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Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (Light Novel) - Volume 10: The King's Lonely Fight, Chapter 4: Death's Landscape
Volume 10: The King's Lonely Fight, Chapter 4: Death's Landscape
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
“……”
Blood was flowing from his chest. From his own chest. His chest, which had been pierced by a knife.
Ryner was struck by despair as he looked down at it. He was standing at death’s door.
“…Ah…”
He couldn’t speak.
His chest… no… he finally… he was going to die here…? No…
“……”
Everything ended there.
His consciousness faded. His energy drained from his body, and he fell to his knees, unable to support himself.
An inescapable sense of cold and loneliness enveloped him.
His heart stopped.
“……”
The light in Ryner Lute’s heart was fading. His life was ending.
And in that very instant—
A wet sound rang out, and the world wavered before Ryner’s eyes. Even though he should have died, his world twisted and wound around, and a certain color returned - red.
Everything, everything was red.
“….Auh? Wh, what?” Ryner said. Then he backtracked. “Wait, I’m talking? Huh? Wasn’t I like, dead?”
Ryner’s eyes widened. He looked down at himself. He’d been attacked on the road away from the castle, and now he was on the ground with a knife in his chest. But… when he looked, none of that was actually true.
He wasn’t on the ground. There wasn’t a knife in his chest. But even more than that…
“…Why do I look like this…?”
He was dyed a single color: white. Pure white. The kind of pureness that didn’t really exist.
In contrast, his pure white body was being enveloped by something black.
“…Are these letters?” Ryner wondered for a moment before deciding yes, they had to be.
Countless dark letters flew around in the open air. They caught him by his arms, his legs, spinning around and around and encasing his colorless body. He watched the text to read it.
“…Mmh? This is the old alphabet - subspecies? No, but this alphabet is…”
Ryner raised his arm a bit to stare at the letters that were binding him.
“…What’s going on?”
He then looked around. The world around him was strangely empty. Everything was red, as if someone had dumped a bucket full of blood all over the blank slate of the world. The ceiling was red. The walls were red. The floor was red. It was a deep red corridor that spanned eternity.
“Seriously, what’s happening?” Ryner wondered aloud, then tried touching the red walls. When he did—
“To the depths.”
A voice rang out. It came from the heavens… no, from his mind.
Ryner’s eyes narrowed.
Why?
What was going on? Where was he?
Ryner looked around again to confirm the situation. His body was white, and he was wrapped in black text. It was like he’d been cursed. And the rest of the world was red.
Was this reality? Or…
“Did I die and go to heav—”
“Go to the depths,” the voice from before said.
“…Or is this hell…?”
Ryner looked around one more time. How did he get here? He searched his memories.
“If I remember correctly…”
He’d been walking back from Sion’s. Then he was suddenly attacked by a monster who looked like a Magical Knight, and they fought, and then another enemy appeared from behind… and then he was stabbed by that knife. The wound was, without a doubt, fatal. He should have died. Right. So how could he have woken up…?
Right then, that voice spoke again.
“Go to the depths, sacrifice.”
“…Sacrifice?” Ryner repeated. He tilted his head, then looked down the red corridor. “Who’s asking?”
“Go to the depths, sacrifice. That’s how this contract works,” the voice said. It was a low voice that shook the air inself, and was intimidating enough to shake his heart along with it.
But above all else, it was a voice that Ryner knew.
“……”
It was a voice he’d heard many times now, the very voice that descended upon him from the heavens when his Alpha Stigma went berserk.
He recalled what it’d said before.
“Ha, hahah. A god. A demon. An evil god. A hero. A monster. What did you guys call me? What was I called? Hahahah.”
“You mean to kill me? Kill me with your current power? With items such as Elemio’s? You are nothing but a worm crawling on the ground. Ha, hahaha, hahahahaha. Disappear. disappear. DISAPPEAR. Everything is nothing. Idle. Return to nothing.”
“In the beginning, there was destruction. We didn’t create, bless, or save. We just erased until everything was pure white.”
That voice was his curse. He glared down the corridor. “Are you the Alpha Stigma?”
“…Heh, heheh, hahaha, a mere sacrifice dares to ask my name?”
“I take it I was wrong, then?”
“Ha, haha, ha… That’s the name of my copies, my duplicates, my reproductions, my forgeries… the empty beings crafted in my image.”
“…Copies?” Ryner repeated. So the Alpha Stigma was fake…
He recalled what Lir, the assassin from Gastark, had said.
“You Alpha Stigma monster. No… perhaps I should call you the Solver of All Formulas…”
The Solver of All Formulas… That’s what he’d called Ryner. But he hadn’t understood what it meant. Though he could assume that it was the difference between him and other Alpha Stigma bearers.
Ryner looked down the corrider again. “Are you the Solver of All Formulas, then?”
“Heh heh, that’s your name, fool.”
“…Mine? No, my name’s Ryner Lute.”
“Wrong.”
“I’m not wrong,” Ryner insisted.
“You are. You are the sacrifice. You are the key. You are… the Solver of All Formulas.”
“…Wha? The hell are you saying?”
Ryner was just getting more and more confused. He didn’t know where he was right now… and apparently he didn’t know anything about himself either. Up until just a bit ago, he thought that he knew that he was Ryner Lute, an Alpha Stigma bearing monster. He was feared and loathed by humans, who he always ended up hurting. So he ran and ran from everything, even human touch.
But now he was being told that his name wasn’t Ryner Lute, that he wasn’t an Alpha Stigma bearer, and that he was the Solver of All Formulas, even though he’d thought that was the name of his eyes or something.
Apparently his names were ‘sacrifice,’ ‘key,’ and ‘Solver of All Formulas.’
…Yeah, he didn’t know anything.
Ryner spoke to the corridor. “So who’re you, then? You’re whatever’s in my eyes, right? The guy who’s always made my life hell? Who exactly are you?”
“A god,” the voice said. It sounded like it was enjoying itself.
“…Don’t fuck with me!” Ryner yelled. “A god? Seriously? You’re calling yourself a god? Do you have any idea how much I’ve had to suffer because of y—”
“Fuhahahah, hahahahahhaha. I don’t particularly care what you call me… A god. A demon. An evil god. A hero. A monster… I have many names. I am a being who transcends human comprehension, and we are given whatever names humans see fit. What do you want to call me? That’s where your issue really lies. Heh, heheh. What will you, who has always been called a monster, choose to call me? That will be my name. And it will be yours.”
“……”
That will be my name. And it will be yours.
What did that mean?
“…What… are you to me?” Ryner asked, his voice strained.
“Heheh. Walk into the depths if you wish to understand everything.”
Ryner looked forward into the red that expanded past where he could see. Red walls, a red ceiling, and a red corridor.
“……”
Ryner suddenly realized something. The red that had buried the world was that red. The color he hated most of all. It was the scarlet red of his curse that he’d never be freed from - the scarlet red of the pentagram in his eyes.
Alpha Stigma.
“…Is this… inside me?”
“Go to the depths.”
“……”
“Look at the truth inside yourself.”
“……”
Ryner took a step forward.
---
Lieral Lieutolu looked down at the dead body laying before him.
He had golden hair and deep blue eyes, and wore a sharp black suit. He had a calmly exhausted expression as he reached down to touch his dead son, Ryner Lute.
He looked to ensure that the Rule Fragment called Attfahl’s Curse had activated properly.
“…Good, it’s in,” he said and nodded softly. Then he stood to order the man who was standing at attention. He was a monster who wore the same white Magical Knight armor as his son. “Take Ryner and run,” Lieral said.
The man nodded, then picked Ryner up. But right then…
“It’s really bothersome when you do selfish stuff like this, Duke Lieutolu,” someone said from in front of him.
Lieral smiled. “I thought you’d come.” He raised his head.
An unbelievable beautiful man was standing before him. He had golden-blond hair, and kept his eyes closed. Truly, his beauty was overwhelming. It was a stretch to even call him human. Well… he wasn’t, after all. Not anymore.
“Hey… It’s been a while. You’ve grown so much,” Lieral said.
Lucile smiled just so. “It has been a while indeed, Duke Lieutolu.”
Lieral waved to stop him. “No, don’t call me a duke. I’m no longer a noble of Roland… House Lieutolu has died.”
Lucile’s smile didn’t waver. “That’s not true, now, is it? Your son remains. Ryner Lute… no, Ryner Lieutolu.”
Lieral looked down at his son and shrugged. “He just died.”
“…No. You intend to have him see the gate, correct? I’m very troubled by you doing that. We aren’t at the point where it’s okay for Ryner to see it yet.”
Lieral glared at Lucile. “That’s not something you decide.”
Lucile just smiled. “Well, who besides me should decide it?”
“Me.”
“Haha. You are very funny. You’re incapable of deciding these things calmly and rationally. You are someone who prioritizes your own son over the world itself.”
“…Hahah. True, my son is more valuable to me than the world. But you aren’t in a place to laugh at me, now are you? You, who quit being human for your sister’s sake…”
Lucile. Merely smiled. He didn’t say a thing.
So Lieral continued. “You’re the same type of person as me. You throw away things that are important to yourself in order to protect the people who you love. But, well, I think that’s fine. Humans are egotistical. I decide how I do things. You’re free to do whatever you like as well.”
“So this way of doing things that you speak of includes sacrificing your wife, correct?” Lucile asked.
Lieral didn’t take the bait. He pet his son’s black hair, so very similar to his wife’s, and replied calmly. “Say what you’d like. I… no, we love Ryner.”
“You’re mad,” Lucile said.
Lieral smiled. “You’re no better.”
“…You really are in the way,” Lucile said, though his smile remained unchanged.
“Shall we start, then?” Lieral asked and stood. “Your new toy can’t devour Ryner.” He turned to face the Magical Knight. “Take Ryner and get as far from here as you can.”
The man nodded and ran, Ryner in tow.
“I won’t let you,” Lucile said. His form wavered. He had every intention of stealing Ryner away.
Lieral’s expression remained calm. “Clouw~ We-we~ Hyurioerio~”
Lucile froze. “The ancient language…? So you’re using a secret spell?”
Lucile’s realization came too late. Lieral tapped his heel on the ground. Blue text flew up from where he tapped and flew towards Lucile. “Stay cursed, Lucile Eris.”
Lucile’s expression finally changed. He raised his right arm. “O blade which cuts through light,” he whispered. A sharp, dark light spread from his arm to make a sword. He waved it, cutting the letters of the ancient language with that one swing.
He cut those words made by humans to kill gods so easily…
“……”
To the point where the way he moved to do it wasn’t human.
It wasn’t human at all.
“…How many contracts have you made?” Lieral asked.
Lucile smiled. “One thousand.”
One thousand!? Lieral was amazed.
Unbelievable.
One thousand…
So one thousand deals with demons would make someone surpass their humanity?
“You really aren’t—”
“You’re just as mad as I am,” Lucile interrupted. He raised his sword. “But you’ll die here.”
Lieral smiled. “We’ll see about that.” Lieral touched the necklace he was wearing. It had a brilliant red gem in the center. It was an item passed down to Runa’s princess by the god of the Runa Empire designed to protect its wearer from magic. He took it off and held it up. “I wonder what this could be?” He said, his tone airy.
Lucile’s expression didn’t waver. “The Divine Beast Ender Sipuamus, is it… but that doesn’t bother me—”
“I know. This won’t kill you, will it? You’re too much of a monster for something meant to kill Divine Beasts to work on. But…”
Lieral moved his hand, angling the necklace so that it’d go past Lucile, in the direction of the castle, the very center of the country.
“I’ll throw this at the castle, where it’ll blow a thing or two up. I wonder what’ll happen to your toy then?”
“……”
Lucile moved to stop Lieral. But he was already firing the relic.
“Scatter, Sipuamus.”
The jewel at the center of the necklace rose to the open air. It shivered against the breeze, then sucked the light out from its surroundings. It stole the light of the sky, the air, the ground… It had been early morning. But now it was pitch black like the darkest point of the night.
“Now then,” Lieral said. “Seems as it’s getting late, I suppose I’ll head home.”
Lucile scowled. “You…”
“Hardly the time to get mad at me, is it?” Lieral asked. “Your precious toy’s castle will disappear any second now…”
The jewel was overflowing with the world’s stolen light. It focused it, and soon something like lightning, like fire spun around it- it was power meant to kill a divine beast.
“Though it’s not like you’ll be able to stop it,” Lieral said.
The castle would be destroyed along with that toy.
Lucile waved his sword bearing arm once more. The black light of it disappeared. “Insects who swarm the skies.”
A new different sword from a different contract appeared. This one was a blurry blue sword with an entirely different power from the last sleeping inside.
“……”
The swordsman’s clan.
That was what they were called.
Lucile met his eyes. “I suppose we’ll need to postpone this fight without a victor. But the next time we meet…”
Lieral shrugged. “I’ll have found a curse to kill you by then. Though I guess I should save that for after I see if Sipuamus kills you or not…”
The gem’s power burst, and a blinding light encased the world. The deafening rumble of it firing soon followed. It shot fire capable of destroying anything. Roland Castle would be destroyed without a trace…
Or at least that was what was supposed to happen.
Lucile smiled. “Until next time.” Then he disappeared.
In that same instant, Sipuamus’ fire was cut.
That was the fire that’d killed the divine beast Diegel who single handedly devoured one hundred gods and destroyed the world… and Lucile had so easily stopped it.
“…Ugh, geez. Damned monster,” Lieral said, defeated. He turned to leave.
He thought of what Lucile had just said.
“I suppose we’ll need to postpone this fight without a victor.”
“…What am I gonna do about that level of monster?” Lieral wondered. Lucile had become far more of a monster than he’d ever anticipated. At this rate…
“……”
Lieral shook his head and sighed.
“This sucks.”
He’d looked up at the sky.
---
Nothingness was all that was there.
A horrid nothingness. Saddening nothingness.
He told it to stop. Begged it to stop from the depths of his mind. But it wouldn’t. He kept taking step after step forward. What was he even walking towards…? He didn’t know anymore. But he still didn’t stop.
He’d finally reached his hand inside, after all, holding it out to touch everything that was precious to him.
He took another step. Another.
The gears were creaking and turning.
Show him light. Show him darkness.
This was a world of nothingness. Everything was empty.
He himself.
What he had wanted was an entirely different world. But he couldn’t stop now. So…
“……”
Sion sighed softly. Then he looked out of his office’s window. He watched a blinding light flash and watched it be cut down.
“…That must be Lucile,” he whispered.
“I’m already finished,” a clear voice said from behind him.
Sion didn’t turn to face him. Lucile wasn’t visible right now, so there was no point in facing him. “What happened to Duke Lieutolu?”
Lucile was quiet for a long moment before responding. “He got away.”
Sion smiled, then turned around. “Hah. You missed the opportunity to kill him? How unlike you.”
Of course there was no one there when he turned. Just his bookcase. But Lucile answered from somewhere near the bookcase regardless. “Heh, heheh… Haven’t you been kind lately… But Sion, weren’t you the one who said that it wasn’t time to kill Lieutolu yet?”
Yes, he’d certainly said that before. But Sion shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter anymore… Nothing matters. What happens, happens…”
He sounded tired. Then he turned back to face forward again.
Froaude stood there, shocked. He spoke with a shaking voice. “Who exactly… are you…?”
Who exactly are you?
“… Kgh, hahah…”
Something about Sion was off.
“…Who? Hahah… Who, you say… yes, who exactly am I?”
That voice echoed in his head again.
Stop. Just stop. This isn’t what you wanted. If you keep going…… shut up, weakling.
“……”
The voice in his head died out.
Sion looked up at Froaude and spoke. “I am… your ideal king, right? I just showed you everything.”
Froaude was bewildered. “Certainly, you’re the king I desired. You are a strong king who does not hesitate. You are a king chosen by God. However—”
“I just showed you everything,” Sion interrupted. “You aren’t satisfied?”
“……”
Froaude smiled. It was a dark smile, and yet an excited one that shivered with pleasure. “No… I am satisfied,” he finally said. “Now then…”
Sion nodded. “Kill them. They’re our true enemy, after all…”
Yeah. If they didn’t kill them soon…
“…I will do as you order,” Froaude said, bowed, and then left the room.
Sion watched him leave, then sighed deeply. When he did—
“…Kgh, guha…”
He ended up having a quiet coughing fit. He covered his mouth with his hand, and when he pulled it back, it was covered with blood.
“…Heh… heheh… kuhehehh…”
He laughed like he’d gone mad.
“…Haha, ahahaha.”
This was what he’d wanted.
This was what he wanted?
He looked at the palm of his hand, splattered with blood. Blood that he’d coughed up.
The color… was an ominous, bright thing. The color of liquid gold.
“……”
He was hit with a sudden sense of exhaustion, like someone was stealing the energy from his body. It was unpleasant. Like someone was rewriting his body’s sensations without his consent.
“……”
He fell to his chair, limp.
His body was truly exhausted. Because he wasn’t used to this yet. He couldn’t do it for long.
A voice spoke to him from somewhere again. “You don’t need to push yourself. Don’t be so impatient.”
It was Lucile.
Sion smiled bitterly. “Haha. I didn’t think it’d make you worry.” He looked down at his hand once more. At his blood. And he thought of back when this started.
“……”
It was already a far off memory from around when he first met Ryner and Ferris.
Kiefer’s betrayal, the fight with Estabul’s Magical Knights, and Ryner’s Alpha Stigma going berserk had just happened.
Sion had met Ferris and Iris and was invited back to the Eris estate where he was led to see Lucile in the dojo.
Speaking of which, he just remembered what Ferris had said when he returned from the battlefield.
“What, so you lived. Boring…”
“Man. Ferris has always been so rude…”
He couldn’t help but smile.
Then Lucile had appeared while he was talking with Ferris.
“Sion, today I thought I’d have you come here so I could hear about your feelings.”
“Feelings?”
“I have a number of questions for you. They are questions to judge if you’re suitable or not. I want you to answer them.”
“What…? Suitable? For what? Well, I don’t mind answering… is that all you want?”
“Yes. That’s all I want. That’s all I brought you here for. But my questions have a condition.”
“Condition?”
“Mm. I will ask you a question. Then, if your answer isn’t to my liking, I will kill you. Relax, it won’t hurt. I’ll separate your head from your body. You won’t even feel it. You’ll just die.”
Die…? What was he thinking? That’s what he’d thought, if he recalled correctly. He’d kill Sion if he didn’t like the answer to his questions? He had to accept that condition just to hear his questions… It was nonsensical. Why would he ask to hear such dangerous questions?
“It’s because this is the Eris family, Sion.”
That had made Sion understand everything.
It was the Eris family. He instantly understood what Lucile was implying.
It was the Eris family. The family that served the king. And the family’s head was wanting to question Sion to see if he was suitable. In other words, Lucile intended on testing him to see if Sion would be a suitable king.
And Sion had wanted to become king. He had wanted to dethrone his father, who had misused his authority to the fullest. He’d wanted that more than anything.
Because then he’d be able to protect Ryner, Kiefer, his allies, the whole country… He’d be able to protect his dead mother.
He decided to listen to Lucile’s questions.
Then Ferris said something.
“Worthless. Even though you went out of your way to throw your life away on the battlefield, this is where it fell.”
He’d ignored it, even though it was sweet of her to sound upset. Even though that was his last chance to turn back. Because he’d already told himself that he wouldn’t hesitate anymore. He’d decided that he wouldn’t move anywhere but forward back on the battlefield.
He’d already lost everything once. But he still had to move forward. If he accepted that power, he’d be able to kill everyone - his brothers, his sisters… even the king himself…
“Sure. I’ll hear it. Tell me and see… Lucile Eris.”
Sion would never forget Lucile’s smile in that moment.
“Haha. I thought you’d say that.”
He’d never forget the face Lucile made in that moment.
And then… he thought to himself.
He couldn’t back down. He’d kill everyone standing in his way. He’d do anything to accomplish that.
Even if… it meant he’d become a demon himself.
That’s what he had thought.
“……”
But that’s not what happened.
Regret. Despair. And that contract.
He was led to the depths of the dojo, where Lucile Eris lived. Absolute nothingness spreaded through it. He was shown a brilliant, blinding light on the other side of the door. It was a terribly ominous thing - blinking, flashing, ominous as could be.
He should have turned back. He should have turned back right then and there!!
He hadn’t realized that back then because he hadn’t known anything. Oh, how he wished he’d just been killed back there… but he wasn’t. The gears squeaked and turned and turned and turned. The story progressed. It was a tragedy - sad and unreasonable.
It was…
The legend of the mad hero of legend.
The door opened and Lucile smiled.
I’ve always, always waited for you. Come, be my master. Throw everything away, raise it all up and sacrifice it, come on, become my master.
Become the master of my sword.
Devour this whole world, cut it up into pieces… hero.
“…Hero…”
Sion continued to stare at his hand from where he sat in his chair.
Lucile spoke from behind him again. “…It’s okay, Sion… This story is progressing well… so don’t push yourself so much.”
Sion wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry.
‘The story is progressing well.’
The story…
Sion balled his hand into a tight fist. Tight to the point where it might break.
“…Yeah. I know that,” Sion whispered, alone.
