Chapter 687: Truth of Shon

Yuran closed his book and stared from the window. The clouds scattered from above his island, and it brought an uneasy feeling to his heart. At that moment, the bedroom door opened. It was Alan.

"Master," bowed the tall man. "We have lost contact with several golems. It might be another blood beast has crawled out of the ocean. Should I go and take care of it?"

"I would hate to trouble you," said Yuran as he placed his book. "How about I use this as a chance to move my legs? I haven't left this house for two weeks now. Oh," exclaimed Yuran as he paused, "have you heard anything from Ascent?"

"We have yet to…." Alan was answered when the doorbell rang. The two stared at each other with confusion because this was the first time the doorbell rang in years. After all, who would wander to this island and ring the door?

"Is it an intelligent monster?" suggested Alan while pondering the matter. However, Yuran frowned and shook his head.

"A monster wouldn't be so polite, Alan." Yuran peeked from his window and saw a trail of fallen golems down the path. "This must be the act of a human. I will open the door as you prepare the…."

As Yuran was giving instructions, the bedroom door was knocked. The two felt their blood turn cold as Alan summoned his weapon, and Yuran took out his gun.

"…who is it?" asked Yuran with a frown.

"Arthur Silvera."

The voice behind the door was familiar, and the name made Yuran snap his eyes in surprise. Alan turned toward him and shook his head in warning, but Yuran placed down his gun and walked toward the door.

"If he wanted to attack, then a door wouldn't stop him," said Yuran as he opened the door to find the same young man he once helped. The two blinked their eyes, not knowing what to say.

"You do live here, it seems." Arthur seemed surprised as he looked around. "I received a request in your name to join Ascent, so I decided to visit."

"…how did you find this place?" asked Alan with wariness. Arthur smiled and waved his finger in the air, and two shadows jumped from Alan's shadow and entered Arthur's body.

"As a part of our entrance examination, we investigate the applicants. I apologize for the breach of privacy." Arthur apologized as he looked around the room. "Is this a bad place to have a chat?"

"Let us go to another room," said Yuran as he glanced at the king-sized bed where someone was resting. Arthur stared at the bed for a while before nodding and making way for Yuran to lead the way.

***

The two of them sat in another room, opposite each other. Alan stood behind Yuran with wariness, glaring at Arthur as if he was here to assassinate his master.

"Don't be so hostile, leader," said Arthur with a smile. "The two of you have been kind to me in Avarice Dungeon. I didn't come here for harm. However, now that I have grown wiser, you weren't always allies."

"It is no use trying to hide it now, after seeing how you fought against your father," said Yuran while gesturing for Alan. "Bring us some tea. We need some time alone."

"Master, this is…." Alan seemed worried. However, Yuran didn't change his mind, and Alan left the room while still staring at Arthur.

After they were alone, Arthur leaned back on the couch and sighed. "This meeting brought a lot of nostalgia. I didn't think Alan would be alive after that attack."

"It seems that Avarice is connected to Mountain Range Rovero. After the four of them fell through the spatial gap, they appeared there. It was a divine blessing that Alan didn't die amid monsters."

"I guess this is different now as well," said a smiling Arthur. In the previous timeline, Alan, Juan, and the rest turned into zombies because of Ellen. However, since they have prevented that, it changed many things in this timeline. "Are you interested in joining Ascent or just finding my father?"

"I was more interested in you," said Yuran smiling. His face was still pale and weak, almost as if he would faint at any moment. "Even though I helped you in the trial, I didn't believe you would turn out to be the creator in the prophecies. I thought you were the bastard of some family that stumbled upon the trial."

"A lot of people tended to believe that. After all, blood cannot be retained in a single family. There are always black sheep." Arthur squinted his eyes at Yuran. "However, what did you want from my father?"

"I came to meet a certain monk in the trial," began Yuran. "He was the one who inherited the Saint Insignia, who can heal any ailment. However, that man cannot kill any soul, at least not on purpose. If he does, the insignia will disappear, and the Holy Crown will reject him."

"And how is that related to Seref?"

"It is not, but the monk himself is. It seems that monk had a master that was a friend of your father's, but he was killed at his hands. The monk realized your father's true nature and confronted him, but Seref simply killed him."

"This is the first time I hear this, but I'm not surprised." Arthur knew his father would do such a thing. "Then, you decided to kill my father in exchange for that monk's help?"

"I have agreed to that."

"I wish you managed to do it," said Arthur before his expression crumbled. "However, you knew I didn't hold anything against my father then. Yet, you acted as my friend to get some clues about his whereabouts."

Arthur's expression turned from friendly to filled with cold rage. His eyes glared daggers at Yuran, who seemed too weak to resist. Alan came back with the tea and left without saying a word. Yuran picked up the cup and took a sip. Then, he raised his head and met Arthur's eyes.

"You've seen the reason why," said Yuran. "In that other room, the one in the bed is my mother. As the creator, then you should be able to know what her ailment is."

"Corruption," said Arthur while averting his gaze to the walls, where he could feel the powers of nothingness pulsing. "I know what happened in the orphanage, Yuran."

When Arthur said that, Yuran's grip turned weak, and the cup slipped. It shattered on the ground, and the tea splashed beneath the table. However, Yuran didn't stop shaking as he stared at Arthur wide-eyed.

"Are you familiar with the prison of memories and its guardian?" asked Arthur, and Yuran gulped. Arthur noticed a slight twitch in his eye that made him frown. "You are aware of that priest's existence in that prison. That means you were the one invading Jerano."

After Arthur appeared in this world after the merge, he was greeted by Julia, telling him about what happened during the invasion. He learned that someone tried to invade Jerano, and Arthur helped stop them.

"That man is still alive, and that must have haunted you. If you weren't someone with powers, you could not hurt him unless you break into the prison and kill him."

"You are wrong," said Yuran while shaking his head. "I wanted to know the truth from him, but the guardian refused to give me access to his memories."

"I have seen a part of them, but it's the part that you remember well," said Arthur as his eyes turned toward the tea on the table. "That experiment used the darkness to alter humans, but your mother couldn't accept that. So, therefore, she ended in that state."

"Is that what the guardian showed you?" muttered Yuran with a weak smile. "Is this fate, or is it by design that you have seen what made me a cripple?"

"It doesn't matter, Yuran," said Arthur while pressing his lips together. "I have an inkling about the culprit behind that. It must be Shon, right? That is the reason that Fey called you older brother. You two belong to the same group of people. A group of children has been used as an experiment by the Theocracy of Shon to gain power."

Arthur had conjured this truth from several pieces. One was Rae, and the other was Diana's finance, a descendant of White Dragons. The last piece was the memories that Rayxin showed him in the prison of memories.

"Shon needed a way to stand against the Seven Families, and this is the result," said Yuran as he squeezed his hands together. "I'm one of the failed experiments conducted by them. However, as you have seen, I lost more than just my ability. I lost the one person who cared about me then, my mother."

Yuran told the truth, and Arthur realized how enormous this man's suffering was. After being turned into a cripple and losing his mother, he was fighting all this time for a way to bring her back. In that sense, Yuran and Arthur are the same.

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