Ethereal Paradigm: A Canvas of Black - Chapter 81 A Superfluous Bargain

“The moment you feel that you have to prove your worth to someone else is the moment that you utterly and absolutely walk away.”

-Alysia Harris

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With Shiro, in her bloody butterfly form assisted by this Angel whom she said is dwelling inside her, the same treasure this Kingdom wants to reclaim doing anything along the process, and as my Paradigm Shift was also functional, running flawlessly in the foreground with Azazel’s helpful aid… it is truly an arc within the embrace of morbid Duality.

“Your lowliness. Why don’t we start the First Grand Masquerade?” I asked mocking the King amidst the presence of his three million soldiers, and they, specifically this one braggadocio on the front lines, have no intentions of letting it be…

“YOU! WHOEVER YOU ARE! WHAT THE SH*T ARE YOU SUGGESTING TO OUR KING! YOU EVEN DARE CALL HIM ‘LOWLINESS’! DO YOU WITHHOLD CORRECT MANNERS!” The severely-hurt hero, holding his broken arm began to shout at me with the most aggressive voice I have ever heard coming from his overly ecstatic mouth.

Hmmm… Way to express oneself with such bold language in the presence of a majestic King. But, what sparked the blitz was him, not recognizing me just now. Ah right. Probably because of the changes that I have had undergone. Still, the retaliation of my mockery is far from reaching its finish line…

“Yeah! You dark demon!”, “Just give us the Kurenai and we will let you leave alive!” Backlashed the supporting characters in the background giving their full approval to the Hero they all look up to.

“You know…”, I said the incomplete phrase which did not partake to any interview if it was really worth on saying.

“KNOW WHAT YOU PIECE OF CRAP?”

” I am still yet to recover from my underhanded loss from you…you worthless hero,” I replied with an expression of which I would like to describe, is from a sadistic grim reaper.

“HUH? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT! I NEVER FOR ONCE SAW AN UGLY DEMON AS YOU!” the hero recoiled, still believing that it was our very first ‘romantic’ encounter… Seriously, just how dumb could he really be.

“Wait… Count Jobberwock..” The priest on the other hand, probably more literate and comprehensive, as if he knows who they’re dealing up against ceased the mouth of the hero and had some time to look at his now deformed iron-maiden where he sealed me with his cancelling Paradigm Shift.”

“That’s…”

“THAT’S WAT?”

“The novice we fought earlier.”

“HUH? YOU CANCELLED HIS PARADIGM, RIGHT? YOU EVEN SEALED HIM WITH THE IRON MAI-..” He was cut loose from what he was about to say, as he saw what the iron-maiden looks like now… A piece of a broke and non-recyclable sealing artefact.

“TSK… SO THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED… OUR LORD. I DON’T KNOW WHY HIS APPEARANCE HAVE CHANGED AND HOW HE BROKE DAINSLEIF’S SEAL AND CANCELLING SKILLS, BUT, THIS IS THE MAN WHO WAS PROTECTING THE KURENAI EARLIER. IF IT WAS NOT OF HIM, WE COULD HAVE HAD RETRIEVED THE ANGEL WITHOUT FURTHER DELAYS.” the hero exclaimed, kneeling one knee to the ground as he appeared right in front of his beloved King.

“I see.” The king replied, refusing to see the hero through his eyes.

“Dainsleif… I presume that this was the promising novice that you have talked about?” the leader, turned to the priest for the query, instead of asking the one shamelessly kneeling in front of him.

“Yes…. your highness… the novice from the second realm.” Replied the Priest.

“Hmmm… And for the two of you. The ‘best’ in my army?… Losing to such novice?”

“But, you’re highness. His power! It’s something that I have had never seen before.” added priest Dainsleif.

“Hmm… Both of you. You’re fired.” Pronounced the King, with his vast array of men serve as witnesses.

“WHAT? BUT MY DEAR LORD!” the Hero is taken on the proclamation by surprise, and heck… also his loyalty-driven lackeys who always supported him.

“Halt stacking the shame, Count Joberwock. Your service to the Kingdom was really commendable, Now. I bid you thee disparaging farewell as you failed to meet my expectations. Same goes to you… Dainsleif. You are now freed from your service to the Kingdom of Aurelius. I can’t have such abashment stay on my camp any longer. ”

“But your highness!!”

“Stop it… both of you. You’re only shaming yourself… Now, can you go find some cliff and fall from there? That would be your final mission.” The King replied, with a smile alike to that of what someone would usually express when they want to be treated at the cafeteria.

“TSK… PLEASE, LORD! THE KINGDOM OF AURELIUS IS MY LIFE! PLEASE JUST LET ME STAY!” the hero pleaded, crying his heart out in the maroon-coloured cape of the King.

“Hmm? Then defeat the novice right here and now. Prove me your significance once again.”

“B-bu…”

“But what? It’s impossible?”

“N- NO MY LORD! THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS IMPOSSIBLE WHEN FACED AGAINST ME!”

“Then do it now…”

“A-ANYTHING FOR YOU MY LORD!” With sweats coming right down his stressed-out facade, he then took hold of his sword, but this time, with only one arm… The priest on the other side, however, stands too corrected to move. He stood at his current position staring to the afar, refusing to believe as to how fast he lost his ‘maybe’ hard-earned title.

“BE READY YOU NOVICE!!! I’M GONNA MAKE YOU BOW TO THE KING!” Determined to showcase to the king his overall worth as a renowned hero, he tightly held his bone ‘soul-taker’ weapon then left the congregation of the three million, charging towards me with his greatest individual power ever, even without his satirical immortal dead pet.

In the distance, I was also getting ready to fend off the attack myself, but…

“Raise!!” The King commanded those that held archers in his back, raising his authority-striven right hand… They then raised their individual bows high up on the air, and then like stars, seen from my perspective, these arrows made up of thunderbolts came to be.

“Fire.” With only his word as a verdant ground of authority, the archers then fired, without even a taint of mercy for the hero they know…

Like a cascade of thin thunderbolts, the arrows fell from the sky as it struck the hero through ad through, pushing holes in his body…

“Jobberwock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

‘Sir!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The priest snapping out from his inability t believe the events and as well as those assassins and some fighters, seeing their revered hero pierced by innumerable arrows, shouted in desperation.

The hero, losing blood at an unprecedented rate, died standing in the cardinal battlefield almost instantly with eyes opened.

That’s what you get… Not for your incursion and failure of trying to abduct Shiro, but for trying to prove your worth to someone else… So, a nauseating social system like this also exists around these part of the realm huh.

It’s too much a superfluous bargain…

“Now, I’m sorry for that excess commotion, Feudal Overlord, who is also a novice from the second realm, chosen by the divines to partake in a war to decide your race’s fate.” The King said as he is still riding in his royale-seeming black Pegasus.

“I accept your invitation to our first grand masquerade! Although I doubt, if you’ve ever get out alive. It may be, that this little welcoming party will deprive you of your right to continue partaking on your divine game any longer. I am King Aurelius the Fourth! Leader of the sovereign Kingdom of Aurelius. I am here to reclaim our Angel whether it be with or without fatalities!”

The King added proudly, as the priest and some of the hero’s loyal men was left stunned of the sudden death.

I then looked at Shiro, as to how she’s coping up with the scenarios… but the moment I looked her way, her facade was something that she did not own. A sober-looking face that not a little kid in such an age would be capable of doing under the circumstances.

“Who are you?” I asked, feeling sure that it was not Shiro who I’m speaking to.

“I believe that this is our first personal meeting, oni-chama. I am Shiro-san’s counterpart and have lived inside her body the moment she was born… I am the Synthesized Angel of Healing, otherwise known as, Kurenai, also the one who these noisy kingdom company seeks. Hajimemashite, oni-chama!” (English: Nice to meet you), the girl answered, acting out like Shiro’s second ego.

“Same here…” I replied prudently knowing that there’s no more room for a decent discussion and being cognizant of the fact that a battle against these millions is not yonder as the king himself started to draw his majestic sword from its place,

(Anime epic and intense suspense ost starts playing)