Chapter 154: Altain’s Change of Heart

Altain… was the me of the past.

A person who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

Someone foolish enough to jump into a pit of fire for the sake of survival and his purpose, even while knowing it was the wrong path.

And the current me, who knew that all too well…

“Thwack!”

I stabbed the me of the past.

“Gah!”

The man was of the Demon Clan.

Yet now, he spurted red blood just like a human.

A sword strengthened not just by simple will, but by conviction, left a fatal scar on his nearly immortal soul.

A scar that would never fade.

“How… in the world?”

Having become a True Demon Race, he likely thought he had become an absolute being but that was a delusion.

“What you’ve completed is nothing but a shell.”

A perfect species that took only the strengths of every other species.

However, it was nothing more than a shell.

A hollow doll with an incomplete inner self and will.

Therefore, his shell could not overcome my will, which had even manifested Innate True Qi.

In the battle between a perfect shell and a perfect will, the victor was the will.

“I… I just wanted to live, for the value of my existence…”

He spat out those words along with a mouthful of blood, looking as if he had been wronged.

Because he had been struck by a blade filled with Innate True Qi, rather than just a simple blow, his life force was draining away at a rapid pace.

“I know.”

I didn’t need to listen to Altain’s words.

I knew better than anyone what he was feeling and what his situation was.

“You wanted to show Nepas, who denied your very existence, and the world. That you were alive. That you weren’t some failure.”

The me of the past was like that.

Betrayed by my wife, I thought the world had abandoned me.

So I struggled to survive, trying to prove the value of my existence in any way I could.

I thought that was the only path I could take but it wasn’t.

“That path is wrong. You don’t need to prove your value to anyone. You…are meaningful just by being alive.”

These were not just words for Altain, but words I wanted to say to the me of the past as well.

You don’t have to prove it to anyone.

Even without proving your value, simply existing is a miracle and has meaning.

“…..”

The man couldn’t say a word to my sincere remarks.

But…

“Tremble—”

He shook once.

It was an expression as if he had gained a great realization about a fact he hadn’t known.

“…Does simply existing have meaning?”

“Yes.”

“But I am… just an experimental subject to be removed if I am not needed…”

“Don’t be misled by Nepas’s words. You are valuable enough just by existing.”

“…..”

What was carved deep inside Altain was the fact that he was an experimental subject created by Nepas. 

He might have thought he had shaken it off by killing Nepas, but not at all.

Rather, by killing Nepas, he became unable to escape that bondage.

Perhaps Nepas had even intended for that.

Therefore, I break his scheme and I saved Altain, who had lost his way just as I once had.

“You… have already achieved much. You approached the perfect species, the True Demon Race, which even Nepas did not expect, and you even gained the ability to absorb the authorities of the Twisted Ones. Though you will face annihilation like this, the significance of your existence has clearly remained.”

“…Then that is a relief.”

Only then did he show a faint smile.

He looked happy about the fact that he had left behind a reason for his existence rather than about his own death.

“This battle is your victory.”

Finally, the man admitted defeat.

“But do not let your guard down. Though Nepas allowed me to deal him a partial death, he is not an easy opponent. Perhaps all of this is part of his plan as well.”

Altain said “perhaps,” but it wasn’t a “perhaps.”

That man had planned all this, and he would have even kept my victory in mind.

The reason?

Simple.

“Crack!”

Cracks began to form on my body as if I were shattering.

It was inevitable.

I had used Innate True Qi.

What is Innate True Qi?

It is the energy of life.

Therefore, once it is all used, one can only face annihilation.

My physical body was crumbling, and my mind was collapsing.

But.

‘I have no regrets.’

I leave the future to Leon and humanity.

He will grow and surely stop Nepas’s plan.

I had that faith.

“Do you intend to accept death?” Altain asked, seeing my transcendental appearance.

“Worrying about others when you’re on the verge of death yourself.”

I smirked.

We were both fading away.

In fact, he would face death even sooner than I would.

-Sss

That was clear just by looking at the current phenomenon.

His body was scattering into red powder, centering on the heart pierced by my sword.

In a few seconds, his body would disappear completely.

Along with his very existence.

“….”

His face, hovering in the air with his body half-gone, seemed to be filled with many thoughts and deep contemplation.

And finally.

“…I cannot allow this.”

He bit his lip as if he had made a decision.

“Allow what?”

“You defeated the being known as me. For you, who defeated a True Demon Race, someone close to a perfect species, to be annihilated so pointlessly is unacceptable.”

“You seem quite moved by what I said. That alone is enough.”

“No. I cannot tolerate it.”

The next moment.

-Chomp!

The man bit my neck.

I could have avoided it as much as I wanted, but I didn’t bother.

I judged that since we were both fading anyway, nothing he did could be undone.

And yet.

-Sizzle!

I could feel it.

“This is…?!”

Vitality—no, life force—was circulating through my body, which felt like it had been empty just a moment ago.

The source was near my neck, where Altain was biting.

“I am a Vampire. I absorb life, but I also bestow it.”

A typical Vampire’s life absorption refers to the act of bloodsucking.

Through that, they drink blood to increase their own life force.

And in the opposite manner, there are cases where they share their blood to create a new Vampire.

But that is a kind of curse.

It was a powerful curse where one must live as the Vampire’s family or sibling while losing all their memories.

Usually, a Vampire’s authority refers to these two.

But Altain was a True Demon Race.

In addition to the Vampire authorities shown so far, he was hiding one more.
It was the transfer of life force.

Just as I had used Innate True Qi, he was also using it to bestow it upon me.

“Why…?”

I expressed my doubt.

He and I were enemies to begin with.

No matter how much we shared a similar plight or how I had given him realization, to bestow Innate True Qi on the fading me was an act that was not easily understood.

“I told you. You are the one who defeated me. I am saying I cannot tolerate you dying here.”

It was a kind of pride.

The thought that he couldn’t stand to see the one who had defeated him vanish here.

“You… must live. You must live and stop Nepas’s conspiracy. That is the greatest revenge I can take on that man.”

Sympathy?

No.

Rather, it was closer to a fierce desire for revenge.

He wanted to use me to get revenge on Nepas.

“Leon? I do not know him. Only you, who defeated me, are qualified. So live. Live and kill Nepas. Because that is the path that will make my existence shine even brighter.”

The man still wanted to prove himself.

But he wasn’t doing it himself; he was trying to do it through the medium of me, through the life he had saved.

And that wasn’t overconfidence.

The life force filling my body was immense.

It was far more vast than the Innate True Qi I had consumed earlier.

It was inevitable.

Compared to a life that was slowly collapsing as the price for living over 1,000 years, Altain’s life force, as someone who had just become a True Demon Race, was much more vast.

Thanks to that, I was able to obtain a much larger amount of life force than the Innate True Qi I had spent.

Of course, at a price.

-Fwoosh

Altain’s body was completely turning into powder and scattering.

The last remaining fragment conveyed his will.

“I… will be born anew within you…”

He left me the legacy of a mission and completely vanished from this world.

***

Although the existence known as Altain had disappeared, his life force was alive and breathing within me.

I was originally destined to die but a whim of fate had allowed me to survive.

In fact, I was even more vibrant than before.

“…I’ve incurred a great debt.”

And it wasn’t an ordinary debt.

I clenched my fist.

I could feel a much stronger force than before.

It was inevitable.

His life force hadn’t just extended my lifespan; it had changed many things.

First, my body.

Although I wasn’t a True Demon Race who had absorbed the strengths of every species, I had gained a durability that exceeded the realm of humans.

And…

-Hum, hummm!

A power residing on one side of my chest.

That was…

‘Time Travel Authority!’

Surprisingly, it was time travel.

Following Nepas and Altain, the authority of a Twisted One had been transplanted into me.

However…

‘I cannot use it at will.’

Although it had been bestowed upon me, it wasn’t in a form I could use whenever I wanted.

This incomplete power was telling me that it was impossible to control.

That it would travel through time on its own whenever it wanted.

In a way, it was only natural.

Nepas could use it because it was an authority he was born with.

Altain had fully obtained that authority using the power of a Vampire evolved into a True Demon Race.

But I hadn’t.

Due to Altain’s change of heart and a whim of fate, I had gained one more authority of a Twisted One, which I had previously held.

It was very incomplete.

It was an uncontrollable authority that could not be used at will.

But.

‘This will create a variable.’

I felt certain.

The authority of a Twisted One that Altain had passed on would create a variable for all future events.

And that…

‘It could be a counter to what Nepas is planning.’

The opportunity Altain had created.

I would be grateful for that opportunity and use it preciously but it wasn’t all good news.

“Rumble”

I could hear the sound of collapse.

It was the sound of my inner self collapsing.

Just because Altain had passed on his life force didn’t mean the time of my annihilation had stopped.

It had merely been delayed for a while.

But perhaps the fate of death was angry about that, as it tormented me in another way.

‘The speed of collapse is fast.’

It was much faster than before.

Therefore, even though I had received Altain’s vibrant life force, the grace period was not very long.

But.

“…The wish you desired will surely come true.”

Altain had passed on his life of his own will.

Even if we were enemies until a short while ago, I had received the grace of life; I had incurred a debt.

Since I had a debt, I would surely achieve what he wanted.

The destruction of Nepas.

Only when that was achieved would I be able to close my eyes in peace.