Episode 142
“Your Highness!”
Valerian arrived at the Imperial Princess’s Palace. His sudden appearance caused a brief commotion, but Sarah quickly calmed everyone down.
“High Priest?”
“Lady Sardia! Is Her Highness…?”
“She’s not here at the moment. What brings you here…?”
Valerian’s face was a mask of concern, and Sarah, her expression troubled, asked,
“Is it something urgent?”
“…Yes.”
Anxiety was contagious. Sarah’s voice, now also filled with worry, asked,
“Her Highness left with the knights. Is it related to that?”
“She left with the knights?”
“Yes. Actually…”
Sarah explained what had happened.
About Marquis Hellington’s escape, the Tite Knights’ pursuit, Elonia following them, and Simon’s secret capture.
Valerian, already troubled by Lucius’s precognitive dream, couldn’t follow the rapidly unfolding events.
“W-wait, Prince Simon? Why?”
“…I don’t know the details, but—”
Sarah, being a palace maid, wasn’t privy to matters outside the Imperial Princess’s Palace. Even the information about the potion of luck was classified, and she had only learned about it because she was Elonia’s godmother.
“He was brought back. Or rather, he returned on his own.”
“…!”
“It seems like he was the one who helped Marquis Hellington escape.”
Sarah bit her lip, her voice filled with uncertainty, and Valerian also found it hard to believe.
Simon helping Marquis Hellington escape? He didn’t know Simon well, but he wasn’t the type to do something like that. It was an act of betrayal, an act driven by ambition, and Simon wasn’t ambitious.
‘…No, could it be…?’
Everyone had their desires, their ambitions, however small.
A sudden thought crossed Valerian’s mind, and he asked urgently,
“…May I speak with Prince Simon?”
“This is…”
Elonia, entering the last room in the watchtower basement, gasped.
There were no animal carcasses here. Instead, the room was filled with alchemical equipment and a large, empty tank, large enough to hold several knights.
‘Was this where they stored the potion of luck…?’
Elonia shuddered, remembering the sheer quantity of potions in the Hellington estate’s storage.
“I’ll investigate this room alone. Stay back, just in case.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The knights remained outside, guarding the entrance, while Elonia quickly scanned the room.
She spotted a folder and a notebook on a large table.
The folder contained complex formulas, and the notebook seemed to be a research log. She quickly flipped through the pages.
“[Month X, Day X… I’ve reduced the density of His power. The rejection is still severe… ]”
Rejection? Had they been experimenting on living beings?
She turned the page.
[Month X, Day X
It’s still severe. Damn it, what’s the problem? My formula is perfect.
Damn it, if I don’t get results soon, I’ll…
Month X, Day X
This is my last chance.
I can’t reduce His power any further. I’ve added mana to dilute it.
A drop of His power, a chimera core, and a large amount of mana. Everything is ready.
Now we wait.
I hope this doesn’t become my suicide note.
Month X, Day X
I administered the potion sample to the test subjects and confined them to a single space.
They started attacking each other.
It’s a success! The rejection is gone!
Time for human trials.
The test subject… Jay would be perfect. He lost his wife recently. The potion might have an immediate effect.
Month X, Day X
Success! Jay went insane.
I was right!
I’m alive…]
The last sentence was incomplete, smeared with blood.
‘…He must have been killed by Jay.’
And the perfected potion of luck had been sent to Ravanta.
‘…Disgusting.’
She hadn’t expected them to be sane, but this was beyond her wildest imaginations.
Elonia, her face grim, stored the research logs and formulas in her subspace. They would be helpful in creating the antidote.
She looked around the room, making sure she hadn’t missed anything, then closed her subspace and turned to Ethan.
“Ethan, have you found the other Tite Knights?”
“No, Your Highness.”
Elonia frowned. The Tite Knights might not be as strong as her, but they were Artius’s elite knights, experienced and resourceful.
“What do you think, former Captain of the Tite Knights? Do you think they’re safe?”
“I didn’t train them to be weak.”
Ethan replied instantly, her voice filled with confidence.
Well, their goals were different.
Elonia was looking for information about the potion, while the Tite Knights were trying to recapture Marquis Hellington.
Just as she was about to leave,
A growl echoed through the basement.
“…!”
They all turned towards the sound.
It was coming from the rooms they had just searched.
“Your Highness, be careful. There’s someone, or something, here.”
Ethan drew her sword, her back to Elonia, and the other knights followed suit.
And then they saw them.
Creatures with mangled bodies, their fur matted with blood, their faces scarred, their eyes glowing with an eerie light, emanating a faint, unsettling Holy Power.
“What are those…?”
“The animal carcasses…?”
It was them. The dead animals. They were moving.
‘Could they be the test subjects? Animated by the potion of luck?’
No, that was impossible. It wasn’t mentioned in the research log.
And Elonia could see it.
The Holy Power surrounding them.
‘What is that Holy Power…?’
Could it be Tristan’s power?
It was repulsive, far more so than Lucius’s Holy Power. It made her skin crawl, and she almost forgot to draw her sword.
A large bear, its body scarred and mangled, emerged from the darkness.
It charged towards Elonia, but Ethan intercepted it.
“…Ugh!”
Elonia, snapping out of her daze, quickly drew her rapier and slashed at the bear’s arm. But the bear, as if it couldn’t feel pain, didn’t even flinch. It swung its severed arm at Elonia.
Elonia blocked it with a magic shield.
Clang! The bear was thrown backwards.
“Ethan, are you okay?”
“I apologize, Your Highness. I should have protected you…”
“This isn’t the time for that!”
There was no time to relax.
The other creatures, emboldened by their leader’s attack, started swarming them.
“Protect Her Highness!”
Ethan shouted.
They were elite knights, but they were losing ground against the undead animals.
“They won’t die…!”
They kept moving, even after being decapitated. They attacked with their claws and teeth, and Elonia and her knights were forced back, trapped at the end of the narrow corridor, the creatures closing in from both sides.
They were immortal.
Humans instinctively recoiled from the dead, from anything that defied the natural order. And facing an immortal enemy was demoralizing, even for the bravest of knights.
“Ugh…!”
One of the knights stumbled and fell, and a wolf, its saliva dripping from its fangs, lunged at his throat.
“No!”
Elonia, turning her head, unleashed a blade of mana.
The knight was safe, but the wolf’s head was only partially severed, its mouth still gaping open.
And then something unexpected happened.
A small, dark green orb rolled out from under the wolf’s tongue.
“This is…”
It was a dark green orb.
They had been decapitating the creatures for a while now, and nothing had come out, but Elonia’s magic attack had dislodged it.
‘That’s it!’
Elonia knew, instinctively, that this was the source of their unholy power, the source of their immortality.
“Destroy that orb!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The knight, without hesitation, smashed the orb with his fist. A cracking sound echoed through the basement as the orb shattered, and the wolf collapsed, turning into dust.
“I-it’s dead…”
The wolf, which had been impervious to their attacks, was finally dead.
They finally understood. Elonia, raising her hand, imbued their swords with her mana, her voice booming through the basement.
“Mana is their weakness! Use mana-infused swords to attack their mouths! And destroy the orbs!”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
The undead creatures weren’t invincible. Emboldened by her words and her power, the knights, their fear replaced by determination, fought back.
Elonia focused on targeting the creatures’ mouths with her magic.
Her precisely controlled magic, careful not to harm her allies, decapitated the creatures one by one, and the knights, their boots crunching on the shattered orbs, pushed forward.
Their faces and clothes were smeared with blood, their own wounds bleeding, but it was a small price to pay.
Crack!
The bear’s orb shattered.
With a final, weak growl, it collapsed, turning into dust.
“Gasp… Gasp…”
They were all breathing heavily, their bodies exhausted. Elonia, wiping the blood from her face with her sleeve, said,
“It’s over.”
“Haah…”
The knights sighed in relief. The knight who had almost been killed by the wolf approached Elonia and thanked her.
“Thank you, Your Highness. I’m ashamed that I, a knight of the Imperial Palace, became a burden to you…”
“It’s fine, it wasn’t your fault.”
Elonia, her rapier still in her hand, looked around the basement, its floor covered in dust and debris, and murmured,
“…Do you think the Tite Knights were also attacked by these creatures?”
“That’s unlikely.”
Artius’s elite knights wouldn’t be defeated by mere animals. And there were no bodies.
Just then,
“Your Highness, look out!”
A purple light emanated from the floor beneath Elonia’s feet.
Elonia was startled. It wasn’t her magic.
“Your Highness!”
She tried to move, but the magic circle, as if it had a mind of its own, followed her, its edges glowing brighter.
She could sense Holy Power. Was it Tristan’s? She tried to dispel it with her mana, but it was useless.
‘Damn it…!’
Just then, she saw it.
A knight’s foot was inside the magic circle.
“Ugh!”
Elonia quickly threw her rapier, forcing the knight to step back. Then, she shouted,
“Everyone, get away from me!”
“Your Highness!”
Ethan tried to pull her out, but the magic circle was faster.
A bright purple light enveloped Elonia.
And when the light faded, she was gone.