Chapter 84 - To walk on the right path (2/2)
“Do you know what you have done?” Eldridge carefully observed Nala, then finally spoke up after a long silence: “Everything you’ve done is driving yourself to ruin”
“I’m just doing the right thing, that’s all” Nala didn’t care for Eldridge’s words. No matter what, as long as she kept walking on the right path, regardless of her own ending, she would not regret it.
“The right thing…” Eldridge muttered, then continued: “Then did you know, during your initial battle after Colomier, I had a secret force stationed nearby the outskirts of Colomier. At that time, if I had given an order, that force would have attacked from behind and formed a pincer attack with the legion at the front to completely destroy your army”
“I did indeed feel a sense of crisis at the time, but fortunately it disappeared afterwards” Nala nodded and admitted. Back then, the Interkam domestic nobles were in a hurry to retaliate so they didn’t fortify the rear position too well. If an ambush had indeed come from the rear, there was a certain danger of them being wiped out.
“That was because I retreated” Eldridge admitted: “If I didn’t retreat, I would have been able to lead Royas to conquer the entire country of Interkam, then eventually the entire continent to become the Fifth Empire”
“And the reason I retreated was because you appeared. You gave me a way out” Eldridge pointed to the Statue of the Last God behind him and said: “This is the Last God. When First Empire fell, it was he who prevented the advent of the Black Abyss”
“His power made it so that the more territory he ruled over, the stronger he became” Eldridge said: “The Andrea family had been connected through generation after generation of ancestral spirits, finally ending with me obtaining the power of the Last God”
“But the stronger you are, the more responsibility you have to bear, such as preventing the next advent of the Black Abyss” Eldridge snapped his fingers to reveal a series of murals around them. These murals depicted what would happen if the Last God hadn’t prevented the advent of the Black Abyss.
The sun lost its luster, darkness began to envelop the earth, vegetation withered and died, and the animals began to mutate into strange, eerie monsters. People gradually lost their minds and became irrational lunatics. In the end, everything in the world turned into ashes and returned to their essence, to the Black Abyss.
“This is the Black Abyss” Eldridge pointed to all of them and said: “The Last God held the hope of the entire continent in his hand at the time, he ignited himself, turned his everything into the flames and stopped the Black Abyss, finally ending up as the statue behind me”
“Originally, I also needed to walk this path. I had to lead Royas, conquer the entire continent, then ignite myself. Because only then would I be qualified to become the Torch”
“You said that I became your way out. That means I am also qualified to be a Torch” Nala said calmly, as she observed the tragic murals around her.
“Indeed. Only the three original Gods who came from the first flame have the qualifications to become the torch. The Giant has already been burned, so what remained were the New Deity and the Progenitor Dragon”
“The Last God was the replacement for the New Deity, I am the successor of the Last God, and since your Dragon’s blood has awakened to a significant degree, you can now become the replacement for the Progenitor Dragon” Eldridge displayed an extremely mockingly grin: “So, make the right choice now, Miss ‘Saintress of Salvation’”
Choose to become a substitute for the Progenitor Dragon and burn yourself as the Torch, or choose to sit and watch as the Black Abyss descends and destroys everything.
However, ever since Nala became the Saintress of Salvation, she had no other choice. Eldridge’s retreat had granted what Nala wished for, and also pushed Nala onto the path of self-destruction.
“I will walk on the right path” Nala’s words were still as resolute as she was at the start, unwavering, unchanged.