Chapter 239 - In the Face of Death

Meanwhile, Alberto and Luri were locked in a fierce battle with Gokma. Until now, he had fought them merely by twisting and unraveling space. Now he revealed more of his arsenal.

'Space has shattered.'

Dimension Break. An advanced spell that challenged even mages adept at spatial magic. Space twisted and slipped out of alignment, making everything in sight resemble shards of a broken window. Simply adjusting to that warped space was difficult. It sowed confusion, scrambling even the way one stepped or moved. Only Gokma himself could remain composed within it. Most spatial mages went mad before reaching this stage, so they knew it as a forbidden art.

Luri suffered the greatest effect. With agility as her weapon, the dizzying distortions in her vision naturally hampered her movements. An ordinary person would have lost all sense of direction and fainted after ten steps.

But Luri was a Dragon Spawn who had been a warrior. Finding a way through, whatever it took, was her job. Her innate senses adapted to the adversity, allowing her to move with some freedom. Blows that threatened to demolish the building flew back and forth as they tried to press Gokma again.

Neither Luri nor Alberto spoke. Seasoned fighters that they were, they knew what they had to do. Luri drove Gokma into position like a hunter herding prey, while Alberto served as the executioner, delivering slow but precise blows. Gokma died several times, but each time, another body took his place and he reappeared.

As their evenly matched battle continued, something wholly unexpected brought them to a halt.

"This is..."

"The smell of sulfur..."

The smell of sulfur began spreading through this space of death. It grew too strong to dismiss as imagination, until the entire area was saturated with it. Why was that smell here? They shared the same question, but Gokma seemed to know the answer. He gave a hollow laugh.

"Do you know why I dislike humans?"

"..."

"Because their resolve breaks in the face of death, and they become slaves. Just as one has now."

He continued as though he had known it would come to this.

"The master of death has arrived. It seems Heinkel has finally succumbed to death."

His expression looked bitter, yet he was smiling.

"Well, fortunately, this was within my expectations. Who in this world can remain noble in the face of death? Even I could not."

The shattered space returned to normal.

"My part ends here. I shall be leaving now."

Gokma drew a long line through the air, opening a dizzying rift. Luri and Alberto had no intention of letting him escape. Just then...

CRACKLE!

"Hm?"

An alien fissure appeared in the space Gokma had opened. A rift that destroyed another rift.

CRASH!

Space shattered like a thin pane of glass, reverting to mana. A sword emerged through the soft blue light. And then a woman.

"Ngh!"

Gokma wrenched his body aside at the unexpected attack. The blade sliced off his shoulder as it passed.

"You are..."

Clad in nothing but rags, she crouched low like a beast, the sword in her hand raised like an animal's claw. That sword had just cut through space.

"Sak!"

The woman's eyes glowed blue as she stared at Gokma. Meeting that gaze, he sensed his own death. He saw through to the true nature of those eyes.

"Eyes that reveal death. The Evil Eye. Does that make you a Saintess of Sierra?"

She answered, "Man."

"Man means yes. The wolf is here, but the chain is nowhere to be seen... I see. Is the chain already on the move?"

"..."

The woman did not answer. Only her sword gleamed in this hell. But Gokma merely smiled. He already knew where the other woman had gone.

"Life truly offers no glimpse of what lies ahead."

* * *

"Utterly insolent creature."

The skeletal king of Heinkel slammed Ferda into the floor.

"Aargh!"

Ferda was helpless. He had no barrier to cast, could barely breathe, and his mind was hazy. He could do nothing but endure the king's violence.

"Go on. Let me hear you babble again."

Ferda could sense the king of Heinkel in that deep, resonant voice. But the man's anguished, solemn air was gone. Bewitched by a devil, he had surrendered himself to madness. Now only pleasure remained.

"Didn't you say a mage saves something until the very last moment? Where has that confident expression gone?"

He lifted Ferda and slammed him into the floor again. Ribs broke. Flashes kept bursting across Ferda's vision. He had no options left.

'Someone has to come and stop him. That's the only way.'

All he could do was hope for that miracle. Had his desperate wish somehow been heard?

BANG!

Someone kicked the door open and burst into the space the two of them occupied. Hope of rescue stirred, but it did not last. Enormous heat poured through the doorway. It was Ureas, bearing Amon's form.

"Hehehehehe!!!"

Ureas let out a frivolous laugh like an immature child.

"There you are, Regent Ferda! Did you think you could run from me, you little rat!?"

Ureas flung aside what he had been dragging. It was Count Ruster's head. In the end, Ruster seemed to have died at the Second Prince's hands without finding a way to defeat him.

"Now it's your turn! I'll cut off your head and send it to your fiancée!"

Ureas hurled his sword at Ferda. Its aim was true, but it never reached him. The king of Heinkel blocked the blade. Ureas flew into a rage.

"Who the hell are you!? If you're a corpse, lie still like one! How dare you stand in my way!"

"I should be asking you that. Do you not know whom you owe your resurrection to?"

"Why should I care! Surely I rose again because of my own greatness!"

Ureas spoke arrogantly.

"Serve me, you worthless piece of trash. Do so, and I shall gladly make you my vassal."

"Such utter insolence."

To proclaim dominion before the Demon of Immortality and Legions was an unforgivable provocation. The dim-witted Ureas and Heinkel finally clashed. A fish already caught was easily forgotten. Relegated to that role, Ferda tried to use the opening to escape somehow.

'Move...'

He feebly moved his arm, praying that some muscle still had strength left. Again and again, he tried to get up, but each attempt brought the same answer: his body was already broken. Crosses marked off a checklist, one after another. When the very last thread of hope disappeared, Ferda knew death was upon him.

'I don't want to die.'

Birth and death might be the natural order, but who wanted to die?

'I want to make it home alive.'

Ferda was human, too. A human who wanted nothing more than to return alive.

'Valdrova.'

He wanted to see her face again. The longing was driving him mad.

'If I have to die, at least let me have time to reassure her first...'

That was Ferda's wish. It was then that he heard it.

"You can."

Devils came to desperate humans. But what came to Ferda was no devil. The sweet voice that had lain dormant within him approached his side. What had once been only a voice now had a tangible form. A warm hand stroked his face, then his body.

"Faced with such injustice, it's all right to let go of yourself, even just a little."

"I... won't let you—"

He looked up at it, and words failed him. The figure was none other than his mother, Anna Rosnova.

"Ferda, my dear..."

Even the emotion-laden voice was the same. Without thinking, he called out to it.

"M-Mother..."

"You've suffered so much while I've been gone."

Her warm comfort shook Ferda's heart. He could not believe it. The voice that had whispered inside him was his mother?

"Ferda... Trust your power and use it."

"My power...?"

"Yes... It's right here, isn't it?"

She touched something deep in his lower abdomen. It was the Dark Circle, formed from his regret.

"Use this... Then everything will go smoothly."

"Everything?"

"Yes. With this power, you can even create the world you desire. And you can return to your fiancée."

He could return to Valdrova. Two pairs of horns and red hair. Golden feline eyes shining with innocence, and moist lips. Soft hands and delicate shoulders. He could return to the woman who was his everything.

"Just this once is all it takes."

Anna Rosnova's figure swirled a finger. At that moment, something astonishing happened to Ferda. Life returned to the body that had felt on the verge of death. And that was not all. An enormous amount of mana, undetectable until now, surged up with it. It was like the mana Ferda had possessed in his prime.

"Let's teach them a lesson," the voice said.

But the Dark Circle stopped moving. Ferda had caught her hand.

"Why...?"

"If I awaken that... I'll be no different from the man I was back then."

"Does that frighten you?"

"Yes. I... know how terrifying it is."

Ferda knew. It would never end with just this once. Once would become twice, twice would become four times, and eventually he would use it as a matter of course.

"If that happens... what was the point of my coming back like this?"

"..."

Ferda pushed her hand away. It felt exactly as it had the last time he touched it.

"Please, Mother. Let me remain human. Please... let me die as I am."

That was Ferda's resolve. His breathing finally stopped, and he sank into eternal silence.

"Who gave you permission?"

Agonizing pain struck him.

"Gah!"

Ferda jolted back to consciousness. It felt as if someone had thrust a hand into his heart and was squeezing it. When his senses returned, the figure of his mother was still smiling kindly.

"Child, my child. Did you think fate depended on what you chose?"

Another hand touched his Circle.

"Fate is fate because it cannot be escaped. You have struggled to evade the hatred and rage you are destined to bear, but you cannot."

Her finger stirred the Dark Circle inside his body. With its movement, the Circle spun faster and faster. Vitality surged through him. Ironically, that surging life was trying to overwrite Ferda with something other than himself, to cast his own consciousness far away.

"Because if you evade your fate, you must die."

Ferda clenched his teeth and glared at the woman. Anna Rosnova whispered tenderly into his ear.

"I want you alive. Whether that makes for a tremendous tragedy or a comedy."

Ferda fell into the abyss.

* * *

Ureas and the king of Heinkel continued fighting. Each lethal attack destroyed half the other's body, but they recovered immediately, prolonging their seemingly endless battle.

"Stop a moment."

The king of Heinkel was the first to stop fighting. Something elsewhere had distracted him. Ureas noticed him staring at one particular spot and followed his gaze. They were looking at Ferda.

The half-dead Ferda was on his knees, though he should not have had enough strength left even to kneel. But that was not what had drawn their attention. His body arched backward, and something began taking shape from his chest.

Darkness deeper than darkness. Darkness itself acquiring mass. They already knew such a thing existed, since he used shadow art. But this darkness was profoundly strange. A white ring encircled its edge.

"What in the world is that...?"

Even with Gamigin's knowledge, it was something rarely encountered. While Heinkel stood studying it, Ureas seized the opportunity.

"I'll kill you, Ferda!"

Ureas charged recklessly at Ferda. Then something astonishing happened.

"Huh?"

As he drew closer, the substance of Ureas's body turned to ash, losing its shape. The ashes streamed into that black circle.

"Wh-what!?"

Even a fool like Ureas understood the danger. He stopped advancing and backed away. Yet even as the distance grew, his disintegration did not stop.

"N-no! I can't die! I don't want to diiie!!"

It only intensified with time, and there was no way to resist. At last, Ureas's form vanished entirely. The king of Heinkel and Gamigin, who had watched it all, were aghast.

"Now I understand."

Only then could Gamigin identify that manifestation.

"Is that a Dark Moon?"

The deepest of all darkness. It was said to be so dark that it devoured even the surrounding light, whose afterglow formed a faint ring around its edge. Even Gamigin did not know what became of anything that entered it. It was the embodiment of the ultimate void that Demon Followers yearned for.

"You are not human. No, are you human and something else as well? Your essence feels like ores melted together in a furnace. What are you?"

Naturally, no answer came to Gamigin's question. Instead, the deep darkness turned as if in reply. The Great Demon Gamigin immediately relinquished his possession and fled to Hell.

The king of Heinkel's consciousness was once again in sole control. The Dark Moon slowly devoured his body. Just like Ureas, he was gradually disappearing.

"N-no...!"

The king of Heinkel screamed as well.

"No! I don't want to die!! I don't want to diiie!!"

Only eternal silence awaited him at the end.

The Dark Moon did not disappear. It quietly swallowed the light, as though awaiting fresh prey. Bereft of its master, the castle began to collapse.