CHAPTER 1
THE EVERDARK QUEEN
In the midst of raging winds, Leonis parted his lips while holding Riselia tightly in his arms.
“I’m sorry I kept you waiting, Miss Selia.”
“L-Leo…?” Riselia blinked her ice-blue eyes in disbelief.
Her body wasn’t heavy for him, but the arms of a ten-year-old couldn’t maintain a balanced grip on her.
“…!”
Still, Leonis gritted his teeth and fought to maintain his composure. After making such a dramatic entrance, acting like Riselia was too much for him would tarnish his dignity as a Dark Lord.
“…Is it really you, Leo? The real Leo?” Riselia gently touched Leonis’s cheek with a finger.
“It’s the real me, yes. You can be sure of that,” Leonis said with a strained smile as he peered down.
A destructive storm raged over the Eighth Assault Garden’s plaza. Its buildings had been reduced to ruins, and an unsightly monstrosity roamed about—a large spider-shaped Void.
Hmph, is that the Void lord? I suppose it’s sturdier than the rest…
Despite being hit directly by Leonis’s Di Farga spell, it wasn’t blown to bits. However, it wasn’t entirely unharmed. Half of its legs had been torn off, and its body was partially destroyed. Leonis descended to the ground, still holding Riselia.
“I’m putting you down, Miss Selia.”
“O-okay…” His minion bobbed her head diffidently, and he lay her down on the rubble.
Leonis noticed that her smooth skin was laced with burns and lacerations.
“…?!”
Riselia was a Vampire Queen, the highest form of undead. Simple wounds would normally heal because of her mana, but Riselia was completely out of usable power. The magic combat form of the True Ancestor’s Dress didn’t produce endless amounts of mana; it optimized all of the wearer’s magical power for battle. Thus, none of her strength was relegated to healing.
“You have tarnished my minion,” Leonis whispered as he turned around.
Anger was seeping ever so slightly from his ten-year-old body… Upon seeing this, the Void Lord froze.
“Wh-who are you?!”
“Ooh. You’re actually capable of speech, you mere monster…,” Leonis sneered, and took the Staff of Sealed Sins out of his shadow. “Then let’s see. Can you feel terror?”
But as soon as he said that…
“Ahhh… Ahhh… Ahhhhh…”
The Void Lord’s remaining legs trembled.
“N-no… It can’t be. That staff, it’s… That’s impossible.”
“You have injured my minion—and for that, you will be slain a thousand times over.”
Leonis raised the Staff of Sealed Sins overhead and produced a giant bright red fireball at its tip. An eighth-order fire spell—the Grand Annihilation Fireball, Al Gu Belzelga.
“How can a mere brat like you wield his sorcery?!”
The Void Lord parted its giant jaws and unleashed a crimson blast at Leonis, but the attack was easily swallowed up by the blazing fireball.
Whooooosh!
And so, the ninth apostle, Iris Void Priestess, was wiped off the face of the world.
“Behold the might of a true Dark Lord’s sorcery. Relish this parting gift as the underworld claims you.”
It seemed the Void Lord uttered something before screaming out in its death throes, but Leonis had no reason to listen to anything it said. He batted his uniform trousers, dusting them off, and turned around. And that’s when…
“Leo!”
…something soft squished against his face.
“M-Miss Selia…?!” Leonis squeaked out, his face buried in her cleavage.
Riselia seemed intent on tightly embracing his head.
“Leo, you’re alive… Oh, thank goodness!”
“E-erm, Miss Selia…can’t…breathe…,” Leonis croaked into her chest.
“Ah! Sorry!” She released him hurriedly.
Leonis bowed his head apologetically. “I’m sorry I didn’t make it back in time like I promised.”
“Don’t be. I’m just glad you’re back now.” Riselia shook her head.
“All that said, I don’t quite understand what happened here. What about the Holy Sword Dance Festival?” Leonis asked after clearing his throat.
He’d received Shary’s report, but having just returned, he didn’t have a full grasp on the situation yet.
“A Void outbreak alarm started halfway through the match. I tried to head back to Camelot with Regina and Princess Chatres, but—” Riselia doubled over.
“Miss Selia?!” Leonis caught her by the shoulders.
She was terribly cold to the touch.
Mana exhaustion.
Riselia must have mistakenly thought the True Ancestor’s Dress provided her with an endless reserve of energy and overextended herself using sorcery.
“H-huh…?” Riselia stared at him in an exhausted stupor.
“You have fought hard, and that warrants a reward. Drink all you’d like, my minion.” Leonis cradled her back and brought his index finger to her lips.
“M-mm…” Riselia nodded weakly and bit down on Leonis’s finger.
She bashfully sucked on Leonis’s blood, and he grimaced despite himself at the sweet throb of numbing pain.
“That said, don’t drain too much, or I might run out,” he whispered with a wry smile as he watched the clouded sky.
Far above was a gaping hole torn into the sky. It was clearly different from the cracks Voids had emerged from thus far. And Leonis clearly saw what lay on the other side of that cleft.
A crimson red sky, the color of blood. Leonis knew it well.
It was the sky of the realm he the Dragon Lord and the Lords of the Seas were sent to when Azra-Ael used the Azure Hold’s dimensional travel abilities.
“Do the Voids really originate from that world?” Leonis whispered to himself.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr!
The Eighth Assault Garden’s ground shook ever so slightly.
What?
Leonis faced the source of the sound, only to be greeted with the surrealistic sight of something soaring through the air in the distance and mowing down structures like they were building blocks. He spotted a thirty-meter-tall, giant-class Void—but that wasn’t the source of the destruction. No, the one wreaking havoc was one petite girl, clad in a dark mantle and haphazardly swinging about an Executioner’s Sword.
I see she’s already running amok. Not that I’m surprised…
It was his third minion, Rakshasa Nightmare, the Everdark Queen, an afterlife devil Leonis had sealed one thousand years ago. As a desperate measure against the Void attack, Leonis had ordered Shary to unleash her. But if Rakshasa was left unchecked, she could reduce the Eighth Assault Garden to dust.
“Miss Selia, I’m sorry… If you drink any more of my blood…”
“O-oh, I’m sorry!” Riselia hurriedly released Leonis’s finger from her mouth and pulled away from him. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, if a bit dizzy…” Leonis got to his unsteady feet and pointed at the giant Void rampaging in the distance. “I’m going to stop that thing.”
“All on your own?!”
“Yes. This is beyond a unit of Holy Swordsmen.”
Even if such a group used team tactics to dispatch the massive Void, they’d be helpless against Rakshasa.
“Well, I know you’re strong, Leo, but…” Riselia’s ice-blue eyes wavered for a moment before she ultimately nodded. “All right. Leo, you handle the Void. I’ll link up with Regina.”
“Miss Regina is here, too?”
“Yes,” Riselia replied, looking concerned. “She’s trying to evacuate while helping Princess Chatres, who’s injured.”
While Regina was proficient with artillery and rifles, her Holy Sword was ill equipped for handling group combat. If she were surrounded while carrying an injured person, she’d be helpless.
“Very well. Just don’t do anything dangerous.”
“Okay!”
Riselia got to her feet and gripped the Bloody Sword. The pure white True Ancestor’s Dress scattered into motes of light, restoring her school uniform. After watching Riselia run off, Leonis faced his goal.
The giant-class Void and the Everdark Queen rampaged while more Voids emerged from the tear in the sky.
“My word. I’ll have no choice but to resort to conspicuous means.”
After shrugging indifferently, Leonis produced a skull-shaped Dark Lord mask and donned it.
“Oh, damn it all, why do they keep showing up?!”
Regina shot down wasp-class Voids as she shielded a limp, wounded Chatres.
The Drag Striker was incredibly accurate, but it wasn’t suited for barrage firing. On her own, Regina wasn’t capable of handling the endless swarm of Voids spilling out of the tear in space.
“Mikagami-style swordsmanship—Thunderclap!”
A slash crackling with electricity cut down several wasp-class Voids at once. Sakuya dashed into view, and spheres of plasma popped in the air. With every billow of her white Sakura Orchid garb, the Void swarm shrank.
“Miss Regina, if I miss anyone, shoot them down!”
“You got it!”
Any Voids that evaded Sakuya’s blade were dispatched by Regina’s rifle.
“…Is that Sakuya Sieglinde?” Chatres whispered, sprawled out on the rubble.
Even though she’d been treated with a first aid kit, blood yet seeped into her bandages.
“You actually memorized the names of all the enemy team members, Lady Chatres?” Regina said as she felled an approaching Void.
“Honestly, of all of Excalibur Academy’s team members, she’s the one I was wary of the most. I once saw a Sakura Orchid mercenary group in battle, and those Holy Swordsmen were each a one-man army on their own.”
“Do you think you’re stronger than her, Lady Chatres?”
“Who knows? There’s always the matter of compatibility when it comes to Holy Swords. But that girl… She’s much stronger than research suggested. Her movements are entirely unlike what I’ve seen.”
“In normal training matches, Sakuya only exhibits about half of her true prowess,” Regina explained with a strained smile. The topic of discussion cleaved through Voids with help from Regina’s covering fire.
“I’ve heard the Sakura Orchid refugees feed on their hatred for the Voids for power, but… Ngh…”
Regina glanced back at Chatres. “You don’t have to force yourself to talk.”
Beads of greasy sweat dripped down the princess’s forehead. Perhaps she spoke to keep her mind off the pain, or maybe…
She’s doing it to keep me from worrying.
Suddenly, the fractures running through the space around the girls widened.
Crack, crack, crack, crack!
“Sakuya, watch out! There’s something coming!”
“?!”
Sakuya hopped back cautiously, cutting down more wasp-class Voids as she did. She kept Raikirimaru raised to protect Regina and Chatres behind her.
“Miss Regina, it’s a big one.”
Crack, crack, crack, crack!
As the breaks in space widened, thick miasma poured from them.
“■■■■■■■■■…!”
A gigantic, eight-headed Void emerged, tearing into reality.
“Is that…a hydra class?!” Regina’s green eyes widened in disbelief.
Fwooooosh!
Rakshasa Nightmare’s Executioner’s Sword sped through the air, annihilating a laminated building, which collapsed upon a gigantic monster that had appeared from a tear in space.
“Just what are these unsightly monsters?”
The Everdark Queen, her visage that of a cherubic girl, peered down with merciless eyes. The world held no shortage of despicable creatures, of course, but the entities emerging from ruptures in reality were unlike anything she’d seen. They elicited such primordial disgust that they seemed a desecration and denial of everything that made up the world. Such beings had never existed in her era, be it within her domain, the Land of Demise, or without.
“■■■■■■■■■…!”
The giant-class Void howled as it slowly rose again.
“You’re quite durable.”
Rakshasa’s Executioner’s Sword was a high-grade magical weapon that inflicted all living things with a curse of death, yet that power didn’t seem to affect her foe at all.
“It must be some undead minion of his creation.”
After settling upon that conclusion, Rakshasa furrowed her brow in displeasure. This was surely some minion crafted by that despicable Undead King. As the undead were already deceased, they weren’t affected by the Everdark Queen’s curse of death. These monsters being the Undead King’s handiwork explained her aversion to them.
“Leonis. Leonis Death Magnus.” Rakshasa uttered the name hatefully as she landed on the rubble.
The arrogant, cowardly Dark Lord who stole her realm. Why had he released her from the seal and unleashed these filthy abominations on her?
Is he testing his minions’ powers against me?
The giant-class Void howled and charged Rakshasa, who angrily brandished her sword at it. The blade produced a shock wave of mana that crushed the monster’s head like a pomegranate.
“Show yourself, Undead King! You’re watching this and mocking me, are you not?!”
With a flap of her night-colored dress, Rakshasa unleashed a torrent of dark flame that burned down the wasp-class Voids around her. However, the tear in space above grew ever wider, with more and more giant-class Voids emerging from it.
“I see… So you insist on hiding from me, Undead King,” Rakshasa whispered, her eyes burning with fury. “If that’s the case…”
Bwooooooosh!
An intense storm of mana blew from her, crushing the Voids.
“…I need only make sure there are no shadows for you to hide in.”
“—Are you planning to blow away this entire area, Everdark Queen?” a voice called from overhead.
“?!” Rakshasa reflexively spun around. The whirling mana dissipated, clearing away the dust blowing through the air.
“I care little if you want to destroy a human city, but this place is destined to eventually become my domain.”
A figure clad in a dark mantle gazed down at Rakshasa. The tall man wore a skull-shaped mask.
Rakshasa’s dark-colored eyes widened. “You!”
The silhouette flourished his cape as he spoke.
“I am the true ruler of this world, the Dark Lord who has risen from times most ancient—Zol Vadis!”
“Hisssssssssssssssss!”
The eight deformed snakelike heads cried out at once.
“A hydra class?!” Regina heard Chatres groan behind her.
Even someone with as much frontline experience as Chatres rarely encountered this type of Void.
Besides, this isn’t a Hive on the front lines; this is a city.
Regina held up her Drag Striker while cold sweat gathered on her. She had fought a hydra class once before. Four months ago, during the Stampede in the Seventh Assault Garden, she’d run into a Void of this classification.
Vrrrrrrrr!
The hydra’s gigantic form pushed its way through the tear, widening it as it did. Its eight heads had clearly locked on to the girls.
“Tch… Sakuya, do you think we can get away?”
According to Excalibur Academy mission protocol, slaying a hydra-class Void required at least two platoons of trained Holy Swordsmen. The two of them facing an enemy of this caliber was reckless.
“I might be able to escape on my own,” Sakuya replied, shaking her head. “But not while carrying the princess.”
Regina shrugged with a sardonic smile. “Yeah, figures.”
“Regina Mercedes, just leave me behind,” Chatres told her.
“Yes, yes. Princess, would you please keep your mouth shut for now?”
“What?!” Chatres exclaimed from behind Regina. She clearly wasn’t accustomed to being spoken to like this.
“I told you I’d protect you,” Regina whispered, her expression resolute. She took a step forward, her twintails trailing in the wind. “Sakuya, can I count on you to be vanguard?”
“Yes. Leave it to me!”
With Raikirimaru in hand, Sakuya slashed at the hydra. And as she did…
“Holy Sword, Mode Shift—Dragon Slayer!”
…Regina transformed the Drag Striker into its anti-Void annihilation mode, a large artillery cannon.
“I’m going to fire a big one, Sakuya! Dodge it!”
Sakuya hopped away, running along the wall of a nearby building.
“Eat thiiiiiiiiiis!”
Booooooom!
A blinding flash erupted and the hydra’s massive body was enveloped in an explosion. A deafening rumble soon followed, shaking the air. Fragments of rubble scattered around. But when the smoke cleared…
“?!”
The hydra-class Void’s silhouette emerged from the dust. A few of the scales on its body were torn off, but it hadn’t taken any damage.
The Dragon Slayer is capable of defeating ogre-class Voids. But all a direct hit could manage against this thing was to blow off a few scales…
Regina gritted her teeth in frustration. Her strongest attack, Drag Blast, could penetrate the hydra class’s scales, but charging it took some time, during which she would have to remain fixed in place. That made it ineffective against mobile targets.
One of the Void’s eight heads reared up at Regina and parted its jaws, light gathering in its mouth.
“Hahhhhh! Mikagami-style swordsmanship—Thundering Lightning Slash!”
The hydra’s head soared through the air. Sakuya’s white Sakura Orchid garb billowed elegantly and her blade glinted.
Thud!
The severed head struck the ground and bounced before the heat ray in its mouth ruptured, blowing it to bits.
“That’s one head down—”
Having landed on the hydra class’s back, Sakuya lopped off another head. The hydra class howled, thrashing as it bashed its massive body into a building, trying to crush Sakuya. The structure crumbled with a loud tremor, but Sakuya leaped off the Void’s back, driving her sword into the exposed flesh revealed by its broken scales. She then poured her Holy Sword’s electricity into the tip of the sword, producing a pale electrical discharge that ran through the beast.
However, the electricity that fried the wasp-class Voids in the flash of an eye was successful at making the hydra class spasm only momentarily. The hydra spun its remaining heads around, sweeping them at its attacker like they were whips.
Sakuya jumped back, Raikirimaru ever ready. Even a single hit from the hydra class’s heads would tear her slender body apart.
“Sakuya!” Regina called out in surprise, alarmed by her friend’s reckless fighting style.
She was doing a good job maneuvering around the hydra class, but whenever Sakuya seriously wielded Raikirimaru, Regina’s eyes couldn’t follow its movements.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
The hydra-class Void’s six heads attacked her simultaneously, only for Sakuya to dodge by the skin of her teeth. Her footwork lacked its usual gracefulness. And that’s when it dawned on Regina.
Is she blind in her left eye?
It felt like Sakuya’s reactions were slightly sluggish when it came to attacks from her left.
Did she fight something on the way here?
Communication had been lost with Sakuya halfway through the Holy Sword Dance Festival…
“Sakuya, fall back! I’m firing another one!” Regina called out, raising the Dragon Slayer.
Sakuya made to leap away, but…
Hissssssssssss!
…a severed hydra head instantly regenerated and lunged at Sakuya. It was an attack coming at Sakuya from her left. She wouldn’t react in time.
Yet to Regina’s surprise, the hydra head was destroyed. A crimson stroke, as pliant as a lash, had ripped through it.
“I’m here, Regina!” announced a familiar voice.
“Lady Selia?!” Regina’s eyes widened in disbelief.
A silver-haired girl hurried over, a Holy Sword with a crimson blade in her grip. She jumped lithely and soared through the air like she had wings. She thrust her blade into the gap in the hydra’s scales and loosed her Holy Sword’s power.
“My blade of blood, dance aflutter—Bloody Petal Dance!”
A spiral of scarlet blades tore through the Void’s insides.
“Grohhhhhh…!”
The hydra howled in agony, thrashing its remaining heads around. Riselia withdrew her Holy Sword and landed beside Sakuya.
“I owe you one, Miss Selia.”
“Sakuya, Regina, let’s rush it!” Riselia glared at the hydra-class Void, her Bloody Sword clenched tight.
“Lady Selia, don’t do anything reckless!” Regina implored her.
“Hyahhhh!” Riselia dashed forward, summoning blades of blood that coiled around the hydra’s necks.
“Grohhhhhh…!”
The hydra writhed, trying to shake the blades off, but…
“I won’t let you do that.”
…Sakuya cut through the hydra’s necks in a streak of lightning.
“Regina, shoot the necks’ cross section!” Riselia shouted as she and Sakuya both jumped away.
“Right! Get blasteeeeeeeed!” Regina fired the Dragon Slayer.
Booooom!
An explosion of blinding firepower swallowed the Void’s gigantic form.
“The Dark Lord Zol Vadis?”
The devil in Shary’s form looked up at the figure hovering above her, her fair brows furrowing.
“Indeed. I am the Dark Lord who has risen again to govern over this wo—Whoa!”
Whoosh!
Without any warning, Rakshasa brought her sword down, producing a blade of mana that skimmed past Leonis’s side. He heard a building crumble behind him.
“Wh-what’s your problem?!” Leonis called out, alarmed behind his skull mask.
If that attack had connected, it would have split his fragile ten-year-old body in half.
“I see. So even after all this time, you rely on petty tricks.”
“What?”
Intense mana gathered around Rakshasa. Her dark eyes burned with hatred as she glared up at Leonis with a gaze that seemed to stab into him.
“You think that absurd mask can fool me?!” Her shoulders trembled, and the scattered fragments of rubble around her rose into the air. “As if I would ever forget?! Your voice, your scent, your name!”
Not good! Rua Meires!
Overcome with a grim foreboding, Leonis instantly invoked a nonverbal defensive spell.
“Undead King! Leonis Death Magnus!” Rakshasa howled, and then…
Vrnnnnnnnn!
…a wave of powerful mana expanded in a radial pattern.
“…!”
When the smoke cleared and Leonis opened his eyes, he found that in place of the Eighth Assault Garden’s high-rise buildings, there was nothing but a gaping crater.
Nng, I suppose I should not have pushed my luck.
The intense mana washing over Leonis completely stripped away Zol Vadis’s illusory mantle, exposing Leonis’s ten-year-old body. He couldn’t fool the Everdark Queen, Rakshasa Nightmare. She had reigned over the prosperous Land of Demise deep within the Terminus Mountain Range.
An ally to neither the Dark Lords’ Armies nor the Luminous Powers, she’d warred with Leonis for the title of Undead King. Eventually, Leonis was able to seize the Land of Demise using his army, but since she was an immortal being, he couldn’t fully destroy her. Instead, he elected to seal her soul away.
Rakshasa was a high-ranking devil, making her a powerful combat asset. But since she always sought to claim Leonis’s life at every opportunity, there were very limited times he could introduce her to the battlefield. However, now that Leonis had lost many of his subordinates, she was a precious and powerful trump card.
I’m glad I had the foresight to keep her shackled to some extent.
Shrugging, Leonis landed in the ruins of a half-destroyed building.
“Hmph. I thought you’d have settled down after a thousand years’ slumber.”
“Undead King, you have the gall to present yourself to me as a child?” Rakshasa leveled the tip of her Executioner’s Sword at him. “Even back then, you resorted to such means…to toy with my heart!”
With an enraged scream, Rakshasa leaped at him, closing the distance in a single bound.
“…!”
Screeeeech!
Leonis blocked the slash with the Staff of Sealed Sins.
“Wait! What are you doing?!” he asked.
“Kill you! Kill you, kill you, kill you, kill yooooou!”
Her darkness-colored eyes burned with furious fire as she hammered him with her sword repeatedly. Any normal staff would have split in half by now. The only reason Leonis’s held was because Dáinsleif was sealed within it.
This is bad!
Leonis clicked his tongue. Each time he blocked, his strength waned. The Everdark Queen’s Executioner’s Sword absorbed power.
When Leonis was the Undead King, he had full resistance to this ability, but in the body of a living human, his mana waned with every strike. He did his best to resist, but at this rate, it wouldn’t be long until Rakshasa sapped his life force, too.
“Ragze Veirez!” Leonis chanted as he deflected the blade that swung down at him.
Vrooom!
A gravity field formed in the air between the two, propelling Leonis and Rakshasa in opposite directions. Leonis held up his staff and fired a flurry of third-order spells to keep her in check.
“Farga! Farga! Farga!”
Yet as the explosions hammered her…
“You would use such spells against me?!”
…Rakshasa swept her sword horizontally, deflecting a fireball that went on to hit a wasp-class Void, disintegrating it.
Spells of this level will get me nowhere, Leonis thought as he jumped back to put more distance between himself and Rakshasa. For now, I’ll have to stall for time!
Crack, crack, crack…!
A fissure formed in the space around Rakshasa.
“■■■■■■■■■…!”
A hydra-class Void erupted from the crack, tearing through space as it did.
“Out of my way!” Rakshasa shouted in annoyance, bringing down her sword and easily cleaving the gigantic Void in half. “Are these your undead minions? You think this will be enough to buy time against me?”
“Hmph. Perhaps you won’t be so high and mighty once I’ve gathered a sufficiently large army,” Leonis said with an exaggerated gesture. “Come forth, my minions, and claim the Everdark Queen’s head!”
And as if in response to Leonis’s voice…
Thud!
…three giant-class Voids descended from the large crack in the sky.
“Try defeating my minions. We can duel after that.”
“You underestimate me if you think these weaklings stand a chance!”
Rakshasa began fighting the giant-class Voids under the mistaken impression that they were Leonis’s servants. Leonis sneered as he seized upon this opportunity to get away. He’d been fortunate to notice those Voids emerging and timed his performance accordingly.
That said, it’s the first time I’ve seen Voids of that type.
These six-armed giants easily stood over thirty meltes tall.
They do resemble that race of servants of the fallen gods, the Hecatoncheires.
Even Rakshasa would struggle somewhat against those giants. Leonis didn’t know how vast the Imperial Capital’s forces were, but humans weren’t likely to triumph against so many of those Voids.
After gaining enough distance, Leonis stopped in his tracks.
“Forgive me, Shary. I may have to get a bit rough this time.” Leonis raised the Staff of Sealed Sins and chanted a high-order attack spell.
“Tactical-class eighth-order sorcery—Vira Zuo!”
Vrnnnnn!
A sphere of gravity formed in the air, enveloping the nearby Voids and Rakshasa. Buildings collapsed, kicking up a thick cloud of dust. Leonis didn’t think this would be enough to incapacitate that devil, but it would earn him a little more time.
Leonis checked his terminal. The useful magical apparatus was capable of accurately measuring time. Shary had unleashed Rakshasa over five minutes ago.
The time should be right.
An aura of darkness appeared from within the dust cloud hanging in the air.
“Your precious minions have been defeated, Undead King.” Rakshasa rose to her feet slowly, glaring at Leonis with eyes alight with rage.
“Very well. Then let us fight as you so desire!” Leonis held up the Staff of Sealed Sins. “Guard me, my loyal servants!”
Leonis summoned an army of skeletons from the Realm of Shadows.
“Coward. Did you not say this would be a duel?”
“These skeletal warriors are a part of me.”
“Nonsense!” Rakshasa bolted at Leonis with blinding speed, brandishing the Executioner’s Sword.
And as the devil closed in, she batted away skeletons in her path.
“Your head is mine, Undead King!”
The blade of the Executioner’s Sword thrust into Leonis’s neck.
However…
“What?!” Rakshasa’s eyes widened in shock.
A moment before her attack connected, her blade stopped.
“What…is this?”
The Everdark Queen was utterly frozen in place, standing with her weapon held out. For she was no longer Rakshasa Nightmare.
“Your time is up.” Leonis shook his head, stuffing his terminal back into his uniform pocket. “Too bad, Everdark Queen.”
“Wh-what did…you…?!”
“You were already growing sluggish when you slashed at me. I’m sure you were happy to finally be free, but I did take measures to restrain you in case you went out of control.”
The Everdark Queen’s freedom was limited. A stage three release lasted eight hundred seconds—roughly thirteen minutes.
“Leonis… Leooooooooonis!” Rakshasa howled in wrath, but her body remained immobile.
Shary, whose body Rakshasa was using, forbade the demon from hurting Leonis.
“Rakshasa, you proved useful this time. May you sleep soundly…”
“Curse you, curse you, curse you a thousand times over, curse youuuuuu!”
Leonis gently touched her head, and the dark-colored mantle melted away, reverting into Shary’s maid’s uniform.
“Ah, my…lord.”
“You did well, Shary. Rest for now.” Leonis gently placed Shary on the ground, and her body sank into Leonis’s shadow.
“Phew…,” Leonis sighed in relief. “Things turned out fine, one way or another.”
The tear in space still hung in the sky, but there was no sign of any gigantic Voids appearing. Even so, flying Voids were still emerging.
“I should help clean this up,” Leonis whispered, donning Zol Vadis’s mask again.
“Lady Selia, the capital’s reinforcements should be arriving soon.”
“All right. I’ll go patrol the area, then.” Riselia nodded and jogged down a rubble-covered alley.
“Be careful, Lady Selia!”
After stowing her terminal in a pocket of her uniform, Regina let out a sigh. Communications were recovering, which meant the Void offensive was weakening. She turned and knelt next to Chatres, who was still seated on the rubble. The capital’s military units always included at least one Holy Swordsman with healing powers. With a top-class medic, Chatres’s wounds could be mended in no time.
“You’ll be fine, Your Highness.”
“Yes. I’m sorry…Regina Mercedes.”
“Are you all right, Sakuya? I mean, your left eye…”
“Yes…” Sakuya placed a hand over her left eye and shook her head. “It’s nothing serious. Some sand got in it, is all.”
“…That’s good.”
Regina wearily examined her surroundings, Drag Striker still in hand. The remains of the hydra class she and Sakuya had slain lay in the alley’s entrance. It would soon dissolve and vanish into the emptiness whence it had come.
Looking up, Regina saw another sky in the cloudy heavens. A crimson expanse visible beyond the massive tear in space.
It was like a giant red eye peering down at the Eighth Assault Garden.
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