Path of the Extra Chapter 418: The Beginning of the End

For a moment, Jasmine felt as though she had been struck in the face.

"T-twin brother...?"

Pollux observed with an expression that could not be read, seemingly indifferent to both himself and the brother standing before him.

"Brother! Are you listening!? We must flee! We will not stand a cha—"

"No."

The Emperor of the Starbloods, Pollux, spoke with a voice so frigid it appeared to freeze the very atmosphere.

A shiver coursed through Jasmine, causing her to tremble. For a fleeting instant, it felt as though she stood in the path of a blade—one that would slice through her without the slightest hesitation or malice, as if her demise would signify absolutely nothing.

"...Brother..." Castor looked devastated, utterly hopeless.

"We... we will perish here if we do not escape."

The emperor turned, fixing his gaze directly into his brother’s eyes with an intensity devoid of any warmth.

Then, to Jasmine’s astonishment, he lifted a hand and gently cupped it against the side of Castor’s face.

"Then," he declared, his voice low and absolute, "at my command, will you die for me, brother?"

Castor’s features turned rigid.

For a moment, silence was his only reply.

Then, the muscles in his jaw clenched. He met his brother’s gaze wordlessly, reached up, and placed his own hand over Pollux’s.

And he gave a nod.

"If that is your decree, my king."

The Pollux standing beside Jasmine then spoke, his voice tinged with a wistful melancholy.

"Unlike other newborns, I was not a mindless creature that cried, vomited, and soiled itself. I was born with knowledge of the future. From the first second I opened my eyes, I already knew the deaths of my parents, the extinction of my people, and the coming of this day. The very moment I turned my head and looked upon my brother cradled in my mother’s arms... I knew."

Jasmine looked up at him, searching his face intently.

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced her chest.

Then she heard Castor speak again, this time with more hesitation in his tone.

"My brother... you, the strongest among us, refused to fight in this battle. That refusal led to the fall of our Holy Guardian, the impending destruction of the veil that protects us from great evil... and now you command us to die. You command, your own brother, to die. To what path can such a choice possibly lead you?"

Castor released the emperor’s hand.

This time, his expression was equally cold.

No—Jasmine corrected herself.

His face was even colder.

It mirrored the frozen depths at the bottom of an endless abyss.

Emperor Pollux lowered his hand as well. Then, in a quiet voice imbued with the kind of authority only a king could possess, he responded:

"A path where, one day, we will have our revenge. A path where the angels shall unleash divine judgment upon the great evils of this universe." His gaze remained unwavering. "A path of victory, my dearest brother."

Castor stood there for a moment, silent, without the slightest flicker of emotion.

Then, slowly, he crouched down.

He knelt on one knee, bowing his head in reverence.

"May our stars shield you on your journey, brother."

Then he rose to his feet.

Without casting a backward glance, Castor turned and departed.

Yet, Jasmine still detected it—

That soft, mournful voice, steeped in a sorrow so profound it was almost inaudible.

"...Goodbye, brother."

Hearing the sigh from the Pollux beside her jolted Jasmine back from the brink of tears. She recalled, at that moment, the terrible atrocities this man had already perpetrated. She did not wish to feel sympathy for him.

She truly did not.

And yet, when she looked at him, sympathy was the overwhelming emotion she felt.

His existence had indeed been a harsh one.

The Pollux standing beside her now was nothing like the emotionless figure from her memory, the one who had observed his brother with a face devoid of all feeling. Instead, he looked at her with a warm, inviting smile.

"'Everyone loves Jasmine.'" He chuckled softly. "I think I understand that sentence a little better now."

Jasmine looked at him, bewildered, as he laughed under his breath.

"You are remarkably kind. Adorably so."

"..."

"I believe you humans have an odd tale involving my name and my twin brother’s—something drawn from Greek and Roman mythology. There are... fragments of truth in it, though it does not apply to me and my brother, but to another pair of twins entirely..."

"What do you mean?"

"...Nothing you need concern yourself with," he stated, much to Jasmine’s irritation.

Then why mention it at all?

Biting her lip, Jasmine could not restrain herself from asking,

"...Did everyone truly have to die? Why couldn’t you save your people? You knew the future, yet you did nothing. Was it truly impossible to prevent?"

"It was not," he affirmed.

The answer came so swiftly, so unhesitatingly, that it filled her with horror.

"The instant my heart began to beat, I stood at a divergence of two paths. One offered the salvation of all—or at least the prolonged preservation of my people. A path of protection, leading to me becoming the second Starblood to ever ascend to godhood." His expression grew grim. "But I chose this alternate route instead. The path where I sacrifice absolutely everything to extinguish your brother."

Jasmine could only stare at him.

There was but a single question she could possibly pose.

"Why?"

"Because, in the end, defeat was inevitable regardless."

Pollux regarded her, his eyes narrowing.

"You see, I possessed no desire for this to transmute into a narrative of gradual growth—where the feeble attain strength, where the unenlightened gain wisdom. No. I elected to become the very catalyst that would unleash absolute pandemonium upon all of you." His tone remained placid, yet an infernal undertone was palpable. "The sacrifice of the Starbloods, coupled with my own, shall initiate a sequence of events culminating in universal loss."

A subtle smile graced his features.

"And that... shall constitute my ultimate retribution."

A profound darkness permeated him then, unlike anything Jasmine had ever witnessed.

Not sheer madness.

Not malice in its conventional manifestation.

Something infinitely more dreadful.

Something abyssal.

"How exquisitely ironic," Pollux uttered softly.

"Some might posit that your brother showed us mercy by refraining from sealing us alongside the other divine races. Yet, had he done so, our extinction might never have occurred. And now, here I stand—the last of my kind—brought into being with the singular objective of slaying the one who spared my lineage."

Indeed.

There was an undeniably malevolent quality to Pollux's laughter.

"What further amuses me is the belief held by the gods that your brother is merely feigning. They contend he is simply playing the role of some oblivious, tormented human." He advanced toward Jasmine, leaning in close to her ear, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.

"But unlike them... I have perceived that which they have not."

Jasmine froze.

"Your brother," Pollux breathed, "has genuinely sequestered his own recollections. The gods, despite their millennia of meticulous preparation and the considerable thought invested in their schemes to vanquish him, have overlooked the most profound jest of all—that your brother is utterly oblivious to everything."

A peculiar tremor coursed through Jasmine’s very soul as she absorbed his words.

"He remains completely unaware," Pollux proceeded gently, his tone almost reverent, "and I doubt he gives their machinations much credence either. Your brother has traversed numerous planets, and the gods interpret this as him evading them..." A colder smile flickered across his lips. "But I posit he has been fleeing from a different entity. Or perhaps, an individual."

His voice diminished further.

"Someone who instills such profound terror within him that he continues his relentless flight... and flight... and endless flight..."

Jasmine felt her breath hitch in her throat.

Pollux then whispered even more discreetly, his words like a fleeting shadow brushing against the periphery of her consciousness.

"...Fleeing, and taking companions with him on each occasion... whilst the gods remain blissfully ignorant of his paramount vulnerability."

He retracted slightly, meeting her gaze directly.

"Is that not correct?"

"..."

"I may not bear the title of an Apostle of the True Stars," Pollux declared, "yet it was the True Stars themselves who bestowed upon me the prescient ability to glimpse the future. Your brother is destined to perish. And upon his demise, a new epoch shall dawn."

He directed his gaze skyward.

"The fabled Ancient Holy War shall resume its unfinished conflict. Incrementally, all races shall be unfettered as time progresses. And upon their re-emergence, all shall engage in combat—for survival, for dominance, for eradication, for hope, for existence itself. I ponder what manner of heroes shall emerge from the maelstrom I have elected to unleash upon you all."

Another throbbing headache assaulted Jasmine’s skull. She squeezed her eyes shut, precisely as she had on the preceding three occasions, and then reopened them.

...Nothing had altered.

Pollux remained at her side. The other Pollux was also present, once more situated amidst the floral expanse.

Then, every strand of hair on her body bristled.

A terror of such immeasurable magnitude engulfed her entire being that her mind shrieked at her to . Dread permeated her skin. She commenced breathing shallowly, her eyes flitting frantically in every direction—until her gaze landed upon the Pollux beside her, and she followed the trajectory of his stare.

Upwards.

Subsequently, a voice resonated from behind her.

It was gentle. Soft. As if thousands of whispers converged into a single utterance. The instant it impinged upon her auditory senses, Jasmine felt an almost violent sensation, as though her brain were fragmenting into countless pieces. She could not discern a solitary coherent word from the pronouncements being made.

Pollux reacted instantly. He covered her eyes with his hand, shielding her from whatever entity stood behind her.

"To behold a god is to invite death," Pollux murmured. "Even if it occurs within the confines of my own consciousness. However, with my protection, I can at least facilitate your comprehension... of the True Stars' pronouncements."

And then, she perceived it.

Immeasurably faint, yet possessing unspeakable might.

A voice, like that of a deity.

"My angel, gather every shard the unknown has scattered across the myriad realms... secure the key from this unknown entity... seek camaraderie with the odious beings lurking in the void... and, at the expense of your immortal existence, beseech a fire to consume them all."

Tears flowed freely down Jasmine's cheeks once more, though this time, Pollux made no move to wipe them away. Trembling with a mixture of awe and terror, she heard the voice behind her address Emperor Pollux.

Then, a distinct sensation.

A gaze.

It was fixed upon her.

Directly at her.

"Remain silent," Pollux breathed, his voice a mere whisper.

But why?

Why?

Wasn't this merely a recollection, as he had stated? They were within the confines of his mind. The True Stars were not truly present. They should not have been.

And yet...

They possessed sufficient power.

Sufficiently terrible.

Divine enough.

Even as a mere memory.

Then, without the slightest premonition, all was dissolved.

Fire consumed the garden in an instant.

The garden, which had appeared so pristine moments before, succumbed to a violence so abrupt and absolute that its beauty turned almost ghastly. Fire swept through it without clemency. The radiant flowerbeds blackened, collapsing inward, their cyan luminescence sputtering out beneath surging waves of heat. Marble terraces fractured with sharp, percussive reports. Colonnades buckled. The exquisite domes and spires lining the garden's edge disintegrated into cascades of stone and molten luminescence. What had once been arranged with imperial exactitude was now being brutally ravaged, as if annihilation was not merely a consequence of conquest, but its most perfect manifestation.

Overhead, the heavens had transformed into a scene of utter catastrophe.

Initially, it resembled a meteor shower—long streaks of gold and white ripping through the violet expanse, igniting the firmament as they descended.

But these were no ordinary meteors.

They were beings.

Forms shrouded in flame plummeted through the atmosphere like instruments of divine retribution, their bodies blazing with such intensity that the very air shrieked around them.

The star-dusted sky, once vast and tranquil, had become the stage for utter devastation.

It seemed the very heavens had parted, serving no other purpose than to unleash hell itself.