The wind blew with a loud sound. Elrian and the others were filled with fear about what was going to happen inside the palace. Lucy was lying fallen on the ground. She slowly opened her eyes and looked. The palace gate was closed. In front of the gate, a figure could be seen. It was the king. Black supernatural energy covered his body. On his neck, his Anima Code the form of a skull was shining in a terrifying manner.
The king created a path of darkness in the air. That path ended right before Lucy. Traveling through that path of darkness, the king appeared in front of Lucy. Faster than teleportation itself, the king had arrived before her.
"Did you think that the small victory outside was enough to defeat me? Until your heart stops, I will keep inflicting wounds upon your body." Saying this, he pushed the air with his foot and moved backward. After covering his leg completely with a black wave, he sliced through the wind and, with tremendous speed, struck Lucy's chest with his foot. She was thrown into the main hall of the palace. The moment she fell, she spat out blood. Her entire body was drowning in unbearable pain.
Suddenly, the supernatural energy of her grandmother's anima code, the human wolf, completely enveloped her body. All the wounds on Lucy's body had already begun to dry and heal. The pain in her body vanished instantly. She opened her eyes. The pain in her eyes was now gone. She realized that the reason her wounds had healed was because of her grandmother's anima code present within her body.
The King was still standing exactly where she had fallen earlier. The wounds on his body were all being burned away by using the black wave. Slowly, Lucy rose up from the ground.
She was standing inside the grand hall of the palace. Everything there was made entirely of gold. However, the throne where the King sat was crafted out of skulls and bones. Lucy noticed that it contained the skulls of humans as well as those of many other creatures.
On the right side of the throne, there was a skull that bore a striking resemblance to the form of the Abyssal Dragon. It was said that the Abyssal Dragon was a sovereign who lived in the deepest, darkest abyss of the ocean, in a place where even light itself could never reach. The lair of the Abyssal Dragon lay within a part of the sea that no one could ever easily access.
The elders often said that the currents of the ocean and the storms themselves were tied to its very breath. Its eyes were said to glow like twin sparks of fire in the pitch-black darkness. The belief was that it devoured the souls of all who were not children of the sea.
Legends claimed that not even the Great Light or any of the other gods had ever been able to find it. That was why the anima code of the Abyssal Dragon could never be created by the gods.
But the King who ruled this island today had ventured into the ocean's depths and discovered the Abyssal Dragon's palace. He had slain it, and from that, he had forged his own anima code or so the ancestors of the Luminous Isle had said. That was how the King had found the courage to wage war against the Great Light.
All of this was nothing more than stories Lucy had heard from those around her. Back then, she had dismissed those tales as nothing but myths. But now… seeing it with her own eyes, she was certain that the skull on the right side of the throne truly belonged to the Abyssal Dragon.
She had to believe that the king had once defeated it and placed its magnificent skull on the throne. Suddenly, her gaze shifted to the left side of the throne. There, she saw a skull that bore a resemblance to a human's form. Yet, she was certain it was not a human skull.
That much was beyond doubt the King was not a man from this island. Then, could it be the skull of some creature from the place where the King had once existed before? If so, perhaps he had brought this skull from that very world he came from.
Maybe it was the first beast he had ever slain. Or perhaps, in that place he once belonged to, the humans themselves bore such strange forms. Could it even be the skull of someone who had deceived him?
The skull that sat upon the left side of the throne whispered countless possibilities. Lucy's mind drifted through a torrent of questions, each thought pulling her deeper into uncertainty.
"Why am I even thinking about all of this? It won't benefit me in any way." She suddenly shifted her gaze away from the throne. At the same time, her attention wandered to the mural paintings on both sides of the castle. These were things she had heard from Grandma's tales. It is still said that within the castle, there exists a mural depicting the gods who had deceived The Great Light. When The Great Light was in the hands of the Luminous Isle, humans had access to the castle. That was how our ancestors had seen those murals inside the castle.
However, the throne back then had been constructed with gold and gemstones. But what she now saw before her eyes was not such a throne. Perhaps that wicked king had altered it and crafted the throne using skulls. She snapped out of her thoughts and tried to read the names on the mural:
Solmyrion, Nyxarion, Thalmyros, Aurevalis, Veytharion, Eryndor. The names were written in the current velranthic language.
It also recorded the powers that The Great Light had granted them. She turned her gaze back to it. "Thalmyros sea ….. Monsters ….. God." Only these three words could she read. From these three words, she was able to infer that it was the god Thalmyros who had ruled the sea.
However, she could not read the authority of the remaining gods. For it was written in the ancient language that the gods of that time used to communicate with one another.
From that language had branched out the present one as well. Yet words such as sea, demon, and god remained unchanged in both the ancient tongue and the present language of Velranthic.
There were a few other words like this too. But apart from those, not a single letter in the painting was written in the present language. It was entirely in the ancient tongue.
It was at this moment that Lucy noticed a black pathway appearing in the air. Knowing that the King would emerge through it, she immediately stepped back a little.
Meanwhile, the wicked King had already erased every wound on his body using his power.
Lucy looked at her own neck. The butterfly symbol of her Anima Code had already vanished from there. She realized that only her grandmother's Anima Code remained within her body now.
Through that black pathway in the air, the King traversed and, in an instant, appeared right in front of Lucy. The dark path immediately disappeared.
Seeing Lucy standing there in full health, the King's brow furrowed.
"How is this possible? I had completely destroyed your body. The symbol of your Anima Code has vanished from your neck. That should mean you've lost all of your power… Are you carrying more than one Anima Code?"
In the very next instant, Lucy teleported and appeared behind the King. Channeling the supernatural energy of the human wolf into her hands, she struck hard against the King's back.
The impact sent the King hurtling forward, yet he did not fall. He twisted around and glared at Lucy.
"I couldn't even see your filthy movement. How did you do that?" he roared at her.
A faint smile curved across Lucy's lips. She had used The Mystic Power. But the King had no knowledge of it.
"My mind says this battle will be completely interesting." The king raised his hands upward.
"By the scream of black shadows, rise." On the floor of the palace, in a vast way, a black wave appeared. From it came out black figures. Some figures had no heads. In front of the king, the black shadows stood in a line.
"I have never used this power against a human. That fortune has come to you first." The black figures rushed forward to attack Lucy.
Lucy brought into her hands a red-colored supernatural energy. That was the color of grandmother's Anima Code. Avoiding each attack, she was using The Mystic Power and, without letting the supernatural energy mix in the air, was striking each shadow and turning them into black dust.
Unable to understand her secret power, the king was filled with rage.
He created a sharp sword in his hands using black energy. Without wasting time, at once the king appeared in front of her. Using the black sword he had created, the king swung aiming at Lucy's right arm. Because she was focused on the battle with the black shadows, she could not notice that the king had appeared near her.
But his aim was not to separate her arm from her body. What he did was spread his black energy entirely into Lucy's right arm. Because of this, Lucy's supernatural energy disappeared for a moment.
The king spun his leg in the air and struck her face. This time, the king's attack carried more strength than before. Because of that, she was thrown and fell a little farther away.
Only when his black energy faded from his hands was Lucy able to bring the energy of her Anima Code into her hands. She rose up from where she had fallen. Blood was flowing from her nose. Because of the energy of grandmother's Anima Code, the wound in her nose slowly healed away.
After taking a small breath, she rushed toward the king with lightning speed. The moment he saw her, the king attacked with his sword. This time Lucy blocked it. The king could not see how.
Because she had used The Mystic Power, it was her soul itself that blocked his attack. With her energy, she dissolved the black sword created by the king into the air.
Both of them brought supernatural energy into their hands. They attacked at the same time. Their hands clashed with each other. From this moment onward, the battle using hands began there.
The king attacked her with a fist covered in a black wave. She blocked the king's attack with her left hand and then struck his stomach with her right hand. His body did not move even an inch. The king released his next attack. She teleported to another place to escape from it.
By then, some parts of the palace had already begun to collapse. Since prolonging the battle with the king would be dangerous, she decided to transform into the full form of grandmother's Anima Code. Because the king had not yet revealed his full strength.
If he wanted to kill me, he could do it easily. He was considering this battle only as a joke. Lucy knew that if the king used his complete power, she would not be able to stand against him even for a moment. Before he prepared for that, She should try to hold his breath for a few moments.
Because grandmother had earlier told Lucy: You can never kill him. But she had also said: If you hold his breath for a short time, you can win this battle.
A surge of crimson supernatural energy spread through Lucy's body. Her skin peeled away as fur began to grow in its place. Her nails lengthened, and her teeth sharpened. With a breath so powerful it shook the castle, Lucy fully transformed into the form of a human werewolf.
The king felt a wave of terror upon seeing her. In an instant, she lunged at him with full speed. Using the claws of her hand, Lucy tore through the king's body. He staggered back quickly, blood streaming from his wounds, which were immediately consumed by black waves that sealed them shut.
Lucy drew in a fearsome breath. For her final strike, she ripped open the king's throat. Empowered by the Mystic Power, her attack had gone unseen by him. The wound was massive, and blood gushed out violently. Her legs had now taken on the full form of a werewolf's. With them, she kicked the king in the chest, sending him crashing into one of the castle's pillars.
Lucy sank her teeth into the king's neck. She began to drink his blood, for her grandmother had warned her that once she transformed into a werewolf, she would not find peace without drinking blood. As she drank, Lucy slowly began to revert to her human form.
The gaping wound in the king's neck made it impossible for him to breathe. By the time he tried to cauterize the wound with the black waves, it was already too late."The Great Light," imprisoned in the king's breath, was freed from his crown. A small fragment of light from the Great Light surrounded the king's body, binding him in place.
Lucy slowly opened her eyes and saw that the king was trapped against the pillar.
She realized now that not a trace of the Anima Code's power remained within her. Slowly, she moved closer to the king. He was still staring at her, smiling. Lucy could no longer suppress her fury. With her bare hands, she kept striking his face. The king's wound had already been completely sealed.
"Why did you kill my mother?"Why… for what reason… tell me. You must tell me." !" Lucy shouted, landing one last blow to his face.
The king began speaking in a faint, subdued voice.
"I have killed countless people. I do not know which among them was your mother. But I can teach you one thing. In this world, no one does anything for anyone else. You did not fight me for the sake of these slaves. You fought only to satisfy your vengeance. You asked me why I kill everyone, didn't you?" He took a breath.
"There is no reason. That is the greatest answer I can give."
Hearing the king's reply, she closed her eyes for a brief moment. For a while, she remained still. Then she slowly opened them again. The figure before her was no longer the same king as before. His body had withered, shriveled, and aged. Light engulfed him entirely. His darkness dissolved into the radiance. Even as he was being destroyed, not a single expression appeared on his face. The nameless king thus became one with the light.
The castle fell into silence.
"Mother, I have won justice. I have freed the people of this land," Lucy's faint voice gently broke the silence.
To be continued.....