Don’t Concern Yourself With That Book

When I opened my eyes again, it seemed as though I had travelled back in time as I stood once again in front of my huge palace.

Turning my head, I noticed the sky had frozen in place without a single movement in the air. I was certain that I was in the present now.

Unlike before, Castor was staring at me anxiously.

“Hello.”

For whatever reason, I greeted him as though I had been born anew. It wasn’t because I wanted to gloat about the revelation I reached because of him either.

He just looked different now.

“… Ashley.”

The man who had taken over my life for all these years. I was afraid of his name even being brought up.

To be very honest I could no longer recall how I was like back when I hadn’t known about anything. What kind of person had I been? Even if I tried to reach out to remember, the past was already too far away.

“Ashley Rosé.”

The man who had filled my life with fear and despair was looking at me in frustration.

“Which timeline did you visit?”

Ah. I understood now. This wasn’t supposed to happen in the scenario he had planned out for me. The fact that I was staring relaxedly back at him like this.

‘I wonder how he got here?”

“You, really are a piece of shit.”

Castor wriggled his eyebrows at my dispassionate statement.

“Was that not what attracted you to me?”

Still, I returned to wearing a gentle smile as though I had worn a mask.

“I know. You had pitied and sympathised with many things. According to the you I met in those timelines, didn’t you?”

He remained calm and brazen when I asked. I smirked.

“You’re right. I did feel sorry for you.”

“…..”

“You were a pitiful man.”

“…..”

“Pitiful enough for me to almost have been devoured by the cheap sympathy I felt for you.”

Castor’s expression hardened. But I have no plans on stopping here.

“But you know what?”

The words left my lips like the notes of a song.

“It’ll be a waste to get rid of you like this.”

I blinked slowly.

“You abhor the emperor.”

The late emperor had played with the lives of many through his tyranny and was an abominable man.

“You bastard.”

“…”

“What makes you any different from him?”

Before I realised it, my head was tilting to the side proudly. I twisted a strand of hair around my finger with a smile.

“In my eyes, you’re the same. You pitiful dirty little bastard.”

Just then, something in his eyes caught on fire.

Boom.

Pieces of hair fluttered in the air. And to my wrist, I noticed a large crater. It looked as though a giant had punched the ground. Without giving me a moment to digest what was happening, the next blow struck me.

“The front.”

I shook my hand as I gathered my divinity. The waves of divinity that he sent towards me like tidal waves were blocked by a white wall as his divinity continued to pour over the barrier. But this was just another quest.

I swung my hand to my sides. The plants I summoned grew in thickness. The vines that grew in accordance to my will branched into two.

Crack. A bone-chilling sound greeted me.

And there Castor stood in front of me with his sword. Without catching his breath, he jumped towards me as he stared down at me fiercely.

“What do you think you’re looking at?”

My lips curved upwards.

“This is just the beginning.”

The moment he moved, I quickly sidestepped and aimed for his back at the same time.

‘If it’s his back.’

No matter what he did, he would be helpless to an attack from behind.

But he managed to swivel around to face me instantly. Not only that, he was able to strike a counter.

‘I can’t dodge this!’

A prowling vine wrapped itself around his blade. His black hair bounced as though it was dancing.

Originally, plants were of a material that could easily be sliced down by a sword, but plants summoned from divinity were different. The plants managed to completely overwhelm his swordsmanship. Tension arose from the clash between the two divinities.

“You asked which timelines I visited, didn’t you?”

The roots that had risen from the ground wrapped around his legs.

“That’s right. Which ones did you visit?”

“I visited very happy timelines.”

Even with an arm and leg tied down, he continued to stare back at me.

He furrowed his brows. And between his parting lips came a low voice.

“Those timelines do not exist.”

A golden flame of passion burned in his eyes.

“You merely want to believe that they do not exist.”

His black toga flapped with a surge in his divinity. The hem of my dress flapped as well.

He was repeatedly hidden behind strands of my long hair and revealed again as they fluttered.

“Come to think of it, I have no need to try to understand you.”

The vines that had fallen to the ground around me shot into the air once again. As I willed it to, the plants targeted him like sharp blades.

I smiled nonchalantly. Even at this moment, the vines that were holding onto them were shaking. It was never going to be easy holding him down like this but I didn’t let it show on my face.

“You can’t tie me up like this.”

“I know.”

The white energy I materialised in my right hand began to take shape.

“I was simply buying time.”

What used to be as small as a cotton ball had grown bigger and had taken form. When the energy stabilised, the figure that was revealed to be a large beast howled.

“Grrrrr–”

The white beast blocked Castor’s attacks as though it was protecting me before baring its teeth at him. It had bared its teeth in hostility as though it had instantly recognised him as its enemy.

I glanced down at my hand.

‘This is the first time trying that but it seemed to have worked.’

I had Amor’s powers and Hernan’s as well. Having not been awakened for too long, my ability to manipulate my divinity had been lacking.

But after learning how to better control it from Auresia and then Rusbella, I was different now. I could use my abilities to its full potential.

The powers I had left alone because I hadn’t known how to use them. And the powers of the two gods, the God of Death and the Lord of the Gods.

“What do you think, don’t you think there’s a possibility now?”

I could tell instinctively. That both he and I had transcended an average templar.

A battle between said transcendents would depend on the difference between our divinity stores and how good we were at wielding it. I had improved by leaps and bounds but was Castor still leagues ahead? His strength did not feel like it was of this world.

“I’m not as helpless as I was when you killed me.”

But there was a difference between him and I. The difference was in the nature of our powers.

Just then.

Sizzle. The plants that surrounded me burned as though it had acid rain down on them. The same could be said about the roots that had been holding his legs. The beast that had lowered itself to the ground growled.

“I was wondering when you would break.”

I found Castor holding his sword in one hand while covering half of his face with the other.

“I had fed you despair but you still have yet to break.”

As his blade seemed to glint in madness, his ghastly gaze pointed towards me.

“Just as I thought, I should have broken you till you were beyond repair. Your wings, I mean.”

A black haze of energy pulsed behind his back.

“I’d have to catch you and rip them off you.”

His dazzling golden eyes were now also taken over by an unidentifiable black haze.

“If I can, you will finally come into my arms. You would never be able to get far.”

What was that black haze that seemed to be eroding him? But it was not just the energy itself. The energy felt muddy and grim like a swamp that had been rotting for centuries and I shuddered from the animosity that it was giving off from just a glance at it.

“If I kneel before you here, you’d be mine, right?”

I faltered a step back.

“Are you running away?”

Eroded my madness, his thick and delirious-sounding voice brought me back to my senses.

I raised my foot to crush the shadows approaching me.

“I would never.”

I had never planned on running away from the start. Even if I did, he would chase after me until the ends of the earth.

Either I end up collapsing.

Or I beat him here.

“Even if the world was destroyed and only two of us were left, I will never be with you. I’d rather die or regress back in time.”

I pulled the corners of my lips.

“So that I would be able to see Amor again.”

Castor vanished from my sight.

“Then I will kill him too.”

The black haze behind him grew even larger in size. The terrible energy was getting stronger as though someone had just thrown firewood into its flames.

“Grrrrr!”

The white beast bit Castor who had suddenly appeared by its side. Castor flicked the beast away lightly.

But the beast’s efforts were not in vain. Its claw marks could be clearly seen on his cheeks as he stepped away. Blood trickled down his pale cheeks.

“Ah. It’s been such a long time since I last lost blood.”

But he stopped bleeding in an instant.

“And from my face of all places.”

But his ability to heal should be different from my ability to regenerate. He must be resilient but it must have been impossible for him to regenerate completely. He smirked as he swept his hand across his wounded cheek.

“So was that Hernan’s powers?”

The last I saw of him, I noticed him kicking off the ground.

The beast cried as it stood in front of me. As though it had been waiting for this moment to arrive. Its teeth clamped down on the blade but they continued to fight. But the one that lost was the beast.

But Castor seemed to have backed away with a slight frown as well.

‘We disrupted his momentum.’

I looked up at the sky. A motionless moon. Maintaining this space must be consuming a huge deal of energy.

‘There must be a condition needed to maintain this space.’

In an instant, Castor’s sword, which thrusted forward, sliced into the beast that was shielding me.

“You’re bothering me.”

Even though it was a beast made out of energy, the cries that it was making as though it felt pain were pricking my heart.

‘No!’

A brief earthquake ensued. But before the cracks in the ground could reach Castor, he stepped back as the headless beast charged at him. Delighted, I glanced at the white beast.

‘It’s made out of divinity, so it would move even if he loped its head off!’

Castor seemed to have reached the same conclusion as well.

“… It doesn’t have a form anymore. Is this what I’m supposed to do?”

Soon, after being infused with my divinity, the beast regained its form. At the same time, the plants were moving according to my will. A huge tree had grown at Castor’s feet.

I clapped my hands together.

‘Now!’

Steel spikes shot out of the tree. Thorns that were shaped like spears pierced into his skin. He managed to dodge quickly but it must have been impossible to avoid everything.

Meanwhile, Castor’s blade was slicing off those thorns. But as he tried to dodge the ones pointed at his back, the beast rushed at him. For a moment, his body reeled from the impact. And my purple butterfly did not miss this chance.

Busy cutting down the thorns, Castor did not manage to notice the butterfly and it was at that moment, the butterfly exploded.

Boom.

It sounded as though a huge boulder had broken into two making me certain that it was an explosion that would have left no survivors if it had succeeded,

However, even before the dust subsided, a large shadow burst through the torrent.

“Urgh!”

It all happened in the blink of an eye. His grip on my shoulder forced me onto the ground. His weight pushed me further into the earth.

“Why?”

There was no escape.

“Why am I not good enough?”

Half his eyes were still gold while the other half was dyed black like shadows. His gaze that made it seem as though he wanted to devour me lowered.

“Tell me.”

One of his arms had been gnawed on by the beast while the rest of his body had wounds all over because of the thorns. A disgruntled voice burst out of him.

“Why am I not enough? Why?”

Drip. Drip drop.

His blood dripped down on me.

“You… What are you talking about?”

Glaring at him, I smirked.

“You were the one who killed me.”

I found it so funny my lips twisted.

“That’s hilarious.”