Legend

Chapter 103

「UWAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Vel’s left arm had been cut off from the shoulder and kept spilling blood as he held his ugly melted face with his right hand.

Rei had been startled by his ugly face for a moment and had stopped for an instant as he was swinging down the Death Scythe to kill him……

「GURU~!」

Hearing Set’s urgent cry from behind him, Rei noticed something coming towards him and swiftly swung the Death Scythe.

「……」

However, the enemy still kept closing in. That is, the Golem that had been fight Set didn’t even try to avoid it. As it approached, it was torn in half by the magic empowered blade of the Death Scythe.

(Dangerous!?)

Rei leapt back almost on reflex. The next moment, the Golem that had been cut in two by the Death Scythe glowed brightly……

Roar!

With that, it exploded with a big bang.

Rei received that blast at close range, but after the flames from the explosion cleared away, it revealed him to be completely unscathed. Instead, the magic shield that had been floating around Rei disappeared like haze.

(No way, a suicide attack. Thanks to the magic shield there was no damage……!　Vel!?)

Waving the Death Scythe to blow away the smoke, he searched for Vel’s figure.

With his left arm missing and face melting away, Rei didn’t think that Vel could escape. Still, he couldn’t be careless until he was dead and quickly looked around. He then heard a voice from where some smoke still remained.

「Ha-hahahaha. I-I was a bit careless. ……But this is not going to happen again.」

His face distorting due to the sharp pain in his left shoulder……Vel declared so even as his face continued to fester and melt away.

With his remaining right hand, he grasped something like a gem in his hand and flung it onto the ground……

「Don’t run!」

He quickly checked the Misty Ring’s inventory in his mind. Taking out the needle at the top of the list, he quickly threw it at Vel, who was trying to throw the gem to the ground.

That needle, which was thrown out with great speed, pierced through the air while dripping poison and stabbed into Vel’s right thigh like a bird of prey diving for the kill.

Interestingly, the needle that Rei had thrown was the the needle Vel had given to Rei after he disarming a trap on the fifth floor of this dungeon, the undead floor.

「Damn, trying to the very end. But, I’m the winner of this game!」

With Rei’s power, the poisoned needle pierced through the armour worn by Vel and stabbed into his right thigh, but the gem struck the ground without regard……similar to the Golem from just before, no, even brighter than that, a dazzling flash occurred.

「Tch, Set!」

「Gururu~!」

He didn’t know what was happening but called out to Set to stop him from escaping.

Set responded to Rei’s voice by shooting a wind arrow as Rei let off a flying slash.

But……

「……He’s gone it seems.」

A dazzling flash lit up the surroundings. After the flash, Vel was nowhere to be seen. As far as evidence went that Vel had actually been there, the blood from when his left arm was cut was still on the ground and his left arm was rolling on the ground a short distance away.

At the back of the room, on the wall behind where Vel had been standing, there was a large scar and several smaller ones from where the Rei’s flying slash and Set’s wind arrows seemed to have hit.

What did Vel use, Rei came to a conclusion. Perhaps the gem that he had thrown to the ground contained a spatial magic. It allowed spatial movement, the so called transfer magic. There was no need to think about the rarity of item boxes, it was very difficult to apply spatial magic to such items. However, if profitability was ignored and it was a disposable single use item, then it might be possible with the Bestir Empire’s technology.

(Still, only its alchemy is only on par with that the Magic City Osus……or something.)

While breathing out, he judged that there was no more danger of having to fight the treacherous Vel and hurried towards Elena.

Placing his finger on her neck, he gave a sigh of relief after confirming her pulse. He then turned to look at Kuust, who was lying next to Elena.

「……Kuust.」

Kuust had breathed his last, lying next to Elena. It was obvious based on his open eyes. However, he had a satisfied smile on his face. He probably passed on after confirming that Rei had repelled Vel.

「I didn’t like him. ……There’s no doubt about that. However, serving as an escort for Elena, he died performing his role. I will recognise that.」

Moving Kuust’s arms over his chest, Rei removed Kuust’s helmet and closed his eyes.

Most of the plate mail covering his body had been crushed by Rei’s attack with the Death Scythe, the only remaining armour were his sabatons, gauntlets and the helmet that Rei had just removed.

「Guru~」

Rei disregarded Kuust like air, but Set was openly hostile. Still, seeing their previous exchange Set seemed to have noticed something. He gave a small cry as he watched Rei, as if giving a prayer for Kuust’s soul.

「The problem is……I wonder how the Inheritance Ceremony went.」

As he murmured, he turned to look at the Altar of Inheritance.

Originally, the magic stone of the Ancient Dragon should have been there, but it had been crushed by Vel’s attack and had scattered.

Fortunately, about 70% had already been absorbed by Elena. However……

(The goal of the Inheritance Ceremony is to absorb everything. What will be the result if she could only absorb 70%?)

He looked at the figure of the unconscious Elena. Even though she was unconscious and had her eyes closed, Elena still stood out as a beauty.

「Any how, I can’t do anything if neither Ara or Elena wakes up. I also don’t know if they can be moved away as it is.」

Since he didn’t know how losing consciousness in the magic formations would affect the ceremony, Rei had no choice but to wait for them to wake up.

After taking out a clean cloth from the Misty Ring and covering Kuust with it, several hours passed.

「Mm……」

The first to wake up was Ara and not Elena.

「……You’ve woken up, Ara.」

「Rei……dono?」

Ara woke up and couldn’t understand the situation for a moment as she looked around.

「!? Elena-sama!?」

Remembering the events before she lost consciousness, she quickly got up and looked around.

And finding the figure of Elena, who had fainted beside the Altar of Inheritance, she was about to rush over when Rei grabbed her hand.

「Ara!」

「Rei-dono, please let me go!　Elena-sama!」

「Calm down!　Elena had the Inheritance Ceremony forcibly stopped halfway!　It’s dangerous to move her body from the magic formation carelessly right now!　I don’t know what may happen!」

Ara glared at Rei with eyes mixed with blood lust, but she reacted at the words that Elena might be put in danger. She gradually controlled her overflowing blood lust.

「……Pardon me.」

「Don’t worry about it. I know how much you care for Elena so it is not unreasonable.」

Finally calming Ara, Rei took a bottle out of the Misty Ring. It was wine that he had bought in the city of Gilm.

Rei didn’t drink that much alcohol himself. Still, he enjoyed drinking to some extent. It was also for cases of emergency, and for times like these, that he had bought it.

Forcibly uncorking the bottle, he poured some wine into a cup and handed it to Ara.

「Drink this for now. It will calm you down.」

「……Pardon me.」

Chibiri~, chibiri~. Ara drank the wine silently. Her face was listless, Rei could easily imagine how Vel’s betrayal had felt. And……

「That?　Rei-dono, Vel betrayed us. I understand that. ……So then, Kuust?　By any chance, Kuust……」

Did Kuust betray us as well. As Ara tried to continue, Rei interrupted her and turned to look at Kuust’s body, which was covered by a clean cloth.

「Guru~……」

Set lay down on the ground and turned to look at Kuust’s body as well as he caught Rei’s weight against him.

「Eh?　……s-such a thing, no……it’s a lie right!?」

Placing the cup she held with both hands onto the ground, she cautiously approached Kuust’s body and gently lifted the cloth.

Although there was blood around his mouth, there was a satisfied smile on his face. The face of the dead Kuust could be said to be peaceful.

「Why……why is this!　Why is Kuust dead!」

Ara stuck the stone floor in violent fury. Cracks appeared in the stone pavings which should have been robust as broken fragments flew into the surroundings.

She continued to strike the ground for several minutes. Finally calming down, she wiped away her tears and turned to Rei.

「Rei-dono……please tell me. Who did this……was it Vel?」

「……Ah.」

「Kuust……how were his last moments?」

The skin on her hands had broken, blood was dripping and flesh was visible. But she clenched her hands tightly as if she didn’t notice……it wasn’t just the back of her hands, her fingernails also cut into her palms and blood was dripping from there as well.

「After entering the dungeon, do you remember that Vel kept giving his water bottle to Kuust?」

「……Yes.」

「It seems that the contents of the water bottle contained some magic potion. With the effect from the magic potion, Kuust became Vel’s puppet.」

「Something like that!　But Vel himself drank from that bottle!?」

「He seems to have prepared some sort of antidote. He also used a magic item that further raised Kuust’s physical abilities before making him fight me……」

As he muttered that, Ara looked at Rei with blood lust.

「Then, Rei-dono, who killed Kuust?」

While feeling a thirst for blood covering him, he shook his head.

「Even in that condition, my strength was higher than Kuust’s, I hit him hard once with the handle of the Death Scythe and destroyed the armour on his body. So, after that, I fought Vel to try to finish him off before Kuust came back……and in the confusion of battle, Vel released a small Golem without me noticing. It’s over there.」

Saying that, Rei looked at the figure of the Golem that had stopped working after having its body pierced by the dagger.

The Golem still held a long sword in its hands.

「When that Golem tried to attack Elena, I don’t know how Kuust did it, but he broke the restraint of the magic potion to protect Elena……」

「But if Rei-dono’s abilities were that great!」

Ara uttered a cry as if she was spitting blood. However, she immediately stopped her condemning words.

Maybe she gripped her hands more tightly than before, the amount of blood dripping from them increased.

「……No, it’s not something that I, who fainted, can say anything about. Also, if you look at Kuust’s face, I’m sure that he died peacefully. There’s no meaning to blaming you for anything here. I will use these hands to strike him down……I will destroy Vel.」

Rei took out a potion from the Misty Ring while watching Ara make that vow to herself with that determination.

「Please heal your injuries for now.」

「Yes, I’m sorry.」

Sprinkling the potion over her right hand, the injury on it healed in less than 30 seconds.

「So, what should we do with Elena-sama.」

After vowing to seek vengeance on Vel with her own hands, treating the injuries on her hands, and calming down, Ara turned to look at Elena, who still hadn’t woken up, who was lying in at the center of the magic formation. Rei shook his head.

「Since I don’t know what kind of ceremony the Inheritance Ceremony is, I can’t do anything. I have confirmed she has a pulse, so I think it’s better for her to naturally wake up. Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any monsters wandering the aisles in this lowest level.」

「But, doesn’t that mean we could be waiting like this forever?」

「Ah well. I have plenty of food and monster flesh in my item box……but I don’t think sleeping here is good for our health. ……We’ll wait for half a day, if she doesn’t wake up by then, we’ll have to take the risk and take her out.」

Rei took out an hourglass, which was a magic item, from the item box.

「This hourglass takes two hours for all the sand to fall. We will use this to time half a day, if Elena still doesn’t wake up by then……」

Realising what Rei wanted to say, Ara gave a small nod.

「I understand.」

Thus, they silently waited for time to pass.