The Third Prince Of Darkness

I was beginning to understand the red-haired, black-eyed man before me better now. Of course, I can't say that I have fully figured him out, but at least I can understand why he chose this path. Why did Alpshar really choose this bloody path? When a person experiences many traumatic events as a child and probably has someone to protect, why would they choose such a bloody and risky road?

Alpshar had many options. He could have left everything behind and settled in a better and more peaceful place, and at least he wouldn't have had to live such a wild life.

After all, a person who experiences traumatic events in childhood and is covered in blood during those events typically either becomes more fearful, avoiding conflict, or, on the contrary, becomes insanely aggressive and brave to the point of being called foolish. But Alpshar fit neither of these categories.

Looking at his life, you don't need to be particularly intelligent to see that he is not someone who shies away from war out of fear. Moreover, Alpshar is not wildly aggressive or someone who foolishly digs his own grave and calls it courage. If he were such a savage, he would have already attacked the Tamerid Empire by now.

The Tamerid Empire has provoked Alpshar many times secretly, but Alpshar never changed his stance, which was wise.

In the end, it wouldn't be wrong to say that Alpshar is a cunning person. After all, a fool could never succeed in uniting the entire south. But then, what is Alpshar's motivation? What is the reason behind his desire for conquest? I know that his great ancestor was the conqueror Ogedion, but is that all? Is he doing all this just because he admires Ogedion?

Clearly, Alpshar has a certain worldview, and it seems that this worldview is extremely pessimistic. That's why I'm having this philosophically deep conversation. After all, what I just said—or more specifically, the part where I talked about what a ruler should be like—was something I did deliberately.

I only put forward ideas that I didn't necessarily agree with, or only partially agreed with, just to see how Alpshar would react, whether he would object or agree.

My attempts bore fruit, and now I understand Alpshar better.

Well, as an old man once said, "If you know yourself and your enemy, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Even if Alpshar is not my enemy today, he will definitely be one day. In fact, perhaps I am more like him than I thought. Now that I think about it, we both want to conquer the continent, and both of us can be ruthless at times in pursuing that goal.

Let's take the tower made of human bones outside, for instance. Alpshar's purpose there is probably to display power and gain dominance over the masses through fear or terror. And I probably would have taken such a decision if I had to.

Now that I think about it, Alpshar reminds me of someone from my old world, someone who was extremely ruthless, extremely cunning, and just like him, a military genius. His name was Tamerlane, and in many ways, Alpshar resembles him. Now that I think about it, Alpshar had a wound on his foot—not a serious one, but one that hindered his running somewhat... Just like Tamerlane.

"How much more time do you need to make your move?" Alpshar asked in his deep voice.

I turned my gaze back to the board. We were now entering the final stages of the game, and both of us had brought all our pieces into play. Moreover, I had destroyed all three of Alpshar's castles, but I still had one castle piece left, protecting the royal piece at the back. The plan was simple.

The pawns would advance and attack Alpshar's army while the archers would provide support, and during this time, my cavalry would attack the unprotected royal piece. At least, that was the plan. I still had more pieces left, so victory was inevitable. All I had to do was to make every move perfectly. From the outside, making flawless moves might sound easy, but it was a very difficult task.

I must admit, Alpshar was a very good player, but in my past world, as a historian, I also knew many war tactics.

In fact, I should mention that while playing this game, I noticed something. I was smarter than before. Yes, maybe it sounds a bit arrogant, but it was true. I wasn't stupid in my previous life either; after all, I was a student of one of the most renowned historians the field of, so I knew I had a certain level of intelligence. But I was certainly not a genius. I just had above-average intelligence.

But what about now? Why did I understand this difficult game, with countless possibilities, so well and so precisely? In my previous world, I played chess, but I was never a top-tier chess player. Even though this game was different from chess, it was probably more difficult, yet I could easily beat many who had mastered it. I had proven this many times in the past.

I think my brain capacity—or whatever it's called—had improved. But I was still aware that this didn't mean I would succeed in everything. However, I could at least say that I understood these kinds of games better.

So, I moved my pawn forward by one square. Then I looked at Alpshar to observe his reaction. He seemed slightly irritated and tired by my move. He, too, moved his pawns forward.

"Tell me, Prince, do you believe in God?" Alpshar asked as he made his move.

"I don't know," I replied as I arranged my archers.

"What do you mean, you don't know if you believe or not?" Alpshar asked in a tone of surprise.

"I just don't know if God exists. To me, God may or may not exist. I'm not in a position to know. But I think the real question is, what are God's attributes?" I replied.

At that moment, Alpshar was also moving his pieces closer to mine. "God's attributes? I suppose it's enough for me to view God as the Creator," Alpshar said as he made his move.

I was busy placing my archer pieces in both an open and elevated position. "Is it logical to call a being that creates something of a creator or God? For example, some special elves can create plants even where there is no soil. Does that mean elves are gods?" I asked.

As Alpshar made his move, he stroked his chin. "You raise a good point. But still, elves don't create out of nothing. They can only do that by using their Kaizer powers, meaning they can do it because an energy exists. But what I'm talking about is creation from nothing.

I see nothing wrong with calling someone who creates matter in the middle of nothing a god," he said, placing his archers slightly behind the opening, directly across from mine.

"But what exactly is nothingness? After all, even nothingness is something, and can we call something that can exist 'nothing'? Nothingness might be the place where nothing exists at the same time everywhere, but if nothingness has a boundary, that makes it something. Logically, in this universe, at least, nothingness cannot exist—or at least that's what I think."

Alpshar thought over what I said for a while and then watched me make my move. "Then what are God's attributes for you?" he asked, settling into a more comfortable position in his chair.

"As I said, God's existence is not certain for me, but at the very least, for me to call something God, that being would need to have infinite power and authority over everything. But logically, even if such a being exists, why would it care about a few insignificant pieces of flesh like us? Or why would it take an interest in us?

If there is a perfect being with infinite power and infinite wisdom, wouldn't it logically be focused only on its own existence? After all, only its own perfect existence should deserve its attention. But if such a being is our creator or at least played a role in our creation, this brings with it an entirely different problem," I said, watching Alpshar move his pawn pieces.

Since this game was being played on a three-dimensional board, it was impossible to see everything, but I suspected that Alpshar still had one more hidden piece, and this piece was probably protecting the palace piece.

"And what is that problem? What is the issue with a being of infinite power and wisdom creating us?" Alpshar asked as he made his move, looking at me with a curious expression.

"As I said before, it's illogical for such a being to care about us in the slightest. And so, such a being could only have created us by accident or, at the very least, unwillingly. But that too is illogical. After all, it is impossible for a being of infinite power and infinite wisdom to both do something by accident and create something unwillingly.

So, if there is a being of infinite power and infinite wisdom, it is illogical for it to have created us, even unwillingly. The only logical conclusion is that the being that created us was flawed and not of infinite power. So, if we were created by a being, that being must be flawed or, at the very least, not perfect. Of course, these are just my ideas.

The opposite could also be true," I said, and finally I moved all my pawns forward and started the final battle.

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