Chapter 114: Frostbane In Ruins [1] — Who Is The Traitor?

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Louis’s worst nightmare had come true. The moment he arrived in the Frostbane Kingdom’s capital, everything was in utter chaos. His people screamed as Entities and Monsters roamed the streets, suddenly freed from containment. Soldiers from the Vultarn High Dominion terrorized civilians and slaughtered his country’s forces.

His closest subordinates struggled to fight on multiple fronts, visibly exhausted. Many suffered from Fantasium Overload Intoxication, their bodies covered in crystallized Fantasium—a clear sign they had battled Entities alone with little protective equipment.

Wherever he looked, people screamed, dozens of corpses lay on the ground, blood pooled everywhere, and Fantasium crystals sprouted across the streets. Despair, anguish, wrath, and disbelief swirled within Louis, mixing into a toxic storm that drove him to the edge of madness.

Madder than he had ever been.

This was not like the first time he witnessed everything fall to ashes, when he could only mourn amid the ruins. Now he saw it with his own eyes. He felt it in his bones.

His Fantasy Heart cracked slowly, threatening to shatter as something dark began seeping out.

He felt himself teetering on the brink of complete insanity, about to become the very monstrous thing he had always feared—born from the overwhelming anguish consuming him.

It was the same torment he had witnessed in Grievances.

What the Hollow Queen endured. What the Ruinous Empress faced. Perhaps even what the Gardener saw before they all turned into monsters.

Clutching his chest tightly to keep his heart from shattering and transforming him into something that would destroy not only his enemies but his own people, Louis clenched his teeth.

He gasped for air as the Vultarn High Dominion soldiers stared at him in disbelief and awe. Hours earlier they had been told Prince Louis’s death was confirmed after days of waiting.

Without a Queen, without a Crown Prince, and with an absent King, it was the perfect moment to strike—especially now that they had allied themselves with the nobles plotting a coup all this time.

“Who…!”

The Prince glared at them. His eyes were blazing red. His Aura surged. His body grew larger and more monstrous—scales, tail, wings, and claws erupted across him. His long white hair blazed with white flames.

“Who did this?! EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!”

With a furious roar, over fifty souls were instantly sacrificed. Louis infused all their agony into his body, boosting his power tremendously.

RUMBLE!

“Y-You’re supposed to be dead!”

“Why are you alive?!”

“Kill him!”

“Kill that bastard now!!!”

The soldiers did not answer. They attacked from every angle. Mechanical weapons supercharged with psychic power and Fantasium energy struck his body. Explosions of invisible force erupted around him. Ten soldiers rushed him at once.

Yet…

Amid the smoke, he emerged completely unscathed. His face twisted in rage as he transformed further into a twisted version of his ideal Dragonoid form—one that looked more like a demon forged from ashes and despair.

“Trash.”

He seized two men with his bare hands—large enough to envelop their entire torsos—and crushed their mechanical armor along with their bodies. The soldiers writhed in agony, vomiting blood and guts before collapsing lifelessly.

“A-Ah…!”

“M-Monster…!”

“What is he?!”

“An Entity?!”

The soldiers trembled in horror at the Aura Louis exuded and what he had done with his bare hands. Their minds slowly filled with ashes; their bodies shook uncontrollably.

“I can’t believe trash like you managed to do this to my Kingdom! BASTARDS!”

With a monstrous, furious roar, Louis crushed the soldiers one by one. Those who tried to flee were caught by giant hands of Ashen Frost that erupted from the shadows, slamming them into the ground and smashing them into pieces.

“Guaaaaahh!”

“Mercy!”

“W-We’re only following orders!”

“Gyaaaaahhh! I-I have a familyyyyyy!”

They begged for mercy as Louis massacred them. He did not flinch. He did not care who they were or whether they had families.

With every death, he consumed their souls, sacrificing them through the Necromancer Fragment to gain even more phantasmal power, twisting his form into something increasingly aberrant.

“TELL ME…! WHO ARE YOU?!”

He interrogated the captured souls and learned everything they knew in a flood of fragmented information. His head throbbed painfully as he struggled to process it all without time to sort through the chaos.

“L-Louis?! Is it you, Louis?!” A familiar voice reached him. A bleeding, exhausted Catrise staggered forward—the only one close to his size. Her eyes watered in shock at his appearance. “Y-You’re alive! Oh, your majesty! Prince Louis!”

“Ca… Catrise…?” Louis muttered. The light she emanated slowly began to push back the darkness he had absorbed as she approached step by step.

“Please calm down…! I know what’s happening is terrible, but… you mustn’t let the dark thoughts consume your mind and heart…” Catrise drew nearer, managing a gentle smile despite the catastrophic state of the city. “I am… we are so happy you’re alive…!”

“Catrise…” Louis murmured. Slowly, he recalled his mother’s words as he gazed at Catrise—who, aside from her red hair, resembled her greatly. “What’s… happening?”

“A lot,” she whispered. “Five days ago, you never returned. Four days ago, everyone began searching. Three days ago, they couldn’t find you. Two days ago, your father sank into depression and sealed himself in your mother’s Realm with her. One day ago, Lord Thalor Vex, Director of the Magician Tower, called all nobles to join his cause. Today, they struck—revealing their alliance with our enemy, the Vultarn High Dominion, and the traitorous Elven Noble, Lord Verdant Bellflower. They brought a Fantasy Field Fragment, spreading that monster’s Authority! Using the chaos, they broke into the castle, killed many guards and knights, took your father and mother hostage, and forced the VPI agents and scientists to release many contained Entities and Anomalies from the first twenty floors…!”

“Thalor Vex?!” Louis’s eyes burned redder at the name. “So it was that damn bastard all along?!”

He remembered hearing about this in his fourth regression—when he interrogated Belladine after she delayed aid against the bandits of Nameless Streets. She had been serving Thalor Vex, but after Louis forced her loyalty, she severed ties. From the tragic end of that timeline, Louis had nearly forgotten the name.

Until now.

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