The Masterstroke and the Pure Spirit (2)
'Looks like we've got a plan.'
Kriel closed his eyes. To wake up to news like this right away—what a mess.
Clap.
Alberik clapped his hands to lighten the mood.
"Well, let's save the gloomy talk for after dinner. Elves run on food... oh wait, you're not an elf. Humans run on food!"
Thinking about it, the one who should be the most twisted up inside was Alberik himself. His childhood friend was slated for execution on charges of colluding with the abyss, and her mother's fate after reaching into the abyss to save her was downright bleak.
Yet even in the midst of all that, he could force out a joke about grabbing a bite. Kriel was impressed by Alberik's resolve.
Once dinner was done, Alberik started to bring up the family's formal honors and rewards. Kriel shook his head.
"How could I talk profits in such a wretched situation? But there is one favor I'd like to ask."
"A favor?"
"I need to meet Niam."
Alberik's face showed surprise at the unexpected request, but he soon nodded. After all, wasn't this the hero who'd marched straight into the pit and cleared away the shadows? The one who'd exposed Niam's abyssal collusion—he had every right to make such a demand.
Niam sat quietly with her eyes closed. Not in her spirit form, but in her guise as 'Niam Lir'—that appearance remained unchanged. Had she spent so much time in this shape that it felt more comfortable than her true one?
Footsteps approached.
"Young master, I told you not to come."
"It's me, you fool."
An elf with deep brown skin. It was Oipe. Her crimes ran deep, and the time she'd spent deceiving them was long. She'd figured the whole Lir family would shun her—Alberik coming to hear her out was the rare exception.
"I don't know what to call you anymore, so I'll stick with the usual. Niam. I heard all sorts from the young master. But there's one part that doesn't connect."
"Doesn't connect?"
"The bit about the abyss disease acting as a trap on the soul. No one in the family knew that—not from the Demon King War until now. Not even the occasional outsiders who came and went."
Eh? Niam swallowed hard. Oipe was right. Even Niam herself hadn't realized it while tending to Lady Pand all that time.
The existence of the 'abyss disease' itself had been confirmed real after the family mages scrutinized Niam's confession. But what had tipped off Niam, the first to discover it, to that trap?
As Niam floundered in confusion, footsteps echoed again.
[Is someone there?!]
A voice called out.
"Huh? Oipe, what's up?"
"It's the young master. You're not in great shape yourself—why not rest? You're curious how Niam figured out the abyss disease, right?"
"Yeah... I don't really know either."
Alberik rubbed his chin. It was definitely strange. Oipe said even Niam couldn't explain how she'd learned the truth, which only deepened Alberik's suspicions.
"But give us a minute. He wants some time alone with Niam. Technically not alone since the spirit's here, but whatever."
"No need for that."
"Hm?"
"What I wanted to ask lines up with Oipe's question. 'I don't know,' huh..."
[Did someone deliberately tip her off about the abyss disease's truth and then hide the memory? Why go through that hassle? Doesn't feel like interference from an abyssal seed either. Leaving it alone would've handed them the elder elf's soul on a platter.]
Just a hassle. Kriel saw it differently. He recalled the message Kromnagha had left in the pit about 'those who dream of the third Balor.'
Wise use of time, it said.
Kromnagha had called Kriel the 'third successor to the Seven Thrones.' The seventh throne of the abyss was the Demon King's seat. To Kromnagha, Kriel was the rightful heir.
But Kromnagha hadn't declared that no one but Kriel could become the Demon King. As long as the rightful heir refused the throne, the other claimants still had a shot.
"One question. What's the root demon of the abyss disease?"
"...Grikenkos."
Ha. The demonkin making abyss shards from Gratuon fragments had chanted spells like 'Grikenkos's Mist.' An auto-hunt enthusiast, was he?
"You probably know better than me, but the demon I met in the pit wasn't Grikenkos. You tried to borrow Kromnagha's authority to purge Grikenkos's blight."
Niam nodded.
"Grikenkos wouldn't let a soul ripe for the taking slip away. The only way to save Pand without tainting any soul was another demon. They don't want any other demon expanding their influence."
Kriel figured whoever meddled in Niam's memory was one of the claimants. Disrupting Grikenkos's plans, boosting Kromnagha's sway, tilting the balance among abyssal demons to pave their own path to the 'throne.'
Guess I need to dig deeper into who tipped off Niam about the abyss disease...
"If you can't recall directly, let's try indirect. When did you first feel that sense of crisis?"
Niam vaguely remembered when she'd sensed the crisis and attempted her deal with Kromnagha. Kriel put the outsiders summoned around that time for Lady Pand's treatment on the suspect list.
Niam Lir, also the World Tree gardener Niamh Cinn-Óir. She was a high spirit. Manipulating a high spirit's memory required one-on-one contact time. The easiest way to get that without a trace was as part of the external medical staff—practically Lady Pand's personal caregiver.
Kriel asked Alberik to check the outsider access logs.
"An outsider can't just peek at important records like the roster, right?"
Thanks to Kriel laying the groundwork to dodge the paperwork, Alberik had no choice but to drag Oipe along. The two holed up in the archive, clinging to faint hope that Niam's punishment might be lighter than execution.
That left Kriel's guest room with just him and his two sword spirits. While Tuon maintained the greatsword worn from last night's exertions, Orishin and Kriel conversed in hushed tones.
[So, what about Lady Pand?]
"No choice. Saving a life."
Orishin caught the unspoken words trailing Kriel's sentence.
I'll have to use the abyss's power.
[Hey. Don't.]
Impossible. Kriel's current state was a miraculous balance. A Dark Knight who'd never once taken in the abyss? Noble goal or not, saving someone with it was still drawing on the abyss.
[No going back.]
"We can cleanse pollution up to monster level, right?"
[Sure. If it's just budding demonic nature from external taint, yeah. But that's not the same as linking straight to the abyss from deep inside.]
Orishin recalled Kriel's prowess. He hadn't heard the full story of the pit's depths yet, but it must've been a brutal bloodbath. Kriel was the kind who could smash the pit's core without relying on the abyss.
Someone like that? The abyss wouldn't settle for sprinkling a drop or two of corruption.
[You'll hit beast at best. Demonkin if it goes wrong.]
"But Orishin. A human soul—"
[That's why transfer the abyss disease to me.]
"What?"
[Straight up, I'm already a lost cause, right? But as a spirit with no flesh, high resistance, plus the thug saintess's purification keeping demonic taint in check constantly. Worth a shot.]
"Wouldn't that just sacrifice you?"
[And what were you about to do?]
As Orishin and Kriel bickered, Tuon finished with the greatsword and fixed them with a long stare.
"So! You think the medics never tried transferring the abyss disease to an object? You still need abyssal power either way!"
[Use blood qi and resentment to make a rough conduit, push out my internal abyssal bits, and the disease core should migrate on its own!]
Tuon now sat with arms crossed, tapping the floor with her foot. She was just watching to see how far their pointless debate would go.
[You're smashing through the pit without abyss now—what if you properly corrupt? Better I suffer extra than risk spawning a demon-grade demonkin!]
"That's..."
Orishin's trump card: 'What if you fall—what then?' Having heard Kromnagha's words, Kriel couldn't easily counter.
As Kriel faltered, Orishin fell silent too. Only then did Tuon speak.
"Aren't you all forgetting something?"
"Huh?"
[What?]
Her blue eyes brimmed with exasperation.
"Who am I?"
[Uh. The pure straight sword?]
"Right. But something else."
"Phantom sword?"
"Exactly!"
Tuon shot to her feet.
"A step beyond some corpse-eating sword! Beyond the Seven Great Demonic Weapons, a living bounded existence! And you're ignoring me to debate abyss disease fixes?!"
"Oh."
Come to think of it, yeah. Back in the gateway city, Tuon had absorbed wyvern blood, read the abyssal memories, and tracked down Collin Lir. The corpse-eating sword's true power was devouring the life and memories of the slain. Control it properly, and the solution was simple.