CHAPTER 3
THROWN TO ANOTHER WORLD
“…?”
When Leonis opened his eyes, he saw a vast, windswept wilderness. A cloud of black dust covered his field of vision like a swarm of insects.
Where…am I?
After blinking a few times, Leonis tried to look around. Countless odd rock formations dotted the wastes, but he couldn’t make out anything else of note. This barren land extended as far as the eye could see. The sky was red as blood and unmarred by any clouds.
The gigantic leviathan was gone.
“…It seems I’ve wandered into some kind of other realm, an underworld perhaps.”
After a moment’s confusion at the unusual sight, Leonis concluded that the Azure Hold had been transported to another dimension or world, and he’d been caught in that process.
I never knew that aerial fortress could traverse the planes.
It was just like his bastion—the Otherworldly Castle.
Was that really Azra-Ael? Leonis wondered, placing a hand on his chin.
Azra-Ael—a visitor from a different dimension. Roselia Ishtaris had summoned the Devil of the Underworld from some other realm. Of the eight Dark Lords, he was the most shrouded in mystery… None save the goddess herself saw their true form.
Azra-Ael was believed to lack a physical body. Only by possessing a vessel were they able to use their powers.
Why, then, had they taken over Duke Crystalia, Riselia’s father…?
No… Him being possessed by Azra-Ael is still only a theory.
Still, he could freely traverse dimensional gates, wielded lost sorcery, and knew of the Dark Lords. And most suspicious of all…
He said, “my goddess.”
Of all the Dark Lords, the only ones to swear genuine fealty to Roselia Ishtaris were Leonis and Azra-Ael. The others all used the Dark Lords’ Armies as a means to further their own ambitions.
The Devil of the Underworld always respectfully referred to Roselia as “my goddess.” However, there was no knowing for certain if Duke Crystalia had been referring to Roselia when he used the phrase.
“…I suppose he flew off somewhere.”
Leonis couldn’t see the man anywhere, and the Azure Hold and that leviathan were absent as well. Veira had vanished, too, as had…
Rivaiz, eh…?
Rivaiz Deep Sea, one half of the Lord of the Seas, was a sea sprite. Somehow, she’d broken free from the man’s mind-controlling Holy Sword.
Before worrying about anything else, I need to figure out how to escape this world…
Leonis marched through the sandstorm-buffeted wastes. He already knew of one way to return home. It wasn’t a field he was exceptionally proficient in, but as a master of all manners of sorcery, he knew multiple spells to create gates to other dimensions. In fact, the underground that the Demon Wolf Pack used as their hideout had been created with one. It linked the Seventh Assault Garden to a different plane.
Opening portals to other dimensions was no simple feat, though. One needed to have the coordinates of their prior world, or else there was no telling where the magic would send them. It might fling them to the bottom of the sea or inside a boulder.
When Leonis was at his full might as the Undead King, he might have braved the risks and tried it anyway, but his current body was that of a fragile ten-year-old boy. He couldn’t take such a gamble.
I suppose my only recourse is to seek out Azra-Ael.
Leonis didn’t know how large this world was, but if Azra-Ael was moving with the Azure Hold, finding them wouldn’t be too challenging.
Suddenly, a massive shadow passed over the land. Leonis looked up.
“…What’s that?!”
A large creature resembling a stingray glided through the air. Had to measure over a hundred meltes end to end. Its gigantic fins undulated with every movement, scattering a nauseating miasma as it lorded over the sky. Countless arms sprouted out of its torso, each writhing seemingly of its own will.
Two large, white fangs extended from its mouth… No, they weren’t fangs. Careful inspection revealed that its maw was filled with Voids. The being’s appearance was an affront to life itself, and even Leonis, the Undead King, felt only disgust and aversion to it.
“…A Void?” he whispered.
Immediately, the flying monster changed bearing and looked directly at him.
It spotted me from that high up?!
The hands sticking out from its stomach started glowing, each of them alight with a different elemental affinity. It was the radiance of sorcery.
“Tch…!”
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
A shower of offensive spells bombarded the rocky wasteland. Intense flames erupted, blowing away the dust. And at the epicenter of the explosion…
“…So these despicable Void monsters run rampant in this world, too,” Leonis muttered while the black smoke cleared.
He’d cast a defensive spell, so there wasn’t so much as a speck of soot on his Excalibur Academy uniform. After retrieving the Staff of Sealed Sins from his shadow, Leonis held it high, chanting another spell.
“I’ll reduce you to ashes—eighth-order flame spell—Al Gu Belzelga!”
Boooom!
A fireball erupted from the rod, striking its mark directly. It bore a hole in the gigantic Void’s stomach, from which Void miasma gushed out like blood.
“Oh, you can withstand the strongest of fire spells? Quite the durable one, aren’t you?”
A moment before the spell hit the Void, the hands sprouting from its stomach all deployed defensive spells as one. However, most of those arms had been destroyed by Leonis’s magic anyway, and the Void’s regeneration couldn’t keep up.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■!”
The Void let out a furious howl and opened its mouth.
I see. It’s like a host for Void parasites.
The swarm that emerged from the gigantic Void droned like insects and flew at Leonis. He shrugged and tapped the Staff of Sealed Sins against the ground.
“Very well. I am a bit tired from repeated fighting, but I’ll play along for now.” Cackling wickedly, he intoned a new spell.
Before he could finish, however…
Shatter!
…a sound like shattering glass rent the air.
“—What?!”
A blade of water laced with mana sped across the wasteland, cutting through the swarm of Voids like a hot knife through butter. It continued farther, cleaving into the gigantic Void overhead.
Miasma spurted across the red sky. The 100-melte-long Void was then cut into four cubes, then eight, then sixteen, all of which fell to the ground with heavy thuds. Leonis hurried to evade the tumbling blocks of flesh, searching for the source of the water blade.
Standing atop a misshaped rock formation stood an expressionless girl, her hair the color of amethyst.
“…Rivaiz Deep Sea,” Leonis whispered, although she didn’t hear him.
The girl watched him, gaze as deep as the ocean floor. “Human child. Who are you, really?”
Her question echoed softly through the wasteland covered in Void corpses.
“Hmm. I never imagined that the Undead King would adopt such an adorable form.” Rivaiz patted Leonis on the head a few times.
“Grr… Don’t touch me, Lord of the Seas!” Leonis brushed her hand away, his hair standing on end.
The Lord of the Seas had been hesitant to believe Leonis’s claim that he was the Undead King. When he showed her the Staff of Sealed Sins, the Dark Lords’ Armies’ symbol of death, and summoned his prided legion of skeleton soldiers, she accepted the story immediately.
According to Rivaiz, many sorcerers used undead fighters, but the only one who could maintain a contingent of splendidly polished bone warriors was the Undead King.
Yes, that’s right, that’s exactly right. Leonis nodded to himself, satisfied.
He was always quite picky when it came to choosing his skeletons. Leonis gave a dry cough and looked up at Rivaiz.
“Lord of the Seas, there’s something I wish to ask you.”
The girl nodded arrogantly. “You have permission to inquire, Undead King.”
Condescending, aren’t you? Leonis thought, blind to his own shortcomings. Needless to say, the Dark Lords were all quite arrogant.
“Were you under that human’s mind control?” Leonis questioned.
At this, Rivaiz’s eyes glinted ominously. “Yes. My pride as the Lord of the Seas has been tarnished by ever allowing it to occur.” Perhaps recalling what happened angered her, because her water mantle started writhing, alive with mana.
“I’d always believed you were beset upon by the Spellweaver of the Six Heroes and the battle ended in mutual destruction,” Leonis remarked.
“Indeed. The leviathan and I defeated Diruda the Spellweaver just as he bested us, and we sank to the depths along with the Underwater Stronghold.”
“So you mean you were not completely slain,” Leonis said.
Rivaiz bobbed her head. “However, Diruda’s powerful magic drove me to the brink. Thus, I decided to change to a jewel that would slowly absorb mana from the ocean floor until the day came for me to rise again.”
A thousand years passed while she slumbered.
“At some point, that human found the jewel at the bottom of the sea and released me… I cannot remember precisely when it happened. But it was not too long ago.” Rivaiz bit her lip gently. “Having been rudely awakened from my peaceful slumber, I tried to tear the scoundrel to bits. But the human anticipated as much and had a trump card to hold me in check.”
Leonis raised an eyebrow. “A trump card?”
“The cur had already dominated my other half—the leviathan,” Rivaiz replied bitterly.
“You mean you weren’t the one to resurrect the leviathan?”
“No. I don’t know what heretical means that human employed to restore my other half, but he succeeded. Spurred by wrath over the theft of my kindred spirit, I challenged him to battle and was defeated.”
Rivaiz Deep Sea, the Lord of the Seas, was seen as the strongest of all the Dark Lords. However, the position was held by two beings that acted as one Dark Lord. Rivaiz, the Sea Sprite Queen, and the single greatest form of life, the leviathan. Only when the two acted as one did they function as the Lord of the Seas.
And with the leviathan taken from her, Rivaiz had no chance of winning.
“And so I succumbed to his mental domination,” Rivaiz explained, her voice trembling with anger.
“Do you remember what happened while you were under his thrall?” Leonis questioned.
“Mm. I vaguely recall what occurred slightly before I was freed from his control. I remember fighting you…” Rivaiz leaned forward and gazed into Leonis’s eyes. “Undead King. In defeating me, you have freed me from that man’s domination. I owe you a debt of gratitude.”
“…I see,” Leonis replied vaguely.
He wasn’t sure if Rivaiz’s liberation resulted from his efforts. It was possible, yet there could have been other factors at play. Perhaps when the man tried to use his Holy Sword on Veira, its hold on Rivaiz waned temporarily. Or…
Leonis’s Holy Sword—the Excalibur XX. Maybe it affected other Holy Swords in some way.
Regardless, Rivaiz was only one of his unwitting pawns.
Azra-Ael, the Demon of the Underworld. What did they hope to achieve by awakening a Dark Lord…?
“Incidentally, Undead King…,” Rivaiz called out to Leonis, stirring him from contemplation.
“What is it?”
“Where are we?” Rivaiz asked, looking around with a frown.
“Another world,” Leonis answered. “Another dimension.”
“Another world or dimension?”
“It seems that when the Azure Hold traveled to a different realm, we were transported along with it.”
“I see. Yes, the ocean is nowhere to be found.”
“It took you this long to notice?” Leonis shrugged in exasperation.
Rivaiz scanned over the blocks of flesh scattered around them.
“What was that unsightly monster earlier? I’ve never seen a creature of the sort before.”
“A Void. Unknown life-forms born of the emptiness.”
“Hmm…” Rivaiz cocked her head to one side, seemingly confused.
The gigantic Void’s remains still spewed miasma.
I didn’t expect to find Voids running rampant in another world.
Maybe this desolate scenery resulted from the destruction the monstrous things sowed.
“I’ll be going after that man,” Leonis declared, his eyes fixed on the red sky. “I have much to ask him.”
“I shall accompany you, then,” Rivaiz decided. “I must reclaim my leviathan.”
“…”
Leonis took a moment to consider. Although she was in an incomplete state, Rivaiz was still half of a Dark Lord. Her strength was remarkable. And they had fought side by side once a thousand years ago to defeat the God of the Sea. Although Leonis had no way of telling what Rivaiz was thinking, she was still a Dark Lord who was comparatively easy to cooperate with.
“…Very well. Come with me, then.” Leonis tapped the Staff of Sealed Sins against the ground. “Come forth, skull dragon!”
Vrrrrrrr…!
A skeletal dragon emerged from the boy’s shadow and spread its wings. Leonis sat upon the skull dragon’s neck, and Rivaiz hopped atop it softly with the lightness of a flower petal to join him.
“You can fly on your own, can’t you?” Leonis asked.
“I merely thought that riding atop the famed Undead King’s skull dragon might make for an interesting experience,” Rivaiz reasoned coolly.
Leonis shrugged. “It’s not my problem if you fall off.”
The skull dragon let out an eldritch howl and took to the air.
“Heeeeeeeeey! Stop right there, Leo!”
“…Nn?” Leonis turned around at the familiar voice.
A beautiful girl flew behind the soaring Skull Dragon, her flaming red hair trailing after her.
“Oh. So you were close by, too.”
“Don’t you ‘oh’ me! That flashy show you two put on was easy to spot, and I flew over,” Veira said, landing with a tap on the skull dragon’s snout. “You’re going after that man, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m coming along. I need to reclaim the Azure Hold from him.”
Leonis sighed. “Do as you please.”
They were all going in the same direction anyway. Veira eyed Rivaiz, who’d taken her seat on the skull dragon’s back.
“Rivaiz, we still have a score to settle over the Azure Hold.”
“I have no desire to battle you right now, Dragon Lord.” The Lord of the Seas glared back at Veira. “However, if you insist on fighting, I will gladly oblige.”
“Hmph. Defeating you when you’re without your leviathan would mar my reputation as the Dragon Lord. I’m willing to consider this a cease-fire for now.” Veira combed through her crimson hair with one hand.
“Hmph. Very well,” Rivaiz accepted.
…Stop picking fights while you’re on my skull dragon, you two. Leonis shuddered at the very notion.
“So which way are we flying, Leo?” Veira inquired.
“I don’t know,” he answered frankly, his eyes fixed forward. “For now, let’s see how far this other world goes.”
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