Book 6: Chapter The Seventh Week of Annihilating an Undying Lich: “When the King meets the Demon King”
Ugh, my head hurts… Crap! Where are Judgment and the Pope?
I immediately shot up and realized that I was lying in the midst of the wreckage of a building. However, in front of me was air instead of the ground. Looking out, I could see all of Leaf Bud City. Looks like I got blown away by the impact of the explosion and crashed into a tall building.
I hurriedly used my sensing ability to see how everyone was doing.
In the plaza, everyone was down for the count but was still moving. It seemed that no one was in danger of dying. Only Earth’s holy element was so low that there was nearly nothing left. He was sprawled on the ground, practically unable to get up; however, that was probably because he had used the Shield of Earth to protect everyone. Since he was no longer losing holy element, he would probably be fine.
Judgment and the Pope got thrown a bit further. I searched anxiously for some time until I spied them by the edge of the plaza.
Judgment had fallen on the ground and was using one arm to support himself while the other arm was drooping limply on the ground. He looked severely wounded. However, beside him, the Pope looked safe and sound and was desperately casting healing spells on him. It looks like the both of them should be alright.
No one was in mortal peril, and the undead army that had attacked them was mostly piles of ashes now. Also, the biggest threat, Charlotte, had her dark element greatly diminished and was looking around, as if she was anxiously searching for something… or someone, probably me, who had been sent flying.
Stephen had a terrible expression, but the two of them looked as if they had no plans to personally attack the Twelve Holy Knights. I felt myself relax a bit.
“Ugh…”
What was that sound? I was surprised and only then did I realize that there seemed to be someone underneath the rubble beside me. I quickly lifted the wreckage and found someone I never thought I would find there…
“Y-Your Majesty!”
Advanced Heal!
I reflexively threw an Advanced Heal at the king and hurriedly started chanting the incantation for Ultimate Heal. But, I suddenly remembered that I gave the king a bracelet of rose beads, so I grabbed his hand. The rose beads were on his wrist, as I expected, and I immediately crushed the only Ultimate Heal rose bead.
Under a wave of light, the king slowly opened his eyes, but I was still worried out of my mind because the rubble on and beneath the king was all stained with a large amount of blood!
I finished casting Ultimate Heal and threw in another Advanced Heal before I stopped. However, if he had already lost too much blood, then no amount of healing spells would make a difference. Healing spells can’t replenish lost blood!
“Your Majesty!” I asked anxiously, “How do you feel?”
The king’s eyes were opened, but he didn’t seem to be conscious of his surroundings. Not knowing whether he had heard me, I was so worried that I shouted “Your Majesty” many times.
“…Grisia?” The king snapped to attention and asked me with bright eyes, “Where did you run off to?”
Dear God of Light, please don’t let this be his life flashing before his eyes!
“I…”
I didn’t even finish speaking before the king sighed and murmured, “Neo rarely requests anything from me. He only told me to take better care of you, but you are so… You were just walking to the palace, yet you can pull a disappearing act from that! How can I take care of you like that? I could not find Neo to contact him either. You lot, teacher and student, are exactly the same! It is vexing.”
The king rattled on, but I didn’t dare interrupt him in fear that, when he stopped talking, he would close his eyes and go straight to the God of Light.
The king looked at me questioningly and asked, “What happened? The Judgment Knight only told me about your disappearance. He suspected that a shadowpriest was involved in this case.”
I dropped my head in embarrassment and said, “That shadowpriest is one of the demon king candidates. I-I was captured by her. I’m sorry…”
I originally vowed to the king that I would solve things, but I ended up captured without solving anything. I am too embarrassed to face the king.
“The enemy is in the dark while we are in the light. It goes without saying that defending against that would be difficult. What are you sorry for?” The king turned to comfort me instead and anxiously asked, “How are things in the plaza right now?”
I shouted, “Your Majesty, don’t worry about that! Tell me first, how are you feeling at the moment?”
“Me? I feel exhausted…”
Hearing the king’s words, my heart went cold. Is his life really flashing before him…
He muttered, “After you disappeared, I ordered Leaf Bud City to be fully evacuated, but many refused to leave. The royal knights and the holy knights had to force them out.”
I replied quickly, “Of course. When you force people to leave their familiar homes, they will complain.”
He stopped talking for a bit and then softly said, “But I can’t forget their eyes… They looked like they hated me so much, like they were all screaming ‘You are the king. Why didn’t you protect this city?’”
“Please do not speak this way. You made that decision because you were trying to protect the people of Leaf Bud City.”
Despite my words, the king still looked sad, sighing and murmuring, “How long will this demon king war persist? We can currently still rely on food storages and foreign aid to sustain the citizens of Leaf Bud City, but if the time drags on, I fear we won’t be able to continue at this rate. The people won’t be satisfied living in temporary residences for a long period of time either…”
The king frowned as he pondered. I scrutinized his face carefully. Some time had already passed and he had yet to suddenly collapse and go see the God of Light. It seems this was not him having his life flash before him. I relaxed, but I still could not resist advising him, “Your Majesty, do not worry too much. You should take a good rest.”
The king stated unhappily, “How can I not worry? If I don’t hurry up and think of a way to settle the people, what use would the citizens have for a king like me? Grisia, even though you are the head of the Church of the God of Light and are not all that responsible for the people of Leaf Bud City, nevertheless, the people have donated a lot of money to the Church. You too should hurry up and think of a way to help!”
A way to help? I thought about it. The fastest way I can think of now is to use the fact that Charlotte likes me to kill her off and eliminate a candidate, so as to finish things earlier…
“Forget it, I am only troubling you. Regarding the matter of the Demon King, the only responsibility of the Sun Knight is to send forces to attack him, right?” The king smiled, but no happiness was shown in that smile.
“The one responsible for Leaf Bud City is the king of the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound, not you!”
The king clearly knew that this was a difficult and thankless job, but he didn’t run from it. Instead, he wanted to shoulder the burden alone. In comparison, I kept running away from the responsibilities I should assume.
Judgment is right, and so is His Majesty, the king. I am a demon king candidate! I can’t deny it anymore. This is my responsibility. I can’t run away anymore! I have to finish this quickly or more damage is going to occur!
Noises came from outside. Most of them were nervous shouts, “Your Majesty…Your Majesty! Are you alright? Over here… Hurry! Lift these rocks quickly!”
The king smiled faintly at me, saying, “I will be fine. Go to the plaza. You are probably very worried about the situation over there.”
I nodded and begged him, “Your Majesty, Leaf Bud City is still too dangerous, please retreat! Sun will do his best to make sure this battle ends quickly!”
“How can a king leave his own kingdom?” The king shook his head, saying, “Just try your best. If you really can’t do it, don’t sacrifice yourself; Nee-nee will get mad and when he’s mad, he’s scarier than the Demon King! Haha… cough, cough!”
“Your Majesty!” I hurriedly patted his back to help calm his breathing.
A clear, happy female voice rang out, “Found you.”
Without having to turn, I already saw Charlotte floating in the air. She looked very happy with a big smile on her face that was as cute as ever. But, that smiling face only brought anger to me now!
I growled, “Why did you set off such a large explosion for no reason? You almost killed His Majesty, the king!”
“The king?” Charlotte muttered uncaringly, “If that kind of thing dies, then just pick another one! Sun Knight, come with me quickly! Stephen has been nagging at me to leave this place soon in case other demon king candidates take the opportunity to attack me.”
Just pick another one? Anger abruptly exploded inside my chest. I turned to her and roared, “His Majesty is the best king ever! None can replace him!”
“Really? But he looks so weak, and he’s ugly.” Charlotte frowned as she sized up the king. Soon after, she turned her attention back to me and said, “You are still so much better looking! Sun Knight, if you don’t leave with me now, I will kill this king, and, oh yeah, the holy knights in the plaza as well.”
“You-you!” I was so angry that I nearly could not speak.
Charlotte snapped her fingers, and a bolt of dark element shot out from her hand, flying straight towards the king. I didn’t expect her to actually do what she said. In a panic, I could only let out an explosion of holy element to block the attack.
“Come with me quietly, or else I will kill him, knock you unconscious, and then take you away!” Charlotte’s tone had now turned threatening.
I was stunned. Knock me out and take me away again? There are still a lot of things I have to do, and I just promised the king a second time that I will take care of the Demon King matter quickly. How can I get knocked unconscious again!
The king yelled, “Over here, get in quickly! The enemy is here!”
Seeing Charlotte purse her lips unhappily, I instantly moved quietly and placed the king fully behind me. Thereafter, I said to her, “Let me speak with His Majesty alone, and then I will go with you.”
Charlotte’s face fell. Obviously, she did not want to do as I said. I continued, “Go over to the Twelve Holy Knights and wait for me there. I would definitely not abandon them.”
She hesitated and asked suspiciously, “If I let you finish speaking with him, will you really go with me?’
I smiled faintly and answered, “I will definitely go find you, and won’t leave you again this time.”
Charlotte was stunned. She lowered her head slightly, actually looking a little shy. I couldn’t tell whether or not she was blushing. She murmured, “Okay, I will wait for you over there! Come quickly!”
Seeing her turn and fly away, the smile on my face vanished in a flash. Heh! At least, when you are still alive, I won’t leave you!
Behind me, the king asked confusedly, “Grisia, what’s going on?”
I didn’t turn, and only spoke words of comfort, “Please do not worry, Your Majesty. This case will be resolved soon.” At the same time, I also found who I was looking for and sent him a message.
Judgment, go to the dessert store alone and wait for me there.
“Your Majesty… Sun Knight?”
The knights outside finally moved the rocks away to reveal a hole the size of a human’s head. Elijah stuck his head in from this hole and shouted worriedly for His Majesty at first. But when he saw me, he yelled in astonishment.
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I took a few steps and jumped off the tall building, channelling wind element to fly me to the dessert store.
The dessert store was not far. After a few glides, I landed in front of the store. This place was always bustling with people. No matter if it was day or night, there would always be people queuing up to buy sweets. The line was usually so long that I had to ask Judgment to buy sweets for me, causing the Judgment Knight whose reputation was already very bad to gain another “likes to cut in line” charge during this generation.
But now, the door of the desserts store was firmly shut. The delicious aroma of sweets that usually filled the air was gone without a trace, and moreover, there was not a single person outside the store.
I hesitated but still reached up and took Eternal Tranquility off my neck. Then, holding it in my hands, I leaned against the door to wait for him to arrive.
After a few moments, Judgment appeared and was holding my Divine Sun Sword in his hands. He quickly strode towards me, not at all looking as if he had been so injured just now that he could not get up.
I didn’t speak a single word and just held out my hand to give him Eternal Tranquility. As expected, Judgment was Judgment; this sudden action did not surprise him. He looked calm, but did not reach out to take the necklace. He only asked, “Why?”
“You saw Charlotte too,” I explained. “She can’t be controlled and doesn’t care about others. We can’t let her become the Demon King!”
Judgment frowned and said, “But, the other candidate might not be better. What if he’s worse than Charlotte?”
I said insistently, “We will think of something else when that time comes! Even if the other candidate is worse than Charlotte, we can’t let her become the Demon King. She doesn’t care about anything at all. Just now, she even wanted to use the king as a shooting target. Having this kind of person as the Demon King is too dangerous!”
Judgment raised his eyebrows, saying, “Doesn’t she care about you? Before we started fighting, she mentioned it a lot while arguing with Earth. She doesn’t know that you are one of the candidates, right?”
Mentioned it a lot… Now, Earth is going to use this to bug me for who knows how many years.
Frustrated, I shook my head, “She doesn’t know. She probably wouldn’t care anyway; Charlotte doesn’t want to be the Demon King at all. She looks as if she wouldn’t care if the world got destroyed as long as she can have me wrapped up to take home.”
“That is very dangerous indeed,” Judgment frowned. “So, what do you plan to do?”
I resolutely stated, “I want to defeat her as a fellow demon king candidate.”
Judgment’s eyebrows didn’t relax. After a period of silence, he asked, “But are you sure you can win?”
“She’s stronger than me,” I admitted. “She’s better at gathering elements, and she specializes in dark magic because she is a shadowpriest. Her dark magic is probably much better than my mess of magic learned from various sources. The only thing I can best her at is my sensing ability.”
“Don’t tell me you want to use your sensing ability to defeat her?” Judgment scoffed, “If you hope Silent Eagle will aid you, I’ll tell you this first: he already declined to join the fight. He said that he cannot interfere directly. The best he can do is to give a little help secretly, because they don’t know yet who will become the Demon King in the end. If the Cathedral of the Shadow God participated directly in the battle, but the candidate they supported lost in the end, it would greatly harm them in the future. So, even if you fight Charlotte as a demon king candidate, he will not help you attack her.”
I said immediately, “I never placed any hopes on him! But I can count on all of you to help me, right? Judgment, my hand has been raised so long that it’s sore! Take the necklace already!”
Judgment smiled faintly and said, “Put the necklace back on. Even if you only help to cast support magic, we will help you defeat Charlotte.”
I said calmly, “If I kill the demon king candidate as the Sun Knight, then what would I tell the king and the rulers of the other countries? They have made thorough preparations, even evacuating Leaf Bud City for the demon king candidates to fight. It was not to watch the Church of the God of Light crusade against the demon king candidates.”
Judgment hesitated. His expression wavered a little, but he still refused to take the necklace. He asked, “Are there no other options? You can disguise yourself, make them think you are the demon king…”
I interrupted, “Impossible! The holy element surrounding me is too strong. It will be utterly impossible to trick Stephen and Charlotte. Unless you want to tell His Majesty that the Sun Knight is one of the demon king candidates, take the necklace now. We already don’t have much time left to waste!”
“But when your hair turns black…” Judgment hesitated mid-sentence.
I replied quickly, “You made the black-haired me take the Divine Sun Sword last time, so you can do it this time too! Once we have taken care of Charlotte, you can give me the Divine Sun Sword, and then I’ll put Eternal Tranquility back on. Won’t I then return to having a head of shinning, golden hair?”
Judgment hesitated and asked, “What if you don’t want to take the Divine Sun Sword?”
“You don’t have to care if I want it or not. Just give it to me by force!”
“Okay, you’re the one who said it!” Judgment finally grabbed the necklace.
“Take the Divine Sun Sword further away; it will hinder me when I draw in the dark element.”
Finished talking, I closed my eyes and started focusing on drawing the dark element into my body and slowly forcing the holy element out. This process was not hard; it was even quite easy and pleasant, and didn’t require much time.
It didn’t take longer than half a minute. I laughed and asked, “What color is my hair?”
“Black. Sun, open your eyes. Don’t keep them closed.”
Judgment’s words made me think of a matter I had puzzled over for some time. I didn’t just open my eyes; I also walked closer to him and stared at him directly in the eyes. Then, I asked, “Tell me, what do my eyes look like?”
“All black, even the whites of your eyes.” Judgment hesitated and then said, “Just like Charlotte’s.”
Even the whites of my eyes are black? So the answer is this: I am an utter freak. It’s just that Judgment doesn’t seem surprised, probably because Charlotte also has eyes like these!
“No! I’m wrong. Your eyes are not the same as hers,” Judgment suddenly said. “Your eyes are not pure black; they have a bit of golden light in them like a starry sky… They’re astonishing!”
Golden light that I have but Charlotte does not? Could it be because I am the Sun knight?
“Sun,” Judgment abruptly called out to me.
“Hm?” I turned to look at Judgment. He did not continue talking, but instead stared at me, making me feel a bit puzzled. However, his expression became more and more relaxed, and at last he sighed in relief, saying, “You don’t feel any different. Looks like I was being too wary.”
“Of course you’re thinking too much. I don’t feel like I’ve changed at all…” Leaving my sentence hanging, I looked towards the plaza. Frowning, I said, “Damn, Charlotte is starting to get impatient. That woman is no different from a crazy hag. It will be disastrous if she starts going crazy again. The others are still in the plaza.”
I reached up to untie my hair and messed it up to cover half my face. Following that, I took off my coat and ripped the sleeves off the short sleeve shirt I wore inside. Lastly, I ripped the coat into shreds and bounded the strips to my boots and pants.
Judgment blinked, and then asked, “What are you doing?”
While tailoring my clothes, I answered offhandedly, “I can’t let them figure out that this is the Sun Knight uniform, right? All finished! Judgment, I’m going there first. You can walk over slowly yourself!”
“What?” Judgment was stunned, and then hurriedly said, “Wait…”
I floated up and laughed at him, saying, “Weren’t you pretty injured in the explosion just now? Even though you’ve already been healed, there might be some after effects. So don’t bother about the rest of the matter, just leave it to me and the others and pass me the divine sword afterwards!”
Having finished speaking, I flew away before he could answer.
A workaholic like Judgment would never say, “Okay. I will just rest here and wait until things are settled before heading over.” So I ignored him and let him walk to the plaza slowly. It counts as a form of resting anyway!
It feels especially great to fly high in the air!
The blowing wind feels refreshing, and seeing Leaf Bud City from a bird’s eye view is nice too. And, there is no one here, so I don’t have to force smiles. I can even do triple somersaults here if I wanted to!
The only inconvenience was my hair flying all around my face. It occasionally brushed against my eyes and stung them. In the end, I simply closed my eyes. I did not need to open them anyway.
It was soothing in the air, but as I slowly approached the plaza, I suddenly saw a very annoying blot.
Charlotte.