THE VILLAIN'S POV

Chapter 609: The Legendary Vessel

Freedom has always been a coveted prize ..especially for those who’ve been robbed of it.

For Pure and Broken ..Snow and Orsted, to put it another way ..freedom was everything they wanted.

But freedom was nothing like what they’d imagined. Though they managed to escape and wander as they pleased for several days, Vessels soon began to hunt them in earnest—despite being tied up in a war against the demons.

News of the Pure Vessel’s escape hit like a hammer: a fresh catastrophe no one wanted to relive after the fiasco of the Legendary Vessel in the distant past.

What followed was a relentless pursuit of Snow and Orsted.

It felt as if the Vessels would chase them to the ends of the world. The escape was broadcast to every Lightbearer on the planet, and suddenly the entire world seemed to stand against them.

The chase dragged on. Snow and Orsted scraped out victories by the narrowest margins, but both were nearing their limits. The chaotic way of living—always on the run, always looking over their shoulders—grew more suffocating than their bleak training days in Fellwyn.

To be hunted without pause… to live in constant fear of being seized at any moment…

They both knew that if the leading Vessels ..or the Luminous King himself ..joined the hunt, it would be over.

It was bitterly absurd: two SSS-class monsters reduced to fugitives.

On any other world, with power like theirs, they’d be treated like kings; no one would dare breathe too loudly in their presence.

But on Duskreach, the Lightbearers’ home, SSS was only the starting line. There were plenty of beasts strong enough to face and defeat Snow and Orsted.

Alongside the Pantheon, the Lightbearers were among the mightiest races alive. This level of power was normal for them.

Under that pressure ..forced to live like criminals, sprinting from one ambush into another ..Snow and Orsted hit their ceiling… and found themselves following in the Legendary Vessel’s footsteps once more.

She had escaped, long ago. No Lightbearer had been able to bring her to heel, and in the end they were forced to leave her be.

Snow and Orsted realized she might be their only ally on Duskreach ..a world that felt like a serpent coiled around their throats.

So they began to search for her.

At first they assumed it would be nearly impossible, imagining she was hiding somewhere remote and unfindable.

The surprise was that the reality was the opposite. The Legendary Vessel hadn’t bothered to hide at all, as Snow and Orsted learned when they mingled with other Lightbearers and gathered rumors.

She had left her whereabouts in the open—and openly dared every Lightbearer to try.

“You want to drag me back and make me fight your stupid war for you? Fine. Beat me first, if that’s what you want.”

For years, the Vessel commanders—and even the King—challenged her again and again to haul her back.

Every time, she wiped the floor with them and sent them away humiliated.

She was terrifyingly strong, wielding a destructive holy power that felt akin to the Light-Soul aura the Pure Vessel possessed.

She had taken her freedom by force.

Hearing these stories, Snow and Orsted were only more certain the answer they were looking for lay in her hands.

Without further delay, they headed for the place she was said to dwell.

It was a far-flung region on the very edge of Duskreach, a desolate land abutting a valley whose waters ran between ranks of towering mountains.

They called it the Valley of the End ..because beyond it, there was no more land.

It looked grim and barren, but looks deceived. The deeper they went, the more they found dozens of golden trees, each radiating inexhaustible life-force that let the valley bloom.

In that rugged place, plants flourished; the ground was carpeted in green, turning it into a cradle of life despite its harsh facade.

Snow and Orsted pressed on, awed—until a prickle of dread ran down their spines.

They had forgotten, for a heartbeat, that they were trespassing on the ground of the very Legendary Vessel they had longed to meet.

They hadn’t expected to find her so quickly .. and the meeting was nothing like they’d imagined.

The great Legendary Vessel stood before them, and her stance was openly hostile, driving both of them a step back before they realized it.

“It’s been a while since Vessels last dared to chase me,” she said. “I thought I’d made myself clear. Perhaps letting you crawl away alive each time gave you the wrong idea—you think you can pester me whenever you please.”

She descended the slope toward them, drawing a slim sword that usually hung at her hip.

She was slender, her figure almost unnaturally perfect. Her hair burned a fiery red ..a rare sight among Lightbearers, whose hair was typically golden blond or pure white.

Her face hid behind a golden mask; her clothes looked almost… human ..something out of a Victorian age unknown to Snow and Orsted.

It was a strange, foreign image ..but there was no time to marvel. She was intent on driving them off; they could feel the muted killing intent coiled inside the aura she gathered along her blade.

They raised their hands, hurriedly trying to explain that they hadn’t come to fight her at all…

But the Legendary Vessel didn’t give them time to speak. The instant she drew that strange, slender sword, the fight had already begun.

It could hardly be called a fight. For Snow and Orsted, it was a nightmare.

Though both had reached SSS class, they were crushed one-sidedly by the very Legendary Vessel they had long admired.

Her style was terrifyingly swift ..beyond tracking ..and her strikes were clean, fatal. Both of them realized she could have killed them from the very first exchange; she simply chose to spare their lives.

Their lives were the only thing she spared. She didn’t hesitate to shatter their bodies, grinding them down until they were a miserable sight.

Orsted collapsed almost immediately, leaving Snow to face her alone.

He understood that words would never reach her, so he fought with everything he had, hoping—at least—that his blade would.

He poured out every drop of Light-Soul power his body could muster. He fought to the limit.

He still couldn’t touch her. Yet the force he unleashed finally made the Legendary Vessel hesitate, their swords crossing thousands of times in mere seconds.

Each clash boomed like a nuclear blast, flooding the entire Valley of the End with a searing brilliance that seemed enough to banish every shadow in the world.

Snow endured. He was the Pure Vessel, after all ..the Lightbearer whispered to be the greatest in history, with talents and gifts far beyond his peers. And yet, in the end…

Even he was crushed before the Legendary Vessel. Still, despite his brutal defeat, he succeeded in drawing her attention.

Collapsed amid the valley’s sacred waters, he looked up as the Legendary Vessel stood over him, her emerald eyes fixed upon him.

“This day keeps getting stranger,” she said. “Two Vessels turn up after all these years ..and one of them wields the Light-Soul. Then you must be the Pure Vessel the rumors spoke of.”

News of the Pure Vessel’s birth had rocked all of Duskreach; even the Legendary Vessel had heard it. The moment she crossed blades with him, she knew.

Bleeding at her feet, Snow clung to consciousness and said what he had come to say.

“We followed in your footsteps. We escaped that darkness, too. We fled to reclaim the freedom stolen from us—the Vessels.”

In the end, both he and she had suffered the same fate—made into repositories for the hopes of an entire race. But both had been selfish, and bold enough, to cast those hopes aside.

Snow and Orsted wanted the same thing.

“This world is ruled by strength. With enough power, we can make our hearts’ desires real. That’s how you’ve lived free all these years—because you are the Legendary Vessel, the strongest Lightbearer alive.”

Because she was strong enough to crush anyone who stood against her, she’d lived as she pleased, not as others wished. That was the overwhelming power Snow and Orsted sought.

“Please ..teach us how to become stronger. How to surpass the level we’re stuck at.”

“We’re vessels, just like you. We ran from our fate to win our freedom.”

They pleaded with her to train them, to forge them into something strong enough to live by their own laws.

The Legendary Vessel saw the resemblance between them and the Pure Vessel. She grasped their intent. And still, she refused them outright.

“I’m not taking disciples. I’ve no time to waste on the two of you .. especially you, Pure Vessel. Your very presence will only bring me more trouble with that damned Luminous King.”

Even so ..despite her refusal she allowed them to remain in the Valley of the End.

“No one ever taught me how to grow stronger. I did it myself. That’s how I’ve survived all these years. If power is what you want, you’ll have to find it on your own. You can stay here—no Vessel will dare step into this place while I’m around—but that’s as far as my help goes.”

She was a strange woman, yet kind enough to give them a refuge in her domain, despite knowing almost nothing about them.

It felt as if those green eyes of hers could see straight through their souls.

She let them stay ..but warned she would kill them if they approached her dwelling without permission. And there was one more thing.

“I heard you call me the Legendary Vessel. That’s a name I discarded long ago. If you’re going to address me from now on, use my real name.”

Before she left, she gave it to them—the name she’d carried all these years.

“My name is Audrey. Just Audrey ..no titles, no honors. You’d best remember it, unless you want it to be the last thing you ever hear in your life.”

It was a strange meeting, and the start of a stranger relationship ..between Snow and Orsted and Audrey, who had lived in seclusion, chasing a purpose no one else understood.

And yet, the days in the Valley of the End would always bring a quiet smile to the Pure Vessel’s face when he remembered them. Perhaps they were the happiest days of his life—on the eve of the darkness and calamities the future still had in store.