Lac looked at the figure before him.
Saint Natida.
Her light brown hair seemed to have lost its color, and her skin was pale to the point of being white. She wore a robe that the mages of the tower would typically wear. No matter how you looked at her, there was no sense of a ‘priestess.’
The loosely draped robe, a button undone at the collar, and her sleeves hastily rolled up made her appearance look more crumpled than sacred, giving off a kind of decadent beauty instead. The ash powder caught on her lips from chewing tobacco was just the cherry on top.
“…?”
As she blinked and tilted her head, her eyes resembled those of a drunkard. Blurry and dazed. But Lac saw the color within them.
Emerald green eyes.
The symbol of a saint.
“Is there something on my face?”
Ah, yes, there is some ash powder.
Saying that, she dabbed at her mouth with her sleeve and grinned slyly. After a brief moment of silence, Lac grasped her outstretched hand.
“I’m Lac von Grace.”
“Oh…”
Natida, intrigued by the texture of Lac’s palm, which was hardened from wielding an axe, turned their clasped hands around, exhaling sharply.
“Just as the rumors say.”
“…Rumors?”
Natida smiled at Lac, who blinked in confusion.
“They say you’re handsome.”
It was a rather charming smile.
—
At the front line, the ruins of an ancient civilization.
Sitting on a fallen spire, Rania let out a long sigh. Ash was swirling around her, but it wasn’t her mana. It was the remnants of something that had been burned.
There was no need to say what had been burned.
With her chin resting on her hand, Rania tossed something up and caught it repeatedly. A round skull. Though not as smooth as Skebal’s, it was just the right size to relieve her bored hands.
A high-ranking undead’s skull from the Blackbone (黑骨) unit, a hundred years old lich serving under Skebal.
As Rania tossed the lumpy skull up and caught it, she snapped her fingers in boredom. Flames erupted, incinerating the soul that remained within the skull. The lich’s last gasp was quite melodious.
“Hmm.”
Rania gazed ahead.
As a result of numerous expansions, her front line had burrowed deep into the Phantom Territory, and… she succeeded in reaching her goal.
An ancient civilization’s ruins.
A place presumed to house the heretic’s research facility.
Although the heretic had gone missing over the past few years, the beasts she created had not disappeared. Having lost all her beasts to Galahal, the heretic began to create new ones, which were unlike anything she had made before.
Unstable and imperfect in form.
Beasts that looked half-finished. They dripped black ichor as they crumbled down after a certain period. By tracing the flow, she managed to pinpoint a location presumed to be the heretic’s lab.
“Does that mean it’s here…?”
With a thoughtful hum, Rania looked down below her. Nestled between slanting cliffs was the alchemist’s workshop. Black ichor flowed like a river through the cracked ground.
…Ideally, she would have liked to explore that place with Natida. She didn’t make Natida her aide for nothing; Natida had a remarkable talent for analyzing things.
‘But…’
The Saint had been dispatched to the north.
With Natida sent away, Rania needed a new slave… no, a new aide. Thus, she called forth an easy-to-command talent to her frontline.
‘It should be about time to arrive.’
Just then, a tap sound echoed behind her as footsteps approached. Rania turned her head. A familiar figure approached, breathing heavily.
“I, I’m here.”
In a weary voice and with a defeated gait.
“Haven’t I told you? I’m a person too. I can’t just come running when called…”
Glancing at the grumbling first slave, Rania couldn’t help but smirk. It felt like a long time since she had heard that whiny voice.
“Long time no see, Dog Nose.”
“Are we still using that nickname?”
The tracker, Kalt.
He had temporarily set aside his role as the head of the Royal Guard to act as a superhuman on the battlefield. Reuniting with an old subordinate, Rania shrugged her shoulders.
“Shall we get to work?”
“…Right away?”
“Yep.”
“……”
As expected.
Kalt sighed and sluggishly followed Rania. After rolling around in a vertical structure for so long, he found it easier to accept his given fate. Kalt was no different.
If told to do something, he would do it, what else could he do?
‘I want to quit.’
No one knew of that inner thought.
*
“Senpai, do you know something?”
“What?”
“That it’s already been 8 years since I came under your command. It’s been 8 years since you beat me like a dog on a rainy day.”
“I hit you? When?”
“That time, you know? When I got sympathy from you…”
BAM!
“……”
“What?”
“…It’s nothing.”
A tear rolled down Kalt’s cheek.
“I think I might cry a little.”
“Seems like you already did.”
“I’m saying that’s just how I feel. That’s it.”
Eight years of time.
Starting from his early twenties to entering his thirties, Kalt had been working under the same superior. Given his superior’s social reputation, it might be considered a prestigious position, but after being treated like a slave for 8 years, one’s perspective shifts significantly.
With his eyes slightly glazed, Kalt glared at Rania.
“Senpai, isn’t there anyone else?”
Why am I the only one, he subtly questioned while Rania replied.
“I recently brought someone in. They do great work, but they’re not as quick on the uptake as you. It made me think of you while rolling them around.”
But after trying them out, Kalt was still the best.
“There’s no one else like you.”
Finding another talent like him was tough.
After spending a long time under Rania, Kalt had become adept at reading the hidden meanings in her words. After pondering whether to accept that as a compliment or feel sad about it for a moment, Kalt decided to just see it as praise.
“Thank you for the compliment.”
“Right, so let’s just get to work.”
Rania dusted herself off and slid down the cliff.
Kalt sighed briefly and jumped after Rania.
“Is this the heretic’s workshop?”
“Yeah. You see that black water flowing over there? That’s all coming from the workshop. No one else uses ichor like that except that heretic.”
Kicking up debris, Rania pointed to the stream of ichor flowing in a channel. Covering his nose, Kalt grimaced.
“The stench is overwhelming.”
Having a keen sense of smell, Kalt scrunched his face at the foul odor piercing his nostrils. The ichor, composed of melted humans, left traces of the heretic behind.
The two of them, walking along the stream, reached the entrance of the workshop.
The workshop resembled a temple, and upon seeing the huge door engraved with the emblem of the Deloheim Church, Kalt muttered, “It reeks.”
Rania kept silent.
“I’ll open it.”
“Why not me?”
“You’d just break it again, wouldn’t you? Do you think there’s anything valuable inside? I’ll handle the opening, so step aside.”
Rania shrugged and took a few steps back, while Kalt unsheathed the sword he had strapped at his hip.
Swish.
As the silvery blade emerged from its sheath, Kalt swung lightly. The tip of the blade smoothly dug into the stone door and drew a line without any resistance. Without a hint of backlash, Kalt carved out a section of the stone door.
Whoosh.
As the blade pulled free, not a single speck of dust flew off. His swordsmanship could indeed be called a marvel.
“Oh, you’ve improved a lot?”
“It’s been a decent amount of time since becoming a superhuman.”
Beaming with pride, Kalt kicked the severed stone door. THUD, the fallen stone toppled, creating an opening wide enough for two or three people to pass through.
From beyond that opening, a stench wafted out.
Frowning, Kalt and Rania stepped into the heretic’s workshop. Inside, it was eerily quiet.
“Looks like she already bailed.”
“I figured as much. That crazy woman always seems to evade me.”
Rania clicked her tongue as she surveyed her surroundings.
“I think I’ve found something, only to arrive and find she’s gone. All I’m left with is ichor she played with.”
“That makes sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I were in your situation, I’d run away too if you came charging at me with that gaze. Besides, now you have Starlight at your disposal.”
The story of how the ancient lich, Skebal, screamed the first time he encountered Rania using Starlight had become a well-known tale among knights.
“The heretic is nothing special.”
If she didn’t want to be caught in Rania’s grasp, she had to run.
Mumbling that, Kalt tightened his grip on the sword and continued walking, his senses in overdrive, absorbing every bit of information from his surroundings.
Looking down at the workshop from the cliffs, it was immense.
With a scale comparable to any temple, the workshop likely had many hidden areas, and what was visible wasn’t everything. Kalt lightly tapped the ground with the tip of his sword. Releasing a wave of energy at intervals, he began to read the terrain around him.
“I’m glad I brought you.”
Rania smiled proudly and nodded. After a short wait, Kalt squinted his eyes.
“…Senpai.”
Kalt pointed with his sword at a wall.
A wall draped in thick darkness, barely visible.
“Could you create some light? There’s something strange about that wall. It looks like something’s hanging on it.”
Rania snapped her fingers.
Dozens of glowing orbs rose into the air, illuminating the surroundings. As the scene of the workshop was unveiled, Rania’s expression turned grim.
“…This is troublesome.”
The wall, previously hidden in darkness.
It was lined with corpses. Flayed humans. Humans with their bones extracted. Human, human, human corpses—hanging in a row. Below the drooping corpses was a figure made of human bones.
A 4-meter tall model.
That model, crafted from human bones, stood on two legs and resembled some kind of beast. It resembled a blueprint of sorts. An experiment created out of curiosity before making actual beasts.
‘This looks familiar…’
As Rania stared at it, her expression hardened.
“What is this…? A wolf? A lycanthrope? No, it feels different somehow…”
Kalt murmured while observing the model.
If the researchers in the Royal Capital or scholars studying beasts were present, they would undoubtedly have the same reaction as Kalt. This was a beast that no longer existed in the present. However, Rania couldn’t react like them.
She knew.
She knew what this model was imitating.
Having peeked into the long journey of the First Hero, she recognized precisely what it was. Rania’s gaze wavered. She saw this as a clear variable.
“I dropped the sun that reflects the curse. I purified the lake tainted by the curse. I burned the land that bore the curse. However, facing that thing was no easy task.”
Once, Kardy had said.
“It was cunning. It was clever. It possessed intelligence, and it learned. It sought to understand humans, attempted to communicate, and harbored jealousy and love for them.”
The most troublesome foe.
“A beast and a human.”
“In the end, a beast that ascended to superhuman status.”
Born as a beast, they became human.
“The King of Beasts.”
“The one who burned down the World Tree and tore apart my kin. Now, it’s also half contained in Ganikalt’s body.”
The King of Beasts.
A model that perfectly matched the form of the King of Beasts seen in her memories and illustrated by Kardy was right before her eyes. Just as she stepped forward to confirm it more closely…
THUD.
The workshop trembled.
The ceiling shook, dust billowed up, and a creak echoed as something scratched against the surface. Kalt promptly took a defensive stance, while Rania silently looked up at the ceiling.
CRASH!
With a rumble, the ceiling flipped. Hanging from it were creatures.
Not just one beast.
Dozens of beasts hung from the ceiling, gazing down at Rania. As if a torrential downpour, ichor rained down from their bodies. One of them opened its mouth wide, emitting a monstrous roar.
“—————-!”
Dozens of beasts howled in succession.
The air trembled, and the workshop shook.
BOOM!
With a roar, those creatures launched themselves down toward Rania and Kalt. Watching the beasts falling from above, Rania couldn’t help but chuckle.
Beasts without arms.
Beasts with their heads split in two.
Beasts whose bodies were oozing the remnants of flesh.
Countless beasts were nothing more than defective creations, broken and incomplete. What were these failed creations made for? The answer was simple. They all bore a resemblance to the King of Beasts.
“Crazy woman.”
Rania gritted her teeth.
Mana spiraled around her, centering on her being.
