SSS Class Infinite Regression: Ascension of the Mad Dragon Prince Chapter 140 140: Louis VS Cardoon Veynar [3]

"I wonder how good your Fantasy Heart tastes, Prince Louis. You had so many Spirals…" He chuckled, opening his jaws and taking a bite. Black blood seeped between his white teeth as he swallowed the bitter-sweet flavor. "Hm, it is—Ugh? Dry?"

His mouth filled with ashes. He coughed violently. His eyes widened as the heart in his hand crumbled into ash and scattered on the wind.

A silhouette rose behind him.

"The Play's over."

"…?!"

Veynar's face twisted in disbelief and fear. A chill raced down his spine as sothing sharp lunged at him.

CLASH!

His Dark Knight Incarnation intercepted it by a hair, hurling the golden spear Louis wielded into the rubble.

"Y-You…!"

Veynar turned. The Prince he believed dead was… alive. Against all odds.

Had he turned himself into an Undead?

No—he was very much alive. His lifeforce burned as strong as ever.

Then how? Had he been tricked? Him—the master deceiver, the weaver of plots and Malevolent Plays?

Who could outsmart him?

This foolish, talentless prince—a crippled bastard with nothing but boastful pride and selfishness?

Surely not.

Or…

"How…! How are you still alive?!"

Veynar scread, instantly fusing with his Incarnation as he stepped back.

He was afraid.

Louis advanced slowly, smiling.

A hole gaped in his chest. A black hand erged from it, beginning to heal the wound.

At the sa ti, a fairy perched on his left shoulder, constantly channeling healing magic.

And as if that weren't strange enough, a white lily blood where the hole had been. Inside the flower, a red eye stared at Veynar.

"W-What the fuck are you?!"

"I am Prince Louis Drakeheart Yggdrasil, Heir of Frostbane, Grandson of the Dragon King. And your End."

"…Aahhh!"

Veynar scread as overwhelming pressure crushed down on him. Louis charged. His Psychic Aura invaded Veynar's mind and Fantasy Heart. The man vomited blood and clutched his head in agony.

"G-Get out of my head!!!"

Veynar fought back desperately, swinging his sword and clashing against Louis' tallic claws. Psychic Power relentlessly assaulted his mind, making resistance nearly impossible.

Louis overpowered him swiftly—punching his body, breaking bones—and then—

"Gungnir!"

FLASH!

A blur of golden light pierced Veynar's head, shattering the black helt of his Incarnation in a single strike.

"A-Aahh…"

Even with a hole in his forehead, Veynar clung to life, groaning, eyes twitching.

Louis approached while he still breathed…

CRASH!

He tore open Veynar's chest, ripping out his Spirit Orb and Fantasy Heart.

"A-Aahhh…! Aaaahhhh!"

Veynar collapsed, screaming as blood poured from his exposed brain and the gaping wound.

Louis looked down at the monster who had orchestrated his brother's death. He raised his foot.

"Die, deplorable parasite."

With one stomp, Veynar's head exploded into fragnts—brains and skull shards splattering across the rubble, eyes rolling away.

The Dark Knight Incarnation scattered into darkness.

Louis gazed at Veynar's Fantasy Heart—black steel etched with crystal red eyes—and his mildly corrupted Spirit Orb glowing bright red. He considered what to do.

"Zorba should have been the one to feast on this, not …" he sighed.

For a mont he thought of turning them into Soul Treasures to save for a Zorba from another tiline, already anticipating his own eventual death.

But he shook his head. Planning for future deaths was the mindset of soone who had already surrendered his life.

"I can't think like that. I must fight until the very end in every life—as if it's the last."

With that resolve, he opened his jaws and bit into the Fantasy Heart, eventually swallowing it whole.

Then he fed the Spirit Orb to Gungnir. The spear absorbed it, strengthening its own Spirit Orb. The Spirits Veynar hadn't transferred remained as raw power, further enhancing the existing three.

As Louis finished consuming the Fantasy Heart, the Spiral of the Malevolent Plotter briefly manifested. He glimpsed Veynar's entire life—only for it to halt midway and shatter into fragnts.

"I couldn't assimilate it completely, it seems."

It wasn't always guaranteed. Louis had only obtained a Fragnt.

But it was more than enough.

A voice echoed through his Fantasy Heart.

{The Spiral Of The Malevolent Plotter}

["When the vile, tainted inhuman soul of a plotter blooms in the suffering of others, the darkness of one's heart is revealed, and Fate Play's echoes through The End, The Spiral of The Malevolent Plotter is born."]

[A rare Spiral born from the malevolent play made by a vile inhuman soul who sees all humans as re perforrs and actors within the great play we know as Fate. A Malevolent Plotter knows and understands the cruel nature of reality and accepts Fate, embracing it and becoming one of its agents, bringing human souls toward their predestined end, sotis sooner than foreseen by Fate's Will.]

[You have been unable to inherit the {Malevolent Plotter}, only obtaining a Fragnt.]

[You have awakened the Spiral Incarnation Fragnt: Dark Knight.]

[You have acquired the Ability Fragnt {Malevolent Play (Tier 7)}: Grants the ability to create a Play with three acts, Beginning, Climax, and End. Through actions, you can influence the perforrs' fate and slowly lead them toward their predestined End. The more you do, the stronger you beco against these actors of Fate's Play. When a Play begins, it can be interrupted and if it strays too far from the predestined End, it can be broken. You can only include two actors instead of seven.]

[Your Intelligence and Dexterity have increased by 100]

[Your Maximum Fantasium has increased by 1000]

[Your Fantasium Affinity has increased to 95%]

[Your Madness Index has increased to 66%]

"Malevolent Play. What a wicked ability," Louis sighed, offering a bitter smile. "It suits ."

He manifested the Incarnation Fragnt. The Dark Knight's torso erged—helted, with only the left arm clutching a broken black greatsword exuding darkness. It lacked legs and a right arm but floated on shadowy, ghostly energies. The helt was cracked; only one eye glead red.

"You look tough even for a fragnt," Louis murmured. A sharp pain stabbed his chest. "Ugh… Have I assimilated too many Spirals? Even fragnts… I might be reaching the limits of my Fantasy Heart."

He instinctively knew that consuming another Spiral—even a fragnt—would likely cause his Fantasy Heart to explode and destroy his soul, killing him instantly.

Worse, every ti he returned from death, the inherited power would detonate his heart again and again.

He dreaded a loop where he revived only to die almost imdiately—trapped in endless agony. Better to refrain from consuming more Spirals and focus on developing his existing powers.

He could always use them as ingredients for new Artifacts or to enhance his current ones.

"Louis!"

Mirai ran to him as the Narrative Field do dissipated. Tisha and Pekorine followed close behind.

"Mirai, I'm fine—Ah!"

Mirai ignored him and threw her arms around him, sobbing into his chest.

"Idiot, what were you thinking?!"

"You couldn't get involved. I had a way to survive the End of his Play—but not you."

"Eh? H-How did you even survive that to begin with?"

"…It's an ability of my Spiral."

He ant Death-Sense, which let him linger beyond death for a few minutes. Even when Veynar killed him and tore out his heart, Louis had endured long enough to regenerate—and turn the heart in Veynar's hands to ash.

"Prince Louis… that was incredibly risky," Tisha sighed.

"Thankfully Catrise wasn't around. She's helping so of the wounded knights nearby…" Pekorine added. "We must regroup and head to the castle quickly! I imagine there shouldn't be any more distractions…"

"Wait," Louis said. He walked slowly toward a large flat stone.

Zorba's body lay motionless upon it. Louis lifted his brother's headless, mangled corpse and placed it before him.

"Zorba, I have kept my word. Your brother's corpse is here. Take his soul to the afterlife."

He held Veynar's soul—captured through Soul Enslavent.

"Aahhhhhh! Aaagggh!"

Veynar scread in endless agony and despair as Louis burned his soul with Nirvana Flas in front of Zorba's body.

"May you find rest in the afterlife, brother."

Louis wasn't a religious man. He never had been. He knew the "gods" of the Fantasy Worlds were rely powerful beings—nothing more.

The concept of a true "God" had never occupied much space in his mind. He simply never dwelled on such things.

But William had. He had once considered himself atheist… yet now, deep in the heart Louis had inherited, he wished there could be sothing.

Sothing where Zorba could rest in peace—even if he might see him again through countless regressions.

Louis wanted to believe that sowhere, Zorba could find respite and peace of mind and heart.

"Rest well, Zorba…"

He shed one final tear, kissed Zorba's forehead, and walked away.

"Louis…"

Mirai had no mories of Zorba from the previous regression, so she couldn't fully sympathize with Louis' pain.

The reason was simple: she only retained mories of her interactions with Louis. Everyone else she had known or befriended in that life was absent from her inherited mories.

She was Louis' only witness.

Louis exhaled heavily and nodded. "Let's go."

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