Chapter 326 - Perun's Seal

"It's because there's no other choice. You are the only one who can touch Czernobog…"

For Suzuki Ara, everything seemed to stand still after that statement. It was as if she was suddenly in a vacuum and the world was devoid of sound. That was how shocked she was. If she wasn't sitting, she reckoned she'd have fallen on the ground in a faint.

Then, there was a loud buzzing in her ears.

She was aware. She knew that to end the cycle of the curse, to free herself from the danger of turning into the harbinger of catastrophe, she had a role to play. But never in her wildest dream had she thought that her role would be too significant that her failure would distinguish all hope of ever attaining freedom in this lifetime.

"Ali…"

"Ara…"

After the humming in her ears passed, she realized that all four pairs of worried eyes were on her, followed by four different voices as they all called her name simultaneously. She then felt an arm around her shoulder and realized that in her shock, she had leaned sideways like a deadweight that her husband had to support her.

"Are you okay, Princess?" Kazehaya Gin asked worriedly.

"She's shocked," Ivan commented.

"I'm so sorry," Alistair unconsciously blurted. He totally felt that it was his fault that his daughter was like this.

"Ritz, why are you apologizing again?" Ivan reminded him with a voice that was semi-scolding that made Alistair clamp his mouth shut.

Ara had already told him to stop apologizing, and he should take heed. Else it would upset his daughter further.

"I'm… alright. Just shocked," Ara told them shakily after with a nervous smile.

Nobody believed she was okay, of course. The responsibility they had handed over to her was such a herculean task. Even if she broke down mentally, it wouldn't be surprising.

"But how do I do that? How do I defeat him?"

Ara didn't mean to sound afraid. Her tone sounded a bit as if she had already given up, but a part of her already believed that even if she offered her life, her strength was not enough to defeat Czernobog on her own. Normally, it would be natural to think that her father and the others would go with her to the Black God's lair.

But it was impossible from the beginning so she scrapped that idea. Why?

It's because of her father's seal.

When Perun shut Czernobog in the depths of hell, it equally made it impossible for outside factors to enter it as well. In short, nobody at a specific level could come out, and nobody at a specific power level could come in. It was a total impasse.

If she's going to borrow ranking terms from video games and the like, her father would be SSS, her uncle and husband would be SS, while Czernobog's rank is S. Ivan as a blessed demigod was ranked A, while she ranked a lowly B. Basically, if she fought with the Black God, she'd be like an egg smashing against a rock. The disparity of power between them was like that.

The seal Perun placed only allowed creatures lower than rank C passage. It was why shadow lurkers were still prevalent, but they were most easily spotted and eliminated. However, every fifty years, the seal underwent a phase of resetting and it weakened during the process. This period allowed creatures and anybody who was around rank A below to pass through.

Thus, every half a century, the Immortal War occurred.

"Besides… I can't even fight his minions well – what more the Black God himself?"

The last Immortal War occurred six months before she died in Ritz. She was not the strongest warrior who had fought at that time. She was actually one of the weakest generals that participated – and she nearly died.

She bit more than she could chew when she bravely declared that she and her troops would man the front lines. It was due to pride and defiance upon hearing the other countries' warriors demeaning the soldiers of Ritz and her brother, Alistair. The others had joked that the spineless king of Ritz had gone mental that he sent his own younger sister to war to die. She was determined to prove them wrong – and she nearly failed. If it weren't for Aurel's seal suddenly appearing on her body that made her able to manipulate lightning, she'd have died. The enemy troops consisting of a plethora of rank A dark elementals nearly annihilated her army.

Now that she remembered her original memories as Alencica, she already knew that it wasn't because of Perun's blood that made her able to utilize Perun's lightning. It was because her father, Perun himself was watching the war from a distance and quickly sent Aurel to her so she wouldn't die. Even if she was handicapped, as long as she had a mortal body with his seal, Aurel could give her aid.

Still, she would only be able to use Perun's power that Aurel could muster. It was why her version of her father's lightning seal was a hundred times weaker than the original one. During her fight with Ryuu, if it were Perun who struck him with lightning, he'd be dead.

"I know you are scared," Alistair told her as he reached out and took her hand in his. "My child, if father could join you in his lair, I would."

Technically, Perun could simply remove the seal. But it would cause everything to rush out and all dark entities would run rampant on the ground above, causing more trouble and might result in more casualty. It was why to finish Czernobog, Ara would have to go to him.

This meant that Perun, Stribog, and Kresnik couldn't accompany her.  

"But I know two people who could go with you to help out," Alistair continued, and when Ara looked at him questioningly, he informed her. "Fredek and Ivan."