Chapter 518: The Devil's Lack of Response |
Yugasi walked slowly out of the tavern, still outwardly composed. But once he was clear of the building, his pace began quickening despite himself.
He kept reminding himself that he'd already waited thousands of years. What difference did a few more days make? No sense ruining it all now, so close to the end. He was the only candidate left. Victory was practically guaranteed. There was no need to rush.
But that kind of self-reassurance was like the hunger in his gut. The harder he tried to ignore it, the more he noticed it, the more he felt that searing sensation.
The city wasn't large, but it was thick with the scent of the living.
The scent of fresh blood and flesh kept drifting into Yugasi's nose, making his already unbearable hunger sharper still.
Just as Yugasi was preparing to hurry away from this tempting place, a strange voice suddenly sounded in his ear.
"Why bother enduring? All these years, it's not like you've never once broken your vow. You've done so on the sly more than a few times, haven't you?"
Startled, Yugasi sprang backward, launching himself more than ten meters into the air. He landed atop a nearby rooftop.
But no matter how he searched, he couldn't find the source of the voice.
"Don't waste your effort. I'm your own mind. I'm an echo of your soul. Yeger has been lying to you for thousands of years. Isn't it time you woke up? Right now, you're the only candidate left in the Elegiac Society, sure. But what about a few years from now? How long has that lich even been a member? How do you know Yeger won't just drag in some new recruit a few years down the line? Are you going to sit around waiting for some new hire to kill himself and fall into Hell too?"
Yugasi didn't answer, but his hands trembled faintly.
The words had struck home. He'd worried about exactly this, but had simply forced himself not to think about it until now.
Yugasi knew the choice was never his to make. Whether Yeger brought in a new candidate depended entirely on the President's whims.
"Face reality. Yeger never had any intention of handing you the God of Death's domain in the first place. So why keep enduring for something that empty? Look at this whole city full of the living. You've been starving a long time, haven't you?"
Yugasi's claws clenched, letting out a series of sharp, clicking scrapes.
Adding fuel to the fire, a group of paladins came rushing in.
Maybe the Elegiac Society's gathering had finally caught the attention of these slow-witted paladins, or maybe it was Yugasi's ten-meter leap that had drawn their eyes.
The moment they laid eyes on the ghoul's true form, holy light flared to life around every one of them.
The blinding light struck Yugasi's eyes, forcing his blood-red gaze into a squint. When the paladins drew their swords, Yugasi finally lost what little restraint remained and lunged at them, claws swinging.
Holy light was a natural check against the undead, but the gap in their strength was simply too vast. Their armor tore apart like paper, and severed limbs scattered across the ground in moments.
As the holy light faded, Yugasi found himself holding half a blood-soaked skull, fighting the urge to stuff it straight into his mouth. If he devoured every corpse in front of him, wouldn't he at least feel full for half a minute or so?
He'd been starving for so long. Ever since he'd become a ghoul, the hunger had never once truly faded. No matter how much flesh he devoured, the feeling of fullness lasted only a moment before the endless torment of hunger swallowed him again.
The tempting voice sounded once more in his ear. "Go on, eat. What are you waiting for? It's not like you've never done it before. All these years, you've barely broken your vow, sure, but not never. Didn't you make yourself a rule that a bite or two taken mid-battle doesn't count as breaking it?"
Yugasi's mouth opened wide, half a skull mere inches from being crammed inside.
But at the very last instant, he hurled the bloody thing away in fury.
The spray of blood splattered into a shadowed corner, revealing a pale-skinned elf standing there.
Yugasi snarled, "Who are you?!"
The pale elf shrugged, evidently surprised to have been caught. The members of the Elegiac Society really did have some ability. Despite being short of true divinity, they were close to that threshold; a mere avatar wasn't nearly enough to fool them completely.
Facing down a furious Yugasi, the pale elf sneered. "Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is whether I'm right, and you already know the answer in your heart... ow!"
A blood-streaked claw swiped past, nearly tearing the pale elf's head clean off.
Dodging back just in time, the pale elf took to the sky.
Yugasi glared upward but didn't press the pursuit. He could sense that this pale elf was formidable, and he wasn't at all certain he'd come out on top in a fight. He had no idea who it even was, only that someone had gone out of their way to tempt him into breaking his vow.
"The undead really are stubborn creatures. Fine, keep on waiting, then. You've got plenty of time left to live. I'll see how long it takes before you finally give up."
The strange elf vanished into the sky, and Yugasi lost every trace of its presence.
More flares of holy light lit up, converging from every direction across the city.
Yugasi glanced up at the sky, and finally had no choice but to flee toward the city's outskirts.
The city went on lockdown, but in the end, it hardly mattered. A handful of dead paladins only added more tension to a city already jumping at shadows.
Incidents like this were just mere ripples in the face of Lyon's ongoing chaos, not even significant enough to reach the High Inquisitor's desk back in the imperial capital.
After leaving the tavern, Black Rose and Aige went straight through the teleportation array back to the Umbral Depths. Mercury City hadn't changed at all. It was still silent, still as still as a graveyard.
As they walked through Mercury City, every undead in sight kept to the shadows, not daring to show themselves in front of Black Rose.
Everyone knew the undead queen's mood had been foul lately. The slightest misstep could get their souls annihilated on the spot.
Black Rose said, reflective, "You can already travel this far from your true body. It looks like true godhood isn't far off for you now."
Aige's true body was a ghost ship still out on the open sea—yet she could now manifest a projection all the way to the Umbral Depths. Her power had clearly grown by leaps and bounds.
Aige didn't hide it. "That's right. His plan has been going smoothly the whole time. My divine domain is almost fully formed. Give it two more years at most, and I'll become a true god."
Hearing Aige mention Ambrose, Black Rose felt a faint pang of something sour, but the feeling passed before she had time to dwell on it.
Calling that man's soul back from Hell would demand an enormous price, and Black Rose worried she might not be able to cover it on her own. If Aige was willing to help, everything would be far easier.
The two of them walked on together and soon reached the deepest chamber of the castle.
Protected by countless layers of magical wards, Ambrose's remains lay sealed within a crystal coffin in the form of that black-haired, black-eyed young man, looking as though he were merely asleep.
Milena stood leaning on her longsword, keeping watch beside the coffin as she always did.
The innocence had faded from Milena's face. She had grown quiet and withdrawn.
Ambrose's departure had reshaped the world at large, but also the people close to him just as deeply.
This time, though, Black Rose brought good news.
"Milena, I've found out where your father is."
At those words, Milena's eyes lit up at once. "Really? Does that mean we can bring Father back?"
Black Rose had meant to say it wouldn't be that easy, but on seeing the look on Milena's face, she found herself nodding instead. "Yes. Your father's soul fell into Hell. It should be in Sariel's hands. We can buy him back. We will."
"Wonderful!" Milena said, thrilled. "Let me summon Sariel, quick!"
Back when Ambrose was still alive, Milena had always served as the sacrifice to lure Sariel down to the mortal realm.
Black Rose shook her head. She didn't have Ambrose's particular gift. She couldn't just set Milena on a magic circle, call out a few words, and expect Sariel to come running.
That wasn't summoning. That was more like fishing.
Ambrose was the only person in this world who could fish up a Lord of Hell.
To properly summon Sariel, they would have to follow the Archduchess's own rules: a large-scale blood sacrifice, a massive magic circle, and precise incantations. All three were non-negotiable.
Fortunately, the Umbral Depths lacked for nothing.
After several hours of preparation, the blood-soaked, malevolent magic circle stood ready. Black Rose and Aige chanted the summoning incantation for Sariel together. All that was left was to wait for a response.
But hours passed. Even as the stench of the blood sacrifice turned to rot, no response whatsoever came from the magic circle.
"Sariel hasn't answered?" Something felt very wrong to Black Rose. Whatever state Ambrose was in, an Archduchess of Hell would never pass up a chance to haggle. It was practically free gold on the table. There was no reason for Sariel to stay silent.
At the very least, she should have appeared to hear her offer.
Unless... Sariel was holding onto Ambrose's soul so tightly that she wasn't even willing to entertain a bid for him?
That would be a serious problem indeed.