Chapter 48.1: Beatrice the Magician Queen
Beatrice Aligieri Spero, magician-queen of the Kingdom of Spero, was a renowned saint.
Her kingdom has been prosperous and peaceful since its inception. It seemed like it would last forever.
Or so everyone thought until the invasion of demons began.
The black hordes, coming from the far west, were at first thought to be a pack of orcs but they were infamous and powerful.
Hordes of filthy lust from faraway realms have destroyed kingdoms in the blink of an eye.
The closer the black horde approached, the more the queen realized from the influx of refugees and eyewitness accounts that they were something out of the ordinary.
The momentum of the foul creatures would eventually reach the Spero Kingdom.
Of course, the honorable knights and loyal soldiers loyal to the Queen would meet the invasion as they should.
They fought back against the hordes of evil that crawled toward them and the army, led by the Magician Queen herself, gloried in victory after victory.
The refugees of the kingdom, who had been defeated over and over again, were hopeful as they watched the queen rally her troops to repel evil but it took less than thirty years for that hope to gradually crumble.
They are not a warlike group. They are weak, promiscuous and undisciplined, yet their morale is strangely high and they are strangely energetic.
They are a ragtag army of misfits, with no faith or cause, but only the pursuit of sordid pleasures, and they throw themselves fiercely into the fray.
It wasn’t until three years ago, when the Archdemon she’d defeated returned, unharmed, that she realized they could not die.
‘This war… was never meant to be won.’
They resurrect even when they die and they willingly throw themselves into the fray because they can’t die.
The population on this side is being steadily decimated but they keep coming.
No matter how many victories they win, no matter how many demons they slay, they always come back.
It was an unreasonable fight and the war went on endlessly.
Hundreds of soldiers, dragged from the crowded battlefields after repelling tens of thousands of demons, were corrupted by horrific torture and pleasure.
Demons wearing human skins infiltrated the royal castle, corrupting maidens into orgies.
Cults fill the streets, proclaiming that the pursuit of limitless pleasure is salvation.
The kingdom crumbled as knights of steel were corrupted, and soldiers defending their country pointed their spears at their families.
I can’t remember the beautiful, peaceful landscape of my homeland that I once saw.
I can’t remember the days when the streets were filled with people laughing and playing and looking forward to tomorrow…….
Doom was coming.
[Queen, make a deal with me]
The highest ranking Archdemon offered her a deal.
[If you accept the essence of corruption and survive for a hundred years, I will stop invading this world and return it to its original state.]
How could she believe him?
She didn’t even need to ask.
The kingdom had fallen, and all that remained was a castle. In the end, her people, her soldiers, her knights… all of them would be lost in the destruction.
The Archdemon’s offer was thoroughly in their favor, but Beatrice had no choice but to accept the demon bargain.
It was the only way to protect the people she loved.
* * * *
The demons’ traps were vicious.
They repeated the destruction of the kingdom for a year and when the kingdom is destroyed, it goes back to the beginning and repeats the process of destruction.
If it were only that, the people would have held on, the soldiers would have held on. But the demons of pleasure and corruption do not kill their subjects easily.
In their perverted halls of depravity, they humiliated and tortured them endlessly, subjecting them to the most horrific things a living creature could experience.
Not even death could save them and those who took their own lives became wraiths who roamed the netherworld endlessly.
In the end, they had only one choice, to corrupt themselves and join the forces of evil.
The whispers of corruption, with their promise of endless pleasure and immortality, dazzled the proud people.
Alas, I have failed.
The choices I made to save my kingdom have turned my people to evil.
The proud queen began to crumble.
As she watched her people fall again and again, she realized she would eventually fall.
It was no mere amusement that the Archdemon of Pleasure would go to such troublesome lengths to corrupt her.
It’s an innate vice that frightens even her, and its colors are corrupting even the most honorable of knights.
At this rate, even her knights will be corrupted by evil.
The queen hoped to save what remained of her knights. She had broken the pact and fallen, and in return, she hoped to save the few remaining knights.
“My queen, forgive our disloyalty.”
When one knight finally broke into the queen’s bedchamber, the Great Marshal sealed her underground, killing himself to become an incorruptible wraith.
“I…I made you this way.”
After decades of regret and exhaustion and a doomed destiny, forced to repeat itself, even though each knew the other’s end the queen wished this nightmare would end as soon as possible.
* * * *
[Hidden Quest: Save the Queen and the Kingdom]
Leon returned to the castle after killing Androzin but the castle of the Spero Kingdom is no longer filled with residents singing of hope.
“You mean everyone is already corrupted.”
“Yes-yes.”
Leon sighed sadly at Ricardo Burns’ affirmation.
He had seen so many fallen but the temptation of the demons is hard to resist for ordinary mortals and the prospect of a horrific death that would be repeated for a hundred years would only encourage corruption.
“There must have been people from the kingdom among the demons this king vanished.”
“…….”
“Pity them, but do not forgive them. There is only death for the fallen. This is immutable justice.”
The Death Knights did not respond to Leon’s heartless words but there was another question.
“What shall we…do with the dead?”
The Death Knights… the undead are unwelcome everywhere, and rightly so.
Undead who forsake the life they deserve and seek immortality are despicable.
If Leon cannot tolerate them…can they resist?
“That is not for this king to decide. First we must see the queen.”
Leon led the Death Knights to the subterranean chamber where the Queen was.
Queen Beatrice had been sealed to prevent the Corruption from advancing as far as possible but even that had failed.
Leon gazed down at the sleeping queen, breathing heavily.
“Fle, how is she?”
At his words, a divinity appeared, it was the goddess of dreams and death with hair of purple and violet.
[It’s a natural talent, one that those filthy malignants covet, and one that could have produced a truly terrifying demon lord]
It has been said that she can sway a nation by her looks and demeanor alone.
[The essence of corruption has been planted, and the evil has been amplified. The corruption is already more than halfway complete]
“But she was not corrupted; she had the vice of lust, and desired the death of the knights.”
Not because she hated the knights who imprisoned her, but to save their souls. To protect each other, both the queen and the knights did what they least wanted to do.
What royal or knight would not be moved by this loyalty?
[Leon, mark this maiden with my sigil, for if she can accept my ritual, she will radiate a divinity that will drive away the essence of corruption]
“I will gladly accept, for she is a ‘king’ who deserves it.”
Leon felt a sense of sympathy for the queen.
He, too, had spent two hundred years fighting demons and knew better than anyone how sweet its temptations and whispers can be.
Leon touched the queen’s body, and divinity flowed through him.
From the Pantheon within the Lionheart, he felt the goddess of dreams and death enter her.
The next moment, the queen’s eyes opened, revealing purple pupils.
“You have awakened from your dream, Queen Beatrice.”
[You have cleared the Hidden Quest]
-All participants’ ’Corruption Resistance’ is strengthened.
-You have obtained the Crown of Desire.
-You’ve obtained the Blade of Longing.
* * * *
