CHAPTER 5
THREE DARK LORDS IN THE WASTELAND
“Hmmm-hmmm. Hmm-hm-hmmmm. ”
A lovely humming filled the hotel bathroom, with the jovial sounds of splashing water.
It was the morning of the eighteenth platoon’s third day in the capital. Shary, back in her natural form for the first time in a while, was enjoying a soak alone.
Normally, she cleansed herself at a spring within the Realm of Shadows. This time, however, she took advantage of the fact that she was staying at a high-class hotel and decided to enjoy the tub in Riselia’s room.
“Hmm-hm-hmmm. ”
After spending so much time as Leonis yesterday, she felt worn out. Of course, she was honored to serve as his body double, but having to keep up a convincing act was stressful.
Shary stretched her legs to help her stiff calves relax. A sweet aroma wafted from the rose petals scattered in the water. The time before Riselia Crystalia awoke was a brief respite for her.
The speed with which that girl grows is astounding.
It was only a few months ago that Leonis’s sorcery made her an undead. She was already mastering second-order offensive spells, an impressive feat, even for a Vampire Queen. Surely the special training from Leonis and the Three Champions of Rognas played a part, but there was no doubting Riselia possessed exceptional raw potential.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to call it raw spirit? Whatever the exercise, Riselia endured, making her a good student. The girl differed drastically from the nobles Shary knew in the Realm of Shadows.
It pains me to admit it, but I can see why my lord is so taken with her.
The training had worn Shary out as well. She had to balance it with investigating the capital, keeping the Demon Wolf Pack under control, and her part-time job at the confectionery.
When my lord returns, I ought to demand donuts as a special reward. O-or maybe a…p-pat on the head?
Shary’s cheeks turned red, and she submerged the lower half of her face in the water, blowing bubbles.
My lord, when will you return…?
And that’s when…
“Leo? Are you in the bath?”
…Riselia’s voice called out from beyond the door.
“…?!” Shary jolted in alarm.
She’s up this early?!
Riselia’s adaptability was impressive. She’d been sleeping like a baby this time yesterday.
“I-I’ll be right out!” Shary changed her voice to Leonis’s and stood with a splash.
“Don’t worry. I’m just stepping in to take a quick shower.”
“O-oh, I see… Wait, what?!”
The sliding door rattled as it opened to reveal a nude Riselia. Her silvery hair wavered in the steam.
“Ah! Ahhhhhh, whyyy?!” Shary exclaimed. “Why did you come in?!”
“…? I always bathe with Leo… Huh?”
Riselia’s ice-blue eyes went wide.
“…A-a girl?!”
Shary grimaced, and she tensed from her spot in the tub.
F-forgive me, my looooord!
…
“Heh-heh. What a surprise. I never imagined you were such a cute girl,” Riselia said, turning to look at Shary while tending to her wet hair with a hair dryer.
“What a defeat… I live in the shadows, and yet…,” Shary mumbled, sitting on the bed and cradling her head in her hands. Having deemed it pointless to maintain her Leonis facade, she was wearing her usual maid’s dress.
I was careless. And I’d kept myself perfectly hidden so far, too…
The truth was that she hadn’t kept herself as well concealed as she believed. Shary glanced up at Riselia.
The assassin’s way dictates that I have to make her disappear or kill her now that she knows, but… Shary’s dusk-colored eyes glinted dangerously.
The Assassination Society she’d once belonged to, Septentrion, had methods of dispatching the undead…but she couldn’t eliminate her master’s minion.
Uuuugh… My lord is going to be so mad at me… Shary cradled her head again while the sound of the dryer died down.
Riselia approached Shary and peered into her face. “Hmm. We’ve met somewhere before, right?” she asked.
“I-impossible! I always hide in the shadows.”
“I’ve seen a maid ghost in our dorm a few times.”
Shary averted her eyes. “…You were imagining things.”
“All right. We’ll just leave it at that.” Riselia smiled and straightened up, stretching her knees. “Let’s get started on our training, Leo.”
The Dragon Lord, the Lord of the Seas, and the Undead King.
Three of the Dark Lords who had once plunged the world into an age of terror were now soaring above this other world. After flying for the whole night, all they’d learned about this place the Devil of the Underworld had sent them to was that the sky was red.
It had a sun, so there was a visible difference between day and night. However, the view above remained the color of blood, and thick Void miasma brewed behind the dense clouds.
“This is a hellish place,” Leonis whispered as he looked down at the surface from atop the skull dragon’s back.
In the past, when Leonis warred with the Everdark Queen, he marched his army through the Land of Demise, located deep within the Terminus Mountain Range. But even the Land of Demise, rife with the fog of death, wasn’t as desolate as this realm.
This was a world where emptiness ruled all.
Maybe the Voids appearing in our world originate from this one? Leonis posited.
Voids—unknown beings that took the forms of monsters from ages past. If they were born here…
This could be a chance to stomp them out at their source.
Leonis’s stomach suddenly grumbled, pulling him out of his thoughts.
“What is it, Leonis? Are you hungry?” Rivaiz Deep Sea asked, tilting her head to one side. “How curious. The Undead King needs to eat like a living person.”
Leonis looked back and saw Rivaiz observing him curiously.
“Hmph. And you sea sprites subsist on storing the sea’s mana in your bodies, if I recall.”
“Indeed. But that’s not to say we abstain from food. When the Underwater Stronghold was still intact, I feasted upon the sacrifices made to me by the deep-sea folk.”
“Hey, what are you two on about?”
Veira, flying ahead of the skull dragon, dropped her speed and pulled up alongside Leonis.
“Do you not get hungry, dragon girl?”
“Well…come to think of it, it’s been three days since I’ve eaten anything,” Veira replied, growling a bit at Rivaiz.
“You didn’t eat those monstrosities?”
“…Are you mocking me, Lord of the Seas? Who would eat those things?!”
I do remember you tearing up the Voids with your jaws, though.
Leonis pondered if that counted as eating them. Veira had been flying nonstop since she left the capital. Dark Lords didn’t require slumber or food to stay alive, but that didn’t make them incapable of resting.
“Hmm. Perhaps we should stop for a break,” Leonis suggested.
“I can still keep flying,” Veira said.
“Well, I’m quite hungry. I swear, this human body is so inconvenient…”
Leonis stood on the skull dragon’s head and used the mystic eye of farsight to observe the surroundings. Through it, he discovered a hill with a commanding view of the surroundings.
“Let’s land there.”
As night descended upon this other world, the ominous red skies were washed over with black. The three Dark Lords sat atop the barren hill around a campfire of everlasting flame produced by sorcery.
“Leonis, what is this?” Rivaiz asked curiously.
She was holding a can of preserved food that Leonis had produced from the Realm of Shadows.
“This is one embodiment of modern humanity’s wisdom,” Leonis explained, oddly boasting as though it were his own accomplishment while opening another can. “Try eating it. You’ll see.”
These were military rations provided to investigation teams on Void hive excursions. Before leaving the capital, Leonis separated part of the Realm of Shadows and took it with him, charging Shary with managing the rest in his absence.
Since the capacity of the Realm of Shadows portion Leonis traveled with was limited, he didn’t have many rations, but there were enough to last a few days.
The three opened several kinds of cans and placed them before the flickering flames. Boiled white fish, corned beef, cooked beans, pilaf, curry soup, muffins made with dried fruit, bean stew, and pudding.
“Hmm…” Rivaiz used a spoon to taste the corned beef. “I see. It’s quite delectable.”
“It’s tasty but not very filling,” Veira added from her spot on the ground. “I wonder if we couldn’t find a cow or three somewhere around here.”
Leonis’s head perked up. “Oh. So dragons eat cattle?”
“Yeah. We burn down mountains with our fire breath and pick whichever cows were roasted the finest.”
“Leviathans can swallow whales whole,” Rivaiz noted.
“Whales are delicious, too,” Veira replied. “I can’t swallow one whole, though.”
Leonis observed the other Dark Lords’ discussion with exasperation. “Forget cows. I don’t think we’ll find anything alive here save for the Voids,” he said.
And he couldn’t say if those monstrosities of the emptiness even counted as living beings. Rivaiz suddenly glanced over at Leonis.
“I believe it’s my first time seeing you eat, Undead King,” she said.
“I’m used to it by now,” Leonis stated as he chewed on his roasted beans.
He didn’t much care for the food, but a certain minion girl always scolded him when he neglected to eat his vegetables.
“Hmm, I see.” Rivaiz nodded, watching in fascination as Leonis ate the canned food. “Still, I did not expect a master sorcerer like you to fail a reincarnation spell.”
“…Mind your own business,” Leonis shot back.
“You were originally undead, after all. You did not need to reincarnate, so why did you not simply slumber for a thousand years?”
“I couldn’t do that. I was a special undead, created by the goddess.”
And what’s more, the goddess had instructed him to use sorcery to reincarnate. When Roselia Ishtaris raised the hero Leonis Shealto as an undead, his human soul was placed in an undead body. However, his hero soul couldn’t acclimate to that new form, meaning it would wear away with time.
Regardless, there was merit to Rivaiz’s inquiry. Leonis looked down and sighed. It may have been a highly advanced, twelfth-order spell, but Leonis still had trouble accepting he’d failed. If he’d had no choice but to reincarnate as a human, he would have preferred a slightly older body, if nothing else. Had he been reborn in his prime as the hero, Riselia and Regina wouldn’t treat him like a child.
After finishing their dinner of canned food, the three began discussing what to do next.
“We have no idea where that man is.” Leonis crossed his arms, looking up to the stars twinkling in the night sky.
They still had no grasp on how large this world was, either. Going after their target without any clues would be difficult.
The only thing we have to go on is the Azure Hold…
“‘This structure is the original template of the human cities. A gate with which to reach the stars.’”
What did that man mean when he said that? Wasn’t the Azure Hold just a flying fortress?
“Veira, did you know the Azure Hold could traverse dimensions?”
“N-no, I didn’t know anything about that.” The Dragon Lord looked away and sulked for some reason. “The Azure Hold was discovered in the depths of the earth by the great dragon elders generations before me. They investigated its functions and realized it was capable of flying.”
“And you used it as your stronghold despite knowing nothing about who constructed it?” Rivaiz knit her brow, exasperated.
“The great dragons don’t mind little details like that!”
“Maybe you should start minding them, then,” Leonis whispered, his eyes narrowed.
“I admit that the Azure Hold possesses mysterious ancient mechanisms that we dragons couldn’t fully comprehend. One was the Almagest, an astronomical observation device that recorded the movements of the stars.”
Leonis was aware of the device. Veira had searched for the Azure Hold on the ocean floor because she wanted to use the Almagest to observe the changes in the stars’ positions.
“A gate with which to reach the stars,” he said, Leonis recalled.
“I think it’s safe to say that man knew the Azure Hold’s original purpose.”
“Just who was that human…?” Veira growled bitterly.
Come to think of it, I still haven’t told them.
“I think it’s likely he’s the Devil of the Underworld, Azra-Ael.”
“What?!” Veira exclaimed.
Rivaiz’s eyes betrayed her disbelief.
“I have no real proof. This is only speculation,” Leonis prefaced before explaining his reasoning. And once he’d finished…
“I see. Yes, there were times when the Devil of the Underworld possessed human bodies.” Veira nodded, convinced.
As a spiritual life-form, Azra-Ael had to claim the flesh of another living being to maintain their form. The body didn’t have to be human, although it seemed the Devil of the Underworld preferred them.
“So assuming that man is Azra-Ael… What does he hope to achieve by using the Azure Hold and the Dark Lords?” Rivaiz wondered.
Leonis shook his head. “Who can say?”
Had he known, it still wouldn’t complete the picture. He kept this from the other two Dark Lords, but…
He’s possessing the body of Riselia’s father, Duke Crystalia.
That couldn’t be a coincidence. There was undoubtedly a reason.
Duke Crystalia had been investigating the Dark Lords, too…
He’d been looking into legends surrounding the supposedly deceased Dark Lords and had even deciphered part of the ancient text. Thanks to that, Riselia translated an epitaph that nearly exposed Leonis’s true identity.
Did Duke Crystalia summon Azra-Ael in some way?
In which case, was Duke Crystalia still acting of his own free will…?
He used the power of a Holy Sword, but…
Holy Swords were a power exclusive to humans. Was possession of a body enough to use one freely?
“…Leo?” Veira eyed the boy dubiously.
“There’s no point in trying to discern his goals without all the information,” Leonis decided. “We have to capture him.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right…,” Veira agreed, spreading her shapely legs on the ground. “But there’s a chance he went back to our old world all on his own.”
“No, I don’t think that’s likely,” Leonis stated, looking up. “Even the Devil of the Underworld can’t travel between dimensions that easily. Crossing alone wouldn’t be too difficult for him, but transporting the Azure Hold will require considerable preparation. Even the Otherworldly Castle, feared for its capability to appear anywhere, couldn’t move between worlds effortlessly.”
“Either way, we need to find him, and fast,” Veira concluded.
“Right…”
Leonis reached out for the night sky, eyes fixed upon it. He reached toward the sky of another world, where the positions of the stars were different.
How strange…
Somehow, his thoughts wandered to the minion girl he’d left behind in the capital. Should he tell her that Lord Crystalia, her father, was still alive…?
He longed to hear her voice. To feel the embrace of her arms, her fingers brushing through his hair.
Absurd. This is almost like… My word, how irksome…
Leonis closed his eyes. Was Shary doing well as his body double? He trusted her but couldn’t shake his concern.
“Today’s training is complete!”
Riselia returned to the entrance of the park, breathing heavily. “…Already?” She looked up at Shary, disguised as Leonis. She glanced at the shadow hourglass sitting on a nearby bench, but only half the darkness within it had fallen to the bottom. Riselia had finished much sooner than on her first day. Perhaps her body was getting accustomed to outputting the right amount of mana.
She really is a Vampire Queen. This kind of potential is hard to come by. Shary tapped her replica of the Staff of Sealed Sins against the ground. “Very well. Let’s move on to the next step in your training,” she stated.
“The next step?” Riselia asked.
“Controlling your mana.”
“O-okay!” Riselia nodded vigorously. Unfortunately, she’d expended most of her mana and couldn’t get up.
After a moment of thought, Shary said, “Before we do, however, I’ll give you special permission to suck my blood.” She held out a finger to Riselia, still on the ground.
“…Are you sure?”
“You won’t be able to continue training with your mana depleted.”
“Okay. Then…” Riselia gulped and plopped Shary’s fingertip into her mouth.
“Ow… Hey, you’re sucking too much!”
“Ah, I-I’m sorry… I can’t really help it…”
“…Nngh, l-learn some restraint.”
“But Leo always lets me suck more.”
“…H-he just pampers you too much,” Shary huffed, placing a hand on her waist. Riselia continued nibbling on her finger, however. “Nnh… Ah… Nff…” Shary, in Leonis’s form, let out wanton moans.
Eventually, Riselia’s argent hair began glowing faintly with mana.
“Y-you’ve had enough, right?” Shary asked.
“Y-yes… Thank you.” Riselia looked unsatisfied, but Shary couldn’t afford to have her take any more blood.
Shary cleared her throat. “Then let’s begin improving your mana control. You are a Vampire Queen, the strongest kind of undead.”
“…I—I am?” Riselia asked, confused.
“Yes. Honestly, in terms of sheer mana, your capacity is already greater than mine by now.”
“Are you saying I can become as strong as Leo?” Riselia questioned, ice-blue eyes wide with amazement.
“Don’t get carried away.” Shary struck Riselia over the head with her staff.
“Ow!”
“Our master is on a whole different level. If I were to compare you two, he is the sun and you are a mosquito.”
“A mosquito…” Riselia stiffened up as if the word had stunned her emotionally. “It’s not like I’m that indiscriminate when sucking blood…”
Shary ignored Riselia’s meek protest and carried on. “I want you to call upon the True Ancestor’s Dress.”
“…Huh? But I just replenished all my mana. Wouldn’t that just deplete it all again?”
“Yes, it would. And that’s the point.”
“…?”
“As you are now, you haven’t fully drawn out the true power of the True Ancestor’s Dress. It devours the wearer’s mana to strengthen their body but can also circulate mana to intensify the strength of your spells several times over.”
“H-hmm…”
“I see you don’t quite understand. Very well.” Shary sighed and shrugged. “For now, just dress up.”
“Dress up… F-fine.” Riselia nodded, took a deep breath, and focused the mana in her body.
Magical energy ran and raged, and a crimson dress, as red as blood, manifested and enveloped her body.
“Her mana really is overwhelming…,” Shary whispered.
“I…can’t really maintain this state…for long…,” Riselia confessed with a pained expression as she collapsed to her knees. Her mana would deplete entirely in less than a minute, and she’d lose consciousness.
“Remain in this state and try circulating the mana inside your body.”
“I—I can’t… The way I am now, it’s…impossible…” Riselia moaned in pain.
Her ice-blue eyes glinted as an insuppressible craving for blood overwhelmed her.
“Oh, fine.” Shary took a step forward and…jabbed Riselia on the forehead with an index finger.
“Ow!” Riselia exclaimed. “Wh-what did you do that for?!”
“I poked a pressure point to focus your mana. It’s normally used as an assassination technique, though…”
“A-assassination?”
“It’s a technique called the Death Knell. It kills the target by poking a point where mana converges.”
“Huh?!” Riselia screeched.
“Don’t worry. You’re already dead,” Shary stated nonchalantly.
“Erm…”
“More importantly, focus your mana in your forehead.”
“O-okay…” Riselia nodded, closed her eyes, and concentrated on her aching forehead.
Her Vampire Queen’s immense power gathered there. Before long, the mana raging inside her like a storm began circulating through her body.
“That’s right, maintain this state awhile longer.”
“Kuh… A-all right… Aah…”
Riselia’s silver hair glowed brightly, and her eyes turned crimson. After a few more seconds passed, however…
“U-ugh…I…I can’t…keep going…”
…the True Ancestor’s Dress fluttered, mana billowing out of it like fire.
“Ngh, ah, ahh…” Roselia returned to her training attire and collapsed limply.
Shary bent down. “Well done. It’s always like that at first. We’ll add this to your regular training regimen for the remaining days leading up to the festival. I want you to keep circulating your mana at all times, not just during practice, so you’ll grow acclimated to how it feels.”
Riselia said nothing. She’d completely lost consciousness.
“—I guess you do have some guts after all.” Shary shrugged and lifted Riselia in her arms.
Standing in the Central Garden’s administrative sector was one building with a characteristically octagonal roof. This was the St. Eluminas Monastery, a Holy Swordsman training school managed by the Human Church, the state religion of the Integrated Empire.
It was much smaller than the Seventh Assault Garden’s Excalibur Academy or the Second Assault Garden’s Military Instruction School, and maintained a policy to train only a select few. The Holy Swordsmen who graduated from the Monastery were all skilled warriors who fought on the front lines.
At the very center of the octagonal building was the Cathedral Hall, where a group of four was gathered. These students, clad in pure white, were the representatives who would participate in the Holy Sword Dance Festival. Each of them was an elite with a powerful Holy Sword and abundant combat experience against the Voids.
Yet there was no light in their eyes whatsoever. They stood as still as the dead. Their Holy Swords and zealous faith in the Human Church, the things that gave them their identities, had vanished.
“I hand-picked them personally. What do you think?” the white-haired young bishop asked with a grin, his head bowed to the woman standing before the cathedral’s altar.
“Why does that matter? They’re all just puppets for us.” Iris Void Priestess was clad in a pitch-black dress, which clashed with the cathedral’s brighter atmosphere. She beheld the young men and women as if appraising prey, before settling her gaze on a petite girl. “But yes, I suppose. A girl with a lovely appearance will do quite well.”
Iris raised the girl’s chin up, examining her like a jewel. After nodding in satisfaction, she leaned in and then…sank her fangs into the girl’s throat.
“Ah! Ahhhh… Ah… Ahhhh…” The girl raised her voice for the first time. Her hands fell limply at her sides, and she looked overcome with rapture. She fully accepted this act of vampirism. The color drained from her youthful features, her skin dried, and she swiftly became a puppet of skin and bone.
“Mmm… Mha… That was quite delicious.”
The girl’s body, limbs now thin like twigs, toppled to the floor. Having had her fill of blood, Iris licked her lips. And then…
…transformed into the girl whose blood she’d taken.
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