Unification of the South

by Hyougetsu

  I didn’t really feel like I deserved Firnir’s praise, since I was just following Master Veight’s advice. He was the one who’d taught me, “Always try to bring the fight into terrain that’s advantageous for you.” According to him, location alone could change the outcome of a battle. Since I’m bad at fighting, I should at least do the strategizing for us. I wanted to protect Firnir the same way she was protecting me. I wanted to be able to prove to her that I wasn’t dead weight.

  Once we reached the corner, we could finally rest for a bit. I got off Firnir’s back, took the torch from her, and drew my sword.

  “If they come around from the side, I’ll let you know.”

  “Gotcha. I’ll focus on fighting... and try to whittle down their numbers.”

  Though she gave me a smile, I knew why Firnir had hesitated to say that second part. Were their numbers something we could whittle down in the first place? The enemy was clearly a mage, and they seemed capable of summoning as many undead as they wanted. No matter how strong Firnir was, her stamina wasn’t bottomless. She couldn’t last against an endless wave of skeletons. However, there was no time to think of a different strategy. This was the only option left to us.

  The skeletons finally appeared, marching double-file through the corridor. They’d put their spearmen in front to guard the back line.

  “Don’t think you can beat me in a spear fight!”

  Firnir brandished her own spear, taking on four spearmen at once. I know I keep saying this, but she really is strong!

  “RYAAAAAAH!”

  Sparks danced through the dark corridor as Firnir smashed the skeletons around her. Not only was she effectively using a spear in this enclosed space, she was doing so without relying on her greatest asset—her speed. The terrain was against her, but Firnir continued burying the skeletons with ease. The mass of skeletons melted before her wrath.

  “If you want to beat me, you’ll need to bring out a famous general! These foot soldiers can’t even scratch me!”

  Despite her boasts, I could tell that Firnir was slowly growing tired. The skeletons’ assault was endless. Is she going to be okay fighting for this long? Worried, I squinted down the corridor, trying to see how many skeletons were left. They were more stubborn than I thought.

  If they’d sent a force to circle around it would still take quite some time for it to arrive, but I didn’t think we’d be able to annihilate the army coming from the front in that time. And because of how big Firnir was, it took time for her to turn. Exhausted as she was, I doubted she’d be able to fight on two fronts.

  In that case, should I scout out our rear? No, we only have one torch, I can’t leave on my own. Calm down. Think. There has to be a better strategy than this. Remember Master Veight’s teachings.

  First of all, it’s obvious this battle will be drawn out. If we keep fighting here, we’ll likely be pincered soon. In which case, it would be better if we moved before that happens. But where to? The only direction we can go is behind us. And if there are enemies waiting for us to our rear, then... We’d be dead for sure from the impending pincer from staying put. I can’t think of a perfect strategy for this situation, so we’re just going to have to take a gamble.

  “Fir!”

  Making up my mind, I called out to my friend.

  “At this rate, we’ll be caught in a pincer attack! We have to retreat!”

  “That’s fine, but what if there’s enemies behind us too!?”

  “Then we’ll run right through them! You can handle that, right Fir!?”

  I knew how unfair it was of me to ask this much of Firnir, but I did anyway. I had no other choice.

  “We’ll barrel right through all these foot soldiers and head back to the room we started in! I’m guessing that skeleton general didn’t leave too many guards to protect himself! If we hit him with a surprise attack, we might be able to defeat him!”

  If we defeated the skeletons’ general, hopefully the foot soldiers would vanish. Firnir pushed back the skeletons’ spears and shouted, “Climb on!”

  “Okay!”

  I once again straddled Firnir’s back, and she galloped into the darkness. As I’d feared, the enemies’ flanking force had gotten quite close. We ran into them after only a few minutes of dashing. Fortunately, they hadn’t raised their weapons yet.

  “Fir!”

  “Leave it to me! I’ll show you what I can do when I gallop full speed!”

  Firnir tucked her spear under her armpit and send up.

  “Swift Gale!”

  Firnir accelerated so fast I nearly fell off.

  Firnir was no ordinary kentauros. She had a special power known as Swift Gale. All it did was make her faster than any other kentauros. However, because she wrapped herself in a veil of mana to accelerate to herself to such speeds, no one could stop her once she started charging. Her entire body became a weapon, and anything she hit got blown apart. It was for this reason she was known as Firnir the Swift Gale.

  “F-Fir, how long can you keep this up?”

  Firnir responded without slowing down in the slightest.

  “No clue!”

  “You don’t know?”

  “Don’t worry, I know I can keep it up long enough to do a full lap at least! Hang on tight, I’m about to round the corner!”

  Unlike the skeletons we’d been fighting before, these didn’t raise their weapons. It seemed they could only follow simple commands and lacked the ability to adapt to changes in their situation. Furthermore, the flanking unit was smaller than the main one, and it didn’t take us long to dash through all of them. I was worried this plan wouldn’t work, but it seemed we managed to break through the ambush squad without incident. All we had to do now was follow this corridor back to the room, and kill the skeleton general.

  “Alright, let’s do thiiiiiis!”

  Firnir charged into the room we’d started in. It was empty save for the skeleton warrior with the busted crown. Perfect, everything’s going according to plan. I leapt off Firnir’s back, took the torch from her, and drew my sword.

  “Fir, be careful! He’s calling his skeletons back!”

  “I know!”

  Firnir raised her spear and charged toward the skeleton king.

  “Take this!”

  She swung her spear down. The skeleton king casually raised his broken sword and parried. Sparks flew as the two weapons clashed. Despite the force behind Firnir’s blow, the king’s sword didn’t budge an inch.

  “Whoa, this guy’s tough...”

  I could barely follow that last exchange, but it seemed Firnir had been able to grasp the extent of her enemy’s strength during it.

  “Shatina, this guy’s a skilled fighter! Don’t get close to him!”

  “U-Understood!”

  Firnir rained down a flurry of fierce blows, but the skeleton king easily blocked them all with his sword and shield. On the other hand, when he counterattacked, Firnir was forced to back up.

  “Wha!? Damn you!”

  Firnir met the skeleton king’s sword with her spear, and the two struggled back and forth. As their battle continued, I started to hear sounds in the distance. Looking around, I saw that the skeleton foot soldiers were starting to pouring through the room’s two entrances.

  “Fir, they’re here!”

  “N-No way! Alright, get over here!”

  Still trading blows with the skeleton king, Firnir slowly moved to one corner of the room. I hurried after her and hid behind her back. In seconds, the room was nearly full of undead soldiers. And that wasn’t all. Every time the skeleton king raised his shield, he summoned another undead warrior from the darkness.

  “Fir, he keeps summoning more!”

  “I know, but what do you want me to do about it!?”

  It was taking everything she had just to fend him off.

  “Shatina, what should I do? How do I get us out of this!?”

  “U-Umm...”

  How could we turn this situation around?
r />   “I can’t think of anything...”

  Firnir was the only one of us who could fight. And even her full strength wasn’t enough to defeat the skeleton king. Now that we’d been surrounded by his soldiers, we couldn’t run either. My own strength wasn’t sufficient to break through the encirclement.

  “Ngh!”

  One of the skeleton king’s blows finally connected, and Firnir staggered backward. His rusted sword didn’t look too strong, but it was apparently powerful enough to drive Firnir to her knees.

  “Wh-What the... It’s absorbing my power... I can’t...”

  “Fir!”

  Still desperately swinging her spear, Firnir turned to me and smiled.

  “Run...”

  “Idiot!”

  I dropped into a stance and covered Firnir. I knew what I was doing was pointless. We were both dead. But if I was going to die anyway, I at least wanted to die protecting my friend. There was nothing more shameful than dying cowering behind someone. I swung my sword wildly and shouted, “My name is Shatina Yewm Stahl, Viceroy of Zaria! If you want to kill my friend, you’ll have to get through me first!”

  A second later, something unbelievable happened.

  “AWOOOOOOO!”

  A bestial roar shook the air and sent the skeletons flying. A werewolf blacker than night shot out of the darkness and punched the skeleton king.

  “Outta my way!”

  With just that one blow, he crushed the skeleton king’s armor and shattered its bones. Its broken pieces of rusted armor flew through the air and slammed into the wall. Ignoring the rest of the skeletons, the werewolf turned to us and sighed.

  “Don’t worry me so much.”

  “Master!” I shouted in joy. But a second later I stiffened up. “Why’re you here!?”

  Veight eyed the skeleton soldiers, which hadn’t disappeared with their king’s death, and said, “I’ll explain later. First, let’s get rid of these skeletons. Master, where are you?”

  “I’m right here, boy. Don’t rush me.”

  A young girl floated down from the ceiling. She swung her staff and chanted, “Rest, lifeless bones. The banquet has ended, and the peace of the afterlife beckons. Still thy bloodlust and sleep forevermore.”

  The skeleton warriors filling the room vanished. Is that what necromancy looks like? The girl turned to me and smiled.

  “I am the Demon Lord Gomoviroa. Thank you for taking care of my disciple, Veight.”

  She’s the Demon Lord!? Next to me, Master Veight grumbled, “I’m the one taking care of her, Master.”

  Afterward, the Demon Lord created a number of floating lights and healed Firnir.

  “Your mana has been drained. Any normal demon would have lost their life after being hit by that cursed sword. You did well to survive.”

  Firnir blushed and said, “I was so focused on protecting Shatina that I didn’t even notice!”

  “Indeed, friendship is a wonderful thing.”

  Master Veight muttered, “That doesn’t sound nearly as impressive coming from an antisocial loner like you, Master.”

  “Must you be so cantankerous?”

  The Demon Lord began to sulk. Master Veight awkwardly scratched his head and turned to me.

  “We got a message that you two had gone missing, so I asked the Demon Lord to bring us to you.”

  “But even if the messenger had gone by horse, they shouldn’t have reached Ryunheit so fast...”

  Master smiled ruefully at me.

  “It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re underground. You might not have realized this, but it’s been three days since you disappeared.”

  “Three days!?” Firnir shouted.

  “I thought it’d only been half a day at most.”

  “That’s the scary thing about being underground.”

  Master manipulated one of the lights the Demon Lord had created and had it follow him as he walked into the corridor.

  “It looks like this place is exactly what you predicted it to be, Master... Master?”

  “Surely you have no need of an antisocial loner such as myself.”

  The Demon Lord pouted, looking more like a little girl than a ruler. I’d heard she’d lived for hundreds of years, so I was surprised to see that she was this immature.

  “Master, stop sulking. You’re the only one qualified to explain this.”

  Sighing, the Demon Lord began to talk. Despite her outward reluctance, she seemed happy to explain.

  “These ruins are likely the resting place of the undead lord, Ugsfortis. During the last days of the old dynasty, he traveled to the faraway land of Ezakenow and defeated the double-headed tyrants Epero and Viata...”

  “You know what, maybe I’ll explain after all.”

  Master hurriedly butt in and said, “Basically, this is the grave of a necromancer tyrant who lived long ago. He was a pitiful man who failed to become either a Hero or a Demon Lord.”

  Master picked up one of the skeleton king’s gauntlets.

  “He was famous for his ability to expertly command vast hordes of undead, but in the end, he wasn’t able to achieve much. Not only did he fail to unlock the final mysteries of necromancy, but his brutal ways earned him the hatred of his people.”

  “I almost feel sorry for him.”

  He’d had talent, but no one had recognized it. However, Master shook his head.

  “You reap what you sow. He grew conceited, oppressed his own people, and suffered for it. You would do well to learn from his story, Shatina.”

  “Me?”

  “Yep. I understand you’re in a hurry to prove yourself, but if you keep overextending yourself, you might end up like him.”

  Master examined the carvings on the walls, then told me more about the necromancer king. Apparently this tomb had been built as a monument to his life. The carvings on the walls were his biography. The reason the corridor had been built as one big loop was to seal his soul here for all eternity. It seemed the people of his time had truly hated him.

  “After Ugsfortis was buried alive down here, he used necromancy on himself to transform into an immortal demon. But the magic he used cursed him to be bound to this place forever, and he wandered the looping corridor for eons, tracing the events of his life over and over. He was likely clinging to the memories of his past.”

  Master showed me the skeleton king’s gauntlet. The metal around the fingers and palm had been completely worn away. So the reason the carvings are so smooth is because he dragged his hand across the walls for centuries? The words he’d repeated over and over “Iite Avec” meant “My will has not yet faded” in the sorcerers’ language. With his soul trapped in his rotted body, he’d had no choice but to keep repeating those words, or he would have lost his mind completely.

  He’d spent centuries here in the darkness, all alone. The thought sent a shiver down my spine.

  “I’ll be careful not to end up like him.”

  “Great, that’s what I want to hear.”

  Master smiled and patted my head. While he wasn’t my father, it still felt nice to be patted by him.

  Still smiling, Master heaved a weary sigh.

  “I’ll let you off the hook this time since it turned out to be a valuable lesson, but don’t do anything reckless like this again.”

  “I-I won’t. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “As long as you understand. A viceroy has many responsibilities. You cannot just go off on your own... and...”

  Master trailed off, and turned back to the Demon Lord.

  “Umm, Master? Is there something you want to say to me?”

  “I wonder, is there?” The Demon Lord giggled, then cleared her throat. “At any rate, let us return. This entire incident only occurred because these ruins were secured with unnecessary safety devices. Fear not. Despite what my foolish disciple might say, this was not your fault, Shatina.”

  Master nodded and pointed to the hole in the ceiling.

  “The people who se
aled the skeleton king away feared he might reawaken, and so set a pitfall trap on the floor above. It’s set to only activate when someone with large quantities of mana steps on it.”

  “Wait, doesn’t that mean it’s my fault!? If I hadn’t tagged along, none of this would have happened!?”

  “Well... I suppose not.”

  I hurriedly came to Firnir’s defense.

  “B-But if Fir hadn’t been with me, I wouldn’t have survived down here! Besides, thanks to that I learned about what lies underneath Zaria and she helped eliminate a potential threat! You don’t have to feel bad, Fir! As viceroy, I guarantee that you did the right thing!”

  “Uhh, i-if you say so.” Firnir looked surprised, but her shock quickly gave way to joy. “Thank you, Shatina. Also, it looks like you’re calling me Fir after all!”

  “H-Huh?”

  Wait, she’s right. When did I start doing that? Master Veight and the Demon Lord exchanged glances.

  “It’s nice to see demons and humans getting along.”

  “That it is. Scenes like this give me hope for future generations.” The Demon Lord grinned and raised her staff. “Now then, let us return to the surface and have some tea. These old bones are tired after rushing here so quickly.”

  “Ah, yes! I promise I’ll serve you the best tea Zaria has to offer!”

  Zaria’s pride is on the line here!

  “Let’s go home, Fir.”

  “Okay!”

  I squeezed Fir’s hand, and the Demon Lord teleported us to the surface.

  Afterword

  Hello everyone, it’s Hyougetsu. It’s quite a relief to meet you again this volume. It’s thanks to you readers that the southern independence arc was able to be published. The demon army’s conquest is progressing quite smoothly, I’d say.

  Volume three’s a bit of a slow volume, but I felt like Veight and the others needed a break after all the nonstop action of the previous volumes. Though I guess it wasn’t much of a break since Veight still got into a bunch of fights, but for him, it’s all in a day’s work. Compared to fighting the Hero, assassins and sea monsters are nothing. Incidentally, the Island Kraken was based off the winged argonaut, which is a species of octopus that actually exists. Of course, real winged argonauts are nowhere near as big.