King Of Limbo

A single airship could be spotted flying through the skies across Ettenheim's vast mountainous area.

It's destination? A collosal fort like city built right into the mountain range.

However, there was something incredibly odd about this city. Despite being so big, it appeared mostly empty and there were no people to be seen.

A person emerged from the interior of the airship and stood on the deck as it came nearer to this unfamiliar city, her face blank. she was Juliet Lamarck and this city was her home.

She gave a fleeting glance to her sides before turning to face the empty city and sighing helplessly. "How far are you willing to go this madness?"

She decided that her thoughts had wandered enough and simply continued moving toward her destination.

She first noticed some figures wearing armor with the Lamarck symbol on the chest plate when she came close to the largest structure in the city.

The persons who appeared to be on duty below noticed Juliet on the deck but showed no sign of reaction; instead, they simply observed the airship land without saying a word.

Juliet immediately leaped from the deck of the airship onto the ground below as it touched down close by and started walking toward the huge building a few meters away.

She looked up and saw the figures standing like statues on the sides of the route leading to the entrance.

Father awaited your arrival.

After hearing these comments, Juliet paused and gave the speaker a stern look. Both the male speaker and the other guys and girls present on the scene shared a striking resemblance to Juliet.

I don't need a defect to tell me that; if you were better, he wouldn't need me. She gave a chilly response, seeming to hold a bitter resentment against them all.

The gathering persons spoke in unison as she left without saying anything else. "Welcome back first sister!"

Without turning around, Juliet hurried fiercely into the building.

Juliet became angrier as she continued through a number of empty hallways that only contained her father's and grandfather's artwork.

A larger hall was quickly reached, but unlike the others, it wasn't deserted.

Instead, it was populated by other people who resembled her strongly; but, in contrast to the first group she encountered, this one was engaging in sexual intercourse with one another.

No moans or groans of pleasure could be heard, but the air was filled with the sound of bodies clapping against one another. The room smelled strongly of sex.

"Greetings, first sister!"

They all stopped what they were doing when they saw Juliet arrive and bowed their heads in awe.

"Where is he?" Juliet just posed this question while exuding contempt at the situation in front of her.

"The lineage hall, I believe." She left right away when one of them mumbled.

"Ahh!"

Juliet heard screaming as she neared her new location, but she didn't let it bother her.

Bam!

Furiously, she swung open the two doors that were blocking her path, revealing a dimly lighted space with an even crazier tableau than the one she had previously witnessed.

The chamber contained a number of glowing blue water pools with numerous women inside who likewise resembled Juliet, however they were in the midst of giving birth.

"Huh?"

The only person who wasn't submerged in one of the pools was drawn to the door by the violent way she opened it.

His beard, which was mostly white with some black patches that appeared to represent its original hue, and the man's powerful facial features indicated his advanced age.

He turned to meet Juliet's gaze, but only with one eye because his right had been patched up. He was tall and wearing thick gold and black armor that gave him the appearance of a powerful warrior.

"Oh, you've returned at last? Good. Because your first brother has already reached adulthood, you should be able to give birth to an even more powerful heir for me naturally, as everyone who is born in these pools passes away far too soon. Thankfully you're strong so you should be able to give birth a few times before you expire."

The man simply said what was on his mind and didn't seem to notice her attitude, as if he were used to it.

Juliet took a quick glimpse at the horrific scene in front of her, but she didn't appear out of place because she was born here and had been exposed to it her entire life.

"I didn't come here to join in on your madness, Juliet said indifferently, which made the man frown."

"Now, what is it? You still don't get why I kindly gave you a brief taste of life outside these gates to demonstrate to you that there are only weak beings there, do you? You and your siblings are the pinnacle of humanity and are exceptional in every way! That's what being a Lamarck means to me!"

However, the activities went on despite the man's loud speech echoing across the entire room.

He proudly stroked the badge on his chest and then made a dramatic gesture of opening his hands.

"The bunker your grandfather found gave us this information, information from the mighty era before us! Humanity was meant to live like this!" Juliet shook her head and remained uninterested despite his confident sermon.

"Grandfather utilized this to help women who were feeble have children who would be stronger and healthier. On the other hand, you drove everyone who wasn't of direct descent away before starting to create this.. this atrocity! Trying to replicate the mistake that was me!"

The more Juliet spoke, the more her eyes glowed with rage.

"You are not an accident! Your mother wouldn't have introduced you into my life or made me aware of all these opportunities if it weren't for these pools!" Soon the man rubbed his temples and sighed.

"I won't force you, but why come back if you don't agree with my plans for the future, Juliet?" The man's deteriorating voice became softer, and he was unable to chastise his daughter.

Juliet could tell he was too far gone because he saw nothing wrong with what he was doing.

"Something broke in you when mother passed; I've ignored it for too long so I came here today to put a stop to it." Prior to her eyes going completely dark, Juliet only said this.

[ Shadow Arts: Shift ]

Several black and white grids that painted a picture of the world in front of her then appeared as her vision turned completely black.

Her attention was drawn to her father, a white humanoid lying in one such grid.

Her silhouette quickly arrived and vanished. She had simply faded away in the eyes of those outside.

She reappeared behind him, coming out of his shadow, and swung her greatsword at his back with great force.

The once-great warrior collapsed to the ground without a struggle; his concern with producing a stronger offspring had long since caused his abilities to deteriorate.

He was now just a husk of the great man he once was.

"Don't do it... All I'm doing is carrying out your mother's dying desire, which was for a stronger line of descendants *cough*." The man groaned in agony as he helplessly gazed at his daughter.

He continued to try to defend himself until the very end, but Juliet was unmoved.

"I have my interpretation, you have yours. A stronger line of descendants will definitely happen, I've already made sure of it." After pausing, Juliet gently rubbed her stomach despite donning her armor.

"A child so strong that I needed to sacrifice half of my own life force to fertilize it. Although I'm not proud of how I got it, neither I nor you will live long enough to repent it. Farewell father."

Juliet's own beliefs were powerful and unsettling in and of themselves. She would probably face accusations of wrongdoing from others as a result of her conduct.

However, it didn't matter because morality was a matter of perspective. In her opinion, what she was doing was appropriate, and that was sufficient.

The others in attendance were now terrified by the current scenario, but they stayed put and watched.

After standing over her father, Juliet took her blade in both hands and slashed through his chest, disregarded his armor as if it weren't even there.

*cough!*

The man's vision blurred as he coughed up blood.

"Please… stop. At this rate you'll die before the child is even born…"

Gabriel Lamarck felt helpless in his final moments; he didn't care that he was dying, but he didn't want to see his daughter pass away in the same manner as her mother.

This was simply too cruel.

"You shouldn't be concerned."

As she started to move away from him and toward one of the pools, Juliet's voice sounded distant.

When she was inside, the water was up to her waist, and she started to move toward one of the women giving birth there.

She put her palm on the woman's head and calmed her father's concerns without saying a word.

"I created an origin art specifically to prevent that from happening."

[ Origin Art: Transfusion ]

"Ahh!"

The woman she was holding started screaming wildly the next second as her skin started to look pale and she appeared to be losing all of her blood.

Organs, tissue, and bones fractured in the presence of this art, trembled, and then congealed into a dark red liquid that poured into Juliet via her fingertips.

Only skin and hair were left on the woman's head when she pulled her hand away, leaving her looking hollow and with eye sockets that were completely black.

Gabriel Lamarck's eyes slowly closed, and this was the final scene he saw.

The other people there were even more terrified, but Juliet kept a serious face and turned to face them. "I'll see to it that this child is born."

"...whatever the cost."

END OF VOLUME 1.