Chapter 124. Death Throes
Was… Was it over?
Yuki stared at the spot where the Emperor’s spirit had just faded away, her heart racing wildly and her muscles tense. Despite Levi’s assurance earlier, a part of her still doubted that he’d be able to kill the Emperor. She wasn’t a mage, but she knew that some things even the System couldn’t accomplish.
Yet, where the System had failed, it seemed Levi Ironwood succeeded.
“Holy shit,” Terminus said. He let out a low, long whistle. “It… It actually worked.”
Yuki snapped her head over. “Are you certain?” she asked, a wild edge to her voice. She was sure that if she looked in the mirror right now, she’d see a raw, frightening look in her eyes. “Did you check?”
“Yeah,” Terminus said. His dark eyes glowed slightly as he peered at the Emperor’s corpse. A second later, he nodded, the glow fading away. “He’s dead. It’s over. And if that isn’t proof enough…”
[System Notification: You have slain Emperor Toranaga!]
Yuki barely even felt the experience points rush into her or saw the notifications that she’d leveled up. She didn’t react at all. She just stood in place, those two words echoing around in her head.
It… It was over.
Emperor Shingen Toranaga was dead. After ten long years, the war would finally come to an end. Yukihasa was free.
And…
Yuki was still alive.
This entire time, for the past seven years, she had been ready for her death. She had accepted that her life’s purpose was to come to an end. Had even embraced it as the only way to end the endless strife and suffering.
And just like that, Levi Ironwood completely ruined her plans.
Her shoulders trembled. From what, she didn’t know. Disbelief, joy, relief, shock… They all swirled together within her, bubbling up her throat and coming out as an odd, strangled laughter.
Yuki was alive.
She laughed and laughed. Belatedly, she realized that her cheeks were wet. She was crying. When did she start crying? Slowly, her laughter bled into something that resembled half-laughter, half-ragged, heaving sobs.
A warm hand settled on her shoulder. She glanced over to see Terminus standing next to her, gazing at her with an expression she had never quite seen on his face before. Yuki wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but in that moment, the man looked so incredibly relieved, as though the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. The expression disappeared a moment later though, replaced by his customary placid expression.
“Terminus,” she said. “I… I’m alive.”
“Yeah,” he said. “You are. And the Emperor is dead. I…” He paused. “I am glad that you didn’t have to die.”
His voice sounded calm, calmer than usual, as though he were deliberately suppressing his emotions. Why, Yuki didn’t know.
“What… What do I do now?” she asked. “I never planned to–” To see the end of the war.
Terminus was silent for a long moment.
Then, he smiled.
“Well. I guess rebuilding this country will be a good start. After that… Well. Goddess knows I certainly won’t be the one responsible for filling out all the paperwork we just made.”
Yuki laughed.
Behind the two, Levi let out a deep breath as the final lingering soul magick left his system. As it did, he swore he could hear the whispers of a million souls echo in his head. But perhaps that was just his imagination.
Anastasia had gone off to check on the boy who the Emperor had possessed, golden light pouring forth from her hands. It didn’t seem like the boy had suffered any lasting damage, but Levi supposed she wanted to be thorough.
He took a moment to glance at Yuki and Terminus, who were standing in front of him. The two were conversing in hushed whispers. Yuki looked a little lost, as though she hadn’t fully processed what just happened, while Terminus…
Levi blinked.
Before he could ponder further on the development, though, Selene spoke up next to him.
“You realize that was an exceptionally foolish plan, yes?” she said quietly. “While undoubtedly impressive, you had no guarantee that the soul magick would work. There was a chance that [Bloodline Rebirth] operated on an entirely different identifier mechanism than soul hues. The System could’ve created a database with all the Emperor’s descendants’ names and selected them at random, with no consideration for blood or soul. If your plan didn’t work, then the Emperor might’ve reincarnated in one of his descendants outside of the capital and escaped, which would then prolong the war for who knows how long. You took a massive risk.”
Levi hummed. Selene was right, of course. He hadn’t known the exact mechanism behind [Bloodline Rebirth], and as such his solution had very much been a gamble. And yet…
“Perhaps,” he said. “But it was a risk I was willing to take.”
“Why?” Selene asked. “It makes no sense–”
She froze.
Levi was smiling at her.
“Because it means that I was able to save Yuki.”
He said that simply, as if the answer explained everything. And in a sense, it did.
Yet, for some reason, Selene looked at him as though she’d seen a ghost.
“You…” she said before trailing off. “I see.”
“I was able to save her siblings as well,” Levi said. “As well as her nieces and nephews, and perhaps even her grandnieces and grandnephews. Grandniblings?” He considered it for a moment before shrugging. “Eh. Anyhow, you can probably let them go now.”
He inclined his head at the other occupants in the dining hall, still frozen in place by her shadows. Selene nodded and commanded her shadows to recede, releasing them from her control. Immediately, the Emperor’s children, the Huntsmen, and the palace guards all collapsed to their knees, wildly gasping for breath.
Levi paused. “Say…” he began slowly. “You… You did remember to let them breathe, right?”
“Of course,” Selene said. “I permitted them a whole four breaths per minute.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Ah,” Levi said, his voice strained. “I see. For… For future reference, the average human requires about twelve to twenty breaths a minute.”
“Oh.”
One of the Emperor’s children recovered enough to speak. He glanced up from the ground, staring at the Emperor’s corpse with wide eyes. He looked to be around sixteen, seventeen years old.
“You killed him,” he whispered.
Levi smiled. “Yep. You’re safe now–”
The boy’s face twisted in rage. “You dirty furshagger,” he spat. “You will pay for this.”
Levi blinked. Furshagger? Now what was that supposed to mean?
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“And you!” he snarled, turning to Yuki. “You rotten, traitorous kinslayer! You led them here to kill Father?” His eyes seethed with rage. “Why? He gave us everything. This whole country was ours to rule.” His gaze shifted to Terminus. “Is it because of him? What, did he seduce you?” He sneered. “Don’t tell me you betrayed us because you wanted to be some common whore.”
Yuki eyed him dispassionately. “I remember you,” she said. “Haruki. Your mother was one of the lower-ranking concubines, no?” Haruki flinched. “I’m surprised you’re here dining with the inner family. Unless… Oh, I see. You were my replacement, weren’t you?”
“You–!” Haruki made to charge at her, but then froze when he realized that all around him, his fellow siblings, the Huntsmen, and even the palace guards weren’t moving. They were powerful, but they weren’t suicidal. It was clear that none of them stood a chance. “That’s it?” he demanded of them. “You’re not even going to try to avenge the Emperor? Our ruler? Our god? Our father?”
One of his sisters avoided his gaze. The Huntsmen remained professionally still. The palace guards stared down at the floor.
“Fine,” Haruki said. “I see how it is now.” He whirled back to face Levi and the others. His face contorted into an ugly, hateful smile. “Well, it doesn't matter. You may have killed the Emperor, but… The death throes of a god are not so peaceful.”
Levi blinked. What–
His instincts screamed, and before his conscious mind even registered it, his magic was hurling outward, expanding to form a shimmering barrier around them–
A second later, the palace exploded.
Levi narrowed his eyes, taking care to maintain the internal pressure and temperature within the barrier as the world around them became roaring flames. A dead man’s switch? None of the Emperor’s children seemed surprised. Well, none except for one.
Yuki looked horrified; she didn’t seem to expect this at all. The Emperor had likely installed the dead man’s switch after she left.
Levi waved his hand, sending out multiple vacuums that sucked up the flames. In a few seconds, the flames dissipated to reveal a charred landscape around them, the ashes still an angry red. His barrier disappeared a moment later. The entire palace had been destroyed, blown to smithereens.
Wait. No. Not the entire palace.
Levi narrowed his eyes as around fifty meters ahead of them, a cylindrical capsule jutted out from the ground. It was formed from solid adamantine and inscribed with runes that blazed with an azure light. Even after the explosion, it was utterly unscathed.
“What is that?” Terminus said, peering at the capsule curiously. It was twelve feet tall and three feet wide. “And… Are these mana suppression runes?”
“Yeah. You’d know a thing or two about those, huh?” Levi remarked. The Crucible routinely employed mana suppression runes to conceal mana activity: once within the wyvern cave, again inside the goblin enclaves. Though, that did then raise the question of what exactly lay within the capsule that needed to be concealed.
Wait…
“Oh dear,” Levi muttered as a line split down the center of the capsule. He whirled around and waved his hand, knocking all the Emperor’s children, Huntsmen, and guards unconscious. He didn’t want them interfering or trying anything. Not now. Then he turned back to face the capsule. “So that’s where she disappeared off to.”
Terminus glanced at him. “Who–?” He paused. “Oh. Oh, shit.”
Slowly, the capsule opened with a hiss, and for some reason, Levi was not at all surprised to see Ayako inside–
Levi, Terminus, Anastasia, and Yuki froze.
Ascendant Ayako, the last of the Three Pillars, was indeed inside the capsule. But not willingly. She was bound by obsidian chains that wrapped around her entire form, gleaming with a baleful light. Thin glass tubes snaked into her veins, injecting different-colored fluids that bubbled menacingly. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, so red that for a moment she was reminiscent of a vampire. Her mouth was open in an unending, silent scream.
“What the fuck,” said Levi.
He stepped forward, then paused as motes of dark golden light suddenly seemed to materialize out of nowhere all around them. The same dark golden light that the Emperor had previously wielded.
Levi tensed up. Did the Emperor somehow survive? No… No, that wasn’t possible. This was something else.
The death throes of a god, Haruki had said.
Indeed, these motes of light were the final remnants of the false divinity that the Emperor had amassed over the years. Glittering raindrops of godhood that fell upon the ruins of the palace, converging on one location:
Ascendant Ayako.
The false divinity entered her form, sinking into her skin and affixing itself to her essence. Levi felt that he should do something, but he could only watch with horrified fascination. She stiffened, the veins in her arms and legs seemingly darkening until they were a dark burgundy, almost black, against her pale skin. It took only a few seconds for her to soak up all the divinity.
Then, as if activated by some signal, the chains clattered to the ground.
Ascendant Ayako took a lurching step forward. Then another. And another. She staggered out of the capsule, shaky and uneven. The glass tubes had been lodged inside her for so long that they made audible sickening squelches as they fell out.
And her gaze landed on Levi.
“You,” she rasped. “Levi Ironwood–”
Her face flickered, muscles twitching wildly.
And she leered at him, a smile that was uneven and disjointed and not even remotely human.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she, it, whatever, said. “I knew you would come to the capital.”
“Are you the Chorus?” Levi asked, eyeing her warily.
Ayako laughed. “I am Ayako, except when I’m not, unless she is, henceforth I shall be–” She paused. “Well. It’s complicated, and not really all that important. What’s important is that you are going to die here. [Worldrender].”
Magic burst from her form, stronger than it had been the last time Levi had faced her, stronger than anything he’d faced in this world so far save for the System itself. Terminus and Yuki’s eyes both widened in dread; clearly, they recognized the skill’s name. In a second, Ayako’s mana suffused the entire environment. The air became so laden with magic that it held a tangible weight, the ground below trembled with barely restrained eagerness, the clouds gathered into a swirling funnel right above them.
Experimentally, he cast a few Sever and Cleaves. Ayako didn’t even seem to consciously react; whips of water immediately coalesced from the mist in the air and battered his magic aside, almost contemptuously. Levi cast several more spells, each more powerful than the last, and Ayako’s magic responded in the same way. Scorching lances of flames were smothered by enchanted bubbles, bolts of lightning were scattered by raging winds, earthen spikes crumbled to dust before they reached her skin. So much concentrated magic swirled around her that it formed an almost physical shield.
Powerful gusts of wind howled to life as above, heavy raindrops hammered down from the sky. With a terrible groan, the very island began shaking, gigantic tremors rippling through the earth and causing fissures to split across the ground. One such rift opened between them, and before Levi’s disbelieving gaze, red-hot magma geysered upward, hissing as it came into contact with the air.
Ayako was far more powerful than the last time. Likely from the enhancement potions injected into her, the stress from being imprisoned and veritably tortured for so many days, and the false divinity that laced her magic.
“Well,” Terminus said, his voice carefully even. “I trust I can let you handle this, Levi Ironwood?”
Levi was silent.
“I said,” Terminus repeated, his voice sounding marginally more panicked than before, “I trust I can let you handle this?”
“Yeah…”
Fuck. Levi was admittedly pretty worried. Not for himself, of course, but rather for the rest of the city around them. Unlike before, they weren’t fighting out in the middle of the sea. They were in the very heart of the imperial capital.
Levi was very good at fighting and even better at killing. But limiting collateral damage?
That had never quite been his strong suit.
“Defeating her without getting innocents hurt will be difficult,” Levi said.
“Can’t you just kill her?” Terminus asked.
Levi blinked, turning to him. “No, of course not. She’s one of the innocents.”
Terminus gaped at him. “What? Are you out of your mind?”
Levi ignored him. Yes, he knew four spells off the top of his head that could probably pierce through her defenses right now – but they were all very much lethal attacks that had a good chance of killing her in her current state. He didn’t want to resort to that, not unless it was absolutely necessary.
Before them, Ayako was gathering a truly impressive amount of magic in preparation for some unknown attack. The storm around them grew more violent, the winds picking up in speed and shrieking around them. The air grew heavier and heavier as thunder boomed and lightning crackled above. Even more fissures ran across the landscape as magma burst from the ground in great spurts.
“I’ve heard stories of this since I was a child,” Yuki said, her voice filled with unadulterated fear. “[Worldrender], the skill she used to slay the Great Serpent and wipe the third largest island in Yukihasa off the face of the map in one go. Levi, you have to stop her.”
Hmm…
Levi narrowed his eyes, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face that was instantly whipped away by the roaring winds. He ran numerous calculations in his head. He had to somehow find a nonlethal way to defeat her without turning the city around them into a floating pile of molten sludge–
All of a sudden, he relaxed.
The tension drained from his form, and a glimmer of amusement appeared in his grey eyes. As the others prepared themselves for battle, Levi merely took a casual step forward.
“Hey, Ayako!” he called over the whistling winds.
“What?” she said, her voice resonant and laced with magic.
“Before you try to kill me, you should look behind you.”
Ayako scoffed. “Did you really think a trick like that would work on me–?”
A dark blade slammed into her head.
The storm ceased. The fissures stopped. The winds died down.
Ascendant Ayako was sent flying through the air. She crashed into the ground a solid five meters away, a cloud of dust billowing up that obscured her form.
Anastasia’s eyes widened, Selene tensed up, Terminus swore in shock, and Yuki flinched. It was clear that none of them had sensed the attack, or attacker, at all.
Levi, for his part, only smiled.
Behind where Ayako had stood just a moment ago, Qorbin Ravenbane flashed them a crooked smile.
“Yo,” he drawled. “Fancy running into you here, Levi. I’m looking for a guy called ‘Veli Maplewood.’ If you see him, do you mind passing on a message for me?” He grinned. “Tell him that ‘Broqin Ravenlover’ is looking for him.”