Chapter 177

Chapter 177: Chapter 177

The revelation caught her off guard, but she refused to give Zelda the satisfaction of seeing her reaction. She kept her face still, even as questions began racing through her mind. How was that possible? What kind of ability could prevent someone from aging?

Zelda tilted her head, studying her expression. "Don’t look at me like that. And don’t assume it means I’m immortal."

"I wasn’t thinking that," Amelia replied flatly.

"Of course you weren’t." Zelda let out a small laugh, though there was little humor in it. "You always did have a habit of thinking you understood everything."

Amelia shifted against the restraints, wincing when another surge of electricity traveled through her body. Her fingers curled involuntarily, and she clenched her jaw until the worst of the pain passed.

"You see, while you had to grow from a newborn, I was born already in a fully adult body. I never had to waste years growing up or wait until I was old enough to become what I wanted to be."

Amelia frowned. "You were born as an adult?"

"Yes. Reborn" Zelda glanced down at herself, smoothing a hand over her clothes as though the subject were nothing more than an amusing detail. "And while you were busy searching for your so-called fated mates, trying to make them fall in love with you all over again..." Her expression twisted with disgust as she said the word love. "I was already plotting my next move."

Amelia closed her eyes briefly, letting her head fall back against the support behind her. The electricity continued to crawl beneath her skin, making it difficult to think, let alone tolerate Zelda’s endless boasting.

"Do I really have to suffer through listening to this?" she muttered. "I’ve been tied up here, you’ve been shocking me for who knows how long, and now I have to sit through your life story? I never asked to know any of this."

"Still as impatient as ever." Zelda gave her a disapproving look. "You would think being given another life would have taught you some humility."

"Being given another life taught me that I should have finished the job properly the first time."

"Fine. Let’s skip to the part you’ll find interesting." She took a step. "The reason I have this ability is thanks to the Demon King."

Amelia blinked, then let out a short, disbelieving breath. "Try telling me something more believable than that."

"I knew you’d react that way."

"Because it makes no sense." Amelia pulled against her restraints, her brows drawing together. "I defeated him."

"That’s exactly why you don’t understand." Zelda straightened, her expression growing serious. "You defeated him, yes. But did you truly believe you managed to wipe out every single one of his followers over the years?"

Amelia’s faint smile disappeared.

A heavy feeling settled in her chest. She thought of the years she had spent hunting down the remnants of his followers, the dangers she had faced, and the sacrifices she had made to ensure the Demon King would never threaten the world again.

She had believed that every enemy she eliminated brought her closer to fulfilling her promise.

Slowly, her gaze returned to Zelda’s face.

"What did you do?" she asked. "And whatever it is, it better not be what I’m thinking."

Zelda’s expression softened into something almost serene, as if she were recalling a particularly satisfying memory. "I simply became a better version of myself."

Amelia stared at her, momentarily unable to believe what she had just heard.

"Are you insane?" Her voice rose despite the pain gripping her body. "You knew what he was. You knew what he had done to the world, and you still chose to follow in his footsteps?"

"Follow in his footsteps?" Zelda repeated, her expression hardening. "Don’t make it sound as though I blindly worshipped him. I had no interest in serving someone who was already dead. I was interested in what he could offer me."

"And that made all of this worth it?"

"How could it not?" Zelda shot back. "If I had followed your foolish will and destroyed every last one of his followers, I would never have become this powerful. All those years you spent hunting them down, you never stopped to consider what they might know. Their knowledge, their techniques, their abilities—you were so determined to erase them that you threw away the opportunity to learn from them."

Amelia’s hands tightened against the restraints. She wanted to tear herself free and wipe that smug expression from Zelda’s face, but every attempt to summon her power met the same suffocating resistance. Zelda seemed to notice her struggle.

"There’s no point trying," she said casually. "Not while the current is running. You can glare at me all you want, but it won’t change anything."

"Keep talking," Amelia muttered. "I’m sure you’ll eventually say something that makes me regret not listening sooner."

Zelda ignored the remark. "I learned all their secret arts," she continued. "And after consuming certain... edibles, I gained some of the Demon King’s own abilities."

Amelia’s stomach tightened.

"Edibles?" she repeated, her voice edged with disbelief. "You’re telling me you consumed something made from the remains of his power?"

"Something like that." Zelda’s smile returned. "You don’t need to know every detail. What matters is that it worked."

"And what exactly did you gain?"

"Several things, but resurrection is the most interesting." Zelda watched Amelia carefully. "One of the darkest and most powerful abilities he possessed. I remember how much difficulty you had defeating him because of that very ability. No matter how many times you brought him down, he kept coming back."

Amelia said nothing.

She remembered. Of course she remembered.

The battle had dragged on far longer than it should have, every victory turning into another desperate struggle when the Demon King rose again. The exhaustion, the injuries, the fear that she might never be able to end it—all of it came rushing back with painful clarity.

And Zelda had taken that same power for herself.

"You knew," Amelia finally said.

"You knew how much I suffered to put him down. You knew what it cost me to make sure he could never hurt anyone again, and you still chose to bring his abilities back into this world."

Zelda’s expression remained unchanged.

Amelia swallowed, but the tightness in her throat refused to ease. She had spent so much of her life fighting to undo the Demon King’s influence, believing that every sacrifice had meant something. Now, faced with Zelda’s confession, she could not stop wondering how much of that work had been undone while she was busy trying to keep her promise.

"Now it feels like every bit of that effort was wasted," she said, her eyes fixed on Zelda. "All those years. All those people who died. Everything I went through to stop him..."

Her voice faltered for a moment. She pressed her lips together, refusing to let the pain in her chest show any more than it already had.

Then she looked Zelda straight in the eyes.

"Why would you do this?"