“Life is the process of finding light within suffering, Millio.”
It was a line from a fairy tale his mother used to read to him on nights when he could not fall asleep.
Was it something the hero's companion and lover had said to him when he had fallen into despair before the Demon King?
He had not understood difficult words like suffering or light, but even as a child, his mother's words had engraved themselves deeply into his mind, becoming the guiding star that carried him through difficult times.
-Just because you were born lowly, and yet you dare call yourself the eldest son….
-L-live, Millio.
-Mother!
Even when he had been born as the eldest son and illegitimate child of a baronial family, abandoned by his father, and had barely escaped his home planet thanks to his mother's sacrifice.
-What? You're a noble? Give me a break. If you're a noble, then I'm an elf! Hand over your money!
-Mom, over there….
-Don't look at things like that, dear.
Even when the money he had brought for travel expenses had been stolen, and he had slept on the streets beneath the cold night dew.
-P-Private Millio!
-What? I asked for a rookie, and they sent me this scrawny bastard…. Tch. Forget it. Hey, get over there and keep your head down until morning.
-I-I beg your pardon?
-You heard me, you son of a bitch!
Even after he could no longer endure hunger and contempt, enlisted voluntarily, and had to survive a military life that bordered on abuse.
-Gyaaaaah!
-M-medic! Where's the medic?!
-He got sniped first! Fuck!
Even when he had killed for the first time after being conscripted, lost an arm, crossed countless battlefields, become an officer, and replaced half his body with implants.
-……Mi, Millio. Please, we're brothers.
-R-right, what we did back then…. I mean. Yeah. J-just spare me. Please!
Even after his long, nightmarish mandatory service had finally ended, when he had returned with the comrades who followed him to the hometown he both missed and loathed, and ultimately stained his hands with the blood of his own relatives.
“Mother.”
Millio von Alsasren.
He had endured suffering throughout his entire life while repeatedly reflecting upon the words his mother had left behind.
And at last, together with his comrades, he reclaimed the lost barony.
Furthermore, he married his closest friend and lover, Isabel, with everyone's blessings, and when they were blessed with a daughter, Tanya, he believed all his suffering had finally ended and that he had at last found the light he had always longed for.
“Cough…!”
Yes, he had truly believed that.
Had he known that such shallow, pitiful hope would shatter into countless fragments like broken glass, he would never have expected such a thing as light in the first place.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”
-G-God…! Have You abandoned us?!
The screams of his people echoed chaotically in his ears from beyond the collapsing manor and castle.
They were the subjects who had escaped the tyranny of his greedy half-brother and had said they were happy simply because they could finally fill their starving stomachs with grain.
Human and elf alike.
Though their lifespans differed, every one of them was his people, who laughed, cried, rejoiced, and grieved.
Yet the peace of this land, which he had sworn to cherish and had rightfully earned, was shattered in a single instant.
Rumbleeeee-.
As the sun slowly sank toward the horizon, during an afternoon when only the clouds drifted as though welcoming the twilight, the sky split in half and Corrosive spikes rained down upon the earth.
It was the beginning of hell without even the slightest warning.
If the Apocalypse were ever to be reenacted in reality, perhaps it would have looked like this.
“……The sky.”
-A V-Void Rift!?
-Inform the Baron immediately! C-Creatures!
The knights and soldiers of the barony, having grasped the situation, urgently reported the disaster to Millio von Alsasren, who had inherited the barony.
He immediately launched his warships and dispatched his army, but the military strength of a mere barony that possessed only a single planet as its territory was swept away before the Creatures.
〔T-the flagship Versailles has gone down!〕
〔Gyaaaaaah!〕
The admiral of the territorial fleet, who had willingly boarded the aging flagship to defend the skies above his domain, died after letting out nothing more than a final scream.
“Th-there's no end to them! At this rate, even the shelters…!”
-Hold them back! We have to stop them somehow!
The knights and soldiers charged into the villages to save the people being massacred, only to become isolated themselves.
“We must request aid from the neighboring noble houses at once!”
-Who exactly are we supposed to ask for reinforcements from?! Do you really think we can hold out in the first place? My Lord! You must escape now! Even if it means losing the barony…!
-Do you even hear yourself?!
-Damn it! Then what do you expect us to do?! Get a grip! We're only a barony with a population of one billion!
The retainers, already having heard reports of the Creatures consuming the Empire's frontier, could do nothing but raise their voices in fear.
In the end, Millio von Alsasren had to make a choice.
He glanced toward the order of knights, his personal guard and comrades, dismissed the utterly pointless and dishonorable meeting, and spoke.
“Even if we request reinforcements, no one will answer. We will protect our homeland ourselves.”
There was nothing more to say.
Leaving behind the retainers whose lips still moved as if trying to protest, he stepped outside.
Leading his silent personal guard behind him, he gazed at the Creatures that had already reached the very gates of the main castle and at the Void Rift that split the black sky like a festering tumor, then muttered quietly.
“……Not for the Emperor, but for ourselves.”
It was a dangerous statement for a noble of the Empire to utter, but none of his comrades cared.
They had all served in the Imperial Army and witnessed the Empire's shadow with their own eyes.
There was a reason he had given up on requesting aid from either the neighboring territories or the Imperial Central Army.
The Empire he had known from the day he was practically forced into military service until the day he retired as an officer had been a hell filled with contradictions and irrationality.
The Central Army, known as the Imperial Army, existed only to defend the central star system known as the Imperial Capital and the pro-Emperor faction.
Moreover, the Empire was a feudal state.
If he became indebted to the Emperor or another noble now, all that would remain for his barony would be an endless future of exploitation and enforced loyalty.
'Besides, it's doubtful any help would even arrive in time.'
Staring at the Void Rift that poured forth endlessly like rain, he closed his eyes.
Then, drawing upon the mana that the Human Composite State called Psionic energy, he unsheathed his sword.
“Order of Knights. Draw swords.”
The knights clad in armor forged from Carbine alloy drew their swords in unison at his command, and without the slightest hesitation, they hurled themselves toward the Creatures climbing the castle walls.
-Kyaaaaaaaaaa!
-Kikikikik!
And so the knights fought until night fell.
They tore apart the Creatures and cut them down.
They stirred mana and scattered flashes of light.
When thirsty, they caught the blood of the Creatures and drank it.
When hungry, they tore off chunks of flesh and forced them into their mouths.
Yet the number of monsters never diminished.
Rumbleeeee!
The sounds of battle from the residential district disappeared.
The outer walls collapsed.
And just as the inner walls were finally about to fall—
“Haa… Huff….”
Millio once more left behind his severed arm, entrusted the rear to his knights, and moved into the inner castle.
“Isabel. Tanya.”
His half-fading consciousness searched only for the two of them.
The walls had not yet fallen, but several Corrosive spikes had already pierced the inner castle.
Isabel, the wife he had spent his entire life to obtain.
And Tanya, his own flesh and blood.
No matter what happened to him, those two had to survive.
“Life is… within suffering…. Finding the light. Cough!”
Having spent his entire life on the battlefield, he knew all too well.
The fate of this planet had already been decided.
How many of its one billion inhabitants would survive?
And how many days would those survivors have left?
More importantly, he had seen it.
On the battlefield where he had resolved to retire, the moment that thing appeared high above the sky, thousands of kilometers away, every form of resistance had become meaningless.
'At least those two… those two.'
If sacrificing every life in his territory could save them, he would gladly do so.
What a selfish and revolting thought.
If it was a sin, then he would gladly accept punishment.
Only let those two tiny breaths continue.
Staggering forward, he walked through the inner castle corridors, already stained with blood, and finally reached the bedroom where his wife and daughter should have been.
The moment he opened the door, he collapsed to his knees, unable to do anything but release a scream overflowing with despair.
“A-ahhhhhh…! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
His bloodshot eyes trembled.
Was it his body that was collapsing, or the last shred of hope that had sustained him?
Like a puppet with its strings cut, he crumpled to the floor and clawed at his own eyes with his remaining arm as though trying to gouge them out.
But nothing could change the scene before him.
“I-Isabel, Tanya. A-ahhh! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Scattered across the bedroom floor were chunks of flesh and bone that, even gathered together, would not equal the size of a small puppy.
And, by cruel coincidence, the distorted faces of the mother and daughter, frozen in agony.
The Creature was no longer inside the room, perhaps because it had already finished feeding.
Beyond the gaping hole in the wall lay only a territory filled with human corpses and an endless tide of Creatures.
“A… ah….”
A beast-like groan escaped his split lips.
Then, through eyes weeping tears of blood, he looked toward the end of the sky, where stood that thing he had feared so deeply, the very existence that had ultimately broken his spirit.
Standing upon the Void Rift as though it were a throne, from afar it appeared to wear a dress as black as pitch.
In reality, it was simply an inhuman monster encased in an exoskeleton shaped like a human.
“Queen….”
The nightmare from the past whose very appearance had reduced the Empire's frontier to ruins.
「Mass-Produced Higher Species: Legion-Class Aptitude Individual」
「Code Name: Queen」
Rather than despair before the monstrous being beyond all standards, he gritted his teeth, stood up, and raised his disheveled head.
The Queen's violet eyes, elegant yet arrogant, indifferent yet contemptuous, gazed down upon him.
'I'll kill you.'
Even if it meant ending this life and abandoning everything he had spent his entire existence yearning for, he would claim her life.
He gripped his sword, poured every last drop of mana into it, and swung it toward the heavens.
No—
He tried to.
-Children. Call. Me.
The Queen's voice echoed as though whispering directly beside his ear, branding itself into his mind, carrying a pressure so overwhelming it smothered even his breathing.
Had he not dropped his sword at that very instant.
“A… ah….”
-Not here. What. We seek.
After uttering those cryptic words, the Queen extended her hand toward every Creature carrying out slaughter across the land.
At once, the Void Turtles that had landed upon the continent split open their grotesque shells and bellies, forcing the Creatures aboard one after another.
Those that failed to board or escaped control all burst apart where they stood.
〔M-My Lord! Something's wrong with them!〕
At the same time, communications were restored, and the surviving soldiers frantically contacted him.
But he heard none of their voices.
Every trace of vengeance he had felt moments earlier faded away, replaced by overwhelming helplessness.
His vision darkened.
His body trembled like prey before a predator.
Just like back then on the battlefield.
How much time had passed?
At last, he barely regained his senses.
And when he finally opened his eyes, the sight before him left him with nothing but hollow laughter.
“H-ha, hahahahahahahahaha!”
The Creatures that had ravaged the planet moments ago vanished into the Void Rift that had blackened the heavens.
The Queen was nowhere to be seen.
All that remained in her place was the brilliant dawn of the rising sun.
〔My Lord! It's a miracle! They're retreating!〕
〔WAAAAAAAAAAAH!〕
Cheers echoed through the communicator.
“Hah… Khk… Hahahahahahahaha!”
Millio laughed for a long time.
Then, planting the sword he had dropped before ever managing to swing it diagonally against the ground, he laughed like a madman before slowly letting all strength leave his body.
Thud-.
As his body slipped forward, the sword pierced through him and impaled his heart.
As the last remnants of his depleted mana gradually relinquished control over the desperately regenerating body, he gently cradled the heads of his wife and daughter with trembling fingertips and closed his eyes.
Tap tap tap tap!
“M-My Lord!”
When the order of knights finally sensed something was wrong and found him, all that remained was the cold corpse of Baron Millio.
At that same time.
“…….”
Having stepped outside the manor, Jin Crow looked up at the Void Rift opening in the sky and at the figure in a dress slowly revealing itself, then placed a cigarette between his lips.
“……Fuck. This wasn't part of the plan.”
It was a curse spoken with genuine fear, for the first time in a very long while.
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