Demon Sword Master of the Holy Sword Academy - Volume 3 - Chapter 5

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CHAPTER 5

GHOSTS OF THE RUINED CITY

At the bottom of the dark, enclosed shaft, Riselia wearily cracked her eyes open.

“…Ngh…!”

Her attempt to stand was rewarded with a numbing pain that shot through her legs. Looking down, Riselia realized that the limbs had been slammed against the ground and now bent at unnatural angles.

They’re broken, huh? Riselia took in the situation coolly.

Naturally, an average human’s body would have been crushed beyond recognition after plummeting from such a height. Riselia was a member of the undead, however—something she was thankful for at this moment.

How far have I fallen…?

Riselia strained her neck, looking around. Unfortunately, even her vampire eyes, graced with superior night vision, could hardly see anything in this darkness. This was a vast, silent place.

It had to be an abandoned shelter. Gigantic roots had torn through the metallic bulkheads, rendering them useless.

Riselia could hear the sounds of Leonis fighting in the distance. She planted her hands on the ground, trying to push herself up, when suddenly…

“…Huh?!”

Riselia’s crimson glowing eyes detected something writhing in the darkness ahead.

“Cut Apart Through Dragon Scales, Demonic Blades of Ice—Sharianos!” Leonis chanted a spell, his mana amplified by the Staff of Sealed Sins. This eighth-order water element magic formed countless ice blades in midair, which rained down on the opponent. But just as they were about to strike the angel-class Void, it let out an unnatural sound. A shield of light formed around it, deflecting Leonis’s attack.

Ah, so it has retained its Holy Protection ability…

Holy Protection was a sacred boon granted to high-ranking angels, capable of rendering all spells of the eighth order or below inert. Breaking through this protection wasn’t easy. It was why angels, the apostles of the gods, were said to be equal to dragons.

Undoing his gravity control spell, Leonis landed near the shaft’s rim. Controlling gravity required a great deal of concentration to regulate one’s mana, making it ill-suited for use in the middle of combat.

The floating Void let out another dissonant screech, and a radiant sword formed in its hands. It was a sixth-order holy magic spell, the Punisher’s Sword—a lightning attack that had once tormented the Dark Lords’ Armies.

“Tch!”

The angel hurled the conjured blade at Leonis, who parried it with the Staff of Sealed Sins, which he’d charged with his mana.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

The sword of light dispersed, releasing a shock wave that mowed through the surrounding ruins. The ripples sent clouds of dust into the air, obscuring Leonis from sight. The Void began chanting its holy magic again, forming another glowing blade in its hands.

In a matter of moments, six radiant swords floated in the air. With a single motion, the Void unleashed them all at once.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Thunderous roars echoed, reverberating all around. The Void flapped its deformed wings, blowing away the dirt and rubble in the air. However, there was no sign of Leonis below.

“Look up, fool.”

A giant, winged shadow eclipsed the angel. A skeletal dragon that rivaled the Void in size was soaring up above. Kneeling on its back was Leonis, who sneered down at his opponent scornfully.

“You have no right to look upon a Dark Lord, lowly angel.” Leonis then thrust forward the Staff of Sealed Sins and chanted a spell: “Crush All—Beruda Gira!”

Bwoom! A condensed orb of gravitational force knocked the Void down into the ground. Its massive form sank into the earth, forming a large crater.

“Farga! Farga! Farga!”

Leonis fired third-order destructive spells in quick succession, which hit the Void and exploded. The Dark Lord didn’t give his opponent time to activate its Holy Protection. The Void spread its wings of light and took off, speeding toward the skull dragon.

“Oh, you are a bulky one, aren’t you?” Leonis mocked.

The skull dragon’s eye sockets gleamed crimson.

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

It let out a rumbling, ominous roar before sinking its fangs into the Void’s arm. Then, it unleashed its Breath of Death, an undead dragon attack capable of rotting the earth and tainting the soul. The fatal vapor had decimated legions on the battlefield.

One of the Void’s arms crumbled away, sending the creature plummeting to the ground. Using its other arm, the Void tried to lob a Punisher’s Sword at Leonis. However…

“Too slow.”

…Leonis had already completed his own incantation.

“Ninth-order spell—Madia Zolf!”

Boooooooooooooooom!

Hit with a flash of heat capable of melting mithril away, the Void’s massive form tumbled limply into the enormous crater.

“And here’s one more to remember me by: Rias Gia!”

Without wasting a moment, Leonis quickly intoned another ninth-order spell. Dark bolts of lightning rained down upon the angel-class Void, utterly destroying it.

“A bit too spectacular of a showing for such a weakling,” Leonis spat. He then peered down into the abyss below. The skull dragon swooped down, descending into the hole with Leonis perched on its back.

Leonis ventured farther into the depths, using an orb of light to illuminate his way. After flying down several hundred meters, he finally reached the bottom of the shaft. Leonis dismounted the skull dragon and returned it to his shadow.

Lighting a small flame at the tip of his staff, he examined his surroundings. It was a large, circular space. There were tunnels on opposite sides of the chamber, presumably for transporting cargo. Riselia was nowhere to be found.

Leonis furrowed his brow, suspicious, and looked up.

Did she get caught somewhere mid-fall? No…

If she had, Leonis would have spotted her as he rode his dragon down. Searching his surroundings, Leonis spotted speckles of blood on the ground.

“…!” He swallowed nervously despite himself.

The drops were fresh. It must have been Riselia’s blood. Increasing the light at his staff’s tip, Leonis saw the bloody trail led into one of the adjoining tunnels.

The Dark Lord felt a sense of anxiety grip his heart. A vampire’s mana granted them natural regenerative abilities. If Riselia simply stayed put, her injuries would heal on their own. There should have been no reason for her to move.

Could she have been fleeing something? Or was she taken away?

Leonis broke into a run. With drops of crimson as his guide, he dashed into the tunnel with a flame held overhead to light the way.

“…lia! Miss Selia!” Leonis’s voice echoed in the empty ebon.

That’s when…

“…Le…o! Leo, over here!”

Leonis turned his light in the voice’s direction. The shaft connected to that large room Leonis had dropped into appeared to be a large storage space. Inside a room surrounded by concrete walls, Leonis found Riselia sitting on the floor.

“Miss Selia…!”

But as soon as he stepped into the room, Leonis froze in place. There was someone else there. A large group of moving skeletons surrounded Riselia.

“Voids?!” Leonis raised his voice sharply and readied his Staff of Sealed Sins.

“Leo, wait!” Riselia pleaded with a shout. “They’re not Voids! These people are—”

“Huh?” Leonis narrowed his eyes dubiously, lowering his staff.

The skeletons all turned to face him, their eye sockets alight with a blue glow. And then…

<We are…the ghosts of this ruined city…> They spoke, their solemn voices echoing through the underground space.

“Hahh, hahh, hahh…”

“Are you all right, Miss Elfiné?” Regina asked, turning to face her upperclassman.

Unlike Regina and Sakuya, who had kept up with the academy’s basic stamina training, Elfiné was an upperclassman in the information sciences department, and she wasn’t great when it came to running.

“Y-yes… I’m fine…,” Elfiné replied, panting hard as she continued to dash.

Many of the ruined city’s streets were broken and crumbled, and some spots had wholly caved in. The group wouldn’t get lost with Elfiné there to lead them, but they couldn’t follow the fastest route and had to take significant detours.

Eventually, the three of them arrived at where the school had previously been. But upon seeing what was left, the trio stood stock-still and stunned.

“What…happened here?”

The gigantic Void they’d spotted in the distance wasn’t anywhere to be found now. However, the surrounding buildings had all collapsed, and multiple craters had been torn into the ground. Most striking of all, though, was a massive hole that led down into a shaft connecting to the Assault Garden’s underground facilities.

Elfiné shook her head silently. Clouds of dust clung to the air, making it hard to see anything. There was no sign of any Voids or Riselia and Leonis.

“It seems the Voids were destroyed. I can’t sense their presence,” Sakuya said.

“Did Lady Selia and the kid defeat them?” Regina inquired.

“…Who’s to say?” Elfiné answered. The orb she’d left with Riselia got destroyed during the battle. Thankfully, the footage prior to its annihilation was stored in the orbs’ shared network. It could be extracted, but that would take time.

“Lady Selia! Kid! Where are you?!” Regina called out. She then leaned over the large, gaping shaft.

“Regina, that’s dangerous,” Elfiné chided her hurriedly.

“They didn’t fall down there, did they?” Regina asked, her voice shaking.

“…” Elfiné swallowed nervously. If Riselia and Leonis had indeed plummeted into the pit, the chances of their survival were depressingly low.

“I’ll go down and look for them,” Sakuya declared, preparing to dive in with Raikirimaru in hand.

“Sakuya, that’s insane,” Elfiné protested.

“I’ll be fine. If I envelop my legs in electromagnetic energy, I should be able to run along the wall—”

“You can do that?” Regina questioned.

“Yes. I mean, I’ve never done it for real, but it should work.”

““You can’t!”” Regina and Elfiné concurrently shouted just as Sakuya was about to leap right into the chasm.

“Just calm down. I’ll send one of my eyes to investigate what’s down there,” Elfiné said, forming a new orb of light in her hands.

However…

“Miss Elfiné!”

Sakuya pushed the older girl away. The silvery blade of a sword swept across Elfiné’s field of vision.

Krrrrrrrrrrrr! Metal clashed with a terrible screech, producing a shower of sparks.

What?!

Having fallen to the ground, Elfiné peered through the dust that had been kicked up. Sakuya’s Raikirimaru was locked with another girl’s blade. She was petite and couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen. Her verdant ponytail wavered in the wind.

The mysterious girl’s attire was foreign to the members of the eighteenth platoon. And her pale, slender arms gripped a sizable double-edged sword that looked far too heavy for her to wield reasonably.

“…Who are you?” Sakuya demanded, her sword still locked with the other young woman’s.

“…You speak, monster?!” The girl’s eyes widened slightly. “How eerie. Foul creature…!”

Sakuya didn’t miss this momentary opening, however, and she struck. The tendrils of electricity running along Raikirimaru’s blade only managed to skim along the girl’s brow, though, sending a few of her forelocks flying.

She dodged Sakuya’s sword?!

But electrical attacks weren’t Sakuya’s Holy Sword’s true power. Lightning enveloped Sakuya’s body, accelerating her movements. She swiftly brought her weapon down on her opponent’s neck.

“…”

Sakuya stopped her slash at the absolute last moment, standing stock-still. The other girl’s blade was fixed against Sakuya’s throat, too. Her blue eyes gazed directly at Sakuya.

“Let’s stop.” Sakuya was the first to lower her sword.

“What…?!” her opponent exclaimed.

“You’re strong. I probably would have lost if you were in perfect health.”

“…Tch.” The girl bit her lip. With one hand, she clutched her abdomen. Drops of blood dripped from a large wound in her stomach. “Who…are you…?” She let out a pained, whispered moan as she crumpled to the ground.

Beneath Leonis’s magically conjured light, the distorted skeletons writhed like half-broken toys, casting eerie shadows on the floor.

<We were…the Crystalia Knights…,> a one-armed skeleton said with a crackling voice.

“The Crystalia Knights?” Leonis asked. He knelt down to help Riselia. A clean cloth bandage was wrapped around her right leg. Apparently, these undead had carried her to safety and treated her injuries.

“It was a knight order in service to House Crystalia,” Riselia explained. “They fought to defend this city with my father.”

<Six years ago… We laid down our lives…fighting the Void Stampede…> The skeletons spoke in time, their voices echoing through the dark room.

So they’re wandering dead. Being the Undead King, Leonis quickly realized what these skeletons truly were. At the sites of large clashes, souls that harbored intense, lingering regrets could sometimes remain in the realm of the living.

It wasn’t an uncommon phenomenon. During Leonis’s reign as a Dark Lord, large numbers of undead would rise after battles had ended even without the use of Realm of Death sorcery.

It seems the people of this age don’t know of the undead, though…

Most lands in this era were exhausted of mana, so modern people had never seen undead rising on their own.

But this ruined city is different…

The Voids had brought a vast massacre down upon this place, and it was left untouched for years, surrounded by a miasma. It was no surprise that all the negative mana built up in this place would become a crucible for its wandering spirits.

A Vampire Queen reigned over all undead. The lost souls of the Third Assault Garden had been drawn to Riselia’s presence of death.

Leonis placed his Staff of Sealed Sins on the ground and corrected his posture.

These undead were all warriors who had fought to protect their country. Even Leonis, known for his arrogance, abided by a Dark Lord’s dignity and knew to respect their bravery.

<Do you…not…fear us…?> the skeletons asked Riselia.

“I’ll admit I’m a bit scared of ghosts, but I’m used to skeletons,” Riselia answered, reaching out and taking the bony hand of one of her saviors.

<Oooh… Our mistress… Lady…Riselia…> The knights kneeled in reverence.

Riselia had fought plenty of skeleton soldiers during her training with Leonis, so these hardly gave her pause. She gazed into the creatures’ dimly lit eye sockets.

“Were you the ones who sent the distress signals to Excalibur Academy?”

<Yes… It appears they reached you…safely…>

Riselia and Leonis exchanged glances. They never expected that mysterious call to have been sent by a group of rogue undead. However…

“Why did you summon us?” Leonis asked.

What could the dead possibly desire?

If they wish for their trapped souls to be set free, I could grant that easily enough.

That was simple for Leonis, who had governed over death. But he doubted they went as far as sending a distress signal to Excalibur Academy just for that.

<…We do not…seek salvation…> One of the skeletons shook its head in denial. <We did it…to warn you…>

“Warn us?” Riselia pressed.

<Yes… If things are allowed to continue… The tragedy of six years ago… A Stampede will consume…the Seventh Assault Garden…>

“What…?!” exclaimed Riselia. “What do you mean? The Void Lord who destroyed our home was said to have disappeared…”

“What…?!”

The knights explained that, fourty-two days ago, a Void in the form of a beautiful woman fused with the massive mana furnace appeared slumbering in the heart of the city, deep beneath the Central Garden.

“Fused with the mana furnace?” Riselia repeated the skeletons’ words in disbelief.

I’ve heard something like this before, Leonis whispered to himself bitterly.

During the Stampede in the Seventh Assault Garden, Arakael Degradios, the Archsage of the Six Heroes turned Void, had attempted to fuse with that settlement’s mana furnace.

However, there was something else about what the undead said that caught Leonis’s attention.

Forty-two days ago?

That was around the same time Leonis had awoken from his magical hibernation. It felt too eerie for mere coincidence. As Leonis mulled over the meaning of it all, the skeletons continued.

<And…after merging with the city’s…core…the Void Lord began…creating its minions of emptiness…>

“Yes, we saw them on the surface. Humanoid Voids that appeared from tears in space.”

“I fought a giant, angel-like Void and destroyed it,” Leonis appended.

“…What do you mean?”

“…What?!” The color drained from Riselia’s face. “Are you saying those creatures were…this city’s…?!”

“Voids using the souls of the dead like that… Is that possible?” Leonis inquired.

“I… I’ve never heard of it before.” Riselia shook her head, still taken aback.

<…We can…hear its voice…>

“Voice?” Riselia asked the wandering souls.

The spirits began to groan in miserable agony.

<Yes… The call… It tries to tear our souls…away…>

<…Those…near the center…of the mana furnace…were trapped, transformed into Voids…>

<Soon, we too shall…join the ranks of those terrible monsters…>

“Holy Woman?” Leonis questioned, latching on to that particular phrase.

“Leo?” Riselia looked at the boy, confused.

“Sorry to cut in. Is that Holy Woman the Void Lord?” Leonis asked, leaning forward despite himself. He knew that title. If this wasn’t happenstance, the one it referred to was…

<Yes… The Holy Woman… Tea…ris…>

<Tearis… Void Lord… That’s the monster’s name…>

Tearis Resurrectia, the Holy Woman. She was the princess priestess once worshipped by the Holy Sect, and a member of the Six Heroes. One thousand years ago, she was one of Leonis’s archnemeses.

So Tearis has returned as a Void Lord.

The gods had granted the Holy Woman of the Six Heroes the power of Resurrection. And if she retained that ability as a Void…

Perhaps she can revive the wandering souls as Voids, Leonis theorized, resting a hand on his chin.

Following Arakael Degradios, it seemed that yet another one of the Six Heroes had been brought back after a millennium. It almost seemed to herald the rebirth of the Goddess of Rebellion, Roselia. Once-great heroes were becoming Void Lords who endangered humanity’s continued existence.

What in the world is going on? Though he’d been handed more pieces, Leonis still didn’t have a complete picture.

“So this Void Lord is trying to cause a Stampede in the Seventh Assault Garden?” Riselia’s nervous question yanked Leonis back to the matter at hand.

<Correct… It wishes to…destroy mankind… Return it to…emptiness…>

“But why the Seventh?”

<…We do not…know… The voice…simply orders…>

The skeletal hand Riselia was holding suddenly began to crumble.

“?!”

The light in the skeletons’ eye sockets was growing dim. Those souls bound to the old bones were beginning to depart.

<We’ve informed…our human comrades…of the coming danger…>

<Please… Take this information, and return… Leave this place…>

As their voices resounded in the dark chamber, the skeletons crumbled one by one.

“Wait…!” Riselia pleaded.

<Lady Riselia… You have grown to be…so gallant…> Making those its final words, the spirit that had been holding Riselia’s hand fell to pieces that dropped to the ground with a dull noise.