Chapter 18: The Protagonist's Foe

The three great powers waged war against one another, and amidst the chaos, several heroic protagonists rose to prominence, each cultivating fearsome divine beasts—the terrifying Ashen Phoenix, the Wings of Death, the Mountain Colossus, and more, each endowed with apocalyptic might, capable of leveling cities and toppling nations.

One of these protagonists, it seemed, began his rise right here in Faen County.

Charles racked his brain, searching his memory for the plot threads tied to this hero. As it turned out, the tale was a classic template for a novel’s protagonist: the boy’s mother died young, leaving him to rely on his hunter father. Yet fate was cruel. The father was conscripted by a dissolute young master to hunt a dreadful monster, only to meet an unsurprising end beneath the beast’s claws. The young master sent a handful of gold coins in compensation, hoping to settle the matter with such meager regard.

Unwilling to accept this injustice, the protagonist threw himself into martial training, seeking vengeance. By coincidence, he stumbled upon a gravely wounded and dying Soulbinder, whom he painstakingly nursed back from the brink. On the verge of death, the Soulbinder imparted all his knowledge to the boy, instructing him to journey to the city-state of Atlantis and seek admission to the Academy of Soulbinders.

The more Charles recalled, the more familiar the storyline seemed, until a thunderbolt struck him speechless: “Wait a minute—am I that dissolute young master?”

He remembered how he’d ordered his coachman, Hans, to find two hunters, who were then slain by the monstrous beast. Marcus had handled the aftermath, leaving Charles uninvolved. Judging by Marcus’s usual methods, it likely played out just as the story described: a casual sum of money tossed at the grieving family, with little thought for their resentment.

In other words, he was the callous young master who so carelessly discarded human life.

He scrutinized the details: the protagonist’s name was Simon Thomson, an unremarkable seventeen-year-old from the town, with bushy brows, bright eyes, and a cheerful demeanor that endeared him to all. He even had a childhood sweetheart named Eve; their families intended to arrange a marriage for them once the girl came of age. Yet both her parents were murdered by brigands while traveling, and she, a lovely and innocent girl, was seized by a dissolute young master to be his personal maid… That’s right, that young master was Charles as well!

“As a child, Simon’s hunter father gave him a pet—a deep-purple orb with a pair of blue wings, a creature of extreme rarity. After being accepted as a student by the dying Soulbinder, Simon turned the creature into his primary totem.”

Charles swiftly combed through every detail of Simon’s story. The boy already saw him as the murderer of his father and the thief of his beloved; it was imperative to strike first. Even if he couldn’t destroy Simon outright due to the protagonist’s plot armor, he had to snatch away every opportunity, weakening Simon so he could never rise to power.

“That totem starts off pitifully weak, and even after its initial evolutions it remains unimpressive. But its greatest strength is its ease of evolution—unhindered, it advances through stages, evolving, ultimately transcending, and when it becomes a divine beast, its might rivals the phoenix and the great dragon!”

After reviewing the plot, Charles made a startling discovery: the gravely wounded Soulbinder was none other than Bruce!

“So, my dear teacher, after orchestrating the death of the original Charles, bequeathed all his knowledge to Simon. And once Simon became a Soulbinder, wielding power beyond ordinary men, he led the destruction of the Maesterlin family, who had relocated to Rhine City after their town fell to the barbarians!”

Fury blazed in Charles’s eyes—a rage born of merged memories. He could not allow the future to unfold as before. Rising to his feet, he began to search for Bruce’s whereabouts at once.

“Meow!”

At that moment, a white shadow leapt onto his shoulder. Charles was overjoyed. “Wonderful, Firefly, I can’t believe you’re unharmed!”

He’d thought the creature would be gravely injured—or even dead—after the terrible events that had unfolded. After all, it had been summoned as its ultimate future form, crossing three entire evolutionary tiers. That it survived at all was a stroke of fortune.

“Meow!”

The little white fox mewed softly, nuzzling against his cheek and making him itch. He reached out to smooth its ruffled fur, but the happiness faded from his eyes, replaced by icy resolve. “There’ll be time to play later. Right now, we have more pressing matters—namely, finding my ever-dutiful teacher.”

The plot’s records were meticulously detailed, even outlining Bruce’s reason for taking Charles as his student. As expected, Bruce’s intent had been to use this ordinary boy as a front to quietly gather enough source crystals and evolution stones, then send him out as cannon fodder when his mortal enemy, Cassius, arrived.

The original Charles lacked the terrifying talent for cartography that the current Charles possessed, and had taken two months just to reach basic proficiency, lured onward by promises that Bruce would help him craft a totem.

At Charles’s behest, Marcus had sought out a powerful forest wolf, which the “teacher” then summoned in its ultimate form—the Howling Moon Direwolf—to destroy their enemies before fleeing Goldenflash Town.

Afterward, Simon, the story’s true protagonist, discovered Bruce in the forest while hunting… In other words, Bruce became the stepping stone for Simon’s destiny, feeding him experience, equipment, and even the priceless top-tier source artifact he’d fought so hard to claim.

Yet with Charles’s arrival, everything changed. The original, mortally wounded Charles would have been saved by Bruce, but now Charles had taken over his body—and inherited his vendettas…

It took some searching before Charles found Bruce, and he barely recognized him: Bruce’s entire body was blackened, nearly charred to a crisp, hanging on to life by only the barest thread.

“Teacher, are you all right?” Charles wiped away a tear, rushing over in apparent panic.

Thud!

He “accidentally” tripped over a stone and landed on Bruce’s arm, snapping the nearly broken limb the rest of the way.

Bruce, however, showed no reaction; his nerves had long since been deadened by the terrible backlash of his ordeal. Even without interference, he could not have survived much longer.

“Charles, I never expected you to have such a brilliant future. Forgive me for not being a better teacher.” Bruce’s lips barely moved, his voice faint as Charles leaned closer to listen. With a face full of sorrow and streaming tears, Charles replied, “Teacher, you opened the door to a new world for me. You are the teacher I respect most in all the world. Please, teacher, don’t die!”

“Good child, don’t cry. I have witnessed the descent of a divine beast with my own eyes—the ultimate glory pursued by all Soulbinders. Your future is bright. Promise me, fulfill one last wish for me, and I will entrust you with everything I have.”

“I promise you, teacher—anything you ask, I will do!”

Bruce conveyed his final wish, instructing Charles to seek out a particular child, and told him the location of his hidden treasures, looking at him with expectant eyes.

“Don’t worry, teacher. I will take good care of my junior brother,” Charles said, his expression twisting from grief to a savage grin. “After all, nothing is more important to a family than being reunited. I’ll make sure he goes to join you…”

A sickening crunch.

Bruce’s eyes flew open wide, but it was too late. Charles had snatched up a fallen guard’s sword and driven it through Bruce’s chest!

“Let him go!”

A cry rang out in the distance, but Charles paid it no heed. He twisted the blade in Bruce’s chest, ensuring his death.

“You must die, or I will never have peace.”