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Apparently, all these exchangeable features were in the other box.
“This is really convenient!” Regina said enthusiastically.
“Y-yeah…?” Riselia asked, confused.
“What’s this? This looks like fun.” Veira peeked in from behind them. “…Who’s this girl? Some kind of doll?”
“—Yes. It’s this era’s type of Magia Droid,” Leonis said.
Revealing she was the Deus Machina would make things tricky, so Leonis lied. Thankfully, none of the other Dark Lords ever saw Schwertleite in this form.
“Hmm. Magia Droid technology really has advanced,” Veira mused.
She lost interest and returned her attention to the dishes on the table. Rivaiz was still focused solely on Regina’s paella.
“Are you hungry, Leite? You can join us for dinner,” Riselia said as she pulled the Deus Machina out of the box and helped her take off the vinyl cover placed on her.
“Then please replenish my mana.” Schwertleite said, pointing at the mana socket on the wall.
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…Drip.
A water droplet fell from the ceiling, hitting Leonis’s forehead.
“…My word. Things have become rowdy.”
It was after the lively dinner with the Dark Lords. Leonis retired to the bathroom, where he dipped in the bath, heaving a sigh.
It’s been a few days since he last took a proper bath. He sank his face into the water that had a bath salt applied to it and blew some bubbles.
—There was much to think about.
The other resurrected Undead King. And Elfiné, who emerged from the Void tear…
Unlike Riselia, Elfiné was not Leonis’s minion. She was just a human girl, and Leonis had no obligation in particular to save her.
“…”
Leonis looked up at the ceiling, closed his eyes and thought in silence. After a dozen or so seconds of contemplation…
…Right. Her Holy Sword’s ability will be useful for the Dark Lords’ Armies.
That was his conclusion.
The Eye of the Witch’s probing powers could be used to detect Roselia’s reincarnated body. He could recruit her into the Dark Lords’ Armies after saving her.
…Hmm, yes. Elfiné will eventually work under me. And so as a Dark Lord, I must punish those who take away that which is mine with the utmost severity…
He nodded to himself, satisfied with that reasoning.
And also…
The Phillet Company that spearheaded the D-Project seemed to be backing the former Dark Lords’ Armies officers who were trying to resurrect the Six Heroes and Dark Lords. Pursuing Elfiné would no doubt lead Leonis to them.
And—
To the other Undead King, who stole the Demon Sword from me…
He clenched his fist within the tub, casting his glance outside the bathroom’s small window. The formation in the night sky seemed completely different from how it looked one thousand years ago.
Another world, that split from this one seven hundred years ago and was now separated from it by space-time. The ominous, red, glowing Star of Calamity was nowhere to be seen now. The way Veira explained it, that red star was but a shadow that appeared when the two worlds’ phases approached and began to overlap.
…Which explains why it seems to come and go.
But then, the words Roselia told him one thousand years ago came to mind.
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—In a thousand years’ time, when the stars fall from the heavens, one who is human but harbors the soul of the Goddess shall appear.
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The stars in the havens—could it have meant the Star of Calamity? If so… Would that star falling mean the time when the Void World overlapped with this one?
“…”
Leonis dropped his gaze to his left arm. When he touched the Goddess’s Altar, the miasma emanating from it placed a seal on his left arm, barring him from using his Holy Sword.
During the discussion in the Dark Lord’s Castle, Leonis intentionally kept something unsaid…because he unconsciously didn’t want to think about it.
But he heard her voice in the Void World.
—Aah. You’ve finally come to fulfill your promise, Leonis.
When he defeated the Spirit King who had become a Void Lord, he did, in fact and in certainty, hear her voice.
If her soul was incarnated into the Void World…
If Roselia Ishtaris had already been corrupted by the power of emptiness…
How am I going to…?
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Promise me. If, in the distant future, I turn into something else,
I want you to use this Demon Sword to kill me.
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An old promise from the past, sealed within his memories. Did she know the world would be encroached upon by the power of emptiness and split in two?
And maybe she knew the Undead King’s soul would be parted in two, as well…
Roselia ordered the Deus Machina to protect the Rognas Kingdom ruins. The Deus Machina was an ultra-ancient Magia Weapon. And despite being in the Void World, both Schwertleite and the Machina Soldiers that were her subordinates were unaffected by the emptiness’s corrupting presence. This was likely because they were not originally life-forms, so they couldn’t become Voids. And thanks to this, they were able to defend the Undead King’s seal.
Ironically enough, it wasn’t the Voids but an Artificial Elemental produced by the humans that usurped control of the Deus Machina and undid the seal.
Would repairing the Deus Machina’s memories help me learn anything about Roselia?
Leonis splashed hot water over his face.
…I’m getting a bit dizzy.
His frail child’s body irritated him. When he had his undead body, he could spend days in thought without needing to pause for self-care.
But just as he got to his feet, deciding to leave the bath, he saw a figure move on the other side of the bathroom’s half-transparent door.
“…?!”
He slipped in the bath out of surprise, and then—
“Leo, I’m coming in!”
The door opened, and Riselia came in, covered in only a towel.
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