Chapter 232: Arpentia (10)
“Outside the field, it is truly chaotic.”
Valen Zeisho muttered in a low voice.
“…….”
No one answered him.
As if he had never expected a reply in the first place, he simply closed his eyes quietly.
Valen Zeisho.
Even without consciously trying, he possessed such an extraordinary sense of perception that he could clearly feel things that could neither be seen nor heard.
It was not something he had honed through effort.
He had been that way since birth; to him, it was as natural as breathing.
It felt as though everything in the world whispered to him.
That was why, even at this very moment, he could clearly perceive what was happening in Various Areas of the Capital.
“…….”
First, the Academy.
There, together with Urkubar, a Half-Elf named Professor Windy May was locked in a fierce battle.
And that was not all.
Another Dragon had intruded into the fray, and he could even sense the aura of Archmage Edas—Arpentia’s disciple who had supposedly died long ago—driving the battlefield further into chaos.
“……It is burning.”
The streets of the Capital were burning.
In Various Areas of the Capital, Revenants and unidentified Mire-like Creatures had risen, attacking people and plunging everything into tremendous confusion.
I could hear the screams of the countless people who had gathered for the Departure Festival, now seized with terror.
Along with them, the horrific clashes and deafening sounds of Knights and soldiers entangled with those creatures in desperate combat to protect the civilians rang vividly in my ears.
“…….”
And here, directly above the Auction House.
I could easily sense that those possessing the strongest powers had gathered, barely holding back the most powerful Revenants.
‘They are truly struggling.’
They must be Lian Gwendil’s companions.
I had taken note of them before, so I recognized them immediately.
The young descendant of the Everglenn family who had formed a contract with the Spirit King.
The Half-Dragon from Garusol.
And the man of the Amiel family whose talent could only be described as demonic.
And above all, Deiare, another disciple of Arpentia.
In opposition to them, the enemies were fiercely attacking while putting forward the corpses of warriors who had likely once etched their names into history.
Among them, I could even sense the Presence of a dragon.
They were enduring a truly grueling and arduous battle.
For a brief moment, Valen Zeisho silently sent a quiet, almost detached gratitude toward their struggle.
‘And then…….’
Lastly, outside the Auction House.
Close enough that one could arrive here immediately if they wished, another fierce battle was unfolding.
The Man without a Head (Male), who had not even revealed his own name.
Lian Gwendil.
And Velita… a descendant of the Great Emperor.
Sensing the three of them entangled together, Valen Zeisho quietly shook his head.
‘……No matter how I ponder it, that presence is strange.’
He reached a silent conclusion.
The Man without a Head (Male).
From him, I sensed an aura that felt both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
The same was true of the scent I had felt from Lian Gwendil.
“…….”
How had he ended up joining hands and acting together with such an unidentified creature?
Thinking that, Valen Zeisho looked down with a faintly pitiful gaze.
“Ugh…….”
At the end of his gaze, Arpentia lay sprawled on the ground, her entire body trembling as if barely enduring the pain.
“Ugh, ugh… it hurts… it hurts….”
She muttered painfully, suppressing her sobs as she struggled to rise somehow.
“…….”
Valen Zeisho watched her in silence.
He did not attack.
He did not speak.
He simply observed.
Then—
“Hup!”
Arpentia suddenly unleashed Blue Lightning toward him in a surprise attack.
However, as though he had already anticipated her movement, Valen Zeisho easily brushed the lightning aside with his bare hand.
No—more astonishingly, he forcibly tore off a portion of the lightning and hurled it back at her.
“Ah—ugh! Kuaaagh……!”
Struck by the very lightning she had fired, she let out a cry of agony.
After a moment, gazing at the battered and broken Arpentia, Valen Zeisho quietly spoke.
“Even if I have grown so weak that I cannot even compare to my prime.”
He let out a small sigh.
“I am not so diminished that I would lose to you.”
He paused briefly and exhaled deeply.
“From the beginning, were you not the weakest among us? Even Anastasia Mayblin, who was called the Saintess, possessed greater personal martial strength than you. Whereas I always stood at the very front lines alongside everyone else. ……Given that, how could you possibly defeat me in battle?”
At his words, Arpentia shook her head vehemently as if she did not want to hear them.
Every time she gasped for breath, sweat and blood mingled and trickled down.
“N-no…….”
“…….”
“Lord Valen Zeisho, you…… have grown much weaker. To a degree that cannot even be compared to before.”
“Yes. That is true.”
Valen Zeisho nodded.
“And the same is true for you, is it not?”
He continued, swallowing his sorrow.
“My sin runs deep. I failed to measure the sorrow you would feel. I never imagined that you—who were known as a lineage blessed with longevity rivaling even the High Elves—would become so devastated and drive yourself to such ruin…….”
“Don’t—don’t say that now!”
Arpentia shouted, almost like a scream.
“…….”
Valen Zeisho closed his mouth and merely looked at her once more.
“I am not who I was back then—the me you abandoned… the me you all left behind! Three hundred years have passed, and the me who endured that time stands here now!”
Arpentia spread both arms wide as if screaming in anguish.
Soon after, the mana flowing through her entire body began to surge violently.
If there had been anyone here who walked the path of magic, they would have either wept in ecstasy or despaired so deeply as to take their own life, as spell after spell erupted from her fingertips in succession.
“…….”
But it was not enough to bring down Valen Zeisho.
To him, they were nothing more than techniques he had witnessed countless times over the years. He merely let them pass in silence, dismantling them one after another.
“Kh…!”
Gritting her teeth, Arpentia suddenly hurled her body backward.
Boom!
Her body burst apart like a bubble.
Even so, Valen Zeisho did not show the slightest hint of surprise.
He simply turned his head slightly.
Before he knew it, she was standing atop the Platform of the Auction House.
“…….”
If he had wished, Valen Zeisho could have inflicted a fatal wound upon her even now.
Yet he could not bring himself to do so.
Though he had declared that he would kill her, he was still hesitating.
‘Pathetic.’
It was just as he mocked himself inwardly.
“I, too—I did not spend those long years merely weeping.”
As she spoke, Arpentia suddenly produced an Iron Needle.
Without hesitation, she drove the Iron Needle deep into the skull of the Three-Eyed Tribe that had been presented as an auction item.
Drdrdrdr—
Astonishingly, the surrounding debris began to whirl and gather around the skull as its center.
— Guh uh uh uh—
Before long, a gigantic giant formed, composed of blood, flesh, bones, and fragments.
Looking up at the enormous mass—so vast in size and weight that it overwhelmed the mere act of beholding it—Valen Zeisho muttered,
“……The Three-Eyed Tribe. It has been a long time.”
He nodded faintly, almost as if nostalgic.
“Whenever we encountered them, it was always quite the ordeal.”
Arpentia pointed at him.
“Go! Now!”
— Guh uh uh uh uh!!!
At her command, the giant let out a thunderous roar and charged toward Valen Zeisho.
Watching the scene, Arpentia shouted,
“Show me that you’re useful—kill that man at on—!?”
She abruptly cut herself off.
Twisting her face in pain as if rebuking herself, she hurriedly corrected her words.
“……Subdue him! Don’t kill him! Do you understand? You must never kill him! But you may wound him as much as you like. As long as he’s alive, I can fix him no matter what!”
At her desperate cry, Valen Zeisho let out an unconscious sigh.
It seemed that both he and that child alike had grown rusted, having lost the entirety of their former hearts.
‘My sin runs deep.’
He thought it once more.
Tending to his own wounds had been important. Finishing what he had left undone had been important.
But…… before all that, he should have cared for and embraced that child first.
Because she had been called a Sage, wise beyond her years, he had selfishly expected that she would endure.
And that expectation had returned as an unbearable regret.
“…….”
Having concluded his thoughts, Valen Zeisho lifted his bow.
Drawing back the empty bowstring slowly—though nothing was nocked upon it—he spoke.
“Do not block it.”
Then, as if adding an afterthought, he said,
“Do nothing but evade, Arpentia.”
He whispered quietly.
I said I would kill you—but at least, I do not wish to kill you with this strike.
Swallowing the rest of his words, Valen Zeisho gazed at the giant of the Three-Eyed Tribe charging toward him.
Sssk.
He gently released the bowstring.
It was an exceedingly light motion.
Light.
In the next instant, a vast and resplendent radiance swallowed the surroundings.
“……At last.”
An empty, vacant space.
A place that some called the Room of Memories.
A hollow realm where nothing could be done but wait for the occasional visitor.
There, a lone woman who had been standing idly opened her mouth as if whispering.
“How many years has it already been since I was confined here?”
With a bitter smile, she turned her head slightly.
She had heard that her original body had long since fulfilled its purpose, returned to mana, and ascended.
Yet she remained bound here.
A life spent turning in endless cycles, unable even to fulfill a lifelong wish.
Even if she was but a fragment of memory, her essence still belonged to one once praised as an Archmage.
Such a life could not possibly be free of pain.
“…….”
And yet, Talia Poas—an Archmage and a member of the Wolpen Knights—humbly accepted her fate.
Because there was something only she could do.
For that reason, until now… she had willingly endured even drifting aimlessly like a fish within a tank.
“The conditions have been met.”
Talia Poas whispered.
“……It is about time I do what must be done.”
With those words, she slowly closed her eyes.
And when she opened them once more, Valen Zeisho stood before her.