Chapter 139
First, to keep Olivia from wavering, Chris spoke with a firm gaze.
“Remember the essence of Soul Requiem. Never forget the heart that cherishes the souls.”
“!!”
Was it because the situation was so urgent?
Chris didn’t think to use honorifics, and Olivia didn’t find it strange.
“Don’t think about anything else. Just focus on those souls. Leave the rest to me.”
Olivia firmly nodded and closed her eyes.
As if praying for those pitiful souls.
Chris moved as well.
‘The dominating property of dark demonic energy.’
His dark demonic energy possessed the ability to dominate other energies.
This dominance extended not only to energies of darkness but also worked to some extent on energies of light.
Because his dark demonic energy was a pure form superior to all others.
Using that dominance, he succeeded in drawing a portion of Olivia’s Starlight Energy to himself.
Then, he dispersed that starlight energy into the air.
Tung. Paah.
Like a droplet falling onto the surface of a still lake.
The ripple of starlight energy resonated through the air.
At the same time, a sound echoed.
It was a sound created by the ripple of the starlight energy.
A single pulse of noise.
Chris didn’t stop there.
In a split second, he repeated the same action countless times.
With rhythm.
Introducing slight variations.
The repeated ripples formed a pattern, and the variations in the pattern became a rhythm.
The starlight pulses that were once mere noise now formed a flowing melody, becoming one grand musical score.
A requiem for the dead.
A performance for the departed, created through the ripples of starlight energy.
An astounding feat born from Chris’s insane energy manipulation skills and his musical ability that had reached the level of a master.
A performance imbued with a purer force than any sound in the world bathed the souls.
[Ahh!!]
And so—
Olivia’s heart for the souls, and the comforting melody expressed through starlight energy, came together to create a miracle.
Paaaah!
As if the heavens opened, radiant light poured down upon the altar.
As a result—
Crack.
The sphere that had imprisoned the souls on the altar cracked and then shattered completely into pieces.
They did it!
“Guhah!!!”
The souls wept tears as they were freed, and Grand Duke Vince coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Having lost his power, Grand Duke Vince stumbled back in fear.
“Ah, no.”
Evan and Jupien stepped forward.
Grand Duke Vince desperately shouted at the puppet.
“S-Spare me!! With your power, you could eliminate all of them…!!”
The puppet curled a smile atop its mask, and Chris felt a chilling sense of dread.
“No, stop him!!”
Evan leapt forward, but it was too late.
[Why should I help a loser like you?]
With a spine-chilling murmur, the puppet snapped its fingers.
Splurt.
Grand Duke Vince’s head burst apart.
His now-headless body swayed unsteadily, then collapsed to the ground with a thud.
“……”
A tense silence filled the hall.
Everyone stared at the puppet with wary eyes.
[Now, now. There’s no need to glare at me like that. As I said before, I don’t particularly feel like fighting.]
“…And how are we supposed to believe that? Isn’t your master, Märchen, the kind who wants to spill blood the moment she sees an opening?”
Chris asked coldly.
To Märchen—infamous for her capricious and brutal nature—the earlier promise meant nothing.
[Ah, of course, but my master is very interested in you, Prince Christian.]
“…What?”
The puppet’s single eye atop the mask stared straight at Chris, as if locking onto him.
[Prince Christian, have you ever considered coming to the Castle of the Four Kings?]
* * *
“……”
Everyone went silent for a moment.
An entirely unexpected statement.
“…I don’t know what kind of madness you’re spouting. If that’s a joke, it’s a terrible one.”
[It’s no joke. I meant it. And I don’t think it’s such a bad offer.]
The puppet twirled its eerie smile.
[Surely you already know, don’t you? That there’s no future for the Dark Demonic House.]
“……”
[The head of Nordian, the final bastion of the Dark Demonic House, has little time left. And more than anything, once the internal conflict within the Castle of the Four Kings ends, the Dark Demonic House will be utterly crushed.]
Chris couldn’t deny it.
‘He’s right.’
It wasn’t just the Dark Demonic House.
Even the other houses of the Southern Magic Nation—the Venomous Demonic House and the Destructive Demonic House—would all be trampled by the Castle of the Four Kings.
They might barely escape annihilation, but only by becoming dogs leashed by the Castle of the Four Kings.
That’s how overwhelming their power was.
[If you come to the Castle of the Four Kings, once we conquer the Dark Demonic House, I will grant you the position of house head. Of course, by then, the Dark Demonic House will be no more than a servant of the castle.]
When Chris didn’t answer, the puppet rubbed its chin.
[If that’s still not enough… hmm. What sort of reward would please you? Ah, how about this? I’ll give you the Grand Duchess Idrinne of the Blood Sword Demonic House.]
“…What?”
Chris’s face hardened at the sudden mention of the Blood-Drenched Demon King.
[Ah, Idrinne is the most beautiful woman in the Castle of the Four Kings. We were planning to kill her anyway, but it seems like a waste to just dispose of her, so wouldn’t it be more efficient to use her like this? I’ll give her to you as a special gift, Prince.]
“…You’re insane.”
Chris’s expression twisted with disgust.
To offer the Blood-Drenched Demon King as a gift?
It was beyond revolting—it was simply absurd.
‘…So Idrinne hasn’t secured victory yet in the Castle’s power struggle?’
Just like everywhere else in the Magus Empire, the Castle of the Four Kings was also a chaotic mess internally.
If the Crusade Alliance rotted from within, the Magus Empire was plagued by constant infighting.
‘Didn’t they say Idrinne seized dominance over the Castle of the Four Kings after an ocean of blood?’
Regardless, it wasn’t even worth considering.
“Shut up.”
[Kukuku. You really are fascinating. Ah, what should I do? The more I look at you, the more I desire you.]
The puppet muttered quietly.
[Should I just kill you now and turn you into a puppet?]
“!!”
At that moment—
Evan launched an Aura Blade.
A sudden strike like lightning.
But the puppet didn’t panic—its lips twisted into a wide grin.
[Heh. From a renowned swordsmanship family, are you? You’d make a fine puppet too. Prepare yourse—]
But just then—
The puppet’s body flinched.
In an instant, it froze completely.
As if its string had been cut.
It was a split-second pause—but against a knight like Evan, it was an eternity.
Slice.
The puppet’s neck was severed.
And that wasn’t all.
Flash.
Evan’s sword whipped up a storm.
Wrist, arms, legs, torso—the puppet’s body was slashed into countless pieces.
Done purposefully to prevent regeneration.
[W-What?! How?!]
Thud thud.
The puppet’s severed head rolled across the floor, voicing disbelief.
“You saw it, didn’t you? That I’m a genius.”
Chris stepped forward and placed the heel of his shoe atop the puppet’s mask.
Right on the single eye—where its ‘core’ was located.
“You really thought it’d be fine to keep your ‘thread’ exposed this long against a genius like me? You underestimated me way too much.”
[!!]
Thread.
The core of puppetry magic — it refers to the dark magical link that connects the master to the puppet.
That’s why, if you cut the thread, the puppet is rendered powerless. From the moment Chris first saw the puppet, he’d been focusing on locating that thread.
Of course, normally the existence of the thread is hidden with utmost care, and protective measures are taken to ensure it can’t be severed.
‘No matter how powerful a 7-star dark magician Märchen is, controlling a puppet from such a long distance while perfectly hiding the thread is unrealistic. The distance from the Castle of the Four Kings to here is over 2,000 kilometers.’
Even so, what Chris targeted was just a minuscule gap — something no ordinary person would have even dared to exploit. But Chris succeeded in momentarily disabling the puppet by aiming at that faint vulnerability.
‘Next time, Märchen will surely prepare countermeasures, so using the same method again will be difficult.’
Smash!
As the mask shattered, the puppet’s dismembered body dissolved into a thick black liquid like a slain monster's corpse and vanished.
“…It’s over.”
Evan said.
Chris shook his head.
“No. It’s just beginning.”
“!!”
Chris looked down at the altar, still saturated with traces and residues of dark magic.
“It’s time to uncover the truth.”
Time to face the true mastermind behind this horrific incident.
* * *
They cleaned up the aftermath first.
Since the battle had taken place in secrecy, there was no public unrest even though Grand Duke Vinz had disappeared.
Count Roy and Olivia gave a vague explanation to cover for the Grand Duke’s absence, and in the meantime, Chris began verifying the evidence.
‘As expected, not easy. Definitely the work of those cursed Devil Contractors.’
The true mastermind behind this incident wasn’t Grand Duke Vinz.
He had merely been a pawn.
Chris searched for any trace of the true culprit in the black magic-related artifacts — but there was nothing.
Only remnants of Grand Duke Vinz’s involvement remained.
‘Still, there’s always a way.’
Chris didn’t limit himself to just the magical evidence. He thoroughly combed through every last one of the Grand Duke’s administrative documents.
Normally, an outsider wouldn’t have access to such files, but given the current circumstances, that didn’t matter.
Of course, there was no way Grand Duke Vinz would leave behind direct evidence in official records.
“Bingo.”
“…Did you find something?”
Olivia asked, her expression stiff.
“There’s definitely something suspicious in these documents.”
“……”
“I believe I can identify the one behind all this.”
Olivia swallowed hard.
Her sapphire eyes shimmered with tension.
Chris held out the documents.
“These are records of the past year’s material exports and budget flows from the Vinz Territory. If you examine them carefully, you’ll see how the materials used for the curse were smuggled in under false pretenses.”
“……”
“The curse was massive in scale, so a large quantity of items was used. Most of them are forbidden materials, so they were disguised and brought in through various channels. This couldn’t have been done with Grand Duke Vinz’s power alone. He had help — but the question is, who could’ve pulled this off?”
Given the fractured structure of the Gold Cross, there were very few who could make this happen.
Even monarchs of each nation could only exercise authority within their own territories.
— You should hear the full story directly from the Holy Pope.
The words spoken by Grand Duke Vinz flashed through Olivia’s mind, and her face turned deathly pale.
Still, she forced herself to shake her head.
“…B-but this is still just conjecture, isn’t it?”
“That’s true. But take a look at this as well.”
It was a letter from Ruina.
“Do you know the Dear Merchant Guild?”
“…Yes. They were accused of being behind the recent Black Death incident.”
“They were framed. But who…”
“……”
There were very few people within the Gold Cross capable of such deeds.
Chris unfolded the letter.
“Fortunately, Guildmaster Ruina is resourceful and acquainted with several key figures within the Gold Cross. According to them, the downfall of the Dear Guild was influenced by the will of someone very high up.”