Chapter 324: Battle in the Depths (4)
Amid the ruined corridors of the fortress, Diogres pushed himself to his feet. Despite having crashed into the building with enough force to break it, he was unscathed. The defensive mana coating his body had thoroughly protected him. But that did not mean there was no price.
Diogres pressed a hand to his throbbing forehead. Using an excessive amount of mana all at once had brought on a pounding headache. Across the corridor, he saw Elezar slowly approaching him.
"Looks like you’re quite exhausted." She wasn’t wrong.
Even as an archmage, engaging in a mana duel with another archmage had caused his rate of mana consumption to skyrocket. By simple calculation alone, he had already used up more than half of his usual mana reserves.
Yet, Diogres actually let out a smile. "Isn’t it the same for you? I’m not the only one worn out here."
Elezar, too, had engaged in a mana duel with another archmage. If Diogres was this exhausted, there was no way she was still fine. If they kept fighting like this, Diogres would indeed collapse from exhaustion. But by that point, Elezar would no longer be able to stand properly either. And she was well aware of this.
"That’s exactly why I’m doing this," said Elezar.
Suddenly, Elezar turned her body and fired magic behind her. Three serpentine flames twisted as they shot toward the opposite side of the fortress.
Hm? Though puzzled, Diogres instinctively raised his wand.
If an opponent showed such a large opening, it would be unthinkable for an archmage to simply let it pass. He cast the same magic, three serpentine flames shooting back toward Elezar.
Suddenly, with a deep, resounding shout, a golden aura cleaved straight through Diogres’s spell. At the same time, the spell Elezar had unleashed struck Varos and Leven, who had been pursuing Dreltein.
Panicked cries rang out in the distance.
"Gah!"
"B-block it!"
Diogres was taken aback. Before he realized it, Dreltein, with the explosion at his back, was standing between him and Elezar.
"W-what is this?" Diogres asked.
Dreltein, sword of fighting spirit raised, shrugged his shoulders. "It’s simply time for us to switch."
The reason Elezar had faced Diogres alone until now was because it maximized the chances of capturing him alive. Under these conditions, there was no need for her to fight him alone until the end. All that mattered was that someone could engage Diogres one-on-one.
Now, facing the greatly exhausted archmage, the martial king, still vigorous, smiled with ease. "From here on, I will be your opponent, Master Diogres."
On the other side, Elezar, now blocking Varos and Leven, was equally at ease. "Now it’s your turn to play with me, young knights."
Of course, she was just as exhausted as Diogres. Even so, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t handle the joint attacks of a silver knight and a purple knight.
Realizing the situation, Diogres’s face twisted. "This is absurd. A martial king and an archmage, taking turns in combat?"
He couldn’t understand it at all. How had they changed to become like this?
"There is nothing strange about it, Master of the Tower of Dawn." Dreltein bared his teeth as he spread a golden curtain around him. "Because soon, you too will become like us."
***
The ancient fortress, once radiant in its glory, had long since lost its splendor. In that dark space, where only shattered pillars, collapsed ceilings, and silence remained, a man burst in.
It was Karnak, gasping for breath. Dashing across the worn and battered hall of the palace, he quickly crossed his hands, forming a completed incantation that radiated black power in all directions.
"Ye who are forsaken, weep and wail in your lamentation!"
Ghosts of knights clad in heavy armor appeared, each wielding a sword of darkness. They were night crawlers, the evil spirits of slaughter. Dozens of night crawlers, under Karnak’s command, advanced to the far end of the hall. Their sharp blades of darkness stabbed toward the woman cloaked in golden light from every direction.
Countless blades, soaked in madness, targeted Beltia’s vital points. Immediately, her eyes sharpened fiercely. "Useless!"
Golden slashes filled the air. In the brief moment it took for a single breath, countless blades of light flashed through the space. The shadows of the spirits were cut into fragments and scattered in every direction.
Watching the shattered Night Crawlers, Karnak clicked his tongue. "Was Beltia always this strong?"
Night crawlers were monsters capable of matching even red-tier aura users. Even Karnak had barely managed to summon them inside this dungeon, in a place filled with malice and demonic energy. They weren’t spirits that could be handled so easily if they were outside. And yet they were shattered so effortlessly?
She’s almost on par with Lapicel in her prime...
The Beltia he remembered had already retired. She had been so frail she could no longer wield golden sword aura, and he had never regarded her as a formidable opponent. But now, she was in her prime.
Even if she didn’t display the same overwhelming combat instincts as Lapicel, her sheer combat power was transcendental. Even though Karnak had gone all out with necromancy, he simply could not match her.
Well, I suppose it’s also because I’ve grown too weak. Either way, at this point, he had no choice but to take a risk.
Karnak crossed his hands again, igniting black mana. "Rise, abyssal mist from the depths of the nether!"
A mist of death, infused with the essence of darkness and laced with deadly poison, surged forward.
At that moment, Beltia let out a note of admiration. "You really are no ordinary man."
Darkness and death were nothing more than abstract concepts. And yet, those abstract concepts were taking form and rushing toward her. Among all the necromancers she had seen, none had ever wielded such a high level of necromantic art.
That was why she could only feel even greater rage. Because with that monstrous power, he had dared to mock her by using the image of her dead daughter.
"You bastard!" she roared.
It wasn’t because he had mocked her. It was because he had dared to use her dead daughter that she could not forgive him. Beltia’s longsword exploded with golden light.
Croterian Sword, Meteor Burst!
Each beam of sword light stretched outward, writhing like a living creature as it burned away the encroaching black mist. Every shadow that brushed against that light was swallowed by its brilliance and melted away in an instant.
"N-no way..." Karnak was flustered.
He had known it wouldn’t work, but he hadn’t expected it to fail this completely. Beltia crossed the air like a feather. In an instant, she stood in front of Karnak. In a panic, Karnak hastily crossed his hands again, trying to cast necromancy once more. Unfortunately for him, Beltia was far faster.
"Not a chance!" Her golden sword multiplied into dozens, countless blades flashing before his eyes, filling his entire vision with their light. "For the sin of daring to mock a mother’s heart!"
It was already too late to cast necromancy now. No matter what he tried, he would not be able to stop her sword.
She cried out, "Not even death will be enough to repay you!"
Just as the countless blades of light were about to tear Karnak’s entire body apart, suddenly, Beltia’s sword stopped.
"What?"
At the same time, her expression hardened like stone. Karnak’s final necromancy was not some grand summoning of a monstrous creature, nor was it the unleashing of a tremendous dark power. It was simply the projection of a tiny child’s spirit, wrapped in chains.
The child’s soul, bound in iron chains, trembled violently as it looked around, and with a face full of confusion, it whispered softly. "M-mama...?"
Beltia’s face turned deathly pale. "La-Lapicel?"
Gasping for breath, Karnak flicked his finger. "Don’t move, Beltia."
The dark chains slithered up like snakes, tightening around the child’s neck. "If you come any closer, I’ll shatter your daughter’s soul!"
***
Beltia’s body trembled. Is he using this filthy trick again...?
It was a nightmare she had experienced once before. She was a martial king. She would not fall to mere illusions again.
"What is this trickery!"
In fury, she summoned her aura, her sensory perception sharpening like a blade, activating every nerve in her body. And that was when she realized it. Her hypersensitive senses revealed the truth hidden within the spirit. That was truly her daughter’s soul.
H-how...?
The soul of little Lapicel, who had died over a decade ago, was now caught in the hands of this vile monster.
As Beltia stood frozen, unable to move, Karnak let out a chilling smile. "What are you so shocked about? Summoning the dead is the specialty of a necromancer."
The black chains lifted the child’s spirit high into the air. The spirit dangled, struggling, as if it were being hanged.
"Lapicel!" Beltia tried to rush forward in desperation.
"Tsk, tsk. I told you not to move, didn’t I?" Karnak flicked his finger.
The chains tightened around the child’s neck, and a frail whimper escaped.
Holding the child’s soul as a shield, the black-haired youth burst into a bright, twisted laugh. "You don’t want your daughter to suffer even after death, do you?"
In a trembling voice, Beltia asked, "What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing much..." Karnak sneered, shaking the soul in his grasp back and forth. "I’d just like you to help me out a little from now on, that’s all."
Each time he did, the girl’s soul let out a tortured scream, and it was a sound that felt like it could tear through her chest.
Beltia shut her eyes tightly. Ah...
In that moment, she wanted to fall to her knees. She wanted to scream that she would do anything if he would just return her daughter’s soul to her. But she could not. If she did, she would become his slave forever.
"Forgive me, Lapicel..." Once more, golden aura began to ripple across her entire body, a thick killing intent piercing through the darkness and spreading outward. "Just hold on a little longer. Mama will save you soon."
Panicked, Karnak shook the chains violently. "H-hey, are you serious? I told you, I’ll shatter your daughter’s soul!"
The child’s soul, dangling from the chains, shook violently as well. The girl continued to cry out.
Clenching her teeth, Beltia drew her sword of fighting spirit.
Tesranach, please, watch over this child! With a heart heavy in sorrow, she prayed as she drew her blade, and a brilliant golden light burst forth from it, piercing through the darkness and illuminating the surroundings.
It was then. A voice echoed. "O faithful servant, your prayer has reached me."
It was a sacred voice, filled with the authority of doom. At the same time, black holes opened around Karnak, from which dozens of tendrils extended.
"Huh? What the—?!"
There wasn’t even time to react. The tendrils of darkness instantly wrapped around Karnak’s limbs.
"The God of Death answers the prayer of his faithful," came the voice.
"No, this can’t be!" Karnak, horrified, struggled desperately, but it was useless. The tendrils began dragging him into the abyss.
A scream of sheer terror echoed throughout the fortress.
***
Blinding white light illuminated the surroundings. Within the fortress, once steeped in darkness, a figure appeared. It was an angel, radiant with light.
Spreading wings of brilliant light and clad in elegant armor of luminosity, the angel let out a sacred voice. "I have witnessed your faith, O Holy Sword of Tesranach."
Beltia, flustered, asked in a trembling voice, "A-are you... truly his angel?"
The angel of light gave a gentle smile. "Why do you ask, when you already know the answer?"
Indeed, she already knew the answer. Within the light the angel radiated was the aura of death she had long yearned for. It was the aura of Tesranach, the darkness of the end.
"Ah..."
Overcome with emotion, Beltia fell to her knees. The great God of Death, the guide who would open a new world, had sent his angel to descend upon this earth. The angel pointed into the air, and the chains wrapped around her daughter Lapicel’s soul disappeared, and the girl’s spirit gently descended to the ground.
A glimmer of hope passed through Beltia’s eyes. Could it be that Tesranach was about to grant her long-held wish?
The angel shook its head. "The boundary between the living and the dead will be broken only after he descends upon this world."
Beltia’s heart sank. It seemed the day her daughter would be resurrected was still far off.
"But Tesranach is not so cruel as to deny even a brief reunion," continued the angel.
The girl’s spirit flowed into her mother’s embrace. "Mama."
"Lapicel?" With trembling hands, Beltia held her daughter’s soul.
Though it was not a living body, there was no warmth or breath, though it would only be a fleeting moment and the boundary between life and death remained clear... Still, it was unmistakably her daughter.
"Ah, Lapicel!" A bright smile spread across the mother’s lips as she held her beloved child in her arms.
***
From within the darkness, a head peeked out. It was Karnak, who had just been dragged into the abyss moments ago. "Good."
Watching Beltia embrace her daughter’s spirit, Karnak’s face formed a satisfied smile. "This time, you’re truly happy, right?"
