Chương 30: Chapter 29: Blood in the Banquet Hall

Yuto stood up uncertainly among the scattered bone fragments. The blood that coursed down his cheeks hardened in the cold air, but the fire burning in his heart refused to cool. His gaze was drawn to the tenth crystal, which towered in the center of the square. Five or six black mages were still standing there, holding their staves made of human bone, and muttering deranged magic chants. He bit his lip again; he had done it so many times that he had lost count. Flokai sensed his rage and let out a massive roar.

Pure white, condensed flame formed a gigantic sphere and flew at the black mages. They rushed to protect themselves with a barrier, but Flokai had evolved. His attack tore their weak magic apart as if it were paper. The flames exploded and swallowed the black mages up, and the shockwave created thin, web-like cracks in the giant crystal. Yuto saw his chance and leaped. A colossal scythe made from two Void Hands combined split the black mages in two as they struggled to free themselves from the flames.

The raging fire swallowed their screams. Yuto wasn't done. The scythe flew into the sky, then slammed into the crystal. The earlier attack from Flokai had already damaged it, and Yuto's blow was enough to shatter it completely. It collapsed and dissipated as purple fog. This freed the countless spirits who had been imprisoned within. While it would have been ideal for all of them to find rest now that they were free, this was impossible, sadly for them.

A terrible curse had descended on this land long before Dark Star had come to it with its magic. The curse came from the Constellations. As if it were not enough that they had brought down an entire kingdom, they had forbidden the dead of this city to find rest after death. Yuto felt a seething rage that nearly drove him out of his mind. He clutched his chest and hyperventilated. They could kill every single black mage hiding in the city, but that would not banish the curse.

And as long as the curse existed, the people of Velkyne would continue to suffer. But even so. I can't allow them to feel any worse pain than they already do. Yuto crossed the square at a rapid walk. The Void Skills have changed. Yuto checked his status window, just in case. Name: Yuto Level: 9 Stamina: 60 Ether: 60 Strength: 45 Agility: 35 Charm: 30 Remaining points: 0 He had been fighting endlessly on his way here, and it didn't seem so far-fetched to expect that his level had changed.

But he was still at level nine. Judging from the fact that he had been at that level for some time, there seemed to be some other condition that had to be met before he could reach the next one. Void Skills: Void Steps (Lv. 4) Void Hand (Lv. 5) ㄴ Void Scythe unlocked. Yuto narrowed his eyes. The level in his status window was the same, but the Void Skills had been upgraded. The past two years had taught him that they changed differently from his stats.

I have been using these skills left and right since I got to Velkyne. Void Scythe formed when two Void Hands became one. But it did not have just the power of two Void Hands. In fact, it was the strongest offensive skill that he could currently use. At a high cost of ether, of course. Yuto took a deep breath, then pulled out an ether potion. He had spent so much ether while destroying the final crystal in the square, as well as the two before that. Now he had two potions left.

That should have been enough for most circumstances, but he didn't know how many black mages remained in the royal castle, or what sort of traps they had prepared for him. He wasn't sure that two potions would cover his needs.

"Flokai, can you evolve to a higher form if you have enough ether?" he asked.

"Those potions won't even come close," Flokai said in a gloomy voice, with Rivian still on his back.

"What? W-wait, Flokiro... He can... evolve again?" Rivian asked, taken aback. Her mouth fell open in shock. Evomon created contracts with humans precisely so that they could evolve, but there was only ever one form of evolution. That was a fact. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The conversation between these two suggested, however, that there might be other, higher forms, which made no sense. It contrasted with everything she knew.

"Flokiro has two higher levels of evolution above his basic form," Yuto said, drinking a potion. Rivian nearly fell off.

"T-two...? But wait, what is his basic form?"

"The way you always saw him. Flokiro," Yuto replied. How is that even possible? Rivian looked down at Flokai in disbelief. Most Evomon could evolve just once, and that was it. There was no going back after an evolution, even if that form happened to be less than ideal. Actually, there was one way—to die and turn back into an Evostone. But this would erase the bond formed between the human and the Evomon, as well as all the ether gained. There was no guarantee that anyone would resurrect the Evostone afterward.

"Not only does he have three evolutions, but he can also come back to his basic form? How is this possible?" Rivian muttered in disbelief. A spring entered Flokai's step—he rather liked to hear her amazement as she rode on his back.

"I'm a special Evomon, you see," Flokai said proudly. He was not exaggerating in the least. Flokiro had originally been a legend in the Velkyne royal family. Nobody had been able to awaken him from his Evostone for generations, until Yuto had succeeded. Just as Yuto did not even exist in the world they were in now, Flokiro was probably the same. But Flokiro—Flokai—still held the same love for Velkyne that Yuto did. He could not forgive anyone who would dare to harm this kingdom that mattered so much to Yuto.

His footsteps grew heavy again with emotion, and his eyes flashed with enmity. The three of them crossed the square. They were now at the castle gate. There was only half of it remaining, and this aligned with the rest of the castle, which had mostly become a ruin after the night of the disaster. What remained of the gate creaked open heavily on its own, as if it had been waiting for its master—or perhaps to welcome an intruder and an enemy. It was terribly quiet inside. Yuto bit down on his lip again and walked.

This place had been a beautiful garden once, a place where the young Yuto would come out with his father and mother for tea and refreshments in good weather. That warm, precious memory had remained with him even after he became a husband and a father. On sunny days, he would do the same thing with his own wife and daughter, enjoying tea and snacks out in this very garden. But not all his memories in this garden were sweet. This place was also where Shiro had betrayed him at his daughter's birthday celebration.

He had led Yuto out from the banquet hall, promising a special gift, then put a blade colder than the night air right through Yuto's heart. Ahh... Yuto trembled with a sense of déjà vu every time he took a step. It was not freshly mowed grass underfoot anymore. It was crumbled stone and the bones of animals he could not identify. The statues that had once glowed white and silver now had flattened noses and broken limbs as they lay here and there like tormented dead, abandoned and scattered throughout the garden.

That was the place... Yuto's gaze rested on a half-destroyed gazebo at the center of the garden. He had lain there as a child on his mother's lap and stared up at the sky. It was where his wife, Sirin, had held their newborn daughter, Leia, in her arms and beamed sunnily at Yuto. Now it was occupied by nothing but a lavender poison fog. It smelled coldly of death.

"Yuto... are you all right? You're shaking," Rivian asked worriedly. She had gotten off Flokai's back and was following behind him. Yuto just clenched his fists. The nails bit into his palms and drew blood, but the pain was nothing compared to the fragmented memories that shredded him on the inside. Shiro. Shiro Ristal. Every time he repeated the name inside his mind, it seemed to burn him.

He remembered the warm arm around his arm as the man congratulated him on his daughter's birthday; the ice-cold blade that had pierced him in the center of the garden. The air of that terrible night was far too similar to the air of the castle today, now that it was a ruin.

"Yuto," Flokai said in a low voice, stepping in Yuto's way. The flames that burned in his mane banished the surrounding darkness, but they could not erase the ominous energy that spread from deeper in the garden. Across the garden was a set of heavy marble stairs that led to the main keep of the royal castle. In front of it was a massive door that opened into the banquet hall. It swung open on its own, like the mouth of some living thing. Darkness flowed from the opening—and not just simple darkness.

It stank of condensed resentment, squeezed from countless souls. Yuto stared at the open doorway with a contorted face. The darkness that seeped out from inside was too thick for anything to show through. The only way for him to find out what was inside would be to go in himself. And so he did, not lowering his guard for even a moment.

The banquet hall, which had once been lit by thousands of candles that shone like the stars in the sky and had echoed with the laughter of nobles, now looked like a scene fresh out of hell. The chandeliers had fallen to the floor and were badly distorted. Above them were bits of mysterious rotten flesh instead of dust. And beyond those, at the center of the banquet hall, floated menacing purple flames like will-o'-the-wisps. They were wandering in the darkness and forming a bizarre-looking circle. A magic circle.

Yuto glared at the center of the circle. The swaying flames around it did not pierce the intense darkness within, and he couldn't make out right away what was inside.

"Show yourself," he said, ramming his foot into the floor. Flokai joined in, stamping his feet and letting his flames flare. The pure white fire pushed away the darkness, and the beings inside finally revealed themselves—ten black mages dressed in black robes and hoods, standing within the circle. Yuto knew as soon as he saw them that the ones he had seen out there, in the square, had been small fry compared to these.

"I am curious to learn who you are," said a black mage who stood at the heart of the group. The black mage slammed his massive staff made of human bone into the floor, just as Yuto and Flokai had stamped their feet. There was an arrogance in his tone and demeanor that suggested he believed he owned the castle.

"Who are you to come to this wretched land and lay waste to our plans?" Chilling purple eyes flashed from under the hood. Polluted ether rose like a wave and fell on Yuto. Rivian clapped a hand over her mouth, pale. Yuto and Flokai, however, did not take a single step backward. They kept glowering.

"I have seen your rampages. You use a very peculiar power. I am not aware of every single Constellation in this world, but it was unlike that of any Constellation I know." Another black mage raised a finger as thin and wizened as that of a mummy, and pointed at Flokai.

"And that Evomon. How interesting. He does not seem to be an ordinary one. Where in the world did you two come from?"

"And with the daughter of House Marigold, to boot," yet another black mage said with a sinister grin at Rivian. His gaze disgusted her.

"I..." Yuto began before Rivian could say anything.

"I am the master of this castle," he said. His eyes turned pitch-black, and two Void Hands shot up into the air from behind.

"What?"

"The master of this castle?" The black mages cackled at him.

"You are out of your mind," one of them mocked. Yuto's response was a twisted grin.