✦ ✦ ✦
Oh? So it can even take an attack with the firepower of a Rag Illa spell…
Leonis was impressed. Most demons would be reduced to dust from that much. The blond girl stepped forward, glaring at the figure beyond the dust.
“Leave the ruin, you two. I’ll take care of this…”
“Regina…” Riselia hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. “All right. Be careful.”
“I will, Lady Selia.” Regina smiled at her.
The briefness of this exchange made the trust between the two of them evident.
“Let’s go, Leo.” Riselia grabbed Leonis by the arm and took off.
It’s one unexpected thing after another…, Leonis thought as he let her pull him away.
Shouldn’t a Dark Lord’s revival be a more solemn, dignified affair?
He’d (quite obviously) failed at the reincarnation ritual, instead returning to an incarnation of the boy he had been before becoming the Undead King. His crypt was infested with these otherworldly Void creatures, and the place was being wrecked without regard for its master’s—his—will.
He wanted nothing more than to turn around and give that monster what was coming to it, but he couldn’t afford to do that. Leonis snuck a glance at Riselia’s face as she ran ahead of him. The girl was an important source of information, and so he had to keep his identity as the Undead King hidden if he was to learn anything more.
“Let’s head for the surface, okay?” Riselia asked, panting all the while.
…There’s a shortcut to the surface, though.
However, pointing that out could raise the girl’s suspicions.
“…Ah!”
Suddenly feeling a presence, Leonis reflexively tugged on Riselia’s sleeve.
Boooooooooooooooom!
The ruin’s ceiling caved in. Had the two walked any farther, they’d have surely been crushed under the rubble.
“…Leo…?”
“It looks like there was more than just one of them.”
Leonis turned his back to Riselia, who had fallen behind him, and looked ahead. A massive, winged shadow looked down on them from beyond the dust.
“…Not another one!”
“Is that a Void, too?”
“Yes, a flying variant—a wyvern-class one.”
Leonis’s eyes narrowed at the word wyvern. True, the shape of its wings was reminiscent of the winged dragonkin he knew, but it was dotted with lumps of mineral, and its ugly, inflated body was a far cry from the wyverns Leonis knew. Those were far more graceful magical beasts than this.
“…Leo, run!”
Selia fired three shots toward the Void, but they didn’t even seem to faze it.
Guess I should just destroy it… Leonis gave a small shrug.
It would mean showing the girl a glimpse of his powers, but there was no helping that. On the other hand, this Void was the perfect opponent for some post-reincarnation practice.
I will make you rue the day you dared to intrude upon the Undead King Leonis’s mausoleum.
An indomitable smile played over Leonis’s lips as he began weaving an ancient spell. He could feel the mana running throughout his body. This body wasn’t quite at its prime, of course, but…
Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
The massive Void swung its talons down.
I’ll turn you to dust.
Leonis began chanting a sixth-order attack spell, but then…
“…I won’t let you!”
Riselia jumped in front of the boy, knocking him away.
…Huh?
Riselia’s silvery hair filled Leonis’s field of vision. The Void’s talons descended, gouging into Riselia’s upper half.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiip!
The horizontal sweep knocked Riselia back. Her body bounced and rolled a few times as it crashed into the ground.
“What…?!”
Leonis got to his feet and turned to face her.
“Aaah, kh… Ugh…”
Blood quickly stained Riselia’s clothes red as she lay collapsed. Leonis’s eyes widened as he stood stock-still.
“Why…?”
“…R-run…” Riselia’s lips parted as she feebly muttered. “Regroup with…Regina…and run… You can do that, right…?”
Her voice was all too kind but desperate. With each breath, the wound on her chest widened and blood flowed freely, coloring the earth. Leonis sensed other Voids moving behind them. The one called a wyvern class wasn’t alone, it seemed. Likely two or three more of them of at least the same size appeared. Leonis, however, did not turn to face them.
“…H-h-hurry…!”
“…”
Leonis took the young woman’s hand as her consciousness faded. Her fingers rapidly grew colder. He was familiar with the sensation of death. He’d come into contact with it many times already.
Calling it a foolish act of self-sacrifice would be easy. The Undead King would’ve never been struck by an attack like that. This was just some human girl Leonis had kept alive out of a need for information and on something of a whim. She had saved his life once—but to Leonis, she was nothing more or less than that.
But seeing Riselia rise up to protect him reminded the reincarnated Dark Lord of the way she had looked back then.
—Do you see how tedious and dull being a hero really is? Become mine instead, Leonis.
Riselia reminded him of a girl who had risked life and limb to protect an injured boy. The girl who had appeared before him when he was betrayed by the ones he’d saved… Riselia reminded him of the Goddess of Rebellion. The one who raised the banner of discord, the one despised by the rest of the world.
“…It really is all too incorrigible,” Leonis whispered bitterly as he dipped his fingers into the puddle of blood.
“This body…is completely and utterly incorrigible…”
Why did a return to a human body mean the return of human emotions…?
Leonis rose to his feet and glanced back. At the moment, the three Voids seemed frozen in place, evidently taken aback by the overwhelming presence coming from the boy. He looked around, taking in the destruction spotting the walls of the ruin.