Chapter 163: Vulcan Zebra

Vulcan Zebra.
He had an extremely unfortunate childhood.

Vulcan was born as a descendant of the Zebra royal family.
However, he was born of impure blood.

The King of Zebra was a womanizer—to a level that was truly excessive.

It got to the point where he had attendants whose sole job was to find women for him.
These attendants didn’t shy away from the slums when looking.

As long as a woman wasn’t terminally ill, she could be treated by the royal priest.
With a good wash and a meal, she could be made presentable enough.

So the only thing the attendants looked for was appearance.

Vulcan’s mother was from the slums.
One day, an attendant approached her directly with an offer:

He would pay her a large sum—if she would offer her body to a certain man.

Her family was so poor that survival was a daily struggle.
When the offer reached her mother’s ears, the mother accepted immediately.

「Sell her? Of course we’ll sell her!」

And so, she was presented to the king.
She became the object of his vile sexual desires—and the king took a surprising liking to her.

「That was quite an enjoyable diversion. I’m pleased.」

As a result, she became one of the king’s personal concubines.
But even that didn’t last long.

The king eventually grew tired of her.

The real problem came when, by that time, she had become pregnant.

A woman from the slums carrying the king’s child—this was unheard of and deeply problematic.

There was a high chance she would be killed quietly and without a trace.

By the time the king lost interest, there was nothing good awaiting her.
She lived in constant fear, hiding the fact that she was pregnant.

「You’re pregnant, aren’t you.」

Eventually, someone found out.
It was the very attendant who had brought her to the king.

「Come with me.」

Ironically, with this attendant’s help, she was able to escape the palace.

「Why did you help me?」

She asked why he had helped her.
The attendant didn’t answer.

Maybe he had developed feelings for her, or perhaps he had grown disillusioned with the work he was doing.

「Stay out of sight and survive.」

She couldn’t be sure—but thanks to his change of heart, she lived.

And soon after, she gave birth to the child.

「Your name is ■■.」

Though the child had come from an unwanted pregnancy, she raised him with all her heart.

But the child’s misfortune was only just beginning.

One day, a fire broke out in their home.
The child was about three years old.

He couldn’t even walk properly yet—and was swallowed by the flames.

「■■! No! ■■!」

Her mother tried to rush into the burning house to save him, but she couldn’t reach him in time.

The house was completely destroyed in the fire.

However, the child didn’t die.
Though he suffered severe burns across his body, someone had saved him.

And that same person was the one who had set the fire.

He was a knight acting under the orders of Count Idraz.

Around the time Vulcan turned three, the Zebra king died suddenly.
He had long been in poor health due to his excessive indulgence in women and alcohol.

It wasn’t long before his heart gave out, and he died.

Somehow, Count Idraz came to know of the child’s existence.
And he decided to use the child for his own purposes.

The throne had no clear successor.
The king had indulged in women so excessively because his body had difficulty producing children.

His womanizing was a cover for that complex.

As for heirs, there was only one young princess—and even she was born of a concubine.

So, the child had a fair shot as a potential successor.

「Remember this. From now on, your name is Vulcan Zebra. Forget your old name.」

Thus, the child’s former name was taken from him.

The year Vulcan turned five—

He was proclaimed a new prince by the noble faction, including Count Idraz.

When he turned seven, the noble faction failed in monopolizing royal power. They collapsed and were mostly executed for treason.

Just before execution, Vulcan narrowly escaped the palace with Count Idraz and fled to the worst slum in Zebra.

「It’s because of you. It’s all your fault! The prince—because of his incompetence, this dream was lost!」

From that moment, Count Idraz began to show extreme obsession with the throne and signs of mental instability.
He blamed everything on Vulcan’s incompetence.

「You filthy little insect. I saved you from your filthy bloodline, and this is how you repay me—with betrayal!」

But Vulcan was only a seven-year-old boy.

The fallen Count Idraz, terrified of being hunted by the royal family, relentlessly abused Vulcan.
He insisted Vulcan must become king—and used this as an excuse to inflict even sexual abuse without hesitation.

All of this continued until Vulcan turned ten.

By the third year, Count Idraz had aged dramatically.
Plagued by extreme stress and addicted to cheap street drugs, he began suffering from hallucinations and delusions.

Eventually, he made a drastic decision.
He would commit suicide—and take Vulcan with him.

「There’s no need for us. This world doesn’t need us.」

He forcibly put a noose around Vulcan’s neck, then hanged himself as well.
He kicked away the stool beneath them.

Already at the brink physically, Count Idraz died on the spot.

But Vulcan didn’t want to die.

Though still a child, he had a strong will to live.
So even in such cruel circumstances, he struggled desperately to survive.

His eyes, barely able to open from the beatings, still searched for life.

At that moment, black flames suddenly ignited on the worn rope—and Vulcan rolled to the floor, alive.

But the fire on the rope quickly spread to the dilapidated house.

Vulcan had no strength left to move.

As he stared blankly at the burning house, an old man appeared before him.

「Tsk tsk… what a precious find.」

He was a sorcerer who dabbled in forbidden magic.
While hiding in the slums of Zebra, he had sensed the presence of black flames and rushed over—only to discover…

「The reincarnation of the hero Rosli, no less.」

He was a dark mage who had long foreseen the reincarnation of the hero—and had been scheming to make use of such a being.

He had finally found the reincarnation of the hero he’d searched so long for.
Without giving Vulcan a chance to resist, the dark mage dragged him away.

The sorcerer intended to extract Vulcan’s soul and talents.

He dug into Vulcan’s forehead and prodded his brain.
Vulcan screamed in unbearable pain.

Having barely survived one horror, he now faced death at the hands of a dark mage.

From Vulcan burst forth endless despair—and hatred toward the world.

The sorcerer tried to forcibly draw out the soul of the hero Rosli within Vulcan.
But this led to an irreversible outcome.

「W-what… what is this?!」

Hero Rosli.
Though he had saved the world, he had failed to protect his own family—a tragic hero.

Because of this, he grew to hate the world—and in the end, he carved corruption into his own soul.

The Fallen Flame.
A flame born from hatred of the world.

The heroes who realized his corruption eventually stopped Rosli and sealed away his soul.
But he had even deceived the goddess’s eyes—and was reincarnated in the end.

Now, that reincarnation—Vulcan—was pushed over the edge by the dark mage’s hatred and greed.

The Fallen Flame consumed the dark mage.
Screaming, the mage was burned away by the unquenchable fire.

Soon, an eye formed on Vulcan’s torn forehead.

Vulcan stepped out over the ashes of the burnt sorcerer.
Black tears dripped steadily from both his eyes.

He walked aimlessly.

As Rosli’s memories returned, Vulcan began to recall everything—including the moment he had been born.

Painful memories constantly tormented and strangled him.
His steps led to only one place.

The woman who had once shown him warmth.
His mother.

Vulcan passed barefoot through the slums in search of her—and eventually came upon a scene.

A woman walking with a man and a child.

She had aged, but she was unmistakably the woman from his childhood memories.

She had completely forgotten the past and now walked the streets with a face filled with happiness.

Vulcan stared blankly at the scene.

「■■.」

The one she used to lovingly call by name no longer existed here.
Perhaps that’s why—despite remembering everything else—he couldn’t recall his original name.

Vulcan quietly turned away.
He no longer had any lingering attachments to this world.

Vulcan offered up his own life force as a sacrifice to feed the Fallen Flame.
Through it, he drew out the power of the former hero, Rosli.

Now, in Vulcan’s eyes, only hatred toward the world remained.

Born into rejection, stripped of his name, denied by the world, and nearly ended as a sacrifice—
He had no desire for such a world to remain intact.

「I’ll burn it. I’ll burn everything to the ground.」

He would reduce the entire world to ash—and in the end, even burn the goddess herself.
It was the moment Vulcan fully lost his mind.

Thus was born the leader of the Mystics.
Of filthy blood—Vulcan Zebra.

Vulcan had only one goal.
To burn the world.

To achieve it, he set his sights on seizing the souls of heroes who had received the goddess’s blessing.

His eyes could discern souls—and thus, he could identify heroes.

At first, things went smoothly. Absorbing the first hero, Ordo, had been simple.
But after that, everything started to unravel.

He failed to kidnap the Saintess, acquiring only half her soul.
Then the White Wood Duke began pursuing the Mystics, making matters complicated.

Musica, Aquiline’s reincarnation, returned alive from the Monstrosity.

And soon after, he failed to kidnap Zeryon’s reincarnation.

Through Musica and the Saintess, they managed to reach the very heart of the Mystics’ base.

And at the center of all these events—was a single boy.

Hanon Airei.

A boy with no background other than being a blood descendant of the Duke of Robliaju.
Yet somehow, he was tied to every major event of the past.

And now—
Vulcan found himself in a deeply troubling situation.

That very boy stood before him.
A bizarre child who, somehow, wielded the magic of an elder dragon.

He stood against Vulcan, each time accompanied by a girl.

At first, Vulcan scoffed at him.

What could some kids possibly do—even if one bore the Goddess’s Wings and another was Zeryon’s reincarnation?
They were nothing compared to him, who had devoured both Hero Rosli and Ordo.

He planned to deal with them quickly, absorb their souls, and then take out the White Wood Duke, who was surely exhausted from fighting the Earth Dragon.

But under Hanon’s direction, the two displayed a synergy that bordered on madness.

What kind of hardship had they overcome together?
With just a glance, they understood each other perfectly—and launched fierce attacks in perfect sync.

At that point, they were practically one body, one mind.

To make things worse, Xenia arrived—having completed a celestial spell that blocked spatial teleportation.
As Zeryon’s reincarnation, she showed exceptional magical skill.

What’s more, she was perfectly in tune with Hanon—like family.

As a result, Vulcan was met with a situation far beyond his expectations.

“What is this…?”

Every one of Vulcan’s attacks was countered by the three.
Meanwhile, their attacks hit him with relentless force.

By all rights, Vulcan’s power should have been overwhelming.
But no matter what he tried, his moves were seen through and neutralized.

It was as if—every action he took was already predicted.

Even with such a massive power difference, he was the one being pushed back.

“What the hell is going on…?”

Unable to believe what was happening, Vulcan shouted.

In his eyes, Hanon’s soul was tiny—insignificant compared to those around him.
Yet, it burned more fiercely than any of them.

“Who the hell are you?”

Unable to accept the situation, he demanded an answer—and Hanon stepped through the smoke, hand extended in a knife-like strike.

“Hanon Airei.”

He gave a name Vulcan already knew, and through the sweat on his face, he smiled faintly.

“If I had to put it nicely, I’m something like a proxy.”

It was a completely unexpected emergence—a threat Vulcan had never anticipated.