Demon Lord
Thud.
The staff struck the ground with a heavy, hollow sound.
White and smooth, inlaid with gems of every color, it was the sort of staff that would draw an involuntary sigh of admiration from anyone with even a shred of aesthetic sense.
It was the kind of thing one might believe to be a work of art.
For most people, it would have been a treasure to keep wrapped in cotton, something they’d fear dusting and dread scratching. But the man holding it paid that sort of thing no mind at all.
As if to prove as much, he kept tapping the tip of the staff against the ground and then looked up at the sky with complicated eyes.
The sky was clear.
Not a single cloud marred the bright expanse above him.
On any ordinary day, anyone would have called it perfect weather.
But the weather meant nothing to the man.
Whether it rained, thundered, or a brutal typhoon blew in, his expression would not have changed.
That, of course, was only natural.
Because what was reflected in the man’s eyes right now was not the weather.
“Goddess Edel. I have done as you wished.”
Mana flowed, sometimes colliding, sometimes entangling, sometimes drifting smoothly onward.
It was the most fundamental current that composed this world.
Even a mage who studied mystery and imitated miracles could not easily perceive the flow of mana with the naked eye.
Much less see it with such precision. The very fact that the man could do so spoke volumes about the realm he had reached.
And yet, even standing at such heights, the man could not hide the unease in his heart.
“…I don’t know if I did the right thing. Sometimes I even wonder whether I’ve misread Your will.”
In truth, Edel had never directly spoken her intent to the man.
So what he had done was read the currents moving through the world, infer the will of a god on his own, and act upon it.
Until now, he had believed without the slightest doubt that this had been Edel’s desire.
But now, uncertainty washed through him like rolling waves.
“A great many things will burn. And a great many things will crumble.”
Though it seemed at first glance to follow no rules, mana had always flowed in one direction; now, however, it was heading somewhere else.
Toward somewhere high above in the sky.
“And the one who will suffer the greatest damage in that disaster will be the empire I serve.”
The man had not carried this out because he bore the empire any grudge.
He had simply realized there was something more important than the empire.
If the house itself collapsed, what good was it to cherish the room you were standing in?
Knowing that, he had even entered an unwanted pact and sent the girl out of her nest, doing everything he could.
But he could not erase the uneasiness in his own heart entirely.
Still muttering as if speaking to Edel, the man suddenly narrowed his brow.
Through his wide-spread senses, he felt a group of people approaching.
“…Tch. A pack of small fry.”
Even if he didn’t lift a finger, they would not be able to enter, blocked by the barrier he had set.
But the very fact that someone was approaching irritated him.
“How dare some outsider who only lucked into power look down on me.”
To challenge the barrier he had raised was to challenge his magic itself.
And the man found that deeply displeasing.
Thud.
KRAAAAAANG!
At the same moment he slammed the staff down, a thunderous peal struck the earth.
After a bolt from a clear sky flashed through the air, the presence he had sensed vanished without a trace.
“Ah, dear me…. There was no need to bother with such trivial errands….”
The man, having shed his grave manner of speech, grumbled to himself.
“I go out of my way to be kind, and no one even appreciates it. It’s truly a pity. This little brat probably doesn’t even know I’m working this hard for her sake.”
At least it would be a relief if she didn’t spring up the moment she opened her eyes, grab a sword, and come charging at him.
The man looked down at the girl collapsed at his feet.
With blood caked around her mouth and a face deathly pale, she looked as though she were dead, but the tiny rise and fall of her chest showed that she was still alive.
“Hey, couldn’t you have raised your daughter with a little more gentleness? She’s a complete little delinquent. You have no idea how terrifying it was, the way she charged at me like she wanted to kill me every time we met.”
Flinch.
“…!”
The man, muttering at the gravestone, jerked in surprise.
The pink-haired girl’s fingertips moved.
It had been such a fleeting motion that anyone else might have missed it, but the man had not.
“…To think she’s already showing signs of waking up. That girl really is something else. Well, I suppose that’s why she was chosen by Lady Edel.”
Even as he admired her, his movements grew hurried.
Transporting someone from afar, all the way here from Laxia across the sea, was no simple task even for a man standing at the pinnacle of all living mages.
He had spent a long time preparing magic in this place, used countless catalysts, the target had been weakened and unconscious, there was no Magi interfering with the spell, and….
There had been all sorts of ridiculous conditions piled on top of one another to make it possible. If even one had been missing, it would have been impossible.
And since he could not carry out such absurd work through a mere doppelgänger, the man had brought his true body here in person.
If the girl, who had angrily snapped at him for only sending a clone and not showing up to face her properly, had seen this, she would have cheered.
The man, knowing full well as much, quickly finished preparing to descend.
“…”
Before leaving the barrier, the man glanced back one last time.
“Since she’s a girl who cherished her father so deeply, she probably won’t be reckless enough to throw a tantrum.”
She seemed to be quite attached to this place, so perhaps even while lost to reason, she would restrain herself by instinct.
The odds were slim, but the man pinned his hopes on that faint possibility.
“To think I have to leave alive the very girl who wants to kill me. I’ve really lived long enough to see everything.”
The man clicked his tongue and drew mana upward.
The magic circle that formed in an instant shone brilliantly, and….
“…Ah. I forgot.”
…nothing happened.
The magical adjustments he had made to bring the girl here only now came belatedly to mind.
“Good grief… at my age, I have to go through this sort of trouble?”
The man dragged his heavy legs and started down the mountain.
For someone called the empire’s sage, it was a rather undignified exit.
* * *
“I… think it’s over…?”
Daeun, who had been sprawled on the ground, finally came to her senses.
The Magi that had been constricting her body had vanished as if washed clean away.
Not only that, but the steady damage she had been taking the moment she set foot in Laxia, as well as the debuff called Magi Poisoning that had been dragging down her abilities, had both disappeared completely.
Only after that did Daeun finally feel like she could breathe. She shakily pushed herself upright.
Sure enough, the black currents that had raged so violently were nowhere to be seen.
“It worked…!”
If Kana had failed, there would still be Magi left here. That must mean she’d succeeded.
Color rose in Daeun’s face.
But only for a moment.
The place where the Magi had churned.
Seeing the people gathered in a circle around the site of the Ascension Ritual, Daeun’s unease sharpened.
It should have been a moment to celebrate success, and yet why were they all standing there like that?
“Celine?”
In the hush of silence, Daeun spotted familiar blond hair and approached her.
“…”
“Celine?”
“…Ah, Miss Daeun.”
“What’s wrong?”
Celine, who usually answered with her customary warmth and grace, now wore a vacant expression, as though her mind had gone somewhere else entirely.
“Is something wrong?”
“Well, it’s just….”
Celine fumbled for words and couldn’t seem to continue.
In the end, Daeun could not restrain herself any longer and pushed her way through the crowd.
She believed beyond doubt that at the end of that crowd, she would find a small girl.
She could scarcely imagine what kind of fight had taken place in that horribly dense Magi, but at the very least, she could hug her tight and tell her she’d done well.
“S-sorry, excuse me, I’m coming through…!”
After forcing her way through the gaps in the crowd, Daeun’s eyes finally began to catch sight of an empty clearing.
As though proving how fierce the battle had been, rough gouges from the Magi were still etched vividly into the dirt.
“…!”
Seeing the marks circling in a ring, Daeun felt chills racing over her entire body.
If she had ignored Kana back then and stubbornly insisted on going in together, she would surely have been nothing more than a shredded pile of meat by now.
In truth, she would have respawned at the revival point before that happened….
Still, there was no doubt it would have been a very unpleasant end.
Her destination was right in front of her now.
“Whoa…!”
As Daeun squeezed through the last row with difficulty, the sudden sensation of release made her stagger.
Before her nose could hit the ground, a hand caught her.
Yustina, gentle yet firm, took hold of Daeun’s arm and set her upright.
“Be careful.”
“Whew, thank you….”
Thanks to Yustina, Daeun narrowly avoided the embarrassing fate of ending up with blood streaming from both nostrils. She patted her chest in relief.
Then, all at once, she realized the ground she had almost fallen onto was a different color from the surrounding earth.
A deep black, like asphalt freshly poured.
While Daeun was still unnerved, a faint metallic smell drifted into her nose.
“Blood?”
The very scent she had smelled countless times as a child was rising up from the ground.
Yustina spoke.
“The Ascension Ritual has succeeded. As that fellow said, all the Magi that had consumed Laxia have vanished.”
So this was what it meant to be freed from one’s duty.
“It is truly an unbelievable feat.”
Yustina had checked more than once, unable to believe it, but now she had no choice but to accept it.
The air that surrounded her was clean, just as it had been in the distant past, when the power of purification still remained.
But Yustina’s feelings did little to reach Daeun.
There was something else that mattered far more to her.
“…Where’s Kana?”
“….”
“…No, wait.”
Her unseen figure.
The black liquid staining the area around her.
No answer in return.
Every one of those elements only deepened her anxiety, and Daeun’s pupils quivered.
“Ah, ah….”
Thud.
Daeun’s knees hit the ground.
The slick liquid soaked her knees, and the sharp tang of blood pricked at her nose.
The pink-haired girl’s image flashing through that mess could never have been a coincidence.
Death was familiar.
Since starting Silia Online, the number of deaths Daeun had experienced was long past what she could count on both hands.
“Kana….”
But being composed in the face of her own death did not mean she could be composed in the face of someone else’s.
Especially not someone she had cared for so deeply.
“Kana….”
Unlike herself, who could die and rise again, Kana could not live again.
Which meant they could never meet again.
The instant she truly understood that, tears welled in Daeun’s eyes.
Like a dam bursting, a fierce tide surged up through the heart she had thought so steady….
“N-now, wait! I think there’s been some misunderstanding, so let me clarify. I never said that rude little girl was dead.”
“…Huh?”
Daeun stopped dead at Yustina’s words.
“…She’s not dead?”
“Did you wish her to be so?”
“No! Of course not!”
Daeun cried out in frantic denial.
And as she started nervously glancing around, her thoughts written all over her face, Yustina gave a dry laugh.
“Why don’t we move somewhere else first? This does not seem like a suitable place for a long conversation.”