NOVEL NEXT Chapter 570: Chains upon the Throne
Ethan's gaze fixed on the throne, his eyes sharpening as realization struck.
That damned Aldric the First—he had stolen something from Ethan's mother.
No wonder the throne had felt so familiar when he first encountered it. The texture was identical to the obsidian pendant his mother had once given him. Later, that same jade had abandoned him, embedding itself in Lyla's chest where it fused with her very being. Though Ethan could no longer see it, Lyla swore that the pendant had transformed into a milky-white stone, merging seamlessly with her skin.
His mother had once hinted that the pendant had found its true owner, though she had never elaborated. Ethan hadn't pressed her—anything from his mother couldn't possibly harm Lyla. But now, staring at the chained figure on the throne, the truth gnawed at him.
Aldric the First's voice rumbled through the hall, dragging Ethan back to the present.
"After the Purge of Scrolls, my body began to fail, sometime around what you call 210 BC. I consumed the elixir Silas Marrow retrieved for me. That… was the beginning of my imprisonment here."
From Aldric's words, Ethan pieced the story together. The emperor hadn't gained resurrection or eternal life from the elixir. Instead, he had been dragged into the Underworld, where he wielded terrifying, reality-defying power. Even Aldric himself wasn't certain whether the elixir had caused this, but then he spoke of his encounter with a Crow.
The creature claimed to be Silas Marrow's fellow disciple. According to it, the elixir wasn't merely medicine, but a divine concoction capable of preserving Aldric's soul and awakening his sealed heritage. Aldric was the Ancestral Dragon reborn, yet his power had been shackled by the absent Lord of the Underworld during his descent. The Crow explained that this realm was the final destination for countless worlds, its throne holding dominion over all cycles of reincarnation. Once Aldric realized the scope of such authority, his ambitions soared. What was unifying the Iron Dominion compared to ruling the very flow of life and death?
The Crow added that the Underworld had been without a ruler for an age. The Lord had vanished, leaving the throne vacant. To Aldric, it seemed destiny itself had chosen him. Flattered and emboldened by the Crow's words, he marched into the Throne Hall and claimed the empty seat as his own.
But the moment he settled upon it, three figures appeared: two men and a projection. Ethan already guessed the identities of the first two—Silas Marrow and the mysterious second disciple. As for the projection, he suspected it was the Crow itself, but Aldric quickly shattered that assumption.
"The projection called itself Amaterasu, leader of some cult of crows. It demanded I kneel and obey."
Naturally, Aldric refused. History had recorded his pride well enough. Yet with a single gesture, Amaterasu conjured four serpents from his limbs. They coiled around his arms and legs, hardened into chains, and fused with the throne itself. No matter how he raged, Aldric's supreme power could not break them.
Amaterasu tried again to demand his obedience, this time unveiling the cult's doctrine. They worshipped something they called the Crow God, a being who had calculated everything: the Lord's absence, the precise moment of Aldric's death, and even the restoration of his Ancestral Dragon bloodline in the Underworld. The elixir Aldric had taken had been prepared under this god's command. Its key ingredient—a sliver of powdered Obsidian Jade—was what bound the chains to the throne.
The Crow God's intentions were clear. Aldric's Ancestral Dragon essence was the only force capable of countering the throne's freezing abyss, making him the perfect vessel to occupy it. But just as Amaterasu prepared to break him, the throne erupted with a burst of shadowed light. Aldric lost consciousness, and when he came to, he found himself here, locked in this General's Hall where he had remained for two thousand years.
Through the entire tale, Ethan's thoughts circled back to one glaring absence: his mother. If Aldric had never met her, then perhaps she truly was the missing Lord of the Underworld. Otherwise, the tyrant could never have sat upon that throne unchallenged.
The larger picture unsettled him even more. The Crow God's machinations stretched across worlds, manipulating emperors and disciples alike, all for a single goal: to seize the Underworld and ascend to godhood.
"Then there's something you should know," Ethan said at last, his voice edged with resolve. "The Crow you mentioned—he isn't just a lackey. He is the Crow God himself. His name is Anzu."
He fixed his stare on Aldric, waiting for fury, or shock, or denial. Instead, the emperor only looked at him with unnerving calm. Ethan frowned inwardly. Has two millennia of chains truly dulled his fire?
Aldric chuckled dryly. "Boy, you came here because he chased you, didn't you?"
Ethan rubbed the bridge of his nose, sheepish. "Well… yeah. That damned Crow wouldn't stop until I ended up here."
The emperor tilted his head. "And now you're hoping to use me against him? Let me fight him while you reap the spoils?"
"What? Of course not." Ethan grinned, masking his nerves with bravado. "You couldn't even handle Amaterasu—how would you deal with Anzu himself?"
To his surprise, Aldric only nodded. "You're right. If that old crow descends in person, neither of us will see another dawn." His composure was unsettling. Was this really the same tyrant who once drowned nations in blood?
Aldric raised his chained arm, the metal links rattling. "If I could leave this place, boy, do you think I'd have sat here for two thousand years? I'd have torn that crow from the sky and boiled him alive."
Ethan winced at the sound of the clanking chains. The truth was obvious—if Aldric could break them, he already would have.
'Damn it. If I don't deal with Anzu outside, I'll never escape this world. If only I could summon the Twilight War Spear—its edge could slice through these chains. But this place suppresses everything. I tried to call it when I first arrived, but nothing answered. My Mindscape is cut off here. The Spear's true form can't cross into this world.'
His frustration boiled until a soft, familiar voice chimed in his mind.
"Master, Luna is here!"
Ethan froze. That voice—clear, childlike, and sweet—resonated from within his very soul.
"What…?" His eyes widened. At once, he pushed his Soul Power inward, probing his Mindscape. This time, it worked. He could feel it, even project his Soul Power outward.
He lifted his hand, then suddenly remembered: he had entered this hall after leaping into the General's Token portal while still in Panther Form. Yet when he emerged here, he had returned to Human Form. If his transformation remained active, then had his body somehow crossed again when he passed through the portal?
The thought unsettled him—but it also opened possibilities he hadn't considered before.