Chapter 612
Chapter Title: Shadow's Dominion
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Clank— Clank—
Atop the walls of Gardsrone.
Kyle drew his sword, gazing at the endless army of the dead surging from the distance.
“K-Kyle. Shouldn’t we run, even now?”
Ar-on, hiding behind Kyle’s back, said in a trembling voice.
“Don’t be foolish, Ar-on.”
Dweno, a giant battle-axe slung over his shoulder, stood beside Kyle with a low sigh.
“Where in the world would we run from here?”
“Ugh…”
Ar-on let out a groan at Dweno’s words.
Gardsrone, the last fortress of the world.
Its fall would mean the end of the world.
There was literally nowhere to run.
Sighing softly at the trembling beastkin, Dweno asked Kyle.
“This fight… how do you think it will go? Kyle.”
“It’s hard to say.”
Kyle narrowed his eyes, looking at the army of the dead that stretched beyond the horizon.
“This time, I think even Gardsrone will have a hard time.”
The hand Kyle held his sword with was trembling slightly.
It wasn’t just Kyle.
Dweno was the same.
Though they didn’t show it, both of them felt fear.
The army of the Necro King, known as the strongest legion of Tartaros.
In this era, as the world teetered on the brink of destruction, the dead outnumbered the living.
All those corpses were the Necro King’s army.
“It’s been a while. Seeing those disgusting things. Really, they could disappear from my sight forever and I wouldn’t mind.”
Kyle glanced back.
Lisinas and Luna were walking over.
“Why haven’t we seen that army of boneheads for a while?”
Luna wore a bewildered expression as she looked at the most sinister army, which had appeared for the first time in a year.
“Because the world was on the verge of collapse anyway.”
Lisinas’s eyes narrowed.
“It’s a world that would fall soon enough even without him intervening. The Necro King must have been amusing himself, watching a world with little time left.”
“Th-then why did a Necro King like that suddenly attack?”
As Ar-on asked with a tearful face, Lisinas crossed his arms.
“It’s probably because of the Gluttony King’s death.”
The subjugation of the Gluttony King, Jormungandr.
An anomaly that could not have happened in a dying world.
“So that incident put the Necro King on alert?”
Luna crossed her arms and glared at the army of the dead.
“Hmph! Let them come! I’ll wipe them all out!”
“R-really? Can I just trust you, Luna?”
“Of course! Just trust me! Ar-on!”
Luna said confidently, thumping her chest with a fist.
“You just have to hold them off until I solve everything!”
“So you’re saying I have to fight too.”
Ar-on’s face fell.
“Get ready. They’ll be attacking any moment…”
As he was speaking, Dweno’s eyes sharpened.
It wasn’t just Dweno.
Kyle also reacted to the killing intent, deploying his mana.
At that moment.
*RUMBLE!*
A great rain of corpses fell from the sky.
They weren’t mere bones.
It was dark magic, crafted from the corpses of powerful mages.
A rain of death that destroyed everything it touched.
“It’s the Necro King’s magic!”
“Quickly, protective magic!”
The mages waiting on Gardsrone’s walls deployed their mana to block the Necro King’s magic.
Luna, too, hurriedly prepared a spell.
*'Too late!'*
A powerful spell unleashed without any warning.
Though she noticed it later than Kyle, Luna’s spell was completed faster than his.
But even so, it was too late to block it completely.
*'Damage to the walls is unavoidable!'*
The moment Luna gritted her teeth.
*FWOOSH—!*
A golden flash erupted.
Ar-on, soaring into the sky, drew his sword.
The moment a storm of golden aura embroidered the sky.
*KRA-BOOOOOOM—!*
A tremendous explosion, along with the golden sword energy, shook the very foundations of the earth.
In the not-so-distant future.
The Necro King’s magic is stopped by a single strike from the great beastkin who would be called the Brave Hero.
*Thud—!*
Everyone held their breath as they watched Ar-on land.
As Ar-on straightened up, his body radiated an absolutely overwhelming pressure.
“Kyle! That was scary!”
Seeing Ar-on run to him with a face on the verge of tears, Kyle sighed and patted the back of his friend, who still hadn’t shed his boyishness.
“How can someone so timid be the first one to rush in?”
Luna said, as if finding it strange.
Watching them, Dweno spoke.
“Lisinas.”
“Yes.”
“Kyle said it would be hard to stop them this time. What are your thoughts?”
“…”
Lisinas, after glancing at Kyle, looked around.
The heroes defending Gardsrone had already gathered around the five of them.
*'Hard to stop them... for Kyle, that's a rather positive outlook.'*
Dweno wasn’t unaware of that either.
But the reason he asked was simple.
Kyle’s words and Lisinas’s words carried different weights.
Lisinas, once mocked as a fool, had achieved everything he claimed he would, one by one.
In the end, he had become a symbol of hope in Gardsrone.
Dweno had asked in order to hear such a lie from Lisinas.
“We can stop them.”
Lisinas said.
*'How hard will I have to work to make this lie a reality?'*
He smiled bitterly to himself.
“The Necro King’s army is the backbone of Tartaros.”
Lisinas climbed onto the wall and raised his hand.
*FWOOSH—!*
The Flame Emperor, which burns away the impure, revealed itself.
“If we win this battle, the scales will tip in our favor.”
He wasn’t lying.
Annihilating that near-infinite army of the dead would deal a massive blow to Tartaros.
The heavily tilted scales would surely lean a little toward their side.
*'It’s just that it’ll be too minuscule.'*
But Lisinas didn’t care.
He would do anything if this lie could give them hope.
“This world will not fall. So everyone, trust me and follow me.”
“Waaah!”
“The Dragon of Wisdom is with us!”
“Gardsrone will never fall!”
“Destruction to the vile Necro King!”
The heroes’ morale soared.
They did not doubt for a second that today was not the end.
*GROOOOOWWWL—!*
The army of the dead began to charge.
The battle for the fate of the world began.
Beastkin and dwarf warriors stood at the forefront.
From the rear, elven mages chanted their spells.
The dragon summoned the Great Spirits.
Five Great Spirits were summoned.
“Elsie.”
At Kyle’s call, Elsie answered.
“I need your support.”
-…Alright.
Kyle headed to the front lines to hold back the army of the dead.
Watching the back of her contractor, the shadow spirit merely stood there blankly.
-Today will be the last.
“It won’t be.”
-…
Only the black dragon and the Great Spirit of Darkness stood on the wall.
Elsie simply stared with a blank expression at Lisinas, who was smiling warmly at her.
-We cannot defeat the Necro King.
“No, we can.”
Lisinas’s eyes sparkled.
Elsie saw her past self in that image.
There was a time when her own black eyes sparkled just like that.
-How?
“Because you are here.”
-What?
At Lisinas’s words, Elsie showed a rare look of bewilderment.
“You’re a special spirit, Elsie. A shadow is another version of oneself. And there is no being in this world that does not have a shadow.”
-What does that have to do with anything?
“You’re a shadow spirit, aren’t you? Shadows are something you can control.”
-…
“When I first learned of your existence, I wanted to make a contract with you. But I couldn’t have healed your wounds. Only Kyle could be your sanctuary.”
The one who could draw out Elsie’s power to its fullest was none other than Lisinas.
As a black dragon, Lisinas, and Elsie, a spirit of darkness, would have had better compatibility than anyone.
But Lisinas, who looked toward the light, was an uncomfortable presence for Elsie, who was deeply steeped in darkness.
That was why Elsie was drawn to Kyle, who harbored a darkness no less than her own.
“So, help Kyle with that power.”
Lisinas smiled gently.
“You will surely find your shining potential within the darkness.”
***
“What are you doing! Alsia!”
Despite Ista’s roar, Alsia didn’t even flinch.
She merely stared at Elsie with bewildered eyes.
*'What in the world.'*
Alsia was a fire spirit and had existed for a long time as one of Ista’s subordinate spirits.
That was why she could sense the change happening to her.
-I am…
Releasing her grip on Elsie, Alsia stepped back with a troubled face.
Then, shadows flowing from Elsie’s body slithered up Alsia’s feet.
*Flinch—!* Alsia trembled and tried to move away from Elsie.
But she was caught by the shadows and couldn’t move an inch.
-Ah…!
Alsia’s eyes filled with terror.
Elsie smiled softly.
“Don’t be afraid.”
*WHOOSH—!*
The shadows swallowed Alsia whole.
Seeing this, not only Ista but the other high-ranking fire spirits flinched.
“Attack!”
At Ista’s cry, the high-ranking fire spirits attacked Elsie.
Elsie, standing her ground, smiled and raised a hand.
*WHOOSH—!*
The shadows washed over the fire spirits like a tidal wave.
In an instant, the fire spirits were swallowed, leaving only the two Great Spirits in this space.
Ista’s face hardened.
“What did you do to my subordinates?”
“I’ve embraced them in my shadow.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It’s hard to explain with words. It would be faster to show you, wouldn’t it?”
Elsie smiled and raised her hand.
At that moment.
*FWOOSH—!*
From Elsie’s shadow, the high-ranking fire spirits who had vanished, including Alsia, reappeared.
The moment he saw that, Ista’s eyes widened.
*'My dominion?'*
The dominion he held over the spirits under his command just moments ago had vanished.
The high-ranking fire spirits also looked back and forth between Elsie and Ista with bewildered eyes.
They, too, felt that their master had suddenly changed.
“Just what trick did you use!”
“This is my authority of dominion. I apologize for taking your spirits, but since you tried to harm me too, let’s call it even.”
Elsie’s expression turned cold.
“Listen to me! Your master is me, Ista, the Spirit of Purification! Why are you listening to the Great Spirit of Darkness!”
Ista desperately tried to regain his dominion.
But he couldn’t break Elsie’s authority.
The high-ranking spirits, having grasped the situation, looked at each other.
-I don’t really get the situation, but…
Alsia blinked.
-Our master has changed to this person here, right?
-Seems so.
Another spirit nodded at Alsia’s words.
-Does that mean we can legally beat up that self-absorbed, narcissistic spirit?
A ferocious glint appeared in the eyes of the hot-tempered high-ranking fire spirits.
“Th-this is rebellion! You dare attack your master!”
-Get that bastard!
-You’re so dead today!
-This very moment! Like magic! My lifelong wish has come true today!
“Gyaaaaaaah!”
*KRA-BOOM—! FWOOSH!*
Ista, already suppressed by Elsie, was mercilessly ravaged by the flames of the high-ranking spirits.
Watching this with wide eyes, Elsie cupped her cheeks and said, as if troubled.
“Oh, dear. Everyone. Please don’t be too rough.”
“Uwaaaaaah!”
The desperate screams of Ista, the Spirit of Purification, echoed.