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Chapter 443: The Envy Within the Cracks. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2023-08-17 04:50:58 +0000 UTC“My face!” Instead of worrying about his leg, the demonkin touched his face, staring down in disgust before his expression contorted from anger. “How dare you, Aurena’s dogs! By God Marsven, I am a—”
“A spy!” Ellaine shouted, ending his sentence for him.
By grabbing the mana thread holding the blades of her sword together, she used the leverage with her strength to pull the demonkin into the air before slamming him back onto the ground. As a dust cloud blew up, the demonkin’s arms suddenly turned black before they produced a pair of black, misty orbs on each palm. Smashing both together, the demonkin spy caused the mist to explode out and spread all around us.
Shine!
Suspicious of this unknown substance, I immediately cast one of my spells from [The Light] title to dispel the darkness, remembering those mist orbs from the last time I fought a demonkin of envy. Unable to be touched by my light, the smog did not move any closer to me, but instead, it spread around us, just outside of my spell’s reach, as if it was forming a barrier around me.
“Haaar!” A shrill sound resounded as I noticed the signal of the demonkin moving away from Ellaine. He freed himself!
Just as I was about to act, however, my attention turned around as I heard multiple shrieks from behind my scale barrier, recognizing they were from the orphans! I manipulated my scale barrier to block the smog from entering from the back and leave an opening in the front near where I was, allowing me to see the kids.
“Go!” Fleindia cried before she kneeled down, praying as a magic circle appeared on the ground, shining bright white and yellow, almost similar to [Sacred Field]. “In adherence to our piety, my soul calls up to the divine. Noblest of all, hear my plea. May this sanctum grant you room to move. May your mana help us endure the darkness to come!”
<[Noble Prayer (Dark Defence)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
<Noble Prayer: A sacred spell belonging to the [Radiant Ritualist], changing its effect depending on the ritualistic chant evoked during the Incantation. Mana is spent to determine the size and effectiveness of the prayer, but will cost nothing to maintain as long as the [Radiant Ritualist] continues the prayer. Does not allow multi-cast during the prayer, but the higher [Multi-Cast]’s level is, the more potent the effect. Only applies to those the blessed determines as allies. Dark Defence: Reduces dark elemental damage by 80%, reduces demonic damage by 40%, constant application of [Moderate Heal], natural Mana regeneration increases by 100%>
Holy moly, that’s what she got for becoming a blessed, huh?
Fleindia’s field around us continued to grow, to the point it even touched the gate and cathedral itself, protecting everybody within it, including the guards Ellaine had to push through. When it touched the black mist, the light banished all of it, revealing Ellaine fighting against the freed demonkin.
My song was still on, restricting the demonkin’s transformation, but it was still able to produce that misty substance through his arms. Was that an envy demonkin’s bloodline power? Like how wrath demonkin could conjure elemental weapons and had to control their emotions? Hold on, yes, Klea did talk about that!
“Envy’s—my fellow archdemon, in this case—‘Original Sin: Demiurge’ allows them to transform their flesh into the appearance of anyone they touch, although it can only be a perfect copy if they consume their target completely, like the little rats that they are. They weren’t blessed with physical might, but magical power, and if I remember correctly, they used to serve under God Marsven’s pantheon. Their mana can turn into smoky shadows, but they don’t act like the System’s [Dark Magic] or Saori’s spells,” was what Klea told us. Talk about, “you are what you eat,” huh?
Second song! The Will to Fight and Survive! I told my parallel minds to use [Aerokinesis] once again, preoccupying four of my ten minds to maintain both songs.
“Is this the fated battle, the light shines ♫
It’s blinding my sight ♫
But I’ve gotta hold on, the stage calls ♫
The cries of a thousand, the flames of war will descend ♫”
Cathedral grounds. Can’t go too crazy and attract too much attention!
“Ellaine!” I shouted before dashing forward with [Gale Steps].
“Yeah!” she replied before she swung her whipsword, preventing the demonkin from fleeing properly as he had to focus on defending himself.
He would try to conjure his smoke but Fleindia’s field prevented him from fully materializing it. I could see him trying to conjure the shadow-mist behind his back, probably to create wings, but it was all futile as he was cornered by Ellaine’s aggressive usage of her whip to cage him in. With his back to the wall, he could only raise his arms to protect himself from me.
Sadly, as a smoky ball was shot from his hand, I blocked it with my scales, preventing it from flying away and hitting somebody, and dodged below him. I tail swiped his injured leg, “accidentally” causing it to be torn apart due to my sharp scales, before grabbing his throat and smashing him into the ground.
“Graak!” he coughed before his hands grabbed my arm, trying to claw it off with his deformed limbs, but he was only destroying his own nails, as my scales were harder than what passed for his claws.
This is a sin heir? I wondered, as you could only use an Original Sin Ability if you were a prince or somebody under them, according to Vifi. This person was supposedly similar to that demonkin that killed Eshe? You gotta be shitting with me!
“You don’t come in here and try to hurt my friends, again!” I shouted, rage starting to consume my thinking. I raised my fist, ready to beat him up.
‘Oi, Original Mind, calm down!’ One of my parallel minds warned me. ‘We can beat the shit out of him later after we get some info out of him, so stop tr—Look! Right! Behind!’
I snapped my head around the moment she said this, noticing two projectiles flying through the cathedral gates. One was a spell and it was blocked by Theodore casting [Air Shield], while the other was an arrow, perfectly parried by Ellaine’s whipsword. She then turned to face the direction the arrows came from, identifying two cloaked individuals before she twisted her body to swing her sword.
The individual blades flew out like projectiles, prompting the figures to dodge to the side, only to quickly realize Ellaine had a trick up her sleeves. The runes on them glowed as they boomeranged back to Ellaine, nearly slicing into our attackers in the process. Deftly dodging to the side to avoid her own blades, she then used her now bladeless whipsword like an actual whip, swinging the mana thread on it to create that iconic crack in the air. She was doing this all while her blade fragments “flew” around her in an orbit, performing some acrobatic feats!
Sheesh, when did you get this good with that thing?
The enemies were quickly overwhelmed by her attacks, causing one of them to trip, prompting Ellaine to reform her whipsword to slash at them. With a loud “Gaargh!” the man was sent flying, landing onto his back. His cloak was ripped open, revealing an in-tattered gambeson and some chainmail beneath. Ellaine’s attack hadn’t been enough to break the last line of defense!
“As an aristocrat of Artorias, I demand both of you to surrender! Yield, or my next hit will incapacitated you!” Ever the dreaming knight, Ellaine showed them mercy, sounding like her last hit wasn’t meant to kill or seriously maim the attacker. Still, with her swinging her blade like a tempest, it looked like she was about to kill them in the next hit.
Who are they?
“DIE!”
“Huh?” My [Danger Perception] didn’t activate.
The demonkin smacked his hands together, causing two smokey balls to explode into each other, causing an explosion right in my face. I felt a slight chill coming from it, reminding me a bit of the damage from dark elemental attacks. Fortunately, I was no longer weak to it. In fact, I took no damage since [Draconic Barrier] evolution into [True Draconic Barrier] let me just ignore it.
Mana Eyes.
<Level: 86>
… What a weakling.
A person high leveled enough to be a rank B adventurer. Weak? Nope. Weaker than me? The gap couldn’t be described.
I lowered my head, pushing it through the smoke, revealing it to the demonkin. “I can tank it, you idiot.”
“Grriek!” His face contorted, showing his gritted teeth. His eyes bulged out and his nostrils flared, shivering like crazy as he couldn’t keep his eyes away from me before he released all his tension through a shriek. “Arrrgh!”
“Lord—Urrgah!!” The figures shouted from behind, only for the sound of a whip to silence them in the next.
The curtains had fallen for these spies.
“Attack!”
Sadly, we probably should have expected that there had to be more than those two cloaked figures protecting a VIP like one of the sin heirs. It would have been idiotic to have so few guards. While we weren’t acting conspicuous when we exited the noble district and went to the cathedral, people still should have seen Fleindia and me wandering the streets. They had to act the moment we exposed this envy demonkin.
I turned my head around as several more cloaked figures appeared at the gates, and even more that scaled the walls surrounding this place. Instead of weapons, all of them pulled out scrolls. I counted twelve people and all of them had two of them open, all of the parchments glowing with injected mana
Seals! I shouted in my head, remembering the existence of spell scrolls in this world. You didn’t even have to be mages to use them, you just had to have enough mana and you could use whatever spell was enchanted on them!
While I wasn’t an expert on every single spell, I could identify some of the magic circles appearing before me simply ‘cause I was exposed to people who used them. The majority of them were level seven to ten basic elemental spells, but about five of them were level one or two advanced elemental magics, and none of them were fire spells or their compound version, with two being from [Tenebrous Magic]. I couldn’t just neutralize them with [Volcanic Blaze]!
Tornado Bullet, Bedrock Blades, Torrential Rain, Umbral Pendulum, Abyssal Bomb. They really want this guy back!
Moments after I identified the threat, I also noticed three signals appearing from beneath me—my shadow! Three cloaked figures appeared, with two grabbing the demonkin while another swung a dagger at me. My nostrils flared as I smelled the scent of dragonkin blood—the blade was coated with anti-dragon blood.
I’m not letting this guy go! Switch Will with Dragon Fire. Protect them all, Magmakammer!
I tanked the dagger, noticing [True Draconic Barrier] was dispelled by the anti-dragon blood, even though my scales managed to protect me. In fact, the only damage I took was a chip on one of my scales. They made a mistake. They probably should have done this before I leveled a ton from the dungeon dive and by killing Galg!
<Mana Release activated. Aura used as control unit: [Draconic Aura Lv. 5]. Territory [Magmakammer] has been established>
This was all I needed for my aura to establish my Territory. [The Will to Fight and Survive] was replaced by [Dragon Fire], granting anybody I counted as an ally immunity to my fire attacks, meaning I could burn away the demonkin’s helpers while keeping the demonkin himself unharmed. Sadly, this did mean I had to count him as an “ally” and this new status meant he wouldn’t be affected by [My Darkest Thoughts] any longer.
His figure returned to “normal” while the three cloaked people were scorched, revealing them to be regular humans. As they cried out in pain, I directed my attention to the kids and Ellaine, protecting them from the spells by melting the cathedral grounds and having the magma harden into obsidian walls. Even if the walls cracked, there was enough earth for me to create even more!
Meanwhile, the envy demonkin burst out into laughter as his figure morphed into a large furred elephant, throwing my grip off. I fell on my back before I pounced at him, only for him to transform into a female arvisian to evade my attack. With a wide grin, he—or she, in this form—flew into the sky, only for Ellaine to catch her unharmed leg with her whipsword. With a strong pull, she pulled the arvisian back on the ground.
I tapped the ground, morphing the magma to create an obsidian casket, strong enough that it made it impossible for her to break out from. With the threat mostly neutralized, I deactivated my Territory and quickly lowered the temperature as best as I could using Mom’s training, although my thermal manipulation was a poor copy of Mom’s perfect control over it.
<Territory deactivated>
That also meant it took longer for me to remove the heat around the area completely. That delayed me being able to tag the demonkin as an “enemy” to apply [My Darkest Thought]’s effect, returning him to his original form while keeping him alive. Once I broke down the obsidian wall, I clicked my tongue as the cloaked figures were all gone, including the two Ellaine had incapacitated.
“… Ellaine, we need Saori to go on a hunt,” I told her, to which she agreed.
“I’ll also send a message to Muraina to have her contacts in Shaturein hunt them down. I can’t believe we have even more Edjurl-sympathizers inside the city.” She quickly spoke with the guards, giving them orders.
I sighed, before returning my attention to the kids, Theodore, and Fleindia. “Is everybody all right? Anybody hurt?”
“We’re all right, Big Sis!” Abi answered for everybody, although their faces suggested otherwise. “Were they … Were they here for you this time?”
Erk! I grimaced. They weren’t just afraid, they were afraid for me … The trauma of having lost Eshe resurfaced for them as well.
I could still remember their intense weeping followed by most of the kids, including Abi, trying to deny Eshe’s death. The memory of them trying to stop me from fighting the giant geisenlarg king, fearing that I would die too, was seared in my brain. I wanted to retell some of my adventures to them, but how could I mention the dragonslayers? The assassins the Empire sent after me?
I raised my pinky finger, forcing my tears back to smile. “No, don’t worry. They were just random people this time. Like I said, I promised, right? I’m alive and still kicking, because you know why?”
They tilted their heads.
“Because I am the strongest, greatest dragon idol ever! Eshe’s dream is now edged into my heart. She wants me to be strong? Oh, I’ll be so strong!”
“Right, you’re the best, Big Sis!” Abi cheered with the kids. “You’re—”
“Ahahaha!”
However, some rat’s voice had to ruin it. I turned around.
“You? Strong? We all heard what you can do, dragon! Do you think defeating me and U’Skaie makes you strong? We’re spies and assassins! We don’t fight head-on! The moment you had to fight somebody specialized in it, you needed your damn dragon mother’s help to kill Vifi’Yok!” the demonkin spat out, still full of energy despite his trembling voice. “You are nothing before our princes! Spoiled brat! You need your mo—Mrrmph!”
I closed the obsidian casket around his mouth, silencing him.
It seemed the demonkin believed Mom helped me defeat Vifi’Yok despite it only being Sis, Tasianna, and Renee—people who were equally underleveled to challenge a Warbringer. Yes, I still needed help, but what was wrong about asking for help? Fighting a raid fight alone was just dumb anyways.
Well, false information was better than nothing. It meant they would underestimate me.
I patted the kids, telling them to not listen to a sore loser like him before addressing Fleindia and Theodore. The former looked good, meaning her [Noble Prayer] didn’t cost too much mana, while the latter was frowning heavily.
“He … I cannot believe Jonas has been a fake all this time,” he stated, obviously rattled by this. He must have cared for his attendant even if he was a grey-robed.
“This might not ease your soul, but I expect it happened after you became the cardinal, my lord.” Done with giving orders, Ellaine came over. “I presume he was your confidant? If something were to happen to mine, I would also share in your pain.”
Theodore didn’t answer, simply massaging his temples and chin, glaring at the struggling demonkin with sharp eyes, a farcry from his usual tired look. Once he was done, he scowled. “There has been a leak then. From me. I’ve revealed information on the church and my brother’s actions, which includes House Greenveil. Thankfully, my paranoia preserved vital details. Nothing I spoke in private with my siblings or Duke Olivus was documented, nor did I speak to ‘Jonas’ about it. Do not worry, aside from mentioning the summit, nothing that was discussed left my mouth.”
That was a massive relief, but the fact the demonkin probably knew Artorias was forming an alliance would work against us. If Bole’Taria knew, then so would Folschreck, meaning the Empire might derail the Faith War by approaching Artorias in a more aggressive manner. This could reduce the time I had to expose the pope.
“How did they enter the city? There is a barrier around the place that can detect intruders,” I asked, but I already knew the barrier could be circumvented. The answer was obvious.
“Shaturein,” Theodore answered. “The city is too deep for our barrier to protect them. That is most likely how the assassin of His Majesty, the Griffon King—may he reincarnate in a more peaceful time—entered Griffonpeak. They have routes that go underneath to allow them to smuggle items in and out. That’s how that fiend Hamil escaped, as you might have suspected.”
Ellaine sighed. “Meaning they really have returned to Shaturein. Hopefully our contacts there can do something. Regulating the undercity still seems like a whimsical dream at this point.”
Theodore nodded. “That is the agreement our King has accepted for the alliance, Lady Ellaine. Some laws have been set to make it safer, but you can’t suddenly change a formerly independent city filled with black-hooded figures and backstabbers in a matter of months. It hasn’t even been a year yet. Do you think they would accept our knights patrolling their streets?”
“Of course, not. I’ve learned that nothing is as easy as the books make them seem.”
“… Your travels have granted you wisdom. That is good to see; leaving the university was the correct decision, I see.” He smiled for a moment before he drew his attention back to the demonkin. His mood was ill. “Enough talk. We should handle this matter now. Will you accompany me?”
I nodded. “Can you guide the kids back to the orphanage? I’ll fix what my Territory did while we wait for the knights to arrive.”
“I will come, too. It would be best if we blessed stay together for now. Who knows if there are more,” Fleindia brought up and I agreed. She then turned to Ellaine. “Coincidentally, why did you come here, Lady Ellaine? Your timing was impeccable.”
She tapped her head before Fleindia and I heard the voice of Klea, [“That wrath brat wanted to spar with you, darling. Wanted to test her arm. Your sister offered to do it, but, hiehie, she told her straight to the face that she only wanted to fight both of you together. Alone, neither of you would win, she said!”]
Oh …
[“You better hurry before your sister actually blows up!”]
God dammit, Sis.
I massaged my temples as I told Ellaine to get both to come to the castle, since I wanted to know how Vifi would react to us interrogating the demonkin of envy. I didn’t want to provoke her, but considering how Grimnir had tried to make Vifi feel more comfortable around her, I also wanted her to know we wouldn’t keep every secret to ourselves. I didn’t want to lose her trust completely, and giving her donuts to appease her wouldn’t always work.
Once Ellaine made her way back home to use the subspace in peace—hopefully that info hadn’t leaked—a griffon knight arrived to pick the demonkin up. Once a few others came to support him, we had Fleindia ride with one of them while Theodore used his own gargoyle. As the strongest, I ended up carrying the demonkin with [Unheilige Engel] and flew up to the royal citadel located at the foot of the talon-fanged mountain of Griffonpeak.
Once there, we identified ourselves and transported the demonkin into the knight HQ. The burnt corpses of the three cloaked figures I killed would be handled by other knights.
Inside, I greeted a stressed out King Drangleic, who looked like he had dragged himself out of a meeting or maybe from working on documents. I mean, he did leave his country for weeks. The paperwork must have accumulated in his absence.
“Why couldn’t we have waited for a day to rest?” he complained.
I shrugged. Not my fault Klea was a natural demonkin detector.
For some reason, the king actually continued complaining to me, speaking how the paperwork from the summit and the aftermath for everything was a headache for him to deal with and how envious he was that I could just shove my sister in front to deal with all the annoyance. He even brought up how we were lucky that we probably wouldn’t have anything related to state matters to do in the future, as he talked about how lucky I was to have an immortal father.
Immortal until his soul gives up and he has to enter slumber more often than he’s awake for a year … Mom’s asleep for a while now. I hope she wakes up before New Years … Want to make this whole daughter-mother thing work, and nothing beats a celebration for some bonding.
I could only smile wryly and keep these selfish thoughts to myself. “You know, instead of just using the subspace as a traveling tool, maybe you should spend some time in the hot spring? Eat some of Priscilla’s or Tamae’s food to de-stress? In fact, you should visit the restaurant! How about a romantic night out with your wife, or some family time with your children. Oh! Invite your great-grandmother! Wouldn’t it be a good time?”
“Haha, being in a royal family—being its patriarch, in fact—is more complicated than what a normal family man can do, your highness. We all have schedules and we need to coordinate them. I cannot bring up such a capricious idea out of nowhere.”
“Nonsense! I don’t know much about ruling, but you are a person, too, at the end of the day. So is Queen Filene and your children. Unlike a normal noble marriage, you two actually enjoy each other’s company. That blossoming love will fade if all you two can think about is your rule; you need to find that gap to allow both of you to unwind! Stress is something all of us understand.”
The exhausted king smiled, scratching his chin in interest. “I always forget you are still a maiden at heart, your highness.”
“I might be a dragon, but I know how to act my age and appearance, yeah? Also, love isn’t even on my list of to-dos, right now. Too much to do, not to mention how idols aren’t expected to fall in love so early in their career.” I stood by this value despite it being slightly toxic, as an entertainer had to give their all to keep their fans invested in you.
He chortled. “Far different than our bards and minstrels. Ha, I’ve heard some ‘interesting’ things happening that made me wonder if some of my people are potentially ruining their families.”
No wonder you’re stressed if your nobles aren’t being responsible. Yikes.
Waiting for the knights to assure the demonkin wouldn’t be able to access his abilities was a real hassle and this was the result of our wait. A king and a princess talking about normal problems instead of anything serious, all while Thedore and Fleindia were exchanging information on how the western and eastern Church of Aurena functioned. In any case, our talks passed the time quickly, as it felt like we had just begun complaining when Ellaine, Tasianna, the twins, Vifi, and Grimnir arrived.
“My lady! I’m so sorry!” Tasianna cried before giving me a hug, feeling the heat of my body to make sure I was okay.
[“Princess!”] Similarly, Shay and Beth did the same, kneeling down with their tail tucked in between their legs to ask for forgiveness.
Even if I didn’t explicitly tell Ellaine to call my three bodyguards, it was obvious enough the three of them would run towards me the moment they heard what happened. I wasn’t hurt at all, but considering how the Empire had already sent dragonslayers after me, it wouldn’t be weird for more assassins to appear.
“I think it would be best if you have them accompany you wherever you go from now on. Even my knights are sitting in the corner despite the palace being a walking distance away,” King Drangleic suggested. “You’ve presented yourself as a dragon, then a princess, and you will soon plan on revealing another of your secrets. At this point, you aren’t just an adventurer now. Not even just a musician.”
I nodded. I understood his point, even if it felt a bit suffocating forcing Tasianna and the twins to go everywhere with me. I wanted them to enjoy themselves like they used to. Realizing this, I did not regret how I kept my status a secret from everybody in the beginning, purely so we could avoid moments like this. Being unknown had its perks.
“Saori is doing what she can,” Ellaine informed me once I calmed down a panicking Tasianna. She then turned around and curtsied to King Drangleic. “Your Majesty, I hope we haven’t disturbed you.”
“Nothing at all, Lady Ellaine.” He waved his hand, allowing her to raise her head. “I’ve heard from Theodore how you gallantly fought off the demonkin’s allies. Brave. I know you have your unique Job now, but do consider finding time to be knighted to get access to knight-based development Jobs. If there are such restrictions.”
“I-I wouldn’t dare ask Princess Hestia that!” Ellaine waved her hands, all flustered looking. I knew she didn’t think she was worthy to become an actual knight just yet, although her performance today sure impressed me.
“There are,” Grimnir nodded. “Yorshka confirmed one of the available Jobs was ‘Squire.’ Farron and Rudigan told me the same. The only inconsistency is that the lass here has [Dragoon] instead of [Dragoon Squire].”
“I presumed it has to do with how I’m a [Princess].” I shrugged. “I technically have the right to knight people, right?”
Drangleic nodded. “Only those with a royal or imperial title may grant others a knighthood, fulfilling that requirement. As such, you may knight yourself. Maybe you did when you walked the path of a glaive-user?”
I shrugged once again before finally turning my attention over to Vifi, who was giving Theodore and Drangleic’s knight a glare. When I addressed her, she scoffed.
“Why am I here—Hey!” Vifi scowled as Grimnir nudged her with his elbow.
“Don’t ‘Hey’ me! Stop acting like a damn brat! You know exactly why the lass asked you to come, so give your answer already!”
“Tsk! You better be glad Ellaine and Hestia are around, otherwise I’ll actually smack you for that!” she complained, before turning around to me. Strangely, I just noticed her fangs had grown sharper after that nudge —a sign she wasn’t in “low energy potential,” or apathetic. “Well, I’m interested, that’s for sure.”
“It might be a bit rough.”
“It’s war, sheesh! You know what I think about such methods. If it helps you win a war, then I consider it all fair. How can I judge you for doing what you need to do if I would have done the same if our positions were reversed? It would go against everything I learned and lived for. If you want to survive, you do anything you can, no matter what! Morality be damned,” she reminded me of what she told me of her childhood. “Stop thinking like you need to take my opinion on everything. You will always ruffle somebody’s tail with every decision. Be like when you tried to persuade me after our fight, and that’ll make me content.”
With conviction. Got it. Hooo, bad habit of being an idol. Makes me want to please everybody.
I gave the signal and King Drangleic nodded. He called his interrogator and it began.
There was little good cop, bad cop or really anything you would see in a police flick during this entire interrogation. Mostly, it was torture.
With his mana and skills repressed using manatech cuffs, the only way for him to free himself was to break through them with his strength alone, however, there were multiple people outside who could restrain him. King Drangleic even talked how he wanted to hire the guild master of the mercenary guild to keep him in check until they found a long term solution. Usually, if a person was too hard to be kept behind prison, they would be executed if he wasn’t anybody important or given enough luxury to keep him satisfied.
In any case, I wanted to forget most of the torture method as it made me a bit squimish. I could feel the pain from just looking at what was done to him, only for the interrogator to heal him up. The dark side of [Holy Magic] …
To sum up what we learned, this demonkin of envy was actually a sin heir, a person with a sin crystal embedded in his body to allow him to use one Original Sin ability. Vifi was less talkative about this, but Klea could quickly deduce everything after I told her about a concentration of mana inside his chest with [Mana Eyes].
“Ancestor …” Vifi smacked her face with her palm.
[“Haha, it just makes things more interesting this way, darling.”]
Vifi didn’t go into detail, but she did tell us those crystals were an invention from a previous Prince of Sloth to allow a prince’s heir to get used to the power of an Original Power before the actual deal. As such, the [Original Sin: Satanael] I faced when I fought Vifi was far weaker than what I would face against the Prince of Wrath.
[“You’ll also be facing [Original Sin: Satan], as well, so maybe be wary, hiehie!”] Klea teased us, mentioning the second ability for a wrath demonkin.
Returning to the envy demonkin, his name was Geis, and he was somebody Vifi had known back in Bole’Taria. Similar to U’Skaie, the envy demonkin who killed Eshe, Vifi only had limited contact with him, as the Princes of Envy and Wrath didn’t get along. She didn’t feel anything whenever he roared in pain.
The demonkin also revealed that he and a companion of his was sent here by the Prince of Envy to keep watch over Artorias and me, mentioning how the prince wanted to kill me so badly for some reason. Apparently, after escaping his dimensional trap, he had been seeing illusions of Mom and me haunting him in his sleep and day.
So the Vampire Princess’s information was correct.
These loud cries unnerved the entirety of Aureolis, to the point some believed this was a message from Aurena that Kargryxmor was going to rebel against her or some other nonsense. It was a widespread idea, as people knew the pope couldn’t talk with Aurena, but a few fanatics actually believed it.
“I haven’t heard about it,” Theodore mentioned. “However, the information about the crazed pope is true. My contacts have mentioned how stressed out people have been, not wanting to get on the pope’s bad side to avoid getting excommunicated.”
“These are the people we can bring to our side,” Fleindia stated. “If even one of them possesses a good reputation, they can support Champion Hestia’s idea to reinstate a blessed as the Church’s religious leader.
The demonkin continued, telling us this paranoia had caused the Knight-Commander of the Knight’s of Aurena to grow suspicious. They knew he had figured out something was wrong a long time ago, but due to his oath to serve the Church of Aurena, he hadn’t been able to act on anything. He couldn’t betray the Church without enough evidence.
The sin heirs have tried to sabotage the Knight-Commander here and there to make his job harder, even mentioning the otherworldlers they summoned. Their failure was his failure, and it got even worse when Yorshka defected to our side with the students. The commander has been facing criticism to the point some of the more opportunistic bishops and cardinals called for the Empire to replace him.
This was all caused by the pope and his envy cohorts.
“Dame Yorshka mentioned this!” Ellaine called out. “We need to have the two of them get back in contact! Getting the Knights of Aurena on your side means the pope loses their military force! The symbol of power has always been the Knights of Aurena, as they are the symbol for Goddess Erithia’s authority!”
“As she is the founder of the Hands of Heaven and the restructured Knights of Aurena, being Goddess Erithia’s Saintess gives me some influence with them. I even grew up in a knight household! My father knows the Knight-Commander,” Fleindia stated. “In fact, he was one of the people I wanted to contact.”
W-wow, did my encounter luck finally turn in my favor? Did the coin finally fall on heads? Did the dice finally give me a good result? … But, we’re getting all of this by making somebody else’s life hell. An eye for an eye, sure, but … Haaa, I can’t take this.
“P-please, stop … E-enough, please!” The demonkin pleaded.
Even I was starting to feel bad for him. When the interrogator ignored him and continued, I prompted Drangleic if we should stop for the day and he agreed, saying pushing the prisoner even further wouldn’t be good. They still had too much to ask so breaking him to the point of exhaustion wouldn’t be good.
Sheesh, what a morbid way to look at it. Well, I agreed to this, so I can’t complain. This honestly feels wrong.
Looking at the others around me, I could only see Tasiann and Ellaine disturbed by this. Everybody else was okay with what was happening as long as it got us a benefit.
As we were beginning to stop, our [Danger Perception] suddenly flared up, warning us of an attack coming from inside the interrogation room. When we looked into it, we couldn’t see anything before Klea noted there was something going on with the demonkin’s chest. When I activated [Mana Eyes], I noted how the mana was growing larger around the sin crystal, to the point it was glowing black now!
Shit!
[“Ellaine! Wings!”] Klea called out while I cast [Sanctuary].
Ellaine charged forward before the barrier materialized and had her back grow two skeleton wings. She rammed them into the ground before detaching them from her body, creating a protective wall.
Boom!
<1 human follower lost>
<Total follower count updated. Total followers of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 39814>
In the next second, a massive explosion rocked the entire room, blowing through Ellaine’s wings and causing some damage to my barrier. At the same time, I also saw that notification, cursing out loud as I realized what happened. I blew the dust away, revealing the destroyed interrogation room with bits of flesh and blood smeared around it. The interrogator had died instantly.
Shit! Shit! I’m sorry we couldn’t save you!
… Nobody talked as we stared at what happened.
“… Looks like ‘Lord’ Envy boobytrapped his crystal for situations like this,” Vifi stated after a long silence.
I’m taking you down, you bastard!
Comments
May he be reincarnated into a better life
brunoid
Thanks for the chapter! RIP, it was nice knowing you, interrogator dude.
May Ilsaphone treat him well.
Dire Knight Roberts
r.i.p. interrogator guy
