Read Novel Full Chapter 502: Completely fooled
Chapter 502: Chapter 502: Completely fooled
Chapter 502 – Completely fooled
The words of Vainglory echoed over and over inside Kaden’s mind, making him almost stagger in his steps.
His pupils were quivering, trying to understand — to grasp — everything the man in front of him had just said.
“H-How does any of this make sense?” He blurted out, his voice carrying a note of desperate hope that none of it was true. “How was everything until now nothing but us playing inside the hands of the Goddess?”
“Well, think about it, young Warborn.” Vainglory said. “You were certainly guided here by the Goddess. Now, it may look as though Rea chose this of her own volition. However, you must remember that my granddaughter has carried the taint of the Goddess inside her mind for far too long to say with absolute confidence that every decision she has ever made belonged entirely to her.”
Kaden nodded slowly, understanding what Vainglory meant. And those words made him retrace everything he had gone through since first meeting Rea.
From that city riddled with wolves that they had ended up destroying, they had walked straight to the Frosted Bridge.
There, not only had he found traces of his own bloodline — with Noctar, that disgusting bastard, ordering him to gather the remaining aspect of the dead God of Death — he had also met the one who would become known as the Devourer of Souls.
As if that were not enough, there had also been the Forbidden Alchemist himself.
Too many people, far beyond the scale of power he was accustomed to, all in one location.
And if he remembered correctly…
‘Forbidden… didn’t he say he regretted being in alliance with the Goddess?’ Kaden mused. ‘Doesn’t that mean they were working together toward some kind of plot?’
His heartbeat increased as he continued tracing his thoughts one by one.
After that dungeon where they had encountered the Devourer of Souls and Forbidden, they had been thrust headfirst into an entirely new realm of dust and war.
‘And there, Rea protected me until she was killed by those monsters, giving Woeful the opportunity to take her body. Then I interfered, and Rea chose to become one with the Goddess, wishing to become… Sorrow?’
And as if that were not enough, he had then needed to come to the Shattered Temple, the very dungeon he was currently in, for the transformation to be complete.
Everything… everything from the very beginning, one way or another, had led them to this exact situation. As if someone had been moving chess pieces one by one in a way he could not possibly perceive.
Coming to that realisation, the truth was obvious.
“I — no, we — have been fooled.” Kaden concluded, his jaw snapping shut.
A wrathful anger began to creep inside his heart. Here he was, feeling sad and sorry for Pandora, but that girl had been nothing but a tool the Goddess had used to play with his emotions.
‘Which means the Goddess knows me well enough to know what could hurt me. She used that knowledge from the very beginning. Did she bait me here for the ring? I look very much like a fool right now. Did she enjoy toying with me?’
“It seems you have arrived at the truth on your own.” Vainglory continued. “That will make it easier for us to continue this discussion.”
“Wait.” Kaden spoke, red eyes narrowing. “Why should I believe anything you just told me? You could just as easily be lying and trying to manipulate me, the same way the Goddess did.”
“You think I would do that to the grandson of my best friend, and the husband of my grandchildren?”
“The same best friend you killed.” Kaden snapped. “What are lies and deception in the face of that?”
The maggots on Vainglory’s half-body began to multiply faster. He said nothing for a long moment, simply looking at Kaden, who looked back at him.
Kaden was beginning to regret his last words. But with everything he had just gone through, his usual control over his emotions was slipping.
That was not a justification, he knew. But his doubts about Vainglory’s honesty were not entirely illogical. He would be a fool to simply believe him after the reality check moments ago.
“Then do as you wish.” Vainglory said at last. “Let me give you some information, young Warborn, then do as you will with it. Act on it, or don’t.”
Kaden offered no answer, only watching him.
Vainglory shook his head inwardly, feeling the corruption spreading dramatically. He grinned to himself.
‘It seems that even after centuries of barriers built into this space, the Goddess can still somehow feel a threat directed at her.’
That meant they did not have much time before she knew fully.
With that thought, he spoke quickly.
“Woeful wants the Ring of Pandora because the core of Pandora’s existence is contained within it. With it, she would be able to fully restore Pandora by linking the ring to the already-present traces of Pandora inside Rea.” Vainglory said, then smiled. “That is all I can tell you.”
“Huh?” Kaden frowned. “What do you mean that is all?”
“You don’t trust me, so you won’t trust whatever solutions I might offer you. So there you have it, young Warborn.” The strange man almost seemed to shrug. “But now you know what the ring does. With that, you can find a way to save Rea.”
“Do you really think this is the time for that? If everything you said is true, then I need a clear path to saving her. I can’t afford to fail.”
“Then you have even less time to afford to spend here, young Warborn.” Vainglory said, then slowly lifted the hand bearing the Ring of Pandora, his face now filled with wicked enthusiasm.
“However, as I told you, I am in no position to simply hand you this ring without a fight. Don’t ask me why. It is simply the way it is. So come, Kaden Warborn. Let’s make this quick.”
Vainglory pressed both palms onto the armrests of his throne and pushed himself upright.
Kaden’s chest shook as a sinuous, corrupting aura spilled from him like wildfire.
Behind Vainglory, a wide mouth — formed entirely from the same writhing, squirming maggots covering half his body — appeared, opening and closing, row upon row of smaller black shrieking maggots visible within.
The sound reached Kaden’s ears, and in an instant, every painful memory he had ever carried began to replay inside his mind.
The feeling was so vivid that the surrounding space vanished, and he found himself somewhere else entirely.
People began to appear all around him.
Aurora, with her bright smile, then her dead body on the ground.
The Slave who had taught him something vital and given his will its singular edge, though he had not known it at the time, and Kaden saw his lifeless body in his own younger arms.
The sad farewell with Asael in that Ruined Dungeon, and somehow, despite never having seen it, Kaden saw his friend on the ground, mutilated, with a woman crouching over him grinning with obsession.
Then Daela…dead, her mind fractured into pieces.
Dain, his older brother, burned until not even ashes remained.
His father, Garros, his head severed and mounted on a crystal spike in a strange realm.
His mother, Serena, crying tears of blood as half her body was devoured by void.
Over and over, Kaden experienced his past sorrows, and felt as though he was experiencing his future ones at the same time.
The pain detonated inside his chest, and he dropped to one knee, coughing black corrupted blood as Vainglory’s curse — the one that activated simply from proximity to him — began to spread through his body.
The same curse that had killed his grandfather.
“Is this all you can do?” Vainglory asked as he walked unhurriedly toward Kaden, each step causing the screeching of the maggots to intensify. “If this is all you can do, then there is no point going back. Just die here and let fate drag my daughter to her inevitable end.”
He came to stand in front of the kneeling Kaden.
Vainglory looked at him for a long moment, then shook his head inwardly in disappointment.
He had believed that perhaps finally his own suffering would come to an end.
But what had he expected from someone so young?
Perhaps it was because he was the grandson of Raven, and he had foolishly expected the same level of talent.
But that was an unfair comparison.
Raven Warborn had been one of a kind. The sort of being that appeared once in a thousand years and left their mark on the world.
Vainglory felt a pang of sadness at the thought of his friend, and looked back down at Kaden, only to feel his chest freeze in surprise.
“That one was rather nasty, grandfather-in-law.” Kaden said with a smile, tears streaming freely down his face. “I didn’t want to use it because I barely understand it. But fuck it.”
Kaden’s left hand moved and seized Vainglory’s maggot-formed hand.
Vainglory instinctively tried to recoil, feeling an innate horror as Kaden’s eyes began to glow sharply.
But it was far too late.
“Metheus.”
Bright, flavourless fire erupted, coating Vainglory’s entire body in an instant.
Then…
“I choose…”
Kaden grinned.
“…the Past.”
—End of Chapter 502—
I will do 3-4 ch/ a week from now on. sorry that I can’t do more. This book was already going down and now it’s worse, welp!
I shall do my best to give it an ending.