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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Prologue
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North Continent's Kairun Plains.
Fertile, rich soil that bore the responsibility of feeding the starving masses of the barren North Continent—a gracious land indeed.
This year, in particular, promised an unprecedented bumper crop.
How could anyone be so sure?
Simple.
The fields of the Kairun Plains had been thoroughly manured in preparation for the returning spring.
Literally a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
A plain filled with blood, corpses, grief, and screams.
Standing atop it all, a lone man took in the sight of the overwhelming horde surrounding him.
Drip. Drip!
From the golden chains coiled around his body, droplets of blood trickled down without end.
Forged from orichalcum—a metal so rare even the alchemy-advanced South Continent rarely saw it—the chains were now dyed a deep crimson, their original form barely discernible.
They had devoured countless lives, stacking enemy corpses into mountains and dyeing seas with their blood.
The stench of death clung not only to the chains.
The blood of countless foes stained his body.
No amount of washing or anointing with fragrant olive oil could cleanse it.
This odor of death, etched beyond flesh into the depths of his soul, would never fade.
"Huuuuh..."
The man let out a long sigh. His once seemingly inexhaustible aura was finally nearing its end. He felt on the verge of collapse, yet he refused to bend his back.
He had cast aside his brother, who relied on empty bravado, and swallowed his tribe whole.
He had slit open the bellies of the leeches fattening themselves on the blood of weaker clans.
He had beheaded the incompetent great chieftain who, dismissed as barbarians by other continents, could only console himself as "sons of nature."
The man himself bore the rough blood of the North Continent. Schooled in thievery, his greatest confidence lay in fighting and seizing.
Repeating what he did best, he devoured the North Continent whole. Before long, the world dubbed him the Overlord.
He raised his head, gazing into the faces surrounding him one by one.
It was strange.
Here was a man on the brink of collapse.
Anyone, even a three-year-old child, could see who was in peril.
Yet not one of them relaxed their tension upon meeting his eyes.
And once their identities were known, the astonishment would only deepen.
Sword Saint Kaidu Ballak, hailed as the greatest swordsman from Agena beyond the East Continent.
Sage Midas Alloin of the South Continent, who had mastered all the world's magic and truths.
Saintess Cassandra Bernarde of the West Continent's Sun Church, recipient of a divine oracle after five centuries.
And countless other renowned heroes, all tense before a single man.
If the continent's gossips saw this, it would be fodder enough to salivate over.
In the midst of this bizarre standoff,
a man pushed through the encirclement and stepped forward slowly.
"It's all over now. Overlord, Lucas Alexei."
Golden hair, blue eyes.
A man with a radiant appearance, as if sculpted by the gods themselves.
This was the one who had gathered these paragons to the North Continent.
Among the star-like multitude of continental heroes, the one the people unhesitatingly crowned as the greatest.
The hero born of the Khan Empire, Siegfried Dufer.
At Siegfried's calm declaration, the Overlord, Lucas—who had been quietly regulating his breath—finally spoke.
"...Siegfried Dufer. So it was you after all."
A chill ran down their spines!
Just a low, sunken murmur,
yet the assembled heroes felt a piercing sensation at the napes of their necks.
They had caught the deep scent of resentment and rage carried in those words.
But Siegfried Dufer, facing the Overlord's fury head-on, gazed not at Lucas, but at the corpses at his feet.
The remains of those who, until moments ago, had been continental heroes.
"...So many regrettable lives lost. It's all come to an end—why choose to spill unnecessary blood? Why on earth."
"Hahaha! Unnecessary blood."
Lucas burst into involuntary laughter at Siegfried's eloquently nonsensical words.
"It's like a burglar breaking into someone else's home, then asking why their accomplices were killed. What absurdity."
The ignorant gossips prattled on.
That Lucas's Hegemonic Path was wrong.
His brother, the North Continent's officials, even the great chieftain who once ruled it all.
They lacked any cause or greater good, trampling everything through raw power alone.
Yet Lucas could boldly declare:
There was not a shred of shame in his Hegemony.
But that was merely his own conviction.
The upheavals in the North Continent had alarmed many across the continents, leading them to rebel against him—and this was the result.
"It's all over. I will execute you, the one who plunged the North Continent into chaos, and restore order to this fallen land."
Shing!
Siegfried drew his sword from his waist mid-declaration.
The pristine white longsword was Snow White, forged by the South Continent's finest artisan from refined dragon bone.
A famed sword paired with a handsome face.
Truly the picture-perfect hero from a storybook.
Swish!
Lucas glanced over his own body.
His cherished weapon, the Golden Heaven Chain, now blackened from layers of blood.
Not content with being wrapped around him, the blood smeared and dripping from his form made him look wretched and savage.
To any onlooker, the villain was clearly Lucas himself.
Lucas turned his gaze, locking eyes directly with Siegfried Dufer.
Eyes brimming with triumphant emotion: having vanquished the evil Overlord who turned the North Continent into a cauldron of chaos, restoring peace to the land.
Truly righteous.
One could understand why so many across the continents hailed Siegfried as the hero of heroes.
Yet Lucas, who had clashed with Siegfried countless times, knew the truth.
Siegfried was no such paragon of justice and righteousness.
"..."
Lucas stared silently at Siegfried before letting out a scoff.
There was much he could say in excuse.
The breakfast he ate that morning.
The fragrant tea he drank.
The incense lit by his concubine with whom he shared love.
Had it not contained deadly poison, the outcome might have been entirely different.
But all that was mere excuse.
In the end, Siegfried and his alliance had won, and his empire had fallen.
No amount of added commentary could change that hollow fact.
...However.
Clank!
His grip tightened on the Golden Heaven Chain.
"I won't let you take what I toiled to build without a fight."
Lucas was the Overlord who led the North Continent's era of upheaval.
His end, too, must be fitting—not like some petty coward.
Better to die as an Overlord to the last than beg basely for survival.
Wuuuuuum!
Fierce murderous intent rose from Lucas's body.
"If you can take it, then come and try."
I am the North Continent's conqueror, Lucas Alexei.
Shraaaaaang!
Crush!
The moment his words ended, the golden—no, now blood-red—chains sprang into motion.
They pulverized the head of a knight on his left flank.
A somewhat notable figure on the continent, perhaps, but irrelevant to Lucas.
None who couldn't block his chains were worth distinguishing; all were mere small fry.
As Lucas moved to action, Siegfried shouted,
"Everyone, be careful! Wounded and exhausted or not, this is the Overlord who devoured the North Continent. A single moment's lapse means death!"
"Merciful Father of the Sun, look warmly upon your servants!"
With Siegfried's cry, Cassandra's blessing softly enveloped the group.
Shiiiing!
Siegfried and Kaidu's auras surged toward Lucas.
The majestic sight of blue and white auras intertwining was breathtaking.
Even as the auras flew at him, Lucas continued swinging his chains, bursting nearby foes' heads.
KABOOOOOM!
An immense shockwave engulfed Lucas.
Whoosh!
A towering dust cloud billowed, obscuring even inches ahead.
At this wondrous display of destructive power, a mage muttered,
"...Did we get him?"
The words slipped out unwittingly, as no reaction came from Lucas amid the settling dust.
The price was horrific.
Shrieeeeeek!
Crush!
The chains tore through the cloud, smashing the mage's head clean off.
"Why not pray for me to stay alive instead?"
Shraaaaaang!
Having claimed another life, the chains retracted into Lucas's grasp with an eerie sound.
Despite taking Siegfried and Kaidu's strikes head-on, not a scratch marred Lucas's body.
His Golden Heaven Chain forbade it.
Resonating demonically around him like a living serpent.
"Golden Heaven Chain...!!"
The perfect weapon of offense and defense that backed the Overlord Lucas's prowess.
Siegfried gnashed his teeth at the demonic armament that terrified the entire continent.
"As expected of Lucas. But today, this place becomes your grave—unchanging fact!"
Siegfried's resolute voice brimmed with iron will to end the Overlord once and for all.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The war deciding the North Continent's fate was utterly grandiose.
Auras infused with knights' fighting spirit tore the plains asunder.
Mages' spells of enlightenment shook the atmosphere.
Kaidu's sword shattered against Lucas's inescapable chains.
Midas's mana—said to be infinite—hit rock bottom.
In the end, only rear-support Cassandra and hero Siegfried remained standing.
"Hahk, hahk..."
It was heavy.
The Golden Heaven Chain, his lifelong companion akin to a second self, felt like a one-ton iron slab.
"...Ptoo."
Lucas spat the blood pooling in his mouth.
Heroes' armaments embedded in his back asserted their presence, while blood oozed from his limbs.
"Hahaha... So there was still blood left flowing in me?"
He felt like several buckets had already been drained.
In his hazy vision, Siegfried's approaching figure sharpened.
Siegfried, too, was a ragged mess, far from his usual unflappable poise.
"...My victory, Overlord."
"Hahaha, not 'ours,' I see?"
Siegfried's brow furrowed briefly at Lucas's sarcasm, but it passed in an instant.
"Any last words?"
Snort.
With a scoff, Lucas laboriously raised his arm, flipping the middle finger.
"Eat this."
"...Farewell, Overlord."
Irked by the flippant, unbefitting response, perhaps.
Slash!
Siegfried's blade across his neck felt especially vicious.