Chapter 496: A Glimpse of the Abyss
A man could dedicate his entire life to training if he wished.
But there are realms of strength that no amount of training could ever reach.
If training were enough,
everyone would become a legend in their time.
"This strength...
is the result of everything I’ve endured.
Every life-and-death battle I’ve faced, every collision I’ve survived,
every ounce of pain, and all the suffering I’ve borne."
The life Frey Starlight had lived was anything but easy.
The fate he had been forced to carry.
The tragedies he had been thrown into.
All of it...
had shaped the Frey who stood here now.
Those abyss-black eyes of his had seen too much.
Far too much.
He had only lived for three years in this body with full awareness.
But in those three years ..
he had experienced more than most would in a lifetime.
"This... is not a level you reach through training alone, Frost Moonlight."
Frey declared, pressing forward ..
his aura alone forcing Frost backward.
Frost couldn’t bear it anymore.
He launched himself at Frey, losing control.. desperate to fight, to prove something.
But Frey was behind him before he even realized it.
And in the next instant ..
dozens of deep, surgical cuts appeared across Frost’s arm ..
the one holding his spear.
Wounds that could’ve been fatal ..
if Frey hadn’t deliberately held back.
He had cut just enough .. to make Frost drop his weapon, unable to hold it any longer.
The sound of the great spear clattering to the ground echoed across the arena.
Moments later, its wielder collapsed as well.
Falling to his knees before Frey.
Frey stood over him ..
Dark Sister held at his cheek.
"Thank you for the match."
That’s all Frey said before withdrawing his aura and stepping away ..
bringing the spectacle to an end.
Everyone instinctively made way for him as he passed, still shaken by the overwhelming power they had just witnessed.
Seeing the aftermath of what he’d done, Frey sighed with mild irritation...
And just as he was about to leave,
he saw Seris Moonlight standing in his path.
It was almost laughable ..
of all directions he could’ve chosen to leave from, it just so happened to be the same spot where Seris had been watching the duel.
As he passed his former Temple companion, Frey muttered an apology under his breath.
"Sorry... I might’ve gone a little too far."
It had been a duel, after all.
But Frost was still the head of a noble house. There had been no need to humiliate him.
Yet Seris shook her head.
"It’s fine. It was necessary."
She saw it from a different angle ..
as a vital lesson for Frost’s growth.
Something essential if he were to truly be worthy of leading House Moonlight in the future.
With a rare smile, Seris looked ahead with newfound clarity.
"Your current level is... astonishing.
You looked like a true warrior ..like a living legend whose history is still being written before our eyes.
If you don’t mind... may I have the honor of dueling you next time?"
Frey was caught off guard by the sudden praise and request.
The Ice Princess ..the famously emotionless girl often likened to a lifeless doll .. was showing a side of herself that felt fully alive.
It was as if, at long last, Seris had begun allowing her true feelings to surface.
And as she did,
Frey found her... breathtaking.
His eyes then drifted downward...
falling on Seris’s restored arm.
She wore a black military uniform bearing the sigil of House Moonlight.
And despite the long sleeves, a portion of her right forearm was visible ..revealing a strange, intricate tattoo.
A frost-marked symbol, icy flowers etched like thorned vines crawling across her pale skin.
Seeing that design, Frey’s smile deepened as he walked past her.
"It’s an honor to witness your growth with my own eyes, Seris...
But I’d prefer to stand beside you on the battlefield...
destroying our enemies .. rather than face you as one."
Frey declined politely as he passed her.
Seris nodded without complaint.
"Then I’ll see you on the battlefield, Frey Starlight."
With that brief exchange, the two of them nodded and passed by one another.
After all those years,
there was no longer any bitterness between them.
Both had moved past what once was ..
and looked forward to what could be.
For the first time...
fighting side by side felt like a real possibility.
At least for Seris, who didn’t hesitate to show Frey her back.
Frey Starlight had changed.
From the arrogant young lord he once was...
to someone mysterious and unreadable...
then the cursed champion of the Victoriad...
and now ..
the miracle-bringer.
It was only natural for her perception of him to change after all that.
And as these thoughts passed through her mind, they walked shoulder to shoulder .. each going in a different direction.
But then...
At the exact moment they brushed past each other ..
A strange phenomenon erupted from nowhere.
From Frey’s shoulder, a violet spark shot out.
A bizarre bolt of electricity slithered like a serpent .. leaping from Frey...
and striking straight into Seris Moonlight’s body.
She froze in place the moment it touched her ..
her entire being trembling as the world around her flipped upside down.
It felt like someone had torn her from her reality...
and thrown her into a completely different one.
A dark one.
A reality that sent shivers down her spine.
She was no longer surrounded by soldiers.
No longer in the camp she’d just been standing in.
She now stood in a battlefield ..
a vision of carnage unlike anything she had ever seen.
Flames raged across the land.
Flames blood-red and crimson,
as if even fire itself had been tainted by the amount of blood spilled.
And when she turned around ..
She saw him.
The man responsible for it all.
He stood behind the chaos ..
a figure wearing a strange black mask, surrounded by a bizarre group of individuals.
They looked like his followers ..
and they stared at him with devotion.
A cursed gathering, led by one man who made her very soul tremble.
And when she looked closely...
he was familiar.
That white hair...
those features...
There was no mistaking it.
It was Frey.
The same man she had just spoken to only moments ago.
But... what had happened?
What was she seeing now?
Where even was she?
Seris tried to move ..
to react, to scream, to blink .
But her body wouldn’t respond.
This masked Frey wasn’t the man she knew.
She didn’t know him intimately ..
but even she could tell this... this wasn’t the same person.
And yet, for some reason,
she couldn’t look away.
Then suddenly ..he turned toward her.
Their eyes met ..
and he reached his hand toward her.
A hand soaked in blood,
a hand that had caused all of this destruction...
And yet... strangely...
Seris found herself reaching back.
Taking that hand without hesitation.
In that moment,
she realized ..
She, too, was no longer the same person.
And just like that ..
The world flipped again.
And Seris returned to reality ..
as Frey passed by her, silently walking away.
At that moment, she turned toward him immediately, shock etched across her face from the horror of what she had just seen.
Her hand reached out, instinctively ..
trying to stop him.
But before she could take a single step in his direction ..
A sharp voice echoed in her mind.
"Do not move. Take one more step and you’ll regret it."
It was the voice of a woman . old, gentle...
yet cold and commanding.
Seris obeyed instantly.
She didn’t dare go against it.
"My Lady... what just happened?
What did I just see?
And what does it have to do with Frey?!"
She asked, bewildered.
Silence followed ..
until the strange, thorned tattoos along her arm began to faintly glow.
"I do not know what that was...
But something foreign invaded your body just now.
A force born from that young man."
The voice spoke again, clearly referring to Frey.
"That power... I’ve never seen anything like it."
An aura... ominous.
And deeply unnatural.
"Even someone of your level couldn’t identify it...?"
Seris was stunned by what she heard.
Even her Lady... couldn’t see through Frey.
"Stay away from that boy, Seris...
Whatever lies inside him is not something that should be awakened."
The voice was firm. Final.
Seris slowly nodded, unwilling to defy the command.
She cast one last look toward Frey’s back as he walked away.
She couldn’t stop thinking about the vision ..
about how he had looked in that twisted reality.
What exactly had she seen?
Seris had no answer.
But the future...
would give her one.