Chapter 196 - Damn Reincarnation

Spring of Light

Made using the Holy Emperor’s bones.

Eugene struggled to comprehend those words. What they described lay far beyond his understanding. No, actually, it was not something he could not understand.

Eugene was a mage. He had studied magic in Aroth, the kingdom of magic, reading all manner of research papers and building his magical knowledge.

Three hundred years ago was reputedly the era when magical experiments on humans had been most widespread. In those chaotic times, black mages had performed human experimentation without hesitation.

But such experiments had merely been more frequent then. Experiments on humans had persisted in every era. Nor were the mages who conducted them necessarily black mages.

There were plenty of lunatics among mages. Such mages readily disregarded morality to satisfy their curiosity or pursue magical inspiration. No, in truth, merely conceiving of such things did not require a lunatic’s madness or the inhumanity to disregard morality.

Even Eugene could easily conceive of them. Magical experimentation on humans was taboo, but experimentation on monsters was not. If they could ignore the revulsion and hesitation rising from deep within, mages could readily cut open a monster’s body and toy with its very existence.

The concept was simple. Leave the experiment itself unchanged, and replace the monster with a human.

The moment he thought of it that way, Eugene found he could understand everything Anise was saying all too easily.

The first saint had been made using the Holy Emperor’s bones. A relic of immeasurable value—both the oldest and the greatest holy relic Yuras possessed—had been implanted into the body of an immature girl.

What had been implanted into the first saint was the Holy Emperor’s rib.

The Holy Emperor’s bodily remains held immense godly power that no living priest could ever approach. The divine power priests drew forth through devoted service and prayer to the Light could not compare with the godly power directly imbued in that holy relic.

The saint created in this way could indeed be called an imitation incarnation. At the same time, she was a divine weapon capable of readily performing miracles. Her very existence allowed Yuras to persecute other religions and heretics it considered enemies. Countless nonbelievers, captivated by the saint, converted to the faith of Yuras.

“She did not live long.”

Of course she had not. An incarnation—the light of a god—had been driven into the body of a girl with nothing special about her. The saint created in this way could perform many miracles, but she could not grant herself a long life.

“But the first saint lent a great deal of significance to the madness of those ancient fanatics. They were ecstatic that they could create an incarnation with their own hands, and they were deeply moved when stigmata appeared on the body of the saint they had made.”

An imperfect being. Whenever the saint performed a miracle, stigmata that had never been inscribed appeared on her small body. They were no more than a handspan in size, but the fanatics believed those markings proved that the Light watched over them, and that what they were doing was in no way sacrilegious.

“After the first saint, countless others were made, and died. Their bodily remains became holy relics, used as vessels for the Light... and implanted into later candidates for sainthood.”

The Holy Emperor’s relics were so precious that they were rarely used after the first saint. Instead, the relics of saints were used in their place. In fact, using a saint rather than the Holy Emperor produced saints more reliably.

However, saints made using other saints could not perform miracles on the scale of the first saint.

So they supplemented them by other means.

Yuras had acquired various forms of magic during its mage hunts long ago. Magic was not the only spoils those hunts had yielded. Yuras’s inquisitors had hunted black mages and other mages indiscriminately, seizing the fruits of their research. Some mages had been captured alive rather than killed, then tortured and enslaved.

Through this, research into imitation incarnations had made great advances. The most valuable spoils of the mage hunts had been blood magic, which used blood as its medium. Combining blood magic with various lines of research, Yuras had developed a way to imbue the saints it created with additional divine power.

The Spring of Light.

As long as saints were born, this spring would never run dry.

“In the end, it is all a lie,” Anise said with a bright smile.

“Even the stigmata on the Pope and cardinals are not bestowed directly by God. They merely select priests who are fanatically devoted to the Light, steadfast enough never to divulge the secret, and artificially inscribe the stigmata that appeared on a saint’s body. Those inscribed stigmata originally held no power whatsoever, but...”

Eugene recalled Anise’s back as he had seen it long ago. The stigmata that had deepened and spread whenever she performed a great miracle. Anise had been special even in Yuras. Among all the saints who had existed since the distant past, both Anise herself and the miracles she performed were without equal.

“I was special.”

Her voice was light, but Anise was no longer smiling.

“I had been ever since childhood. There were several other candidates in my time, unknown to the public... but I was the best among them.”

She could hardly have been anything but special.

After the Spring of Light was created, the failure rate of the process for imbuing saints with power fell dramatically. But it was impossible to artificially enlarge a saint’s capacity. To make a saint into a proper imitation incarnation, they needed to use the Holy Emperor’s relics. They had tried several times after the first saint, but never truly succeeded.

They changed their approach.

An imitation incarnation could not become pregnant. So they implanted an immature fetus directly into her womb. After a great many failures, and the use of all manner of divine magic and other magic, a baby was born from an imitation incarnation for the first time.

That infant underwent horrific experiments from an early age. Before she could even walk, the Spring of Light served as her cradle. In this way, they prolonged a life that was dying, unable to endure. Little by little, they implanted what few relics of the Holy Emperor remained into the child. They ground his bones and let them seep into her wounds. They sent blood cultivated through blood magic flowing into her heart.

Thus, Yuras produced an imitation incarnation that was close to perfect. She was born with stigmata incomparably more powerful than the first saint’s, and the more she performed miracles, the larger and stronger they grew. What further made her existence proof of a miracle was that, by inscribing her stigmata on high-ranking priests, they could perform at least a portion of her miracles on her behalf.

“I hated this country,” Anise murmured.

“I could never love it. In fact, I hoped the Demon Kings and demons would wipe this country out entirely.”

“...”

“Had I remained in Yuras, I would have lived my entire life harboring that hatred. But... I left Yuras. Sir Vermouth drew the Holy Sword, and as the saint, I joined him on his journey. Hamel. What do you think I felt on that journey?”

Eugene looked into Anise’s eyes.

It was difficult to read any emotion in those calm blue depths. It had been that way in his previous life, too. Anise never revealed herself. She hid her true feelings behind a saintly smile as thick as a mask.

“... Regardless of how horrific Yuras was, I felt that God truly existed. I felt that miracles existed after all. My existence, everything about me, was contemptible and wretched, but I learned that the world was even more wretched.”

She had seen far too much.

“I never wanted to admit it, but in that era, we were miracles. Sir Vermouth, myself, Senya, Moron, and you, Hamel. Every one of us was a miracle. We could save the world, and we did, however imperfectly. ... The only ones... we could not save were those who had already died, and you, Hamel.”

Eugene could say nothing.

“I imagine it was the same for all of us. Everyone felt something on that journey... and changed. I came to believe in and rely on the God I had been so unwilling to believe in. I longed for heaven, and wanted to guide everyone there.”

Change.

Eugene did not deny it. At some point, the purpose of their journey had changed. Hamel had not begun with some grand conviction that he would save the world. He had simply wanted revenge. The world had gone to shit, and he had been through some shitty things, so he wanted to do shitty things to the demons and Demon Kings responsible.

At some point, he had begun to want more than that—to find some way to save the world. People dying on the battlefield was inevitable, but if possible... he wanted fewer people to die. He had wanted to kill the Demon Kings out of vengeance and hatred, but he had begun imagining what the world would be like after they were dead.

“... You...”

Eugene let out a long sigh.

“You didn’t make it to heaven.”

“... It was too early.”

Anise smiled again.

“In truth, I could have gone to heaven. The wings on my back now... are proof of that. Hamel. So you need not pity me or grieve for me. I chose not to go to heaven.”

“... Why?”

There was something he could not understand.

Anise had been strong. Whatever means the Holy Empire employed, capturing her against her will would have been impossible.

“... You lived in the Holy Empire for a long time. Then you suddenly left on a pilgrimage. How did you... end up like that? Kristina...”

Without answering, Anise raised her head and looked up at the sky.

The deep night sky was gradually growing lighter.

“I intended to disappear.”

Anise smiled brightly.

“... I meant to visit your grave one last time, offer a prayer, and disappear. The Pope and cardinals told me to sacrifice myself for the ‘next’ imitation incarnation, but they could not control me.”

If Anise decided to disappear, no one in Yuras could have stopped her. Indeed, she had left Yuras without anyone holding her back, and reached Nahama’s desert.

“... But you...”

“I merely changed my mind.”

Anise gave a small chuckle and shook her head.

“I hated the very idea of sacrifice, and I had no desire to offer my body to the Yuras I despised. But... in that desert, on my way to your grave, a thought suddenly occurred to me.”

“...”

“Hamel. You sacrificed yourself for the world. You would say that what you did was not a sacrifice... but everyone who witnessed your death there believed you had given your life for the world. You had always been that way. Even knowing your body was breaking down, you put yourself at the front, intent on killing the Demon Kings.”

It hurt to listen.

Eugene lowered his gaze and clenched his fist. He wanted to say something, but his mouth would not open easily.

“... I didn’t have a choice.”

Even to him, the words he finally uttered after some hesitation sounded terribly pathetic.

“... The Demon King of Incarceration’s castle was vicious. Vermouth couldn’t take the lead there. Neither could Moron. He’s a dumbass and an idiot. If someone had to clear the way at the front, I... was the right person for it. I don’t want to talk about this now. We all agreed back then.”

“Yes. We did. As you say, Hamel, someone had to clear the way ahead, and you were indeed the right person. As a result, you died.”

“I’ve never blamed any of you for my death. You told me over and over along the way. That it was dangerous to climb any higher. That we should retreat for the moment and regroup. I was the one who rejected that and chose to keep going. And I got myself killed at the end because I threw myself in on my own.”

“Even so, do you think we did not grieve your death?”

Eugene raised his head and looked ahead.

The sun was rising in the distance.

“In the end, you sacrificed yourself. And I was running away because I did not want to sacrifice myself. Hamel. I am rather fickle. There was no particular trigger... The desert sun was truly bright and hot. To be honest, I struggled to find your grave. Senya had gone into seclusion... No, she was said to have gone into seclusion. I had to wander the desert, tracing distant memories.”

Anise chuckled as she recalled those days.

“As I wandered for so long, I thought about many things. What if I simply disappeared? It would have been a nasty parting gift for the Yuras I despised. But what would happen afterward? I was a miraculous being. Whether I disappeared or not, Yuras would go on making saints as it always had. But they would not be able to make one as excellent as me.”

Had the world achieved complete peace, Anise would never have needed to consider what would happen after she disappeared.

“In truth, the greatest reason I could not help agonizing over it was that I sensed I did not have much longer to live. I was close to perfect, but not truly perfect. I was destined to die soon, disappear, and inevitably go to heaven.”

If death had not been approaching, neither Anise nor the Holy Empire would have had any reason to worry about her successor as saint.

But Anise was bound to die before long. Thus, the Holy Empire needed a saint to succeed her, and Anise did not want to cooperate. They had killed three Demon Kings. She wanted to tell them to handle the rest themselves.

But as she made her way to the grave of the only companion they had lost, she remembered the violent man who had rampaged about, declaring he would kill every Demon King. She remembered the ignorant mercenary without a shred of manners.

Even as he lay dying, he had left his companions no final words. He had felt there was no need. Hamel had believed the others would naturally kill every remaining Demon King. He had believed they would bring peace to the world, as they had all wished together.

But two Demon Kings still remained in the world.

And Anise was bound to die before long.

“... Priests from Yuras came to persuade me while I was wandering the desert.”

Dawn was breaking. Anise spoke with the brightening sky behind her.

“At that moment... I simply indulged a whim. I returned to Yuras with them, and took my own life. I did not want to carry a child I had never wanted, as my mother had. Suicide was a rebellion against this vile country that I could readily accept.”

“... And that’s how... you became an angel?”

Eugene looked at the wings growing from Anise’s back.

“Yes,” Anise answered with a radiant smile.

“My body died, but my soul did not disappear. The light shining upon me sought to guide me to heaven, but I refused to ascend. And so, remaining in this world...”

Her gaze slowly turned to Kristina.

“I was able to dwell within this child.”

Her nonchalant answer sent a chill through Eugene. Then he let out a low laugh.

“You’re a snake of a woman. You know that? Senya and I always whispered about you that way.”

“Hamel. Did you know that snakes are also symbols of regeneration and eternal life?”

Anise replied without the slightest displeasure in her smile.

“In truth, I did not intend all of this. I refused to ascend to heaven because I felt I was not yet worthy of it. The reason... I could dwell within this child...”

Kristina was still asleep, her eyes closed. Anise approached her and lowered herself beside her. Gazing at Kristina with sorrowful eyes, she gently stroked her cheek.

“... Was that this child was special, just as I was.”

The Holy Empire had made holy relics from Anise’s corpse. Rather than implant them into a later saint, they had sought to replicate the saint who had been close to perfect.

Over three hundred years, they had endured many failures. Whether a replica possessed a soul was not important. A soul could simply be extracted and implanted. The most critical problem they had to overcome was the compatibility between the soul placed in this way and the replicated body.

Failed replicas were sent to the Spring of Light without ever becoming candidates for sainthood. Saints still had to exist in the meantime, so they put forward imperfect saints implanted with replicas. In the end, they too died and became part of the Spring of Light.

After countless failures, a nearly perfect replica was born.

A newborn abandoned at a monastery. From the moment that infant’s soul was first implanted into the replicated body, it showed greater aptitude and unity than all the previous test subjects.

Anise’s holy relics, kept in the utmost secrecy, were added to the replica. It did not break down. The body of the child made as a replica of Anise showed nearly perfect unity with the relics placed within it as well.

The replica was given the name Kristina and subjected to various forms of surveillance at the monastery until she was ten. Had she suffered a seizure along the way, she would have been disposed of, but Kristina never had a single one.

And so Kristina became Cardinal Rogeris’s adopted daughter, and the only candidate for sainthood of her era.

“In terms of perfection alone, this child surpasses me. She... will not need to prepare herself for death as I did, and she will be able to live a long, truly long life, as Senya has. ... Stigmata have not yet appeared on her, but before long, she will be able to perform miracles without pouring blood from her stigmata as I did.”

“Anise.”

“... This miracle will soon end,” Anise said.

“Soon, I will return to this child. Nothing much will change. She will still be Kristina Rogeris, and I... will merely remain within her as a spiritual being.”

“...”

“Hamel. Do not grieve over that fact. This is not heaven, but you and I have been reunited like this. Though I will not be able to help you directly, I... can now bless your journey as a part of this child.”

“... Anise.”

“I believe all of this is the guidance of the Light. Though the faithful who serve Him have become hideously corrupted, He still loves all His followers and bestows His light upon them. And through this miracle, He has guided me to you. Your... becoming the master of the Holy Sword. The Holy Sword not losing its light here. All of it is the will of the Light. You will fulfill the mission we failed to accomplish three hundred years ago—”

“You and Senya wrote that storybook together, didn’t you?”

Anise stopped speaking.

She slowly withdrew her hand from Kristina’s cheek and raised her head. Then she stared at Eugene in utter disbelief.

“... Do you not think that question is inappropriate in several ways, given our current conversation, the mood, and the circumstances?”

“Then should I cry?”

“... I do not particularly want to see your crying face.”

“Getting angry wouldn’t be right either. I already got plenty angry earlier... and you said you don’t want me crying. I don’t particularly want to cry, either.”

Grumbling, Eugene approached Anise.

“I’ve felt there was something shitty going on in the Holy Empire since three hundred years ago. In reality, it was shittier than anything I imagined. But what can I do? It’s already happened.”

He reached toward Anise.

“... In the end, you died and became an angel. Not going to heaven was your choice. God exists after all, and so does heaven. Then... that’s enough. Kristina being your replica, and you dwelling within her... there’s nothing I can do about that now.”

“...”

“Because that’s already in the past.”

Eugene took Anise’s hand.

“But from now on, this won’t happen again. Once I kill all the remaining Demon Kings, the Holy Empire won’t need any more saints. If they try to make more saints in that world, I’ll slaughter every last one of those bastards who call themselves followers of the Light with my own hands.”

“... Pfft.”

“What I need to think about now is whether to cut off the heads of the Pope and the other cardinal who did all this. I probably shouldn’t. The Holy Empire is too big, and I can’t ignore its military strength. We’ll need them in the war ahead. But I’ll make sure they can’t pull any more of this shitty crap.”

“Hehe.”

Anise covered her mouth and chuckled.

“That is very like you, Hamel.”

“So what’s the answer? You and Senya wrote that storybook together, didn’t you? Huh? Why’d you make only me look like such a fucking idiot?”

Grumbling, Eugene pulled Anise to her feet. He looked straight at her and pressed her for an answer.

“Why’d you give me that goddamn nickname, Hamel the Stupid, and keep tormenting me with it even three hundred years later? How am I stupid?”

“... Are you asking because you truly do not know?”

“Would I ask if I already knew? No matter how much I think about it, I can’t understand. If you absolutely had to call someone stupid, you should’ve picked Moron, not me.”

Eugene sincerely believed that. Hamel the Brave, Moron the Stupid. Didn’t those suit them perfectly?

“... Hmm.”

Anise looked up at Eugene, smiling as the corners of her lips lifted slightly.

“I see you have not changed.”

“What hasn’t changed—”

His words were cut off before he could finish.

Lips suddenly pressed against Eugene’s, silencing him. Startled, he tried to pull away, but he could not. Before he knew it, both her arms were wrapped around his neck, holding his head firmly in place.

A tongue slipped between his parted lips. Eugene stared at Anise with wide eyes. Right before him, Anise was smiling, her eyes curving brightly.

“... Whew.”

Their lips parted. Anise unwound her arms from Eugene’s neck and pushed him back by the chest.

“This is why you are stupid.”

“... Uh...”

“Please tell Senya I am sorry. I do not know whether she will understand, but what can one do? I am already dead.”

“Uh... huh? Uhhh...”

“Hamel the Stupid.”

Anise lightly licked her wet lips and smiled.

“In some ways, you are an even bigger idiot than Moron.”

Anise’s figure began to disappear. Eugene’s eyes flew wide at the sight.

She was running away. Had she vanished normally, he might have felt grief welling up and shed a tear, but right now, he could not possibly feel sad.

“Hey! Hey!”

“This is not farewell, Hamel. From within this child, I will bless—”

“I get it, so apologize before you go!”

Eugene grabbed Anise’s hand with an angry shout.

“Apologize for calling me a bigger idiot than Moron! And... and that just now, it was my first in this body—”

“Oh dear...”

Anise shook her head with an expression of genuine pity.

“Do you think you were the only one whose first time it was?”

“... Uh...”

“Be sure to tell Senya. Tell her I am sorry, but that is how things turned out.”

Those were Anise’s last words.

Eugene stood there blank-faced, watching Anise dissolve into light. That light did not disappear, but entered Kristina. And it was not only Anise. The Spring of Light, and the source of the spring connected to this place—everything there scattered into light.

That light soared into the dawning sky. The dark blue sky brightened completely.

It was an incredibly beautiful sight, but rather than look up at the sky, Eugene touched his own lips.

“... Ha... haha... hahaha...”

After standing there for a long while, he let out a hollow laugh.