Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 158: The Clash of Princes [8]

The War for The North [46]

Chapter 158: Fate’s Ironic Game

Seralya’s mind reeled from a shockwave that transcended physical pain.

"Lilith..." This name was not merely a curse; it was a taboo buried within the dusty pages of history, a name even gods whispered with caution.

The first and only avatar of Yavres, the ancient witch who had guided them when they were summoned to this world...

Seralya’s white eyes, now bloodshot, flashed with horror for a moment.

Her logic rejected this reality. Lilith’s curse meant the drying up of a lineage, not a new existence. It meant absolute extinction. And according to the game’s lore, Lilith’s curse was already exhausted, and no one was supposed to be born with this curse ever again.

Such a person should not exist. The rules, the balance, fate... Everything was against it.

"Then how?" she thought, as her mind teetered on the brink of fragmentation. "How can a being carry the curse and still be alive?"

Cassian had noticed the pure, unadulterated shock on Seralya’s face. The mocking smile at the corners of his lips widened, and the red glow in his eyes grew even more savage.

He spoke with an amused, condescending look, like a teacher pitying an ignorant student.

"Confusing, isn’t it, Princess?"

Cassian began to pace slowly in front of Seralya.

He was as relaxed as if he were taking a walk in his own backyard, not on a battlefield.

"Actually, the answer is very simple," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "It’s all thanks to you Reincarnators! How ironic, isn’t it?"

Cassian stopped and leaned over Seralya.

"You, who were chosen by the gods, who were supposed to be the guardians of fate... You became the biggest factor in changing the very fate you feared so much. You are like snakes devouring their own tails."

Seralya wanted to say something, but only bloody foam spilled from her mouth.

"It’s all thanks to that doctor..." Cassian continued, his voice turning serious for a moment, his eyes drifting to a distant place.

"Or should I say Toven? That old senile fool found a dying boy. Me. Instead of cutting the thread of fate, he knotted it. He used me as a lab rat, turned me inside out, and patched my soul."

Cassian placed his hand on his chest.

"The reason you are in this state right now, the reason thousands of voices echo inside your mind, is not just Lilith, Princess. The first reason is Lilith’s curse... The second reason is the will of the test subjects."

Cassian’s face darkened. In that moment, the cold lights of the laboratory, the smell of metal tables, and the unending screams flashed before his eyes.

"Do you know?" he whispered, his voice ice cold. "What it means to fight for your selfhood after every surgery I went through, after every piece added to my body? Not recognizing the person you see in the mirror every morning, forgetting what emotions are, feeling like a giant void in life..."

Cassian looked at Seralya writhing on the ground.

"I guess you know now," he said mockingly.

"Don’t be so sad, Princess. You aren’t in this state because you are weak. It’s just that Toven adjusted my body specifically to handle this chaos. He probably knew about your ’Balance’ ability and accounted for situations like this. Even if you copy my abilities, you cannot be me."

"YOU ARE FLAWED."

Cassian shook his head, as if offering imaginary praise to Toven.

"But that old fool bit off more than he could chew too. I broke his teeth, brought his laboratory down on his head, and took my own life into my hands."

Then his eyes narrowed as another memory, another object of hatred, came to mind.

"Ahh, and then there is that silver haired bastard... Though I still don’t know his name fully. Was it Luin? If he hadn’t killed me that day, I probably wouldn’t harbor such deep, pure hatred for you all. Maybe I wouldn’t have interfered in your business and gone my own way. But you... You created me."

Cassian took a deep breath and squared his shoulders.

"Anyway... Don’t be sad, Princess. The past is in the past. We need to focus on the future. Or rather, your lack thereof."

Cassian changed his tone of voice as if on a theater stage. He adopted a cooler, more dramatic tone. His red eyes pierced through Seralya’s soul.

"Let’s get to the third and final reason..."

The world went dark for Seralya. The gray, silent universe around her turned into a massive, chaotic shadow rising behind Cassian.

Inside the darkness, thousands of red eyes opened, all looking at her. And in the sky, above them all, a single, gigantic, judging red eye appeared.

Cassian delivered his verdict with the air of a divine judge.

"Your biggest mistake... Was making me your enemy!"

Seralya froze in the face of this cosmic horror. Her existence trembled, her soul shrank. The darkness inside this boy was more ancient than even the light of the gods.

Right at that moment... Cassian giggled.

All that pressure, that dramatic atmosphere, dissipated in an instant. Cassian waved his hand.

"Just kidding..." he grinned. "I’m joking, Princess. Don’t take it seriously."

He shrugged under Seralya’s dull gaze.

"I don’t know the third reason either. I just wanted a cool closing line. But you won’t deny I looked cool, right?"

Cassian raised his right hand into the air. Inside his palm, chaos flames made of pitch black and purple halos gathered, taking the form of a sharp, long dagger.

"Thanks, Princess," he said, his voice now completely emotionless.

"Playing with you was fun."

"I wish... I wish we didn’t have to be enemies."

These were the exact words Seralya had said while attacking him. Cassian was bidding her farewell with one final irony.

Cassian swung the dagger.

"SLASH!"

A sharp, wet sound echoed. Seralya’s head separated from her elegant neck and fell at Cassian’s feet. Her body toppled over like a puppet with cut strings.

In her eyes, the terror, shock, and meaninglessness she experienced in her final moment were frozen.

When her heartbeat stopped, the black and white world Seralya had created cracked like a glass bell and shattered.

Colors returned. The wind began to howl again, ashes began to fly.

Seralya’s severed body disintegrated, scattering intense beams of snow white light. When the lights faded, where the corpse should have been, there lay a gleaming, elegant white eye patch that looked as if it were made of silk.

The white eye patch and Aethrax’s broken sword lying a little further away... The only things remaining of two demigods were now beneath Cassian’s feet.

The mocking smile on Cassian’s face faded. He slowly turned to the sky, threw his head back, and opened his arms wide.

He took a deep breath. He filled his lungs with the smell of blood, ash, and ozone in the air, the metallic taste of victory. The cold air soothed his burning lungs.

He thought of the cursed prophecies Zevstyle had shown him. In hundreds, thousands of scenarios, he had not managed to kill any of the 6 Princes even once. He had been crushed every time, lost every time.

But right now...

"In a single night..." he whispered. "Or rather, in less than 20 minutes... I managed to kill two demigods. Fate... I crushed fate in the palm of my hand."

This feeling was more powerful than any magic.

Cassian lowered his gaze to the remnants on the ground. The broken sword and the white eye patch... They were not ordinary objects. Intense energy still rippled within them. Seralya’s and Aethrax’s souls, their essences, were still trapped inside, struggling.

"Nivelle," he called out to the depths of his mind.

A beam of emerald green light shot from his chest and took the form of a tiny fairy on his shoulder.

"Yes, my prince?" Nivelle said, her voice holding both admiration and a bit of mockery.

Cassian chuckled softly. "Prince again? I told you not to call me that. Don’t make it a habit."

Nivelle fluttered her wings. "Ahaha, sorry big brother. It’s just... That scene was so impressive. I got carried away."

Cassian leaned down. "From these remnants..." he said, pointing to the eye patch. "Is it possible for us to separate their souls?"

Nivelle examined the objects carefully. "We can," she said. "Their souls are vulnerable and scattered right now. But why? You can destroy them and absorb their power completely."

Cassian shook his head. "No. I don’t want to destroy them completely. I think they might be useful."

Nivelle let out a weary breath. "Are you attempting something dangerous again? Playing with souls is no joke."

Cassian waved his hand in denial. "No, no... Not more dangerous than killing two demigods at the same time, don’t worry. Just a small collection."

"Pff..." Nivelle crossed her arms over her chest.

"Your confidence has hit the ceiling, big brother. I hope your wallet is the same. Because when we are done, you must reward me with sweets. This soul separation business consumes a lot of energy! I want the biggest cake!"

Cassian smiled. "Fine, fine, you gluttonous fairy. I’ll buy you as much cake as you want."

Cassian picked up Aethrax’s broken sword and Seralya’s eye patch. The objects were still warm and vibrating.

Even though they were defeated, the pressure they emitted was intense enough to shatter a normal person’s mind. Resisting it was quite difficult.

"Yes," Cassian said. "They are still demigods..."

He took a deep breath. One eye shone emerald green with Nivelle’s power, and the other shone pitch black with the power of chaos.

Black and green mana fused all over his body, dancing like two snakes in love, flowing into his arms and flooding into the remnants in his hands.

The objects trembled, emitted a sound like a scream, and then an intense explosion of light occurred.

When the process was finished, Aethrax’s sword had turned to dust and scattered. Only Seralya’s white eye patch remained. But it was no longer white. It had turned into a piece of pitch black, silky fabric with faint green runes on it. And Aethrax’s scorching aura was trapped inside this fabric.

Cassian looked at the black piece in his hand. The fabric was cold, but the power inside was boiling.

He smiled, but this time there was a strange, weary sadness in his smile. The weight of victory had settled on his shoulders.

He took the piece in his hand and wrapped it around his head to cover his left eye.

Nivelle looked at Cassian’s new appearance in surprise.

"Is that all?"

Cassian shrugged. "Yes. Why?"

"Hmm..." Nivelle floated in the air. "I don’t know, I thought you’d experience a ’Power up’ or something. Or steal their powers and become giant... You know, classic villain moves."

"I didn’t kill them, gluttonous fairy," Cassian said, adjusting the eye patch.

"I just bound their existence to myself. They are now a part of me, my batteries. I will use them when I need to."

Cassian looked at Nivelle with his single eye and smirked.

"Besides... Isn’t a black eye patch cool? Like pirates."

Cassian looked at the destruction around him, the massive crater, the scorched earth, and the vanished mountains.

And he let out a long, shrill whistle.

"Wow..." he said. "At this rate, I’m going to destroy the North instead of saving it. Who knows how much mana it will take to fix this place..."

Cassian’s body rippled. Black feathers covered his skin, and a moment later, a pitch black crow took flight from the midst of the destruction.

The black crow flapped its wings and vanished into the darkness of the night. Leaving behind only silence and the grave of two gods.