WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 10

I had been using Spiritual Perception to keep track of the Sekbeist Shaman and the Basilisk. While it didn’t let me know exactly how to reach them (Spiritual Perception only let me know where someone was in relation to me, not whether or not there were any obstacles in my path), I could at least constantly monitor their movements.

At that moment, they were only a few dozen meters to my right. The problem was that I didn’t know how to reach them. There seemed to be a thick wall between us… maybe even multiple walls. It wasn’t like I had a map of the sewers.

However, just as I was about to consider finding a lateral passage that would take me to them, the Basilisk, which was represented as a dark brown flame, suddenly began moving—right toward me. It was traveling through the walls!

I leapt out of the way as the wall I had been staring at exploded. Chunks flew toward me, but I batted them out of the air with punches and kicks. I didn’t use any Spiritual Power. Nonetheless, every stone sent my way was obliterated.

The Basilisk sprung out of this debris, its yellow eyes glowing with malevolence and its fang-filled teeth open wide as if to swallow me whole.

I was already channeling the lightning element through my eyes. As the beast lunged at me, I dodged left, and then struck the creature in the side. Lightning erupted from my fist. The scales broke and blood poured from the wound. However, the amount of damage I had done was nowhere near what I wanted.

“Tch!”

Clicking my tongue, I jumped back when the atmosphere around me changed. A stiff breeze alerted me to the attack before the tail slammed into the place where I’d been standing.

Just as I was preparing to attack it again, all the hair on my scalp prickled unpleasantly, causing me to backpedal even further. What slammed into the ground this time was not a tail or any sort of appendage. It looked like a dark ball of energy. It struck the floor and ate straight through it like the stone was made of bread, leaving behind a perfectly round hole with smooth edges.

That was the so-called Void… it reminded me of some of the attacks the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain had…

“You have some awfully quick reflexes,” a voice said from everywhere and nowhere.

I couldn’t respond right away because the Basilisk lunged at me again. Leaping into the air, I corkscrewed my body and launched a punch at the Demon Beast from above, slamming another lance of lightning into its body. Just like last time, the lance penetrated the creatures scales, but it just couldn’t seem to go deeper.

I wasn’t using enough power.

“Are you afraid of causing this sewer to collapse?” the voice spoke up again. “While it doesn’t look it, this sewer system is quite fragile. I’m sure you’ve noticed by how easily my pet smashed through those walls. If you were to use a strong Spiritual Technique, perhaps you could kill my Basilisk—ah, but if you did that, this sewer might collapse around you and your friends.”

I didn’t tell this Sekbeist that Kari and Geirolf were already so far away that my Spiritual Perception could no longer detect them. Instead I focused on dodging the Basilisk, which came at me with attacks from its tail.

A downward tail attack slammed into the floor, breaking apart the stone like it was made of twigs. Spinning on the balls of my feet to dodge the attack, I grabbed the Dragon’s Tail Ruler on my back, charged as much lightning into the weapon as I dared, and swung it down. The red blade sparkled with a brilliant luster as it sliced into the Basilisk. The creature agony and roared in anger as I sheared off its tail.

Sadly, I had no time to celebrate my success.

Several more crackling orbs of darkness flew in from out of nowhere and attacked me from several different angles. I used the Flash Step to avoid the attacks, but I had to be careful. The Flash Step was a speed technique, not a teleportation one, which meant I could still get hit even while moving. To avoid the numerous attacks, I relied solely on my instinct and fast reaction times.

“You are awfully talented,” the Sekbeist sounded annoyed now. I almost cracked a smile. “Tell me, child. Are you the one who disposed of Skygge?”

The words sent a jolt through my spine. I had already guessed that this Sekbeist was somehow related to Skygge, perhaps an ally of his, but to get such blatant confirmation shocked me. Then again, they were both Sekbeists.

While I was surprised, I didn’t allow it to hinder my actions. The Basilisk attacked me again. It was missing its tail, which was twitching on the floor several meters from me, but it still had its mouth, and it was capable of spitting out poison.

Bright greenish brown globs flew from its mouth. I hopped backwards once, twice, thrice as three balls of acid hit the ground in the places I’d been standing. The stone floor melted. Steam hissed from the stone as the acid ate completely into it, turning the once hard substance into a slippery goop. Such a strong acidic poison would melt even my flesh and bones if I was hit.

Realizing that I really couldn’t afford to go easy on these two, I channeled more elements through my body. Placing my hand on the ground, I activated the earth element. The stone just above the Basilisk’s mouth shot into the air like a rising pillar and crashed into the Demon Beast’s jaw, forcing it to snap shut. The Basilisk’s head was crushed between the new pillar I had created and the ceiling. Sadly, the ceiling was what broke instead of the Basilisk’s head.

“I forgot how much I hate dealing with your kind! It really is annoying!” the Sekbeist Shaman shouted.

A two-pronged attack suddenly came at me, the Basilisk from one side and several black spheres from the other. I didn’t ponder what I should do. Using the Flash Step, my body seemingly disappeared and the three black spheres meant for me struck the Basilisk instead. Several holes appeared in the creature’s body, and I decided to use that to my advantage.

I lifted my hand and sent a burst of lightning straight into the Basilisk through the holes. Its scales were incredibly tough, so hard that not even the Basilisk’s opposing element, lightning, could break the scales unless I was willing to go all out and potentially destroy this sewer. I also wasn’t confident in my ability to use the darkness element. I’d never used it before, and it wasn’t like the earth element, so I wanted to avoid using it unless I had no other choice.

Therefore, the best way to deal real damage was to let the Sekbeist Shaman help me out.

While the Basilisk’s scales might have been tough enough to protect it, its insides were susceptible to lightning, being a creature of the earth element. I could already smell the cooked flesh as it sizzled and fried. The Basilisk released a shriek of agony as its insides were boiled. It thrashed around, crashing into a wall and causing part of the ceiling to collapse, but I didn’t let up even after it began destroying the tunnel interior.

“Damn it! No! How can this be?!” the Sekbeist Shaman screamed in shock. “My pet!!”

I could already tell the Basilisk was dead. It was moving, but they were the spasming death twitches of a creature whose muscles were undergoing seizures because of the prolonged exposure to lightning. My focus was no longer on this creature, but on the Sekbeist Shaman hiding behind the wall to my left.

Using the Flash Step, I appeared before the Sekbeist Shaman, who had no time to move a muscle before I slammed an open palm into his chest and overloaded his body with lightning.

“UGGGYYYYAAAAAA!!!!”

I ignored the screams the Sekbeist unleashed and watched as he fell to the ground and began twitching. Placing my foot on his chest to keep him pinned, I waited until his spasms had subsided before asking my question.

“What are the Sekbeists doing here in the Demon Beast Mountain Range?”

“So you know what we are, huh?” The Sekbeist gave me a grotesque smile. “I’m surprised there are still people in Nevaria who know of the Sekbeists. We didn’t even know there were still humans on this part of the continent until a few hundred years ago.”

“Who is ‘we?’” I asked.

The Sekbeist grinned. “You really want to know? Well, that’s too bad. I’m not going to tell you anything else. Now die!”

My eyes widened as a massive black sphere suddenly appeared between me and him. It grew increasingly large as I jumped back. It grew so large that I even had to use the Flash Step to avoid being caught in it.

When the black sphere disappeared, my eyes grew even larger when I saw the damage that had been done to the walls, floor, and ceiling. Everything that the sphere had touched was gone. Just gone. Of course, the amount of damage was not immense, but it had been a long time since I’d fought someone who had this level of control when using the darkness element.

Frowning, I activated Spiritual Perception to see if I could locate the Sekbeist. I didn’t think for even one second that he let himself be destroyed by his own attack. However, no matter how far I extended my perceptions, I couldn’t sense even a trace of his presence.

The Sekbeist was gone.

***

With the battle now over, I went back to where the Basilisk corpse was lying on the ground, twisted up like a pretzel. The creature had stopped spasming. However, it now lay inert on the floor with rubble piled on top of it. No doubt its thrashing had broken even more of the walls and caused parts of the ceiling to cave in.

I knew I needed to get back to Kari, but the opportunity before me was one that I couldn’t pass up. I had no idea how this creature was being controlled by the Sekbeist Shaman. Discovering that would be important. A part of me understood this would not be the last time I came across a powerful Demon Beast being controlled by a Sekbeist.

The first thing I did was create a sword made out of water and lightning, which I used to slice an incision along the Basilisk’s head. I took care not to damage its hide and make a clean cut. The hide of a Basilisk was quite durable and could, to a degree, absorb Spiritual Power. That was why it had been able to resist my lightning attacks despite lightning being its elemental weakness.

In other words, this hide would make great clothes.

Blood spurted from the dead creature, hissing and boiling as it struck the stone floor, showing that even its life fluids were an incredibly potent acidic poison. I ignored that as I looked through its head. I didn’t know what I was searching for, but I figured if the Sekbeist had been using some kind of powerful artifact to control this Demon Beast, it would be located inside of the creature’s head.

Channeling the water element, I encased my arm in a thick coating of water, which acted as an armor that protected my flesh when I plunged my arm into its head. As I dug through its brains, my hand brushed against something hard. Pausing, I went back to the hard object, wrapped my fingers around it, and pulled. My hand was slippery. The object kept sliding out of my grip, but I gritted my teeth and continued slowly pulling it forward centimeter by centimeter, until the thing finally fell out of the Demon Beast’s head and clattered to the ground.

I cleaned my hand with the water element. Then I pointed a finger at the object that had fallen from the Basilisk’s head and blasted it with water. Once all the juices from the Basilisk’s brain was removed, I reached out and picked it up.

The object I held looked a lot like a tooth or maybe some kind of claw, was about the size of my palm, and had strange markings etched all over the surface. These markings looked similar to Runes. At the same time, I did not recognize any of these Runes from the Runic Alphabet, meaning this was probably a runic language of the Sekbeist.

Stowing the object in my pouch, I looked at the Basilisk and frowned. I really wanted to salvage it for parts. However, I had no method of carrying it right now. I would have to return home, speak with Dante or Rainer again, and ask if they could lend me some men who were capable of helping me carry all this. They’d take a cut of the profits, of course, but that was a small price to pay.

That said, I could at least grab the monster core.

Placing my hand on the Basilisk, I sent my Spiritual Power into the Demon Beast and tried to sense where the monster core was. It wasn’t easy. With the Basilisk dead, its monster core was no longer producing Spiritual Power. I was relying on the Spiritual Residue left behind to locate the monster core.

My hand soon stopped trailing the Basilisk’s skin when I felt a strong source of power close to the center of its body. I narrowed my eyes, channeled lightning and water into my hand, and straightened my fingers to form the edge of a knife. With a quick thrust, I plunged my hand into the Demon Beast’s body, ignored the feeling of blood and guts on my skin, which hissed and sizzled as my storm element battled against the acidic nature of the blood, and wrapped my hand around the monster core. I pulled it out with a quick yank.

The monster core was covered in gore, but I washed it off with water, allowing for the dark brown color to shine through. A bright and poisonous green color, the monster core was larger than most. Monster cores usually ranged in size from small marbles to a palm, but this was about twice the size of a normal one. That was an A-rank Demon Beast for you.

I stored the monster core in my pouch and began searching for an exit. I traveled down corridors, through passages, up stairs, and across bridges. It took me hours to reach the first floor, and it took another one to find an exit. When I finally emerged from the sewer, the bright light was so powerful that I needed to close my eyes. Grimacing, I allowed my eyesight to adjust naturally before climbing up the stairs and stepping onto the road.

The exit I had used was located in a different section of the city than the one Kari and I had entered through. I wasn’t sure where I was. I looked at some of the ruined buildings. These buildings looked like they had once been shops. The display stands built into some of the structures gave it away. That meant I was in one of the shopping districts, but which shopping district was the question…

With a soft sigh, I realized this would not get me anywhere, so I decided to leave a marker for myself to return here later. I used a sword made of compressed lightning and water to cut a hole in the ground. When I came back to Bucharest to salvage parts from the Basilisk, I would know roughly where it was located.

Choosing a random direction to travel in, I began walking through the city streets, casually studying the destroyed buildings that had been abandoned thousands of years ago. It was honestly really impressive that these buildings were still standing after so long. Would Nevaria’s buildings still be around if they went that long without maintenance? What about Midgard’s?

As I walked, I used Spiritual Perception in the hopes that I’d eventually find Kari and Geirolf, but all I found were a few B-rank Demon Beasts. Since I was already there, I decided to just kill them. This place was too close to Nevaria. It would need to be cleaned out anyway.

I was not sure how much time I spent wandering and killing random Demon Beasts by shooting beams of condensed storm energy through their heads, but I eventually picked up several Spiritual Signatures close to Nevaria’s entrance. I saw Kari’s unique golden flame, and I also discovered Geirolf’s green flame. However, there were about 20 more Spiritualists with them. I didn’t recognize all the new people, but Rainer, Dante, Earland, Mikkel, Fay, and Lin were signatures I easily recognized.

Smiling, I traveled to the city entrance, where I found a host of people waiting for me. Kari, Fay, and Lin were standing together and talking. Meanwhile, Geirolf was with Dante, Rainer, Earland, and Mikkel. This large group must have been a rescue party created by Rainer and Dante.

They had set up a camp just outside the entrance with nearly a dozen tents. Most of the people were sitting around campfires. Fay, Kari, and Lin were similarly sitting around a campfire, their expressions tense and worried.

When I began approaching, someone noticed me and pointed me out to Dante, who looked like he’d been speaking with Geirolf about something. The man turned and looked at me. A bright smile appeared on his face as he waved.

At his wild gesticulations, everyone else seemed to realize I was there. They turned toward me. Their eyes were quite wide as they saw me approach. However, the expressions on the faces of people I didn’t know were secondary to the ones Kari, Fay, and Lin were wearing.

The three girls looked at me like they were staring at a ghost. Their beautiful eyes had widened, lips trembling with emotion. Moisture gathered in their eyes as they stood up from the log they’d been using to sit on.

They did not tackle me this time like they had done during our first foray into the Demon Beast Mountain Range. All three of them stood there, waiting for me as I walked passed several tents and other Spiritualists, stopping in front of them.

A smile split my face. “I’m back.”

“Welcome back,” they said.

Unable to contain my joy at seeing them, I pulled all three girls into a fierce hug. If any of them were surprised, they did not show it, choosing instead to hug me back. Their warmth was so comforting I felt like I could fall asleep in their arms. Actually, that sounded like a really good idea. I was pretty tired.

Unfortunately, Dante approached me before I could suggest it.

“I’m glad to see you’ve returned safely,” he said, his smile light. “I know you’re probably tired, but I’d like to ask for an accounting of what happened down in those sewers. Sorry, but could you come to my tent so we can talk?”

I was about to tell him that I would be more than happy to tell him about what happened, but before I could even open my mouth, Kari, Fay, and Lin stepped forward.

“You can talk to him, but we’re coming with you,” Kari said.

“This princess has not seen Darling for several hours,” Lin added. “She’s not leaving his side.”

Fay did not say anything, but it wasn’t like she needed to. Kari and Lin had said exactly what was on her mind.

Dante stared at the three women, then looked at me, his expression amused. I stared back at him with a raised eyebrow. He shook his head, sighed, and then gestured for us to follow him.

“You three can come along. All I want is to hear about what happened while he was down in that sewer. I doubt there will be any secrets he’d share with me that he won’t share with you.”

With his permission granted, the three girls and I followed Dante into a tent. Geirolf stared at us as we entered, but I pretended not to notice.

The tent was not much. In fact, aside from a small cot and a table, there was nothing inside.

Dante sat on the table, crossed his arms, and looked at me. I guess he wanted me to start explaining everything.

I decided to start from the moment I split off from Kari and Geirolf. I was sure Kari had already explained what happened up to that point, so I skipped it and went straight into my battle with the Basilisk and the Sekbeist Shaman. As I began talking about the Sekbeist, Dante’s normally lackadaisical expression became more and more grave. By the time I finished, dark shadows had appeared on his face, making his features seem harsher than I was used to.

“So you fought a Sekbeist, huh?” Dante closed his eyes and released a deep breath. His expression had become strained. “I know of them, of course. Being married to Hilda has its perks aside from great sex and good company.”

At the mention of “great sex,” Kari’s cheeks flushed an adorable shade of crimson. I guess she wasn’t really interested in knowing about her parents’s sex lives. As someone without parents, I couldn’t really understand what she felt, but I suppose it would be embarrassing for me too… maybe?

“Still,” Dante continued. “I’m shocked to hear that you actually fought against one. Hilda told me about Skygge being a Sekbeist, but we haven’t seen them in so long that I just assumed they were all gone.”

“When I defeated the Sekbeist Shaman, he said, ‘we didn’t even know there were still humans on this part of the continent.’ From that, I’m guessing this Sekbeist isn’t working alone. There are likely more out there, hidden somewhere within the Demon Beast Mountain Range. My guess is their main force is located far deeper inside, in a place so remote or so deep into Demon Beast territory that none of our forces have ever visited because of how dangerous it is.”

“You’re probably right.” Dante ran a hand through his hair. “We’ll need to report this to Hilda. This is big news. We might even need to release knowledge of the Sekbeists to the remaining Heavenly Families so we can prepare ourselves in case they decide to attack.”

“Why have you not done so already?” asked Fay with a frown.

“Because a secret only remains a secret when one person knows about it,” Dante explained. “The more people who learn about a secret, the greater the chances are of this secret becoming known to everyone, and then it’s not a secret anymore.”

“But why keep it a secret in the first place?” asked Lin. “That is what this princess does not understand. Would it not be better if the people knew about these Sekbeist?”

“Because if the common people knew about the threat these Sekbeist represent, it could cause them to panic,” Kari explained for Dante. “Riots could break out in the streets as the people’s fear overcomes their common sense. Fear often has a habit of forming a mob mentally among the people. It consumes them and creates chaos. If that ever happened, Nevaria could be destroyed from inside without the Sekbeists having to lift a finger.”

Dante nodded as he further explain some of his reasoning. “Our people have nowhere else to go. Nevaria is literally our only bastion, unless we’re willing to sacrifice numerous lives and attempt to cross the Endless Desert.”

After listening to this explanation, both Fay and Lin began nodding.

“This princess understands. What you say does make sense.”

While the others were talking, my mind was locked onto the events of the past two months. First there was Skygge and now this new Sekbeist had appeared before me. What’s more, he claimed that he was not the only Sekbeist living out here.

I did not remember any Sekbeist living in the Demon Beast Mountain Range in my previous life, though I did remember Erica informing me of Sekbeist crossing the Endless Desert. I wondered if the two were somehow related… but no, I didn’t think that was it. Only eight months had passed since I went back to the past. The time of the Demon Beast Invasion in my previous life was still more than two years away. The Sekbeist who crossed the Endless Desert had done so about ten or fifteen years after the Demon Beast Invasion.

So then, what were the Sekbeist doing here now? What was their purpose? What were they after?

I was sure the Sekbeist living out here wanted something. Perhaps they were attempting to do what the Sekbeist in my previous life had done: open a Warp Gate to another realm. However, if the Sekbeist wanted to open a Warp Gate, they needed two things. First, they needed to find a working Warp Gate. Second, they needed human sacrifices.

The human sacrifices were necessary to forcibly activate a Warp Gate, which could normally only be activated by using a key like Hriedmar’s hammer. By stealing the Spiritual Power of living beings, the Sekbeists were able to bypass the need for a key, open a Warp Gate, and travel to another realm.

Was that what happened in my previous life? Perhaps after destroying Nevaria, the Sekbeists had activated a Warp Gate by sacrificing the survivors and left this realm behind. I did not know. What I did know was that my priorities needed to change. I needed to become much stronger than I was now, and I needed to strengthen Nevaria as much as I could.

“In either event, we will need to make preparations in case they try something, now that we know there are Sekbeists hidden out here.” Dante looked at me. “Those watchtowers and ballista you wanted us to create will likely be given top priority once Hilda learns of what transpired here.”

Nodding as I returned to the world around me, I said, “that’s good. Strengthening Nevaria’s defenses should take top priority right now. Speaking of, the Basilisk corpse is in the sewers. I would like to salvage it for parts. Basilisk hide makes great clothing because of its durability and high resistance to Spiritual Attacks. Their eyes, blood, and organs are also great catalyst for some alchemy pills. I can even use their bones and teeth to create powerful weapons.”

Dante listened to my words and slowly nodded. “We don’t have a whole lot of space since we only brought two carts with us, but if you show me where the Basilisk is, I can get some people to come back and salvage the Basilisk’s corpse.”

After our plans were made, our group left the tent and I planned to show Dante the Basilisk corpse. Rainer, Geirolf, Mikkel, Earland, Kari, Fay, and Lin also came along with us, but the rest of the Nevarian Spiritualists stayed at the camp.

Everyone was shocked when I showed them the Basilisk. Of course, it was a 15 meter long snake corpse. While not the biggest Demon Beast around, I was sure none of them had seen anything like it.

“This is going to take a lot of time to salvage,” Dante muttered with a sigh.

“Salvaging parts from this corpse will prove to be incredibly useful, though.” Rainer rubbed his jaw as he studied the giant corpse.

Their kids were walking around the body. Earland was silent as usual, but the admiration in his eyes was hard to mask. Mikkel was openly astonished. Meanwhile, Geirolf’s face was complicated and filled with mixed emotions.

The girls were much the same.

“You fought that?” asked Fay.

“I did,” I said with a nod.

“On your own?” asked Lin.

“Yes,” I said.

“That’s pretty impressive, Darling.” Lin crossed her arms and bit her lip. Her eyes were shaking. “Even we Lamia have heard about the legendary Basilisk. Its scales are said to be tougher than adamantine, its poison is so potent nothing can survive against it, and it has such an overwhelming power that just looking into its eyes can kill a person. Only the legendary Medusa of old could stand on par with a creature like this.”

I wondered if the “legendary Medusa of old” was the same woman Kari and I fought in our previous life, but I didn’t think that was the case. The Medusa we fought had not been old. My understanding of her was that she had been a recently crowned queen of the Lamia people, having only been crowned within the last twenty or thirty years.

“This Basilisk wasn’t fully grown,” I told them. “At its current strength, it didn’t have the ability to kill someone with a look. It could only petrify them. At present, it would only classify it as an A-rank Demon Beast instead of an S-rank one like an adult Basilisk.”

“It’s still impressive to kill a creature of this stature,” Fay said. “No one else I know can kill A-rank Demon Beasts by themselves.”

I tried to shrug off the praise. Perhaps it was in my nature, but I never could accept praise well.

In either event, now that Dante had taken his measure of the Demon Beast, our group returned to the camp. Kari, Fay, Lin, and I were given our own tent. The plan was to sleep here tonight and journey back home tomorrow. Bucharest was only about a day away from Nevaria, so the trip wouldn’t take too long, but it was already late afternoon and it was better to begin traveling early in the morning.

After eating a large dinner—I was starving—the four of us retired to the tent we’d been given, which only contained a single futon about six times larger than standard futons.

The four of us snuggled together inside the futon. I found myself trapped between three beautiful women, not that I had any reason to complain.

I must have been a lot more tired than I thought because the moment my head landed on the pillow, I was out like a light, the warmth from Kari, Lin, and Fay lulling me into the most content sleep I’d ever experienced.