Chapter 4573: The Final Step (Part 1)

Balkor escaped the Royal Palace at night, carrying amulets filled to the brim with his grimoires and all the priceless resources he managed to steal thanks to the clearance level he had earned during his years of passive submission.

Together, the two young men disappeared past the borders with the Blood Desert and returned one year later. Balkor had taught the young Manohar like only a genius could to a fellow genius.

Both of them knew the secrets of Royal Forgemastery and most specializations. They studied together and learned together, filling the small gaps in each other’s talent by sharing their respective insights and enlightenment.

On the first year of their joint assault, Balkor and Manohar slaughtered all those responsible for the death of their parents, and became famous as the twin gods of death and decay.

On the second year, they besieged the city of Valeron with an army of plague-spreading undead. Their touch carried the spark of Chaos of an Abomination and released viral agents that infected the survivors and carried invisible enemies past walls and arrays.

The twin gods walked into the throne room and executed the Royals at the end of the third day, but that wasn’t the end. With Manohar by his side, Balkor had no need or interest in meeting Eos.

Without his mother and no reason to keep his madness in check, Manohar lived only for his revenge. Year after year, they kept attacking the Kingdom until nothing of its military and magical power remained.

Scarlett saw the great academies fall, her beloved White Griffon Forest rot, and herself die at the hands of a monstrosity that looked like a Valor but was much worse. She saw the students die, and the children she had protected never be born.

Lutia wasn’t spared from the onslaught, yet Lith would somehow still be born somewhere else. He would have no family, no Solus, no heart.

He and the Organization were the only two things the Sekhmet knew that would endure the twin gods’ rage, and when the Lith-thing and the Master met, the entire Mogar turned dark.

Death and destruction spread beyond the borders of the Griffon Kingdom, conquering the Empire and then Verendi before extending their claws across the oceans.

Scarlett hoped the two mad geniuses would recognize the threat the Organization posed and join Salaark, yet they didn’t. The twin gods joined the Organization, and at that point the Sekhmet refused to look further into the future past.

When her eyes met Balkor’s again, he was still as he remembered him. A smoking corpse smoldering with rage. Now, however, Scarlett could not only see the thousands of dead bodies he stood upon, but the millions of people whose lives rested on his shoulders.

All the tiles that his falls had protected. All the young mages born into a fairer society after the previous Royals had been deposed and the noble households held accountable for their crimes in the aftermath of Balkor’s attack.

All the humans, plants, and beasts who had been spared from the mad fury of the twin gods. Among them, Scarlett recognized herself. In his pursuit of revenge, the god of death had indeed extinguished many lives, but by doing so he had saved so many more.

The fall of his single tile had rippled across all three great countries and kept rippling to that day. Through Mogar’s consciousness, Scarlett saw that with every beat of Balkor’s heart more people escaped death and joined the luminous multitude floating above him.

’I can’t believe a single man could do so much for so many.’ She thought. ’Yet this doesn’t absolve Balkor of his crimes. He didn’t kill those corrupt people because he knew what would happen otherwise. He did it to sate his need for revenge.

’At the same time, however, people like the other lords of the forests and myself should also be held accountable. We ignored what happened inside the human academies and everything that took place in the outside world, thinking it wasn’t our business.

’I, the so-called Guardian of Children, let countless Balkors suffer in silence and then chased the only one of them who had the strength and will to make himself heard.’ The Sekhmet wanted to be angry with the god of death, but she couldn’t bring herself to.

The wails of his soul and the sight of the dead child inside of him tightened her heart like a vise.

"Well?" Balkor’s voice snapped her back into focus. "Did you get what you came for?"

"That and some more." Scarlett sighed. "I’m about to start my journey as a full-fledged Guardian, and before leaving, I wanted to thank you for all the help you’ve given me during my apprenticeship under Salaark and the many things you’ve taught me."

It was only part of the truth, but there were things the Sekhmet wasn’t ready to admit even to herself.

"I see." The god of death nodded. "Since you’re already here, allow me to thank you as well."

"Thank me? And for what?" Scarlett asked in confusion.

"For stopping me nine years ago." Balkor lowered his head, his gaze lost in the past. "For ending my reign of terror on its eleventh anniversary."

He paused, but the Sekhmet said nothing, feeling he wasn’t done yet.

"When I ran to the Desert and began working to avenge the murder of my family, I swore to myself I wouldn’t rest nor know peace until I ensured that no other kid would ever suffer my same injustice.

"Yet the more victories I achieved and the more blood I spilled, the more I lost sight of my initial objective. I focused more on inflicting pain on those I hated rather than preventing it. I had become a slave to my rage to the point I was willing to sacrifice more than my life to drop as many corpses as I could.

"I went this close to abandon my wife. To neglect my children and let them spend the little time we had together in the shadow of my lost family, wondering why I loved the dead so much more than the living.

"By the time I started to plan the attack on the six great academies, I had come this close to becoming one of the monsters I set out to fight. If not for your meddling, if you and your underlings didn’t mess with my plan and kill so many of my Valors, I would have crossed that line.

"Only once I was forced to give up on my revenge and had the time to calm down enough to reflect on my actions did I understand what I had become. You gave me time to realize I had a new family, and that they are as important as my old one.

"I had my children for years, but until that moment I didn’t really see their faces or hear their voices. All I cared about was my dead family, and I let their ghosts eclipse every light I had in my life.

"For that, Scarlett the Scorpicore, you have my gratitude." The god of death gave the Sekhmet a deep bow, as deep as those he gave Salaark in his official duty as a Feather.