Ep 144. This ot Be Mere ce. (3)

  As everyone begaing themselves to their own tasks, Serenis stood alone in the emptied settlement square to face the possessed academic.

  But unlike her otherwise calm demeanor, the dragonlord’s eyes betrayed a hint of doubt.

  ‘How strange.’

  As waves of ued mana wafted about the air, Serenis raised her gaze slightly, staring into the intangible haze of blue radiating from Karas. Or at least, the Reaper that was in possession of Karas’ body.

  “…Of the tless wandering spirits, what are the odds that you of all would find Karas…in this distant nd, no less?”

  “Oh?”

  “And what are the odds that the dead would possess the means tain with the living?”

  Serenis shook her head, denying the improbable ht.

  “…This ot be mere ce.”

  Karas’ eyes thinned as the Reaper within him beamed a wry smile back at his enemy. A soft ughter escaped his beak as Felicir mused at the dragonlord’s words.

  “Haha, iing. It’s quite appalling how perceptive you are at times, dragonlord. If your son had possessed half your wits, he might’ve outsmarted me all those years ago.”

  “…”

  “Ah, but I jest. Vulka wasn’t truly your son. It’s small wonder he didn’t take after you.”

  Serenis let out another long sigh.

  She’d found Karas difficult to talk to at times, but never infuriating. But oher hand, Felicir’s mere existence had always been infuriating for her; she ractically talking to the world’s rudest jester who seemed to know her every secret.

  As, the dragonlord had no reason to let her anger show.

  Unlike before, Felicir was not in possession of his divinity – or any divinity, for that matter. Karas was a formidable mage, but even the professor’s magic paled in parison to the dragonlord’s.

  So instead, Serenis beamed back a mog grin.

  “Should you really be so rexed, Reaper? Unlike our st meeting, you’ve little to fall ba.”

  “Speak for yourself. You not only had Aldrid, but my own sister behind your back.”

  “And you held the rest of this star hostage.”

  “Hah! Fair enough. I suppose I ’t do that anymore. But dragonlord, you’ve also no oo aid you this time – Aldrid isn’t ing to your aid, nor is my sister. You’ve sent away your own kin, and the Asardans will be quite busy with all the monsters marg to this pce.”

  The dragonlord’s mog grin soon twisted into a quizzical, doubtful frown. Try as she might, she couldn’t uand the fidehat the Reaper was exuding before her.

  “…You seriously believe you best me alone? Without your divinity?”

  “Making the impossible possible has always been a specialty of mine.”

  As his voice faintly trailed off, the possessed academic smirked back at the dragonlord. He soon rose his hand into the air, bck veils gathering into his palm.

  Immediately, the bck veils transformed into a thick cloud of smoke that exploded outwards to cover the surrounding area.

  “…Hmph.”

  Serenis scoffed at the sight. The Reaper’s fidence came across to her as nothing more than baseless arroga this point.

  As the smoke swallowed her vision, Serenis wove her in the hand, as if annoyed by a buzzing i. With a small sigh she gathered bits of mana into her hand, letting it flow outwards in the form of glimmering particles in every dire.

  As soon as the floating particles came in tact with the Reaper’s spell, they rapidly began to absorb the darkness around them. Like thousands of white voids spread thinly across a vast space, the looming smoke was almost immediately cleared away in the presence of Serenis’ magic.

  But when the possessed academic was visible once more, Serenis beheld the eeriest smile Karas had ever made – one she hadn’t thought ossible in him.

  His unremarkable eyes were now glowing in the cold air: a deathly blue she’d seen in the Reaper’s eyes once before.

  As the Reaper held one hand against his chest, faint howls began to echo from within his body, emerging from within in the form of colorless grey shades.

  “Hm. I was hoping it’d take you loo undo that spell.”

  “…”

  A heavy frown crossed Serenis’ face as she withe disturbing se. Karas was drawing out a tless number of translut shades from within his body, each screaming in pain and misery.

  Soon, the feathered figure would creak his head towards her with a devilish gaze.

  “Why do you look so surprised? Have you fotten who I am?”

  “…Felicir.”

  It wasn’t that Serenis had fotten who the Reaper was. Indeed, she wouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest had Felicir been physically standing in front of her.

  But this was Karas. It was Karas’ body, just under a dead deity’s influence.

  While the professor may be possessed by the Reaper’s soul, that shouldn’t have warranted a ge in his abilities. As far as Serenis knew, Karas was an aplished mage and academiot a deity presiding over death.

  However, that belief was slowly falling apart before the disturbing se.

  The tless wailing shades were clearly no magic. Even a fool would reize that they were spirits of the dead – howling in pain and misery from their prolonged impriso within a monster’s body.

  Admittedly, Serenis had long known that Karas was a soulseer. She’d known his ability to i with the dead, and she wouldn’t have been surprised had he been in the presence of a select few.

  But this was not ‘few.’

  There were thousands upon thousands of ephemeral figures emerging from the professor’s body. The army of phantoms would rapidly scatter about to haunt the world of the living, painting the world around them in a hellish shade.

  Their faded forms and wailing cries soon filled the entire viity. Serenis could hear cries, ughter, shrieks and shouts from turies past – and many were g at the dragonlord’s form, jealous of her living state and desperate to g to life.

  One ed their form around her leg, while another around her neck; tless shades were climbing unto her back, wailing directly into the dragonlord’s ears. They all screamed for the dragon to fall to the same depths as they had.

  With a sunken gaze, Serenis let out another exasperated sigh.

  “…Disturbing, I must admit. But you’re mistaken if you thought mere spirits could harm me.”

  “You? Whoever said anything about harming you?”

  “…?”

  Serenis’ fusion was soon answered with a sharp, terrified shriek ing from her back.

  The dragonlord immediately turned around, but she could see little beyond the yers of spirits hindering her vision. All she could make out were faint silhouettes, screaming and fleeing from the sudden onsught of the dead.

  Some voices would e to an abrupt cease as the phantoms cimed their lives. Those that mao flee from the numerous shades were instead met by a horde of monsters.

  Itlement that had ed into a living hell, the Reaper’s cag voice cut through the air to reach Serenis.

  “Well? Shouldn’t you go save them again, dragonlord? You were so eager to save those in Partivine!”

  “…”

  When Asarda had prepared for war, they’d expected bde-wielding soldiers and magic-wielding casters. They expected an imperial army at their forefront.

  versely, no one expected that their settlement would be surrounded by monsters and spirits – with n whatsoever.

  A sinking feeling began to gnaw at the dragonlord’s chest. Even when she closed her eyes iance, successive screams tio flood her ears.

  Unlike before, the cries of misery were no lohe faded voices of the dead – they were voices of the living, desperate to survive the hell that their home had bee.

  ‘…This is not…’

  In her own era, the dragonlord had always sought after an ideal future: a future where no one would e to harm.

  Unfortunately, her ideals had turned out to be an impossible dream. A world where none came to harm was impossible – and it’d takeirety of demonkind for her to realize her faults.

  ‘…This is not the time to be indecisive.’

  When she opened her eyes, long, bck pupils stretched across the dragonlord’s gleaming eyes.

  Swatting away the ghosts ging to her, Serenis turned back to face the feathered figure.

  “…Reaper.”

  “Hm?”

  “Even in Karas’ body, I’m sure you still feel pain.”

  “…?”

  Serenis took a light, soundless step forward. Her gleaming eyes shohrough the phantoms’ grey mists as she closed in on the root of this madness.

  “Leave Karas’ body at once.”

  “…And if I refuse?”

  Bolts of bd white mana alike crackled between the dragonlord’s fingers as she approached the possessed academic. Her entire figure seemed to gleam in bits of prismatic particles, melting the phantoms that dared to cw at her figure again.

  Undisturbed, Serenis raked the air before her.

  Given the distaweehe dragonlord’s act seemed no more than pointless filing. But soon, the bolts within her hand mimicked the dragonlord’s motion, releasing themselves from her limb to repeat the atta the form of massive bck streaks.

  The bdes of mana tore through air before her, dig the professor’s left arm in an instant.

  In the split sed that Felicir winced in pain, Serenis leapt across the remaining distaween them. She pnted a foot into the possessed academic’s chest, kig him down unto the ground.

  g noises soon followed as the dragonlord pihe grimag monster onto the snow-coated ground. Her fingers were once again covered in streaks of bd white lights, ready to ssh through the monster beh.

  “Leave. You no longer belong in the realm of the living.”

  “Kh…hah! Rich from a demonlord who’s died a thousand years past!”

  “…”

  “You realize that your preonster friend ultimately wished for the same oute? Even if I were to leave, he’ll eventually try the same all ain. He’d stop at nothing to resurrect his lover, and for that, his student’s sacrifice is necessary – I’m only providing him with a more effit method.”

  Serenis’ eyes thinned as she heard the Reaper’s mog voice, still managing to talk back from beh her feet.

  Shaking her head, the dragonlord’s foot pressed harder into the professor’s chest, crag through whatever bohere was beh. Her cws lengthened and sharpened, brandishing themselves amidst bolts of prismatic lightning.

  Serenis curved her lips into a thin smile. She slowly lowered her upper body, raising her cws high into the air above the feathered figure’s remaining arm.

  “Should we ever meet again, I’d love to hear how your sed death felt.”