As the two reached the summit of the last mountain, they didn’t find a prisoner but a hut. It had a garden lit with lanterns, looking like an oasis in this abyss. Arthur was confused, and so was Aurora.
“Who lives here?” asked Arthur as he approached the mansion. “I thought this was a prison, not a place to live.”
“I am clueless, but I know that the strongest Astra-ranker lives here. The guard’s heart told me that he has killed a million people, at the very least.”
“A million…” was an alarming number that could not be imagined without witnessing the destruction that had such a casualty rate. “Then, how come there is a house here?”
“I heard… he chose to be imprisoned.”
“Interesting,” Arthur said as he rang the bell through the garden. It echoed throughout the summit, and footsteps soon came toward the door. Then, it creaked open.
“How can I help?” asked a young man behind the door. The first thing that Arthur noticed was that… he was bald. The next thing was that his eyebrows had no hair, too, as if he was a head-sized egg.
“Uh,” vocalized Arthur as he examined the man, who asked him very casually. One would forget he was in prison, faced with his question. “Are you the owner of this house?”
“I built it, so I would say yes,” said the man with confusion before he turned toward Aurora. “Ah, the witch has been released? Are you here to say goodbye?”
“How do you know about me?” asked Aurora as her posture staggered. Arthur raised a brow while supporting her, which made her turn toward him. “This man… is dangerous.”
It was the same word she used to describe him, which intrigued Arthur. He let her sit outside before walking toward the door, where the young man was standing. His attire was elegant and classy, with a neat white shirt and a black linen jacket.
“You can say I’m a visitor,” said Arthur, and the man nodded with a smile. Then, he walked inside, allowing Arthur to follow after him. “Have you lived here for long?”
“It has been… ten years, I would say. Are you here to ask for a favor?”
“You can put it that way,” replied Arthur as he examined the house, which was clean but lacked a personal touch. It was the most basic household necessary for living, without anything extravagant. “I wanted to know why you came to be imprisoned in this place.”
“Ah, you remind me of that old knight commander,” said the man as he reached the living room and sat down. Arthur sat on the couch opposite him, and the man smiled at him. “I came to seek the emperor after learning of his real ability.”
“What for?”
“I wanted him to stop me from committing more murders,” said the man casually and did not elaborate further. “His ability is the perfect counter to my bugged body.”
“Bugged?”
“I produce my mana.”
“…we all do.”
“In a sense, yes, but the origin of your mana is the outside world. However, mine has a higher percentage of mana than any other place. Therefore, I do not take from the outside, but the opposite.”
“How is that possible?”
“I honestly have no idea how it happened, but it did, and it was like a dream when I first realized it. I thought I would become the strongest man alive.”
“Your tone suggests reality was different.”
“It was, haha,” said the man with a laugh. “I expected that whatever skill I would use would be powerful enough to be an ability. So, I sought my first skill and tried it. Do you want to know what happened?”
“Not a good thing.”
“You are quick, and that’s true. But unfortunately, the skill did not activate, and I suffered instead. For some reason, my soul suffered a backlash whenever I tried to use a skill. Thus, I turned to artifacts.”
“Artificial artifacts would be the same, but what about genuine ones?”
“I looked for ten years before finding a genuine one, but as soon as I used it, it broke down to nothingness. However, this time, it did activate. The only issue was the medium. The weapon could not handle my mana.”
“That sounds reasonable. Then, what did you seek?”
“I sought nothing. Another genuine artifact was impossible without joining a super guild; no one would take a walking bomb who could not handle his mana properly. Thus, I returned home and quit looking. I married and had two kids.”
“An ending I did not expect.”
“It was the beginning, not the ending. A year after I had my second child, I realized the anomaly. My children were Manaless. I expected them to be like me, but their bodies rejected mana. It might be the curse my body had, but I accepted it.”
“Both of them were Manaless?” asked Arthur with confusion. It was rare for a human to reject mana; even if one did not awaken, they could still wield mana and use artifacts. However, rejecting mana meant that not even healing could help them.
“That made me confused too, so I looked for an answer. The one I reached was that all of my sperm died because of the mana overstimulation, and the ones that survived were the ones who rejected mana. It might be their biological structure, or it might be a coincidence, but it happened.”
“Being Manaless is not a terrible fate, as long as they live safely,” said Arthur with reassurance, but the man stared at the fireplace in silence. “But they were not safe with you.”
“As a walking embodiment of overflowing mana, my two children got sick. Thus, my wife left me and took them; I was happy she did. After that, I decided to live in solitude underground, focusing on my research to undo what my body is doing.”
“I see that you failed.”
“All of my research vaporized in the first release.”
“The first release?”
“The mana has to go somewhere, I realized. All this time, my body has been storing mana inside me. It started as a light fever. Then it worsened until I could no longer move. Then, it exploded out of my body, vaporizing the whole city into nothingness.”
“…God’s Judgment,” muttered Arthur with realization as goosebumps covered his skin. “Eleven years ago, a city disappeared after being struck by a pillar of light from the sky. People called it God’s Judgment.”
“A foolish name because no one knew the real reason behind it. I woke up a month after it happened, buried underground naked. I lost everything that day, including my wife and two children.”
“…how many people were in that city?”
“Ten million.”
Arthur took a deep breath. The man before him seemed apathetic, but he could feel something deeper inside him. It was a feeling of disgust and disbelief at his wrongdoing.
“I sought methods to release my mana afterward, using skills, artifacts, and whatever I could find. However, after the first release, I started producing more mana. My body now has so much mana that the moment it leaves my core, it destroys my mana paths and my body.”
“A Manablood that the owner cannot handle,” muttered Arthur with an absurd look. “This is… a curse in disguise.”
“It is,” said the man. “I realized that the second release wouldn’t need twenty-five years, but far less. Thus, I sought a single creature: he who devours mana. I wanted to give him this mana I hated.”
“Therefore, you found the previous emperor of Ilios, Osian the Invincible. You came here underground because he absorbs the mana from the prisoners, which would work perfectly for a guilt-ridden mass murderer.”
“There is one bit that you got wrong,” said the man with a smile. “Not even the emperor could handle the mana I had, so I have to release it every month in this place.”
“…are you a good man?”
“I am a mass murderer.”
“Then, do you want to murder more?” asked Arthur, making the man confused. “The man you gave your mana is not satisfied. He wants it all.”
“Then, he can have it.”
“Tell me, what makes him unable to absorb all of your mana?” asked Arthur as he placed his hand on the table. “Too much pressure, and the container breaks,” he said while pressing the table, making it crumble. “However, the container can heal, bigger and stronger than ever. This can be achieved via… life force.”
“I know all of this,” said the man with confusion. “How is this related to the mana I gave him?”
“Lifeforce would help him heal whatever damage your mana would give him. Thus, all he needs is to absorb it, but he cannot absorb yours. After all, you are his walking mana producer. He will absorb the life force of his people.”
“…that would kill them.”
“Therefore, I asked, whether you want to murder more people? This is on your hands as much as it is on Osian,” said Arthur as he stood up and walked toward the man. “You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but I might prove a better partner than Osian.”
