Rise of the Fallen Kingdom’s Third Prince

‘What the hell are you…?’

Momentarily losing consciousness, Yuri flinched at the unknown black magic radiating from Cedric and, by reflex, swung his sword.

Cedric’s arm was severed.

But he only let out a laugh.

[Hahaha…]

From the severed section, tentacles sprouted, regenerating the limb. It was no longer a human arm. The tentacle tissue twisted and rose as if it were a living creature with its own will.

Cedric floated in the air.

Yuri swung Guilty once more.

Cedric raised a black barrier, but Yuri cut through it completely. The sword energy of the Cut of the soul and the heart, imbued with chaos, was practically a natural enemy of black magic.

Yuri, looking at the vibrating ceiling, asked,

‘What the hell are you trying to do?’

[Curious?]

‘Cut the nonsense.’

[No.]

The state of the battle was obvious to anyone watching. No matter how much black magic Cedric unleashed, Yuri cut it all down.

The only reason Cedric could endure was the infinite mana he possessed.

His black magic, fueled by the sacrifice of countless lives, was as vast as the sea—unable to surpass Yuri’s sword, but never running dry.

Cedric continued spilling black magic while offering his own body. Yuri gritted his teeth, cutting through it as he pressed the offensive.

Yuri instinctively felt that something was happening.

[Yuri.]

At that moment, his body froze. Cedric had released an intense surge of black magic, binding him.

Yuri struggled to break free.

Cedric spoke in a tone of reluctant admiration.

[Admit it. Honestly, I never thought I’d say this. Yuri Briol—you really…]

Cedric’s lips curved into a smile, a soft smile, as if recalling a happy childhood.

[I’ve lost.]

He admitted defeat.

[I’ve lost, Yuri.]

‘What kind of trick is this?’

[It’s no trick. It’s the truth.]

Still smiling faintly, Cedric recalled the past. Gifted with an extraordinarily brilliant mind, he could remember his entire life from start to finish in the blink of an eye.

Born with overwhelming talent, Cedric could not understand others. What was obvious to him was invisible to other humans.

Therefore, humanity, to Cedric, was nothing more than an inferior species, a step below him.

If he had not found the magic tome in the underground archives, he might have continued pretending to be the kind Cedric—only to end his life before adulthood, unable to endure the disconnection.

But he found black magic—the source of infinite power. He no longer had to imitate the monkeys while being surrounded by them.

Instead, he could become their master, giving them a new world.

He would create a truly ‘human’ world. Freedom was too much for them.

That despicable species that used violence against each other for absurd reasons, and abandoned one another for fleeting pleasures, would be placed under his control.

Unnecessary conflicts would disappear. Wars and famines born from collective greed and incompetence would become nothing but historical records.

And perhaps, someday—

Those pathetic monkeys might develop enough to see what he saw.

The sacrifices along the way were inevitable. Just as humans do not care for the ants they step on, Cedric saw humanity as a simple troop of monkeys.

If sacrificing some could create a new world, he would gladly do it.

But then—

[Yuri, once you gave me joy, but now you give me sadness.]

His younger brother, Yuri Briol, had appeared. At first, Cedric’s interest in him was mild.

His behavior was more likable than other monkeys. He enjoyed mischief, was talented with the sword, and possessed a natural charisma.

He could not see what Cedric saw, but within the world of monkeys, he had the potential to become a great talent.

If Yuri joined the new world Cedric envisioned, he could even be useful. That was all Yuri Briol represented to him.

But at some point, that changed.

For Cedric, who had never failed to predict something, Yuri Briol introduced uncertainty. He disrupted his plans again and again.

At first, it was fun.

It’s more interesting when an unpredictable factor enters the game than knowing the outcome from the start. That’s why humans, foolish as they are, gamble—for that very thrill.

But, little by little, it escalated. Key pillars of his plans collapsed entirely.

It all began with the Allied Army.

The horde of eastern orcs that Cedric had painstakingly gathered was destroyed by Yuri Briol.

If not for Yuri, the Allied Army would have failed, and Okua would have remained as the conqueror of the east—a constant threat to the continent and a valuable piece in Cedric’s hand.

After that, all the covert operations he had initiated in various nations failed.

Foolish humans who could never unite were now gathering under a single banner.

At the center of it all was his beloved younger brother, Yuri Briol.

How long was he supposed to tolerate it? Cedric felt both joy and fear.

For the first time in his life, he bore the mark of failure. He might even lose.

Deep down, that anxiety began to take root.

Yuri might, in the end, be just another monkey, but he was becoming something Cedric could not understand.

So Cedric broke Laurent.

He wanted to see how Yuri would react if Laurent—whom he cherished and who revered him—was ruined and thrown into the abyss.

Would Yuri scream in despair? Or, like other humans, would he despise and reject Laurent? Was Yuri’s heart also ruled by instinct, rejecting the ugly and desiring only the beautiful and sweet?

But the elven mage Inariel far exceeded Cedric’s expectations, and that plan failed.

After that, everything collapsed in rapid succession. The god from another world left, and Cedric could not stop the Anti-Empire Alliance.

Yuri Briol, with an unknown power, cut through all black magic.

Just as he feared, Yuri became an unstoppable storm.

Now, Cedric believed he understood. His plans had been too precise.

That’s why he lost.

Once the impurity called Yuri was introduced, the perfect gears of his machine were completely shattered. That’s why he lost.

At this point, Cedric began to think that perhaps his defeat was inevitable. The very fate of the world had pushed things toward this.

When he tried to impose a new order, humanity presented Yuri Briol as its champion, fighting to prolong its ugly and stubborn history.

That man was the will to survive of humanity itself.

Seeing that struggle, Cedric felt repulsion.

Why were these hordes of monkeys so persistent? Even in the face of countless injustices, tragedies, and madness they created, the world still favored them.

Following to the end without falling, and even stabbing him with a sword—there was Yuri Briol.

Cedric felt something close to despair.

He had to admit it now.

[Yes. I’ve lost.]

Lose.

He had lost.

But his plan would not fail.

Because—

[But still, you also lost, Yuri Briol.]

If he could not have it, he would destroy it.

Cedric looked up toward the core of darkness he had forged by gathering all the life force he had accumulated, the cursed artifacts, and the demonic grimoire.

That was his essence and the quintessence of black magic.

Cedric decided to execute the final plan he had prepared for an eventuality. He was going to open the Outer Space Gate.

When he made the contract with the god from another world, he had only opened a crack through which he extended his hand. That delicate work required an immense expenditure of mental and magical power.

But simply opening the passage was different. It was enough to use the accumulated black magic to forcibly smash the gate open.

Then, the surface would be connected to outer space and directly exposed to entities from another world.

[I’m going to destroy everything.]

Yuri seemed to understand his intention, and his face tightened.

“Why go so far?”

[Hahahahaha…]

Cedric let out a laugh. For the first time, he felt he had landed a blow on Yuri Briol.

He continued in a mocking tone.

[I’m going to open the Outer Space Gate. Then, those horrible things will descend to the surface. Empty inside, they will devour human lives with the same eagerness as an ogre devours meat.]

“You damned lunatic…”

[No, I’m not crazy. The crazy ones are you.]

Cedric spread both arms. His core began to vibrate, distorting the ground.

[With such an absurd world, you live as if there were no problem at all. The crazy ones are you.]

“Cedric, calm down. If you do that, you’ll die too.”

[No, I won’t die.]

Cedric smiled sideways and let out a broken laugh.

[The underground city I built cannot be invaded by the entities from outer space. The Gate will remain open for perhaps a hundred or two hundred years. They will take care of wiping out the humans for me, and in that time, I will prepare. When the time comes, I will go up to the purified surface and create a new world. Don’t worry, I will select the human seeds and keep them under my care.]

Cedric smiled broadly. He had not expected to use his plan for this.

Since he had not considered defeat, he believed there was no need to go to this extreme. However, his mind, capable of devising plans with plenty of room, had calculated even the unnecessary steps.

He would open the Outer Space Gate.

Dimensional rifts had the ability to close on their own, so, in time, the gate would close and those creatures would return to the void.

The entities of the void craved humans. Plants and animals, due to their low category of existence, did not arouse the interest of the gods from other worlds.

Only humans.

The creatures of the void would completely devour that despicable and miserable species that this world inexplicably favored.

[Better this way. Let’s start from zero. This world was wrong from the start, so rebuilding it from the beginning is the right thing to do.]

The ceiling of the underground city opened. The infinite energy of the core caused an earthquake, cracking the ground.

Cedric, along with the core, began to slowly ascend toward the surface.

“Cedric!”

Yuri lunged at him, swinging his sword without rest. His body was disintegrating.

But Cedric did not flinch.

He could not defeat Yuri in combat. As incredible as it seemed, his brother had obtained an extraordinary power, capable even of cutting the intangible. That was why he focused on dividing and altering his existence to divert Yuri’s attacks.

He could hold out like this.

He had lost, but Yuri would also lose.

[Hahahahahahahaha…]

His laughter echoed loudly through the underground city. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.

Until now, his life had been nothing but tedium, but Yuri had changed it.

When he died, the world would be more perfect, but Cedric would once again be a victim of deep boredom.

So, destroying and remaking the surface seemed a fair tribute to commemorate Yuri.

Thinking that he would never see him again, Cedric felt a strange brotherhood.

He reached his hand toward Yuri.

[Yuri.]

“Shut up!”

Cedric watched him swing his sword.

Yuri Briol.

Sweaty, gritting his teeth, never giving up, and with eyes alight with determination, as always.

He was beautiful.

Cedric understood.

He could not understand those monkeys in human form, and they could not understand him.

But Yuri was different.

He was a third kind of existence, different from both him and the monkeys.

[Yuri, my brother.]

Cedric stroked Yuri’s cheek. Even though Guilty was cutting his body and soul dozens, hundreds of times per second, Cedric smiled even more.

[I’m glad I met you.]

No matter how strong Yuri was, he could not survive if the Gate opened.

The god from another world he had summoned was only a part of the void.

Outside, there were countless beings far more powerful and vast.

[Let’s end this.]

The powerful current of air created by Cedric enveloped Yuri and dragged him toward the rift.

Upon reaching the surface, Cedric pushed him away.

Yuri, who had never stopped aiming his sword at him, was hurled far by the whirlwind.

[Haa…]

Cedric set foot on the ground. He felt many eyes upon him.

He was surprised to recognize that Yuri had gathered so many humans and powerful individuals.

Instantly, he resumed his magical power.

The humans tried to attack him, but his barrier blocked any approach.

[It won’t take long.]

He saw the twisted faces looking at him. That crowd, in unison, yearned for his death.

That hatred seemed to him proof that his decision was correct.

One hundred, two hundred years.

Perhaps more.

It would not be too much.

Thinking of the new world he would create, he raised his hands. His core ascended to the sky, eclipsing the sun.

What in the underground city was another sun, on the surface was a mantle of darkness.

An eclipse covered the world.

In that moment of greatest fervor, his core sent out waves of magic that struck the Outer Space Gate.

The sky trembled.

Cracks began to appear.

The wall separating the world from outer space was beginning to collapse.

Almost there.

Cedric counted in his mind.

One.

Two.

Three…

Then, in that instant—

Someone was at his side.

[Cory?]

Small, hunched, limping, his back even more bent in recent times, his figure was even more deformed.

Ah, yes, he was there. The repugnant being who found pure joy in gazing at the deformed Laurent.

Never had he seen such a pure feeling.

Cedric even felt astonishment.

If humans were insignificant, perhaps Cory was the purest manifestation of humanity.

[Well done, Cory. Come, come with me. Let’s go down to the underground. When the cleansing is done, we’ll build the new world together. Just as I promised you, in that world no one will mock you for your ugliness.]

Cedric extended his hand.

[Take my hand, Cory.]

Cory’s face twisted. His mouth contorted, his eyes deformed.

Although Cedric did not understand much about emotions, he recognized that movement as a smile.

Cory was smiling.

Then, he replied.

“No.”

Cedric’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer.

‘I won’t follow you.’

[What do you mean?]

‘From the beginning, I deceived you. I infiltrated to stop you. And if you couldn’t make the contract with the god from another world, it was because I stopped you.’

[That’s impossible. You…]

“Me?”

[You are, without a doubt…]

“What am I?”

Cory stared at him.

Cedric felt a strange sensation. It was something unknown to him.

If Yuri Briol was a being who exceeded his expectations, at that instant, Cory was something he could not even predict.

The unknown.

For Cedric, a totally foreign sensation.

While he remained stunned, Cory smiled.

[Cedric. Tell me.]

His voice did not sound like an actual sound.

[What kind of being am I?]