Black String of Fate

Chapter 8: Ruins of Salazar (2)

The teleportation circle dimmed and returned to the state in which it was earlier. Xavier was in deep thought as he second-guessed his choices, but nevertheless, he did not back down. There was always the possibility that he was overthinking this whole thing, but that trail of thought just felt wrong.

'The true answer, or at least, my answer, is emotions.

Emotions are what truly color the world. Without them, the world would be bland and gray, an empty husk of shallowness. A world dictated by pure logic, such a thing would feel more lifeless than a silent graveyard. In the ancient records that I once chanced upon, it stated that magic originated from the simple concept of emotions like 'wish' and 'desire'.

The reason elemental magic is so profound is that one of the first desires of humans was to control the forces of the world.

As for the other part of the riddle, people who can control their emotions well and make decisions with logic and intelligence are respected by society, they are trusted and placed in high positions, while those who let their ugly desires run free are branded as criminals and hunted down.

There are also those few whose hearts are naturally strong, pure, and bright. They don't need to control their emotions. Their raw nature is virtuous and praised as charismatic. Their emotions resonate with the hearts of others, and people will herald them up to lofty pedestals such as those of a saint or a hero.'

Xavier remembered Kaldian, the hero who defeated him when he recalled the last part. He was one such being, a person with a heart so pure that he became the world's hope even when he was weaker than many of the other powerhouses. It was so much that even he now believes that the hero will be the salvation of people, rather than him.

He shook his head and tried not to dwell too much on it. Right now he had a goal, and that was to become a Paragon. He went over to the now-erased spaces and began writing what he thought would be the keywords of his answer.

'There are many words which can be used to describe emotions. But the concept that I'm thinking about, the concept that I want to convey, can only be described with the age-old myth of the seven deadly sins.'

Xavier went over and started inscribing the first character in a language he encountered once in a ragged parchment, something he had guessed dated even older than the ancient language used by the dragons.

'Pride, the sin of the deluded and aloof nobles, who, for millennia, treated those lower in social class as inferior beings.

This treatment, for such a long time, instilled hatred and distrust among the commoners which slowly bubbled up over time, and finally, from a certain small spark, in which a hated noble made a commoner girl run around naked in the town due to her refusing to sleep with her, the people rioted and started a civil war with no sight of ending peacefully.

It could've been settled without much bloodshed when the scale was small, but the nobles arrogantly started to suppress the people with arms. Their delusional pride couldn't accept the fact that 'inferior beings' stood up to them, they refused to give in even a bit and kept being unreasonable in negotiations.

They kept escalating this situation even though all this could've ended with a much smaller death toll. Ultimately, the enemy nations took advantage of this ridiculous situation and started the First Great War, embroiling many kingdoms in conflict.

Envy, the sin of the damned king who started the Second Great War because the neighboring king was better than him. After the First Great War, the current king was deposed and his ambitious brother took over him. One nation, which had miraculously maintained its neutrality in the First Great War, was prospering due to not wasting resources in the pointless conflict.

Everyone compared the wise king who did not involve himself with the war with the current king who was, at the time, an ardent supporter of the war. In his damned envy, he declared war using bullshit justifications against a nation that was clearly prospering and at its golden age during our time of recovery from the first war.

As expected, the delicate balance after the First Great War was broken, the neighboring nations pounced on this opportunity, and now with a bigger scale, brought about the Second Great War. It was a miracle as to how the nation still hadn't dissolved with such heavy losses.

Lust, the sin of those bastards who captured and committed atrocities against the high elven princess, igniting the start of the Bloody Interspecies War. Our reputation amongst the other species was already extremely bad, but I guess seeing the defiled corpse of that poor girl was the final straw.

I can still remember vomiting and not being able to eat for days after seeing her rotten, stained corpse. Her followers came to me to hire me for their revenge, and at the time I was a pretty famous criminal. I remember breaking out those criminals who were given short sentences in a tame prison just because they were influential and handing them over to the victim's loved ones.

It was hard to not just torture and kill those disgusting scum myself.

Sloth, the sin of the royalty, the aloof and lazy bastards who ignored all the telltale signs of a secret cult. It wasn't until that Grand Demonic Ritual that Laplace conducted using the lives of 13,666 people that they started doing something about those insane fanatics. It wasn't even that hard to deal with them before, if they didn't underestimate those pests.

They openly prayed to some kind of 'god' who would supposedly descend and bring them 'salvation'. The royal prince, who was supposed to be on duty for things exactly like these, was busy chasing the skirt of some prodigy magician girl.

Greed, the most primal sin of most living beings... I still remember when Kaldian, along with his friends, shattered the plans of Laplace trying to sacrifice a whole ass country in a ritual, and what resulted from their failed grand scheme was the unearthing of the mythical God's Tears, one of the very few artifacts which contained traces of true divinity.

If it wasn't for Kaldian, the world would've been destroyed because Laplace would have used them to summon a real Devil, in the flesh. It is a monster even I don't have the confidence to beat in my prime.

Unfortunately, the power of divinity was too attractive, and so every country expended everything to hunt for God's Tears, which had scattered all over the world, instead of sparing efforts to help the victims of that cult.

Gluttony, the defining sin of those disgusting, revolting creatures of Chaos. I don't know who corrupted the brightest God Tear, but it connected our world with some other forsaken dimension. Those creatures thrived on our blood, killing us like livestock. The smart ones among them even hosted inhumane breeding farms. Those times hardened the world and significantly increased the value of strength.

I don't know how, but they had somehow made all the dragons and dragonkin, who had been hidden from the world all this time, betray their own world and further weaken us. The alliances between other races were also weak, courtesy of the Bloody Interspecies War. It was a time when Masters and Grandmasters were commonplace, and the dream of most people was to survive the next day.

And finally, the one I'm the biggest sinner of, Wrath. After the Age of Chaos had settled down, I realized that the old ruling class still held power. Even after all the fuck-ups they did, they still ruled over the victims. All the sufferings I had in my life weren't trials of god, but entertainment of the powerful. My true enemy wasn't a person or creature, it was the injustice pervading the society.

My power gathered the like-minded and thus began the Advent of the Demon King.

Thinking back, the reason why I wielded my blade wasn't just the injustice of the ruling class, it was a cry of rage to the world. After all those horrible things I had suffered, nothing had changed. There were no changes to ensure any such incidents didn't happen again.

It may be arrogant of me to say this, but my violence towards everything during those times was me lashing out towards the world, towards fate itself. My blade carried the Wrath of millions, and that Wrath became the spark for me to explosively grow, with all the tragedies being a fertilizer.'

Xavier inscribed the symbols, Pride, Envy, Lust, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Wrath. He wrote the symbols with all his heart, each stroke being him reliving all the times he's been through. Strangely enough, the language he wrote in didn't look out of place in the circle at all. It wasn't the ancient language commonly used in runes and circles, but something that predated it.

Something whose records even the knowledge-hoarding dragons only had scraps of.

Nothing happened for a few moments, and just as Xavier was about to rub them off in frustration, the magic circle glowed red. It was a huge change when compared to the ethereal blue color which glowed when he inscribed the elements. The eerily vibrant, bright, and cold red even gave Xavier some chills.

But more than that, he was elated. His gamble was right on the money, and he had discovered a previously undiscovered portion of the ruins. It was not from the knowledge of others, it was truly his own discovery.

'This must lead to a different place than the original ruins. I'm most probably risking the chance of obtaining the chalice, but what is life without some risk?'

The red light extended from the center all the way to the ceiling of the chamber, just like the blue teleportation portal, shining with an eerie light. Xavier took a deep breath as he stepped into the teleportation portal.

******

An unknown realm, filled with glimmering stars connected by thin, ethereal white string. In an inconspicuous corner of that neverending tapestry of stars and string, there was a humongous but dim star. The star felt old and burned up, flickering with the last traces of its once magnificent power. It was clear as day that it had lived its lifespan, and was about to be extinguished any day.

The star also strangely had strings that connected it to other stars turning black when touching it. The star's light was fading out, but suddenly, from inside its core, a spark of vibrant red light ignited out of nowhere. The spark was small, but it spread quickly. The star hungrily consumed that bright spark.

It was enough to light up the whole star again, and the whole tapestry of strings surrounding that star turned black. The once pure white tapestry with a small back dot, became a chaotic mix of white and black strings.

From far away, a certain childish-looking god, who knew whom that star represented in the tapestry of fate, was observing. He was a bit surprised when something unexpected like this happened, but he did not mind it too much.

'It's unusual, I've seen the fate stars from the constellation of this world miraculously reignite, but never seen one turn red. But so what? Weird things happen all the time in the cosmos. I'm a bit excited now, I just expected a satisfactory ending with the remaining fate he had left to burn, but it looks like he is much more incredible than I expected.

A brighter star, a larger impact on the other stars, a much more entertaining story! Oh, I can't wait!'