Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume18 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

"What the hell happened...?"

Surrounded by darkness, unable to see his own outstretched hand, Kamito opened his eyes.

He felt waves of pain from his head.

How much time had passed since he lost consciousness?

"...Say, where is this place?"

While pressing on his temple, Kamito looked around him.

A small lamp was lit with an ancient silver candlestick, providing illumination.

The stone floor had moss on it with fallen stone pillars.

The paintings on the walls had almost completely flaked off, indicating the sad state of affairs.

It was most likely some kind of decrepit ancient shrine. Kamito could not help but recall the final round of the Blade Dance, which was held at the ruins of Megidoa the abandoned city.

(Wait, why am I here...!?)

Kamito was more and more confused.

His memories from before losing consciousness had broken off somewhere suddenly.

(&mdash;I remember I was supposed to be fighting Lurie underground in the Demon King's Tomb.)

The assassin sent by the Holy Kingdom to target the Demon King's Coffin was Lurie Lizaldia, the Blade Dance winner fifteen years ago. After an intense blade dance against her, Kamito defeated her.

However, she still had a final resort.

She activated the spirit detonation installed in her own heart, a weapon of mass destruction using the power of spirits, intending to destroy the Demon King's Tomb that was protected by a barrier.

Ironically, she, who hated war and had wished upon the Elemental Lords to eliminate war&mdash;

Had now used the most terrifying weapon to be produced during the Ranbal War.

(...I still remember everything up to this point. What's interrupted is my memory afterwards&mdash;)

Back then, what had happened to him, closest to the blast center as he was?

"Don't tell me..."

Kamito thought of a terrifying possibility and broke out in cold sweat.

Even though he survived many perils thanks to Est's Protection of Steel, one would not expect him to emerge unscathed from spirit detonation, a weapon of mass destruction boasting of firepower sufficient to annihilate a city completely once activated.

(&mdash;Normally, I'd get vaporized.)

That must be it.

Trying to explain why he still existed, Kamito concluded...

"...I'm already dead, so this place is Valhalla?"

Thinking calmly, Kamito reached such a conclusion.

Valhalla was a resting place for the souls of the dead.

Legend spoke of it as a paradise located somewhere in Astral Zero. However, this was just what the Divine Institute claimed to the outside world. No one knew if it really existed or not.

As a paradise, his current location was rather crude.

(No wait, now is not the time to relax!)

Kamito was just about to stand up&mdash;

When he suddenly noticed&mdash;

His right hand, touching the floor of black stone.

The spirit seal on the back of his hand was glowing faintly.

Were he dead and sent off to the afterlife&mdash;

Then his spirit contract with Est would be broken, hence the spirit seal should be erased.

Kamito took off his left hand's leather glove.

The emblem of a sword crossed with a moon&mdash;Restia's spirit seal&mdash;was intact too.

(Oh right, where are they!?)

Kamito poured divine power into the spirit seals on his hands to summon the two sword spirits.

...But there was no response. If the spirit seals were still visible, then the connections should not be cut&mdash;

"Relax. Time here is separated from that of the human realm."

"...!?"

Kamito heard a voice that he seemed to recall hearing somewhere previously.

At the same time, a man suddenly appeared before him.

"...You're...?"

Kamito had trouble getting his voice out of his throat.

The young man was dressed like a desert merchant.

He was Safian, the Zohar merchant whom Kamito had met in the Demon King City.

"What's going on? Why are you here?"

Kamito stood up, staring sharply at the man before his eyes. Although he claimed to be a poor merchant who was shipwrecked in the desert and ended up in the Demon King City, this clearly was impossible.

...Who the hell was he?

"Do not be so wary. I am not trying to win you over by favors, but I did save your life at least."

"You?"

Kamito stared at Safian with skepticism in his eyes.

"Where is this? We're not inside the pyramid, right?"

"This place is a dimensional gap&mdash;neither in the human realm nor Astral Zero."

"A dimensional gap?"

"After the Spirit War, the originally unified world was split into the human realm and Astral Zero. At the same time, a few dimensional gaps were formed by chance. This is one of them."

"...So it's a different dimension from the Demon King's Tomb, huh?"

"You are quick on the uptake. As expected of the Demon King's successor. Or perhaps, you asked Iris already?"

"She mentioned that this Demon King City consists of the Demon King's memory fragments anchored in a dimensional gap through the power of the Demon King's Tomb. To be honest, I can't fully understand it, but there are other places apart from the Demon King City that exist in dimensional gaps, right?"

"Indeed. And this dimension is a tiny gap that I can use freely."

As though proud of his crude private room, Safian spread his arms.

"This dimension doesn't seem to offer much. What are these ruins?"

"This used to be a historical site belonging to the Elves. However, the majority of such sites were destroyed in the Spirit War."

...''So that's why it had a similar feel to the ruins on Ragna Ys''.

"Anyway, let me thank you first. Looks like you really did save me."

"I am glad I made it in time. Any later and you would have been vaporized."

"Yeah"

Kamito spoke softly.

"What happend to Est and Restia? Are they here too?"

"No, you are the only one transported here. After all, it all happened at great haste. However, there is no need to worry about those two spirits. No matter what, they are the legendary sacred sword and the Demon King's demon sword."

"So you even know about Est and Restia?"

Kamito replied. Safian shrugged and smiled wryly.

"Safian, who exactly are you? By now, are you still going to insist you're just an ordinary merchant?"

"Oh? I thought you would have realized my true identity after meeting with Iris."

"Well, although I have a rough guess&mdash;"

Kamito took out a gold coin from his chest pocket and flicked it lightly with his thumb.

"This is coin of the Demon King City that you exchanged for me. I've been wondering the whole time whose face the face on it resembled... If I take a closer look, it's identical to yours."

"Hmm, and so?"

"Gold coins have the highest value among coins. The face on the coin must be the ruler's face. And the Demon King City's ruler is&mdash;"

"I see."

"You're ''Demon King Solomon'', right?"

"..."

Safian smiled without answering.

Kamito took it as a silent yes and continued.

"But it was only just now when I became convinced of this. In the burial chamber, I saw what happened a thousand years ago. Although the Demon King's face was blurred, at least I can tell he doesn't look like a monster like the legends say."

"Is that so? Did Iris show you everything?"

"Yeah. How you were called a hero, then falling to become the Demon King. I saw it all."

Kamito stared at the man before him.

This was precisely the man who was known as a hero to an ancient kingdom&mdash;

The evil Demon King Solomon, who had brought unprecedented terror and chaos to the continent.

"You are half correct."

"Half correct?"

Kamito frowned in surprise.

"I am different from the Demon King described in legends. I am a product of the regrets from the final moments of the human named Solomon Yelsion. A lingering grudge, if you will. A pathetic being without the Demon King's power and can only wander between dimensional gaps."

Saying that, the Demon King, who looked like a young man, laughed in self-deprecation.

...So that was how it was. This man was a fragment of memory as mentioned by the spirit Iris.

Like the Demon King City's residents, was he a bubble-like existence?

From the time when he was still a human hero before he was known as the Demon King&mdash;

(...That being said, this image is way too different from the Demon King legends circulating in folklore.)

Kamito whispered in his thoughts.

From appearance, he looked like just a fine young man.

In the case of Kamito, who was similarly just a male elementalist, yet he had been called the Demon King of the Night. This notorious name was totally imposed by popular opinion.

"Then what is your job?"

"What do you mean by job?"

He cocked his head in puzzlement at Kamito's question.

"The spirit Iris is the guardian of the Demon King's Coffin's seal. You have a job too, right?"

"...Indeed. If she is the guardian of this place, then I am the administrator of the Demon King City. Repairing dimensional tears, sending occasional travelers back to the human realm when they are drawn here by accident or intent, etc. I suppose such things would count, speaking of jobs."

"I can't believe there's nothing big."

"I have said so already. I wield none of the former Demon King's power."

Safian&mdash;Demon King Solomon&mdash;smiled wryly.

"But now, my job is coming to an end."

"...What do you mean?"

"This Demon King City is about to vanish."

Kamito was speechless.

Did the spirit detonation used by Lurie cause destruction of such great scale...?

(No, that Bloodstone should be no bigger than a heart&mdash;)

It should not have the firepower to destroy an entire city.

"This city relies on the pyramid, the Demon King's Tomb, to stay anchored to the dimensional gap. Once the pyramid is damaged, this city would naturally collapse. Moreover, this city was originally generated in an unstable dimension, akin to a building built on sand."

"Then she&mdash;"

What was going to happen to the spirit Iris, the guardian of the Demon King's Tomb?

Solomon shook his head. Did he notice what Kamito was thinking?

"Her existence is inseparable from the Demon King's Tomb. Once this place collapses, of course she will vanish and so will I."

Surprisingly, there was no sadness in his voice.

Had he already prepared himself for this day to arrive eventually?

"When Iris loses power, the seal on the Demon King's Coffin will be lifted. The woman who fought you must have figured this out, which is why she used spirit detonation there."

"...So what exactly is sealed inside the Demon King's Coffin?"

Kamito asked.

According to legends passed down by the Demon King's cult, told to him by Restia, the Demon King's remains lay dormant in the coffin. One would obtain great power should one lay their hands on the coffin.

But&mdash;

"''How utterly ignorant''&mdash;"

That was what Lurie Lizaldia had said.

Sleeping inside that coffin was not the so-called Demon King's power&mdash;

But a holy relic of the Holy Kingdom's instead.

Solomon quietly shook his head.

"&mdash;Ultimately, the so-called Demon King's Coffin did not exist in the first place."

"...Huh?"

Kamito could not help but widen his eyes.

"It was nothing more than a rumor spread by the Demon King cult."

"Th-Then what was the spirit Iris guarding here?"

Kamito was stunned.

"You have already seen it."

"What are you talking about?"

"The spirit crystal within which the spirit Iris is sealed, ''that'' is what she had been protecting for the past thousand years."

"...The crystal!?"

The gigantic crystal, glowing with iridescent light.

It was what the spirit Iris had been protecting till now&mdash;

Just then, the candlestick's flame suddenly extinguished.

Not because the wind blew it out. There was no wind here.

By the time Kamito noticed, Solomon had changed to a serious expression, staring off into the darkness of empty space.

"...It appears she has awakened."

"She?"

"&mdash;Yes. The sealed Sacred Maiden."