CHAPTER 9
THE UNDEAD KING
“Grooooh… Aaaaaaaagh!”
The broadsword came hurtling down, belching fire. Riselia brought up her Bloody Sword to meet it.
“Selia, dodge!”
“…!”
Riselia leaped back a few steps. The spot where she’d been standing a moment earlier suddenly exploded.
Boooooooooooooom!
The blast roared as smoke filled the air, obscuring Riselia’s vision. Flames burned intensely, rolling up into the breeze and forming a whirlwind. Had Riselia tried to parry, she’d have been caught up in the explosion.
His Holy Sword has that much power…?!
In order to win the inter-platoon training matches, Riselia had memorized the Holy Sword data of other platoons, and especially those belonging to ace members.
Liat the Blazing Lion’s Holy Sword, the Prominence Sword, was a weapon that had incinerated too many Voids to count. Yet, as far as Riselia knew, it never had the strength to make the ground burst like that.
“Selia, he consumed his partners’ Holy Swords.” An Eye of the Witch orb appeared out of the smoke and spoke in Elfiné’s voice.
“Consumed…their Holy Swords?”
“Yes. I can hardly believe it myself, but…”
Glowing numbers and text began rapidly running around Elfiné’s orb. It was analyzing Liat’s Holy Sword’s ability.
“That just now was Gazetta’s Flare Bomb ability, and Irma’s ability was…”
Whoosh!
The flaming broadsword cleaved through the air and was rapidly closing in on Riselia. She dodged, her hair billowing as she moved. The attack had been close enough to singe the ends of her locks. Those flames were fatal. An undead body could recover for as long as it had mana, but restoring burns would take a considerable amount of time.
“Haaah!”
Riselia gathered mana in her legs and then unleashed it, thrusting the tip of her sword forward. However, Liat deflected the attack.
He’s strong! Riselia thought as she quickly took a few steps back.
Since infancy, Riselia had studied the sword fighting styles of knights. Recently, she’d been training under the skeleton swordsman Amilas. Even with all her efforts, there was a palpable difference between her and Liat. Sakuya was likely the only one who could match him in raw skill.
I guess I have no choice…
Riselia nicked her arm with her blade, allowing droplets of blood to drip to the ground. The red liquid formed a spiral that rapidly enveloped her limbs. A moment later, a crimson dress manifested over her body.
The True Ancestor’s Dress—a unique garment only a Vampire Queen could don. Riselia’s argent locks shone with mana as power surged through her. Yet, while the outfit explosively augmented her physical prowess, it consumed significant amounts of magical energy. Riselia hadn’t properly mastered using it yet.
I have ten seconds at best… I have to finish this!
Kicking off the ground, Riselia thrust forward, loosing the swiftest attack she could muster at the grip of Liat’s weapon.
Undaunted, Liat swung his broadsword up, repelling the strike.
“Kuh…!”
“Groooooooooh…!”
With a raging howl, Liat brought his Holy Sword down.
Grrrnh! Grrrrrk! Grrrnnnh!
The ground quaked as intermittent explosions sounded.
The Flare Bomb’s ability…!
Using mana to leap up, Riselia came plunging down from above.
“Blood Chain!”
Blood laced with mana formed interlocking ringlets that coiled around the Blazing Lion.
“Hyaaaaaaaah!”
Riselia trained her Blood Sword at Liat’s arms, hoping to force him into dropping the Demon Sword. She couldn’t afford to kill him. Her blade sunk deep into the young man’s shoulder.
I’ve got to destroy that Demon Sword!
Pulling her weapon free, Riselia slashed again. However…
Whoooosh!
…Liat’s body suddenly caught fire.
“What…?!”
“Selia, get away! The Demon Sword is—”
Unfortunately, Elfiné’s warning did not come in time. Riselia’s body was enveloped in flame.
“Curse you, curse you! My arm, my aaaarm!” Zemein shrieked, the pained cries echoing through the underground chamber. “You’ll pay for this, whelp… I’ll lop off your limbs and feed them to the Demon Swords!”
Zemein’s remaining five appendages jutting from his back slithered toward Leonis like serpents.
“Hmph. You look down on me over how I look? I see your pride has taken its toll on your intellect,” Leonis spat with a sneer.
“Disappear…!” Zemein screeched. His writhing arms lanced at the boy.
“Learn your lesson already, hopeless fool.”
Slash, slash, slash!
Blades of darkness jumped out of the shadow at Leonis’s feet, effortlessly severing the limbs.
“…Ugh… Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Leonis looked on as Zemein bellowed in agony. “I suppose I should’ve expected as much from you,” he stated coldly. “The only thing you ever cared for was merging creatures together. You were worthless in battle and employed callous, foul methods. My current minion is merely fifteen years old, and she’s already far smarter than you ever were.”
“N-nnngh… Wh-what…?! Wh-who are you…?!” Zemein cried, fear plain in his eyes. It seemed the old man had realized he wasn’t facing an ordinary child.
“I suppose this is where I should stop toying with you, then… Hmm?” Leonis suddenly paused.
Seizing upon his chance, Zemein began chanting a spell. “Flames of darkness, bring your tyranny to bear and destroy my foooooooe!”
Booooooooooom!
An explosion shook the subterranean cavern, filling it with light.
“Ki-hi, ki-hi-hi-hi-hi…! This is a sixth-order spell, magic beyond the reach of anything a human can achieve! It should reduce him to nothin—”
“Hmph. Such a long recitation and that’s the best you can accomplish?”
“Wh-what…?!”
The smoke cleared, revealing Leonis standing composedly behind a barrier of shadows. There wasn’t so much as a speck of dirt on his uniform.
“Mel Ziora was a spell of my own invention. Was it always so weak?”
“H-how…?” Zemein croaked, stepping back fearfully. “Wh-what… What are you…?!”
“You still haven’t figured it out? My word. You truly are hopeless.” Leonis shrugged and produced the Staff of Sealed Sins from his shadow. “Is this clear enough for your dimwitted mind?”
“I-it can’t be… Th-that rod! It belongs to…!”
“I am the Undead King you were so keen on resurrecting,” Leonis declared, tapping the bottom of the Staff of Sealed Sins against the ground.
“Mel Ziora!”
A raging sphere of fire sped past Zemein and exploded behind him.
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!
All the water in the cavern evaporated at once, exposing Void Hives that had been submerged. Zemein’s knees buckled as he gazed at the newly made crater behind him, and he fell.
“I-it can’t be… It can’t… But then… How…”
“Mm?”
“This is wrong… It clashes with the goddess’s prophecy!” Zemein cried.
“Prophecy?” Leonis asked him suspiciously.
“No, this is a trick… It can’t be…! My lord is here, in Necrozoooooooooooooa!”
The old man’s withered body ballooned as the miasma began to seep from his every pore.
Crack, crack, crack…!
Fissures formed all around, with Zemein at their epicenter, and then…his body ruptured from the inside out.
Whoooooooooooooooooooosh!
A gigantic monstrosity clawed its way from the fractures in space.
“Hmph, so you, too, were consumed by the Voids. No, you allowed yourself to be.”
Tremors shook the chamber, and rocks tumbled down from above.
Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack…!
All the crystals in the area began splitting open, and a horde of Voids crawled from the translucent cradles.
“Selia…!” Elfiné shouted, her voice overpowered by a thundering explosion.
Riselia’s body was hurled into the air, arching as it came crashing toward the ground.
“Selia!”
Without regard for the danger, Elfiné hastened to her friend’s side.
“…Ugh… Kuh…,” the younger girl moaned in pain. “Miss…Finé… Run…”
Ignoring her friend’s plea, Elfiné grasped Riselia’s hands tightly and tried to help her up. Elfiné then turned around and saw Liat surrounded by fire, looking like a demon in every sense of the word.
That’s the power he stole from Irma’s Holy Sword…
Irma’s weapon enveloped the user’s body in a powerful, billowing whirlwind. After Liat’s Demon Sword consumed it, the Blazing Lion became able to produce burning twisters. Liat approached Elfiné slowly, seeming more like an inhuman monster than the leader she had known. Curiously, he didn’t attack.
Is he trying to consume Selia’s Holy Sword?!
Elfiné grit her teeth. She couldn’t let him do it. Riselia had gone through so much to get her Holy Sword, Elfiné refused to let her lose it now!
“Liat!” Elfiné stood, moving away from Riselia, pulling out a handgun she kept for self-defense. The weapon was based on the Ray Hawk, an Artificial Relic. She quickly undid the safety and fired. The bullet was swallowed by the fire swirling around Liat, however.
Elfiné had never expected it to work. This poor imitation couldn’t do much damage to such a mighty enemy. The shot had been meant to garner Liat’s attention. He looked away from Riselia and directed his eerily vacant gaze at Elfiné.
“Liat, is this the kind of power you wanted?!” she shouted at him while loosing more rounds from her gun.
The conflagration around Liat grew, the heat stinging Elfiné’s skin. If that fire were to engulf her, she’d perish instantly. Even knowing that, Elfiné kept her pistol trained on Liat.
“Is this the kind of Holy Sword you wanted…?!”
“I…!” the demonic figure groaned.
“…?!”
“My…Holy Sword…couldn’t…protect them…!”
It couldn’t have been the man’s natural voice, for how could he speak while surrounded by a torrent of flame? One of the Eye of the Witch orbs floating around had picked up the words. Liat’s psyche was calling out, consumed though it was by his Demon Sword.
“I just…wanted…power…protect…what matters…!”
“Liat!”
The intense fire surged, painting the darkness of night scarlet. Elfiné very nearly faltered backward, but she held her ground. All so she could hear his cries. The man who carried the guilt of his comrades’ deaths and accepted the power of the Demon Sword wanted to stop this.
That’s why he told me about the Demon Sword and the voice of the goddess!
The Eye of the Witch orbs gathered around Elfiné. They resonated with the screaming of Liat’s soul and conveyed it to her.
“Liat, you’re…!”
“Shut up… Shut uuuuup…!”
Whoosh!
Liat brought his scorching broadsword down. The ground ruptured violently, sending Elfiné into the air.
“Miss Finé!” Riselia screamed.
“…!”
Collapsed on the ground, Elfiné’s fingers dug into the dirt. The nightmare she had relived countless times surfaced from the shadowy recesses of her mind. The memories of that terrible day, of her greatest regret.
But I won’t run away anymore.
Elfiné rose to her feet to save Liat’s soul. Casting away her pistol, she glared straight at the monster standing among the incandescent flames. Liat swung his burning sword again.
“Grooohhh! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“This isn’t the kind of power you sought.”
Elfiné was afraid. There was no denying it. Still, she stood unwavering. She was the only one who had a chance of washing away the emptiness eating at Liat’s soul.
“Let me show you the true strength you were looking for. The power of a Holy Sword!”
The Eye of the Witch orbs gathered around Elfiné began expelling particles of light. The motes converged, forming an intense brilliance.
“Eye of the Witch, Mode Shift! Vorpal Ray!” Elfiné extended her arm and gave her final order. “Fire!”
A white, blinding flash swept over the area. The intense firepower that surged from the orbs engulfed the burning demon.
“Waaaaauuuuugh!” Liat’s scream rang in Elfiné’s ears.
The surge of radiance overtook his massive form… And the burning Demon Sword shattered.
“They’re still alive. Please, can you heal them…?” After confirming Liat wasn’t dead, Elfiné shouted after Silesia, who dashed over.
“Yes, leave it to me,” Silesia replied.
“…I’m okay, focus on Liat,” Riselia groaned while rising to her feet.
“Huh?! Ah, but you were hurt so badly…,” Elfiné remarked, shocked.
Riselia had taken a direct hit from the Demon Sword.
“M-my Holy Sword’s power weakened the flames a little,” explained Riselia.
“I…see.” Elfiné was still a little suspicious, but since Riselia was seemingly okay, she accepted the excuse.
Suddenly, the Eye of the Witch orbs above blared out in warning.
“What?!” Elfiné looked around frantically. “Voids…!”
Crimson eyes leered at the girls the dark. Two sets, three, five, seven…there were more every second.
“Did they hatch…?!”
“Oh no…!”
Voids were emerging from the forest with seemingly no end to their ranks.
“…What do we do?!”
“I think our only option is to charge past them.”
Riselia wiped the sweat from her brow, gripping her Holy Sword in her other hand. Breaking through the enemy was the only option. Still, the sheer number of Voids wasn’t going to make that an easy task, and carrying the injured Liat would slow them down even more.
“…Leave me behind…,” Liat gasped out, having regained consciousness.
“Liat?!” Elfiné turned to look at him.
“The fifth…platoon should be just past here… Help them…”
“Are they all right?!”
“I stole their…Holy Swords…but I didn’t…kill them…”
“All right. You don’t need to say anything else.” Elfiné stood, and looked to the Voids surrounding them.
“Hurry… Go…,” Liat urged her.
Elfiné shook her head. “I’m not letting another comrade die on me.” The Eye of the Witch orbs gathered over her. “This time, I’ll save you.”
The Vorpal Ray swirled.
Vwoosh, vwoosh, vwoosh, vwoosh!
The light gathered in Elfiné’s Holy Sword shot forward and swept through the army of Voids, cleaving a path through.
“…Miss Finé, that’s incredible!” Riselia said, her eyes wide.
“I’ll clear the way. We’re going to save the fifth platoon and get out of here!”
“Ki-hi-hi-hi, you’ll die in pain, cur! How dare you assume my master’s name…!”
The gigantic, hulking monster swung its tentacles down at Leonis.
Booooooooom!
The limbs slammed into the rockface, crushing a group of small Voids that had been unfortunate enough to be in their path.
“Hmph, to think you’ve become a Void Lord.”
Leonis traveled through the shadows and emerged on another side of the cavern. Zemein’s body had become a gigantic monster of writhing, wriggling flesh.
“There’s a touch of irony to this. You look just like the chimeras you were so fixated on creating…”
As Leonis thought about it, he realized that when he’d first seen Voids, their disgusting forms had reminded him of Zemein’s handiwork.
“Voids are…the perfect life-forms! Incarnations of…the limitless possibilities of evolution…!”
Mouths formed all over Zemein’s fleshy body and opened, firing off streaks of sizzling energy.
“Farga!”
Leonis’s spell collided with the heat rays, creating an explosion that shook the cavern.
“Eighth-order spell—Sharianos!” Leonis chanted.
Blades of ice lanced forward, slicing away Zemein’s tendrils. However, the shredded appendages quickly regenerated, billowing an oily miasma all the while.
“That regeneration… You turned yourself into a chimera?”
“Ki-hi-hi, ki-hi-hi-hi. Well observed. But this form is only a partial evolution… Once I merge with the Six Heroes and the Dark Lords, I shall become this world’s god…!”
“I see. That does sound like the kind of insipid plan an imbecile like you would come up with,” Leonis taunted.
Zemein had plotted to revive the Undead King only to absorb him.
Merging with a Dark Lord is likely impossible, though.
Veira, the Dragon Lord; Rivaiz, the Lord of the Seas; Gazoth, the Lord of Beasts; and Dizolf, the Lord of Rage. Each Dark Lord was defined by their overwhelming strength as individuals. That was what set them apart from the Six Heroes, who had needed to fuse with gods. Anyone who would try to merge with a Dark Lord would simply be overtaken in turn.
Crack, crack, crack!
Countless Voids broke out of their Hives on the underground lake’s floor, and they began writhing toward Leonis.
“Flamis!”
The Undead King unleashed a wave of heat that incinerated the monstrous things.
“Tch, they’re weak, but when there’s this many of them…”
It made Leonis want to eradicate Necrozoa if only to be rid of the many Hives inside it. Unfortunately, Zemein wasn’t giving him the chance to draw Dáinsleif.
As bothersome as it is, I’ll just have to stomp them all out using magic…
Suddenly…
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
…A shadowy whip cut through the flood of approaching Voids.
“Are you all right, my lord?!” Leonis’s assassin maid appeared from the dark, her whip in hand.
“What were you doing, Shary?”
“My apologies, I was sweeping away the vermin infesting the treasure vault.”
She pinched up the edges of her skirt in a curtsy and bowed her head respectfully.
“Very well. Then take care of the pests here, too,” Leonis stated.
“Understood!”
Shary leaped into the swarm of Voids, brandishing her shadowy lash.
“Oooooooough…!” Zemein brought his tentacles up again.
“Eighth-order spell—Al Gu Belzelga!”
Brrrrr…!
The strongest fire spell in existence burned everything in its way.
“Nnghaaaaaah!” Zemein shrieked.
“Crawl on the ground like the insect you are. It suits you.”
Leonis held the Staff of Sealed Sins aloft and constructed an altar of bones. Standing on top of it, he looked down at the so-called ultimate life-form squirming beneath him. It was so pathetic and unsightly Leonis couldn’t help but pity it.
What a shame. I was so excited when I fought Veira, but…
Stomping out this loathsome insect didn’t elicit anything in Leonis.
“A cretin like you wouldn’t usually justify drawing out my Demon Sword, but…”
Leonis twisted the grip of his staff and drew Dáinsleif…!
Thou Art the Sword to Save the World, Gifted by the Heavens.
Thou Art the Sword to Ruin the World, Made to Rebel Against the Heavens.
A Holy Sword, Sanctified by the Gods.
A Demon Sword, Blessed by the Goddess.
Such was the Demon Sword Dáinsleif’s wicked decree!
“Any vermin that infests my kingdom will be mercilessly exterminated,” Leonis stated coldly.
“It can’t be… That… That light, it’s, aaaaaah…!” Zemein bellowed.
Whoooooosh!
The massive blade of darkness crashed down on the center of the Void Hive.
The destructive light of the god-slaying Demon Sword reached as far as the subterranean complex’s eleventh stratum, wholly annihilating the Void Hive. Gazing at the vast crevasse that had been cleaved beneath him, Leonis sheathed his sword in the staff.
“My lord, the scoundrel is still alive,” Shary informed him.
“Yes, I know. I missed him on purpose.”
A lump of tattered flesh was floundering at the edge of the abyss, desperately trying to escape.
“Now then, Zemein. I have a lot of questions for you,” Leonis said, ruthlessly stomping on the heap.
“Aaaah…Master…Leonis… Have…mercyyyyyyyyyy…”
“Hmph. So you finally understand that I am the true Undead King,” Leonis replied with an icy glare. “Answer my questions well and I may consider sparing you. What do you say?”
“Aaaah… Please, mercy…,” Zemein begged pathetically as he repeatedly tried and failed to regenerate his ruined form.
“Very well. Your first question, then,” Leonis began, tapping his staff on the ground. “What are you and your cohorts hoping to achieve by resurrecting the Dark Lords and Six Heroes?”
“I only sought to serve you…Master Leonis! I tried to revive you…!”
“I see. So you wish to die,” Leonis spat, producing a flame on the tip of his staff and pressing it against the writhing mound.
“Aiiiiyaaaahhhh! Weeee work to bring about…the goddess’s prophecyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”
“Her prophecy? What are you talking abou—?”
Leonis only knew of one thing that could be. The prediction that the Goddess of Rebellion would be reincarnated after one thousand years. Perhaps there was another foretelling he was unaware of?
“…O-only he knows the contents of the prophecy… We act in his name…”
“‘He,’ you say? Is that your new master? The Dark Lord of the Underworld, Azra-Ael?”
“Azra-Ael…Devil of the Underworld…?” Zemein muttered, seemingly surprised.
“Yes. He was an adherent of the goddess, after all.”
“…”
“Hmm. So I was right. What is he plotting?” Leonis pressed.
“N-no…,” Zemein abruptly replied.
“What?”
“The one we serve…is actually…”
“My lord!” Shary cried from behind.
…?!
Leonis jumped away as lightning suddenly rained down on the wriggling heap of flesh.
“Gyaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Numerous spheres of plasma surged up around Zemein. Letting out a final scream of agony, what was left of the old man was reduced to cinders.
What?! Leonis followed the lightning back to its source. Staring down from a cliff was a blue-haired girl wearing a white mask.
“You got in the way of my questioning. Who are you?!” Leonis demanded.
“…”
The masked girl didn’t care to answer. With a flap of her long white garb, she drew some kind of sign in the air.
Crack… Crack… Crack…!
Seemingly in response, the same fractures that accompanied Voids began forming around the mysterious young woman.
“…She can’t get away!” Shary reflexively hurled a dagger at the girl. One of the fissures consumed the projectile, however, and the young woman vanished into another one.
“Who was she, my lord…?” Shary asked.
“…Hmm, she was likely sent to watch over Zemein.” Leonis shrugged and grumbled to himself. “I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me there might be another nearby to make sure Zemein didn’t talk. Evidently, he was a disposable pawn.”
Leonis then glanced down. Where Zemein had met his end now rested a black, triangular fragment of stone.
“What’s this…?” he wondered aloud.
“A mana crystal, perhaps?” Shary suggested.
“I don’t think so… Well, no matter. I’ll investigate later.” Leonis knelt, picked up the shard, and offhandedly tossed it into his shadow.
A sudden lethargy gripped Leonis, and his legs trembled.
“My lord, are you all right?” Shary asked, concerned.
“Don’t worry. It’s just the backlash from using the Demon Sword. I’ll just…sleep here, for a bit,” Leonis answered. The Dark Lord then rubbed his eyes and lay on the stone floor of the cavern.
“M-my lord, m-may I offer m-my lap as a pillow?!” Shary stuttered, her cheeks tinged red.
“Mm? No, you…you go watch over Riselia…,” Leonis sleepily commanded.
“…Understood.”
As he listened to Shary’s seemingly disappointed response, Leonis let his heavy eyelids flutter shut.
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