Chapter 206: The Forgotten Blessing (2)

He was brilliant, shining with a radiance all his own, while I was dull and gloomy by comparison.

But my hesitation didn’t last long. The words of a certain old man suddenly echoed through my mind, reminding me of something incredibly important.

"Hesitation is defeat... Isn’t that right?"

It was a phrase Asterion had repeated countless times, and for some reason, it had stayed with me. I never imagined those words would prove so useful one day.

"This sword... I’ll accept it with gratitude."

Having finally made my decision, I allowed the light of Legendary Weapons Master to engulf the weapon, absorbing it completely.

Ars nodded in satisfaction, clearly pleased that I had accepted the most powerful weapon he had ever created.

"With this... a part of me will continue to exist even after my death. There will still be something through which the world can remember me."

Ars’s voice sounded gentler this time.

"The world will never forget you. And even if it does... I’ll remember you until my very last day."

I offered him those words with all the respect I could muster, while his body began glowing and fading at an increasingly rapid pace.

"That will be enough."

Ars turned his head away, gazing toward his golden sky, which had also begun to disappear.

"I’m placing my hopes in you, my fellow Cursed Hunter of a later generation. Restore the Light to this world, and accomplish what I and all our predecessors failed to achieve."

"You’re giving me far too much credit... Expectations like that will only weigh me down..."

I spoke awkwardly, astonished by the magnitude of the hopes he was placing upon me.

He thought so highly of me that I couldn’t understand it. I certainly didn’t believe I had accomplished anything that warranted such confidence.

"I’m not exaggerating. You’re more than worthy of those words."

He remained firm in his conviction, prompting me to ask the question that had been troubling me.

"Why do you have such high expectations of me? You’ve already given me your greatest weapon, and now you’re counting on me to accomplish what our predecessors couldn’t. What exactly do you see in me?"

The question came from the bottom of my heart.

It was true that I had played a role in defeating both him and Aldrich, and that I had helped bring the Legacy dungeon to an end.

But surely that alone wasn’t enough to justify placing so much hope in me.

"The answer is simpler than you think, Ethan."

Ars turned his gaze toward me as he answered.

"It’s simply that our connection through the curse allowed me to glimpse some of your secrets. I came to understand just how extraordinary the powers you carry within you truly are, especially your most powerful Blessing."

His answer took me completely by surprise.

His body was already on the verge of disappearing, yet those words left me momentarily speechless.

Did that mean he knew about every Blessing and curse I possessed?

I hadn’t expected my secrets to be exposed so easily, especially by a dead man.

"My most powerful Blessing, huh? Of course, Legendary Weapons Master really is an extraordinary Blessing..."

I let out a long breath.

Apparently, Ars believed that ability was so remarkable that it would be enough to let me surpass every predecessor of the Heart Clan.

It seemed like an exaggeration.

Legendary Weapons Master was certainly special, but I didn’t believe it alone would allow me to surpass the players who had come before me.

I was certain they had all possessed similar Blessings, perhaps even stronger ones.

For all I knew, one of them might have possessed Legendary Weapons Master before me. I certainly wasn’t the first person to obtain that Blessing.

Those were my genuine thoughts, and I was about to share them with the Golden Dawn Knight.

But before I could, he dropped a bombshell without the slightest warning.

"Legendary Weapons Master is indeed powerful... But that’s not the Blessing I was referring to, Ethan. It isn’t your strongest ability."

His words struck me like a bolt of lightning, making my eyebrows draw together involuntarily.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Legendary Weapons Master wasn’t my strongest Blessing?

Then which one was he talking about?

My other abilities were powerful too, but none of them seemed capable of rivaling Legendary Weapons Master.

That was the Blessing for which I had received the Curse of Darkness as a price.

None of my other Blessings came anywhere close to it.

The Golden Dawn Knight stared at me in surprise, the light already fading from his eyes.

"I’m talking about your most powerful Blessing... The Blessing of ???"

"What?"

My frown deepened as something inexplicable happened right before my eyes.

I had been hearing Ars perfectly clearly until the moment he was about to pronounce the name of the Blessing.

Then his voice vanished.

No... That wasn’t quite right.

Another sound had drowned it out.

A strange, distorted noise had emerged from nowhere, completely obscuring his words.

"Say that again!" I shouted, desperately trying to make him repeat himself in the hope that I might hear it this time.

"Your eighth Blessing... The Blessing of ???"

Again.

His voice disappeared at the precise moment he was about to reveal its name.

There was no longer any doubt in my mind.

He was talking about the eighth deal, the one that had remained a mystery until now.

The final Blessing, the one that always appeared on my Player System interface as a string of question marks.

Was he telling me that this unknown Blessing was so powerful that Ars considered it superior to Legendary Weapons Master?!

If that was true, I needed to discover what it was and learn how to use it as quickly as possible!

"I see... It seems that’s the price you paid to obtain it."

Ars spoke in a deep voice as most of his body faded away.

"The price... was being made to forget it..."

A violent throb surged through my chest.

My heart began beating faster and faster.

My entire body seemed to react to what was happening before me, as though every cell within it were desperately struggling to remember something.

"Forget it... Are you telling me I’m carrying a deadly weapon, but I’ve forgotten that I even possess it? Then what’s the point of having it?!"

I pleaded with him to say it again before time ran out, before he disappeared completely.

But he didn’t bother repeating the name.

"There’s no point in saying it. Whoever is concealing it from you will never allow you to hear it. In fact, perhaps the only reason I’m able to speak its name at all is because I’m already dead."

"What you need to understand, Ethan, is that this Blessing will be your greatest weapon against the Night Lords. You must find a way to remember it."

"Once you do, you’ll be able to make the impossible possible."

I found myself cursing under my breath.

Was this the work of the Demon of Balance?

Or that bastard Ishizaki?

I didn’t know.

All I knew was that I felt utterly helpless, unable to discover what the mysterious Blessing actually was.

But it had now become something I absolutely had to remember, no matter the cost.

And just like that, another objective had been added to my growing list, making the burden on my shoulders even heavier than before.

"It seems my time has finally run out..."

By the time the Golden Dawn Knight spoke those words, his body had almost completely vanished.

The space surrounding us had also begun to shatter, confirming that the process of transforming Aldrich’s soul into a weapon was nearly complete.

"Thank you once again, my fellow Cursed Hunter of a later generation. And good luck in the Ordeals to come."

"No... I’m the one who should be thanking you..."

I spoke quickly, desperately trying to make my voice reach him before the collapsing void swallowed it.

But he could no longer hear me.

He continued speaking, seemingly oblivious to my words.

"Restore the Light to this world. Bring every nightmare to an end... You’re capable of doing it, but... you must remember."

"Remember it... Remember ???"

"Remember... ???"

"Your Blessing is... ???"

"The ???"

"The condition for activating it is... Dea..."

"Dea... th..."

"The condition is... death."

My consciousness was swept away, and I barely managed to cling to the final fragments of his words.

’The condition for activating it... is death?’

I slowly swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry, then closed my eyes and allowed my consciousness to return to reality.

When I opened them again, I was standing in the exact spot where I had killed Aldrich.

My mechanical hand was holding Ars’s golden sword, which still radiated that magnificent aura.

But my gaze instinctively shifted toward my other hand.

It was holding a weapon too.

A strange sword forged from a black metal unlike anything I had ever seen before, as though it had come from an entirely different world.

The moment I grasped it, I felt my consciousness gradually beginning to fade.

The name of that sword was...

Dark Sister.