“Why?”
That was all he could ask—everything he still had the strength to say as he felt his life slipping away.
A voice answered him.
A voice that had once been filled with love and warmth, now stripped of all emotion.
“You chose those vermin over me.”
The feminine voice did not hesitate.
It was his wife.
Selena.
A half-elf from a common merchant family.
The woman he loved.
The woman to whom he had given his heart.
He had taken her in after her family was wiped out during a monster tide.
Seeing her potential, he offered her a position as an official.
At the time, he was only a young baron, and he knew better than anyone that survival meant surrounding himself with capable people.
And Darren Silvermoon had always possessed a talent for choosing the right people.
He had never intended to marry.
The family elders had pressured him relentlessly, insisting he secure a wife.
At first, Selena was nothing more than a valuable asset.
Her merchant acumen and assassin skills were exceptional.
But time changed things.
He came to know her as a person rather than a tool.
They married six years after they began courting.
Eighty-five years of marriage followed.
They even had a son—seven years old now.
Collins.
Or so Darren had believed.
After breaking through to the Demigod Realm, he had thought little in the world could truly surprise him.
Yet he could not comprehend why she, of all people, would betray him.
Darren’s legs finally gave out, and he fell to his knees.
With his aura completely unchecked, webs of cracks spread across the floor beneath him.
Selena stood before him, her words sharper and more poisonous than the blade lodged in his back.
“You truly thought it was acceptable,” she said, venom dripping from every word, “to give those lowly monsters a chance to integrate into our society after what they did to my family?”
Her voice trembled with rage.
And something else.
Something Darren had only ever heard from enemies he had slain.
Hatred.
Pure, undisguised hatred.
“But…
I asked you,” Darren said weakly, struggling for breath.
“Before any of this…
you said you weren’t against it.
You agreed…”
He looked up at her, gasping.
He had always put her first—before duty, before ambition, even before himself.
Four years ago, when he first proposed these reforms, he had consulted her.
She had supported him.
Reassured him.
Again and again, he had asked whether she was truly comfortable with it.
He had even forbidden monsters from entering Silver City itself, just to spare her painful memories.
And yet, despite all of that…
She hated him.
A voice filled with contempt interrupted them.
“You never realized how much suffering you caused her.”
Jark.
Darren watched in disbelief as his brother wrapped an arm around Selena’s waist and stared directly into his eyes.
“She came to me crying,” Jark continued coldly.
“Telling me everything you said.
How you valued monsters more than the people around you.
How blind you were to the harm you caused.”
Then came the words that froze Darren’s blood.
“That was eight years ago,” Jark said with a cruel smile.
“Before Collins was born.”
Darren turned to Selena, desperation flooding his eyes, silently begging her to deny it.
She didn’t.
In that moment, he understood.
Collins—the child he believed to be his heir, his future—was not his.
The reason he had taken risks he never should have.
The reason he had continued pushing forward, believing the world could become better.
His voice trembled.
“It’s a lie…
it has to be.”
Selena looked down at him, her face devoid of emotion.
“The moment you began valuing those vermin,” she said flatly, “the Darren I married died.
You became one of them.”
She spat the word.
“A monster.”
Darren felt something inside him shatter.
The pain was no longer merely physical.
It tore through his mind, his heart, and his soul.
Tears refused to fall as love twisted into anguish.
And anguish into hatred.
Jark raised his sword.
Holding it high above his head, he spoke one last time before bringing it down.
“You’ve served your purpose well.
It’s time you gave everything to me.
The elders have no quarrel with this arrangement.”
He smiled.
“Goodbye, brother.”
Before the blade could fall, the entire mansion began to shake.
No—
The entire Silver City trembled.
The moon, absent throughout the night, finally revealed itself as Darren’s body began to glow silver.
The Silvermoon bloodline had been activated.
No—
It had been unleashed.
Darren Silvermoon, the strongest of his lineage, pushed his bloodline to its absolute limit.
The pressure was overwhelming.
After all, injured or not, he was still a Demigod.
With a fury neither of them had ever witnessed, Darren gathered every last drop of mana and qi.
He condensed it into his fist and applied his Concept of Momentum.
Then he punched.
The legendary-grade sword shattered.
The force did not stop there.
It tore through Jark’s arm and blasted through the roof.
His scream echoed across the city as Selena was hurled into a wall, blood pouring from her head.
She looked up in disbelief as the necklace around Darren’s neck began to glow with a golden light.
Darren stared at it in confusion.
He didn’t know what it was doing.
But he understood one thing.
He was already dead.
Not from the wounds.
Not from the fight.
Not from the necklace.
The knife.
It had been coated in poison.
A terrifying poison.
One powerful enough to kill a Demigod.
A poison that devoured mana, qi, and life force the more they were used.
By unleashing everything in that single punch, Darren had burned away what remained of his life.
Perhaps he could have delayed the poison’s effects, but there was no point.
For some reason, he could not locate it despite it being inside his body.
And even if he could, Jark’s words had already revealed the truth.
The elders were involved.
They had conspired to kill him.
There was no one left he could trust.
As he gazed upon the ruined mansion and the glowing necklace, he found a small measure of comfort in knowing that those who had betrayed him would suffer, even if only a little.
Closing his eyes for what he believed would be the final time, information about the artifact surfaced within his mind.
[Last Line Artifact – Mythical]
Effect: ???
He wished he could have learned its power.
But this was the end of Darren Silvermoon.
Or so he thought.
Ding.
Selena and Jark received a notification.
Jark was in too much pain to notice.
Only Selena remained conscious enough to read it.
Though she already knew what it would say, she still wanted confirmation.
[You killed a Level 154 Human Demigod with assistance.]
[65,150 EXP received.]
That night, the races believed they had eliminated a mole.
The Human Imperial Family removed a rising threat.
House Silvermoon lost its greatest pillar.
With Darren’s death, long-silent enemies made their move.
The once-proud ducal house fell to the rank of viscount, losing vast portions of its territory.
Were it not for the businesses Darren had established, the family would have fallen back into obscurity.
Thus ended the Holy Knight of Justice.
This was the end of Darren Silvermoon.
At least…
As Darren Silvermoon.
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