Chapter 208: The Final Boss can multiply?!

"What?" Kaelen stopped dead in his tracks and turned to stare at SKD. "What did you just say?"

"That’s what Kenora said. That your maternal forefather was some sort of creator who oppressed weaker races and subdued the strong. I don’t know the rest of the story, milord. If the smuggling plan succeeds, you can communicate with him through letters I’ll personally deliver to ensure confidentiality," SKD said.

Kaelen was silent for a moment as he absorbed the supreme elder dragon’s words. He didn’t for a moment think it was false information because earlier that day, Kelsey had mentioned something related.

She said he’d end up miserably trying to challenge a system that had been in place since the days of Atreus. She didn’t use Goddess Zemira as a reference, meaning there was someone before her. Atreus.

But this posed a vital question to Kaelen. Both his mother and Susan Malgamosa had told him humanity were warmongers in the past who accumulated so many enemies before they ran to Akkad for refuge. Was that during the time of Atreus or after?

If after, it was totally understandable to hate humanity for following in the footsteps of their forefathers, and it was only normal to try to eradicate them to prevent history from repeating itself again. But then, if the price humanity was paying now was for the tyranny of Atreus during his time as the ruler of the universe, then that was blatant oppression and no different from what Atreus did in his time because he had the strength.

Then again, humanity wasn’t beating the allegations after rising against Akkad and stealing their planet when they were treated with kindness.

But now that Kaelen was learning about Atreus, some things weren’t adding up. For example, the people behind the origin of Evolution Online and humanity.

Kaelen was fully aware by now that both the Emperor and the former and current Governors of Stronghold 3 were all puppets for a greater power that wasn’t from Earth. Kaelen had seen that when he saw Felix at the grand tournament gathering.

If humanity was hated by all, then who were those in control behind the shadows?

What made humanity decide to bend to their will?

Was humanity truly the villain, or were they being used by someone?

So many questions, so few answers.

All the more reason why Kaelen needed to get stronger and find the answers for himself.

Kelsey was right about one thing. There was no such thing as a one-man army, and if it wasn’t for his relationship with Kenora, he wouldn’t have an idea of such a thing. The same thing went for Emir, who planted the seed of doubt in him that he was truly defective in the Atreus bloodline, whereas he’d just discovered that the ability had been lying dormant within him all this while.

If it weren’t for these people and many more, including Kelsey, who had just revealed an important piece of the puzzle to him, Kaelen would’ve never figured all this out on his own.

He needed allies at the top and beyond, and Kenora and Emir were only the beginning. Kaelen was willing to compromise to get to the top.

He learnt a very important lesson from Kelsey’s backstory. To achieve what you truly want, you have to make sacrifices.

Kelsey sacrificed multitudes and won.

Emir sacrificed few and lost. If she had been willing to sacrifice more, everything, would she have beaten Goddess Zemira? A draw, maybe?

Kaelen was going to sacrifice anything that wasn’t his loved ones if it meant victory would be achieved.

He was going to do it once and do it right.

Kaelen would win.

"The boss room is up ahead—"

Slash—

One of the shadow summons sent to scout ahead was running back and calling out to Kaelen and the army when a thin line was carved across its body, and it disappeared in a curtain of shadow.

[Your Shadow Summon has died]

[Your Shadow Summon has died]

[Your Shadow Summon has died]

[Your Shadow Summon has died]

[Your Shadow Summon has died]

The notifications flashed across his vision simultaneously.

Only one had been killed up ahead, but several others died out of sight at the same time.

Most importantly, standing behind the vaporized Shadow Summon now was a seven-metre-tall, armour-clad beast knight with a great sword twice the length of Lysandra’s.

The castle had fallen into dead silence as Kaelen and his shadow army stared at the final boss in disbelief, while the final boss looked down on them, triggering fear in all who stood before it, except the shadow army couldn’t feel fear, and Kaelen was too curious to be afraid.

"Did the final boss just leave its position to find us here?"

Five shadow scouts had been sent ahead; one had been sent back to inform the group. The distance between them was considerable, yet they all died at relatively the same time.

It was either the final boss was incredibly fast, or—

"There’s another one behind us!"

Kaelen’s eyes widened, and he instinctively snapped his head to look when he saw the colossal knight from his peripheral vision blur from the spot at the same time his vision focused on their rear, where SKD had just warned them of another one.

Indeed, an identical colossal knight had appeared.

Shadow Step.

Swoosh—

The great sword swept across Kaelen’s afterimage the split second he disappeared, but just as he re-emerged behind the formation, the first thing he saw was a colossal knight staring straight at him.

It wasn’t the first one that had appeared and attacked him when he looked away. It wasn’t the second one that SKD had called out was behind the formation—that one was standing a bit to his side. But because of the position Kaelen had emerged from, the first thing that met his eyes was neither of the two colossal knights... that gave birth to the third.

His eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

He understood it now.

Anyone who looked away from the colossal knight gave birth to another.

It didn’t matter how many people there were. If five had their eyes on the colossal knight and one person looked away, that would give birth to another. That was exactly what happened with the shadow scouts, and that could only mean there were more ahead, equivalent to the number of times each shadow scout looked away.

Shit.