That night, Orsted and I went to the Ravine of the Earthwyrm—to the bottom of the ravine. We went down the level path surrounded by blue mushrooms and lichen, to a little hole carved so it was concealed in the wall. It was about a meter tall; due to its slight curvature, it looked from the outside like it ran straight into a dead end. If you followed it ten meters or so down, it let out into a large cavern. In the cavern was a vast, glowing magic circle with a sword at its center. Maybe vast was overstating it. It was five meters in radius at most. Within it lay a reclining man.
“So, you have come.”
It was Fighting God Badigadi. His body had been split into five pieces, each of which was sealed in a different location in the ravine. His main body was here. This barrier couldn’t be broken unless the other four seals were broken first. It operated using the mana from Badigadi’s own body and was amplified—and therefore, sustained—by the King Dragon Blade and the Fighting God Armor. It would go on operating almost in perpetuity. It was a custom-made barrier magic circle, a Perugius specialty. It was Divine-tier barrier magic, created to seal the Demon God. The sealed subject served as the medium and the magical implements as vectors, and the more powerful each were, the stronger the barrier became. This one used both the Fighting God Armor and the King Dragon Blade, meaning the barrier it generated was so powerful that even Orsted would be helpless to escape it. Using two Divine-tier pieces of equipment as one part of a barrier might have been overdoing it a tad. But that equipment was far more formidable in the hands of our enemies than used by us. Given that just the other day our enemies had used our teleportation circles against us, this wasn’t out of proportion to the threat. As long as the seal on Badigadi remained intact, it effectively rendered the Magic Armor and King Dragon Blade sealed as well.
If anyone broke through this, we might as well just give up there and then. That was the reasoning.
Orsted had gone to Perugius to request the base for the barrier. He had bowed his head and asked Perugius for his aid, and Perugius had agreed. It wasn’t just about the barrier: Perugius was Orsted’s ally now. They were joined by a bond of fellowship. But Orsted would later have to kill Perugius. He had chosen the path of betrayal.
I was indebted to Perugius and Orsted both, so my personal feelings about it were complicated. I knew that Orsted hadn’t wanted to do it this way. That he had chosen it anyway meant that it wasn’t for me to say anything about it. If only, I thought, there was a way to get to the Man-God without using the Dragon Tribe’s sacred treasures, but I knew it wasn’t a problem you could solve with wishes and a little time in a library.
Ah, well. Maybe it wasn’t something I ought to be thinking about. I had the guy in front of me to worry about right now.
“I am terribly sorry, Your Majesty, but as you’re a disciple of the Man-God, we had no choice.”
“I am cramped,” Badigadi said pompously as he lay there like a reclining Buddha. “I should like a little more freedom of movement.”
I had my own relationship with jail cells, but I think even I would have found the sealed barrier cramped. Having said that, I hated the idea of killing him. Kishirika had also asked us not to.
“I really am sorry, but this is as much as I can do.”
“Humph. Then so it must be!” Badigadi said, adding a little fwahaha of laughter.
He had two arms, and his body was smaller than it had been before. That was the result of the seal.
“Now! What brings you here, pray tell? I assume you have not come to drink and make merry while basking in my sultry allure?”
“Sir Orsted has something to speak with you about,” I said, then stepped aside for Orsted.
“Demon King Badigadi,” he intoned.
“Good evening to you, Master Dragon God. And how may I be of assistance?”
“Leave the Man-God and submit to me.”
For a moment, Badigadi gaped at him. But then, he burst out in raucous laughter. “Fwahahahahahaha!” It echoed around the cavern.
“The pariah of the dragon tribe dares command me, an immortal demon, to bow down to him?”
“There was a time when we were enemies, but you are a friend of Rudeus’s. Alex, Alexander, and Atofe have all allied themselves with me. There is surely room for you to consider it.”
“There is not!” Badigadi said defiantly.
“But why, Great-Uncle?” Alec, who had been standing near the entrance to the cavern, stepped forward. “You’re defeated, are you not? In accordance with the laws of the immortal demons—”
“Alec, do not misunderstand. That is not a rule across all of immortal demonkind. It is an Atofe rule.”
““Have you pledged your loyalty to the Man-God then, Great-Uncle?”
“I have not.” Badigadi sat up and shook his head. Then he folded his only pair of arms and crossed his legs. “I was not one for fighting, originally. What I liked was to travel, to drink and be merry, seducing passing women, bedding them, on occasion. Taking a beating from a jilted fiancé, making friends and drinking, laughing, and singing, then looking around at the worn-out faces, sleeping and satisfied. The Man-God came to me, head bowed, and asked me to fight, and so I did. That is all it was. ‘I want you to kill Dragon God Orsted and Rudeus Greyrat, no matter what,’ he said. ‘Who do you have to thank that you and Kishirika are alive in the same era?’ he said. And he asked me to remember four thousand two hundred years back and repay the debt I owed him. As a result, I agreed to help him this one time.” He paused for a moment. “That one time has passed. Now, I ally myself to no one! If my choice is to fight or to be sealed in this place, then I choose to remain sealed.”
That made me think that maybe we could let him go. Though he was still a disciple of the Man-God, so we couldn’t just blindly let him loose after nothing more than a bout of smooth talk.
“Either way,” Badigadi went on, grinning at me as I pondered, “You’ll release me when your fight against the Man-God concludes, will you not?”
“Yes,” Orsted said. I looked at him, and that’s when I realized.
It wouldn’t happen during my lifetime, but if Orsted won his battle with the Man-God, there’d be no need to keep Badigadi chained up any longer.
“It will be a hundred years hence.”
“Not so soon then. I shall be patient,” Badigadi said, then lay back down. With a nod, Orsted turned to leave. It looked like the discussion was over. That was quick.
“Your Majesty, I…I know this might not be the best circumstances to say it, but I wanted to thank you for everything at the Magic University.”
“Listen well, Rudeus. This may be the last time we meet, so I shall say it now: congratulations.”
“Congra…tulations?”
“You were victorious, thus, I congratulate you.”
“I’m not sure if I was, though…”
That was exactly what I was worried about. In the end, Orsted had used his mana. I’d slipped up at the very last moment.
But Badigadi didn’t mention that.
“You have given the Man-God a taste of defeat.”
“I gave him…what?”
“You have made him think that, no matter what he might try, he cannot kill you. He has lost all will to try. Indeed, it is hard to describe how he looked when I saw him last, except that he looked the very image of defeat. What else to call the one who fought him but victorious?”
“Is that really true?” I asked.
“You need only take off that bracelet and pay him a visit yourself to verify it.” He pointed at me, and my hand unconsciously went to cover the bracelet.
“I…don’t think I will, thanks.”
“No? Well. As you like it!”
I wasn’t falling for that one. I never wanted to see the Man-God again, though he had seemed pretty desperate when I’d last seen him at the bottom of the ravine. Maybe he really had taken this last battle as a heavy defeat. I still didn’t trust Badigadi when he said the Man-God had lost the will to try any more, though.
“Is that all?”
“Yes, from me, at least.”
“Then keep yourself well, Rudeus.”
I turned and followed after Orsted. As I did so, Alec ran forward, looking anguished.
“Great-Uncle…I…”
“Listen well, young Alexander. If you seek to be a hero, find your true foe. That was something your father never did. You will surpass him when you strike down that foe.”
“Thank you,” Alec replied, and he, too, turned to leave.
This would probably be my final farewell to Badigadi in this life. Nothing would stop me from dropping by once a year or so, but talking to him I might weaken and end up breaking the seal. Better not to come at all. I hadn’t told any of the others from the Magic University that Badigadi was sealed here either. Only five people knew: me, Orsted, Ruijerd, Alec, and Perugius. We’d already decided that Ruijerd would watch from the village to make sure no one visited the ravine. Not many could make it to the bottom of the ravine or make it back up again. And a hundred years shouldn’t be long enough for the seal to spontaneously fail.
And then—
“Rudeus, the entrance.”
“Understood.”
I would fill in the narrow entrance. Anyone who came after would have to dig it out if they wanted to find it again. This was goodbye.
At the end, ever so faintly, I thought I heard Badigadi’s voice.
“May it be that your curse is lifted, young Dragon God.”