The Earth Jewel
Yuria had passed the trial of the ancient relic. She had recovered her memories, and she had grown far stronger than before. At my level, I could not even be sure how far that strength now reached.
The moment her power returned, she put on a display of overwhelming force.
Hundreds of plague-ridden corpses were swallowed by shadow and spat back out again. Not a single one of them remained intact. None of them would ever move again.
Beint, Berika, and Zegner were dealt with on my order. They could not keep up with Yuria’s movements. The whole thing was decided in the blink of an eye.
Zegner’s head went flying from his shoulders. Beint and Berika had their limbs severed and collapsed onto the ground. Zegner was an Aura Master—and even though he was being controlled without consciousness, he had still managed some reaction to Yuria’s movements. The problem was that reacting did not mean he could stop her.
The other two never even managed that much.
“This… this is absurd…!”
Berika muttered, her expression blank with shock.
“…Kh… Sister…!”
Beint writhed in pain and looked toward Bella. Bella was naked, bound in rope. She frowned down at her brother—not in anger, but in irritation.
“Beint! You failed, didn’t you?! The whole plan has fallen apart! You couldn’t even free me, and you couldn’t complete the mission. You’re truly useless, Beint!”
“…I’m sorry….”
Beint buried his face against the ground. I could roughly guess what their usual relationship was like. And Beint—I did not miss the way he quietly raked his eyes over Bella’s naked body before he lowered his head. This one was harboring feelings for his own sister that he had no business harboring.
I walked up to Bella and brought my palm down hard across her bare back.
Crack!
A clear handprint bloomed across her white skin.
“…Ugh…. What the hell was that for all of a sudden?”
“Because you don’t seem to know your place.”
Bella’s face twisted into something vicious.
“It’s not over yet. Just because you’ve caught us doesn’t mean this is finished. You old hag! Are you just going to die like that? The plague is still in the village! If you want to save the elves, get up! Kill these people, or free me!”
Bella screamed at Berika. This was different from usual. Even under torture, Bella had always kept some scrap of composure. There was no trace of that composure now. She was cornered.
“Haa.”
Berika let out a long sigh. Her wooden staff floated up into the air, split into four strands, and became her arms and legs again. Sweating, Berika pushed herself up from the ground.
“Give it up, old hag. It’s already over. You should have picked your side more carefully.”
I said it with a sneer. The reason I had not killed Berika was so I could execute her in front of the other elves. Elves who watched the elder of Beliac Village die with their own eyes would despair. Break their morale and their spirit, and they would be that much more obedient when I put them to work.
“You’re right. It’s already over. But still…. There is far too much at stake to simply give up just because it’s over.”
Berika pulled out a green orb and drove it straight into her own chest. Blood sprayed as the Earth Jewel burrowed into her. An enormous wave of power rolled off her aged body.
And it did not stop there. A supreme wind spirit appeared behind her and began to sink into her flesh. They were fusing. Berika’s body swelled, transforming into a giant nearly three meters tall.
“You crazy bitch!”
I stared at Berika in shock. She had completely abandoned her own life. Her only purpose now was to kill us and free Bella.
“Yes. That’s exactly what you have to do.”
Bella smiled in satisfaction.
KRA-KOOM!
I dropped lightning on Berika. Three bolts struck her in succession. Every one of them hit. Berika was unharmed. She did not take a single wound. She did not even flinch.
Damn it….
This sensation.
I had felt it before—the crushing pressure of standing before a dragon.
There has to be a way. I have to find it. A head-on fight doesn’t look winnable…. Should Elena use her Limit Break?
I was still turning over options when someone stepped calmly out in front of me. Yuria.
“Master. I will handle this.”
“…Can you do it?”
It was not that I was underestimating Yuria’s skill. It was simply that the presence and atmosphere rolling off Berika felt more overwhelming than Yuria’s.
Yuria answered my worried question with a small smile and a nod.
“Something of that level is nothing.”
A dagger shot out of the shadows and settled into her hand. A black Aura Blade wrapped the edge of the blade. Then Yuria vanished. I looked around in alarm. She had already appeared behind Berika.
Berika noticed even later than I did—no, she only realized Yuria’s position after watching my reaction. The massive Berika spun around in panic.
Seok.
Yuria flicked the dagger in a light arc. The blade never even touched Berika’s body. Berika’s right arm still fell away.
“Y-you… are you truly human?!”
Berika cried out in horror. A thread of fear had entered her voice.
The wind rose. It gathered and spun into a tornado that lunged for Yuria. Yuria’s form slid backward as if skating on ice. The tornado kept chasing her. Trees in its path were shredded without effort; boulders crumbled into sand and scattered on the wind. A shadow surged up in front of Yuria. It mixed into the tornado and began devouring the wind, strand by strand. The tornado became a shadow tornado and reversed course toward Berika.
Berika opened her mouth wide and exhaled. Her breath became a gale that erased the shadow tornado in a single blast. Then she thrust her hand toward the sky.
…Oh, hell!
I flinched. The clouds hanging in the night sky were spinning. It was so vicious it felt as if we had become the eye of a typhoon.
That much power could wipe out the entire forest and still have some left over…. Berika doesn’t care about the village elves at all?
Berika was staring at Yuria with murder in her eyes. There was not a scrap of reason left in those pupils. Fused with the ancient relic—the Earth Jewel—and a supreme wind spirit, she looked as if she had lost her very self.
“…It’s finished. I knew she was no ordinary maid, but… I never imagined she was on this level. The thought of her as an enemy is… chilling. Illusions probably wouldn’t even work on her.”
Elena’s voice came, thick with admiration. I only understood what she meant a beat later. A thin line had appeared across Berika’s neck, then her head simply slid free and dropped. After that, Berika’s enormous body collapsed in on itself, and the Earth Jewel rolled across the ground with a dull clatter.
“…Why did she just die? Yuria didn’t do anything.”
“She did. You simply couldn’t see it. Her shadow moved without a sound, cut that monster’s throat, and tore the body apart from within. If you opened the corpse, the insides would be shredded to pieces. The shadow is Yuria’s weapon.”
Berika was thoroughly dead.
I would have liked for that to be the end of it, but there was still work left. Bella and Beint.
Bella’s face twisted. Beint kept his head bowed low.
“Bella. You spread the plague, so you can take it back. You’re finished. Retract the plague.”
“…Not yet. Beint! The Bitrasse army is still advancing, isn’t it?!”
Beint lifted his head. His eyes were full of exhaustion.
“Sister…. The Bitrasse army is advancing, yes…. But I don’t think an army will be enough to handle that woman.”
Beint looked at Yuria with eyes full of fear. Yuria ignored his reaction entirely, picked up the Earth Jewel from the ground, and came to me.
“Master. An ancient relic. There is a crack on the surface, but… it should still be usable.”
“Do you know how to use it?”
“Yes. I have a rough idea. It can also be used… like this.”
Yuria gripped the Earth Jewel and moved her mana. Her mana was drawn into the jewel. Immediately, a small tree sprouted beside her. It grew at a rapid pace, shooting upward. It took less than a minute to become a mature tree, heavy with hanging fruit.
“This is one of the relic’s abilities. It can reshape terrain as well, but I believe it would be more efficient to use it for defending and protecting the estate.”
I looked at the Earth Jewel. I even touched it. There was nothing particularly special about the feel of it.
“Yuria. Use it as you see fit.”
“Yes, Master.”
I strode up to Bella, seized a fistful of her hair, and hauled her head up. Our eyes met.
“Bella. It’s over. Let’s do this the easy way. You don’t want to suffer either, do you?”
“……I know roughly what you want. You want the elves of Beliac Village, don’t you? Those elves will die moaning under the plague. Free me. Then the elves won’t die of the plague.”
“Still haven’t learned your lesson?”
Crack!
I slapped Bella across the face. Her head snapped to the side. She slowly turned it back and glared at me with venomous eyes. Blood ran from her lip.
“You’re in no position to negotiate with me. Do as you’re told. Get rid of the plague.”
The corner of Bella’s mouth curled up.
“…No.”
Then she clamped her mouth shut and squeezed her eyes closed.
I sighed. For a moment I seriously considered just taking her right there.
“Demitera.”
“…I’m sorry, Lord Yujin. This woman’s mental fortitude is stronger than I expected. Even humiliation doesn’t break her. I thought she was relying on Berika and the plague, but… there seems to be something else.”
What Bella was clinging to until the end was neither Berika nor Beint.
I grabbed her breast. The soft give of it felt good. When I lifted it, the green magic circle drawn across that large chest came into view. The mark of a demon contract.
There was only one thing Bella still believed in. The supreme demon she had contracted with—Heple, the plague demon.
“Yuria. Is there a way to separate Bella from the demon?”
“The contract is already complete. I offered Him everything, and He will grant me power.”
Bella answered without being asked.
Yuria stepped up beside me, peered closely at the magic circle, and smiled.
“There is. Demons are cunning creatures. They never give everything for the sake of a contractor. The moment you become useless, they discard you. A contract with a demon is always stacked overwhelmingly in the demon’s favor. There are a few ways to break one. The first is for the demon itself to renounce the contract. The other is to kill the demon.”
Yuria reached out and touched the magic circle carved into Bella’s body. Crack. Crackle. Sparks jumped the instant her fingers made contact.
“I had a suspicion, and I was right. There is no demon with her at present. The demon is somewhere else.”
“The plague power Bella uses is ultimately the demon’s authority. Find the demon and kill it, and the plague disappears.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“And the place where the demon is….”
I kneaded Bella’s breast as I turned my gaze behind me. Far off, the burning forest was visible. The Bitrasse army was still advancing.
“I’d say it’s over that way. What do you think?”
“I think the same. And there will not be only one demon.”
Yuria’s gaze shifted to Beint, still sprawled on the ground. Perhaps because he was a demon contractor, he was still calmly alive even though no one had bothered to stop his bleeding. I walked over and tore open his upper clothes. Ripping a man’s shirt was an unpleasant business, but I needed to confirm it.
On Beint’s right shoulder, a brown magic circle was carved into the skin.