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Ruler Vol 2 Chapter 30

 

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Author: Anit666

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【Sam’s POV】

 

“Need me?! You twisted motherfucker, you have the nerve to say that to me after all that you’ve done to me and my brethren?!”

Ah, is he still bitter about that? Even after all this time?

Well, of course he would be.

“That was all necessary. I did it because I had no other choice.”

And my response flared him up even more.

“Necessary?! You turned us into dead men walking, and you say you had no choice?!”

Dead men walking? What a weird way to phrase my actions.

“I turned you into post-apocalyptic warriors. Think of it as a necessary sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice? A sacrifice for what?! For this losing war you are pretending to win?! To hide your wounds where blood just won’t congeal?! Just for what did you betray us, Samuel Hayden? Answer me!”

He stomped his foot on the ground thus creating a large crater and demanded of me.

Well, technically, it is a losing battle. My chances of success are quite low, after all. But that’s a battle that I have to fight nonetheless.

“You already know the answer to that.”

“You lied to us! You betrayed us!”

“Perhaps I was a bit economical with the truth, yes. But what choice did I have then? What choice do you have now, Balgaar? You know it, don’t you? It is our time to give penance. The Heaven is coming. Soon. This isn’t a war you can win with ordinary soldiers: this is the future. Death’s an inconvenience now, nothing more. We are all dead men walking. Exactly what do you think would happen if you don’t participate in this war? The Heaven won’t stop just at Hell. After destroying me, they will come for you.”

“Penance? Bullshit! You were the one who invited Heaven upon us. When you and Hargreave were blinded by your fervour, the six of us warned you, that what you were doing would bring down the Heaven’s wrath. But you didn’t heed our advice! You instead turned against us! You trampled on our love, our loyalty, our hopes, dreams and our pride like crushing an ant under your foot. Samuel Hayden, the man who lorded over the End, who we followed, was turned into a soulless, conscienceless machine driven by his madness to exact revenge! Now look at you: the Ruler of Death, the master of both the Adjudicators, have fallen so low that you are nothing more than a loser. The reasons that you fight for have all been lost in sin. You are now nothing more than a magnificent liar.”

Lorded over the end? The Ruler of Death? The master of the Adjudicators? The Overlord?

So many titles, so many identities, yet none of them describes me.

Ah, how terrifying it is, that he could grasp that truth by ripping off the web of lies I had created around it.

But too bad, his truth is still lying.

After all, although it appears to be that, the loser is king.

“A liar, huh. What you say is true. I am a liar. I’m but a human after all. A human who is propelled forward by his own unadulterated will to reclaim what’s rightfully his.”

“And for that you are ready to betray and kill everyone who holds you precious, and everyone you once held precious?”

He inquired.

“Yes.”

“You madman! Is it even worth all that you are doing?!”

Is it worth it?

HOW DARE HE?!

“Of course it is. I won’t give up thinking about it! I won’t falter! Maintain my resolve! Dispose of my conscience! Trample over my pride! Bend my emotions to my will! Exhaust all of my hopes and dreams! Give up on my future! Sacrifice everything I have! Destroy myself! Won’t go the wrong way! Just walk straight ahead! Slaughter them all to give him a death full of madness and despair!”

By the end I was panting heavily. Guess I got a bit too excited. Balgaar now looked at me with an expression full of disbelief. I guess my unfaltering devotion made him speechless.

“Deny it all you want; it is my will that drives me. Even if I am reduced to a soulless machine, even if eternal damnation awaits me on the path I walk. I shall rule over it and emerge victorious. Even if my soul were to come in my way, I’ll trample over it and blast it to smithereens.”

Balgaar remained silent for some time. And then he made his last effort to put me on the supposedly right track.

“Do you think she would want this……… all of this, madness? Do you think it would make her happy to see you in this state? Where you and Hargreave live only for vengeance?”

………….

This is all he could do?

“An interesting question. Thinking about her personality, she most probably will fly into rage after seeing me in this state. And I really should- no, I really want to consider that. But the thing is, I don’t. I don’t give a fuck about what the ghosts of my past would think about my current actions. My will isn’t so weak that it would be broken by such mundane considerations.”

After listening to me, he released a long, heavy sigh. Good. He has now given up on me.

Which makes it easier for me to give up on him.

“Now, I’ll make you my offer one last time. Come with me, Balgaar. And then we can work together in a way that benefits us both.”

His expression hardened, and with a scowl, he answered.

“I refuse.”

That’s what they said.

“You’ll die by Heaven’s hands, ya know?”

“It’s still better than the fate that you have in store for me.”

They said the same thing that Balgaar is saying right now.

“I’m not sure what you think of me, but I was modifying your bodies a little bit so you could be helpful in the upcoming war.”

“By binding our souls to Tzeeneth and planting farces in us? I’d much rather die than live in such a shameful manner!”

And that’s the reason-

“Are you sure?”

“Even if I do come with you, you are still but one man.”

“You forgot about Hargreave.”

“A puppet being controlled by someone like you doesn’t count as a man.”

“You sure have some nerve calling him a puppet in front of me. Not to mention that you are clearly wrong there. I am not one man. I am backed by the entirety of Hell.”

“Hah! Have you gone mad? Hell would prefer to be destroyed than follow you.”

“Ah right, you don’t know about that, do you? The Hell you are talking about now remains in the past. The current Hell supports me and is ready to die for my cause.”

“What?”

-they fell before me.

“You see, after you left, I reformed Hell.”

“You did what?”

The entire place started trembling due to the sheer pressure Balgaar was releasing.

“I perfected my techniques and bent the entirety of Hell to my will. And that’s why they will follow their Ruler.”

He should know what I mean by that. And if he does-

“You….. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you!”

-he’ll also fall.

He repeated this word like a broken record, with each of the word containing more wrath and power than the preceding one.

And finally, Balgaar fell right into my trap.

“Du, monstrum! Jen was vos jsi getan?! Have udelal sie vestri loutky, nur in já, egoistisch desideriis zabíjel?! Balgaar tady Sie nunc a und autem rache illis!”
<You monster! Just what have you done?! You made them your puppets just for your selfish desires?! I, Balgaar, will kill you right here and now and avenge them!>

He screamed in a voice full of madness and despair, just like I wanted him to.

⟦Hey Maxwell.⟧

⟦Yes.⟧

The Monster inside me replied.

⟦This qualifies as a situation where I am allowed to kill a Lord of Hell, right?⟧

⟦Even the Devil would pale in comparison to you. You already know the answer to that, don’t you?⟧

⟦Was just confirming.⟧

“I just did what was necessary. Like I said, I didn’t have any choice.”

“Das Est to! töte autem kurva ich in a Badeblut tvuj!”
<This is it! I will fucking kill you and bathe in your blood!>

“Oh, so you are coming for me? Then be prepared to die.”

“Du quam zabít mich? Multum lepsího, männer tentatus spratku haben!”
<You will kill me? Far better men than you have tried, brat!>

“You do realise you are saying that to the guy who defeated Maxwell, don’t you?”

“So quid ist die?! I, the das dominus ohně, hiermit animi tá Ritual autem krevní apud Overlord!”
<So what?! I, the Lord of Fire, hereby starts the Ritual of Blood with the Overlord!>

How commendable. Even after losing himself in rage, he still didn’t forget about the existence of Maxwell, and thus started the Ritual of Blood, an ancient ceremony of Hell.

“The Overlord hereby acknowledges the beginning of this ritual.”

And I had no choice but to accept it.

“Wait a minute!”

Suddenly, Regina shouted. Both me and Balgaar turned to her. She looked straight into my eyes and started ranting to me in an agitated voice.

“What the fuck are you doing, Samuel?! You plan to take on Balgaar alone?! Don’t get so full of yourself!”

Hold up. She knows the Ruina?

“Regina, how about you back off for now and let us do what we are trying to do? This is much more important, you know.”

“Important?! Look here, you little shit! If we want to survive this, we have to work together and defeat that monster!”

Ah, how unreasonable.

“Zurückweichen, Regina. Die sacris byla wurden initiatus. Zets unus může kein est to stören.”
<Back off, Regina. The ritual has been initiated. No one can interfere with it now>”

Look, even Balgaar is asking you to back off.

“You…!”

“You will fall back, Regina. Unless you want to fight both of us simultaneously?”

Both me and Balgaar glared at her with eyes full of bloodlust to make her realise that we were serious, which shut her up. Seeing that she had nothing to say anymore, I made a proposal.

“Oh, and I would appreciate if you can be the judge for this match.”

“You…….! I’ll make sure you pay hell for this!”

“A ritualis vyzaduje, a sui aby die judex: to Hölle. Byl Ich imperare Daemon King, zu sit ty beurteilen vivere ten Match. invite návrat, Ich esse ty werde in z das loco, gehen.”
<A ritual requires a judge: that’s the rule of Hell. Demon King, I invite you to be the judge for this match. In return, I’ll let you go alive from this place.>

This guy’s quite cocky, isn’t he?

“And what guarantee do I have that you won’t just kill me after killing that fucker?”

Hey, at least have some faith in me……

“Herr autum Peklo tut ut zadní nicht ex slovo. auf casu od Außerdem, ejus, nur quod hierher est zu vivere bekommen.”
<A Lord of Hell doesn’t go back on his word. Besides, that’s your only chance to get out of here alive.>

“Haaaah….. fine! I’ll be the judge. What do I have to do?”

She quickly gave up with a sigh.

“We’ll have a duel. The duel ends when one of the sides die or the judge determines that he is not able to continue. Is that fine by you?”

“Utique.”
<Of course.>

“Understood.”

Regina walked into the middle of the room and declared loudly.

“Samuel and Balgaar! Ready your weapons!”

She’s acting her part as a judge properly, huh.

The moment Regina said that, Balgaar took out a long pole hanging on his waist, pointed it at me and then swung it to his right. The pole elongated and from its ends came out two blades made of fire, thus forming a large axe.

I see, he’s going easy on me, huh.

Well, I can’t even win in my current state. Time to use the protocols, I guess.

⟦Maxwell.⟧

⟦Hmm? What is it? Do you want to call upon me to defeat him?⟧

He sneered.

⟦No, that would render this ritual invalid. For now, just execute protocols gamma zero and beta zero.⟧

⟦I can understand the gamma, but is it really fine to use the beta series? This is the last time you can use Tzeeneth.⟧

⟦Getting Balgaar back is more important right now. And I do plan to take back Tzeeneth anyway, so it doesn’t matter.⟧

⟦Well, if you say so. A gamma-zero and beta-zero, coming right up.⟧

⟦Please don’t word it in such a strange way.⟧

⟦Yeah Yeah.⟧

The moment he said that, power coursed through my body. Seems like he has executed the gamma first. With this, my original physical strength should be back. But that’s not at all going to be enough to beat Balgaar. I cannot do it without Tzeeneth.

A moment later, a darker, much sinister power filled my body and soul. This power that was much larger and much more nefarious than the one from before, as usual, threatened to devour my soul if I didn’t pay proper attention. Black winds started swirling around me, and then soon turned into a hurricane thus obscuring my vision.

The next moment, the hurricane vanished, and in my right hand I had a jet-black scythe. However, the scythe didn’t have any proper form: it was as if darkness itself had taken that form.

And on my back were two black wings which resembled the wings of a dragon, except that they were smaller to suit my build.

And so, I made my declaration.

“Well then. Lord of Fire Balgaar, the last of the six Lords of Hell. You seek justice for your fallen brethren and for the injustices done against you. Look no further, for here I am. Give it your all, exhaust all your strength, show me your resourcefulness, muster all your reckless courage and become a sword that can pierce my heart! My tomorrow is built upon your flesh, and over my dead body is where your justice lies! Know that mercy does not exist. Now, come kill me, and I shall do the same.”

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