Black String of Fate

"...Who's they?" Xavier asked with a bit of anticipation. He could tell that they were no good, seeing such a dark look on Seraphina's face."

"Archon Xavier, do you remember the monsters of the Age of Chaos?"

"Yeah, those weird creatures from another dimension that lusted for our flesh, how could I forget them?"

"They were not alone. Archon Xavier, those creatures weren't just from another dimension, they were from another world. The creatures that invaded were just the start. As our world was recovering, the sentient beings from that world invaded us."

"Wait... When you say sentient, do you mean capable of speech and society?"

"Exactly. The creatures who invaded our world in the Age of Chaos were the regular monsters from that world. Soon, the beings who lived and prospered in that world stepped foot into ours. They looked just like us, but their culture and language was wildly different from ours. They wore robe-like clothes and wrote in strange, hieroglyphic symbols.

They also had a power system different from ours. It seemed like they did not follow the ways of the Pathwalker in the first place. Every single one of them was capable of both magic and weaponry, which is an exceptionally rare skill in our world.

We could never understand their language, but we eventually uncovered some information about them. They called themselves 'Xian', which translates to 'immortals'. They practiced the path of power called 'cultivation', and I believe that their path is far superior when compared to our Pathwalkers."

"Hmm... If a path naturally allows both sword and magic to be used without splitting attention like in ours, it may certainly be better."

"It is, overwhelmingly so. Their average level of power was of the grandmasters and sages, so anyone below that level was completely useless. Even after going through the rough times of the Age of Chaos, our world was unable to match them."

"But our generation had multiple Savants and two Archons. How could we lose when Archons are present? Sage-level beings are no match against Archons."

Xavier asked with a bit of confusion. Sure they were powerful, but his generation had multiple Archons and an absurdly large number of Savants, something that had never happened before.

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"They had their share of powerhouses too." Seraphina said as her eyes got colder, Xavier could sense her chilling rage leaking out.

"They had 7 Paragon-level beings."

"...What? Paragon-level?!"

Xavier shouted in disbelief. He felt his breath get heavier as the words repeatedly ringed inside his mind. It felt like his world was turning upside down. Paragons were a mythical existence, never before seen. They are like divine beings, unmatched and supremely powerful. Even era-defining Archons like Xavier were nothing more than bugs in front of that kind of power.

He had lived the majority of his life simply dreaming about reaching such a level.

Now, he was hearing they actually existed... seven of them, even.

"Hey, I don't know what you saw in them, but Paragon-level is-"

"I know what I'm saying, Archon Xavier, I am not exaggerating in the slightest. They really were Paragon-level. Moreover, we also theorized that there was a being above the Paragon level, acting like the leader of those invaders."

"I-Impossible. What kind of power is above even Paragon level?"

Every word felt like a shock to Xavier. He, who had pursued power all his life, and once claimed the title of the strongest in history, now found out that he was grossly surpassed by multiple people. His emotions were complicated, he didn't know exactly how to feel about this. On one hand, he was disappointed that he had been so weak, but he was also happy to find much more room for growth.

"I don't know. I never even touched the realm of Paragon, how could I estimate a level above that?"

"...What about the hero? He was on the right path to touch the realm of Paragons, what height did he reach?"

"Kaldian reached... a weird realm." Seraphina said with a lot of thought.

"Weird? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, if I had to name it, it would be a pseudo-paragon realm. He wielded powers similar to the paragon level but wasn't really a paragon. He also only reached this realm in the final moments of his life."

Hearing the term pseudo-paragon realm baffled Xavier a lot. But, more than that, there was something he wanted to hear the most.

"How... did he die?"

"It was during combat with one of the 7 paragon-levels. The weakest one, to be exact. He burned away his soul to boost his power tremendously. He temporarily surpassed the immortal slightly and defeated him. After that, he began to rapidly age before our eyes and died.

We don't know what kind of method the hero used to suddenly obtain such a huge amount of power. We were sure that he was also a Crafted Archon, just slightly more powerful than me."

Xavier went silent after hearing this. He had a hunch, a terrible hunch which he had to make sure about.

"Say... Did the hero go through my stuff after I died?"

"...Well, you had some pretty attractive equipment, like that sword..." Seraphina said as she averted her eyes. It felt like confessing to thievery, but worse, since they were grave robbers confessing to the now alive dead person.

"Did he take anything else besides the equipment? Relax, I'm not that mad you touched my precious sword."

'He's definitely slightly mad.' Seraphina gulped after seeing the indescribable expression on his face, nevertheless, she continued.

"He took a scroll-like thing from your corpse. I don't know what exactly it was."

"...I see, that explains it." Xavier muttered as he nodded in understanding.

"Explains what?"

"Well, that scroll contained my Arts. More precisely, he took the most valuable thing from my corpse, my Supreme Demonic Arts."

Now, it was Seraphina's turn to be confused.

"...Supreme Demonic Arts? What's that? I thought you practiced the Demonic Arts of the Sun Cult?"

"Well, I did, but eventually I surpassed them. My Supreme Demonic Arts are the culmination of my journey as a swordsman, condensed into 3 techniques, unlike the 9 techniques of the original.

By the way you are describing, I believe that the hero took that art, and during the battle, he used its third technique called Desolation's Requiem. It burns and sacrifices the soul to give a huge increase in power for a short duration of time. The price of that power is your lifespan, the more you use, the more you burn."

Seraphina was speechless at the unexpected statement from Xavier. Out of all the speculations, never did she think that the hero would do something like that. Xavier continued without noticing the shock she had, as he was pretty surprised himself.

"Hah, things must've been really fucked up if that hero used my sacrificial demonic Arts. There's a reason I never spoke about my Arts, and that's because they were created only for my use. They weren't a legacy that could be passed down. The hero surely would've known that, yet still..."

Xavier could only sigh at the fate of the noble hero who defeated him. In the end, at least he died with a small victory.

Seraphina now finally realized as to how the hero suddenly gained so much power. She now noticed that she had also seen this technique used by Xavier, but on a much smaller scale and in small bursts.

She also came to a horrifying conclusion that, if the Demon King wanted, he could've also killed all of them and then died, resulting in mutual destruction, but he chose to end their confrontation with a clear conclusion.

"Alright, what happened next? Did they kill everybody?" Xavier asked Seraphina, thinking it was the obvious outcome. With the defeat of the most powerful on their side, the fall of the world was imminent.

Seraphina's eyes went darker as she recalled the most horrible times of her life.

"I wish they just killed us. But no, those psychotic bastards... They... They..."

Seraphina's hands were shaking as the memories of that nightmare were rushing inside her head. Finally, she remembered that one scene she didn't want to recall at all, and with her disgust at that, she threw up.

*BLERGH*

"H-Hey... Relax, deep breaths."

Xavier tried calming her down, taken aback as to what could make this cold girl react so violently.