3 bar menu

Volume 1 Prologue Part 2

The act of placing an Art on the body has been denounced by the church and other organizations as an irrevocably evil one, and all the Artists have been condemned by them, but quite ironically, the abilities granted by the Art were often in a very high demand.

「Rejoice. You will not make it in time!!! 」

Siluca was twisting her body desperately, but no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to break free from the Artist’s grasp.

「I will have you tell me what kind of barbaric intentions you had later, but for now, please do not interfere with the ceremony. 」

The man whispered into Siluca’s ear as he forcibly dragged her away from the podium.

「N-No… 」

Siluca gasped in despair.

The Chaos was already converging, to the point here everyone gathered in the cathedral could feel it.

A strange smell started permeating the air, and a black mist was beginning to swirl. A strange sound was ringing in Siluca’s ears, and an equally strange heat caused her to sweat uncontrollably.

Now that the convergence has advanced so far, no one is going to be able to stop it anymore. All that Siluca could do now was to pray that whatever the Chaos brings with it, it will not be a catastrophic disaster.

However…

Siluca’s wish was not granted.

What happened soon after was the worst disaster possible.

Cutting through the black mist, what appeared on the other side of it was a black-robed girl with bat-like wings on her back. In her hand, she held a greatsword with a black blade.

「Demon Lord Diabolos… 」

Siluca muttered dumbfoundedly.

It is said that she appeared a long time ago, when the concentration of Chaos on the continent was much higher than it is today, and the drawings of her image have been handed down for generations.

The chaos concentration required for the Demon Lord to appear must be extremely high, and the rank given when subjugating it is larger than subjugating ten standard dragons. However, as far as people knew, no one was able to defeat this monster before.

It was the greatest disaster imaginable.

「Why is there so much Chaos in this place at this time…? 」

Why did she appear? Siluca couldn’t help but ask herself that question over and over again.

Certainly, the concentration of Chaos in the vicinity of this magic city of Elam is higher than anywhere else. However, it is not high enough for Demon Lord to appear out of the blue like that.

Still, it’s not impossible, because Chaos is constantly fluctuating and its density is constantly changing. But the odds of that happening should be close to zero.

(Did someone intentionally amplify the Chaos density and made the Demon Lord appear?)

That was the most likely concusion.

Only Mages could do that. And even then, such a feat was also limited to Mages with terrifyingly high abilities.

Since she entered the Magic School at the age of five, Siluca has achieved excellent grades, but she could neither amplify her Chaos density to the maximum nor control it.

「I have to disperse … The Demon Lord… 」

Siluca muttered to herself dumbfoundedly.

Chaos of maximal concentration cannot exist in a stable state. However, it is said that it is up to the gods to decide when to release it.

It’s scary to imagine how much damage will be done by then. It would not have been strange if the entire Magical City of Elam would be destroyed. And that would also mean that humans were powerless against Chaos.

「What is that monster? When did it appear here? 」

The man let out a dumbfounded voice while still holding Siluca.

「While you were holding me down. 」

「Young lady… could it be … ?」

「Yes, I was going to stop that monster from appearing!」

Siluca said angrily when she finally escaped from the man’s weakened grasp. She then turned around and glared at the man.

The man was dressed in formal attire and had long black and brown hair tied up behind his head. He looked like a chamberlain who would serve some of the monarchs.

「I must go help the Archduke… 」

The man collected himself and tries to invoke his Art, but…

「It is already too late for that. 」
Siluca slowly shook her head.

「Demon Lord’s Dimensional Barrier… 」

It was as if the world was divided into two with the appearance of a barrier that separated the front and back parts of the cathedral, signifying that the two Archdukes will never return to the outside world.

Archduke Doucet opened his eyes wide at the monster that suddenly appeared on the stage, doubting what they were showing him.
「Why is there a monster…? 」

While asking himself that question, Archduke Doucet raised the staff he held in his hand.

「This… we cannot win against this. 」

Archduke Kreische muttered so and tried to escape from the podium.

「Is there really no way? 」

Realizing that he could not escape, the Archduke of Kreische immediately changed his behavior, sticking out his right hand and spreading his fingers wide open.

「Prostrate yourself before my Crest! 」

And a pure white halo then shot forward from his hand. A number of lines then ran through the circle he invoked, creating a complex geometric pattern.

「That’s… the Crest of the Archduke Kreische… 」

Siluca stared at it in amazement.

I had never seen a Crest with such a large and intricate pattern. However, its glow was not as strong as she expected. This is because he has many subordinate monarchs under him.

「That’s not going to be enough… 」

A stronger power of order was needed to quell the extreme Chaos of the Demon Lord.

「Let me lend you my strength… 」

Archduke Doucet said, thrusting out his right hand forward and manifesting his own Crest as well.

The Crest of the Archduke Doucet, like the Crest of the Archduke Kreische, depicted a complex geometric pattern.

The two halos overlapped with one another and emitted a strong glow while their patterns become even more complex.

「That’s…… 」

Siluca thought that what she was seeing just now might be the Grancrest. If that was really the case, she wondered if it would be enough to defeat even a Demon Lord…

However, Siluca’s expectations were betrayed in an instant. The Demon Lord didn’t even show a shred of concern, and casually swung a large sword with a jet-black blade down.

The heads of the two Archdukes were cut off at the same time and rolled on the platform at the same time as the fresh blood spurted out from their necks before their bodies lost their strength and fallen to the ground slowly.

At that moment, a black fog began to surround the Demon Lord once again.

The fog eventually turned into a spherical darkness and disappeared abruptly, leaving literally nothing behind: no Demon Lord, and no corpses of the two Archdukes.

This incident was the one that will eventually change the tides of the world.

With the deaths of the two Archdukes, the enormous Crests and titles possessed by them disappeared.

Alexis Doucet, who became the head of the Doucet family, inherited only Halusia, which he inherited from his father during his lifetime, and Marine Kreische inherited Waldrind from her father.

However, the influential monarchs of both sides decided to keep the two leaders and maintain their respective Union and Alliance.

They then accuse each other that the incident was due to a conspiracy on the other side, and eventually rushed into a battle thatonce again divided the entire continent clearly in two.

The great war that was thought to have been avoided has now become a reality, but Siluca Meletes thought that such world turmoil had nothing to do with her.

The demon lord only killed the two Archdukes, but no damage was done to the Magic City of Elam, and Siluca herself was not reprimanded for her actions during her incident, but rather received direct praise from the Magic University’s Headmaster Sempros.

She was then privately asked to remain at the University as a lecturer after graduation. That was exactly what Siluca wanted.

I had no intention of making a contract with any of the Lords and participate in their fight for the titles. The peerage system was originally enacted by the Mages Association as a reward for their achievements in calming the tides of Chaos. However, most monarchs forgot their original mission of quelling Chaos, bringing peace to their realms, and making their people happy. Possessed by a lust for power, all that they care for now was competing for the titles.

(But I can do whatever I want……)

Siluca thought so.

But she would soon discover that the gods had an entirely different destiny planned for her.