The Stranger Beneath the Crumbling Crown

Epilogue

"I'm glad to have met you all," The world seemed to move so slow yet so fast, the tears Al had shed seemed for foreign yet so true. The weakness they had feared to show for so long had been released... but with that they were also released from life itself. Regulus seemed frantic in his own behaviour, too caught up with shouting for a doctor or servant to help that he seemed too engulfed in mourning a dead body.

"B...bastard," the gaze of another swiftly changed focus onto me. Cassius's glare was fierce and deadly, he reached to yank at my collar, pulling me to meet his gaze.

"You bastard... how the hell did you figure it out? Why didn't you tell anyone? Huh?!" His spit flew on my face. All I could do was try and look away from his fierce gaze.

"What... does he mean? Min-su... you didn't... hide anything, did you?" Liddell's pitiful gaze struck a chord in my heart. Everywhere I looked an agonisingly painful expression was worn.

"He was cursed, alright? Nothing I could do, and he didn't want anyone to know either." That seemed to catch the attention of the few still in their right mind.

"Hah...?!"

"His... body... and soul. They didn't match. Nor was his soul really human, or that woman he married for that matter. They have this milky coloured one, pure white, and it's all weird and blank. There's no mana... and it doesn't match the body at all. The curse... it was due to the rejection of the soul and the body." I hastily explained.

"That body was probably more like a corpse to Al. It didn't belong to him. I'm... not sure how it came about and why it was a shared curse but what I am sure of—," I paused as I pointed towards the statue "—is that whoever... whatever was controlling that thing was the root cause."

"What... are you going on about?" Finally it seemed to catch the attention of the frantically moving Regulus, who glared at me with a ferocious gaze. As if like a survival instinct, I flinched away.

— — — — —

"Good to see you." The moment I heard his voice so close, I lost all sense of control. My hands... well... my sorta hands... moved on their own. Despite this soul having no real form, it seemed to continue to pummel the fuck out of that ugly ass shitty god. Huffing and puffing once I realised that the god had given up I glared down at it as I stood up.

"For your wi—,"

"Fuck you and your stupid fucking wish. Give it to someone else, and hurry up and get me back home. I'm going to lose my fucking mind if I'm stuck next to you for one more second!" I shouted back.

"Oh... alright. I guess you'll also be happy to find out my position has been terminated with your successful mission so the wish in your heart is fulfilled," the god spoke.

"I'll be demoted to a speck of dust in that world once again. Ah... but if you want to keep my eyes, I have a proposal for you." I glared down at him.

"I suppose... a plead would be better." Humbling himself did better my mood.

"I take your left eye... and I'll continue to live within there. No draw backs, no mischief. I simply want to experience life within your eyes." My silence seemed to give him an easy answer.

"How about, if I let you keep your abilities. All of the new ones you gained." A glare came from me.

"I can also tell you when other's are in harms way! Like your nephew!" He quickly begun adding more and more to try and convince me. The question was, why it wanted to survive within me so badly. I guess even it had survival instincts. I grabbed it by its nonexistent neck.

"You must follow my every word, and you must never awaken or speak to me. You better live like you're dead, and you mustn't ever make your existence known once I have my memories taken. Do you understand?" I asked. The thing swiftly nodded.

With that, my enemy became one with me and I was returned to my world, without even a single memory of the events prior.