Chapter 213
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Long Live The Queen (1) ༻
The world stopped.
No, it was actually slightly different than that.
We were summoned to a “suspended world”.
The scenery of the normal city – people who were still awake from the heat of the festival roaming around looking for food and booze, as well as those who were screaming out how this was the real beginning – all of that was gone.
The only ones that could move were the beings that had the ‘power’ to resist the Primal Rune.
Master immediately saw through the identity of this peculiar change.
“Prime. The first letter, ‘T’.”
The first rune leading to the entrance of Paradise. This rune had invited us to the suspended world of Paradise.
“...I’ve been looking for it the whole time. To think it was here.”
“Tates was the one that hid it.”
A full-on raid of Tates Valtazar, Eochaid Bres, Dun Scaith, Fermack Daman, and the Shadow Demons. The moment there were enough monsters pouring out of the Shadow World, they would immediately attack the city.
“At midnight, this rune that Valtazar hid started to open a path to the other world… the ‘Entrance to Paradise’. It will take 8 hours in total. Once there are enough demonic beasts in the city, it would go ‘Bang!’ and all of them will be out in the real world at once.”
“Reversed Paradise… Didn’t know they would use it in this manner.”
“There was a guy using something similar to this.”
Fermack Daman.
There was the Shadow Fortress that he had summoned in our battle.
This was like a mega-version of that. Due to the sheer size of this mechanism, it could only be used once, however, even using it a single time highly favored them.
“...”
Master’s vision was wider and more profound than mine. She appeared to be gazing at something in the distance even I couldn’t fathom.
“When the Goidels betrayed us and even tried to steal Paradise from us… we left after giving them a curse.”
Eternal time and eternal life. By reversing the eternal power of Paradise, they left it behind as the Shadow Paradise.
“The blessing of eternity soon became a curse, and another world called Shadow was created on this land.”
A land without the Sun, light, or the blessing of earth and the breeze. A world full of nothing but hostility soon gave birth to demons.
“The demonic beasts and spirits of this world… as well as the demi-humans are results of those demonic molecules seeping into the real world. It’s just the result of a small fraction seeping into the world.”
“If they poured out all the monsters that gathered here from Reversed Paradise to the real world, this city would be destroyed in an instant.”
The final act of the Autumn Harvest Festival.
『Downfall of Merkarva Academy』
It was the turning point to the latter portions of the story in ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ and a horrific incident that killed countless people. An endless overflow of demons would crush the city and eventually, the King and his subjects would show up to destroy the Academy.
Originally, it was supposed to be an unclearable game of defense but—
“I wasn’t playing around for the past 2 years.”
I tapped on the Silver Spear. The Resonant Activation of the Silver Spear quietly expanded across the silent world.
[ᛊ] — Sowilo
ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ ᛊ
Runes spread across the entire world. The Rune of the Sun devoured the Shadow and continued shedding light on the city.
“You really put up a lot of runes.”
Erin remembered the runes she engraved over the 300 years of her life in Nazrea. The construction of runes all over the city was a last resort that always saved her life whenever she was in a predicament.
“It’s not in the entire city though.”
The Rune of the Sun brightened up the world; it chased away the darkness and recovered the world of its lost light.
The wicked creatures that hadn’t even formed their bodies yet were greatly afraid of the light from the Sun that could erase their very existence. They avoided the runes and as a result…
“It’s… creating a pathway.”
The demons were avoiding the Rune of the Sun which acted like walls to force them into areas that weren’t lit up. As a result, the demons were forced into “roads” and their movements were restricted.
“This is the real beginning.”
- Kwaaang!
- Kwang!
- Kwagagang!!
The areas where the demons were forced to gather were echoing with ear-splitting roars and thuds. Signs of battle were present everywhere around the clock tower. Each and every one of them resulted in ground-shaking explosions.
“Don’t look down on how many Unique Grades we have on our side.”
Demons were being massacred everywhere.
***
If there were creatures from hell, these would be it.
The world was no longer in motion. As a result of what was left behind with the disappearance of gods, ones without a proper shape started to crawl from the abyss of hell onto the mortal realm.
The time limit was until the coming of morning when the shadow cast on this world would be lifted.
- Kiiii…!
- Kaaaa…!
The former shadows were starting to gain shape. The voiceless creatures soon gained a voice, and the ones without eyes started to obtain them.
In about 6 hours, they would gain a complete shape and be ready to infiltrate the world.
- There are living beings! Find them!
- Find! Find!
However, there were living beings in this Reversed Shadow World.
They were the “Player Party”. To be exact, they were the beings that weren’t affected by the erosion of Shadow due to the “divinity” they possessed.
The instincts of the monsters urged them to shred the living into pieces. Despite not having formed a proper shape yet, they still crawled on top of one another trying to get to the living beings. It was a rather grotesque scene from hell.
“...Hmm. There’s a lot of them.”
“Woof!”
The first point of entry into the Academy – waiting in the middle of the large road for magic carriages was a girl with water-colored hair and a red dog.
“Hing… It feels like I have to deal with the most numbers.”
It couldn’t be helped though. She was a child blessed by mana at the level of great mages. Each of her amplified spells was like a missile that could destroy regions.
“It would have been easier if they had different genders.”
“...”
The moment she hinted at the Curse of Macha, Chunsik, and Daesik flinched behind her… as well as the 150 other slave mages.
A whole army of mages that rivaled the mage squads of the kingdom were lining up behind her.
The 400 slave mages that they acquired after the fall of the Tower of Mages were scattered in groups all across the city. This was one of the reasons why Korin Lork had been so obsessed with obtaining these mages as slaves.
“Mari.”
“Dad. Mom.”
She wasn’t the only one – Duke Marde and Duchess Elencia were here to help as well.
“Can you two take care of the eastern main road? I’ll be fine by myself here.”
“...”
Duke Marde couldn’t hide the look of sorrow he had as he had to watch his daughter in the middle of a battle.
However, he couldn’t dissuade her from doing it either.
His daughter was a vampire who had to shoulder a harsh fate, and a hero who had to protect the world from evil. Although he wanted to stop her as a parent, he knew he shouldn’t. So instead…
“I believe in you, my dear daughter.”
“Yes. I know you will pull this off as well, Mari.”
The two of them left after showing their trust. Turning away from them, Marie gazed at the oncoming hordes of monsters.
It was a hopeless number of enemies but the corners of her lips were lifted in a slant.
“It is a lot but…”
She gathered her mana into a ball.
Her Specialty was in ❰Mana Amplification❱. She was able to amplify elementary-grade spells into demonstrating ten times its original magnitude.
“It won’t be infinite, will it?”
There will be an end.
There is a time limit.
In other words, all she had to do was destroy them again and again until they reached the said time limit.
———!!
Her mana, amplified to the limit, shook the surrounding air with its might.
A Unique-Grade mage. She had been a genius who was considered to become a great mage in the future even before becoming a Vampire.
And now, she even had her demi-human power available.
The Final Boss of the 1st Arc of ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱, Marie Dunareff.
She was one of the strongest characters in existence that the Player Party was unable to beat no matter what they did. Her activation of a grand spell without a single risk factor brought awe in the eyes of the onlooking mages.
“Ohh…”
“Such incredible power…”
Even the Mage Elders of the 8th floor shed tears of admiration and despair before the miraculous sight of mana, brought forth to reality by the child blessed with mana.
The fact that they were serving a being as strong as this was reassuring, but they still couldn’t escape the sense of despair, as they would never be able to escape their fate of being eternal slaves.
❰Snow Flower❱
A storm capable of freezing the world fell on the demons.
***
- Kwak! Kajik!
- Flick…!
The onslaught of sword tempests shredded the monsters into pieces.
A quick sword dance finished with the sword slashing past the neck, the legs, and into the heart. Before the wicked creatures could even gain shape, they got ripped into pieces and were scattered into the air.
“Uwat…!”
That was when the evil claws of a monster flew towards her. It should have been a lethal injury and yet the monster was incredibly persistent, unlike normal demonic beasts. She was unable to react to it in time but—
————
A sword so quick that it reached her before the sound of it sliced the entire hand off.
“U, unni… Thank you.”
“You have become this strong and yet your insufficiency in basic training is still glaringly obvious.”
“B, but, I’m trying my best, you know?”
“Hoh~”
Alicia would have normally shrunk back, but now she was grumbling back at her. Seeing that, Lunia smirked.
“If you cannot end its life in one strike, focus until you have sliced off its head. They are different from living creatures and are more persistent than demonic beasts.”
““Yes! Captain!!””
Elite swordsmen including the Arden sisters were in a formation slicing off the wave of demons.
“I did hear it beforehand but fighting against these other-dimensional demons. Looks like our husband is fighting against quite the foe.”
“He is trying to save the world, after all.”
As a major part of the sword formation, Alicia was slicing through the demons. Lunia was a “Strength” type, whereas Alicia focused more on “Flow”. The combination of the two styles was incredibly oppressing for the demons.
“In any case, it appears that you have gone through a change, Alicia. To think you would talk back to me.”
“T, that wasn’t talking back though?”
Lunia smiled seeing Alicia stutter like that. She had grown a lot from the young girl who couldn’t even look straight into her eyes.
“Umm… Mr. Korin said I was doing great. So… I am probably doing fine.”
“Haha.”
Even her growth and her change were thanks to a man. Lunia thought about how this must be a great example of the saying, “You must meet a good man.”
“I guess we have both found ourselves a good man.”
“K, kuhum…!”
Alicia turned red but didn’t find anything weird with the word, “we”. The sisters were alike in the strangest of places.
“Captain! An extra group is coming here from the right! From what we have seen, they amount up to 2,000!”
An elite swordsman scout shouted from the top of a tall building. Lunia turned in the direction o the swarm before clicking her tongue.
“Indeed that is a lot of them. He was right when he said these harmful creatures were going to swallow the city whole.”
“Should we ask for backup from the mages?”
“Let us send a signal to Duke Marde. There is an endless supply of those slave mages anyway.”
Or, they could also ask for assistance from Dorron and the Warsky Mercenaries who were on standby. Mages from the Tower, elite swordsmen from Arden Household, and the Warsky Mercenaries… there was a lot of manpower on their side.
“Move.”
It was then.
Swish!
The air screamed aloud as something speeded through.
“Kiee?”
“?!!!”
Chains were swung around in a counter-clock direction.
- Babababam!
It appeared like the result of a massive sword swing. Hundreds of monsters were swept away by chains that appeared from nowhere.
“Hiik…”
Alicia flinched from the sheer destructiveness of the attack. Obviously, there was only one person who would violently attack like this.
“Ms. Hua Ran… Can you… be a little more careful maybe?”
“It’s okay. You won’t die.”
The nun in black clothes was using the chains that were supposed to restrict her body as weapons.
The chains were an artifact that could devour an endless supply of aura and restrain the jiangshi. However, after the Saintess lifted the spell from it, it became chains that simply turned bigger the more aura it ate up.
And in the hands of the Heavenly Yaksha, it was a savage weapon more destructive than anything else.
“Were you not assigned to a different location?”
“I killed them all. They ran here so I followed them.”
“I see.”
It was normal for the demons to be afraid.
Fundamentally, the demon race had a tendency to obey an existence that was stronger than themselves.
Vampire Marie and Living Jiangshi Hua Ran possessed qualitatively different demonic aura. The overwhelming sensation from that was bound to instill fear in the demons, who heavily relied on demonic aura.
“I’m heading deeper inside. I will go and crush everything.”
“S, sure thing.”
As soon as she said that, Hua Ran quietly took a deep breath and… jumped.
The chains that were dozens of meters long flew behind the living jiangshi.
What would happen if an unstoppable source of energy were to sprint forward? Hundreds and thousands of demons that came into contact with the jiangshi with Unbreakable Vajra Body were shredded apart and became nothing but living trash.
Hua Ran headed deeper in where there were more demons gathered up.
Along the way, the monsters collapsed like rubbish and their retaliation was futile before the being that could single-handedly threaten a country’s very existence.