Chapter 79 - The Count’s Domain (9)

Yeriyan’s skull shattered before the Count’s eyes. Fragments scattered, white bone dust drifting through the air.

To the Count, it all unfolded in slow motion. He could not possibly accept what he was seeing. He froze like a statue.

Time stood still in the chamber. No one spoke. Nothing moved.

Only after a long while did the Count open his mouth.

“... Yeriyan?”

He trudged over to the Heavenly Womb. The shattered skeleton lay inside the coffin. His knees gave way beneath him.

“I-it isn’t too late.”

He began gathering the broken remains, sweeping together the bone dust and searching for every fragment that had fallen to the floor. Resurrection was possible even if the body was slightly damaged. There simply had to be no missing parts. Desperately, he gathered the remains.

Ilea spoke with a look of pity.

“That’s cheating. You made a mistake. You have to pay the full price.”

The tip of her index finger blazed red. She touched it to Yeriyan.

HISSS!

The white bones turned red in an instant, glowing like iron thrust into a fire. The Count’s pupils dilated.

“N-no. No!”

At that instant, the skeleton exploded. Debris flew in every direction. The fragments that landed on the floor had turned black. Some melted away entirely. Smoke rose here and there.

The Count stared blankly down at the Heavenly Womb. Yeriyan was gone without a trace. The coffin was empty.

Yohan spoke.

“Don’t blame me. Your own recklessness killed Yeriyan.”

The Count had ignored Yohan’s warnings and kept trying to assert dominance. Yeriyan’s death was the price.

The life drained from the Count’s eyes. They lost their focus. He stared at the Heavenly Womb with a vacant expression.

“What was any of it for...?”

The Count loved his wife more than his own life. For her, he could sacrifice anything. She was the sole reason he had amassed power and influence. He had lived to gather the strength and forces he needed to bring her back.

Only a few steps had remained before his goal. It had been right before his eyes, but the road had suddenly ended. Now he could never reach his destination. His entire life had been rendered meaningless.

A terrible sense of loss struck him. He clutched his head and writhed. Not even a scream escaped him. Only muffled sobbing echoed through the chamber, as though he were wailing underwater.

“Hh, huaaagh...”

His fit did not stop. He banged his head against the floor, then clawed madly at the Heavenly Womb. The sight of a human being falling apart was truly pitiful.

Yohan spoke.

“Cromwell, how long do you intend to pine over a mere woman? You still have plenty left to protect.”

His power, his house, his wealth, his honor, and more. Surely some things were too valuable to simply throw away.

The Count slowly raised his head and met Yohan’s gaze. His eyes had turned black like a Demon’s. Tears of blood streamed from them without pause.

“... What did you say?”

“Your life isn’t over yet. Protect what you have left. Let’s resume our discussion.”

His despair at losing Yeriyan began turning into rage toward Yohan. He struggled to his feet and spoke, swaying.

“I have no reason left to live.”

Then he suddenly tore off his pendant. A hint of wariness crossed Ilea’s face.

“Yohan, step back.”

The Count’s pendant was emitting an ominous glow. He spoke.

“I will go to my wife. And you will accompany me on the road to the afterlife.”

Immediately, the pendant burst into black flame. Grotesque patterns appeared on the ashen-gray floor, revealing a hidden spell array.

The array expanded in an instant. It soon covered Deathshadow’s third level and began spreading to the second and first.

Screams erupted in the distance.

“A s-summoning ritual!”

“Get out!”

Panic swept through the Fell God Society believers.

Yohan’s expression twisted.

“Cromwell, what are you trying to do?”

The Count’s lips curled. He was smiling through tears of blood.

“Everyone in the city will be offered to the underworld. Your flesh and blood, too, will become sacrifices to Saehel.”

Saehel was an Archdemon with a double-digit rank in the underworld. A being made of pure evil. The Count intended to bring calamity upon this land.

Yohan spoke.

“Your family and your entire house will be sacrificed as well, you know.”

An eerie menace suffused the Count’s face.

“Do you think I care?”

The Count had already lost his mind. Nothing anyone said would reach him. Yohan clicked his tongue.

“Ilea, can you stop the ritual?”

Ilea shook her head.

“Everything was already complete when the ritual began. There’s no way to stop it now.”

“Then getting out of the city is our best option.”

“I’ve made preparations. Let’s go.”

A complex magic circle hovered above Ilea’s head. It was probably an extremely high-level spell.

The Count shouted as though coughing up blood.

“You won’t escape! You will fall into hell with me!”

Yohan spoke without expression.

“Cromwell, you pathetic fool. Good fortune fell into your lap, and you kicked it away. May you be born wiser in your next life.”

At that moment, equations engulfed Yohan and Ilea. The two became a cluster of blue light and shot away somewhere in an instant.

The Count erupted in a fit.

“Saehel! Descend at once! Hunt them down and kill them!”

The spell array on the floor spewed black light. Dense darkness swallowed Deathshadow.

* * *

Veldana’s population was well over a hundred thousand. Including those passing through, nearly two hundred thousand people were always within the city.

Every one of them screamed. The city descended into frenzy at the black hands surging up beneath their feet. Grotesque demonic hands snatched people up and dragged them into hell.

Treasures, holy relics, gold and silver, human bodies. Everything was being offered to the underworld. No one could stop the ritual. At last, an Archdemon descended into the mortal realm.

WAAAAAAAH!

A baby’s cry thundered through the air. A black shadow fell over the emptied city. An enormous being loomed in the sky above Veldana.

It was a baby in human form. A Demon steeped in pure malice. Its smile was innocent, yet held a strange cruelty. Tentacles protruded from its six nipples and writhed. Its dangling genitals continually spewed black secretions.

Whenever the baby cried, nature screamed with it. Trees withered and rivers rotted. Every plant and animal was dying.

A crazed voice echoed.

“Saehel! Find them!”

The Count’s tiny face poked out from the broad crown of the baby’s head. His gaze darted about as he searched for Yohan and Ilea. Neither was anywhere to be seen.

“You rats! Where are you hiding?!”

Saehel began to move. Death followed in its wake. Villages and castles rotted away to nothing. Cities were annihilated.

Numerous punitive forces were assembled, but most were wiped out. The kingdom was being reduced to a wasteland. Only with the Empire and the Holy Kingdom joining the fight did they barely manage to halt Saehel’s advance.

* * *

“Blasphemer Cromwell Staviana, you secretly presided over an unidentified forbidden ritual and, through it, summoned Saehel, defying the mandate of heaven and divine law. Your crime is classified among the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Church pronounces sentence by the following decree.”

At the Holy Kingdom’s central church, a death sentence was being read aloud. A vast crowd had gathered to look upon the Count bound to the execution frame.

The elderly gentleman was nowhere to be found. Only a shriveled old monster remained, staring vacantly at the sky.

“First, the blasphemer Cromwell is stripped of his noble surname. Second, Staviana shall be permanently struck from the kingdom’s register of nobility, designated a name of blasphemy, and forbidden to be passed down. Third, as the blood of Staviana has been judged a source of blasphemy and corruption, all members of the related clan are sentenced to death. Fourth, the sentence shall be carried out by incineration into nothingness: burning at the stake to erase even the traces of their evil.”

When the reading ended, the executioners gathered around the frame. The judge addressed the Count.

“Cromwell, do you have any last words?”

The Count spoke with a vacant face.

“... Yeriyan, I will be at your side soon.”

The judge frowned.

“Carry out the sentence!”

The executioners set the frame alight. Crimson flames engulfed the Count’s body. Even as he burned, he smiled.

“At last, I will see you again.”

Just as he was about to close his eyes, brilliant light poured down from the sky. He gazed at it as though entranced.

“C-could it be...?”

Through the radiance descended a presence more brilliant still. A blonde woman manifested, beating her wings.

“Yeriyan!”

It was the Count’s wife.

The angel gently embraced the dying Count.

“Cromwell, my love. I wanted to see you again in this world.”

The Count wept.

“I’m sorry. I was too weak, too inadequate. In the end, Yeriyan, I couldn’t protect you.”

“Don’t blame yourself. You’re capable of doing better.”

The Count hung his head.

“It’s already over. I’m a failure.”

The angel stroked his hair.

“What if you had one more chance?”

“What do you mean...?”

The angel pointed toward the crowd. The Count looked where she indicated. A boy was holding out a hand to him.

The angel spoke.

“Take that hand. He will give you one last chance.”

The Count slowly raised his arm. The boy’s lips spread into a broad smile. He spoke.

“Let’s do better this time, Cromwell Staviana.”

At that instant, the Count’s field of vision shattered.

* * *

Retching echoed through the ashen-gray chamber. The Count was on all fours, spewing vomit. He could barely hold on to his reason. His mind was utterly ravaged.

With a superhuman effort of will, he lifted his upper body. No one was in the chamber. Only the Heavenly Womb stood there, alone.

He immediately ran to it. His pupils widened. Yeriyan was gone. A single letter lay in her place.

He snatched up the letter. It bore House Miyatro’s crescent-moon seal. With trembling hands, he opened it.

───Cromwell Stavia, this time I shall invite you. Come to the Miyatro domain.

P.S. I will keep Yeriyan in my care for a while. She is safe.

A sheet of paper fell out of the letter. It was Yeriyan’s portrait.

The Count quickly checked around his neck. The pendant was gone. Yohan had apparently taken it.

The Count gazed silently at the invitation Yohan had left.

“... Yohan Miyatro.”

What was he? Who could be so cruel, so audacious? It truly felt as though a Demon had toyed with him.

And yet, part of him was relieved. His life was not over yet.