II
After arriving at the little cottage in the forest on the outskirts of the imperial capital, Felix and Olivia followed the cottage’s keeper, Chirac, to the entrance of the secret passageway.
“I shall pray for your safe return, young master,” said Chirac, his expression serious as he held out a torch to Felix. Felix took it with a nod. The two of them set off along the same path they had trodden last time. They stole into the inner courtyard of Listelein Palace without encountering any difficulties. Under the cloak of night, the palace was suffused with gloom like a dungeon. They sped straight through the courtyard under cover of darkness. As they dropped into a corner of the library tower, Felix noticed Olivia frowning beside him.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Something feels weird...”
“How so?” Felix waited for her to answer.
Eventually, looking frustrated, Olivia said, “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just weird.” Unhelpful though it may have been, based on how she was acting, he knew he couldn’t ignore it. Felix thought for a moment, then sent his Odh radiating out in all directions. What he learned was that the guards who ought to have been on duty were nowhere to be found.
“What’s with the frown all of a sudden?”
“There isn’t a single guard around here.”
As he widened the reach of his search, Olivia asked curiously, “Is that a big deal?”
“It is unusual no matter how you look at it that there should be no guards patrolling the palace where the emperor resides. But I assume based on your question that the guards are not what concerns you?”
As he expected, Olivia nodded.
“Given the state of the palace,” he went on, “I think we can assume they expected us to come.” Now he thought about it, it was a similar situation to the last time. He could not say for sure if the conspicuous lack of guards was an expression of absolute confidence or not.
“But even if it’s an obvious trap, our only choice is to keep going. Right?”
“Yes, you’re right. Our allies are fighting their hardest as we speak. We don’t have time to waste on worry or hesitation. Let us proceed with haste—and with caution.”
Their plan had been to infiltrate the palace through the library tower, so Felix crouched down, ready to leap up to the balcony at its top. But Olivia quickly stopped him.
“There’s no point taking the long way round if they know we’re here, is there? I mean, we don’t have much time.” She was looking in the direction of the great palace.
“You’re not suggesting we sneak in straight through the great palace? That’s far too reckless.”
“You wouldn’t expect an enemy who sneaked in to walk in through the front door. I feel like it might actually work.”
“There are too many uncertainties. I can’t agree to it,” Felix protested strongly.
A smirk immediately spread over Olivia’s face. “Can’t agree, huh? At times like these—” She began to rummage around in her pocket. Felix quickly gave up hope of persuading her.
“Very well, we will go with your plan this time.”
They left the library tower and took the shortest route to the great palace. Even as they ran, Felix never stopped sending his Odh radiating out. But of course he didn’t detect a single guard. Before long he caught sight of the arched stone bridge that led to the main gate of the great palace. They both stopped at the same time and ducked into the shadow of a nearby building. Two soldiers in ebony black armor that melted into the shadows cast by the braziers stood there. Their ghostlike figures reminded Felix of Lieutenant General Flora Ray, whom Darmés had introduced to him before the battle with the Eighth Legion as the commander of his personal army. As he bristled, expecting a trap, Olivia reached for the weapon on her back.
“My mini ballista’s handy for this sort of thing,” she said, dropping to one knee on the ground then leaning halfway out of the building’s shadow. She loosed two bolts at the soldiers in black. Both flew true through the darkness, and should have taken each soldier straight in the forehead—
“They caught them, huh...” Olivia said, sounding a little deflated.
“It would appear they did...” Felix replied in the same tone. He chose not to remark upon the fact that the weapon in Olivia’s hands was unmistakably a prototype of a crossbow, a weapon that had been officially adopted by the imperial army around half a year earlier. The prototype was inferior to the official model, but it was still a powerful weapon.
After demonstrating their superhuman reflexes, the soldiers in black casually tossed aside the bolts, then slowly drew their swords and set off across the bridge. There was no discernible intent in the way they walked. As they came closer, their faces came into clearer view. They were so clearly insane that Felix couldn’t help but frown.
They aren’t normal. Could even this be Darmés...?
In that moment, as he stood lost in thought, Olivia shot out of the shadows like a rush of wind, running between the soldiers in black. Less than a moment later, both had bid their lives farewell, their faces still twisted by insanity. Olivia smartly returned her sword to its scabbard, then pointed toward the main gate, indicating for Felix to follow her.
As the two of them approached, there was an unsettling screech, and the gate began to open, though they could see no one else around. It was as though the gate had a will of its own. Olivia prodded it.
“Just to check, is this new imperial technology or something?”
“If the main gate to the great palace could open by itself, it would be a disaster.”
“Is this some kind of magic too, then? But magic like that sounds totally fun, so Z would have definitely taught it to me...” Muttering her musings to herself, Olivia strode on ahead without hesitation. Felix followed cautiously, keeping watch on their surroundings. They walked down a vast gallery where silence hung in the air. Ramza IX had built the great palace as a demonstration of his majesty. Even shrouded in darkness, the interior lost none of its grandeur. The ceiling above their head was covered in painted scenes of what appeared to be the lives of the gods. The lengths of both walls of the passage were adorned by paintings of great historical worth, and, taken together, they related a single story. No extravagance had been spared for this gallery, which was primarily a site to conduct diplomacy, though it also saw many banquets, balls, and other social functions.
“They aren’t attacking,” Olivia commented.
“This gallery is full of priceless works of art,” said Felix, staring at her back as he followed her. “I expect they don’t want to see it defiled with blood.”
“Mmm,” Olivia replied vaguely. Felix deduced from this reaction and attitude that her interests did not lean toward the artistic.
They made it down the gallery without encountering any attackers. The gallery of pillars that followed was similarly empty. As they left it, Felix came to a halt before a fork in the corridor.
“The left-hand passage leads to a staircase connected to the emperor’s private chambers.”
“I wonder if Darmés will actually be there.”
“He ought to be, normally...” Felix began, but the current situation was a long way from normal. It wasn’t only the guards—the absence of the golden knights whose duty it was to patrol within the palace made that clear as day.
Olivia stared down the right-hand passage. “What’s down that way?”
“That way leads—”
Before he could finish, Olivia set off down the right-hand passage. Felix followed a few steps behind her.
“This leads to a chapel dedicated to the first emperor. There’s nothing else there.”
“But there is something. I’m getting seriously weird vibes from down here.”
Remembering that Olivia had said something similar at the library tower, Felix quietly fell into step at her side. They walked on in silence. Still not knowing the source of what Olivia was sensing, Felix extended his Odh out toward the chapel. Sure enough, he felt something.
“I sense four people at the door. It may be an ambush.”
“Got it.”
They passed through the single simple door poised for battle. As they entered the chapel’s antechamber, the scene that greeted them completely upended Felix’s expectations.
“We have been waiting for you. I am Major Martina Ray of the emperor’s personal army.” The woman proceeded to bow courteously to the two of them—her enemies. Behind her stood several figures in black cloaks, their faces hidden behind sinister silver masks. Apart from Martina, the masked figures carried the same air as the Asura, of those that made their living through unsavory means.
“It isn’t my place to mention it, under the circumstances, but behind us is the chapel dedicated to the first emperor,” Felix said disapprovingly. “I don’t recall it being open for ordinary soldiers or whatever they are to come and go as they please.”
Martina ignored this reprimand. “Our glorious emperor awaits you in the chapel,” she said in a voice entirely devoid of emotion.
“Darmés is here...?” His Odh had only detected the four people here. He sensed no one in the chapel. But Felix knew about this. He knew there was a man all his detection abilities could not pick up on.
“I finally get it,” Olivia said. “The way he cast the magic is all out of whack. That’s why it feels strange.” She nodded knowingly, looking satisfied.
“Please, do not let us detain you.” Martina stepped out of their way then deferentially invited them to enter the chapel. Just like the main gate to the great palace, the door opened without any human hands touching it. The chapel was constructed in two stories. At the entrance stood an enormous statue of Ramza I holding his sword level, and in front of that, sitting on a simple stone altar, sat a man. A hard glint came into Felix’s eyes.
“Unless you defeat me, you haven’t a hope of victory. I was sure you would come back. And the death god’s little toy! What a pleasure it is to meet you at last.”
“I’m not a toy. My name’s Olivia Valedstorm.”
“Names are nothing more than individual signifiers. There is nothing to be gained by going out of your way to correct them. But more importantly, I must thank you. You wrought so much more havoc than I had anticipated that my benefactor bestowed upon me the Elixir of Cursed Souls. Indeed, I should like to offer you a token of my gratitude.” Darmés cleared his throat. A large crystal ball seemed to appear in his hand, and he tossed it to Olivia. “They put up a valiant fight—far exceeding my expectations,” he went on, sounding amused, “but it appears they are at their limit.”
Reflected in the crystal ball was a view of the far-off final battle. The desperate faces of their allies as they fought came in and out view like a lifetime of memories flashing by. When Claudia appeared, breathing heavily and bleeding, Olivia bit her lower lip as though holding herself together.
“Point your swords at me if you wish, but you might also consider that accepting reality and pledging your loyalties to me is not such a bad option. If you do it right here and now, I will have the Dawn Knights fall back at once. I will also allow your country to continue to exist—with some conditions, of course. I am already halfway to achieving my goals. In order to see the rest through swiftly, I would prefer not to spill any more blood unnecessarily.”
Felix drew Elhazard without a word and pointed it at Darmés. Darmés gave a little sigh, then shook his head.
“That is your choice, is it, Felix? You are as exasperatingly stubborn as ever. As for you...” He looked at Olivia. “It appears I do not even need to ask.”
Powerful determination burned in Olivia’s ebony eyes. “You stirred up chaos for no reason,” she said softly. “There wouldn’t be any meaning in a promise with someone like you. It doesn’t matter how hard the fighting gets for the others. I have something I have to do, and so I’m going to do it. I know what the right choice is.”
“‘Chaos for no reason,’ is it? Well, to a mere pawn who fails to perceive the greater picture, I suppose that is how it would appear...” Darmés rose silently from the altar, then carefully smoothed the creases in his robes. Then he looked at Olivia directly and said, “Answer me this: why do you think people go to war?”
It was exactly the question Olivia had once asked Z.
“Humans are cruel, love violence, and are easily swayed by greed,” she said hesitantly. “Even if they only want small things at first, the more they can reach, the more they want. Humans who taste power become greedy for more than what they have, and that leads to war.”
Darmés stroked his sunken cheek from top to bottom. “There is no weight to any of what you said. Those were not your words, were they? While they may capture part of the truth, I am afraid to say that your perspective is overly broad. This is what I think. Humans acquired some poor excuse for intelligence, which resulted in us fearing our own kind more than any other animal. Those who hold power start wars to conquer their own fears, great or small. Greed does no more than tag along with fear. And so, I thought, this would all be solved if I could only instill fear on another level entirely that would blot out that fear of our own kind.”
“You mean the undead?” Felix asked. Darmés nodded gravely.
“This battle will instill into the people of the world an as yet unknown fear. Even so, idiotic rulers will continue to crawl out of the woodwork. When they do, my army will squash them, and show them who to fear. I will do it tens, hundreds of times, until the day comes that conflict itself comes to be feared. When people cast aside their weapons, those symbols of conflict, with their own hands, I shall become the embodiment of true peace.”
He wanted to use the undead to control the world and eradicate war. The means were horrifyingly twisted, but Felix was shaken to a degree he couldn’t conceal to learn that Darmés’s goal went beyond simple domination to the creation of a world that none had yet achieved.
“Do you seriously think such a thing is possible?”
“It certainly will not be easy. Indeed, it will take a dizzying amount of time. Alas, the time allotted to humans is laughably frail and fleeting.” Darmés spoke as though this was no concern of his. Given the man’s age, he had another twenty years at best. That was not nearly enough time to build the new world that Darmés described, and given the way he was talking, he must have been well aware of it. Felix couldn’t work out what he was really after.
“What if”—from beneath his hood, Darmés smiled an assured smile—“I and I alone were freed from the cycle of death?”
“Are you saying you’re immortal? That’s absurd...” Felix began, then he remembered Lassara, who had lived more than two hundred years through the power of magecraft, and the words died on his lips. The existence of the gods of death and Darmés’s cryptic reference to the Elixir of Cursed Souls were also lodged in a corner of his mind.
“Now, let me ask you again. You first, Felix. Will you swear loyalty to me?”
“The only one to whom I am loyal,” Felix replied, his head held high and proud, “is Emperor Ramza.”
“Stubbornness like that will win you an Imperial Cross,” Darmés sighed. His gaze then shifted to Olivia.
“I won’t,” she said immediately, just as adamant in her denial as Felix. “You were right before—I was just repeating what Z told me. I don’t have my own answer. Listening to you, I thought that even if the method has flaws, if it puts an end to all wars, it isn’t such a bad option.”
“Did you, now? Unlike somebody I could name, it seems you are not entirely set in your ways. Why, then, will you not join me? I am dreadfully curious.”
Olivia was quiet for long enough that Darmés began to lose his patience, then she said, “I couldn’t picture it.”
“Picture? Couldn’t picture what?” Darmés asked in irritation, frowning.
“Everyone’s smiles. In that future you’re trying to create where there’s no war, I couldn’t picture them at all. And that’s why I can say ‘no’ to everything you say.” Olivia’s words were perfectly clear and blew through Felix’s heart like a pleasant breeze.
“I am struggling to understand...” Darmés said. “But no matter. Toys are made to break. Be sure and watch from the land of the dead as I bring about peace.”
There was a dull, black streak of light. Felix put himself in its path, Elhazard slashing out with a high screech. Amid the blast of wind from the shock wave, he called behind him to Olivia.
“I’ll handle this. And this time we are not deciding this with a coin.”
“All right,” Olivia said at length. She took her hand from the hilt of her ebony blade, and stepped back.
Darmés brushed dust from his robe, looking displeased. “Am I only to face you, Felix?”
“Disappointed?”
“Not especially. The difference in effort to deal with one of you as opposed to two at the same time is negligible. It merely does not sit right with me that you would lower your own odds, however trivially. But that hardly matters.”
Felix immediately jumped left. Before he had the chance to breathe, he heard the sound of something behind him breaking. Darmés stared darkly at Felix, his palm thrust out in front of him.
“Did you see it? Or was that instinct?”
Felix was silent.
“No matter. This will tell me.”
Felix ran straight at Darmés. A barrage of shock waves flew at him, but Felix dodged them with a minimum of movement, thinking back on what Olivia had said...
“Maybe you couldn’t see Darmés’s attacks because most of your attention was taken up by Emperor Ramza? Odh and magic come from the same place. You’re even better than me at manipulating your Odh, Felix, so no matter what Darmés cooked up, there’s no way you wouldn’t see it. Basically, the important thing is recognizing it correctly.”
“It seems you do see it,” Darmés said. Felix heard no disquiet in his voice. He took a forceful step in, striking with Elhazard at the top of Darmés’s skull from his blind spot. But he was once again deflected by a transparent shield that covered Darmés from head to toe. Felix paid this no mind, putting his weight behind Elhazard. Their eyes met through the shield.
“You surprised me a little,” Darmés admitted, “but your precious sword is useless against this shield. As I believe you know from experience.”
“The important thing is recognizing it correctly,” Felix muttered, sharpening his senses to their limit. I see it. I see the flow of mana. The shield was made up of regular hexagons, with mana flowing down from the top. The closer it got to the bottom, the thinner it became. Felix concentrated his Odh in the tips of his toes, then, flexing his leg like a whip, he kicked the lower part of the shield. It let out a sound like breaking glass, then shattered into particles of light. With Elhazard now free, he slashed it down in front of him. Surprise flashed over Darmés’s face.
“I honestly did not expect you to destroy my shield. It seems I underestimated you, Felix.” As he spoke, he stared at the stump of what had been his right arm. He did not appear to feel any pain, but a torrent of blood gushed from his shoulder. At this rate, he would die of massive blood loss in minutes.
“This is the end of your twisted ambitions.”
“The end...?” Darmés had a glazed look in his eyes. The next moment, however, he broke out in a laugh so ghastly that Felix flinched away from him. “Oh, no. This is the beginning of true peace.”
A mass of tentacle-like appendages burst from his severed right arm where it had been cut from his shoulder. Tentacles also sprouted from the stump at his shoulder at the same time, and they met to pull themselves together. Felix took a step back. This was beyond human understanding.
“Aren’t you human...?”
“I suppose I cannot claim to be. Not that I ever had any particular attachment to being human.”
His arm now fully reattached, Darmés moved it around to check that it was working. Then he kicked hard off the floor with a burst of speed that easily matched Swift Step. Felix too used Swift Step as he unleashed a rain of blows at Darmés. Darmés answered with a short spear. His spear technique was no better than that of an amateur, but the way he interwove it with magic made him a fairly difficult opponent. As time wore on, Felix took more and more nicks and cuts. He gave Darmés some fair wounds as well, but it seemed that “fair” was not good enough to mean anything—the moment his blade made contact with flesh, the wound healed over. It was obvious whose favor the battle would turn in if this went on.
“Have you still not understood? My body, upon which has been bestowed the power of the gods, easily transcends the laws of nature. Why resist when a world of tranquility awaits you if you only surrender yourself to me?” Darmés looked at Felix in incomprehension, but a moment later, a dark, glistening light came into his eyes. “Incompetent false rulers and their lackeys are a scourge upon the world,” he went on. “The world ought to be governed by a perfect sovereign. Ramza, with his naive faith in peace, could not do it.”
All Felix said was, “Let us finish this.”
“As you wish.” Darmés’s strikes came faster. Felix ducked and dodged every one of them, leaving the beautifully polished floor to be torn apart. He backed up, waiting patiently for his moment.
“Are we finishing this or not?” Darmés asked. Felix was silent. “We are getting nowhere.” The short spear disappeared from Darmés’s hand. In its place, Felix sensed a dense concentration of mana. It was brief, but when Darmés used magic, there was a pause where he was left completely open. This was Felix’s only chance to strike. He used Ultimate Swift Step to close on Darmés’s flank. As he arrived, he slashed out just as Darmés paused. But Darmés materialized a small shield to block his attack. Unlike his previous shields, this one was fully covered in a dense coating of mana. Felix felt through Elhazard that there was nothing he could cut through.
Darmés reached out and covered Felix’s face with his hand. “I was waiting for an opening too,” he said, his voice full of the certainty of his victory.
With Darmés’s hand still over his face, Felix said calmly, “First Order Obscura.”
A shimmer enveloped Elhazard, and the blade slipped through the shield that had just entirely repelled it like butter, cutting into Darmés’s defenseless flesh. His lower body remained behind as his upper body went flying, becoming impaled on the long sword of Ramza I.
How ironic, Felix thought as he stood in front of the statue and looked up at Darmés struggling desperately to free himself from the sword.
“This is nothing! As if I, upon whom has been bestowed the power of immortality, could be so bested!” The long sword shattered in his grip, and his upper body fell to the floor with a thud. Felix stomped on the tentacles that wriggled out from the cut, then stabbed Elhazard into Darmés’s forehead.
“A sword through the head should kill a human instantly. You really have thrown away your humanity.”
“Felix, reconsider this. You are throwing away forever the chance not for some fleeting peace, but of true peace for humankind—of a world where everyone will be happy!”
“I feel the same way as Olivia. I cannot imagine anyone smiling in the peace you would create. And even if peace is fleeting, it is far better than a world in which we are governed by inhuman creatures. We humans will solve our problems ourselves. We don’t need gods or immortals.”
“Felix, I am sure your ideals are the same as mine.”
“Yes, but we are too different in the methods we would use to achieve them. I cannot join you, Darmés.”
Darmés was quiet for a moment. “When I think back, perhaps it was when you defied me that my fate was sealed...” he said. “I was envious of the unmatched trust you inspired...and when I met that god...I could not resist the desires that resided within me... I have no regrets.”
“Darmés...” Felix cut with Elhazard straight down the centerline of Darmés’s body, then cut up what remained until it could no longer be recognized as a body. With a blast of Odh, he reduced it to dust.
Felix walked over to Olivia, who was incinerating Darmés’s lower body.
“Guess he wasn’t immortal after all, huh?”
“It seems so. Perhaps he was lied to, or perhaps the Elixir of Cursed Souls was never meant for humans. Either way, we have achieved half of our goal. The undead Darmés controlled should stop moving soon.”
The sight that greeted them as they left the chapel was of things that could not even be called corpses—still in their armor and masks, but only skin without flesh or bones.
Felix crouched down and gripped the empty skin that had been Martina. “Let’s finish this. All of it.”
“Yeah.”
The night grew darker still.
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