A sea of flowers.
Valde stood amidst a sea of flowers. He raised his hand, causing dark miasma to expand out from within his body. It covered this beautiful scenery with the abhorrent infliction of decay.
Red roses wilted away into white mush while grass shriveled up into nothing but strands of disappointing fiber.
“That’s one down.” Firm notes of determination followed his voice. To do what he believed was right, he had to stay true to himself.
Rotted fauna peeled itself away from this small hill. It continued to spread out until it consumed everything. Nothing was spared.
Valde then simply… left. He had done what he desired.
No one else could tell him a piece of their minds. Even if the world itself was once again on the brink of extinction, he would redo everything again until it was right.
~~~
His next point of conquest was a city. Specifically, a Tale going around visiting such cities like this.
The rumored rising Tale that had been giving troubled people food. It was something he must cleanse from this world.
His speed was unmatched. With a mere step, he would traverse thousands of kilometers. Even though he was an Epic, the properties he showed were well beyond what someone of his caliber should possess.
A mother and son pair was dragging along a wagon filled with meat. They were working quite hard despite how blazing hot the environment was. They had stationed themselves just outside a medium-sized city.
“Free meat! Anyone who wants any can ask for some!” A loud yell came from the son. He yelled so hard that it had even managed to break through the city’s noisy atmosphere.
An outsider, wearing torn rags, came to the mother and son pair. “Could you please spare some?”
His unkempt hair and malnourished body spoke volumes.
The son gladly came over and grabbed a bit of meat. He even wrapped it up just so that the troubled stranger could take it home. “Eat well.”
“T-Thank you!” He slowly waddled away, bringing this to his family. “My wife can finally eat something for so long…”
Seeing that even such a poor person was given such a blessing, countless others rushed up to them.
“I need some! Please, give me some!”
“Wait… stay in your lane! I know we’re in a famine but you’re pushing it”!
“Just a tiny bit so that my sister could eat.”
People rushed up to them with desperate expressions. They were clawing at each other, pushing the person in front of them back just to get first in line. It was turning barbaric.
“Please, stay orderly! We have enough for everyone to eat!” Such kindness is rare to see nowadays. The mother giggled.
Valde narrowed his eyes, scoffing. “Disgusting.”
Valde appeared right before the stranger from before. His sudden appearance didn’t alarm the first victim. He was far too entranced with the thought that they would finally have something solid after so long.
“It’s been a while since I felt this hungry. Haha.” His attachment to this piece of meat was unreasonable.
Valde mercilessly ripped it away from the poor man’s hands. Using his gained power, he rotted the meat away at a visible speed. The poor man couldn’t do anything against Valde at all. This was such an overwhelming difference that the poor man couldn’t even say anything.
He fell down on his knees, gasping in tears as his only source of food for so long disappeared before his very eyes. “You… how could you…”
“I’ll do what I must. If you want, I can put you and your family out of your misery. Just say the word.” Valde reached out his hand, waiting for the poor man to accept his fate.
“Will my family live on?”
“They’ll be in a better place.” Valde’s eyes turned grim dark. The very essence of the word ‘darkness’ was manifested. He controlled the man’s mind, seeing through his memories. He understood the general situation for now.
Valde cracked his neck. A famine was always a common occurrence.
He walked on, watching people turn unruly. The previous prim and proper line was now broken apart. As for the mother and son pair, they had already turned tail and ran away, leaving the large supply of meat behind.
“Mom, they’re really hungry. This turned out to be a good thing.”
“I’m getting hungry too…” Grumblings from her stomach signified something much more.
“After we feed them, we can go back and help ourselves. It might only be a bit but the good deed we did today will help out countless others.”
“Help them, you say? And how will you do that?” A voice that resonated with something akin to the devil itself manifested right behind the pair. Mere feeble pawns before a true menace.
“Who are you? What do you want?” The son felt his very life be threatened. The disparity between them was beyond the norm. All he could do was try to somehow appease the monster before them.
The mother seemed to be a little slower. She only felt her body turn cold at this very moment. She turned over to the side, falling down. Even with such a blazing temperature outside, she shivered.
“Cleaning up your disgusting kind.” Valde reached out his hand, holding the son’s head in his hands. It was easy, he controlled his mind, being able to read everything he would ever want from it. After confirming his suspicions, he didn’t even hesitate to make his move.
Snap.
The son’s head had been detached from its body. Valde’s hand was full holding the son’s head yet it slowly decayed into a murky black substance. It was fully and completely dissolved. Not even speaking of its Tale would make it come back.
The mother shrieked in pain. The loss of one’s child wasn’t something that she could bear. She cried out while trying to escape Valde.
“You think I’m stupid?” Valde gnashed his teeth, for vermin like this, he had to nip it in the bud. He calmly walked over to her.
She was desperately clawing her way to safety yet Valde wasn’t someone you could just escape from. He landed his foot and kicked her up. She was face up as Valde reached his hand and ripped out her abdomen. There, an unborn child with a dissolving face could be seen.
“You can never come back. Your Tale ends here.” Valde went down and grabbed ahold of the girl’s head as well. It melted away into the same murky black substance as the son. They were now permanently disabled. If they were to ever try and come back, they would lose their power immediately.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“But the problem doesn’t end there. I still have to deal with… this.”
Valde turned his head and noticed that the pile of human meat from the pair’s wagon had already been all taken away. For this horrifying Tale to come to an end, it was his pleasure to finish the job.
“I have to go back to that kingdom. They’ll be able to help them out.” Valde ignored the taken pieces of human meat. It was just a waste of his time. Instead of trying to stop those hungry souls, he would rather save another hungry soul.
At the end of the day, meat was meat. The only difference was if you cared enough to notice the difference. A filled stomach was better than a slashed belly.
Traveling back, he was immediately greeted as a messiah. He had brought countless ancient techniques of past civilizations that they had made massive progress.
The very first person who came to welcome Valde was Lady Caroline. She wore a brighter dress than before. It was much more casual.
“Sache’s old clothes had-”
“What did I tell you about respect?” Valde’s cold voice pressured Lady Caroline into correcting herself.
“Lady Sache’s old clothes had a note hidden within it. She didn’t have this before entering the ruins. So I assumed, you might’ve needed it.” Lady Caroline bowed before Valde and presented him with Sache’s poem.
Valde leisurely took this from her and carefully read it. He properly enunciated and examined this in key detail. His eyes shifted their hue from terrifying darkness into a more forlorn one.
He crumbled this piece of paper and turned it into a black mush. It slowly evaporated from within his hands into nothingness. “I hate people like her.”
Looking beyond the horizon, Valde sighed. “It’s time to pay Gaelhe a visit. I’m surprised he hasn’t snapped yet. And you, bring food and rations to the nearby city. Make sure they get treated properly. Bring appropriate suppressive measures.”
“I understand.” Lady Caroline bowed once again. As the current bridge between Valde and the King, she held an important status. It was a great privilege to be blessed with such a figure.
Though she asked herself from time to time, if Valde was so strong, why was he so willing to make small steps when he could just bulldoze everything by himself?
From the very first time Lord Valde showed himself to us, he kept pushing forward for a change. From small to big things, he forced us to change our ways. It had helped our kingdom strive forward, taking great leaps in such a short amount of time but… what is it in for Lord Valde?
Lady Caroline could only hope to learn in the future. It was well beyond her current understanding so she had decided to focus on what she could do. Save another city from the crutches of hidden evils.
~~~
Sache lay on an empty bed and fell down face first. She didn’t even bother taking her shoes off. At the very least, she managed to drop her bag off right beside her.
“Head empty. Body heavy.”
It had been a very taxing journey but at the same time, it was worthwhile.
“I finally got another lead. Things are looking up.” Sache manifested all of her will to drag her body to properly align with the mattress. “Another lead, this time, it’s something more concrete.”
Reaching out to her bag by her side, she took out the new instrument she received. Completely out of instinct, Sache hugged it and dozed off. She made sure to not place too much pressure on it since the materials were clearly cheap. Any sort of damage would be hard to fix. It had been with her whole life so it would be a shame if it was…
Sache opened her eyes, feeling something was off. She looked at the Symphony Lute in her hands. No longer feeling such comfort from it, she placed it back inside her bag and closed her eyes. “That’s weird.”
Her weary and tired mind had shut itself off. Thinking was delegated for tomorrow, for now, she must rest.
~~~
An isolated island with a wide open hole tearing above it appeared before Valde’s eyes. For even a dragon’s nest to be violated, change truly was a worthy adversary. He stopped mere meters away from the actual island.
An overwhelming pressure exerted itself from within the island. A menacing grunt caused the sea to shy away from it, creating waves that split away in terror.
For even the greatest of Legends, there were but a mere few that could even match Gaelhe, the Calamity of Ages Past. A single eye was enough to oversee the entire world. His strength was on the cusp of invincibility.
This was a dragon.
“Valde, you’re still alive…” Gaelhe’s eye turned razor sharp. His voice reverberated the very space around it. “You met her.”
“Only you know where I hid this past eternity. Has the world truly become an unsalvagable mess?”
Gaelhe’s head peeked out, causing the very sky itself to darken. His very existence was truly a creature capable of rendering the world to dust. His gaze was firm, unlike before. This majestic dragon shook its head.
He had changed.
“Then why? Why would you awaken me if nothing has changed? That little girl’s a complete joke! If she has anything going for her, it’s that she’s getting closer to breaking the world apart. The world can only hold so much before it bursts.” Anger. His voice was rage-induced.
“Immortality.”
An unexpected answer.
“Your brain numbed after your self-enforced isolation. Immortality, are you kidding me? She wants to bring another Myth to reality? Not on my watch.”
“Another fool wants to embark on her journey. And if the world shatters for it to occur, so be it. I’ve grown tired of living alone.”
“Of the three Myths of this godforsaken world, Fate was lost to time, The Storyteller sacrificed itself, and Immortality has yet to manifest itself. You’ve gone mad. What will happen to a world that’s no longer protected?” Valde might have asked his yet his expression betrayed his reasonability. He was expecting a battle.
“I believe she’ll fit into his shoes quite nicely.”
“A little girl that’s still living in the past. You’re going to throw away countless years of joined efforts from numerous Legends for this one fool? She made you feel a little bit happier and that’s all going to take to neglect your duty?”
“Didn’t he also make you see the joy of life? What difference does it make if it was her?”
Valde spoke no longer. He didn’t need to entertain someone who has grown rogue. “Ten minutes, that’s as much leeway I have before it gets strenuous.”
Title {Malicious Arbiter}
Name {Valde von Reichter Scunthen}
Reputation {9 Civilizations}
Honor {Supreme Evil}
Gravitas {12%}
Affiliation {The Storyteller}
Blessings
Inscribement {Abyssal Eye}
[Control the mind of all living beings below the Myth category. Nothing can get past you.]
[???]
Engravement {Call of the Deep}
[The darkness of pressure and time commences. Rot and decay flourish. Nothing is sacred.]
[???]
Achievement {A Myth's End}
[???]
[???]
"You're wasting it." Gaelhe's world-shattering voice echoed throughout the lands. Yet it impacted Valde the most.
Truly, it was a waste. The last words between them.