Requiem Of A Failed Hero



Raith moved his leg and walked forward. 

"...you should have just left when I asked you to."

The lady was gritting her teeth with blood streaming down her jaw. 

"Despicable human. You think this is the end?" 

A resolve formed on her face. She stretched out her hand and summoned a Lance into it. 

'Heheheeee... I've been waiting for this chance!'

[Sword skill 'Gluttony' has been automatically activated]

'What the...' 

The black blade Raith was holding stretched out into razor teeth and began to chomp off the Lance in the dragon's hand. She was left with round eyes and shaking balls. 

"You vile being, how dare you"

[Your sword 'Bal' has temporarily gained new properties]

The color of the sword slowly changed to the ocean blue. 

"Wow..." 

The dragon was also a witness to this. She knew by merely looking at it that it was a very powerful weapon. She was too internally injured to continue this fight. 

'Darn it'

She gritted her teeth inwardly, taking a short memory run to the mad dragon that almost killed her and forced her into this hiding. 

She bowed her head and suddenly became like a puppy, but still showed signs of struggle, like a shuddering shoulder.

"I can't leave..." 

"Huh?" 

Raith wanted her to speak louder but he heard her clearly. 

"I said! I can't leave!!" 

She shouted right to his face with her brows tightly furrowed and welled-up eyes. 

"I need the tree's energy to regenerate, I can't afford to leave here! He will find me and kill me!!"

"Eh? So you are just a crybaby who is running away from a bully?"

A wry smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

"You don't know him, Of course, what do I expect from a lowly human." 

"Hey hey, watch how you talk now, that same lowly human is almost driving you to your death right now." 

A wicked chuckle escaped her lips, mingling with traces of weariness.

"You think you can kill me?" 

Raith raised his chin. 

"You don't grasp the predicament you are in... do you think, you can win against this?" 

At once a hazy black fog spread across, covering Raith and her. Death soldiers began to materialize, even the wyverns. They surrounded her in an instant. 

"An inept master of death. What are you?"

"I am... the Monarch of darkness..." 

The dragon sneered at him with irritation as he spoke with raised shoulders and a proud tone.

"You are just a perverted human." 

"No no, can we just forget that part..."

He replied sinking his face into his palm. He raised his head later and stared at her. 

"Join me, and I will help you recover, in fact, I promise to slay this bully you are running from." 

Her eyes remained fixed on him for a few seconds, her features blank as she grappled with how to respond to his confident declaration. Then, as if on cue, laughter poured out, unrestrained and vibrant.

She held her stomach as the laughter came to a stop. 

"You, kill Nyxalith? You are one hell of a funny human..."

"I am a ruler, the ruler of Greed" 

"No way" 

She paused with her eyes fixed on Raith's expression. After seeing no difference, she tilted her head. 

"Really?" 

"Yes." 

"How? How are you so weak?" 

Her words stabbed him right at his heart. 

"I'm new to this sort of thing. In fact, I don't know anything about being a ruler. And I've also never met a ruler before, however, I've met their vassals such as you..."

A puzzled expression played across her features, her lips parting slightly as her eyes squinted as she was trying to make sense of his latter sentence.

"What do you mean?" 

Not finding clarity, she asked.

"You used a skill of gluttony back then in the palace, you are clearly a vassal of..."

"Oh that"

Her eyes glowed up and a small smile curled up her lips. 

"That was from my past companion. My rider. She died seven hundred years ago.".

"And you still have her skill? I find that weird... after seven hundred wouldn't there be another ruler of gluttony." 

"That doesn't mean I will lose the skill I received from her. Oftentimes the skills of rulers are more susceptible to their personalities." 

Raith's eyes glinted with revelation. Finally, some information. 

The lady looked at Raith, 

"Are you really a ruler?" 

Her eyes narrowed so slightly with a sardonic flicker glinting within them. 

"What? Why are you looking at me like that? I am serious." 

"How are you so weak then." 

"I told you! I don't know anything, no information!!" 

Raith was almost crying from the frustration of having to repeat the same thing. 

"Still..."

"Stop! Stop okay?" 

Silence ensued between the two for a moment. 

"Still..."

"Raith's plea was met with a smirk, a faint but persistent glint of determination in the lady's eyes.

"Shut it. Do you want the deal or not?"

Raith's retort was laden with a hint of playfulness, a reminder that they were still engaged in a negotiation.

"You do not have the power to defeat Nyx."

She rubbed her slender fingers against her chin, her expression mischievous, a sense of intrigue radiating from her.

"I guess if you are a ruler and seeing how you command an army of the shadow of death, you have an impressive potential. Under tutelage, you should be able to beat him."

A smile began on her lips, a glimmer of anticipation that soon expanded into a full-blown expression of amusement.

"Firstly, you have to do something."

The lady's words were suggestive of a challenge that lay beyond Raith's immediate grasp.

"Name me... you have that power, right? As a ruler, you have the power of naming. Give me a name, and I will accept your terms."

"Just that?"

Raith's incredulity matched his hesitation, his mind working to unravel her intent.

'Foolish human, it is impossible to name a dragon; you will die from mana drain the moment you try it.'

"Let's see..."

His gaze dropped to her, a beautiful small face, porcelain skin, ocean eyes, white silky hair like the snow... what would be a name befitting of such a perfect ice dragon.

"Sylvia."

Her eyes widened, the profound impact of the name resonating with her.

The dark fog they were surrounded by wavered and slowly dissipated, its hold weakening.

Raith's vision blurred, his head feeling unusually light.

Too light.

'...shit, what is...'

His world spun, tilting as if caught in a whirlpool, and before he could grasp what was wrong, he crumpled to the ground.

[Congratulations]

[You have achieved the unachievable]