Galaxy's First Ruler

Chapter 185: Puppets

"WILL"

Aldrich muttered under his breath and gave it a deep thought.

He knew that the WILL mentioned by the El Cid differed from the Will he had come to know during his time in the Darkness, meditating over the Laws. The latter could be surmised by the sheer willpower to bear suffering for a long period without losing the sense of self. These sufferings encompassed a broad type of things including but not limited to pain, hunger, and loneliness. And of the former, 'WILL', he knew nothing. But it wasn't like he hadn't come in contact with it before.

Just as he had heard the language of LAWS, uncaring for the stabbing pain in his head, Aldrich's mind went to the weirdest Title Quest he had got so far. There wasn't any description for that Title, but there was a reward. And it was the WILL of Darkness.

Somehow, a feeling came to life in Aldrich's heart. And it told him that once he got this Title, he would get to know what a WILL is, and with it will come even more wonderful questions. Aldrich never shied away from facing questions. Every unanswered question represented a step towards the unraveling of the unknown. And this was also a step toward his goals and mission.

Aldrich took a deep breath to calm his mind and rubbed away the stream of blood coming out his nose and ears. Unless he mastered the Law of Death entirely, there was no way for him to come out unscathed after hearing the Ancient Saying.

Aldrich looked at the sprawled Boss, awaiting the inevitable outcome, and feebly called out to Sha.

"Sha turn into that letter."

"Daddy He"

"Just do it, Sha."

A black vein, which couldn't be seen with the devilish greatcoat in the background, separated from the mask and reached into Aldrich's palm. As it bloomed, a dark scroll appeared in Aldrich's hand. He approached the Boss and extended his hand holding the letter.

"It's a letter that I got in reward from one of your Plazas. It seems a Crawler of yours had deep feelings for you."

El Cid's blurry eyes came out of reverie, and Aldrich waited for him to receive the letter. But just before the Boss Crawler could accept it, Aldrich saw him narrowing his eyes. El Cid snapped his head towards Aldrich and blurted out.

"A Dreamer willingly letting go of a scroll?!! What are you up to now?"

Aldrich was about to shower the Boss with another paragraph of philosophical teachings when El Cid's eyes shone with realization.

"Wait a minute! Is this related to some Hidden Quest?"

Thuu!

El Cid spitted on the letter and resumed his previous careless posture on the ground. Without looking at Aldrich, his words come out, along with a feeling of unimaginable disgust.

"Fuck You!!!"

"Ewww Daddyyy. Ewwww wipe it"

Aldrich shook his head, hearing El Cid's refusal. In his mind, Sha kept screaming, feeling nauseated by the spit over her. Aldrich wiped away the wetness over the letter with his sleeve and let the letter return to the mask.

Aldrich had expected this kind of behavior out of El Cid after forcing the Boss to answer his question. He knew that threatening him with the means of his wife, Queen Jimena, was a double-edged sword. Once it worked, the chances of completing the Hidden Quest had already approached zero. And Aldrich couldn't hand over the letter before. He didn't know if the RECORD could prevent him from knowing something through the notification of Hidden Quest completion or not.

Aldrich crouched down near El Cid's head and put his hand on the motionless Boss' forehead. His white eyes briefly met that of the red pupils of El Cid and he slowly commanded.

"Law of Darkness BANISH!!!"

The depthless dark hole in El Cid's head burst out a massive dark ethereal aura and another seed materialized in front of Aldrich's eyes. The diamond-shaped seed had many tentacles running across El Cid's forehead and kept pulsating and flailing maniacally. Aldrich had nearly taken out the Broken Faith to rip El Cid's head apart, but this time something had changed.

The seed for which Aldrich had to take massive help from Items both the previous times, left El Cid's head voluntarily and hovered in front of him. A hole also opened up in Aldrich's head and a blurry image of one-leafed Dark Sapling materialized behind him. But half of its single leaf was missing as if someone had ripped it apart.

All around Aldrich, the Creatures of Darkness howled and an incredible suction force originated from the hole. The Dark Seed rushed and entered Aldrich's head, completely disregarding the mask on his face.

Aldrich didn't need to see or use Perception to sense what was happening behind him. Just as the seed melted into his head, with an unbelievable speed, the broken part of the single leaf regenerated. Then a second leaf originated opposite to the first leaf and of the same size. But this wasn't the end.

Aldrich's mind went to the memory of the colossal World Tree as he felt a third leaf coming into existence. Alas, it couldn't even reach half of the size of the other two. Aldrich knew that some things were beyond his reach, and only with time, he could get an understanding of them. As the image of the Dark Sapling disappeared, and upon not finding any new notification, Aldrich pulled the Pillar of Footprints.

He gave the Boss Crawler another look and raised the Pillar high.

"You told me that my wife would become a useless puppet" El Cid muttered.

Aldrich narrowed his eyes as he felt the incredible weight of the Pillar, making the purple rings on his shoulders glow golden. El Cid gave out a chuckle of mockery and pity and continued.

" Haha! Fool! What are we if nothing but puppets?"

Aldrich put the incomprehensible words to the back of his mind, and as he brought down the pillar on El Cid's head, he spoke.

"Thank you."

BOOM!