Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?
Father, do you not see the Demon King?
Den Erlenkönig mit Kron und Schweif?
The Demon King with a golden crown and a cloak? (TL Note: This is a passage from the poem "Erlkönig" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a prominent German writer.)
***
White Night's first memory was of the world burning.
Huddled in her father's arms, she was on a bobbing raft amidst the waves.
White Night watched from afar as her homeland - once known as the Eastern Continent - was engulfed in flames.
It was a terrible fire demon. The world burned entirely black, everything turning to ash without leaving a trace.
Not just the land, but even the sky.
Covered in thick black smoke, it seemed as if even the heavens had turned to ash.
Lost in this sight, White Night whispered softly.
"Why is our homeland burning?"
Her father, holding her tightly, answered gently.
"Our Emperor made a wish."
"To whom?"
"To the 'demon that grants wishes'. He became enchanted by it..."
In the sky above the Eastern Continent, a vague black figure floated.
"The wish has been granted."
The entity, resembling a human shadow, ripped open its white blank mouth and laughed chillingly.
"This is the result of that wish!"
White Night stared blankly at the being.
This was the demon that granted wishes.
The source of evil that destroyed her homeland.
Survivors on the raft murmured another name for this demon.
- The Demon King.
"What wish did our country's Emperor make?"
"I do not know that. But, this is the result."
What kind of wish could lead to an entire continent burning?
And why would the 'demon that grants wishes' commit such a cruel act?
Young White Night couldn't comprehend it.
Staring at the burning, blood-red sky, she suddenly opened her eyes in shock.
"Father, the eyes...! There are so many eyes in the sky."
It was true.
Thousands of giant eyes were open in the sky, quietly watching the destruction of the continent.
As if observing something very interesting, with a focused gaze.
"Why are those eyes, watching our homeland burn?"
"That's because it's a game for them... the great Outer Gods."
To his child's innocent question, the father replied with a trembling voice.
"A game of destruction played over the downfall of a world... They enjoy watching this game."
"Like pouring water into an ant hill and watching?"
"Yes, that might be the sensation, for beings higher than us..."
The father stroked his daughter's head, holding back tears.
Flames poured from the sky. The boat next to them was engulfed in flames and shattered.
Fragments of what once were people and boat, along with sea foam, splashed into the air. The sound of explosions and screams filled the surroundings.
The father screamed and embraced White Night, but within his arms, she still looked up at the sky.
At the thousands of pairs of eyes etched into the burning sky.
And at the existence of the 'demon that grants wishes' - the Demon King, seemingly having arranged this banquet for those eyes.
"I will not forgive them."
In the midst of the incoming inferno, White Night harbored a clear resolve.
"I will never forgive them."
The father looked down in astonishment at White Night, who clenched her small fist tightly.
"I will punish those evil beings who treat our pain, our tears... as their playthings."
"Don't talk nonsense, my child! Those beings are from another realm. We cannot even lay a hand on them..."
"There must be a way. Just as they burned our world, there must be a way for us to reach them."
The raft bumped and thudded as it moved forward.
Everything that touched the boat was a corpse. Burnt bodies were strewn below the water's surface.
In the midst of this hellish scene, White Night declared to her father.
"It doesn't matter how long it takes. I will find a way to reach them."
"..."
When the rain of fire ceased.
What had once been a fleet was now just a few surviving rafts.
The homeland had burned and crumbled into the sea. Now, it felt like a lie that land had ever been there.
All that remained were the flames on the sea.
"I will help you, my child."
And then her father finally spoke to her.
"Our tribe... and I myself have been researching how to reach them. I will pass this research to you."
"..."
"Fulfill our tribe's long-held wish. Ensure that such a tragedy never repeats in this world."
Rowing the boat forward, within her father's embrace, White Night continued to gaze at the sky.
Thousands of eyes floating in the sky.
Those cruel gazes, as if looking down at a fascinating toy.
Determined not to become the object of those gazes again. Not to be looked down upon again.
The last descendant of the Eastern Continent's sorcerers, White Night made this vow in that moment.
***
The survivors from the Eastern Continent who reached the Western Continent went to the Lake Kingdom.
A great magical kingdom of the present day, with a giant city floating above a clear turquoise lake. The Lake Kingdom.
The magicians of this place welcomed them. The sorceries exclusive to the East were of sufficient research value.
White Night, in a corner of the Lake Kingdom, established her own magical research tower and devoted herself to continuing her tribe's research.
The research her tribe's sorcerers had conducted to reach the Outer Gods culminated in one clue: the origin of magic.
Originally, humans could not use magic. But someone brought the flame of magic from another realm and handed it to humanity.
And the Outer Gods were beings from that other realm...
The process by which magic was first transferred from another realm to humanity. Uncovering this would lead to a clue to reach those beings in the constellations.
White Night dedicated her life to this research.
...
However, before her lifelong research could reach its conclusion, White Night's life rapidly dwindled away.
Though she was an outstanding sorceress and magician, she was innately frail. And this was not unique to her among her tribe.
Before she even reached forty, all those who had escaped with her, including her father, had passed away, and she, left alone, suffered from various illnesses.
"Cough!"
Coughing up blood, White Night realized her death was near.
‘Don't make me laugh...’
With her dying body, White Night trembled with rage.
‘How can I close my eyes like this...!’
Far from reaching the Outer Gods, she hadn't even reached the final stage of her research. She couldn't die, not with such injustice.
So, White Night decided to resort to a taboo.
‘Lich.’
She resolved to become an undead.
Even as a corpse, she would complete her research.
One day - definitely one day. She would uncover the origin of magic, and reach the malevolence of another realm.
The magic to resurrect as an undead was hard to come by even in the Lake Kingdom.
After casting the hard-found Lich resurrection magic, White Night swallowed hard.
To use this spell, one must die once, and she had to die now while she still had the strength to cast magic.
In other words... she had to commit suicide.
‘For the sake of saving this world.’
White Night, trembling, held the tip of her staff, loaded with an offensive spell, to her temple.
"For the sake of not repeating the tragedy of our homeland, to cut down those devilish Outer Gods...!"
White Night tightly closed her eyes and used the charged magic.
Bang!
Blood splattered in all directions, and the magician's body fell forward.
And so, White Night died.
***
A half-rotted skull, with equally decayed eyelids, snapped open.
"Kuh...huk!"
Gasping for breath she no longer needed, White Night realized after sitting up.
She had become a body that no longer required breathing.
‘Did it... succeed?’
Barely able to lift her creaking body, White Night faced a dust-covered mirror.
Her half-decayed corpse was reflected back at her.
The Lich resurrection magic took time to resurrect. Despite having applied preservative magic to her body in advance, it seemed to have rotted anyway.
‘How much time... has passed?’
White Night, checking the hourglass magic she had set up beforehand to track the time after her resurrection, gasped in a breath she didn’t need.
‘10 years...?’
It had taken much longer than she had calculated, but she had managed to escape death.
Holding her tattered, rotten body together, White Night stood by the window of the tower, looking down to see the changes in the streets over the last 10 years.
"...?"
And then she noticed something strange.
Drip. Drip-drop.
It was raining.
But the color of the rain falling on the glass... was somehow odd.
‘What is this?’
White Night looked up at the sky, puzzled.
‘Black... rain?’
No. It wasn’t rain.
White Night's eyes widened in horror as she looked around.
Swoosh!
From outside the Lake Kingdom, a wave-like torrent of black water was pouring in. The overflowing lake water was engulfing the city.
The day White Night resurrected as a Lich was, ironically, the moment the Lake Kingdom was doomed to destruction.
***
Boom! Crash!
The levitation magic that kept the Lake Kingdom afloat above the lake stopped all at once.
Immediately, the entire city-kingdom that floated on the lake plummeted into the waters below. The massive city began to sink slowly.
The barrier erected around the outskirts of the Lake Kingdom activated, pushing back the flooding lake water, but it didn’t hold for long.
The entire city sank below the lake, barrier and all, and cracks appeared in the barrier under the water pressure. Then, the lake water started pouring into the city like a flood.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"
"What's happening?! How is this happening?!"
"Everyone, calm down! The royal magicians will soon resolve this...!"
The streets were in chaos.
People were screaming, running, or even in this situation, trying to reassure those around them, believing in the power of the royal family and the magical kingdom.
But the end that befell them all was the same.
The dark waters of the lake cascaded down like a bombardment.
The barrier shattered, and streams of water fell into the city, pushing from the outer areas to the inner regions.
Those caught in the current couldn’t even let out a proper scream before disappearing into the black waters.
And those who were still alive desperately rushed towards the inner city.
The inner city had its own high-performance barrier. Even as the black water rose from all sides, the barrier of the inner city was still holding strong.
People from the outside pounded on the gates of the inner city.
"Open up! Hurry!"
"Don't you see the water coming from behind?! We're all going to die!"
"Please save us, please! Save us..."
But the guards at the inner city checkpoint, even in this situation, did not open the gates. The captain of the guards shouted loudly.
"Even if the entire Lake Kingdom is submerged, we cannot allow those without permission into the inner city!"
"You insane bastards...!"
"Is permission the issue now?! Are you still concerned about ranks in this situation?"
"We're all going to die if this continues! Open the gate!"
Unable to wait any longer, the people pounding on the gate began to climb the inner city walls. Then, the captain of the guards fiercely commanded.
"Cut down those climbing the walls! No matter the emergency, we must follow the law! All shall be summarily judged! Summarily judged...!"
But the guards didn't need to use their weapons.
Before they could act, a wave reached the outside of the walls.
A monstrous wave with tremendous mass crashed in, and the many people filling the streets were swept away like sand, disappearing beneath the black water.
The captain of the guards, frozen in place, let out a hollow laugh.
"Ha, serves those non-citizens right..."
Crack. The sound of cracking.
The smile slowly faded from the captain's lips.
Cracks were slowly forming in the barrier surrounding the inner city.
And then, just a few seconds later.
Crash! The barrier of the inner city shattered, and the walls surrounding it were engulfed by the wave.
The inner city, where the royal family and nobles of the Lake Kingdom resided, was instantly swallowed by the black whirlpool.
The barrier, the guards, the nobles – the water made no distinctions, covering everything.
The whole Lake Kingdom was being swept away. Once the barrier magic of the inner and outer city completely failed, the city would be fully submerged.
"..."
Watching all this from the top of her tower, White Night, in shock, suddenly looked up.
There they were.
Below the completely submerged surface, replacing the sky, were those thousands of eyes.
The Outer Gods from another realm, watching as they had when her homeland was destroyed.
And below them -
"The wish has been granted."
There it was again.
"And this is the price."
The demon that granted wishes - the Demon King, with his shadow-like body and a white smile.
Looking down contentedly at the destruction of the Lake Kingdom.
Clench!
White Night gritted her teeth, her jawbone fully exposed.
"So... it's you again...!"
The tragedy of the underworld was a delightful game for those damned Outer Gods.
White Night trembled with rage and used her magic, her newly resurrected body creaking.
"I survived the fiery hell, and I will survive this watery hell too."
White Night poured all her magic power into casting a protective spell on the tower.
The torrent crashed against the tower. The tower shook violently, the protective magic was peeled off, bricks crumbled, and windows shattered.
Water poured into the tower. Drops splattered on the rotten skin of the newly resurrected lich.
But White Night gritted her teeth and repaired the tower. The tower, on the verge of collapse, somehow held on.
Roaring amidst the endlessly pouring black lake water, White Night declared.
"And I will surely reach the same height as you...!"
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/MattReading