WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 51

We reached Demon Beast Pass with time to spare. The large cliff faces on either side loomed over us at an impressive height. They were so steep that it was almost impossible to climb. It was these very cliffs that had kept Nevaria safe all these years. Flying Demon Beasts like Pteranodons didn’t normally bother flying over it, while Demon Beasts that didn’t possess wings couldn’t climb up it. The only way to reach Nevaria from here was through this pass.

“Everyone, move toward the gate!” I commanded.

We began walking through Demon Beast Pass, making our way toward the gate, which was marked by two towers standing on either side of the rampart. I walked beside Kari, Fay, Lin, Catalyna, and Geirolf. We took up the rear.

“It looks like they weren’t able to catch up to us,” Kari said as she looked behind her, at the entrance to the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

“I would be surprised if they could,” I said. “An army that large is slow. They can’t move very fast because there are so many of them and they need to keep in formation. What’s more, they will be traveling through the forest, which will further slow down the larger Demon Beasts like those Greater Behemoths.”

“Couldn’t they just abandon the Greater Behemoths and make their way here faster?” asked Fay.

“They could, but they won’t.” I shook my head and explained my reasoning. “Those Greater Behemoths are incredibly powerful Demon Beasts and probably provide about 40% of their total power. Compared to them, everyone else in that army is worth absolutely nothing.”

I didn’t mention their leader, who I was sure might be even more powerful than the Greater Behemoths. That particular man was someone only myself or maybe Empress Hilda would be able to deal with. Actually, I got a really bad feeling from him. I was almost certain he might have reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism. If that was the case, then he would be even more powerful than I was.

Upon reaching the gate, we were met with two familiar figures surrounded by members of the Imperial Royal Guard.

“Mother?! Father?!” Kari gawked at her parents. “What are you two doing here?!”

Empress Hilda Astralia was dressed in her battle gown. Her dazzling silver armor lent her a noble and refined yet powerful presence. Gleaming steel shone brightly in the sunlight. The armor was inlaid with golden designs that I recognized as Runes. Her carapace-shaped chest plate protected her chest and upper back, but left her lower back and stomach exposed. Pauldrons made of overlapping steel, elbow armor, and gauntlets protected her shoulders and arms. Two leaf-shaped metal places sat on either side of her hips, while silver greaves protected her shins. She held a curved sabre with numerous Runes etched on the blade’s surface in her right hand.

Valence’s armor was nowhere near as impressive, but the golden armor looked like it was made from hardened scales. The scale mail did not possess any Runes. However, I recognized that it was made from a strong A-rank Demon Beast, a Lightning Drake, which was a dragon-esque creature with a strong affinity for lightning. A battle axe was gripped firmly in his right hand.

“Considering the situation, I felt it was best that I fight on the frontlines instead of standing in the back,” Empress Hilda said. “I also wished to inform you of the current situation.” She paused to clear her throat, then continued. “At present, a horde of Pteranodons numbering in the thousands has laid siege to Nevaria. Thanks to those watchtowers of yours, Eryk, we are managing to fight them off with minimal damage to the city. That said, all of the civilians have been evacuated into sections of the sewers that we have cleaned out for this purpose.”

While the others paled at Empress Hilda’s words, I nodded as though I had been expecting this, which I had. The moment Siv informed me that the flying Demon Beasts the Sekbeists had brought with them were gone, I knew they’d gone on ahead to attack Nevaria. Their job was likely to harass and weaken our forces to make it easier for them to ransack the city-state.

“Is there anything else?” I asked.

“Only that it appears the Pteranodons are also carrying Sekbeist on them,” Empress Hilda said. “The Sekbeist are posing a slight problem, but most of them are simple Grunts. There are only a few Elites, and of them, only a handful appear to be Shamans. That said, those Shamans are creating problems for our Spiritualists.”

Shamans had the power to use the void, an element that I had no knowledge of, but one that seemed to grant them extreme control over the darkness element. I didn’t know how it worked. That was why I didn’t think about it. There was no point in pondering matters I wouldn’t get the answers to on my own.

“There’s nothing we can do about the enemies in the city,” I said at last. “We’ll leave the Pteranodons to the Imperial Royal Guards and other forces already inside the city. Our main focus needs to be on holding off the incoming army here, until Dante can bring his forces around and attack them from behind. Fay, I’ll be relying on you to send up the signal flare once the enemy begins their attack.”

“Please leave that matter to me,” Fay said.

“This plan of yours is quite bold,” Empress Hilda stated with a smile. “You lure them into this pass and fight them to a standstill. Battling them here limits their ability to bring the full might of their army to bare. You will only have to face a small portion of their forces at a time, negating the advantage of a larger force.”

I nodded in acknowledgment of her knowledge. “This plan was inspired by a story I once read about a man known as Leonidas who, with only a small force of three hundred men, was able to hold off a much larger enemy army of over one hundred-thousand strong for seven days by fighting in a pass very similar to this one. A larger forces greatest strength is their ability to overwhelming their enemy with sheer numbers. If we limit the amount of people they can bring to bear, then we can successfully hold this line for several days by fighting in groups and rotating our forces when one group grows tired.”

“I know which story you speak of,” Empress Hilda admitted. “It’s one I read before when I was a little girl. It’s quite the tale. But I have to ask: Are you sure this will work? It is one thing to hear about these sort of feats in stories. Real life never pans out the way it does in stories.”

“I had several people take some preliminary measurements of this pass,” I said to her. “The pass is roughly twenty five meters wide and one kilometer long. It’s large enough for a task force of thirty Spiritualists standing shoulder to shoulder to battle. The Nevarian Braves consists of three hundred Spiritualists, meaning we can rotate people ten times. Assuming each group fights for one hour, that will give each group ten hours of rest.”

“I’m impressed with how thoroughly you’ve thought things through,” Empress Hilda said. “It is almost as if you have experience with war.”

I shrugged but didn’t say anything. I wasn’t about to tell her that I did have experience with war. The only people who knew that was Kari, Lin, and Fay. I shared the experiences of my previous life with them after we discovered that memories from their past lives were also coming back, though only Lin remembered her past life with clarity. Kari and Fay couldn’t remember anything after awhile, which we theorized was due to them not ingesting my blood.

“In either event, myself, Valence, and these Spiritualists are here to provide you with support,” Empress Hilda announced.

“And they aren’t the only ones,” another voice said.

Everyone turned as the Demon Beast Gate opened to admit two more figures.

I recognized Herleif easily enough, though he looked a lot different now that he was dressed in armor. The breastplate, pauldrons, greaves, and vambraces were made of a blue material that gleamed in the sunlight. Runes were carved onto their surface. Much like his granddaughter, Herleif carried a ranseur instead of a standard sword or spear.

Next to him was none other than Grimm Kriger. Even though he and Herleif were actually the same age, he looked much older, with thin and graying hair and wrinkles lining his face. That said, he was still in great physical shape. His muscular body was clad in dark red armor that seemed the opposite of Herleif’s lighter armor. The armor was segmented and I could see thick padding underneath it. Strapped across his back was a massive long sword, angled so he could draw it at a moments notice, while he carried a shield in his right hand.

“Herleif and Grimm,” Empress Hilda said in a voice that let me know she wasn’t surprised to see them. “You two have decided to join the front as well?”

“Of course we have,” Herleif said. “I might not be the Emperor anymore, but Nevaria is also my home. Besides, I can still show these brats a thing or two about combat.”

“My daughter is more than capable of fending off some measly Pteranodons and their pathetic Sekbeist handlers,” Grimm added. “I need to stretch out and display my newly acquired power.”

“Oh?” Empress Hilda finally raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Does that mean you have reached the Third State of Spiritualism?”

Everyone sucked in a breath as Grimm smiled and shrugged. “I won’t deny the possibility.”

With the addition of Empress Hilda, Herleif, and Grimm, we now had four people who were capable of using the Third State of Spiritualism. That gave us a lot more firepower to work with. I found myself immensely grateful.

The four of us would be taking most of the burden during this battle. As the strongest Spiritualists present, we had a duty to fight the longest and the hardest of anyone else. Had it just been me, then I would have been forced to fight far more than anyone else in our group, but now we could split the burden four ways.

“In that case, I am glad to have you both,” I said. “The four of us will be split among our forces. I plan on having us fight alongside the other Spiritualists in three hour shifts. You will fight for three hours, then rotate yourself out with one of us and recover your strength using these Spiritual Recovery Pills, Four Method Healing Pills, and Energy Booster Pills.”

After speaking, I summoned a chest from the storage ring on my finger. Enjoying the surprised squawk from Grimm Kriger and the shocked expressions of Empress Hilda and Valence, I opened the crate to reveal a multi-tiered interior. There were three tiers. The first tier had glowing blue pearl-like alchemy pills—the Spiritual Recovery Pills—while the second tier had bright pills the color of blood—Four Method Healing Pills. The third tier had green pills. These were the Energy Booster Pills.

“There are ten thousand of each pill,” I said. “That’s more than enough to keep us going for several days.”

“You are very well-prepared,” said Grimm with a small smile.

“Given how dire our situation is, I wanted to make sure we had enough alchemy pills to be ready for any occurrence, including a worst case scenario,” I stated.

Grimm could do nothing but nod in agreement with my words. However, Empress Hilda was more focused on the storage ring.

“That ring you summoned these items from,” she began, “if I’m not mistaken, that is the storage ring you told me about before?”

“It is,” I confirmed.

“Such a fascinating item,” she muttered.

“I don’t suppose you could get me one of those?” Grimm joked.

“You’d have to ask Kari.” I shrugged. “She is the one who made it.”

Everyone turned their shocked gazes to Kari, who blushed a deep red at suddenly being the center of attention. She scooted a little closer to me, as though to use me as a shield, and tried not to squirm under the intense stares from everyone.

“Um… I’m still working on the rings,” she admitted. “What Eryk and I have are just prototypes, so they aren’t ready to be sold on the market or anything…”

“Well, that’s disappointing,” Grimm muttered with a sigh.

As we stood around and talked, I could not help but feel odd holding such a light-hearted conversation when an army was mere hours from arriving on our doorstep. It seemed weird. However, I also understood the purpose. Herleif, Empress Hilda, and Grimm were veterans when it came to combat and had proven themselves time and time again in the Demon Beast Mountain Range. They understood that it was important to remain relaxed and calm. Only by being able to calmly analyze a situation could we hope to escape from the edge of disaster relatively unscathed.

In other words, they were doing this to keep the other Spiritualists from growing tense and becoming overwhelmed by the situation.

However, just as Lin, Fay, Catalyna, Geirolf, and Marko joined in the conversation, someone swooped down from above.

“E-Eryk! Bad news!” It was Siv, out of breath, sweat running down her body, and all the blood drained from her face. “D-Dante… attack! He’s under attack! Giant snake!”

Siv spoke in fragments at the best of times, but in her panicked state, she was even more difficult to understand. However, I got the gist of it. Dante and his forces had been attacked by a snake-type Demon Beast.

There were only a few snake-type Demon Beasts, and of them, only a few could pose a real problem to an army of twenty thousand Spiritualists. Siv’s panic meant that whatever was attacking them, it was strong. I believed it was an A-rank Demon Beast.

“What does it look like?” I asked.

“It’s big… and black. It has black scales and green eyes. Um. People died. Looked at them. They died.”

Spiritualists died when it looked at them? That could only mean one thing.

“It’s a Basilisk, and not an immature one like the Basilisk I fought in Bucharest. It’s a fully-grown one.”

That was not good.

“Is Father okay?” asked Kari. Geirolf, who was also standing beside us, paled significantly. Dante was his father by blood.

Siv bit her lip. “Dante was… alive. Now? I don’t know.”

“No…” Kari placed a hand to her mouth as her knees shook. The blood drained from her face.

I didn’t know how long ago the Basilisk had attacked, but there was a good chance Dante was already dead by now. Only someone who had reached the Third State of Spiritualism would stand a chance against a a Demon Beast of this caliber. Dante had only reached the Second State.

However, even if he there was a chance that he had died, I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.

“Kari! Fay! Lin! I’m leaving you in command of things here! If the army arrives before I return, do what you can to hold them off!”

“Eryk…?” Kari looked at me with wide eyes.

“I’m going to save your father,” I said to her.

“T-thank you.” Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, but she held them back. “Please… save Father. Save Dante.”

I didn’t make any promise like “I’ll definitely save him” or something like that. We both knew there was a chance he was already dead, or that he would die even after I arrived to help out, but I would do everything in my power to keep that from happening. If there was even a slim chance of saving Dante, then I would take it.

Of course, there was more than just Dante’s life at stake here; the Spiritualists under his command were an integral part of our plan, which was to trap the incoming army in a pincer maneuver and crush them once they had fully entered Demon Beast Pass. If that army was wiped out, then our plan was doomed.

I had to save them.

***

Dante’s breathing had grown labored as he struggled to maneuver himself around the Basilisk, constantly keeping out of its eyesight and attacking from its blind spot. All around him, the others were trying to do the same. However, many of them could not keep up, and when the Basilisk locked eyes with them, they dropped dead.

Hundreds of corpses littered the clearing already. They lay in various states across the ground; some looked like they had simply dropped dead, but others had twisted limbs and spines as if they’d broken every bone in their body before dying, and a few dozen had even been crushed flat, their squished bodies leaking more than just blood. There was no way for him to know how many had died.

“Kya ha ha ha ha!” The Sekbeist riding on top of the Basilisk’s head cackled as he looked down at them. “What’s wrong? Is a mere Demon Beast too much for you pathetic humans to handle?! If that is the case, then why don’t you all hurry up and die?!”

Gritting his teeth, Dante spun around on the balls of his feet, swinging his sword in intricate patterns that left streaks of lightning in its wake. He raised the sparking blade high, then brought it down. A violent shriek like metal scraping against metal echoed around the clearing. Dante’s muscles bulged and several veins popped out on his arms and neck as he put everything he had into this attack.

He was not the only one who attacked. A group of Spiritualists being led by Hellen Brynhild launched their own Spiritual Techniques. Fire struck the Basilisk in the face. Wind slammed into its body. Yet no matter how many of them attacked, or how many of them combined their attacks, none of them could even scratch this creature. Its skin was harder than Adamantite.

“Kya ha ha ha ha! That won’t work!”

The Basilisk swung its massive tail at them. While Dante was able to avoid it by leaping out of the way in time, many of the attacking Spiritualists were not so lucky. Screams of pain resounded across the clearing as these people were struck. The force of the blow was immense. Everyone hit was lifted off their feet and thrown backwards. Several of them crashed into trees. Loud cracking sounds caused Dante to flinch as the trees snapped in half and the people tossed through the air struck the ground so hard the forest floor cracked beneath them.

Hellen was one of the luckier ones, having been smart enough to drop onto her stomach. The tail had passed over her. Then she had rolled across the grass, scrambled to her feet, picked up her broadsword, and sliced at the creature with a blade that had been enhanced with water to increase its cutting power. Yet however enhanced the sword was, it didn’t put so much as a scratch on the Basilisk, and she was forced to leap away when the creature quickly swiveled its head, opened its jaws, and lunged at her.

Like Dante, Hellen was careful to avoid looking into its eyes. She was using the shadows to determine when it would attack and avoiding its jaws that way.

While she was dodging its attacks, Dante decided to try a different approach, running up and leaping onto the creature’s body. He ran up the massive snake’s wide back and rushed toward the Sekbeist controlling it. If he could just kill its handler, maybe the Basilisk would stop attacking and leave. Even if it didn’t, he at least wanted to slaughter the person controlling it.

Sparks leapt from his feet as Dante used the movement of his run to channel lightning to his soles. The world around him became a blur as he traveled the distance between him and the Sekbeist Shaman in less time than it took to blink. When he arrived, Dante had already raised his sword and was swinging it down as fast as he could.

It was blocked. The Sekbeist held a strange staff aloft. It looked a lot like wood, but it easily held off Dante’s sword. Maybe it was made from bone. The staff was very smooth as though it had been sanded down and polished. At one end was a sharp point like the tip of a spear, while the other end had a weighted cudgel.

“Kya ha ha ha ha! So you finally decided to go for me, did you?! That was a good try! You had a bright idea, but you should know that even if you did kill me, this Basilisk will not just disappear!” The Sekbeist Shaman paused to laugh some more. “Not that you can kill me anyway! Kya ha ha ha ha!”

Dante gnashed his teeth together, retracted his blade, and prepared to swing again. Something powerful slammed into his back seconds before he could. Was it the Basilisk’s tail? His body, enhanced by the Second State of Spiritualism and numerous alchemy pills, was able to withstand the impact without breaking—but that didn’t stop the pain.

An agonized yelp escaped his mouth as Dante was thrown off the Basilisk. The air wished around him before he struck the hard ground, the pain jolting his body. Even though he had taken Body Forging Pills to increase his durability and physical strength, the shock of the impact was enough to leave him stunned.

As Dante picked himself up and found his sword, the Sekbeist Shaman dropped from the Basilisk’s head and walked toward him with a casual air. The arrogance he emitted was something that grated on Dante’s nerves. The almost friendly smile on this ugly creature’s face caused him to see red. This Sekbeist was definitely looking down on him.

Behind the Sekbeist Shaman, the Basilisk continued to attack. It gazed into the eyes of several Spiritualists, killing them instantly, and swung its powerful tail, crushing some people and sending others flying.

Hellen was doing her best to coordinate their forces. She barked out orders for everyone to remain calm and keep from gazing at its eyes, but so many of the Spiritualists were panicking and screaming that her words were mostly lost to the wind. Only a few of the people near her heeded the woman’s orders.

“Everyone with an earth affinity, try to trap this Demon Beast by creating a pit! The rest of us will keep it distracted!”

Hellen and a group of six Spiritualists did their best to distract the Basilisk, rushing in and attacking it from the front. They avoided its gaze by staring at the ground. However, this also meant they couldn’t see it, and only a skilled individual like Hellen could avoid it simply by relying on looking at its shadow.

The Basilisk lunged and clamped its mouth down around the upper body of a young man. Blood drenched the ground as the Demon Beast reared back its head. The man was still alive, kicking and screaming from inside the mouth, but his movements ceased after awhile. Then the Basilisk swallowed him whole.

While the sight was gruesome, the remaining Spiritualists fought in grim silence, rushing around its body and attacking its flanks. Only a few Spiritualists attacked at a time. They had learned from previous experience that when too many attacked at once, it hindered their movement instead of the Basilisk’s. While this was going on, thirty or so Spiritualists with an earth affinity stomped their feet on the ground in a synchronized dance before they knelt and slammed their hands against the forest floor.

The ground underneath the Basilisk collapsed. A giant pit appeared beneath it. However, while the pit was big, it was not enough to keep the Basilisk from moving. With an enraged hiss, the Demon Beast surged out of the pit with ease and attacked the group of earth affinity Spiritualists with its gaze. While several had dared not look up, a few of the more curious had raised their heads to see if their combination technique worked.

Those people died seconds later.

“It’s magnificent, isn’t it?” The Sekbeist Shaman asked. “You don’t know how many years I spent researching Basilisks so I could control them. Among all the Demon Beasts under my command, only the Greater Behemoths have the same power. Of course, the Basilisk is my favorite. Its ability to kill people with just its gaze is amazing.”

“You monsters would think that,” Dante said as he raised his blade.

“You disagree?”

“Of course I do!”

The Sekbeist Shaman shrugged. “I guess you would, being the one whose forces are getting butchered, but really, that’s your own fault. Kya ha ha ha! If you people weren’t so weak, you wouldn’t be getting slaughtered like this.”

“Enough talking!”

Dante roared as he raced forward and tried to attack the Sekbeist Shaman, but his initial swing was met by a raised staff, which easily blocked his blow and sent a jolt through his arms. Grinning, the Sekbeist Shaman twisted his staff around and knocked the sword away. Dante didn’t let himself lose his balance. He spun around on the balls of his feet, used the resulting movement to channel lightning into his sword, and attacked his enemy from another angle.

It was blocked again.

Eyes widening, Dante stared at the staff that blocked his attack. Covered in a powerful darkness that looked like a black flame, the staff was emitting a vile and repulsive feeling. A shiver ran down his spine.

“Did you know that we Sekbeist can control the void?” asked the Sekbeist Shaman. “It’s a powerful concept that allows us to negate other concepts.”

“What? Concepts?” Dante furrowed his brow.

“I guess you wouldn’t know what a concept is.” Shrugging, the Sekbeist Shaman’s grin grew wider to reveal his sharp canines. “Why don’t I show you what I mean.”

Before Dante could figure out what was happening, the dark flames encasing the staff suddenly spread to encompass his sword. His eyes bulged from their sockets as the lightning he’d been coating his sword with suddenly vanished. However, that wasn’t all that happened. The blade of his sword also vanished.

Dante’s shock was so prominent that he completely missed the Sekbeist’s next attack. A powerful blow slammed into his chest, shattering his breastplate as his body was lifted off the ground and tossed back. The air around him whistled, but then it was abruptly halted and all the air was expelled from his lungs when he crashed into something hard. It wasn’t a tree. Rock fragments danced in the air around him as he slid down the surface of a boulder and hit the forest floor with thump.

Black spots appeared in his vision as he looked up. The Sekbeist Shaman was walking toward him, while behind him, the Basilisk continued to run amok.

“Kya ha ha ha! Well, you tried your best to defeat me, but it’s clear that your best is nowhere near good enough.” The Sekbeist’s grin was so wide now that it threatened to split his face in half. It was a gruesome sight, one Dante could have done without. “Perhaps you’ll have better luck in your next life and be reborn as a tree or something.”

Darkness gathered around the Sekbeist Shaman. It was as if all the shadows in the area had suddenly been drawn toward him. They danced and writhed like living creatures, but this was a dance of agony instead of joy, pain instead of pleasure. The shadows gathered along the Sekbeist Shaman’s staff, turning the weapon into a scythe made of darkness.

“Time for you to die,” he said.

Even though he was going to die, Dante refused to back down and look like a coward. He glared at the Sekbeist Shaman who was seconds away from killing him. If this was going to be his end, he would do so staring death in the face.

But death never came for him.

“Urk!”

Dante blinked several times as blood suddenly splattered against his face and torso. He stared at the Sekbeist Shaman, who was not looking at him anymore, but at the lightning covered fist that had punched a hole straight through his chest and was even now holding onto his still beating heart.

“Sorry, but the person who is going to die today is you,” said Eryk Veiger, who was standing behind the Sekbeist Shaman for some reason.