༺ Cradle (4) ༻
In the wake of the storm, Renee looked at the Lich’s staff, which would seemingly crumble at any moment.
With a crack, the purple orb at the end of the staff shattered.
It was because she had increased the power of the purple orb beyond its limits to block Renee’s attack.
[Oh… The staff is broken. It seems like I am unable to fight any longer.]
Upon hearing those words which were uttered with a chuckle, Renee began gasping for air, her body trembling.
I won.
However, a concern arose in her head as she was thinking about that.
“A-Are you okay? I’m sorry! I got too excited for a moment…!”
Renee was worried that the spell she used was too powerful.
It was a spell of destruction and nothing else. Even though she used it in a fight, she couldn’t help but think that it was too cruel to use against the Lich who was so kind to her.
Meanwhile, seeing Renee’s nervous appearance, the Lich laughed heartily and waved her hand.
The thought that the young girl didn’t know much about the undead amused the Lich for some reason.
[It’s okay. A Lich cannot perish as long as the Life Vessel remains intact.]
It was only after hearing those reassuring words did relief wash over Renee.
“Ah, right…”
She was a girl with such varied expressions.
[Reminds me of my youth.]
The Lich was about to say that back when she was alive, the men of the Magic Tower would all come to her aid if she were ever upset. However, upon reconsideration, she decided that sharing such information might not be appropriate and held back her words.
With that, she approached Renee and handed her a bone necklace.
[It’s a pass, my dear.]
It was an action to convey her gratitude to the young guest who brought life to the lonely Cradle.
Feeling the cold and hard touch of the bone, Renee was reminded of her victory.
“Thank you!”
She exclaimed with joy.
The proof was meant to prove oneself to the dead in the Cradle, but at this moment, Renee felt as if she had proven herself to her own self.
She had been hesitating to move forward because she couldn’t see, but now she had gained confidence that even she could do things on her own.
[Okay, okay, now, shall you return to your friends? They are all worried about you. Especially that black-haired man… Ah, he has a face like a puppy that needs to poop.]
“Pfft…!”
Laughter burst from the corners of Renee’s mouth.
Using ‘puppy that needs to poop’ to describe Vera was rather funny, and for some reason, she thought that Vera might really be making such a face.
Although she couldn’t accurately picture Vera’s face, the vivid imagination of her touching his face as he moaned and looked at her came to mind.
“He’s handsome, right?”
[Eh? Hmm… He’s passable. But I feel sorry for you, my dear.]
“I hear that a lot.”
Renee giggled.
“Then I’ll go! Thank you, grandmother!”
[Take care.]
Rattle. Rattle.
As the Lich waved her bony hand, Renee gradually moved away.
Tap. Tap.
The sound of Renee’s cane tapping the floor was considerably cheerful.
***
“You’ve worked hard.”
Vera offered those words to Renee as she approached. In response, she turned to him with a joyful face and asked.
“Were you worried?”
Like a puppy that needs to poop.
Considering that saying this might make Vera suddenly angry, she withheld the rest of her sentence, to which Vera replied with a small laugh.
“Not at all. I always have faith in the Saint.”
“Oh really now…”
Renee giggled in a sly manner.
For some reason, Vera felt displeasure at this and narrowed his eyes.
However, there was no way for him to know about Renee’s conversation with the Lich.
And so, while Vera stared at Renee with inexplicable annoyance, the other party members started to speak one after another.
After listening to all of them, Renee finally put on the bone necklace and spoke.
“It’s now Vera’s turn, right?”
”…Yes.”
“Vera is headed to the Death Knight, right?”
“That’s right. The location is…”
Vera’s gaze turned towards the gloomy old castle far in the distance.
”…Maleus’s Castle.”
The Death Knight guarding the entrance of that castle was Vera’s opponent.
“How are you feeling? Will you be okay?”
Renee asked.
After taking a moment to assess his condition, Vera responded with a small smile.
“I’m at my best. Given that everyone else has already passed their proofs, I can fight without any burden.”
His answer was filled with confidence.
There were various reasons for this, but just as he said earlier, the fact that he had fewer worries was the most significant one.
There was no need to risk his life.
No worries about the undead taking hostages.
In such a situation, a one-on-one fight, especially against a worthy opponent like the Death Knight, was rather welcoming to Vera.
It was a chance to thoroughly test the sword skills he had confidently honed over time.
An unexpected stroke of luck, so to speak.
Feeling delighted for his fight, Vera said.
“Let’s get going then. Wouldn’t it be nice if I completed my proof quickly so we could rest before meeting Maleus?”
“Yes, that sounds nice.”
Likewise, Renee, seeing Vera’s confident demeanor, managed to shake off some of her worries as she responded.
***
The road to the old castle was a succession of desolate scenery.
It was truly the Land of the Dead. As the name suggested, the only things in sight were withered trees and the crumbling remains of leaves.
It was an empty landscape, devoid even of the smallest insects.
The group, who were leisurely making their way through such a scenery, sensed an anomaly when there were about 30 minutes left until they reached the old castle.
“…Sir Vera,” Miller whispered.
Upon hearing him, Vera replied with a grim expression.
“Yes, there is something following us.”
“What should we do? There seems to be many of them.”
“…”
Vera responded to Miller’s question with a nod and sharpened his senses.
In the direction corresponding to north from their current position, he sensed dozens of presences maintaining a certain distance while following them.
They were the undead.
‘Skeletons?’
When he enhanced his hearing with divinity, he could hear the rattling sound of bones and a sound resembling the friction of iron.
What could be their purpose for following them?
As he was pondering this, Vera discerned an anomaly among those presences.
“…A human.”
“What?”
“There is a human mixed in.”
Vera’s head snapped to the north.
He was certain. Among the undead, there was one human mixed in.
Given that this was a land devoid of any life energy even after exhaustive searching, sensing the presence of a human from this distance was rather easy, given the scarcity of living beings.
A human was at the center of a raging mana storm, surrounded by the undead.
“…A necromancer.”
The likelihood was high.
Upon hearing Vera’s words, the group’s expressions hardened in unison.
“They must be rather brave. To think that there is someone who would control corpses in the Cradle of the Dead.”
The one who voiced this ridiculous statement was Miller.
However, it was a natural question.
The Cradle of the Dead was Maleus’ land, and all the undead here were subservient to Maleus.
Therefore, controlling such undead was like declaring war against Maleus, so what kind of madman would do such a thing?
Upon hearing Miller’s words, Vera narrowed his eyes and further intensified his focus towards the north.
“…I can’t make out their identity. It’s not that far, so they must be using some kind of method to hide.”
His hand instinctively reached for his Holy Sword.
“Whether they’re a madman or simply a servant scrubbing Maleus’s feet, we’ll find out when we confront them.”
Vera tensed up his body as if ready to move towards the pursuers at any moment.
Since they were about to reach Maleus’s old castle, he thought it best to eliminate any potential threats.
“Saint.”
“Are you going?”
“Yes.”
“Then please capture them alive. We have to consider the possibility that they may belong to another group, right? They might have traced us from outside the Cradle.”
“I understand.”
As Vera responded and took a step forward, he passed on a word of caution to the group.
“I will go alone to capture them. Considering the possibility of a diversion, please protect the Saint.”
Upon finishing his words, Vera shot off towards the north even before they could respond.
***
As he got closer, he began to feel something more clearly.
‘A perception distorting barrier.’
What surrounded this place was a barrier meant to distort one’s perception.
Through this, Vera belatedly realized why he was unable to locate them visually.
‘The fact that they couldn’t hide their presence suggests a lack of ability.’
Despite controlling the undead within the Cradle, their spell was completed rather poorly.
Feeling more suspicious due to this, Vera tightened his grip on his sword as the undead became agitated the closer he got.
‘I will fight back.’
He gathered his divinity. Considering their hostility, there was no need to prioritize talking.
‘All I need to do is capture the human alive.’
The skeletons that were being controlled… Even if they were destroyed, they would eventually find their pieces and start moving again with time, so there was no need to worry about them.
As the distance between him and the group of skeletons gradually lessened, his field of view became clearer.
‘I see them.’
He could see the skeletons tightly gathered around a specific spot.
Vera layered the unleashed divinity over his sword and raised it skyward.
Just as he was about to swing it forward to release his divinity…
Thud—
Vera’s movements stopped.
There was no other reason.
The silhouette seen through the skeletons, the mysterious pursuer whom he had decided to capture alive, was too small.
‘A child?’
No, they were slightly older than a child.
Vera narrowed his eyes and stared at the silhouette.
‘…What?’
A hollow laugh erupted from Vera’s mouth as he fully confirmed the identity of the silhouette.
The one trembling amidst the skeletons was a young girl just entering womanhood.
Strictly speaking, maybe around fourteen years old.
Black hair that almost covered her eyes. Skin so white, almost as if she were anorexic. In addition to her unique appearance, she was wrapped in mere rags rather than clothes, and holding a scythe taller than herself.
What the hell is this?
Such a thought arose in Vera’s mind, causing his expression to become bizarre.
Amidst this, the girl, who had been shivering with her gaze fixed on the ground, sneakily lifted her head to look at Vera.
The moment their eyes met, the girl started convulsing.
…She was shaking so much that the only appropriate word was a convulsion.
And then, she abruptly stood up.
Her anxious eyes, peeking through her bangs, darted around and finally fixed themselves on Vera.
An absurd series of actions.
In response, Vera thought, ‘Let’s see how far this goes’, and watched her actions.
The girl tightened her grip on the large scythe. She took a step forward even though her legs were trembling under her rags, and her eyes had an unexpectedly determined glint.
Immediately after, the girl charged with a pitiful yell while raising her scythe.
“E-Eeyahh~!”
Of course, it was an ineffective attack.
The large scythe swung by the girl broke in half as Vera easily deflected it.
Thump—!
The scythe flew onto the ground, and the girl’s body stiffened.
Her eyes began to move slowly, darting between the blade of the fallen scythe and the handle in her hand.
Suddenly, tears welled up in the girl’s eyes.
Just then.
Crackle crackle crackle!
The skeletons started making a fuss, grinding their teeth together. They seemed somewhat flustered.
From Vera’s perspective, an obvious thought came to mind.
‘Is she an idiot?’
He wondered if this girl was somehow a retard.
As the tense stand-off persisted, the girl raised her arm in a somewhat complicated gesture, possibly to brush away her tears, while biting her lip.
She swiftly wiped her eyes with her arm.
In that instant, Vera, who had been chuckling moments before, held his breath at what was revealed by her action. His eyes widened as if they were going to tear wide open, and without thinking, his hand reached out.
His extended hand roughly grabbed the girl’s arm and rolled up her sleeve.
“Uh, heeek!”
The girl tried to escape with another convulsion, but it was a futile struggle.
The difference in strength between Vera and the girl was simply too great.
Typically, Vera would have released a child showing such resistance, but right now, he could not afford to do so.
The mark engraved on the girl’s forearm was something Vera could not have imagined.
His gaze upon her was as predatory as a beast ready to seize its terrified prey.
‘…A stigma.’
The three-stroked curve forming a concave triangle on her arm, and the power he felt from within was, without a doubt, a stigma.
Creak, creak.
Vera lifted his head.
He was all too familiar with the meaning of this stigma.
‘…The Apostle of Death.’
The Apostle of Death, who only revealed herself to the world when the war with the Demon King was about to break out.
This girl was her.
