Chapter 69: Resentment
A few minutes earlier, in the guest room of the Lord's Mansion.
After Brandon had Verdani take his two daughters further away from him, he took a deep breath, unbuckled the Order Twin Blades from his waist, and placed them on the guest room table.
This was a sacred relic passed down through the Kaos Family for centuries.
Facing the twin swords, which shimmered with a faint silver-white light, Brandon's expression was complex. He caressed the scabbards of the twin blades, his movements gentle and cautious.
The origins of the Sage's relics could be traced. For instance, in books long lost to war and migration, the earliest history of the Era of Falling Stars was recorded, including accounts of these relics. The ancestors of the Kaos Family had passed down this part of history, and Brandon knew it by heart.
About a thousand years ago, the first people emerged from deep underground shelters, lost and bewildered. They faced a completely unfamiliar world, a dangerous wilderness that had reverted to a primordial forest. Facing endless attacks from magical beasts, the first people could only rely on the God-built shelters to survive. It was during that time that the Sage's relics were first recorded in writing.
[The first was 'Suo,' the messenger of the sun. She held a scepter, commanding the power of light and flame. The beasts of the Southern Forest retreated before the sunlight, and the dragons of the swamp were turned to ash by blazing fire.]
[The second was 'Da,' the incarnation of lightning. He wielded twin blades, possessing the sharpness and speed to cleave all things. The blood of the Serpent Demons of the Western Mountain flooded the hills, and even the claws of ancient dragons were severed by him.]
[The third was 'Yi,' the master of the mountains. He stood upon the earth, possessing an indestructible body and will. The Ice Dragons of the North were driven to the ends of the land, and steel giants were crushed by his fists.]
In a collection of poems praising heroes, these three passages described three heroes. It was easy to see that these were the original holders of the three relics left in the Mycroft World: the 'Pure White Scepter,' the 'Order Twin Blades,' and the 'Azure Orb.' They were located in different parts of the world, yet all possessed a power that brought peace and drove away all filth.
Now, the Pure White Scepter of the Far South had become the symbol of successive Popes of the Church of the Seven Gods after a thousand years of turmoil. The Order Twin Blades of the Western Mountain had been lost among the people when the Diamond Family led a large number of commoners, unwilling to endure the oppression of the Sorcerer Dynasty, northward. They were later acquired by the artifact-loving ancestors of the Kaos Family. The Azure Orb, due to its unique appearance and awakening conditions, had faded into obscurity after its initial glory, only to be rediscovered with the rise of its current inheritor, Count Radcliffe.
But regardless of which one, they had accompanied the human race through the long river of time, experiencing the vicissitudes of history. They were not merely weapons, nor simply heirlooms left by the Sage. They were blades of glory, bearing the endless hardships of humanity's conquest of nature and disaster, and carrying the will of countless sages and heroes.
— Who am I to resonate with the Order Twin Blades and inherit the true legacy of the Sage?
A flicker of doubt crossed Brandon's mind, but he quickly suppressed it. The swordsman firmly grasped the hilts of the twin blades. The heavy scabbards, pushed by his battle qi, slowly slid off and fell to the ground, revealing the brilliant blades, seemingly condensed from light itself.
Instead of doubting himself because of past glories, it was better to take the blades and create achievements that even his predecessors could not match. Brandon respected those heroes and sages, but respect and fear were two different things. He never thought himself inferior to any of them. What the swordsman lacked was merely time and experience. One day, he believed, he would create his own great deeds and legends.
"Answer me."
Crossing the twin blades, Brandon closed his eyes. Then, his spirit fell into a darkness with a crisp sound like breaking glass. At the same time, the twin blades shimmered with a hazy light, forming in Brandon's illusion two rivers of energy flowing in the shape of a Mobius strip, illuminating the black space with silver-white light.
Bathed in the light, Brandon felt an unparalleled peace and reassurance. It was the power of order, the light that drives away all filth and corruption. The swordsman felt he had never been so close to the essence of the Order Twin Blades — two tides of holy light flowing in an infinite cycle, surging endlessly in the darkness. And at the end of this interweaving of darkness and light stood a blurry figure.
The moment he saw this figure, Brandon's breath caught. His heart pounded. In the past decade or so, when he slept with the Order Twin Blades in his arms, he often dreamed of this shadow. Although he always forgot upon waking, those memories now all resurfaced. An instinct from his inheritance told Brandon that this was the shadow of the Sage. By touching it, he could fully master the Order Twin Blades, just as Joshua had mastered the Azure Orb.
Without hesitation, the swordsman stepped forward. In this mental environment, moving forward required not physical strength, but unwavering will. Though Brandon's steps were slow, they were firm, without a hint of retreat or hesitation. As time passed, second by second, he drew closer to the illusory figure. He saw the Sage's shadow standing with hands behind its back at the end of the darkness, facing away from him, as if suppressing or sealing something.
Suppressing? Sealing?
For some reason, these two words suddenly flashed through his mind. Brandon's heart immediately went on alert. He scanned the surrounding darkness, only to be shocked to find that with each step he took, wisps of dark, evil mist rose from the ground. Now, he was only a few steps away from the Sage's shadow, but the spreading, filthy black mist had already occupied most of the illusion space, even dimming the light of the Order Twin Blades.
In his shock, Brandon suddenly realized that this black mist was not merely an illusion. It was extending from his own body into the real world. His eyes widened as a wisp of black mist, unnoticed by Verdani, merged with the surrounding air and spread toward his two daughters, who had just woken up.
"Damn it! Stop!"
Without a second thought, Brandon halted his approach toward the Sage's shadow. In the illusion, he clenched his fists and roared, focusing his will to restrain the unknown black mist emanating from his body. Though he didn't know the true nature of this mist, its evil and filthy aura could not be anything good. As a father, the swordsman would never allow even a trace of this stuff to touch his children!
It was effective. The black mist paused for a moment, then spread at a pace ten times slower than before. But Brandon's heart didn't relax, because Verdani and the children had not yet left the room. His wife, frowning at the anomaly, had even put down the two girls and was about to approach him to see what was happening.
Leave, quickly! Brandon roared in his heart, but it was useless. He tried as hard as he could to control his real body to step away from within the illusion, but with little success. It was the same principle as being unable to consciously control one's body in a dream. Just as Brandon was about to despair, a figure in a black trench coat crashed through the wall and appeared before him.
It was Joshua. The moment he recognized who it was, a huge weight lifted from Brandon's heart. Though this guy had no taste as a man, wearing only one style of clothes for years, and though he completely understood nothing of the pleasures of life, there was no doubt that Joshua, as a warrior, was the most trustworthy person in a crisis.
And sure enough, under Brandon's relieved gaze, in the span of a single breath, Joshua moved Verdani and the others, who had no idea what was happening, away. Then, the swordsman watched as the other man, with a clean kick and a punch, sent him flying twenty kilometers away.
Well done!
Though strictly speaking, he had been heavily beaten with a punch and a kick, Brandon sincerely praised Joshua's decisiveness. Now, without any constraints, he could calm down and carefully examine the source of this mist and the reason for its appearance within the Sage's inheritance.
Meanwhile, Joshua was flying through the air, rapidly heading toward the direction where he had sent Brandon flying.
Though he didn't know exactly what was happening, in the span of a few seconds, he keenly noticed that the filthy aura emanating from Brandon was very similar to something he was extremely familiar with — the collective resentment of life!
Joshua was intimately familiar with this kind of thing, simply because he himself was almost endlessly surrounded by resentment. The wails of tens of thousands of demon souls, carried by countless soul fragments, clung to his side. Recently, the curses of tens of thousands of demons from the Sixth Abyss had been added to this chorus. If a powerful medium or sorcerer tried to communicate with Joshua's soul, unless they were a Legendary-rank, they would be driven insane by this resentment in less than a second.
This resentment forced the warrior to suppress his own pressure as much as possible. Otherwise, not only would he be unable to communicate normally with ordinary people, but wherever he walked, that place would become a domain of despair and madness. Everyone would either kill each other in fear or flee in panic. Yet, even this amount of resentment was far from comparable to the filthy aura now spilling from Brandon.
It was like the difference between a single mountain and an entire mountain range.
Arriving at Brandon's current location, Joshua looked down from the sky. This was an empty expanse of icefield, now covered in snow. Amidst the vast whiteness, a dark area like a mud pit was rapidly spreading. Indescribable, extremely twisted evil phantoms were struggling to crawl out of the boiling black mire. Among them were ancient evil beings formed from countless tentacles and limbs, with a thousand eyes and a thousand mouths; hideous giants with octopus-like heads and humanoid bodies; and amorphous, slimy creatures writhing like nightmares.
These ancient evil beings, whose mere residual resentment emitted a terrifying aura, roared silently within the dark mire. Brandon's motionless body lay at the center of these monsters. The once-shining Order Twin Blades were now covered in a hazy darkness, gradually losing their luster. Seeing this, Joshua drew a sharp breath, because he recognized several familiar figures among the phantoms — a dark, crystalline carapace and a hideous, insect-like body. That was the minion of the Famine Evil God, the Crystal Insect, Youermadais! These Wild God resentments writhed their limbs and mouthparts, releasing terrifying pressure. Without a doubt, they were at least Legendary-rank in life!
No need to guess. Joshua could now be certain — though he didn't know why they were hidden within the Order Twin Blades, these overflowing resentments were remnants left behind when the Sage slew numerous Evil Gods and demons in the past! And those terrifying phantoms were the minions of those Evil Gods, or even parts of their true forms!
Knowing this, Joshua didn't hesitate to dive down, ready to lend Brandon a hand. But just as he was about to accelerate, he stopped again.
Because a gentle voice, both familiar and unfamiliar, appeared in his mind.