CHAPTER 9
THE CASTLE OF SHADOWS
“U-ugh…”
Regina awoke to find herself in darkness.
What…happened?
Her mind was clouded, but she managed to recall the events that had led to this moment. The writhing shadows had consumed her and Chatres.
What is this place?
Regina looked around, but a sharp pain shot through her arms when she tried to move. They were fixed in place by chains made of darkness.
“Wh-what are these things?!” Regina struggled violently, but the chains wouldn’t yield. “And my uniform’s gone for some reason, too…”
Looking down at herself, Regina realized she was half naked.
“Fine, in that case…Holy Sword—Activate!”
She focused her thoughts on forming the Drag Howl, but…
“Ah, kuh…ahhhhhh!”
Agony shot from her wrists to the rest of her body like an electrical current. The light particles that should have formed the Holy Sword fizzled and dispersed.
I can’t use my Holy Sword!
Manifesting a Holy Sword took a great deal of concentration. One of the first things that Excalibur Academy students learned was how to discipline their minds and maintain concentration even in the presence of Voids.
Regina had undergone that training, yet this pain proved too intense. It nearly knocked her unconscious. She couldn’t use her Holy Sword, and that frustrated her to no end. Without her Holy Sword, she was just a powerless girl.
Calm down. You need to get a grasp on the situation first.
Regina took deep breaths.
What were those shadows that swallowed the two of them up?
Darkness Voids?
She didn’t know Voids could take the form of shadows, but encounters with unknown Void specimens weren’t unheard of. And the monstrous things were known to abduct humans on rare occasions. Regina tried not to think about what befell those poor people. She shook her head to banish the idea.
Lady Selia…
“Over here. Jump to the ceiling next!”
Shary led them through the shadow corridors. The Realm of Shadows that Scheherazade had created took the form of a stonework castle, the same one Leonis and Blackas laid waste to long ago. In a Realm of Shadows, directions could shift at any moment. What was a wall one moment could become a ceiling in the next, and if an explorer didn’t keep track, they could run into dead ends. Any normal person who got lost here would likely never find the way out.
However, Shary was able to navigate this overlapping, complex labyrinth easily. She had a poor sense of direction in the physical world and often got lost on Excalibur Academy’s grounds, but she was able to find her way through this place thanks to a sixth sense unique to those born in the shadows.
I’d very much like to use a tenth-order destructive spell to annihilate this castle altogether…, Leonis thought, annoyed.
Unfortunately, such a hasty action would completely alter the shadows, likely eradicating the path leading to where Regina and the other hostages were being held.
“Ahhhh!” Riselia exclaimed as she ran across the wall. Her body was sinking into the darkness.
“Miss Selia!” Leonis quickly took her arm and pulled her free. “Be careful. You might never find your way out if you get lost here.”
“A-all right…” Riselia nodded, her face very red.
“What’s wrong?”
“N-nothing. Never mind. We have to hurry and find Regina!”
Shary, who led the group, abruptly stopped in her tracks.
“Please stop, you two.”
She was glaring ahead at something different from everything else they’d encountered in the castle. A tear in space spanned the width of the stone hall ahead.
“A Void crack?!” Riselia exclaimed.
I see. So that’s what’s going on here, Leonis noted to himself.
This explained why the shadow corridors in Elysion Academy had been built in such a short time. The queen’s stronghold was in the Void home world on the other side of the tear, and the dimensional shift that took place during the Holy Sword Dance Festival allowed her to instantly seize control of the shadows here.
“The students appear to have been taken through this fissure,” Shary explained.
“Let’s go,” Leonis said.
Riselia nodded, and the three of them crossed through.
Blackas awakened within the pitch darkness of the Realm of Shadows.
I can’t believe I was taken by surprise.
Blackas growled, but he was powerless to move. Countless shadow chains held him in place, and each fetter held curses meticulously applied to it by the queen. Blackas’s physical strength would not be able to tear them apart.
I bring shame to Lord Magnus like this…
Undoubtedly, it wouldn’t take long for Leonis to notice that something had happened. Upon realizing the Shadow Wraiths he’d left under Blackas’s command never returned, he would investigate Elysion Academy and discover it had become a haunt for demons.
That was the trap Scheherazade had set to catch her hated enemy.
Blackas didn’t know if Scheherazade was aware of Leonis’s existence, but she probably suspected Blackas had allies. She was using him as bait to draw out whoever might help him.
No. Scheherazade is not the issue here.
Now that Leonis had been reduced to a child, his power was a far cry from what it was during his reign as the Undead King. Still, Scheherazade would be no match for him.
She has a trump card up her sleeve, though…
The Spirit King, Elmysteriga Elemental Lord. The mighty ruler of the spirits harbored strength comparable to that of an apostle of the Luminous Powers. Supposedly, he’d fallen when the Undead King’s forces besieged the Spirit Forest.
Now Scheherazade was trying to resurrect the Spirit King as a Void, and to that end, she’d gathered Holy Swordsmen from Elysion Academy as sacrifices.
She wants to use Demon Swords…
Blackas had to relay this information to Leonis.
“Grrr… Raahhhhhhhhhhhh!” he howled, struggling to free himself from the chains.
As he fought against his bindings, a figure appeared silently in his prison.
“…?!”
A familiar girl clad in white garb emerged from the darkness. No, it wasn’t Sakuya Sieglinde. This one had the same facial features, to the point where she looked like Sakuya’s twin, but her hair was longer. What’s more…
Her scent is the same as Riselia Crystalia’s?
It was the presence of those who did not belong in the world of the living—that of the undead. The girl approached Blackas and brought her katana down.
Clank!
The shadow chains holding Blackas in place were severed with a clear sound.
“Wh-what?” Blackas barked, his golden eyes going wide in disbelief.
Just who was this girl? For what purpose did she free him? The culprit offered nothing, vanishing into the dark as easily as she’d come, white garb trailing after her.
Leonis felt a sudden dizziness come over him as soon as he plunged into the Void tear. He, Riselia, and Shary emerged in a corridor decorated with a red carpet.
“Are you all right, Miss Selia?” Leonis asked, catching her as she staggered.
“Y-yes…I’m fine. Thanks, Leo.”
It feels like we’ve been transported across quite a long distance.
Using the shadow corridors allowed one to ignore real-world distances while moving around. The Realm of Shadows stronghold taking over Elysion Academy must have been far from the Imperial Capital.
Shary closed her eyes and placed a hand on the wall.
“This Realm of Shadows is in the darkness of a…forest, I believe. A very large one, at that.”
“The biggest woodland near the capital is the Boundless Forest,” Riselia said.
The Boundless Forest. That was the Spirit Forest in my time.
Leonis consulted his mental map. The Spirit Forest was a woodland area near the Rognas Kingdom, where spirits and demi-human races resided. In the thousand years since, the wood had grown and overtaken the remains of the Rognas Kingdom.
Strange…
This Realm of Shadows was supposed to be on the other side of the Void tear.
What’s such a large forest doing in the Void home world?
Shary removed her hand from the wall and opened her eyes slowly. “The traces of the shadow monsters end abruptly.”
“What do you mean?” Leonis asked.
“The abducted people aren’t in this Realm of Shadows. They’ve been taken somewhere outside it.”
“Then they’re somewhere in the forest?”
“In all likelihood.” Shary nodded then sank into the stone wall. “This way. This facade is a fake, so be careful…”
“O-okay…” Riselia followed Shary, with Leonis heading in after her. Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet collapsed under his weight.
Hmph. About time. Leonis sneered at how predictable it was.
Scheherazade had been waiting for an opportunity to separate him from his allies. Escaping the shadow marsh trap would have been easy, but Leonis allowed himself to sink. He would have to rely on Riselia and Shary to rescue Regina and the others.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
As soon as they passed through the wall, Riselia and Shary plummeted. Riselia screamed as a sense of weightlessness suddenly overtook her body.
“Calm yourself. Run along the wall like this.” Shary pinched up her skirt and vertically scaled the surface.
“H-how are you doing that?!”
“It’s my experience as a maid,” Shary said as she elegantly climbed down the wall to the ground.
Riselia, by contrast, dropped the entire way and landed hard, collapsing. Were she a normal human, it would have been quite perilous.
“Owie…” Riselia stood, rubbing her ankles and looking around. “Wait, where’s Leo?!”
“It seems we got separated…”
“H-huh?! Isn’t that really bad? Oh, my terminal!” Riselia hurriedly took out her communication terminal.
“Don’t bother.” Shary regarded Riselia with exasperation. “That magical apparatus won’t work in the Realm of Shadows.”
“How can you be so calm?!”
“Because I believe in my master,” Shary replied. “Worrying for him is only natural for a vassal, but he will be fine. The one who set this trap is no match for him.”
“…R-really?”
“Yes. So I will follow the orders he gave me…”
No sooner had she finished speaking than Shary drew a dagger from her skirt and thrust it into the wall behind her.
“Grrrrrraaaaaah!”
A shadow monster emerged from the wall, dead.
“It seems the welcoming party is upon us,” Shary quipped before conjuring three daggers in each hand.
“Bloody Sword—Activate!” Riselia instantly manifested her Holy Sword and summoned the True Ancestor’s Dress. The beast-like shadow monsters began slithering from the walls to surround the pair.
“I could easily handle weaklings like this on my own…,” Shary said as she stood back-to-back with Riselia. “But circumstances prevent me from exhibiting my full strength right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I were to go all out now, a slumbering being within me could awaken and cause a great deal of trouble.”
“E-erm…”
“As such, I must rely on you, Riselia Crystalia,” Shary whispered curtly. She chewed on a doughnut she’d produced seemingly from nowhere.
Riselia nodded happily and held up the Bloody Sword. “Y-yes. Understood, teacher!”
After sinking through sludge-like darkness for a while, Leonis finally dropped into a vast chamber. The flickering flames of candlesticks cast an eerie glow on the floor.
“Oh-ho-ho-ho. Welcome to my castle, Undead King.”
Leonis slowly looked up at the source of the booming voice. Deep within the blackness was a muddy, coiled mass of shadow seated upon a throne at the room’s far end.
“You’ve taken on quite the lovely form, Queen,” Leonis greeted her sarcastically, holding up the Staff of Sealed Sins.
Scheherazade Shadow Queen, the sovereign of the Realm of Shadows. Her massive power had allowed her to rule for centuries until she was driven from her throne by Blackas Shadow Prince and his ally, the Undead King. The queen’s original, butterfly-like beauty had not survived the centuries. Perhaps the unsightly monster on the throne was a representation of her true nature.
“You’ve become careless, Undead King. To think you would fall into my trap so easily. The many other snares I set for you were a wasted effort, it seems.”
“My apologies for that. Getting through all of those would have been a waste of my time…”
“Hmph. Impudent taunting.”
“Let me ask you one thing, Queen…” Leonis tapped the Staff of Sealed Sins against the floor. “How can you tell I am the Undead King?”
“Who else but you would have that despicable black wolf and the Septentrion traitor at his beck and call? I heard the Six Heroes destroyed you down to your very soul, but it seems you’ve found a way to return.”
Leonis shrugged. “Hmm…I guess you haven’t gotten over your history with those two.”
“Oh-ho-ho-ho. Complacent, are you not? Do you not see I have your life in the palm of my hand?”
“What do you mean?”
“How amusing. You haven’t even realized it yet. I suppose these thousand years have weakened you, Undead King. This throne room is the deepest section of my Realm of Shadows. Here, my mana is increased, and yours is diminished… Yes, I believe you should be at a fifth of your power.”
“…What?!” Leonis’s eyes widened.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for regret. You will return the Realm of Shadows you stole from me.”
The amorphous mass of shadows seated on the throne glowed with mana. At that moment, the shadows in the area turned into countless spikes that skewered Leonis’s body.
“Ho-ho-ho, you’re so weak, so fragile, Undead King! Scream, that I might delight in your suffering!”
Crack…
A sound like metal cracking rang out.
“…What?”
Crack, crack, crack…
“I suppose that’s enough acting. You’re blind to the true difference in our strengths, Scheherazade.”
Shatter!
Walls of mana formed around Leonis, pushing back the spikes and effortlessly breaking them to pieces.
“I-it cannot be! My shadow barrier should be dampening your power!”
“Mm? Oh, that. You’ve made a fatal mistake, Queen,” Leonis sneered as he approached the throne.
Indeed, entering this place had weakened his mana to a fourth, if not a fifth, of its original level.
“Why would a reduction in strength ever pose a problem?”
“Y-you think your bluffing will work on me, Magnus?!”
This time, she produced ten times the number of spikes as before and shot them at Leonis.
“Goodness, what a forgetful fool. Fifth-order spell—Zoa Regis.” Leonis gingerly lifted his staff and summoned a vortex of magical power that instantly sucked up the spikes. “My thanks for the fine shadows. Once I refine them, they’ll make fine weapons for the Dark Lords’ Armies.”
“I-impossible… M-my greatest, mightiest sorcery… That…cannot be…”
“That was your strongest spell? Well, that’s just tragic…”
“K-kill him… Kill this monsterrrrrrrrrr!”
Leonis sensed several people behind him. Six Septentrion assassins, each wearing a maid’s outfit, attacked him at once.
Hmph. Hiding in the dark, were they?
Leonis prepared to release his death aura, but then…
“Graohhhhhhhhh!”
…a shadow sprung from his feet with a howl. The assassins, taken by surprise, were all blown back.
“My apologies for the delay, Lord Magnus,” said a large black wolf.
“Hmph. You’ve gotten careless, Blackas. I didn’t expect you to get captured.”
“I have no excuses…”
“Y-you?! Blackas?! How?! I fixed you in place with cursed shackles…!” the Queen of Shadows cried out in hysterical outrage atop her throne.
Leonis tapped his staff against the ground and pulled the assassins into his own Realm of Shadows.
No need to kill them. Leonis smiled bitterly at his own merciful tendencies.
Although the Undead King had always been magnanimous, he wasn’t originally so forgiving. Perhaps his human body was softening his heart, or maybe it was his good-natured minion.
“What, is this it? Is this all the hospitality you have to offer?” Leonis leveled his staff at the queen.
The mass of swirling shadows slid from her throne.
“Ah, ahhhh… It…cannot be… This cannot be real. It must be a nightmaaaaaare!”
She tried to escape by sinking into the cracks in the floor.
Leonis panicked for the first time in this encounter. “H-hey, wait!”
He hadn’t imagined a proud ruler would be such a trifling opponent. On reflex, he hurled a fireball at the throne, but Scheherazade had already fled.
“She must have prepared a shadow corridor beneath her chair so she could escape,” Blackas remarked. “It seems she’s gotten more cautious since the last time we defeated her.”
“How bothersome…,” Leonis grumbled.
Catching her would be difficult if she kept running around this Realm of Shadows.
Once Regina and the others are safe, I’ll wipe this whole place out of existence. Leonis smirked as he reached a very reckless solution.
“We have trouble, Lord Magnus…,” Blackas said with a growl.
“Yes, it is quite vexing.”
“That’s not what I mean. Scheherazade is trying to revive the Spirit King.”
“…What?”
“Hyahhhhh! Bloody Petal Spiral!”
Riselia’s crimson blade tore through the shadow monsters. Her white dress billowed in the dark, illuminating passages with its mana glow. Her dress’s Scarlet Tyrant form was well suited for charging through these enemies, but she would have preferred the Queen Minerva form against a constant, nonstop onslaught of foes for its longer sustainability.
With her shining argent hair dancing, Riselia appeared a veritable sword princess, dancing elegantly among her blood blades.
The assassin maid sprinting behind her swiftly dispatched any monsters that slipped by.
“Teacher, how much longer is this going to last?!” Riselia shouted as she cut down two shadow creatures.
“We’re almost there. And stop calling me ‘teacher’—I am Shary.”
“Ah, y-you’ve finally told me your name!” Riselia said happily.
“Don’t misunderstand. I haven’t acknowledged your worth. I merely do not wish to be called a teacher.” Shary looked away in a huff while skewering a couple of the monsters.
“Well, you can just call me Selia, then. Whoa!” Shary grabbed Riselia by the collar and jumped away.
“Here we are. Let’s escape the Realm of Shadows…”
The two of them leaped for the ceiling. A powerful sense of vertigo overtook Riselia. It felt as though heaven and earth were swapping places. When she opened her eyes, she found herself in an eerie forest.
Riselia looked around. “Where are we?”
A suffocating cloud of miasma hung over the place, and the sky was colored crimson.
“This must be a forest in the Void home world,” Shary said, finally releasing Riselia’s collar.
“Where’s Regina?”
“This is where the shadows’ trail ends. She should be nearby.”
“H-heyyy…what’s that?” Riselia had noticed something behind Shary and pointed at it.
The assassin maid turned and saw a large stone pyramid.
“Hmm.…I don’t know.” Shary tilted her head, baffled.
Before they had time to think about it, they felt something approach through the trees.
“?!” Riselia readied her Holy Sword.
“It’s dangerous. We should investigate the area more…”
“My homeland has a saying in times like these. It goes, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’”
Upon recognizing a familiar voice, a surprised Riselia called, “S-Sakuya?!”
Shary sank into Riselia’s shadow.
“Wh-what are you doing?” Riselia asked.
“Shhhh. We can’t let the elf hero discover me.”
“Hero?”
The two girls appeared from within the thicket before Shary could reply.
“Mm?” Sakuya regarded Riselia with confusion. “What are you doing here, Miss Selia?”
“I should be asking you that!” Riselia exclaimed, just as baffled.
“The Spirit King?” Leonis asked as he rode Blackas in pursue of Scheherazade.
“Yes. She is trying to revive the Spirit King who slumbers in this land,” Blackas explained.
She’d abducted Elysion Academy Holy Swordsmen and schemed to use the power of their Demon Swords to resurrect the Spirit King as a Void Lord.
“But I completely destroyed Elmysteriga…”
“There are ways those who have been cut down may rise again.”
“True enough…”
The Archsage Arakael Degradios; the Holy Woman Tearis Resurrectria; Veira Dragon Lord; Azra-Ael, the Devil of the Underworld… Even Leonis was evidence of that rule. He’d been reborn after a millennium. The Spirit King rising from the dead wasn’t so impossible to believe.
Altiria did mention something was causing the spirits to act strangely.
Did the spirits sense Elmysteriga’s impending revival?
That foolish woman. Why would she try to resurrect the Spirit King?
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The Realm of Shadows quaked as cracks ran through every surface.
“What’s happening?!”
“This is bad! This Realm of Shadows is falling apart!”
Blackas leaped into the wall.
“Gahhhh! That despicable, despicable Undead Kinggggggg!”
Scheherazade crept out of the shadow corridors, having been driven from her home. She was in a secret place located beneath the Spirit King’s temple. There was no direct access, meaning no one could follow her via normal means.
“The apostles’ plan doesn’t matter anymore. I will crush those usurpers!”
A black crystal stood at the end of the room, a shrine to the goddess, Roselia Ishtaris, a fragment of her shattered being. If Scheherazade activated this temple, the power of the Voids would overflow and breathe false life into the Spirit King.
“Letting all the Demon Swords I collected go to waste is regrettable, but…”
Scheherazade lacked a sufficient stockpile to ensure the Spirit King’s full revival. She’d worked to gather Holy Swords from Elysion Academy, yet now her labor was in vain.
“And it’s all the wolf and the Undead King’s fauuuuult!” the queen howled furiously as she poured mana into the crystal.
“Elmysteriga, ancient king of the elementals, kill them aaaaaaaaaaaaaall!”
“Holy…Sword… Acti…vate!”
Burning pain ran through Regina’s body. After suffering this terrible agony so many times over, she finally managed to summon her Holy Sword. The Drag Striker’s muzzle spewed fire and destroyed the shadowy bindings holding her in place.
“Haah, haahhh. Ngh…” Regina doubled over where she stood, groaning in pain. “Nng…I don’t have time…to just sit here…”
Regina straightened up with her Holy Sword in hand, still wobbling. She looked around for her communication terminal, but it was nowhere to be found. Neither was her academy uniform.
Where am I, anyway?
The tip of her Drag Striker had a flashlight for firing in the dark, and Regina used it to illuminate her surroundings. That’s when she spotted them—multiple figures bound by shackles as she was. None of them had their uniforms on, but they were definitely Elysion Academy students.
“A-are you all right?!” Regina called out, yet none of them responded. They didn’t seem conscious. She walked around, using her Holy Sword to light the way. Regina found Chatres bound up nearby.
“Lady Chatres!”
She shot off the chains with her Holy Sword, and Chatres fell forward. Regina caught her.
“Lady Chatres… Are you all right, Lady Chatres?!” Regina called, holding her sister by the shoulders.
“Ahhh…” Chatres opened her eyes. “R-Regina…”
“Oh, thank goodness.” Regina sighed with relief.
“Where…are we?” Chatres breathed.
Regina shook her head. “I don’t know. Those shadows dragged us away, and the next thing I knew, we were here. It looks like the other students are trapped with us. We have to save them.”
“I.…see… Nng…” Chatres struggled to her feet, grimacing all the while. “We just need to shatter those bindings, right?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“Holy Sword, Ragna Shadow—Activate!” Chatres manifested her Holy Sword.
“Should you be using your Holy Sword in this state?”
“I can manage severing the chains.”
Whoosh!
Chatres swung the Ragna Shadow, and its blade split into countless fragments, which darted about, cleaving through the bindings. The trapped students all dropped to the floor.
“Wasn’t that a little rough?”
Chatres shrugged. “This is an emergency; we have no choice.”
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The air trembled. The ground beneath them quaked and lurched, and bits of stone fell from the ceiling.
“Wh-what’s happening?!” Regina looked alarmed.
“This place is dangerous. It could cave in.”
“We have to get everyone out of here…” Regina cast her Holy Sword’s light around. Curiously, there was no visible exit.
“In that case… Mode Shift—Dragon Slayer!” Regina changed her Holy Sword to its cannon form. “I’ll just blow a hole open!”
Boooooom!
“Don’t be too reckless. Well, it worked, I suppose. Let’s get the others out.”
“Yeah. We need to hurry.”
Even freed from the shadow shackles, most of the students weren’t regaining consciousness. Some were just barely awake and too confused to grasp the situation.
“Helping everyone escape will take us a while…,” Regina muttered.
And that’s when…
“I heard an explosion, over here!”
…she heard a familiar voice from beyond the ruined stone wall.
“Huh? L-Lady Selia?!”
As though in reply, the girl Regina respected and adored more than anyone else jumped in and landed nearby.
“Regina, are you there?”
“Yes! I’m over here, Lady Selia!” Regina hopped, her twintails bouncing.
“Regina! Thank goodness you’re safe!” Riselia hurried over and embraced her friend.
“I’m glad you’re okay, too, Lady Selia… Wait, what are you doing here?”
“We dove into the shadows and followed you here. Leo came with me, but…”
“I see… Ah, Sakuya’s here, too?!” Regina noticed Sakuya and the elf girl following behind Riselia. “Why are you here?!”
“I accidentally had a fateful encounter with Miss Selia earlier,” Sakuya replied nonchalantly.
“We can catch up later. Are the other students all right?”
“Y-yes. They’re all weakened, but alive…”
“Okay. Let’s pick everyone up and get out of here.”
“Yes, agreed.” Chatres nodded, but just as she did…
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrn!
…the ground shook again, so intensely this time that the girls couldn’t stay on their feet.
“Whoa! Wh-what’s happening?!”
“Is…” Riselia turned around to look at the broken wall with eyes wide. “Is the forest moving?!”
Beneath the bloodred sky, the forest enveloped in Void miasma stirred.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■!”
A gigantic maw opened in the earth, and the howl of a Void cursed and condemned all that lived.
Elmysteriga Elemental Lord, the one known in ancient times as the Spirit King, had fought the dreaded Undead King several times and ultimately merged with the Spirit Forest.
Standing on the peak of the trapezoidal pyramid, the Spirit King’s temple…
“Scheherazade, you ignorant fool,” Leonis muttered from atop Blackas. “How dare you debase one of the precious few I acknowledged as a worthy opponent!”
The Spirit King rose, his body like a giant turtle’s. His rocky skin flaked off, decaying the ground on contact. Each step he took kicked up a cloud of pitch-black miasma.
Why did the Spirit King revive here in the Void home world? What was this temple doing here? Many questions swirled in Leonis’s mind, but he didn’t have the time to answer them now.
“Elmysteriga the Spirit King, I carry no grudges against you, but…” Leonis looked down to the foot of the pyramid. Riselia and the others were helping the captured Elysion Academy students evacuate. “I must protect my subjects. Let’s go!”
“Yes!” Blackas answered Leonis’s call and raced down the side of the pyramid. He kicked off the wall to dive into the miasma-laden forest. After landing on the ground, the shadowy black wolf raced through the eerie woods like a loosed arrow. While clinging to Blackas’s back, Leonis chanted a spell.
“Eighth-order gravity spell—Vira Zuo!”
A gravity wave capable of instantly crushing a dragon consumed the walking earth monster. Elmysteriga’s rocklike skin broke off, raining upon the forest like a shower of decay. That wasn’t enough to defeat the Spirit King, though. Leonis did it only to pull the creature’s attention away from the temple, where Riselia and the others were.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■!” Elmysteriga howled in anger, parting its crocodile-like jaw. Crimson light gathered in its mouth, becoming a ray of smoldering heat that it fired at Leonis.
“The Spirit King would risk burning the forest?!”
Leonis raised the Staff of Sealed Sins and conjured a mana barrier. It deflected the heat ray, splitting it into multiple beams, which scattered around and produced pillars of fire wherever they struck. Blackas sprinted through the flames undisturbed. Leonis gripped the hilt of the Staff of Sealed Sins tightly. Within it lay the strongest Demon Sword, the weapon granted to him by the goddess—Dáinsleif. Leonis’s opponent wasn’t a Dark Lord, and this was a fight to protect his kingdom’s people. Leonis could draw the sword. However…
…If I do, I’ll have to settle this with a single blow.
Having faced Elmysteriga multiple times in the past, Leonis knew that this walking incarnation of earth would regenerate in no time unless he struck properly. He had to destroy the core of the Spirit King.
“I’m going to strike him down at close range. Let’s move in, Blackas!”
“Understood!”
Blackas jumped onto the gigantic Spirit King, climbing up his legs.
Wh-what is that…?!
The Spirit King ran amok, burning the trees. Riselia stared in disbelief at the surreal display.
“That is the great Spirit King…or what’s become of him,” said the elf girl, Arle.
“The Spirit King?”
“Yes. In the distant past, the Spirit King was worshipped in this temple. But now it’s become something else.”
“A Void Lord,” Sakuya said. “If that thing were to invade through the Void tear, the capital would become like my homeland.”
Everyone froze up and exchanged anxious looks… None of them considered the possibility of defeating that thing. Not Chatres, wielder of the strongest Holy Sword, or Sakuya, with her intense hatred of the Voids. It was clear this creature was beyond the scope of what humans could hope to oppose. Everyone present knew that instinctively.
“We need to inform the capital as soon as possible and evacuate.” Riselia only barely got the words out, and soon after, she spotted something.
A small speck moved along the top of the great Void Lord. It was so small that only the enhanced eyesight of a Vampire Queen could spot it.
Leo?!
Indeed, it was Leonis. He was riding some kind of black animal sprinting atop the hulking earth beast.
Leo, why?!
Despite all of Riselia’s bewilderment, she knew what he was doing. He was diverting the monster’s attention from Riselia and the others. And he might just have the power to defeat this Void Lord.
Leo wants to use that sword again.
She knew the ten-year-old boy’s true strength. He’d used that sword’s power to cut down the Void Lord that attacked the Seventh Assault Garden and to blow away the one that appeared on the Third Assault Garden, too.
But that sword…
Riselia could tell that it wasn’t a power he could use with impunity. As powerful as Leonis was, he needed Riselia to guard him when using that weapon.
Yes, he needs time to use that sword.
And from afar, it looked like it took all he had to avoid the Void Lord’s intense onslaught.
Can we manage to buy him the time he needs? Regina’s Drag Blast might work…right?
“Ah!” When Riselia looked at Regina, she remembered something. The elf girl called this monster the Spirit King.
“You said that thing is a spirit, right?” Riselia asked Arle.
“…? Yes, it is.”
“Th-then, can’t a spirit user’s power calm its wrath?”
“What?!” Regina’s eyes went wide. “I—I can’t! Sure, it’s a spirit, but look at that thing!”
“You bear the blood of the elementalists?” Arle asked with evident suspicion.
“W-well, yes, technically…”
“I thought the lineage of the elementalists died out ages ago. In that case, it could be worth a try. If we use the Spirit King’s temple…”
“R-really?”
“The chances are slim, but it’s better than doing nothing. With luck, we’ll be able to stall long enough for everyone to escape. I’ll help you with my elf sorcery, too.”
“Regina, let’s go.” Chatres grabbed Regina’s hand.
“Princess Chatres?”
“Together, we’ll calm that raging spirit.” Chatres stared into Regina’s eyes. “I may not hold a candle to Altiria’s talents, but I have the royal blood of the spirit users running through my veins. I will be able to help.”
“B-but I’m not of the royal family, so I—”
“Regina, from what I have seen, your latent abilities as a spirit user could exceed even Altiria’s. You wouldn’t have been able to resonate with Carbuncle and steer the Hyperion otherwise…” Chatres pursed her lips tightly. “Regina, please. I want to protect Elysion’s students.”
“All right.” Regina nodded silently. “Let’s do this, Chatres.”
Boom, boom, booooooooom!
Leonis loosed destructive spells in rapid succession while riding Blackas. His hand gripped his staff’s handle, but he couldn’t draw the sword yet. He could only afford to wield Dáinsleif when he knew he could destroy the enemy’s core with one blow. Suffocating miasma burned Leonis’s lungs from within.
Nnng, this is dangerous…
For all his vast power, Leonis still had the body of a boy.
Eighth-order spell—Al Gu Belzelga!”
Boooooooooom!
The spell produced a massive pillar of hellfire, but the area it blew away instantly started regenerating.
“Lord Magnus, we must retreat for a moment. At this rate, your body…,” Blackas implored him.
“Ngh. We have no choice!”
Just as Leonis was about to heed his trusted friend’s advice…
Brrr… Brrr, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
…the Spirit King suddenly stopped in its tracks.
What? Leonis looked back in surprise. In the distance, he spied two girls praying at the top of the Spirit King’s temple.
Regina and Chatres, two of the O’ltriese sisters.
The two were kneeling, and an elven magic circle glowed around them.
Are they…trying to appease Elmysteriga…?
The Spirit King stopped for only a moment.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■…!”
The Void Lord’s howl rent the air.
However, Leonis required only that brief pause. He alighted from Blackas and, with a vicious smile, drew the Demon Sword.
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.
Thy name is—the Demonic Sword, Dáinsleif!
Dáinsleif’s blade cleaved through the Spirit King’s core.
Bwoooooooooooooosh!
A blinding white flash spilled out of the core. Leonis, now standing in midair, released his weapon.
May you rest in peace this time, Elmysteriga, the Spirit King…
Leonis plunged toward the ground as he watched the Void Lord’s gigantic frame crumble. The red sky of this other world filled his vision. And just before he let his eyes flutter shut…
…he heard her voice.
“Ahhh, finally. You’ve come to carry out your promise, Leonis.”
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