Chapter 208

“Sykes, you’ve gone mad.”

Amid the chaotic shouts, Ye Zheng stated calmly and firmly.

She looked past Sykes and saw skeletal figures crawling out of the ground one after another. A massive skeletal bird burst into the banquet hall, blocking those who tried to escape.

“In your eyes, I’ve always been a madman, a monster.”

“Even if I do something like this, you’re not surprised at all, are you, Ye Zheng?”

After his manic laughter subsided, Sykes regained his composure. However, his golden eyes still burned with something intense. Not far away, a decorative candelabrum had been knocked over, and the heavy dark-green curtains had caught fire. The flames were spreading quickly, making the chaos even worse.

Ye Zheng frowned in disapproval. “Do you even know what you’re doing? You still had a chance to turn things around, but after today, you only have two possible outcomes.”

“Either you’ll be killed or imprisoned on the spot, or you’ll barely manage to escape and live the rest of your life in exile.”

Sykes laughed as if he’d just heard a joke. Amusement slowly filled his eyes. “Turn things around? No. Whether I showed up today or not, the ending you all prepared for me is only one: death.”

The moment the word “death” left his mouth, Ye Zheng’s heart nearly skipped a beat. Impossible. How could Sykes possibly know she intended to kill him?

From his perspective, she had no reason to kill him, unless Sykes had obtained some “outside” information.

…No, calm down. Just now Sykes had said “you all,” not “you.” Perhaps the plot had advanced with new information in a corner she wasn’t aware of.

Ye Zheng looked at him with puzzled eyes, as if she truly had no idea why he would think such a thing.

“You are the Crown Prince of the empire. Who would dare make a move against you? Your siblings? Your father… or me?”

“You still have a chance to turn back. Eliminate the Aberrant Realm now. No one will dare accuse you of bringing it here, and your father will cover up this momentary willfulness of yours.”

“Father?” Sykes laughed loudly. “He is the one who can’t wait for me to die the most… I was never the hope of the empire. He has known that from the very beginning.”

It seemed Sykes’s sudden outburst of madness was because of Emperor Havel.

Suddenly, Sykes raised his chin and looked down at Ye Zheng with his golden eyes. There was an unexpected trace of pity in his expression.

“So-called God’s Chosen, the hope of saving the world, you’re nothing more than one of his chess pieces, no different from me.”

Ye Zheng’s expression remained unchanged. She calmly countered, “So today, you came here to kill him?”

“No. Today, I came here to kill you.”

Hearing Sykes’s resolute reply, Ye Zheng reacted as if she had heard an extremely funny joke. She tilted her head and laughed out loud, showing no sign of feeling threatened at all.

Seeing her reaction, Sykes’s expression instantly turned cold. He stared at her with an emotionless face.

Ye Zheng shook her head with a smile. “Let me guess. Why do you want to kill me first?”

“Because I am the God’s Chosen, the hope of saving the world, killing me would erase the empire’s hope and let your father watch the empire he is so proud of be reduced to ruins, is that the most painful revenge against a king?”

A skeleton lunged fiercely at Ye Zheng from behind her.

She didn’t even turn her head.

A thread of water instantly wrapped around the skeleton and smashed it into countless pieces. Countless white bones had already been shattered all around the two of them.

Ye Zheng’s dark eyes remained locked on Sykes without blinking as she took a step closer toward him.

“Or is it because I am the key to you recovering all your memories? You’re afraid of seeing those soft memories about your mother reflected in my eyes. You see me as an emotional stumbling block, like sentimental seaweed that would drag down and hinder your ruthless resolve?”

Sykes’s face turned completely icy. It was as if she had struck a secret buried deep within his heart. Suppressed killing intent surged violently in his eyes.

He should’ve killed Ye Zheng long ago, on the day Yu Tianming brought her to see him, on the day he discovered that Ye Zheng could actually resist his 【Destruction】.

“Sykes, think it through carefully. Am I truly your enemy?”

“You just said it yourself, I’m also one of his chess pieces. I’m not standing on the same side as him. On the contrary, I can help you.”

“Just like I promised before, I’ll help you recover your memories. I will grant fair redemption to everyone.”

That gentle, soothing voice lingered endlessly in his ears. Sykes’s eyes turned bloodshot red. It felt as though his head was about to split apart as even more distant voices began buzzing all at once inside his mind.

【Look at it. Even though it looks a little strange at first glance, it’s actually quite adorable the more you look at it. It’ll definitely grow into a lovely child.】

【It’s so close to me. Maybe when it truly comes out of my belly… at that moment, I won’t feel too much pain.】

【Miss Nun, look! It really does seem to understand what I’m saying! It’s clearly just a child. When was it born? How old it would be?】

【May the God of Hope bless you. Many people will love you and cherish you… my child.】

……

【Sigh, His Highness the Crown Prince killed three more servants this month. Even though he’s still so young, it should’ve been unintentional, but anyway, I’ve already made arrangements and will stay far away from here.】

【They say His Highness the Crown Prince is really… he looks exactly like the demon from the legends… Ah no! Your Highness, spare me!】

【Sykes, I’m truly disappointed in you. Your mother wouldn’t want to see you like this either.】

……

【Your Highness Sykes, do you need my healing?】

【Whether they’re good or bad, I can grant fair redemption to everyone!】

“Enough! Ye Zheng, I don’t need your hypocritical and useless gentleness anymore!”

Sykes’s golden eyes were nearly stained crimson by rage and madness. He didn’t need Ye Zheng to help him recover his memories, he had already remembered everything!

From the moment he learned the date of Ye Zheng’s coming-of-age ceremony, he had suddenly recalled his real birthday. It was the same as hers. Immediately afterward, even more memories connected to his birthday surged into his mind.

His life hadn’t begun with the name “Sykes.” He had been born from dragon bone, raised as a monster embryo within the Hope Project base, and later transferred to the church in the Upper District, where he met his “mother,” the woman named Qin Tian.

Everyone had treated him as nothing more than a monster embryo, yet from the moment he was born, he had already possessed wisdom and consciousness. No one cared about his feelings. Only his mother, Qin Tian, had cared for him like an ordinary human child.

They told him that as long as he entered Qin Tian’s belly and allowed her to “give birth” to him, he could become a real human child. Qin Tian would become his true mother!

He had longed for that day with all his heart, until it finally arrived…

Instead of being reunited with his mother, his birth had taken her life.

“No one is qualified to redeem me, Ye Zheng. Do you really want to save me?”

Sykes admitted that Ye Zheng was different. She was the only one who could withstand his 【Destruction】. Unlike everyone else, she didn’t reveal even a trace of fear in her eyes or in her body language, even when she pretended to welcome him. Each time she healed him, it stirred something deep within him, a subconscious echo of his mother’s gentle touch. No one else could ever give him that same kind of warmth.

But the two of them were fated to stand as mortal enemies.

“You are the God of Hope’s chosen savior, while I carry sin and am destined to bring ruin to the empire. If you truly want to save me, then die!”

Those frenzied words reverberated through the hall littered with bones, sounding like demonic incantations rising from hell itself.

Sykes’s eyes were bloodshot. He lifted his left hand, intending to tear away the black glove on his right hand and completely release 【Destruction】. Yet in the very next instant, his body froze.

Lowering his head, he realized that Ye Zheng was still gripping his left hand tightly, utterly unmoved.

Calling it a grip wasn’t quite right. It was restraint.

Sykes had never imagined that Ye Zheng possessed such terrifying strength.

“Are you finished?”

Ye Zheng spoke calmly, lifting her gaze to meet the wide-eyed Crown Prince.

“Your speech and… your memories were both quite remarkable. They’ve answered some of my questions.”

“Now, it’s my turn to clear up yours.”

“Aren’t you curious why the emperor places so much importance on Pei Xi? It’s because he’s different from you. He wasn’t born from the remains of the Demonic dragon.”

“Pei Xi was born from the blood of the God of Hope. He’s the true God’s Chosen, the one recognized by the divine sword.”

Ye Zheng’s tone stayed perfectly even as she went on, “The sword at my waist was forged in your royal armory.”

Sykes’s pupils quivered. Even the madness on his face receded a fraction. He realized something in an instant. His lips parted, a question on the verge of spilling out, but a powerful force suddenly slammed down on the back of his neck, almost driving his forehead straight into Ye Zheng.

Ye Zheng’s dark eyes were right in front of him. Though she had lifted her face to look up at him, her gaze carried a faintly cruel superiority, cold and assessing as it judged him.

Sykes could clearly feel Ye Zheng’s hand gripping the back of his neck. He knew he should be moving right now. 【Destruction】 was at its strongest when unleashed through his right hand. If he wanted to, he could obliterate Ye Zheng’s audacious hand on the spot.

But why couldn’t he move?

It hit Sykes all at once. From the moment he had extended his hand to Ye Zheng and she had taken it, their hands had remained clasped the entire time. He had only just become aware of it.

She had silently numbed his senses and seized control of his body!

Sykes glared into Ye Zheng’s smiling dark eyes, bloodshot with fury. Since when had she acquired such a sinister ability, something so impossible to guard against?!

“You used the dance as a pretext to get close to me because activating your ability to summon an Aberrant Realm requires an external dragon bone as a medium, and my palm just happens to have a fragment of dragon bone embedded within it.”

Ye Zheng spoke with a faint smile, as if humoring a clueless child. Her hand slowly slid down from the back of Sykes’s neck, tracing along his spine.

Sykes froze where he stood. His body started trembling uncontrollably. The bloodlust in his golden eyes receded, replaced by a flicker of confused disbelief, like a hunter who never imagined he would one day become the prey.

“I noticed something was off about you, yet I still played along. First, because I was curious about what you were trying to do. Second, because I have absolute confidence.”

Sykes squeezed his eyes shut in discomfort and struggled to breathe. It felt like everything inside him was twisting apart. His senses blurred together, while every bit of sensation along his spine became overwhelmingly sharp. Ye Zheng’s fingertips tapped rhythmically against each vertebra.

“My confidence started the moment our hands met. There was no way I could lose.”

“Sykes, you’re not qualified to use me!”

Ye Zheng’s slender fingers drove through the red uniform and into his flesh. She tightened her grip, then wrenched her hand back with sudden force.

Only then did she let go of Sykes’s left hand. He stumbled backward several steps before losing his footing completely and collapsing to the ground.

At the same time, Ye Zheng raised her right hand, holding a blood-soaked piece of bone. Drops of blood fell, staining the pale, polished floor beneath them.

She then loosened her fingers, letting the bone slip from her grasp and hit the ground. Her blood-stained hand hung at her side as she lowered her gaze slightly, looking down coldly at Sykes, who lay convulsing on the floor.

┳⁠━━━━⁠━⁠⁠━⁠━⁠━━━⁠┳  

Authors Note  

┻━⁠━━━━⁠━━⁠━━━⁠┻  

He’s not dead yet. Everyone, don’t start popping the champagne.