Chapter 547: No Victor, Only Ashes (3)
Staring into that abyss in shock, he heard a soft whisper at his ear.
"Don’t worry... my shadows won’t hurt me. They... are my companion... and my ally in my loneliness."
Sansa’s lips formed a faint smile, fragile and tired.
Hearing her voice, Oliver Khan could no longer contain himself.
"I’m sorry, Sansa... I’m sorry... sorry for everything."
The Great Guardian’s words trembled, breaking as he repeated his apology over and over, holding her tighter.
Sansa, with what little consciousness she had left, hadn’t expected to hear that. Slowly turning her head, she touched his face...
Specifically, his eyes.
One glance was all it took for tears to form at the corners of her own.
Because what she saw there, between the gaps of that mask, were not the eyes she despised ..
But the eyes of the man who had been by her side for most of her life.
The same man who had once tried to sacrifice himself for her.
"Uncle... Oliver, I..." She tried to speak his name, to say something—anything—but consciousness left her before she could.
She had fainted. But the final expression on her face allowed Oliver’s heart to ease, if only a little.
It was a peaceful face... with a pure, sincere smile Sansa had not shown since her transformation into a demon.
She hadn’t heard his reply, but it felt as though his emotions had reached her. And in that, Oliver found a sliver of redemption.
Perhaps Sansa was still hated and scorned by all of humanity.
But today, she had gained another person she could lean on ..besides Frey Starlight.
Oliver Khan... the only family Sansa had ever relied on in her entire life.
...
...
...
The moment the search began, the Imperial forces led by Oliver Khan officially confirmed the death of the Eight-Limbed Lady—slain by none other than Sansa Valerion.
With that, she became only the second Lord of Nightmare the Empire had successfully killed since Abraham Starlight...
But Oliver and his men’s work was far from over. The Champion of the Church and the Champion of the Victoriad were still missing, leaving them no choice but to press on with the search.
They moved quickly, led by the Great Guardian himself, who carried his niece in his arms with complete responsibility.
Her wounds were healing on their own, meaning her life was not in danger... yet still...
Oliver held her carefully, allowing no one to come near her.
And so, they continued forward.
After some time, they finally discovered signs of Snow Lionheart’s battle against the Cosmos.
From the blood spilled on the ground and the bisected corpse of a Nightmare creature they found, they couldn’t be certain of the battle’s outcome...
Which meant they had no choice but to keep searching.
It would be a disaster if the crowned Champion of the Church had fallen so easily ..unlike what happened with Sansa.
This time, most present showed genuine concern.
Snow Lionheart was the ideal image of the promised hero—the most perfect of men, to the point where some called him flawless.
He was bright and dazzling, unlike that filthy, dark demoness.
They were determined to save him, no matter the cost. Their eyes shone with anticipation and a fierce will to fight for his sake.
But all of that dissolved instantly the moment Oliver Khan and his group arrived at a certain place...
Much like the battlefield where Sansa had fought the Eight-Limbed Lady, the destruction here was no less in scale—proof that another terrifying battle had taken place.
Yet the gaze of every single person present locked onto one spot.
A grotesque corpse lay there—its body torn apart, more than half of it devoured.
And atop that corpse sat a certain young man, chewing on human flesh... drinking its filthy blood.
He looked feral, his entire body smeared with blood, yet his golden eyes were unmistakable.
They recognized him instantly—and that only deepened their confusion and dread.
The only sounds in the air were the wet chewing and the crunch of teeth—until Oliver Khan broke the silence.
"...What are you doing, Snow Lionheart?" he asked hesitantly, drawing Snow’s attention. The young man turned toward them, his mouth dripping with tainted blood.
"Ah, my apologies. I didn’t notice you there."
Climbing down from Smogh’s corpse, Snow walked toward them, wiping his mouth.
Neither Oliver nor Ghost knew what to say in such a situation.
Everything before them was in utter chaos.
Oliver decided to ask the most obvious question.
"What exactly happened here? And what the hell were you doing just now?"
Meeting Oliver’s gaze, Snow replied with complete nonchalance.
"I took care of the Cosmos, but as soon as my fight with the Lord of Nightmare ended, the Hollow known as Smogh attacked me. Taking him down drained me completely—so I had to eat and recover my strength." Snow spoke as though this were the most natural thing in the world.
Yet every word that left his lips struck the listeners like a thunderclap.
Snow Lionheart had achieved a great feat—slaying both a Lord of Nightmare and one of the Hollows—but none of them could ignore the final part of his explanation.
"Eat... to recover your strength..." Oliver echoed, while the soldiers whispered among themselves, questioning the sight before them.
In his blood-soaked state, his body battered from countless battles...
Snow Lionheart looked far more monstrous and vile than Sansa Valerion, the one they called a demoness.
They had come expecting to rescue their pure, untainted hero—only to be met with a man who devoured human flesh and drank its blood.
Snow seemed irritated, muttering in complaint.
"I thought I could finish his whole body... but I couldn’t get past half. How pathetic."
The Snow Lionheart before them no longer seemed in his right mind.
He was more like a beast—blinded by the power and the path he had just opened for himself.
A filthy path through which he could increase his strength in a way he had never been able to before...
But no matter how they looked at him, Snow’s current state was unfit for the image of a hero—and what he was doing was undeniably wrong.
Even if consuming the flesh of his own kind made him stronger, it was not a path that should ever be walked.
At that moment, neither Snow Lionheart nor those around him noticed the filthy, demonic eyes watching from above...
The eyes of a cursed demoness who had survived on the flesh and blood of her own kind.
Snow Lionheart had awakened his demonic side ..in other words...
He had become a contracted human, just like the Ultras.
And demonic contracts always placed humans at the mercy of the demon they bound themselves to.
For that reason alone, Yosefka’s shadows crept silently toward the promised hero, eager to make him her slave ..
A superhuman slave, far surpassing all his peers.
But the moment Yosefka’s shadows tried to touch his body, a great light burst forth from deep within Snow ..
A holy light that burned the demoness’s shadows and crushed them with an overwhelming power.
The power radiating from Snow Lionheart was utterly antithetical to demons and their dark arts. Yet, in some inexplicable way, it did not reject that strength—it embraced it, weaving it seamlessly into Snow’s own might.
As it welcomed that power, Snow’s light pushed away the demoness’s chains that had been trying to coil around him.
And so, without even realizing it, Snow Lionheart shattered his demonic contract. He became a free contractor—fully liberated, with the absolute freedom to wield his power however he desired.