Chapter 135 - The Borderlands (3)

Alon knew nothing about Rainicius the Golden Dragon. It would have been strange if he had. In Psychedelia, dragons were a race that had already vanished during the forgotten age of the gods.

After staring blankly at that enormous body for a moment, Alon calmly let out a sigh.

"... Duke Comalon sent me here."

["Duke Comalon?"]

The enormous reptilian eyes briefly filled with puzzlement before he gave a quiet exclamation.

["Ah—ahh, I see. That half-baked Magus from before? Yes, I know him. I remember."]

Rainicius nodded several times, then spoke.

["So, is he doing well?"]

"..."

Alon wondered how to answer, but the dragon seemed to have already found his answer.

["Well—since he never made it here, it seems he died without fulfilling that stubborn ambition of his."]

"You knew what he was thinking?"

["I was part of his plan. A foolish idea, certainly, but if his sole, blind objective was to keep those things from rising, it was also quite efficient and clever."]

"... You were part of it?"

At Alon's question, Rainicius leisurely lowered his head to the ground.

BOOM!

An enormous crash echoed through the cavern.

["Yes. He intended to leave only a tiny fraction of humanity alive, then use my dragon heart to create a barrier where the few survivors could prosper again."]

Use his dragon heart.

Alon fell silent for a moment before continuing.

"... Isn't that essentially the same as Duke Comalon saying he would kill you?"

["Well, you could see it that way."]

"And you're all right with him saying that?"

How could he be so calm?

Alon asked in bewilderment, but Rainicius answered with an untroubled, leisurely gaze.

["I am. Why shouldn't I be? I have been as good as dead ever since I was sealed here. My dragon heart is practically the only thing keeping me alive."]

"Because of those spears?"

Alon gestured toward the enormous spears embedded in the dragon's torso, weapons that looked fit for giants out of myth.

Rainicius nodded.

["Spears of Annihilation. My friend drove them into me personally, saying he would save my life."]

"... Were you betrayed?"

["No, certainly not. I don't know how it sounds to you, but I mean exactly what I said. My dearest friend drove these Spears of Annihilation into me to save me. To hide me."]

"... Was this during the forgotten age of the gods?"

["Yes."]

"May I hear the story?"

["Of course."]

Rainicius fell silent for a moment, as though gathering his thoughts. Then his voice recounted the past.

["There isn't much to tell. We went with the Magi to kill them, and failed."]

"..."

["Most of the dragons died there. The same was true of the Magi. They did succeed in pushing those things back beneath the roots, but they could not kill them. And the price was the annihilation of most of the Magi."]

A half-success bought with countless sacrifices.

["I was meant to die there as well. I would have, had my friend not driven these spears into me and sealed me before I died."]

"..."

["The spears my friend drove into me twisted the laws in the abyss, where transportation magic could not be used, and brought me to this dark place. In other words, he chose to seal me as a means of saving me from that abyss."]

A Magus's magic could twist the laws even within the abyss.

Rainicius looked at the spears embedded in his torso with a hint of longing, then murmured with a listless expression.

["Well, it saved my life, but I lost everything. These Spears of Eternal Annihilation seal every ability of the one imprisoned by them."]

"... Then that means..."

["My eyes, which could see through this world, and my words, which could twist its laws... All of it, and everything else, has been sealed. Forever, with no way to undo it. I only summoned you using an artifact I made before I was sealed."]

["All I have left is this enormous body,"] Rainicius murmured.

Only then did Alon understand. That leisurely manner. His detachment from his own death, without any particular anger. Even the way nothing seemed to trouble him.

'... He had given up.'

At first, Alon had thought Rainicius was simply easygoing. But that wasn't it.

Alon looked at his body. His golden eyes were still there, but they had lost their vivid color. Likewise, his golden scales no longer stood out clearly in the darkness, instead sinking into it. Even the mana Alon should have felt from him was far too faint.

"... Is there no way to break the seal?"

["None. Unless my dead friend returns, removing these spears will be impossible."]

Rainicius was unequivocal.

A brief silence fell, and then he spoke.

["You are a kind man."]

"... What?"

["You pity me, don't you? But there is no need. I have accepted my circumstances. So let us get to the matter at hand. Tell me why you came here."]

Rainicius looked Alon straight in the eye.

####

After a brief silence, Alon asked the first question he needed Rainicius to answer.

"Duke Comalon said there wasn't much time left before 'it' rose again. Is that true?"

["It is. As I said earlier, they were merely sealed away."]

Alon let out a long sigh. He had considered that possibility ever since his battle with Duke Comalon, but hearing it confirmed left him feeling stifled.

Still, there was one more fact he needed to verify, so he continued without hesitation.

"... As I understand it, they need to find bodies to possess in order to enter this world."

["That is also correct."]

"Are the bodies they possess already determined by fate?"

Rainicius answered firmly.

["Not at all. Their apostles create the bodies they will possess in the first place."]

"... Apostles?"

["Yes. They often mentally break people with exceptional talent to make them as suitable as possible for the descent."]

Alon quietly frowned. Apostles had never appeared in the game.

'... Were they ever mentioned?'

As he searched his hazy memories, Alon let out another small sigh. If Rainicius was right, the Five Great Sins would indeed descend, but the children he had raised(?) all this time would not become them.

That alone brought him peace of mind. Ten years ago, he had begun helping them with the modest aim of reforming them, but without his realizing it, those relationships had come to mean much more.

'... At any rate, if the Five Great Sins are coming up after all, then I know what I need to do from now on.'

As Alon thought about the object north of the border, a question suddenly occurred to him, and he turned to Rainicius again. More precisely, he wanted to clear up a doubt about something he had previously learned.

"Before meeting you, I actually encountered a dragonkin in some ruins."

["A dragonkin?"]

"It only looked like one, so I can't say whether it truly was a dragonkin. In any case—it didn't seem to know when those things would rise."

He meant the dragonkin he had met earlier in the ruins in Coloni.

Rainicius considered this briefly before answering.

["I don't know whom you met, but I think it is quite possible they wouldn't know."]

"Why?"

["When the Magi and dragons went to fight the final battle, most of the gods had already been annihilated, or sealed away after being stripped of their powers or names."]

"... So if they were annihilated or sealed early on, they might not know?"

["No, none of them would know. The Magi and dragons who knew that fact all died as the price of sealing them away. The only ones who would know for certain are me and Duke Comalon, who survived back then."]

"I see."

Alon nodded, then finished sorting out his thoughts.

"... Duke Comalon said you could help me with magic if I came to you."

["Help? Well—before I was sealed, perhaps. Now I can at least offer advice."]

"Then do you happen to know anything about Unification of Shadows?"

["What?"]

The moment Alon said it, the dragon's demeanor changed completely. Before Alon could do more than register his surprise, Rainicius spoke.

["How do you know about that?"]

"... What do you mean?"

["I mean Unification of Shadows."]

"Is that important?"

["Of course. That is—my dearest friend Kailas's sentence."]

"... What?"

A familiar name had come from the dragon's mouth, leaving Alon no choice but to ask blankly.

At that moment...

["Kyuu?"]

Blackie, who had been sleeping in Alon's coat pocket until just a moment ago, popped out with a strange little cry.

["A Shadow Dragon? No...a Death Shadow Dragon!?"]

Rainicius cried out in astonishment.

A little while later, after hearing that Alon could use several sentences and learning the whole story of how he had obtained the Shadow Dragon's egg, Rainicius spoke following much deliberation.

["... So, ultimately, you want to ask how to use Unification of Shadows?"]

"That's right."

["I will teach you."]

"Really?"

["But I have one condition of my own."]

"... A condition?"

["Yes. It should not be a bad bargain for you either. If you can truly grow strong enough to accomplish it."]

Rainicius smiled broadly as he addressed Alon.

["You will earn the right to have me call you master."]

["Well, Magus? Will you accept my offer?"]

New hope was already burning in his once-lifeless eyes.

####

Kyriana found the monster waves that had been coming for months quite bothersome, but she hadn't felt any particular sense of danger.

That was only natural. However many monsters came swarming in, Kyriana was one of Callivan's Five Swords. In other words, she was a Swordmaster, and no matter their numbers, monsters were merely a nuisance to her, not a threat.

At least, that had certainly been true until a short while ago.

"Hey! Hey! Block that gap, you bastard!"

"That section's collapsing!"

"Support! Give them support, you bastard!!! Get your head straight!!"

Kyriana frowned as she looked at the border wall. Layered with countless enchantments, it had never broken no matter how many monsters hurled themselves against it. Now it lay in a disastrous state of collapse.

Something beyond anything they had anticipated had happened.

SHING!

Every swing of her sword sent countless monster heads flying into the air. Yet their numbers did not diminish. No, if anything, more and more seemed to pour in as time passed.

As though they had been waiting for this moment.

'Why on earth did the wall suddenly...!'

She couldn't understand it. A perfectly intact wall had suddenly broken apart. Destroying a wall fortified with such magic should have been impossible.

But the situation was far too urgent to resolve that question.

"Aaaagh!"

Kyriana saved a soldier who had fallen in an ungainly heap and nearly lost his head to an orc, then snapped at him with a scowl.

"Get your head straight!!"

"S-sorry!"

The soldier scrambled to raise his weapon. Kyriana sighed.

The monster army itself still posed no great threat to her. Her abilities were better suited to fighting individuals than crowds, so killing every monster here would leave her bedridden for a few days, but that was all.

If she couldn't handle them, fleeing was also an option. The monsters would never be able to catch her.

Yet the soldiers were the reason her expression remained grim. Even now, she was forced to watch helplessly as the men she couldn't save were brutally torn apart by monsters.

Why had she come here, even retiring from the Five Swords to do so?

Because she had watched the knightly order she had trained be mercilessly torn to death by Ultultus, the Outer God, in the north.

Because she never wanted to experience that horror—ever again.

"Urgh—"

Kyriana involuntarily covered her mouth as she felt her stomach contents churn and rise. Her breathing quickened as those memories of the north were stirred up again.

She was fully capable of overcoming the present situation, but the trauma lodged in her mind since the north held her back. And then...

"...!"

A man came into Kyriana's view.

'Marquis Pallatio!'

The moment she saw him, relief washed over her despite herself. The marquis's magical tier had not seemed particularly high when she had seen him herself, but Kyriana had already heard many rumors about him.

And she knew rumors didn't come from nothing.

'... A third? No, even a quarter will do. If he can thin out the monsters first, I can pull the soldiers back and deal with the rest on my own—'

As Kyriana calmed her hyperventilation with that thought, the marquis raised one hand and formed a sign.

And there, beside the marquis as he raised his left hand to the bridge of his nose with only his thumb and index finger extended, was...

'... A cat?'

It was a cat.

The kitten, whose fur was the same ink-black as Marquis Pallatio's cloak, had climbed onto his shoulder at some point. Tilting its head, it watched with red eyes as the monsters began pouring toward the marquis as well.

'He's in danger!'

His magic had not yet manifested. Seeing the monsters charge him, Kyriana instinctively tried to move.

But her entire body froze.

She drew in a breath.

"—"

The moment the marquis murmured something under his breath...

"!"

A chill ran through her.

A horrifying number of red eyes had appeared all over the little cat's body.

And then...

The thing covered in red eyes gave a spine-chilling smile.