THE VILLAIN'S POV

Chapter 924: The Fate of the Devourer

Everything happened too quickly.

Everything collapsed just as quickly.

’It took an eternity to build all of this...’

’Yet it all fell apart in the blink of an eye.’

’Just like that...’

Agaroth trembled.

He could not raise his head before her.

He could not even bring himself to meet her eyes.

Clea’s presence was overwhelmingly oppressive.

It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

He had spent countless years alongside Frey, who, from his perspective, had always been unimaginably powerful.

He had also met several other Writers, including Frey’s siblings and his father.

But Clea was different.

She was a monster of an entirely different order.

It was as though she represented the absolute pinnacle Frey could one day reach if he devoted his entire life to serious training.

Even so...

Her strength was not what disturbed Agaroth the most.

The turmoil boiling inside him came from somewhere else entirely.

For so long, Agaroth had wandered aimlessly, trapped in an existential crisis, unable to define what he truly was.

He had always believed himself to be nothing more than a single word written upon one empty page among hundreds of others.

Then...

He had found hope.

He had almost reached it.

Only to have it ripped away almost immediately.

’Because of a single prophecy...’

’One prophecy!’

His choices had become painfully simple.

Death...

Or sealing away his power and sacrificing his future.

One fate was more bitter than the other.

Perhaps the cruelest part of all...

Was that the choice had never been offered to him.

It had been given to Frey instead.

To Clea, Agaroth was nothing more than Frey’s tool.

A worthless existence.

Merely ink spilled across paper.

That was how she saw him.

According to her...

Even Frey himself might not have viewed him any differently.

’Why is he helping me leave this world?’

’Why is he trying so desperately to make me stronger?’

Those questions had haunted Agaroth long before the prophecy ever appeared.

Each time, he had forced himself to ignore them.

He wanted to believe that Frey truly harbored no hidden motives toward him.

But reality pointed toward an entirely different truth.

’To fight the Lords of Mist...’

According to Clea, Agaroth possessed a power that directly countered theirs.

A power capable of inflicting genuine harm upon them.

Frey had not been helping him because he cared.

He had been cultivating that strength to use it against the Lords of Mist in the Aether World.

As Frey and Clea continued arguing before him, while he remained completely powerless to intervene...

Agaroth felt his mind reaching its breaking point.

’What is freedom...?’

He questioned himself.

’Am I truly free?’

’What have I lived for until now?’

’Were the choices I made ever truly mine...?’

’Or had someone else already made them on my behalf from the very beginning?’

’Is my existence so insignificant...’

’...that a single prophecy is enough to rewrite my entire fate?’

A faint crimson light flickered within Agaroth’s eyes.

Anger.

Despair.

Bitterness.

Every one of those emotions surfaced upon his face.

Despite possessing two of the greatest ocular abilities capable of perceiving the future and manipulating fate...

He had never once been able to see his own.

Frey had always explained it by saying Agaroth’s destiny was too powerful to be predicted.

But...

Was that really the truth?

The Oracle had seen his fate.

And because of that...

He had been forced to choose.

"I will stop..."

Summoning every ounce of strength he had left, Agaroth spoke through sheer determination.

"I will seal my power... and halt my growth."

"At least..."

He had chosen for himself.

"Agaroth..."

Frey whispered the name of the being he had created with his own hands.

He could not utter another word.

The look in Agaroth’s eyes was sharp.

Terrifying.

Frey found himself unable to meet it.

Clea, however...

Was entirely different.

"Remarkable."

She looked at Agaroth with genuine interest.

"You still managed to speak despite the fact that I made no effort to lessen the pressure."

She slowly extended one hand toward him.

"Your abilities are not something a written creature should possess."

With a single motion, the pressure crushing Agaroth multiplied several times over.

His legs finally gave out.

He collapsed onto the ground, completely incapable of standing.

Even his very existence began trembling beneath the overwhelming force.

"Perhaps my son has been far too lenient with you."

Clea slowly curled her fingers, tightening her control over the pressure bearing down upon him.

"You have forgotten your place."

"You possess no right to choose."

"Like every other creature born within this written world, you are meant to remain inside this shell and accept the fate given to you."

"And yet..."

"You continue trying to escape it."

"You continue reaching beyond your limits."

In Clea’s eyes, Agaroth was a complete anomaly.

Ordinarily, the beings born inside books never even became aware of the Writers’ existence.

Agaroth, however, knew everything about them.

So much so that he sought to reach the very world they inhabited.

That alone was reason enough for Clea to erase him.

At last, Frey stepped forward.

He stood before Agaroth, shielding him and dispersing the crushing pressure.

"That is enough."

His voice had become noticeably sharper.

His patience had reached its limit.

"I’ve already received the prophecy."

"So leave my world."

Despite the threat hidden within his words, Clea remained completely unmoved.

"Wake up, Frey."

Her tone turned unusually serious.

"Your excessive attachment to the creatures of your world will bring you nothing except tragedy."

"I see things differently."

Frey answered briefly.

Clea gave a slow nod.

"I see..."

She closed her eyes for a moment and released a quiet sigh before opening them once more.

"But words alone are not enough."

She slowly stepped forward.

"I will seal his powers myself to ensure his obedience."

This time...

She was not asking.

Frey knew his mother far too well.

He understood there was nothing he could do to stop what she had already decided.

She never joked about matters like these.

Standing before Agaroth, Clea summoned her aether and intertwined it with aura.

Powerful chains instantly materialized, wrapping themselves tightly around his body until they completely restrained him.

Within only a few seconds...

Agaroth felt his strength evaporating.

Weakness overwhelmed him so quickly that he could do nothing but endure it.

Clea finished almost immediately.

Agaroth was completely sealed.

Her task within Frey’s world was over.

Before leaving, she turned toward her son one last time.

"The war against the Lords of Mist is about to enter its deepest stage."

"So be prepared."

"I will need you."

Her voice returned to its usual calmness.

Then her body gradually dissolved into countless particles of starlight before disappearing from the Land of Survival altogether.

Clea was simply too powerful.

Frey had never once been capable of preventing her from entering his world.

Just like that...

Everything he and Agaroth had worked for vanished.

Reduced to nothing.

The moment Clea disappeared, the pressure weighing upon Agaroth finally vanished as well.