NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 98 The Castle Lord [part 5]
CHAPTER 98
Northern clenched his sword tightly, not wasting any moment, he lunged forward, his blade aimed squarely at Koll's
The castle lord recovered with preternatural speed, batting aside the strike with a sweep of his claws.
The two combatants traded a flurry of blows, steel ringing against ethereal claws in a deadly dance with Koll shouting:
"You wretched creatures! Ignorant! Foolish! With your feeble minds and insatiable thirst for dominance."
Each of his words resounded with a deafening clang of his claws on Northern's onyx blade.
"Your arrogance knows no bounds as you trample upon everything, believing yourselves to be the masters of all you survey!! But you all are nothing but mere insects scurrying about in the darkness, oblivious to the true principalities that surrounds you!!"
In a frightening roar he slammed both fist against Northern's sword, causing him to helplessly fly away and tumble like a log.
The monstrous entity paused, heaving as he took steady but powerful steps towards the struggling Northern.
"You cling to your fragile notions of order, but they are but illusions, veils to shield you from the harsh reality of your own insignificance. You wage wars, spill blood, and ravage the very land that sustains you without honor, all in the name of your misguided ideals. And yet, you dare to call yourselves enlightened?!!"
Northern's clone appeared next to him, feinted left, then spun with blinding speed, his blade a glimmering arc that narrowly missed Koll's neck.
The castle lord responded with a vicious counterattack, his claws raining down in a whirlwind of slashes that forced the clone to retreat.
Razor-sharp talons scored across the clone's armor, leaving deep gouges in the black steel.
Then he continued, first lingering to look at all of them in their different fallen positions. His voice came out with palpable pain and compassion:
"I, I, on the other hand, embrace the chaos that you so fear. I revel in the destruction, the discord and the insanity that it brings, for it is through that insanity that true freedom is born."
He breathed and laughed.
"Your feeble attempts to subdue me only serve to amuse me, you cannot comprehend the power that lies within the insanity of chaos, you cannot comprehend the power of the Origin of Blood."
"Shut up!"
"Uh??"
Koll tilted his head toward the monster that just shouted.
Northern was standing, his once-snowy white hair almost covering his eyes.
He didn't know what this monster was going on about but the ideology was sick.
And strangely something was connecting in his head.
"War? Bloodshed? Chaos? You keep spitting nonsense to my ears its so annoying. You speak of madness as if it is some divine state… you are just a deranged entity that can't see beyond bloodshed and chaos."
He stood straight and frowned at Koll.
"Funny how you attribute honor with wars and bloodshed, as if there is a right way to kill a person. You say that insanity is freedom, but I have experienced it once and it is nothing but slavery… which is why I can tell Koll… you are just a soul in bondage."
Koll was silent for a few seconds, his dark face growing distant then a fearsome scowl contorted his face.
"Impertinent mortal"
He shot at Northern and both of them clashed once again, hauling frightening strikes at each other, the wounds on Northern's body kept increasing while he was unable to slice through the monster's skin.
Even when his blade slipped past its defenses, Koll's skin was like stone.
Northern jumped back, dodging Koll's claws.
A disturbing smirk formed on his face as he repositioned his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"My words stung, didn't it? As it should… you may see yourself as a harbinger of chaos but you and your master are nothing but pawns of your own twisted desires. What a graceless state to be." Northern ended, casting a gaze of disgust on the castle lord.
Suddenly his face become so grim, brows carved deeply into a deep scowl that horrified his entire facial features.
The castle lord snarled in fury, his form flickering as he disappeared and appeared in front of Northern, then he began to rain down ferocious strikes, shouting:
"Don't you dare me with such condescending eyes!! I am greater than you?! Who was it that drove you into madness?! Who was it that made you taste freedom?! Who? Tell me who it was that ruled you and gave you the ground of war and bloodshed?!! The strength you wield now, your growth! Tell me who did you owe it to?!!!"
Northern continually blocked, feeling the recoil on his muscles as each strike was vying to rip his hands apart.
He was sure that if he was using the silver sword, it would have broken from deflecting the strikes that the castle lord was currently battering him with.
He was angry and it made him become more powerful.
'Crap, I really hit the wrong spot!' Northern mused but frowned a second later, 'To hell with it all!'
Northern at this point didn't care anymore. He was not an upright human in a way, at least from his own point of view.
Nor was he one that held on to some heroic belief, he was just his own person.
Even from his past life and now, he had his own belief, some where selfish and some were rational, but all of them were based on his point of view and experiences.
Judging from the way Koll spoke, it was obvious that it was a creature that relished in destruction and the disturbing satiation it brought.
Now, Northern was not sure all that talk about madness… but he earlier began to suspect something playing out.
He had to muster the balls to reply, and arrogantly too, because that was the only way to get the information he needed.
Now, he was very sure that the day he met the castle lord Koll, was the day the seed of madness was sowed in his soul.
Koll was the one inflicting all the monsters with insanity.
Koll is the deranged king that sacrificed his people for power… that would explain why he is do strong, could talk and had these twisted ideologies.
Northern slowly breathed, steamy air seeping out of his mouth.
He changed his sword from his left hand to his right hand then looked at Night Terror and his clone.
Then his gaze drifted back to the fuming castle lord.
"It's fine… I have all the answers I need. You are the one I need to purge to finally be free of this hell. You are the deranged beast of a person that turned his entire kingdom into a ocean of blood all for power."
Koll raised a brow, puzzled as Northern continued:
"Don't get me wrong, I don't care about what you did, I am not a hero, I don't protect the values or honors of humanity, nor do I have an opinion on whether what you did is right or wrong. I just need to leave this hell you have created...
"Please die and let me go home."