Novel Full Chapter 1227 Dimension (11)
‘…Portion?’ Cyneah repeated after noticing how Haylee emphasized the corrupted soul sealed on the Macabre Glacier was only a portion.
Hayle chuckled.
[Yes. Portion. As I said, the first vessel of the Void Core was incomplete. He could use Void magic to an extent but could not bring out its full capability. From this, it was right to say that he was weak.]
‘…’
Cyneah did not know how to react to Haylee’s remark. In her opinion, the first Void Master was a true genius. After all, without anyone to show and teach him about Void magic, he learned and used it to the point the Winfrey Family feared him.
‘…Where is the other portion then?’
[…]
Haylee stayed quiet. Still, Cyneah felt no fear that Haylee might suddenly stop speaking. This was because she sensed Haylee’s eagerness to engage; she was simply weighing how much to reveal. Her hesitation stemmed from a worry about sharing too many secrets because she doubted Cyneah’s ability to handle the truth.
‘You don’t have to worry about me.’
Cyneah sensed Haylee’s feelings wavered slightly as she denied her claim.
[I will never worry about you.]
‘…’
Cyneah did not follow through on her words, not wanting to aggravate Haylee and make her stop talking.
[If you really want to know, then that’s fine. Still… don’t you already have your suspicions? And right now, you only want to hear me confirm them.]
Cyneah frowned. She did have her suspicions.
Cyneah’s suspicion began with the nature of the Macabre Glacier’s sentience. She sensed there was more to it, even before Haylee clarified that it wasn’t sentient in the traditional sense.
Cyneah started to question the sentient’s identity due to its intense and apparent desire for the souls of the deceased. At times, she wondered if it harbored resentment towards the living. This was unexpected, as a sentient typically shouldn’t have an understanding of human emotions.
During Cyneah’s first few years in Somuli, she primarily relied on the Macabre Glacier’s support to survive. This was because the magic core she expected to have returned to her after fusing with Haylee again did not return. She soon realized that it was not that her magic core did not return but that Haylee took charge of it and refused to work with her.
It was not wrong to say that Haylee developed a very strong persona and believed without a doubt that she was a separate person from Cyneah.
Because Haylee refused to help Cyneah, the latter had no choice but to learn how to properly control the Macabre Glacier and its sentient. Surprisingly, the Macabre Glacier’s sentient was far more cooperative than Cyneah expected. The Macabre Glacier’s sentient might be too greedy for the souls of the dead, but it followed and listened to Cyneah well.
The two formed a symbiotic relationship wherein the Macabre Glacier’s sentient provided Cyneah soul magic energy to fend for herself, while she offered the former with dead souls.
Eventually, Cyneah grasped the Macabre Glacier’s mood, even its mood swings, and could soothe it when it craved more dead souls than their initial agreement.
When Cyneah was sent to the frontlines, the mood of the Macabre Glacier’s sentient improved because of the regular number of dead souls devoured from the battlefield.
Collecting those souls had not been easy, though. Cyneah had to sneak outside the walls at night to gather the souls of the dead lingering on the battlefield.
While Cyneah persistently presented the Macabre Glacier’s sentient with the souls of the deceased, she occasionally felt an unexpected emotion emanating from it. It was a sensation that should not be possible for a sentient being.
Ultimately, Cyneah dismissed her suspicions because of Neo and True Void. The latter two were sentients formed from an automaton and a weapon, yet their emotions were so human-like when they reacted that Cyneah sometimes wondered if they were mere sentient.
Though sentients could be roughly described as objects forming their consciousness, they should not be able to replicate human emotions fully. They could understand it to an extent and might show reactions similar to how humans would, but ultimately, those emotions were mere imitations.
That had been Cyneah’s conclusion, but after Haylee brought up the truth of the Macabre Glacier’s sentient, she started having doubts again.
And the other subject of her doubt was True Void.
Kyran mentioned that True Void was the sentient embodied in Caelan’s magic weapon, the first Void Master. However, Cyneah often pondered how True Void interacted with Kyran and responded to specific situations, leading her to question whether he was a soul that Caelan had subdued and embedded into his magic weapon instead.
Such a thing was not uncommon.
Although the practice had been stopped, in the past, there were those fallen mages who chose to possess magic weapons or willingly had their souls transferred to one so that they could continue living and avenge their deaths.
Cyneah was unaware of all the specifics, but Kyran mentioned a case that enabled Tritus, one of his followers, to evolve— by extracting and merging with the soul of a deceased mage who wielded a magic weapon.
Considering all these, Cyneah could not help but start doubting True Void’s identity.
As if reading her mind, Haylee let out an amused laugh.
[Should I say, as expected of you? You are my other half, after all.]
‘…’
[That’s right. The first vessel of the Void Core transferred a portion of the Dark Sage’s soul to his weapon as well.]
Cyneah’s frown deepened as she noticed something from Haylee’s words.
‘Just a soul…?’
Haylee chuckled.
[Good. You are able to follow my lead.]
‘…?’
[How did you think the first vessel of the Void Core succeeded in sealing the Dark Sage’s corrupted soul in the Macabre Glacier?]
‘!’
Now that Haylee pointed that out, Cyneah began to make sense of everything she had said thus far.
‘A portion of a corrupted soul… a portion of a soul… Are you telling me that the Dark Sage…’
[That’s right. The Dark Sage was not exactly evil. I mean, it should be obvious. Just because his title had dark in it doesn’t make him evil. It just so happened that among the many magic he could use, his specialty was Dark magic. Thus, the origin of his title Dark Sage.]
Cyneah agreed with Haylee.
‘So True Void… is the Dark Sage’s uncorrupted soul.’
[Close.]
Haylee replied, and Cyneah could almost imagine her nodding her head.
[Rather than call it uncorrupted, though, it is better to call it the Dark Sage’s remaining innocence.]
‘But why did the Dark Sage become corrupted?]
[You don’t seem fazed… you are even asking the correct questions.]
‘…Should I not be?’
[No. It is good. At least I don’t have to waste time explaining many things.]
‘…’
[However, I will have to respond to your question with a question of my own.]
‘What is it?’
[I quite remember him… that guy, giving you a brief history of how the Ancient Magic Cores came to be.]
‘…Why don’t you just call him Kyran.’
[Do you want me to stop talking?]
Cyneah sighed inwardly. She sensed Haylee’s frustration. Frankly, Cyneah found it strange that Haylee, her other half, would bear such animosity toward Kyran because he lied to her about his identity.
It was not that Cyneah did not understand where Haylee was coming from. If it had been her, she would have been hurt if the person she fell in love with turned out to be a different person.
But even if Kyran lied to Haylee, in the end, he was still Tyr. He might have exaggerated his arrogance when posing as Tyr, but that arrogance was also part of him. Nothing much had changed from Kyran’s essence. The only thing that probably changed was Kyran’s physical appearance.
Cyneah roughly knew what Tyr looked like because of Neo, and she admitted he was indeed good-looking. But if Kyran had removed his mask as Tyr, he would have been equally good-looking, and to be honest, Cyneah have found him even more handsome.
For the record, Cyneah only saw Kyran and Tyr in black and white. She could only imagine their hair color and eyes from what others say about them.
Anyway, that was not the point.
The point was that Cyneah found Haylee’s reason for being mad at Kyran superficial.
To be fair, Cyneah did not know Haylee had seen Kyran through an old picture. And Kyran’s current appearance was far from his military school days. Moreover, the real reason Haylee was mad at Kyran was because she felt betrayed.
She had thought she had found someone who did not treat her as the Princess of the Ylfaen Empire, but then she realized he was someone who could easily disregard her identity for being a Regis. That annoyed her big time. Besides, she really liked Tyr’s humble background; his being good-looking was only a plus.
Cyneah did not understand that because Haylee made it seem that she was pissed at Kyran just by looking at him.
Going back on topic…
‘I’m sorry.’
[…As I was saying, that guy explained the origin of the Ancient Magic Cores, right?]
‘Yes.’
[Back then, you had a fleeting thought. However, you did not voice it because that guy admitted not wanting to jump to conclusions because there were still some things that did not make sense to him.]
‘!’
Cyneah’s eyes widened.
That was right. Back then, she wanted to ask something that crossed her mind. However, she stopped because Kyran said: “There are still a few things that did not make sense to me. I have suspicions about his whereabouts, but… I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
The one Kyran was referring to was the King of the Ancients’ whereabouts. Stay tuned to empire
‘You mean the Dark Sage is… was…’
[That’s right. He was the King of the Ancients.]