316. The Setting Moon
316. The Setting Moon
- 1 -
Kung!
Jin Soha's knees hit the floor.
The continent's greatest adventurer. The pride of the 'Empress' whom all revered and feared had crumbled.
She had possessed shadow magic, but now it was under my control, and the wraiths no longer howled at her command—they simply stood there, blankly watching the spectacle.
"If you have any last words, I will hear them."
My voice resonated through the space.
"Hngh...!"
Jin Soha's face twisted.
Wrinkles seeped into her face as her power drained away, and her brilliantly shining silver hair lost its luster and grew brittle.
Now that the supreme realm had crumbled, she was no longer the 'Empress.'
She was merely a 'witch.'
"... Just, why...?"
Her face and voice were filled with incomprehension.
A power that even a monarch-grade adventurer could not overcome.
How could such an existence possibly dwell within a Dungeon Lord who had only just completed the Ritual of the Ultimate?
The answer to that question was simple.
'I didn't say it outright, but if I really am the child of that 'mother'...'
An existence that should not be in this world.
An existence from outside—neither of this world nor of Earth.
That would be the correct way to define it.
Still, that fact didn't bring any fresh loneliness or desolation—nor the opposite, any rush of affection or reverence toward 'mother.'
After all, I had been alone in that other world, and in this world, the ones beside me were what mattered.
'Still...'
At least the 'aversion' I felt was less than it had been with Stella.
Perhaps because I already had one precedent of accepting 'family.'
Of course, I couldn't deny she held some meaning for me.
No one can feel nothing about the origin of their own existence.
I was no different. But...
'My subordinates are simply more important.'
I swept my gaze over the women who had been riddled with wounds.
Shue, Ran, and Saya had taken injuries large and small, but none were fatal.
They'd recover if they focused on treatment for a while.
But the queens were different.
Kamaya had ended up holding one of her wings in her hand after it was torn in half.
Echidna's proud tail tip had been severed and blunted, and two of her fingers were missing, nowhere to be seen.
Even Nirvana, cautious by nature, had lost a leg somewhere and was leaning on a flower for support.
Orea, the worst off, had pieces of her carapace—the Fate of her skin—fallen off here and there, one of the pair of arms she normally kept hidden against her belly had been torn off, and one eye, which had always been pure black, was shattered and oozing slime.
I stared at Jin Soha once more.
"It is time for you to pay the price."
My hand touched her forehead.
"Ah, n-no..."
Ignoring the terror-filled eyes that faced me, I raised my power.
It was time to exercise my true profession after a long while.
If I followed my heart, I wanted to torture her for a long time and make her disgorge the pain she had inflicted on my queens, but that could be done even while she lived as my servant.
"Keuheok...!"
Harvesting her soul in a single strike was impossible. She was that powerful an existence.
But it didn't take long either.
Ppajik!
The 'soul' sprang out from Jin Soha's forehead.
As I gripped it lightly, soul magic activated on its own.
Her memories flowed into me.
Jin Soha's wish. The reason her soul had submitted to Dantalion was right there.
[Soyu... wait...!]
Her wish was to bring her younger sibling back to life, and the experimental process was already underway somewhere.
She was a simple, selfish person who didn't hesitate to sacrifice others to save her own sibling.
And Dantalion had exploited that weakness.
"Was that really the path your sibling wanted?"
No answer came back to the futile question.
Only a hollow echo rang inside my heart.
Without releasing her soul, I stretched my other hand toward the wraiths.
Their existence wavered. That was no simple command. It was a change that shook their very essence from the roots.
"You are free. Let those who wish to pass on speak. Let those who still have lingering attachments to the world remain. I shall grant you my mercy."
The dead adventurers. Now wraiths, they stood there not knowing what to do.
My gaze swept over my close aides. Ran needed rest, and Sonia was too far away.
In that case.
"Bergrisa."
At my call, a tall troll woman stepped out from among the assembled army.
A shaman whose skin was green, yet who possessed the figure of a voluptuous, beautiful woman.
She was the daughter I had taken after killing the Dungeon Lord who was once my enemy.
"These are people who were once my enemies but have lost their way. Grant them time to rest."
"Entrusted to me. I shall carry it out without shortcoming."
She spoke while kneeling with one hand on her shoulder, then rose with elegant poise and turned toward the souls.
Now the ones remaining were the summons Jin Soha had called and the wraiths freed from her shadow.
"Wi Cheon-ung and Han Jin-gyeong, I believe you were called."
- That is correct.
- ... We greet the Dungeon Lady.
They were showing the minimum respect toward the one who had liberated them.
I spoke with a gentle smile.
"Those adventurers died not long ago and may obtain freedom, but you are different. Your existence has become fixed after living so long as undead. Of course, I possess the power to grant you passage, but it will be difficult for you to dream of reincarnation again. What will you do?"
The wraiths exchanged glances, and then most of them bowed their waists to me.
- Please... may we serve you?
A few wished for extinction; the majority desired subordination.
Rather than dishonor after death, they were likely worried about a life as undead that might never end—and a future of nothingness.
"I shall accept you."
I nodded in answer, then called my guard captain this time.
"Axe."
- Yes!! Lady!!
The skeleton who had served me even before Artemis.
The former bandit chief, now in a skeleton body dyed black, answered with a reliable, human expression.
"They are your juniors. Assist in forming the unit and assign them quarters."
- I shall follow your words!!
After releasing those of the wraiths who still lingered but wouldn't follow, granting their request to be set free, I was finally able to turn my gaze toward my close aides.
"My lord..."
"You're badly injured. Ran."
"Compared to the queens, it's nothing, my lord."
Caressing her along the jawline, I shared a breath with her for a moment.
I wanted to run to them at once, embrace them, comfort them at the sight of their blood-soaked appearances, but I decided to do that after everything was finished.
Right now, I could unintentionally bring harm to them.
Because the stabilization of my power still hadn't been achieved.
Deolkeok.
I opened the door and re-entered the core room.
The ritual wasn't over yet. The stabilization process remained.
I could postpone it, but that would leave me in a vague state, neither this nor that.
The adventurers on the surface wouldn't perceive the current me yet, but it would also become difficult for me to assume the status of a monarch.
A state where I held neither power nor safety.
"Haa..."
I closed my eyes and absorbed the remaining mana from the residual sacrifices once more.
As I did, I contemplated my inner world.
'This is...'
The power I'd obtained by surpassing the realm of the 'Ultimate.'
The rank my 'mother' had awakened within my inner world.
A gap that couldn't be explained simply by the single step between Elite and High Rank.
I stabilized it through the mana of the residual sacrifices.
Immediately after.
Hwaak — !!
The core floating from the ceiling reacted.
It had recognized I was ready.
The fusion of the Dungeon Core and the Lord.
The process was accomplished in a single breath, without any special preparations.
Kwang!!!
Five strands of mana connected from the dungeon core to me.
They pierced my body like raging waves or bolts of lightning—not as injuries, but as another heart left within me.
And then I felt the aura of uncontrollable mana surge toward the sky.
A pillar of invisible mana that pierced the heavens.
The aura of the demon realm that grew even stronger when a dungeon evolved by one stage.
It spread throughout the continent.
At the same time, my senses followed that aura and momentarily perceived the entirety of the continent's central region.
Tiny creatures fled, and monsters raised their heads.
The demons who had escaped the demon world and stayed on the surface felt both shock and joy at the birth of a new demon realm.
Every adventurers' guild within the Grakheisen Union that had not yet been seized, and those within detectable range outside the Union, noticed the aura of the demon realm.
They were thrown into confusion for a moment, but they would soon begin to move. To find the source of the dungeon.
But.
'They won't be able to find it.'
A power felt at the edges.
Yet those at the center would say they felt nothing.
All adventurers would become blind men with their eyes wide open.
And right before their eyes, I would find stability until I ascended to the throne of monarch.
For that, only one thing remained.
'Dantalion.'
Only the final compromise with him was left.
I opened my eyes.
Through the window made by magic, the sky was visible, dyed in the purple hues of evening.
When I lowered my head, my close aides and the queens were visible.
They had gathered and were waiting for me as soon as their simple treatment was finished.
Those not present here would likely join soon as well.
"You have all labored greatly. It is our victory."
It was the end of the war.
- 2 -
Kwang!!
Dantalion's both hands slammed onto the desk.
The desk's surface froze and cracked in an instant, but he had no time to care about it.
He merely glared at the figure kneeling before him.
A mask removed to reveal clean skin. A broken horn atop his head. A body riddled with wounds. Empty eyes that had lost any sense of reality.
"Y-Your Highness..."
He was 'Botis.' No, now it was right to call him 'the one who was Botis.'
One who has lost his rank and power cannot keep his unique demon name.
It was a sacred name in the demon world, granted to those below the rank of count who held special power, or to those with the power of a marquis.
The Demon King would soon catch on and take the name 'Botis' away from him.
"What happened."
"J-Just a single contact... She was... No, that existence, that being...! High Rank! Hihik. Not even High Rank! She was above it!"
Dantalion's face contorted further as he listened to his words.
It was an expression stained with rage and irritation, disappointment and self-loathing.
'I have lost two marquises.'
Dantalion leaned back.
He could not believe this had happened in the span of a single month—no, not even a single week.
The years it had taken to raise two marquises alone had amounted to a hundred years.
It was the greatest shock since he had learned Kimaris was sharpening his blade against him.
He had now become hard-pressed to move. He found himself in a state where he was struggling just to defend his own territory.
'Should I have gone myself?'
No, he shook his head.
If he had tried to deal with her personally, the four dukes besides Astaroth would have tried to move.
Astaroth could hold them off for a while, but even after winning, it would have been a victory filled only with wounds.
Afterward, it would have been impossible to know how many years of greater crisis he'd have to endure.
Botis was the best move he could use.
And that best move had returned as the worst.
Dantalion thought of Kimaris.
[Oh my. You've found yourself in a difficult situation. Your Highness.]
Upon hearing this news, Kimaris would grin and laugh with that black skull face of his.
A troublesome situation came to mind naturally.
He had to select candidates from among the existing counts to promote to marquis, all while keeping a wary eye on him.
Because Kimaris was a man of ambition.
Dantalion had spent great effort all this time keeping him from advancing to monarch grade.
But...
"Your Highness...! I can still be of use to Your Highness...!"
"Withdraw. Botis. No... 'Jeban.'"
"... Your Highness!"
Dantalion pressed his fingers to his brow.
'Now, it may be time to think differently.'
He had to produce a new move.
If he didn't, not only his seat as archduke but even his very life could be in danger.
'I shall never fall.'
Dantalion repeated that to himself as he adjusted his mask.
The cold texture of the mask calmed him.
When he looked out the window, black clouds were gathering from the south.
"It's going to get dark."
Within the still-composed eyes of the Secret Duke, the shape of a monster he had long suppressed was gradually growing clearer.
"Libertas..."
The chilling, teeth-grinding voice repeated the enemy's name.