Last Embryo - Side Story Compilation Chapter 17

—Your Majesty. The princess has been born with the star that will destroy our race.
Please, pa.s.s down your judgement.

The first cry of three children rang on a night filled with storm and cloud.

The rain and wind outside knocked hard on the castle like fallen waves of stones. As if the dark clouds covered the land of Far West trying to tell something, that made the people trembled and had to hide inside their house.

On the night road, debris and foliage fluttered.

For this reason, farmers, hunters and loggers were forced to abandon their duty.

Even so, within that violent storm — was a man in normal clothes, he pushed against this storm, ignoring every obstacle before him.

His face can’t be seen from a distance due to being wrapped deep under the hood. The most the perspective of an outsider can see, is his large body and a mask covered the upper half of his face. The man didn’t pay attention to the wind and rain from the storm, he only aimed at the river along with the three children he embraced beneath his clothes.

The moment when the man reached to the sh.o.r.e of the river, he took out his hood and lifted up his right hand.

His fingers danced and wrote the ancient [Lost Language]. A language shared by the protectors of the Land of the Star — later called by the future generations by the name – [Giants].

This ancient language was not only necessary for obtaining the right to negotiate with a Star Spirit, but also the oldest Magic Language pa.s.sed among only the Giants since the beginning of time.

The pure original language of the Blue Star that can create storms and change sea into fire at the will of its user.

Using that power, the man completely halted the flow of the river to its track.

The river on the verge of flooding halted to its track while still causing large waves.

Next, when the man swung his finger, branches from innumerable of trees gathered and immediately formed a small boat.

*Waah*, *Waah*. Hearing the cry of the three children when they were placed on the small boat, the man gently stroked them one by one.

“……What a large storm it is. Once the river started to move again, small boat like this won’t even last for 3 ri (1).”

A small boat made of twigs is too weak to sail through this river on the verge of flooding.

The boat will be submersed, capsized and sunk. The powerless and helpless three children’s only result is to be swallowed into the depths of the river.

That should be enough.

For the masked man — Balor, the King of the Fomorians came to this far to kill these children.

He could have killed them by opening the Eye of Death at the very moment the children, who were foretold to be the destroyers of his race born from the belly of their mother to set an example.

He could have finished his grandchildren off by the eye of the G.o.d Slayer which invoked death upon being seen.

Be it the lowlife that repeatedly trysted with the princess, or rebels that dared to oppose the Fomorians, all they could do is to shiver in terror if they witnessed the endless cruelty of Demon G.o.d Balor.

His retainers advised “We must kill the princess who conceived the treasonous children”, but Demon G.o.d Balor brushed that advice aside and used his own proposal as a demonstration of force.

His cruel proposal sent shiver to his retainers and the princess screamed as she was on the verge of insane.

“You are a devil, a fiend, father!”, she screamed and repeated those words untold of times, she smashed and broke the furniture, her beautiful golden hair became ugly like snakes.

As a result — the princess had to live with both of her hands and legs tied on the bed until her last month of pregnancy. She kept saying nonsense like “I beg you, please save these children. I beg you, please save these children.” for every time she met the maids who took care of her.

“—What a pitiful girl. Although she didn’t do anything wrong, she was confined on this isolated island and robbed away the chance to know what of the opposite gender. It was inevitable for her heart stolen by the first man she ever met.”

The destruction of the Fomorians was never her fault.

The Giant Cauldron that slept beneath the Land of Far West – the place that had to protect itself against invaders countless times was.

That thing was the secret law essential for the salvation of mankind on the unknown distant future.

Untold secret laws such as the Star Ox, the Star Key, the Giant Cauldron, the Crown Stone, the Pure Language were always handed down under many forms and can only be used to save mankind when the time comes.

They also can be used for other purposes — For example, to save from a race from its crisis, yet someday they will come back as a curse as the price for that momentary salvation. The other Lands of the Star were also bear the same fate.

Before Balor became the king, the previous king of the Fomorians was forced to use the secret law of the planet to save his race from invasion.

And the planet’s Giant Cauldron was consumed on that time. The placenta that continued to spill out the black smoke which invoked absolute death.

Despite the black smoke poured out endlessly and successfully granted absolute death on their enemies, there wasn’t a method to stop it and it spread to the extent the island of the Far West was covered. His race’s previous elders was killed when the black smoke swallowed them.

……Such was the height of stupidity. The weapon that was used for protecting their race also held the power to destroy their race, they didn’t even notice that until their very end.

Its crossed mountains, seas and reached to neighboring countries, but the young Balor who realized that, resolved to deal with the situation by sealing that Giant Cauldron which gave birth to the black smoke into his own body.

The outcome — were two immeasurable abilities that can erase any invader, just as what the Fomorians desired for.

One is the manipulation on new types of diseases.

Two is the Eye of Death that can kill anything by a mere glance.

With these immense and ultimate abilities, the Fomorians turned the numberless invaders into slaves, built up tremendous prosperity and acquired the rights to be the greatest of all Giants.

Yet, Balor painfully knew this was all but momentary prosperity, and before long, he started to work on peaceful diplomacy. In a word, he started a civilization’s cultural exchange.

He realized the limitation of the Fomorians’s absolute domination will come as their population increased, but the true cause came from a different source, however.

The moment he had a daughter, he felt the curse from inside him faded away.

Never once he was drown by such unprecedented joy as the curse started to grow weaker, but he quickly realized something else was wrong.

When Balor immediately summoned his wife who was a prophet and heard her prophecy about the future, he came to know the curse from the Giant Cauldron has been transferred into his daughter.

The result of his wife’s prophecy, “That thing is the star that will destroy our race!”.

That moment, Balor understood the very fate of his race.

“Aah — So, the time has come.”

They were a minority race that should have been destroyed long ago.

When the previous elders of his race utilized the power that ought to be used only for the salvation of mankind by their selfish motive and desire, they’re already disqualified as guardians.

The Land of the Star on the Far West was a place for trials.

The countless natural disasters like earthquakes, snowstorms and storms that attacked this place were the very struggle for existence on this harsh land, which is connected with the salvation on mankind’s future.

The relentless invaders was also merely but one of those trials.

Yet, his predecessors announced their resignation from those trials.

“……This land will eventually lose its power a Holy Land of the Star. The gentle and warm wind will blow and the snow will not be seen until the day of Samhain. And as the outcome, it will become a verdant earth and a land suitable for living, but—”

As the price for that.

The human on this land must spend their life being driven by wars to wash blood with blood.

The stars (destiny) is something that regardless how much you try to run away from, it will always bind you down like ivies and kill you slowly as if you were hanged on a Shimenawa (2).

Although he can always avoid destiny as long as he used the Eye of Death.

However — what lies before the endless ma.s.sacre of his descendants aren’t the future, but eternal solitude. A lonely king who merely continued to live on without meaning.

Soon, his thought and ideology will turn into the eternal stagnation as they began to solidify and became unchangeable, only for him to live on forever. In the end, a being without new conceptions, techniques, challenges and creations is all that left for him.

—The happiness when he first embraced his daughter on these arms.
Even now, he can still feel and remember that sensation like it was just a moment ago.

He never thought the Eye of Death can cause this much suffering.
He had hoped it never will for eternity.
But, he was able to engrave the figure of his daughter into his memory from the back of his eyelid.

Was your golden hair beautiful?
Were your blue eyes as clear as the trees of our birthplace?
Were your cheeks red like roses, was your smile bright like the sun?

On the other side of the Eye of Death, Balor dreamed of a future filled with happiness.
The happiness to live as a human, the desire to live as a human that existed in the endless chain of destiny and the infinite history of mankind — A hot tear dropped from the Eye of Death made him realize that.

He couldn’t ask for more happiness if he can somehow realize the future where his daughter can become a mother, give birth to children and grow old in peace.

For that future…… I shall make a bet.

As long as even a single one of these three children that were just born can survive and stand before me. As long as there is the future where his grandchildren stand against me as my greatest enemy.

At that moment, I shall accept my grandchildren’s challenge as the greatest of all trials (Demon King).

I shall carry all of my predecessors’ sin and negligence by this body, not as the heir of the planet, but to stand against everything as [Fugutaiten (The Enemy of the World)].

If these grandchildren are able to defeat me who had become a Demon King,
then I shall believe — that you are the key to solve this curse that forces I and you – my descendants to kill each other.

(1) An old j.a.panese unit of distance, approx. 3.927km or 2.44 miles​.

(2) Literally translated “enclosing rope”. A type of ancient rope related Shinto’s purification ritual.