“I-I am sorry.”
“Well, there is nothing to apologize for. In any case, we have come this far. Then let us hear this plan you say you devised. Just what sort of plan was it that drove eighty thousand lives into the jaws of death?”
At Damon’s frost-edged rebuke, Shrekheimer broke into a cold sweat and began to explain.
“Have you perhaps heard of the existence known as a Saintess?”
Of course, there was no way Damon would know anything about Saintesses. Even in Truvenia, it was a name that had long since been forgotten.
“As you know, we priests serve the role of conveying the will of the Lord God Berhazel to the people. Naturally, there must also be those who, in turn, convey the wishes of mankind to Lord Berhazel. Since ancient times, that role has been undertaken by beings known as Saintesses. Their duty is to selflessly deliver to Lord Berhazel the hopes and desires of humans who wish to rely upon God.”
Facts about the Saintess flowed smoothly from Shrekheimer’s mouth. His eloquence in explaining things clearly was just as it had been in the past. Having grasped the general nature of what a Saintess was, Damon nodded.
“Very well. Let us say a Saintess is such a being. But why bring up a Saintess who has already vanished from Truvenia?”
“The Saintess has not vanished.”
“Hm? Did you not just say so yourself? That because of the War of Darkness, the existence known as the Saintess could no longer be found in Truvenia…”
Seeing Damon ask back with widened eyes, Shrekheimer smiled faintly.
“It is Lord Berhazel’s blessing. By chance, I visited a remote kingdom and discovered a Saintess living there. She was an unmistakable Saintess, one who possessed the Mind’s Eye.”
“The Mind’s Eye?”
“An eye with the ability to see through to the essence of things.”
“Damn it. This place truly is full of nothing but things I cannot begin to understand…”
After grumbling for a moment, Damon’s expression turned serious.
“At any rate, very well. How do you intend to reverse the tide of war by using that Saintess? Surely you do not mean to offer her to a dragon as a concubine and beg, ‘Please spare us,’ do you?”
“O-of course not.”
At Damon’s absurd imagining, Shrekheimer could only continue sweating. Inwardly, he grumbled that Damon’s temper had truly grown foul while they had not seen each other.
“As you know, the current state of the war is utterly uncertain. Because of the dragons’ terrifying destructive power, the soldiers’ morale has plummeted to the ground, and since newly born orc recruits continue to join the enemy, our advantage in numbers will soon be overturned as well.”
“That much I know.”
“To turn around such a difficult war situation, some extraordinary measure must be devised. We decided first to seek the survival of mankind through the Saintess. At present, she is the only key capable of connecting Lord Berhazel and us.”
As he listened, Damon nodded. Even as an outsider, he had no desire to see mankind perish.
The plan devised by Sergei and the monarchs of the various nations was roughly this. Since it had already become impossible for Truvenia’s strength alone to stop the allied forces of the orcs and dragons, they had to obtain Arcadia’s support by any means necessary. Only then could the human line continue in Truvenia. But to do so, they first had to deal with the Dragon Lord, who had severed the two continents from each other. Otherwise, there would be no way to contact Arcadia. Even if they succeeded by some stroke of luck, there would still be no way for Arcadia’s reinforcements to come here. Shrekheimer heatedly continued explaining the plan.
“We intend to convey our wish to Lord Berhazel through the Saintess. Of course, He surely does not desire mankind’s extinction either. We are confident that He will hear our plea.”
“You mean you intend to ask God to please make the dragons withdraw their hands?”
“There are some differences in detail, but in principle, yes. We intend to ask Lord Berhazel to bestow upon us a new Covenant Stone in place of the one stolen by the dragons.”
After the Covenant Stone was stolen, humans had tried by every means possible to recover it. Knowing full well that they could not win the war without the Covenant Stone, the monarchs of the various kingdoms were truly desperate. Carefully selected knights and mages were dispatched in numbers too many to count—to the place where the Covenant Stone was. Since high-ranking priests who served Berhazel could readily discern the Covenant Stone’s location, repeated attempts were made to reclaim it.
However, not one among them succeeded in their mission. There were even cases where none of the dispatched knights returned. Even so, the monarchs did not give up and continued to send knights. And the knights, though they knew perfectly well they would not return, volunteered to enter the jaws of death.
But in the midst of that, the presence of the Covenant Stone suddenly disappeared. From that day onward, no priest whatsoever was able to discover the whereabouts of the vanished Covenant Stone. Not even the most devout priest.
“There is a high possibility that the dragons moved the Covenant Stone to another dimension to prevent it from being stolen. They are fully capable of opening dimensional gates, after all. If that is true, then the chances of retrieving the Covenant Stone are nearly nonexistent.”
In the end, the monarchs completely gave up on reclaiming the Covenant Stone. Since they did not even know where it was, that was only natural. However, the existence of the Saintess, discovered by chance, rekindled their desire for the Covenant Stone.
“If we cannot find it, can we not entreat God to bestow it upon us anew?”
The Saintess—the sole being capable of conveying their will to Berhazel. Trusting in her alone, the monarchs set their final plan in motion. Sacrificing the eighty thousand defenders of Carnatic had also been for the sake of carrying this out.
“At the time, we had no time. That is why we withdrew only the elite troops from the Carnatic defense force, whose defeat we judged to be certain. Fortunately, thanks to their sacrifice, we were able to gain some time.”
“I am sure the dead soldiers would feel quite proud to hear that.”
Shrekheimer simply pretended not to hear Damon’s sneer.
“If Lord Berhazel hears our plea and bestows upon us a new Covenant Stone, we can overcome this crisis.”
“You mean the dragons will fear Berhazel and withdraw from the war?”
“Not exactly. But at the very least, it means they will no longer be able to act against natural phenomena—for instance, blocking the sea route between Truvenia and Arcadia. In the end, they were only granted by God the authority to regulate the relationships between the various races. If Lord Berhazel once again turns His attention to mankind through the Covenant Stone, the dragons will no longer be able to do such things. If they are careless, they too may incur Lord Berhazel’s wrath.”
“In that case, you would be able to contact Arcadia sufficiently.”
“That is not all. In truth, under normal circumstances, the dragons should already have entered their hibernation period. However, they are using magic to remain awake and active even now. To put it simply, they are violating the laws of nature. If we obtain a new Covenant Stone, the dragons will no longer be able to act in defiance of those laws. In other words, they will no longer be able to hold out and will have to enter hibernation.”
“This truly is a continent out of legend, just as I had only heard in stories.”
After hearing the facts about the Covenant Stone, Damon let out a long sigh. Having been raised in the Central Plains, it was only natural that there would be some difficulty in his understanding of Shrekheimer’s explanation. If someone in the Central Plains were to speak aloud of divine grace, Saintesses, or wishes offered up to God, they would immediately be branded insane. The Central Plains was a world that distant from myth. As such, it was inevitably difficult for Damon to accept Shrekheimer’s words at face value. But most importantly, this place was Truvenia, a world where myth held sway.
“Very well. Then by what method do you intend to petition God through the Saintess?”
“We have already laid out a detailed plan regarding that.”
At the northernmost reaches of Truvenia, in a remote region where people almost never set foot, there was said to be a temple of Berhazel that had now nearly fallen into ruins. It was the place where Berhazel was said to have first created the various races and infused power into the Covenant Stone, and it was also the only place where a connection with God could be attempted. At first, it was said that the races who worshiped Berhazel ceaselessly visited that place. However, because it was so bitterly cold, and because faith in Berhazel had been greatly diluted, almost no one visited it now. Of course, that was only the outwardly known truth; there were deeper circumstances hidden beneath.
“After deciding to punish mankind, the dragons released monsters there on a massive scale. It appears to have been a measure to prevent humans from seeking out that place.”
“Then would knights seeking training not have gone there all the more? For the purpose of improving their own abilities…”
At those words, Shrekheimer gave a bitter smile.
“Of course. You speak as though you saw the situation yourself. That was indeed the case. At the time, a great many knights who wished to prove their skills headed there. But not one of them returned.”
“Oh? Just what is in that place?”
“Upon investigation, it was discovered that, astonishingly, countless monsters from the Demon Realm dwell there. The work of the dragons, of course.”
Here, Damon was able to newly grasp a fact he had not known before. Namely, that the Great Demon King Nidelhark had been sealed by the Dragon Lord Kranus. What Doyle had foreseen was ultimately proving to be true without the slightest deviation.
“After Nidelhark was sealed, most of the demons under his command were seized by Kranus. Of course, intelligent demons such as Dark Shades and Death Knights were able to escape the dragons’ grasp without much difficulty, but the lower demons that made up the majority of the Army of Darkness—in other words, the beasts summoned from the Demon Realm—were unable to return to the Demon Realm and had to remain here forever. That is because Nidelhark, the very one who had summoned them, was sealed away. As a result, that place was completely transformed into a land of death.”
After driving the demons into that place, the dragons were said to have cast a barrier all around it. First, it prevented the demons from escaping; second, it gathered the energy of darkness in one place so that the demons could exert even greater power.
Ordinarily, demons cannot exert even one-tenth of their true power in the human world. But within the barrier, they became able to use the full extent of the power they possessed in the Demon Realm. Because of that, the place had become a forbidden land no one could enter. Even across the entire Ikarot Empire, the number of knights capable of handling a beast of the Demon Realm that could use all its power could be counted on one hand. Damon, who had been listening in silence, let out an exclamation.
“Ha! The dragons truly made tremendous preparations to annihilate mankind.”
“Indeed. We must overcome all of that in order to escort the Saintess there. That is precisely why we are trying so hard to involve you, Damon. At present, we are in a situation where even a single skilled fighter is precious to us.”
“But if the opponents are demons of darkness, my abilities will not be of much use… Demons’ vital points must be completely different from those of humans.”
“That does not matter. Aside from demons, that place is swarming with all sorts of mid-sized monsters. They mainly guard the outside of the barrier. This is only my opinion, but when it comes to facing mid-sized monsters such as ogres or trolls, there is likely no one more suitable than you, Damon.”
“That does seem true.”
Damon shrugged. At the very least, if his opponents were mid-sized monsters not wearing armor, he was confident whether there were ten of them or a hundred. Watching Damon begin to preen, Shrekheimer fixed him with an earnest gaze.
“You will help us this time, won’t you, Damon?”
After staring at Shrekheimer’s face for a moment, Damon slowly nodded.
“In any case, I must take revenge on that fellow Berkis. Since our target of vengeance is the same, I shall cooperate.”
A smile gradually spread across Shrekheimer’s face. If Damon, the Ogre Hunter, joined them, the chances of the plan succeeding would rise somewhat. Damon extended his hand with an awkward smile, and Shrekheimer clasped it and shook it. Damon’s hand was warmer than expected.