Galaxy's First Ruler

'Cursed is everyone chosen by RECORD; Those who have "THEIR" Blessings are the Blessed Ones.'

*

Tomislav's hairs were flailing as if a continuous upward gust of wind was keeping them up by their ends. Two blinding Golden Tridents had overshadowed the blues of his eyes. The scene on a starry night was even more bizarre.

Two eye-like holes had opened in the night sky, with one of them directly over the spotless moon. The world got devoid of the moonlight, darkening everything for a moment. But soon a golden tinge engulfed the entire Dungeon. And two blurry images of enormous Golden Tridents could be seen in the holes of the Sky too.

"WATER."

Tomislav pointed his finger at the red hairlike thread, only a couple of inches away from Trifon's head. Suddenly, a water-drop materialized in the thread's path, as if morning dew had left the traces of its presence. The water-drop was crystal clear, and if one were to keep looking at it, it would become hard to say if it was even water or not. Enshrouded by the golden hue, the water-drop felt like a golden pearl, the epitome of all riches in the material world.

Sizzz!

As the red thread came into contact with water-drop, there wasn't much sizzling sound. The golden drop, whose existence felt insignificant when compared to the contact of that sword and the hair, didn't even buzz from its position. The hairlike thread seemed to shrink as it entered the water-drop, leaving behind only a tiny trace of steam. But this negligible amount of steam was enough to give Tomislav a tremendous shock.

"AAAAHHH!"

TINK!!!

The image of the Golden Trident in his left eye shattered like shards of a mirror, making him let out a piercing scream. In the Golden Sky, the image of Trident in the hole over the moon also shattered. The golden hue that had washed over the Dungeon dimmed, and moonlight came flooding out from the blurred eyehole over the moon.

The combination of Golden and Silver gave the Dungeon an ethereal angelic feeling.

"How can this be…"

Thump!

Rayko's knees buckled, seeing the unbelievable scene. It was apparent that the idea of anything even remotely coming close to stop the red thread was miles away from his thinking capabilities.

Trifon opened his eyes and saw the golden-silver water-drop with the red thread entrapped in it. The hairlike thing wriggled, probably accompanied by incredible heat, but failed to budge the water-drop. Before walking towards Rayko, Trifon gave Tomislav a look. The adventurer had his hand covering his left eye and was letting out grunts of pain.

As he approached the kneeled Rayko, he remembered hearing the words about burning him as his mother, and veins popped upon his head. As he nudged his glasses, his eyes could be seen filled with rage and pain and tiny streams of blood came out of their corner. Trifon walked behind Rayko and held his head, his grip almost crushing Rayko's skull.

But Rayko had seemed to lose all reasoning, as he kept looking at the water-drop as if it was not the thread but he who had got trapped.

"How… can this be…"

An indistinct mutter resounded around the pair of uncle and nephew as Trifon pressed Rayko's head with an absurd amount of force. It was as if he was trying to bury the head into Rayko's torso. But before the head got crushed, Trifon jerked back his hand, leaving behind afterimages.

KATCHAA!

The sudden jerk pulled out the head, and a dangling spine attached to it. Blood dripped like a waterfall over the spine and sprouted out like hot geysers from the headless torso. The dazed look on Rayko's face had not changed even after death.

Trifon dropped the head and took out a diary and a pen from his pockets. The blood on his hand smeared the pages of the diary as he reached the last entry. He looked at the vanishing lone Trident from the sky, and the spotless moon claiming its throne, which looked blurry given the wetness in his eyes.

The Count wrote as the spots of blood on the diary and pen got blackened by the muddy moonlight.

-That I am a dutiful son or not, I have nothing to say about it.

*

Trifon helped Tomislav up on his feet and handed him over a bluish-yellow colored liquid in a vial. Tomislav didn't stand on the ceremony and gulped down the entire vial like a thirsty beast. A blue and yellow vapor emanated out of his body as he recovered his SP and MP in a single go.

"Damn! You rich folk truly are extravagant, huh!"

Trifon looked at Tomislav with a pained expression, not caring much about what the blue-haired adventurer had said. He remembered the saying about the Cursed and the Blessed Ones. And for the first time, got a hint why the two entirely different statements were written side by side. He looked at Tomislav, who was eyeing Christin on the approaching Berb's shoulder and muttered.

"I can't tell how sorry I am. You lost one of your Blessings trying to save me."

"Haha! You saved Christin, so it was natural for me to reciprocate the gesture. We can be considered even now."

Trifon didn't dare to compare the value of a Blessing to a Dreamer. But he also knew these values differed with different hearts. He remembered his father's weary eyes and a slight smile came upon his face as he said.

"Reasonable."

"I foolishly never considered that anything could damage that water-drop. Just what in the fuck is that?"

Trifon heard Tomislav's question full of fear, loss, and shock. He followed his gaze and looked at the hovering water-drop with a red-worm-like thing slithering in it. Trifon stretched out his hand, and a rose petal appeared under the water-drop and brought it towards his hand.

Trifon took a deep breath as he looked at the trapped thing in crystal-like water. It told the story of the decades of struggle and suffering of House Venomous Rose.

"It's a strand of hair."

Tomislav's stalled breath told that he had guessed the terrifying answer as he stuttered out the question.

"Hair?! Of… Who's hair?"

Trifon nudged his glasses and looked at Tomislav.

"The hair of True Phoenix."