Ch.197Maria (2)

*

Thud, thud.

A massive tremor shook everything around me, accompanied by a deafening sound like something exploding.

I opened my eyes in surprise to find a high marble ceiling reflecting in my vision.

“… Urgh”

Though I knew the shaking ground meant something serious was happening, I tried to get up but found it impossible.

Even the slightest movement sent excruciating pain through my right shoulder, causing only a crushed-frog-like groan to escape my lips.

The extreme pain and terrible burning sensation—like a red-hot anvil pressing down on my shoulder—nearly made me lose consciousness again.

It seemed I had eventually passed out after being stabbed by Sylvia’s sword.

“What… what’s going on here…”

Had Sylvia regained consciousness?

What happened to that demon boy who was holding back the Demon King?

How am I even still alive in the first place?

Wait, am I actually alive?

And… that voice I heard just before losing consciousness…

“Ugh, my head… won’t work.”

There was so much to think about, but my brain was dulled by the sharp pain tearing at my nerves.

Gritting my teeth, I used my uninjured left arm to push against the ground, slowly raising my body.

Even that slight movement sent a burning sensation spreading across the right side of my upper body like wildfire across a field.

Just as my trembling left arm was about to give out from the strain, my upper body was suddenly lifted upright as if someone had pulled me up.

“Gah!”

Even with my foggy mind, I could tell some kind of magic had raised me.

As I clutched my throbbing right shoulder and squinted from the sudden movement, someone entered my field of vision.

“… Hmm, looking at you again, you’ve really grown a lot.”

The face of the person who had stopped to look at me was somewhat unfamiliar yet nostalgic at the same time—the same face I had seen just before entering the castle.

“Damn it!”

I reflexively spread my palm and chanted a spell to use magic.

I thought she had died along with Alice, but she was still alive?

How dare she bring Sister Maria here to humiliate her!

I clenched my teeth and fired the fastest fireball I could conjure.

But before the ball of fire could leave my hand, the opponent’s brief incantation scattered the magical energy I had gathered into the air, extinguishing the flame instantly.

“…!”

Dispel.

An intermediate-level magic that nullifies an opponent’s spell.

Though the difficulty level was intermediate, I had never seen anyone activate it so quickly.

Dispel required specific incantations tailored to counter each individual spell, not a generic formula.

Looking down at my bewildered expression, the puppet wearing Sister Maria’s face slowly opened her mouth.

“My, my, what’s wrong with you?”

“…?”

“Why are you throwing fire the moment you see me? And to your sister whom you haven’t seen for years—is that how I taught you?”

“Ah…?”

“What’s with that ‘ah’? Have you lost your mind?”

That mischievous tone.

I know no one else who speaks like that except her.

My lips trembled as they moved.

“… Sister?”

“It’s been a while, Ash. You’ve become quite handsome. Even able to cast spells at your sister. Back then, you were always just learning theory and couldn’t use magic.”

“Ah… is it really you, Sister?”

“You’re asking the exact same question as Sylvia—are you lovers or something? Cheeky brat, having a romance that even I haven’t experienced…”

Good heavens,

It really was her.

I know no one else but my sister who has that frivolous attitude, spouting nonsense at every opportunity.

For a moment, forgetting my physical condition, I tried to push myself up with my right arm only to collapse back onto the floor.

Sister Maria looked at me and shook her head.

“I know you’re glad to see me, but wait a moment. I’m a bit busy right now,”

Sister Maria continued forward while chanting a spell.

The marble floor rose up like soft clay, instantly wrapping around the Demon King’s body before hardening.

It was similar to the magic I had used, but the precision and speed were on a completely different level from mine.

The fundamental difference was in the calculation speed required for casting magic.

Then, Sylvia’s sword cleaved through the solidified marble.

As the Demon King, oozing yellowish fluid through the marble’s cross-section that had been cut like butter, shot out sharp tentacles from the severed surface, purple chains with sharp stakes bound those tentacles and pinned them to the floor.

Simultaneously, Sylvia’s sword cut off all the tentacles.

“What in the world is…”

“Ash!”

At that moment, Pia came to me and helped me up.

“Are you okay? I was so worried.”

“Pia… what’s happening? Why is my sister… here…”

Pia gently opened my hand and placed a necklace emitting a soft blue light in my palm.

“Malis’s necklace…”

“It’s all thanks to this.”

*

Malis’s necklace.

Known as the greatest magician in human history, his true identity was that of a spirit sorcerer.

This necklace, one of his treasures, was said to have the ability to resurrect the dead—that’s what Sister Alice had told me.

I wonder what Sister Alice felt when she obtained this item.

Was it to save herself, knowing she would almost certainly die at the end of this journey? Or was she worried that I, being so weak, might lose my life during the quest?

Perhaps she simply acquired it as insurance.

But I doubt even Sister Alice could have predicted that this item she obtained would be used to resurrect Sister Maria.

“Remember what I told you before?”

With those words, Pia briefly explained the current situation.

To Pia, being a spirit, this necklace appeared to be an item used to capture spirits, as she had mentioned before.

Until now, I had thought the common rumor about resurrecting the dead was simply wrong, but in the end, both Sister Alice’s and Pia’s explanations were correct.

This necklace captured the soul of a dead person and turned it into a spirit.

In other words, Sister Maria’s soul had somehow been trapped inside this necklace.

“A soul? But Sister Maria has been dead for so long… Ah,”

At that moment, I recalled the corpses the demon boy had been tending to.

Those terrible magic circles scrawled on the cold bodies of the demons.

Those magic circles, carved into flesh with sharp blades, contained horrifying instructions for trapping souls and turning them into puppets at the cost of lives.

The lives paid as the price were those demon comrades of the boy, and the puppets created were Sister Maria and Sylvia’s other companions.

Because of this, Sister Maria became a puppet manipulated by Valder and caused Sister Alice’s death, and Sylvia nearly fell into self-blame for killing her old comrades once again.

“Truly… disgusting magic.”

That terrible malice, which didn’t discriminate between demons and humans and showed no respect for the dead, closely resembled the repulsive Demon King himself.

As the demon boy said, he was a monster unworthy of becoming the king of demons.

“But because of that…”

“That’s right.”

But even the Demon King couldn’t have known.

What consequences his evil actions would bring.

“Sister Alice… she accomplished it all.”

It could only be described as a miracle.

The necklace that Sister Alice had risked her life to obtain.

The puppet body of Sister Maria that Sister Alice had sacrificed her life to destroy.

From the beginning of this miracle to its conclusion, everything was accomplished by her hand.

Though she lost her life in the end, Sister Alice’s sacrifice—burning her own body along with Sister Maria’s—created the miracle that trapped Sister Maria’s soul in this necklace.

I tightly clutched her heart that was still in my hand.

Even now, a faint warmth remained.

“Pia… help me up.”

“No, what are you trying to do in that condition?”

“I have to try everything I can. Just like Sister Alice did.”

“… Ash, look over there.”

Pia pointed ahead with her finger.

Sylvia’s sword was fiercely driving back the Demon King, while Sister Maria’s magic blocked all of the Demon King’s fierce counterattacks in a wild storm of combat.

“What could you possibly do there? We’ve already won. The moment Sister Maria appeared, it was all over.”

“… You think so?”

As Pia said, the Demon King was being overwhelmed by the coordination of the two, repeatedly getting slashed and knocked down.

That hideous and terrifying monster, whose mere sight twisted one’s nerves, was being tossed around on the floor, helpless against the attacks of two legendary heroes representing humanity.

Is this how the hero’s party fought in the past?

Seeing this, I finally understood why Sylvia had opposed my journey.

I could never move like that, never use magic like that.

Even with Pia’s help, I could never be like them.

“But… something’s strange.”

“What is?”

“Those two are amazing, but isn’t it odd that the Demon King is so helpless? If they could resolve this, why couldn’t they finish it before?”

“Well… Sylvia said she didn’t know the Demon King hadn’t died.”

“She also said she completely severed his head. Look how many times they’re cutting him now. Yet that monster doesn’t die.”

“… Then,”

“It means something more is needed to kill the Demon King.”

I slowly raised Sister Alice’s heart.

“Holy power. In the end, only holy power can completely kill the Demon King.”

.