Quit The Hero Party

*

EP.496 The Path That Continues from the Past (7)

*

Inside the tower at its end.

The moment Resti stepped into the tower, splash, water splashed up. Resti looked down at her feet. Black water was flowing like a stream. It seemed to be cascading down from the topmost level of the tower.

“······.”

Resti narrowed her eyes.

This black water was different from the sludge she had encountered before. It was neither sticky nor clung to her feet. It simply flowed downward.

Splat.

Against the flowing stream, Resti headed toward the topmost level of the tower. With each level she ascended, the scattered corpses came into view. They were the remnants left by the strike force that entered the tower a step ahead.

Had they overcome the forces of the Braver?

Silently, Resti followed the traces they left behind. How long had it been? Suddenly, Resti stopped in her tracks. She had no choice but to stop.

“Are you here?”

Everyone was standing still at that spot.

Belnoa let out a long breath and tucked her hair behind her ear. The great hall was filled with the corpses of knights. They were the death knights summoned by the Braver.

Crack.

Belnoa stomped on the head of a struggling knight, crushing it, and turned to Resti. He did not ask many questions.

“What’s outside?”

“Destel has joined us.”

Nodding, Belnoa pointed with his arm to the far end of the great hall. There was a door leading deeper into the tower. It was the starting point of the flowing water, and the writhing black tentacles guarded the heart of the tower.

As the strike force caught their breath while staring at the tightly closed door, the first Braver was waiting for them there. The great evil they had to face was present.

As everyone steadied their breathing and resolved themselves, splash, a droplet of water splashed up. Someone moved through the still strike force.

“······.”

Belnoa, standing at the front, silently stepped aside. She passed by Belnoa and took her place at the forefront. Everyone looked at her back.

Stella, Ayla Clen Cartedia.

Or, the Queen of Cartedia.

Her platinum blonde hair, tied into a single braid, and the hem of her clothes embroidered with the symbol of the Kingdom of Cartedia fluttered. She reached for a sword at her waist. Kaang, she drew the sword.

Naturally, she was not a knight, and since she was not a knight, what she held was not a sword for cutting something. What she drew was a symbol.

A sword that connected the last queen of Arcadia to the founding lineage of Cartedia and the present. When she was young, Ayla did not understand the meaning contained in this sword, but now, having realized all truths, she could comprehend its significance.

“There is poison that festers.”

Holding the sword, Ayla began to move.

“There is poison that has wandered the world hundreds, thousands, or possibly far longer. Poison that forces choices, tramples pride, crushes beliefs, and regards humanity merely as its own artwork.”

As she walked, the splashing sound ceased, and the black water no longer splashed up. The moment she stepped forward, starlight blossomed at her feet like flowers.

“The poison that hides in the deepest place.”

The rising starlight pushed away the black water.

Pushing through the black water, Ayla moved forward. The strike force began to move in her wake.

“To drive away that poison, I stand here, and we have arrived here with the help of many people.”

“Until the day Arcadia is called an empire.”

The queen who repeatedly lived her life to stop the Braver, who even sacrificed her own soul at the end.

“May my sacrifice not be in vain.”

A scribe who dedicated his entire life to passing on the queen’s will and ensuring it carried on to future generations.

“At this moment, in this place.”

Ayla raised her sword.

The sword she held was a conductor leading an orchestra, a will that continued from the past. Following the tip of the raised sword, starlight bloomed.

“I shall fulfill an ancient wish.”

She swung the blooming starlight.

The swirling starlight struck at the tentacles that wrapped around the door. The tightly shut door began to open with a kugung sound. Beyond the opening, there was a vast space. And at the end lay a throne.

Ayla lifted the tip of her sword toward the figure seated on the throne.

“The first Braver, Acrita Clen Arcadia.”

Acrita smiled as he looked at the sword pointed at him. With an arrogant chin held high, he snapped his fingers. At that moment, the tower began to shake.

Kugugugung.

Ignoring the quaking ground, the strike force entered the great hall. Centered around Ayla at the front, the strike force positioned themselves.

The dragon sorcerer, Belnoa van Dragonik.

The hero, Chloe of the Raging Current.

The saint, Natida.

Master of the Ashen Tower, witch Resti Elenoa.

They were the talents uncovered and nurtured by a certain mage, sharpened to face the Braver. From the ends of the continent, they drew their weapons.

“Exterminate.”

Ayla struck down with the sword she lifted.

“Commence.”

The entry was quicker than expected.

The Braver scowled, glancing at the strike force that had entered the great hall. They had entered quickly. They didn’t seem to have sustained significant injuries, and the outside was growing quiet at a rapid pace.

…Such a force wouldn’t easily be defeated?

Had a variable occurred? However, for now, it wasn’t a variable that greatly concerned him. This was within the range of calculations. The Braver lightly tapped on the throne.

“······.”

Seated there, resting his chin, the Braver gazed at those who had stepped into the great hall. Among them, the figure that drew his eye the most… was the girl at the forefront aiming the sword at him.

Ayla Clen Cartedia.

When Acrita had infiltrated the royal castle under the name ‘Izak’, he had watched over the girl’s childhood. Stella had the talent of a prodigy, but reliant on starlight and possessing a fragile nature, he had judged that she would not become a great figure.

It was rather the First Princess, Lruiel, whom he deemed dangerous. He thought she resembled Arcadia’s last queen, who had cornered him.

But then the Braver smiled.

‘She’s changed.’

This was not the Ayla Clen Cartedia he once knew. She was not the fragile girl who had depended on the stars, trembling in fear. Standing there was a ruler governing a nation, a person who inherited the will of the past.

Not just her.

The boy who carries the legacy of the dragon sorcerer, the hero reminiscent of Gletus of Regulation, a saint who doesn’t believe in the stars, the master of the tower who has awakened the abilities of the Watcher. Even within this darkness, they possessed their own unwavering conviction that did not lose starlight.

This meant they were qualified to face the existence outside of shadows.

‘However.’

In other words, that was all there was.

Acrita chuckled.

Those gathered here were the sharpened swords that Raniel van Trias had honed to face him. But to Acrita’s eyes, those blades were dull beyond compare.

Only possessing the shape of a sword.

Merely dull blades that had not been sufficiently sharpened.

Compared to the sister who had bitten into his neck in the past, they were nothing but insignificant. In comparison to the first heroes who had raced across this continent, they were feeble sparks.

‘Only such pathetic things.’

To challenge me with this?

Acrita scoffed.

“Is that even possible?”

The Braver waved his hand.

In that moment, the trembling ceiling of the tower, the walls, and the floor began to collapse. The space was replaced by surging black tentacles. The crimson tentacles writhed, swallowing the great hall.

Creeeak, kkkkkh!

With creaking and twisting sounds, the space began to tear apart. Breaking and separating, the black water began to pour out from the twisted space. With the flooding waves of black, a black mist began to settle over the great hall.

And then, kuung.

Something enormous struck the ground of the great hall, causing the already cracked structure to start to crumble. The collapsing great hall, the collapsing tower. The strike force, along with the Braver, fell into the massive underground space hidden within the tower’s end.

“······.”

The stench of blood, the foul odor of rotting things.

The strike force that had fallen into the underground space filled with the stench slowly raised their heads. Just before their fall, they clearly had seen it. Something enormous that had slammed into the ground, clearing the mist. An enormous arm that had surged from below the tower…

The mist cleared.

The black water rippled.

The tentacles converged in one place.

And then, revealing its form was a colossal being reminiscent of a black dragon. No, it was not a living creature. Those that were already dead… Could not be called a living being; it was something fashioned together from the bones of dozens, hundreds, and thousands of skeletons.

Kuung.

A tremendous arm, made of bones and tentacles, struck the ground like a fortress turret. Every time the black heart in its ribcage pulsed, black water surged forth. The gaping skull exuded black mist.

The giant skeleton, half-buried in darkness.

An existence made of the already deceased.

■■, ■■■■■■■■■■■!

A god on the verge of completion roared.

At the same time, the towers embedded in the imperfect god’s spine began to resonate in order. With the sound of tearing screams, the dark light in the bones glinting crimson.

…The mage who had cast away everything to reach the truth ultimately encountered that truth.

The one who swallowed truth at the end of the path of magic.

The ancient lich, Skebal, greeted the strike force.

“···This is where the plan ends.”

Rolling her bandages, Raniel tilted her head. Tap, tap. She glanced at Kyle, seated across from her by the crackling fire, and spoke.

“Do you have any questions?”

“No, nothing in particular. If you think it’s a feasible plan you concocted… then, I suppose it can be done.”

Raniel smirked.

“I didn’t think you’d agree so simply.”

“I’m sure you have a list of counterarguments ready, so why bother asking? It’s not like we’re doing operations for just a day or two.”

Kyle shrugged.

“Still, if there’s one thing that bothers me… .”

Polishing his sword, Kyle said.

“It’s about the existence of the first Braver.”

“Why the Braver?”

“Like you said, if the moment the shadow falls here, the Braver creates a new Demon Lord… it means the Braver has already finished preparing, right?”

Kyle had glimpsed into Cardi’s memories.

Recalling the scene where the first Braver swallowed Aradia’s old castle, Kyle continued.

“I think there’s something by the Braver that didn’t become a god but gained the right to touch the heavens.”

“That makes sense.”

“But can you still be sure?”

Can you still be certain that the strike force sent there will win? Kyle asked. Raniel chuckled softly.

“Sorry, but that’s exactly my certainty.”

“…What do you mean?”

“I can be sure because there is an existence waiting to become a god, a presence that will disrupt the natural order. I believe we can win.”

Gazing at the flickering fire, she continued.

“The moment the Braver’s plan is on the verge of completion, the point where they aim to upset the balance and achieve their goal is precisely the end of the chessboard.”

“The end of the chessboard?”

“Yes, the end of the chessboard.”

Raniel wiggled her fingers.

Mana took shape in the air, forming a Pawn. She placed the chess piece made of mana onto the edge of the chessboard she had created in the air.

“At the edge of the chessboard, the Pawn gains the chance for promotion.”

The promoted Pawn…

“Becomes a queen. A true queen.”

Pointing at the transforming piece at the edge of the chessboard, Raniel smiled.

“The children are more suited to face the Braver than me. Only they can stand at the opposite end of the Braver’s presence. So, I believe.”

That they will win.