Old Chapel

After hearing from Elder Mon about the wall from which demonic qi was blowing out, the king called the palace soldiers and ordered them to break down that wall. Hearing the news, Prince Lianghong rushed over. Prince Lianghong turned his eyes toward the soldiers breaking the wall.

“Elder Mon, have you found the place where demonic qi has accumulated?”

“Not yet, but we have obtained a clue. Demonic qi is gushing out from this wall. Prince, please do not come closer.”

The soldiers used pickaxes and large hammers to break the wall, and stairs became visible behind that wall.

“So this was not the lowest floor?”

“That is absurd.”

Prince Lianghong was surprised by the fact that there were stairs.

“Kou and I will go down.”

When Elder Mon said that, Prince Lianghong grimaced.

“Would it not be better to wait for Lord Kanru?”

Elder Mon shook her head.

“If it is beyond us, we will come back.”

Elder Mon and I descended the stairs. Dust had piled up, and the air felt stagnant. It grew darker the farther down we went, so I lit the candle in the candlestick I had borrowed from a soldier.

There was a passage at the bottom of the stairs, and I took the lead as we proceeded.

“What could this place be?”

Elder Mon voiced her question.

“It seems the royal family did not know about it either.”

From Prince Lianghong’s reaction, I could tell that he had not known there were stairs behind the wall.

“Yes, Prince Lianghong seemed to think there was only one underground floor.”

We found a small room. When we investigated that room, there were paintings drawn on the walls.

“These are not from the Fang Kingdom.”

They were paintings of many people hunting. Those people wore round hats on their heads, and they seemed different from the Lishin people, the common ethnic group of the Fang Kingdom.

The Lishin people were an agricultural people, and the people depicted in these paintings seemed to be a hunting people. There were also paintings of them praying to a god.

“This resembles the northern Talua people.”

The Talua people Elder Mon mentioned were a people who lived in a country called Tatarai, far to the north of the Fang Kingdom. The Tatarai people were an equestrian people who repeatedly expanded and contracted.

Perhaps when they expanded their territory, they extended their domain as far as this place where the Fang Kingdom was now located.

“Given that there are paintings like this, it may have been something like a chapel of the Talua people.”

“So they built a castle on top of it?”

“Building a castle on top of an important facility of an enemy may have had political meaning.”

When I heard that, I thought, “I see.”

The room with the paintings was not the place where demonic qi had accumulated, so we moved on. Then I felt the demonic qi grow denser. And then we arrived at a large room.

There was something like an altar there, and something had been placed on that altar. Dense demonic qi seemed to be welling up from that something. Because of that, I began to feel sick.

“Kou, refine your qi and repel the demonic qi.”

“Understood.”

This was the first time I had encountered demonic qi this dense. That dense demonic qi clung to my body and tried to invade me. I refined my qi so that I would not allow the demonic qi to enter.

“Let us examine that.”

Elder Mon approached the altar and observed the thing that was generating demonic qi from close range. It was dried and looked like dried food, but there was no doubt that it was a lump of some kind of meat.

“T-this is an Evil Heart.”

According to Elder Mon, if the heart of a powerful yōma was processed by a special method, it became a treasure tool called an Evil Heart that generated demonic qi. Elder Mon specialized in alchemy, so she was not well versed in making treasure tools. Even so, the Evil Heart was famous, so she apparently knew about it.

Elder Mon’s expression had turned grim. This Evil Heart was not that old. In other words, it meant that someone had placed the Evil Heart here recently.

If the Evil Heart had been left here like this, the demonic qi seeping out through the wall might have created many ogre demons. Hm? But why did that palace maid become an ogre demon? The demonic qi seeping out through the wall had not yet reached a concentration high enough to create an ogre demon.

“What should we do with this Evil Heart?”

When I asked, Elder Mon thought for a moment before answering.

“Let me see. Perhaps it would be best to take it outside and burn it. But touching it barehanded is dangerous, so let us prepare a container.”

At that moment, I sensed something approaching.

“Don’t touch that.”

When I turned my face toward the voice, one ogre demon was standing there. Its upturned eyes and mouth split all the way to its cheeks made its appearance resemble a demon mask, and it was definitely an ogre demon. However, the new ogre demon was larger. This ogre demon might be male.

“Elder Mon, please go upstairs and call Senior Brother Kanru or Senior Brother Daaren.”

“Will you be all right alone?”

“I think I can at least buy time.”

“Do your best.”

Elder Mon returned upstairs. Left behind, I placed the candle on the floor, readied my Lightning Spike Hammer, and faced the ogre demon.

“Where did you come in from?”

“Shut up, die.”

The ogre demon was holding a sword. My weapon was the Lightning Spike Hammer, so I had to leap into its chest and attack. I began flowing Floating Yang Qi through my yang meridians and Heavy Yin Qi through my yin meridians, then manipulated the Floating Yang Qi and entered the state of Moment of Foam.

The next instant, the ogre demon kicked off the floor with a thud and leapt toward me. The ogre demon’s sword extended toward my neck. I dodged by a hair’s breadth and tried to slam the Lightning Spike Hammer into the ogre demon’s side.

The ogre demon jumped backward. It was fast. Disliking the distance being opened, I jumped after the ogre demon. Noticing that, the ogre demon swung its sword in midair. I drew the black steel dagger tucked behind my waist and blocked the sword. However, the ogre demon had put tremendous strength into it, and it took everything I had just to keep holding onto the black steel dagger without letting go, while my whole body was blown away.

“Guh.”

I was slammed into the ground and rolled over and over. The taste of blood spread through my mouth. My shoulder also hurt intensely. It might even have cracked. Then the ogre demon jumped in and swung its sword down.