“Think carefully. If you kill me, you won’t be able to find that person.”
“There are many spirits besides you, so why bother?”
“I’m the only spirit with this much information. So, you won’t get anything from the other spirits.”
“Let’s just kill him. He’s too chatty.”
“Is that so?”
I pushed the spear tip through the bars of the cage at Aisha’s words.
As the enormous spear tip approached, the small spirit shoved its rocking chair and gradually retreated.
But despite its retreat, the spear tip stopped right in front of its nose.
“Y-You really will kill me? Ugh?!”
Thud.
The water spirit fell over as if its connection had been severed upon touching the spear tip.
It collapsed onto the rocking chair.
[Death?]
[Level up?]
[It doesn’t seem like he would really kill.]
“Is it dead?”
“I just fainted it. First, we need to extract some information and then think about it.”
I’m sending every spirit I catch to the Spirit King.
I still don’t have a complete grasp of the situation, but sending the highest-ranking spirit should definitely lead to a solid clue.
Above all, this spirit reacted differently from the others.
“Everyone, return to your positions. Since we’ve confirmed that the fifth level carries no special dangers as long as the seal holds, it should be safe for a while.”
“I understand. If any more dangerous news comes up, I’ll inform you right away.”
“Yeah~ I need to go find the Sword Saint.”
“Lady Lily, aren’t you returning?”
“No. I have a place to go for a bit. Please return first.”
Black and the magician acknowledged and returned via the floating ship, while the Heavenly Horse and Aisha also left their spots.
Especially Aisha, who couldn’t take her eyes off the cage until the very end, eventually turned to leave.
Only I and the spirit inside the cage remained above the corpse.
“Then let’s go.”
“……”
A green breeze swept me away.
■
The sea after the challengers departed.
A rotten fishing boat sailed through the carcasses.
The purple cloak fluttered in the slowly blowing sea breeze, and long, dark violet hair danced in the wind.
The eastern dragon, Jafell, sat on the fishing boat, bringing its hand to the sea.
The sea was eerily calm.
“…Is it really her?”
The doppelganger that died here possessed power equal to the doppelganger that had destroyed her world.
An impossible ‘eye’ to defeat, overwhelming physical strength, and infinite regeneration—a disaster.
But she completely sealed the eye and subdued the distorted spirit, then smashed the insides to prevent the disaster from regenerating.
After subduing the corrupted spirit, I smashed it from the inside so that the disaster couldn’t regenerate.
It’s a power that can’t even be compared to being trapped in a mere girl’s body.
Jafell thought as he passed by the mountains of clone corpses.
The role given by the raccoon was solely to assist the user in the ‘Sea Dungeon’ and prevent the disaster.
Now that the Sea Dungeon is over and the Great Cataclysm has truly begun, he has nothing left to do.
If he doesn’t specially intervene like before, he might live like he never existed.
‘That can’t be.’
The disaster that destroyed his world died here, but the ‘real’ one that sent it is still living and breathing fine.
Even if I can’t cut off its breath with my own hands, at least I should see it to relieve my grudge.
“…Once should be enough.”
Jafell steered the boat again, following the traces.
■
“Lady Lily!!”
Upon arriving at the spirit forest, somewhat distant from the Spirit Lord’s villa, Leo bounced over, surrounded by spirits.
He jumped right up to me, eyes sparkling.
I pinched Leo’s chubby cheeks.
“Why are you so excited?”
“Uh-bah! I found it!”
“Really?”
“I’m telling you! I found it!”
“That means you’ve found the Spirit King.”
From a distance, the Wind Spirit King, Naphras, adorned with green new spirits, flew over and landed gently.
“Originally, it was difficult to pinpoint the exact location even when investigating the higher spirits, but at some point, it was pinpointed accurately.”
“Where is it?”
“It’s not far. It seems to be trapped in a place with unstable space, altered somehow.”
“Not far?”
“Yes. I’m curious as to why we couldn’t find such a nearby location. Especially since it seems to have intensified, it’s probably even closer than the depths of the nearby sea…”
Clang!
I put down the cage.
Inside the cage was the Water Spirit, just regaining her senses—the moment Naphras saw her, his eyes widened in shock.
“Close… too close…”
“Wind Spirit King?”
“Why are you here?”
“Excuse me?”
Clang!
“Arowna! Were you okay?!”
Naphras immediately summoned the wind, grabbing the cage with both hands.
As the Wind Spirit’s breath engulfed the entire cage, the Water Spirit shook her head frantically, looking pale.
“What, what do you mean…? I am the Spirit King. No, I’m the deposed king!”
“What’s with that… Why are you hiding? Is that guy watching?”
“No, that’s not it—”
“Got it.”
Naphras quickly summoned the wind and surrounded the area.
A green barrier formed around in a sphere, and Leo exclaimed “Wow!” as he looked at the air and poked at the barrier.
He gave it.
The barrier that didn’t budge even under Leo’s touch.
Despite this, the Spirit King had the power to oppose the lower-tiered, the Demon Race.
While the barrier was being set up, I approached Leo and asked for a moment.
“What about the Spirit Lord? I haven’t seen him since the Great Cataclysm.”
“Master seems busy? I heard something happened in the capital…”
“…”
Is the Demon side unstable?
“Alright. Now that the barrier is up, you can talk. If you’re really anxious, through the Spirit Link…”
“No! The link has been eroded!”
“Eroded…”
“Yes. So please refrain from trying to connect. It would only expose information.”
“That means you’re not acting on that guy’s orders.”
“…”
The Water Spirit falls silent.
Surely, as Naphras said, the Water Spirit isn’t under the Kraken’s command.
The aura might feel similar, but the tone, actions, and mind are unexpectedly intact.
Although the eyes are a bit odd.
“Arrowna. If your mind is still messed up…”
“Naiad.”
“Uh?”
“My name is Naiad. The highest Water Spirit and one of the loyal servants of the Spirit King. I don’t understand why you refer to me as the Spirit King.”
Naiad genuinely looked puzzled.
It definitely doesn’t seem like a lie.
Confusion crept onto Naphras’s face.
“…Naiad.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you the only one unscathed? Even Arrowna couldn’t escape from that guy’s erosion.”
“That is…”
Naiad explained what happened.
One day, by chance, awakening to see the eroded Water Spirits and their king, they lived on, imitating them.
In particular, Naiad had even sent the Challenger, who came to kill them, back.
“So you intentionally let them live?”
“Yes. I was trying to lead you to either retreat or capture the light source, but… this is how it turned out.”
“Wait a minute, Lady Lily. Something’s off.”
“What is it?”
Naphras took Naiad out of the cage and placed him on his hand.
Naiad remained quietly seated, showing no signs of resistance.
“If this spirit truly is Naiad and not Arrowna, then why do I still feel the distinct link of the Spirit King?”
“Maybe because they are a Spirit King? Or they forgot they were the Spirit King?”
Leo, munching on some snacks, raised his hand.
Yet, Naiad only shook his head.
If it’s neither…
“It could be that the power was passed on.”
“Nord?”
Crack!
From deep underground, the Spirit King of Earth, Nord, burst through the barrier, shaking himself off.
Perhaps because he was seeing two other elemental Spirit Kings, which was rare in a lifetime, Naiad’s eyes were shaking.
Because he saw two Spirit Kings, the Naiad’s eyes are trembling.
“Spirits are naturally born beings. Just as we were not Spirit Kings from the beginning, it’s highly likely that Arrowna passed her position to the Naiad.”
“Passed her position… That’s ridiculous. Are you saying Arrowna betrayed our promise?”
“If the threat to our promise is looming, there’s nothing we can do.”
Moreover…
“The successor is right in front of us.”
“I’m the successor…?”
When a Spirit King dies, the next generation’s most compatible and self-aware being becomes the king.
But usually, Spirit Kings don’t die under normal circumstances.
Spirits, being ethereal beings, are more enduring than most half-immortals, and especially, the Spirit King does not die as long as their soul remains unbroken.
Furthermore, since all spirits trust and follow the Spirit King, there’s no threat to their throne.
That’s why the Spirit King maintained the throne for such a long time.
“Until the Demon Race began their experiments on spirits.”
“No way. That can’t be true.”
“Naphras.”
“Arrowna promised. On that day, someday we’d break free from the Demons and meet again, smiling and greeting each other. No matter what happens, we mustn’t give up.”
Flinching…
“This child… is not Arrowna.”
“……”
“I’m sorry. I will search for Arrowna a bit longer.”
After handing over the Naiad, Naphras suddenly vanished into the forest, crossing the crumbled barrier.
Nord, trying to catch Naphras, let out a pointless sigh and burrowed back into the ground.
“Nord?”
“? What’s wrong?”
“Did you make a promise too?”
“…I did. Though it was one-sided.”
Tsk. Nord clicked his tongue and only poked his head back up.
“Except for the two dead Spirit Kings, the remaining four promised for the future. Among them, especially water and wind were very close. You could call them almost like sisters.”
“……”
“Weren’t you aware? I heard there was a connection between you and Naphras.”
“I don’t know everything.”
In the past, I was in the midst of a war, and my connection to spirits was merely a passing road.
It was at most a few months, and I only learned of the spirits’ fate after things went south.
Still, I saw them together a few times.
“…What do you plan to do now? Finding them seems tough now.”
“We’ll meet them.”
These things can be resolved by meeting the parties involved.
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