399. Dusk (4)
399. Dusk (4)
- 1 -
After sending the two Demon Realm Archdukes to the surface, I had been enjoying a moment of peaceful evening leisure.
While Sonia braided the hair by my temple, I passed the time in thoughtless silence, practicing 'mana string figures'—the exercises humans supposedly used for mana manipulation training.
Silver threads wove between my fingers, drawing complex patterns and creating magical formations in the air.
Patterns imbued with power.
If I extracted a few of them mid-weave and traced them in the air, they would form a magic circle that could be directly realized as a spell.
'This should do.'
I closed my eyes.
Sarak, sarak.
The sensation of someone carefully tending to my hair was, as always, pleasant enough to fall asleep at any moment.
That was the moment.
As if a massive boulder had plunged into the center of a tranquil lake, a colossal 'wave' was detected, scattering my peaceful senses.
Pajik —
The threads of mana dancing at my fingertips scattered from the shock and evaporated into the air.
"Master?"
"... Just a moment."
Sonia's puzzled voice reached me, but instead of answering her, I looked in one direction.
Toward the east, the direction where the sun rose.
As I focused my mind, my 'senses' expanded instantaneously, transcending space.
The mana perception that had been spreading out in all directions from me was narrowed again like a sharp spear, stretching eastward, and further eastward.
And, finally, it touched 'it.'
A crushing sense of presence that pressed down on the world, as if an entire mountain range were collapsing.
"Ha."
Without realizing it, a sigh laced with a hollow laugh escaped me.
"In the end, you went and did it. Anselm."
It was something I had predicted might happen, but had genuinely hoped it wouldn't.
At the same time, it was something that might become yet another huge opportunity for me.
The thing had, stubbornly, gone and happened.
"Sonia. Broadcast an emergency meeting to all the kings belonging to the Fate Alliance."
"... Yes, Master."
Even though I hadn't explained what had happened, Sonia, instead of questioning it, immediately bowed and withdrew from my room.
Her usual leisureliness was nowhere to be found in her footsteps. She must have sensed the urgency.
"「Seed of the Story」."
Alone in the room, I crossed the index finger and thumb of my left hand and condensed mana to bloom a small plant.
A dandelion seed.
From stem to seed, everything was composed of pitch-black darkness.
Huuu ——
As I blew on it, the black fragments scattered into the air and dissolved.
These seeds would ride the contracts and disperse everywhere, planting a message in the minds of my subordinates.
The meaning was singular.
"All of you, gather. It's an urgent matter."
It was a 'summoning order.'
- 2 -
Formless infinity, tinged with gloom, swirled in the sky of the Holy Kingdom.
It had gradually swelled in size, and at some point, it stretched down toward the ground.
Huuuk ——
Those things, which had opened their centers like giant maws, soon 'birthed' something.
"Ugh...!"
Rodrick, who had been maintaining flight with mana to stay airborne, nearly lost his balance and staggered in mid-air.
It was because the mana that had filled the surrounding area was being sucked into the center of the vortex, drawn by a monstrous force.
A pillar of swirling mana, maintaining a form so colossal it reached from the sky to the ground.
Metaphorically, it was a gigantic tornado that twisted and devoured all the mana in the region.
- Kyaaaak —— !!
- Keuuuuk — !!
The sight of low-grade spirits and wraiths without contractors being dragged by their hair into that brutal force unfolded before his eyes.
Rodrick gathered the mana enveloping him even more tightly.
He had to flee. Before 'those things' turned their full attention to him.
But.
『Whe re a re you go ing?』
It was already too late.
A sensation as if an ice pick had pierced and scraped down his spine.
A pressure as if his very soul, not his mana circuits, was being seized and twisted.
Rodrick, his whole body petrified like stone, barely, very slowly, managed to turn only his eyes to the side.
And then, he saw it.
A colossal eye covered in armor-like scales, and a sharp snout twisted with malice.
An eye filled with blood-red crimson, lacking any white at all, was staring at him.
'I'm going to be eaten.'
There was no escape.
He was absolutely going to die.
Not even resistance was permitted.
In that moment when only the absolute certainty of death dominated his entire being—
- Run away, darling!!
Kwaang!!!
The dragon's head caved in hideously, as if struck by an invisible giant fist.
A terrible sight: scales shattered to pieces and black blood pouring down like a waterfall.
"Heok...!"
At that instant, the pressure crushing his entire body vanished as if it were a lie.
Any thought of leisurely flying away to escape disappeared without a trace.
"'Voidre'!"
- —— !
At its master's desperate call, the voiceless spirit reacted swiftly.
Rodrick believed in him.
He believed the space spirit, who had always lived up to his trust, would safely extract them both from this place once again.
『In — solent!』
But this place was already before the monster's maw.
After regenerating in an instant, the colossal head had approached right before Rodrick's face in the blink of an eye.
Kwaddeudeudeuk —— !!
The authority of the spirit dominating space was mercilessly torn apart before the will of a larger existence.
The 'fangs' created by twisting space chewed up and swallowed the spirit entirely, digesting it with the power of its master.
"No...!"
Before vanishing from that spot, what Rodrick saw last was—
- —— !!
—the form of Voidre desperately twisting space to push him away, shattering to pieces in the rift of the void.
『Ahh.』
The unknown presence that had missed him let out an exclamation, as if genuinely regretful.
『Humans are much tastier...』
What could be felt in that voice was an empty yearning that could never be filled, and a terrible frenzy.
- 3 -
Ancient demon beasts that had slumbered within the seal for at least a thousand years.
Beings who, due to their overwhelmingly powerful strength, had received a title tinged with both respect and fear— 'Pursuing Duke'—in the Demon Realm even while sealed.
Before such beings, Anselm simply could not rise from his spot.
"Keoheok...!"
No, he couldn't even be sure if he could survive even a few more seconds in this place.
All he could do was struggle like a beast being crushed to death before a massive force.
Before him, a small figure stood with her head tilted.
"Hmm?"
The appearance of the one tilting her head sideways was, incongruously, extremely cute.
Her hair, though faded to ashen-gray, fell silkily and gracefully to her ears, appearing silver, and her snow-white skin was not pale but vibrant with life.
The worn-out dress and the void-like expressionless face, as if all emotion had been erased, added a strange atmosphere to her beautiful features.
"What's wrong...?"
She looked down at Anselm, tilting her head slightly.
With eyes filled only with pure curiosity, like a child who had found a dying insect on the road.
It couldn't be helped.
For she was the very master of this overwhelming sense of presence blanketing the vicinity.
This magic pressure that was crushing the very atmosphere was, to her, a natural thing.
"Bes. It's because you're too scary."
"Keoheok...!"
Anselm clutched his chest.
It was because, as another being descended beside the small and cute existence, 'Bes,' the pain, as if his heart was being squeezed tight, intensified further.
"Then... what should I do...? Tia..."
"Look here."
'Tia,' who had alighted beside the small being, was also exceedingly beautiful.
A being with dark crimson hair finely braided into five strands, flowing down nearly to her ankles, and her body was wrapped in a splendid evening dress of the same color as her hair.
She wore a soft smile, but her ominously gleaming golden eyes already revealed the identity of that being.
"You do it like this."
Whether luckily or unluckily.
After those words ended, the pressure crushing Anselm's body gradually began to lessen.
Enough that he could lift his head from his kneeling position and look up at the two beings.
"Wha, what are you... what are you people...."
"Oh my, dear. Are you pretending not to know?"
At those words, the crimson being approached him with a bright smile.
"You're the one who summoned us."
"Ah, aah..."
As long, elegant fingers gripped Anselm's chin, his body began to tremble like an aspen tree.
Even if his mind was in chaos, his body and soul sensed it instinctively.
What the being before his eyes was.
"Don't tell me... you are...!"
"Yes, that's right. So now..."
Thin, long fingers wrapped around Anselm's chin and clutched it.
With a powerful force, as if ready to crush it at any moment.
"Hurry and tell us your wish. So that we can quickly 'break' this tiresome, irksome contract."
The center of her brilliant golden eyes split vertically, wide open.
- 4 -
After sending Sonia out, I became lost in thought for a moment.
'I did predict, to some extent, that this would happen.'
The probability was about 20%.
It wasn't high, but it wasn't a probability I could ignore.
A human driven into a corner and seized by frenzy could commit any act.
Besides, didn't he have Astaroth behind him? Even if it was a 'backing' he himself didn't know about.
However, since I hadn't fully grasped his humanity, I had deliberately taken a conservative estimate of the possibility.
'But something is strange.'
No matter how much it's the desperate act of someone driven into a corner, some kind of 'purposefulness' should be felt in it.
'For instance, if this is something Anselm caused...'
He should have been preparing to gain some advantage using the demon beasts being released from that seal.
Whether it was an army, or powerful superhuman mercenaries.
But the Holy Kingdom showed no signs of gathering or inviting such beings at all.
'Even if we shift the main subject from Anselm to Astaroth, it's the same.'
No large-scale forces of demon beasts moving toward the coast had been observed either.
'Why is that? If so, this incident... who in the world committed it, and why.'
Tap. Tap.
I began tapping the armrest of the throne with my fingertips, organizing the overflowing thoughts in my head one by one.
Placing all possibilities on the table and erasing them one at a time.
'The third, the most likely possibility.'
One. Anselm had truly gone mad, and starting rampaging with the seal, heedless of the world's end.
The possibility was very small, but couldn't be completely excluded.
As I said, there were no limits to human frenzy.
Two. Astaroth had decided to simply destroy the entire surface first.
This also had a low possibility. She wasn't the type to enjoy this kind of unplanned destruction.
She was the type who was 'obsessed' with obtaining, rather than breaking.
Therefore, three. Outside intervention was the most likely possibility.
'Dantalion? Or Eligos? Or perhaps another Archduke or a being from the Demon Realm...'
I considered them all, but no.
The benefit they would gain from doing such a thing was unclear.
'It could be an otherworldly being.'
Otherworldly beings who occasionally revealed themselves in this world.
Among them, there were many who caused indiscriminate frenzy.
But I had firm confidence.
A confidence that if they had appeared in this world, they wouldn't have escaped my current 'eyes.'
Though it was an instinctive thing difficult to explain in words.
'If that's the case...'
A being who could escape my sight. No, a being who was even hard to reach.
Things that were 'higher,' or 'deeper.'
The absolute beings existing on the surface, and in the Demon Realm.
Once I had narrowed down the choices to this point, the culprit concluded to only one.
A being who could perfectly deceive my senses.
A being who could orchestrate matters without even the powerful figures of the Demon Realm knowing.
A being who could gain benefit through all this chaos.
One who reigned above all laws of the surface.
The 'deep' side was ambiguous but was on my side, at least.
Then what remained was ...
'... Is it really that person?'
I couldn't be certain.
But, at the very least, it was the only possibility left among what I had deduced.
I looked up at the sky.
While the east had darkened, the sun setting in the west looked particularly brighter.
And right in the middle, above the sky, a star began to rise.
Like someone's eye, it twinkled.
'The Goddess.'
She, who had only been observing until now, had finally stepped directly onto the board.
That was my answer.