Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 172: The Midnight Sun and the Testament of the One to be Forgotten

Chapter 172: The Midnight Sun and the Testament of the One to be Forgotten

The War for The North [59]

Chapter 172: The Midnight Sun and the Testament of the One to be Forgotten

Cassian was gliding alone among the clouds in the sky.

He cast one last look down at the lands of the North, buried in darkness.

The feeble fires in the refugee camps, the torches on the ramparts, and thousands of lives struggling with sickness... They were all small, flickering lights waiting for their fate in the palms of his hands.

He slowly raised his head. The sky was adorned with bright stars. And right above him, his old friend, the Moon, looked down at him like a silvery eye. His only friend who was silent, non-judgmental, and always there.

"Watch me," Cassian whispered, his voice lost in the wind. "This might be our last dance."

He took a deep breath. The cold air filling his lungs was about to give way to pure power.

"Sovereign Form."

First, black smoke began to seep from under his skin. His bones cracked and reshaped, pushing their limits. From both sides of his forehead, a pair of curved horns, as black and sharp as obsidian, tore through his skin and extended outwards.

His white hair turned into a black that rivaled the darkness of the night, lengthening and waving in the wind.

His stature grew, his shoulders broadened, his muscles tightened like steel cables. Claws sharp enough to cut even diamonds extended from his fingertips. And his eyes... eyes with red irises were buried in complete pitch darkness; only a tiny, feral crimson remained in their centers, resembling the gates of hell.

When the transformation was complete, the anxiety and fear in Cassian’s mind dispersed in an instant. In their place came absolute tranquility, deep as oceans under glaciers, and a terrifying indifference.

He knew what he had to do.

He spread his arms wide. His jet-black, scale-covered body suddenly began to shine with a contrasting holy light.

Holy Mana overflowed from his body like blood flowing in his veins.

Below, hundreds of thousands of people waiting in the courtyard of the Winter Castle and outside the walls were looking at the sky, holding their breath. First, a tiny, golden-yellow star appeared in the pitch darkness. However, this star began to grow and expand rapidly.

As Holy Mana gathered in Cassian’s body, that small beam of light turned into a massive sun covering the sky.

But this sun did not burn; on the contrary, with the light it emitted, it poured an indescribable, ethereal peace into people’s hearts. Fear, anxiety, hunger, and the pain brought by the disease... All melted away under that light.

After a while, the artificial sun created by Cassian reached such a colossal size that the night of the North suddenly turned into day. The sky was like a golden dome, and the snow on the ground looked like fields of shining diamonds.

The people did not know what to do under this divine light.

Their skins blackened by disease no longer ached, their lungs struggling for breath no longer burned.

Involuntarily, one by one, they fell to their knees. The tears flowing from their eyes washed away the dirt on their cheeks and the traces of the disease. This was a gratitude born from feeling to their very marrow that salvation had finally arrived. That miracle they had been waiting for for years was hanging in the sky.

Lilith and the other witches had raised their heads, watching this scene in amazement.

There was a proud smile on Lilith’s face, mixed with the admiration she felt for Cassian. Her lips moved, whispering something even the wind couldn’t hear:

Fredrinn was squeezing his hands until his knuckles turned white. Even he couldn’t help but be swept away by the peace emitted by this light.

The whispers of the dark stone in his heart had ceased, leaving their place to silence.

If he didn’t know Cassian, if he didn’t know his grumpy and selfish ways, he could swear that a god had truly descended to earth.

The other lords, the generals... were frozen. They knew Cassian was strong, but this... This was far beyond the limits of a human.

Cecilia was looking at the sky, ignoring the wind blowing her hair. Her hand was on the flower Cassian had tucked into her hair. Her blue eyes shone with the reflection of the golden light.

At that moment, the situation was not peaceful at all for Cassian at the center of that massive sun.

His body was cracking under the pressure of this colossal energy he carried. He had already exceeded the limits of the Sovereign form, directing a power a mortal should never touch.

Blood leaking from his pitch-black eyes and mouth trickled down his chin, evaporating in the air. His muscles were tearing, his veins bursting, but he didn’t stop.

The next moment, that massive Holy Sun covering the sky began to collapse inward, shrinking. It was condensing the energy. With each passing second, it got smaller and smaller... Finally, it turned into a blinding point hanging in the sky, only the size of a speck of dust but with the density of a star.

Time seemed to stop. Sounds ceased. Hearts stopped beating for a moment.

And then that small sphere exploded.

BOOM!

There was no sound, only light. A wave of pure, purifying, absolute light spread from the Winter Castle to all the lands of the North. It enveloped mountains, plains, forests, and even the most remote villages. This light didn’t just wash everything it touched; it ripped out the disease, the curse, the rot, and death.

When the light disappeared, only cleansed air and silence remained.

The moment Cassian released the last drop of his power, gravity prevailed. His transformation was undone, the black scales fell away, the horns retracted. His consciousness blurred. He entered a free fall towards the hard and cold ground.

He couldn’t move his body. He didn’t have the strength to move even a fingertip. The side effects had bankrupted his body. The wind roared in his ears, the ground approaching rapidly.

Just at that moment, as he expected to crash into the hard ground, a pair of gentle but strong arms caught him in the air. His fall turned into a soft landing.

Cassian struggled to open his heavy eyelids. Behind his blurred vision, he saw a face looking at him with worry and love.

Radiant, moon-white skin... Loving blue eyes... And strangest of all, a pair of peculiar, crystallized horns glowing faintly blue, emerging from both sides of her forehead.

"I caught you," the girl’s voice said, like a whisper of the wind.

Cassian’s consciousness shut down completely. He surrendered himself to these gentle and trustworthy arms.

It was 04:00 AM. The Winter Castle was buried in deep silence.

When Cassian’s consciousness slowly returned, he found himself in a soft bed.

The pains in his body had subsided, leaving their place to a sweet numbness. He slowly sat up in bed. When he turned his head, he noticed the person lying next to him.

Cecilia was curled up on the edge of the bed, a blanket pulled over her, sleeping peacefully.

She was mumbling with a sweet expression on her face. A warm, involuntary smile appeared on Cassian’s face as he looked at her like this.

He leaned in, careful not to wake her, and planted a kiss on her silvery hair.

"Thank you," he whispered silently.

He got out of bed quietly. Before leaving the room, he found a notebook and a pen and put them in his dimensional bag.

He opened the window and blended into the cold of the night. His body turned into black smoke and took the form of a crow.

He began to glide through the castle. He perched on the windows of houses. Inside, he watched the people sleeping peacefully, no longer suffering, no longer having coughing fits.

He saw a mother hugging her healed child. He saw the patrolling soldiers walking not with fear, but with pride. In a tavern that was still open, he watched people raising their glasses in a toast.

Then he glided outside the walls. He toured the military camps. Snores coming from the tents, healthy breathing...

An indescribable wave of peace filled him. It was as if tons of weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

The plague... was now completely purged.

Passing by the tent where Kael and Rod were, he noticed Kael sleeping by a extinguished fire, wrapped in furs and shivering. Even though he was in crow form, a sound resembling a giggle came from his beak.

"Idiot," he thought. "Did you pass out outside again?"

He flapped his wings and sent a small chaos flame to the dead embers. The fire flared up instantly, spreading warmth around. Kael murmured in his sleep and turned towards the fire.

With the relief of having performed his last duty, Cassian flew back towards the castle.

He perched on the roof of the castle’s highest tower and returned to human form.

He inhaled the ice-cold air. The cold made him feel alive. He sat down, pulling his knees to himself.

He smiled, taking one last look at the moon peeking through the clouds in the sky.

He took the notebook and pen out of his dimensional bag. He placed the notebook on his knee, opened the cover. He took the pen in his hand but couldn’t write for a while. He was thinking about what to write, where to start.

Then he took a deep breath and touched the pen to the paper.

"When you read this... I don’t know what I have lost, what I have given up, or who I have turned into. Maybe you are an empty shell, maybe a monster. But if... somewhere inside that void, there is a piece left that wants to remember who you are... I leave this for you."

Cassian started writing. Words flowed from his mind to the paper like a river.

His birth between the cold, loveless walls of Bladehaven... Being abandoned by his family with bloody tears because of Lilith’s curse...

Falling into the hands of a mad doctor... The painful years spent as a lab rat in that white laboratory... Every scalpel stroke, every scream...

How Zevstyle, the sly goddess, supported him in his mind during this time, how she kept him alive...

Meeting Kaiser... The contract he made with that dragon, the promise he gave him...

His life in the Inferna Duchy... Iris... Tasting the warmth of a family for the first time, the taste of those cakes, those laughters... And then that inevitable defeat, death, resurrection...

The whispers of the Crown of Madness...

Veythral... That strange, fun friendship he formed with Fredrinn... How they trusted each other... How he found his little sister... His epic battle with Nerath, a God...

Cordelia, that little, wounded girl entering his life... Trying to teach her about life.

His journey to the North, the icy hell... The new people he met... Liora’s stubbornness, Cryomara’s maternal but terrifying demeanor, Cecilia’s innocent love... The chaotic but warm home of the witches... And of course, Lilith... That troublesome witch...

As the pages filled up, the expression on Cassian’s face softened.

"You know what?" he wrote, pressing the pen a bit harder. "No matter how much I complain about my life, no matter how much I curse it... I actually had a fun life. Full, with its bitterness and sweetness... It was a life that belonged to me."

"That’s why... no matter the cost, I want to protect this life, these memories forever. But if I have to pay a price... You know what we have to do, right? Don’t forget."

"Anyway, good luck. You’re going to need it."

He paused. He smiled at a detail that came to his mind.

"Ohh, by the way... I don’t think you’ll forget, but I’ll write it anyway. Make sure to give a good beating to this world’s so-called ’main character’ at the Academy entrance exam. If possible, break all his bones, smash his face. Because if you do this at another time, you might get expelled from the academy, this is the opportunity."

"And about Charles... be cautious against that blonde bastard. I don’t know exactly how strong he is or what is behind him but... I am the strongest. Never forget this! Even if my memory is wiped, nothing can change this."

"Yes, I am the strongest. I don’t care who supports him or the main character, or which god is behind them! I am Cassian! Toven or Gods... No one can stop me. So go and when the time comes... Kill them all!"

He lifted the pen from the paper. He thought for a while. His cheeks blushed slightly.

"Um... also... it’s a bit embarrassing to say but..."

He continued with a trembling handwriting.

"You will meet Iris Inferna again. Most likely you will remember her. But still... I am reminding you just in case you forget."

"The moment you see her... Don’t think at all, don’t wait. Propose to her. Get on your knees and do it."

"Anyway... Good luck! ... Prince of Nothingness."

As he wrote the last sentence, a tear gliding from Cassian’s eye fell onto the pages of the notebook and slightly smeared the ink.

Cassian looked at that drop, then slammed the notebook shut. He put the notebook back into his dimensional portal.

He stood up, stretched. While the cold wind hit his face, he smiled under the moonlight towards the uncertainty of the future.