Chapter 285 : Calm Before the Storm (10)
Chapter 285: Calm Before the Storm (10)
“Right now… what on earth are you saying, Lady Talia…?”
At Talia’s shocking declaration, Arpentia muttered in a trembling voice, as if she could not possibly believe what she had just heard.
“I—I mean… it’s just that… maybe I’m really that stupid… No, maybe I’m still not fully awake yet. No, I mean….”
Rambling incoherently, Arpentia shook her head lightly as if trying to regain her senses.
Then she forced a strained smile and looked at Talia as she asked again.
“Just once more. Could you say it one more time…? What, what exactly did you say you were going to do……?”
“…….”
Talia answered quietly, yet with a clear and powerful voice.
“We’re going to perform a Ritual that will restore Berenistella’s power by using us as Sacrifices.”
“Don’t talk nonsense!!!”
Arpentia shouted in a savage voice, as if she were coughing up blood.
“S-Stop saying ridiculous things…! What, what exactly are you planning to do……?”
“…….”
“To revive you all, to bring you back to life, I did everything I possibly could!”
Bang!
Arpentia slammed her clenched fist into the ground with all her strength.
“The people who followed me, my disciples… even this Empire itself! To me, every single one of them was nothing more than tools to bring you back to life! Do you have any idea what kind of feelings I endured while doing all that…?!”
It was impossible to tell whether she was angry or begging as she began pouring out the emotions she had held inside for hundreds of years.
“I gave everything—literally everything I had! Your… your faces and voices wouldn’t stop appearing in my dreams…! I just wanted to hear them one more time… just once more… so…!”
Crunch.
Part of the ground Arpentia was gripping shattered with a cracking sound.
Her fingers were crushed as well, blood flowing out, but she seemed to feel no pain at all. She only stared at Talia.
“And now you say… what? You’re going to sacrifice yourselves? And for what—so that woman, the Eight Demon Lord, the enemy who killed our comrades and our family… can regain her power!?”
“To you…”
Talia finally opened her mouth.
“…all I can say is that I’m truly sorry.”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry! Are you really sorry?! Stop with your pathetic apology! What I want to hear isn’t some worthless apology!”
Shouting that, Arpentia suddenly looked around and screamed.
“What are you doing! Stop her, hurry… hurry and stop Lady Talia!”
For a moment, Talia and Berenistella wondered if she had hidden allies somewhere.
But they soon realized that was not the case.
Seeing her like that, Talia felt pity, while Berenistella merely shook her head slightly.
“You said you would live for me…! That you would give even your lives for me! When this is over I’ll give you a name—a proper name! So hurry, hurry…!”
“…It is useless.”
Berenistella, who had silently watched the argument between the two, spoke quietly.
“That one is dead.”
“Dead…? Dead? Why?”
“He was slain by the family you so dearly longed for—Siren Everglenn. It happened in an instant.”
Berenistella murmured.
“Even without a Wyvern or grand weapon, he proved that the fame of a Dragon Knight is no empty title.”
“…Ah.”
Arpentia let out a small sigh, almost like a faint groan.
She had finally realized that she had no method left.
From the beginning, she had never even considered the possibility that her family—including Talia—would act like this. Because of that, she had never prepared any real countermeasure.
“L-Look… please look, Lady Talia.”
In the end, trembling like a child, she could only beg.
“You said I was strong… didn’t you? Look at me… where, where exactly am I strong like this…?”
Sniff.
Unable to hold it in any longer, she began crying.
“Look… I have nothing left now. No will, no power, no knowledge. It was only possible because you were all here. So… so….”
“Arpentia.”
Talia called her name.
“Tia.”
She called her name again.
“Our youngest.”
“Ah….”
“To be honest, you probably already know this. You were… as I said before, the strongest among us, and also….”
Talia let out a small laugh.
“Honestly, it hurts my pride to say this, but you were the smartest among us, weren’t you?”
She shrugged, speaking casually, though her voice carried a hint of bitterness.
“I actually wanted the title of Sage more than Archmage. Do you know how hard I tried and how many nights I stayed awake just to beat you once?”
“That, that can’t be… someone like me….”
“If there’s one thing we failed to consider.”
She nodded slightly.
“…It’s that you would miss us this much.”
“…….”
“But farewells always come when we don’t want them to. You know that too.”
“Then… then….”
“To be honest, I don’t want to die either. Dying once was more than enough, and now dying again… who would possibly like that?”
Even so, it had to be done.
To fulfill our duty.
To finish what we left behind.
Because that…
“…would be the true mourning for the families of our comrades who went ahead of us first.”
“…….”
“It may be a cruel thing to say to you, Tia.”
Talia continued in a cold voice, as if cutting things off completely.
“But I cannot betray the other family members who died before us because of you and me. And the same goes for Valen Zeisho, who trusted us and took his own life here.”
“…….”
Arpentia could no longer say anything.
She simply collapsed to the ground, curled up, trembling and sobbing.
“…Though it seems I may be spoiling the moment.”
Berenistella, who had been watching the scene, suddenly spoke.
“I never said I would follow your will.”
“Why? We’re restoring your power.”
“And why should I trust you?”
Berenistella snorted.
“I can see through your scheme—using me cleverly and guiding me along your desired path. Why should I move according to your wishes? And what exactly did you mean earlier?”
“What part?”
“That I am the final method to prevent the destruction of the world?”
“More precisely, the gateway that leads to that path.”
“Either way.”
She waved her hand dismissively.
“It sounds as if you intend to make me clash with the Evil Dragon.”
“…Yes, honestly, that’s how it sounds to me too.”
“You expect me to do that?”
Talia hesitated at the question.
“…I don’t know.”
“What?”
“I said I don’t know.”
Talia spoke with a trembling voice.
Her eyes shook even more violently as she looked at Berenistella.
She was so visibly shaken that even Berenistella faltered slightly.
“…To be honest, I don’t understand it either. An Eight Demon Lord saving the world? Even if you were the most moderate among them, you still supported their plan.”
“…….”
“Didn’t you?”
“…That’s true.”
“Right. And yet now we’re supposed to entrust the world’s future to the very person responsible for all of that…?”
Talia let out a hollow laugh.
“Then what about us? My comrades and family that I mentioned earlier… what were their sacrifices and deaths? Were they nothing more than meaningless deaths? If you were going to destroy the world and then save it yourselves anyway, you could have just fought each other and finished it yourselves.”
“…….”
“You’re not the only one who can’t understand or accept this, Berenistella. You’re not the only one who got swept up in a massive vortex without knowing why.”
Talia muttered through clenched teeth.
“I don’t understand it. But… but she… that child said so.”
“The person who loved this world more than anyone I knew. The person who felt deep sorrow at anyone’s death—human or Demon—and sincerely mourned them.”
“…And the person who saw further into the future than anyone else.”
Talia clenched her teeth again.
Her words sounded less like something she was saying to someone else and more like something she was telling herself.
“…I have to believe her. Everything she said until now has come true. So… this time will be right too. It has to be.”
“…….”
“Berenistella.”
Talia turned her head slightly toward her.
“Normally, I would never have trusted someone like you.”
“Your trust is unnecessary to me as well.”
“But… ironically, I’ve come to trust you a little.”
Letting out a hollow laugh, Talia suddenly spoke a name.
“Lian Gwendil.”
“…….”
“You gave up most of yourself just to save a single human. And the way you’ve been until now… it wasn’t an act or pretense. You truly care about that child.”
“…So what exactly are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying I’m willing to trust the you who changed because of a single human. Just as she said.”
Talia finally seemed to make up her mind and let out a long sigh.
“Even if you don’t like it.”
…So please.
Please save this world.
Swallowing the final words, Talia stepped toward the center.
The others had already taken their positions and were waiting.
Even the smoke itself seemed to follow the arrangement.
“…But she never told us the truth about that until the very end.”
At this point, there was almost no time left to investigate or confirm it.
If she delayed any longer, not only herself but the other two would become no different from mindless undead.
At the very least, she didn’t want that to happen.
“Then…”
Now it began.
“…I now declare.”
After chanting a spell for quite some time, Talia finally spoke quietly.
Arpentia still sat curled on the ground, while Berenistella watched silently with a thoughtful expression.
“By one, seek the Gate.”
At her words, Valen Zeisho’s corpse began to glow.
“By one, open the Gate.”
Siren Everglenn’s body began to distort.
“By one, anchor it.”
Rikerka Valentin’s body crumbled into dust as if blown by the wind.
“By one, stabilize it.”
A shapeless storm of smoke began swirling together into a single mass.
“…By one, draw it in.”
Lastly, the body of Talia Poas began to melt.
Even in that situation, Talia showed no panic and continued leading the Ritual.
And then…
Soon, finally…
Berenistella.
The Eight Demon Lord who was said to be able to crush the world single-handedly had finally regained her original power.
And the first power she regained…
…was the prophetic ability to glimpse the future.
And then—
“…This.”
Before her eyes, she saw the figure of a man kneeling with a blade embedded in his heart.
Lian Gwendil.
His figure.