THE VILLAIN'S POV

Chapter 702: The Truth Behind the Abyss (2)

Those words made Frey’s eyes widen. He’d almost forgotten something crucial .. the unresolved puzzle.

“The Missing Fragments of the Self…”

Long ago, the system gave him a quest to find three relics meant to restore his true self .. the mask, the weapon, and the armor.

So far, he only possessed one.

“Could it be… your existence is incomplete because I haven’t found the other pieces yet?

Nameless didn’t respond immediately.

If Frey only held the mask, then Nameless’s consciousness would naturally be bound to it.

It all made sense now.

The Dual Soul had reawakened when Frey obtained the mask back in Londor.

That meant Nameless truly didn’t know what German was plotting .. because his awareness extended only to what the mask contained.

“For now… only German knows the full truth.

The truth about you… and about me.”

Those words pulled Frey back to square one.

He chuckled bitterly.

“How pathetic… Nameless, you’re just as miserable as I am.”

Even the legendary king the being feared by gods and demons alike .. knew nothing.

Ignorance was the only thing they shared.

Power meant nothing when one didn’t understand their own existence.

Nameless might still possess vast strength, but he was only a shadow of his former self.

“I have no intention of taking your body… or sharing in this suffering.

I have no desire to drown in these… emotions.”

His words carried a quiet meaning.

The deeper Frey’s emotions grew, the stronger their connection became.

That was what happened during their battle with Zibar .. when Nameless took over Frey’s body, their bond had reached its limit.

Back then, something had begun to shift.

Instead of Frey becoming Nameless… it felt as though Nameless himself was slowly becoming like Frey.

At that moment, the copies of Frey standing around the campfire turned their eyes toward Nameless .. all glowing with that same dark violet hue.

They watched him silently, their gazes heavy and endless, as if trying to pull him into themselves.

The masked king, for once, looked almost weary .. as if he had been fighting not a war of strength, but a war of existence.

Realizing this, Frey exhaled in resignation.

“Hah… my life’s so miserable that even a being like you wants to run away from it.

That’s actually hilarious.”

He laughed softly.

“First I’m told I have to fight the Demon King,

and now there’s another enemy on his level who could appear any moment.”

Nameless looked up, his tone calm but grave.

“You can’t defeat Agaroth.

Not yet. Even with my power, it won’t be enough.”

He spoke as if remembering a distant past.

“Agaroth is unique .. his power knows no limits.

Even if you trap him, he’ll continue to grow stronger during battle.

He evolves infinitely… until he wins.

That’s how I lost to him.”

Nameless paused, his violet eyes dim.

“Agaroth’s strength lies in evolution.

Mine… lies in adaptation.

The ability inside you, once it reaches its peak, will let you adapt to any phenomenon you face .. much like Agaroth himself.”

In the distant past .. during their final confrontation .. the clash between Agaroth and Nameless had become a cataclysm.

At first, the Demon King had the advantage.

But Nameless adapted to every ability Agaroth possessed, surpassing him completely.

Then… Agaroth evolved again, overtaking him once more.

The cycle repeated again and again…

Agaroth would overpower him once…

then Nameless the next…

back and forth, endlessly, until the Demon King ascended to a level Nameless could no longer match..

and the battle finally ended.

That was the moment Agaroth created a technique unlike any other..

the strongest strike ever conceived,

one that even Nameless could not defend against.

In other words, their battle had been nothing less than a direct clash between Agaroth’s world-breaking ability ..the power of a monster who devoured all things..

and the Shadow Adaptation that belonged to Nameless.

Naturally…

the advantage went to Agaroth.

“To defeat Agaroth… you need a second decisive factor alongside Shadow Adaptation.”

That was Nameless’s conclusion.

Frey didn’t reply ..he simply fell silent.

That “decisive factor”…

Nameless was clearly referring to Frey himself, the chosen vessel.

Perhaps this was exactly what German had been aiming for from the start.

“The Demon King possesses many abilities… you can study them later.

But Odin is a different case entirely. I don’t know much about him.”

For the first time, a hint of intrigue appeared in Nameless’s voice as he spoke of the enigmatic ancient being.

“He existed long before me—before all of us.

His echo reached me eventually…

and I spoke with him once.

It happened after I killed one of the Great Ones.”

Frey’s focus sharpened immediately.

Odin was a being no one could reach ..

a presence only the Great Ones could hear.

Yet somehow, Nameless had spoken to him.

It happened ages ago, when Nameless wiped out countless lives on a distant world while conducting his experiments on life and death.

In response, the Great One of that planet descended to stop him…

and the two clashed in a cataclysm that drenched the world in death.

Nameless had been overwhelmingly powerful then, and he naturally emerged victorious.

But after the battle ended… something strange occurred.

“I suddenly found myself standing in a white world ..pure white, blindingly bright.

And he was there… shapeless, formless… nothing but glowing eyes staring back at me.”

Odin had lost his physical body long ago.

He could no longer interfere with the material world at all.

It was this fact that had disappointed Agaroth in the distant past when he sought him out ..

for the Demon King, too, could not destroy something that did not physically exist.

All Odin could do was whisper fragments of his will across existence.

One of those whispers was his encounter with Nameless.

“He didn’t say much… only spoke of life and death ..

of how to manipulate both…

of the Lords of Life and Death who shaped the world as mortals know it…

and of a thin veil that hides the real truth from all living beings.”

Then, at the end of their brief meeting…

Odin said something strange.

“Your color has grown dim… compared to the Demon King.”

Those were his final words before he vanished once more.

Nameless lowered his gaze slightly.

“I don’t know much about him… but he’s certainly not a being to ignore.”

“No one knows the nature of his power…

but there are scattered rumors…”

Frey listened with a deepening scowl.

“They say he cannot die.

It is said that he has existed since the dawn of time… and that no being is older than him.

and that no being is older.

They say… he is the one who created aura itself.”

Hearing that, Frey’s expression darkened even further.

“And I’m supposed to fight something like that?”

He let out a humorless, bitter laugh.

Nameless remained silent.

It felt, in that moment, as though the two of them ..Frey Starlight and the legendary Nameless ..

shared the same destiny.

A bleak, merciless destiny.