The Transcendent Godslayer

Menelaus gulped, his mind racing. Thoughts flower from one possibility to another, trying to find a way to avoid this catastrophe.

"Everything you need is in the book!" the Saint suddenly snapped, looking at him with distasteful eyes.

"I know you don't trust me, but insulting my power is something I won't tolerate, you maggot! Everything you need is in there... Or not, actually." He Saint said, ending the last part with an awkward cough.

Menelaus gritted his teeth. What if the Saint was lying? But at the same time, the Saint really had no need for doing so. If the Saint wanted him dead, Menelaus would have died long ago, without knowing what hit him.

"That book is indeed your solution... but you need a sacrifice. You see, there's someone who doesn't quite like the idea of using this method, and would prefer there be more abominations..." The Saint continued, a dark expression appearing on his face.

"You need a sacrifice. Use the same instructions on the sacrifice. That way, that person's attention will be locked on whoever you use, and you can successfully perform the ritual on yourself...."

"...You seem to have quite the human child you're fond of down there." The Saint said with an unsettling smile.

This time, Menelaus reacted strongly, his Will billowing with power, ready to face off against the Saint should he dare do anything.

The Saint chuckled, and then did something Menelaus wouldn't have expected, even if he had a million more brain cells.

"As a token, I give you my word. I... swear on my name that, whether you succeed or not, I will protect you and your children from Zephyrus."

After saying that, the Saint instantly vanished, not even bothering to use the exit like he did when he came in.

----

The last of Menelaus' memories were continuously wiped away as the chains dug further and further into his body, in this monotonous sea of metal.

'Imagine being trapped in your mindscape, while your body operates under a foreign host...'

"Something that was once a tool for power now becomes the author of your being, while you're forced to slowly lose yourself piece by piece, until what is you is no longer you...'

Menelaus thought, as more and more memories slipped away.

"The world is truly cruel. I have never seen the good in it, and even in death, I couldn't die as I envisioned..."

"Tell me, what have I done wrong? What have I done?!" he screamed.

"My only wrong was being born without talent. My only wrong was trying to help a child... No..." He suddenly shook his head, the chains digging more and more into him with each movement.

"...That kid is a monster. My only wrong was trying to help a monster, in the guise of a weak child, become strong," he said weakly, as a particular memory slowly faded from his vision.

---

Menelaus woke up that day with a migraine, and slowly, the events of the night flooded his mind.

His body shuddered involuntarily as he recalled spilling some secrets to a person whose face he couldn't remember.

"Was it a dream?" he muttered.

"They even know my core skill…"

[Corruption: 28%]

'It seems I have no choice,' he thought with an audible sigh, suddenly feeling weak.

He had been holding off on doing what the Saint had told him… The man could have been lying. But as the days went by and the density of dynamis in the air increased, he began to fear it was the truth.

Besides, what did a Saint have to gain by lying to him?

"Kallen," he muttered. "You know, at one point I wanted to kill you," he chuckled.

"I really haven't met anyone like you, kid. From wanting to help you grow stronger to instantly wanting to kill you. If not for my fear of Zephyrus, I might have… You killed my Nestor, after all," he said with a wry smile.

"But even though Nestor was my son... my only family, he was never like me. You, on the other hand, remind me so much of my younger self, more than I'd like to admit."

"A child of slavery, who refused to succumb to slavery," he chuckled.

He recalled the eyes Kallen had when he killed Nestor... a gaze filled with total indifference, as if he'd done nothing at all.

Then he remembered Kallen's eyes as they looked at him over the days: eyes filled with hate and passion.

A proud smile crawled onto his lips.

"Although you remind me so much of myself, you never walked my path, even after all the suffering… I feel like a proud father," he said with a pained smile.

From the day Menelaus saw Kallen, he saw a tool... one for peace and freedom.

From the beginning, his plan had been to make Kallen hate him so much that the boy would do the very thing he did as a young orc: kill a Second Ascension ascendent while still unawakened.

Because he saw in the human boy his younger self; a person cursed without talent, someone who couldn't naturally awaken.

Just like he had killed his own father, he wanted the boy to one day kill him. He was tired of living like a dog. And his son… his son had been comfortable living like one.

All that ambition, however, turned into hate, the moment this "tool" ironically killed his son.

He couldn't kill the boy because of Zephyrus, so he made his life hell. But when he got a chance to think it all through, he realized that the boy was even better than he was. He had actually rejected a forceful awakening after killing Nestor.

That was when Menelaus knew he had seen the perfect seed... a child that walked the path of hate, without losing ambition. Kallen was thinking the same way he was... He wanted to kill him, while still being unawakened.

So he intensified the suffering. He let the hate grow... This time not because he hated the child, but because he wanted him to carry his mantle, he wanted him to give him peace.

"And that is why you will be the sacrifice for my ritual. A man loses ambition when he finds comfort. Let the being who desires corruption be your strife. At the same time, let the ritual be your protection against corruption."

"I just hope that when you kill me, you make it painless. And maybe one day, when you're grown, you'll understand what I did, my... student."