Yuuki Tachibana was lying on the ground. Despite her skill as a Healer, Stephanie's magic was having no effect. With no health abnormalities, there had been no sign that he was in danger until he'd collapsed. There was no one here who could have done anything to harm him, and in fact, no one had done anything to him.
But he was, without a doubt, dead.
As she finally understood that, Stephanie clung to his collapsed body, wailing, heedless of the world around her. Having been purchased from a slave market, she'd probably been happier even under the disgusting power of a Dominator than she had been under her previous circumstances. Her grief was a genuine thing. She had always been quick to flatter Yuuki whenever he did something, and that was quite possibly her heartfelt impression of him.
Although she had been trembling in fear before, Euphemia slowly managed to calm down. Thinking the two of them could also die at any moment, she had been terrified, but it seemed Yogiri had no intention of killing Yuuki's slaves.
Euphemia took stock of her own body. She felt no lingering effects of Yuuki's control. All she thought when looking at his body now was "good riddance." She also felt that the energy within her, her amount of mana, had increased substantially. The mana within Yuuki had scattered upon his death, and apparently she and Stephanie, being nearby, had absorbed some. Most of it had simply dissipated, but the amount that Yuuki had possessed in the first place meant that even the small fraction they each received was enormous.
It was an immeasurable blessing.
So, what came next? Was dying enough punishment for a guy like this? Euphemia glared at her former master. She was struck by the urge to tear off his limbs, rip out his guts, and smash his remains until no semblance of his original form remained.
Euphemia's tribe traditionally held nothing but contempt for the dead. Enemy graves would be exhumed and the bodies within desecrated. They were taught that this would dispel their resentment. It was hard to imagine Stephanie would just stand by and let her do that, though.
"All right, I'll leave him to you," she shrugged. Stephanie was just as much a victim of Yuuki as Euphemia was; she had no grudge against her, nor any reason to fight her.
"Huh?" Stephanie looked up, confused by her behavior. She must have thought Euphemia would be just as sad about Yuuki's death as she herself was.
"I'm sure you've figured it out, but we're free from his control now, so I don't feel even the slightest shred of loyalty to him anymore. I'm leaving, but what about you?"
Stephanie hesitated, a conflicted expression crossing her face. But Euphemia had no obligation to take care of her either.
"See you around, then."
Leaving Stephanie behind, Euphemia made her way to the exit of the ruins. This was only the first level, and Stephanie was plenty strong on her own. There wasn't any particular danger in her being alone here.
Euphemia sank into thought as she walked to the exit. Her current objective was to reunite with her tribe and revive their village. Her tribe was rather strong, so Yuuki had valued them. They hadn't been treated as disposable like the other slaves. There was no reason to be pessimistic about their fate. They could all start over again, as many times as it took.
As these thoughts spurred her to get out of the ruins as fast as possible, she realized that something had changed. She was suddenly strangely thirsty. The area around her was bone dry, something she realized was different from when they had arrived. The ruin was in the middle of a forest. The interior had been hot and humid before, but now it was dry and dusty. Studying the floor, she saw that something like sand was scattered about.
As she came within sight of the stairs leading out, the oddities around her finally roused enough caution to bring her to a stop. Sunlight poured over the steps leading down to the ruins' basement — which should have been impossible, since the entrance was inside a two-floored structure. There was no way sunlight should be reaching the stairs.
A dry wind blew past her. Something had definitely happened above ground. But she couldn't just stay here forever. Steeling herself for whatever might come, Euphemia climbed the stairs to the outside.
As she broke through the surface, the scenery that greeted her was more or less what she had expected. As far as she could see, there was nothing but sand. There was no sign of either the ruins she had been in or the forest that had surrounded them.
"What happened here...?" The change was so drastic that it was beyond belief. Looking around, she noticed an enormous black form in the distance. It was a vague figure, a dark haze in the rough shape of a person, but with no clear or distinct edges. The sinister apparition was heading towards Hanabusa. Turning around, she could see that the forest in its path had been entirely reduced to sand. It seemed that wherever the shadowy giant walked, the land changed.
An Aggressor. Appearing out of nowhere and with an entirely unknown objective. Most people in this world regarded them with fear, but in this case, Euphemia was relieved. It wasn't paying any attention to her. Thanks to being underground when it passed by, they had been safe, and as it was heading straight for the city, she would have no problem avoiding it.
"Oh? And where did you come from? Did you actually survive the Darkness's attack?"
Turning around, Euphemia saw a woman in a red dress standing before her. At the same time, she realized that she was nowhere near safe. Just seeing her, just feeling her presence, Euphemia felt her own weakness.
This was her natural enemy, her natural predator, a violator of the soul.
"You don't seem all that strong...and you seem rather at a loss here. Could I perhaps have you explain some things for me?"
Fighting was out of the question. Her only option was to run away, but the moment she locked eyes with that woman, she lost that option as well.
Charm — permitting no resistance, her soul itself had been seized in an instant.
The woman approached. Against her own will, Euphemia tilted her head, presenting her neck for the woman to bite. And when she did, Euphemia instantly perceived that she was the highest rank of vampire, an Origin Blood — and that she was the Sage, Lain.
◇ ◇ ◇
She was so ill-matched with that creature. It was just too vague. She couldn't even pinpoint exactly where it started and ended. Never mind whether it was actually alive or not, she couldn't even tell if it had its own will. When she tried to strike it, it was like punching fog, and the hand that touched it had crumbled to dust in an instant.
Luckily, Lain's immortality was enough to make such an attack meaningless. The lost part of her body had regenerated easily enough, but she still had no way of fighting the thing.
Lain was a vampire. By drinking blood, a vampire increased his or her number of companions and ruled over them. They possessed unbelievable regenerative power and unparalleled physical strength, and their eyes could charm their opponents just by looking at them. They could even transform themselves and fly. With such varied abilities, they had no particular weaknesses to speak of. But even so, she had been entirely unable to defeat the Darkness.
Thinking about it, Santarou had been well-matched with their opponent given his ability to use all kinds of magic. Thanks to that ability, he had managed to find an effective means of fighting it, allowing him to drive it off once before.But while Lain possessed an inordinate amount of magical energy, she wasn't particularly skilled in the use of magic. She could use average-level healing as well as the barrier spells of the Sages. Beyond that, all she could do was elementary-level attack spells. As a result, the Darkness had simply continued its advance, and Lain had been entirely unable to slow it down. It was hard to tell if it had even been aware of her presence.
In that helpless state, Lain had come across a silver-haired girl. She'd been standing alone, as if lost in the vast expanse of desert. She didn't seem especially useful, but curious about how she had survived unharmed, Lain had added her to her bloodline. While Charming the girl would have been enough to get her to speak, the Charm itself interfered with the target's ability to think clearly, making their answers somewhat vague and inaccurate. If she wanted a proper explanation of the circumstances, turning her was much faster.
According to her story, the girl — named Euphemia — had just been in an underground ruin. Lain was disappointed at first, but when asking about her future, she discovered that not only did the girl have a connection to the Sage candidates, but she had even come into contact with Yogiri Takatou.
"Oh? So he was able to kill without being present."
Since she had been brought into Lain's bloodline, Euphemia was unable to lie to her, meaning at least her recounting of her observations was true. This meant that Yogiri could kill people from a considerable distance."The city is about ten kilometers from here, isn't it?"
"That is correct."
"So at the very least, his range is about that far."
Lain continued to extract as much information from Euphemia as she could. According to Yogiri himself, he could kill simply by willing it. It worked not only against people, but against objects created by magic and animated puppets as well.
While he seemed able to kill anyone he could see, he'd apparently also killed someone that he couldn't see, even with that person being both underground and considerably farther away. He could also perceive potential harm to himself, with a range that had to be totally absurd. The fact that Yuuki had died immediately after ordering Yogiri's death must have been a result of that perception.
It was truly an irritating ability. Even if they tried to target him from a distance, the intent to harm him alone was enough to get them killed. In short, Yogiri's powers were nothing as simple as Instant Death Magic. It would be something much more difficult to get past.
"Now I want to see exactly what he can and can't do."
The Immortal Corps could quite possibly fail in their attack. Sending assassins after him would be a similar waste of time and resources, but even if they were going to die, it was necessary to get a handle on the limits of Yogiri's ability — its range, the scope of its power, its nature. And Yogiri's own personality. What did he like, what did he hate, what would he ignore?"Of course, the thing I want to know most is if he can kill me."
"Did you say something, Mistress?" Euphemia responded to Lain's muttering. Even if only the two of them were there, Lain chided herself for carelessly speaking out loud.
"Don't worry about it. As much as I was able to learn about Yogiri, it might all be pointless in the end."
The Aggressor was currently heading for the very city where Yogiri was. If she left it alone, there would be no survivors. It would be nice if the city's barrier worked against it, but that had only been created to stop monsters — she had no idea how effective it would be against the Darkness.
"Now then, if the Darkness makes it into the city, we'll have more options available to us."
If she didn't mind sacrificing Hanabusa, she could think of numerous ways to handle the Darkness.
But she had no intention of doing so if she didn't have to.