Chapter 195: The Contrast of Black and White (1)
In the northern part of the continent, in the Alterias region.
In a gloomy cave near the Colt Duchy, the King of the Undead, Arcrosis, raised his massive body.
Creak. Creak—.
Arcrosis’s body, filled with sharp bones, moved with a creepy friction sound.
Underneath Arcrosis, who stood up in the cave, was the black mage Kerington, who had made a contract with him.
Kerington looked up at Arcrosis, who was checking the completed magic circle, and opened his mouth.
“I have already sent all the other mages out of the cave.”
As he said that, there was no sign of anyone else around Kerington.
According to the grand plan that Arcrosis had designed, he had taken measures to prevent the black mages of the Abyss from getting involved.
Nod.
Arcrosis nodded at him and lifted his staff.
The staff, carved out of bone, had a cruel and old-fashioned atmosphere.
-“How is the human army?”
“A vanguard composed of Cloud’s branch and the soldiers of the Obtos Duchy has arrived near here.”
-“They are faster than expected.”
Even though he had left them alone until the human army came close, there was one reason why Arcrosis had made the black mages of the Abyss move away from the cave.
The magic that Arcrosis was about to use from now on was quite dangerous for living beings.
If they were caught in this magic, there was a possibility that his toys would scream and die without any meaning.
That’s why Arcrosis deliberately dropped them out of the cave.
He still had many regrets about breaking his toys with his own hands.
-“I should prepare for the ritual soon.”
Arcrosis lifted his staff and checked the magic circle he had engraved once more.
He was one of the ancient demons called the King of the Undead, but he had never handled magic other than necromancy to the extreme.
So this plan was a somewhat experimental challenge for Arcrosis.
As Arcrosis lifted his staff to use magic, Kerington, who was below him, asked him politely.
“Lord of Undeath… what should I do?”
-“Stay in my space until the ritual is over.”
Thud.
As Arcrosis swung his staff toward the air, a dark and unpleasant space revealed itself.
It was the passage to Arcrosis’s space where he stored his undead.
Kerington frowned at the sight of Arcrosis’s space, which conveyed a gloomy aura.
But that was only for a moment.
He soon greeted Arcrosis and stepped into his space.
“…I understand. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to face a new realm.”
-“You are allowed to stay there until the plan is over.”
As soon as Kerington entered his space completely, the open space shrank and closed as a two-dimensional door.
After Kerington, who was next to him, went to a safe place.
Arcrosis then sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on top of the magic circle.
Thud. Splash.
The blood sprinkled on the floor made the color of the magic circle red.
The red blood that started to circulate with Arcrosis’s power created a dizzying spectacle for anyone to see.
-“About twenty?”
Arcrosis sprinkled all the blood he had piled up on the floor and moved toward the center of the magic circle.
Then he stuck his staff in the middle of the magic circle and stroked the skull-shaped head on top of his staff with his hand.
Screech—!
The skull attached to his staff screamed with a rough voice.
It was a human voice that Arcrosis used to make noise for the ritual, not being able to convey anything but his will.
-“By the name of Arcrosis, the third child of the Nameless King, I call upon heaven.”
“By the name of Arcrosis, the third child of the Nameless King, I call upon heaven.”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Along with the sound of his staff hitting the ground, a human spell with a torn throat echoed in the cave.
In an empty cave with no one else, a chant like a scream echoed and made the blood magic circle emit a strong red light.
-“I offer twenty.”
“I offer twenty.”
-“I wish for ten.”
“I wish for ten.”
The mismatched numbers resonated in the cave.
He lifted his staff high and shouted.
-“Approve.”
“Approve.”
Right after the ghastly voice of the skull ended.
The red blood that filled the magic circle dried up in an instant.
The life that Arcrosis had offered by his name was converted into karma and existed there.
Arcrosis blew the karma he had transformed through the ritual back into the magic circle.
The demon’s magic that dealt with the essence of life was about to begin.
-“I’ve been waiting for a long time. Come out now.”
The entire magic circle was covered with a flickering light, and then it began to crack and open slowly.
What Arcrosis did with the karma he had sacrificed was one thing.
He created a passage that connected the abyss and the surface for a moment.
And beyond the passage that Arcrosis created, there were countless undead that he had captured and shaped in the abyss.
Evil spirits that only chased their prey in front of them without any sense of reason.
That was the nature of the monsters that lived in the abyss.
-Roar.
-Gurgle. Gurgle——?
-Screech——!
All kinds of monsters raised their bodies from beyond the crack.
The size of one monster was enough to overwhelm the entire cave.
Rumble.
The monsters’ bodies came out of the crack one by one, and the cave where the magic circle was engraved began to collapse slowly.
The cave was too narrow to accommodate the huge monsters of the abyss.
-“You can run wild as much as you want from now on.”
Arcrosis said that as he watched the monsters coming out.
The monsters also conveyed Arcrosis’s will and roared.
There was no one who could recognize his expression without any skin on this place.
***
Hus Allemier opened his eyes from the beginning of the ritual.
Blink. Blink.
As if trying to regain his sight that had not returned yet, Hus blinked several times and tried to look ahead.
His blurred vision gradually took shape as he did so.
In the darkness where nothing could be seen clearly, the first thing that Hus saw when he opened his eyes was a small bonfire and his brother Evan Allemier.
“You finally came to your senses.”
In front of Hus’s eyes, Evan, who was covered in blood, was wiping his gauntlet and looking at him.
The divine artifact that Evan, an apostle of the evil god, had received, Astrape.
The gauntlet, stained with blood and dirt, was hardly a sight to behold.
Hus looked away from Evan, who was cleaning the gauntlet, and searched for his own artifact.
Not far from the cave wall where Hus was leaning.
There were fragments of broken hieroglyphs rolling on the floor.
“This is…”
“Your hero’s weapon. It’s been ruined miserably, but it’s a cheap price for your life.”
Evan gave him a brief comment as he looked at Hus, who was murmuring at the shattered hieroglyphs.
The value of his life that was still attached.
It was the most miserable thing to say from the loser’s perspective.
Hus stared at the broken hieroglyphs for a moment, then shifted his gaze back to Evan.
His face was mixed with complex emotions as he looked at Evan.
“Why…”
A feeling of emptiness and futility.
And beyond that, a sticky something mixed with resentment and longing.
The things that he had been suppressing in his chest all this time began to surge up as he faced Evan.
Hus swallowed the emotions that were pouring out one by one, and asked Evan with a doubtful voice.
“Why… did you spare me?”
Hus Allemier was the hero of knowledge.
And he was the enemy of Evan Allemier, who had become the apostle of the evil god.
So there was no reason for Evan to spare him.
If Hus himself had won the battle, he would not have thought of sparing the apostle of the evil god.
Evan gave him a short answer with a serious face.
“The hero of knowledge died just now.”
The hero of knowledge was already dead.
It was a story that told him that it was hard for him to remain as the hero of knowledge, since the hieroglyphs bestowed by the goddess were completely destroyed.
Hus Allemier before becoming a hero was not a great person.
He knew very well how pitiful and miserable it was to lose an artifact, as he had watched Naias, the hero of harmony.
No, rather Naias would have been much better than him.
She was originally a dragonkin who had a powerful power, and Hus before becoming the hero of knowledge was just an ordinary mage from the frontier.
Hus without hieroglyphs was a human who had to spend several months to handle high-level fire magic accurately.
“Then what about me…”
That’s why he felt more miserable.
He was nothing without being a hero.
Since he received the mark of a hero from the goddess of knowledge, he had always been supported by one thing: being a hero.
He was able to prepare himself to fight against Evan, because he was a hero. He was able to pledge to protect humanity from the evil god, because he was a hero.
Then what should Hus Allemier do without being a hero?
He couldn’t fight against Evan in front of him, and he couldn’t handle the infinite magic that came through the artifact anymore.
“What will happen to me here!”
Envy and jealousy. Arrogance and anger.
And beyond that, a deep doubt about his weak self that would have been there.
The emotions that he had been forcing himself to pick up began to leak out one by one.
His self that he hated so much was being stripped off and exposed in front of him.
Showing his weakness that he wanted to hide in front of his brother whom he longed for, Hus Allemier vented his anger with a distorted voice.
“I’m not a hero, nor a great mage, nor even recognized by my superior brother. I’m abandoned… How am I supposed to live now!”
Evan Allemier and Hus Allemier were different.
Evan was always ahead of him, and Hus was always behind him, lacking.
Now there was no longer a pedestal called a hero to support him.
Evan’s eyes were still watching Hus, who had let go of his hand in the distance that he could never catch up with in his life.
Evan spoke to Hus, who was spitting out his voice mixed with anger.
“You are Hus Allemier.”
“Such worthless consolation…”
Hus, who tried to avoid Evan’s voice toward him, closed his mouth when he found something in Evan’s eyes in front of him.
Evan’s eyes in front of him were not pitying him.
They didn’t feel sorry for him either. Nor did they despise him.
They just watched him with a serious look as before.
“Don’t rely on the name of a hero. Don’t be trapped by the ghosts of my past.”
“If I’m not a hero… I have nothing left.”
He had been unfair to Evan in the past.
There was only one time when Hus went ahead of Evan on his way.
It was when he was chosen as a hero and entered the holy land.
Yet Evan told him to put down the weight of a hero.
“If you’re not a hero, are you not Hus Allemier?”
“But I’ve been living… never once recognized by you…”
“Don’t bet your life for me.”
Clang.
Evan, who had wiped off the blood, put on the gauntlet and got up from his seat.
Evan’s figure, seen beyond the flickering flames, looked somewhat dazzling.
He showed a relaxed attitude as if he was carrying the heaviest thing in the world, but lighter than anyone else.
“Even if I don’t recognize you, you are the proud second son of the Allemier family.”
Evan’s eyes, who got up from his seat, headed to the city wall far away from the cave.
There was a fierce fire rising from the wall.
The fire of war was growing bigger than imagined.
Evan watched the burning holy land and took out a cigarette from his pocket.
The cigarette that Evan had was the same kind that Hus burned.
He glared at it for a moment, then threw the cigarette into the bonfire.
“When the war is over, call me brother again.”
Crackle. Crackle.
A terrible smoke rose from the bonfire where the cigarette burned.
