The Emperor Who Seals Hell

The absurd Hell Beast that appeared at the end of the fierce battle vanished through an even greater absurdity. I was dazed for a while on the now-silent battlefield, but when I came to my senses, I hurried toward the surface to treat my companions. I was in terrible shape myself, but I was better off than those who were unable to move while completely defenseless.

"Gwoooon!"

"Izam-han!"

"Shichiko? Karu and the others can move already, too?"

Shichiko was the one who called out to me from behind while I was flying. Mossan, Shio, and Karu were flying right beside him. Apparently, the companions who had been in the air had already recovered. What a pleasant miscalculation.

"Ah, well, that's thanks to Karu-chan."

"Karu's?"

"That monster screamed, right? At the time, Karu-chan roared back as if to counter it."

"Apparently, while its voice can cause powerful status ailments by itself, anyone can defend against it simply by disrupting it with another sound or blocking the sound. In fact, it seems Shiratsuki's interior was completely unaffected. In other words..."

"So it's a surprise attack that's easy to defend against if you know how."

It had a powerful effect and a wide range, and could be used with virtually no motion. A technique like that apparently could not be used so freely without any restrictions. There really was a proper way to defend against it. If I ever go to Hell, I'll have to bring earplugs.

"In any case, I'm glad you're all safe. Let's help those suffering from status ailments. Hurry."

"Aye, Boss."

"Let's have Shiitake dispatch the flying Golems. If we disarm them, they should be able to carry about one person on top."

"This is our chance while things are calm, isn't it?"

We flew near the vertical shaft and immediately began rescuing those who had fallen closest to it. I wrapped my tail around Jigorou, Mossan grabbed Genzuro with his feet, Shio lifted the woman who seemed to be the pirate boss, and Shichiko and his summoned crows carried the other pirates.

Following them, Shiitake's Golems dispersed and rescued allies who had fallen all over the battlefield. The miscalculation was that a single unit could not transport the Centaurs. Moreover, someone as large and heavily armored as Legdus-dono required at least three units.

'Uuugh... This is bad and I'm sleepy... This has to be a curse. It must be a curse, yeah.'

After we had recovered about half of them and evacuated them to Shiratsuki and the hill that served as our camp, we heard that voice again. It was the voice we had heard just before the Hell Beast with the heads of various creatures linked together was dragged away.

It seemed everyone had heard that voice, because every person still able to move except the mechanically operating Golems turned toward the vertical shaft. The four of us who could still move, myself included, braced ourselves to respond at any moment, no matter what appeared.

'Huh? There's a hole I don't recognize here, yeah. Since hot air is flowing out, this must connect to Hell, yeah. Did someone dig it little by little? Then Hell Beasts must be getting out, so I have to fulfill my duty, yeah.'

An androgynous, beautiful voice analyzed the situation while muttering to itself. When the monologue ended, a powerful tremor came from the vertical shaft. Anyone who had heard that voice knew that its speaker was about to appear.

This was the opponent that had defeated the grotesque Hell Beasts all at once as though they were mere nuisances. We did not know whether it was friend or foe, but we were not so carefree as to relax just because of that.

The tremors gradually grew stronger, and at last its figure appeared. Three fingers with rounded tips emerged first, with glossy webbing like fine leather stretched between them. Both the fingers and the webbing were pitch-black, without the slightest hint of gradation. These fingertips alone must have been over ten meters in length. If so, I had no idea how enormous the main body could be.

'Urgh, it's tight, but... heave! Oh, I got out, yeah.'

The speaker's head emerged with an air of accomplishment. The fact that it called a vertical shaft a kilometer in diameter "tight" showed just how terrifyingly huge the head alone was. It was larger than a castle, so merely moving forward would flatten any lesser city in its path.

The head was that of a frog, to put it simply. Like the fingers and webbing, it was completely black, with small, horn-like protrusions perched above its beady eyes. Anyone who disliked frogs might have fainted at the sight. Shio had actually recoiled involuntarily. Ignoring its size, however, the sight of it sticking only its head out of the hole was rather endearing.

'Oh? The Hell Beasts are gone, but there seem to be quite a lot of you? The ones flying are the weapons I saw before, and among the monsters banded together... Are those over there survivors? No, they died of old age long ago, didn't they? Yeah. Then you must be their descendants, yeah.'

It surveyed the battlefield by turning its enormous head from side to side and blinking as it analyzed the situation. Some of its references were difficult to follow, but overall, it seemed rational and capable of conversation. We should try speaking to it.

"Um..."

'Hmm. You wear a mask, but judging by your magic power, you're Undead, yeah. And from this aura, you're at least a king, yeah. Yet I can also sense the power of your kind... Interesting, yeah.'

"As you say, I am Undead, but I am a wanderer. My name is Izam."

The enormous frog recognized my true nature at a glance. Realizing that I could never defeat it, I decided to conduct the conversation with the utmost courtesy. I did not want to offend it and end up in its stomach.

'You're Izam-kun, yeah. Then could you tell me about that young fellow coming this way at quite a speed?'

"Gwoooooooooon!!!"

I was about to ask what it meant when Karu flew in at full speed and moved between me and the frog. Apparently, Karu was trying to protect me. I was touched, but at the same time, I wished Karu would stop threatening an opponent vastly superior to us. I did not want to incur any unnecessary displeasure.

The frog responded by laughing happily with a series of croaks at Karu, who was baring his fangs and threatening it. Fortunately, it seemed willing to forgive Karu's rudeness.

'Ribbit ribbit! Children are best when they're full of energy, yeah. From what I can see, you just recently graduated from being a Lesser Dragon, but it seems you've received the Dragon God's blessing, yeah. As an elder, it makes me happy to see a talented, strong youngster, yeah, yeah.'

"Gwooh?"

'I'm not your enemy, so you can relax, yeah. You can think of me as a distant uncle and feel free to act naturally around me, yeah.'

"Your ability to see through my identity and Karu's blessing, your conversation with Karu, and the horns on your head and imposing presence... Forgive my rudeness, but are you perhaps a Dragon Lord or a Dragon Emperor?"

'Correct, yeah. I'm Felfenil, the Ancient Dark Dragon Emperor, yeah.'

Dragon Emperor! The dragons I had met were Agnaslerim-sama and the others, who were Dragon Lords, and Almadelkus-sama, the Dragon God. This was a Dragon whose strength fell between those two ranks.

I had heard that Iris and the others had met him on the Aquaria Islands, so I had wanted to meet him someday. I was happy that my wish had come true in such a way, but I also wondered why he was in a place like this.

'Are you wondering why I'm here? That's because it was the Dragon God's command, yeah.'

"An order?"

'I had two duties. The first was to seal and watch over this hole that opened here and led to Hell, yeah. But someone opened a new hole while I was asleep. Ribbit ribbit.'

Hell might be dangerous enough that Almadelkus-sama assigned a Dragon Emperor to seal it and watch over it. Hell Beasts were violent and numerous, so the duty could probably only be entrusted to someone capable of scattering them with overwhelming power.

In that respect, it would be a simple task for Felfenil-sama. After learning about his form and abilities as a Dragon Emperor, I was certain that the one who had dragged the grotesque Hell Beasts away earlier was his tongue. With that tongue, he could surely eat small Hell Beasts like insects. Even so, they had managed to sneak out under his nose.

'As for my second duty... It seems this one has already been completed, yeah.'

"What do you mean by that?"

'I mean exactly what I said, yeah. I was told to tightly seal away a certain object so no one could ever see it, yeah. But it seems there's no longer any need for that, yeah.'

As I tilted my head at his unclear explanation, Felfenil-sama said, "Please wait a little, yeah," and dove into the vertical shaft. About a minute later, he returned carrying a metal box resembling a container in both hands.

The box was so large that Felfenil-sama had to carry it in his arms. It seemed to have more than ten times the volume of a container loaded onto a cargo ship. What could be inside?

'This, yeah.'

"What is that...?"

'It's from a very long time ago... You know, from around the same era as that ship floating over there, yeah.'

What!? If it was from the same era as Shiratsuki, then it had to be a relic of the First Civilization! The First Civilization seemed to have been highly advanced, so perhaps they had things like this as well.

Come to think of it, most items that did not fit this fantasy world were connected to the ancient civilization. I was an idiot for not realizing that the moment I saw the container.

"May I ask what's inside?"

'I don't mind telling you, but there's something I want to ask first, yeah.'

"If it's a question I can answer, I'll answer it."

'What impression did the inhabitants of this continent make on you? I'd like your candid thoughts, yeah.'

Felfenil-sama's words were gentle, but I sensed a pressure that would never permit lies or evasions. Then I would state the truth boldly. Even if it offended him, so what?

"They are good neighbors, and comrades-in-arms who fought alongside us in this battle."

'I see, yeah. What do you three over there think?'

"M-me!? Uh, they're good folks. They call themselves human knockoffs, but there's no difference on the inside."

"The children are lively and cute! They're so fluffy! Super fluffy!"

"I feel that each Race has certain tendencies in personality, but my impression is that most of them are diligent. Otherwise, they could not have survived in such a harsh environment."

The three of them had been addressed so suddenly by Felfenil-sama, but each offered an opinion from their own perspective. Their impressions were basically favorable, probably because they had cooperated in the face of a common enemy.

Felfenil-sama nodded slowly, then gently placed the container on the ground and held it out to us. What was he planning?

'I understand now, yeah. It seems I truly have one fewer duty now, yeah. I'll give this to you as thanks, yeah.'

"As thanks?"

'I told you that my duty was to keep the Hell Beasts sealed away, yeah? I never imagined they would dig another hole, yeah. The fact that Hell Beasts overflowed onto the surface was the result of my negligence, yeah.'

"And we defeated them."

'Because you performed in my stead what was originally my duty, yeah. Thanks are only proper, yeah. All I did was devour the last Hell Beast, more or less, yeah.'

So he had eaten it after all. More importantly, that grotesque Hell Beast had been the last one!? If so, Mossan and the others, who had happened to discover how to deal with the status ailments, might have been able to defeat it with Shiratsuki. I regretted, even now, that we had not fought all the way to the end ourselves.

However, I had no particular attachment to how we won. I had thought we would gain nothing but peace for the continent, so if we were receiving a reward from a Dragon Emperor, we should have been overjoyed. Still, I had to ask about the quality and quantity of the reward. The reason was simple: distributing it would otherwise be difficult.

"May I ask what's inside?"

'Most of it is ordinary magic items and weapons, yeah. It's packed with things made using the cutting-edge technology of the time, so I think its asset value is high, yeah.'

A whole container full of relics from the ancient civilization...!? There would be enough to go around, with plenty left over! I could hear Shichiko and Shio gasp beside me, but Mossan's reaction was muted.

The reason was obvious: even if they were relics of the ancient civilization, were they really valuable enough for Felfenil-sama, a Dragon Emperor, to go out of his way to protect? The answer came at once.

'And most important of all is "Purity"... It's one of the weapons used in the ancient war.'