The murals carved into the stone slabs gradually became clearer and clearer.
Within those images, steeped in a strong classical Greek style, a king stood at the edge of a cliff, holding a swaddled infant in one hand. Beneath his feet lay a bottomless abyss.
Behind the king, a woman knelt halfway on the ground, bracing herself with both hands. It looked as though she was trying to stop him, yet also like a desperate plea.
"Eurypon, the boy did nothing wrong!"
A firm, ringing female voice emerged from the scene. "This is murder! Do not sully the noble name of Kremnos with the blood of an innocent child! You mustn't reveal your weaknesses to the enemy!"
Through the subtitles, the audience received the crucial information. The woman was Gorgo, Mydei's mother.
And the child in the king's hands, was Mydei.
As for the story shown in the mural, it looked very much like… Mydei's father, King Eurypon, was about to kill Mydei while he was still an infant?!
Many people stared in shock, eyes wide open.
Gorgo tried her utmost to persuade him. But Eurypon's resolute, unquestionable voice rang out immediately afterward.
"Enough!"
"My decision is final. We must use this child's life to preserve the soul of the great Nikador."
" We must... save Castrum Kremnos."
As his words fell, Gorgo's anger could no longer be suppressed.
"Don't be absurd! Those tiny hands lack the strength to even lift a spear! Do you truly believe him a threat to Castrum Kremnos!?"
"You'll be ending the bloodline of Kremnos if you do this. Our millennia-old glory will become nothing more than a joke!"
To the audience, Gorgo was practically speaking their minds.
They simply could not understand, what kind of thing could be stopped by killing a baby?
"Have you forgotten?"
King Eurypon's voice didn't sound like that of a tyrant. He was merely questioning his wife.
"That we Kremnoans place no value in bloodlines? It is through pure bloodshed and slaughter, the Kremnos Festival that the kings of Kremnos have ascended to the throne..."
"As for our millennia-old "glory"... it has always been a joke in my eyes. Glorify it all you want, but it will not alter the nature of slaughter. Those who revel in it are but murderers. They are no more noble than the most monstrous beasts in Amphoreus."
Eurypon's suppressed voice echoed.
And Gorgo knew that her husband had already completely fallen into madness. She could only make a tragic plea to the warriors and all those of Castrum Kremnos to join her and stop this atrocity.
However what greeted her was only silence. Not a single person stepped forward.
Eurypon watched coldly. He neither mocked nor sneered. He simply carried out Castrum Kremnos's rules in a formulaic tone.
"...Does anyone else have any objections? If so, come forward with your spear and prove your mettle!"
When the words fell, there was still deathly silence.
Although the image contained only murals, through the voices alone, the audience could fully feel the madness of that moment.
The people on the mural behind the King faded.
"Five."
"Four."
"Three."
Each number rang out, yet still, no one spoke.
Until the very last second. Utter silence remained.
Only then did Eurypon slowly speak. "It appears there are no objections. Then, in accordance with the Kremnoan Council's principle of tacit consent, the decision is final."
"With all present as witnesses, this child shall descend into the Sea of Souls, where he will nourish the Lance of Fury and join the fallen heroes."
"May fate and the gods await your arrival-"
The king's words were cut off halfway.
"Stop!" The pleading in Gorgo's voice was gone, leaving only resolute determination.
"With the Blade of Fury above us and the Council bearing witness, I, Gorgo, hereby move to challenge the crown in accordance with the laws of Kremnos!"
"O unworthy king, in the name of the Council of Elders, I demand that you duel me!"
This, was the final resistance a mother could offer, after all pleas had failed, to defend her child with blood.
"Heh…" Eurypon let out an ambiguous laugh. "Very well."
"We shall see who the Kremnoan blade strikes down."
With a flash of blade light, the mural shattered.
And so did the audience's hearts.
....
: Holy shit… this Eurypon, he's not even human!
: That's your own kid! You just give him up like that?!
: My god, no wonder the people of Castrum Kremnos. are so ruthless.
: This bastard is way too evil!
: I suddenly completely understand Mydei. If I were him, I'd have run away ages ago, who the hell would still be here fighting Nikador?
: This isn't just childhood trauma anymore, this is a straight-up childhood nightmare!
: According to the info revealed earlier… this duel probably ended with Mydei's mother being killed, right…?
: Holy shit…
: And after Mydei grew up, he came back and killed Eurypon…
: Patricide, wife-slaying, child-sacrificing… damn… this Castrum Kremnos suddenly feels terrifying.
....
As the comments went wild, within the image, after the mural shattered, scene after scene flickered before the audience's eyes.
They were stories of Eurypon and Gorgo.
Back then, the two of them were still in the prime of their lives. They were brave, fearless, unafraid of authority or the restraints of convention.
Two similar souls naturally came together. They were each other's closest comrades, best friends, and lovers.
On the training ground, the young Eurypon was drenched in sweat as he practiced with a sword.
Every movement carried a vigorous momentum, his eyes filled with sharpness not yet worn down.
"Stop!" Not far away, Gorgo walked over, her hair tied in a neat ponytail, clad in light armor.
Fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead, yet her eyes sparkled brightly. Her entire body radiated a heroic air from within.
"You're distracted." With a gentle voice, Gorgo looked at Eurypon.
"Uh…" Eurypon awkwardly rubbed his nose. That slightly childish gesture formed a sharp contrast with his muscular build.
"You could tell that too…?" He sounded a little embarrassed.
In front of others, he was the Crown Prince of Castrum Kremnos, its strongest warrior.
But in front of his wife, there was nowhere for him to hide. Gorgo said nothing and simply stepped closer.
Eurypon subconsciously thought she was about to demonstrate something for him, so he obediently handed over the shield and wooden sword in his hands.
But unexpectedly, Gorgo merely reached out and gently brushed her fingertips across a fresh wound on his chest. She sighed softly and said, "You went too far again in today's bout, didn't you? Does it hurt?"
The heroic sharpness she'd shown moments ago when catching him slacking off quietly receded, replaced instead by a restrained yet unmistakable tenderness.
"No… it doesn't hurt." Eurypon felt an itchy sensation where she touched him, and along with it, his heart began to itch as well.
He cleared his throat and joked, "This little wound is nothing compared to the injuries you left on me the last time we sparred."
Hearing this, Gorgo's lips curved upward almost imperceptibly, though her eyes quickly shifted away.
To her, her husband's words were the highest praise.
"That's only because you were distracted. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten the upper hand so easily."
After defending her husband's dignity a little, Gorgo withdrew her hand and pulled him over to sit together in the shade.
The two leaned against each other, gazing at the golden dusk on the horizon, discussing the future.
"Let's make a promise," she said.
"What kind?"
"I don't want my child… to have to become like you in the future."
"... Mm. Neither do I."
"The tradition of the Castrum Kremnos, slaying one's father to inherit the throne, let it end with our generation, if you can become… king."
"All right. I promise you." That day, as Gorgo looked at her husband's profile, she saw the curiosity surging within his heart.
That was what attracted her the most, what she fell for, and what made her marry him.
He was the same as her. Neither of them was willing to be bound by tradition.
"Tomorrow… I'll stay by your side," Gorgo said softly, reaching out and tightly gripping Eurypon's hand.
She could feel the turbulence in Eurypon's heart.
Because tomorrow, following the Castrum Kremnos tradition passed down for more than two thousand years, he would personally kill his own father and take the throne of Castrum Kremnos from him.
The scene froze there, turning into a dusk-colored oil painting.
This brief flashback, like a fleeting glimpse, was enough to carve a deep mark into the audience's heart.
The love between the two was sweeter than honey. Yet the scene of husband and wife turning their blades on each other was still vivid before the eyes.
...
: Tsk… how can there even be a technique like this?
: Damn, even delayed strikes are showing up now.
: I really can't stand this kind of…
: They clearly loved each other so much, how did it come to this?
: Did Eurypon really go insane?
: I can't understand it.
...
The comments swept past and the scene continued.
Eurypon's patricide was glossed over in a single stroke, and the camera jumped directly to after he ascended the throne.
What awaited him was not praise, not glory, but responsibility and the end of days.
A prophecy arrived from the gods.
The priest stood in the great hall, announcing the prophecy in a voice devoid of emotion.
In the prophecy, Eurypon, Nikador, and Castrum Kremnos… would all perish.
In other words, from the moment Eurypon became king, he was destined to be the last king of Castrum Kremnos.
From atop the throne, Eurypon stared at the priest in disbelief.
"Are you certain?"
"The end…? Mine, no, our end?"
The priest replied calmly, "A prophecy does not err, Your Majesty."
"Who is it?!" Eurypon demanded.
"Your son," the priest answered.
Eurypon froze for a moment, then burst into laughter.
This had to be a mistake. Prophecies could not be wrong, but perhaps the priest was.
He had already decided to resist the so-called destined inheritance together with his wife.
How could fate be so coincidental? He immediately ordered the priests to reconfirm the accuracy of the prophecy.
At first, the prophecy did not place much pressure on Eurypon.
But as the priests confirmed it again and again, and as… Nikador began to grow increasingly unstable, the newly crowned king was forced to face an incomparably cruel reality.
The prophecy was real. And in Amphoreus, fate was something that would inevitably be fulfilled.
This reality, this law, brought down an overwhelming pressure on him. For Eurypon, who had grown up in Castrum Kremnos and become its king, it was unimaginable that he would become a king who lost his nation.
Even more terrifying was the thought that if the nation truly fell, what would become of Castrum Kremnos?
More than two thousand four hundred years of glory, heritage, culture… where would they go?
In his youth, he and Gorgo had rebelled against the fate imposed by Castrum Kremnos.
But now, what lay before him was not only a family, his wife and son, but an entire nation, and the people of Castrum Kremnos.
As king, he found himself attempting to resist the will of fate and obstruct the inevitable course of fate.
Eurypon gathered capable and ambitious individuals from throughout Castrum Kremnos and discussed with them how to respond to the prophecy, how to face the disaster of ruin.
Among them, there was a military strategist of exceptional foresight who proposed a theory.
This theory was not devised solely to address the fall of Castrum Kremnos, but to confront the Black Tide.
In Eurypon's era, the Black Tide had already begun to appear frequently, though it was not yet as severe as it would be later.
Nikador had led Castrum Kremnos on multiple expeditions against remote city-states, all in response to the Black Tide.
This strategist proposed that to better deal with the Black Tide, the only way was for the two greatest city-states of the era to merge, integrating their resources.
There were only three paths to achieve this.
First, Okhema could annex Castrum Kremnos, absorbing its resources and manpower.
Second, Castrum Kremnos could annex Okhema, absorbing its resources and manpower.
Third, Castrum Kremnos and Okhema could form a alliance and work to stop the black tide.
This nameless individual had already seen through the Titans' movements and the deeper meaning behind them.
Nikador destroyed those remote city-states because they were weak and would be easily devoured by the Black Tide.
By destroying them, he forced their people to migrate, be absorbed by other city-states, and thus strengthen those cities.
Without a doubt, this strategist's vision reached astonishingly far. He saw that the greatest threat to Castrum Kremnos, no, to all of Amphoreus, was not the present, but the future.
But for Eurypon, he could not see that far, nor could he bring himself to abandon Castrum Kremnos and its people so easily.
And so, he devised a plan. The core of Castrum Kremnos lay in Nikador, and the prophecy had mentioned that Nikador would die.
Then, if one were to use special means to forge an immortal body for the Titan, could that ending be avoided?
As for the destruction of Castrum Kremnos, in Eurypon's view, there was only one possibility. That it would be annexed by the holy city, Okhema.
Because across all of Amphoreus, only the holy city possessed the scale and strength capable of destroying Castrum Kremnos.
Thus, he began secretly preparing, planning a surprise strike against Okhema.