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Chapter 510.2: Our Ancestors’ Conclusion (2)

While Charlotte was trying to figure out the situation, Roel was standing amidst the curses with a grim look on his face. He was indeed not in danger despite the curses converging on him. The System’s assimilation of the Crown’s Stone was also proceeding smoothly.

What had left him with a heavy heart was Flooding Death’s memories.

He was shocked by what he had just seen, but he knew that this wasn’t the time for him to stop and process the information yet. He had a feeling that Flooding Death’s memories would dissipate once it was fully converted into a Crown’s Stone, making every second here precious.

Knowing that, Roel pushed himself to continue browsing through the memories despite feeling a little overwhelmed. This continued until the System notification popped up.

【Ding!】

【User has successfully assimilated the Crown’s Stone.】

【Shutting down Assimilation Support System】

【Loading ability information…】

The fragmented memories came to an abrupt halt before receding like an ebbing tide. Roel slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing he noticed was that the surrounding mana concentration had drastically fallen. The curses that had been so dense that they were almost tangible had thinned considerably. The sky also became visible, though the night had already given way to the day.

Rays of light shone down on Roel, warming his body.

A distance away, Charlotte looked much calmer than she was yesterday. Upon realizing that he was done assimilating the Crown’s Stone, she began making her way over.

“Darling, are you done?”

“Yes, it took longer than I thought. My apologies, I kept you waiting the entire night.”

“Really. Aren’t you supposed to be thanking me at a time like this instead?” retorted Charlotte.

“Ah… Yes, you’re right.”

Roel rubbed his temples and portrayed a light-headed expression, almost as if he was asking for her understanding.

“Thank you for protecting me through the night, Charlotte.”

“Is that all? Don’t you think that a gentleman ought express his gratitude through his actions instead of… Ah? W-wait! Darling!!”

Before Charlotte could finish her provocation, Roel had already scooped her up with his arms. Startled and embarrassed, she struggled to break free with a reddened face, but Roel paid her no heed and started making his way out.

“What’s wrong, Charlotte? Didn’t you just say that a gentleman ought express his gratitude through his actions?”

“W-well, I don’t mean for you to do it right away!”

“I’m not in a habit of dragging things out.”

“… Y-you can’t! There’s a lot of people out there. It’s embarrassing…”

Charlotte tightly clutched onto Roel’s clothes as her reddened ears quivered in embarrassment. Her shy demeanor was so adorable that it made Roel’s heart skip a beat.

So cute.

Unable to take the overload of adorableness, Roel was forced to avert his gaze. A few seconds later, he planted a kiss on her forehead before putting her down.

Charlotte heaved a sigh of relief. She shot a sharp glare at Roel and mumbled grudgingly.

“Darling, you can be really obnoxious at times.”

“I’m sorry. My emotions are unstable from the things I saw earlier.”

“The things you saw earlier?”

Charlotte remembered the severe expression she had seen on him last night. Roel hesitantly nodded in response to her probing.

“Mmhm,” Roel replied with a deep sigh.

He suddenly looked so fatigued that Charlotte chose not to press the matter for the time being, instead suggesting for them to head back and take a rest first.

Roel flashed her a grateful smile. Grabbing her hand, the two of them made their way out of this land of death. Under the relieved smiles of the maids, they entered the carriage.

…

【Death Rain

Induce a contagious cursed rain of death over a wide area that permeates everything that comes into contact with it, slowly guiding them toward death.

Side Effect: Decreased life force】

In the Diamond Rivière, Roel took a sip of tea while inspecting the information of his newly-assimilated Crown’s Stone.

He had known that any ability he gained from Flooding Death was bound to be powerful, but he was worried about the side effect it might come with. He had known from experience that the System’s description could be unreliable, such as in the case of Time Devourer. Fortunately, the side effect this time around seemed straightforward enough.

Overall, he was rather pleased with Death Rain, particularly with the fact that it covered a wide area.

Unlike Glacier Creator’s frost aura or Tempest Caller’s pale yellow wind, Flooding Death’s curses lacked direct offensive prowess. On top of that, the curses needed time to grow in potency, and powerful transcendents could last for a long time against it.

From that aspect, Flooding Death’s curses weren’t very useful in a fight unless it boiled down to a battle of attrition, but under such circumstances, Time Devourer and its ability to siphon away a target’s time would be much more effective.

What Death Rain truly excelled in was its ability to span a huge area, its contagion, and its ability to permeate through everything.

That was exactly what Roel was lacking at the moment, making it a huge asset to him.

Having obtained a powerful ability should have been joyous news, but Roel couldn’t bring himself to smile at all. He was too affected by the memories of Flooding Death he had seen earlier.

“Darling, what did you see earlier?”

Charlotte noticed that there was something on his mind and worriedly asked. Roel frowned in dilemma, but a few moments later, he heaved a deep sigh. He took some time to organize his thoughts before he began explaining.

“Charlotte, do you remember where Flooding Death came from?”

“It’s the ancient remnant where my father has once explored during his adventuring days, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Flooding Death did come from there, but do you know why it was hibernating there in the first place?”

“This…”

Roel gave her some time to ponder over the matter before he finally revealed the answer.

“Someone imprisoned it there.”

“What?”

Before Charlotte’s widening eyes, Roel began to explain what he had seen earlier in Flooding Death’s memories.

Last night, after a prolonged drowsiness-inducing dark screen, Flooding Death’s memories suddenly turned blurry, possibly because the memories were from a farther time period away.

Amidst the blurred images, Roel could vaguely make out some voices speaking in human speech.

Knowing that there could be vital information here, he continued watching the fragmented memories with heightened attention. Much to his astonishment, he soon discovered the reason Flooding Death was hibernating in the ancient remnant, as well as the culprit behind it.

‘Collector’ Kaldor Arde.

‘Collector’ was one of the titles used within the Twilight Sages Assembly. It was taken by Kaldor Arde, a highly talented transcendent awakener of the Kingmaker Bloodline who wielded the power to utilize Crown’s Stones. Same as Roel, he had acquired his first Crown’s Stone from fighting against the Six Calamities, and he devoted himself to researching them from then on.

That was all of the information Roel knew about Kaldor Arde. He didn’t even know what the latter looked like.

He was only able to recognize Kaldor Arde from Flooding Death’s memories due to a certain scene he had witnessed.

Under a starless night sky, from the gemstone it was sealed in, Flooding Death saw a beautiful woman with iridescent eyes paying a visit to a golden-eyed man, and the two of them had a private conversation.

That woman with iridescent eyes couldn’t be any more familiar to Roel—Astrid Arde.

This scene reminded Roel of the words Astrid had told him in the Witness State.

“It’s one of your ancestors, Kaldor Arde. Just like you, he was a prodigy with the ability to absorb the Crown’s Stones. He came under the alias of ‘Collector’ in the Twilight Sages Assembly. I chanced upon him in the waning years of the Second Epoch. Back then, he was the core member of the team dealing with the Six Calamities.”

Roel’s heart thumped in agitation upon confirming Kaldor’s identity.

As someone who had devoted himself to dealing with the Six Calamities, Kaldor was likely to know much more about those ancient monsters than Roel did. He might know of some way to deal with the Six Calamities and even the Mother Goddess.

Knowing that their conversation could contain crucial information, Roel pricked up his eyes and listened closely to them. But what he picked up on instead was the unacceptable conclusion that Kaldor had come to.

“The Mother Goddess is an existence being that can’t be defied.”