Chapter 48
Against a backdrop of white flowers packed densely along the cave walls, viscous demonic energy tinged dark purple undulated while Fulcare lay peacefully asleep within it.
When Vieta saw the back of the suspicious man sitting before Fulcare and cackling, she instinctively knew it. This fight was going to be terribly boring and irritating.
The cliff at the northern beach curved like an inverted S.
Beneath the cliff, which curved inward toward the land, a whirlpool swirled.
Once they passed the cliff where the whirlpool circled, the cliff jutted sharply out toward the sea.
His hideout was halfway up that cliff.
With a vortex frightening enough merely to look at, a tree artfully concealing the entrance, and Pesna masking its presence,
it was a cave that even a powerful mage would have had trouble finding, but Vieta's senses could not be deceived once she had dispelled the spell formation.
Whoosh—.
Vieta tilted her head slightly and dodged the blade of light that had just flown toward her.
It was characteristic of her, seeking the greatest effect with the least movement.
Yet the enemy's attack did not end with one strike.
The relentless attacks flying at her in succession eventually forced even Vieta to move.
Rumble—!
The white flowers in full bloom instantly turned to black ash, and a deep, straight groove was carved into the spot where Vieta had been standing moments before.
‘…Annoying.’
Brushing her damp hair back, Vieta bit her lip.
Black smoke rose, and the magical beast slowly regained its original form.
She had never intended to kill it in the first place, but she was hardly pleased to see the limbs she had painstakingly torn off regenerate perfectly.
“Then is it my turn now?”
With a truly ill-omened smile, the magical beast waved its hand, and demonic energy rose throughout the cave like mist over water.
The flowers burned by the flash and those whose stems had been severed by the beams sprouted buds and blossoms once more, releasing an intense fragrance.
“Ugh.”
Vieta's brow furrowed at the terrible fragrance.
While Vieta hesitated, the magical beast's attack flew toward her heart.
As she caught a faint whiff of Iseria's scent, Vieta leaned her body to the right.
KRA-KA-KA-BOOM—!
Several spears of light were embedded in the cave floor.
Vieta's eyes narrowed at the magic, which was all too familiar.
Every spell the magical beast had used, from their first encounter until now, had belonged to Fulcare.
“You even know how to dodge that.”
The magical beast regarded Vieta with considerable interest.
“Because the spells are far inferior to those cast by their original owner.”
She had tried not to speak because the fragrance was constricting her breath, but the suffocating feeling made her snap back.
“Now that I have such a good scarecrow, I should work hard to use this magic the way its original owner did.”
Several beams of light shot from the magical beast's hand and targeted Vieta.
Vieta watched the light graze past her cheek.
‘It’s definitely come a long way since earlier.’
Vieta's assessment notwithstanding, the magical beast's magic had been clumsy at first; the more it used magic, however, the stronger its power became.
A fragrance that clouded the mind and slowed the body's reaction speed.
An attack using Fulcare's magic, whose offensive power was second to none.
A magical beast that revived again and again even after its limbs were torn off and its chest and head were smashed.
And Fulcare, held captive as well.
Her head, already dizzy from the fragrance, became even more muddled.
‘…It’d be much easier just to kill it.’
If it kept reviving, she could simply crush it again and again until it was too thoroughly pulverized to revive. However, she was restraining herself because she did not know what harm it might cause Fulcare.
“That mage is dreaming. Trapped in the saddest and most painful memory, the mage will become my prey. If you kill me, the mage will never wake up. No one but me can break Pesna's hypnosis.”
When they had first met, the magical beast had muttered this with a sinister smile while she strangled it. There was a good chance it was a lie, but she could not rule it out.
While Vieta hesitated, blade-like beams of light surged toward her.
“!!!”
As Vieta leisurely dodged the magic, Fulcare's deeply furrowed face came into view.
Each time the magical beast used magic, Fulcare's face grew more and more distorted.
“That wretch's suffering shall become my strength!”
As though it had read Vieta's thoughts, the magical beast's cry rang out.
It was another reason to kill the beast.
***
Blanc, shoved into the subspace while clutching the dagger to his chest, noticed a golden orb floating around him.
It was the guide that only those invited into the goddess's subspace could possess.
“Vieta….”
Blanc gripped the dagger and rose to his feet.
Vieta had told him to call Iseria or Theodor, but he had no idea how he was supposed to summon them.
The only thing he could do right now was follow the guide.
After walking for a long while through the pitch-black subspace, using crumbling clusters of light as stepping stones, a blindingly intense light suddenly burst from the empty air.
Though Blanc frowned at the strange phenomenon he had never seen before, he did not look away until the very end.
Soon, within the pure white light, an even more radiant human figure came into view.
[Blanc Alexandro de Reber, son of the Reber imperial house and the Empire's one and only heir.]
Wavy golden hair fluttered in the air, and clear eyes resembled the autumn sky.
The woman who appeared before Blanc was the goddess Aurea, ruler of the subspace.
[At your behest, I have come.]
The goddess appeared from the light and slowly descended before Blanc like a falling feather.
“….”
Though startled by the goddess's unexpected appearance, Blanc immediately knelt before her and paid his respects.
With his head bowed, Blanc offered a plea to the goddess who guarded the Empire and, by extension, the world.
“Goddess, please help my friends.”
It was a truly desperate plea, filled with sincerity.
But the answer that came in return was so cold that it could hardly have been considered a guardian's response.
“I cannot grant that request.”
“…Did you not appear because you intended to help us?”
Aurea gazed at Blanc, who was looking at her, with a pained expression.
According to the prophecy, her younger sister, the Demon King, was not fated to die in the first place.
Besides, the goddess and the Demon King were like two fruits born from a single root.
That was why she could not kill the Demon King with the three gems she possessed.
Neither the prophecy nor her own power allowed for the Demon King's death.
Yet, to prevent an eternal conflict, the goddess dared to defy the prophecy.
As the price for summoning a hero to kill her younger sister, she lost most of her divine power.
She remained hidden for three years after the Demon King's death in order to serve a thousand days of penance.
During those thousand days, Aurea drifted through the boundless universe, shattered into countless fragments.
Yet Aurea had never revealed these circumstances to anyone except Theodor.
For a goddess, revealing her own failings or seeking cheap sympathy was utterly unforgivable.
“Instead, Iseria will arrive soon, so why don't we walk until then? You might come up with another good idea as we walk.”
She had lost her sight and hearing long ago; as a goddess who had disrupted the world's causality, she could no longer interfere in the world.
Even so, since it was a world she had created, she could not simply stand by and watch with her hands folded.
There might be aftereffects, but with her current power, she thought she could at least offer simple advice.
“I will follow you, Goddess.”
Having understood what the goddess meant, Blanc rose to his feet.
*
After concluding his cryptic exchange with the goddess, Blanc returned from the subspace to the original world with a branch in his hand.
It was a small, slender branch that appeared to be less than thirty centimeters long. Iseria had given it to him from the Guardian Tree, explaining that it was sufficient to absorb demonic energy and purify its surroundings.
Iseria had explained to Blanc how to deal with Pesna, the flower of the Demon Realm.
“The master of Pesna will keep reviving until every Pesna in that area has been eradicated.”
Blanc held both palms up and chanted the incantation Iseria had taught him.
Before long, a massive magic circle of blue light began to form in front of him.
-Chirp.
A long-tailed bird sprang from the magic circle and flew up the cliff in an instant.
Following the bluebird up the hill, Blanc saw an endless field of white flowers spread out before him.
Amid the thickly blooming white flowers, the bluebird sat quietly, waiting for Blanc.
Everything was exactly as Iseria had said.
“Follow the bluebird. And plant the branch where the bird lands.”
Holding the scent pouch the elf had given him beneath his nose, Blanc followed the bluebird into the middle of the flower field, raised the branch, and drove it forcefully into the ground.
“You have only one chance. No matter what happens, never let go of the branch.”
Even though there was no wind, Pesna's white petals all shot up toward the sky at once, and Blanc's mana began streaming out with tremendous force through the hand gripping the branch.