Disciple And Master

“Ornis!”

Seeing the boy gripping her arm, Noi raised her voice.

“I won’t allow you to interfere.”

“Look at this! He—Kardia—means to take the Demon King with him and die himself!”

She had believed that if she told him that, Ornis would surely stop Kardia. Yet he kept clutching Noi’s arm hard.

“I know.”

Ornis’s fierce gaze was fixed on Kardia, still prone on the ground.

“—But I stayed by Master’s side for this very day.”

Stunned, Noi stared as Ornis’s face crumpled.

“…It’s cruel, isn’t it? He knew I would come. He did.”

Strength tightened in Ornis’s fingers.

“Master knew. He knew that I’d been searching all this time—for the moment I could kill the Demon King.”

His voice and body both trembled. That trembling proved his words were no lie.

“If the Demon King emerged while Master still lived—then the Demon King might possess Master’s knowledge. If such a Demon King were born, it would be the end of the world.”

The great “Horizon Mage” who had lived a hundred years—his craft and knowledge were the real thing.

“But if it emerged after Master’s death—innocent of such knowledge—then we mages might still have a chance to prevail.”

Noi drew a sharp breath.

A hundred years ago, the Demon King Noi defeated had seemed to hold little knowledge of magic. She had assumed it was because it had just been born—but perhaps that had been affected by how much knowledge Kardia then possessed.

If the Demon King’s power scaled with the vessel’s strength—then even when Kardia was a child, Noi could not purify it without staking her life. If Kardia had since become a mage worthy of the name “Horizon Mage,” then the resurrected Demon King would be utterly beyond human hands.

“So if the Demon King was about to be born—then I, watching at his side, was to kill Master.”

Ornis’s nails bit into Noi’s wrist. Blood dripping from his brow ran down his cheek like tears.

“The instant Master’s mana fell to zero, I was to kill him without fail.”

Watching Ornis, Noi suddenly started.

At some point, the circle Kardia had been weaving was complete.

The magic circle began to glow.

“Stop, Kardia—!”

To complete his own spell, Ornis let go of Noi’s hand.

—and the magic should have activated.

But it was Kardia who reached his limit first.

Rushing to him, Noi lifted his burning, strengthless body—and gasped. Up to the pair of moles beneath his eyes, a black pupa-like shell had spread across his skin.

“—Ornis. One last favor.”

The lips that shaped that ragged whisper were no longer those of the Kardia Noi knew.

“Get Noi—out.”

His vacant eyes surely saw nothing now. Even so, Kardia turned toward the direction of Noi’s voice.

From those lightless eyes, a single tear fell.

“—Ah… you were the only one—I never wanted to see me like this.”

In that instant, black miasma shrouded Kardia’s body.