The stench of the deceased permeated the air.
It was no exaggeration by any means. Alphiero paused silently as he peered into the room.
Empty potion vials were strewn across the floor, among them some shattered to pieces. Dark blood-stained bandages were scattered here and there as well.
A soft, rhythmic breathing could be heard.
There lay Amelia Merwin in a half-reclined state.
She wasn’t on a bed but rather in a piece of furniture resembling a bathtub. Inside it were various potions, unidentifiable liquids, and Amelia’s own blood. The tubes connected to her suggested that the liquid inside the tub was replacing her bodily fluids.
"It looks like you’ve even mixed in narcotics," Alphiero tsked as he stepped into the room filled with the smell of decay. It was reminiscent of a garbage dump.
Crunch.
He inadvertently stepped on a potion vial and broke it.
"Only things vile enough to even intoxicate a demon. But they don’t seem quite effective,” he commented.
Shhh... shhh….
There was even an oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth. Amelia Merwin silently gazed at Alphiero. Her eyes were clouded.… Was she far gone? Or was her mind merely fogged by the drug's effects? Surely not. Alphiero shook his head as he approached her.
"No drug can truly alleviate the pain that tears one's existence apart, Amelia Merwin. From what I see, you are indulging in a futile endeavor. Changing all your fluids, severing all your nerves, even eroding your consciousness... none of that will change who you truly are,” said Alphiero.
"Why are you here?" responded Amelia.
The response didn’t come from Amelia’s lips but rather from a pipe protruding from the tub.
"Firstly, take my advice to heart. I am genuinely concerned about your downfall,” answered Alphiero.
"Nonsense,” retorted Amelia.
"As long as you are here, and as long as you are bound by a contract with the Demon King of Incarceration, Ravesta will always resist your very existence. You have but two choices. One is to leave Ravesta. The other is to break your contract with the Demon King of Incarceration and form a new one with the Demon King of Destruction,” suggested Alphiero.
No response came from the pipe. It was for a simple reason: it translated Amelia’s thoughts into sound, and as such, it couldn’t reproduce her scoff.
However, Alphiero could not have known this. As such, he continued, "You know as well as I that one can instantly form a contract by descending to the temple. Even if you did form a contract directly with the Demon King of Incarceration, it wouldn’t be able to precede a contract with the Demon King of Destruction. Your relationship with the Demon King of Incarceration will naturally come to an end…."
"You let me into Ravesta because you fear the Demon King of Incarceration. Stop pretending like you have any authority here,” came Amelia’s response.
"You dismiss my goodwill,” commented Alphiero.
"I know well that your words are not out of goodwill. I know you still despise me. You would prefer I left and perished, wouldn't you? Or perhaps you'd enjoy watching me succumb to pain and fear, pleading to the Demon King of Destruction?" Her voice was biting, yet Amelia’s form in the tub remained limp.
The liquid from the tub flowed through the tubes alongside a bubbling sound.
“I have no intention of releasing anything from my grasp. If I need to endure, then I will endure however much I need to endure,” said Amelia.
With a creak and groan, Amelia's form began to split apart. The fragmented remains of her body dissolved into the fluid.
Alphiero silently stared at Amelia's form. The body submerged in the fluid was bare; the right arm remained, but the left arm was gone, and there was nothing below her torso either.
Yet, she was alive. Even though most of her organs were gone, black magic sustained her barely living form. Even as her body continued to decay and rot, Amelia persisted.
“Is that right? You have no intention of releasing anything from your grasp?” Alphiero chuckled. He continued with a grin, “Ignorance truly is amusing. You’ve already lost so much, and yet you remain oblivious to that fact as you fuss about it.”
“What do you mean?” Amelia quickly inquired.
Alphiero felt a twinge of pity that she couldn’t express any emotion as he informed her of the events unfolding beyond Ravesta.
The Demon King of Fury had risen once more.
Eugene Lionheart had vanquished the Demon King of Fury. Sienna of Calamity had returned to the Magic Kingdom of Aroth.
Around the same time, Melkith El-Hayah of the White Tower had been indiscriminately attacking the dungeons in the Nahama desert.
The Sultan was hesitant to respond aggressively because he was wary of the continent’s gaze.
“Even now, the forces you left in the desert—” Alphiero started.
“Kieeeeeeeeee—!”
Before Alphiero could finish, a sound akin to scraping metal resonated from within the pipe. A cry rose from Amelia's consciousness. It was a scream without a voice.
The pipe vibrated with a metallic groan, and the fluid rippled as Amelia’s body began to tremble within the tub. The sound that emanated was too agonizing to be called a scream.
Alphiero was taken aback. But instead of worrying for her, he started to clap as he mocked her. “My word! To think I'd hear such a comical cry from you, Amelia!”
However, Amelia didn’t hear his voice. The rage and loss she felt at that moment were even more horrifying than the pain of her near-death state.
The pipes wailed their metallic cry for what seemed like forever. Alphiero stepped back with his arms crossed as he relished in the chaos.
“Req—” The metallic wails ceased, but sporadic tremors still ran through Amelia's form. Alphiero tilted his head as he locked eyes with Amelia.
“A request,” she finally whispered.
His cheeks twitched as he suppressed a smile. He slowly bent down and leveled his gaze with Amelia's. Whether those clouded eyes could see clearly was debatable, but Alphiero stared intently as he tried to pierce the soul he believed lay within.
"Why should I heed your request?" he asked.
"You granted me my requests until now, did you not?" Amelia said.
"Do you truly ask without knowing why I did so?" Alphiero gave a hollow laugh as he rose from his position. He gazed at Amelia's battered and frail form.
It was true. He had obliged Amelia's requests up until now. Amelia was wholly reliant on the information from the outside world that Alphiero brought her. Without his insights, she would be entirely isolated in Ravesta, as if she had lost both sight and hearing.
Alphiero had no affection for Amelia. He deemed her a mongrel, a half-breed, and he was frustrated by her self-centered and confined behavior.
Yet he did not shun her — he wanted to discern the depths of her true intentions. What was Amelia truly after? If she was the Staff of Incarceration, why had she not sought refuge in Babel? Instead, why had she hidden in Ravesta, a place not under the influence of the Demon King of Incarceration?
"I know," a voice echoed from the pipe. "Alphiero, you're curious about my ulterior motives, aren't you? Perhaps you hope that those who wish me dead will come to Ravesta."
There was no falsehood in those words.
Three hundred years had elapsed since the time of war. For demons, it wasn’t an extraordinarily long span. How many among the many demons living since that era did not yearn for the unfettered days of war?
Alphiero longed for the days of war, and he wasn’t the only one. Many demons dwelling in Ravesta like hermits, pined for that bygone era.
Initially, the Demon King of Destruction had not taken any subjects.
But, three hundred years ago, after the Demon King of Incarceration suddenly declared war, mysterious temples began to appear throughout the realm of Helmuth.
No matter their standing, any demon could form a pact with the Demon King of Destruction if they visited these temples and expressed their desire.
Initially, all sorts of demons rushed to form these pacts.
However, most could not withstand the overwhelming power of the Demon King of Destruction and perished within days. After this initial ‘testing’ phase, only those who already possessed considerable power and sought even more strength made pacts with the Demon King of Destruction.
The reason for their thirst for power was simple: to survive in the age of conflict and revel in the endless wars.
Alphiero was no different.
He never doubted that war would erupt again. He believed that, just like three hundred years ago, the dormant Demon King of Destruction would rise and wreak havoc. He endured because he was desperate. Because his belief was firm. With the Demon King of Incarceration promising peace, rampaging in the outside world was impossible.
But — if Amelia Merwin's enemy... the Hero of this age, Eugene Lionheart, sought Amelia in Ravesta to end her life….
"I shall tell you what you wish to know," the voice emanating from the pipe remained emotionless. It wasn’t even Amelia's original voice. "I intend to wage war."
With that, Amelia Merwin's intentions were laid bare as she spoke in the detached tone of the device.
“It will be different from three hundred years ago. I am dreaming of a war that’s neither waged by the Demon King of Destruction nor the Demon King of Incarceration. I, Amelia Merwin, am going to start a war,” she declared.
“…What are you speaking of?” asked Alphiero.
“I was worried that the Demon King of Incarceration might interfere. However, that proved unnecessary. The Demon King of Incarceration is quite generous when it comes to the freedom of his subjects, though, naturally, he imposes responsibilities,” answered Amelia.
It was precisely for this reason that Amelia could not seek refuge in Babel.
Her hostile relationship with Eugene Lionheart and Sienna Merdein was all due to her own transgressions. Had Amelia attempted to use Babel as a refuge, let alone reconcile her relationships, the Demon King of Incarceration himself would have executed her on the spot.
“I’ve made preparations. I’ve tempted the Sultan. Promised lands thrice as vast as his current realm, fertile lands, not the barren deserts. The allure was too great for him to resist,” explained Amelia.
Alphiero said, “…Waging war on the backs of merely the Nahama—”
“Do you have any idea how many demons long for the days of war?” The voice from the pipe interrupted Alphiero’s comment.
“The current continent is at peace. Especially Helmuth. It has prospered so much that it’s impossible to even recall the traces of the warring era and the times before it. I never lived in that age, but you did,” said Amelia.
“…..” A silence lingered.
“But know this: no matter how advanced or convenient the world becomes, those living in Helmuth are still demons. While many have adapted to modern Helmuth and transformed into complacent pigs, there are plenty who could not. They have been cast into correctional facilities in the guise of camps or wander the slums, or worse, dwell in the very sewers beneath,” continued Amelia.
Not all had suffered such a fate. The more quick-witted demons concealed their monstrous nature and wore masks befitting the age of peace.
The elite of Helmuth, the high nobles, mostly did so. Gavid Lindman and Noir Giabella were prime examples.
“Do you know what I’ve put most of my effort into in Nahama? It was completely seizing the desert dungeons and expanding them. As a result, Nahama now has more black wizards than Aroth. In fact, it has become the land with the most black wizards on the continent,” explained Amelia.
All black wizards were born from contracts with demons, except for special cases like Amelia Merwin.
It was rare for one to aspire to become a black wizard and form contracts with demons from the beginning. Most often, ordinary wizards turned to black magic in their moments of despair over their lack of talents, when they were faced with the insurmountable wall of magic, or when desiring powers beyond what was offered by normal magic.
If Aroth's Black Tower was a verified collective of dark wizard researchers, Nahama’s dungeon of black wizards was a more 'pure school' of magic. They treated the Dungeon Master as their supreme teacher and cultivated black wizards through an apprenticeship.
When regular wizards studied in the dungeon, they served under a black wizard master for several years before being introduced to a high demon to form a contract.
"Behind every black wizard, there's a demon. It's a well-known tale. Not all of them support the war I'm instigating, but of this, I'm certain: they all await the war."
The black wizards summoned to the desert had demon patrons in the shadows. These were the demons that had been marginalized.
While they still retained plausible posts in this post-war era, their positions in Pandemonium were unsecured. They were demons that either couldn't preserve their places in Pandemonium or rejected the peace proclaimed by the Demon King of Incarceration and plummeted in radical opposition. They were war heroes overshadowed by Noir Giabella and Gavid Lindman.
In addition, there were young demons who had not witnessed the Age of Wars. They lamented not being born during such tumultuous times and awaited the next great conflict.
"…Even if you wage war through Nahama, those demons will not aid you,” said Alphiero.
“I possess means to persuade their cooperation," came the assured response.
They could become the Demon King.
This would be the temptation in play.
She had already verified the ritual Edmund Codreth had prepared through Vladmir.
While Amelia herself had no intentions of conducting the ritual, she knew that the prospect of sitting on the throne of a Demon King was a seductive allure for the demons yearning for war and greater power.
"The fact that Iris, that fool, could become a Demon King will surely lighten the hearts of the other demons. By obtaining sacrifices and fear through war and achieving ascension to a Demon King with the ritual I provide, I am certain I can muster numerous demons to my cause,” explained Amelia.
“.….” Alphiero didn’t say anything.
"How about you? You, too, desire war, don't you, Alphiero Lasat? Would you not wish to secretly partake in my war and ascend to be a Demon King? If you so wish and heed my request, I promise to grant you this first, even if it means offering all of the citizens of Nahama’s capital as a sacrifice."
"I have no desire to become the Demon King," Alphiero declined, shaking his head. "What I... wish for is war. And to witness the Demon King of Destruction making his presence felt on the battlefield. To stand alongside him as his subject."
"And my request?" asked Amelia.
"I do have interest in the war you wish to wage," Alphiero said. Stepping forward once more, Alphiero perched on the edge of the bathtub as he locked eyes with Amelia. "What would you ask of me?" he asked.
"I intend to send my hound outside. I cannot leave, you see. I wish to negotiate with the demons through this hound and use him in various ways... Sadly, I'm currently in such a weakened state to even pull on a leash,” she answered.
"And your point?" asked Alphiero.
"You know, the chained hound outside is a chimera mixed with vampire blood. So, I'd like you to let her drink some of yours,” asked Amelia.
"You wish to control the hound through me,” responded Alphiero.
"She's such a frail creature that I worry she might perish if I let her loose outside… but if she drinks your blood, she won’t be so weak,” said Amelia.
"I will have a vampire from the clan look after her," Alphiero said after some thought.
Alphiero belonged to the Lasat clan, a vampire clan that thrived during the warring era. Even though the entire clan had retreated to Ravesta, their lesser clans were still active in Helmuth.
"…You won't send out the other hound?" he asked.
"That won’t end up being just a hound," Amelia replied. "To be frank, I don’t know what to expect. I have no idea what’s happening to it."