The Hero Becomes the Duke's Eldest Son

Translator: Marctempest

Editor: Rynfinity

Chapter 197

Aden opened his eyes.

He was standing in a field filled with golden light.

Butterflies of light fluttered above the flowers, scattering golden dust.

It was truly a dreamlike landscape.

And then...

—I've lived long, but it's been a while since I've met such a crazy bastard like you. Good grief...

In front of him, a man was looking at Aden with an incredulous expression.

Aden immediately recognized who he was and called him by his title.

“Lord of the Sacred Fire.”

—Yes, I am the Lord of the Sacred Fire. You've probably met my avatar already, but it's your first time meeting me directly.

A handsome man with black hair and golden eyes stood before him.

He was the Lord of the Sacred Fire, one of the three great deities of the Western Continent.

Originally, he was a human from another world, but he was summoned to the Western Continent and ascended to godhood as an ancient hero.

This place was his sanctuary.

Aden furrowed his brow.

“Why did you suddenly bring me here?”

—Hah, is that what you say after finally meeting a god?

Aden shrugged his shoulders at the words of the Lord of the Sacred Fire.

“I've met many gods in my life.”

It might have sounded arrogant, but it was the truth.

After all, he had already met the God of Slaughter and the God of Law, and now, the Lord of the Sacred Fire.

Having encountered gods twice already, he found himself wondering if meeting gods was always this easy.

—Of course not. Normally, it would be impossible.

The Lord of the Sacred Fire scoffed, having read Aden's thoughts.

—We are bound by the constraints of the world, and if we break even the smallest causal rule, we lose a significant amount of power. You may not know, but both the Old Man and the Strict One have been suffering since they met you. Tsk.

After meeting Aden and passing on their divine artifacts, the two gods had lost their wings, the source of their divine power. Though they would recover after a few hundred years, they would remain weakened until then.

—I didn't originally intend to meet you directly, given all the interference and arrangements I’ve already had to make.

“So, why did you change your mind?”

—Because the situation has changed.

The Lord of the Sacred Fire continued with a sullen expression.

—The authority you hold has grown, weakening the constraints of the world.

Normally, the constraints of the world made it difficult for gods to interfere with the beings of the mortal realm.

The best they could do was exchange 'faith' from the mortals for divine power.

Even when necessary, divine decrees were delivered through chosen individuals like saints or prophets to minimize penalties.

Under normal circumstances, just having this conversation would have drained his power rapidly.

But now, with Aden, those penalties had vanished.

—After consuming the Philosopher's Stone, even if it was incomplete, and defeating a Fallen Lord, your authority has increased.

The Philosopher's Stone was a medium that allowed a human to wield the power of a god.

By absorbing it, Aden had become nearly free from constraints.

—I’ve invited you to my sanctuary to tell you things I couldn’t before.

“What do you need to tell me?”

The man spoke to Aden with a calm expression.

—There is something I need to show you. Follow me.

* * *

—You must have heard some of our story from my avatar by now.

“If you're talking about how the Underlord is your disciple and that you came from another world, then yes.”

The fact that the ruler of the underground world was actually the disciple and companion of the Lord of the Sacred Fire would make modern theologians and priests froth at the mouth.

As they walked, the Lord of the Sacred Fire spoke to Aden.

—But do you know why we became gods?

“How would I know that?”

Frankly, Aden had no interest in such matters.

He wasn't concerned with anything that didn’t benefit him.

“Enough, just show me what you wanted to and let me go back.”

—...You're quite the irritating fellow.

“I've been told that many times.”

The Lord of the Sacred Fire looked at Aden as if to say, "What kind of bastard is this?" before letting out a sigh.

—...In any case, my companions and I didn’t become gods because we wanted to.

They reached the edge of the sanctuary, near a low hill.

—We had no choice but to become gods.

“...!”

Aden's eyes widened as he looked beyond the hill.

“That is...”

Beyond lay a land shrouded in unfathomable darkness.

The sanctuary of the Lord of the Sacred Fire bordered an abyss of pitch-blackness.

And from that dark domain, creatures roamed near the sanctuary.

Gurgling sounds filled the air.

Amorphous, gelatinous beings made of writhing slime slithered, their tentacles moving languidly.

—Kraaaargh!

—Keeek!

Monsters with grotesque and twisted forms, like amalgamations of various beasts.

Each one was uniquely monstrous, with no two alike.

They embodied revulsion, horror, death, unease, and chaos.

It was as if all the negative words of the world had taken form.

They were disorderly, chaos incarnate.

Thousands upon thousands of these chaotic beings crawled and flew through the abyss.

Aden instantly recognized what they were.

How could he not?

He had fought them to the point of exhaustion in his past life.

His face twisted into a savage grimace.

“Talos...”

Beings filled only with a will to destroy, these chaotic entities could barely be called living creatures!

They were the Talos, monsters of the underground world.

Aden stared into the dark abyss.

“Lord of the Sacred Fire, could it be that beyond that...?”

—Yes. It is the underground world. The homeland and prison of all Talos.

The sanctuary of the Lord of the Sacred Fire.

It was astonishingly connected to the underground world.

—I was away for a bit, and they’ve gathered in numbers again.

The Lord of the Sacred Fire grumbled lightly, as if this were a common occurrence, and furrowed his brow.

He raised his hand.

Whoosh!

Golden flames rose from his hand.

‘A sword?’

The flames of the Sacred Fire formed the shape of a sword.

—Vile rakshasas.

The Lord of the Sacred Fire swung the sword of flame in a straight line from right to left.

There was no technique or remarkable movement.

But as he casually drew the sword of flame,

Slice!

‘It was cut.’

Aden instinctively felt that something had been cut.

And soon realized, he had cut through the ‘darkness.’

At that moment,

Boom!

Along the path of the cut, a golden conflagration erupted from the wounded abyss, engulfing the Talos.

—Kreeegh!

—Kraaaah!

Every Talos touched by the sacred flames screamed in agony as they were incinerated.

In an instant, the brilliant golden flames devoured thousands of Talos.

The will of the Sacred Fire to exterminate evil was relentless, and soon, the shrieking Talos were reduced to ashes, leaving no trace behind.

For a long time, the final cries of the burning monsters echoed. But even those screams were consumed by the heat of the Sacred Fire, replaced by silence and tranquility.

—Were you surprised?

“...It would be a lie to say I wasn’t.”

Had he been in his physical body, he would have been covered in goosebumps.

It felt as though he had been possessed by a ghost.

No, in this situation, it would be more fitting to say he was possessed by a god.

In just a moment, a horde of thousands of Talos, enough to destroy a country, was completely annihilated.

All from a single, effortless swing of a sword.

The man who had once been called the Heavenly Demon, the Lord of the Sacred Fire, spoke calmly.

—In the land where I lived, they called this level the 'Sword of the Mind.'

“...Is this truly a level that a human can reach?”

—I didn’t know either, but it seems it’s possible.

“...”

Aden was at a loss for words at the casual remark.

The Sword of the Mind.

It was an incomprehensible realm for Aden.

‘I doubt I will ever understand it, even in eternity.’

It seemed there was a reason gods were called gods.

The Lord of the Sacred Fire spoke.

—Long ago, the Lord of Gluttony devoured the World Tree and became one with it.

At that time, the World Tree was a divine tree that supported the world, practically a god in its own right.

The Lord of Gluttony, who had merged with this divine tree, became the Demon God.

Thus, the corrupted World Tree, the Demon God, attempted to consume the entire world.

“And you defeated that Demon God. Your avatar told me about it.”

—Yes, we defeated him. But we couldn’t save more than half the world.

The land tainted by the corrupted World Tree’s power could no longer recover and gave birth to monsters.

When the Demon God was slain, the demonic energy infused with his will went berserk, and to stabilize it, the founding king of Florence became the Underlord.

—The Strict One, the Old Man, and I decided to maintain the balance of the world in place of the absent World Tree.

They, too, were beings who had received the World Tree’s blessing, possessing a portion of its power and having reached transcendence, so it was possible.

They made contact with the ‘Will of the World’ and formed a contract, becoming gods.

—We have kept the underground and mortal realms separate and created sanctuaries between them to prevent the overflow of demonic energy for the past thousand years.

“...”

—However, the underground and mortal realms were originally one world. The underground world naturally exerts a pull, seeking to merge with the mortal realm, and this pull is growing stronger, beyond even our control. You know what the result will be.

“...The Gates of Hell, Tartarus.”

The invasion of the mortal realm by the underground world.

That was the disaster that would occur ten years in the future.

—It won’t take ten years.

But then,

The Lord of the Sacred Fire, having read Aden’s thoughts, immediately denied it.

—It will be within a year, maybe even sooner. The Gates of Hell will open.

What the hell?

Aden couldn't believe his ears.

“What did you just say?”

—One year. The Gates of Hell will open within a year. Don’t make me say it a third time.

“Damn it?”

He hadn't misheard.

But Aden couldn't comprehend the words of the Lord of the Sacred Fire.

“No, why...? Why would a disaster that was supposed to happen ten years from now...?”

—Divine beings are somewhat free from the flow of time.

This was something Aden already knew.

The God of Slaughter had explained it to him.

But the next words of the Lord of the Sacred Fire shocked him.

—And though it has no personality, the underground world is the Demon God himself.

“...!”

—It seems you understand. The mortal realm may have returned to the past due to your regression, but the pull of the underground world remains as it was ten years in the future. That’s why the Gates of Hell will open sooner.

Aden's expression grew increasingly bewildered.

This was an entirely unexpected situation.

Of course, the regression itself hadn’t been Aden's decision.

Curse had used the dragon’s mana to force it upon him.

But he couldn't help but feel some responsibility.

—Don't worry. Thanks to your efforts, the Three Great Churches are intact, and powerful individuals who should have died are still alive, aren't they?

That was true.

The Sias Grand Duke and the Saintess of Meng-an were alive, as were the Three Great Churches and Niketa.

‘Hm? This isn’t as bad as I thought.’

In fact, the conditions were far better than they had been in the future.

Now Aden understood why the Lord of the Sacred Fire had summoned him.

“You're telling me to prepare to face the Gates of Hell, given the limited time left.”

—Yes. But that's not the only reason.

“Then...?”

—The Lord of Gluttony may have died, but his remnants still linger in the mortal realm.

The 72nd Sword, Baalzebul, made from the Lord of Gluttony’s body, was one of those remnants.

But it wasn’t the only one.

The face of the Lord of the Sacred Fire twisted.

—That bastard is as tenacious as a cockroach. Just before he died, he separated a fragment of his consciousness and hid it in the mortal realm.

A fragment of the Lord of Gluttony's consciousness.

It wandered among humans, hiding in the shadows, dreaming of a complete resurrection.

This was something the Lord of the Sacred Fire and his companions had only discovered after becoming gods.

—And by the time we realized it, he had already become a member of the ruling class, powerful enough that no one could touch him.

“Don’t tell me, is he the leader of Chaos?”

—Yes.

The Lord of the Sacred Fire nodded in response to Aden's question.

—In order to regain his original power, he is stirring chaos to bring the mortal realm into contact with the underground world more quickly. The more chaos in the mortal realm, the stronger the pull of the underground world, which is filled with chaos.

“Damn it.”

It was so unbelievable that all Aden could do was curse.

Even the disaster of the Gates of Hell had been orchestrated by Chaos, or more precisely, by its leader...

But if that was the case, the seemingly nonsensical actions of the past now made sense.

The weakening of the Three Great Churches could have been seen as an attempt to neutralize the threat posed by the Warlocks and Priests, who wielded opposing forces.

But turning Hermit into the Mad Dragon was an utterly insane act.

It was practically an invitation for everyone to die together.

If Aden hadn’t killed the Mad Dragon by sheer luck, the Western Continent would have sunk into chaos and perished.

‘But if that chaos itself was the goal, it makes sense.’

The Lord of the Sacred Fire continued.

—And the one who possesses the fragment of the Demon God’s consciousness, the leader of Chaos, is someone you already know.

“Someone I already know...?”

—The Old Man said you're quite smart. You should be able to figure it out now that I've given you this much information.

The Lord of the Sacred Fire fell silent, as if telling Aden to deduce the rest on his own.

Just like a god, making it unnecessarily difficult instead of simply telling him.

—I can hear you, you know.

“Damn it.”

Not only could he read minds, but he could also hear Aden’s thoughts, making it impossible to curse him even inwardly.

Aden clicked his tongue and pondered.

Then he slowly spoke.

“You said the person with the fragment became a ruler, someone with power no one could touch.”

—So?

“There’s only one ruling power in the Western Continent that no one can touch.”

A powerful empire that ruled over more than half of the Western Continent.

The imperial family of that empire.

“But it can’t be the Emperor. The Emperor is always being watched, so it would be nearly impossible to move in secret.”

—And?

“Nor can it be the Crown Prince. As the next Emperor, the Crown Prince is also constantly under scrutiny, possibly even more so than the Emperor.”

As Aden continued to speak, his expression grew colder, and his voice filled with killing intent.

“In other words, the leader of Chaos is someone within the imperial family, yet unlike the Emperor or Crown Prince, he can avoid external scrutiny and stay hidden, and is someone I know.”

The Lord of the Sacred Fire remained silent.

That alone was enough of a clue.

There was only one person Aden knew who fit that description.

A direct descendant of the Emperor, but not the heir.

A man who always stayed secluded in a tower, hidden from the outside world.

And someone who had been so close to Aden in his previous life that they could be called true friends.

In the end...

That bastard had looked down on him with a calm expression.

“Kalsis lo Immortalia...”

The Great Alchemist Kalsis.

One of the five final heroes.

He was the leader of Chaos.