CHAPTER 4
THE WRITHING HOLLOW
“—Leo… Leonis…”
Her voice brushed gently against his ear. It was a call most humans shrank away from, believing it to be an invitation into darkness. However, it was a sound of peace and tranquility for this boy—one that tugged at his heart whenever he heard it.
Sleek black hair, as if the dark of night had melted and weaved into locks. Eyes that glittered like falling stars. That was Roselia Ishtaris, the Goddess of Rebellion, who had led the eight Dark Lords in a war against the Luminous Powers.
Every now and then, Roselia had let the boy rest on her lap. And in place of a bedtime story, she would tell him tales of her time beyond the stars, of the ancient myths and the things she saw there.
“Leo. I might not have much time left to remain by your side.”
“…Roselia?” The boy thought it strange. Why would she say something like that?
“I don’t want that… I-if it’s for you, I’d do…”
“I’m sorry. But this is my fate… No. This is my calling.” Roselia’s white hand gently covered the boy’s eyes. “Soon, I will be gone. A thousand years in the future, I will be reborn.”
“…The future?”
“Yes. Could you promise you will come find me when that happens? Swear you’ll search for me, no matter what form I might take.”
“Of course. I will seek you out without fail. Regardless of what you might become.”
“…eo… Leo…”
“…Mm…”
Leonis felt someone shake him. Rubbing his bleary eyes, Leonis turned in his sleep.
“Foolish one… You would dare disturb a…Dark Lord’s slumber…”
“Leo?”
“Let your painful demise…be the steep price you…”
“Leo, are you talking in your sleep?”
A cold palm touched his cheek.
“…?!”
That was enough to snap Leonis back to the realm of the waking. “…M-Miss Selia?!” he exclaimed as he bolted upright.
Riselia was staring at Leonis with a perplexed expression on her face. Her ice-blue eyes were full of concern. It seemed that, at some point, he’d been put to sleep on her lap.
“I’m sorry I woke you up. You were tossing in your sleep.”
“I had Lady Selia switch places with me after a while,” Regina explained, stifling a yawn. “You look cute when you sleep, though, kid.”
“D-don’t tease me…,” Leonis grumbled, blushing as Regina poked his cheek playfully.
“And you were saying something about disturbing a Dark Lord’s slumber or something…”
“I, erm. I was just talking in my sleep. Don’t pay any attention to it!” Leonis hurriedly spat out in a flustered attempt to dodge the topic.
Apparently, he’d revealed something quite damning while unconscious. That was careless of him.
I need to be wary of sleep talking. Leonis then turned his gaze out the window. “Erm, how long have I been asleep?”
The sky was covered in gray clouds, and the sun had begun to rise.
“About eight hours,” Riselia replied after examining the clock.
“That long…?”
“I guess my ear cleaning was just that pleasant. Wasn’t it, kid?”
“A-and sleeping on my lap was nice, too! Right, Leo?!”
“D-don’t drag me into this argument again!”
“Hmm, we should be touching down at the Third Assault Garden’s third port in about ten minutes,” Elfiné called. “That’s the area where the distress signals originated from.”
“All right. Sakuya, time to wake up,” Riselia shook the only team member who was still sleeping.
“Mm… Sister…?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not your sister.” Riselia lifted Sakuya’s eye mask, prompting the young woman to blink at the bright light.
The tactical fighter began its descent, its main wings’ thrusters spewing blue flames. Leonis peered out the window. Beneath the layer of dense mist, a massive artificial structure was sailing across the sea.
So that’s the Third Assault Garden.
It was so large it was hard to grasp the full size of the construct. The central area was covered by a thick layer of sea fog, making it difficult to discern what lay beyond. The jet activated its descent boosters and began its landing sequence.
The Third Assault Garden had been one of humanity’s final strongholds and an anti-Void fortress. The sizable artificial island was divided into three linked areas. It was only half the Seventh Assault Garden’s size in terms of scale, but that was because the Seventh had been erected later on. Before the Stampede, the Third Assault Garden had been home to a population of over five hundred thousand.
The middle area was called the Central Garden. It was connected to a sprawling residential area and a military port. The eighteenth platoon landed in the latter of the two adjoined sections. The ruins of buildings destroyed by the Voids surrounded them.
A thick fog hung over the port, making for poor visibility. Touching down on the rubble, Leonis stretched his stiff body. A suffocating miasma pervaded everything.
This place is thick with the presence of death. It’s not unlike Necrozoa…
It was sunrise, but the sky was clouded over, making for a gloomy, melancholic atmosphere. The scent of the countless deceased still wafted in the air. Had this been the world of one thousand years ago, the Assault Garden would have been a place where the undead naturally formed and roamed about freely.
Leonis heard a set of footfalls behind him. Turning around, he saw Riselia looking up at the ruined buildings with a grim expression on her face. Unsure of what to say, Leonis stood still. Regina, Sakuya, and Elfiné got off the plane and locked its doors.
“The miasma is thicker within the city, so we can’t move the plane in there,” Elfiné said with a shrug.
The noxious vapors would undoubtedly throw off the precise magical instruments the fighter jet used for navigation. The fog also made plain sight unreliable, which meant flying the plane over the city ran the risk of crashing.
“Miss Riselia…,” Sakuya began, perhaps intending to ask the platoon leader about their next course of action.
Riselia shook her head, as if to shake off the sentimentality that overcame her, then nodded. “Let’s begin the preliminary investigation of the urban area.”
Leonis and Riselia would inspect the residential section to the west, while Regina, Sakuya, and Elfiné would handle the east. Riselia and Regina were familiar with the city. Thus, one of each went to the two groups. Riselia had Leonis partner with her, perhaps out of concern that his powers might be exposed if a fight broke out.
She’s a smart one. The wise decision only left Leonis feeling even more proud of his minion.
“Take this, Selia,” Elfiné said, handing over one of the Eye of the Witch orbs to her.
An ordinary communication terminal wouldn’t function in the miasma, so they needed Elfiné’s Holy Sword for long-distance communication.
“Don’t forget to submit hourly updates, and remember to be careful,” Riselia reminded the squad.
“I’m leaving Lady Selia in your care, kid,” Regina whispered into Leonis’s ear before they parted ways.
“We’ll be fine,” Leonis replied with a confident nod. He then directed a telepathic message into his shadow.
“Shary.”
“Yes, my lord?”
Leonis’s shadow writhed a bit as the assassin answered him.
“Escort the three of them.”
“But what about guarding you, my lord?” Shary asked with a hesitant tone.
Leonis lacked much of the magical power he’d originally had, and his physical prowess was close to nil. Given his current form, Shary’s concern was understandable.
“That will not be necessary. Who do you take me for?”
“But…”
“I won’t repeat myself.” Leonis glared at his shadow harshly.
“…My apologies, my lord.” It looked as if the thing recoiled in fear.
Shary was a ditzy maid, but Leonis trusted in her skills as an assassin. And leaving Regina and the rest in her care gave him some peace of mind.
Me, a Dark Lord, protecting humans… Leonis gave a self-deprecating chuckle. Well, they’re the citizens of my kingdom, after all. Even as he thought that, some part of Leonis had to wonder if that was really all there was to it.
The wind whistled as it blew through half-crumbled buildings. As Riselia and Leonis trekked over the rubble, their footsteps echoed hollowly around them.
“This was where the Crystalia Knights formed their last line of defense against the Voids,” Riselia explained, stepping up in front of a crumbled fortification. She looked around, her silvery hair wavering. There were no signs of movement in the ruined city. “Be careful. The roads might cave in.”
“I will. Ah…!” Leonis managed before tripping over a piece of rubble.
Riselia hurriedly caught his arm. “Are you all right, Leo?” she asked.
“…Thank you.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard. If you’re tired, we can take a break.” Riselia stopped and surveyed her surroundings. “Everything really is gone.”
“…”
All traces of life had been purged. There weren’t even bones.
Come to think of it…Voids eat humans.
When a person was consumed by one of those creatures, they disappeared without a trace, as though erased from existence.
“What about underground? There could be survivors down there,” Leonis suggested.
If this city was anything like the Seventh Assault Garden, there had to be a subterranean shelter.
“Yes. The underground safe house should have rations, a seawater filtering device, and a generator. But I still don’t think it’s likely that anyone has managed to survive in a Void territory for six years…”
Riselia and Leonis continued deeper into the remnants of the former’s birthplace. After walking for twenty minutes, they came across a facility that was still mostly intact. It was a large complex consisting of an athletic concourse and multiple short, several-story buildings.
“This was where the school was,” Riselia said, her voice shivering slightly.
“Like our Excalibur Academy?” asked Leonis.
“No. This wasn’t a place to train Holy Swordsmen. It was a place for ordinary children…,” Riselia replied, pushing the broken outer gate open. “It looks like the building is still intact. Let’s go inside.”
Riselia entered the ruined grounds of the school. Surprisingly, the indoor areas weren’t as badly damaged. Riselia advanced through a corridor filled with dust and up a staircase. There’d been an elevator at the end of the hall, but it wasn’t active.
“Let’s go to the rooftop. We might spot something from a higher vantage point,” Riselia suggested.
“…Okay,” Leonis accepted.
The pair climbed the steps, covering their mouths so as not to inhale any dust.
Her birthplace, eh…? Leonis thought as he gazed at Riselia’s back.
Suffice it to say, Leonis didn’t see the Rognas Kingdom, which was where he’d been born, as his native home. If he truly had such a thing, it was Necrozoa, but it had fallen, and all of Leonis’s subordinates were long gone. All that felt like home to Leonis now—the one place he belonged—was…
At her side.
Riselia and Leonis reached the fourth floor and found themselves blocked from climbing any farther by a closed shutter.
“Hyahhh!”
However, Riselia used her Vampire Queen power to kick it open.
“Miss Selia, that’s violent.”
“Mm, I’m sorry. I’m a bit on edge…,” Riselia admitted, averting her gaze awkwardly.
“You’re still not fully acclimated to your strength, so you might injure your legs without realizing it. Be careful.”
The two of them went through the large hole in the shutter and stepped outside. The rooftop had a water tank outfitted with a filtering device and a ration storehouse.
“We should have a good view of things from up here,” Riselia said, standing in front of the broken fence that ran the circumference of the top of the school building.
Holding down her silvery hair to keep it from billowing in the wind, Riselia gazed down at what remained of the city. “That’s the Central Garden. It’s where Regina and I used to live.” She pointed to an area connected to this one by a bridge. It was around where Excalibur Academy would be in the Seventh Assault Garden.
“Can you see it?” Riselia asked, narrowing her ice-blue eyes. She then suddenly picked up Leonis by the armpits and lifted him.
“Ah…!” he exclaimed.
“Oh. You’re light, Leo.”
“Miss Selia, p-put me down!” Leonis demanded in flustered shock, his face going red. That’s when he caught sight of something in the distance.
That’s…
“…What’s wrong, Leo?” Riselia asked, putting Leonis back down on the ground.
“Miss Selia, have you ever seen that pattern over there before?”
“What do you mean…?” Riselia followed Leonis’s finger. After spotting the symbol, she shook her head. “No, never. It looks kind of…eerie.”
Hmm. Eerie, you say…
Humans from one thousand years ago regarded that mark as something holy. Curiously, it came across as disturbing to the people of this era.
The symbol of a star and a burning eye.
One thousand years ago, the design could be found most everywhere in human territories. It was the mark of the Holy Sect. Leonis had spotted the symbol in a different part of the city during the meeting back at the Seventh Assault Garden. Could the design be carved into places all around the city?
But who would do that…?
“…?!” Sensing something behind himself, Leonis wheeled around.
Crack, crack, crack…!
Numerous fissures ran through the air mere footsteps away from where Riselia and Leonis were standing.
“…Voids!”
“Leo, get back!” Riselia shouted as she took a defensive stance in front of the boy.
The fractures quickly multiplied, looking like a floating, nearly shattered pane of glass. With a terrible sound, Voids smashed through the cracks.
“Grrrrrr… Grrr!”
Humanoid, bipedal abominations that moved as though drifting through the ocean, stepping forward with a ghastly stride. Their skin was pale to the point of transparency, and they gave off a dim glow. Their arms dangled down to the ground. Sharp talons that dripped with viscous mucus adorned every finger.
They look similar to a type of monster that makes its home in the swamps, the Vodyanoy. But no…
“Activate—Bloody Sword!” Riselia called out, holding up her right hand. Particles of light converged in her palm, manifesting into a Holy Sword. Several dozen Voids appeared around the young woman, surrounding her and Leonis, but Riselia glared at them defiantly.
“There’s a lot of them,” Leonis observed gravely.
“Yes. And I’ve never seen this type of Void before…!” Riselia nodded, gripping her Holy Sword tightly.
“Raaaaaahhhh!” the humanoid creatures howled. Opening their mouths wide to reveal rows of small fangs, they lunged forward with their claws poised to strike. Leonis quickly called the Staff of Sealed Sins.
“Flamis!” He chanted a third-order spell, the Blazing Heat Wave.
Whoooosh!
Jets of fire shot from the tip of Leonis’s staff, reducing three of the Voids to ashes. Their carbonized remains crumbled to the ground.
“Flamis! Flamis! Flamis!”
The Dark Lord loosed more spells in rapid succession, destroying Voids as they crept out of the fissures. The air grew dry and hot. Undaunted, Riselia plunged into the conflagration, enveloped by mana.
“Hrahhh!” Her Holy Sword shone red and cleaved through two Voids at once.
“Leo, fall back for now…!” Riselia called out and turned around.
No sooner had she done so, however…
“Sta… Cry…sta…liaaaaaaa…!”
…Than the Voids she cut down let out moans that almost sounded like words.
“…Huh?” Riselia’s blue eyes widened. “What did they just…?!”
Crack, crack, crack, crack!
Unfortunately, before any answer could come, another fissure, this one large enough to swallow the entire building, began to form.
“…Miss Selia!” Leonis called out to warn her. He’d seen a similar phenomenon on the Hyperion’s deck.
A large one is coming!
A split second later, the breach widened and exploded outward!
Boooooooooooooooooom! As if swallowed up by the Void, the ruins of the school crumbled away.
“…?!”
The structure had been brittle to begin with. The building toppled to pieces, drawing its surroundings into a large hole that formed in the ground. The crater was so deep that Leonis couldn’t spy its bottom.
What is this?! Some kind of underground hollow…?! Leonis thought as he plummeted down.
He recalled his battle with Arakael Degradios, one of the Six Heroes. There’d been a large shaft beneath the Seventh Assault Garden’s surface that had led to some subterranean facility. And the Assault Gardens all shared the same fundamental structure.
As the hole consumed several dozen Voids, Leonis located Riselia among the falling rubble.
“Miss Selia!” Reaching his hands out in midair, Leonis tried to use gravity magic to catch her. But at that moment, another fissure appeared in the air between them. Space itself twisted and cracked as something began to appear—a massive arm, its fingers extending to catch and crush Leonis!
“Tch!”
The Dark Lord dispersed the gravity spell he’d begun to intone and quickly switched over to another attack.
“Farga!”
Vroooooooooooom! An explosion rumbled in front of Leonis. The shock waves rattled the air, blowing his body back.
“Zoh Fia!” Leonis quickly chanted a gravity spell to stabilize himself in midair. “Who in the world is this?! Nng, kah!” Leonis choked as he breathed dust. When things settled, the visage of a giant creature pushing apart the fissure in space became visible.
It was a massive, humanoid statue that dwarfed any of the crumbled buildings. Its surface was like polished marble that surged with lightning. It didn’t have a head, and floating above its neck was a rainbow-hued aura.
A gigantic Void, eh? It was the first time Leonis had seen this variety of Void, but it did strike him as familiar in another sense.
Could it be…an apostle of the Luminous Powers…an angel?!
Angels were the servants of the gods and the natural enemies of the undead legions. Their fists could crush mountains, and their spears of holy light could transform any landscape into a sea of flames.
“A Void in the image of an angel, is it?”
Leonis held up his Staff of Sealed Sins. This Void gave off a greater sense of pressure than the humanoid Voids from earlier had.
Where’s Riselia…?
Scanning the abyss below, Leonis quickly spotted her. A Vampire Queen could manifest wings of mana to fly, but Riselia wasn’t used to handling her power, and Leonis doubted she could do it on the spot.
What manner of madness is this?!
Anger gripped Leonis. He trusted that Riselia’s powerful Vampire Queen body could withstand the shock of the fall, but that may have been wishful thinking on the Dark Lord’s part. This chasm was so deep as to appear bottomless, after all.
“Selia! Leo! Did something happen?!” Elfiné’s voice called.
The Eye of the Witch orb she had left with Leonis and Riselia rotated through the air, flying toward Leonis. Elfiné had probably activated it upon hearing the explosions.
“We’re fighting a large Void! Miss Selia is—”
“Leo?!”
“Kriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” The angel let out a horrid, dissonant screech. Its aura rotated as its massive body began emanating some sort of glow.
“…Tch, Rua Meires!” Leonis reflexively deployed a barrier, negating the torrent of light. But Elfiné’s orb was caught up in the attack and destroyed. Leonis’s shield parted the luminous ribbon of energy, dividing it into two beams that went on to slice through buildings in the distance. In terms of sheer power, it was equal to a fourth-order spell.
“…You irritating cur…” Leonis clicked his tongue.
Angels had high resistance to sorcery from the Realm of Death. In many ways, they were the undead’s natural enemy. A mere angel was no match for the Undead King at his full strength, but in Leonis’s current body, engaging the creature would prove irksome.
Leonis looked down at the pit below. He wanted to disregard the Void and hurry to his minion’s side. However, the angel seemed determined to take Leonis down, as it spread its wings to charge at him.
I should clear this up already. Leonis spun the Staff of Sealed Sins in his hand, thrusting its tip toward his opponent.
“Angel who has succumbed to nothingness, I will show you the essence of true sorcery!”
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