He had believed it was coincidence.
Perhaps a god, pitying his plight, had granted him a chance to set things right. He had lived with that belief, every decision based on that assumption.
If asked if it felt futile, how would he respond?
That he had expected it all along? That it wasn’t futile, that he just had to defeat the Four Dragons?
For three hundred years, he had blad himself. He had believed his failures were his fault, his inadequacy.
“But… it was all intentional.”
The Minotaur nodded.
Adriana and Verod weren’t present.
Within a mana barrier, he had learned the truth about the Four Dragons and the Moonstone.
The Four Dragons’ power, as he had suspected, was the manipulation of ti.
They had imbued the Moonstone with this power, leaving it behind to orchestrate their resurrection.
“Why ?”
“They likely deed you the most suitable vessel for their return. Only they know the true reason, but most would break after a hundred deaths. Many crumble after just one. It’s a wonder you’re still sane.”
He had broken many tis.
There were tis he had lived as a madman, lost in despair. If he hadn’t beco numb to death, he would have succumbed long ago.
He was confused.
Unanswered questions lingered.
Where were the Four Dragons now? Why did Kaitel’s manipulation of their residual thoughts remain unchanged?
“Are the Four Dragons’ residual thoughts different from their consciousness?”
They wouldn’t allow a human to manipulate their consciousness so freely. If they intended to use his body for their resurrection, they would have contacted him directly.
Wasn’t that why the Moonstone resonated with artifacts?
He had believed it was a chanism to guide him to their residual thoughts.
Yet, nothing happened when he touched the artifact containing those thoughts.
Many things felt amiss.
Why hadn’t the Four Dragons contacted him? Why could Kaitel manipulate their residual thoughts?
The Minotaur considered his question, then began to explain.
“It would be easier to understand if I explained how the Four Dragons were sealed. That should answer so of your questions.”
The story was long and complex.
The origins of the Four Dragons, their sealing, their retreat into distorted ti.
The creation of the Moonstone, their plan for resurrection.
As he listened, so questions were answered, but new doubts arose.
He wasn’t confused. He simply felt that sothing was wrong.
The Four Dragons’ intentions and his experiences didn’t align.
Sothing was amiss.
Their plan wasn’t proceeding as intended.
What was wrong? Why did everything feel so disjointed?
“Do you have any more questions?”
“No, that’s enough.”
“Then I no longer need to earn your trust. Have I convinced you that I have no intention of harming you?”
He nodded.
The Minotaur chuckled, glancing at its missing arm. Its gaze held not hatred or resentnt, but curiosity.
He couldn’t decipher its intentions.
He would have preferred outright hostility.
A demon, driven mad by battle, now calmly assessing the situation.
It had even shared information about the Four Dragons, sothing he hadn’t anticipated.
This conversation felt strangely amicable.
He couldn’t understand the Minotaur’s apparent goodwill. It could have easily turned hostile.
It was a demon, their enemy.
“I should go now. If we et again, I hope you’ll sever my other arm.”
He wouldn’t be foolish enough to provoke it now. He wouldn’t draw his sword again. The Minotaur would regenerate faster.
He was pretending to be fine, but he was on the verge of collapse.
He would have fainted without Adriana’s support.
He had to think strategically. His imdiate priority wasn’t defeating the Four Dragons.
He knew the masked figures were plotting their resurrection, and that there were three more demons to contend with.
He had learned that Kaitel intended to use their residual thoughts to summon the dragons.
The missing pieces of the puzzle were why the Four Dragons hadn’t contacted him directly, and why they remained trapped in distorted ti.
With the power to create the Moonstone, they could have easily escaped.
Why use an artifact to search for a suitable human vessel?
Only one solution ca to mind.
The Minotaur dissolved into black smoke, the mana barrier dissipating.
He didn’t return to Adriana.
He took the artifact from his pocket and channeled his mana.
The communication device, once linked only to Miragen, could now connect to one more person.
“Arwen.”
She needed to co to the North imdiately.
Robert’s actions beca more decisive after the battle with the Minotaur.
Adriana, who had watched the fight with bated breath, found this concerning. But Robert wasn’t acting as recklessly as before.
Arwen’s research on the ruins, her knowledge of the Four Dragons.
Robert relayed everything the Minotaur had told him. In doing so, he realized sothing.
The discrepancy between their accounts lay in the Four Dragons’ objective.
“They seem to be searching for soone to kill them. That is, if my research accurately reflects their intentions,” Arwen said.
“But… if they wanted to die, wouldn’t they simply remain sealed?”
Why break free from their prison, only to seek death?
It was contradictory.
It didn’t make sense.
It didn’t explain why Kaitel was involved with the Four Dragons’ residual thoughts, or why they had initiated the regressions.
If they wanted to die, they should have co to him, not Kaitel.
If these regressions were ant to prepare him for this task, then all those repetitions were a waste of ti.
He traveled to the Moon Tower, then to the Imperial Palace, searching the imperial archives with Arwen’s help.
He scoured every docunt related to the Four Dragons, searching for any ntion of undiscovered ruins or artifacts.
He found nothing. But the absence of information revealed sothing else.
There were almost no records of hostility towards the Four Dragons in the imperial archives.
While the Church considered the Four Dragons their sworn enemies, the imperial family seed to have erased them from history. It was strange.
In an empire that worshipped the Moon Goddess, shouldn’t there be countless records denouncing the dragons? Did they consider the very na of the Four Dragons an abomination?
“That can’t be right.”
They weren’t erased for that reason. There was sothing they were trying to hide, sothing they wanted to bury.
Could he have noticed this discrepancy if he had been more thorough during his previous infiltration of the archives?
No, he wouldn’t have.
He wouldn’t have sensed the incongruity without the Minotaur’s information.
He frowned, staring at the book in his hand.
He saw it now.
The reason why the imperial family had so ticulously erased the Four Dragons from history.
He glanced at Arwen.
She stared into space, her face pale, as if she had realized the sa thing.
“I hate hypotheticals. But if what I’m thinking is true…”
“I think we’re on the sa page. Do you have a theory?”
“The Four Dragons were sealed. They retreated into distorted ti. The Moon Goddess must have known. She wouldn’t stand idly by while they created an artifact that caused regressions.”
That was his question as well.
What had the Moon Goddess been doing all this ti, while the Moonstone caused his endless cycle of death and rebirth?
The goddess, weakened from sealing the Four Dragons, would have needed ti to recover. But she wouldn’t have remained passive.
The archives shifted and warped under Arwen’s magic.
Cracks appeared in space, twisting and rging.
The distorted landscape revealed one of the ruins related to the Four Dragons in the South.
An inscription beca visible,
‘Only one who has endured eons can slay the dragons.’
Arwen channeled her mana into the inscription.
“Perhaps…”
If it was written with the Four Dragons’ power, it should glow red. But under Arwen’s mana, it shimred blue.
Lunar mana.
These characters reacted only to lunar mana.
There could only be one explanation.
“So of these inscriptions weren’t written by the Four Dragons’ followers. They were written by the Moon Goddess herself.”
Her words brought a chilling realization.
Inscriptions written by the Moon Goddess.
The Four Dragons’ residual thoughts, strangely linked to Kaitel. The missing records in the imperial archives.
And finally, the na of the capital.
Eclipse.
“Eclipse refers to a solar eclipse.”
A solar eclipse, when the moon obscures the sun.
The na of the empire, built upon the worship of the moon, the sealing of the sun-like Four Dragons. But it wasn’t just a solar eclipse.
“It can also refer to a lunar eclipse.”
A lunar eclipse, when the earth obscures the moon.
Perhaps the imperial family…
…had been connected to the Four Dragons from the very beginning.
[Translator Notes]
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