CHAPTER 1
A MINION AND HER DARK LORD
“Mm… Nn…”
Sunlight shone through the curtains and fell on the boy’s eyelids, stirring him from sleep. He awoke to discover himself overcome with a lethargy not unlike muscle pain.
The boy was only ten years old. His features were cherubic and innocent, with skin still lustrous and smooth. Currently, his jet-black hair was mussed into what could only have been described as a textbook example of bed head.
Sleepily rubbing his eyes, the boy yawned. Drowsiness still lingered in his dark orbs. This was Leonis Death Magnus. Once known as the Undead King, he had been recently resurrected after a thousand years and now plotted to rebuild the Dark Lords’ Armies. Using secret, forgotten sorcery, Leonis had waited in a kind of stasis until the time was right for his return, but when he’d awoken, he found his body had regressed to the form he’d worn when he was still just a boy.
…My word, having a human body is such a bothersome thing.
This Dark Lord, still clad in his pajamas, tossed about in his bed. His troublesome human form was quite prone to dreaming.
This time, the vision had been from before Leonis’s reign as the Undead King.
…If I recall, it was when the Dark Lord of the olden times, Zol Vadis, invaded the continent.
Leonis squinted at the sunlight streaming in, but just as he tried to sit up…
“…?!”
He stiffened, and his eyes widened in surprise. Before him was a pair of breasts, rising and falling in a gentle, constant rhythm. The pajamas covering them were open slightly, giving Leonis a peek of the white underwear hidden beneath.
Swallowing despite himself, Leonis looked up…only to be confronted by the beautiful face of a sleeping girl. Her silvery hair shone in the golden rays of the morning. The girl’s pink lips were parted as light, adorable breaths slipped from between them. Lovely eyelashes quivered as she slept, though her smooth, white skin remained undisturbed.
This was Riselia Ray Crystalia, a Holy Swordswoman of the Seventh Assault Garden’s Excalibur Academy. She also happened to be the girl who’d awakened Leonis from his slumber within some old, forgotten ruins.
Snapping to attention, Leonis felt any remnants of sleepiness completely draining from his mind. He suddenly pushed the covers aside and sat up in his bed.
…My word, he thought.
Taking one long, deep breath, he stilled the hard beating of his heart. It was nothing more than a purely physiological reaction of his incorrigibly human body, after all. Through half-open lids, Leonis peered down at the face of the girl sleeping beside him. He then poked her soft cheek with the tip of his finger.
“Nnng… Mmm…” A carnal sigh escaped Riselia’s lips as the silver-haired girl’s eyes fluttered open. Her ice-blue eyes, like the surface of a clear lake, fixated themselves on Leonis.
“Good morning, Miss Selia,” he said in greeting.
“Ah, Leo… Good morning…,” the girl replied in a drowsy voice.
For being a vampire, this minion of mine seems to suffer from low blood pressure in the early hours of the day, Leonis thought.
“Miss Selia, what are you doing in my bed?” he inquired.
“Huh? Ah, erm…” At that question, Riselia looked away in a random direction.
“Don’t try to dodge the question by acting cute,” Leonis chided in exasperation.
Riselia herself had bought this bed. Originally, Leonis had asked for something more comfortable, like a stone coffin, but Riselia had firmly denied that request. Until recently, he’d been using Riselia’s bed, as her room was right next to his own.
“You looked like you were having a bad dream, Leo…,” she muttered.
Leonis held his tongue. He did have an idea as to what she was talking about. In his sleep, the Undead King had seen Roselia.
“Was I tossing in my sleep…?” Leonis asked.
“Yeah…”
Riselia sat up and placed a gentle hand on Leonis’s ruffled hair. Had this been a thousand years ago, treating a Dark Lord with such insolence would’ve been met with instant annihilation. As that age was far in the past, Leonis merely frowned at the surprising gesture, but he made no attempt to push the hand away.
Letting Selia pat him on the head didn’t feel all that bad. Perhaps because it reminded Leonis of the old days, when she used to do similar sorts of things.
“I’m fine. I just had a dream about the past, is all…,” Leonis admitted, turning away in embarrassment. That’s when he noticed there was a red tint to Riselia’s eyes.
“…Was that really all you came in here for?” he knowingly inquired.
“Huh?” Riselia cocked her head.
“You didn’t sneak into my bed to suck my blood?”
Riselia stiffened. Red irises were a sign of an elevated vampiric impulse. Leonis ran a hand over his neck but couldn’t find any bite marks.
“It doesn’t look like you bit me,” he observed.
“Yes, well…I promised…I wouldn’t do it without permission…”
“You really didn’t do anything?” Leonis was somewhat surprised. The fact that Riselia hadn’t partaken of his blood without permission meant she’d withstood an instinctual impulse in order to keep her word.
Impressive, Leonis admired internally.
Minions who’d recently become vampires were often assailed by an intense hunger for blood every few days. While Riselia was a Vampire Queen, the apex of her kind, the allure of that desire to feed was hard to resist. This was a girl who’d trained to fight the Voids for years, despite previously being unable to manifest a Holy Sword. Her mental fortitude was far stronger than that of the average human.
Even with such strength of mind, Leonis didn’t doubt resisting the urge had been nothing short of torture for Riselia.
“Go ahead. You may suck my blood,” Leonis declared, extending his index finger.
“C-can I…?” Riselia asked shakily.
“Yes, of course.” Leonis nodded.
Some part of the Dark Lord in the body of a child wondered if perhaps he was overly kind to his minions. It wasn’t as though Riselia had willingly joined the ranks of the undead, though. She’d laid down her life to protect Leonis’s. Incapable of using holy magic, Leonis’s only choice to save the valiant young woman had been to tap into the sorcery of the Realm of Death to turn her into what she was now.
…If all she requires is my blood, then I’ll give her as much as she needs.
“Erm, I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t hurt,” Riselia said.
“Yes, I’d appreciate that,” Leonis replied.
There wasn’t much discomfort involved when the girl sucked his blood, to begin with. It was only a tinge of sweet, intoxicating pain. Riselia’s lips touched Leonis’s finger, and…
Chomp.
Her small fangs penetrated his flesh with a bite that felt both bashful and playful.
“Nnn…mhaa…nnng… ” Riselia’s tongue coiled around Leonis’s finger ecstatically as carnal moans began to escape her mouth. The alluring slurping sounds of her licking and suckling on his finger quietly echoed through the room.
“…Um, M-Miss Selia…,” Leonis cut in.
“Nn…nhaat… (What…)?” She looked up at him with intoxicated eyes.
“You’re being lewd.”
“Aaaaah?!”
Riselia hurriedly freed Leonis’s finger from her lips as her face flushed red with shame.
“I-I’m sorry. I was just in a, erm, in a daze…”
“It’s all right. I know you’re not the vulgar type.”
“…Leo, you bully…”
Riselia’s eyes filled with tears, and her face turned red again as she stood up, donned an apron, and sauntered over to the kitchen.
Hmm. Maybe I did tease her a bit too much.
Of course, Leonis didn’t really entertain any ideas of Riselia being indecent. After all, only a pure, chaste maiden could’ve been resurrected as a Vampire Queen, the most powerful of all undead servants.
Riselia carried breakfast to the small table. On the plate were fresh-baked round buns served with milk, butter, and cheese. Next to these sat hard-boiled eggs, a salad made with fresh produce from the agricultural plant, corn soup, and a bunch of grapes.
As Riselia cut the whole wheat bread, its steam filled the room with a rich aroma that tickled Leonis’s nostrils. His old body hadn’t required food to survive, but he’d quickly adjusted his current form’s appetite. When it came to eating, his human body, for all its troublesome inconveniences, wasn’t so bad.
“You have to eat your veggies, too, Leo,” Riselia insisted, shoveling some salad onto Leonis’s plate.
“Please don’t fuss over me. You don’t need to treat me like a child,” he replied.
“But you are a child. Besides, you hardly eat any vegetables, right?”
There was probably something to be said about an undead girl fussing over someone else’s health.
Despite his true nature, Leonis looked like any other innocent, ten-year-old boy. Riselia often volunteered at the orphanage and helped tend to the children there, so she’d likely developed a habit of fretting over those younger than her. Left with little choice, Leonis forced himself to munch on the vegetables she’d placed in front of him, despite his distaste for the leafy things. Nodding in satisfaction, Riselia turned on the wall terminal with a flick of her finger.
“Looks like reconstruction on the commercial district is still taking a while…”
On the screen was a live video feed showing large piles of rubble and wreckage being towed away by equally sizable transport vehicles. The recent Void attack, while thwarted, had left large-scale destruction in its wake.
Voids were mysterious, unidentified life-forms that had supposedly appeared from the interstice of nothingness sixty-four years ago. Mankind had been pushed to the brink of extinction after their sudden arrival.
Their outward visages resembled monsters from Leonis’s era, but nothing was known of their internal biology or makeup. One could only guess at where they’d come from or what their goal was in attacking humanity.
It’d seemed that Arakael Degradios, the Archsage and Void Lord who had led the recent Void assault on the Seventh Assault Garden, was knowledgeable about such things. Unfortunately…
He was completely eradicated by Dáinsleif, Leonis recalled with a hint of regret.
Rotten and decayed though Arakael had become, he was still one of the Six Heroes. Leonis hadn’t been willing to risk holding back during the battle with him.
The official story was the Void Lord leading the Stampede had been suddenly destroyed when the mana furnace—the city’s power source—spontaneously discharged as the creature was attempting to consume it. No one knew that a Dark Lord in the body of a child had been the one who’d brought the treelike monster to its end.
“Apparently, an investigative team dispatched from the capital is supposed to arrive this afternoon. Her Highness, Princess Altiria, will be leading it and delivering support in the form of manpower and supplies,” Riselia explained.
A princess, eh…? That got Leonis thinking.
The prospect of meeting the royalty of the current era was an intriguing one. Once Leonis found Roselia’s reincarnated body and rebuilt the Dark Lords’ Armies, he would have to either fight this human empire or form an alliance with it.
This may be a good chance to learn about the influential figures of this world…
As far as most knew, Leonis was just a refugee boy. Such an individual couldn’t casually approach a person of royalty. Leonis pondered how he’d get a chance to speak with the princess while he continued to eat his breakfast.
10:30 Imperial Standard Time, near the coasts of what was once known as the Dark Continent.
The Hyperion, a personal warship of the Integrated Empire’s royal family, was approaching the Seventh Assault Garden along with its three escort vessels. The ship’s course was somewhat unusual, with many complex turns.
The warship was crewed with forty Holy Swordsmen and was equipped with anti-Void armaments, though this was not to say the craft was invulnerable. An encounter with a Void reef would sink the vessel just as easily as any other. As such, its crew had to make use of the ship’s radar to keep a watchful eye for areas where a reef might form and circumvent them.
“Your Highness, we are on course to arrive at the Seventh Assault Garden on time.”
“Understood. Stay the course, then.”
Standing at the main bridge, which offered a view of the sea, was a young girl. She regarded the report from the knight captain of the royal guard with a composed nod. Her jade-green eyes were willful and determined, and her blond hair appeared as though sunshine had been weaved into its locks.
While still a child of twelve, this girl was the one in command, for she was Altiria Ray O’ltriese, fourth princess of the Integrated Empire. Altiria was the youngest daughter of House O’ltriese, one of the three royal factions that led the Integrated Empire. The empire itself was the human federation that served as the core of the mobile Assault Gardens.
Sitting on Altiria’s lap was a white creature that resembled a puffball. While clearly alive, the little thing was not an animal. Perhaps as testament to that fact, its white fur let out a faint glow, and careful inspection revealed a gleaming, red gemstone embedded in the creature’s forehead.
This being was a spirit known as a Carbuncle. It was a kind of mana life-form that had existed in ancient times. The fact that Altiria could communicate with a spirit was proof she was a member of the royal line.
“Your Highness, about your visit to the urban area…,” one of the knights began with the utmost respect. “I believe showing yourself to the citizens would be far too dangerous.”
“But it’s the duty of those of regal lineage,” Altiria replied with a tone that came across as very mature for her age.
“Still, Your Highness, the royal house has many enemies.”
It was indeed true that the empire had many enemies. Factions of nobles from the old regime; a secret society of merchants known as the Isha Weapon Firm; armed terrorists led by the demi-human population; revolutionary advocates; and even a doomsday cult that worshipped the Voids as saviors of mankind. Even with the presence of Excalibur Academy, there was no guarantee the Seventh Assault Garden was truly safe.
“It seems completely absurd that mankind would fight among itself when we are faced with a threat as dire as the Voids,” Altiria stated.
“Yes, Your Highness, I feel the same way, but…” The honest-looking knight captain trailed off.
Altiria heaved a light sigh. “I understand. Then I will have my speech at the town square moved to the ship.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” The knight captain bowed his head respectfully.
“But the evening gala won’t be a problem, right?”
“Correct. The party will be under Excalibur Academy’s management. The guests’ identities have all been confirmed.”
The gathering was a social event where the citizens of the Seventh Assault Garden could board the Hyperion and hear the princess speak in person. The students of Excalibur Academy were invited to attend, of course, as were influential figures among the citizens. This was so Altiria and her escorts, as representatives of the capital, could collect the opinions of those who lived in the floating fortress of cutting-edge technology and convey them accurately to Camelot.
Altiria was greatly looking forward to the chance to speak to her people directly.
What’s more, my sister should be somewhere in the Seventh Assault Garden…, thought the princess. This sibling had left before Altiria herself had even been born. She didn’t know what her sister looked like or even her name.
I doubt I will get to meet her, but…
If her sister had awakened to the power of a Holy Sword and was attending the academy, then perhaps there was a chance they could reconnect. Altiria hugged the spirit resting on her lap, a hopeful expectation filling her heart.
Before long, the massive artificial island city came into sight.
“Bloody Sword—Activate!”
Shing!
A blade came crashing down, smashing a skeleton soldier to bits.
“You’re not done yet.”
“…!”
Riselia’s voice echoed throughout the indoor training ground. She wheeled around to slash off an enemy’s head. Even decapitated, however, the skeletal knight charged forward and grabbed at the girl. Undead soldiers had no weak points. Just like the Voids, they had to be completely obliterated to be truly defeated.
Enemies like skeletons were a difficult match for Riselia’s Holy Sword because it took the shape of a thin blade. A bony hand reached out to grasp the girl’s slender neck, but the next moment, Riselia twisted her body by using her left leg as her axis.
“You little…!”
She delivered a kick with all the strength she could muster. Her argent hair billowed out with the motion. The skeleton was split in two and crumpled to the ground. Such a grappling technique delivered with a vampire’s enhanced strength behind it was stronger than most blunt weapons. Even so, pulling off that sort of maneuver should have been too challenging for most people.
Riselia was adept with more than just a sword; her martial arts capabilities were quite impressive as well. A brilliant defensive reaction like the one she’d just employed against the skeleton was proof enough of that. She’d clearly spent a long time honing her skills.
Bringing her right leg back down, Riselia pushed off the ground and dashed forward to slash with her sword. This attack, empowered with the girl’s mana, crushed the head of a beast-type skeleton.
“Haah, haah, haah…” Though Riselia panted, there wasn’t a drop of sweat on her body. That was to be expected, as she was undead.
“I can still keep going!” Riselia turned around, flashing a brilliant smile at Leonis.
Holy Swords were a miraculous power granted to select members of mankind by the planet as a means of opposing the Voids. These weapons took on a variety of forms in accordance with their wielder’s personality. One might be a broadsword, while another could be a katana, a bow, an ax, a staff, or even a gun. Each held a unique power, and all were fundamentally different from the sorcery Leonis used.
For years, Riselia had sought the strength to protect others but had been unable to awaken to the power of a Holy Sword. Recently, however, that had finally changed.
She’s better than expected. Leonis smiled to himself. Should she continue to improve, she could very well become a weapon of my defense.
Though the power of his sorcery remained intact, Leonis was still in the fragile body of a child. He could use his sorcery to reinforce his body, but even that had limits.
It might be time to teach her some first-order spells.
A Vampire Queen was the highest grade of undead minion, graced not only with powerful physical prowess but also a supply of mana and the ability to use magic on her own. Riselia’s skill with a blade may have fallen short compared to Sakuya Sieglinde, her junior and another member of the eighteenth platoon, but she could certainly match her if she became a Spellblade, a type of warrior capable of wielding magic.
Raising a talented minion to her full potential is satisfying, Leonis thought, his lips curling upward in a vicious smile.
“Leo, are you thinking something bad?” Riselia looked at him, knitting her eyebrows.
“I—I am not.”
“Your big sis can tell when you are,” she declared, staring at him fixedly.
“A-anyway… Next up, I’ll have you face a skeleton ogre,” Leonis said in an attempt to change the subject. He waved his staff, and the bones of the scattered practice enemies began to gather together, forming the shape of a large, hulking giant.
“Wh-what is that?!” Riselia exclaimed, incredulous.
“Defeating it will conclude your training for today,” Leonis declared.
“Whaaaat?!”
As imposing as it may have looked, Leonis knew a skeleton ogre wasn’t the kind of opponent to give Riselia any trouble.
“Wait, Leo, where are you going?!”
“The library. I finally had my ID issued, after all.”
“…Aaaah, Leooooo!”
Leonis left the training facility with the sound of clashing metal at his back.
Leonis departed from where Riselia had been practicing combat and made his way to the academy’s library. His plan was to study any ancient books and tomes that had been discovered within ruins. He was curious to learn about the magic technology that had rapidly developed in the few decades since the initial Void invasion and the commencement of the Assault Garden project. There had been some history on the subject available in his portable terminal.
The truly desirable details were contained within ancient tomes laced with mana, especially those truly rare ones classified as grimoires. Those sorts of books had been made impossible to copy digitally, which meant Leonis had to read them firsthand in the library.
I’ll need a great deal of intelligence if I’m to re-form the Dark Lords’ Armies.
The Dark Lords’ Armies had previously underestimated the importance of intelligence and information, a mistake that had brought those forces to ruin. Leonis couldn’t afford to make that error a second time.
The academy’s library was a rectangular building surrounded by alabaster walls. It was quite small in comparison to the Rognas Kingdom’s Vault of Wisdom, but then again, most modern books were digital.
Leonis held up the ID card he’d been issued and passed through the library’s gate. Even at this relatively early hour, there were already a few students in the library. A gaggle of girls noticed Leonis and hurriedly began whispering things like “Look at that boy!” and “So cute. ”
Ignoring them, Leonis went straight for the gate to the inner archive. He held up his ID card again, but this time, the gate flashed red. A small, beeping alarm sounded.
“What’s wrong?” Leonis cocked his head questioningly.
“Ordinary students are not authorized entry past this point.”
Before Leonis’s very eyes, a small, owllike creature appeared. It was glowing a bluish hue.
This isn’t some common animal. Being a Dark Lord, Leonis’s keen eyes quickly discerned the nature of the owl.
“It can’t be…a spirit?!” Leonis couldn’t help but exclaim out loud.
Spirits were mana life-forms born of the energy emitted by the moon.
So even in an age where gods have perished, the spirits have survived…
“Are you some sort of gatekeeper?” Leonis asked.
“I am the custodian of this vault.”
“I am a student of this academy. Can you let me pass?”
The spirit stiffened for a moment, then stated, “You lack the right and authority to pass.”
“What? Is this card not enough?”
“To enter the vault, you require the administration bureau’s approval.”
“…I see. How do I apply for their approval, then?” Leonis inquired, growing impatient.
“Submit a written request to the administration bureau. If they judge there to be no issue with the submission, they will grant approval within several weeks’ time,” the owl creature recited.
“Several weeks…” Leonis groaned. The Undead King was used to waiting, but he was currently registered as a refugee. Would a request from someone like him even get approved?
This is bothersome, Leonis thought. Reducing the spirit to ashes would be a simple matter for one such as him, of course, but that would cause undue commotion.
I could have Shary infiltrate the archive, considered Leonis. No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than…
“Hey there, kid. ”
Leonis’s vision suddenly went dark. Someone had approached him from behind and covered his eyes.
“Heh-heh. Guess who? ” asked the voice.
Squish. Leonis felt a pair of sizable bosoms press against his back.
“…Miss Regina, please. We’re in public,” replied Leonis, doing his best to maintain his composure as his heart began racing.
“Hmm. Y’know, you should play dumb and relish the sensation of my boobs against you a little longer, kid. It’s only polite.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with politeness,” Leonis whispered in exasperation, and he turned around.
Standing there was a petite, beautiful girl with flowing blond hair tied in pigtails. This was Regina Mercedes, Riselia’s maid and a fellow member of her platoon. She was good-humored and liked to bake tasty, homemade cookies. Unfortunately, she also had a nasty habit of teasing Leonis as she’d just done. She smiled, looking at Leonis with green, gemlike eyes.
“What are you doing here, Regina?”
“I came here to return some footage I borrowed,” she replied, retrieving the object in question from her bag. “What are you doing here, kid? There’s no naughty magazines in the library.”
“Th-that’s not why I came!” Leonis exclaimed, astonished. “I just wanted to borrow some books.”
Regina turned her eyes to the spirit blocking their way at the gate.
“…Are you trying to get into the basement’s archive?” Regina looked down at Leonis’s face suspiciously.
“Um, yes…,” he answered.
What should I do?
Surely a ten-year-old boy like Leonis having an interest in ancient tomes was highly unusual. The Dark Lord fell silent while he pondered an excuse.
“I just thought something there might help me regain my memories…,” Leonis finally said.
“Your memories?”
“The room I was trapped in was sealed with ancient text. So I thought that, if I could read up on some ancient writing, I might find a clue…”
The report submitted to the administration bureau had listed Leonis Magnus as an amnesiac refugee child abducted by the Voids. Researching the ruins in the hopes of reclaiming his memories might’ve come across as a bit zealous for a kid, but it was the best Leonis could muster in the moment.
Regina squatted down to meet him at eye level.
“I get it. Not having your memories must make you feel pretty anxious and scared.” She placed a hand on Leonis’s head and ruffled his hair gently. “All right. Let me handle this.”
Regina nodded and got to her feet, turning to face the owl.
“Spirit, please let him in on my authority.”
“Regina Mercedes is not approved to—”
“Oh, c’mon. Don’t be such a stick in the mud. ” Regina purred, tapping the owl’s head with a finger.
“Not…approved…to— Understood.”
The warning light turned off, and the gate clicked open.
Did she just interfere with the spirit?! Leonis was stunned.
Even with his mastery of the arcane arts, Leonis couldn’t have managed a trick like that. The only ones capable of meddling with spirits were the Princess Priestesses who had the ability to call on their power.
“What did you do just now?” Leonis asked.
“Just a little something,” Regina replied. She brought her index finger to her lips and whispered, “I can use the spirits’ power a little, is all. The other members of the eighteenth platoon already know about it, but keep it a secret, okay?”
“So you’re a spirit user?”
“No, no. It’s nothing major. C’mon, let’s go.”
Past the gate was a door to an elevator, a magical apparatus that made use of advanced gravity control magic. As soon as Leonis set foot in it, the elevator began a quiet descent. Necrozoa’s Death Hold had had similar devices, but they had been far more primitive mechanisms that required skeletons using pulleys and ropes.
This is impressive technology. I can see why regular sorcery ended up forgotten, Leonis thought. More than that, however, he was still concerned with the owl spirit.
“Regina, that owl from earlier was a spirit, right?” he asked, turning around to face the girl riding in the elevator with him.
“Yup, it’s one of the Phillet Company’s Artificial Elementals,” she explained.
“Artificial Elementals?” The unfamiliar term left Leonis stumped.
“Spirits created using magical technology. Unlike normal spirits, they can only handle simple tasks.”
“Artificially creating spirits…”
There’d been research into magic capable of creating spirits during Leonis’s era, too. It had ended in abject failure, however.
They’ve successfully created spirits, and they have them provide various services?
It was an astounding accomplishment, but it did beg the question of what happened to naturally occurring spirits.
“What happened to the non-artificial spirits?”
“Oh, you mean Origin Spirits,” Regina said. “They’re spoken of in legends, but I hear they’ve taken to only rarely revealing themselves ever since the Void invasion began. Apparently, some still exist in ancient forests, but not much is really known about that.”
“…I see,” replied Leonis. He’d expected as much.
This means that spirits still exist as a whole, though.
Unlike humans, spirits knew no natural life span. A higher-order one capable of communication could inform Leonis about everything that’d happened while he’d been sealed. The Undead King made sure to make a mental note of that.
After a long trip deep underground, the elevator finally came to a halt.
“This is incredible…,” Leonis uttered upon emerging.
“Yeah, this is my first time seeing it, too…,” Regina added.
A large cylinder stood at the center of the room, lording over its surroundings. Within it sat countless books, contained in transparent cases. There looked to be hundreds of volumes housed within the tube.
“What are you looking for?” Regina asked.
“Well, there’s a lot more books than I imagined. I suppose I’ll just start with whatever looks right…,” Leonis muttered.
With no real starting place, Leonis picked a random assortment of volumes with information from before the Void invasion that wasn’t recorded in the public database. He reached out and coiled a Shadow Hand around a few works.
“Ah, kid…,” Regina interrupted.
“What is it?”
“You can read these books here, but you can’t take them out. I fooled the spirit upstairs, but the books are tracked by some other system.”
Hmm. I suppose that stands to reason.
The tomes were stored under such heavy protection, it made sense students weren’t permitted to simply walk off with them.
“What about transcribing the contents and leaving with those?” Leonis inquired.
“That’s fine, I think…,” Regina replied.
Leonis took a pen from the breast pocket of his uniform. It wasn’t one of the bone pens he regularly used. This had come from the academy’s school store and automatically produced ink. He then summoned a piece of parchment from within his shadow and chanted a spell. The utensil sprang to life and began moving on its own, copying down the contents of the ancient texts.
This was an automatic writing spell, Auto Record. Leonis had originally devised it in order to mass-produce magic scrolls.
“Is that your Holy Sword’s ability?” Regina asked, peeking at what Leonis was doing.
“Something like that,” Leonis answered.
With the spell activated, copying the books would take around an hour.
“All right. I’ll head back then, kid.”
“Very well. Thank you very much, Miss Regina.”
Leonis bowed his head in gratitude, and Regina boarded the elevator and ascended after waving good-bye.
The Seventh Assault Garden’s sixth ward was also known as the special demi-human protection ward. It was an artificial environment consisting of a broad-leaved tree forest surrounding a freshwater lake maintained with desalinated water from the ocean.
Fewer than twenty thousand citizens lived in this ward, a thirtieth of the Seventh Assault Garden’s total population. The majority of them were demi-humans who’d been segregated from the rest of the populace.
Demi-humans was a collective term for the beastmen, elves, and fiend races who had lived in the forests, mountains, and islands before the empire began the Human Integration Project. Sixty-four years ago, demi-humans had been driven to near extinction by the Void invasion, much like their human counterparts. Under the pretext of protection, they’d been absorbed into the empire.
In that man-made forest where the demi-humans made their residence sat a temple so overgrown with vegetation that it resembled an abandoned house. There, a group of figures wrapped in ashen overcoats stood gathered. They numbered twenty altogether, and each was armed. An air of unease hung over the crumbling structure.
“As you all know, the fourth princess, Altiria, and her battleship, the Hyperion, are set to dock at this Assault Garden for a motivational rally,” stated a low voice reminiscent of a growl.
The speaker was a massive man so muscular and well built that his physique was clearly visible even through his overcoat. The face beneath his hood was that of a black lion.
This was Bastea Colossuf. A descendant of the Shamar clan, a group considered to be one of the most warlike and belligerent demi-human tribes, Bastea served as leader of the radical militant organization, the Sovereign Wolves. Under his guidance, the faction had performed countless acts of terrorism against the empire.
Ever since the Parliament Hall occupation incident, which had resulted in over two hundred deaths, the Sovereign Wolves had started wandering from one Assault Garden to another, lying in wait as they trained new recruits and sympathizers. They had arrived in the Seventh Assault Garden some eight months ago and were hiding from the watchful eye of the administration bureau in the forest of the demi-human protection ward, where they were harder to track. Concealed therein, the revolutionaries sharpened their claws as they awaited a chance to strike.
“Aaah, I look forward to it, I do. We’ll finally get to butcher some cheeky humans,” said one small beastman—a werewolf assassin—eagerly licking his lips.
“But can we really trust that woman, Lord Bastea?” asked a hulking figure standing with her back against the wall.
There was a large, sharp horn sticking out of her forehead, a clear indicator that the dissenting woman was of the raging demon race.
“She gave us power. That’s an undeniable fact.”
“He’s right, Elza. We have the power of Holy Swords now, just like those humans!”
“Heh-heh-heh… Those aren’t Holy Swords,” came a new voice, prompting everyone to turn and look at the speaker.
“…?!”
“Those are Demon Swords, items granted to you by the goddess.”
At some point, a beautiful, enchanting woman with dark skin had appeared at the entrance of the temple. While she looked to be in her twenties, appearances were unreliable when dealing with a dark elf like her. Clutched in her grip was a pitch-black sword that emanated an eerie, unsettling aura.
“There you are, Sharnak, you witch,” Bastea spat.
Sharnak of the Everdark Forest had first appeared during a secret meeting of the Sovereign Wolves several weeks before the Void Lord’s Stampede on the Seventh Assault Garden. While the rebel cell had been suspicious of the dark elf at first, they’d been quick to accept the promise of power she offered by way of the goddess’s blessing.
The dark elf granted an ability similar to the miraculous Holy Swords that the planet had bestowed upon the lowly human race to those in whom she saw potential.
“How are you liking the power of the goddess? Does it please you?” Sharnak smiled confidently at the others.
“Why are you cooperating with us?” Bastea pressed.
“Because the goddess wills me to do so.”
“The goddess, eh?” growled Bastea in answer.
I don’t trust this woman. Bastea’s intuition as a beastman was warning him that this dark elf spoke with the tongue of a viper.
Still, the power of the Demon Swords she gave us is real enough.
The Sovereign Wolves weren’t in a position to turn down help based on who was providing it. All that mattered was freeing their kin held captive in the capital.
“The preparations for hijacking the ship are already underway. You can leave everything to me,” Sharnak cooed.
“If an imperial battleship were that easy to take, we’d have done it already,” Bastea told her.
“I will summon the powers of the Nothingness,” the witch replied.
“What?” Bastea furrowed his brow.
A black miasma began seeping from the blade of the Demon Sword in Sharnak’s hands.
“The Nothingness that serves the goddess will guide your way.”
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login