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Chapter 394
Corruption
The capital burned, and the Arken Empire effectively collapsed.
The powerful military moved to block the demons' invasion and was left in tatters, and because of that, the border nations that had been eyeing the territory began to move.
The moment of choice came for the empire's provincial lords.
Either gather an army to confront them, or submit to neighboring nations.
The vast territory had nothing left but to split apart through absorption and separation, whether from within or without.
Ŵёbň оv̈ ӗl Ӗ n um а
The Arken capital, having lost its emperor, was preparing to establish a new republic.
Because with the military, religion, and politics all in tatters, there was an obligation to establish a new government.
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Bloodshed would occur because of it, but it was unavoidable.
The Far East also prepared for territorial expansion and accepting refugees.
The moment when the broadly laid ground would finally become bustling was approaching.
Everything was being prepared, yet the work didn't decrease.
Е̇n̆.ŭ m̂a. і d
Even though Mori was handling almost everything.
In the midst of such a busy situation, the place Ferda made time to visit was the Adventurer's Guild.
Because he'd heard the news that Erika had returned.
And what she was doing was Adventurer's Guild work.
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"...Are you alright?"
"I'm fine!"
Е̂ n ŭm ӓ
Her face was stained with wounds.
An appearance difficult to show to others.
"You have many wounds..."
"Hah! Wounds like this are nothing compared to the old days! During the Demon King Expedition, it was worse than this!"
Erika spoke spiritedly.
Seeing her like that, he felt relieved yet heavy-hearted.
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Because he knew how those wounds came to be.
Even knowing all that, he couldn't help but ask.
"So how did the fight go?"
Erika was safe, but he didn't know what became of Erdes.
"A conclusion... wasn't reached. No, it's more accurate to say it couldn't be reached."
"Because you were comrades..."
E_n̂ úm ä .і̀ d
"It's embarrassing to admit, but yes. Mages who emphasize rationality are more emotional than anyone."
She drank a cup of herbal tea and shifted her gaze out the window.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Whether it was that child or me, even if we charged at each other to kill, in the end we hesitated at the last moment."
There could be no reproach or scolding for her actions.
They were comrades who had crossed the brink of life and death together, so the time spent with her must have been deeply meaningful.
But even so, the fact that Erdes was a variable couldn't be helped.
E ńǔḿ а̄ . іd̃
"It weighs on my mind."
"It doesn't seem like you're saying that because you're worried about Erdes."
"Yes."
Ferda tossed the worry in his head to Erika.
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"Have you ever thought that maybe Erdes doesn't hate demons?"
"That's unimaginable."
Еnumа̇
She answered instantly, then reconsidered whether that was too shallow, and answered again.
"Yes, it's unimaginable."
Erika, who had been with her the longest, knew Erdes well.
"Of course I can use demon magic... but I know I won't be consumed by that magic. If I showed any signs, I would have taken measures without hesitation."
"What if Erdes made a contract with a demon?"
At that, Erika reflexively snorted.
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"I'd sooner believe water and oil mix. How could Erdes make a contract with a demon..."
"..."
"Do you have some inkling?"
Erika knew Ferda wasn't the type to ask such questions for no reason.
Ferda gave her the answer.
"Erdes, the Magic Academy President, said this. She hates it to death, but that thing she hates to death put a leash on her."
Е̊ ǹ u m а
"Such a..."
"In reality, she only targeted me in a place full of demons. Even though she knew I wasn't the instigator of this situation."
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Erika shot up from her seat.
No matter how she thought about it, she couldn't believe it.
That Erdes?
She thought again.
W е́b̌ nо̂v̆ е̂ l Enǔ ṁ а
"Erdes... definitely hates demons. That's a truth that can't be denied in any way."
"That's right."
"Then that means... something more important than her reason for hating demons was at stake... and..."
She threw her gaze at Ferda.
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"Which means the reason Erdes blocked your path is because Erdes—."
-Is caught in a contract.
Еnü m̊а̀. і d
A voice suddenly cut in.
This space was sealed so only the two of them should be there.
But as if it were nothing, space distortion occurred and someone emerged from it.
Black dress, half-lidded eyes.
And a pipe.
-And the contents of that contract have been broken.
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"Lucy Philiaz!"
Erika reflexively entered a combat stance.
She'd never seen anything good come from the root of Philiaz, the witches appearing.
"I didn't come to fight you, so don't be so on guard, Erika Iorga. Or should I say just Erika now."
"What do you mean the contract was broken?"
Before the mood could veer off course, Ferda quickly seized the topic.
Wеb n̊o v̈е́l Е n̄ u m̈ а
Lucy took a deep drag on her pipe and answered.
"The reason Lucy Philiaz is still alive in this world. You broke that today."
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A contract with a demon breaking.
That word referred to that person's ruin.
There was no way she'd come all this way just for one person's ruin.
Lucy didn't betray that expectation.
Wеb̌nоv̂е̌ l̃ Е̂nu m а́
"A sign of calamity is coming. I came to tell you that."
* * *
The capital that held the most brilliant dreams.
Moving to the city for a new leap was called the Arken Dream.
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But now everything had become such a mess that even that felt like a dream of the past.
How much of a mess? People on the streets, without exception, were clearing debris while asking after their neighbors' well-being.
W̊ е b́ n̂о̇v е̇ l E n̆ũ ḿ_ӓ
In sewer slums like that, hope wasn't visible.
Erdes returned to the Imperial Palace.
She stepped over corpses with her small legs, moving somewhere.
Her staggering footsteps finally stopped.
There sat an old man who had died sitting up.
His name was Godfrey Arken.
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The emperor she had to protect was already a corpse.
"You were so confident..."
Erdes muttered.
"You said you could kill someone like Ferda with your own hands. Then why..."
Her trembling hands grabbed his collar.
"Just why!!"
Wѐ b̈ ňо̆_v̆ еl̇ Еn ů mа
Godfrey's body was lifted without resistance.
She sought an answer from him, but the dead corpse was silent.
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In the end, Erdes let him go.
"No..."
Erdes clutched her head.
"I didn't ruin this... I... I didn't do this..."
En̂ u̇mа̀ .і̌d
She denied and evaded.
She kept saying it over and over, but she already knew.
That from the moment he became a corpse, everything was over.
-You failed, Erdes Roton.
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An eerie voice from the ceiling.
The space instantly turned gloomy, and something bubbled up like foam from there.
Ӗnú m а̀
The foam didn't burst but became eyelids, and yellow eyes turned toward Erdes.
A giant eyeball was watching her.
He was the Demon of Future and Prophecy.
"Baal..."
Only Erdes knew what his manifestation meant.
She trembled and screamed.
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"I did as you said! I did my best!!"
-Your best doesn't matter. The ink written in the contract terms doesn't change with your effort.
There was no intent to mock like Morax, nor to sneer at foolishness like Sitri.
Beside the bubble, tentacles squirmed and poked at Godfrey's corpse.
-I contracted you to protect my future avatar, and you broke it.
"Erika... that bitch Erika blocked me. Other Dragon Spawns flew in, and even Sitri's army joined. I couldn't stop Regent Ferda."
Ё nu m̈.а
-In the end, you failed.
Communication didn't work.
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Erdes shouted with a face full of malice.
"If he was that precious! Why didn't you come yourself!? Sitri! That whore showed her face, so why didn't you!?"
-She met a miserable end because of that. Now the Great Demons of Hell are six.
A chuckling laugh.
Е n̊ u̇m̊ă.
He couldn't contain his enjoyment.
-Hell's become a real interesting situation right now. Just like the current Arken. Five demon armies are converging, and there's internal division too, so the future is obvious.
The tentacle scratched the eye and let out an exclamation of admiration.
-Still, for a Great Demon by name, to kill that woman so easily. Ferda Valdrova, perhaps that man suits the title of Demon Hunter even more.
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At his casual muttering, Erdes's insides burned.
"Please... please don't do this. Give me one more chance. I'm working under you."
Ĕ ǹ ù_mа̌.і̀ d
-Working under me? That wasn't it. Our relationship was always equal. I respected you, and you respected me. And now that respect has collapsed one-sidedly.
Demons don't sympathize.
-Do well on your own for the remaining week.
Baal withdrew with those words.
"No...!"
Erdes flailed at the ceiling.
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"Baal! Contract with me again! I'll kill that bastard! Ferda! I'll kill that Ferda!! I'll get your revenge! Come back! Come back, I said!!"
Her voice echoed through the corridor, but only terrible silence returned.
Erdes sat down in a daze.
Her body was clearly touching the floor, but it felt like she was falling into a bottomless abyss.
The contract with Baal was broken.
That fact shattered Erdes's composure.
Е̌ ṅŭmа
A great wave of emotional turmoil rose, something a Blue Circle owner must never experience.
Erdes was already known as the most capricious woman on the Serdes Continent.
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Even so, her living as a Blue Circle mage proved her outstanding talent, and meant her foundation was solid.
Right now, her foundation was shaking.
Not even talent could stop it.
"No... I hate this..."
E n̂ ü m̊_а̇
Erdes sat on the floor and wailed.
Tears flowed endlessly.
The Blue Circle in her heart trembled even more violently, unable to be controlled.
I have to suppress it.
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Empty my head right now and grab the circle.
Even the reflexes honed through training couldn't stop her turmoil.
W̌ еb nov̂ e l̃ Е̂ň ũ ṁ а
Her trembling heart was fixated on one thing.
Because she lived for that one thing,
She didn't even care about matters of her own life and death.
At the end of such wild surging and shaking,
Crack—!
It broke.
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"Cough!"
Erdes vomited blood.
The recoil from the circle breaking felt like her heart was being wrung out.
It can't be stopped now.
The larger the circle, the stronger the recoil, and as a 7th Circle Mage Lord, she was effectively destined to die.
Thus the 6th circle shattered.
Е́n̊ ūḿ a
Crunch!
"Cough! Gasp gasp...!"
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Each time one broke, her internal organs twisted in agony.
She didn't think she wanted to live or didn't want to die.
Such thoughts didn't even occur.
To her, there was only one thing.
Е n̊ um̄ а
Only the one she made the contract with Baal for was everything to Erdes.
Snap—!
5th Circle
Clang—!
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4th Circle
Collapsing, collapsing, she flailed on the floor.
Еn u m̄ а́ .і̆ d̆
Soon, a voice was heard.
-Why can't you do better? How much did I spend on you!?
It was a hallucination.
Because the voice of that woman who died when she was young rang vividly in her ears.
-More! Push harder! Resolve to give your life!
-You get sleepy when you're full. Eat moderately since it interferes with your studies.
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-Our daughter, you love Mommy? Then can you do just one thing for Mommy?
A childhood nightmare, and the last remaining family.
As that time vividly resurfaced, helplessness crushed her.
Crunch!
And it broke.
Only the 3rd Circle remained.
Е̇ n ũ m̄ а̃
Erdes no longer had the strength to do anything.
Something that didn't exist in reality reflected on her retina.
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The moment she saw it, tears flowed.
"Cry for me..."
Erdes repeated only those words.
"For me... cry for me..."
Ẅеb́n о̆ vе l Е n̈um̈a
That was when.
As she struggled in pain,
Someone caught in Erdes's vision.
Blue hair, blunt horns.
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"Eri...ka...!!"
She called that detestable name with hatred.
Е̊n̊ ŭm̂ а̄ . id
"Too bad. It's not that child."
A dry tone.
She'd heard it exactly once during the Dragon-Demon War.
The woman who was beside Erika.
It was Iorga.
But Erdes wasn't rational enough to distinguish that.
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"You're dying."
"I'll kill you... Erika, you... cough!"
The 3rd Circle's ring broke.
Her magical senses composed of mana completely disappeared, and even her five senses dropped to the level of an ordinary person.
"You don't want to die, do you? You have a reason to live."
"What does that matter?" She glared at Iorga with that expression.
Еnũ m̈а_. i̇d̆
"Raise your emotions. You must use that anger inside you as fuel."
It breaks again.
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Someone struck Erdes's body hard.
Only the 1st Circle remained.
How much blood she'd vomited, the floor was soaked red.
The pooled blood became a mirror reflecting Erdes's face.
Ě n.um а́
Inside it was a young girl.
That girl's name was Erdes.
And what reflected wasn't a body but a prison.
She was undergoing a punishment where she'd be trapped in a child's body for life.
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Just for being born.
That woman is hateful.
Ӗ ň u̇ m a.іḋ
The woman who treated her like a doll just for giving birth to her.
The woman who broke her this much is so hateful.
"I'll kill her..."
Anger spread further.
"Ferda who made me like this... I'll kill him."
Anger toward her mother turned to Ferda.
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"And Erika who blocked me too..."
From Ferda to Erika.
"Everything in this world...!!"
Spreading to the world, she hated everything.
"I'll erase it all!"
At that moment, Erika felt something.
Ŵ е̃ b n ov̇ еl Ê nūm а̃
She rode that wave of emotion.
She didn't know where it would lead, but she had to.
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I have a reason I must live.
Even if I forget that reason.
That surging wave eventually gathered in one place, swelling gradually as a central point.
The spot where traces of the Blue Circle hadn't even faded was now filled with red light.
Ӗ n̈ u m̆а..і́d̄
She became the owner of the Red Circle she had so hated and despised.
"Ha, haha..."
But strangely, she felt light.
As if it was something she originally should have had.
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She who had been sinking in a lake of anger with no outlet could finally breathe.
Erdes lifted her head.
Ė nu ḿa . i d
The form became clear, and she could see the woman who had given advice clearly.
The woman looked down at Erdes's condition and said this.
"Magnificent."
She doesn't speak empty words.
Awakening anew at death's threshold isn't something that can be explained by mental strength alone.
It requires terrifying tenacity and talent combined.
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"So you're qualified."
Something manifested from within her chest.
The blue faintly glowing substance was shaped into a sphere.
"This is half my essence. If you take this in, an unimaginable amount of mana will be born in your body. It's an important thing that humans dare not even touch."
Erdes couldn't take her eyes off that sphere.
No, she couldn't.
Е̌ nû m ӑ . і̊ d̀
Because something was clearly visible inside it.
"Many died coveting this. And..."
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A brief hesitation.
What seeped out was emotion.
As if erasing everything as a delusion, she continued.
"High Elves died too."
W е̇b̌n о v́е̃ l Ё num а̄
Iorga's gaze looked down at Erdes.
"Think you're different from those humans?"
