Chapter 99: Choice
"What choice?" I asked impatiently, looking around as if I was expecting a window to pop up and show me options.
The Dragon God looked at me for a moment. The silence was deafening and I held my breath, unable to endure the tension. Was there a need for him to be so fucking dramatic? Just give me the damned options already!
"As you have seen, the Hero has gained insurmountable strength after sacrificing so many innocent people. By generating a deep darkness, he has absorbed the corresponding amount of light that has arisen to counteract it. Therefore, in order to defeat him, you will need strength."
The Dragon God then flapped his enormous wings and directed my attention back to the oval object in the middle of the abyss.
"Will you choose to use this egg for your revenge?" he asked.
"…huh?" I wasn't sure if I had heard him correctly. "That's my choice? Whether to use this egg for my revenge or not?"
"That's right. You can choose to accept this power…or reject it. That is the choice you have to make. But know this: the Hero now possesses overwhelming strength because of the ritual that his comrades have carried out. You will be at an astronomical disadvantage if you choose to refuse this power."
For a moment, I was silent. Then I burst out laughing.
"Sorry, bro, but…are you behind the times or something?"
"What…?"
Of all the reactions he imagined I would display, the Dragon God certainly didn't seem to have expected amusement. He gaped at me in disbelief. I sighed and shook my head.
"I already defeated the damned Hero. Herman and Irene – I have already subdued them and left them for a fate worse than death. Hmm, it's been several months now. I think they are just about to run out of their vitality now."
Herman and Irene had been my very first targets. They were the first members of the treacherous party that I had taken out and eliminated. Even now, they were still stuck in the temple of the Holy Church as priests and priestesses desperately try to heal them from their fatal wounds. Which was useless because the Blood Spear of Longinus dispelled any healing spells or magic that they tried to use on the fused couple.
Right, I had fused them to each other by drenching them in acid. Good riddance.
Not only that, but by impaling the both of them together with the Blood Spear of Longinus, I had effectively nullified their magic. It didn't matter how powerful Herman was or how much holy magic or light he held within his body. The Blood Spear of Longinus rendered all of that useless.
Holy hell. Now that I thought about it, the Blood Spear of Longinus was actually one hell of a cursed weapon. In the right hands, it could be a massive advantage. Too bad it only worked against mages and magic, and had a lot of restrictions. Arrows and non-magic projectiles would still hurt the wielder, and the weapon would actually have to be in physical contact with the target to dispel his or her magic.
Whatever the case, poor Herman wouldn't be getting out of his predicament anytime soon (neither would Irene). All the holy magic in the world wasn't going to save him from an obliterated heart, not unless he was a vampire like me or Vincent Lucard. Now that I thought about it, most of his holy magic and vitality would have been absorbed by the Blood Spear of Longinus anyway, so when I got it back, I would have one hell of a weapon.
I couldn't help but chuckle.
The Dragon God was silent for a moment, as if looking at something far away. Then he sighed in exasperation.
"That's right. You've already taken out Herman the Hero, and he's currently on the verge of death, fused to the Supreme Priestess Irene. There's a cursed weapon of incredible potency piercing their hearts. So that was your doing?"
As expected of a "god", so he could see everything.
The Dragon God looked at me, thoroughly impressed. At the same time, he was at a total loss at what to do. He raised a massive paw to rub what appeared to be his forehead and sighed, a hurricane breath gusting across the void. Except that there was no air to blow in the vacuum.
"Well, this just fucking sucks!" he complained, throwing up his arms. "What's the whole point of presenting you this choice when you've already defeated the Hero and no longer need the extra power?! Of course you no longer need it!"
"Isn't this about the Dragon Trial or something? Why did it turn out to be about my vendetta against the Hero Herman?"
I just couldn't understand what was going on anymore. The Dragon God calmed down and sheepishly returned his gaze to me. Clearing his throat, he tried to recover some measure of dignity.
"Nothing personal, kid." He sighed. "And the trial didn't specifically aim for you because of your grudge against the Hero and offer you a chance at revenge. It's just a means to an end for the Dragon Legion to test out the new Demonic Emperor."
"Huh? I don't get it. What does everything so far have to do with the Demonic Emperor?"
"Haven't you been listening? I know you're more intelligent than that. You should be able to put everything together by yourself. Start by remembering what you've heard from the ritual that the Hero party conducted at the church."
Closing my eyes, I ran the entire scene through my head again. Indeed, I had learned quite a bit of information from there.
"The greater the darkness, the more powerful the light born to counteract it becomes." Adjusting my glasses, I suddenly had an idea. "That applies to the Demonic Emperor too?"
"That's right. You're finally getting it." The Dragon God nodded. "The Demonic Emperor stands in opposition to the seven Heroes. If the Heroes are the embodiment of light, then the Demonic Emperor is the manifestation of darkness."
"So the more powerful the light, the stronger the Heroes…the deeper the darkness and the more formidable the Demonic Emperor becomes?"
"Exactly."
"So what does that have to do with this choice or that egg? Is that supposed to be the power of darkness or something?"
"In a way, yes." The Dragon God nodded. "In order to help the Demonic Emperor fight off the Heroes, the Dragon Legion intends to gift him whatever strength they can. That strength is crystalized in that egg over there."
"And they are offering it to the new Demonic Emperor, who must choose to whether he wants to accept it or refuse it?"
"Correct."
I stopped over his answer and pondered for a moment. This made no sense. If the Dragon Legion truly meant to help, they wouldn't just present this as a trial and ask the candidate whether he chose to accept it or refuse it. They would have just given it to him. The fact that this whole "choice" thing was even a trial to begin with already raised alarms in my head.
This trial definitely was not as simple as it seemed. If I were to immediately say yes and choose to accept the egg, I would probably fail the trial immediately.
No, I had better not be hasty. What if this trial was supposed to test me on my decisiveness…to trick me into thinking that no was the right answer when it was actually the wrong one?
At that moment, I recalled Miranda's words.
"…the use of sacrifices will create darkness, the corresponding light produced to counteract it will be equally immense. The larger the darkness, the more rage, hatred, agony, despair and other negative emotions imbuing the darkness, the more power you will gain from the resultant light."
In other words, if I were to accept this power, I would turn it into an escalating arms race. The more power I accumulated and obtained, the stronger the Heroes became to counteract me. The more power was involved, then the more violence and bloodshed that would inevitably result when we clashed.
And since my goal was coexistence and peace…a vision of a world without war…why would I need so much power for? My greed would just lead to even more holy magic manifesting to counter me, and this would make it even more difficult for me to end the war.
Yeah…I didn't need to pass this damned trial in the first place. I wanted to get out of here. I was sick of wasting time in this godforsaken place, especially when I had places to be in and a revenge to enact. There were still two targets left on my list. Having been forced to revisit my memories, my hatred for them burned brighter than ever.
So I made my decision. Taking a deep breath, I met the God Dragon's abyssal gaze and opened my mouth.
"No, I don't need the egg. I refuse."
"Are you sure?" The Dragon God boomed. I nodded.
"Yeah, I'm sure. As useful as power is, I have my own methods of taking revenge. You can keep it for yourselves. I don't need it. Besides, too much power is no good. If what I'm seeking is peace, then having more power is counterproductive. Yeah, we will need strength to enforce peace and protect ourselves, but not to the point where other people regard us as a threat and continually build even more powerful weapons to counter us."
I wasn't naïve enough to be a pacifist and advocate disarmament. There would always be an enemy and a need to maintain a standing army for defense. But I wasn't going to escalate it into a situation where both sides had living nukes capable of casting magic that could destroy entire continents.
If the enemy had nukes, then I was going to develop a system that could shoot the nukes out of the sky before they landed in my territory, rather than stockpiling my own nukes. Mutually assured destruction was a great deterrence and all…but it placed a lot of faith in hoping that the other party was sane enough to want to avoid the destruction of the world.
"Very well. Then let us return to the mortal world." In a flash, the Dragon God and the egg vanished. I found myself hurtling through the void, most likely back toward reality. Finally, the damned trial was done. I guess everyone was going to be disappointed that I failed the trial, but I honestly couldn't care less.
Since they recognized me as the Demonic Emperor, either they had to obey me or they were more than welcome to challenge me for the throne.
Before I was dumped out of the dark dimension, I heard the Dragon God's voice was the last time.
"Congratulations, your majesty. You have passed the trial."
"Wait…what? How?"
"You made the right choice."
"But I refused! I said I didn't want the power!" I protested, puzzled. The Dragon God chuckled.
"Exactly."
"Huh?"
"I'm sure you have seen what your ex-party members have done after they sacrificed you and the church attendees. It goes to show why giving power to people who covet it so much that they are willing to sacrifice innocents as a first resort is a bad idea. Whereas those who don't desire power are usually the ones who deserve it the most."
That was one hell of a convoluted logic. I shook my head in disbelief, still not understanding what had just happened. Taking a deep breath, I sighed.
"So what happens now, after passing the trial?"
"You will see."
Before I could ask him for more details, I found myself unceremoniously dumped back into reality. Dropping into a kneeling position right in front of the Dragon's Teeth, I found myself looking up at the concerned expression of Stella.
"How long was I in there?" I asked, accepting her hand and allowing my red-haired aide to pull me to my feet with a nod of thanks.
"No more than an hour," she replied, tilting her head in puzzlement.
"Is that so?" I blinked, surprised. I felt as if I had been in there for years. Most likely a consequence of reliving my memories.
"Yes. Why? What happened in there?"
"I honestly have no clue," I admitted, only to trail off when I caught sight of something more amazing.
Beyond Silvia and the other vampires who were still standing, every single dragon in the valley was bowing down before me, posturing themselves humbly. Even the usually arrogant Ragios had his head lowered in subservience.
"You have passed the Dragon's Trial," the crimson Dragon King declared, his voice tinged with awe. "We will recognize you not just as the Demonic Emperor, but also a commander fit to lead the dragons."