Waning Glory
He had to admit it. Yes, he had severely underestimated his enemy.
A title like one of the continent's Three Great Calamities was not earned on a whim. Had he grown arrogant? Had toppling adversaries far stronger than his true self tricked him into believing that borrowed triumph belonged to him, sending him galloping headlong into reckless bravado?
Truth be told, he could never measure up to Genom, the Demon King's corps commander. No, he couldn't even say with certainty whether he could best a single skeletal rider on his own. Yet Grandis and the sovereign of the dead possessed might that defied comparison even to Genom.
Worse still, the King of the Dead was not merely formidable; every inch of his territory lay entirely beneath his iron grip. Einzel had erred. He had willingly marched straight into the Lich King's clutches.
How, then, was he to break through this impasse?
The sheer audacity of using the Lich King was not a thought he cared to entertain twice. Just remembering the creature sent a cold shudder crawling down his spine. It was a terror akin to Grandis, yet profoundly different. Where Grandis felt like an abrupt, incarnate catastrophe bursting without warning, the Lich King felt like a suffocating vice, trapping him in a grip from which there was no wriggling free.
Yet he could think of no clear way to pierce through the Ashen Soldiers, either. Taking the plains meant running into the undead horde or Grandis. Braving the mountains meant crossing paths with the Ashen Soldiers or the Lich King.
If only Grandis and the Lich King would tear into each other and both collapse...
At that very moment, a stray spark struck his mind.
"...Wait."
It was a plan that bordered on utter madness—and yet, if it could somehow succeed...
He ran the calculations through his head. Absurd though it undeniably seemed, the deeper he deliberated, the more the conviction hardened in his chest.
His resolve was set.
"...For now, the soldiers will take the mountain pass."
"...What?" Peria cocked her head, baffled.
"Let me rephrase. The soldiers, the commanders, you, Sayne, and Lena will scale the mountains and head straight toward the Lich King's domain."
"What?!" Peria stared at Einzel, her face an open mask of disbelief.
"The enemy will likely ambush you at every opportunity. Use alarm wards to maintain a vigilant watch through the nights."
"Einzel, what on earth are you—"
"Meanwhile, the Saintess and I will cross the plains and rendezvous with you inside the Lich King's territory."
"Have you completely lost your mind?!"
When Peria shouted, Einzel merely held her gaze in silence. She met his eyes—and froze.
That look again. That incomprehensible, uncanny gaze of boundless, bottomless certainty.
Peria found herself utterly overwhelmed by the sheer intensity burning in his eyes.
"...I have a plan," he said softly. "One to save as many lives as possible."
It was not just Peria; everyone gathered there fell quiet, humbled and swayed by his quiet conviction.
"...Understood," Beatrice murmured, nodding in assent.
"Let's move."
And so, his operation began.
"This way! Keep running!"
Einzel pressed forward alongside the Saintess without breaking stride. Undead were closing in from all sides, weaving a relentless cordon around them. Yet compared to the suffocating legions commanded by the Lich King, their numbers were far more manageable—and this time, Beatrice was at his side.
"Clear a path through there, please!"
"Yes!"
Beams of holy light pierced the horde, melting the walking corpses into vapor. Einzel dashed straight through the breach, never once neglecting to check their bearings along the way. When he glanced back and saw the shambling legion abandoning their encirclement to pursue in a straight line behind them, a grin tugged at his lips.
Good. That's half the battle won.
From time to time, Beatrice unleashed radiant bursts of light, scattering the trailing corpses to ensure they never lost the scent. Never had anyone tried so desperately, so deliberately, to draw every pair of dead eyes upon themselves.
Several days slipped by in this manner. Though tearing across the wide-open plains was a far longer detour than cutting across the jagged peaks, they arrived roughly at the same time.
Thus, Einzel and Beatrice halted before the borders of the Lich King's sovereign territory.
"...This truly will give us a way out, won't it?" Beatrice asked, anxiety lingering in her gentle blue eyes.
Einzel merely smiled in return. This time, his conviction was absolute.
"Oh, you're already here?"
Peria's voice drifted over. She and the soldiers looked utterly haggard, their faces hollowed by sheer exhaustion.
"Damn it all, out of nowhere these gray bastards showed up and hounded our asses..." Lena cursed, spitting onto the dirt. "They were stupidly fast compared to the walking corpses. Those miserable fucks ambushed us every single night... Ugh, I don't even have the words."
Peria stared blankly at Lena, nodding in weary, silent agreement.
"Well, it couldn't be helped," Einzel said gently. "Still... we are going to survive this time. No matter how brutal it gets, just hold out a little longer."
Yes. This time, without fail...
Einzel gazed up into the sullen sky, a quiet smile gracing his lips.
With that, they crossed once more into the land of the dead.
The same suffocating pressure they had endured before bore down upon them, a chilling dread seeping into the very marrow of their bones. Yet this time, it was bearable.
Floating eyeballs began to drift across the gloom, and before long, a booming telepathic voice reverberated straight into their minds.
The Ashen Soldiers, too, were being crushed beneath that suffocating aura as the price for treading upon the land of the dead. True to form, countless corpses began clawing their way out of the dirt, and colossal spectral eyes crowded the sky above.
"...You really have a plan for this, right?" Peria asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"...Yeah."
He had done everything within his power. All that remained now was to wait for luck to tip the scales.
At last, the firmament cracked open. Amid a brilliant glare of arcane power, the King of the Dead descended astride a colossal Bone Dragon.
—Hoh... intriguing. A Hero sets foot upon this domain? Surely a Hero's purpose was to strike down the Demon King... Yet the price for desecrating the rest of the dead shall not be forgiven.
The Lich King raised his staff. Swarms of corpses surged forward from every direction.
Just as hope seemed extinguished, the Lich King paused, tilting his skeletal head in bewilderment.
—What... is the meaning of this? Other undead dare intrude upon the sovereign realm of this king?
It was the legion of undead that Einzel and Beatrice had herded across the plains.
—To see even a Death Knight among their ranks... I cannot fathom what transpires here.
Einzel smiled.
And with that smile, the floating eyes that blotted out the sky began violently bursting apart.
—What?!
The severed eyes rained down dead upon the blighted soil. Within moments, patches of pale blue sky broke through the haze.
"Now! Take cover and stay out of sight!" Einzel barked to the soldiers.
"Haah, what on earth is all this? I followed an interesting little Hero, yet there isn't a single hair of him to be found—only rotten, reeking corpses as far as the eye can see."
A voice descended, bearing down on heaven and earth with pressure equal to that of the Lich King.
Grandis had arrived in the Lich King's domain.
—A corps commander of the Demon King dares intrude upon this place?!
"Shut your mouth, bonehead," Grandis snapped back coldly.
"Haah, the Hero is nowhere in sight... Fine then. I suppose you'll have to play with me instead."
She slowly licked her lips, and the two calamitous beings collided.
With every exchange, the sky fractured; with every clash, the earth shuddered to its roots. Such was the magnitude of a battle between those who had attained the Realm.
Yet beneath that apocalyptic storm, Einzel and his companions were barely holding on.
"The Saintess...!"
Beatrice had exhausted her Holy Power. Even as the minions of the Lich King and Grandis tore into one another, both factions continued to mercilessly butcher any humans caught between them. Even so, Beatrice had displayed breathtaking divine might—slaying a Death Knight single-handedly and annihilating swathes of lesser undead in the radiant aftershock.
"Just a little more! Just hold on a little longer!"
Einzel gritted his teeth, hacking through the fray.
And then, an opening appeared.
"Run!"
Amid the titanic chaos between Grandis and the Lich King, a singular escape route opened before them. Yet blocking that final path stood a phalanx of skeletal riders. Their eye sockets flared with ominous, murderous light, as if swearing that not a single trespasser would leave these lands alive.
"...Cut through them and we're home free! Go!"
Even as he shouted, terror coiled tightly in Einzel's chest. He couldn't even match a single skeletal rider on his own, let alone an entire vanguard. With Beatrice drained of Holy Power, his hard-won certainty began to waver.
And then...
Sayne's blade ignited with blinding radiance.
"Out of our way!"
Her sword scattered shimmering threads woven of pure, condensed force.
Sayne had awakened once more as a High Expert.
Watching the brilliance dance from her steel, Einzel's expression twisted.
He knew.
He knew those memories were buried forever in a lifetime that no longer existed.
He knew that one night of love was a secret held by him alone.
And yet, the instant that night flashed through his mind, a suffocating ache tightened in his chest.
He shoved the pain aside, lunging forward to swing his blade. That night beneath the glowing mariner's star—as breathtaking as that memory was, he could not afford to lose himself to it now.
At last, the final skeletal rider collapsed, and Einzel led the surviving soldiers out from the land of the dead.
Meanwhile, the battle between the Lich King and Grandis raged for an entire day before finally drawing to a close.
The cause of his defeat was simple: the Lich King, belatedly realizing the intruders had slipped from his grasp, faltered for a fraction of an instant. Grandis did not let that opening pass.
"...Hah. In the end, I didn't even get to see the Hero's face."
Beside her lamenting figure, the Lich King's severed skull rolled listlessly across the barren earth.
The Lich King, one of the continent's Three Great Calamities, had fallen before Grandis and met his absolute end.