Chapter 148: The Heavenly Kingdom Descends upon the Demon King's Castle
Rhodes quickly caught up to her.
"Wait for me, Lady Serie!"
"No!" she said, her pace quickening, her golden hair swaying with her hurried steps, as if she could outrun the topic that had so flustered her.
He didn't press her, just kept a respectful half-step behind, enjoying the rare sight of her in a full-blown retreat.
He knew her so well. His efforts had not been in vain. Her tense shoulders, her quickened pace... they were a clear sign of her inner turmoil.
She was looking ahead, but her thoughts were a million miles away.
His teasing words were echoing in her mind.
"Are you worried that I won't be around long enough?"
"...that you don't want me to die?"
"...another foolish, thirty-year search..."
"...just passing by?"
Did she not want him to die? Of course she didn't. The thought, unbidden, had risen in her mind, and with it, a suffocating panic. She had thought that once she had found him, her obsession would fade. And then, she would just wait for him to die, and then she would be alone again.
But she had been wrong. The longer they traveled together, the more she didn't want him to go.
The thirty years of his absence had been a long, lonely, aimless time. The world was so vast, and yet there had been no trace of him. Each new search had brought only a new disappointment. She had almost given up. The tombstone had been proof of that. But she had found him.
But what if she hadn't? Then there would not have been these past ten years of adventuring, and there would not be this fear. Or what if... what if she had never met him at all? Then none of this would have happened. But to have never met him... that would have been even worse.
So all her words, all her protestations... they had just been a front.
He watched her silent, retreating form, and he could feel the unspoken weight she was carrying. He touched his own chest, and he could still feel the strange, lingering power of the Goddess of Life. A surprise is best saved for the right moment, he thought. He quickened his pace and fell into step beside her.
"Should we rest for a bit? There are some bushes over there. I could pick some berries for you."
Her steps faltered. She glanced at him, and seeing his familiar smile, the tension in her heart eased a little. She just huffed, a silent acquiescence, but she still didn't speak, just slowed her pace.
Time stretched their shadows long before them.
After a long journey, Kraft and Alia finally reached the so-called Demon King's castle.
They stood on the edge of a cliff, looking down at the heart-stopping sight below. The castle was a massive, black citadel, radiating a dark aura that had blotted out the very sky with a perpetual shroud of dark clouds. And their presence had not gone unnoticed. A shrill horn blast echoed through the air, and the ground began to tremble.
Countless magical beasts, a black tide, poured from every corner of the castle and even from the ground itself, and rushed towards them. In the sky, a suffocating cloud of flying monsters swooped down. In an instant, they were surrounded.
Alia's holy scripture appeared in her hand, and a pure, holy power began to emanate from it. "Shall we fight our way out?" she asked, turning to him. With their combined strength, they could surely cut a path through the horde, all the way to the Demon King himself.
But he just held up a hand. His eyes were fixed on the highest spire of the castle. His mission was not to slay a horde of monsters, nor to kill the Demon King himself. "No, Lady Alia. Our mission is complete."
He took out the teleportation device Rhodes had given him and poured his mana into it.
VMMMM—!!!
A brilliant light, a light that shot up into the sky in a pure white pillar, erupted from the disk, tearing a massive, gaping hole in the black clouds, a hole that was now filled by a teleportation circle of an unimaginable size, a circle that covered the entire castle and the surrounding land for dozens of miles. The immense power, the ancient, holy pressure of it, made even the mindless beasts scream in terror and try to flee.
"What... is that!?"
Kraft looked up at the massive teleportation circle that now covered the sky, and he almost forgot to breathe. The device in his hand had turned to dust, and the shock in his heart was like a tidal wave. Rhodes... you bastard! What have you been hiding from me!? This isn't a teleportation circle for one person... this... this is a spell to move an entire city!
Alia also looked up, and a flicker of a complex emotion passed over her calm face. As one of the creators of this spell, she couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. She had not taught it to him. He had deciphered it, had replicated it, and had even improved upon it, all on his own. His talent was like that of a god. And from the other side of the portal, she could feel a familiar aura.
In the next moment, the light of the teleportation circle grew to its absolute brightest, and the very fabric of space groaned under the strain.
And in that light, a massive object began to appear. It was a grand and majestic city of white halls and towers, a city that radiated a soft, gentle light. An entire city in the sky.
The Heavenly Kingdom of the Sky-Winged, the Holy City that would never fall, was now descending from the heavens. It hovered above the Demon King's castle, like a sword of judgment.
(End of chapter)
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