Chapter 1294 - 584: Destiny’s Guidance

Chapter 1294: Chapter 584: Destiny’s Guidance

"Not my will?"

The Legion Commander stood in a daze, his body trembling slightly.

Herbert’s words were like ice picks, piercing through the Legion Commander’s boiling rage, leaving a chill that penetrated to the bone.

"Being... influenced?"

The echo of the Legion Commander’s roar seemed to linger amidst the ruins, but his massive form was now frozen.

The Soul Fire no longer spewed flames of fury but abruptly contracted, flickering violently like a frightened beast.

"What... are you saying?"

His voice was dry, with a slight tremble he himself was not aware of.

The accumulated grief and indignation of millennia seemed at that moment to slam into an invisible wall, rebounding with a great sense of bewilderment and... a flicker of instinctual fear.

He instinctively resisted the thought, for it implied that the foundation he had defended for thousands of years might have been a mere mirage from the beginning.

Herbert’s gaze remained calm, yet it seemed to penetrate the heavy armor, directly peering into the Legion Commander’s most secret corner of his soul.

"Didn’t hear me clearly? Then let me be more explicit."

"I’m talking about... that ’prophecy’ you obsessively believe in, deep within your soul."

"Because of that prophecy, you believe ’Fate’ will bring you a nemesis, and that your own or his death will be the final conclusion of your millennia of waiting, allowing you to redeem the guilt in your heart."

"For this reason, you even sought excuses to send the entire legion away, to prevent them from interfering with your ’battle of redemption,’ also so that they could survive..."

Herbert’s voice was not loud, yet each word was like a polished gem, piercing through the seams of armor, accurately striking the Legion Commander’s soul.

"Were those actions truly born entirely of your own will?"

!!!

The Legion Commander staggered back a step as if struck heavily, the charred ground cracking beneath his feet.

Not his own will?

How could that be!

The prophecy about the "Apostle of Calamity" arriving, which must be killed before its power matures to herald the true return of our Lord...

That was the only belief that supported him during the darkest times after the collapse of the Divine Kingdom, enabling him to stand guard amidst the obliteration of countless companions.

That was the sole anchor in his unending solitude preventing total madness.

It was that obsession that allowed him to persist until now.

Could it all be false?

This is impossible!

I am an Epic Strongman!

Who could possibly influence me!!?

A mix of panic and absurdity exploded in his heart, how could an Epic Level spiritual barrier be penetrated by anyone?

A cold chill spread crazily along the Legion Commander’s soul, once again leaving his will in disarray.

But, but if, what if the prophecy were truly false?

What if someone really did secretly manipulate me...

Once this thought formed, it grew like rampaging vines, starting to wildly wrap around his reason.

Herbert gave him no chance to breathe, continuing slowly with a tone of all-knowing calm: "You never doubted it, did you? I doubt that."

"Such a clear, strongly directed ’prophecy’ happened to appear precisely when you were most desperate, most in need of spiritual support."

"Don’t you think that’s strange?"

"It tells you who the enemy is, tells you the meaning of the battle, even subtly implies that sacrifice is necessary, that it’s part of ’Fate’..."

He tilted his head slightly, watching the chaotic turmoil within the Legion Commander’s Soul Fire, an expression of Mercy flashed in his eyes as he softly said:

"Don’t you think it’s too ’fortuitous’?"

"It’s like someone has meticulously woven a script for you, a perfect story."

"One that lured you in willingly, making you give everything for it... a cage."

"And you, without doubt, played the role of that ’tragic Guardian’ within it, and thus drove all your compatriots towards a predetermined end."

The Legion Commander opened his mouth, but no complete sound emerged.

"I..."

He wanted to refute, wanted to roar against these absurd charges.

This is impossible!

But it was as if an invisible force gripped his throat, leaving all arguments pale and powerless before the facts.

But at the same time, deep within, a point of doubt deliberately ignored, suppressed by force at some unknown time, was now amplifying wildly.

...Yes, why was it so coincidental?

Why was the enemy in the "prophecy" conveniently the "Apostle of Calamity" with the Power of the Sun?

Why did the "prophecy" assure he would inevitably appear?

Why... had I never seriously considered it, just accepted it as a matter of course and etched it into my heart?

Wait, most crucially... who was it that told me this prophecy?

In an instant, a chilling sensation seized him.

He seemed to see an invisible hand, silently plucking at the strings of his Destiny across the river of thousands of years.

"Think carefully."

A calm voice sounded in the Legion Commander’s ear, like a guide imbued with Magic Power, penetrating his chaotic thoughts, abruptly calming him.

"When you received that so-called ’prophecy,’ or in the long years thereafter, was there ever... a sense of dissonance?"

"Was there ever a moment when an invisible hand swayed your thoughts? Especially when you started to question, or attempted to seek other possibilities."

Then, a thin veil over the Legion Commander’s consciousness was suddenly lifted, he suddenly recalled some forgotten details.

!!!

"Ah!!!"

The Legion Commander let out a howl, clutching his head and dropping heavily to his knees, pain driving his head against the ground.

Donk!

The Soul Fire flickered madly, fragments of memory flooding like a breached dam.