NOVEL NEXT chapter 197
197 – Maria (2)
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Thud, thud.
A huge rumbling of the ground shook the surroundings, accompanied by a loud noise like something exploding.
I opened my eyes with a start, and a high marble ceiling appeared in my field of vision.
“…ugh”
The shaking of the ground clearly meant that something big was happening, so I tried to get up somehow, but I just couldn’t.
Even with the slightest movement, the excruciating pain in my right shoulder was so intense that only a sound like a frog being trampled could escape my mouth.
I felt excruciating pain and a terrible sensation of heat, as if a hot iron was pressing down on my shoulder, and I became dizzy again.
It seems that I ended up passing out after being stabbed by Sylvia’s sword.
“What the heck… what’s going on…”
Did Sylvia come to her senses?
What happened to the demon boy who was stopping the demon king?
How am I still alive in the first place?
No, am I even alive?
And… the voice I heard just before I fainted…
“Ugh, my head… won’t turn.”
There was a lot to think about, but my brain was dulled by the sharp pain that was clawing at my nerves.
I gritted my teeth and pushed off the ground with my good left arm, slowly raising my body.
Even with just that little bit of movement, a burning sensation spread across the right upper body like a fire spread across a field.
At that moment, when my left arm, which was placed on the ground, was shaking with effort, my upper body was lifted up as if someone had lifted it.
“Ugh!”
Even with my clouded mind, I could tell that some magic had been aroused in me.
As I squinted my eyes and clutched my aching right shoulder due to the sudden movement, someone suddenly entered my field of vision.
“… Well, looking back, you’ve really grown a lot.”
The face of the person who looked back at me, stopping for a moment, was the same face I had seen just before entering the castle, a slightly unfamiliar but at the same time somewhat nostalgic face.
“shit!”
I recited the spell with my palms spread out to reflexively use magic.
I thought you were with Sister Alice, but I can’t believe you’re still alive.
You’re thinking of bringing Sister Maria here and abusing her!
I gritted my teeth and fired the fireball that I could activate as quickly as possible.
But before the fireball could even leave my hand, the opponent’s short spell passed and in an instant, the magical power I had gathered scattered into the air and the flame went out.
“…!”
Dispel.
It was an intermediate level magic that nullified the opponent’s magic.
However, even though the spell’s difficulty is intermediate, I’ve never seen anyone activate it so quickly.
This was because Dispel was not a specific spell, but had to be recited individually to match the opponent’s spell.
The puppet with Maria’s face slowly opened its mouth as it looked down at me in confusion.
“Oh my, why is he like this?”
“…?”
“Why are you yelling at me the moment you see me? And to you, my sister, whom I haven’t seen in years, did I teach you that?”
“ah…?”
“What the heck, Aya? Aren’t you crazy?”
That mean tone.
I don’t know anyone else who speaks like that.
My lips moved in twitching motions.
“… Sister?”
“It’s been a while, Ash. You’ve become cool. You can even cast magic on your sister. In the past, you only learned theories and it seemed like you couldn’t use magic.”
“Ah… Really, Sister?”
“You’re asking the same question as Sylvia. Is this what it means to be in love? How presumptuous of you to say that even I, a sister, have never experienced love before…”
oh my god,
It really was her.
No one knows about that pointless attitude of spouting nonsense whenever I have to, except my older sister.
For a moment, I forgot my physical condition and tried to get up by putting my right arm on the floor, but I ended up collapsing on the floor.
Sister Maria shook her head when she saw me like that and said.
“I know it’s nice to meet you, but please wait a moment. I’m a little busy right now.”
Sister Maria stepped forward and recited the spell.
The marble on the floor rose up like soft clay and hardened in an instant, enveloping the Demon King’s body.
It was similar to the magic I used, but its sophistication and speed were on a whole other level than what I used.
Basically, the speed of calculations for using magic is different.
And then, Sylvia’s sword split the hardened marble apart.
The demon lord, who had been oozing a yellowish liquid between the marble sections that were being cut like butter, emitted sharp tentacles from the cut sections, but the tentacles were bound and fixed to the floor by purple chains with sharp stakes.
At the same time, Sylvia’s sword cuts off all the tentacles.
“What the heck… is this,”
“Ash!”
At that moment, Pia came to me and helped me up.
“Are you okay? I was really worried.”
“Pia… What the hell happened? Why is my sister… here…”
Pia gently took my hand and placed it in her hand, holding a necklace that was emitting a soft blue light.
“Malis’ necklace…”
“It’s all thanks to this.”
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Malis’ necklace.
Although known as the greatest wizard in human history, his true identity was a spirit sorcerer.
This necklace, one of his treasures, has the power to bring the dead back to life, said Sister Alice.
I wonder how Sister Alice felt when she bought this item.
Was it to save himself, who was almost certain to die at the end of this journey, or was it because he was worried that I, who was so weak, would lose my life during the journey?
Maybe it was just for simple insurance purposes.
However, Alice probably never expected that the item she had brought back would be used to revive Maria.
“Do you remember what I said before?”
Pia briefly explained the situation that had just unfolded along with those words.
In the eyes of the spirit Pia, this necklace appeared to be an object used to trap spirits.
Until then, I had just thought that the rumors about reviving the dead were false, but in the end, both Sister Alice’s words and Pia’s words were true.
This necklace was an object that trapped the soul of a dead person and turned them into a spirit.
That is, Sister Maria’s soul was trapped in this necklace.
“Soul? Sister Maria already died a long time ago… Ah,”
At that moment, I remembered the sight of the corpses the demon boy had been collecting.
The horrible magic circle that was drawn on the corpses of those demons who were cold and dead.
The magic circle drawn by tearing the skin with a sharp blade contained a terrifying message of trapping the soul and turning it into a puppet in exchange for one’s life.
The lives sacrificed in exchange are those of the demons who were the boy’s comrades, and the puppets created are Sylvia’s comrades, including Sister Maria.
Because of this, Sister Maria became a puppet played with by Balder, causing Sister Alice’s death, and Sylvia almost fell into self-reproach for killing her former colleagues again.
“This is truly… disgusting magic.”
The extreme malice that did not discriminate between demons and humans, and showed no courtesy towards the dead, was very similar to the appearance of that disgusting demon lord.
As the demon boy said, he is a monster who is not even qualified to be the king of the demon tribe.
“But, thanks to that…”
“yes.”
But, the Demon King probably didn’t know either.
What consequences did his evil deeds bring about?
“Sister Alice… you did it all.”
I could only describe it as a miracle.
The necklace that Sister Alice brought back risking her life.
The puppet body of Sister Maria, whom Sister Alice sacrificed her life to destroy.
From the beginning to the end of this miracle, it was all accomplished by her hands.
Although she eventually lost her life, the sacrifice of Sister Alice, who burned her body along with Sister Maria, created the miracle of trapping Sister Maria’s soul in this necklace.
I still held her heart tightly in my hands.
Even now, a slight warmth remained.
“Pia… help me up.”
“No, what are you going to do with that body?”
“You have to try everything you can. Just like Sister Alice did.”
“…Ash, look over there.”
Pia pointed ahead with her finger.
Sylvia’s sword was striking the Demon King recklessly, and Maria’s magic was swiping madly to block all of the Demon King’s fierce counterattacks.
“What can Ash do there? We’ve already won. The moment Sister Maria appears, it’s all over.”
“…I wonder?”
As Pia said, the Demon King was being swayed by the two people’s connection and was getting cut and fell countless times.
That hideous and terrifying monster, which made your whole body’s nerves tingle just by looking at it, rolled around on the floor, unable to move in the face of the attacks of the two legendary heroes representing humanity.
In the past, did the warrior party fight like that?
Looking at that sight, I think I understand once again why Sylvia was against my journey.
I could never move like that, I could never use magic like that.
Even with Pia’s help, I could never have done that.
“But… something feels strange.”
“what?”
“Those two are great, but it’s strange that the Demon King can’t do anything and just let it happen. If those two can solve it, why didn’t they finish it before?”
“Well… Sylvia said she didn’t know that the Demon King wasn’t dead.”
“I said I cut off its neck and completely knocked it off. I’m still cutting it several times now. But that monster won’t die.”
“… then,”
“I guess that means that in the end, something more is needed to kill the Demon King.”
I slowly lifted Sister Alice’s heart.
“It’s divine power. In the end, only divine power can completely kill the Demon King.”
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