350. Blood Demon
350. Blood Demon
- 1 -
The summit of the mountain where Clarent Citadel was located.
In the middle of this peak so high it seemed accessible only to hunters or herb gatherers, a vast basin lay hidden, invisible from the outside.
It was a caldera, formed at the top of a dormant volcano.
A place where a massive lake and a small ecosystem had existed for hundreds of years.
Land once ruled by a high-rank monster that had made its lair within the volcanic caves.
This 'spirit ley line,' through which the 'meridian of mana' flowed and which could be harnessed for all manner of rituals, was now under new ownership—and undergoing various changes.
Bizarrely patterned magic circles had been inscribed along its edges, and at the center, an artificially constructed altar of black marble had been erected.
This was the site where Shue's 'Transcendence' ritual was to take place.
Enclosed by mountains on all sides, the basin was a natural veil of fate that prevented mana from leaking out—and at the same time, an artificial ritual ground that Libertas herself had personally carved into being.
"Come, all of you."
At Libertas's summons, those who had been waiting—with Seth at the forefront—each offered their respects in their own manner.
For a ritual that even Libertas was attempting for the first time, they had gathered as assistants, prepared for any contingency.
"Lady Shue, reaching monarch-grade..."
The one who had bowed her head most decorously among them gazed at Shue and murmured quietly.
It was Kamaya, the long-lived harpy queen with her striking red wings.
"Congratulations. I look forward to our continued work together."
"Yeah... me too."
Meanwhile, Serica was staring intently at Shue.
'This is unsettling.'
She bit down hard on her lip.
Jealousy? No, it wasn't that. It was just...
How to put it—a strange feeling.
'She's a rival too, but...'
The sensation that she herself was standing still while the person beside her was gradually surging ahead.
It was by no means a pleasant emotion.
'Well... still, we're close.'
Serica shook her head and shook off the feeling.
To remain beside the mature Libertas, she too had to become an adult.
She soothed herself, telling herself that what she ought to feel wasn't jealousy but a competitive spirit.
"Congratulations, Shue."
Even so, she couldn't keep her tone from coming out somewhat curt.
"Thank you..."
"So absorb the sacrifices' power properly and grow stronger. That way you can properly protect Rita."
"Yeah."
After staring for a moment at Shue, who answered quietly and firmly, she turned her head away sharply and strode toward the position she herself was responsible for.
Watching Serica's retreating figure, Libertas whispered to Shue.
"It's not that she's come to dislike you."
"Yeah."
A faint smile touched the corner of Shue's lips.
"I know, too. Master..."
She didn't dislike the new comrade she had gained in this life.
Above all, because she was a lovely young lady who suited her master's side so well.
Libertas, who had gently lifted the corners of her own mouth, took the hand of the last woman who approached her.
"Thank you for coming despite your busy schedule, Elena."
Elena sen Leoper.
Commander of the General Knights of the Duchy of Leoper, younger sister of the next Archduke Adelaide, and a being bound by fate.
A high-rank banshee and knight, she too had come to assist with today's ritual.
Ordinarily, either Kamaya or she would have had to guard the west, but now—with Zenota lying silent after being beaten down once—it was manageable.
"No thanks are needed, my lady. To be permitted to join such an honored occasion—rather, it is I who should be thanking you. Master."
Her eyes held deep loyalty and reverence toward Libertas.
"The ritual preparations are nearly complete."
Bergrisa approached and whispered.
After grasping and encouraging each of the assistants' hands, Libertas returned to Shue and stroked her shoulder.
"Shue."
"Yes. Master."
Shue's new white wolf ears perked up.
Her face was quite composed, but an intense flame blazed within her eyes.
"After today passes, you will regain your true ability. The one from the first round, I mean."
At Libertas's gentle words, Shue unexpectedly shook her head.
"...That won't do."
At the unexpected reply, Libertas looked at her with puzzled eyes.
To her master, Shue spoke with a resolute voice.
Both of her eyes blazed like flames.
"I'll become stronger than back then... and I'll smash them all to pieces so that you won't need to step forward, Master."
Her voice was languid and soft, as always.
But the will contained within it was firmer than any steel.
Libertas smiled a bitter smile—but one that held happiness at the same time.
"That's reassuring. I'm counting on you."
"Yeah."
Shue nodded, answering briefly.
The trust and devotion contained within was deeper than a thousand words.
Libertas pulled away from her and looked around in all directions.
Today's assistants stood before their assigned sacrifices, gazing at her.
Libertas placed her hand upon the altar's center, slowly drew up her mana, and opened her mouth.
"「Fiend Transcendence」."
With that quiet declaration, the ritual began.
Kung—!
The basin was dyed blood-red.
- 2 -
"Any mana leakage?"
The senior shamans and mages checked the peaks surrounding the basin one by one.
Hundreds of mages and high-rank monsters were stationed at every peak around the basin, blocking the enormous mana that would spill from the ritual from reaching the outside world.
They were composed of Libertas's direct subordinate mages, sorcerers from the five nations of the Alliance, and those of noble origin who had become monsters and sworn loyalty to Libertas.
Those who would assist and conceal the ritual, while simultaneously striving to guard its secret of their own volition.
"Good heavens."
"I know how you feel, but focus."
"Ah, w-well, of course."
This was an absolutely necessary task.
Because monarch-grade mana, even when not emanating from a Dungeon Lord, exerted influence in all directions with power equivalent to that of the demon realm.
Furthermore, since the mana meridian of this region was quite potent, there was also a need to hide the fact that something was even occurring.
After all, it had originally been one of the spirit ley lines managed by the Adventurer's Guild.
Kurrrung...!
From the altar at the center of the crater-shaped basin, an immense force surged upward with a crimson glow.
It was a pillar of mana in ominous hues, where red and black intertwined and flickered as if living flame and tar were writhing together.
"Do you feel this power?"
But the mages merely let out exclamations of admiration.
Because what they sensed there was the crystallization of pure power.
"They said it's a ritual to deliberately birth a monarch-grade powerhouse... truly astonishing."
One mage spoke in a low voice.
His body had been trembling faintly for some time.
His colleague nodded.
"Remarkably refined. To have succeeded in refining such tremendous power."
"I wonder what it feels like to possess this kind of power."
"What's certain is... we made the right choice in deciding to serve our Master."
Beneath the people's admiration and awe, the blood-red pillar centered on Shue soared upward as if to pierce the sky.
Within it, indescribable power danced violently.
- 3 -
The materials to be used in the ritual were, each and every one, peerless treasures or their equivalent.
Among them, what I was attuning was, naturally, the refined core of Gertrude, the 'Great Mother of the Deep Sea.'
A transparent sphere the size of a human head.
Trapped within a seal I had personally crafted, it ceaselessly emitted sticky and ominous mana.
Its faintly shimmering, dark-blue light possessed a spine-chilling beauty.
'The first button is fastened.'
I surveyed the assistants participating in the ritual.
Elena was responsible for the mana core of a Balrog that had committed serial murders among nobles and knights in the demon realm.
Serica was handling the refined aggregate of vampire dungeon cores—only those collected by the five allied nations.
Bergrisa was in charge of the 'Quadruple Head Ogre'—a failed experiment, but fortunately usable as a sacrifice.
Kamaya was responsible for the demon-realm monster 'Chimera,' which wielded fire and poison.
Around them, sixteen ordinary(?) elite-grade monsters—wyverns, ogres, and the like—were arrayed along the perimeter of the ritual ground.
It was sufficient preparation for conducting such a special ritual, one that would grant a being who was not a Dungeon Lord power rivaling the masters of the demon realm.
"「Fiend Transcendence」."
The barriers that had been suppressing the refined cores and the monsters' powers were stripped away.
From Gertrude's core, the power of the 'deep places.'
From the Balrog's core, destructive martial force.
From the aggregate of vampire cores, the power of blood.
From the withering monster ogre, mana that had mingled with my own and twisted eerily.
From the hibernating chimera, the mana of fire and poison.
Manifesting in amounts sufficient to flood the entire surroundings, that mana filled the magic circles on the ground and in the air, each according to its place.
Everything within sight was submerged in blood. Except for the altar itself.
Dukung...!
All of that mana passed through the magic circles, dyed red—ever more deeply red.
Around Shue atop the altar, the completely crimson-stained mana swirled and began to envelop her body like a cocoon.
Even through the gaps in the cocoon, within her visible skin, crimson mana pulsed as if throbbing.
'I must be cautious.'
Beyond Gertrude's core, I paid extra attention to the ogre's mana that Bergrisa was controlling.
What she was handling was the most troublesome material.
A test subject into which I had attempted to implant a fragment of the 'essence' that 'Mother' had awakened within me—and failed.
It had become a horrific monstrosity: an ogre with four heads, eyeballs, and tentacles sprouting from all over its body.
Its appearance was so utterly unpresentable to others that it had to be kept covered with black cloth.
Its mana exceeded the prescribed level.
If not properly controlled, the entire ritual could have been ruined—but since no one other than myself could control monarch-grade mana, I had entrusted that role to Bergrisa.
"Huuu..."
Fortunately, she controlled that mana superbly and was able to infuse it into Shue.
I directed my gaze toward Shue and activated the magic circle.
"「Contractor. Declare the throne」."
Swaaaak—!!
A vortex of blood-red mana and a pillar of light.
Within it, Shue's faintly visible form was like a goddess statue wrought of blood.
Her crimson hair floating skyward.
Her voluptuous body revealed through the undone robe.
Even her beautiful face with closed eyes.
I felt the changes occurring within her as vividly as if I were touching them with my own fingertips.
'It's... far easier than I thought. Not even difficult. Maybe because I'm a third party.'
A monarch-grade core and four high-rank cores.
In absolute quantity, it was an immense amount of mana—roughly two to three times my own—but attuning it wasn't as difficult as I'd expected.
Hwiooo...
Together with Shue, I stabilized her mana.
The mana that had formed the cocoon gradually diminished and vanished into Shue.
Her long, bright crimson hair—which had billowed as if soaring into the sky—gradually settled, and blood-red mana flowed from between her closed eyelids.
Outwardly, her appearance was nearly unchanged from before, but...
Peok—
Shue clenched both hands into fists.
In an instant, the air vibrated, and an invisible wave spread in all directions.
Heat and the scent of blood swelled explosively, then subsided in an instant as if someone had worked magic.
The moment of completion.
Shue's eyelids slowly lifted.
What was revealed within...
Flash!
Two eyes, glowing completely blood-red with no whites at all.
In that moment, everyone present realized instinctively.
The birth of a monarch-grade being.
Libertas approached Shue and spoke quietly.
"You've done well. My vanguard. My arbiter."
Shue's blood-red eyes turned toward her and gradually recovered their original light.
The second coming of the true 'Blood Demon.'
"...Master."
"Come here."
I bestowed a congratulatory kiss upon those lips.
- 4 -
At the very moment when a new powerhouse was born on the continent and its presence was being etched into space-time.
At the Hilsa-Norn border, countless soldiers were passing their own busy time.
"All the tents, this way!!"
"Gather the arrows and bring them! We have to apply preservation magic to all except the reserves! We need to get the work done while the mages are here!"
With the Norn Empire's withdrawal, the Hysen-Hilsa Alliance garrison on the Hilsa front bustled with preparations for their own withdrawal.
'They must be doing well.'
Esther, who had glimpsed the crimson pillar of light surging into the western sky, immediately sensed that it was Shue's ritual.
Though hundreds of mages were perfectly concealing its presence, to her—bound soul-deep to Libertas—the powerful mana beyond the solid barrier was unmistakably felt.
Sarak.
She lowered her head and looked at the letter in her hand.
「To the Esteemed Saintess Esther.
I trust you have been well. It feels like only yesterday that you were receiving training under me, and when I hear rumors of Your Grace's renown as a saintess, a pride ill-befitting my age swells in my heart...」
A letter from Elias, Commander of the Holy See's Supreme Holy Knights.
The opening of the letter was an exceedingly ordinary inquiry after her well-being.
However, Esther immediately understood that this very ordinariness was itself a signal that something was amiss.
Her mentor Elias was not one given to idle florid words.
On the contrary, he was always blunt and spoke only of the main point.
'...Don't tell me.'
After reading the entire letter, Esther was lost in thought for a moment.
Then she placed her hand upon the letter paper and began arranging her holy power in a specific pattern.
According to the special cipher shared between master and disciple.
At that, all the written contents of the letter vanished, revealing a concise message.
「The archbishops' movements are unusual. They have been making contact with various nations. It is not that I am pleased with the Grakheisen Alliance's course of action... but what they are doing is not the conduct of clergy. Please, be careful. From your foolish mentor.」
Esther held the letter in her hand and closed her eyes for a moment.
During the first round.
Although Elias had been unable to offer direct help when she was dismissed from her position as saintess, she knew that had not been his true intent.
Her mentor, as Commander of the Supreme Holy Knights, had far too many people under his care, and he had been among those who secretly arranged a refuge for her after her dismissal.
He was always, in his own way, worrying about his disciple.
"Master. Has something happened...?"
Leticia, who had been waiting beside her, asked cautiously.
Esther opened her eyes and gently stroked Leticia's head, a faint smile on her face.
"My mentor sent a letter asking after my well-being."
It was certainly not the face of someone exchanging ordinary pleasantries, but Leticia held her tongue.
A moment later, Esther rose from her seat, clutching the letter. The smile vanished from her face, leaving only cold resolve.
"Letty. Please take care of the people at the temple. I need to be alone for a while."
"Yes, Master."
"I'm counting on you."
Leticia nodded and exited the barracks.
Esther carried the letter to a lamp burning in one corner of the barracks and set it aflame.
Her eyes, watching the letter turn to ash and vanish, hardened cold as ice.
The Holy Kingdom had begun to move.
Those movements were covert and dangerous—ones that could never be disguised as goodwill.
She had to inform Libertas of this fact.