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Judging by the lack of a tribal mark, it seemed to be a male orc that had been driven out of its band.
A look of irritation settled over Gedenhide’s face.
“Who are you, to dare set foot in Lord Verkis’s domain?”
“Chwiik. L-Lord Verkis, who might that be……”
The wandering orc bowed his head with a bewildered expression. No matter how belligerent an orc might be,
none would dare act rashly before a lich. Seeing at a glance that this was clearly a young orc who had not been properly educated,
Gedenhide soon erased his wariness.
“This is the domain of Lord Verkis, the Red Dragon. Since it seems you did not know, I will not take issue with it.
Therefore, leave this place at once.”
At the words Red Dragon, fear rose on the orc’s face. Seeing him tremble in terror,
it seemed he could not even bring himself to answer. Satisfied by that sight,
Gedenhide immediately ordered the liches under his command to depart.
“We move out.”
In truth, merely intruding upon this place was a crime deserving death, but Gedenhide decided to forgive the wandering
orc and let him go. It was because they would soon ally with the orc race to conquer Arcadia
that he was showing a mercy quite unlike himself. Without even listening for the wandering orc’s reply,
he launched himself into the air. Because of that, Gedenhide failed to see the cold, eerie glint
that flashed through the orc’s eyes.
“What? It’s completely collapsed, isn’t it?”
Upon arriving at his destination, Gedenhide felt all the strength drain from him. It appeared to be a cave,
but at present it had completely caved in. There was no doubt this was the place Verkis had indicated.
But when he thought of digging through the collapsed cave to enter, he could not even begin to imagine doing it.
Yet for Gedenhide, this was something he had no choice but to do. He had been charged with confirming the enemy’s annihilation,
and also with retrieving the treasures, including the treasured sword Leherte Saber.
In the end, Gedenhide gave an order to his subordinates.
“All of you, cast lightening magic. There is no choice but to make the rocks lighter and remove them.”
Naturally, there was no way beings known as liches possessed physical strength. Their terror lay solely
in high-ranking magic, and in terms of pure strength, liches did not even reach the level of ordinary men.
Thus the liches busily began casting. Only by casting magic to lighten the boulders
would they barely be able to lift and move them.
However, because of a sudden turn of events, the lightening magic could not be deployed. One lich, sensing something strange,
turned his head and froze on the spot.
“L-Lord Verkis.”
Startled by that voice, Gedenhide turned his head as well, his eyes nearly tearing wide open. There,
their master, who should have been in his lair, stood blankly as though he had been there from the beginning.
Verkis’s face was filled with an incomprehensible expression. Of course, that expression was visible
because he had polymorphed into human form. Though somewhat flustered, Gedenhide regained his composure
and hurriedly approached him.
“This place had already collapsed before we arrived. We were about to move the rocks……”
“Step aside.”
Verkis cut off Gedenhide’s words coldly and stepped forward. At the command,
the liches all withdrew to the sides. Verkis’s command was, quite literally,
law to them. Even if that path led to death, they had to obey it……
Standing before the pile of fallen stones, Verkis lightly raised his hand. For an instant, a sphere of light seemed to form
in his palm, and then an astonishing thing happened.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa.
The boulders that made up the heap began to soar all at once, as though they had turned into balloons.
The rocks rose high into the sky at a terrifying speed. Along with that, the interior scene of the collapsed cave
was revealed in clear detail. As if there was no need to think any further, Verkis strode forward.
Behind him, the rocks that had flown upward began to fall one by one.
Kwa-kwang.
Because of the boulders bursting down with thunderous roars, the liches had no choice but to scatter and dodge.
Gedenhide, too, had to hastily cast magic and turn one boulder plunging toward him
into powder. He looked unsightly, covered entirely in shattered rock dust,
but Gedenhide hurried over to Verkis.
Verkis was already standing at what seemed to be the very center of the cave, looking down.
Even though all the boulders had been cleared away, the cave looked as if a storm had swept through it.
The stone altar that had stood in the center was so destroyed that it could barely retain its form,
and even the bookshelves along the walls would have been impossible to identify if not for the splinters of wood scattered across the floor.
Since the largest furnishings were in such a state, the rest went without saying.
Verkis glared sharply over every inch of them. After observing intently, he soon found
what he had been seeking.
“There it is.”
There, a torn strip of robe about two handspans long was buried beneath a stone. At a glance,
it was of the same material as the robes the liches wore. Verkis turned his head
and looked at Gedenhide. His gaze seemed to be issuing an order.
“Understood.”
Receiving Verkis’s glance, Gedenhide quickly approached the spot. Using magic, he removed the stones
with extreme caution. Then, beneath the strip of robe, a very small amount of finely ground bone powder
appeared. Of course, Gedenhide knew very well what it was.
It was what liches who had failed to carry out Verkis’s orders commonly left behind……
Gedenhide scooped up a handful of the bone powder and lifted it, spreading it out for Verkis to see.
“Judging from the situation, it seems certain that he was annihilated.”
It was a situation one could call nearly certain, yet only a strange expression hovered
on Verkis’s face. In one sense, he seemed immersed in grief; in another, he seemed consumed by extreme rage—
a complex expression. At a loss for what to do, Gedenhide waited for his command.
A moment later, Verkis’s subdued voice was heard.
“Zikrate was defeated by him.”
A very brief statement. Yet the ripples caused by those words were truly enormous……
Gedenhide and the other liches were so shocked by those words that their hearts nearly leapt out. It was only natural,
for there had never been a precedent of a dragon being defeated by a lich.
Most of the liches reacted as though they simply could not believe it. Even Gedenhide
was no different.
“S-Surely not……”
The light in Verkis’s eyes deepened.
“Do you dare doubt my words?”
“N-No, my lord. Please forgive me.”
Gedenhide turned deathly pale and bowed his head. Looking down at his bent back,
Verkis continued speaking in a dry voice.
“Zikrate lost his life after his Dragon Heart was taken. Incresia has also fallen into his hands.
I do not know the detailed circumstances, but I can assert that this is the truth.”
“H-Heavens……”
Gedenhide’s mouth fell open. That there existed a lich capable of killing a dragon single-handedly
was something he had truly never heard of before. Even ten liches of the same Circle as himself
could not accomplish such a thing. It was due to the nature of magic, where no matter how great the numbers,
a lower Circle could not handle a higher Circle. The reason he himself had been wretchedly defeated
by that fellow Damon was precisely because of that. And yet such a thing had happened……
Gedenhide simply could not believe it. What he also could not understand was
the theft of the magical treasury, Incresia. Having delivered treasures to Zikrate several times already,
he knew very well what kind of object Incresia was. A perfect treasury that could not be taken
even by a god without Zikrate’s consent. And yet that fellow Damon had taken it……
Verkis, who was looking at him, let his eyes shine.
“He has not been annihilated. The reason is that I am one of the dragons who created Incresia.
If Incresia’s owner dies, it automatically takes the next dragon in line as its new master.
Therefore, if he had been annihilated, by rights it should have come to me.
But Incresia did not come. That proves that he is still alive.”
Because of the shock, Gedenhide had still not regained his senses. But Verkis,
regardless of whether he was listening or not, continued speaking.
“After confirming Zikrate’s death, I deployed detection magic across all of Truvenia.
So that even spatial movement carried out over the shortest distance could be sensed. But he was not caught.
Judging by that, it is certain at the very least that he did not flee by spatial movement.”
Having finished speaking, Verkis strode toward the altar in the center of the cave.
He intended to summon a gnome, a spirit of the earth, and ask what exactly had happened here.
Ssssss.
As it was the summons of an Ancient-class dragon, the earth spirit appeared in an instant.
A gnome in the form of a transparent boy with no lower body appeared and bowed respectfully to Verkis.
“You called, Lord Verkis? It has been a very long time.”
“From now on, you will report to me everything that happened here without omission.
Everything, to the very limit of what you can remember.”
“Understood.”
Since this was an order from Verkis, who was notorious for his vile temper, the gnome did not dare refuse
and answered at once. If, by any chance, he offended Verkis’s temper,
there was a danger he would be annihilated on the spot.
The gnome diligently began reviving the memories of the earth. He was extracting and reconstructing
the memories of the rocks and soil regarding what had happened here a short while ago.
This was something only a gnome could do, and if not for the command of an Ancient-class dragon,
he would not have accepted it under any circumstances. The task was that vast,
and that difficult. A little while later, having completed the task, the gnome began relaying
what he had learned to Verkis.
“I shall report. Originally, there was one human lying in this cave. He was a human who was neither dead
nor could be said to be alive, and I do not know since when he had existed here.
That is because the memories of stone and rock are difficult to preserve beyond a single day.”
“Good. What happened after that?”
“Yes. Approximately two hours ago, a lich wearing a robe torn to shreds appeared through spatial movement.
The lich appeared through a magic circle that had been drawn in advance, then immediately began some strange work.
What was odd was that the lich, while absorbed in the work, intermittently suffered pain.
I do not know the details, but I remember that he seemed to be in considerable agony.
In the end, the lich’s entire body crumbled away. And what was astonishing was that the human lying like a corpse
rose to his feet at the very moment the lich was annihilated.”
Hearing those words, Verkis was greatly astonished. If the gnome’s words were true,
then it was truly an astounding matter. It meant that the lich’s soul had been transferred into the human.
Soul Exchange. It was an ability even Verkis could not perform,
something that could only be considered the authority of a god or a demon king.
And yet a mere lich had carried it out; it was utterly unbelievable. But an earth spirit
could never tell a lie. As Verkis saw it, he had no choice but to believe the gnome’s words.
“Then how did he act afterward?”
“After that, the human left this place without hesitation. What was astonishing was that when he exited the cave,
the human’s appearance had changed completely.”
“How had it changed?”
“Surprisingly, he had the unmistakable appearance of an orc. It seems he used Polymorph.”
Although he had revived the imprecise memories of stone, the gnome described the situation that had occurred inside the cave
with relative accuracy. After hearing everything, Verkis let out a sigh and sent the gnome back.
“I offer boundless thanks for your assistance. You shall receive fitting compensation hereafter.”
"No. It was an honor to be of help to you, Lord Verkis."
The gnome vanished, leaving behind a faint smile. Without even watching him disappear,
Verkis turned his head. A terrifying glare blazed in his eyes as it shot
forth.
"From this moment on, we find him. Mobilize every lich guarding the lair if you must. By any
means necessary, capture the one polymorphed into an orc and bring him to me."
As Verkis finished speaking, bewilderment clouded his eyes. It was because Gedenhide's
response, which should have come at once, was absent. Looking closely, he saw that Gedenhide was terribly restless.
He looked as though he had committed some grave sin, and Verkis roared at him.
"What is it, Gedenhide?"
Gedenhide bowed his head deeply and answered in a voice that seemed to crawl into the ground.
"To tell the truth, on my way here, I saw an orc. He looked like a wanderer,
and judging from the situation, I believe it was almost certainly him."
As expected, Verkis unleashed his fury upon Gedenhide like a thunderbolt.
"You fool. To let him slip away while standing there with both eyes open... Wait. There is no time
for this."
Burning with impatience, Verkis gave orders directly to the liches.
"All of you, scatter and begin the search at once. Remember, you must capture him alive
without fail. Wait—he is already a master of the 9th Circle, so he will be too much for you.
In that case, your first priority is to determine his location. If you discover a wandering orc,
cast detection magic from a distance, and if you sense any trace of magic, notify me
immediately. Understood?"
Since there were more than a few wandering orcs roaming Truvenia, Verkis's order
seemed reasonable at first glance. The liches acknowledged it without complaint.
"Understood."
"He will most likely cross over to Arcadia. Therefore, focus your search on the roads
leading west."
"We shall carry out your supreme command without fail."
The liches answered loudly and scattered in all directions in an instant. Some rose into the air
with flight magic, while others teleported to key crossroads. Gedenhide warped back to the
lair to summon every lich on guard duty. Every lich serving as Verkis's guardian
had been mobilized for the search. Because of that, Verkis was confident the man would be caught
before long.
"I am already detecting all of Truvenia. Thus, if he teleports,
his coordinates will be identified at once. He can never escape my grasp. Even if he goes on foot,
he will not be able to avoid the eyes and ears of the liches, so he is already a rat in a trap."
As Verkis murmured in a low voice, a strange thought suddenly occurred to him. It was because of
the technique that fellow Damon had used.
"I cannot help but wonder what kind of technique it was."
In truth, that was why Verkis had resolved to capture him alive rather than kill him.
Aside from having to retrieve Incresia from him, Verkis also wanted to learn in detail
about the technique he had used. To a dragon pursuing the limits of magic, a new
technique was, quite literally, an irresistible temptation.
"I had thought that only gods and demon kings could exchange souls, but common sense
has been shattered without mercy. Just what method did he use?"
As Verkis tilted his head, his thoughts finally reached the fact that the man was a being who had crossed over
from another world.
"I see. Perhaps it is a technique from the place where he lived. That may be
why Zicrate was defeated as well. One cannot help but be vulnerable to techniques one has never experienced..."
Thinking this and that, Verkis waited endlessly for a report to arrive. Wherever traces of magic
could be sensed, the liches would search without omission; since he had polymorphed into an orc,
his trail was certain to be uncovered before long.
Even if he had returned to his human form, it would be the same—he would not be able to escape. As long as he could not
use teleportation, there was no way for him to avoid the watchful eyes of the liches glaring fiercely
from the sky or from the roads.
And so, Verkis waited in a relatively relaxed state of mind for the liches' report
that they had found him. However, it never occurred to him that the man had changed his appearance
through some means other than magic.