Chapter 157 - Damn Reincarnation

The Capital

The Lionheart forest.

Eugene sat upright deep within it. Mer, who was usually so full of chatter, was not beside him now.

Anisilla, the mistress of the main family, was a towering figure behind high society in Kiel’s capital. She did not command the respect of countless knights as Gilead, the family head, did. But even without attending social gatherings, she received word of most developments among the nobility and intervened in them, earning her the name the Lioness of the Salons.

Eward’s affair had dragged the family’s prestige into the gutter.

To continue reigning over high society and holding sway over noble houses as she always had, Anisilla had much to do. She had to write letters by hand to nobles close to her, attend parties she rarely bothered with, send threatening gifts to nobodies who forgot their place and spread malicious gossip at parties and tea gatherings, and issue warnings to newspapers that published sensational, exaggerated articles.

In short, she was overflowing with stress. Ordinarily, she would relieve it in various ways: a few glasses of wine before bed, or putting on her exercise clothes before dawn and jogging until she was utterly out of breath.

As it happened, Mer was currently at the main estate. Anisilla had discovered that dressing up, feeding, and doting on the little girl—who seemed the very embodiment of her dreams and her lingering wishes about raising children—was an excellent way to relieve stress.

That was why Mer was currently in Anisilla’s clutches. In truth, even if Anisilla had not wanted her, Eugene could not have kept Mer beside him for what he was about to do.

‘She might get caught up in it for no reason.’

When he first encountered the lightning flame, Melkith had warned him that Mer’s formulas might be invaded in the process of subduing it. If the formulas that constituted Mer were damaged, Eugene as he was now would be unable to restore them.

“... Hmm.”

Eugene shifted slightly where he sat upright, lost in thought.

The Lionheart forest.

The World Tree sapling transplanted here had sent its roots underground, reaching the spirit vein Vermouth had created centuries ago.

Only a little over a month had passed.

Just as Tempest and Melkith had said, the forest had become lush and brimming with vitality all year round. There were no more fairy trees yet, and the World Tree sapling had not grown any larger... but Eugene could sense the same spirits of the World Tree here that he had felt upon entering the elves’ domain.

“They don’t fucking listen.”

He could only sense them. Controlling the spirits of the World Tree was impossible. He had been trying ever since the lightning flame first melted into his body, but the spirits still refused to answer his calls.

‘Not that I expected them to.’

The weapons he took from inside his Cloak were the Demonic Spear and the Crushing Hammer. Despite the fierce battle at Black Lion Castle, both had fortunately retained their original forms, neither shattered nor cracked.

The Demonic Spear’s shaft writhed as though bulging with veins, and its undulating blade was as long and sharp as most sword blades.

The Crushing Hammer took the form of an enormous hammer. The excessively long Demonic Spear was far longer than Eugene was tall, while the Crushing Hammer was at least roughly the same length as his height.

But it was heavy. The massive hammerhead at the end of its handle seemed better suited to breaking rocks in a mine than serving as a weapon.

Indeed, the Crushing Hammer and Demonic Spear were currently nothing more than bizarrely shaped, unwieldy lumps of metal, capable only of the functions their shapes suggested.

The Holy Sword and Moonlight Sword had completely annihilated the remnants of the Demon Kings and their demonic energy. Holding the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer in either hand, Eugene narrowed his eyes.

They could still be used as weapons in their own right. His tests had shown that, whatever metal they were made of, both accepted mana exceptionally well. But that alone offered little advantage. Wynnyd and Asphel also accepted mana well.

While infusing them with mana, he had confirmed that some of the lightning flame mixed into it seeped into the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer.

‘Deciphering the formulas is impossible.’

He had already examined them through Akasha. The Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer contained formulas for manifesting the Demon Kings’ powers, but rather than being inscribed on the weapons, they seemed to have melted into them and become one with them. Consequently, separating or altering the formulas was impossible.

‘I can’t even understand them, for that matter.’

Ordinary mana could not reproduce the powers the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer had lost. Would demonic energy be different? Probably, but Eugene would never personally wield demonic energy unless he went out of his mind.

Fortunately, he had sensed the possibility of reproducing the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer’s powers through the lightning flame dissolved in his mana.

And the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer were excellent catalysts.

FWOOSH!

Pure white flames rose. Holding the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer in either hand, Eugene concentrated. When his cores connected and their rotations became one, the flames surged, scattering flashes of lightning.

WHOOOO!

The Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer cried out as though responding to the Ring Flame Formula. Eugene stared at the two weapons, feeling his skin tingle. They were not sucking in his mana; he was forcibly cramming it into them. The mana he now possessed was so powerful and pure that it was hard to believe he had cultivated it for only seven years.

He forced that mana into them until he was scraping the bottoms of his cores. The sword force enveloping the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer became a vast, raging flame that could swell no further, then gradually condensed under Eugene’s control.

As he poured it in to the limit, it began seeping into them little by little. This was no surprise. For five days already, he had repeated this process every day, whenever his mana recovered. With the spirit vein nearby and the World Tree sapling planted here, the forest was full of mana. Even if he used his mana to the brink of exhaustion, the superb White Flame Formula restored it in less than half a day.

‘It looks like it’s finally going to—’

Just as he began feeling a dull ache in his dwindling cores, a different sound came from the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer.

CRACK!

The two weapons, originally pitch-black, turned white within the Ring Flame Formula’s flames. Immediately afterward, thin cracks began spreading across them.

CRACK... CRACKLE!

The lightning flame mixed into Eugene’s mana began seeping through the cracks.

The reaction did not end there. The spirits of the World Tree, which had never approached no matter how often he called and pleaded, began moving toward Eugene. Pale and hazy as smoke, they seemed drawn to him.

The spirits of the World Tree thrust themselves into the crackling, leaping lightning flame. They mingled with it, becoming part of the mana Eugene controlled, then seeped into the cracks in the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer.

Eugene watched them as his awareness rose to dizzying heights. Should he stop now? The spirits of the World Tree had joined in, but his total mana had not increased dramatically. His cores were already on the brink of exhaustion. If he continued drawing mana out like this, he might collapse from exhaustion—or, worse, leave his cores seriously impaired.

‘Am I about to get fuck—’

BOOOOM!

An explosion erupted from the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer in Eugene’s hands. Though it was sudden, he neither panicked nor lost his grip on either weapon. He had caught the warning signs just before the mana flow twisted and burst.

“Oof.”

Eugene grimaced and looked at his arms. His bones and muscles were uninjured, but his skin was red and stinging as though he had suffered minor burns.

The flames had vanished with the explosion. So had the lightning. But they had not been extinguished. Eugene grinned and lifted the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer.

The hairline cracks had already filled in. The lightning flame dissolved in his mana had merged with the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer, becoming one with them. In other words, both weapons were now completely connected to Eugene.

“... Hmm.”

Without suppressing his smile, Eugene roused his mana.

CRACKLE!

Even with what little mana he had left, sword force formed around the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer. He beamed at the leaping lightning flame.

No, he could not be satisfied yet. The Crushing Hammer first. Eugene set down the Demonic Spear and raised the Crushing Hammer in both hands.

He selected a location within his field of vision, checked it, then brought the Crushing Hammer down.

CRUNCH!

An enormous force crushed the area. Success. Its strength fell far short of the Demon King’s, of course, and even of Eward’s. Still, he had successfully reproduced the Crushing Hammer’s power without using demonic energy.

There was one problem, though.

He felt a little dizzy. He had expected it, but using the power drained his mana in a rush.

‘... It’s not enough to be a burden.’

He had to account for the fact that almost no mana remained in his cores. As for its strength... even weakened, it was more than adequate for actual combat.

‘And it’ll only get stronger.’

Eugene set down the Crushing Hammer and picked up the Demonic Spear.

He calculated the coordinates where he wanted the spikes to rise, then thrust the spear downward.

THUD-THUD-THUD!

As with the Crushing Hammer, spear blades shot up precisely in the targeted area. As expected, the range was smaller than Dominic’s Spear Forest, and the arrangement of the blades was worse.

He was not disappointed. Now that the lightning flame dwelled in the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer, the strength of their powers would grow along with Eugene.

“... Hmm...”

He tried to put the Crushing Hammer and Demonic Spear back inside his Cloak.

But he could not. When they were halfway inside, an intense stare stabbed into him. He ignored it and pushed them farther in, and the stare grew sharper and sharper. Wondering what was going on, he drew the weapons out a little, and the stare softened...

“... What are you doing?”

Suppressing a rising sigh, Eugene turned his head.

Behind a tree some distance away, Carmen Lionheart was peeking out with half her face exposed. Her narrowed eyes were tinged with a gloomy light... Eugene tilted his head, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

“... Um... You’re not going to take issue with me having the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer now, are you?”

He had told Carmen beforehand that he possessed them. He needed to tame the weapons in this forest, and doing so without Carmen noticing would have been impossible.

She was grateful that he had resolved the incident at Black Lion Castle, and she had confirmed that not a speck of demonic energy remained in them. Thus, Carmen had readily accepted the matter.

Then why was she staring at him like that? As Eugene blinked, unable to fathom her meaning, Carmen cleared her throat and stepped out from behind the tree.

“... I heard an explosion.”

“Yes... Well... That was me.”

“I sensed an astonishingly vast amount of mana.”

“That was also...”

“What you just used was the Crushing Hammer’s ‘Pressure’ and the Demonic Spear’s ‘Spear Forest’... correct?”

“Um... I told you last time, didn’t I? That I would tame them so I could use them...”

Before Eugene could finish, Carmen abruptly extended her right hand to the side. Startled by the sudden movement, he took a step backward. Before his eyes, she turned her right hand over and presented it to him. A silver pocket watch had appeared in her hand.

“Form Change.”

CLACK!

A heavy mechanical sound rang out inside the pocket watch. It opened, and the hands inside spun.

The watch’s lid split apart.

Speechless, Eugene watched what unfolded before him. It would be no exaggeration to call it the cutting-edge essence of alchemy. The palm-sized pocket watch split apart with a series of clicks, and the metal seemed to stretch out before wrapping around Carmen’s right hand and forearm.

“Heaven Genocide, Destiny Form.”

“...”

“The moment this arm is seen... someone must die.”

“... Do I have to die?”

“If you and I were to begin playing with fate, that would be the outcome. I have no intention of dying, after all.”

CREAK.

Carmen clenched her sharp, silver-clad fingers as she spoke.

“But I do not fight my family to the death.”

“... Right...”

“Fortunate for us both. It means no new tragedy will befall Lionheart.”

CREAK. CREAK.

Carmen kept moving her fingers. With no idea what he was supposed to say, Eugene stared at the Heaven Genocide Destiny Form covering her hand. The metal gauntlet enveloping her right arm... its appearance stirred something like hot excitement deep in his chest.

“What do you think?”

“... Pardon?”

“Of my Destiny Form.”

“... It looks cool.”

“To maximize the power of Destiny Breaker, which I have yet to show you—no, which I cannot show you—I must perform it in this Destiny Form.”

“I see...”

“This Heaven Genocide has various forms besides Destiny Form. Wouldn’t you like to see more?”

“... I’m fi—”

“I suspect Blaster Form would be a worthy match for the Crushing Hammer’s Pressure you just used. Though we cannot actually pit them against each other.”

Looking sincerely disappointed, Carmen raised her hand to the side.

CLACK!

With a mechanical sound, Heaven Genocide returned to its pocket-watch form.

“So. What do you think?”

“Didn’t you just ask me that?”

“I felt your response was not sincere.”

“... I genuinely think it’s cool.”

“Do you want it?”

“No...”

“I could hardly blame you if you did. It is a truly splendid artifact. But I will not lend it to you, nor tell you how I obtained it or who made it.”

“Right...”

“Aren’t you curious?”

Carmen asked with a smug expression. Her sidelong glances, puffed-out chest, and shrugging shoulders made her look as though she could barely contain her urge to show off.

“... I’m curious.”

“A chance encounter, a miracle... A mysterious experience when I was young, decades ago now. That is all I will tell you.”

“Since you’ve started, why not tell me the whole story?”

“I cannot. Promises are very important, and must not be broken.”

CLICK!

Carmen closed the pocket watch and slipped it inside her clothes.

“Your new armaments have awakened the fervor within me. Do not worry. I am accustomed to such fervor, and can control it perfectly well.”

He had not been worried in the slightest.

“However, take care when handling explosions. On my way here, I saw several elves who had collapsed to the ground in fright at the blast. I stopped Sir Siknard as he came running, thinking it was an attack.”

“... Thank you.”

“Is your arm injury all right?”

“It only stings. It’ll heal by tomorrow even if I leave it alone.”

“Careless. Even a minor injury must be treated properly. And Lionheart is a martial family. We have more than enough medicines of every kind, so do not hesitate to apply some.”

“Yes... Understood.”

“Let us return.”

As though it were only natural, Carmen took the lead out of the forest. Having finished taming the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer, Eugene had no reason to remain either.

“By the way. Now that the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer are no longer the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer, should we continue calling them the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer?”

“Yes... What?”

“Their ominous demonic energy is gone, so they can no longer be called Demon King weapons, can they? Thus, there should be no reason to call them the Demonic Spear and Crushing Hammer.”

“It’ll be confusing, so leaving them as they are—”

“What do you think of Gaia Crusher and Longinus?”

Gaia Crusher, Jigollas.

Longinus, Ruinthos.

“I prefer Crushing Hammer and Demonic Spear.”

“Hmm... Naming equipment is its owner’s right. I merely offer a better suggestion; I shall not infringe upon that right.”

Did she think Gaia Crusher and Longinus were better names?

Seriously?

“Master Eugene.”

Just before leaving the forest, they encountered Narissa sitting on the ground and Levera helping her up. The moment she saw them, Carmen pointedly glanced at Eugene and folded her arms.

An elf who had collapsed in fright at the explosion.

Had she taken this path to show him in person? Eugene felt he would never understand Carmen Lionheart’s mind...

“We’ve met before I could come to see you.”

“What is it?”

Narissa and Levera worked as apprentice servants at the annex. Their shift should already have ended, but neither had changed out of her Lionheart maid uniform.

“I came to request permission to go out tomorrow.”

“Go out?”

“Yes. Tomorrow happens to be my day off.”

Levera continued speaking as she brushed the dirt from Narissa’s skirt hem. Each pat against the skirt made Narissa sway. Apparently, she had yet to grow accustomed to her recently fitted prosthetic leg.

“May I ask what you’re going out for?”

“I need to pick up a prosthetic eye.”

Narissa spoke, pointing to the patch covering her left eye.

“Where are you going?”

“The capital.”

“Have you gone out before?”

“No.”

Elves inevitably attracted attention. Of course, Kiel’s capital was exceptionally safe, but as a precaution, it had been decided that an elf going out must always be escorted by one of the main family’s knights.

“Is there anyone you’d prefer as your escort?”

“No.”

Levera answered with an impassive expression, while Narissa glanced at Eugene and repeatedly poked Levera in the side. But no matter how often she poked her, Levera’s expression did not change.

“Then come with me.”

“... Would that really be all right?”

Narissa’s eyes wavered. She had never expected Eugene to offer that himself.

“I-I’ll come too...”

“Tomorrow isn’t your day off.”

“If I ask someone to switch shifts...”

“Head Servant Nina dislikes changing work hours for personal reasons.”

The smooth reply left Narissa with no choice but to close her mouth.

“What time should we leave tomorrow?”

“Any time is fine.”

“Then shall we go out for lunch? I’ve only been to the capital a few times myself, but Mer knows the good restaurants.”

That was because Anisilla and Gerhard took Mer out every day.

“... Understood.”

Without a flicker of agitation, Levera bowed her head.