Ascension of the Imugi
Hot blood sprayed wildly, soaking my face as it passed.
Imugi...?
What had been pierced through the Demon King's grip was not my body, but the body of the Imugi that had thrown itself in front of me.
I wondered how it had sensed my death and arrived here in time, but having dodged death didn't exactly leave me in any mood to celebrate.
Because an Imugi with such a wealth of legends attached to it dying would be a loss to me as well.
"Do not be mistaken."
As the Demon King withdrew his hand, the Imugi's massive frame wavered and began trembling all over.
"From the look of you, have the legends of me faded from your memory?"
The Imugi's legends?
My head wasn't turning properly in this godforsaken situation, but I strained to force the information to the surface of my mind.
The Imugi, in its essence, was a great serpent that failed to become a dragon.
Ah...
"Even an Imugi that failed to become a dragon has one path to ascension remaining."
Originally, it was supposed to spend a thousand years cultivating its power in cold, clear water.
But when that method failed, the serpent left behind — unable to become a dragon — was the Imugi.
Yet even setting that aside, one more legend concerning the Imugi's ascension existed.
The path of becoming a dragon through good deeds — by accumulating virtue.
And for an Imugi bound to the Hundred Ghosts, the deed most likely classified as the highest act of virtue would be self-sacrifice.
"...So you cannot assert that this death of mine is truly a death."
Kicking up a spray of muddy water, the Imugi slumped forward.
The Demon King moved to lunge at the sight of it — but that was the moment.
From the mouth of the dead Imugi, a pure white, upright light spread out in every direction.
Is that... the Yeouiju?
The serpent scales that had covered the great snake's body transformed into the scales of a carp.
The head like a camel, horns like a deer, eyes like a rabbit, ears like an ox, belly like a clam, claws like a hawk, paws like a tiger — the dragon.
Almost on a hunch, I opened the Hundred Ghosts' registry, and there the Imugi's name had been completely erased.
The heavens...
By ascending into a dragon, the serpent gained dominion over the skies as proof that it was no longer a mere yokai, but a divine and wondrous sacred beast.
The falling rain ceased, the dark clouds parted, and the stars and moon shone down upon the dimmed earth.
"Where do you think you're going?"
The Imugi, now a dragon with the Yeouiju clutched in its jaws, spat out a single word.
At the same moment, a verdant aura seized hold of the Demon King and lifted him straight up into the air.
Telekinetic force that could not be pried loose even with monstrous physical strength.
"This war holds far too many surprises compared to those of the past."
The Demon King, having more or less given up on resisting, stared straight up at the dragon.
"But every life that is born is a mortal thing, never free of death."
With those words, the Demon King clamped his jaws shut with tremendous force, snapping off his own teeth and firing them at the dragon like bullets.
It might have seemed underwhelming, but at least to my eyes — near Aura Master myself — all I could perceive was the motion of him spitting them out.
Ha... hahahaha!
Yet a smile soon crept across my face.
Because the spot where the Demon King's attack had just landed was none other than the reverse scale.
The scale that grows against the grain on a dragon's throat — the one that, if touched, dooms the offender to inescapable death.
"What a foolish creature. How dare you, yourself a mortal being, presume to lecture me through the logic of mortality? Does having more lives make you feel like you stand alone above heaven and earth, peerless under the sky? How admirable, seizing victory in an instant through petty tricks."
The heavens wept.
Countless bolts of lightning crashed down to the earth — it was nothing less than the dragon's wrath made manifest.
It was on an entirely different dimension from the lightning I summoned through my words.
A single stroke of it swept across the Demon King's army rippling beyond the horizon, erasing their very existence as if drawing a line through them.
Such was the supreme sacred beast of the East, holder of nearly as many legends as the Nine-Tailed Fox itself.
"You are not simply going to stand there and watch, are you?"
At the dragon's words, I came back to my senses.
Just as it said — because I had already killed the Demon King once with a lightning strike, he would not die by that means in this situation either.
If telekinesis alone could have killed the Demon King, the dragon would gladly have done so; the fact that it left the finishing blow to me meant it was impossible.
Because there was no equivalency effect, incineration could not kill the Demon King.
Which meant I had no choice but to steal another of the Demon King's lives with the power of a divine instrument.
My remaining Faith points... 70,120, was it?
If I used it about two more times after this, synthesizing further divine instruments would become impossible.
But this was no moment to be hoarding them.
[ Adding Gungnir to the Divine Instruments list. ]
[ Faith required to synthesize Gungnir: 30,000 ]
[ Do you wish to pay? ]
You already know the answer, so why ask? Like I'd defer in a situation like this?
[ Gungnir synthesis rate has reached 100%. ]
[ Gungnir is now ready to be synthesized. ]
"Synthesize."
Gungnir — the weapon of Odin, chief god of Norse mythology.
A shaft of ashwood, with runes carved into the spearhead.
Unlike every spear I had synthesized before, it carried the legend of unerring accuracy — so even if the Demon King evaded Gungnir by some means, Gungnir would pursue him relentlessly until it pierced through his skull.
The spear of the god that, once released from the hand, would always kill its target.
And Gungnir, moreover, was an uselessly honest weapon.
Kwa-jik!
I drove Gungnir into the red earth stained with the Imugi's blood.
That, in this era, was the meaning of a declaration of war.
Gungnir emitted a violent resonance, and the runes carved into its shaft began to activate.
Unlike the Yeouibong, Gungnir vanished the instant it was hurled from the hand and slew its target.
"It has been a short, but pleasant time."
The dragon bound the Demon King even more tightly with its telekinesis, pinning him fixed in midair.
At the same time it began its slow ascent into the heavens — and before long, the compressed telekinetic force burst outward, flinging the Demon King far into the distance.
Watching it happen, I squared my stance squarely, and with the Ilgidangcheon I had been holding in reserve, hurled Gungnir at the Demon King.
The Demon King thrashed and struggled in desperation, but Gungnir did not miss its mark.
It bored straight through the Demon King's head and, riding the recoil of the telekinesis and the Ilgidangcheon, soared away toward the distant horizon.
"..."
I stood in place, watching that sight for a long while, and only when I could finally allow myself a measure of relief did I collapse where I stood.
Whether the smell of blood had become familiar to me, or my sense of smell had simply gone numb, I felt nothing at all.
So I released the Hundred Ghosts' Night Parade, and for a while stared blankly up at the night sky, now clear once more.
"...Your Highness!"
"He's asleep."
"He isn't dead, is he?"
"I can see him breathing — I'd say the fatigue has simply accumulated to a considerable degree."
"I see."
Duke Asis trembled with helplessness, and it grieved him bitterly how much reassurance he took simply from Rohen's presence.
Because a young man of such tender years was protecting the allied forces and fighting so brilliantly in the first war he had ever experienced.
The strange monsters that had appeared partway through had left him flustered for a time, but he reasoned that if they were not enemies, there was no need to dig into each and every one of them.
It might well have been the power of the sacred relics he had been granted.
"Paving the way for the younger generation is supposed to be the duty of the old — how shameful this is."
Duke Asis bowed his head.
To think all he had been permitted to do was hide behind Rohen and watch over him.
A crushing sense of self-loathing coiled around his entire body — was this really why he had become an Aura Master?
But there was no time now to bury himself in that despair.
"Carry His Highness inside. I will organize the men and collect the magic stones."
He had wondered whether there might be something more to the magic stones than usual, and since there was, something else must be latent within them this time.
That, at least, was the Empire's and the Allied Kingdoms' working assumption, and they were continuing their experiments on the collected stones accordingly.
If the hypothesis held, then when the experiments produced meaningful results, it would translate into a significant reinforcement of their military strength.
Setting aside the knights and battle mages, the ordinary soldiers still found it difficult to achieve any great distinction.
Killing monsters was comparatively easy now that artifacts imbued with permanent Lingual Magic had been distributed — but the elite demons were not simply standing by.
"...Tell them to hasten the experiments. We cannot keep fighting a war that forces sacrifice onto a single man."
"Yes, my lord."
I had no idea how long I had been lying there, but even after regaining consciousness, moving so much as a single finger was difficult.
Still, I forced my upper body upright, looked down at my body wrapped snugly in bandages, and reflexively called Excalibur forth from the synthesis list.
The scabbard that had shattered in the Demon King's hand that time was nowhere to be seen.
Haah...
Looking at an Excalibur that was as good as half of what it should have been, I released the summons and let out a long sigh inside.
...So three slots in my words remain.
Learning a word to restore my body carried far too great a risk now.
Because those three remaining slots had to be spent on killing the Demon King.
"You're awake, Your Highness?"
「 Where is Duke Asis? 」
"In the barracks, reviewing what abilities might be hidden within this latest batch of magic stones."
「 I see. 」
Since I needed to share everything I had learned about the Demon King so far, I filled several sheets of paper with dense writing and handed them to the soldier.
The number of times the Demon King had died to date: five.
The moment he had taken his own life still sent a chill down my spine — I had been well and truly caught off guard.
He knows I can obtain information about him. He seemed roughly aware of the time constraint, too...
But the Demon King had arrived at Javelin County at four in the afternoon.
Working backward from the moment I had appeared via spatial transfer...
He'd probably reason that I could detect him sometime between four in the afternoon and midnight.
Thank goodness it was the afternoon.
If the Demon King had assumed it was dawn or morning, I would have felt like I'd been driven to the very edge of a cliff.
Which is to say, it also means the Demon King won't move during the morning or dawn hours either.
If he acted in the afternoon, then even with losses, a hair's-breadth transfer right on the dot was still possible.
「 How is the front on the Allied Kingdoms' side? 」
"The most recent letter said their line may break through soon."
「 And the casualties? 」
"Not large, but not small either, I'm told."
After all, the Second Defense Line existed only to buy time while they figured out what ability was hidden inside the magic stones.
The Empire's line was still holding firm thanks to all my running back and forth, but the Allied Kingdoms' would be another story.
I wrote out my acknowledgment, then set off to wash myself down with a quick bath.
The smell of blood radiated from every inch of me, and the clinging, grimy feeling refused to lift.
I want this finished before he figures out I can only track his actions one day in advance.
If the Demon King saw through the White Feather Fan's exact limitations, this war would turn into a war of attrition.
Since I'd no longer be able to properly keep tabs on him, the casualties would swell several times over.
Enough thinking.
They do say words become seeds, don't they?
I decided that, for now, I would refrain from negative thoughts as much as I could.