Chapter 259 : Chapter 259
Side Story 18. Dejan Berger (4)
“Who the hell are you?!”
Dejan Berger’s bewildered voice came from beyond the black smoke.
GRAB!
I reached out and seized him by the throat.
A pained groan came from him.
“Ghk! Ghk!”
No matter how great an Archmage he was, there was nothing he could do against overwhelming physical strength.
“Just answer what I ask.”
“Ghk! Let go of me first!”
“The Demon King of Silence. Do you know how to reach the Demon Realm where it is?”
“Ghk!”
I released his throat for the moment.
“I don’t know! If I knew, I would’ve gone there first!”
“Figures.”
He did not seem to be lying.
In truth, I had not expected much.
Seven years ago, I had only been able to reach the Demon Realm thanks to the Made in Abyss Portal Map.
POW!
I drove my fist into his face.
An Archmage who could not create a Barrier was pitifully unable to take a hit.
“Urk!”
“You’d better stop making those fucking pathetic groans. If you sold Kalia to a Demon King, you should’ve been prepared to take a beating. Isn’t that right?”
POW!
“Urgh!”
In the end, he spat out a thick mouthful of blood.
“I-I never sold Kalia.”
“Your desire to grow stronger made you create a link between Kalia and the Demon King.”
“Th-that...”
“I’m curious how it feels. You got as strong as you wished, yet you’re still getting beaten like this.”
POW!
I kicked the fallen man in the stomach.
Dejan Berger rolled limply across the floor.
His body was already in a miserable state.
“Do you regret it?”
“…….”
“No.”
“What a funny bastard. Of course you have no regrets. If you simply die by my hand here, that will be the end of it for you. But what about Kalia?”
However faint it might be, once a link with the Demon King had formed, Kalia could never be free from its threat.
Whether it took a hundred years or a thousand, it was only a matter of time. The Demon King would steadily increase its control over Kalia.
“Kill me!”
“Obviously. Before that, I’ll ask one last question. Do you know Diorin’s whereabouts?”
“……Diorin?”
He had not expected her name to come from my mouth.
Vomiting blood, he gave a bloody smile.
“Heh heh heh! How would I know that?!”
“I see.”
“So there was another bastard interested in that fucking bitch? That bastard who disappeared long ago was the same. Come to think of it, she certainly has a talent. You seem just as capable as he was, so how does she have a knack for bewitching only men like you?”
Until the very end, this bastard failed to prove that his life had any value.
There was no reason to drag out the ending any longer.
I pointed Holy Sword Bastian at him.
“Heh heh heh.”
Perhaps resigned, he began laughing as though he had lost his mind.
But then, an astonishing sense of wrongness assailed me.
!!!
It was an energy that had never once existed in Kalia.
It seemed the Demon King of Silence was attempting to exercise his power for the first time.
RUMMMMBLE!!
In an instant, it felt as though enormous power were being drawn into the crown of Dejan Berger’s head.
It was not an illusion.
A moment later, his very aura had changed distinctly.
‘So the Demon King is forcing himself through in this way.’
A link had formed between the Demon Realm and Kalia, but it was still weak.
To transfer this much power to Dejan Berger, the Demon King would have had to accept the loss of a considerable portion of his authority.
That showed just how important Dejan Berger was to him.
“Should I congratulate you? On becoming stronger, I mean.”
But he did not answer.
Instead, an aura of darkness exploded and began encroaching upon me.
KRAAAABOOOM!!
It was astonishing.
The dense demonic energy burned as though this entire space might be erased in an instant.
It was the first intensity I had felt since the flames of the Red Dragon had reduced me to white ash.
The realm of an Archmage backed by the Demon King’s power was truly formidable.
If I had been Johan Raven rather than who I was now, I could not have guaranteed that I would withstand it.
“Die!”
The power of darkness grew stronger and stronger, pressing down on the space around us.
Perhaps the current Dejan Berger was the greatest Archmage of all time.
‘Even so, this isn’t right.’
What meaning was there in gaining power like this?
Before the mighty darkness, Bastian resonated violently.
Then.
WHOOSH!!
The Holy Sword shone and split the darkness in two.
Along the straight path the sword had carved, a flash of light glinted once more.
The darkness that had swallowed the space quickly receded, and brilliant light finally burst forth.
Beyond the radiance, red blood spurted into the air.
The fired Sword Qi helplessly split even his Barrier.
Dejan Berger’s head, severed at the neck, fell to the floor.
THUD.
At the moment of his death, he wore an empty expression.
[Kalia’s Greatest Mage Defeated.]
[Quest Cleared.]
[Quest Progress: 1/2]
Naturally, it would feel empty.
He had achieved the power he had desperately desired, only to meet such an end.
[Reward Acquired.]
‘Huh?’
I had only completed half of the quest.
I had not expected a reward to appear here.
But what was even more surprising was the reward itself.
[Demon Realm Portal Map]
And it was the Demon Realm ruled by the Demon King of Silence.
It felt as though the Abyss was beginning to toy with me once again.
After the Mage Tower of Wishes, I did not particularly seek out any more people from my past.
The Red Dragon’s rampage was imminent.
“The time has truly drawn near.”
“You must be happy.”
“Isn’t freedom precious?”
Leviar pointed at the dog leash restraining him with a front paw and gave a wry smile.
“I’m hurt. Honestly, I’d grown a little attached to you.”
“You beat me as though you wished to kill me, and now you speak of affection? Please do not say such things.”
“Well, if that’s how you feel, I can’t help it.”
“By the way, where are we going now?”
I thought carefully about where I should meet the Red Dragon.
Then a suitable place came to mind.
One of the shelters I had used as Johan Raven was not far away.
I did not know whether the shelter still functioned properly, but it was a place filled with old memories, so I decided to visit it.
“Ooh! Amazing!”
Partway up Mount Marhen, renowned for its rugged terrain.
My shelter still retained its original appearance.
Leviar recognized at once that high-level magic had been placed at the shelter’s entrance.
“It is a device that will cause an explosion if operated incorrectly. May I try to undo it?”
“No.”
The locking device had been installed by none other than the Archmage Sylvia.
Even for a dragon, the chances of undoing it on the first attempt were low.
If he carelessly tampered with it here, the effort we had made to come this far would go to waste.
I would safely undo the locking device myself.
“That is unfair! Woof!”
When I imbued the entrance with mana as I had in the past, the shelter opened for me just as before.
A long, narrow passage led to the main chamber.
The crystal orbs embedded in both walls of the passage, illuminating the interior, were Sylvia’s work as well.
Though the shelter had not been used for a long time, it felt as though it had been well maintained.
Normally, it should have been full of dust.
“But what in the world is this place?”
“A place where my master once stayed.”
“Yes?”
The mention of my master made Leviar’s eyes widen in shock.
In the meantime, we passed through the long corridor and reached the main chamber.
The great training ground was neatly maintained. In the armory, dozens of swords and other weapons were arranged in rows.
A small room had been built in one corner of the training ground. It was the bedroom I had once used.
“Strange.”
“What is?”
“It’s too well maintained.”
Though the bedding had not been used for a long time, it carried a fresh scent, as though it had been tidied with Purification Magic.
“Could it be that the master you mentioned visited this place?”
Leviar showed immense interest.
In his mind, my master had become the strongest human in existence, perhaps even someone capable of surpassing dragons.
“Forget that expectation.”
At the same time, I began considering who might have visited this shelter.
The first candidate was Sylvia.
As the shelter’s designer, she knew its location, and she was the most likely person because she could undo the locking device at once.
But as far as I knew, she had not left her mage tower for at least the past few months.
The shelter’s condition suggested that someone had visited recently, so I set her aside for the moment.
The second candidates were the Rohan Brothers.
They had also lived with me in this shelter, and there was a strong possibility that they had visited it regularly after I disappeared.
Even though seven years had passed since my disappearance, that was not impossible when I considered their stubbornness.
The problem was that both of them knew nothing about magic.
To undo the shelter’s locking device, one either needed to know exactly how to imbue it with mana or solve extremely complex magical calculations.
Neither method was possible for the Rohan Brothers.
Their chances were therefore far lower than Sylvia’s.
Lastly, there was Diorin.
Other than Sylvia and the Rohan Brothers, she was the only person who had come to this shelter with me.
Like the Rohan Brothers, she had ample reason to seek out this shelter.
Though it had been a long time ago, she had once been Johan Raven’s lover.
But once again, the greatest obstacle was undoing the locking device.
She was a mage, but her ability had been third-rate.
It was hard to imagine Diorin resolving a task that I would have hesitated to entrust even to a Hatchling, a magical creature.
‘But…….’
For some reason, my intuition pointed to Diorin.
In truth, Sylvia was the most likely candidate when considering possibility alone.
With her ability, slipping out of the mage tower without anyone noticing would have been nothing.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
“It’s nothing.”
“You are not frightened at the thought of meeting our clan soon, are you?”
“If you want to believe that, then leave it at that.”
“Honestly. I would like to enter your mind and see how it works, Young Master.”
Leviar tilted his head, then spoke again.
“By the way, could this person you call your master be a woman?”
It sounded like a question that had come from nowhere.
But this Hatchling would not say something without reason.
“What makes you think so?”
“It feels as though someone deliberately left an afterimage behind.”
“An afterimage?”
“Yes. It is a type of high-level magic that leaves traces of its caster behind. It seems that your master was capable of rather high-level magic in addition to swordsmanship. In any case, it is the silhouette of a woman.”
I did not know why she had come here, but it seemed it had been Sylvia after all.
I nodded.
“She isn’t a woman, but it’s true that he’s a mage of considerable skill.”
But what Leviar said next was astonishing.
“Though it is blurry, she has long hair with a bluish hue. It is too chilling to call that a man.”
“What?”
Long blue hair.
Those words could not help but send chills through me.
That was the appearance of Diorin, my only lover.