However much he dismissed Remos earlier, Aeggr also wondered what had become of that little skeleton that had dared to enter the Labyrinth of the Yoke a while back. A mix of fortune and misfortune had tendrils over that thing for sure. In truth, that was true for everyone who had ever wandered into the Labyrinth and 'happened' upon the Hall of Fulgardt.

'I wished that was allowed for us to see as well,' Aeggr thought, frowning at the wine stains he'd spilled on his baggy shirt. His expression softened a moment later, and he went for another sip of the wine in his goblet. 'You're rather spiteful, Fulgardt.'

Not even Remos could explain why it happened – the sudden disappearance of the 'screen.'

Back when everyone in the Hall of Fulgardt was still freshly detained, Fulgardt made it so that a screen would appear, allowing the detainees to watch the chaos unfolding on Aigas as the Second Grand War ensued. Indeed, the immortals in the hall were privy to all the major happenings on Aigas because of this, and it made their despair that much more potent as the years trudged on. It was hard to tear the eyes away, even when the screen depicted only loss and bloody butcher.

…But when the screen suddenly vanished, the despair grew even more. Wise men oft said knowing was better than not knowing, after all. Aeggr had fallen prey to that too – the anguish that flooded from within as he begged to know what had become of his home…

…What had become of his king.

'Will I finally accept that this is fitting – a worthy stroke of justice?' Aeggr thought, a vein throbbing on his forehead. 'Yes. Yes, perhaps I will. Finally.'

He felt his muscles and tendons loosen.

Four thousand years after Fulgardt had tricked him and imprisoned him in this festive hall, Aeggr finally felt like himself again. He felt a stroke of his pride finally steal back into his immortal heart. He felt like a Royal Knight again.

'It was no excuse. Not good, not bad. It's fitting that I should be here, suffering for eternity,' he thought. 'There is no greater sin than abandoning your King.'

Edricus Royan was nothing like his notable predecessors, those born of the legendary Philemen Royan, founder of Pelian. He was a weak, lumbering fool – a fool no nation deserved during the reign of Fulgardt and his terrors, as far as Aeggr was concerned. Aeggr had served him dutifully until he couldn't. Why serve a man poor of will – poor of wisdom? Aeggr couldn't understand how Rayn managed it. He was the strongest Royal Knight of all, but he remained loyal despite it all. Why?

(Refer to Ch.432.)

'I must have been young,' Aeggr thought that was the most realistic reason. 'We were both young.' He looked at Muezzi, the woman seated opposite him, downing a whole bottle of stronger wine. When she'd had her fill, her head jerked forth, casting her navy-blue hair messily ahead of her. Her decorum was finally thinning. She noticed his gaze and burped.

Aeggr looked away. 'She's probably thinking about the skeleton, too. We both missed the final blow on that thing. Maybe that might have redeemed us some – a final stroke of royal duty for me, and a final act of grace for a Contract Knight.'

A commanding pressure made Aeggr's hand freeze before it gripped the wine glass before him.

…!

Every soul within the hall felt the pressing might. It hardly made any sense, like heaving a weight of thunder on the shoulders or drowning in a cacophony of grating sounds.

The powerhouses within the hall – Aeggr himself, Remos, Muezzi, and a few others - sensed its source first and were dumbstruck.

A man with coin-grey skin, adorned in a robe of clouds commanded the deep presence. It was no man any of them had ever seen, but it was abundantly clear that he stood leagues above everyone in the room in terms of strength. Everyone… including Fulgardt.

This was the first time Aeggr had ever been convinced that Fulgardt was the lesser in a stand-off against an enemy. Indeed, the Immoral had appeared along with this mysterious man just now, something he sensed (that it was truly Fulgardt) because of the golden halo, and dark mist binding him to immortality. Fulgardt might have looked different, stronger, more menacing than he was before, but it was certainly him.

How he was alive, what powers he now possessed, what his goal was… none of it concerned Aeggr immediately. All he could do was stare at the man with the robe of clouds and wonder what manner of organism he was.

What powers did he possess? What goals did he have? Why did he feel so… regal?

Was he royalty?

Aeggr shuddered at the thought.

As it happened, Fulgardt shuddered as well, prompted so by what the man in the robes did. He brandished a key in one of his four hands… and then crushed it as though it were a lump of chalk.

Almost immediately after, he snapped his fingers, and a gigantic wad of darkness sculpted into hideous form appeared beside him, crushing through the ceiling and wall. It crushed a fair few of the denizens of the hall too, but they wouldn't die from something like that. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"You used this Retainer as a host for your soul, stalling the seal that I placed on you, right? For a little while, you're safe from being whisked back to Aigas' surface," said the man with the robe of clouds with chilling casualness. "I think this is a fitting setting for our last exchange, but if you disagree, you are welcome to take back your soul and move the battle to Aigas instead."

The way the shroud of darkness around Fulgardt spasmed madly was answer enough. He must have been incensed.

Aeggr was flabbergasted.

Who in the world could fluster Fulgardt to that degree? Even the Deities of Aigas had failed to do so!

"Don't feel pressured to answer immediately," continued the man with the robes. His robes thinned to something akin to mist, revealing the chiseled body underneath, which was then wrapped in an intricate, reddish-black armour. He got into a fighting stance, positioning a fist and a knife hand in front of him with two arms. "But rest assured. It really doesn't matter."

Fulgardt said nothing. He also got into a fighting stance, both hands propped above his head and his right leg in front of his left.

Aeggr swallowed hard. He turned to Muezzi, then Remos. When he saw the same expression of absolute astonishment he had on their faces, he finally became sure that this was, in fact, happening.

Fulgardt had met his match.

---

[Author's Note]

You probably won't remember this, but Aeggr is the guy from the hall who gave Skullius a hard time when he was trying to escape. The man with the loose shirt, wielding a knife.