Extra's Path To Demon King

Chapter 547: In Remembrance

Axel continued to sit atop the mountain, hardening his resolution, or maybe it was just his own way of overcoming the fear and uncertainty in his heart.After an unknown amount of time, the work on this last occasion was also completed. His followers appeared before him.

Axel nodded, "Good work, everyone; now you all only need to transfer the Oathbreaker stones to the secret locations within Suncrest."

All his followers left to take on the next job, but one person did not. It was Wangnan; he looked towards his Lord, as if sensing his complicated emotions through the close bloodline Wangnan shared with Osiris, for swearing complete loyalty to him.

Axel did not look at him, but a strange black colored flower appeared in his hand, and he spoke in his human voice, more to himself than Wangnan, "You know... this flower, it’s called a Pharmakon."

"Do you know what Pharmakon means?" asked Axel.

Wangnan did not answer, because he was not required to; the query was not directed at Wangnan. The Elf only needed to listen.

Axel smiled beneath his mask, and revealed, "It indicates something that is both a cure and a poison. Salvation and Damnation tied into one, like the two sides of the same coin."

Axel sighed, "For example, in your case, it was your people, all your fellow miners, who lived the life of slaves, the people that you wanted to save. They were your Pharmakon."

"If you were able to save them, they would have been your greatest Salvation."

"But since you were not able to save them, they had become your greatest damnation."

Wangnan’s expression turned complicated. There was grievance, regret, and hatred in his eyes.

Axel continued, "Just like you once fought to save your people, I also fight for something.... I fight to save only one person. I fight to save the woman I love."

"Just like your people were your Pharmakon, to me she is my Pharmakon."

"But there is one thing different between you and me, Wangnan..."

"In your case, you only awakened after being betrayed."

"But I betrayed her before she could betray me."

"I became her Pharmakon before she could become mine..."

Wangnan’s gaze turned heavy, and he spoke up for the first time, "And you still regret that choice? Betraying the Valkyrie..."

Axel looked at Wangnan for the first time; he chuckled, "So, Gareth told you about it?"

Wangnan nodded. Gareth had indeed told him about some of the things after he swore his complete loyalty to Osiris.

Axel added after a deep inhale, "I don’t regret... it, because I didn’t really have much choice in the matter. But I do feel sorry for her.... I made her pay the greatest price: her core memories, which formed Sophia’s existence, were sacrificed by me through force and betrayal."

For a moment, Axel’s mind fluttered, remembering the days he spent with Sophia learning about forging from her; every single moment of it felt like a dream. Many things about her remained the same, but many were different.

Even so, his heart would flutter nonstop for every moment he spent near her, with the excuse of learning forging from her.

***

The sound of a hammer crashing on a hot anvil was echoing nonstop, but the hands that were doing the job were of a female, and yet those hands contained strength and steadiness to such a finesse that no man could hope to compare.

Sophia was showing Axel the forging process with her epic expertise, the title of Dark Forger that she gained in her trial by learning weapon forging again and again in every reincarnation.

It made her the best of the best.

If Axel was an expert in runecasting, making the best of Runic Artifacts, then Sophia, with her pure forging finesse and indomitable willpower, could make weapons that gain a trace of sentience in themselves. These types of weapons were referred to as Relics.

Sophia still wore the same pitch-black battle dress that reached her neck, despite the heat.

And her face was covered in sweat, as she was not covering herself with a layer of mana to shield herself from the heat. This was one of the primary principles of forging: no energy must be used, and the whole process must be purely physical.

Sophia sighed, as her voice echoed throughout the forge amid the clanking of hammer and anvil, "Please stop gawking at me....."

Her voice was soft and soothing like that of a dark fairy, intending to lull the listener into a beautiful nightmare.

Sophia did not turn her head, nor did her expression change; her main focus was still on hammering the sword into the perfect shape.

A blue-haired man was standing by the side, watching the process of her precise forging, but his gaze was locked onto Sophia’s fairy-like face illuminated by the red flames of the forge.

But the moment Sophia spoke those words, his gaze immediately moved away from her and went to the hammer and sword.

Axel maintained an aloof expression, not showing anything on his face.

But his heart was beating louder and louder underneath; it wasn’t easy for him to focus on learning to forge when she was being such an eye-candy. It truly was extremely difficult.

Thankfully, he was coating himself with a thin layer of energy so that Sophia wouldn’t hear his heartbeat.

Eventually, Sophia finished hammering the hot sword on top of the anvil.

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she turned towards Axel and looked at him strangely; she could tell that Axel had not been paying attention to the forging and was only gazing at her with absentmindedness.

If it were anyone else, she would have already gouged out their eyes and killed them in the most brutal fashion. But strangely she didn’t feel bothered by it.

This did not happen once or twice, but over the course of a week, again and again. Even if Axel sometimes looked at her with lust, she did not feel bothered.

This was something that had never happened before, as if her innate overwhelming disgust towards all men became utterly nonexistent when it came to this handsome, blue-haired runecaster.

Then there was the strangeness in Axel’s blood. His blood made her go crazy

For a while, she was suspicious of why that was the case, if she was being manipulated again, maybe by the soul brand or something else. But this she did not find to be the case; rather, it was genuinely her own instincts.

So, for now she decided to trust Axel to a limited extent, since she had willingly erased the conversation she had with Axel in the illusory world within her Eye of Darkness.

Today was the last day she would show him how to forge before heading to the Unified Armies war camp.

As she looked at Axel with her arms folded, he did not meet her gaze. Seeing that, she smiled. "So, what do you think?"

"Did you learn all of it?" she asked softly.

Axel nodded with a polite smile, "Yes, Miss Sophia, thank you for teaching me so much."

But internally, he was cursing, as his heartbeat only grew stronger in nervousness, ’Damn it, she’s doing this on purpose to seduce me. Smiling like that.’

Sophia chuckled mischievously, "You do know that I can hear your heartbeat right...?"

Axel’s expression cracked for a moment, and he became embarrassed, his face turning red.

She laughed in a mocking tone, "Did you really come to learn forging from me? Or just to gawk at me like a fool?"

Axel was stunned by that sweet laughter, but there was also sorrow deep in his eyes.

Eventually, her melodious laughter stopped; she let out a tired sigh. As she now had to leave. Sophia took a step closer and patted Axel’s shoulder, and said, "I know you’re the best in runecasting, but considering the tumultuous and unknown future of humanity, you should focus on growing your personal strength."

"Otherwise, you won’t be able to protect yourself if you’re truly faced with danger," concurred Sophia in a solemn tone. But there was genuine worry in her tone, a worry directed towards Axel.

After all, even though Axel was mysterious, in her eyes... the handsome runecaster was only a later 2nd phase seeker. Extremely weak compared to her strength.

***

Sophia’s eyes fluttered as she remembered the days that she taught the blue-eyed runecaster her forging techniques, days that her heart felt at peace.

Far from what she felt right now, maybe her mind flashed in remembrance of those days, precisely because of how chaotic her heart was right now, ever since that day when Osiris told her those words that seemed to question her very existence.

Her heart had been uneasy from that very moment, for she could not find the true basis of her existence: what was her purpose?

Of course, the most obvious answer is that she wanted to be free. Kill the king, destroy the Suncrest royal family. Then again, she was also the Valkyrie, for better or worse.

However, she refused to accept a purpose that had been forcefully assigned to her. Sophia never truly had any aspirations to be a grand savior.