The wind blew through the forest, rustling the leaves.
The Holy Sword in Esper's hand let out a low hum, its light brightening by a fraction.
“Why do you have that sword?!”
Esper's voice was as low as the hum of the Holy Sword.
Since Fina had inherited the throne, that sword should have been in her hands.
Why was this guy holding it?
“Why?”
Louis tilted his head, the malice in his eyes seeming to be ignited by her words.
Deep purple flames flared up from the depths of his pupils, spreading outward along the edges of his eye sockets, leaving two blurry trails of light in the air.
“You ask why? Let me think—”
His tone took a turn.
“I killed that half-breed and stole her sword. How about that answer...”
Before he could finish, the tip of the Holy Sword was already thrusting toward his face.
Crimson Scale Surge instantly activated at maximum output. Powered by the Winged King, blood erupted from behind her in an instant, propelling her entire body forward as the tip of her blade pointed straight at his throat.
The bones making up the Skeletal Crown suddenly split open.
A mass of dark red flesh surged out from the cracks in the blade, rapidly expanding in the air.
“『Flame Demon Skeletal Crown: Gothmog』”
As Louis's words fell, the flesh condensed in less than half a breath into a giant claw covered in lava patterns, extending outward from the hilt's guard.
The Holy Sword stabbed into the palm of the giant claw, its tip sinking less than two inches before being forcefully pinched shut.
A scorching wave of air erupted from the wound on the giant claw, forcing Esper to take a half-step back. The soles of her boots plowed a shallow groove into the ground, while Louis stood in place, completely unmoved.
The giant claw slowly opened its fingers, the sword wound in its palm rapidly healing under the nourishment of the lava patterns, leaving only a faint white mark.
“You don't even have the patience to let me finish speaking.”
“You bastard... you never intended to talk to me properly in the first place!”
“You were the one who didn't talk to me properly first!!!”
Louis's previously casual tone suddenly turned into a hoarse, earsplitting roar.
The giant claw cracked like molten lava in an instant. A massive amount of magma condensed in its palm for a moment, then erupted from the wound like a volcanic eruption.
Boom—
The Winged King erupted from Esper's side, pulling her away from the magma in the nick of time.
“Haha... you dodged it... So you actually know how to dodge, huh...?”
Louis laughed wildly as he swung the Skeletal Crown. The giant claw of the Flame Demon dissolved into a red light and retracted into the sword. Bone and blood closed up once more, returning it to its original pale longsword form.
“Did you know? When I first arrived here and heard the Demon King's name, I thought you were dead.”
He paused, as if suppressing the sheer joy in his heart.
“But you didn't die, and you're actually this weak. Do you have any idea how happy I was at that moment?”
Esper didn't respond.
She was adjusting her breathing.
This was the first time she had ever seen the Skeletal Crown used in battle. Most of the time, Gloom didn't even need to bring this sword with him when he went out.
From the looks of it, switching forms with this thing didn't require chanting, charging, or even any extra movements from Louis.
A sword forged from the fused bone and blood of the ten Royal Court Heads.
...Which meant there might even be a Vampire Court Head form?
Esper glanced at the Holy Sword in her hand and clicked her tongue.
Hum, hum.
The Holy Sword flickered aggrievedly.
Forget it, I'll deal with you later.
Fight first.
Esper's body suddenly tilted to the left, her toes already tapping the ground. The blood surging from the Winged King seemed to dye her figure into a streak of red light.
She slid several steps sideways along the ground, circling around to Louis's right side.
Louis didn't turn his head, but the Skeletal Crown split open once more.
“『Gargoyle Skeletal Crown: Guardian』”
This time, a grey cuticle layer surged out from within.
Initially, gargoyles were just a basic troop type in the Demon Realm. But during the first Demon King's expedition, an nameless gargoyle was granted a name by the Demon King due to his illustrious military exploits.
He was named 『Guardian』, meaning protector. He was then granted territory, which he continuously managed until it became one of the foundations of the Demon Realm, one of the Ten Courts.
At this very moment, Guardian's bone and blood spread across the blade, reshaping the Skeletal Crown into a heavy, broad-bladed greatsword.
The surface of the blade was covered in a dense network of tiny patterns, each of which was a natural strengthening rune.
Louis gripped the hilt with his left hand, swinging the greatsword—which looked as wide as an adult's torso—with just one hand.
The trajectory of his swing wasn't fast, but the power was absurdly immense. The air along the path of the greatsword was compressed into a white turbulence, slamming toward Esper like an invisible wall.
She had no time to dodge.
The Holy Sword and the greatsword clashed.
Clang!
The sound of the impact was nothing like metal clashing against metal. It sounded more like something massive being torn apart.
A shockwave rippled outward from the point of contact between the two swords, shearing off a layer of the canopy of a dozen surrounding trees. Broken branches and shattered leaves were blown scattering in all directions by the second wave of impact before they could even hit the ground.
Esper's feet plowed two deep trenches into the ground. The webs of her thumbs didn't split, but the bones in her arms throbbed with a faint numbness from the shock.
In terms of magic aura, he only felt like he was at the peak of Rank Six, but his strength was more than a level above Esper's, who was also at the peak of Rank Six.
It wasn't just the boost from the Skeletal Crown; there was something else.
She saw the purple flames burning even brighter in those purple eyes.
“...You possess an Authority?”
A smile still hung on the corner of Louis's mouth.
“Yes, an Authority. 『φθόνος』. Do you know the meaning of this word?”
Of course Esper knew.
Kaylar had happened to mention this word just a few days ago.
“...『Jealousy』.”
She whispered.
And as she whispered, a few drops of blood seeped silently from her fingertips into the soil.
“You know it? That's right. That is exactly what it means.”
Louis laughed softly, his voice hoarse and dry, like someone who hadn't laughed in a long time suddenly finding a reason he had no choice but to laugh at.
“Do you know why I was able to obtain it? Because I finally figured it out. On the night you shoved the Skeletal Crown to me, I stood in the corridor holding this sword, thinking through everything from start to finish.
I thought of the way Sturgess looked at you, how all the Court Heads bowed their heads before you, how you sat on the throne... Do you know what conclusion I finally reached?”
He didn't wait for Esper, whose expression had turned bewildered, to answer.
“It was you who stole my life.”
Louis's eyes narrowed slightly.
“It's all your fault, Lonia Catori.”
“...No.”
Esper said in a low voice.
Who is Sturgess? I became the Demon King? I shoved the Skeletal Crown to him?
“I never did any of those things you're talking about. I don't even know...”
“I know.”
The Skeletal Crown's form switched once more.
The heavy greatsword of the gargoyle was replaced by a translucent, dusky substance in less than a blink of an eye.
『Lich Skeletal Crown: Vecna』
The blade became long and slender, with a layer of faint grey, dim light floating on its surface.
From the tip of the blade, several faintly visible threads extended outward, swaying in the air like will-o'-the-wisps.
“Sturgess didn't transmigrate to this world, you didn't become the Demon King, and the Demon Royal Court didn't fall into ruin. Here, many things have changed, and many things that happened to me never occurred.”
He smiled.
“But there is one thing that did indeed happen.”
Dim light erupted from the tip of the Skeletal Crown, weaving countless runes in the air.
“You and she lost each other. That is the only thing that hasn't changed, and it is the thing that brings me the greatest joy.”
...I can't lose my mind.
Esper told herself internally.
Even if she couldn't wait to rush forward and hack this guy to death, she had to stay calm.
His sword seemed to have switched to the Lich form. The floating runes were condensing. It looked like once they finished gathering, they would release a spell... What did liches do again...
The runes ignited with phosphorus fire, revealing incomplete glyphs.
『Time Stop』
?
“Crimson Pierce!!!”
Esper didn't hesitate for a single second.
Upon the Holy Sword, three runes surfaced at this very moment.
『Momentum』, 『Compression』, 『Rigidity』.
Using 『Momentum』 to amplify the blood volume, 『Compression』 to compress each Crimson Pierce that had already undergone 『Hundredfold Compression』 once more, and then 『Rigidity』 to bestow them with toughness.
She let go of the Holy Sword and clapped her hands together, shooting dozens of fine lines of Crimson Pierce from her fingertips.
Each one pierced right through the center of a rune, detonating in an instant to split into countless even finer blood threads, piercing the remaining runes to pieces.
The dim light and red blood threads became entangled, exploding into a dazzling mist of light in midair.
Then, the light in the forest dimmed for a fraction of a second.
A deep purple thicker than shadow spread across the ground, like ink poured into clear water.
Wherever it passed, fallen leaves curled up, grass withered, and even the chirping of insects in the soil came to an abrupt halt.
Through the mist of light, Esper saw several blurry shadows.
They had no fixed outlines, and deep purple mist continuously seeped from the edges of their bodies like newborn flames flickering in a gentle breeze.
They lunged at Esper like a pack of wolves.
These were beasts manifested from the shadows.
Each shadow beast bore a twisted face, their facial features moving slowly within their blurry outlines, as if ready to restructure at any moment due to some fluctuation.
They made no sound. True predators had no need for noise.
『Authority: Jealousy』
Manifesting resentment and pain outwardly, condensing them into a living curse in the shape of beasts.
The pack of wolves lunged from the front.
The angle of their jaws stretching open far exceeded the physical limits of normal creatures, the split gap extending all the way from the tip of the nose to the base of the ears, revealing rows of layered fangs inside.
Esper sidestepped to avoid them, slashing upward diagonally with the Holy Sword, tearing open a long gash in the wolf's belly.
No blood flowed out; only a massive amount of deep purple mist erupted from the wound.
It continued its pounce, not stopping even though it was heavily injured.
“Tsk.”
Crimson Pierce.
The single blood thread exploded the moment it shot through one shadow wolf, bursting outward like a supernova, piercing through the shadow beasts one by one and blowing them into clusters of deep purple shadows.
However, those shadow beasts did not dissipate.
They stagnated in the air for less than a second before being absorbed into the bodies of the remaining wolves.
“When a shadow beast dies, its resentment transfers to the other shadow beasts. The more of them die, the stronger the survivors become. So the longer this drags on, the more disadvantageous it is for you.”
Louis's voice drifted from behind the mist of light, as calm as if he were stating a fact that had absolutely nothing to do with him.
The mist of light slowly dispersed amidst their confrontation, revealing his figure.
The Skeletal Crown was still in its Lich form. Esper saw the dim light condensing into runes once more, drafting a spell.
『Power Word: Death』
Esper's eye twitched.
This is fucking enough.
She tightly clenched her right hand, fully unleashing the power of the three runes.
————
“『Authority of Gluttony: 26%』”
————
“『Authority Manifestation: Forbidden Fruit』”
Unlike the 『Beast of Blood』 and the other Authorities, when she used 『Gluttony』 to absorb the runes a few days ago, Esper had already felt it.
『Gluttony』 seemed to like her very much, even allowing her to directly use the power of the Authority itself.
Then let's do this.
「Momentum」: Amplifies energy, continuous eruption.
「Rigidity」: Reinforces hardness, defensive enhancement.
「Compression」: Restricts power, reduces loss.
The three fused together, coating the Holy Sword and Esper's arms, fully activated.
The light on the blade no longer diffused outward, but instead contracted inward.
Blood surged out continuously, covering the light on the surface of the Holy Sword and compressing into an extremely tight, crimson film that clung closely to the surface of the blade.
The blood, having undergone extreme compression and reinforcement, gushed uncontrollably from Esper's body, swirling around her like a suit of armor draped over her body.
Louis's pupils contracted.
Crimson Scale Surge: Overdrive.
Winged King, activate.
The acceleration this time was faster than any previous attempt.
Her body practically dragged a continuous afterimage through the air as the trajectory of the Holy Sword bypassed the obstruction of the shadow beasts, shattering the runes that were still condensing, aiming straight for Louis's chest.
Louis didn't retreat.
The Skeletal Crown converted from Lich bone and blood back to Gargoyle bone and blood.
The two swords clashed once more, but this time, the sound was entirely different.
It was a low, muffled rumble, akin to rocks shifting deep within a mountain.
The sound wasn't loud and didn't travel far, but both people standing in place felt the power conducting from the other's blade at that very instant.
“Why...?”
Louis's voice squeezed through his clenched teeth.
“Even though you don't suffer like I do, even though you don't train with everything you have like I do, even though you haven't had everything stolen from you like I have... you still... can receive recognition...”
He roared.
“Why can't I?!”
The Skeletal Crown began to crack, and the flesh hidden beneath the Gargoyle bone and blood surfaced, revealing an eye that stared dead at Esper's face.
“You always have a choice! You always have somewhere to go! You can always carry out your beliefs and achieve your goals! What about me!?”
What he recalled was that broken maple leaf hairpin.
In his memories, no matter when, that ugly hairpin had never been taken off by her.
A hairpin that seemed to be her entire world. As long as that thing was there, she could still hold on, she could still fight on.
“Why do I have nothing?!”
Shadow beasts with forms different from before emerged from the shadows on the ground.
“『Authority Manifestation: The Serpent to be Shunned』”
He said with a tremble.
Rate on N.U.
