The Inevitable End

“Cough, cough, cough, cough…”

A-Lian raised the coin and gazed at it quietly.

The surroundings were tranquil, perfectly suited for rest.

Golia.

Mana.

A-Lian.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

She stood up.

Her whole body burned as if she had been boiled in hot water.

She didn’t want to stay under the blankets anymore.

It was too hot.

Barefoot, she walked across the soft fur carpet, warmth spreading up from the soles of her feet.

She picked up the cup of medicine on the bedside table, already cold, and pressed it against her forehead.

“So cold… so comfortable…”

A-Lian muttered hazily, making indistinct murmuring sounds.

Her nose faintly caught the bitter smell of medicine.

Don’t drink that bitter stuff…

She opened one half-lidded eye and looked at the medicine.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

She lifted the cup and walked toward the window.

Below was a stretch of lush shrubs.

Because it was midsummer, the bushes downstairs were just entering their flowering and fruiting season.

She had picked berries down there before.

She liked those small fruits with their sweet-and-sour taste.

She poured the full cup of medicine straight down.

The medicine became nourishment for the flowers below.

So hot…

She felt soreness everywhere in her body.

Even walking felt difficult.

A burning sensation invaded her lungs, as if a nonexistent flame were blazing inside them.

Burning…

Burning…

Burning…

She felt as if she were about to be ignited.

She hadn’t taken medicine for two consecutive days.

Not a single sip.

She had fed all the medicine to the shrubs downstairs.

Medicinal-flavored berries…

Hehe, actually not bad.

A-Lian thought aimlessly.

She turned on the water valve.

The wooden tub was filled with cold water.

She didn’t even take off her clothes and climbed straight in.

Cold and refreshing.

It felt like autumn had arrived instantly.

Yet the burning in her lungs didn’t fade.

Instead, it was replaced by violent coughing and phlegm with a metallic taste.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

She spat the phlegm into a container beside her and glanced at it dizzily.

As expected.

She was already coughing up blood.

So the end isn’t far now.

She thought silently.

A wave of dizziness washed over her.

A-Lian lost consciousness.

………………

“Crush these lifeless things into dust!”

Sharred roared.

Mounted on his wind demon wolf, he led the army charging into the canyon, relentlessly pursuing the skeletons.

“Argh!”

Under the cover of shield-hammer troops, chain-hammer soldiers smashed a cluster of skeletons into bone powder.

They had repeated these actions countless times already.

Yet the skeletons seemed endless.

They did not fear death.

Nor could they truly die, because they were already dead.

Endless…

The soldiers were nearing exhaustion.

Though they kept swinging their hammers, each charged strike now took longer and longer to muster.

At last, a chain hammer snapped under the strain and flew apart.

The broken weapon smashed two skeletons to the ground.

Yet the skeleton with a severed arm continued its advance.

“Lekdo, watch out!”

He shouted at the demon holding the broken half of a chain hammer.

Then he raised his heavy tower shield and smashed the armless skeleton into dust.

His name was Dode.

Lekdo was his only family.

His younger brother.

“Go to the rear… I’ll hold them!

Trust me!”

The two were already being surrounded by skeletons.

If they didn’t withdraw now, it would be too late.

He planned to cover his brother’s retreat.

“…Okay.”

Lekdo wanted to stay and help his brother.

But the situation clearly demanded retreat.

They began to fall back cautiously.

The demon front line slowly contracted, showing signs of collapse.

“No deserters allowed!

Get back in there!”

Sharred roared.

He drew his saber and cut down those fleeing for their lives.

“Get back in!

Use your bodies if you have to and smash them!”

He leapt off the wolf’s back, saber in hand, and led the charge himself.

Dode stared blankly at the scene before him.

His brother ran toward the canyon exit, intending to reach the rear to replace his weapon.

But he was cut down by the commander with a single slash.

………………

“Awake…?”

Kallianna asked softly.

Her head still hurt, but some consciousness had returned.

A-Lian opened her eyes drowsily.

Because of the fever, her eyes felt sore.

She blinked several times until the discomfort eased.

“Be good and take your medicine…

That’s the only way you’ll get better…”

Kallianna murmured quietly.

She had gone to the library again yesterday to look for A-Lian.

But she couldn’t find her.

She searched most of the estate with no result.

Only when water overflowed did she discover that A-Lian was lying fully clothed in a water barrel.

“I don’t want to take medicine.

I don’t want that bitter stuff…”

A-Lian brushed it off with a casual excuse.

Only she herself knew the truth.

She lacked the will to live.

“There’s a neutralizing agent mixed in now.

It’s strawberry-flavored.

You have to drink it.”

Kallianna stroked A-Lian’s head, like petting a big white cat.

“No…

I don’t want to drink it…”

“Are you trying to kill yourself?”

Kallianna asked.

“So what if I am…

I don’t have any family left anyway…”

A-Lian said bitterly.

Kallianna heard every word.

She withdrew her hand and went downstairs.

So even Kallianna has given up on me now…?

A-Lian closed her eyes and lay there quietly.

Because this was the apothecary’s residence, the duke—who had also fallen ill—was staying here as well.

After all, she had lived here for eighteen years.

Kallianna and the duke shared a bond like that of uncle and niece.

She told the duke about A-Lian’s condition.

After a moment of thought, the duke decided to help.

After all, Kallianna would one day become his daughter-in-law.

A-Lian had once said at a banquet that the duke felt like her father.

They even looked alike.

Kallianna planned to use that to stir A-Lian’s emotions.

………………

“Lian… wake up…”

Kallianna called again.

A-Lian opened her eyes impatiently.

But what she saw stunned her.

The person before her was none other than her biological father.

Duke Mana.

She couldn’t believe it.

Mana stood there alive and breathing before her.

He smiled at her.

So gentle.

So kind.

A-Lian’s heartbeat skipped.

Her heart melted like butter under that smile.

How many years…

How many years had she waited.

Back then, how desperately she had wished for her father to comfort her in her crying and despair.

Yet that had seemed so impossible…

“Waaah… waaah…!”

A-Lian could no longer restrain herself.

She threw her arms around Mana and burst into sobs.

“Father… sob… Father!

It’s me… sob…”

She cried uncontrollably.

Mana understood at once.

He hugged A-Lian tightly.

One hand stroked her head.

The other gently patted her back.

“Good girl…

Daddy’s here…

Take your medicine first… okay…?”

“Mm!

Mm!”

A-Lian nodded rapidly.

She took the medicine and drank it all in one go.

“I… I have so, so much… cough, cough…

To tell you…

I… actually… don’t blame you… sob…

I’m—cough cough…”

She began coughing violently.

Hearing her broken words, Mana felt even more pity for her and held her more tenderly.

“Rest now…

We’ll talk later…

Lie down and sleep a bit.”

Seeing her cough so hard, Mana urged gently.

“Cough… okay…

Dad, don’t go…

I want to… cough…

Tell you so many things…”

A-Lian clutched Mana’s hand.

“All right.

I promise.

I’ll stay with you.”

Mana said, touching her forehead.

………………

No one noticed that Dode was missing.

After all, he was just one insignificant soldier among twenty thousand.

Nothing more than a nameless grunt.

“The Demon King is nothing special after all.”

Sharred sneered, gazing proudly at the canyon filled with white bones.

“If it were me, I’d have set an ambush on the cliffs.

Hahahaha!”

He laughed loudly at his deputy.

He wiped his saber with a white cloth.

The blade was stained red with blood.

Skeletons had no flesh.

This blood could not be theirs.

“Rumble…”

An ominous vibration echoed through the canyon walls.

“Commander… this wouldn’t be…”

The deputy warned.

“Run!

Full retreat!”

Sharred roared.

He leapt onto his wind demon wolf and dashed for the exit at top speed.

Faster than anyone else.

“Am I really that foolish?”

Lilith murmured to herself.

She had been watching everything from the cliffs all along.

She was waiting for this exact moment.

Now it was her turn to step onto the stage.

Dark-purple full armor replaced her former black dress.

She now resembled a proud flower blooming alone on a high ridge.

Bloodthirsty.

And beautiful.

Fools…

Nothing more.

Countless afterimage swords floated in the air.

They swayed with her movements, ready to harvest lives below at any moment.

Like catching turtles in a jar.

Myriad flying swords shot downward into the canyon.

Lilith descended from the sky without slowing, falling together with the afterimage blades.

“Shk-shk-shk-shk-shk…”

The blades pierced flesh with dull, wet sounds.

The roar of countless swords tearing through the air assaulted the demons’ nerves below.

“Demonkind…

Nothing special.”

Lilith laughed dreamily, gazing at Sharred in the distance.

This victory was achieved only because she had fortuitously found the first lord’s secret art.

But now her mind felt like it was being bitten by countless mosquitoes.

She had heard too many laments.

The voices of the dead.

This was the most lethal aspect of the forbidden spell.

An ordinary person would have completely collapsed.

But Lilith was no ordinary being.

She was the Demon King.

In the end, she endured it.

Because the skeletons had all been shattered.

She could no longer hear their wails.

Thanks to those skeletons, nearly ninety percent of the demon army had been depleted.

Only about two thousand wounded remained.

The mages were still outside the canyon.

The main force would be annihilated here in one decisive blow.

The Demon King…

Had won.

The lonely king’s procession.

She was the final solitary ruler.

No one would accompany her.

Because she was the Demon King.

“Bang!”

With a deafening blast, the Demon King was knocked down by Sharred.

Sharred wielded a strange device, like a staff.

It fired an odd spell that struck her down.

“Cough…

I was careless…”

Blood seeped from the Demon King’s lips as she murmured.

She felt dizzy.

Sleepy.

“Whoosh—”

A piercing whistle cut through the air.

Sharred was shot dead by a specially made arrow.

“I’m late.”

The man in dark blue said calmly.

“Good thing you came.”