Chương 18: The End of the Golden Age

Echidna instinctively parted her lips, intending to continue, to explain who had fallen and how the impossible had come to pass, yet no voice answered her command, and the realization came to her only after several futile attempts. Confusion slowly crept across Iris's face as she looked from Echidna to Gloria and back again, watching the former's lips move without producing any sound, and then, without warning, the world itself emptied.

Every lingering bit of mana, every crimson stain, every grain of black sand simply ceased to possess color, leaving behind a landscape so utterly drained that it could no longer even be described as gray. Neither of them understood what had happened, nor could either of them have found words capable of describing the sensation that now wrapped itself around their souls, because fear alone was a hopelessly inadequate description.

From Gloria came an overwhelming, bone-deep dread that settled around their throats like the cold edge of a scythe held by an unseen reaper. Though their lives had led them to the brink of death countless times along vastly different paths, neither had ever encountered anything remotely resembling the terror now standing before them. In that monochrome world Gloria stood as the darkest thing present—an utterly black silhouette whose only remaining color lived in the pure, vivid light of her eyes.

There was no crushing weight forcing them to their knees; both could still move freely if they chose. Of course though, Echidna didn't dare. She lowered herself until her forehead pressed against the stone.

"How... Marvelous!" Tears of blood welled from her crimson eyes and traced dark paths down her pale cheeks as she remained bowed. Though, it was clear that they had misunderstood what they were witnessing entirely.

'Killed...?' The word echoed through Gloria's thoughts, then again, each repetition striking harder than the last until it drowned out everything else.

'Killed...? Did... did I hear that correctly?' Her breathing gradually became uneven without her realizing it, while memories began crashing into one another. Faces she had celebrated impossible first clears with. Guildmates who had spent entire nights arguing over builds only to end up copying one another anyway. Rivals whose names had once made her roll her eyes, only to become people she genuinely looked forward to encountering.

People whose real names she had never known, yet who had somehow become woven into her life, and in the truest meaning of the word, became her family. They could not simply... disappear. She already knew Ara had survived. But what about everyone else? Had Kaiser endured? Had Marija fallen? Had her own guild survived? Had they died one after another over hundreds of years, victims of time itself despite all their impossible strength, or... had something hunted them?

The final thought struck harder than every other possibility combined, because it carried with it a single horrifying implication she desperately wanted to reject.

'No... no... there is no way... No being could have... could it...?' Her frantic thoughts continued spiraling until something warm rested upon her shoulder, the unexpected touch snapping her back to reality. Iris stood beside her, her hand visibly trembling against Gloria's armor while sweat rolled freely down her forehead, every instinct clearly screaming at her to flee despite the courage that had somehow kept her rooted in place.

"Lady Gloria..." she said, forcing the words through a throat that had nearly closed.

"Please... calm yourself. I do not believe you realize how terrifying you are." Echidna slowly lifted her head just enough to witness the impossible sight before her, a smile finding its way onto her lips as she silently awaited the inevitable punishment. Such insolence, touching the Supreme of all Supremes without permission, and speaking to her as though calming an ordinary person... Yet instead of annihilation, the suffocating presence simply... vanished.

Color flowed back into the world, sound quietly returned to its place, and the unbearable sensation that had gripped their souls dissolved without leaving so much as a trace behind. Gloria closed her eyes for the briefest of moments.

'Girl... get yourself together. Falling apart now helps absolutely no one. Especially since you know nothing.'

"Name them," she commanded now.

"Tell me the name of the creature powerful enough to accomplish what should have been impossible. Who possessed the strength to hunt down those of the Golden Age?" Even as she asked, her mind desperately searched for explanations that would spare her from the answer she feared most.

"Mighty Gloria... the reason your name has become synonymous with power, the reason your legends are recited in every corner of every world, and the reason no sane creature would ever imagine opposing you..." She hesitated only long enough for Gloria's heart to tighten.

"... is because you are that creature. That is the legend of Gloria Superba." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

'Me?'

"Me?" For perhaps the first time since Gloria had awakened within this body, the response that escaped her lips perfectly matched the one echoing through her mind, and under any other circumstances she might have found some humor in the long-awaited agreement between herself and the infuriating instincts that so often twisted her simplest thoughts. Her gaze moved toward Iris so sharply that the young woman nearly recoiled from it.

"Woah, woah!" she blurted, raising both hands before herself in immediate surrender while taking a hurried half-step backward.

"Lady Echidna is correct that your actions are the reason no sane creature would dare oppose you, but she is mistaken about there being only six Supreme Beings remaining. At least, she is mistaken according to every recent account I have ever read."

"What does the girl mean by that?" Echidna asked. The Archer released a sigh and lowered her hands, though she wisely kept her attention directed toward Gloria.

"As we traveled through what I now understand was once your domain, Lady Echidna, we passed through chambers buried beneath centuries of dust, and you yourself have admitted that you were sealed away for a considerable length of time. I mean no disrespect by saying this, but I doubt you could possess reliable knowledge of events that occurred during the most recent centuries." A thin vein became visible along the side of Echidna's forehead as she watched the young woman casually dismiss her knowledge.

"And what would a child such as yourself know of history that Echidna does not?"

"I do not believe you fully understand what three centuries can do to history, Lady Echidna," Iris said, meeting the goddess' crimson gaze without lowering her own.

"Events do not change with time, but our understanding of them most certainly does." Echidna's brows drew together, though the irritation in her expression had begun giving way to something far less familiar. She refused to acknowledge it, even to herself, but the Archer's confidence had stirred a quiet curiosity that she could not entirely suppress.

"When you were sealed away, all you knew was the battle itself," Iris continued.

"The Golden Age had already endured for nearly twenty thousand years by then, while only three centuries have passed since Judgment Day brought it to an end. Those three hundred years may seem insignificant beside the age that preceded them, yet they have given the world more than enough time to uncover what happened after you disappeared." Gloria remained silent, listening with far greater attention than either woman realized.

"The six Supreme Beings Lady Echidna remembers were those most directly credited with defeating you. Their names became legends because they stood at the center of Judgment Day, but they were never the only survivors of that battle." Gloria's lips parted ever so slightly.

"It should have been fourteen..." she murmured absentmindedly, her thoughts already racing back toward the final battle.

"If I'm remembering correctly..." Iris blinked before a smile appeared upon her face.

"Correct, Lady Gloria. Hundreds of Supreme Beings answered the call to challenge you that day, representing the majority of those still alive at the time. A smaller number remained within their guild territories, unwilling to gamble everything upon a single battle, while others were too far away to arrive before it began, and a handful chose not to involve themselves at all." She drew a breath before continuing.

"The battle itself claimed many lives, but it did not claim all of them. Those who survived scattered across the world, and over the centuries their numbers dwindled for reasons that had nothing to do with The Dragon of Dragons." She lowered her gaze briefly, choosing her next words with care.

"The centuries that followed proved far crueler than a single war. Some challenged one another, believing themselves destined to inherit what remained of the Golden Age. Others attempted to seize rival guild headquarters. Kingdoms occasionally united against isolated Supreme Beings whenever an opportunity presented itself, and while those campaigns almost always ended in catastrophe, there were times when even creatures of such unimaginable power were eventually overwhelmed.

A handful simply vanished without leaving behind so much as a single trace, disappearing into lands from which no expedition has ever returned..." Her voice softened almost imperceptibly.

"... and more than any blade, spell, or army, time itself claimed them." Gloria's brows slowly drew together.

"Old age...?"

"Yes." Iris nodded without hesitation, as though she had long ago accepted an answer that still felt impossible every time she spoke it aloud.

"It sounds absurd, I know. But despite their power, many Supreme Beings still inhabited races with finite lifespans. Some endured for centuries, far beyond what should have been possible, but immortality had never been universal among them." Echidna quietly pieced together everything she had just heard.

"It would seem Echidna's knowledge ended the day she was sealed away. Mighty Gloria, Echidna apologizes for speaking with certainty where she did not have it."

"There is nothing to forgive." Gloria answered without the slightest hint of hesitation, her voice carrying none of the disappointment Echidna had clearly expected.

"You spoke according to the truth available to you, and I was the one who demanded certainty despite already knowing your circumstance. The mistake belongs to me, not to you." Gloria's attention then shifted toward Iris, whose shoulders instinctively stiffened beneath the sudden weight of those violet eyes.

"You have my thanks," Gloria said, her gaze resting upon the Archer.

"It would seem you know a great deal about that age." Iris blinked several times before hurriedly waving both hands in front of herself.

"N-no problem, Lady Gloria! I only repeated what others have pieced together." A small, almost embarrassed smile tugged at her lips as she lowered her hands.

"The Golden Age has always been the period of history that fascinated me most, so... it was honestly my pleasure. I never imagined I would one day have the opportunity to share what I had learned of its aftermath with the very people who created it." A faint warmth spread across Iris' cheeks as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck.

"Well... there is still one important thing you should know. Lady Echidna's conclusion remains correct in spirit, even if the exact numbers have changed. Based on the last confirmed appearances, recorded deaths, and the dates upon which the others disappeared, historians believe fewer than twenty remain alive." She paused, allowing those words to settle before finishing the thought.

"And of those believed to remain alive... the whereabouts of only three are known with certainty."