Under the Dark Sun (1)
#152
Fight together, or flee?
That was the question.
My mind blazed like incandescent light.
The plan to reveal my presence and draw Risie's attention had already crumbled to pieces. Even now, Risie Valenor stood at the center of the battlefield like a lone crimson flower in full bloom, leisurely parrying the attacks of three opponents.
It was safe to assume Risie's unique magic, 『Commencement of War—開戰』, had already fully blossomed.
Mana still churned through my magic circuits. The radiant power from my two Imprints still whispered to me.
If I reached just a little further, if I dug in just a little deeper—I might even be able to steal that woman's strength. It wasn't an impossible fight by any means.
Then, at that moment, the air in the plaza began to turn over in earnest.
Lucien Verciel Unique Magic— 『Eternity—永遠』
Lucien Verciel Unique Magic— 『Eternity—永遠』
Hostes mei, sub caelo quod numquam occidit genua flectite.
My enemies, kneel beneath the sky that never sets.
Hic non est fuga— non venia— non crastinum.
Here there is no escape— no forgiveness— no tomorrow.
Vestra vulnera non claudentur, clamores vestri in muro temporis configentur.
Your wounds shall not close, your screams shall be nailed to the wall of time.
Donec ipsa aeternitas vos devoret, in hoc regno permanete.
Remain within this domain, until eternity itself devours you.
Along with the full incantation, a pitch-black darkness bloomed beneath the feet of the pure maiden.
The supreme darkness that devoured all concepts spilled outward like a swamp, slowly consuming everything around the plaza.
"Ahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!"
Lucien laughed wildly, arms spread wide.
The black mire climbed from her ankles to her waist, and the absolute darkness writhed like a living creature as it encroached upon her own body.
The girl who always stammered shyly was nowhere to be found. Lucien, arms flung wide like a berserker, was laughing madly at Risie as if volunteering to be the first to plunge into hell.
The sight sent a chill down my spine.
Was this what real Countess-level magic looked like?
The darkness of eternity that the girl named Lucien had always kept suppressed now yawned wide open at the center of this space.
Risie's crimson glare swiveled toward Lucien.
In the fleeting instant when the tip of her slender sword moved minutely—
Slash—!!!!
A flash of blue light tore through the empty air.
Lily swept past Risie's flank in a grazing strike.
It was more accurate to call it a slash meant to steal the attention Risie was focusing on Lucien, rather than a killing blow aimed at Risie herself.
The azure trajectory split the flow of crimson mana, leaving a razor-thin wound above Risie's abdomen.
Droplets of Countess Valenor's blood scattered above the wound like a solid line.
But Risie did not let out even the faintest scream.
Instead, her red eyes swiveled toward Lily.
But that must have been the bait.
Lily lowered the tip of her sword and smiled.
"Over here."
And she stepped back toward the black mire of her own accord.
The moment Risie's gaze chased after Lily, Rubel moved this time.
There were no words.
She clenched her teeth and stretched out both hands, and the crimson flames erupting from her fingertips devoured the plaza's air. The blazing fire was probably not meant to burn her mother.
It had to be a curtain to block her vision—so that, even for just a moment, she would lose sight of both Lily and Lucien at once.
Fwoosh—!
The flames burst apart like petals—
And the crimson fire and black mire entangled with one another, dyeing the center of the plaza the dark red color of hell.
Had the rampaging Valenor been able to speak?
『—————————』
As Risie muttered something in an incomprehensible tongue—
Crimson wings unfurled behind her back, and it seemed the battlefield was entering a new phase.
However.
"Too late!!!!!"
Along with Lucien's shout, the black mire overflowing from beneath the girl's feet had already reached Risie's feet.
CRUNCH!!!!!!!!!!
The sound of space being chewed.
Lily looked at me one last time.
I thought she had probably seen me.
Right before Lucien's pitch black swallowed her white hair, her blue eyes seemed to touch upon me for just a moment.
'Don't come.'
Her lips moved as if to shape those words.
And in the next instant, the four of them vanished.
The crimson violence of war that had pressed down upon the plaza, Lucien's black mire, Rubel's flames, Lily's slashes—all of it was extinguished at once—
And the plaza, which had been shaking as if at the end of the world just moments ago, grew quiet as if it were a lie.
What remained was only me, and Estelle, collapsed on the ground.
***
***
"Lady Estelle."
Unsurprisingly, no answer came back.
She had collapsed to the ground right after unfurling the golden barrier, her small, light body slumped limply in unconsciousness.
Her face was extremely pale, unlike usual, and a thin trail of blood lingered at the corner of her lips, as if she had suffered internal injuries.
What was fortunate, at least, was that she was still breathing.
A wave of relief washed over me, but that relief immediately mixed with a little anger and guilt.
No, fuck, she said everything would be solved if I just had union sex with Risie, goddammit Maman didn't even recognize me.
What was this, really? Just wait until you wake up.
Still, if Estelle hadn't blocked Risie's ambush, we would have been annihilated on the spot.
No matter how strong the assembled members were, nothing can withstand a surprise attack.
Taking that into account, I felt like my mood would improve if I sentenced her to about a hundred forehead flicks.
"Just hold on a moment."
I tried to hoist Estelle onto my back, but thinking she might have gotten hurt somewhere from the shock just now, I ended up lifting her in both arms.
The swaying golden hair brushing against my forearm was quite ticklish, but since she had lost consciousness anyway, I decided to just endure it and return to the archive.
The back alley I had run through with the Parca Triplets.
It was definitely left, left, right, wasn't it?
As I walked along that path, the wall I had seen earlier appeared.
Knock Knock!
My arms are falling off—open the door a little faster.
***
***
#153
"Welcome back!"
Nona Parca greeted us with a sunny face that was inappropriately bright for the situation.
"As you can see, we just got wrecked. The plan failed ages ago, and everyone vanished while I was spacing out for a moment."
Hearing my words, the triplets answered.
"So that's what happened!"
"Yeah. As expected."
"That child seems to need treatment."
No, last time they said they didn't know if the strategy would work or not, but that was just fucking nonsense, wasn't it? They knew all along.
When I made a dumbfounded expression, Mortaya retorted.
"Allow me to correct a small misunderstanding. We did not know your plan would fail. We simply knew that the last Lily of Rosenheim would make a choice of her own accord."
Haa...
I let out a sigh while holding Estelle in my arms.
The girl in my embrace still could not open her eyes.
"Then do you know where the rest of them have gone now?"
"Yes!"
"Yeah."
"The heir of Verciel has opened her domain. She has dragged them into a very deep place."
I asked at Mortaya's words.
"A very deep place?"
"Mm. To put it in a way that's very easy to understand—she dragged them into the Room of Spirit and Time. The four of them are probably fighting tooth and nail in there even now."
"Then will everyone be safe? When I saw her directly, she was absurdly strong."
"Yes!"
"They will be."
"They will probably be safe. The enemy's power will be greatly limited within Verciel's domain. Inside the 『Domain of Eternity』, a battle of willpower is likely unfolding between the rampaging Count and the other three."
Mortaya reached out and placed her hand on my forehead, and an illusion made of black mist resonated inside my head.
The pitch-black domain that Lucien had opened.
Lucien, her body having grown enormous, was recklessly unleashing dark magic, and Rubel, flames wreathed around her body, was locked in hand-to-hand combat with Risie. Lily was just watching the three fight while giggling.
It was pure chaos itself.
"Anyway, time flows differently inside the 『Domain of Eternity』 than outside. You can think of now as a time to catch your breath."
With those words as her last, Mortaya took the limp Estelle from me and disappeared into a corner of the archive.
To administer first aid, or something of the sort.
In the end, the only ones left in the archive were the barely communicative Nona and Decima Parca.
***
***
What was I supposed to do then... Since my companions had locked themselves in the Room of Spirit and Time anyway, was there anything to do?
The only thing even remotely worth doing was finding that 'something' Risie was looking for... but honestly, I figured it was pretty meaningless without any clues.
Perhaps displeased by my wilted appearance, the girl with the white ribbon spoke to me.
"You look like you have nothing to do!"
"Yes. That's the situation I'm in right now. By any chance, Lady Nona, do you have anything you could recommend to me?"
The girl raised one arm comically high.
"Wait! Or prepare!"
Decima looked up at me.
"Yeah. Lily wanted you to prepare."
"What if you just tell me!"
"It's my choice."
"Prepare for what?"
Decima let out a deep sigh, then quietly murmured.
"Preparation to become complete."
"......... Pardon?"
"Yeah. Lily wishes for you to become strong."
The girl with the gray ribbon continued speaking as if reading from a book.
"To be precise, she wishes for you to become stronger than anyone. Since she heard this is the final regression. If time can no longer be turned back, she must have judged that she has to bet everything on you."
Just how much did these kids know?
I was speechless for a long while. Come to think of it, I had said something to Lily before about the final journey...
"You people."
I asked in a low voice.
"Did you know Lily was a regressor?"
Nona smiled brightly.
"There's no way we wouldn't know!"
Decima nodded her head.
"Yeah. Because we are the fated triplets."
Dammit.
Did the concept of secrets even exist in this world?
I placed my hand on a nearby desk. My legs felt slightly weak.
In the end, hadn't I failed to escape the palm of someone's hand? Even if I believed I had come here by choosing something myself, it felt like even that was being toyed with by someone else's power, unrelated to my own will.
After a moment passed, Nona spoke.
"Your expression doesn't look good!"
"Yeah. Do you have a worry?"
"...... Do I not look like it?"
"You look like you have a lot."
"We are originally very capable counselors!"
"Yeah. We're good at counseling too."
It really didn't seem reliable in the slightest... but I was so frustrated that I ended up grasping the twin's hand.
"I don't really know what I am."
"........."
"........."
"Should I call it a sense of identity? Who I am, why I'm here, what I have to do from now on. I just don't know. I don't even know why I have to do it. I just want to throw it all away."
I clenched my fist.
"Do you know? I was actually the one who insisted on coming to this watchtower. Everyone said not to come. But I stubbornly wanted to come, so we came."
The more I talked, the more pathetic it felt.
It was like I had become a seven-year-old kid whining to their mom.
"But you see how it turned out now, right? Haha. The thought that I had chosen it myself was just my own illusion. Even if I do something, I feel like I'm ultimately just floundering around on a path someone else has already laid out. Ha, shit, what am I even rambling about."
Nona was no longer smiling.
The sunny expression vanished from the girl's face, and terribly chilling—unfathomably deep black pupils were staring at me.
"Do you know why you're thinking such thoughts?"
I shook my head.
"I don't know."
"That's."
Nona took a step closer.
"Because you are a far too feeble existence."
I opened my mouth to object. How strong I had become all this time—
But Nona did not stop.
"You are too feeble. No matter how much you struggle, no matter how much strange power you cultivate, the current you is too weak. That is why you agonize."
"........."
"A complete being does not even have such agonies. They do not doubt whether their own path is right or wrong. They do not regret, they do not look back. They simply advance silently."
I closed my mouth.
But at the same time, I wanted to ask back. Where exactly did such a being exist? A being that doesn't regret couldn't possibly be human.
But the words did not escape my lips.
Because—within Nona's words lay the kind of truth I hated most of all.
"I already know one complete being!"
Nona's bold voice rang out inside the archive.
"That person is truly someone who does not doubt the throne they sit upon."
I swallowed dryly.
"If it's that person......"
Several words interlocked like puzzle pieces in my head.
The Book of Fate.
The House of the Great Ones.
The master of the triplets.
Proxy for Duke Astravia.
The Deviant.
The endless stone staircase I saw in the illusion—and
The woman standing there holding a sword.
Nona smiled brightly.
"But don't worry!"
" ... About what."
"Because you can also become complete! Don't forget! The last seat of the throne is always vacant!"
At those words, Decima slightly bowed her head.
A silent warning not to treat at least those particular words lightly.
At that warning gaze, Nona Parca scratched her head and said.
"Then I'll go check on Lady Estelle's condition!"
With that, Nona disappeared beyond the bookshelf.
#154
After Nona vanished beyond the bookshelf, Decima was silent for a long time. She merely stared at me, her gray-ribboned head tilted slightly.
The longer the awkward silence stretched, the heavier the air in the room felt.
As that went on, Decima was the first to open her mouth.
"You. Do you want to become complete, by any chance?"
It was an abrupt question. I stared at her for a moment, then laughed quietly.
"Complete, huh. I'm not really sure about that. Honestly, I didn't really understand what you said earlier either. But if becoming complete is the path to becoming stronger, then perhaps I might want to become a little complete."
Decima nodded.
Her expression was still calm.
"Becoming strong and becoming complete are a little different but...... If you truly wish for it, I can help you enough. Because you have the qualities for it."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Decima didn't look like she was lying. The girl looked me straight in the eye and added.
"But, it's not free. To grant your wish, first you have to grant my wish. Isn't that the way of the world?"
"......What kind of wish?"
Instead of answering, Decima turned her body around.
"Follow me."
She offered no further explanation.
She simply walked deeper into the archive.
I hesitated for a moment, but eventually followed after her. The corridor was still as narrow as the back alley outside the archive, and the mana lamps glowed dimly.
Decima walked on wordlessly for a long time, then stopped in front of a small door.
She opened the small door and went inside, and I followed her in as well. The room was far narrower than expected. An old wooden chair, a small bed, and a low bookshelf were about all there was. Decima turned around and closed the door.
Clack!
The sound of the old lock was unusually loud.
My body stiffened momentarily at that sound. Decima, her back to the door, looked at me. Her black pupils shone coldly in the darkness.
"Let's do it here."
The girl spoke in a low voice.
"Before I grant your wish, grant mine first."
"What should I do?"
Decima slowly approached.
The girl's height only reached about my chest, but that gaze was not small at all. Moreover, perhaps because I was looking down from above—
I could see the chunks of flesh boasting an overwhelming presence swaying and jiggling. Ah—what kind of thought is this. Let's pull ourselves together.
Decima stopped in front of me and looked up at me for a long time.
"Cock."
It was an abrupt statement. I doubted my ears for a moment.
"......Pardon?"
"Take out your cock."
Decima's voice was still calm. She simply spoke as if reading a book, without any hesitation at all.
"And stand still. Don't move."
The girl's warm hand slipped past my pants and wriggled into my underwear.
Grope.
Tap!
Before I knew it, my cock was out in the cold air.
"Lady Decima...... what is this......"
"You know without me saying, don't you?"
Decima tilted her head slightly.
"It's not what you're expecting. Just...... place your cock in front of me. That is my wish."
The girl's tone wasn't playful at all. If anything, she looked a little bored.
As if saying "Today's dinner is~." It was a succession of extremely natural movements, like having a daily meal.
Then, as if intimately familiar with the act, she started to bring her hand down to her own crotch.
And——
She squatted down with her crotch spread wide open to both sides, and brought her face right up close in front of my cock.
At a distance where the tip of her nose nearly brushed the glans, Decima inhaled.
Sniff——!
It was a small but distinct sound. The girl was genuinely smelling it. She brought her nose close to the glans as if gently rubbing it, and slowly inhaled.
"......Reeks♥"