With a sidelong glance at the arguing pair, Orphen snuck over to Leticia. She had been stubbornly refusing to look at him ever since Azalie’s appearance, but she must have noticed him walking over, because she suddenly started to make her way over to the apparently injured Isabella.
“Wait!” Orphen grabbed her arm before she could get far. He could tell she was trembling as if she was afraid of something.
Orphen went around her to get her attention and said, “Listen, I won’t ask for the details... I’m sure a lot happened. But what I just saw, was that...?”
“Just an evil ghost,” Leticia said, turning to Isabella as if she was searching for a way out. “Isabella, are you hurt—” She seemed to realize the futility as soon as she began speaking, however. The words petered out before she even finished saying them. Maria had already peeled off Isabella’s clothes and was giving her first aid.
Leticia finally gave in and turned to face Orphen. “I’m a little relieved. The first time I saw it, I was vowing to myself that I’d never drink again. I thought I should go see a doctor like Forte told me to. At least now I can say it wasn’t just a delusion or a hallucination only I was having. Maybe this is a good sign.”
She seemed a bit confused. Orphen reached out to touch her arm reassuringly, but she recoiled as if struck. “So you can see her too, Tish?” Orphen asked insistently.
“Apparently, she can show herself to other people if she really tries to, but it’s exhausting, I guess. I think she’s already close to her limit...” She looked around—she must not have been able to see her right now either—and waved her hand apprehensively. “I won’t give you the details if you’re not asking, then. Colgon’s in control of the sanctuary right now.”
“What’s his goal?” Orphen asked, and Leticia’s eyes darted about in hesitation for a moment, but this time she didn’t try to run away.
She nodded and said, “Summoning Demon King Swedenborge with the Second World-Seeing Tower.”
“...So the same as our plan. So why does he think I’m gonna get in his way?”
“Azalie too...” Leticia muttered. She quickly added, “I don’t know. I have no idea what those two are thinking at all.”
“And Claiomh?” He hadn’t forgotten, but he finally had an opportunity to ask now. Claiomh wasn’t in the room. He thought she’d be with the Thirteen Apostles, but apparently he was wrong.
Leticia shook her head again. “I don’t know that either. We were together up until we entered the sanctuary, but she just ran off... I probably should have gone after her, but I couldn’t say whether we were really safe inside the sanctuary yet, so I couldn’t be reckless.”
“Why would she do that? She’s not one to throw her life away like that...” Orphen had almost just died himself battling Red Dragons, and there was a possibility the sanctuary had more of them lying in wait somewhere—either that or traps that they didn’t know about.
Orphen gave the silent Leticia a reassuring look. “I’ll find her. I’m sure I’ll be able to manage...” Pluto and the lord seemed to be done arguing. Orphen glanced at them and said, “Annoys me to have to rely on that guy, though.”
“Krylancelo, I—” Leticia started, but just then...
A shadow fell over her. The Demon of the Capital, Pluto, suddenly stood beside her.
“Leticia MacCready. I thank you for your cooperation. That being the case...” The large man folded over into a bow. “That being the case, I beg of you to follow my instructions from now on. We are gravely undermanned at this point.”
“Huh? Oh...sure. I’m a member of the Association, so of course if you request it...” she mumbled.
Pluto raised his head. Whether or not you could say that the Thirteen Apostles even existed anymore, he was still leading them. That’s what Orphen thought when the man turned to look at him. Pluto himself probably understood the situation he was in better than anyone else. But he didn’t pity himself.
This giant of a man was the embodiment of the pride of the Continental Sorcerers’ Association. The ideal of every sorcerer across the continent. He was proud, restrained, robust, and powerful. He was also erudite and traditional.
“Krylancelo.” Pluto bowed his head again and said, “I’m sorry. And thank you.”
Orphen didn’t understand what he meant. “Sorry?” Orphen asked him.
Rising slowly, Pluto said, “My decision put you in danger.”
“And thank you?”
“Isabella, at least, survived thanks to you defeating the man in the priest’s robes.”
His face was perfectly serious as he spoke—the words were likely heartfelt.
Orphen let his shoulders sag and decided to be truthful as well. “I’m no match for you, really.”
He turned around and found the lord watching him, waiting for him to finish.
He was smiling. No...the usual cold smile on his face didn’t really count as one.
Why is he waiting for me? Orphen thought to himself.
This ghost, the lord of the Imminent Domain, wasn’t waiting for the pinnacle of black sorcerers, the hero Pluto, but a cruel drifter who was starting to get used to the act of murder.
On one hand, it was hard to understand. But Orphen also felt like he was starting to get it.
What is despair? He’d heard the word several times on his journey. It was his final destination.
Orphen told himself that instead of letting someone else tell him, and as the lord approached him, he challenged himself, Why have I not despaired?
It was he who was walking toward the lord now. When he was right in front of him, Orphen said quietly, “I want to find Claiomh. I know she’s somewhere in here.”
“Easy,” the lord said simply with a nod.
✦ ✦ ✦
The device showed no indication whatsoever that it was operating.
He wasn’t particularly displeased by that—he had to remain inside the device, so if it began to stir in some way, it would likely be somewhat unnerving. But it was a bit underwhelming. He was surrounded by a lukewarm, uniformly white silence, and the moment he became conscious of that, he began to feel restless.
Yuis Els Ito Egum Ed Colgon. He recited his name to himself, laying the rifle he held down at his feet. It was still loaded, but there was no reason for him to use it anymore. Everything was going perfectly. He had captured the sanctuary’s vital area and it had crumbled all too easily, and the Thirteen Apostles were losing more and more of their forces as they closed in on him. There was only one entity who could threaten him...
Threaten? But he hadn’t done anything to be threatened in the first place.
He was trying to save the continent. And he would not fail—he lived with that conviction always. Plus, once everything was finished, the continent would be more secure than before. If anyone would get in his way, they would have no basis for doing so.
He looked around the device again.
The junk piled up haphazardly on the floor was now nothing more than junk. He’d summoned it as a test of the device and to lower the sanctuary’s ability to resist, but it had lost that meaning now and there was no need for him to return it either. Heartia, who had been sifting through the junk to kill time, had gotten bored of that, so he was sitting in a seat for the summoner in the middle of the device now. He was speaking to Lottecia, who was next to him, but she wasn’t paying much attention to him.
Heartia’s harmless small talk was nothing but background noise; it was basically silence if Colgon didn’t listen for it.
“Work’s not really interesting, though, I mean why would it be, it’s not like just getting paid for it suddenly makes it entertaining—”
The center of the floor was a gentle concavity, not at all steep with how big the room was. There was no particular reason for this device to have the shape it did. As evidence of that, Tefurem’s World-Seeing Tower, which performed a similar function, looked completely different.
What was necessary were the endless Wyrd Glyphs spanning all the seen and unseen space in the room. The intricate spell this composition wove would summon whatever they needed from outside of the Ayrmankar barrier.
What they were calling was not the demon king himself. It was the demon king’s power. He would summon just the power here.
What he needed was a summoner. A caster who could accurately capture what he was looking for and reel it in.
And a caster who could control the demon king’s summoned strength—someone to play the role of the demon king.
The power being summoned would be near limitless. It would make almost anything possible. Killing the goddess with it should be simple.
He could surely also grant his own small wish.
He looked back up. Heartia’s small talk continued.