Chapter 183: Past(1)
Chapter 183: Past(1)
Lina’s party headed for the castle. Its exterior looked as if it hadn't been maintained in a very long time.
Combined with the gloomy sky and fog, it gave off the vibe of a villain's stronghold.
The Saintess, still brimming with motivation, walked ahead and shouted.
"Come out, you horde of evil! Come out and face the judgment of justice!"
She was even shouting brazenly.
More than that, it was absurd to hear the Saintess going on about judgment as if she were some apostle of justice.
This feels like the pot calling the kettle black.
The rest of the party walked on, wary of their surroundings.
There were no suspicious signs. They had encountered no interference on their way up the mountain path.
It was so quiet that I almost wished something would try to stop us.
Before long, we arrived in front of the castle.
Just as Arwen had worried, there was no sign of life. On closer inspection, the castle gate wasn't even locked.
The Saintess, leading the way, threw the doors wide open.
Watching the overzealous Saintess, Natasha spoke.
"Why is the Saintess so excited?"
"Who knows."
Well, from the Saintess's perspective, she might be thinking that once this job is done, she'll at least be free from her duties as a porter.
The party walked into the castle.
We followed the trail of malevolent energy, a presence that even I could now sense.
Though the castle was devoid of people, it couldn't hide the wicked aura that had seeped into every corner.
It seems we came to the right place.
But why was no one here? The party remained vigilant until the very end.
"It seems they really did all run away. Hahaha. Well, it's only natural for heretics to flee when the Saintess of the Empire herself comes to capture them."
"..."
I could understand some of the Saintess's confidence.
The fiends' wicked sorcery wouldn't work on her. In that respect, the Saintess was as good as their natural enemy.
"The malevolent energy is thickest down here, in the basement."
The Saintess lifted the door to the cellar. As it opened, a thick cloud of dust billowed out. Did they really all run away?
Lina's party slowly descended the basement stairs.
It was quite deep. So deep, in fact, that I wondered how they could have built it with the paltry technology of the Middle Ages. Perhaps the space had been created with some kind of magic.
Emerging from a narrow passage, we found ourselves in a massive cavern.
Black crystals were embedded in the walls all around. The place had an ominous feel.
The cavern was so vast that it couldn't be fully illuminated. The far end was shrouded in black shadows.
The Saintess, walking ahead, expanded her orb of light.
In that moment, light touched every corner of the vast cavern. The parts that had been hidden were now all visible.
"What is this..."
An unimaginable sight unfolded before our eyes.
Old men in black robes were dead, leaning against the walls.
On the floor was a red magic circle that looked as if it had been drawn with blood.
"...They're all dead."
"What could have happened here?"
"Were they so terrified of the name of the Empire's Saintess that they committed mass suicide?"
"Be quiet, Saintess."
The Saintess grumbled about being scolded even when she was trying her best, then shut her mouth. I let her be, and she started getting too carried away.
Just then, Lina pointed to the cavern's enormous wall.
"There's something written over there."
A message was written on the wall in huge, red letters.
It had a rather chilling vibe. I'm reminded every time, but their taste is truly awful.
Victoria read the message aloud.
"We have achieved our greatest wish. When Paradise descends upon the earth, the Black Witch shall summon us once more. On that day, all our sacrifices will be rewarded tenfold, a hundredfold."
"...What does that mean? They're all dead here, so isn't it over? There are so many bodies."
Lina answered, explaining.
"It seems they offered up even themselves as sacrifices."
"Then all the bodies here are... sacrifices?"
"Yes. They sacrificed themselves to awaken the Black Witch. The message seems to imply that when the Black Witch awakens, she will resurrect them as liches."
"..."
What a grand last will and testament.
"Then has the Black Witch already been resurrected? Isn't that dangerous?"
Lina shook her head.
She then drew her Spirit Sword and pointed to one side.
In the center of the cavern was a glass coffin.
We must have missed it because of the rows of corpses and the giant red message.
Inside the glass coffin lay a woman with black hair, dressed in black clothes.
Looks like the star of the show has finally arrived.
Lina continued.
"They likely failed. It seems they held the lives of others in contempt while overestimating their own. They must have thought that by sacrificing everything... the Black Witch would awaken. A pathetic end befitting of them..."
The Black Witch had not awakened.
Even though those fiends had sacrificed their very lives.
Hearing the kind-hearted Lina mock their pathetic end, I could tell just how deep her grudge against them ran.
Lina's party walked across the massive cavern.
Where their steps halted, the Black Witch lay as if in a deep sleep.
My first time seeing her.
This wasn't the time for such thoughts, but she was truly beautiful. So much so that it was hard to believe she was my ex-girlfriend.
Long, jet-black hair. Skin as white as snow in contrast.
From the slender line of her neck down to the curves of her body, there wasn't a single part of her that wasn't perfect.
From her appearance alone, the Black Witch didn't look like a being who could bring disaster upon the continent.
Still, you can't judge a person by their looks.
Lina approached the glass coffin with grim determination.
"Kerry. No. Everyone. Please stand back a little. I will be the one to finish the Black Witch."
Lina raised her Spirit Sword above the glass coffin. What? Wasn't she not supposed to kill her?
"Lina?"
"It's alright. I won't kill the Black Witch. I intend to weaken her while she sleeps."
It was then.
The Black Witch's glass coffin began to vibrate with a strange hum.
Voom— Voooom—
The lips of the Black Witch, who had been lying as if dead, moved slowly as she called out a name.
"Ke...rry..."
"!"
"Kerry! Get back! Everyone else, protect Kerry!"
The party surrounded me.
Lina, as if she wouldn't hold back in the slightest, brought her Spirit Sword down on the glass coffin.
Lina's Spirit Sword, which had felt like it could cut through anything, was blocked by the coffin. The sword was repelled, creating a shower of red sparks.
It's tough.
This was no ordinary glass coffin. Just as Lina readjusted her grip to strike again, the coffin eerily rose upright.
The Black Witch, lying as if dead inside, moved her lips once more.
"Ke...rry... Ke...rry..."
Shit. Why does she keep calling my name so creepily!
The party's tension reached its peak. They even lined up in front of me as if forming a barricade.
Suddenly, the glass coffin began to charge toward me at a terrifying speed.
With a loud crash, the party members blocking my path were all sent flying.
"Ugh! Husband!"
"Kerry, be careful!"
"No, Kerry!"
It was the moment the scattered party members tried to rush back.
I raised my hand to stop them.
"I'm... okay."
The glass coffin had stopped just inches from my face. The Black Witch inside still had her eyes closed.
She hasn't been resurrected yet, right?
The Black Witch's coffin hummed in front of me.
As if it was asking me to look at it.
"Um... Miss Black Witch?"
She was my girlfriend from a past life, after all. Exchanging a few words couldn't hurt.
That was all I was thinking when I opened my mouth.
But perhaps it was because she heard my voice.
The Black Witch inside the coffin, her eyes still closed, began to shed tears.
Her tears flowed like a river down her cheeks.
For some reason, her sorrowful tears made my own heart ache.
I didn't know if she was the disaster that would stain the continent with blood, but I couldn't bring myself to ignore those tears.
In any case, the way the Black Witch was reacting now seemed to be connected to the past.
I was staring at the Black Witch's tears when Lina rushed over.
"You can't be this close, Kerry."
Lina stood protectively in front of me.
But it didn't seem like the Black Witch was going to harm me.
She just continued to shed tears inside her glass coffin.
The humming vibration of the coffin only grew louder, as if it were sobbing aloud.
"You can't be fooled by her appearance. This woman is..."
For some reason, Lina couldn't finish her sentence, but I understood her meaning.
"An enemy we have to kill. I know, Lina."
Lina readjusted her grip on her sword.
This time, she looked determined to pierce the coffin no matter what.
A golden light enveloped Lina's Spirit Sword.
It didn't seem like she was about to shoot a beam of light. It looked more like she was adding holy power to increase its piercing strength.
Lina's Spirit Sword thrust toward the glass coffin.
Unlike before, the golden Spirit Sword and the glass coffin clashed, letting off violent sparks.
The flashes of light brightly illuminated the dark cavern.
Crackle—
"Hnngh..."
Lina bit her lip.
The Black Witch was clearly a formidable being. It was the first time I had ever seen Lina's sword be stopped.
The glass coffin began to make a cracking sound. Though it was just the tip, the Spirit Sword had pierced it.
"You can do it, Lina!"
"You can do it, Lina!"
Was it thanks to the party's cheers? Lina's Spirit Sword pushed a little deeper into the glass coffin.
I guess heroes really do get stronger with their comrades' cheers.
It was then.
The lips of the Black Witch, who had been as still as a corpse, quivered.
"You... murderer..."
"!"
Lina's brow furrowed.
Lina had certainly killed before. But only heretics who deserved to die.
She had never killed an innocent person.
"Condemn me if you will. But my sword will not stop."
Lina was a regressor.
She had experienced it to death in her previous life—how meaningless mercy was to those filled with malice.
Lina did not waver.
At least, not until she met the Black Witch's wide-open eyes.
The Black Witch had opened her eyes. Her pupils were a faint pink.
Those eyes, which the word 'beautiful' couldn't begin to describe, were for some reason filled with a deep-seated grudge.
She stared at Lina with resentment.
That resentful gaze.
Lina had definitely seen that gaze before, in a dream.
In that dream, Lina had been crying.
She had sobbed and wailed on a night of pouring rain, holding the corpse of the 'Ruler of Mana'.
Holding his corpse, Lina had felt a profound despair.
In the dream, as Lina held the cold, lifeless body of the Ruler of Mana, the Black Witch had appeared.
The Black Witch had screamed with resentful eyes.
Just like now.
She had screamed with a gaze terrifyingly identical to the one staring at Lina from the glass coffin.
Her voice was steeped in a deep grudge.
"You murderer!!"
The Black Witch's tears flowed without end.
The sparks from the clash between the glass coffin and the Spirit Sword vanished in an instant.
Lina's hand, gripping the Spirit Sword, was trembling pathetically.
Like the Black Witch, a single tear streamed down Lina's cheek.
"I... I... It wasn't me..."
A scene flashed through Lina's mind like a TV screen full of static.
The Ruler of Mana, bleeding.
Lina pressed her hand firmly against his blood-soaked stomach.
In that moment, the Ruler of Mana pulled her by the neck and stole her lips.
[I finally got to steal a kiss.]
The Ruler of Mana smiled faintly, even as he bled. Seeing him, Lina's tears fell.
Her hand became stained red with his blood.
Though it should have been impossible, Lina's hand gripping the Spirit Sword in reality also seemed to turn red.
"This... is... wrong. I... I..."
Along with the gruesome red blood, the sweet sensation of her first kiss grew more vivid.
Lina even dropped her Spirit Sword and clutched her head. It felt like her head was about to split open.
As if something was trying to stop her from remembering.
"Ugh! My head...!"
With the pain, the static in her memory grew louder.
While Lina was caught in the ghost of her past, Kerry was shouting her name at the top of his lungs.
"Lina, snap out of it!"
At the sound of his voice, Lina's mind slowly began to calm.
In that brief moment, the situation had changed drastically. All while Lina had been lost in confusion.
Kerry was gritting his teeth, maintaining a defensive barrier.
The ground around the barrier was caving in, as if being crushed by immense gravity.
"This technique..."
It was the same technique the Ruler of Mana used. That technique was now attacking the party.
Lina looked up at the sky with a trembling gaze. She saw a now-familiar figure.
The Ruler of Mana was floating in the air... wearing the mask he favored, the clothes he favored.
Looking exactly as he did in her dream.