Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Black Light

Far above the royal capital of the kingdom of Ramza, in the southern skies, two figures appeared against the clear blue expanse.

One was a young man with black hair and black eyes, Shu Arklight, the Dark King.

The other was a girl with golden eyes, Iris.

"Ugh... It's a little high and scary."

"We're much higher than the nearby mountains. But isn't it nice to see the view stretching far into the distance?"

"I don't have the luxury to enjoy the scenery."

Iris clung to Shu and refused to let go. The only thing supporting them was the gravity-nullifying acceleration magic circle deployed by Shu. If that magic circle were to shatter, they would plummet headlong.

However, as a spiritual-type magic creature, Shu could float by manifesting his spirit form, and Iris could fly using the Wind's Fourth Staircase, "Aerial Glide."

"So, Shu-san."

"What's up?"

"Why are we in a place like this? Today was the day you said you'd destroy the royal capital, right? Is it okay to be this far away?"

That question was valid.

To be more precise about the distance, this place was about twenty kilometers away from the royal capital. Even from high above, the capital looked tiny, so it was quite far.

However, Shu calmly answered.

"No problem. I will cast long-range magic from this position. That's how I'll destroy the royal capital."

"Huh...?"

"Thanks to evolving into the Death Elemental Spirit, my magical power has increased drastically. I can finally handle the magic I've been contemplating for a long time. Today is a trial shot."

"You're going to destroy the royal capital with a trial shot...?"

Iris also had no idea what kind of magic Shu was about to use.

However, when it came to causing catastrophic damage to a city like the royal capital, the scale of magic was limited. If he were to launch multiple shots, strategic-level magic would be sufficient. Iris was familiar with Flame's Tenth Staircase, "Dragon's Breath," Water's Tenth Staircase, "Frost Field," Wind's Tenth Staircase, "Tornado," and Earth's Tenth Staircase, "Meteor." But using them from a distance of twenty kilometers was simply not feasible. The definition of strategic-level magic was the ability to kill over a thousand people or cause devastating damage to a city with a single use. Using such magic from a long distance of twenty kilometers would result in misalignment at the impact point or activation point, making it impossible to achieve the desired effect. The appropriate range for such magic was within ten kilometers.

Of course, the same applied to magic below strategic level.

In that case, it would be classified as a forbidden spell with a maximum range exceeding twenty kilometers.

"What's the scale of this magic?"

"According to my calculations, the royal capital will disappear in one strike."

"What?!"

"The royal capital will disappear in one strike."

"Um, did I mishear that? I heard you say the royal capital will disappear..."

"In my prediction, the capital will vanish without a trace, causing significant climate changes in the surrounding areas."

"Is that on the scale of divine curses!?"

If forbidden spells bring great devastation to major cities through magic, divine curses have the power to obliterate entire cities with a single strike, even altering the climate. It is truly a grand magic that one would only hear about in fairy tales.

"...Declaring war and launching magic attacks from a distance without any negotiation, that's utterly cruel. The military and the church must be gathering their forces in the capital. To wipe them all out..."

"I'm not lying. I announced, 'In one month, I will destroy this capital,' and I'll simply follow through with that announcement by crushing the capital. It's the humans' own fault for misunderstanding."

"Oh no... that's..."

Shu declared war, but he also set a time limit to allow for escape. If they could flee within a month, no one would have to die.

However, humans gathered their armies and holy knights to confront Shu.

Despite never uttering a word about "invading the capital."

"This is war. It's against those humans who killed my subordinates and tried to execute my disciple."

Having said that, Shu gathered immense magical power in both hands. He drew a spherical magic circle and placed a small stone he took out from his pocket inside it. The stone floated at the center of the spherical magic circle.

"Declaring war may sound grand, but honestly, it's just a mere retaliation."

In the next moment, countless large magic circles unfolded around Shuu and Iris, covering them with geometric patterns. Simultaneously, the small stone was enveloped in tremendous magical power.

"If people impose unfairness on monsters, then I shall return the favor."

The magical power enveloping the stone was tremendous, gradually shifting from a pale blue color to black. As the magical power compressed, it approached blackness. However, to turn it completely black, a significant amount of magical power had to be concentrated in one spot. Nevertheless, Shu demonstrated that.

Crackling sparks of black lightning burst forth, transforming the sphere into a pitch-black object. The extensive array of large magic circles that had expanded settled down, returning to their original form of a small spherical magic circle.

"Allow me, the King of the Underworld, to teach these humans a lesson."

Shu shaded his left hand towards the direction of the capital, taking aim, while his right hand pulled back as if drawing a bow. The black sphere, the size of a ping pong ball, crackled with black lightning, hovering at the tip of his right hand.

"See what happens if you lay a hand on me."

At the same time as those words, five small acceleration magic circles unfolded. The crackling black spheres served as launch platforms and flew out.

With the acceleration magic, if calculated accurately, it was theoretically possible to fly to the other side of the stars.

The forbidden great magic was complete.

"Perish, 'Gluttonous Black Crystal Belse Material.'"

A small, tiny black destruction flew out, tracing its trajectory.

***

In the royal castle of the capital city, the king and the bishop were having a discussion on the terrace.

"I want to believe that we've done everything we can..."

"There's no problem, Your Majesty. Fortunately, reinforcements from the Holy Kingdom of Grinia have arrived in time. They have also sent special magic-equipped individuals, so as you can see, we can always monitor the battle situation."

The bishop encouraged the anxious king while looking at the screen floating in the air, which displayed the formation of the national army and holy knights outside the capital.

This was the power of the knight attendants who possessed telescopic magic that could observe distant places and project them. Basically, the knight attendants, who were under the command of the holy knights, were often specialized in specific abilities. By using their unique talents to assist the holy knights, they were efficiently utilized.

"Furthermore, we received a communication that S-rank Holy Knight Selstar Altarein is being sent from the headquarters. As long as we withstand the attacks of the Dark Lord Arklight, victory will be ours."

"I see... Indeed, you're right."

"Yes, exactly."

Ever since the Kingdom of Ramza became a vassal of the Holy Kingdom of Grinia, they had enjoyed peace, and the current king had never experienced such a large-scale military operation. Moreover, the fact that their opponent was the king's demon made them even more anxious.

However, if reliable reinforcements were sent from the church, it was a different story.

The Holy Kingdom of Grinia was faithful to its doctrine and showed the utmost consideration even to its vassal states, so they were extremely dependable in times of emergency.

There was also another reliable person.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. No matter what happens, I'm here."

"Yes, I'm counting on you, Ash Framber."

"Yes, please have high expectations."

The man standing behind the king was Ash Framber, the only S-rank Magic Knight in the Kingdom of Ramza. From his rugged face and the well-trained physique that could be seen even through his clothes, a sharp aura was constantly emitted. His vast magical power, which he made no attempt to conceal, spoke of his strength.

With Ash's confident smile, the king also regained his composure.

The tension faded from his expression.

"I have a report!"

And just as the king relaxed, a military messenger came to report.

"The entire army has completed its deployment around the royal capital. We are currently implementing maximum defense in preparation for the Dark Lord's attack. The information network for notifying the Mage Corps and Holy Knight Corps has also been established to relay any discoveries."

"Understood. Well done."

"Yes, sir!"

After finishing the communication, the messenger stepped back and left the terrace. Seizing the opportunity when the presence disappeared, the bishop spoke to the king.

"Once this battle is over, Your Majesty will be hailed as the hero who defeated the King's Demon. The great blessings of the El Magia God will surely pour down upon this country like rain."

"Hehe, do you think so?"

"Yes. If we subdue the Dark Lord, we will also search for the remaining witches within the Church. At that time, please lend us the strength of the national army."

"Indeed. That's right. The Church has provided us with many conveniences in this matter. If it's only that much, I willingly offer my support."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

This was an unprecedented force they had seen. They had deployed numerous A-rank Mages, and even the S-rank Mage, Ash, was in reserve. As time passed, the S-rank awakened Holy Grinia and Mage Cellestar Altrain would also arrive. Everyone began to believe that victory was certain, even against the King's Demons.

"Hmm? What's that?"

However, it was nothing more than an illusion. Someone on the terrace spotted something black flying in from the southern sky. The black object, arcing as if tearing through the heavens, descended upon the royal capital before anyone could utter a word of warning.

At that moment, the consciousness of all the people vanished.

***

Far above the southern skies, Iris was left speechless. Currently, a black hemisphere-shaped dome had appeared, engulfing everything around the royal capital. The black dome with a radius of ten kilometers swallowed the royal capital, the surrounding forces, and even the Holy Knights without distinction, causing them to disappear from sight.

Due to the immense size of the dome, which reached the heavens, it was only from a far-off location that one could barely grasp its entirety.

"Good, it's as powerful as expected."

Shu muttered those words, and at the same time, the dark-colored gigantic dome contracted. Then, the dome burst open, scattering numerous black particles.

Furthermore, all those black particles converged towards Shu, and he absorbed them all.

These black particles were dense magical energy, obtained by destroying the royal capital. They were a massive amount of magical energy.

As a significant amount of magical energy was absorbed, Shu felt a slight discomfort.

"Phew... as always, accumulating magical energy at once puts a strain on me."

He had destroyed the royal capital, annihilated the army, disposed of the Holy Knights, and even massacred the remaining inhabitants. The amount of magical energy obtained was immense, surpassing the limit of magical energy as the Death Elemental.

That is essentially representing evolution.

"The new species... the Primordial Demon Spirit Alpha Spirit, huh?"

Shu's magical power has further increased, and it seems that his control of his ability has also improved. Despite the fact that hardly any time has passed since his previous evolution, he was able to evolve because he completely destroyed a major city.

Just as Shu muttered those words, a violent storm began to rage.

As if blowing into the area where the black dome had appeared, the atmosphere moved. Immediately, Shu deployed an acceleration magic formation, gently manipulating the airflow around them, so that both of them were not blown away.

Iris, with her hair disheveled, finally regained her senses.

"W-What is happening!?"

The site where the black giant dome was located had turned into a completely vacant lot. It was as if there was nothing there to begin with, and a completely flat land had been created. Furthermore, the ground had formed a gentle concave shape, and some kind of liquid had accumulated like a lake.

Upon closer observation, the surrounding ground was covered in pure white ice.

"Well, it's mostly as expected."

"Is this what you expected? It's already incomprehensible!"

"Well... I'll explain it to you, I guess."

The name of the magic that Shu unleashed was "Ravenous Black Crystal Belze Material."

In terms of sheer power, it is equivalent to a divine curse.

It is accomplished by combining material conversion, high-density magical protection, reaction acceleration, magical element barrier, complete thermal energy conversion, and reverse thermal energy conversion processes.

First, small objects are converted into antimatter through material conversion. As a result, it appears completely black to prevent it from reacting with the air by means of high-density magical protection. Due to its extremely high density, the phenomenon of it bursting appears as black lightning.

Then, to ensure that all the generated antimatter reacts instantaneously, a reaction acceleration magic formation is mixed in. Additionally, since the annihilation reaction of antimatter mostly emits light as energy, a formula is added to convert all of it into heat. Finally, in order to confine this thermal energy inward, a magical element barrier is incorporated to activate. The energy of the magical element barrier is derived from the ultra-high-density magical power used for antimatter protection.

Shu's created antimatter was only fifty grams. However, if it were all converted into thermal energy, it would generate heat equivalent to two gigatons in TNT equivalent. In other words, it's equivalent to one hundred thousand Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. When it exploded inside the barrier, the earth was gouged out, and everything evaporated.

The overwhelmingly violent force of physics shattered even the defense unconsciously erected by the magic knight and swept everything away.

Finally, through the reverse transformation of thermal energy, all the thermal energy inside the black barrier is converted into magical energy. Originally, magical power can be converted into any form of energy. Conversely, it is also possible to convert heat or electrical energy into magical power.

However, this is an application of necromancy that converts life force energy into magical power and absorbs it, so it is not something that anyone can do. Previously, we had planned to substitute it with "Sucking Life," but it was inefficient and slow in conversion speed, so we had almost given up on this mechanism. However, it became possible through evolution.

However, if there is one thing to say, thanks to necromancy, I no longer have to worry about magical power consumption. By converting thermal energy into magical power with necromancy, it became easy to recover.

Death is the disappearance of energy.

It was a power befitting the King of the Underworld.

"All the converted magical power will be absorbed by me. Furthermore, since all the thermal energy in that area has disappeared, the temperature dropped to absolute zero in an instant. The air liquefied and accumulated in the gouged ground. The fact that the surroundings are frozen is a side effect.

Also, when the air liquefies, a tremendous change in atmospheric pressure occurs. As a result, a large amount of air flows into that area, causing a violent storm. The liquefied air is returning to gas at tremendous speed, so updrafts will occur next. I think it will create cumulonimbus clouds... well, from here on, I can't predict."

"I don't understand most of what Shu-san is saying."

"Well, I guess that's how it is."

The flames of destruction, freezing despair.

As prophesied by the Divine Princess, the King of the Underworld destroyed the capital with black light. Ordinary people, nobles, royal family, military, holy knights, priests, all became nourishment for the King of the Underworld.

Leaving behind a barren land and abnormal weather...