– We will meet soon.
When it started, she couldn’t say for sure.
Since childhood, Eleanor had been exposed to the will of a certain existence.
Sometimes it appeared to her like written words, other times it sounded like a voice.
Yet Eleanor had no way of identifying who or what that existence was.
When it felt like writing, she couldn’t discern the handwriting.
Was it bold and vigorous strokes?
Or was it delicate and refined?
The same was true when it seemed like a voice.
Was it a woman, or a man?
A child, or an elder?
There was nothing she could determine about it.
Only one person knew anything about this phenomenon.
Her adoptive father, the man who had taken her in when she was abandoned as a child.
The pope of the Ariklotus Church once said to her:
– You don’t know who it is? Is that why you’re afraid?
At those words, he fell into deep thought for a moment.
– There’s one way to stop hearing that voice. It’ll be a bit of a bother for you. Even so, will you do it?
Eleanor, who was still young at the time, nodded her head.
Her adoptive father had then blindfolded her eyes with a black bandage he had brought from somewhere.
– Eyes, you see, are what let you perceive where you are and what you’re doing. That existence inside you is likely using your eyes to understand where you are as well. So if you cover your eyes, that being won’t be able to know where you are either.
At first, the blindfold had been uncomfortable.
But gradually, she grew used to it, and the frequency of the voice’s appearances noticeably decreased.
How long has it been since I last heard that voice?
Her consciousness began to surface.
The memories of her childhood faded quickly as she approached the present moment.
It felt as though she were leaping up several steps of the staircase of time all at once.
And the last memory that surfaced was—
– Eleanor!
It had been the old man’s voice. She remembered hearing him call out to her.
And now—
Crack!
With the sound of sparks flying, Eleanor’s eyes flew open wide.
Her vision remained entirely black.
But even before she could fully register that, she became keenly aware of her surroundings.
The smell of a decaying wooden structure.
The warmth wrapping around her skin.
The sound of firewood crackling and spitting embers.
And finally—
The sea.
Though she had never seen the sea in her life, she felt certain that if the sea she had only ever heard about were before her, it would appear like this.
She sensed a sea of pure magical power.
Eleanor turned her head immediately in the direction where that sea was spread out.
“You.”
“You woke up in quite the dramatic fashion.”
A voice she had heard a few times before reached her ears.
Even with her naturally sharp memory, she thought she would never forget that voice.
“Ah, Priestess, you’ve woken up!”
At the unfamiliar voice, she turned her gaze in that direction.
There, a mountain stretched before her in shades of red.
Its presence was still faint, but upon closer inspection, it was a mountain formed entirely of countless corpses.
The origin of such karma would have to be traced back hundreds of years.
“Aiden, take some porridge over there.”
“Yes!”
“Here it is.”
Again.
Another unfamiliar voice came from near the fire.
It was a voice devoid of much emotion.
She turned toward it as well, and there too, she sensed karma.
However, it wasn’t just a single karma.
Dozens, hundreds, even thousands of karmic threads were tangled together, and they formed a huge intricate knot.
For now, it was tightly bound, but if it were ever to unravel—
Would the owner of that voice be able to withstand it?
“Hmm.”
She shook her head.
In one place, three peculiar souls had gathered.
No, perhaps it’s four.
After all, her own karma was unlikely to be ordinary either.
Eleanor accepted the plate that had been brought to her.
It radiated warmth.
“Why am I here?”
“We have no idea. We just followed the traces and found you lying here.”
“…What about the others?”
“There were unconscious crusaders.”
“Did they follow the old man?”
“The old man. Do you mean that hulking paladin from before?”
“That’s right.”
“I’d like to hear exactly what happened.”
“..…”
Eleanor fell silent for a moment.
There was so much she wanted to say, but she couldn’t quite figure out where to begin.
Jun broke the silence first.
“Did the sealing ritual fail?”
“Yes… I suppose starting there makes sense. To get straight to the point, yes, it failed.”
“That doesn’t sound like a complete failure, though.”
“The total solar eclipse hasn’t occurred yet.”
At her words, Jun glanced out the window and spoke calmly.
“Cutting it close, aren’t we? Two days at most?”
“Can you predict that?”
“Just… I know a few things.”
Eleanor wondered how a mere silver-ranked mage could accurately predict the timing of a solar eclipse, but she didn’t bother to ask.
He didn’t seem like an ordinary person from the first time she met him.
“So, I’ll need to hear the details. A ritual falling apart wouldn’t be enough to make crusaders run wild like that.”
Crusaders, of all people.
While they weren’t as attuned to divine power as priests or paladins, they still carried it.
For such individuals to succumb to corruption wasn’t something that happened easily.
“…The Holy Grail was corrupted. It all happened in an instant.”
The sealing ritual was performed by five high priests, including Eleanor, and supervised by a bishop.
A key component of the process was the “Holy Grail”, one of the sacred relics of the Ariklotus Church.
“Ah, that.”
Jun nodded his head knowingly at that.
It felt as if he had understood something.
“Do you know about the Holy Grail?”
“More or less.”
The Holy Grail was connected to Ariklotus and had the power to constantly absorb and emit divine power.
Five high priests channeled their magic into the Holy Grail, which the bishop then absorbed.
The bishop would use this immense divine power to conduct the sealing ritual for the five named beings aligned with the ritual.
That was the procedure for the sealing ritual.
“But then, something went wrong with the Holy Grail. At some point, it started emitting demonic energy.”
The divine power infused into it had turned into demonic energy.
As a result, the souls of the high priests suffered immense damage. The same went for Eleanor.
Eleanor managed to endure it, but the other four high priests collapsed immediately.
“Only the bishop was left.”
But even the bishop couldn’t hold out for long. Realizing something was wrong, he tried desperately to block the demonic energy flowing from the Grail.
“Judging by the result, I guess he failed.”
“…Yeah, he failed.”
Demonic energy corrupted the divine power in an instant, filling the entire camp.
“And all the clergy present were contaminated?”
“Mhmm.”
Jun let out a deep sigh, as if from the bottom of his chest.
“Why does it feel like I always end up in the worst situations?”
Eleanor felt a pang of guilt for no reason when she heard his lament.
Come to think of it, it was the same during the conquest battle and again during our last meeting.
Even then, Jun had fought in a grueling battle.
For some reason, his soul’s presence seemed to have grown since then. Perhaps he had faced even greater ordeals afterward.
“Phew… you went to all the trouble of coming here, and this is the situation. Sorry about this.”
Eleanor apologized sincerely.
The reason she had called Jun was because of the staff.
The End of Sorrow.
She had hoped that unraveling the secrets of that staff might also reveal the truth about her own origins.
And perhaps the identity of the being who had spoken to her since childhood.
“Well, it can’t be helped.”
Fortunately, the mage quickly grasped the situation.
Now, all that remained was to descend the hierarchy.
Logically speaking, Jun neither had a method to resolve this issue nor a reason to do so.
In fact, it would be wiser for him to descend to the lower levels as soon as possible and report this situation to the Church.
Preparations would also need to be made on the surface.
Since the sealing ritual had failed, it wouldn’t be long before the five named beings were released and began killing and devouring one another.
A Dimension Reverse would occur.
Stopping it was far beyond the abilities of the mere four people gathered here.
“Continue with the escort mission as planned. Descend to the lower levels and report this situation…”
“What are you talking about?”
“Huh?”
Eleanor’s expression turned bewildered at Jun’s response.
She couldn’t fully grasp his words, just as she hadn’t been able to understand the cryptic voice that had spoken to her so often before.
“What about your church people?”
“That’s…”
There was no way to handle it. At the very least, as long as the demonic energy was being dispersed, the undead would not attack.
All they could do was hope the church would resolve the issue.
Of course, Eleanor could not feel at ease. The old man was there.
He was the person she had relied on for half her life.
But if she were to die here as well, the catastrophe that occurred fifty years ago would be repeated.
As a priest devoted to her god, she could not allow that to happen.
However, Jun continued speaking without concern.
“They probably won’t last long.”
“What do you mean?”
“The divine power is still protecting their brains for now. But divine power isn’t infinite, is it?”
At most, three days. At worst, some of them would be entirely consumed by the demonic energy within two days.
“So,”
The man who was holding a huge sea of magical power said.
“There’s still a way to turn the situation around.”
***
Jun thought back to the crusaders he had seen earlier.
If their brains had been completely overtaken by the demonic energy, then—
They should have become undead.
Yet they had clearly been holding swords, and more importantly, they had succumbed to [Sleep].
This meant their brains were still functioning normally.
“That may be true, but…”
“The Holy Grail that is said to be tainted with demonic energy. If we can purify it, won’t these people return to normal?”
“Probably.”
But it wouldn’t be an easy task.
The area around the base camp would be guarded by crusaders.
Among them would certainly be some higher-ranking paladins, including the old man Bern.
“With just the four of us, it’ll be too much to handle.”
“It’s true. With only four people, it’d be difficult.”
They were paladins. Even ordinary knights were challenging to face, and for the current Aiden and Maya, dealing with paladins fighting at full strength would be impossible.
At best, they could handle one.
But then—
“There’s a way.”
“A way?”
“Just wait a moment.”
With that, Jun left with Aiden and they both stepped outside.
Before long, a shift in magical power could be felt nearby.
“These people…”
“They were wandering around the area.”
He brought back three crusaders.
They were ones he had put to sleep using [Sleep], but now their “bodies” had reawakened and begun roaming the vicinity.
However, their minds were all in a deep sleep right now.
“Try healing them with divine power.”
“Alright.”
At his suggestion, Eleanor summoned her divine power.
A holy golden light emanated from her hands, gently enveloping the crusaders.
Minutes passed.
Eleanor who was now drenched in cold sweat let out a sigh of frustration.
“…It’s no use.”
The demonic energy embedded in the crusaders’ bodies was no ordinary demonic energy.
Perhaps because it had mixed with the Holy Grail, which absorbed and emitted divine power, the two opposing forces, which should have repelled each other like water and oil, had fused together perfectly.
Separating this would take at least a day or two.
If even the crusaders were like this, how much more dangerous would the paladins be?
“Hmm. As expected, it’s not working.”
But Jun muttered as if he had anticipated this and adjusted the bracelet on his wrist.
At that moment, a black void appeared before his hand.
“Spatial item?”
It was an item not easily obtained.
And it wasn’t just a pouch but a bracelet-shaped one at that.
“I have an idea.”
After he said so, Jun reached into the black void and pulled out a metallic case.
“There aren’t many of these, so I’ll show you just once.”
Inside were ten gray gemstones.
They looked like teardrops.
However, the moment Eleanor sensed their energy—
“Ah…”
She felt her breath catch as if something were choking her.
The energy emanating from them felt like death itself.
No, to be more precise.
Something inside her, the presence that had lived within her for her entire life, was recoiling.
It was a first for her, and the unfamiliar experience left Eleanor tense.
Jun noticed the beads of cold sweat forming on her forehead and gave a small nod.
It’ll work, without a doubt.
Without hesitation, Jun picked up one of the ten gemstones and swallowed it.
“Mmm…”
Jun closed his eyes for a moment and focused inward, and soon his body began to change.
“Huh, Senior?”
What kind of magic would he show this time? Aiden watched Jun with eyes full of anticipation.
“That’s…”
As gray particles began to slowly emanate from Jun’s body, Eleanor gasped again at the sight.
“…Noisy.”
Finally, Maya covered her ears as if something was irritating her. The ancestral spirits dwelling within her were screaming and shouting in anger.
They urged Maya to distance herself from Jun immediately.
Jun, after observing the reactions of Eleanor and Maya, gave a nod.
“It’s working perfectly.”
The Tears That Kill Death obtained from the Witch’s Forest.
Spirit Destroying Tears.
The moment had come for that recipe to shine.
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