ALL NOVEL Ch.67 – Twice the Pride…
POV: Dyenna
The expedition had been a success, the monster that people had begun to refer to as the Nightmare Tyrant had been defeated and peace had been restored... however, Dyenna was deeply dissatisfied: the battle had been too simple, her power had now become so great that she didn't even have to put in any serious effort to defeat that little salmadrer.
'Those people must not have seen many adventurers if they thought that salmadrer was Nightmare Tyrant,' she thought, 'judging by the resistance it managed to put up against me, it must have been on the twenty-fifth level, so it was more or less like a medium-high adventurer rank. Powerful, certainly not unstoppable.'
Dyenna was inside what appeared to be a small library: there was a single shelf of books along one wall and a comfortable place to sit and read, but she wasn't there to do that… she was simply passing the time waiting to stock up on supplies, gather some more escort soldiers and then set off again towards the capital of Heliolite. It was time for her triumphal return, and perhaps also the time to try to persuade her parents to leave the crown of the kingdom to her, after all, she couldn't kill them.
'First my brother, now my sister, if they died too while I remained healthy and smiling it would be so obvious that I had something to do with it that even the stupidest person in the back of the room would understand it,' she thought, turning up her nose, 'and talking of my sister…'
She had no doubt that Rosalia was not dead, this was because she had not planned to kill her and therefore it was unlikely that she had been involved in any fight or in the fire she had started, therefore the possible causes of her disappearance were two: it was been kidnapped or she had voluntarily distanced herself.
And considering that Rosalia seemed to have realized something about Dyenna's powers just by looking at her...
'What the hell do you have in mind, little sister? You don't have the power to oppose me even if you suddenly decided to fight,' she thought as she reached out to pick up one of the books lying in front of her, 'I have to decide whether I want to say she's dead or gone missing. For now the presumption is that she is dead.'
Should she say otherwise? If she didn't try to insist that her sister is still alive she might seem too cold and arouse suspicion, but if she shows that she doesn't believe she's dead then the question would end up being why she didn't stay to look for her...
'She had to have bursts of independence just now...'
Dyenna flipped through a few pages without actually reading them, busy trying to solve her dilemma before having to explain herself to the king and the entire royal court. She began to evaluate each answer, creating potential reactions in the palace in her mind, formulating answers to any questions so as to never appear unprepared or risk saying something contradictory.
'I will say that in the fury of the battle and the fire that Nightmare Tyrant caused, it was impossible for me to find out what really happened to my sister,' she nodded to herself, tapping on a paragraph in the book as if she were actually reading it, 'possibly I could blame Shalotte or Darren, Shalotte could be the most plausible and easily expendable scapegoat as no one would bat an eye for her, however her position and rank make her less than satisfactory to any justice-hungry noble.'
Dyenna shrugged, suddenly she felt a strange sensation, a presence that almost seemed to creep exactly a millimeter outside the field of vision of her eyes, she had begun to recognize the sensation, yet it was strange that she was perceiving it so clearly… perhaps another side effect of eating the heart of an ascended monster?
“Do you bring any news?” She asked, closing the book and turning her eyes directly into the darkest corner of the room, and right there, a figure composed of black and white shadows seemed to be and not be at the same time, as if it were an intermittent presence through the veil of reality.
“Your greatest opponent in the Divine Court has been removed,” the entity said with a tone of amusement and satisfaction as if it were something personal for him, “now you must take control of Heliolite, but how will you unite the Eastern Continent without the threat of Nightmare Tyrant as a unifying cause?”
Dyenna smiled, “good.” She raised a hand to her chin, "I have a reason in mind to declare war on the Kingdom of Topaz, or rather, I will say that the mayor of Stanbroodge may have killed or kidnapped Rosalia as I knew he had already tried to harm her and Darren.”
"And?"
“I will attack Stanbroodge in revenge for the damage to the crown of Heliolite and if the king of Topaz opposes it, then I will move to occupy all his territory,” Dyenna concluded, “rather, why didn't you tell me that Rosalia would be able to sense my new power?”
The entity slightly bent that mass of darkness which corresponded more or less to a human head, "the way you obtained the Second Awakening is atypical for these modern times, once upon a time access to this enhancement was different compared to how is today,” he explained perhaps a little too cryptically, “there was no way to know ahead of time that her Class would have made her perceive you as a monster of great power.”
“A monster of great power…” Dyenna murmured softly and lowered her gaze.
“Know that you cannot go back: that monster part is now part of you,” said the entity, perhaps expecting Dyenna to ask to be able to separate from that half and return a regular human.
Only Dyenna raised her head and gave the entity a sweet smile.
“I am not a monster, I am above humanity, that is what I am,” Dyenna put the book back where she had taken it from, “tell me one thing: did that little monster I fought survive?”
The entity remained silent for a few seconds, “she is with your sister.” He replied, the news did not seem to be to his liking, "I would be careful not to underestimate them, perhaps your sister will never come to oppose you, but the creature you spared might be able to equal you in power."
“That little monster? It's just a joke of the system..."
“She is the soul of a human reincarnated into a monster, in a certain sense she is your exact opposite. If she were to ascend, her power would end up being comparable to yours.” The entity shook his head, apparently displeased, “sparing her was a mistake.”
“I don't fear her, after all I gave her the chance to survive for this reason: the next time I meet her, our duel will be legendary and my victory will be written in all the history books,” Dyenna said with an excited twinkle in her eyes, she didn't realize it, but her goal of conquering the continent was starting to take second place compared to satisfying her true and brutal nature, the one she had hidden for so many years.
“Be careful, your arrogance will sooner or later lead to your ruin,” said the entity, disappearing.
“We'll see, my dear, we'll see,” Dyenna replied, already anticipating the moment when she will kill the salmadrer and display her head as a worthy war trophy.
