Chapter 401
Chapter 401
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 401
Chapter Title: Alkeia, Land for the Faithless
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Alkeia, the land for those who reject faith.
Alkeia lived up to its name, nestled deep underground where not a sliver of light could seep in. Its master, who wished to be spared the gaze of the sun and stars above, had built her own temple in the world's profound depths.
Alkeia's master, Gleria, smiled.
"Go on, then. Before my whim fades."
Belnoa bowed her head to her without a word.
Even Belnoa herself couldn't say why she bowed to this horrific calamity. Perhaps it was because the woman before her felt less like a disaster and more like a senior colleague.
Belnoa took a step forward.
She kicked off the ground and broke into a run.
The slope stretched all the way to the edge of the abyss, patrolled by armored dragons that ensured no one escaped its depths—but now they lay silent. Belnoa dashed between the vast scales of the colossal armored dragons.
At some point, the light source that had illuminated Alkeia in place of sun and stars grew hazy. Passing through the fog blanketing the hillside's midpoint, the warm glow no longer shone down. A blood-red moon was all that lit the hill.
...
Back in the demon realm.
The word "back" felt awkward for a fleeting moment, but then Belnoa sensed the ground beneath her feet trembling. Thud, rumble—something barreled past below.
"......"
Belnoa turned silently.
The hillside, shrouded in black mist and resembling an entrance to the abyss. The filthy sludge veiling the steep path began to churn violently.
Something was coming.
Belnoa gritted her teeth and accelerated.
She had pushed her body to its physical limits long ago, but in this moment, she knew she had to wring out whatever strength remained. Shadows engulfed her quaking form.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [Ah, so...!] A familiar voice rang in her ears.
The severed link to the goddess had reconnected the moment she escaped the abyss, and now the goddess cried out in Belnoa's ear with genuine shock.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [You're back! How in the world...?] There was no time to reply.
Belnoa snapped one of her fingers in supplication. The goddess, clinging to Belnoa's shoulder, glanced back. The churning fog—and something piercing through it...
Kakakakakakakak!
The apostate's summoned beast: an armored dragon.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [...Escape comes first. Got it.] A dragon sub-species—once her own creation.
Gazing at the beast that had lost itself amid countless corruptions, she sighed deeply. Her exhalation turned to mist and shadow, wrapping around Belnoa.
Shrouded in darkness, Belnoa ran.
Fierce tremors shook from behind.
The grinding roar of earth and boulders being pulverized. It drew nearer—right on her heels. The armored dragon gaped its jaws to devour her.
Flinch.
For one split second, the beast halted.
A mere instant, but its maw snapped at empty air. Belnoa crested the hill.
"Hah... haa..."
Panting raggedly, Belnoa looked back.
The armored dragons ceased their pursuit. They melted back into the fog, but Belnoa felt eyes upon her from beyond.
The gaze lingered only briefly.
Then it faded, and the abyss that had claimed the dragons fell silent. Her tension shattered; Belnoa collapsed in place, rubbing her nape furiously.
Nearly died. For real.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [...Frankly, I thought that was it.] As Belnoa wiped away cold sweat, the goddess murmured, her arm looped around Belnoa's neck.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [The fall of my most faithful servant. When you dropped into that child's domain... I truly believed it was over. And yet you survived.] Belnoa gave a bitter smile at the goddess's trembling voice.
"Yeah... somehow."
She rubbed the back of her hand.
The spot the apostate had touched.
"Looks like I've got some solid connections."
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [...Connections?] "Lord Belial... and, I don't know why, but old man Cardi's doing too, I think."
Belnoa drew a folded letter from her bosom.
The apostate's missive, meant for Cardi. She glared at it a moment, then tucked it deep into her robe without a word.
"Gonna have to see the old man when I get back."
Plenty to ask.
Muttering as much, Belnoa shot the goddess a look. She seemed privy to something but offered no answers.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [Indeed. Hear it from him yourself.] "You know more than you're letting on."
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [I know plenty. But I only share tales of those children who can no longer speak for themselves.] The goddess smiled bitterly.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [Hear it from the source.] Belnoa nodded slowly.
With one last brief sigh, she rose to her feet. She had escaped Alkeia, but the demon realm still loomed around her.
Step.
One more reason to press on. Belnoa resumed her trek.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
The apostate, Gletus, gazed skyward from the abyss's edge. She glanced toward where the youth had fled moments ago... then turned away.
"Enviable."
Belnoa, the child who resembled Belial.
Facing the successor who carried her old comrade's will, memories flooded back inevitably. A radiant past. One she could never reclaim. All the more beautiful for it.
Gletus felt a twinge of jealousy toward the youth basking in his prime—and a spark of anticipation.
She could see the hues of human souls. Their shapes. Most she'd witnessed were murky. Strayed from pristine white essence. Tarnished by reality, compromised, impure.
Such souls never attain transcendence.
They cannot shatter themselves to leap beyond.
Intense longing, fierce drive, purity, yearning—such emotions draw humans toward their essence. They pave the path to transcendence.
"I will kill you. No matter what." "I won't forget what you stole from me." "To kill you. To avenge myself. I devote my entire life to it. Absolutely, without fail..." A father's thirst for vengeance had burned like that.
"No more tragedies like this." "To honor the vow I made here with you all, I offer my remaining days." A mage upholding his oath had shone so.
"Not even once." "I've never once cursed this power. Thanks to it, I saved countless lives." "If this isn't a blessing, then what is?" The hero, chasing pure aspiration, had gleamed thus.
Transcendence was, in the end, a regression to one's core.
When a soul burned with the purest white light, it granted humans the chance to advance—and bathed them in the most brilliant radiance.
"Pale in comparison to those children, but..."
Fleeting. Feeble.
Still, the apostate had glimpsed light in Belnoa.
"You've got it too."
She had told Belnoa she despised souls as sullied as hers—but in that very moment, she saw it: a fragment shining amid the filth.
It was the holy grail she herself had forged.
In the chalice of miracles, Gleria had spied Belnoa's wish: an untainted, uncompromising aspiration. It intrigued her.
'Next time we meet.'
Perhaps she'd witness true brilliance.
"...Aha."
"Gleria" smiled.
Laughter bubbled up as she idly touched her chest. Fingering the scar hidden beneath her robes, she wore a distant smile. The mark left by one purer than any soul she'd known.
Tracing the wound.
Gleria closed her eyes.
The scar cleared her mind, if only a little. Thoughts sharpened, she reminisced once more—those joyful, fulfilling days—as she made for her temple.
She longed to return.
But she knew it was impossible.
She had strayed too far from the path. Gleria shut her eyes. Opening them, Gletus ventured deeper into the temple.
To the place where she belonged.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 3.
Two days slipped by.
Ten days deep in the demon realm now, and Belnoa sensed something gnawing at her sanity. Demonic miasma didn't spare the flesh alone—it eroded the spirit too.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [Snap out of it!] Small mercy: a presence anchored her fading awareness. Each time Belnoa's vision blurred, the goddess jolted her mind awake.
🌟 GODDESS'S VOICE 🌟 [Almost there, aren't you?] "Yeah... definitely."
Belnoa staggered onward.
No trace of her old spry gait. Suppressing her presence was a chore now; her steps dragged with a harsh scrape rather than a soft tap.
How many fights had she endured in this state?
Lost count halfway.
Feet trailing, Belnoa traversed the wasteland. At long last, her goal hove into view: a grotesque cliff in the distance.
Scale that cliff, and the rest would be smoother.
More cover, less miasma influence. Delayed as she was, a few more days beyond it would land her at the front lines.
"Hoo..."
Belnoa exhaled deeply and pressed on.
This was the final hurdle. Past it, no pursuers could follow. As she neared the cliff—
Kreeeeeeeeee!
A sky-shattering screech, birdlike and raw. Belnoa looked up. Wyverns wheeled overhead.
"...Hah."
Belnoa barked a hollow laugh.
Every wyvern bore broken horns. She knew the meaning. Then a colossal shadow eclipsed the heavens.
A bulk dwarfing the wyverns.
Soaring higher still, a true dragon peered down at Belnoa. It uttered no roar—just dipped its head slightly, clearing a path for its rider.
Tap.
Someone leaped from the dragon's crown.
It plummeted fast, landing with a boom that billowed dust. A voice emerged from the cloud.
"Truly astonishing."
The wyvern unit's commander.
"Surviving so long in the demon realm. Fighting on despite your wounds. Even slipping unscathed from the great one's domain..."
The demon realm's ancient transcendent.
"Reaching this very spot."
The Dragon Tamer, Asterio.
"Nothing short of awe-inspiring. I could applaud, honestly. No sarcasm."
He flicked his hand, dispersing the dust.
"Been waiting for you, Shadow Knight."
Belnoa had marked this as her final gateway—so had her Demon King's Army pursuers. She had to cross it eventually, so Asterio lay in wait atop the cliff.
"Sorry, but you don't pass."
He leveled his greatsword's tip at her.
Belnoa met the blade's edge with a hollow chuckle. Her journey's end. Guarding the last gate: a demon realm transcendent, centuries old at minimum.
And her?
Gaping wounds dripping pus.
Mind fogged by poison.
Miasma addiction from corrosion.
No real meals or rest—barely upright. Minor injuries hampered every motion.
Face a transcendent like this. With his notorious wyvern squadron to boot. It screamed "die here."
"What a load of crap."
Asterio gave a wry smile at Belnoa's mutter.
"Wish I could say otherwise."
But, Asterio continued.
"Orders are orders. The great one demands your death."
Executive before warrior, he knew mission trumped personal honor. He waved casually. The wyverns dove in unison.
"This is your end."
Wyverns spewing fire on descent.
The dragon priming a sweeping breath.
And the transcendent charging through their midst.
Even against a near-corpse like her, he gave no quarter. Belnoa clenched her jaw.