Labyrinth (1)
01.
Nothing could be felt.
There was no sting of light, no faint odor pricking at the nose, not even the soft breathing of little rats. Everything around me was pure darkness. In that black void where nothing existed, only my thoughts remained, drifting aimlessly through emptiness.
This must be what it felt like to float naked through outer space. It seemed as if nothing but my brain had been left bobbing in the dark.
With every sense and every bodily sensation sealed away by the silver chains, the only thing left to me was thinking. I could not even open my mouth, so I swallowed every word I wanted to scream deep into my chest.
This is fucking awful.
For the first few days it was mostly self-pity.
The number-one-ranked class getting stabbed in the back and sealed in such a pathetic fashion… even thinking about it made my face burn scarlet.
…When a person is thoroughly humiliated, they look for excuses. Every time I considered my sealed state, I summoned the faces of Varius and Lilianel again and again.
Those bastards.
I swallowed the curses.
The Hero, over some petty romantic spat, had dragged even Serion and Tenma into the campaign to subjugate me. Lilianel, whom I had trusted more than anyone, had deceived and toyed with me from start to finish.
And by their hands, Sophie—the friend I loved most—had died. Though darkness was all I could see, her final smile still rippled vividly before my eyes.
I’ll kill them…
I swore I would slaughter every last one of them who had stood before me when the silver chains coiled around my body.
Shame. Betrayal. Humiliation. Revenge.
I forged every boiling emotion into a red-hot branding iron and drove it deep into my heart—so that even after time passed these feelings would never fade, so that I would never forget the faces that had looked down and mocked me.
…
Memories of once laughing and talking with them rose unbidden, making everything more wretched. Though I felt no sensation at all, I was certain tears were flowing.
…Those who had succeeded in sealing me were surely laughing. Without a doubt they were churning out newspaper headlines like “Hero Party Subjugates Vampire Who Threatened Humanity,” raking in wealth and fame beyond anything they had known before.
Citizens smiling as they scattered flower petals over the Hero’s parade.
Varius in splendid armor, mounted on horseback, waving to the crowds.
Lilianel smiling with her arm linked through his.
Disgusting.
Imagining what was happening outside only stoked greater fury. I vowed I would smash that life to pieces so they could never even dream of it again.
…Because I never once doubted that this seal would break before long.
02.
Save me save me save me.
…I no longer knew how much time had passed. The Saintess’s silver chains, which had seemed ready to shatter at any moment, still bound every part of me even after decades.
All sensation stolen, no stimulation of any kind. I could not sleep. The only things left were thoughts and delusions, and when that existence stretched on without end, my mind felt ready to collapse entirely.
I should have felt nothing, yet my whole body was stifling and itchy. My throat was dry; my stomach empty. Every nerve felt raw, as if I had gone days without sleep.
I had clung to thoughts of revenge only for the first few years. Now I no longer even knew how much time had gone by. I was going mad. I wanted to breathe fresh air, to stretch my limbs, to enjoy the ordinary things that had once been so natural—those desires gnawed at my brain like parasites.
Aaaaaaagh! Let me out! Let me out of here!!
I could not speak, and no one was there to hear me. Still I screamed without pause. I abandoned any attempt to track the passage of time. The blazing desire for revenge had long since twisted into bleak regret.
I should have just killed every last one of them—hostages be damned…
Why had I done something so unlike myself and tried to save Lilianel when she was taken hostage? Since when had I cared that much about friends? I should have ignored them all and slaughtered everyone.
No—helping Varius in the first place was the real mistake.
No. The worst mistake of all had been the vow I made, not long after possessing Elzerva, to aid the Hero who was at war with the demonkin.
It had never been my business. I should have ignored it completely, hunted monsters at my leisure, and lived a carefree life.
By now I would have been adventuring in some other country, enjoying interesting days one after another.
…Come to think of it, humans are pieces of shit too. I worked myself to the bone saving their lives, and what do they do? Tell me to go subjugate a vampire?
…Those long years of regret eventually birthed even greater rage and hatred.
You rotten bastards. Even if it was the Hero, you shouldn’t have done that. You should have defended me no matter what.
The blade of revenge that had once been aimed only at the Hero and those around him now pointed at everyone in this world except myself.
Don’t forget. Keep it alive. Just endure.
Using rage and hatred as fuel, I clenched my teeth and held my mind together. Believing the truth that nothing in the world lasts forever, I pictured the day I would finally escape this hellish seal.
The moment the seal broke, I would become the true calamity they had screamed about when they sealed me.
The instant the chains snapped, I would pour every last drop of HP and MP into making them pay for every second of this hellish time.
The Saintess and the shamans.
Hero Varius and all his companions.
And even the people of Abilia who had so ruthlessly discarded the one who saved them.
I no longer knew how long I had been sealed, but if they still lived I would crush them as they were; if they were dead I would drag their souls up from the underworld and take my revenge anyway.
…
I am not a princess from a fairy tale.
I am not a heroine from a novel.
None of those warm, romantic developments—“Oh my, gallant Hero! You have freed me from my long seal! I shall love you!” or “Humans! To free me even now—how moving!”—should ever be expected.
All that remained to me were the emotions of revenge and hatred.
If I did not at least imagine a future in which this festering grudge was finally released, my mind would simply break.
Varius, Lilianel, Abilia…
…Without missing a single minute or second, I kept the faces of the humans who had thrown me into this place before my mind’s eye, and once more I endured eternity sealed away.
I felt the sensation of tears flowing.
03.
…?!!
And then it happened in an instant. After a span of time so long it defied measurement, something alien and unfamiliar brushed against my body.
Huh…?
The little finger of my left hand—something I had long believed would never move again—twitched. Neural signals that had been fading from memory, bodily sensations, began to return one by one.
First the sensations at the extremities and the sense of touch revived. The speed at which the nerves reawakened only increased, and in the blink of an eye every sensation throughout my body returned in vivid force.
Next the five senses came back in order. A musty smell stabbed at my nose for the first time in ages; the murmuring roar of someone’s voice scraped against my ears.
“Derin! What the hell did you do?! Why are the talismans falling off?!”
“I-I just tried pouring a little of my mana into them…!”
Ah…
It felt foreign after so long without it, but yes—this was smell, this was sound. My nose itched; my ears stung. These were the “external stimuli” I had longed for so desperately.
I can hear…
Sensation was returning.
Everything was reclaiming its proper place.
The stopped clock hands had begun to move again.
That damned seal was finally coming undone.
Please, please…
I could not let this chance slip away. I poured strength into every muscle, straining to snap the chains, desperate to escape them as quickly as possible.
“The vampire’s seal is breaking! Everyone form up!”
Outside the chains, someone was near me.
The once-blurred voices grew clearer.
I redoubled my efforts to break free.
Clatter-clatter.
After thrashing my body a few times as though shedding sleepwear, I heard the chains fall completely free and clatter across the ground.
Cool outside air brushed my skin. Fully liberated from the silver chains that had bound me for an eternity, I drifted downward like a gently swaying leaf.
…The moment the soles of my feet touched earth, the last of the five senses—sight—returned.
“Ugh…”
A tremendous light flooded my eyes. Like stepping from darkness into sudden illumination, they stung fiercely. Yet before long they adjusted, and I regained full vision and a complete field of view.
“Ah…”
What spread before my restored eyes was the vast plaza of a cavern. A deep, wide cave that would have been swallowed by darkness if not for artificial light.
And I stood blankly in its very center.
“….”
First I examined my own body—Elzerva’s body—after so long. With both hands I ran my palms over every curve, reclaiming the shape of Elzerva.
Whether from the long sealing or the silver chains themselves, the clothes I had worn were gone; I was completely naked.
It was a little embarrassing, yet that very fact let me confirm everything more clearly and vividly.
Snow-white, smooth skin.
Ash-gray hair that tickled my waist.
The sharp vampire fangs that pricked my lips.
…It was Elzerva exactly as I remembered her.
“Aaaah…”
Having received so many long-denied stimuli all at once, my head throbbed as if it would split. Even that pain was welcome. It told me I was alive—that I had finally escaped that empty void completely.
“All units, prepare for combat!”
“…?”
And at the far edge of the cavern plaza, roughly thirty humans stood tensed and staring me down. From their gear they looked like some party of human adventurers.
“….”
I glanced back and forth between them and the broken silver chains of the seal. Since only I and these people were present, it seemed clear that this adventurer group had been the ones to free me.
Judging by their hostile stance, they had not done so out of any scheme or goodwill. They had accidentally broken the seal and were now scrambling to contain the mess.
“Magic unit! Prepare fireballs!”
“Ugh…!”
Having only just been released, I still found intense stimuli overwhelming. Every time those adventurers’ voices boomed, my headache worsened.
“Everyone! Aim at the target! Fi—”
“Shut up! All of you just shut the hell up…”
…Unable to hide my irritation at their noise, I detonated the heads of every mage who looked ready to cast at me.
“Gyaaaaah!”
“Kyaaaaaa!”
The skill landed cleanly, and the irritating human racket lessened a little.
Good.
Even after so much time, Elzerva’s power remained intact. HP and MP showed no major abnormalities. I had worried the Saintess’s seal might have affected Elzerva’s strength and level as well, but thankfully that did not seem to be the case.
“Prepare yourselves!”
“We’ll show you the true power of Red Moon!”
“….”
Apparently enraged by the loss of their mage comrades, the remaining adventurers drew their swords as one and charged me.
“…Blade.”
I used another basic skill on the ones rushing me. Blades of blood sprayed outward, and the enemies’ heads dropped like autumn leaves in a single instant.
Eh…?
I had expected at least a few of them to block or dodge, yet every last one was swept away by a single attack without the slightest resistance.
What the hell are these guys…?
The human adventurers seemed far weaker than those in my last memories; I flinched in surprise. Had so much time passed that adventurers’ skill levels had been nerfed across the board?
Or were these simply weak adventurers to begin with?
Either way, I had no means of knowing right now.
“It’s no good! We have to run!”
“….”
Only three people remained. I had no time to play around with them. Resting my body, exhausted from the long seal, and recovering completely as soon as possible was my top priority.
“….”
Just looking at humans who harbored hostility was already sickening. There was no need to spare them, no need for pity.
Pouring into the blow every scrap of the revenge I had endlessly rehearsed, I beheaded the remaining humans in a single stroke. Masterless heads rolled across the floor; sticky blood splattered my face.
“E-eaaaaaaaaagh!!”
“….”
Witnessing the scene, one female adventurer who had been hiding in a corner let out a shriek and fled at a full sprint.
“Haa… Fine. Go on, then.”
I sighed and simply let her run without looking back. My condition was far too poor. I had no strength left to chase her.
“Zero points… My head hurts…”
The headache was unbearable—as if my brain were being torn into pieces. On top of that, perhaps from standing on solid ground again after so long, my slender legs trembled faintly.
Endless headache.
Legs that felt ready to give out at any moment.
Clearly my body was nowhere near normal. After being sealed for an unimaginable span of years, a perfect, unimpaired condition would have been the stranger thing.
…Even so, I could feel it with absolute certainty.
“….”
I was still alive.
The long age of sealing had finally reached its end.
“Humans…”
The time had come at last to unleash every emotion I had buried in my chest throughout eternity.