Chapter 528: The Declaration (6)
"I’m curious as to who this person is that you would speak of them like this,” said Eugene.
A sparring partner?
Eugene narrowed his eyes as he gazed at Gavid, skeptical of the implication. He found it almost impossible to believe that Gavid's current prowess had developed within just a few months.
"Is there really someone in Helmuth that I don't know about, someone who is capable of sparring with you? Surely not Noir Giabella,” said Eugene.
Then who could possibly be Gavid’s match?
The Demon King of Incarceration? It wasn't entirely out of the question, but... it seemed unlikely. If it had indeed been the Demon King, Gavid wouldn't be discussing it so casually.
"I know what you are wary of,” Gavid said, grinning as he looked at Eugene. "I could simply drive you into a corner mentally by keeping it a secret, but... I’m not fond of such tricks. So, I’ll give you an honest answer. Hamel, my sparring partner isn't a demon. He isn’t a citizen of Helmuth either, nor a being of this world.”
"What?" questioned Eugene.
"It is a phantom, recreated from His Majesty’s memories... perhaps an existence you might know as well,” answered Gavid.
Eugene stared at Gavid. His sparring partner was a phantom recreated from memory? Eugene wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but the suggestion that it was someone he might know scraped at his emotions.
"I don’t follow what you’re saying,” Eugene said directly.
"Hamel,” Gavid called out, conscious of the chain bundled within his cloak. "Do you know of a wasteland littered with countless corpses?"
Eugene was surprised to hear this unexpected question.
Gavid continued, "Thanks to His Majesty the Demon King’s grace, I wandered that nameless wasteland over and over again. And each time, what I faced was the same death, again and again."
A wasteland strewn with corpses.
Eugene's eyes narrowed.
"The one killing me was always the same adversary. It was a man with a greatsword. Whether I fought or not, the man always ended my life," Gavid recounted.
Eugene just listened silently to the story.
"While only about two months have passed in reality, I have lived far longer in that wasteland. I can't even count how many times I have died there,” explained Gavid.
He pointed a finger at Eugene.
"I don’t know the man’s identity. But I can say this with certainty: his name does not exist in the annals of this world's history. Perhaps... he is from a time before history was even recorded. And." He paused.
The man's sword.
Gavid had barely, just barely, managed to elevate himself to a level where he could just about match the man. However, he had failed to overcome the adversary. Even if he used the Demoneye of Divine Glory, or even Glory, surpassing the man’s sword and threatening his life proved impossible.
Finally, Gavid said, "Hamel, you should know this man.”
When Gavid first saw the man in the wasteland, he had used the Demoneye of Divine Glory and drawn Glory to avoid death. That was when he first saw the man’s sword.
It had been a blade radiating a bloody hue, the very epitome of merciless and inexorable violence.
That sword had resembled the one Hamel had used to slay the specter.
"What words do you want to hear?" Eugene asked.
Eugene wondered how Gavid had grown so strong. He had never imagined the Demon King of Incarceration would assist Gavid in such a manner.
'At least it's just a phantom. I thought a new, unknown powerhouse might have emerged,' Eugene thought.
Or perhaps that still wasn’t such good news. Eugene clicked his tongue while sinking in contemplation.
Gavid would only grow stronger with the passage of time. Eugene didn’t feel as confident in defeating Gavid as he was now. As such, he was wary of how much stronger Gavid might be at the time of their duel.
“I’m rather curious about your relationship with this man, but I won’t pry into that,” said Gavid.
“Then?” questioned Eugene.
“I thought perhaps I should at least know his name,” Gavid voiced his thoughts.
“Why?” Eugene asked in genuine curiosity.
“Would calling him a master be too grand?” Gavid smirked at his own words. “Sure, it might be foolish to assume on my part. But Hamel, I was utterly in awe of that man’s sword. I never thought such a powerful man could exist in this world. I died at the hands of his sword hundreds, no, thousands of times. Each death and each resurrection gradually sharpened me and honed me bit by bit.
“And that is why I genuinely want to know the man’s name and identity. I want to know the name of the one who has killed me so often, who has drawn so much out of me,” confessed Gavid.
"Agaroth,” Eugene blurted out. "The God of War, Agaroth."
Gavid was genuinely curious about the name Agaroth for the reason he gave. Hence, Eugene responded honestly.
"The God of War, Agaroth...." Gavid closed his eyes momentarily and repeated the name, rummaging through the long memories he had accumulated.
The God of War, Agaroth.
He found it.
“That name was left in the sea where Iris was entrenched. Not really as a faith, but more like an ancient legend,” said Gavid.
When Iris suddenly settled at the southern end and started abducting dwarfs for some inscrutable schemes, Gavid had scraped together information to guess at Iris’ plots. That was when he first heard the name Agaroth.
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