Chapter 420. A New World
Chapter 420. A New World
The Sword Demon looked up at Kamel without a word.
The man who had appeared with Rengua, producing the astonishing result before his eyes.
His first impression was that he looked very young.
And, Is he even alive?
To the Sword Demon, whose ability to sense energy was excellent, the man’s energy felt far from that of the living.
Extremely unstable and feral.
It was a wonder he could stand while holding that energy.
Sensing it was a quality he had never felt before, the Sword Demon briefly turned his gaze.
He took in the scene the man had made.
A landscape of pure white.
The great torrent that had been pouring through the gap.
The hundreds of soldiers.
The floodwaters overflowing around them.
As if time had stopped, all of it was frozen.
Monstrous.
Is it cold affinity?
Hundreds of meters around that man were perfectly frozen.
“Magic? Sorcery? It is subtle.”
The Sword Demon focused on Kamel’s power.
He could not feel a mage’s characteristic mana, nor a shaman’s spiritual force.
There was no way his senses would miss such a thing.
He wondered what the exact source of that power was.
Then, spotting something from afar, he let out a brief scoff.
It seemed not everything had frozen perfectly. Within the frozen space there were beings faintly twitching.
Ack!
Gahk!
The Dark Storms.
Those who could protect themselves with Aura seemed to have survived the cold from moments ago.
One by one they shook off the white frost coating their bodies and stood.
The Sword Demon looked at Kamel.
Kamel, looking at the Dark Storms, was expressionless. He seemed like the type whose thoughts were hard to read.
Watching this, the Sword Demon spoke.
“The result is a touch disappointing.”
“In life and death, there are exceptions everywhere. Like cockroaches that survive when they ought to have frozen to death.”
“In matters of death, there is no exception for me.”
“We shall see.”
Kamel’s smile twisted.
It was a bizarre smile, neither clearly laughter nor weeping.
“Looking back, you must acknowledge exceptions if you do not want mistakes. I learned that through death.”
“You keep saying strange things.”
“A word of advice, if you do not want to die to an ‘exception.’”
The Sword Demon let Kamel’s cryptic words in one ear and out the other.
He only needed to confirm one thing.
That the being before him was not human.
“Do you want to become a Black Star?”
“Who besides me would be more fitting for that qualification?”
“Confident, and very arrogant.”
“I have only stated a fact.”
The Sword Demon snorted and looked at Rengua standing behind. He had his head bowed quietly behind Kamel.
He had heard they were conducting some experiment at the frozen lake, but the Sword Demon had not paid it much mind.
Whatever it was, it seemed likely to aid the Black Stars.
By his guess, the man before him was the result of that experiment.
Only, Rengua’s attitude toward the result raised questions.
For someone like Rengua to show such a low posture.
The Sword Demon too felt curiosity toward the man called Kamel.
“What kind of being are you?”
“Why, if not human, can one not become a Black Star?”
“Because I must check whether you are human, or someone’s ‘property.’”
“Someone’s property...”
“It could be a tool.”
When the Sword Demon glanced toward Rengua, Kamel’s smile twisted slightly.
Kamel gripped the hem of his robe.
He flung off the baggy robe, then began taking off his top. A moment later, his well balanced upper body was revealed.
Skin coldly white, so pale the veins showed starkly.
And
Thump, Thump
In his chest, a heart tinged blue came into view.
It pulsed roughly, exuding blue force in a mysterious sight. The blue force surged savagely around Kamel.
Like a blue flame.
Feral and rough.
The Sword Demon could tell that the cold ability displayed moments ago originated from that heart.
“It is the Frost Lord’s Heart. Many lives were paid to fit this heart to my flesh, Rengua completed it.”
“Paid with their lives, all subordinates? For example, like Rengua.”
Even at the Sword Demon’s provocation, Rengua did not react.
It was as good as admitting he was a subordinate.
At that, Azolett reacted viciously. Glowering at Rengua, she shouted.
“Rengua, what is that bastard!?”
“Mind your tongue, Azolett. He is the one I serve.”
“Serve?”
She let out a hollow laugh, then hardened her expression as she glared at Rengua.
“No one exists above the Black Stars. Did you forget why we are in this barren place?”
The organization born in defiance of the Mage Tower Union that weighed pedigree and rank was the Black Stars.
A world ruled solely under the logic of strength.
That beginning was Prime Root.
“In that sense, you are disqualified as a Black Star.”
“A foolish logic.”
Kamel picked up her words.
“...What? Foolish?”
“The reason you are here is simple. Because you are weak.”
“If you are simply stronger than anyone, everything is solved. No need to watch anyone’s face or crawl under anyone. You too are a Black Star, yet you move under the Sword Demon’s control, do you not?”
“I am not like Rengua!”
“How are you different? Does Rengua look like a man who moves by someone’s orders? He chose and acted on all of it himself. Would that not be the same for you? Or is the Sword Demon threatening you?”
“...Watch your mouth. Before I kill you.”
“That threat only works when you are stronger than me. If you are weak, what use is it?”
Kamel walked slowly toward Azolett.
Crack
Every trace he stepped across froze cold.
As the terrifying chill whipped around, Azolett glared at Kamel and spread both hands.
Srrrk
Ten fingers moved fluidly like a piano’s melody.
From the drawn threads, there was no sound, no presence.
Invisible, ghastly blade threads constricted Kamel without gaps, surrounding him in an instant.
An ambush meant to carve the opponent’s flesh to pieces.
Before that ambush, Kamel lightly waved his hand.
Crrraaaack
“......”
The threads surrounding Kamel turned blue, then in the blink of an eye began to freeze.
The frozen threads soon shattered midair and scattered like powder.
“Tch!”
Azolett’s brow creased slightly, and she flicked her fingers. The ground around stirred, then spiders surged up around the floor Kamel stood on, baring sharp fangs.
Grrrrrk, Gr—
Spiders a meter long belching filthy noise, with dark red carapaces.
They were the mana luminescent spiders whose revival had recently succeeded, “Cricket.”
“Cricket, very good.”
Spotting the Crickets, Kamel gave a faint smile and held out his palm.
His palm turned blue.
A terrible chill roared around Kamel, dyeing the surroundings snow white.
Crrack, Crack
But since Crickets were no ordinary spiders, they did not easily freeze even in the cold.
Though their shells turned white, the Crickets instead charged, their sharp fangs aiming for Kamel’s neck.
At that, Kamel’s smile deepened.
“As expected of Crickets, worthy of the name ‘the Calamity of Demtor.’”
He seemed to know what Crickets were.
His palm lifted, and a great ice wall surged up around Kamel.
Krrrrrk!
The Crickets slammed fiercely into that solid wall. A Cricket’s nature is pure savagery. No fear, no retreat.
Under their ferocious, body flinging assault, the ice wall cracked in an instant.
“Die!”
As if seeing prey already caught, Azolett’s shout burst out. Kamel looked at her and gave a brief smile, then gently clenched his fist.
Papapapapapa!
Ice spikes sprang up around the Crickets.
From the frozen ground beneath Kamel’s feet to the blocking ice wall.
From every space where ice existed, snow white spikes shot out razor sharp, skewering the Crickets in midair.
The pierced spiders froze in an instant.
Like spider ice sculptures.
Dozens of Crickets stopped cold in the air.
“...What is this!”
Her bafflement lasted only a moment, then Azolett ground her teeth and took a defensive stance.
Kamel, glaring, pointed a finger at her.
Crrraaaack!
An icy wave surged toward her.
A snow white field of spikes crashed at her like lightning to swallow her whole.
As Azolett layered webs and focused on defense, someone stepped in front of her.
A familiar silhouette.
“Boss!”
“Fall back.”
The Sword Demon, brow narrowed, drew the hilt he gripped and slashed the onrushing ice wave, and the wave split in two and spread down both sides.
Crrack!
Where the blue wave passed, countless ice spikes surged up and devastated the area.
The split ice wave ended only when it met the wall, and Azolett swallowed a groan as she traced the marks it left.
She thought that if she had tried to block it head on, she might have become an ice sculpture like the Crickets.
The Sword Demon clicked his tongue shortly and shook his blade. The cold seeping in through the grip was vicious.
“It is certainly no ordinary heart.”
The Frost Lord’s Heart.
He realized it was surely different from ordinary power.
Leveling his blade’s tip, the Sword Demon spoke.
“Will you fight? You do not look like a fool who would make such a choice.”
“I only intend to prove something.”
“Prove?”
When Kamel turned his gaze, Rengua approached politely and placed an item on his hand.
A violet crystal sphere.
It was an item the Sword Demon knew, the one Rengua had risked his life to protect when the coalition attacked.
The moment Kamel gripped the orb.
SSSS
With a chilling sound, violet light began to seep from the sphere.
And then,
drurk, drk
...!
The mass of Crickets that had been frozen like ice sculptures began, one by one, to crack free and react.
What was astonishing was the Crickets’ movement.
At Kamel’s gesture, a dozen Crickets lined up in a row, then bared their fangs toward Azolett.
At that sight, her expression went beyond dismay to shock.
“T, that is impossible!”
Biting her lip tight, she tried to seize control of the Crickets again, but it was no use.
The Crickets quickly encircled her according to Kamel’s orders.
To Azolett, straining with a twisted face to control them, Kamel said.
“A foolish act.”
“Shut up!”
“The Crickets are already dead. The dead will not obey your commands.”
“...What?”
Only then did Azolett realize there was no life response in any of the Crickets surrounding her.
But to the eye, the Crickets reacted as if alive.
She could not understand it.
She let out a hollow laugh and let her hands fall limply.
It looked like she was in shock from a first time experience.
Watching her, the Sword Demon asked Kamel.
“What did you do?”
“I merely moved the dead according to my will.”
“That sounds as if you can rule death.”
“Close enough. That is my goal as well. For now, it is impossible without the help of a ‘collaborator.’”
“A collaborator?”
Kamel gave a faint laugh and set down the crystal sphere.
As the violet light flowing from the orb vanished, the briskly moving Crickets collapsed in heaps.
A complete death.
Azolett stared blankly at the dead Crickets, and the Sword Demon remained silent.
Over that silence, Kamel’s voice rang.
“You said I am someone’s property?”
“I am not anyone’s property, nor some mere tool. The reverse, perhaps.”
The Sword Demon looked at Kamel.
He did not know what other abilities he might be hiding, but by what he had shown already, he seemed to have more than enough qualification to be a Black Star.
“The fourth Black Star.”
Arcane, the Prophet of Fate, had said that when four Black Stars were gathered, a great wind would blow through Prime Root.
It was also a moment the Sword Demon had been waiting for.
Was the prophesied final Black Star the man before his eyes?
A great wind...?
Sheathing his blade, the Sword Demon asked Kamel,
“What do you seek to gain through the Black Stars?”
To the Sword Demon’s question, Kamel answered without hesitation.
“A new world.”
“A new world...”
At that answer, the Sword Demon gave a brief smile.
That answer, at least, pleased him.