Chapter 423 - Tears of the Villain

The first thing she saw outside the tent was a blur of colors— afterimages of the two people who remained locked in combat.

Kresnik and Shitara. Ryuu and Yuuka. Her husband and her mother.

"General," Midas, Horgall, Lucius, Rubic, and Sven saluted in front of her as soon as she stepped out of the tent. 

Her five vassals had on a worried look on their faces. They knew her well, and they knew how she valued her family. Knowing that she had to put an end to her own mother distressed them. 

But that was the Alinea before. 

She had to admit that even if not much, she had still grown— become mȧturė enough to learn how to draw the line between her emotions and responsibilities. She smiled at them reassuringly as if to tell them that she's fine. When she did, all five exchanged looks as if surprised. 

Well, she couldn't fault them. She had been somewhat emotional, and yet, wild lass back in the day. 

"I'll be fine," she said with confidence that made them freeze and look at her in surprise. 

Then, comprehension dawned in their eyes as they finally nodded and created a path to let her pass. She nodded her head in their direction as gratitude before turning her attention to the fight before her. 

Her eyes followed the blur of black and blue at Ryuu's and Yuuka's speedy movements all over the place. She already had an idea what to do, but as she'd never done it— never utilized the chained dark energy within her, she was a bit unsure. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she tried to search her soul for the dark part. 

Soon, her consciousness was in the place where she accepted the powers bestowed on her by her husband, father, and uncle. She floated in the vast universe in search of something— the black hole of miasma that she was born with. She shifted and turned looking for it until she found it. 

An angry mass of dark energy shaped into a ball with chains around it floated afar. She willed herself to get closer to it. But, as she reached out her hand, a bolt of dark energy lashed out to her, whipping her hand, leaving a stinging sensation. 

Urgh…

She remembered the last time she came here, she saw this black hole and tried hard to touch it as well but was stopped by both her husband and Ivan. They told her that she was not yet ready to deal with her dark energy and made her give up trying. 

But now was a different time. 

She needed to be able to take control of this angry demonic energy in order to use it to place the lock into her mother's rampaging powers. This was the inheritance, the piece of Czernobog's legacy that was the key to both awakening and sealing the Harbinger of Catastrophe. 

She reached out her hand and again, dark energy snaked out and electrified her, leaving red marks on her skin. 

"How do I touch this thing?" she muttered just as she felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around in reflex. 

Silver eyes met with scarlet ones and she gaped. 

"What are you doing here?"

She had thought that the Black God had perished in the lair, buried under the rocks. 

"I'm just a soul right now. I will only be reincarnated with my wife after my brother and my daughter," he explained. "I know you need this energy to send your parents to the cycle. It's why I came here as planned. You won't be able to control it if not."

Alinea felt confused. "How come? I'm your granddaughter. Also, I was able to exude dark energy before as well. How come I can't touch it now?"

She'd been attacked before because they all thought she was the Harbinger of Catastrophe being able to utilize and surround herself with miasma.

"It's because your mother was still sealed, and it's because your father broke your soul. He had isolated the dark part. Of course, the energy would leak and would try to transfer back to you." 

Oh…

Another revelation. All this time she thought she could manipulate dark energy as well. Somehow she felt a little depressed. This meant she didn't have any other divine powers except for her unbelievable strength. 

And she was supposed to be a complete god not a demigod…

A soft chuckle sounded and she lifted her face to see Czernobog's laughing face and she held her breath. Right at that moment, the Black God looked very similar to her father— more so that Gin could. After all, Czernobog was the closest to Perun in temperament although unlike the eldest among the three, he had inclinations to bully Stribog on purpose. 

"Do not fret child, after today, you will be able to utilize your own power," Czernobog told her softly. 

"My own power?" There was something like that? She had thought that she would either have dark or lightning divine powers. 

"You control the weather little mischief," he told her. "I believe you have experienced rain when you're sad or thunderstorm when you're angry."

Oh!

A realization came to her. That's right…

"Come, I will help you unlock this thing," he said as he raised his hand and the chains binding the ball of miasma snapped one by one.

CLANK, CLANK, CLANK!

In the hands of the Black God, the ball of miasma was docile. It came when beckoned and with the wave of Czernobog's hand, it transformed its shape into a sword. He then presented the weapon to her. 

Alinea stared at the weapon with mixed emotions, but only for a moment. The inevitable had come and she would have to face it one way or the other. She reached out her hand and wrapped it around the sword's hilt. She was about to take it but Czernobog did not relinquish it immediately. She looked up at him in question but was taken aback by his tearstained face. 

"Why?" she asked. "Are you regretting it?"

Czrnobog shook his head. "I am not regretting doing everything I did to set Perun free," he said softly as he handed her the sword. "But I do regret hurting you and your mother…"