Chapter 211: Choice
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav, imperfectluck
While Roland was still thinking as hard as he could about his own path, an inconceivable scene was occurring in a plains area far away from his location.
It was as if this plains area had transformed into the Chaos Abyss, with large numbers of demons gathering into squads and beginning their hunts. Everywhere that these demon squads went, dangerous earth spiders were dug up, and sand dragons were vanquished instantly like elephants overrun by ants. All these opponents that gave Roland such headaches were meaningless in front of this seemingly limitless demon army.
However, these tan-colored chaos demons were rather different from the pure demons of the chaos abyss. Compared to their Chaos Abyss relatives that were the representation of evil, not only were these tan demons of a different color, they didn’t use the typical fire and acid magic that was the natural talent of the demons, instead using the rather rare earth magic that demons almost never used. All of these tan demons also had incredible physical attack power, as if they were actually the real residents of the Earth Elemental Plane, just like the tough-skinned earth elemental creatures.
All types of earth elemental species were vanquished by them. In front of such a large demon army, even the strongest sand dragon could only barely manage to fly a few kilometers before running out of energy and collapsing on the ground.
When that sand dragon collapsed on the ground and waited for these twisted creatures to give it the fatal blow, what came instead for it was a sand boat.
Four golden ground dragons were pulling this sand boat. It was just that judging from their twisted horns and sulfur breath, they were doubtlessly the product of demonized evolution.
The sand dragon Sardilawen was already blind in one eye now. Its remaining dragon eye viciously stared in the sand boat’s direction. In its mind, what would come out and give it the fatal blow would probably be the leader of all these demons, most likely some veteran demon from the Chaos Abyss.
“Wow, such a big dragon.”
But the truth was far different from what the gigantic sand dragon expected. The person that walked out of the sand boat was only a young golden-haired female knight. Judging from her appearance, she was actually a human, and a really young knight at that.
Before Sardilawen could attempt to self-destruct himself for a final attack, the female knight suddenly began talking to herself.
“Alright, alright, I got it, just demonize him, relax. I shall control the chaos, and not be controlled by the chaos.”
“Roar!”
The angry dragon breath caused a sandstorm to erupt with its destructive attack, but nothing happened at all to the female knight. In fact, the female knight was now already riding on top of Sardilawen’s head.
Just as Sardilawen was intending to use another attack against her, the pale yellow colored light of chaos covered him. Although his body was in much pain, he actually began recovering from his wounds, but Sardilawen was now yelping pitifully in shock, because his own skin was now growing demonic scales, barbed poisonous spikes were growing on his back, and his sharp claws and fangs were beginning to elongate and grow thicker, while two extra sets of wings appeared on his back. Sardilawen was actually beginning to demonize.
“Chaos, in the end, is just twisting the rules. Although Chaos demons aren’t able to be produced naturally, from a certain standpoint, any living creature that has natural laws can be demonized and turned to Chaos. However, we dragons don’t need to worry about that, we’re naturally born with the power to resist against the natural laws. Forcefully demonize us? Not even a Demon Marquis would be able to do it; probably only the legendary Prince of the Chaos Abyss would be able to do such a thing.”
Sardilawen’s final remnants of consciousness were already going hazy, and he didn’t have much time left. He could only mutter this to himself as he recalled his past memories.
“…The Princess of the Chaos Abyss? Why is she in such a place…?”
When the pale-yellow light faded, that weakened sand dragon had completely vanished. What remained in its place was instead a completely pitch-black gigantic inferno demon dragon. Just its single dusk-yellow eye was clear evidence of its identity.
*Roar!!!*
The angrily roaring tremendous dragon opened its new wings and blocked the sandstorm as it began flying towards the next gathering grounds for high-level magical beasts. The newly-born demons on the ground also obeyed their master’s summons as they headed for the next target location.
And on the dragon’s back, in the tiny sand boat, Reyne seemed to be talking to herself as she asked a question.
“Um, Teacher Karwenz, what will you teach me next?”
“Let’s review demonization again, and then let’s practice some swordsmanship.”
From the very start, Roland had made a mistake. As a descendant of the Mist, Reyne was a passable one, as she would be able to remain resolute and unbroken even in the face of difficulties and failures. The final scene in that snowy night of battle made Roland see his past self in her, but also because of his emotional bias, Roland had overestimated Reyne, believing that she could defeat the allure of the Chaos Abyss all by herself.
Sometimes, not giving in to failure and despair and being able to resist temptation were two entirely different things. To give an analogy, it’s just like some people with high abilities might not necessarily be of good moral character, and even the resolute might not be able to ignore the temptation right before them, especially when the temptation seemed so wonderful.
The Demon Prince began beguiling Reyne instantly after she went off by herself, and the Princess Knight lived up to Roland’s expectations and resisted against the demon’s temptations… for a full five seconds.
Yep, the situation happened something like this. This was how Karwenz went about it.
“Hey, Reyne, how about I teach you? Don’t listen to Roland, just what could you possibly learn by randomly practicing by yourself?”
“That’s no good, Brother Roland said already that I shouldn’t listen to you.”
“I’m stronger than he is, so who do you think you should listen to. Besides, your rival is the Demon Marchioness, she can KO the current you with a single slap…”
“Please allow me to call you Second Brother!”
Okay, before he could even finish, he instantly succeeded in tempting her. Because it was far too easy, even the Abyssal Prince Karwenz was shocked by Reyne’s lack of moral constancy. When he heard her reply, he froze over in shock for several seconds before he finally confirmed that she wasn’t joking and was being serious.
“Hehe, I know that my own personal talent is insufficient. I’m self-aware about that. Before I met Brother Roland, I worked hard as well, but I couldn’t even reach the border of Silver level. Brother Roland is obviously overestimating me. Besides, I’m Reyne, not Roland. I’ve always believed that there’s nothing wrong with power, if I want to be more powerful, why should I care so much about where it’s from, the correct answer is obviously to become more powerful first.”
Reyne’s words were quite sincere, as that was what she truly believed. She was different from Roland who could receive more power simply through hard work and effort; she had only ordinary talent and had suffered quite enough already from having insufficient power, and she was already numbed from the feeling of working her hardest but still not seeing any results.
From the very start, she knew that she couldn’t be like Roland, nor did she intend to force herself to be like him. In this area, after she experienced countless failures and despair, she was actually quite similar to Karwenz, having an almost sick worship of power within herself.
“If I had power, East Mist wouldn’t have been almost destroyed, if I had the power to control my own fate, then Auland’s newly-rich wouldn’t have tried to force me into a marriage and humiliate my tribe.”
At 13, she had still been a fortunate princess with no worries in the world. At 14, she was already forced onto the battlefield, and now that she was 15, she was already the famous Princess Knight known throughout the entire Northlands. The trials of fate turned this former flower vase princess into having maturity far beyond her years underneath her seemingly happy outer appearance.
She had an endless amount of desire to be able to control her own fate with her own hands. This desire of hers wasn’t satisfied one bit even by Roland’s arrival.
To her teacher Roland, she respected and trusted him. However, she had her own opinion on how to view power. She didn’t intend to argue with Roland about this, nor did she want to affect her relationship with Roland due to their differing opinions, but she made her choice with her own decisions.
“…Perhaps, you were already waiting for this day from the moment that you refused Roland’s blood. Well, to be able to fool Roland, you have an incredible ‘accomplice.’”
Far away, the ‘accomplice’ Amelia who was currently cooking with an oversized magical cauldron suddenly sneezed.
“Hmm? Someone’s talking about me? Or cursing me? It’s probably that bastard.”
Beside her was a hole-ridden battlefield. The Earth Elemental Plane that shouldn’t have had any greenery actually had a grassy field and forest now. It was just that these gray-yellow plants were actually growing out of the corpses of what had originally been magical beasts.
With Amelia’s assistance, sealing Reyne’s bloodline had never been done to begin with, otherwise Karwenz wouldn’t have been able to contact Reyne so easily in the Earth Elemental Plane. In fact, Reyne being able to suppress Glina in all their duels was also mainly due to the power of her bloodline.
“Perhaps I should apologize to Brother Roland, but I should make my own decisions for my own life. I’ve already had enough of hiding behind others’ backs and shivering!”
The Roland Sacred Sword she was wielding still had its usual silvery holy light, but the Princess Knight’s eyes were now turning dark yellow, and the ethereal shadow of a demon was beginning to increase in size behind her, but was also grasped firmly in her hands with a will that was just like iron.
Roland had never masked his expectations and worry about the future. Reyne who seemed to always be so casual on the outside actually had an observant mind and a sensitive heart, and she hated her powerlessness. Even though she was quite clear that making deals with demons was no different from sleeping with tigers, but compared to continuing to be a useless flower vase, even if she fell into depravity in the future, she wouldn’t regret the choice she made today.
“Rather than regretting after the fact about not having seized the opportunity, it’s better to just regret later, isn’t this a former famous saying by you? By the way, Brother Roland also has many famous sayings.”
Karwenz who responded in her soul was being more serious than his usual self.
“Then, I shall begin teaching you how to control the Chaos. First, you must remember to maintain your sense of self, and never allow the Chaos to invade your heart. Power is only a tool, and if you end up being controlled by a tool, that would be too much of a joke…”
The Chaos Prince was actually teaching someone how to resist against Chaos invading the body. Perhaps, in a way, Karwenz wasn’t treating Reyne as a spare vessel for his descent anymore. Perhaps he was truly beginning to treat her as his disciple.
“…I only have one request. Use what I taught you to defeat that Glina, and teach her a vicious lesson in direct combat.”
“Are you actually that angry that she betrayed your bloodline? I didn’t think that you were such a narrow-minded person.”
“Hmph, the feeling she gives me is just like that of Roland from long ago. She’s probably already successfully combined with Roland’s bloodline. In that case, Roland will definitely teach everything he’s ever learned to her, and since you’re both my descendant and disciple, how could I possibly allow you to be weaker than Roland’s descendant and disciple.”
Reyne came to a realization at this. These powerful figures were always mysteriously serious about weird-seeming subjects. It seemed that the younger twin brother was competing with his older brother.
Since they were unable to have a direct competition, then they would simply have an indirect competition with their descendants/disciples.
“Cousin Glina? Hmph, I won’t lose to her, in any area at all.”
And so, Reyne accepted Karwenz’s teachings, and unfearingly activated her demonic blood, and then created a gigantic demonized army in the Earth Elemental Plane.
At this moment when Reyne was still learning the secrets of Chaos on her dragon’s back, a sudden gigantic pillar of light caused violent sandstorms in the entire Earth Elemental Plane. Just as Reyne was about to ask Karwenz just what could have happened, she felt a sense of shock and disbelief within herself welling up that came from him. Someone as strong as the Abyssal Prince had actually felt fear at what just happened.
“…Roland, it looks like I underestimated you after all. It seems that the next time we meet, we’ll be able to have a really good fight.”
Of course, I didn’t know at the moment that off in the distance, Reyne had already created a strong demonic army, which would only become stronger and continue growing in size as time passed.
At the time, I had spent all of my energy simply on controlling the earth and water elements to combine.
“With earth element as the bones, and water element as the bloodline, snow shall fly everywhere, the icy plains shall turn white, and when the wind and snow stop, everything shall be calm.”
This wasn’t any incantation or anything, I was just adding on to the efficiency of my drawing. With its assistance, my homeland’s scene would reappear in my mind.
But this time, just being able to temporarily interfere with my mental world in this world wouldn’t be able to satisfy me.
My mental world was turning into reality, and I who had turned into the “Arbitrator” was now combining the real and the ethereal, creating a new world with its own inwardly-contained cycle.
Sidunwar’s Ocean Bottle was still giving off magical energy. With the sword seal’s assistance, all the water element had been activated, and it was emitting an endless amount of frost.
And as for the Earth Elemental Heart, it had long since been transformed into the earth beneath my feet, turning into the first piece of earth for my new world.
And what I needed to do was to combine water and earth element into one, moving into the unknown from what I already knew, so that they could enter a self-contained cycle. I took a deep breath, and pointed with one finger at the sky, causing the frosty chill to begin descending, and pointing with another finger at the ground, causing the earth to rise. Then, I took another deep breath, and brought my hands together.
*Click.*
There was a sound like gears setting into place. The huge explosion that I expected didn’t happen, it combined far easier than I anticipated.
“Ha, it seems that I was worried for nothing… Eh?”
Apparently, I was getting happy too early. The very next instant, the two elements that just combined actually began trembling violently, seeming like they were about to come apart and explode.
“Damn it! If this explodes…”
The next moment, I imagined a gigantic canyon, but right now, the elemental power backlash was already too much for me to bear, and the elemental power was about to run amok!
“Everything in theory should be correct, so why did such a situation occur… My power level!”
Perhaps the famous phrase was correct after all. Right before death, a person’s brain would work even better than usual. I instantly realized everything.
Yes, while I indeed had the ability for creation, and I had all the correct theories and foundational ideas, but I forgot one thing. When Eich was creating, she already had unimaginable power, and any backlash and Chaos would be nothing more than a tiny wave for her, but as for me, that would be an indestructible force I would be completely helpless against.
“Damn it! There’s just one more step to go!”
How could I possibly feel good about failing at such a time, but everything was about to run amok and I was probably going to die, yet I had no power to resist whatsoever.
“If only I knew, I would have at least waited until I was at SemiGod level to begin trying… Hm? What just happened?”
Suddenly, everything returned to a calm peace, and that explosive elemental power seemed as if it was a domesticated dog, now obeying the tracks I laid out for it.
[Fate Points: 37624]
The system’s sudden message informed me about the number of Fate Points I had, and currently, the Fate Points were decreasing at a high speed. This was the best evidence of what was behind the miracle that just occurred, and it was also evidence that I had to pay a price for this miracle.
“36521, 31435, 27421, it’s not like my points grow on trees, aren’t you being too black-hearted, leave me a few, I still need them to go for Gold rank.”
[System reminder: If you still have the time to retort, you should hurry up and end this instead!]
Fine then, I originally wanted to give it my gratitude for saving my life, but in that case let’s forget about it. I spent all my efforts on combining the elements again, and when my damned Fate Points number reached 9214, the work was finally completed.
*Click!*
It was still the exact same sound of gears falling into place, but only this time, it was likely that the entire plane could hear it.
As for me, I could now sense that in this new original world, I now had an isolated piece of sky and earth that belonged only to me. Even though there was nothing but snow, ice, and frozen earth inside it, it was still my personal world.
[*Ding!* Congratulations to my host for obtaining the ability ‘Frozen Wintry Earth.’ Its specific effects and logic by which it works is impossible to analyze by the system, but it’s possible to analyze the basic ways to use it. Would you like an analysis?]
This was the first time I’ve ever heard of something impossible to analyze, so I immediately nodded as I was overjoyed, but I instantly regretted my decision again.
[Fate Points: 4624]
This instantly used up almost half of my already not many Fate Points remaining. Just as I was intending to complain, I was shocked by my system’s next message.
[Frozen Wintry Earth, an uncalculatable existence. Its current largest potential area is a spherical space with a radius of 136 meters. It will ignore all barriers of any kind. You can even control it to affect what’s underground.]
[Recommended usage 1 – Death Chill; any that enter this frozen area will suffer 1-100 ice damage (decided by you). This damage is impossible to mitigate. (Even for the Gods).]
[Recommended usage 2 – Ice River Sword: …]
In all, I actually saw four recommended usages for it, but this was only the beginning. These were only part of the effects of this incomplete world.
Right after receiving an unexpected joy, of course I would receive bad news next. Right after I was celebrating, I immediately received a critical warning.
[Warning; due to the low quality of the Earth Elemental Heart creating the foundation of your world, the earth’s quality is too low. Not only can ‘Frozen Wintry Earth’ not be used to its full potential, it’s even falling apart. Host, please hurry up and find a replacement material! Time before your world’s collapse: 132 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes.]
Alright, I won’t comment on how strong the effects were already, but that it was still only half complete. Nor will I comment on how the Earth Elemental God’s Earth Elemental Heart was actually treated as too low in quality. The system was even kind enough to give me a pointer arrow, pointed in the direction of the sleeping Earth Elemental God as a hint.
“It looks like time is going to be of the essence! Emordilorcan, just you wait for me.”