Chapter 131: Reborn
—Castle Town of the Kingdom of Rakia.
"W-What…!?"
"M-My body is…!?"
"Aaaaaah…!?"
The moment Celua pulled the lever in her underground laboratory, a massive phenomenon occurred on the surface. Massive quantities of Dying Will Flames were forcibly ripped from the bodies of the Rakian citizens. The extracted flames surged downward, plunging into the earth toward Celua's facility. Stripped of their life force, citizens collapsed in the streets one after another.
"What in the world is happening!?"
"We can find out the cause later!! Right now, we need to get this situation under control!!"
"Mobilize every single soldier we have left!! And guard the Gods at all costs!!"
Meanwhile, inside the Royal Palace, the remaining high-ranking officials were in a state of panic, scrambling to manage the catastrophe unfolding in their city.
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Beneath the Kingdom of Rakia.
"Everything is proceeding smoothly."
Torrents of Dying Will Flames poured from the network of pipes, flowing directly into the ornate coffin. Seeing the process working flawlessly, Celua smirked.
"Now then, I wonder how this will turn out?"
The flow of flames from the pipes finally ceased. Celua concluded she had squeezed every last drop of life force from the citizens above.
Slowly, the heavy lid of the coffin began to slide open.
"It seems it was a success."
"OOOOOOOOOOH!!"
While Celua confirmed her victory, the man beside her, Zealo Rind, trembled with excitement as a figure rose from the coffin.
A human woman sat up from the velvet interior, possessing long grey hair, a grey left eye, and a pale green right eye.
"Why…? I was certain that I…"
The woman looked around, clearly bewildered by her surroundings and unsure of what had happened to her.
"You have awakened!!"
"Who are you?"
"My name is Zealo Rind!! Seven years ago, I was your comrade-in-arms, fighting by your side to destroy Orario!!"
"Seven years ago? What are you talking about? I should be dead."
"Yes! Seven years ago, you lost your life to those wretched adventurers of Orario! But after years of tireless effort, we have resurrected you!"
"…It seems you are not lying."
While Zealo's words sounded like nonsense, the woman calmly analyzed the situation and stood up from the coffin.
"Now then!! Let us destroy the accursed Orario together this time!!"
"You are too loud."
"Eh…!?"
In a blur of motion, the woman swung her hand in a vicious chop, severing Zealo's carotid artery. Unable to process what had happened, Zealo collapsed to the floor, blood spurting from his neck until he stopped moving.
"Do not summon me back to a world filled with such grating noise."
The woman stared down at the corpse with blatant disgust, clearly having no desire for resurrection.
"Oh my, he's dead," Celua remarked casually, feeling nothing at the sight of her collaborator's sudden execution.
"Are you with him?"
"We weren't comrades. I only cooperated with him because our interests aligned."
"Is that so? Then you can d—!?"
The woman moved to kill Celua next, but the instant she directed her killing intent toward the scientist, her body froze.
"It's useless. You've been programmed so you can't defy your creator."
"Creator, you say?"
"I told you earlier that you were resurrected, but to be technically accurate, it's more like you were recreated."
"Recreated?"
"[Remake Gene]. It's my unique skill. It allows me to perfectly recreate a living organism from a single piece of biological material. That's how I brought you back. I used a strand of hair that psychopath managed to scavenge seven years ago—he was so obsessed with you he kept a collection of it."
"What a repulsive creature…"
The woman felt a deep wave of disgust toward Zealo, a fanatic so deranged he had hoarded pieces of her corpse.
"Six years after you died—one year ago—I slipped out of Orario and met Zealo, who belonged to a Familia operating outside the city. He told me everything. About the Seven Days of Death that struck Orario seven years ago, and how you sided with the Evilus during that war."
"If you met him a year ago, why did you not use your skill to recreate me immediately?"
"I used my skill right away. I even had the patron God of the Familia I was staying with carve a Falna into your back. But I lacked the necessary power source to wake you up."
"Power source?"
"Exactly. Recreating a body is easy if you have the genetic material. But to actually make it move, you need life energy. It took me a year to build a machine capable of harvesting that energy, and I had to wait for the perfect moment to activate it. I just turned it on and drained the life energy from about half the population of Rakia—roughly three hundred thousand people. That's what woke you up."
Celua had been biding her time, waiting for the moment Rakia launched its invasion against Orario.
When Rakia invaded, they mobilized almost their entire military force, leaving their homeland severely under-defended. If the citizens suddenly began collapsing en masse during that window, the remaining authorities would be consumed with managing the crisis. They would lack the manpower and time to hunt down the culprit.
Furthermore, Celua needed to ensure the Gods weren't deported. Deicide was a severe crime; if her machine killed a God and sent a pillar of light shooting into the sky, she would instantly become an internationally wanted criminal, which would make her life incredibly tedious.
So, disguised as a soldier via Mist Flames, Celua had suggested that since the nation's defenses would be thin during the invasion, the Gods should be evacuated to a secure, isolated location to prevent assassinations by rival nations. It was a logical proposal, and the Rakian high command approved it immediately, unaware they were dancing in her palm.
She had purposefully moved the Gods out of the harvest zone simply because becoming a wanted criminal would cut off her supply lines and ruin her experiments.
"You bastard…"
"Oh my. Do you really have the right to complain? Siding with the Evilus means you slaughtered countless innocent people in Orario, didn't you?"
"…"
The woman's jaw tightened, but she remained silent, unable to argue with Celua's logic.
"Are you planning to destroy Orario as well?"
"Not particularly. I don't care about things like that."
"What?"
"I just want to have fun playing with my creations. As long as I'm entertained, I don't care where it happens."
"So as long as I can run rampant, you do not care where it happens."
"Exactly. Though I won't let you rampage here in Rakia. That would be too inconvenient."
"Inconvenient?"
"This country is rich in resources, and barely anyone dares to attack it. Best of all, the patron God, Ares, and King Martinus are absolute idiots. I can manipulate them however I want. There isn't a better country in the world for me to hide in."
Using her Mist Flames to disguise herself as a soldier, Celua had hypnotized King Martinus, controlling him from the shadows. She used him to procure the materials she needed for her experiments and to erase any traces of her existence.
Hypnosis worked best on simple-minded people. Since Martinus was just as foolish as Ares, brainwashing him had been laughably easy.
"Besides, I managed to tune your body to a state far beyond your prime."
"Are you referring to my illness?"
"Ah. You noticed? My skill is amazing, but it recreates chronic diseases and genetic flaws, too."
"How did you cure it? This disease was incurable. No matter what treatments were attempted, it could never be healed."
"It was simple. I just crushed your tumor-ridden organs and swapped them out for fresh ones."
"What?"
"I am an illusionist. Generating fresh organs to prolong your life with my illusions is child's play."
"!?"
Suddenly, the woman found herself unable to draw breath, her chest constricting in violent agony.
"Do you understand now?"
"You bastard…"
Celua snapped her fingers, and the crushing pain instantly vanished. The woman glared at her with pure hatred, but Celua simply offered a condescending smile.
"Then did you also notice this? You've [Ranked Up]."
"[Ranked Up]?"
"I guess you didn't notice that."
"Don't tell me…"
"You catch on quick. Zealo told me about an Evilus faction called the Apate Familia. They used the power of Spirits to forcefully strengthen their members. So, I decided to use the power of a Spirit to enhance you."
Spirits were entities sent to the lower world by the Gods in the ancient era—long before the Gods themselves descended—to aid humanity in their desperate struggle against monsters. Through the blessings of Spirits, ordinary mortals had ascended to become legendary heroes. Among them was the hero Albert, who gouged out one of the One-Eyed Black Dragon's eyes and drove it away from Orario.
Following that precedent, the Apate Familia captured a Spirit, forcefully weaponized it, and injected its power into their soldiers. While the process destroyed the soldiers' minds, it successfully produced twelve Level 5 combatants, pushing Orario's adventurers to the brink of annihilation.
"So you hid in Rakia to acquire information on Spirits."
"Bingo. Rakia was once blessed by a Great Spirit, granting the Crozzo bloodline the ability to forge Magic Swords. Even though they've lost the ability to make those swords now, the nation is still desperately researching Spirits to reclaim its lost glory. By hacking their research archives, I was able to pinpoint locations where Spirits were likely to reside. I couldn't find a living Great Spirit… but I did manage to find a piece of a Great Spirit's corpse. I used my skill to recreate the Great Spirit and forcefully bonded its blessing to you. As a result, I successfully boosted you from Level 7 to Level 8."
"Just who exactly are you?"
"You don't need to know that. That's enough talking. From now on, you're going to be my mindless little weapon of mass destruction."
"Wait."
"What? Any last words?"
"You said you wanted to see me run rampant."
"I did. What of it?"
"I am going to Orario. Of my own free will. And I will eradicate every last adventurer in that city."
"What's your objective?"
"Fighting adventurers from anywhere else is dreadfully boring. That is all."
"And why should I believe you?"
"You have no reason to. If I do anything suspicious, you can just strip my consciousness away and do as you please."
"…Fine."
It was glaringly obvious that she was hiding her true motives, but since Celua would still get to see her creation's full power, she accepted the terms.
"Then let me give you a warning before we head to Orario. I recreated you, but I didn't give you a second life. You can only move using the life energy I pumped into you. In other words, your lifespan is ticking down by the second. Taking damage or using magic will burn through that energy even faster. Furthermore, this is the first time I've injected this much Flame into a single vessel, so I have absolutely no idea how long you actually have left to live."
"I should be dead to begin with. Trivial details like a time limit do not concern me."
"Right. Let's get going then. To Orario."
With the warnings out of the way, Celua and Alfia began their preparations to depart.
Now then. Let me see it. The power of the woman who belonged to the strongest faction in history, the Hera Familia. The power of the Monster of Calamity. Let me see the power of [Silence], Alfia. ─────
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