Me and Avril were heading to the throne room to settle things with the Empire.

''Lord have you been here once?''
Why?
I thought it was a pretty straightforward move for a castle this complicated.
'Well let me answer that I've been to similar places before,'

　Avril had a strange look on her face at my answer.

　Of course, this is the first time I've been to this castle.

　But I've been to Shenoubeil Castle a thousand years ago many times.
　The structure of the castle was much the same as it was then.

'I'm almost to the royal family, Avril. What's the matter, the cloaking magic formula is crumbling?
''As expected, such a long period of highly accurate cloaking magic is tiring...''
What do you mean? You need to keep him alive for six months to get him to talk.
Not by your standards!
It was a joke.

　Well, there's nothing I wouldn't be able to do if I wanted to.

　But still........not much has changed in a thousand years.
　A thousand years ago, the empire was destroyed by the Anii, but Shenoubeil Castle was the only thing that wasn't destroyed.
　It has been repaired several times, but it has been left intact to the present day.

'Alright, here we are. The throne room.

　In front of a certain door, we stopped.

　It's time to take off this heavy armor........
　I take off my armor and put on my concealment magic again.

'Shall we get in right away?'
Wait. There's someone in there. Let's go have a look.

　Then he used his clairvoyant magic, and a vague picture of what was inside appeared in his mind.

　He also connected with Avril's magic power so that he could show her the same image.


''--The time is finally full.''


　Inside is a man.

　In the throne room, there are two grand chairs at the back. Would this be the place where the king and princess would sit?
　But ... despite this situation, there was no one sitting on the throne.
　Instead, an eerie, black-painted coffin was placed there as if it were sitting there.

''You've got some pretty bad taste,''

　No it's not just a decoration?
　As it is, I tried to use my magic to look inside the coffin but it is magically locked and I can't see it.
　As expected, it's difficult to see through twice.
　Well, if you forcibly pour your magic power into it, there's no reason you can't see it, but the other party might notice it.
　Is it a good idea to wait and see a little more?

''I made it in time. With this, I can destroy the one who reincarnated.''

　His tone of voice seems to be one of amusement.
　The man stands in front of a large window and continues.

　Ah, my longing is about to be fulfilled.
　As luck would have it, it's a full moon tonight.
　The heavens are on my side.

What do you have to say for yourself?
I don't know.

　I don't know what the guy is talking about, but he's been waiting for this day.
　But that's how long they've been waiting for this day.

...to boot.

　The man raised his hand.
　Then a light was emitted from the magic circle around it.

''Kurt........!　This!

　Avril's body is shaking.

　Hmm. It's an enormous amount of magical power.
　Avril must have sensed it and is probably terrified.

'That coffin.......soul?　Is that soul about to be transformed into magic?

　The coffins for two people were placed on the throne.
　Red and blue light emanated from there as well.
　The souls were being pulled towards the man's hands.

''Ah!　This brings us all together as one!　That's how I will have the power to defeat Ya(¦)ts!

　The light was converging to a point.
　The magic was about to be activated at any moment.
　It's a magical formula I've never seen before.

　However.


You can't just activate it silently.


　The light magic Atonement Shine is activated against the man on the other side of the door.

　Seven colored mirrors appear from all sides of the man.
　It became a launching pad for arrows of light, which were fired one after another at the man.

''Avril!''
Yeah, I know!

　Then we unlocked our cloaking magic and kicked the door open.

'Fire Spear!'

　In the midst of the unstoppable attack of arrows of light, Avril released a fire spear without a pause.
　All of it was aimed at the man.

　However.


''I've been waiting for you, hetero(-)end(-)man. You've done some interesting things to interfere with my noble magic.


　Even under the onslaught of magic, the man didn't allow a single direct hit thanks to the warding magic deployed around him.

''Mm. I don't know what kind of magic you were trying to use, though.

　Feeling that it's useless to do this anymore, I cut off the magic power I supply to the Atonement Shine.

''How can you be that high and mighty after being stopped from activating it?
I've been predicting this kind of future for 1-0-0-0-0 years now.

　The man turned his amber eyes and said in a calming voice.

'However. You're still caught off guard, which is a bad habit of yours. My magic is....''
Hmm?

　Snapping my fingers, I continued.

'It's not over yet.'

　

''Gu, guaaaaaah!　What the hell does that mean?　Atonement Shine should have been able to stop the supply of magic and not be able to create arrows of light...!

　A man is pierced in the chest by the light.
　He spits blood from his mouth and kneels on the floor.

'Sure, normally that would be the case. But ... do you think the magic I created is such that it would stop an attack when the magic is gone?
Well, you're not...　You've given a magic formula a 'will'?　You've perfected a magic that will continue to work semi-permanently even if you stop supplying magic power...!　Phew!

　From behind the kneeling man, arrows of light were fired mercilessly from behind him.
　However, the man immediately breaks the mirror that serves as the arrow's launching pad for the fire spear and stops the magic from starting this time.
　Hmm. I have to do this much, it's too anticlimactic.

''Now, let's get this over with, shall we?

　Taking a step towards the man, I spoke the name.


'A thousand years ago, the demon god who destroyed the empire--Fombasque.