Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 465: Chapter 465: Born Beyond the End to Stop the End

Chapter 465 – Born Beyond the End to Stop the End

The Lightbringer sat on his throne.

He looked at the mythical creature in the shape of a woman in front of him and leaned back into a position as comfortable as the situation allowed.

The flames of the sun rose skyward, yet also spiraled around them, as if they were in the eye of a firestorm whose sole purpose was to burn the world.

Who... just who on the earth below would ever believe that Cassius Desdemona was on the Sun, sitting on a throne like a Prince born among its flames?

Who would crane their head skyward, stare at the bloody sun glowering down on them, and think that one day a Second Rank being would set foot on it?

No one, Cassius knew.

But that was not his concern, alas.

The searing hot air was tense, tense like a pregnant woman about to deliver.

There was a solemnity in the air. A certain solemnity and, he dared say, a kind of sacredness that was impossible to miss.

No words escaped his mouth after he took his seat. He took his duty to listen rather seriously.

Blanche smiled after a couple of heartbeats and spoke. "I would never have thought I would sit before you like this. Not after you failed."

"Failed?" Cassius noted. "Shall I assume something like this happened before? Or close to it?"

"Let’s say you did try to reach the sun," she replied. "And let’s also say that you got your wings burned. An interesting foundation for a myth, by the way."

"Did I die?"

"You would have, if not for your wife."

"She is a darling, isn’t she?"

"I wouldn’t know."

"I guess my fixation with the Sun is not new," Cassius said with a calmness unbefitting a man who was realizing he had lived many lives before. "But then why did I fail?" he asked the most important question, frowning slightly. "Did I fail to take the Three Books?"

Blanche tilted her head and exhaled slowly. "There were times you failed to take the books. There were times you didn’t even survive long enough to learn what you were supposed to do. The causes of your failures are diverse, Lightbringer. Most of the time, it was because you lost your wife, and with her, your will to go on. Other times, it was simply because you were too weak to survive the Holders’ puppets, let alone the Holders themselves."

"The puppets?" He cocked his head. "Let me guess, the gods?"

"Most of them, if not all of them," she nodded. "Or other beings who are not necessarily gods, but are still in the realm of the divine." Then she smiled wryly, a pained smile she hid immediately, as if afraid Cassius would see it. "Even some Errors, mind you."

Cassius’s eyes widened at that information. He frowned even more and leaned slightly forward, his body tense. "What?" he blurted out. "How could an Error be on the side of... these Holders? How does that make sense?"

"Why wouldn’t it make sense?" Blanche hissed. "Do you realize how many times we have done this? Do you think all of us have what it takes to live through the same things over and over, as if we were in an Abyss-cursed movie on repeat?"

The Last Born was completely silenced.

"Madness, Lightbringer, is the one thing common to all beings, whether mortals or gods or anything that can think for itself," she continued, her tone growing cold. "And anyone would go mad if they went through the same failures, the same atrocious deaths, with no end in sight. So yes, some of us chose the winning side. Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be."

"So they took the side of the winners... and these Holders welcomed them?"

"We are Errors. We are closer in nature to them than anyone else."

"And you held your ground," he said, and Blanche trembled slightly. "You have my respect."

"I don’t need it," she replied.

Cassius smiled, but his smile died quickly as he asked the next question. "How many of the Seven Errors have chosen their side?"

"Four of them."

"Four? Queen’s breath. Do I know them?"

"Based on your knowledge of Kaden’s Book? You know one of them," she replied. "You know Sirius Asterion, Heir of Moon and Demons."

His eyes widened. "You mean... the brother of one of Kaden’s wives? The brother of Golden Voice?"

She smiled humorlessly. "The man himself."

Cassius didn’t even know what to say at that point, speechless once again.

Someone so close to Kaden was an Error, and one who sided with the very ones Kaden himself was fighting against.

He sighed through clenched teeth, passing a hand over his face to calm himself down.

Slowly, he lifted his head back towards the White Phoenix and pondered again. "Will I have to go against him, against these Errors, if I want to succeed?"

"It’s inevitable, Lightbringer," Blanche said in a matter-of-fact tone. "You have four Errors who will stop you the moment you get too close. You have gods who would stop at nothing to have your skin and drink your blood, not even for the power it might grant them, but simply to quench their hatred. And not only because you’re a Desdemona, whose ancestor embarked on a genocide of gods the moment she was born, but also because you intend to claim the Three Books. So you can be certain that even the Gods of the First and Second Generations won’t spare you."

"One thing I’ve always wanted to know is... what’s stopping these bastards from doing it now?"

"Because of the Three Fundamental Laws that govern this world, Lightbringer," she explained, raising three fingers in the air. "Each Holder possessed the power to inscribe a Law of Existence into this world, and going against such a Law meant suffering consequences so staggering that not even a god could withstand them."

Cassius arched an eyebrow at the name.

"Wait," he whispered, bringing a hand to his chin. "My goddess lost her power when she transferred my Fate of Death to another human... She said it was because of one of the Three Fundamental Laws. Are those the same ones you’re talking about?"

"The very same." She smiled, then nodded and continued after using her flaming finger to inscribe the number three in a language Cassius knew very well.

The language of Ouroboros.

"What your goddess transgressed was the Third Law. This Law forbids any god, any divine being, or anything that has transcended mortality from intentionally killing or harming mortals who have yet to reach the Fifth Rank, the Ascended Realm, where one essentially becomes a Demigod. To violate this Law is to lose every last trace of one’s power and be forced to begin again from nothing."

The White Phoenix paused, making sure Cassius was following, then continued, "But that’s the lightest of the consequences. You can literally die. And attacking a Desdemona is far worse than attacking any other mortal. Do you know why?"

Cassius smiled slowly as things began to come together. "Because the Third Law was put in place by Desdemona, the Third Holder. And she did it to protect us, before the gods could wipe out our bloodline in their anger."

"Bingo," Blanche said, and fire burst like fireworks. "That’s your Progenitor. That’s what has been protecting you from the very beginning, for a Fundamental Law is something not even the Holders can go against."

"I understand now," he replied, taking a deep breath. "Is that part of the reason I was reincarnated as Cassius Desdemona? Because I don’t think I have always been Cassius."

"I love talking to smart people," Blanche said, and Cassius’s lips twitched at the retort.

She chuckled, wanting to smile, but instead swallowed that smile.

Blanche was surprised by how quickly she was growing used to this young, insolent bastard.

Sighing, she put those thoughts aside and continued. "You are right. This is your first life as Cassius Desdemona. And your birth was not easy. Not easy at all. After all, Cassius Desdemona was never supposed to exist."

"Hm?" His eyes widened. "What does that mean?"

"Exactly what I said," she replied, shrugging. "You were never supposed to exist, but Desdemona and all your ancestors made your existence possible by paying an enormous price. Why do you think you remained inside your mother’s womb for three years, and even died within it? It was because your bloodline had been pushed to its very limit just to accommodate your existence. Because, you see, the bloodline of the Holders has a limit."

At that point, Cassius could only listen, his eyes and mouth wide open.

"A limit to the number of their descendants. They are simply too powerful, too special, to be allowed to conceive without end. And so the World imposed a number upon them, a number that the Desdemona bloodline had already reached when the Twins were conceived."

"So does that mean..." Cassius began, his throat as dry as ancient parchment, his fingers trembling against the armrests of his throne.

"After Kaden shared his plan with Desdemona, she made certain that your birth would become possible. She gathered all her descendants, all 333 of them, and each sacrificed a piece of themselves to create you. Then they created Earth, both for your initial growth and as a home for the Myths Desdemona wished to bring to life as Third Generation Gods," she explained. "They preserved the memories of one failed timeline and created a Game to give you a glimpse of what awaited you. They showed you the Desdemona, hoping that you would come to love them. And when the time finally came, they used Death itself to summon you back into your rightful body."

Cassius’s eyes had gone blank.

"So yes, Cassius Desdemona," Blanche said, looking intensely at him. "It is exactly what you’re thinking. You are no ordinary Desdemona, alas."

She grinned wildly.

"You are the Last Born of the Desdemona, the one born beyond their end, to save them from their end."

—End of Chapter 465—