Chapter 144 - Damn Reincarnation

Remnants

As he fell, Eugene kept his eyes fixed ahead. The first thing he saw was the people hanging like fruit from a black, writhing tree. It was only a brief moment, but he checked every one of their faces.

None of them were dead.

But the mere sight of them hanging there filled him with rage. Bloodless, pale faces. Bodies swallowed by squirming darkness.

He had heard them talking about sacrifices. All of these people must have been hung there to be sacrificed.

Beneath the tree, he saw people looking up at him. Hector and... Dominic Lionheart, captain of the Black Lion Knights’ First Division. Eugene saw Ruinthos, the Demonic Spear, in his hand, and a scrawny arm lying a short distance away.

And farther back.

Eward Lionheart. Magic circles drawn in blood, stretching across the ground and through the air. No one was dead? Wrong. One person was dead. A face contorted in agony. His chest must have been split open while he was still alive. Beside him lay his extracted heart and a blood-drenched dagger. The smell of a drug lingered distinct from the stench of blood...

Decon Lionheart.

Eugene had never been close to that eighteen-year-old kid. They were relatives, but exceedingly distant ones. They had never spoken even at the Bloodline Succession Ceremony, when they had both been children. When they met again a few days ago at Black Lion Castle, they had exchanged a few words—hardly enough to call a conversation.

Then, Eugene had seen envy and admiration for him in Decon’s eyes.

An unremarkable level of skill and a family of no particular standing. A kid who had ambition. Eugene didn’t know why he had joined this hunt... but perhaps he had wanted to change himself, or gain something... Wasn’t that probably it?

Decon Lionheart himself would never once have imagined a future in which he died like that in this forest.

‘... What is that?’

He looked at the magic circle floating behind Eward. Even Akasha’s power could not decipher it.

‘... Jigollas, the Crushing Hammer.’

The Crushing Hammer, once the weapon of the Demon King of Carnage, floated at the center of the circle. Was it a catalyst for advanced magic that even Akasha could not decipher? And they were offering living humans as sacrifices?

Eugene’s ash-gray hair stood on end.

FWOOSH!

The flames enveloping his body swelled even larger. They turned blue, lightning mingling with them.

He understood the situation. He didn’t know the details—what relationship those three had, what they wanted, or how they were connected. He didn’t need to ask about that shit right now.

What Eugene needed to do now was cripple all three of them. Once he had done that, most of this complicated, fucked-up situation would be resolved.

‘No Ignition.’

Ignition was a technique that left him with nothing afterward. More reinforcements might be hiding nearby, and he had to be careful about using it when there were no allies to care for him if he collapsed.

“... You really are alive.”

Dominic muttered in amazement. He had unleashed Spear Forest at the exact coordinates obtained through the bracelet. Eugene had survived without a scratch an attack that ignored distance and erupted without warning? Even seeing it with his own eyes, he could not believe it.

“... Better to subdue him than kill him, right?”

Dominic raised the Demonic Spear as he murmured the question to Eward. Eward stared blankly at Eugene, who was wreathed in flames.

Those flames. They should have been the Lionheart main family’s White Flame Formula... but Eward had never seen flames in that form. Bluish fire and lightning. He swallowed without realizing it. His father’s flames, which he had seen long ago. Cyan’s and Ciel’s flames, which he had seen just a little while ago today.

These were different from all of them.

“... Yes.”

Eward nodded as he answered.

Eugene sensed the emotions in Eward’s eyes.

Envy and admiration.

Greed.

Disgust rose in him. He hid both hands inside his cloak. Mer was already resonating with Eugene’s mind, preparing for battle. Tempest was ready as well. The Wind Spirit King felt tremendous hostility, not only because of the situation, but because his enemies were the Demonic Spear and the Crushing Hammer.

Dominic moved first.

Captain of the Black Lion Knights’ First Division. That position did not make him the strongest of the Black Lion Knights. But Dominic prided himself on being the strongest among them. He acknowledged Carmen Lionheart’s and Genos Lionheart’s strength. In terms of sheer skill, he was not confident he could overwhelm either of them.

But Dominic knew what made him special. The Demon Kings’ weapons, which only their great ancestor had ever wielded perfectly. Throughout Lionheart’s history, very few had succeeded in wielding those weapons. Both the previous family head and Dominic’s father had died young, unable to overcome the curses within them.

Dominic had wielded that ominous weapon for decades. And even now, he held the Demonic Spear. He was not confident he could handle it as comfortably or perfectly as the Crushing Hammer he had favored for so long, but he was quite confident in his skill with a spear.

‘I have a fair idea of what you can do.’

It wasn’t just the spar with Genos Lionheart.

“You killed Barang, didn’t you?”

The distance between them closed in an instant. The black spear came right up to Eugene’s face. Dominic smiled as he added a twist to his thrust.

“He was quite a pitiable fellow, you know.”

BOOOOM!

The air swirling with the spear turned black and exploded. An utterly ominous power unlike mana. Demonic energy. A Demon King’s weapon contained an endless supply of it within itself.

Eugene’s face twisted. Both hands emerged from his cloak.

His right held Wynnyd, his left the Holy Sword.

FWOOSH!

The light pouring from the Holy Sword pushed back the demonic energy. Dominic’s eyes widened at the sight.

“... The Holy Sword? I wasn’t told about that...”

“Your old bastard of a grandfather must have run his mouth, huh?”

“Apparently he didn’t tell me everything.”

Dominic roared with laughter and swung the Demonic Spear.

CLANG!

The spear collided with Wynnyd. Eugene glanced at Wynnyd’s blade as the demonic energy ate into it, then activated the Ring Flame Formula. The wind around him swelled. An enraged Tempest rose up.

Flames and lightning mingled with the exploding wind. Was this magic? No, he was simply releasing a burst of mana.

‘And that alone has this much power?’

Mana and demonic energy mingled. The defense Dominic constructed from them protected him perfectly from the point-blank explosion. In other words, defending was difficult unless he went this far. He narrowed his eyes, feeling the tremors transmitted through the Demonic Spear.

‘A monster.’

He had roughly estimated Eugene’s ability. Barang had been strong. He had been greedy, too, and Dominic could give him what he wanted. That had made Barang a convenient tool for Dominic.

Barang was so powerful that even Dominic could not take him lightly. There was no possibility that Barang had betrayed him along the way. So the fact that Barang had not returned, while Eugene had come back unharmed... meant Barang was dead.

‘His control of mana is precise, and his movements are excellent.’

That wasn’t all.

The ground beneath Dominic rose into a spike. He leaped backward and looked down. Weblike cracks were spreading across the ground below.

RRRUMBLE!

The earth overturned. Soil, stones, and the like split into clusters and packed together. The thousands of projectiles they formed shot toward Dominic as he hung in the air.

Dominic was not the only one who had entered the fight. Hector charged forward, his face deeply furrowed. He had fought Eugene earlier and gained nothing from it.

He couldn’t win. If he fought now, he would lose. He knew that, but he was in no position to retreat.

Dominic’s eyes met Hector’s as he broke through the bombardment. The two immediately coordinated their attacks and rushed Eugene as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Eugene tracked their movements with wide eyes.

He was not calm enough to take his time. The Cloak of Darkness billowed. Akasha slowly emerged from the darkness within, enveloped in red light. He did not need to hold it himself. His consciousness was connected to Akasha, and Mer assisted him. Linked by red light, Akasha floated in front of Eugene.

“Scorching Blade Dance.”

A Seventh Circle fire spell unfolded. The mana rippling around Eugene became blades of blazing crimson fire. It looked as though dozens of blades encircled his body.

These fiery blades were linked to his consciousness and obeyed his commands. Magic like this suited Eugene extremely well. Even without him issuing commands himself, Mer read the images in his mind and gave the orders for him.

Flames and sword clashed first.

The dancing blades pressed in on Hector. Deflecting them as best he could to avoid being cut by the flames, he felt for the pouch at his waist with his left hand. The artifact’s buffs were not enough. He would have to add something else.

His movements changed when he drank the potion he pulled out. His eyes perceived more, and with greater clarity. In contrast to the world that now seemed to move slowly, his own movements grew faster.

‘This is insane.’

... Was everything really moving slowly? A chill ran through Hector as he watched the flames approach his neck. Slowly... they were definitely coming slowly, yet he could think of no way to evade them cleanly. His retreat had already been cut off. His only way to suffer less damage was to plunge forward.

‘We’ve only just started. And he’s already drawn me into this? How many moves ahead is he seeing?’

Hector had been confident in combat and tactical exchanges, too. ... Now he had no choice but to realize how worthless that confidence had been. He lowered his body and advanced. When he broke through the flames and took one step forward—

Hector saw enormous flames. Standing within them, Eugene’s eyes burned even more fiercely than the fire. When lightning crackled, Hector reflexively thrust his left hand forward.

He regretted it. In the slowed world, he understood with cruel clarity what was about to happen to his body. Retreat was not an option.

‘... I knew I shouldn’t have come.’

He considered himself fortunate that he had not extended his right hand.

SLASH!

Lightning severed Hector’s left arm. He clenched his teeth, suppressing a scream, and twisted at the waist. The sword that flew from his hand drew close to Eugene.

It never reached him. The wind circling the flames shattered it.

‘Hah.’

He had subdued Hector as easily as handling a child. Marveling at that fact, Dominic slammed the Demonic Spear downward.

BOOOOM!

It was a simple downward strike, yet space shook and the ground caved in.

‘The Holy Sword certainly lives up to its name.’

The Holy Sword was blocking the Demonic Spear. The more demonic energy Dominic drew out, the brighter the Holy Sword shone, pushing back the darkness.

‘I can’t use Spear Forest, but the Demonic Spear has the greater instantaneous output.’

Dominic’s mana became a vast flame. Resonating with the Demonic Spear, pitch-black darkness spread outward from him. Eugene glared at it, his lips twisting. He knew very well what was about to happen.

Spikes shot from the darkness. Scorching Blade Dance met them first, but could not cut them down. The instant they touched, the flames scattered and vanished. Inside the cloak, Mer gave a startled scream and shouted to Eugene.

[“Eugene! You have to fall back!”]

Having experienced that attack himself long ago, Eugene could hardly be unaware of that. But he did not retreat. The wind surged. Tempest knew what Eugene intended to do, and it wounded the Wind Spirit King’s pride.

[“... There’s no helping it.”]

That did not mean he would refuse to cooperate. Tempest had no choice to begin with. Even a Spirit King could not disobey his contractor’s orders. The wind Tempest raised formed an enormous wall behind Eugene.

As he thrust his spear, Dominic could not understand why Eugene was raising a wall. It was not a wall meant to block the Demonic Spear’s attack. It seemed intended to keep an attack—its power—from spilling elsewhere. He could only think so because the wall of wind blocked not only Eugene’s back, but his sides as well.

‘What the hell is he trying to...’

Dread.

He did not know why. Time seemed to stretch out. The instincts he had honed over a lifetime as a warrior warned him of what was coming. Why? At some point, the Holy Sword and Wynnyd had left Eugene’s hands. The magic cast by the floating Akasha was not an attack, but a barrier spell.

The walls formed by wind and magic connected Dominic and Eugene in a straight line. By the time they were complete, the Demonic Spear’s spikes were right in front of Eugene. What was he trying to do? It was too late to block or dodge now. Surely it was, yet the dread Dominic felt would not disappear.

Instead, it grew stronger. And Dominic was not the only one trembling. The spear’s shaft quivered. The Demonic Spear was trembling. This ancient weapon remembered three hundred years ago.

A faint light glimmered inside the wide-open cloak.

‘... What is that?’

A light so cold it seemed pale. Faint. Points of it multiplied, then gathered into one.

The light stretched out, becoming a crescent moon.

Every spike fired by the Demonic Spear was crushed. Dominic could not comprehend the moon before him, but he knew this much: he must not touch it. If he did, he would die. He gathered the demonic energy from the shattered spikes in one place. He formed a barrier, but it did not stop the light for even a moment. That dreadful moonlight illuminated the darkness as fast as it spread.

‘I have to dodge...’

Dominic realized it too late. Eugene’s walls had not been intended to keep the attack from spreading. They had been erected to stop Dominic from dodging sideways. He had only two choices: advance and be torn apart by the moonlight, or keep retreating until his strength ran out.

“The Moonlight Sword.”

It was not Dominic who spoke that name.

Eward Lionheart stared at the sword Eugene held, his eyes stretched wide. A blade of moonlight extended from its hilt.

Eward did not know that sword. The Moonlight Sword had not survived in Lionheart’s history, or the world’s.

But the being connected to Eward’s mind knew it.

WOOOO!

The spirit of darkness spread around Eward gathered in one place. Ink-black darkness seeped into his golden eyes, staining them completely black.

A red dot appeared at the center of those black eyes. The spirit of darkness, still without a defined form, coiled around Eward’s body. Led by that darkness, Eward grasped the Crushing Hammer at the center of the magic circle.

The moment Eward grasped it, Eugene reflexively raised his head and looked at him.

[“... My God.”]

The spirit of darkness enveloping Eward. Tempest felt an overwhelming presence of despair from that spirit.

“... I’m not imagining it, am I?”

Murmuring those words, Eugene placed his hand on the left side of his chest.

[“... I feel the same thing you do.”]

CRUNCH.

Eugene’s fingers dug into his chest and grasped his heart.

[“That spirit is a remnant of a Demon King.”]