‘How can I, Wyknus, the young master of the Main Branch family of the Likorn clan, lose?! And lose to Wulan at that! The laughingstock of the whole city, the weakest Magus there is, the one who is even looked down upon by the servants of his household, the person who is better off dead, how can I be defeated by someone like HIM?!’

The humiliation from being defeated by the trash of the city, the pain that came from his arm being pierced through by the claws and the fear of there being a claw right in front of his heart, made Wyknus lose all the rationality he had. He insulted Wulan in every way possible and had even told him to will Wyknus if he had the guts to do so. 

‘Wulan, you are a coward who isn’t able to even harm a fly, how could you dare to kill a human, even if there were no consequences, you are too weak to murder. I sometimes saw young mistress Luna and all she talked about was your kindness and how good of a person you are! You are unable to kill me, so you haven’t won!’

A bit of madness could be seen in Wyknus eyes. 

“Wulan! Bastard of a whore! If it wasn’t for you, Luna would have long been mine, but all she ever talks about is your kindness, but this kindness is your weakness! You are weak! You don’t deserve the attention Luna is giving you! You don’t deserve her kindness! You don’t deserve her! In his world, being nice isn’t a good thing! Power and power alone is what matters! So, how can a weakling like you walk side to side with a genius like Luna?!”

Everyone held their breath, nobody dared to move but everyone's attention was gathered at one point, Wulan.

Wulan didn’t say anything in response, however, there was a clear change. Master Ninor who was watching the whole thing noticed it first. Even though he was still far away, he was the strongest person in attendance and was also the person with the most knowledge, however, he just stared without understanding it, without moving an inch, without being able to do anything.

“R-red… eyes?”

Wulan’s eyes had indeed changed color, even though the people woudn’t believe it. It was as if the ocean in his eyes wasn’t filled with water anymore, no it was an ocean of blood. 

“AAAAAHHHHHGGGG!!!!”

A scream that was the manifestation of pain and despair resounded. It was enough to shake the souls of everyone present and nobody even dared to imagine what could cause such a sound. 

“GGGAAAARRRRRGGGAAAAAHHHH!!!!!” 

Nobody could ever believe that such sounds could come from a human being, however, right in front of them, the one who made this sound that could make anyone's heart stop for a moment, was Wyknus.

(Aura of Despair)

{Ed: Overlord Reference}

Wulan mumbled the name of the Skill. This name alone could shake the hearts and very souls of everyone who knew about it. (Aura of Despair) was a Skill that belonged to the Demon Monarch and was something that was feared by everyone. This Skill was the incarnation of the word Despair, the use of this Skill was absolutely prohibited because of how inhumane the thing, the opponent had to go through, was. 

In his past life Wulan hadn’t used this Skill due to it being prohibited and also because of its side effects but mostly because he just couldn’t, it was a Demon-Art after all. He had actually tried to use that Skill in the past, in order to learn about how to defeat the Demon Monarch, however, he was unable to. It was one of the few Martial Arts that he wasn’t able to learn.

But now, he wanted to test if he could use this kind of Art with his mysterious new Essence, however, he was unable to just try it out normally, because this kind of Art was activated through negative emotion and the ones he knew, could only be used on humans. Never would he use such an evil thing against an innocent person, however, right in front of thim, a great opportunity presented itself.

“You are right, I don’t deserve Luna.”

Wulan whispered to Wyknus who was going through the manifestation of hell at the moment. 

‘I have fought so many battles, I have killed millions of people, I have destroyed so many more lives than I saved. The people called me a hero and now I’m known as a demon, both of them are far fetched, but maybe I’m indeed more of a demon than a hero.’

“I applaud you, you were able to set my inner-demons free.”

Wulan was at most angry at the insults that this little toddler had thrown at him, however, he had insulted his new mother and had unknowingly hit a spot that Wulan had sealed away for a long time; the question if he deserved this second life or not. 

Wulan looked Wyknus into his eyes. They were filled with fear, pain, hatred, agony and many more. Wulan’s eyes were red, it could be compared to a sea of blood. Maybe it was filled with all the blood that Wulan had shed, maybe all the blood that he had bleeded, or maybe it was just his eye color without any meaning to it. 

However, every time he had looked into his own eyes, he felt as if it wasn’t just normal red, he felt as if it was blood. That was also the reason why he didn’t like to look at himself in the mirror. 

“Y-yco - hrr - aaahh - demon!!!”

Wyknus' voice didn’t resemble the one of a human anymore, there was nothing that could be compared to it. 

“You have poked my inner-demons and now they have awakened. This technique is exactly what you would call hell. But guiding the guilty to hell is what a demon does, isn’t it? And now…”

Wulan slowly pushed the claw into Wkynus chest.

“Let me ‘Put you out of your misery’.”

{Ed: A random person gave me the idea xD.}

The screaming stopped and a complete silence ruled over the place. Until, the sound of Wkynus' body hitting the ground resounded. 

‘Now I’ve really done it… using a prohibited Demon Arts to tortue someone and then killing that person, just because of words… wait, am I the bad guy?’

{Ed: Ainz and Eren are waving their hands :)}

Although Wulan wasn’t an homicidal, he never spared his enemies, that was one of his principles. After all, Kill or be Killed was a law of the world, especially in the time of war which Wulan grew up in. This mindset was very common, rather, nearly every person had this mindset, however, Wulan had an even more extreme version of it than the people of the current Thousand Stars World because he was the Solar Monarch. 

‘“Wulan, you should be more of a human”, that was what Lengku had once told me…’

Wulan never was an ordinary human being, because he was born with the Rex Essence, it already determined that his future would be special. He didn’t have any parents, so he never really received the love of parents and he also never had a lover.

Because of his Rex Essence it was clear that he would play a major role in the war. He was just a kid, but he was burdened with the task of becoming strong enough to battle the Demon Monarch and end the war. In order to achieve that he focused solely on becoming stronger. He couldn’t play with other children, he couldn’t fall in love, he couldn’t drink with others, all he could do was become strong. He carried the weight of ending the war on his shoulders, the lives of everyone and it was the heaviest weight there was. 

To carry this burden he discarded everything that normal humans would experience, only focusing on becoming strong enough to defeat the Demon Monarch and end the war. But this lack of human experience also influenced him greatly. If taken to the extreme, it could be said that he saw not much difference in two living beings in terms of worth of life. If he had the choice to either kill an animal and become weaker because of that or kill a human and become stronger, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill the human. 

He killed many, many living beings, it was a war and he fought on the frontlines. He consoled himself with; “This is to end the war and save everyone”, but he knew deep down that it was just an excuse. 

‘Am I human?’

Wulan’s eyes turned to the corpse of Wyknus lying on the ground, however, he wasn’t feeling anything as he looked on this lifeless human body, he didn’t feel any sympathy, he didn’t feel any remorse, he didn’t feel any satisfaction or happiness from killing him, he didn’t feel anything, there was just nothing. 

The blood that flowed out of Wkynus chest had already formed a little sea and was still spreading. The blood also arrived at Wulan’s feet, however, he didn’t step back or avoid it as normal people would do it. It was only a very little gesture but he didn’t avoid the blood from the person he killed but let it soak into his shoes instead. Well, the spraying blood already stained him of course, so it wasn’t really much of a difference. 

Don’t avoid the blood you spilled yourself. That was the meaning behind Wulan’s actions. 

‘I killed you after torturing you with a Demon Art, so I’m not qualified to say it, but I will do it either way; Rest well.’ 

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!! Wulan killed Wyknus!!!” 

A scream sliced through the silence that had lasted for a very long time. 

                                          

                                         To be continued.