Aurora Chronicle: Despair's Aftermath Left by a Fallen Ruler
My name is Ash. I was once the right hand of the world's most feared ruler, the Demon Lord Aurora Chronicle.
Three years have passed since that final battle. People celebrate Aurora's death and laugh together in a peaceful world. But every time I see those smiles, my heart is torn by a sharp pain. They don't understand anything. What Lord Aurora was protecting. What she was fighting against.
Three years ago, the world faced two threats. One was the horde of monsters visible to human eyes. The
Aurora Chronicle: Despair's Aftermath Left by a Fallen Ruler - A shadow closing in on the enemy's back
The wind crawling along the mountainside tugged heavily at the hem of Ash's cloak.
The sky stretched clear and blue overhead, yet a biting cold clung to his entire body. The mountain region of the Dreygan Duchy—the eastern edge of the Kadur Range. This far out, there was no trace of human presence anymore. Only rock, conifers, and a frozen silence.
The words the old man had spoken in the abandoned village still clung to the back of his mind.
*The Still Rot feeds on grudges. It chooses its prey with intent and direction.*
That thing was no mere erosion phenomenon. It was something far more fundamental—something gnawing at the very fabric of this world. If the old man's words were true, then that intent must have already reached the ruined city of Zalvark, where the Seal slumbered.
Ash stopped walking and touched his left eyelid with his left hand. The crimson eye throbbed faintly.
*(The concentration... it's rising.)*
The flow of code—visible only to him—swirled in a strange vortex in the valley ahead. As if a river's current were being sucked into some invisible, colossal drain. The unseen information that composed the world was being torn apart, tangled, distorted.
A high-concentration zone of Still Rot.
Far denser than what he had felt in the abandoned village.
Ash slipped his right hand inside his cloak and touched the silver pendant. The replica of the Seal. The cold sensation traveled through his three fingers. His right hand—missing its middle and ring fingers—trembled faintly.
"...Close."
A low, flat voice. It dissolved into the wind and vanished immediately.
He began walking again. One step, then another, down the animal trail leading to the valley floor.
The surrounding rock faces had begun to change color, ever so slightly. Stone that had been gray was now blackened to an unnatural degree. When touched, the rough surface crumbled brittlely, like the bark of a rotted tree. Rock infested by the Still Rot. Its internal structure had been altered over a long, long time.
That was when it happened.
Something burst deep within his left eye.
Not pain. A warning. The Still Rot sight residing in his left eye was alerting him to danger.
Ash leaped backward on reflex.
The next instant—
The ground where he had been standing peeled upward from within. Bedrock cracked, earth and sand erupted. And from that fissure, something crawled out.
It was the wretched remnant of what had once been human.
Two arms, two legs, one head. Its shape barely retained a humanoid form. But its entire body was distorted like half-melted wax, its surface coated in a murky black slime. Where a face should have been, there were only three holes. Two were the vestiges of eyes. One was where a mouth had been. From all of them, a thick, viscous fluid dripped steadily.
An Aberrant Erosion Entity.
A being not of this world, given physical form by high concentrations of Still Rot.
"...Three of them."
Ash counted them calmly. One directly ahead. Another from behind the rocks to the right. A third from behind the conifer to the left. All the same—collapsing, humanoid shapes.
The erosion entities rushed toward Ash in unison. At their feet, the grass and rocks they touched dissolved soundlessly. Contact with that would melt human flesh in an instant.
Ash raised his three-fingered right hand.
His fingertips traced through space. The engraving motion of a code technique. Pale blue geometric patterns materialized in the air. It was his signature penetration technique—a method that precisely pierced a target's core, achieving maximum effect with minimal force.
"—Pierce."
With that murmur, the technique activated.
A thin, sharp needle of light pierced through the center of the foremost entity's chest. Blackened fluid scattered, and the entity let out a death cry. A shrill dissonance—neither human voice nor beast's.
In an instant, one collapsed.
But—
The remaining two swarmed over the corpse of their fallen comrade. They absorbed the dead entity's body as if it were nourishment. Their frames swelled visibly, bulking larger by the moment. Worse still, parts of their bodies tore away and began to writhe as new entities.
Proliferation.
Ash's brow moved, just barely.
"...Faster than at the village."
The erosion speed of the Still Rot was accelerating.
Five, six, seven—the endlessly multiplying entities encircled Ash in a half-circle. The only escape route was behind him. But his back was to a sheer cliff.
Ash deployed a defensive technique with his left hand. A translucent barrier caught the charge of several entities. Pale blue light scattered, cracks spreading across the technique's surface. Simultaneously, his right hand pierced the cores of three more.
But the battle was clearly turning against him.
He was alone. Their numbers kept growing. One-on-one, he could kill them without fail—but at this rate of proliferation, it would become a war of attrition. Ash's mana was finite.
And above all—a searing pain shot through his left arm.
He looked. The left shoulder of his cloak had dissolved. At some point, an entity's tendril that had flanked him had grazed it. The combat suit beneath had melted too, exposing bare skin. The wound was discolored a reddish-black, spreading slowly, steadily.
Still Rot infection.
*(I won't last long.)*
Ash clenched his teeth. Ignoring the pain, he began deploying the next technique. But the patterns traced by his fingertips were visibly duller than before.
That was when—
The air trembled.
Something unbelievable appeared in the vision of Ash's left eye. From the sky above, countless pillars of light rained down. Each one shone with the radiance of pure code technique. Warm, yet carrying overwhelming destructive power—the light vaporized the swarm of entities in an instant.
"—What—"
The Still Rot swarm vanished.
Engulfed in light, the erosion entities couldn't even scream. They scattered as particles, dissolving into mist. All that remained was scorched earth and a sacred afterglow lingering in the air.
Ash caught his breath.
He knew this technique.
Three years ago, at the final battle of Falgram—the technique that had shattered Lord Oro's barrier. Pillars of light raining down, burning the Demon Lord's castle from the inside out. The scene from that day resurfaced, unbidden.
From the center of the light, a single figure descended.
Clad in silver-white light armor, sheathing a gleaming longsword with a practiced motion. Her platinum-blonde hair, reaching to her waist, was woven into an intricate braid—a combat hairstyle. And—those clear, crystalline blue eyes that anyone would find themselves lost in.
Selen Halveth.
The hero who had slain Oro Chrony three years ago.
She landed, recognized Ash's figure, and her blue eyes widened slightly.
"...You are—"
A dignified voice. Strong at its core, carrying an undeniable force.
Ash stared at her in silence.
Deep within his heart, something blazed up. Hatred. Rage. A flame that would never die, no matter how hard he tried to forget. This woman—*this woman* had killed Lord Oro. Without knowing anything. Without even trying to learn the truth.
But he showed nothing on his face. Behind a mask-like, expressionless visage, he crushed his emotions down.
"I am Selen Halveth, Honorary Knight Commander of the Kingdom of Lushen."
She took a step forward, her gaze fixed on Ash's black cloak and the deep crimson of his left eye.
"The Kingdom recognizes you as a new candidate for Demon Lord. Former aide to the Demon Lord—Ash. Am I wrong?"
He neither confirmed nor denied.
Ash simply returned the hero's gaze with his amber right eye and crimson left eye.
How did Selen interpret his silence? Slowly, she placed her hand on the hilt of her longsword.
"That which resides in your left eye. Everyone who sees it says the same thing. That it is the same eye as Oro Chrony's."
At those words, something flickered deep within Ash's right eye.
The trace of Still Rot dwelling in his left eye. It was a power inherited from Lord Oro—the ability to see the truth of the world. And—that eye was also proof that he bore the same mark as the former Demon Lord.
"I am placing you under restraint. If you resist, I will subdue you by force."
Ash's right hand rose slowly. His three fingers prepared for the engraving motion.
"...Pointless."
A low, cold voice.
"You have no intention of heeding my warning?"
"Warning? Don't make me laugh."
For the first time, emotion seeped into Ash's voice. It was cold fury.
"You know nothing. You never tried to know. And even now—you turn your eyes away from the truth of this world."
Selen's blue eyes narrowed sharply.
She stared harder at Ash's left eye. The faint radiance dwelling in the crimson pupil. It was a light of something more fundamental than code technique—a different kind of power entirely. The same eerie glow she had seen in that final battle with Oro Chrony.
"That eye... as I thought, you are—"
A shade of dread mixed into her voice.
"—the Demon Lord's successor."
In that instant, Selen drew her longsword. The blade reflected the sunlight, casting a dazzling brilliance. Simultaneously, countless patterns of light materialized in the space around her.
"Anti-Demon Lord Code Technique—Chains of Dawn's Light."
With her declaration, innumerable chains of light shot forth from the patterns. Each one writhed like a serpent with a will of its own, surging forward to capture Ash's limbs.
Ash evaded with minimal movement.
His left eye perfectly grasped the trajectory of every single chain. His ability to read the flow of code visualized even the movements of techniques. As he dodged the chains, two thoughts clashed violently within his heart.
*(I can kill that woman. Right now.)*
No—
*(If I don't kill her, what becomes of Lord Oro's regret?)*
His hand trembled. His three fingers began to trace the engraving for the penetration technique—and stopped.
That was when it happened.
Something appeared at the edge of his left eye's vision.
The shadow of the cliff. The blackened rock face behind Selen. From deep within its fissures, something was overflowing.
A torrent of murky black slime. It possessed a mass far greater than the erosion entities Selen had just wiped out. Having its surface colonies burned away had instead awakened the main body lurking deep underground.
Countless tendrils. Countless eyes. Countless mouths. A colossal aberration—all of them fused together—closed in on Selen from behind, utterly silent.
*(That's—!)*
Ash's left eye screamed a warning. His Still Rot visualization ability detected countless cores within that aberration.
Selen hadn't noticed.
She had focused every nerve on the Ash before her. She was completely unaware of the presence of death creeping up from behind.
Ash's thoughts accelerated.
Even if he warned her, it would be meaningless. She recognized him as an enemy. She would never believe him. There was no possibility of fighting together.
And besides—
*(It shouldn't matter if that woman dies here.)*
She was the enemy who had killed Lord Oro. If he left her alone, the erosion entity would kill her. If he did nothing, it would end there.
But.
*(If I lose that woman here, the chance to learn the truth is lost forever.)*
He hated her. He could not forgive her. He wanted to kill her.
But if there ever came a day when Selen Halveth learned the truth about Lord Oro—that future was only possible because she was alive.
Something bitter rose in the back of Ash's throat.
*(Right now, I'm about to—for the woman who killed Lord Oro—)*
The decision came in an instant.
Ash deployed a defensive technique with his left hand, catching Selen's chains of light. Simultaneously, his right hand traced a new engraving. Maximum output. A penetration technique more powerful than any he had used before.
"—Black Needle."
From his hand, a thin needle of jet-black light was released.
It shot forward in a straight line—
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