THE VILLAIN'S POV Chapter 940: Against the First Writer (1)

Agaroth’s attempt to escape the Land of Survival had descended into utter chaos.

And now, the son stood against his mother.

Frey’s decision to oppose her did not please Clea in the slightest. For the first time since her arrival, a visible change appeared on her otherwise cold, unmoved face.

"How long, Frey? How long will you continue clinging to things beneath you?" she questioned in a heavier tone, taking a step forward.

Frey stopped her with a wave of pressure, merging his Aether and Aura together as he stood protectively in front of Agaroth.

"Don’t take another step... Just... stay where you are."

Frey squeezed his eyes shut.

He refused to look into his mother’s eyes.

Abraham immediately tried to intervene and defuse the situation, but Clea raised a hand, signaling him not to.

The message behind that simple gesture was clear.

The situation was still under her control.

Abraham hesitated briefly, but ultimately chose to stand down, knowing that Clea would never harm her own son.

Seth and Audrey remained at a distance. Seth was exhausted and had suffered greatly from the collapse of the passage between the two worlds, while Audrey did not dare stand against Clea, who was, after all, her master.

That left Frey alone before her.

And even he could not bring himself to meet her eyes.

"Even now... you’re still trying to run away from me."

Despite Frey’s warning not to come any closer, Clea took another step forward, utterly indifferent to him.

And to his threat.

"Did you think I never knew?"

"The reason you wrote this world and everything within it... the reason you’ve grown so attached to these lesser creatures... is because you’re a coward who can’t even bring himself to look me in the eyes."

"How exactly do you intend to stop me from killing him?"

Clea came to a stop directly before him.

"Will you fight me?"

"Will you stand against the mother you built an entire world just to escape from?"

For some reason, Clea’s starry eyes seemed even darker at that moment.

Her Aura was deathly cold, carrying a presence that could freeze any creature standing before her.

Frey resisted its influence.

His fists tightened as he gathered every shred of courage he possessed.

Then, for the first time...

He opened his eyes and looked directly into hers.

What he saw caused his sense of reality to falter for a moment.

He did not see the mother he knew.

Instead, he saw something that seemed to have crawled straight out of a nightmare.

A colossal monster shrouded in darkness.

That was how his mother appeared when he finally chose to confront her.

And for the first time in his life, Frey began to understand what their enemies must have felt whenever they were forced to face Clea.

She was...

Overwhelming.

So overwhelmingly powerful that merely standing before her inspired despair.

Even so, Frey endured.

He forcibly calmed himself, suppressing those visions until they faded from his mind.

"Frey..."

Seth watched anxiously from afar.

He tried to approach, desperate to do something, but Audrey stopped him. The Aura surrounding Clea was suffocating, and Seth was in no condition to withstand it.

Still, he insisted on intervening, regardless of Audrey’s attempts to restrain him.

"Don’t go near them! You’re in no condition to withstand what happens between those two!"

"You don’t understand, Audrey!"

Seth’s voice was filled with frustration.

"Frey can’t fight Mother. She has always been... the source of all his fears."

He clenched his fists, furious at his own helplessness and regretting his part in the entire plan to bring Agaroth out of the Land of Survival.

"I knew Mother would never allow something like this... but I helped anyway without seriously considering what might happen. Damn it!"

Audrey’s expression stiffened at his words, but compared to Seth, she remained remarkably composed.

Turning her attention back toward Frey and Clea...

She did not seem particularly distressed by what was happening.

Audrey knew perfectly well that Clea would never kill Frey.

He was far too important to her.

The First Writer had come here for one person and one person alone.

Agaroth.

Once he was dead, everything would end.

And Frey would no longer have to involve himself with him.

"The First Writer is right..."

Audrey finally voiced her true feelings.

"Agaroth must die here."

Seth turned toward her in disbelief.

"Audrey... Agaroth is one of us."

He spoke while trying to gather his strength once more.

"He may be a creature written into existence by Frey’s pen, but he’s still a brother who lived under the same roof as us for years."

"He’s one of us!"

"No, he isn’t."

Audrey’s answer was firm.

"He’s a monster that should not be allowed to remain in this world."

There was a strange hostility in Audrey’s attitude toward Agaroth.

A hostility Seth could not understand.

But this was hardly the time to ask her about it, as the pressure generated by the collision between Clea and Frey’s Aether continued to intensify.

"Mother... you’ve done enough."

"The passage between the worlds has already collapsed, and you’ve stopped Agaroth from crossing over. That should be more than enough to prevent the future Lea saw."

Frey’s voice softened slightly.

"So please... step back."

"No."

Clea’s answer was absolute.

"He dies today."

"He is far too dangerous to be allowed to continue living."

"He even freed himself from the seal I personally placed upon him. My seal, the seal of the First Writer."

Her gaze shifted briefly toward Agaroth.

"Who knows what else he’ll accomplish if we allow him to remain free?"

With every word Clea spoke, Frey’s unease deepened.

He knew she had already made her decision.

And once the First Writer resolved to do something...

No one could stop her.

Frey glanced from the corner of his eye toward Agaroth, who lay collapsed on the ground behind him, desperately trying to heal himself and close the gaping hole Clea had torn through his body.

Agaroth said nothing.

Speaking itself had become agonizingly difficult.

But his crimson eyes burned with rage and overwhelming resentment.

If looks could wound, everyone before him would already have been pierced a million times over.

Frey had never wanted things to reach this point.

And he had never wanted Agaroth’s heart to become filled with such hatred.

"We shouldn’t tamper with fate..."

Frey turned his attention back toward his mother.

"The future obeys no one’s will."

"We may avoid the worst outcome today, only to condemn ourselves later because of the way we chose to act."

He took a step forward.

"Perhaps you’re preventing a catastrophe now, Mother... but without realizing it, you may be creating an even greater one."

Frey continued trying to sway her with words.

He knew perfectly well that dialogue was his best chance.

"I’m preventing one catastrophe while causing another?"

Clea gave him a faint, mocking smile.

"So what exactly are you suggesting? That I sit back and do nothing while I wait for the prophecy to come true?"