Volume 3 Chapter 223 Revival
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Linca returned to the motel room with Kian.
The air reeked of sex, thick and cloying after a day spent tangled together.
In the dim light, the bed and floor still glistened with bodily fluids, cloths discarded and stiff. They exchanged a glance—half sheepish, half resigned—but time was too tight for shame. They were going to face Erynys. They couldn’t afford to waste another minute.
Wordlessly, they grabbed only what they needed—a light source, bare gear—and moved to the next room.
Inside, they lit the fireplace and reassembled the cluster of glowing mushrooms. Eventually, they sat side by side on the bed.
Linca shifted, restless. The scent still clung to her skin, and she rubbed her knees together beneath the hem of her tunic.
But there was no helping it. She had to restrain herself.
”Let’s regroup,” Kian said, settling back. “I’mnearly at full strength. I’ve lost my right arm. ‘Silver Ice’ and the Windsong Blade are gone. ‘Nightshade’ is stuck in the real world, and obviously, I can’t use Talia’s magic sword. All I’ve got left is the Mistcloud sword that was with you.”
”In contrast,” Linca said, “Erynys has seven magic swords—and can wield them all freely, right? With that vampire hair-control thing, simultaneous use is even possible. I don’t know much about the armor, but it looks like it resists both magic and regular attacks. And now they’re trying to resurrect the Demon of Thorns. That’d be a full-on apocalypse. Even if Oswald and Sir Jibril fought together… would it even matter?”
”That’s right,” Kian murmured. “I need to stop relying on others. It’s a bad habit of mine.”
He rose, producing a calligraphy brush he’d fashioned himself—an imitation of Oswald’s. He crossed the room and ran the tip lightly along the wall.
”Erynys’s arsenal includes the Seven Magic Swords. Their abilities are as follows—”
——”First Magic Sword: ‘Funeral Dance,’” he continued, writing as he spoke. “It triggers a lethal blow in the presence of pooled blood. Unavoidable. Unhealable. Range varies depending on the blood.”
——”Second Magic Sword: ‘Shadow Pierce.’ Grants extreme speed.”
——”Third: ‘Heavenbreaker.’ Generates and manipulates a thousand blades to attack.”
——”Fourth: ‘Thundercleave.’ Sends out a storm of slashes in a fixed radius. While active, the user becomes mist—immune to physical attacks. No prep time or mist-generation required, unlike the secret technique ‘Thunder.’”
——”Fifth: ‘Rend Tear.’ A wide-range, high-powered beam.”
——”Sixth: ‘Mistcloud.’ Produces real clones. They can attack simultaneously, especially when combined with other swords. As long as even one remains, the user can’t be defeated.”
——”Seventh: ‘Water Moon.’ Deflects any ranged attack. By drawing magic from the Spiritual Vein, it can counterattack with a force several times stronger than the original.”
”That’s it,” he said. “Any weaknesses? If there’s a flaw in any of them, I want to exploit it.”
”There are none,” Linca said flatly.
”Don’t give up,” he said, voice tight. “Think harder.”
”But if even you couldn’t find one, what chance do I have?! When Arminus was getting obliterated, all I could do was gape at that god-tier power.”
Linca stood and crossed to his side, clasping her hands beneath her ample chest like Sarah used to. She stared at the wall, eyes narrowing at the notes about the Sixth and Seventh swords.
”I mean… what if Erynys already has Mistcloud and Water Moon ready to go when we start? Couldn’t Water Moon deflect even, like, a crossbow bolt or a bomb?”
”Yeah,” Kian said.
”So then none of our attacks would get through, right?”
”They’d have to deflect every shot one by one. If we just carpet-bombed them with arrows, some would break through—unless they countered with ‘Heavenbreaker’ or ‘Rend Tear.’”
”What if they use ‘Heavenbreaker’?”
”That depends on their skill. If it were me, I could slice every arrow without even dirtying my armor—assuming it’s just a light drizzle.”
”But ‘Rend Tear’ has longer range than a crossbow, right? So if they just spam that from outside our range, we’re toast. Only way around that is sneaking up and assassinating them.”
”In that case,” Kian said, “the problem’s the Mistcloud clones.”
Linca waved a hand. “Then what if we lure them somewhere tight—where the clones can’t spread out? Like… this room. Then we use ‘Impact’ or ‘Shot’ pressure attacks to shred them all at once.”
”Then we’d die instantly,” he said, “from ‘Thundercleave.’”
”Ah… the range-slice one,” she muttered. “And when it’s used, the user turns into mist, right?”
”That’s right. It’s similar to the secret technique ‘Thunder.’”
”I always wondered what the point of ‘Thundercleave’ was, when you’ve already got ‘Heavenbreaker’ and ‘Funeral Dance.’ But I guess that’s it.”
Kian nodded.
”‘Heavenbreaker’ and ‘Mistcloud’ both need space—so if the enemy’s forced into close quarters and can’t spam ‘Rend Tear,’ they fall back on ‘Thundercleave.’ Basically, the Seven Swords cover every range—long, mid, short.”
”Isn’t that… unbeatable?” Linca whispered.
”Yeah… it kind of is. So the only real strategy is to prevent them from using the swords at all.”
”So it really is assassination,” she said.
Linca closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
Assassination demanded more nerve than open combat. You had to get in close. You had to kill, face-to-face.
But Kian shook his head.
”Vampires have a sharp nose for blood. Even a golem would give off magic waves. Getting close without detection is near impossible.”
”Then what do we do? We’re not gonna sit around and try to talk them down, assuming we’ll die. I’m not ready to die. And I don’t want you to die either, Sir Kian.”
”I know.” He paused. “I’ve got an idea. It’s more of a gamble than a plan… but still. It’s something.”
”You think you can handle the swords?!”
”Handle them? No. But maybe I can seal them. The Seven Magic Swords weren’t made for Erynys. They were gifts from spirits, intended for Talia—the real Talia. The girl with both Talia’s soul and her body.”
He glanced at her.
”Back when I borrowed the swords through the glasses, Erynys was using Talia’s body to activate them. So it worked.”
He turned away, voice low.
”But now? What’s using them is neither her body nor her soul. It’s a puppet that just looks like her,” he said.
The spirits hadn’t offered their swords to that impostor. They had loved someone else entirely.
”I don’t know the precise circumstances under which Talia came to possess the seven magic swords,” He said. “But if she had a formal magic contract or something similar—one that said, ‘In principle, the magic swords are to be used by Talia. If anyone else uses them without permission, they’ll be reclaimed’—then I think we could contact the spirits and have them take the swords away from Erynys.”
”I see…” she nodded. “So Erynys is using Talia’s name without permission—and her belongings too.”
”Right,” Kian said. “The case where the swords can’t be reclaimed is when the spirits formally granted them to Talia and relinquished all ownership. If that’s true, even if Erynys tries to steal them from Talia’s corpse, the spirits won’t care.”
But if Talia’s ownership was conditional—
If the spirits were merely lending her the swords—
Then, by informing them that Talia had died and her possession had ended, it might be possible to retrieve the swords.
And once that happens, Erynys—acting without permission—would no longer be able to use them.
”We need to investigate the contract between Talia and the spirits,” Kian said.
”Yeah,” Linca agreed.
”…”
”What’s wrong?” Kian asked.
He leaned in. Linca’s face had gone oddly still. If she couldn’t hold back her libido, she could always sneak off to that room from earlier and—
But Linca shook her head. “No, it’s nothing,” she said.
She added softly, “But still… I really think Sir Kian is an incredible person.”
”I like how you flatter me every time,” he said with a faint smile.
”I’m serious. I mean it. I’m supposed to be the magic expert here, and I didn’t think of any of that.”
”Sometimes it’s because you’re not overthinking that you spot things I can’t,” Kian said. “Don’t get discouraged. I’m counting on you, Linca.”
”Y-yes…!”
”Okay, next,” Kian said.
He stepped away from the wall where he’d been jotting notes about the magic swords and turned to the one behind the bed. Linca pulled the bed forward to give him space to write.
”Assuming the magic swords are sealed,” Kian said, “we still need a way to defeat Erynys. Right now, she’s inhabiting a homunculus—one that Count Albert Cain spent a fortune and every technique he knew to craft for his beloved daughter. It has blood that mirrors Talia’s, with the same concentration of vampire factor. As long as it has magic power, it’ll regenerate through the Restoration Curse.”
”However,” Linca added, lifting one long leg and tapping it lightly with her finger, “Ms. Erynys doesn’t seem afraid of running out of magic power, even though that’s a vampire’s core weakness. On the contrary…”
She paused.
”It seemed like she was absorbing a large amount of magic power just by touching the ground. She probably knows how to tap into the Reimyaku [Spiritual Vein].”
”The soul in that homunculus is Erynys…” Kian murmured. “The spirits draw limitless magic from the land. I don’t know her current absorption rate, but in terms of raw reserves, it’s close to infinite—as long as those ley lines don’t dry up entirely.”
”Then if we create a ‘Land of Death’—a place where the Reimyaku is completely drained—and lure her there, once her magic runs out, the Restoration Curse will fail, right?”
Kian snapped his fingers. clack
”Exactly. If it’s land where the Reimyaku has withered, the power of Rend Tear and Water Moon will drop too. Good idea,” he said. “The real question is whether it’s even possible to drain a ley line. We’d need a high-output spell powerful enough to evaporate the Azrael Sea—something that can suck up that much magic power. Not to mention the time it’d take to activate the ritual.”
”Even a High Elf Great Sage would struggle with that,” Linca said. “Maybe we could lure her to the Azrael Desert… or even farther north, beyond the Great Ice Wall?”
”No,” Kian said. “The Thorn Demon and Erynys both move in search of human flesh and life force. They’re not coming to us.”
”That does complicate things. In that case, we’d need to somehow cut off Erynys from the Reimyaku—construct some kind of barrier,” Linca said. “Like that blue butterfly… Ms. Rose Garden Keeper. Remember what she did?”
”You mean that Pseudo Sanctuary she built?” Kian said. “Her barrier severed the monsters’ link to the Reimyaku. That’s why they died instantly when we took off their heads. Think we can reverse-engineer her spell?”
”Reverse-engineer? We only saw it a handful of times,” Linca said. “If she were willing to demonstrate it again right here, over and over, then maybe. But trying to recreate the ritual from memory? Impossible.”
Should’ve studied her barrier magic properly instead of getting scared off, Linca thought bitterly, biting her nail.
”Rose Garden Keeper,” Kian called out in a normal speaking voice—no shouting. Yelling could attract dangerous creatures, after all. “If you can hear us, please show yourself.”
But the blue butterfly didn’t appear.
Ever since Erynys had told her to disappear, they hadn’t seen her again. Maybe she was no longer nearby.
Kian and Linca waited a full minute in silence.
When nothing happened, they exchanged glances.
”No good.”
”Yes… it seems that way.”
”Finding the disappeared Rose Garden Keeper is also a small objective to add,” Linca said.
Kian ran the brush across the wall.
”Any other ways to defeat Erynys?” he asked.
”I have one—Mizuchi,” Linca replied.
She summoned the head of a large white serpent. When she gave it a firm smack, Mizuchi let out a low grunt and vomited up three tools.
”These are the magical items we obtained when we defeated the guardian,” she explained.
”I see. The collar of the dark spirit,” Kian said.
”Yes. It’s the soul-binding chain. According to the Rose Garden Keeper’s explanation, if you use it while the target is weakened, the opponent is bound to become a slave for life,” she said, her tone steady.
”Weakened, huh?” Kian muttered, rubbing his neck. “Specifically, how much should I beat them up for that? We don’t even see Erynys’s health as numbers, so it’s kind of vague.”
”I don’t know either. But if we can stop the Restoration Curse and tear off her limbs, wouldn’t that work? Even if it fails, we just keep pounding her and try the collar until it catches.”
Kian placed a hand under his chin, thoughtful.
”The meat puppets Erynys is using… Two of the three hearts containing the spirit nuclei have been crushed. We extracted them when we put the Restoration Curse on you and Sarah. If regeneration hasn’t finished, she’s down to just one.”
”There are three hearts… So even if one’s destroyed, the body can still move, but it’s severely weakened? Does that mean we might be able to use the collar right at the start?”
”Yeah. But she won’t just let us slip it on. We’ll probably need to rip her limbs off so she can’t resist.”
”Still… the soul-binding chain is one answer.”
”True,” Linca said, lowering her gaze. “But Erynys knows about the collar. The fact that she let us keep it might mean it’s a trap. Relying on it alone isn’t wise.”
”We also have the fragments of Phoenix’s spirit nucleus.”
Linca picked up a black tube.
”If we can use this to create the Holy Sword of the Sun—like Oswald has—we might be able to fight Erynys evenly.”
”A sword fight seems risky,” Kian said. “Especially with Mizuki in the mix. The strength of the Holy Sword of the Sun lies in its extreme defense boost. Mistcloud’s clone tactics might get overwhelmed by raw force alone.”
But no one in this world could forge spirit weapons like the Holy Sword of the Sun. Back in the real world, maybe someone like Guy could manage it—but even he might fall short. These were weapons of the gods, their principles unknown and beyond human hands.
”By the way, what’s with that old key?” Kian asked.
”Who knows,” Linca said. “The Misericord of the Covenant, the soul-binding chain, the Phoenix fragments—each a powerful magical item dropped by guardians. But this key… it just looks like a regular key.”
”It’s bothering me. I want to find the keyhole it fits, but we can’t waste time.”
”Oh, we can do it—Tanuki!” Linca clapped her hands.
With a pop, a small animal-shaped shikigami [spirit familiar] appeared, carrying a jar of sand.
”Please find the keyhole that matches this key,” she instructed, handing it over.
The beast’s dopey expression shifted into mock pride. It patted its chest and trotted—clomp clomp—to the door.
It then skillfully unlocked it and dashed outside.
”If it finds something, it’ll tell us,” Linca said.
”Handy little thing,” Kian remarked.
”Right? I’d like to keep summoning more shiki whenever possible,” she added with a smile.
”I’m glad you’re here,” Kian said quietly. “I’m no Jibril… I’m useless without you.”
”…!? …A-again with the sudden honesty…♡”
”…?” he murmured, puzzled.
”Jeez. Let’s move to the next topic already!”
”Yeah,” Kian said, nodding.
He stepped to the narrow wall near the door.
”We’ve almost decided on everything. First is how to handle the Thorn Demon.”
”That enormous creature that absorbs magic,” Linca said. “It shoots thorns from its body and turns victims into Bloodsucking Kind.”
”We’ll use the Misericord, which nullifies magic absorption,” Kian said.
He glanced at Linca’s hairclip—silver, tied back.
”Use your magic or that secret technique, Skyrend, to destroy its core. That’ll be the end of it.”
”The tricky part is the Bloodsucking Kind created by those thorns. But Erynys probably hasn’t revived the Thorn Demon yet, so this may all be moot.”
”She was just here a day ago. To pull that off, she’d need to pick a human sacrifice, collect a bunch of thorns carrying the demon’s essence, secretly build a magic circle, and activate it… I don’t think she could do all that in a day, not with just her vampire powers.”
If Kian and the others return to the real world quickly, there’s no need to face the demon.
”And finally, how to get back to reality,” Kian said.
”Erynys was traveling back and forth often. After you passed out, I kept an eye on her movements. It seems she was teleporting from deep inside the sanctuary,” Linca said.
”If we investigate there, could we construct a gate?” he asked.
”I don’t know. But if she’s moving that frequently, she’s likely drawing some kind of physical ritual circle. Doing that every time is pretty exhausting.”
”But don’t mages like you activate teleportation without forming circles?”
Linca shook her head.
”Our long-distance teleportation relies on spirit veins [leyline-like energy currents]. This place is cut off from them entirely—it’s a spatially isolated realm. Normal long-range teleportation won’t work. That’s why Umar was so focused on the teleport gate the obsidian spirit left behind.”
”I see.”
”To sum up…” Linca plucked the calligraphy brush from Kian’s hand.
With fluid strokes and graceful characters, she wrote the list in classical script:
* Investigate the magic contract between Talia and the spirits of the magic sword.
* Search for the Rose Garden Keeper and learn how to deploy the Sanctuary [T/N: A spiritual barrier that severs access to spirit veins].
* See if Phoenix’s core can be crafted into a powerful weapon.
* Investigate the gate Erynys uses to move between worlds.
* If a matching keyhole can be found for the old, worn key, investigate it immediately… and so on.
”We should start by returning to the Sanctuary and examining the teleportation circle Erynys was using,” Kian said. “Strike while the iron’s hot. On the way, we’ll check the spot where the Rose Garden Keeper vanished.”
”Phoenix’s core won’t be easy to process,” Linca added. “But as for Talia’s contract with the spirits, we might find clues in Kian’s castle.”
Kian gave a firm nod.
”Let’s not waste time. We move now.”
”Right!”
Linca nodded back, then casually reached into Mizuchi’s mouth and pulled out a fresh set of Kian’s innerwear.
It was probably best not to ask why she had it in the first place.
* * *
Kian and Linca left the motel and headed straight for the main street, retracing the route they had walked just days before as they pressed steadily north.
They encountered no vampire clans and avoided any fights. Nor did they run into the mysterious glasses-wearing Kian who’d battled them earlier.
Beyond Moonshore’s central plaza, near the transport carriage—the horses said to be Kain-type monsters—Kian called out for Rose: Garden: Keeper.
But, as expected, she didn’t answer.
Erynys had told them to vanish like blue butterflies, so maybe she’d obeyed and disappeared from this world altogether.
Still, since Rose Garden Keeper was the designated guardian of the rose garden, it stood to reason she managed spatial maintenance in some district during peace.
Simple logic suggested they should try calling her name again if they found a rose garden somewhere else.
”When do you think the Thorn Demon will revive? Could it have already happened…?” Kian asked as they jogged along the street.
Linca shook her head.
”I don’t know. Time flows differently here and there. Given that decomposers exist in this ecosystem, yet many objects remain usable, I suspect time moves quite slowly.”
Decomposers [T/N: organisms that break down dead matter].
”But the silver wolf clan woman we found in the dried-up riverbed was already skeletal,” Kian said.
”That’s true. Yet the motel soap was still usable. Maybe time flows differently in well-maintained Moonshore than in other districts,” Linca answered.
”So it’s hard to measure exact elapsed time.”
”Yes. The hourglass ran at normal speed. We only have a reference for elapsed time here.”
”Sounds like a hermit’s paradise.”
”Or the ‘Ryūgū-jō’ from Eastern fairy tales,” Linca said, pointing ahead. “—The path to the Sanctuary seems open now.”
The rose garden maze before the sanctuary had already warped, forming a straight cobblestone road to the iron gate.
”Rose Garden Keeper. Are you there?” Kian called.
”…! That’s right. Rose Garden Keeper!” Linca shouted. “If you’re there, please answer!”
They slowed, jogging along the cobbled path while calling for the blue butterfly.
Still, no response.
When she’d guided them before, she’d appeared immediately, so it wasn’t a matter of poor hearing.
There had to be another reason she couldn’t show herself here.
I guess Erynys told her not to come out, Kian thought.
”No luck, huh,” Linca murmured.
”It can’t be helped. Let’s move on and investigate the gate Erynys built,” Kian said.
”Yes!” Linca agreed.
They quickened their pace.
Passing beneath the iron gate, the night world dissolved. Morning’s fresh air and soft sunlight replaced it.
Kian and Linca sprinted across mossy stones into the temple square where Kian had lost to Erynys.
”Where’s the gate?” he asked, eyeing a cluster of gravestones to their right.
The graves had increased slightly since his last visit.
”Beyond the square—behind the temple,” Linca replied.
”Got it.”
Kian’s blood, once splattered everywhere, had vanished completely.
Unlikely that the magic sword Funeral Dance consumed it all, so Erynys probably cleaned it up. Maybe she didn’t want the burial site of their comrades stained with blood.
With that thought, Kian crossed the square and curved left around the temple—a fusion of massive tree and stone, its natural aroma heavy.
Though the right path was shorter and paved, Kian instinctively chose left.
Linca followed him without hesitation.
The temple’s left side lay in shadow beneath artificial sunlight.
The humid air carried the sharp scent of moisture-laden lichen.
An odd sweetness drifted toward them through towering garden trees.
”What’s that smell—” Kian started, but he and Linca froze.
”Wha—”
”W-what is this?!” Linca’s eyes widened.
On the ground lay limp hair like tentacles—clearly non-human.
Before them sprawled Erynys, the Thorn Spirit herself, her torso viciously mutilated.
Fresh red blood gleamed from the wounds.
Notes:
• Linca – Jibril’s favorite girl. High-ranking warrior monk woman from Shin, with strong abilities like ignoring attacks and poisons.
• Mag – The wolfwoman under Yelmar—the one who was caught by Kian’s group earlier.
• Arminus – Male. Leader of the Black Panther Tribe. Possesses extraordinary physical abilities, enhanced by the tribe’s unique technique that repels energy and magic attacks. His speed and strength surpass those of High Warlord Isthbaran. Wields the magic sword Balmung, capable of cleaving through an ice dragon with a single strike. His black fur provides camouflage in low visibility, making him nearly undetectable. Relationship: Leader of the Beastmen Alliance’s delegation.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply