Sakuya bit her lips and looked down at her hands.
“If my sister really was raised from the dead, is there a way to…kill her?” Sakuya asked quietly, her expression much more tense than usual.
“There are a few ways of killing an undead,” Leonis replied earnestly, out of respect for her attitude. “First, the undead are all fundamentally weak to fire. If you burn a body to ashes, it won’t be able to be resurrected. They’re also susceptible to holy attacks… But achieving that can be difficult.”
Holy spells weren’t passed down to this era, after all.
“Besides that, there are different ways to dispose of different types of undead. Some can be destroyed by being smashed to pieces, others burn away in the sun. But there are also some truly unthinkably powerful types that can keep rising from the dead even after you burn them down to ashes or purify them with holy light.”
The Undead King was one such example.
“…All right. Then,” Sakuya whispered sternly and raised her head, “i-is it… possible to save someone who became undead?”
…So that was your real question.
Leonis shook his head slowly. “Once someone’s become undead, they can never go back to what they once were.”
“…Never ever?”
“Never ever.”
The power of sorcery was capable of raising the dead, but making someone who became undead revert to being alive was a miracle even the Holy Woman of the Six Heroes wasn’t capable of.
“…If a Dark Lord is saying that for certain, it must be true.” Sakuya gripped the sheets on the bed tightly. Her head was hung, making her expression invisible over her forelocks. “All right. I’ve made my peace, then.”
She raised her head, rose from the bed, and slipped her shoes back on.
“Thank you for answering my questions. I’m sorry I took up your time.”
“Ah, Miss Sakuya…,” Leonis called out to her. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you, too.”
“…What? If it’s the color of my panties, it’s pink.”
“O-oh, is that right… Wait, no!” Leonis shouted, red in the face.
Seeing Sakuya return to her usual attitude was a relief, though. He cleared his throat.
“Miss Sakuya, you use a Demon Sword’s power, don’t you?”
Sakuya stopped where she stood and turned to look at him.
“…So you noticed. I guess we both hold each other by our secrets.”
“I saw you use it when we entered the Dark Lord’s Castle. At the time, I thought it was like when Miss Regina Mode Shifts her Holy Sword.”
“I see. So now that you know my secret, what do you intend to do, boy?” Sakuya’s eyes fixed on Leonis sharply. “…A-are you going to go about it the Dark Lord’s way and investigate my body directly?”
“…Wh-what do you think being a Dark Lord means?!”
“Is that not what it means? I mean, you’re at that age, boy…”
“Or are you not attracted to my body at all? That’s a bit insulting in its own way…” was what the displeased look she gave him seemed to express.
“No. What I wanted to ask is if you’re using a Demon Sword, isn’t your mind being corrupted by it like other Demon Swords users…?”
“Oh, I understand. Because of Miss Finé.”
“—Yes.”
If Sakuya had some way of staving off the corrupting effects of her Demon Sword, it may have been possible to do the same with Elfiné’s current state.
“I’m sorry, but…” Sakuya shook her head. “Using the Demon Sword corrupts me with the power of emptiness just the same. I’m no exception. It’s just that my Demon Sword, Yamichidori, is a little different. It’s not a Holy Sword that was corrupted into a Demon Sword, but one that was originally a Demon Sword, converted into a Holy Sword. So if I use it as little as possible, I can minimize its corrupting effects.”
“…I think I understand.”
“Honestly, I don’t understand much about Yamichidori myself…” Sakuya shrugged. “But either way, if we’re going to save Miss Finé, every second counts. Once her Demon Sword fully consumes her, there’ll be no going back for her.”
Saying this, Sakuya left the room.