Chapter 70

Chapter 3 The Day to End the Myths Ten miles from the Holy City, the foundation of the Goddess’s church… Elen’s underground shelter was deep in the mountains. It was originally small, meant for only one person, but several extensions had turned it into an expansive facility that could easily fit an entire castle. Inside were perfect rows of magic conductors. None were smaller than the national treasure of Tigris Kingdom, the Tears of Matteral. Attached to the conductors, the electrical circuit flickered on in an infinite loop. One of them flashed with blinding light. A man appeared out of warped space. He had no head. The symbol of the Goddess was carved into his right hand. A hero blessed with the Goddess’s protection. He’d been killed in a surprise attack by a monster, triggering the curse to bring him to the underground facility using Apport. “Initiate recovery.” A wooden golem started moving, lifting his body and placing it on a conveyor belt. At the end was a large vat with crushed bones, blood, and the meat of animals captured in the area. The hero was flung into the blood and sinew. Another golem switched on a magic conductor connected to the vat. “Initiate resurrection.” That acted as a tank, supplying magic to another conductor imprinted with the spell, activating Resurrection. The missing head was immediately replaced, formed from the contents of the vat. The process, which used his genetic information, recovered only the body. There wasn’t anything left inside his mind. That was why the golem lifted the man out of the blood to place him on another conveyor belt. At the end was a crude bed, where he was laid to rest by another anthropomorphic being that strapped him into a contraption shaped like a helmet connected to conductors via cables. “Initiate install.” The golem pressed a button, activating the spell. That pumped a flow of information into the hero’s new brain, returning his memories until death, which had been stored in the conductor via the hero’s symbol on his palm. His body jerked, convulsing, but the install process completed without any issue. Before he awoke, the anthropomorphic puppet pressed another button. “Initiate delivery.” The button activated Asport, sending the hero to the church closest to where he died. That was the system that created the immortal heroes given the Goddess’s protection. “Faster than reinstalling the OS on your computer,” the Demon King’s advisor would comment if he ever saw the place. But a normal person with normal emotional faculties would vomit in disgust. If they were a hero who had died at least once, it would destroy their sense of self. Its inventor was a floor above this facility. The genius magicologist who treated humans like objects. Elazonia was in the research lab, casting spells on lumps of ore. “Element Conversion…Shape Change…” It transformed to copper, gold, or silicon. Pieces as small as one micron were worked together to make the electrical circuits that attached to magic conductors. “Would it be faster to build a manufacturing plant?” Elazonia spoke to herself as she pinched the finished circuit between her fingers. One look at any design, and she could pull it from memory with Search. That gave her everything to know about circuits. However, she had no knowledge of making a manufacturing line for mass production, which meant she’d have to design a factory from the ground up. It would technically be more efficient if she intended to mass-produce them. She picked up the circuit and walked to a large metal casket that could fit ten grown adults. As with the hero resurrection device, it had a number of cables connecting to magic conductors. Elazonia attached the finished circuit and glanced at a huge pillar of ice placed beside it. In her eyes were disgust for demons and unconcealed joy. “I can’t believe something of utility would come from the demons. I suppose it can be attributed to his species.” The Blue Demon King was a cut above the rest, even though his kin were constantly exposed to the Blue Dragon. Even compared with the abnormal capacities of cardinals, he still regenerated magic magnitudes faster. “You’re the best magic generator.” Elazonia laughed, stroking the pillar of ice that encased him. Her complicated plan to take a hostage and capture the king of the demons was all to use him as a magic generator. Elazonia’s power was crowdfunded from her millions of followers, but that wasn’t enough. The majority had none to offer, and the waves became weaker over distance, since she wasn’t using direct contact to absorb their magic. Only the heroes were the exception. Her curse strengthened their connection, giving her a large boost. However, it was far from efficient, since she had to resurrect them, wasting her previous stores. “Those little shits are dragging me down!” Her face clamped down in anger when she remembered their stupid faces. The perverts who enjoyed getting off by the elves were bad enough. In fact, she’d regretted ordering the destruction of the Elven Tomb, which she feared contained records of Elen. That said, they had a decent arrangement in place. The heroes fought the elves every ten days and contributed magic to her, leveling out at net zero. She could handle that. Fine. However, she would never forgive former bishop Hube for leading an army of ten thousand heroes against the Demon King. That had resulted in the deaths of more than seven thousand men—all without contributing a single ounce of magic. She blew through years of magic stores on their resurrections. And because his new heroes had no skills, dying often wasted more of her powers! “Maybe I should kill them like Hube.” It had crossed her mind before, but it would only result in the ignorant masses believing in the existence of Elazok the Evil God, which was all from the imagination of the advisor of demons. Its name was obviously a play on hers. It would really suck to lose followers because she didn’t save them from his clutches. But these days of irritation would soon come to an end. “From now on, I’ll have more magic than I can use.” The metal casket was a magic collection device. It would encase the Demon King, where he would be intravenously administered water and nutrients. She would reap his magic for years to come as he remained neither living nor dead. With all the costs involved, the net amount of magic from a normal mage was in the red, which was why she hadn’t implemented this before. But in the Blue Demon King’s case, the total balance swung in positives. “Next is mass production.” As Elazonia looked up his huge body, her lips curled into a happy smile. Why have only him…when she could make clones? With tens of thousands of Demon Kings, she could have a magical power plant. That way, she wouldn’t need her stupid followers. She could convert all the mana in the world to magic, pumping her with enough power to defeat the demons, the dragons, and everything else. “The problem is safety.” She sat on the magic collection device, furrowing her brows. She had the knowledge and power to re-create a hero from thin air using their genetic information. Cloning was simple. But if she made tens of thousands of Demon Kings, one might escape its confines and revolt against her. “Should I break their spirits?” Not like torture. That was how the church punished heroes for their crimes. She could surgically remove a sliver of their brains, keeping them alive but rendering them harmless. There was one major problem. “Their rate of production would drop…” The biological system to produce magic didn’t have a material form, like the heart and lungs. It was technically the entire body, though even Elazonia didn’t understand the specifics. If she did, she wouldn’t have bothered capturing the Demon King, instead weaponizing Creating Life to make a living magical power plant. But based on data available from various studies, deficient body parts weren’t the only things that decreased magic production. Even psychological changes, like a shift in personality, could make it worse. “The mind is just a collection of electrical impulses fired between neurons, but it can impact a physical particle like mana.” Elazonia decided that once things calmed down, she might try to clone the Demon King and conduct experiments to unravel the mystery behind magic production systems. But first, she needed to deal with a more immediate problem. “Does the device need any fundamental improvements? I could improve the durability of the materials. Or secure him in a large cross to render his limbs immobile. Or bleed him of magic to the point of death, which would prevent him from casting any spells…” She wandered around the large research lab, muttering to herself just like a certain advisor. Her eyes focused on something. “What is that?” It was a small casket embedded in machinery. It looked like one of her magic collection devices, but she didn’t recognize this thing. She suspiciously opened the lid of the casket, remembering when she saw what was inside. “Oh, it’s Elen.” It was the dried body of the girl with scales on her chest. Skin and bones now. It was her former self. About three hundred years ago, she had sucked magic from her own body. Her religion was still new. It was right around the time when she chose Eument to become the first pope. She barely had followers. The shell of a body had excelled at producing magic, enough to maintain her ghost form. Just the thought of it made her want to hurl. She must have erased her memory of it, and it must have reached the end of its life, forgotten in this casket. “…Filthy.” Elazonia looked at her own corpse with contempt. “Return to atomic dust, Disintegrate.” The body of Elen burst into particles of light, transforming into a white dust. Elazonia used Asport to remove it outside the shelter before placing a hand to her own head. “Uninstall.” As a ghost, Elazonia’s memory wasn’t fuzzy like memory in a human brain. It was precise and clear like a computer. She had already wiped out any events related to her human form. She was the Goddess of Light now, worshipped by millions of followers. It no longer served her to have memories of Elen—pitiful, unloved, and alone. “…Oh. What was I doing?” She couldn’t remember why she was standing in front of this small casket. There were other things that needed her attention. She turned away from the empty container to carry them out. “I must pick up speed to get those beasts by making more Demon Kings and magic collection devices.” She couldn’t even remember why she’d originally wanted to destroy them in the first place…which was why she couldn’t reflect on the past or her shortcomings. All she could do was press forward to achieve her goal. Just as she was about to begin experimentation on her magic collection devices, she could feel a few different magic sources. “How annoying.” Someone was interrupting her fun. She clicked her tongue. The door to the confidential facility was blown off its frame by the maggots she’d forgotten about. She’d been too focused on dealing with the Demon King. “Like moths to the flame.” “What a coincidence. We have a similar saying where I’m from.” She’d always gotten a bad feeling from this boy with black hair, Shinichi Sotoyama. The corners of his mouth curled up, returning her sneer with a fearless smile. Elazonia didn’t seem fazed when Shinichi, Arian, Rino, Celes, and Regina burst into the facility. In fact, she smiled when she noticed the Blue Princess of War—and her potent magic waves. “Oh! Another potential generator. A good match for the Demon King. I love when I have more samples to dissect.” “What was that?” Regina glared at the egotistical Goddess, her frozen husband in the background. If looks could kill, Elazonia would be dead. Shinichi raised his hand to stop Regina from pouncing on her before nudging Rino forward. The daughter of the Demon King was nervous as she took a step toward Elazonia. “Elen, stop all of this!” she said. “……” Elazonia’s silent stare bore into her, but that didn’t keep Rino from speaking up. “I understand you hate us because of your horrible experiences as a human. But not all of us are bad.” “……” “My mommy and daddy are demons, but they’re very powerful and cool and have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying weaklings. Sirloin and Kalbi are strong and kind and love to work in the fields and gather vegetables from the forests.” “……” Rino was desperately rattling off the good qualities of her kin, but nothing changed in the Goddess’s expression. “My friend Marine, who’s a mermaid, always sings—” “Force,” she suddenly interrupted, launching an invisible force. “Aaah!” Rino reflexively put up a magical barrier, but it didn’t block the spell completely. She skidded backward across the floor. “Are you all right?!” “I–I’m okay.” Shinichi rushed over. She tried to smile at him, lifting up her scraped cheek. Elazonia looked down at them. “I was generous enough to lend you an ear. But blabbering forever about demons? And some unknown woman named Elen? If this is a joke, I’m not laughing.” “What…?” Rino almost started to wonder if she had the wrong person. However, Shinichi figured it out. Sweat beaded on his brow. “Did you erase your memories as her?” “What are you talking about?” “Have you forgotten about Fey? The professor? Your parents? Your boyfriends? Have you forgotten about your life as a human?” “Absurd.” Elazonia snorted at his grave look. “I am Elazonia, Goddess of Light. I don’t have parents or friends—not like feeble little humans.” “No way…” She wasn’t lying or bluffing. Rino fell to her knees, understanding the gravity of things. She had even managed to wipe away the last thing connecting her ghost form to her corporeal body—her memories as Elen. How could you try to get rid of your roots? Seething internally, Shinichi pitied her. He could never bring himself to forget the pain of Nozomi’s death, which had hardened him and became emotional scar tissue. It was integral to his current identity. However, Elazonia had no reservations about deleting everything about her past. Every moment from elation to sorrow—it was all gone. When we met last time, there was still something human about her… After all, she’d ordered the destruction of the Elven Tomb—which must have contained damning evidence—but not the elves who guarded it. She must have felt something about murdering her surviving coworkers and their descendants. Who knew if one of the ten people who escaped the legion was Fey or the professor? Even if the other staff of the Magicology Department couldn’t scrub her of her lifelong resentment, she had hesitated to brutalize her acquaintances. Her transformation into the Goddess Elazonia was complete when she threw away her last shred of humanity. “Rino, she’s already…” Shinichi urged her to give up, but Rino stood again, face crumpling as she went against Elazonia. “Okay, Elazonia. I want to ask you again. Please return my daddy.” “……” “And please make a grave for Fey. Then we can apologize and be friends. How does that sound?” Setting aside her anger, she stretched out her hand as a symbol of their friendship. Any normal person would regret their crimes and accept that hand. Even the most callous would waver. But inside the figure in front of her, there was nothing resembling a human heart. “Force.” For a second time, an invisible shock wave collided with Rino, taking Shinichi along as he tried to cover her. “Aaah!” “What’s a disgusting demon trying to do, ordering around a god? Die!” What a waste of time. Furious, Elazonia began to cast a serious spell at her. “Cremated by divine anger and turned to ash. Lightning Vortex.” It was the same lightning spell she’d used to kill her parents. Powerless to get to his feet, Shinichi hugged Rino as they faced the white glare threatening to incinerate them into dust. At that moment, Arian leaped in front of them, slicing the incoming ray with a horizontal strike. It was sucked into the blade of her sword, vanishing like it had never existed. “You again.”