“You probably never realized, but I never needed you… From the very beginning, I didn’t need any ‘other half’.”
The Venerated Skeleton’s voice was calm, like an elder speaking to a younger generation, but his words terrified Elle.
“Father, don’t…”
“All I need is another demideity with the imprint of ‘the Betrayed’ to witness this scene.”
The Venerated Skeleton continued to walk slowly forward.
That was originally where the statue of the Bone Burying Grandma was placed. Now, there was nothing left here.
In the illusory, abstract world, like a witch barrier, many graves appeared in the open space before the Venerated Skeleton. Each tomb was covered with a crown.
The Venerated Skeleton stomped hard. All these tombs collapsed into bottomless pits.
There was nothing in it.
All the other [houses], which were the giants’ [graves], started breaking apart one by one.
Under the entire Elegy Dukedom, all the tombs collapsed.
“I didn’t realize it before… Burial is forgetting, and forgetting is betrayal. And the tombstone is the last memory of the dead.”
“It is my only weakness, the bridge between the living and the dead.”
“But if I destroy it, it is the most important beginning.”
From the very beginning, the Venerated Skeleton wasn’t just a “betrayer”.
But why was he missing the “betrayed” side?
That was simple.
The people built a tomb for the Grand Duke before they buried him.
“Our tombs are all sealed. Do you know what that means?”
The Venerated Skeleton said slowly, “Transcenders bury ordinary common, priests lay their followers to rest. Elders lay children to rest, husbands their wives, the wise their students, and the curse continues through the generations. But among them, I am the eldest, the grandest, the most revered… no one can lay me to rest.'”
“I buried everyone but myself. No one knew where my despair was—poison couldn’t kill me.”
No matter how lethal the poison was, it could not kill the [Eternal Duke].
The poet had said that the nation of giants inherited the curse of immortality.
But it wasn’t a curse, it was a grand drama in which everyone participated.
Because nobody knew the Venerated Skeleton couldn’t kill Himself. Their beloved Eternal Duke had long since become undead.
Following the course of the events, the Venerated Skeleton became a deity. It was not because of his betrayal at the time of burial but a betrayal that happened three hundred years ago.
The Eternal Dukedom battled the undead for 500 years to fend off the southern [Death Tide] and eventually wiped them out. They’d choose to end their lives when the Great Barrier collapsed to avoid becoming one of the undead…
However, everyone didn’t know their Grand Duke was undead from the beginning.
All their efforts, all sacrifices, all decisions were doomed to fail.
“I didn’t do anything. I proposed nothing. I objected to nothing. Because it’s not something I can object to, I can’t even make it public that I’m undead.”
The Venerated Skeleton said slowly, “Because [Eternal Duke] was nothing more than a gravestone. He represents the final resting place for all those teetering between life and death, as a mere symbol and tool for those who’ve given up everything to journey to the afterlife.”
“They went ahead and decided everything themselves while I quietly watched the country collapse. Everything died. On the noisy land, there was no life anymore. The once lively land was silent, and below it lay the giants, just like their forefathers… meeting their end peacefully.”
“—I’m the only one left.”
The Gray Mists would not kill the undead from the very beginning.
The Venerated Skeleton was left alone.
Were there any grievances?
Not really.
I should have severed the bond of the eternal blood. From now on, I’ll stand as the sole tombstone in the future. That was the sacrifice and decision the [Eternal Duke] made back then.
It was neither revenge nor betrayal.
It was caused by the deception 400 years ago, and it must come to an [Answer].
When the Eternal Duke decided to turn into a skeleton 400 years ago and end that ridiculous, cynical drama, everything was already predestined.
The betrayal happened 400 years ago.
His experience of being betrayed lasted even longer. Long before this “tradition” of Eternal Dukedom took shape.
The lineage with the Eternal Blood, forced to live behind masks like jesters… from the start, these rulers were denied the privilege of ‘death’. This was the ultimate cruelty to the giants who longed for a certain end — they couldn’t find rest, even in death.
However, there must be someone who remembers the death of all, to maintain orderly rule, to uphold the relationships between people, and to sustain this fragile giant’s nation.
That person was the one who was betrayed from the very beginning.
From the very beginning, the Venerated Skeleton had been able to sublimate fully as “the Betrayal Deity”.
However, he gave up on that.
“—Fate. He told me so.”
The Venerated Skeleton muttered to Himself.
With his back to everyone, he took off his golden clown mask.
Then, he threw it into the last grave in front of him.
That was the tomb of the “Eternal Duke” 400 years ago.
From here onward, there were still densely packed tombs—and within each tomb lay a corpse.
“I thought at the time… Can this level of [betrayal] carry this twisted nation, will, and history?”
The Venerated Skeleton replied calmly, “I don’t think so. It’s because this betrayal is not pure. It has the elements of ‘skeleton’ mixed in, making me a pathetic and abominable undead.”
He turned around.
Under the mask, in the knight’s armor, was an ordinary corpse without any special light and shadow effects.
It was an incredibly lean and shriveled body. Standing at just two and a half meters, it seemed remarkably short and scrawny from a giant’s perspective.
Those heavy metal boots were as valuable as “Wind Dancer”.
Precisely because He was so light that He couldn’t walk properly without boots that were heavy enough.
As an undead, the Venerated Skeleton didn’t have any special power. It was just a continuation of life… a tombstone, a “data center” that could engrave the history of all His people.
The Venerated Skeleton didn’t “carry the soul on Him”.
He bore the weight of a ‘history’ passed down through generations for a thousand years and lived through himself for four hundred years, documenting the entire saga of the land of giants from its beginnings to now.
What he was carrying was not the “Elegy Dukedom” when the Gray Mists attacked.
It was all the giants from the beginning of the birth of the Eternal Dukedom until its destruction 1,400 years before the Great Barrier collapsed.
This achievement was recognized by the world, granting Him the deity name — [the Venerated Skeleton].
“The Eternal Dukedom betrayed my family for a thousand years. I, in turn, betrayed its people for four hundred. Alone for a millennium, I finally found you, Elle. Someone who’s been betrayed beyond measure…”
“When my tombstone was destroyed, I gave up their last memory of me; when the statue of the Bone Burying Grandma was destroyed, I gave up the last sliver of this ridiculous [Tradition].”
“To this day, the Eternal Dukedom meets its end here.” The Venerated Skeleton hereby declared, “I hereby renounce the name [the Venerated Skeleton].”
All of his adornments fell apart and vanished.
The cloak, armor, gloves, crown, and boots —
All that remained in this world was his skeletal remains.
He laughed at himself.
“How can this piece of junk still be around?”
As He said, He grabbed his spine and yanked it out—
The broken bones scattered in the air and on the ground.
All evidence of the Deity of Betrayal and Skeleton — [the Venerated Skeleton] — was obliterated here.
However, the purer “Betrayal Deity” was about to be born in the abyss after death.
“Give me your body, Elle.” In this twisted void with the hue of an oil painting, the sounds of an old voice, a young voice, and a baby’s cry resonated simultaneously.
“——Aaaaahhhhhhhh~!”
Meanwhile, numerous mosaic-like blurred patches appeared on Elle’s body. She let out a sharp cry that hardly sounded human.
Although it was only one syllable, it could not be understood in human language.
She was undergoing an irreversible upgrade under the gaze of the players.
She was about to be swallowed up by those blurred patches.
However, at this moment, the last rib on the Venerated Skeleton happened to be inserted into the ground.
By coincidence, everyone looked at that rib at the same time.
Longjing Tea suddenly realized something.
The Venerated Skeleton’s plan was probably to erase the [Skeleton] clergy through complete betrayal and swallow Elle’s body to become the pure “Betrayal Deity”.
But in his plan, an important issue was overlooked.
Elle was an angel.
The new Betrayal Deity was re-ascended from an Angel… and the Venerated Skeleton was to consume her body.
The old “Venerated Skeleton” then would be considered dead.
Suppose the death of a Bronze Rank Transcender would give birth to a normal difficulty nightmare, the death of a Silver Rank Transcender would give birth to a hard difficulty nightmare, and the death of a Gold Rank Transcender would give birth to a distorted difficulty nightmare…
If the Sage who controlled a Truth died, the nightmare at the Otherworldly Level would be born. However, the deities also held a Truth, and it was at a more profound level.
So—
Longjing Tea’s train of thought came to this statement.
Then, the entire world rumbled.
The instantly distorted and collapsed space swallowed the three players, a cat, Elle, and everyone on the “Silver” ship.
Not only their soul was sucked into the dream world.
Instead, the physical body entered the “nightmare”—
The next moment…
Apart from that one rib, nothing was left underground in the Elegy Dukedom.
[Everything] disappeared.
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