Chapter 446

A third party.

A third party… Someone other than the inner circle wholly devoted to the interests of Pleroma—meaning Pleroma’s leadership—and my target. Someone who nevertheless had enough means to obtain the rampage drug.

One candidate came to mind.

For example, the cult that had taken control of the French House of Orléans.

The limestone floor was buried beneath black mud. The already-fragile limestone hissed and melted beneath it. Half the lights had gone out, leaving us dependent on the flashes of mana bursting through the darkness. The narrow corridor was crowded with people tangled together in chaos.

Bang!

I raced down the small staircase and slammed my staff into the floor. divine power spread downward from the point of impact like a sheet of ice.

“Your Highness, control!”

Elias’s shout cut sharply through the noise. I looked first at Leo, eyes squeezed shut and teeth clenched as he pressed his forehead against his staff, then at the scene where the divine power pouring from Sir Rothenhahn’s sword was barely enough to hold back the vitriol. Leo was nowhere near incompetent enough to deserve that assessment from Elias, but the vines were interfering with the rampagers’ movements while hindering our own at the same time. In a situation where someone had to exert force toward every direction at once, how could anyone fine-tune their control to fit each individual? There was no helping it. If we were to keep filling the gaps as people were melted away by the vitriol, we had no choice but to prioritize speed.

Perhaps this was something we could never have handled on our own from the beginning. But…

We had to make it work somehow. We couldn’t bring Ulrike and Zähringen inside because of the identity issues, and there were enough rampagers who had escaped outside that we needed manpower there as well. The inner gate on the first floor had remained intact until we entered, which meant the victims who had escaped the south building had likely come down from the second or third floor before getting outside. Or perhaps they had torn through the bars and escaped. There had been far fewer people roaming the second-floor corridor than on the first. The rest were either still rampaging inside their cells or had already escaped outside. Even the police outside were mages, but they lacked the power to handle Rampagers. We had to worry about them being contaminated as well.

— [The 131st Wittelsbach unit has arrived. We will deploy them to the eastern gate of the barrier.]

— [We have secured 103 people so far. Of the 103, 24 have died. 827 remain.]

— [We have requested support from the Association. The 91st Unit will arrive within 10 minutes without going through inspection.]

— [Aaaaaagh…!]

My breathing came hard and fast. It felt as though the vitriol pouring out from somewhere was slowly eating away at my entire body. Even as I stood a third of the way down the stairs to the first floor, pouring divine power into the area, I could still feel it.

Crack—! Boom—!

I heard the sound of a vine hurling someone aside. Lord Rothenhahn and Elias were cutting through the vitriol from opposite directions with their swords. Divine power couldn’t do everything. A wide-area spell like this could only hold back the vitriol flowing through the victims’ bodies for a short while. The purification unit had to focus on purification. Especially in a breeding ground for vitriol where hundreds of people were rampaging, we needed strict division of labor just to keep the endless stream of vitriol at bay even while purifying the victims. I struck my artifact and shouted, “Send more divine power mages!”

— [Sir Ernst, we will send two Gamma-grade divine power mages to the south wing. Is entry through the main gate possible?]

“Yes, it’s possible.”

— [They will arrive in two minutes.]

But there was no other choice now. This wasn’t the time to divide up the work. I struck the floor once more with the end of my staff.

— If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you!

The world was engulfed in a white storm in an instant. Blinding light poured down as divine power swept over the surroundings like a gigantic wave. The dust and darkness vanished in an instant, and everything was dyed pure white. But it wouldn’t last long. I couldn’t stop.

Whoosh—

As the blade spread into a sharp edge, it cut through the air with a hiss. I switched my wand into a sword and charged toward Elias, who was surrounded by Rampagers in the corridor on the left.

Boom—!

The moment the vitriol struck the mana coating the blade, the impact shook my entire body. A few of those who had been rushing toward Elias turned toward me instead. Even through the brief, stinging flashes of light from the black mass, I could clearly feel it. It was as though the Rampager’s vitriol was tearing apart my barrier. I infused the sword with divine power and wiped away every drop of vitriol that touched it, then immediately turned the sword back into a staff and shattered the Rampager’s core. I shouted at the top of my lungs, “Duke Elias, Your Highness, you need to get out!”

“What?!”

“You cannot stay here. You know that!”

I didn’t know whether the Papal See’s order to protect Elias had anything to do with what was happening today, but now that our original plan could no longer be carried out, he had to leave. He could go to the Bavarian Police Department or the royal palace, wherever was safest. Yet when I thought about the dangers waiting for him along the way, even that seemed hopeless. What if someone intercepted his warp route somewhere I couldn’t see? What if they disguised themselves as police and approached Elias? But at least…

“No.”

The words completely drained the strength from my body. I felt Leo’s deep-blue vines sweep in behind me and hurl the Rampager aside, while I kept swinging my sword forward. Amid the ear-splitting screams and the sounds of blows landing, I heard Elias answer in a clear, deliberate voice.

“Sir Ernst.”

“…….”

“You seem to be mistaken about something. Even if I die, I have no intention of dying in a bed. Either I’ll be shot for treason on the execution ground, or I’ll die fighting alongside you. Those are the only two possibilities for me.”

Perhaps a strength-draining response would have been better. This was suffocating. His words about dying fighting alongside me did not refer only to this situation. There was another meaning beneath them: he saw me as a like-minded comrade who intended to tear down this mad society. It was an immense honor to be regarded that way, but I couldn’t bring myself to be happy about it.

Was it because he refused to listen to me? No.

A future where he would be murdered no matter what he did. That was unacceptable. I changed my sword back into a wand and drove it into the vitriol core of a Rampager, then spoke through divine power.

― “Have you never considered that you might ascend the throne and die a natural death?”

“Do you really think I could die a natural death even if I became emperor?”

His voice remained utterly calm, buried beneath the vitriol and the soundproofing spell. Momentarily stunned, I slammed my barrier outward, blasting the vitriol coating my body away, and looked toward the place where blue mana was flashing. Leo’s vines shoved back those rushing at me, then wrapped around the prisoners half-submerged in the vitriol at our feet and hurled them outside.

A brilliant blue blade swept diagonally through the darkness. Beyond it, I saw those calm blue eyes fixed on me.

“The citizens will come for my head. No matter how hard I try to bring about genuine reform.”

“That…”

“It’s an age of oppression. I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD—”

Brilliant blue mana dyed the air in the darkness a vivid blue. For a moment, it felt as though I had sunk deep beneath the sea, and Elias’s voice continued.

— I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

BOOM―!! CRASH―!

A gale swept through us. The lights shattered under the pressure of the dense mana. Even though the spell was clearly aimed at the victims, the mana in my own body and even Leo’s vines were forced into stillness.

‘This is why I don’t use wide-area spells lightly…’

Now that I could use divine power, it didn’t matter what Elias used. The Rampagers’ movements began to slow. I used the opening to slam my staff into the floor, trying to reduce the amount of vitriol. Divine power spread over the slick floor like falling snow and swept over them. I ran after Elias, smashing the victims’ cores one after another. He cast a soundproofing spell around the first inner gate and answered.

“The world was never supposed to become like this. My great-grandfather, then my grandfather, my uncle… Everything they kept suppressing, over and over, is bound to burst in the next era. No matter how many hundreds of years they’ve lived like this, the time has come.”

But from my perspective, the time had not yet come. This “time” was something that would unfold over a very long span. It wasn’t something that could happen within the next few years; to me, the minimum unit was a century.

As long as that monstrous thing called the “Third French Empire” continued to stand on the continent, true change would remain distant even after another century. Just as I couldn’t be dropped into antiquity and declare that I would overthrow a theocratic regime, or be dropped into the Middle Ages and declare that I would bring down every feudal system and the Papal See in this world, we could not expect liberation anytime soon from this ongoing ancien régime, which had sunk even deeper into darkness than the 19th century of my original world. Enlightenment had stagnated into nothing more than printed words, and we were living through a dark interregnum where the red blood of previous generations had long since turned blue.

We had to give everything we had to build a future we would never live to see, and leave the true moment of liberation to the descendants who would be born at the very end of this dark age. But Elias believed that the time for change would come within just a few decades. He was willing to offer his own neck as the price for that change.

For a moment, I felt as though the person standing beside me might turn into foam at any instant, carried away by the wind and vanish.

Sizzle—

The back of my glove melted away. I didn’t even bother shaking it off. I swung my sword and kept my eyes on my friend.

“I don’t intend to seize the throne just so I can close my eyes in a bed warmed by sunlight.”

Elias caught an attack by bracing the tip of his sword with his hand, then continued in an unwavering voice, his eyes fixed solely ahead.

“I intend to become emperor so that when the day comes for my funeral dirge to play, a victory march will sound instead.”

Slash—Bang!

Vitriol splashed from the tip of the sword and exploded as it struck the mana. He was not even an adult yet, and he spent all his wealth on those at the very bottom of society—even among the commoners—yet he did not consider that enough to fulfill his duty. His political philosophy was no different. Once he became emperor, he would surely reform the system to bring the dark middle era to an end and give freedom to the descendants who stood at the edge of that darkness. And yet, even then, he would be standing before the guillotine. No matter what he did, he would still be standing before the guillotine.

This isn’t the Ion Forso, Elias. If I said that to him, he would probably laugh and tell me that he was standing before the executioner’s rifle instead.

I swung my sword, feeling utterly miserable, my mind going numb. Plant vines coiled around the victim’s neck. I smashed the core of the victim gripping my shoulder with the tip of my staff, then threw them toward another divine power mage standing in the center. I saw the mage take them away toward the hospital.

Elias’s playful voice came faintly through the half-maintained soundproofing spell.

“Let me stay here until this is under control. That’s what I want. Besides, do you really think I’ll be safer if I go outside in a situation like this? Hmm~? Think about it! Suppose I really am the target. If I go outside, I’m finished either way!”

— “You’d be giving the citizens a chance to kill you.”

I knew perfectly well that going outside would bring its own problems. After all, I was the one who had been abducted from the dormitory to the Primrose Path. How could I not know? But the words that came out of my mouth had nothing to do with that.

Elias believed there was no way to suppress the festering resentment of a society that had swollen to the point of bursting. It had to burst and burn itself out. No matter how much he governed for the sake of the future, he could never erase all the suffering the people had accumulated over the years. He believed that he would have to pay the price for the sins of his ancestors.

And yet he still said he would become emperor.

His answer did not come immediately. After a brief pause, amid the muddy sounds of vitriol and the screams and bursts of noise coming through the artifact, I finally heard his short answer.

“If I can live as myself, then yes.”

Elias is not confident that he will ever obtain the throne. So the future he imagines first is one in which his uncle shoots him the moment he comes of age—or perhaps one in which he dies even before that, dragged into the grave of a Rampager. The future in which he claims the throne only to be killed by the people comes second, but that, too, is still a future that leads him to death.

I knew that beneath the joking, habitual way he spoke, those words were utterly sincere. I wanted to know where everything had gone wrong. The person who shed the blood was someone else, yet the one who had to bleed was another victim. But because Hohenzollern blood ran through his veins, people would say that bearing that collective responsibility was simply his fate. Once again, a sense of emptiness, the feeling that everything was utterly pointless, began to consume me. They say people can follow contradictory values without cognitive dissonance. Yes. It was true. Even while knowing that the world was wrong, I was still supposed to let the hearts of the people I loved become stepping stones into the next era, and I…

I wanted to throw away everything that meant nothing and flee somewhere with him. Somewhere no one could ever find us. But as his friend, I could not say that. Perhaps it was only the emptiness speaking.

“What His Holiness said might mean that our enemy intends to benefit by using me in one way or another. Isn’t that right?”

— “…Yes.”

“Then I’d rather die here. Dying in battle is just as honorable as being shot by my uncle. But if you send me back, I’ll be left facing countless possible endings that hold no honor at all.”

“Drop the soundproofing spell and report the situation!”

At Leo’s shout, Elias asked, “So, are you going to respect my wishes?”

I forced the corners of my mouth upward into a smile, but said nothing. Elias gave a low whistle.

“Sir Ernst!”

At Leo’s shout from farther away, I slammed my staff into the floor. As the purification spell spread out, breathing became a little easier. But it would soon be covered again.

BOOM—CRASH!

Noise erupted from the central staircase behind us. A massive Old Human, covered in mud, came charging down the stairs toward us. They kept coming from every direction. Before they could rush toward Rothenhahn on the right, I fired a spell to draw their attention and swung my sword.

The blade corroded and disappeared. This one had reached its limit too. Which meant the others’ swords would be the same. I turned the melting sword back into a wand, charged straight at him, and shouted.

— Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.

There was nothing to be seen through the eyes covered in vitriol. The moment their movements slowed and they faltered, a vine shot through the air like a blade, wrapping tightly around the Rampager’s neck and twisting it. I knocked the Rampager to the floor and pressed my left hand hard against their chest.

Their barrier was melting and breaking apart. Thick, muddy sludge kept seeping between my fingers without end. Damn it. My vision went black. Where their ribs should have been, there was nothing but vitriol. Someone who should have been counted among the dead was still clinging to life through the vitriol, right in front of me. The sight brought a different kind of despair with it, making my head ache.

Feeling my brows knit together, I forced divine power into their core. The prisoner screamed and struggled, but once the divine power spread throughout their body, they went limp.

Elias’s firm voice rang through the corridor.

“Left side cleared!”

That meant everyone who had made it into the corridor on the left was dealt with. The long corridor on the right, nearly a hundred meters from the center to the far end, was still in chaos, filled with screams and magic.

From here on, at least on the left, we had to get the prisoners out of their cells. Those who had already rampaged had broken through their cells and escaped, which meant the ones still inside had yet to rampage and could still be saved intact.

Elias was inserting the keys one by one into the cell locks that had not yet corroded. For some reason, not one of them fit. I cast the purification spell once more, then approached him. Without casting soundproofing, Elias said in confusion, “The keys… Wait, Sir Ernst. Do we really have to try every single one of these?”

“No. This isn’t the Middle Ages. They all use the same type of cell key. One of them ought to work by now.”

“Oh?”

Still, none of them opened the locks. Elias tried every key with his usual quick hands, then raised an eyebrow.

“If this one is the main gate and this is the inner gate, then this should be a cell key, but none of them work. Is one of these perhaps a guard’s room key?”

“Did you open the main gate when you came in?”

“No. Someone had already torn it open from the inside, so there was no need to open it.”

We hadn’t needed to open the inner gate either. The steel had already melted away under the vitriol.

“Did you bring the wrong ones?”

BOOM—!

The moment the inner door blocking the emergency stairs collapsed, I swung my staff at the mass of vitriol. Screams. More screams. The noise scraped against my eardrums. From farther down the corridor, Elias answered as the vines that came tearing along the ceiling helped him smash a victim’s core.

“The guard gave us these at the police station.”

“…….”

I said nothing, wearing an unreadable expression as I continued purifying the area. Elias seemed to figure it out on his own and snapped his fingers.

“Ah~ These bastards… Don’t tell me…”

They were high-risk Rampagers who still had their reason. If it was a guard who had already held a grudge against the prisoners, it would not have been difficult for him to deliberately remove the cell keys before handing the rest over to us. Rampaging amplified a person’s emotions and made them act according to those emotions and their mana. By now, there was probably a rampage incident happening at the police station as well. The bomb they had planted among a thousand people was spreading like wildfire. We had to contain it as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Elias grabbed hold of the bars.

“Then we’ll just tear them out.”

“Do you hear me? We need one divine power mage, a saw, and some workers.”

I tapped my artifact as I gave the order. Elias rounded his lips and rolled his eyes.

We did not have time to tear these bars out. We had managed to suppress the vitriol being generated on this floor to some extent, so we needed to deal with the upper floors—and the underground level—next.

I took him upstairs. Vitriol was still pouring down from the floors above, including the top floor, and there were still people trapped inside. We would have to repeat the same process all over again. And even now—

BOOM—!

I struck the staggering figure coming down the stairs with divine power and sent them tumbling down the steps. Another mage who had come as support aimed his staff at them from farther away. I quickly ran up to the next floor. With every step I took, the concentration of vitriol grew thicker.

Creeeak… Rumble…

There was a strange sound. Vitriol was dripping from the ceiling. The moment I stepped onto the second-floor landing, I could tell the situation was even worse than before, and I immediately turned toward the third floor.

“Wow, this is…”

Elias covered his nose without even thinking. But blocking his nose would do nothing when our barriers were already under attack. Just like we had opened both entrances on the first floor, we needed to tear open the rooftop door or do something to let in even a little more air. Otherwise, all that would remain was a chain reaction of rampages.

KRAAASH—!!

“…!”

I instinctively covered my front. The deafening crash and vibration engulfed my entire body. Dust filled my vision. The moment I stepped onto the third-floor stairs, I frowned at the sight before me. A wall that had broken apart into chunks of stone was collapsing. The ceiling of the third floor was caving in. Elias grabbed me by the robe and pulled. The floors were beginning to pull apart along the cracks in the ground.

— [Your Highness!]

I felt something heavy crash down beside my ear. The building was collapsing.