizarre ambition to rule over both light and darkness.

“To put it simply,” Karnak concluded firmly, “This is absolutely not something I would do. So it makes no sense to say the Dragon Emperor would do it, just because he was influenced by me.”

Unless there was some entirely different reason, the idea that the Dragon Emperor was Tesranach was impossible. Yet no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t come up with any reason for such a thing to happen.

“I really don’t know.” Karnak scratched his head in frustration.

The unanswered questions gnawed at his mind, grating on his nerves. Then, his gaze happened to fall on the unconscious Lapicel.

Come to think of it...

The answer was right before his eyes. The little girl was barely asleep. Her memories had been sealed to free her from pain. If he awakened the future martial king within her, he might be able to solve all these lingering mysteries. But the price would be steep.

Lapicel would go mad. Beyond anyone’s ability to save.

A surge of desire shot through him. It was a craving, almost an obsession, to resolve every last one of his questions. He found himself asking inwardly: Faced with this burning desire, what value did Lapicel’s life truly hold?

A moment of silence lingered. After a moment, Karnak withdrew his hand from her forehead. Lapicel’s breathing visibly steadied.

As if he had expected this, Varos asked dryly, “Have you given up on finding the answer, young master?”

“Yeah.”

“You chose her safety over uncovering the secret? That’s not like you, young master.”

“You’re right. It’s not like me.”

Serati smiled gently from the side. “That’s a good thing.”

“What is?”

“Not being like your usual self means... you’re becoming more human, doesn’t it? You’re changing, just like you wanted.”

“Is that an insult or a compliment?” Even as he grumbled, a faint smile crept onto Karnak’s lips. Surprisingly, it wasn’t such a bad feeling.