Arcanum: Chaos Path

Chapter 400 The Story of the Death Archon
Azik had a very long dream.

The dream began in a cold, dark place. In that darkness, Azik felt no warmth, only coldness, the breath of death, and boundless silence.

In the dream, Azik was not the gentle history teacher he would become, but a naive child. The young feathered serpent knew nothing, not even the concepts of fire and the sun, yet he still had the thought "It's so cold" at a certain moment.

These dark and cold days, which lasted for an unknown period of time, suddenly ended one day. The young feathered serpent finally opened its eyes in the real world. This was the first time it had seen the world since its birth, but what it saw was not a couple celebrating the arrival of their child, but a man's critical and cold gaze.

Azik's bloodline instincts told him that the man before him was his father, someone he should be close to. But his survival instincts made him shrink back. The feathered serpent's senses kept sending out warnings, reminding Azik that "death" might come at any moment, and that the other man might kill him.

why?
Confused, the feathered serpent cub was filled with doubt, but it dared not ask.

Finally, after a silence that terrified and suffocated the feathered serpent cubs, the man withdrew his gaze and uttered a comment:
"good."

The tone wasn't that of someone evaluating their own child, but rather that of someone evaluating a useful object.

The feathered serpent cub survived because of this comment, unlike its many brothers and sisters who met their end before even knowing what the world was like.

But is this really a lucky thing?

Azik didn't know, only that the feathered serpent cub in his dream was later arranged by the man to learn various kinds of knowledge and to compete with other surviving brothers and sisters.

Emperor Byron had no concept of kinship; all the sons of the Grim Reaper could only be decided in battle. The outstanding ones were further nurtured, while the losers would often never appear before anyone else again.

As for the young Azik, who was rated as "good" by Death, he undoubtedly became the best among all the offspring, and even the final victor.

And so Death crowned Him, and His Highness the Death Archon was born.

“Azik, you are indeed my best offspring.”

On that day in the dream, the man who was Azik's father showed a rare satisfied smile to his offspring, while the Death Archon, who was kneeling on one knee to receive the coronation, had a humble expression, with only his lowered eyes devoid of any emotion.

As the one dreaming, Azik couldn't say what the Death Consul was thinking at that moment, but Azik felt that He was probably not happy.

Whether Azik was happy or not, the dream continued, and the Death Archon became the ruler of the Byron Empire—although Azik felt that it might be more reasonable to call the Death Archon a tool for handling imperial affairs.

All His power comes from Death. The Death Archon can only do what the other party allows, and is controlled by the other party like a puppet, having neither freedom nor self.

Divine doll... Occasionally, when looking at himself in his dreams or at his reflection in the mirror, Azik would vaguely think of this term, even though he couldn't quite remember who had described him that way.

But do divine dolls really have no sense of self at all?
Azik disagreed, because besides handling various matters like a rigid administrative robot, the Death Archon also read all sorts of fantastical stories. Some of these stories were pure folklore, some were fairy tales for children, and some were high-sequence gossip from other countries.

As the Archon of Death, Quetzalcoatl had no need to read these stories, but he was indeed engrossed in them, reading the books over and over again, and then, in the quiet afternoons he stole from his busy schedule, he would silently ponder what kinship, friendship, and love really meant.

The Death Archon had never seen such a thing in reality, even though He had many brothers and sisters, and even though countless people in the Empire admired His Highness the Death Archon and wanted to become his concubine.

So sometimes Azik wonders if these so-called emotions really exist? Do they refer to things that only exist in fictional stories, or things that actually exist in reality?

The Death Archon thought the answer was probably the latter, since the works of Mr. Men that circulated from the Tudor Empire were highly authentic, and in those stories, the high-sequence individuals also possessed emotions, such as kinship, friendship, and even love.

So Azik wondered, why couldn't He, who was also a high-sequence being, possess these things? Was it because He wasn't powerful enough?

The Death Archon did not know, because no one would give Him the answer to this question.

Until one afternoon, an ordinary afternoon when the Death Archon was taking a break from his busy schedule, he simply blinked and saw a strange young man, while another version of himself sat opposite him.

With ease, the Death Archon guessed the truth; He arrived in the future, a thousand years from now.

In this future, He finally broke free from Death's control. Although He was still not completely free, He gained a sense of self in the long cycle of reincarnation and also gained the emotions He had only seen in stories.

that's nice!

The Death Archon couldn't help but think this, and for the first time, the heartless doll felt satisfied on this ordinary yet extraordinary afternoon.

Even though the Death Archon only stayed in the future for a short time, He was still very happy when He returned to His own time, for the self that finally had a self, and for the gift He brought back from the future.

That gift gave the Death Archon more of his own self, and even suppressed many of Death's influences on Him.

The remaining days seemed to finally have hope and light at this moment. Under such circumstances, the Death Archon continued his life. He would occasionally travel to the future again, but most of the time he could only stay in the cold palace to deal with those complicated official duties. However, the Death Archon was not dissatisfied with this. For him, even a moment of beauty was enough to make him persevere through the long years.

The Death Archon did consider rebelling, but the gap between Sequence 2 and Sequence 0 was too vast, and the blood relationship left the Death Archon powerless against Death. So He could only remain silent, carefully hiding His remaining humanity, maintaining a cold mask, and continuing to be Death's most favored offspring.

Even though the Death Archon was well aware that his most favored offspring was also Death's most favored vessel for resurrection.

(End of this chapter)