Shinka no Mi

Chapter 165: New Dungeon

“――――And that’s how, I came back.”

“You’re really too sudden……”

Safely? After returning from Amelia and the others to Terviel in the Welmburg Kingdom with transition magic, I immediately moved to the 『Tree of Peace』 where Saria and the others were staying, and I reported as I joined Saria and the others that I have returned.

“Seiichi, welcome home! How was it?”

“…… There were so many things, that I got tired……”

Saria seems to be full of energy as usual, and asks me so, but I’m really tired……. because of the tree, tree, and tree.

No, in the latter half, Amelia dropped a bombshell remark for the reward, I got tired of responding to that, too.

To me who seemed to be involuntarily weary, although Al looks suspicious, she immediately asked for my expression again.

“By the way, what happened to Helen’s hometown?”

“Ah, they’re fine.”

“You say it’s fine, but…… it was a lot of work, wasn’t it? Helen jumped out with a different expression. I’ve heard about the story of the advance of the Kaizer Empire, and the Demon God’s Cult, which means you have to deal with two forces at the same time……”

“Ah…… the two of them were in the way at that time, so I’ve thrown the land where all of them are together into the sea.”

“You, really made a nice adjustment.”

For some reason, Al said that with a straight face. Strange. I thought it was the best solution.

“What’s with that playing dumb face! No matter how you think about it, it’s strange, right? So what, you threw the whole land into the sea!?”

“Well, they would die without a foothold, right?”

“Don’t say that!”

I know. But honestly, I don’t know why I did that. I did it because I knew that I could do it, but it feels like I was washed away by the surrounding atmosphere. Black history, right?

I’m sorry to have Al held her head, but I want you to resign yourself. I resign myself. My body, is beyond my control. It’s my body.

I had distant eyes involuntarily, but I suddenly noticed something.

“…… A’re, speaking of which, what happened to Luthia, Olga-chan and the others?”

We originally visited the dungeon to raise Helen’s level, but at that time, Luthia and the others should have gone to Lucius-san.

When I was thinking about that, Saria tells me.

“That’s right, Seiichi! That’s the thing, Olga-chan and the others went to a dungeon!”

“Eh?”

“Originally, they were planning to wait until Seiichi came back, but it seems that the movement of the Demon God’s cult is suspicious, and Seiichi appears to be returning later than expected, so they went out first.”

“I, I see…… Then Olga-chan and Rurune were at Luthia’s side, and is Zora with them? What about Lucius-san and the Demon Army?”

“The Demon Army seems to have returned to the Demon Kingdom, but Lucius-san seems to be acting differently from Luthia-san, saying that he has something to do at another dungeon, you know? Ah, it appears that Zeanos-san was going with him!”

“Is that so?”

No, in the story of hitsuji, it was true that two more dungeons would soon be traversed in its true sense, but…… well, did Lucius-san and the others went to release the Black Dragon God?

“A’re? Then, what dungeon did Luthia and the others go to?”

“It’s like, the dungeon where Luthia’s father was sealed.”

“Eeh?”

That means, to release Luthia’s father from his seal, right?

However, in Hitsuji’s story, certainly, if they could truly traverse the dungeon in its true meaning where Luthia’s father was sealed, he said that her father would be released, but it would be natural because the condition of true traversal is to release her father’s seal.

However, Hitsuji didn’t say that the dungeon is capturable. He just said that the dungeon of the Black Dragon God will be captured.

And one more dungeon that he said that’ll be released, appears to be the dungeon where the Demon God, who was being worshiped by the Demon God’s cult, is sealed…… Ah, so that’s why the movement of the Demon God’s cult became suspicious. In other words, they can unseal him already.

No, there are too many things to think about when I came back.

“To begin with, why did Luthia wants to go to a dungeon? When they went to the dungeon, did they do anything like visiting Lucius-san and the others?”

“Ah, she originally talked to Lucius-san about her father, so that’s why, she acted differently at that time.”

“So that’s it……?”

When it comes to that, I don’t understand the meaning more and more, but……

When I was confused, Al says to me as she remembered.

“Right right, which reminds me, I got a message from Lucius-san.”

“A message?”

“Ah, it’s 『When you came back, please help Luthia by all means. 』. According to Lucius-san’s story, it appears that Luthia did go to the dungeon where her father was sealed to make a true traversal, ish?”

“Is that so?”

“No, I felt like they would be able to break through it, but…… I don’t know much about it either.”

Eeh? I’m getting more and more confused, but…… well, even if Lucius doesn’t ask me, I’ll help Luthia.

But I don’t think it’s possible to make a true traversal with it.

The sheep bastard is sick, but he won’t lie to us about this kind of topic.

……Well, even Hitsuji may crossed into an unpredictable situation, and they may be able to conquer it. No, is there?

“Well, at any rate, I’d better go to Luthia and the others as soon as possible. Do you know where that dungeon is?”

“Ah. The location is ―――― the 【Land of Anguish】!” (TN: Nageki no Daichi)

“La,land of anguish……!”

I was surprised at Al’s words.

“……whe, where is that?”

“I thought so……”

To my reaction, Al was utterly amazed.

◇◆◇

―――― Time goes back, when Seiichi and the others were visiting the dungeon to raise Helen’s level, as per Lucius’ concern, the Demon God’s Cult had occupied the 【Land of Anguish】.

Then, the apostles of the Demon God’s Cult dispatched to 【Land of Anguish】 were talking with each other with materials on hand.

“…… As I thought, it appears that this land has the power to strengthen monsters.”

“Ah. As expected, it’s the land where the Demon king was sealed.”

Then one of the apostles turned his eyes to the empty hole in the land that had dried up hollowly.

The hole is so eerie and dark that it seems to suck up everything near it.

And a mysterious pattern was engraved on the dried ground surrounding the hole.

“Even so, the demons are too stupid. There’s a traitor there, and we’re able to occupy this land where their king is sealed, so……”

“Don’t say that. After all, they are an inferior species who didn’t even receive the protection of the Demon God-sama. It’s hard for them to get to this place.”

“Certainly. When I think about it, I would like to thank the heroes who sealed this land at that time. Well, their only fault is that it’s close to the Demon Kingdom, but……”

“Oi oi, on the other hand, I think it’s good. It’s within their hands’ reach, but they can’t get close to it…… That feeling of regret and helplessness, will become the food of Demon God-sama.”

As the Apostle said, in this way, there’s the dungeon where Luthia’s father was sealed which is near the Demon Kingdom, but there are very powerful monsters wandering along the way to get there, and they couldn’t get too close to it.

For reference, Zorua and Zeros, which are the strongest of the Demon King army, and even Jade can’t go straight to it, and until now, Luthia and the others could only give up.

That’s why the Demon God’s cult, which regarded this place as an ideal place, as they easily entered the Demon Kingdom with the guide of the traitor, were able to move to 【Land of Anguish】 as it was.

The path to the 【Land of Anguish】, for the apostles with the protection of the Demon God, it’s easy to reach it without any difficulty.

To that end, the protection of the Demon God was so powerful.

“But finally, the resurrection of our Demon God-sama is just around the corner.”

“That’s right! When the Demon God-sama is resurrected, the Demon God-sama shall rule this world.”

“―――― For that reason, this place is very important.”

“Hah!? Yu, Yutis-sama!?”

All of a sudden, what appeared before the apostles was, an even more powerful being in the Demon God’s cult, Yutis, the deity who was called the ?Omnipresent? which received favor from the Demon God’s Cult.

Moreover, behind such Yutis, there’s another man who’s looking around with great interest.

Black hair that is stretched randomly with darkish skin.

With his eyes glowing gold, he has a reminiscent of a black leopard somewhere.

The man with a very rough figure wearing a leather jacket, after looking around for a while, he turned a suspicious expression to Yutis.

“Hmm…… Yutis, are you saying that you want me to protect them here?”

“Yes.”

“Oi oi, what’s this? Isn’t my power useless in a place like this?”

“No no, don’t be humble. It’s a relief just to have Vitor-san who’s the ?Resonance? protect this place.”

The man called Vitor, the ?Resonance?, had an even more strange look.

“Why am I in a place like this? No one’s going to aim at this. Or rather, there aren’t anyone who’s strong enough to aim at this.”

“No, it’s not a situation that we can be so optimistic these days.”

“Haa? I know that Jiji* who’s called the ?Phantom Demon? is mass-producing 『Transcendents』 for fun in the Kaizer Empire, but other than that, there aren’t any people who can come to this place, right?” (TN: Old man)

“Have you forgotten? Three apostles of our Demon God’s Cult have already been done in. And the one who did that was not a soldier of the Kaizer Empire.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then you should aim at him directly. You’re good at that, right? You.”

Vitor tells him that while being stunned, but Yutis looked as if he just chews a bitter insect.

“I wish I could do that……”

“Wha? …… Wait, wait, wait. No way, you don’t understand his strength?”

“That’s very frustrating.”

When he saw Yutis says so with frustration from the bottom of his heart, Vitor realized that Yutis’ words were true.

“No way, with your ability…… you can, even see the past and future of us deities, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, it doesn’t mean that you’ve weakened. My future and the past, you can’t look at it so easily. Especially, with that extinction bastard, you can’t see his, right? That guy, is bequeathing only the future in which he’s going to win, he has killed his past in the first place.”

“Yes. It’s true that the past does seem to have been erased, but the future will always change. If there is one world line, then it’s possible to see. It’s horrible to proceed to that future, but……”

“Well, it’s the end for his whole future if he killed it!”

Vitor, who laughed out loud, asks again as he returns to a serious expression immediately.

“Now then, what should I protect here?”

“Yes. Soon, the Demon God-sama will be resurrected. However, even if He was revived, his power is not yet perfect. That’s why, we need to collect negative emotions from people all over the world.”

“It didn’t change as usual, but…… why are we here again?”

“There’s a power to strengthen monsters here. In addition, the existence of the Demon King sealed in its depths is also good. If we looked over for some suitable vessel, he’ll become a powerful piece if both of his body and soul can be pushed on it even by force. If it’s a piece that uses the Demon King, then we don’t have to be concerned about him being defeated.”

“But that’s, what’s going to happen to the sealed Demon King?”

“That’s of course, we don’t need his ego, so I’ll kill it. All we need is his body and soul.”

To Yutis, who speaks of killing the Demon King like it’s a natural thing, Vitor put on a heinous smile on his face.

“Of course, that is.”

“It seems like you’ve understood it. Well then, I’ll excuse myself here.”

“Oh, leave the defense here to me. Well, I don’t think anyone’s coming.”

“I agree. …… then, you also don’t have to bother the ?Resonance?’s hands, and just work.”

““Ye,yes””

Then, before Yutis returns, he called out to the two apostles who had hardened in front of the two top executives of the Demon God’s Cult, Vitor and Yutis, and when they nodded satisfactorily with their reply, he disappeared from the spot.

Vitor, who saw him off, gives instructions to the two apostles.

“Now then, you guys…… just like that, work as usual.”

“Ye,yes.”

“Vi, Vitor-sama, what are you going to do?”

When one apostle asks so while being nervous, Vitor smiles.

“Me? I’m…… going to sleep.”

Saying so, Vitor really started to take a nap.

――――Without knowing, that this is his last rest.