The Demon King’s Crypt

Neo's ride to the location of the Demon King's sealed catacombs was uneventful. They encountered a few monsters on the way which Merlina's royal guards quickly took care of so she, Neo, and neither Sigurd had to step out and do anything.

Throughout the journey which was neither too long nor too short, Neo had been wanting to converse with Sigurd, but the latter would only reply shortly and to the point, not allowing for any further conversation.

It wasn't like the Sigurd of his past lives who was rather laidback and even playful at times. This life's Sigurd seemed taut and overly serious, to the point where Neo thought he was an entirely different person.

Neo wondered what happened to his friend in the 2 decades he's been asleep that could have changed him so much.

"Uria's Champion, we're here."

Merlina's voice knocked Neo out of his reverie and he quickly looked out the window and saw the crypt that the Demon King was sealed at which was situated on the side of a cliff.

He couldn't feel any holy energy in that place so Neo wondered just how they were able to seal the Demon King Fragment in such a place.

"I feel no holy energy…how is the seal maintained?" Neo asked curiously.

Merlina smirked and answered, "Through magic, obviously."

"...Is magic capable of sealing a demonic being at the Demon King's level?"

"Of course not, but since it's just a fragment of the Demon King, I was able to make it possible."

"I see."

Merlina's royal guards began setting up a base camp on the side of the road that led to the crypt but they didn't camp directly in front of it. When Neo asked why, Merlina said that because the seal wasn't perfect, a bit of demonic energy leaked out to the surroundings which made the forest in between the road from where they were building the base camp to the crypt quite dangerous.

It wasn't anything that her royal guards couldn't handle, but it was better to camp in a safe area than in a dangerous one.

Once the camp was erected, Merlina gathered everyone in the main tent for a meeting. She opened up the meeting by asking, "I'm sure everyone knows what their roles will be from here on out, yes?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. The First Squadron and I will accompany you to the crypt's entrance while the Second and Third Squadron will patrol the area around the base and clear up the forest respectively!" The captain of Merlina's Royal Guards announced.

Merlina nodded at her captain's words before turning to Neo and said, "It will take a while for me to undo the sealing on the crypt's entrance so Neo, you should wait here at the base camp. If you want, you can also help the soldiers with their patrols. I won't restrict you in any way."

Since she wasn't going to restrict him, Neo quickly said, "I should go with you then."

Merlina shook her head and replied, "No, I'd like you to remain in the base camp until I've finished undoing the seal. We've been studying demonic energy in the past few years and what we've learned is that it's extremely volatile when it gets too close to holy energy. I don't want any accidents to happen when I'm undoing the seal so please understand."

Neo already knew about that fact. Demonic energy and Holy energy were supposed to be extremely volatile to each other as they were opposing forces, but looking at Cecilia who was standing in the corner and was able to balance those 2 forces inside of her body like it was only natural made Neo sullen all of a sudden.

He could only imagine the numerous human casualties that the demons created from their numerous experiments until they finally found the secret to the harmonization between those two opposing forces.

'I can only imagine just how many were sacrificed until the demons finally figured it out…there are many things I have to atone for in this life, it seems.'

"Alright, I understand," Neo replied in understanding before asking, "How long will it take you to undo the seal?"

"Only a few hours at best. It won't take too long," Merlina replied. "Sigurd will be coming with me as protection so no need to worry about me. We'll head out now. The faster I start working, the quicker we can finish off the Demon King."

"Yes."

"Sig, let's go!"

"...Mhm."

Since they departed for the crypt, Neo noticed that Sigurd seemed to be a bit troubled for some reason. He wanted to ask what was on his mind, but Sigurd didn't give him any opportunities.

Even now, before he and Merlina left for the crypt, he didn't say anything to Neo or anyone else at all. Usually, he would strike up a conversation with someone already, but he was just keeping to himself.

Neo saw the 2 of them off along with the knight squad that was going with them. Since he had nothing to do, Neo decided that he would exercise a little bit and help out the knights that were going to clear up the forest path.

Many of the knights were those that believed in the Luminance Faith so when they found out that Neo was Uria's Champion, they treated him amicably and with utmost respect.

They didn't know about him sleeping for the past 2 decades and thought that he had only just descended to Edels'herah and was going around on a pilgrimage to destroy the Demon King's fragments that were spread around the continent so they didn't hold any animosity towards him or questioned why he was awake only now and not a decade ago when the war to defeat the Demon King first started.

"Sir Champion, we're glad that you're willing to help, but is this alright? For the Goddess's Champion to be doing mundane work like this…"

"...It's fine. Defeating demons and demonic beasts are something I should naturally do," Neo replied to the squad captain's odd question.

In his previous lives, it was practically his obligation to kill any demons, demonic beasts, and Fallen. He didn't think that people would question him doing his job in this life so it was quite odd for him.

The 3rd squad captain of Merlina's royal guard asked this question only because he didn't think that Uria's Champion should be dealing with such small-fries, but in Neo's eyes no matter how trivial the threat was, as long as it was a demonic being, then Neo naturally had to deal with it.

"I'll be going with you, Mr. Neo…"

Neo turned towards Cecilia who had appeared behind him and asked, "Can you fight?"

"...Mr. Neo, I'm a Shade. Of course, I can fight," Cecilia replied.

The squad captain that was nearby who was talking with Neo chuckled and said, "Miss Cecilia is right about that. Not only is she a Shade but she's also the Queen's disciple, she can definitely hold her own in a battle!"

"Merlina's disciple…so you're also a mage?"

Cecilia nodded in affirmation before she summoned a thick grimoire and a staff.

"...Subspace magic?" Neo asked.

Cecilia nodded without any hint of pride or joy on her face. Being able to use a subspace meant that the mage in question was extremely accomplished, though Cecilia seemed apathetic about it.

Since Neo knew that she was a good magus, he didn't object to Cecilia following him, "Alright, let's go. I'll trust my back to you, Miss Cecilia."

"...You can just call me Cecilia."

"Likewise. Please just call me Neo."

"Okay."

Since they were ready to go, Cecilia and Neo departed from the base camp along with the Third Squadron of the Royal Guards. They entered the forest and split up into a few teams before they started clearing the forest of any demonic beasts.

The level of monsters inside of the forest was relatively low, so Neo and Cecilia were the only ones in their team…along with a familiar face.

"Ugh, why was I dragged into this?" Paul asked as he wielded his shield and defended against a monster's attack before Neo came in from the side and cut the monster down. Paul eyed Neo for a bit before grumbling quietly, "I didn't think I would be punished for arresting the Goddess's Champion! I didn't even know who he was at the time!"

While Paul was grumbling to himself for having been forced to accompany Queen Merlina's entourage and being appointed as one of Neo's companions as 'punishment' for his previous offense towards the Goddess's Champion, Neo walked over to him and said, "It's reassuring to have someone like you with us."

"Eh? I-It's my honor, sir!" Paul exclaimed in a fluster.

"Please don't call me sir…Just call me Neo," Neo replied.

"O-Okay, sir,"

"You're doing it again."

"I-I'm sorry, sir–I mean, Neo."

Neo gave him a small smile before saying, "That's better."

"..."

Neo turned his attention to where Cecilia was fighting and nodded to himself after seeing that she was able to hold her own against a few low-ranked demonic beasts. It wasn't just on the level of holding her own, she was completely overwhelming them with a brilliant combination of simple spells that easily took them down.

"As expected of Merlina's disciple. Cecilia should be at this level at least," Neo said to himself.

Paul scratched his cheek before saying out loud, "Lady Cecilia…she's the Queen's close aide and disciple, yes? I hear she's a 4-star magus already. It's really impressive since she's so young. Many say that she'll eventually surpass the Queen in the future!"

"4-star? That's certainly an accomplishment…" Neo remarked before he mumbled, "But being able to use subspace magic at 4-star? I thought that was something only 5-star mages could do…"

Merlina was an Archmage so she was a 9-star magus. 9-stars was currently the highest level that was recorded in the history of Edels'herah, but the Merlinas of Neo's previous lives had managed to achieve 10-star which was basically on the level of a demi-god.

Unfortunately, all of the Merlinas of his past lives were enlightened to the 10-star level only during the last battle with the Demon King, so they weren't able to fully display the true extent of that level's god-like strength.

Neo wondered if the Merlina of this life was already at the 10-star level or not. If she was, then she was likely the most powerful being on the planet.

"Maybe she already has and that's one of the factors that contributed to their victory over the Demon King…"