Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 112: Last Xan

"So they’re all dead," Vale said wearily. He felt as tired as he looked, but his eyes were snapping with anger.

He gently carried Xan and put him beside Slya and Tiber.

Tiber had retreated to his normal form, but his left leg and one of his hands were seriously mangled. Slya seemed to be in an awkward position as well.

The more he saw, the more his anger built, an inferno that made the air around him shimmer. He had to calm himself down a bit as he began to feed the two potions, then strip where they were wounded so he could see properly.

As he worked, Xan began to speak. He smiled, but it came out as a wince of pain. "Actually, I was really honest at the start. When we met, I told you I was looking for someone to help me, right?

"I was actually looking for someone to help me stop slave trading in this place. That was what I searched for not just someone who can help, but maybe it’s one and the same after all.

"I was a slave, you know, once—some time ago. It wasn’t a good thing. My identity... I was a thing. But then I got my Order Mark, and that was the end. I intentionally accumulated the negative impact, then hurled it at the Blackened Blade so the slaves could escape.

"Of course, where would they go? It’s not like they are Knights... but better to die as yourself than as another person’s property."

Vale paused. He didn’t immediately reply as he finished tending to Slya and Tiber, making sure the potions were indeed working as their breathing settled. Then he said softly, "You talk too much."

Xan smiled. "Allow me. These are my last words, after all."

Vale looked at him flatly. "Not while I’m here. No one is allowed to die. Here, swallow this." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Xan shook his head. "Save it for those two. They’ll need it more when they wake up... Ohhh... what are you doing?!"

He mustered some of his strength to ask the last question.

Vale had carried him, hurrying outside. His eyes had gained a glint. "I’m looking for a healer."

He ran into the clearing where the ruin was, and for an instant, he didn’t know which way to turn. Xan was the one who had led them here, after all, but he picked a direction anyway. With fire blasting from his legs, he shot into the forest like a small comet.

The trees blurred past him in deep greens, but suddenly he jerked to a stop. He lowered his body and bowed his head. ’This... it’s all my fault... I... he is my subordinate...’

Xan managed a strained smile, his voice faint. "I’m not dead, you know. You want to be the Emperor, right? Slya told me all about it... They are strong enough to walk the path. They can carve the way with you. I can do no such thing, but I was really glad to have served you, Your Majesty..."

And then, under the tall green trees, Xan, subordinate of the one who wanted to be the sky, took his last breath.

Vale’s breath stilled. He felt something inside him that he didn’t think he’d be feeling. He didn’t feel the same hollowness he had when the court turned its back on him and his father threw him into prison.

No, this time he was filled with something else. It was hot and heavy. Infernal and intense. He was filled with an inferno.

He looked up. The trees were covering the sky, and that made him even angrier. "The sky... it must witness what was taken, what I never gave."

He didn’t cry, but the space around him was suddenly filled with red fire that lit up the evening. Like a wave, it surged around him, swallowing trees into cinders, melting the ground into glowing liquid.

If viewed from above, it would be like the glow of the eyes of an ancient beast.

Everything within forty or fifty meters of him was consumed, and in the heart of the raging inferno, Vale smiled. He spoke, and the fire took his will. It flared and leaped higher into the sky.

What he said was, "There is naturally only one last gift for you, Xan. You have done well."

☆☆☆☆

After he had calmed down, Vale packed up Xan’s ashes and buried them at the base of the biggest tree he could find. He wrote on the tree, with fingers of fire: ’Xan, the searcher who will forever be free’

Then he went back to the ruin and sat down, patiently waiting for the two to regain consciousness. While that was going on, he went out to hunt monsters for food and changed into new clothes he had stored in advance in his spatial ring, after cleaning the soot off himself.

That night, Slya was the first to wake up. She stared at Vale for a while before stumbling outside, walking like a newborn pup, grunting about relieving herself.

When she came back, she sat in front of the warming meat and ate until she was full. Then she said, "He’s dead, right?"

Vale nodded.

She looked deeply into the fire for a long time, then at Tiber, before she spoke again. "When are we going?"

"When you can hold a sword without falling on your face."

She scowled but then winced, hunching her back. She shook her head. "I still need a healer."

They didn’t say much after that, waiting until Tiber woke up. Just like Slya, he didn’t have much of a reaction, but a cold fire burned in his black eyes.

He ate, and then they all reported what had happened, what went wrong, and how.

"A ranked assassin?" Tiber repeated. "No wonder they were powerful."

"And the fact that they were construct users too! Wait, their weapons, that’s their construct, right? Can we still use it?" Slya asked.

"No. They were connected at the soul. Tear one, and the other..." Tiber replied.

Silence descended once again. Then Slya asked, "What’s the plan?"

Vale smiled. "Since the system does not work..."