TERNLF Vol. 2 Chapter 4 Part 5

“Did you really think a spell that pathetic was my full strength? Don’t get cocky, brat!”

Luchimada held both palms toward me as he spoke. The amount of mana gathering in his hands was staggering. As expected of the Progenitor Lineage.

“Whether I’m getting cocky or not, you can find out the hard way.”

I answered with deliberate contempt, then used silent casting to layer several Body Reinforcement Magic spells over myself. While preparing the final spell, I raised one hand toward Luchimada the same way he had.

Five spread fingers.

He did not seem to notice the rings fitted onto each one.

Only one piece of equipment per body part was just common sense in games, but…

Muttering that to myself, I poured mana into my body from the ten mana-reinforcement rings across both hands.

“Well, to be fair, I couldn’t have pulled something this stupid off without Nikka and Grassa.”

Yes. These ten rings were the answer I had arrived at.

Back in my previous life, whenever I played games, I always found it strange that you could only equip a single ring, just like a sword or armor. Sure, that was simply how the system worked, and letting players stack endless rings would have destroyed game balance.

But this was reality.

So I tested it, to see how it worked in this world.

The result was that I confirmed you could wear multiple rings.

And the ones I had on now were mana-reinforcement rings Grassa had multiplied with her power.

With this, I should have been able to surpass Luchimada’s mana… or so I thought.

“Damn. He’s stronger than I expected.”

Staring at the power before me, which far exceeded the mana I had boosted to the limit, I let out a quiet sigh.

“Yeah… a quick hack like this isn’t enough to beat his mana.”

From this distance, I could not see it with perfect clarity, but I could tell all the same. Even with mana flowing into me from the rings, I still fell short of Luchimada’s reserves.

Which meant—

“Since I can’t surpass his mana, I guess I can’t defeat him by force…”

Maybe I could have managed if I had prepared even more rings, but Grassa spent mana to duplicate them, and restoring that mana required mana potions. With only so many potions on hand, this number had been my limit.

“Then… Plan B it is.”

Well, it could not be helped. I had already activated a few spells in advance, just in case.

I focused my attention on the rings on both hands.

One by one, as they hit their reinforcement limit, they shattered.

And the instant the last ring gave me everything it had and broke apart—

“Burn to ash without leaving even a speck of dust! 【Blessing Hellflame】!!”

Luchimada unleashed his highest-grade fire spell, packed with his maximum mana.

“Wha—!?”

The moment I saw it, my voice slipped out.

Walls of searing flame erupted on all sides, sealing off every escape route.

“I figured you wouldn’t let me run. Still, nice one.”

Heat washed over me, sweat beading on my face.

“All right, then. Let’s see how hard I can fight back.”

I fired a spell toward the encroaching walls of fire.

“【Blessing Ice Wall】!!”

At the midpoint between the onrushing blaze and me, a wall of ice more than a meter thick appeared.

But even that thickness did not last. The flames melted it in moments, turning it to vapor before my eyes.

“You think you can stop my flames with a child’s trick like that!?”

“I don’t. 【Blessing Wind Blast】!”

The next spell I released, a 【Blessing Wind】 enhanced with force, howled violently as it tore up dirt from the ground, forming a twisting vortex of steam. The flames that had finished devouring the ice wall were dragged into that swirling current.

“Don’t tell me you think that can blow my flames away.”

Luchimada was right. My aim had been to destabilize the inferno with a savage updraft, but the perfectly controlled 【Blessing Hellflame】 only flickered slightly before continuing to press in on me.

“Tch. It’s not weakening as much as I hoped! At this rate, I won’t be able to—”

“For someone who talked that big, you went down easy, brat!”

Luchimada’s triumphant peal of laughter echoed. Inside the prison of flame, I did not have the breathing room to answer him.

“Now burn! Burn until you’re nothing but cinders!!”

And with those words, the walls of flame surged from all sides, crushing in to consume me.

But—

“Hm?”

A puzzled sound leaked from Luchimada.

“He’s dead, so why hasn’t the space dispelled? Don’t tell me…”

He snapped into a guarded stance, but—

“You’re the one who let your guard down!”

“Gah—!”

Luchimada’s movement to turn around froze midway.

Because by then, the stake I had fired had already pierced straight through his heart, without missing by even a hair.

“Y-You… when did you…?”

How had I gotten behind him in that sea of hellfire?

That story went back a little earlier.

— 

Luchimada had underestimated my strength, and the moment he became convinced he’d won and burst into triumphant laughter—

“I’ll make you understand that getting cocky before you’ve actually won is what kills you.”

Muttering that, I activated a spell.

【Blessing Water】

With those words, a mass of water appeared right above my head. Naturally, it fell with gravity and poured over my entire body.

Of course I got drenched, but with the flames already closing in and scorching my skin, it almost felt refreshing. Even that water looked like it would turn to steam any second.

“Now then, next… 【Blessing Earth Wall】.”

Before the water could fully evaporate, I fired off another spell behind me.

Thanks to 【Blessing Ice Wall】 and 【Blessing Wind Blast】, a tiny gap had opened in the ground. I widened that gap and created an earthen tunnel.

The instant I cast 【Blessing Earth Wall】, I shot through the tunnel at full speed, propelled by 【Quick】, which I’d already cast on myself.

“That worked.”

Once I realized I couldn’t erase his magic, my plan was simple: create a weak point in his spell, slip through it, then circle behind him while he was off guard.

“Now then, burn to ash right where you stand!!”

I emerged in a spot Luchimada couldn’t see because the flames made it a blind angle, and I broke into a cold sweat as I watched the wall of fire crush the place where I’d been moments ago.

“That was close.”

Muttering, I moved while hiding myself in the dust kicked up by 【Blessing Wind Blast】 and the harsh glare of the firelight.

Just as I’d expected, Luchimada truly believed I’d been swallowed by the flames, and he wasn’t watching his surroundings at all. That arrogance was probably what came with being part of the Progenitor Lineage.

“Alright. Now I just have to finish this before he realizes I’m still alive.”

I used 【Silence】 so I wouldn’t give myself away, then used the shadows of the ruined buildings to slip behind him. Unlike the subspace I usually created, this one was full of obstacles, so I took full advantage of them.

“I don’t know what this village has to do with him, but it sure made moving around easy.”

Once I was behind Luchimada, I hid behind a half-collapsed house and pulled out a log from my storage.

“‘A log is the strongest weapon!’ I kept one around as a joke, but I didn’t think it’d come in handy like this.”

As I muttered, I carved the log into a stake using 【Blessing Wind Cutter】.

“Apparently you can finish a vampire without a stake as long as you pierce and destroy the heart.”

Even so, I couldn’t help getting dragged along by images from my previous life. If you were going to deal the final blow to a vampire, this was what you used. Well, as long as the end result was the same, it didn’t matter.

“…Don’t tell me…”

I stepped out from behind cover, gripped the stake in my right hand, and drew mana into it as I took a throwing stance.

Then, before Luchimada could fully process that something was wrong, I hurled the stake at his back with every ounce of my body’s strength.

The stake punched straight through his chest, and Luchimada dropped to one knee.

And then, as I slowly approached him while he stared at me with a face that screamed disbelief—

“Got any last words?”

“Last… words?”

He answered as his body began to crumble.

“You know it yourself. You’re about to die.”

“I… I, part of the Progenitor Lineage… am going to die…?”

His eyes, stretched wide in shock, trembled as if he’d finally accepted the reality.

“Even if you’re part of the Progenitor Lineage, you can’t revive if your heart’s completely destroyed. You knew that much, didn’t you?”

“Yeah… that’s right… That’s right.”

Looking down at Luchimada as he pressed both hands to his own chest where the stake protruded, I delivered the final nail.

“I destroyed your heart completely. In a little while, the mana in your entire body will be gone, and you’ll die.”

“…”

And then, once more—

“So I figured I’d at least listen if there’s something you want to say at the end.”

I offered him that last scrap of mercy.

As I watched the red blood pooling on the ground and thought, So it’s the same color as mine, I waited for his words.

“The trigger that made dwarves and elves stop their long feud and try to forge friendship… You should investigate that…”

“The trigger?”

“If you do… you’ll understand this village too… and why I… why I erased that autonomous district… why I feared and hated dwarves and elves joining hands… you should… understand…”

He spat it out as if he were cursing, then spewed a great quantity of blood onto the ground. The end was close.

“Got it. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about this village.”

I didn’t regret refusing to hear his story.

But I had been wondering why he’d chosen to recreate this scenery as his subspace.

Even so, there was no time left to drag every detail out of him now.

Inside the 【Mixed Space】 as it began to waver, I listened to his final words.

“Remember this… that district… was… an illusion built atop my… atop this village’s sacrifice… That’s why I…”

With that, Luchimada’s head lolled forward.

“Demon King… even though every demon was saved by you… please… forgive me… for choosing the road of vengeance…”

The last words he left behind as he slowly collapsed were an apology to the Demon King.

“…He’s dead.”

The village scenery Luchimada had created vanished from the 【Mixed Space】.

The moment it all disappeared, the 【Mixed Space】 released, and I returned to the courtroom with Luchimada’s corpse.

“Toa!”

“You made it back.”

“You had me worried, you know.”

At Nikka, Vezzo, and Grassa’s voices, I raised a hand in a casual reply.

In an instant, the courtroom erupted into a roar of joy.

The dwarves shouted to each other in relief that they wouldn’t be slaughtered, and at the same time, they hurled curses of hatred at Luchimada’s corpse.

I turned to the girl who stood staring down at the body and spoke to her.

“Cheki.”

“I wanted to kill him… with my own hands… That bastard, at least…”

She glared at the corpse at her feet, tears spilling from her eyes as she kept repeating, over and over, “I had to be the one to kill him.”

I didn’t know what to say.

Saying revenge created nothing was a pretty lie.

Sometimes, even if you stained your own hands, carrying out revenge let you move forward in a big way. Of course, that only held when the revenge was justified… and in Cheki’s case, she absolutely had the right to see Luchimada punished by her own hand.

“Sorry.”

So all I could do was apologize.

Because it was true—I’d stolen that right from her.

“…I know.”

Cheki looked down at Luchimada, tears falling onto him as she spoke.

“I knew my power wasn’t enough to kill him. I couldn’t even hurt him. I would’ve just gotten killed instead.”

She was right. Even if Cheki had gone all out, she wouldn’t have been able to leave a scratch on Luchimada.

That was exactly why she was furious—furious that she couldn’t take revenge with her own strength, furious that she’d had no choice but to leave it to someone else.

“So… thank you.”

Cheki wiped her tears with both hands, lifted her head, and bowed to me.

Her whole body trembled; I could tell she was desperately forcing the frustration down.

But I still couldn’t find the right words, and all I could do was wait until she raised her head again.

“Th-This can’t be… Lord Luchimada…”

At Lakkra’s despairing voice, I remembered he was there.

To begin with, the reason we were in this mess was because of that vile man.

“Hey.”

“Eek! I-I don’t wanna die—guhh!”

I stomped down on Lakkra’s back as he crawled along the floor, trying to flee.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Then I grabbed him by the back of the collar and yanked him upright.

“I’ve got plenty I want to ask you, so don’t worry. I’m not killing you yet. 【Blessing Earth】.”

“No! I don’t wanna turn into a dirt dumpling!”

While Lakkra bawled, I packed earth around his body until only his face was left exposed, like a snowman made of dirt.

“Shut up for a while.”

“Mmphh—!”

I then shoved a scrap of cloth into his noisy mouth and fixed it in place.

“Now lie there for a bit.”

As I kicked the annoying object over toward the corner of the courtroom, a voice came from behind me.

“Um… Toa?”

When I turned around at the timid call, Cheki was standing there, having wiped her tears roughly.

For some reason, her face looked a little lighter. Maybe that was just my imagination.

“Just call me Toa. More importantly, are you okay now?”

“Yeah. Dad and Mom aren’t coming back at this point. My revenge is over.”

Looking at her as she said it outright, I honestly thought she was strong.

What would I have done?

If the place I lived was destroyed, and my parents were murdered too… I might not have stopped until I’d executed not only the mastermind but everyone involved. In this case, I’d probably have seen all demons as enemies.

But that would only give birth to new revenge.

In other words, Cheki was declaring she’d cut the endless chain of vengeance with her own hands.

“Sorry to ask right away, but can you help me?”

“Yeah. We just have to find Luchimada’s people, right?”

“That’s right. I hate to rush you, but if we don’t move fast, they might slip away.”

After saying that, I swept my gaze around the courtroom.

“First, tell me who’s in here.”

“Okay. First, that one in the blue hat over there…”

And that was how our hunt for the demon remnants began.

— 

“Now I think we’d caught just about all of them.”

After flying all over the Dwarf Kingdom with Cheki in my arms and ultimately capturing around ten demons, we tossed them all into cells and returned to the courtroom.

“Probably. As far as I could tell, that person was the last one.”

There might still have been demons hiding somewhere. But I doubted they could have prepared that many special magic tools that let them disguise themselves as dwarves. So even if any remained, it would only have been a handful.

“Then going further is a waste of time. We’ll leave their interrogation for later, and for now…”

I said that to Cheki, then stepped up in front of King Grenga, who was seated in a chair prepared in the corner of the courtroom.

“King Grenga. There are a few things I’d like to hear from you, so could you have a room prepared?”

Unlike before, I asked for a place to talk with proper courtesy. If I kept acting rudely to the ruler of a nation, I’d only be buying myself needless resentment.

“Very well. There are things I must tell you as well.”

King Grenga looked up at me with the dignity of a king, rose from his chair, and instructed the aides who had hurried in from outside out of concern for him to prepare for a meeting.

“I’d like Cheki to be present too. Is that alright?”

“Huh? Me too?”

“You’re the biggest victim here. I’m just the bonus.”

After deliberately putting it in a joking tone, I led Cheki over to Nikka and the others. Since I’d been dragging Cheki around to hunt down Luchimada’s men, they still hadn’t even gotten a chance to talk to her.

“You two, sorry to keep you waiting!”

“Don’t ‘sorry to keep you waiting’ me!”

“Exactly. You suddenly took Cheki with you and ran off, so you startled us.”

I pushed Cheki forward in front of the two of them, who were visibly indignant.

“Save the scolding for later. For now, let’s be happy you’re together again.”

With that, I hurried over to Vezzo, who was standing behind them. Nikka must have used her power. Vezzo looked cleaner and tidier than he had before being dragged into court.

“Are you okay? Any injuries?”

“Hm. Some spots still hurt a little, but that girl healed me.”

“That’s good. By the way, Cheki and I are going to meet with King Grenga next. What about you, Vezzo?”

In this incident, there had been problems between the beastkin and the dwarves too. For Vezzo, the possibility that dwarves had been involved in his little sister’s abduction couldn’t have been someone else’s problem.

“No. I’m not in a position to speak with a king. I’ll leave everything to you.”

Surprisingly, Vezzo shook his head. It seemed beastkin were a people who valued hierarchy, and Vezzo had no intention of changing his mind.

So I had Vezzo tell me a few things he wanted asked on his behalf. After that, dwarves sent by the king guided us to an impressive waiting room, and we rested briefly until the meeting was ready.

“Lord Toa. Preparations are complete. This way, please.”

A neatly dressed man, remarkably proper for a dwarf, knocked and entered. Slightly taken aback, I told Nikka and the others, “I’m going,” and moved toward the door.

“Yes.”

“Yeah. Toa, Cheki, be careful.”

“Yeah. No matter what happens, I’ll protect Cheki. I promise.”

After answering, I looked toward Vezzo, who was standing quietly at the back of the room.

“Take care of them.”

“I understand. Though at this point, I doubt anyone will try to attack us again.”

“No kidding.”

I traded a small smile with Vezzo, then left the room with Cheki. The dwarf guide led us to a door more lavishly adorned than any of the others.

When we opened it—

“So pretty…”

“They sank a ton of money and effort into this.”

Inside, fine furniture lined the room, impressive even to an amateur eye. Not gaudy with jewels and gold, but pieces overflowing with functional beauty and artistry, clearly the work of dwarf craftsmen who’d poured time and care into their work.

The king’s chair wasn’t flashy either, yet it carried an unmistakable gravitas, perfectly suited to the ruler of this nation.

What surprised me, though, was that King Grenga was alone. There were no attendants, not even guards.

“There are matters I cannot allow others to overhear. So I had the room cleared.”

Noticing my reaction, King Grenga explained. It seemed even the lack of guards had been his decision.

“First, regarding what happened… I truly am sorry. And thank you for saving this country.”

He rose from his chair and bowed his head.

A king bowing to an F-rank adventurer was exactly the kind of thing he couldn’t let anyone see. But I could tell that wasn’t the only reason he’d sent everyone away.

“And Racheki Eldwa. Without your power, we could not have seen through Luchimada’s true identity. I apologize for having spoken ill of that power.”

When King Grenga bowed to Cheki as well, she hurriedly said, “Please raise your head, Your Majesty.”