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Ideal Form – Part 02

Ranna’s eyes had turned red, and her skin purplish. She was no longer the Ranna they had known. Most significantly, the magical energy surrounding her unmistakably exuded malevolence.

“What have you done?” Hikaru demanded.

“It was a close call. I came here as soon as possible. You can’t think on an empty stomach, so I absorbed it.”

Ranna extended her hands, and a dark mist gathered around her.

“An evil aura,” Paula said, “and a very potent one at that.”

“She appears to have absorbed a substantial amount of this aura,” Sophie concurred bitterly.

“What happens when you absorb it?”

“You become a demon. Right now, she likely stands somewhere between a Man Gnome and a full-fledged demon.”

Hikaru believed that the unsettling dread he felt when gazing upon Ranna stemmed from this transformation.

“Ranna, did you undo the seal here?” Hikaru asked.

The corner of her lips lifted into a smirk. “Did I undo the seal? No. The seal was already broken.”

“What do you mean?”

“But there were those who barely held it together. Do you know who I’m talking about?” Ranna pointed at the scattered human bones on the stairway. “The souls of our murdered ancestors. How laughable. Despite the runes having eroded, the remaining souls joined together to maintain the seal. But eventually, even they used up all their power and vanished.”

“Lord Silver Face, I can sense the lingering remnants of fervent souls,” Paula confirmed.

It wasn’t shock that Hikaru felt, but a sense of dread—the kind of fear one feels when facing an incomprehensible mystery.

The souls of the Man Gnomes—Funai and his followers—had remained here right up until Hikaru’s group arrived. They lingered for a single purpose: to keep the seal intact. They were victims, slain by the first Pope, but they had selflessly safeguarded Agia, the faithful who gathered around him, and his descendants.

But why?

It’s just a hypothesis, Hikaru thought, but I want to believe it’s true.

Maybe Funai and his followers thought that even though Agia was the one who murdered them, his companions and descendants had nothing to do with his crimes. By maintaining the seal, perhaps they hoped that someday, a new kind of seal could be enacted, one that didn’t require human lives to activate, like how Funai developed the soul card. Perhaps they had faith in human ingenuity.

“Laughable? There’s nothing laughable about it.”

However, their descendants weren’t thinking about any new type of seal. If anything, they were planning to destroy it. What a tragic twist.

“It is, is it not? They used their own souls, wore them down over a thousand years, all while waiting here for help, and no one ever showed up. Those Church folks are all fools. Not once did they bother checking the pit and chose to ignore the problem instead. For over a thousand years! And then finally, that stupid Pope turned his attention to this place, but he was already tainted by evil. Do you know what he asked me? ‘Is it possible to create weapons using this dark energy?'”

“…Now what?”

Hikaru’s hand on the sword trembled. He didn’t wish to hear any more. He didn’t want to entertain the ramblings of a deranged researcher who had strayed from the path of morality.

But he had to listen. Otherwise, the accomplishments of those who had safeguarded this seal, this nation, and this world for over a thousand years would once more be buried in darkness.

“I told him it was possible. So, after I lost everything, I came here. Because you destroyed everything!”

Ranna’s red eyes brimmed with hatred as she stared at Hikaru. Her gaze was so intense that if he had encountered it back in Japan before his reincarnation, his knees might have buckled.

Countless thoughts swirled in Hikaru’s mind, but he swallowed them for now. What he wanted was to extract as much information as possible from Ranna.

“If the seal was already broken, why are you still here?”

“Gosh, you’re so stupid. You don’t even know the answer to that?”

Lavia’s hand twitched, but she managed to restrain herself.

“I just said their souls remained. So I peeled them off. Well, to be precise, I destroyed them. It’s a subject worth studying, you see.”

Hikaru let out a sigh. His suspicions had been confirmed. This woman destroyed their souls.

“She destroyed them?” Jillarte muttered quietly.

Sophie nodded. “Destroying souls severs the cycle of death and rebirth. The presence of those who lingered here… is gone for all eternity.”

“Exactly. It doesn’t matter how brilliant or heroic you were in life. Once you become a soul, you’re nothing. They probably never imagined that the very people they believed they were protecting would turn on them. They put up quite a fight. That’s why it took so long.”

Most people present were likely unaware of the identity of the souls that had persisted here for over a millennium, or the truth surrounding them. Nevertheless, Sophie’s words had ignited a smoldering anger within many.

“Silver Face! Are you done asking your questions?! Enough talking! She makes me sick!”

Gerhardt, as anticipated, was the first to lose his patience, and Hikaru felt the same way.

They didn’t need to know how Ranna annihilated the souls. What they needed was to take down Ranna and offer prayers for the departed.

“Ranna. I’m putting an end to your misguided research here,” Hikaru declared, pointing his sword.

“Humans… Did the temple guards and Beastmen form an alliance? Hmm. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I have zero intention of fighting you guys head-on.”

The temple’s doors opened silently.

“Stop!” Hikaru bolted.

But Ranna paid no heed and passed through the door. As she vanished into the darkness, legs larger than Ranna herself appeared from both sides.

Hikaru and the others stopped in their tracks. Before them stood a colossal, black creature. Its eyes blazed red, and its dark fur rippled like flickering flames. It seemed like a mixture of a Minotaur and a monkey, complete with huge wings sprouting from its back and a pointed tail.

“It’s a demon, Morax!” Sophie shouted. “It’s one of the stronger evil monsters. Stay on your toes.”

Upon noticing Hikaru’s group, the two towering demons grinned wickedly, then opened their mouths wide.

“Gwoooooah!”

It was a roar of delight, possibly from being freed after such a prolonged confinement. Or perhaps it was the joy of discovering prey. It could have been both. While the cause of their glee was unclear, Hikaru was aware of what would happen next.

“Ready your weapons!” he warned. “They’re coming!”

A battle was imminent.

The Morax bent down and lunged towards them, its horns pointed in their direction. Those curved horns were cloaked in miasma, and they carried the sheer force of a charging dump truck.

Hikaru hurled a throwing knife at the Morax’s head, but it merely bounced off, as though it struck a sturdy tree limb.

“Tch.”

Failing to land even a scratch, Hikaru used his Power Burst to leap nimbly to the side to evade the charge.

I have two points in Strength and two points in Projectile. If I want more power, I could put points in either stat.

Within his forte, the Stealth category, was another skill derived from Assassination.

Sharpshooter. I have zero points right now, though.

Despite the numerous battles he had fought, Hikaru’s Soul Rank was taking a long time to increase. He was currently stuck at 24. The recent clash with the chimera didn’t increase his rank, suggesting that chimeras had no bearing on his Soul Rank. A futile battle for him.

While Hikaru was getting worked up, Gerhardt was delighted.

“Finally. A worthy opponent!”

Effortlessly, Gerhardt unsheathed his massive sword, capable of felling trees, and didn’t budge an inch as the Morax charged towards him.

“Hyaaaahhh!”

His greatsword’s swing halted the Morax’s onslaught. A tremendous shockwave erupted, and the earth beneath Gerhardt and the Morax split. One of the nearby Beastmen, attempting to evade, was sent tumbling forward.

Gerhardt laughed out loud. “You’re strong, all right!”

“Gwaaaaaah!”

The Morax raised its horn, and Gerhardt struck with his greatsword. Two massive forms collided, producing red-black sparks and a grating noise.

“Then I’ll take care of this one,” Selyse declared.

Drawing the White Ray Blade, she faced the other demon lumbering towards them.

“Grrraaaaah!”

The Morax, breathing heavily, lurched forward, swinging its arm towards Selyse. It displayed astonishing agility that belied its massive bulk, but Selyse kept her eyes fixed on that arm.

Her body glided gracefully, seemingly cleaved apart by the Morax’s huge arm, but in the next instant, Selyse had slipped past the creature.

“Uwaaaaah!”

The Morax’s arm was severed, and black blood spurted out. In Selyse’s grasp gleamed the White Ray Blade, an extraordinary weapon capable of slicing through anything by feeding it mana.

“The dragon was much tougher.”

Selyse wasn’t this strong when she fought the White Dragon in Paula’s village. Furthermore, Hikaru didn’t see her use the White Ray Blade during the Ruler’s Rumble tournament.

Hikaru realized that she had grown stronger too.

With graceful fluidity, Selyse sliced through the Morax’s legs before beheading it as the creature’s upper body tilted. The Morax, in its frenzy, swung its arm wildly, but all its strikes proved futile.

“What, are you tuckered out already?” Gerhardt was also close to ending his fight.

The Morax’s horn had shattered, and it staggered. Gerhardt thrust his sword into its head, creating a cavity rather than piercing through, rendering the monster unconscious.

Both Moraxes fell quiet almost simultaneously. Then, their forms dissipated into black dust resembling swarming flies, leaving behind a black rock roughly the size of a rugby ball. It was like what happened within dungeons.

Both Gerhardt and Selyse had showcased formidable might.

Beastmen erupted in cheers, and the temple guards shared in their joy.