Chapter 123
In the depths of Yan’s past life, a vision always haunted him.
The assassin’s blade. A dagger that, no matter the means, must complete its mission.
If only he could fully manifest this vision, it would pierce through even the nuclear shields without the need for Qi.
Long research had proven that a well-realized vision could be stronger than the condensed mana known as Qi.
Of course, one would need a vision firm enough to suppress Qi.
As Yan solidified his vision,
Mana surged from the Mana Heart, amplifying as it passed through the Moon and Mercury in succession.
They raced through the Mana Roads of his body like wild stallions unleashed.
Yan guided the mana to its precise locations, completing his preparations.
“Hoo-hoo.”
Yan breathed thinly, opening his eyes halfway.
The special task force commander watched Yan quietly before closing his eyes,
as if confident that such a level was insufficient to harm him.
He murmured with a content smile, having completed his duties,
“A life of meaning.”
Yan’s lips twitched at those words.
To hear a man, brainwashed and living a puppet’s life, claim a meaningful existence.
It was a distasteful reminder of his past life as an emperor’s marionette.
An utterly unpleasant memory.
“Meaning, my ass.”
ROOOAR.
Mana swirled around the commander, gathering in a dragon’s ascent.
The commander watched, a serene smile on his face.
“Soon, it will all be over.”
With those words, the commander’s skin reddened, then turned a bloody hue.
His body and face began to grotesquely swell,
inflating like a balloon being filled relentlessly.
[Now is the time!]
Momon, who had been silent, now shouted.
He had been watching quietly, but not idly.
At his signal, Yan directed the rampaging mana within him into Ascalon.
Ascalon became a small, almost imperceptible dagger.
Despite the tremendous mana it carried, it looked pitiful, but Yan had no doubts.
This was the very dagger of his vision.
Leon, watching from behind, gasped in shock.
“How can this child manifest a vision!”
Even he had yet to perfectly realize his own vision!
* * *
Yan inhaled deeply, a prelude to the storm that was to come.
“Shhh.”
With a swift motion, he thrust the dagger, forged from his vision, towards the protective barrier surrounding the commander’s core.
But…
Ting!
“Damn it.”
It was a failure.
The dagger, a product of Yan’s imagination, couldn’t penetrate even a single layer of the commander’s shield.
Biting down hard, Yan tried once more to pierce through with the visionary dagger, but to no avail.
“Keke, it seems things aren’t going as you thought,” the commander mocked.
Leon, sensing the dire situation, placed a hand on Yan’s shoulder, seemingly ready to whisk him away.
Yan shouted, “It’s not over yet!”
He bit his lip, thoughts racing.
Why hadn’t his vision manifested its power?
Then, suddenly, his eyes met with the crown prince’s.
Memories began to flood his mind.
It was the last scene before his regression.
The Blood Path he had created to kill the emperor.
Himself, walking the blood-soaked path, aiming for the emperor.
Cutting through Royal Knights, nobles, reaching the emperor at last.
‘Ah.’
That’s when Yan realized why the dagger of his vision hadn’t unleashed its power.
‘My life changed after that event.’
A vision is the theme that runs through one’s life.
If life changes, so must the vision.
The current Yan wasn’t the silent assassin of his vision, nor did he do anything for a mission.
His altered vision was no longer the assassin’s blade for any mission.
It was the ‘sharp fang of a failed hound.’
Realizing this…
Swoosh.
Ascalon began to transform once again.
Its blade and edge soared upwards, and its faint presence erupted into a thrilling force, making itself known.
Roar!
Yan finally felt at one with Ascalon.
He swung it towards the commander’s core.
Slash!
Unlike before, the once-solid barriers split like paper.
And then…
Slice.
He bisected the commander’s core.
Boom!
Dark mana surged from the split core, beginning to devour the commander’s body.
Blood, bones, entrails – the mana, unsatisfied, shot upwards in an explosion.
Bang!
The mana, which had destroyed the hearing hall, exploded in mid-air.
At the same time, Yan collapsed.
He had used a power beyond his means, and the backlash had already set in.
The core was shattered. Without a medium to absorb mana, the swirling mana quickly dissipated.
Yan, confirming this, crumbled like a puppet with its strings cut.
Thud.
Someone caught him from behind.
“I wasn’t the only one hiding my strength, was I?”
It was the Chief Instructor.
And beside him stood Leon, with a grave expression on his face.
The Chief Instructor, with a bitter smile, gently seated Yan on the ground.
Perhaps due to burning everything, the Special Task Force Commander began to slowly disintegrate into dust from his toes up.
Regret filled his eyes.
It was only at the end that he realized.
“I was brainwashed?”
That he had been brainwashed by the Emperor.
That the life he had lived until now was not entirely his own.
Yan looked at the Special Task Force Commander and asked,
“Did you just realize that?”
“Yes. I realized it far too late,” Special Task Force Commander replied with a bitter laugh.
“But I don’t particularly blame His Majesty. Maybe it was inevitable.”
The Special Task Force Commander turned his head to quietly observe the Chief Instructor.
Despite being brainwashed, he remembered everything he had done.
The insults to the Chief Instructor’s mother, the second Empress. The incidents he had manipulated to make her execution inevitable.
Everything came flooding back.
“…”
The Special Task Force Commander uttered no apologies or atonements.
He simply gazed at the Chief Instructor.
Perhaps it was a surge of rebellion against the Emperor who had stolen his life, but Special Task Force Commander murmured to Leon,
“Your Highness, the Crown Prince. Please be wary of His Majesty.”
Ssshhh.
With those words, the Special Task Force Commander vanished into dust.
As everything came to an end, Duke Beowulf, who had been watching from afar, silently took his daughter and Lia and left.
And then.
Only after confirming that everything was over did Yan allow himself to collapse onto the ground.
“I’m really going to die.”
And at that very moment.
Bang!
“Are you alright, Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
The doors of the hearing hall burst open, and the royal guards flooded in.
“Look at this, they come in after everything’s over. Anyone would think it was all planned,” the Chief Instructor mocked as he struggled to his feet.
A few of the royal guards blushed at his words, but eventually, they were calmed by a senior-looking knight.
After some time passed.
The royal guards had finished assessing the situation, but they were puzzled by the absence of the Special Task Force Commander’s body.
“The body itself has disintegrated.”
At Leon’s words, which indicated complete annihilation without a trace, the royal guards collected only the bodies of the Task Force officers and concluded their search.
Leon turned his head, looking for someone.
“Duke Beowulf?”
“He left as we entered.”
“Then take these two to the infirmary.”
Leon could have gone to the infirmary himself, but it seemed he still had things to command, as he tiredly directed the royal guards.
The Chief Instructor, having nothing else to do, left the hearing hall with the royal guards.
Yan, like the Chief Instructor, was supported by the royal guards as he headed to the infirmary within the palace.
It was at that moment.
“Hey there!”
Someone called out to Yan from behind.
When Yan turned around, there was Count Zion, who had fled the hearing hall first, looking at him with a bright smile.
“Are you still here? The place is a mess, but you’ve got guts.”
Despite Yan’s irreverent tone, Count Zion chuckled and nodded.
“Of course. I bet on you, after all. If someone else had walked out, I would have been ruined.”
If the Special Task Force Commander had survived the hearing hall, Count Zion would have been greatly inconvenienced.
Perhaps that’s why Count Zion’s face, as he looked at Yan, bore the expression of someone who had won a great gamble.
“Well, now that I’ve seen you walk out, I’ll be on my way.”
“Ah! But before that. It seems my part is done, but I need a firm answer on when I can receive my due.”
A weary look crossed Yan’s face.
It was the deal they had made: in exchange for Count Zion’s support, Yan would provide something that could elevate him to a duke.
It would have been fine to discuss it in a few days, but Count Zion seemed insistent on getting a firm answer right then and there.
Yan sighed and began to mentally calculate.
‘I’ll need about a week to fully recover and leave the Imperial City.’
Yan looked at Count Zion and spoke.
“I will visit the Zion household with ‘it’ within a month. Your family is in the southeast, right?”
At Yan’s question, Count Zion chuckled and nodded.
“You know well. Then I look forward to seeing you again within a month, as you said.”
“Please enter, Count.”
Having received a firm deadline, Count Zion turned and left the hearing hall without further ado.
It was then.
“How’s your body? Are you missing any parts?”
The Chief Instructor approached with a worried look. Aside from suffering from mana backlash, Yan seemed to have no serious injuries.
Yan cracked a slight smile and raised his arms.
“My limbs are intact. But my insides feel like they’re rotting away.”
It was natural for his insides to be in turmoil, having forced the manifestation of a vision with a body that was incapable of it.
If he had pushed himself even a little more, he might have seen the gates of the afterlife.
The Chief Instructor squinted at Yan.
Then, suddenly widening his eyes, he whispered,
“…Have you ascended to the ranks of the superhuman?”
Yan grinned and nodded.
The reward wasn’t bad for the effort.
Whether it was because he had forcibly awakened his vision or not, he had crossed the threshold of the 4th grade realm, known as the superhuman stage.