“What is this?!”
As Veltar raised the Demon Lord’s relic up high, it emitted another pulse of red light, and mana began coalescing around Rose.
Everyone let out harsh gasps. The mana was so dense now that we could scarcely breathe.
This was the true strength of a Demon Lord. Just the residual mana left in a relic he’d created ages past was enough to overwhelm all of us. Compared to the Demon Lord, Veltar was a paltry existence.
“Goddamnit!” I cursed under my breath.
This is likely another forced event that’s scripted to go the same way no matter what you do.
The magic circle underneath Rose began to glow brighter.
Everyone knew she was in danger, but none of us moved. Radd had stiffened up, cold sweat pouring down his back, while Mana had been forced to her knees from the pressure of the mana the relic was exerting. She clutched at her chest, clearly in pain, and Recilia was too stunned to act. Hell, I couldn’t even do anything.
“No. Stop. I won’t let you...”
I desperately stretched my hand out, but that was all I could do. The weight of the mana pressing down on me was too great. I gazed on helplessly as things played out as they always did in-game.
❈❈❈
The biggest twist in the Vampire of Freelea event chain was what happened right after you killed Veltar. After you stabbed him through the heart with the Dagger of Regret, you headed to the final floor of the underground dungeon, assuming you’d be facing off against the fourth Demon Lord. However, you actually found nothing upon reaching the final room beyond an extremely ostentatious coffin that had already been opened. There was nothing left inside.
I hadn’t lied to Nyuuk when I’d said there was nothing down those stairs back when we’d been exploring for the first time. There had been something there at one point, but it wasn’t there now.
When I’d reached that room in-game for the first time, I’d been flabbergasted. However, the empty room had contained one hint as to what was really going on—there was a message carved into the floor in front of the coffin, presumably by the Demon Lord himself.
After the light awakens, stand before me and offer up my heart.
That was the full message left behind by the Demon Lord, including all the parts that had been too faded to read in the diary. However, there had been one part of it that seemed strange to me at first glance.
Why would it say to offer up his heart? I had remembered wondering when I’d read it initially. Naturally, I’d assumed the missing bit would be something like “Offer up your heart.” That was the whole reason I’d thought Veltar was trying to sacrifice Rose’s heart to the Demon Lord to bring him back. Either by dragging her over to the dark side by force, or by turning her into a vampire and robbing her of her free will.
Regardless, before I’d read it, I’d firmly believed that the Demon Lord would be revived by sacrificing Rose. However, this message proved that the only way to bring the Demon Lord back was to offer up his own heart, not just anyone’s.
But then, where is his heart? Furthermore, if he’s been sleeping in that coffin until now, where has he gone?
The answer to both of those questions had actually been right in front of my eyes. As I’d gotten closer to the Demon Lord’s coffin, I’d noticed there was an inscription etched onto its side which made the entire mystery clear.
Here lies Rose, the fourth Demon Lord.
❈❈❈
Indeed, the Vampire King—or rather Queen—and the fourth Demon Lord were both none other than Rose. She had conquered even the light of day, and the only thing that could pose a threat to her was a stake through her heart. So, just before losing her powers, the fourth Demon Lord had made a bold decision. She’d carved out her own heart, which was both the source of her power and her greatest weakness, and passed it off to one of her trusted retainers. That way, even if someone had found her body at the bottom of Rose Manor’s basement, they couldn’t kill her. Furthermore, she’d used the last of her strength to cast an enchantment on her heart to make it easier to return to her body. That was what her relic was.
Because her body had been freed from the coffin before her heart had reunited with it, it seemed that Rose had lost her memories of the time she’d been a Demon Lord. That was who the current Rose was—the Demon Lord’s body without her heart or memories.
What I’d initially assumed was a curse was not a curse at all. It was more like a form of magical surgery that was slowly but surely fusing the Demon Lord’s heart back to her body. When the process was complete, the current Rose who inhabited the Demon Lord’s body would be lost forever, but of course the Demon Lord herself didn’t care about that. This temporary personality meant nothing to her. Furthermore, this meant that the only way to stop the Mark of the Curse was to kill Rose herself, since she was technically the caster.
As a result, there were only two ways this event could ever end in the game. Either you killed Rose with your own two hands, or you let her revive as a Demon Lord abandoning Freelea to become a den of monsters. There was no way not to engage with this event either—if you ignored it, that simply meant choosing the latter option. Even if you never met Rose, she’d eventually reawaken as a Demon Lord regardless.
To make matters worse, there was no way to delay Rose’s resurrection, at least not for long. The “curse” grew stronger with each passing day, and eventually the current Rose became incapable of resisting it. The player was forced to make this cruel choice sooner or later. Either you killed her and saved the world, or you saved her—though even that couldn’t truly be called saving her, since the Rose you’d known was dead—and doomed a city.
This event was scripted to end in tragedy no matter what, and all the player was allowed to choose was how Rose died. Because it had only negative outcomes, the player base had been split on whether they liked it or not. It was an event chain with a lot of emotional moments and a tear-jerking finale, and players who loved a good tragedy were fans of it. The characters and storyline of the event were great too, so some people even considered it BB’s best event.
Personally, though, I’d always hated it. After multiple playthroughs, the resolution of the event went from being moving to being annoying.
If you wanted to clear the game, you couldn’t afford to let Freelea fall. And since Rose was doomed anyway, it didn’t matter whether you killed her sooner or later. Thus, on my second playthrough onward, I’d simply granted Rose’s request to die after she received the Mark of the Curse. Each time it had been a cold, gameplay-oriented decision, but even so, every time I’d stabbed Rose through the heart, I’d wondered: What if this wasn’t just a game? If I had free rein to do whatever I wished, could I kill Veltar before he ever makes contact with Rose, and save her for good?
“Fuck!”
That was what I’d tried to do in this world, but right now that chance was about to slip through my fingers. Now that I’d gotten this close to changing Rose’s fate, there was no way I was giving up here!
Rose was only a few meters away from me, but the immense pressure the relic was giving off prevented me from taking a single step. Nevertheless, I reached out as far as I could with my hands, trying to grab onto her.
“Aha ha ha! My Lord! Lord Rose! I beseech you, return to us!” Veltar shouted. His right leg and left arm had already crumbled to dust, and he was seconds from disintegrating completely. But the light in his eyes was as vibrant as ever, and he held tightly onto the relic.
The magic circle’s light intensified yet again, and the relic flashed once, before swords of blood started rising up out of it. I knew the moment those pierced Rose’s chest, she would be branded forever. Her future would be ripped away from her.
But even so, I couldn’t move. She was only a few steps away from me, but I couldn’t reach her.
Just before the swords of blood started moving, Rose turned to look at me. “Rex, help m—!”
Before she could finish her sentence the crimson swords shot forward, heading straight for Rose’s chest.
“ROSE!!!” I screamed.
But just seconds later, the swords etched the shape of the mark onto their target’s chest.
❈❈❈
I slumped to my knees. The curse had been cast. Nothing I did now could stop it.
The immense wave of mana that had been bearing down on all of us started to dissipate, but I couldn’t muster the energy to get back to my feet. Still, as the accursed crimson light of the magic circle began to fade my vision cleared up, and I was able to get a better look at my surroundings.
“No...” Someone muttered softly, their words getting swallowed up by the night.
As I glanced around, I saw Radd and Nyuuk staring at Rose in shock, while Prana and Mana were still on their knees. Recilia was biting her lip, while Rose looked down at her chest, still not fully grasping what had happened to her.