[MLV] 43. Still Alive (Patreon)

A/N

It's here at last!

Also, it would be best if you reread chapter 42 first since there were changes there.

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Upon reaching a safer area a few hundred paces from the Nameless, Alicia finally let Lucille go.

The princess staggered as she tried to stand, her eyes wide as she stared at Alicia, who was now in her full vampire form. Unfortunately, the situation had gotten so bad, and their enemy was so strong that Alicia couldn’t afford being the debuff caused by using [Polymorph], severely degrading her base stats by fifty percent when active.

Though, this was meant to happen anyway. I hope she can accept me for who I am…

Lucille’s lips quivered.

“Alice, I don’t think we can fight him.”

“Calm down,” Alicia said, giving her a reassuring smile. “I’m not going to let them defeat us.”

Alicia turned back to look at the Nameless. The creature’s glowing red eye was now locked straight at her. Ever since she turned back to her vampiric form, Alicia felt a throbbing pain, something she knew instinctively was connected to her crown. It had been calling out to her, tugging her into activating it, because…

She couldn’t pin why exactly.

Just that the crown seemed drawn to the monster before her.

I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try.

Alicia looked around the battlefield one last time. Earlier, when she activated her vampiric form, she immediately cast a wide area spell to give small barrier spells for every individual in their expedition. Right now, everyone was scattered in the battlefield, fighting desperately for their lives, unable to see each other, support each other, or regroup.

Ending the Nameless was her top priority.

She looked back at the Nameless. Thousands of miasma strings, so small they were almost imperceptible, were connected to his body, each string attached to the distortions under his control. The black crown soon appeared on top of Alicia’s head, as she decided to let the crown make contact with him.

[DISTORTION RESONANCE DETECTED!]

Unexpectedly, Alicia found her vision warping and changing.

For a second, she swore she saw an apocalyptic, burning world, where she faced two disfigured humanoid distortions. She heard the voice of an angry man shouting at them, and then, before she knew it, she was back, staring at the Nameless as he slowly advanced toward them.

But Alicia was momentarily unable to focus on him.

Her mind was filled with a cacophony of screams from many directions, which sounded like broken glass to her. She could barely make out their ghostly, detached, and unnatural voices. Screams like ‘I don’t want to die,’ ‘Mama, Mama,’ and ‘I want to go home,’ were all too common, and that was how she realized that they were the last words of thousands of doomed men.

[DISTORTION RESONANCE UNLOCKED!]

[CORRUPTION REVERSAL UNLOCKED!]

Alicia winced as she tried her best to tune the noise down.

Then, her eyes widened as the Nameless finally charged in straight to them.

It seemed that her using the black crown on them triggered him fully. Looking at her options, she could technically just cut him in half with her magic from afar in an instant. But the crown presented another option. This land was filled with thousands of Vaelrin soldiers who fell in battle a long time ago and turned into distortions who stalked the land like ghosts of the past.

All this time, the monsters she killed were her fellow Vaelrin.

That made Alicia feel extremely bitter. But now, [Corruption Reversal] seemed to be a better option than just straight up executing all of them. The description told her that using it was going to be extremely taxing on her body and would definitely stun her for a while, as the crown would need her magic to move miasma out of corrupted Vaelrin. Worse, the description made no promises that the victims would be recovered.

Considering the sounds they were making didn’t seem to be that of the living but of someone already long dead, aside from a few, Alicia doubted she’d save many. But the Nameless was a different story.

Perhaps I can save Lucille’s hero this way.

“Stand back,” Alicia warned Lucille as she locked eyes with the Nameless, who was now only a few hundred paces from them. “I’ll finish this myself.”

Alicia closed her eyes as the crown showed her a circle covering a mental map of the battlefield. Everything inside it would be affected by [Corruption Reversal] if she used it. She didn’t hesitate anymore. Right as the Nameless closed in, Alicia finally activated it, her last thoughts leaving her as she suddenly blacked out.

I’m going to free all of you.

Her body rose up high, hovering in the sky. Alicia’s eyes turned black as the crown’s aura intensified, creating a powerful barrier spell around her to protect her. Then, her body went limp as the crown took full control of all mana in her body. To an onlooker like Lucille, the scene must be horrifying, as Alicia appeared like a possessed doll held in place by invisible strings.

Then, as if conducting a demonic ritual, the crown began to rapidly feast on miasma that corrupted thousands of Vaelrin soldiers, including the Nameless himself.

A man with no name screamed angrily at the void as he fought for his life. Earlier, he was so close to winning against the black dungeon’s monsters, but now, he felt his strength wavering. Even his control over his underlings began to disappear, which might incapacitate them all once if they were suddenly cut off from his mind. He didn’t understand why. He couldn’t even respond to this new threat in front of him, as his movement speed began to drop.

No, I’m not going down so easily!

Make me bleed, pierce my heart, tear my body apart, but if I can still fight, I’ll fight!

I won’t stop until I crush the black dungeon myself!

Pain surged as he felt his body being slowly disintegrated, piece by excruciating piece, all while he stubbornly tried to reach the floating distortion in front of him to slice it into two pieces.

I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all! I’ll kill every last one of you!

I’m not yet defeated! I can still—!

Out of nowhere, an unfamiliar voice of a woman reached out to him.

“No… Stop this. Stop fighting. Haven’t you grown tired of all this?”

Briefly, he saw a strange apparition in front of him. He couldn’t make out her face exactly, but he saw silver hair framing her vague face.

“What the hell are you saying?” He asked, his anger still boiling hot. “What do you even mean by that?”

He approached her, glaring at her.

“Stop? Don’t you have an idea how long I’ve been fighting? How long my comrades fought? Do you know what we’re up against?! Should all of that go to vain?!”

He struggled to fight the urge to slap her, to strike her, to tear her apart.

“Are you one of those devils?! No, I’m not stopping! I don’t care for how long, I don’t care if it’s hard, and I don’t care that I don’t even know my name or my past anymore; I’m used to it all! So long as I can fight, I won’t give in to despair!”

He began laughing at her like a madman.

“Don’t you see? The black dungeon can take everything away from me, but it doesn’t matter. I won’t stop marching. I’ll keep fighting it until the end. Nothing can stop me, not those devils, not you, not anyone! I’ll end this night—”

He froze as he raised his arm, right before he struck her.

Her hands, so soft, held him back. He could finally make out the details of her face. He’d never seen a woman this beautiful before, but most importantly, someone who looked at him with such pity that he saw genuine tears on the corner of her eyes.

“Don’t you see?” she asked. “You’re too far gone. Fight? What are you fighting for? You don’t even know who you are. Do the people you’re trying to kill?”

She looked down, then placed her other hand on his chest.

“No, of course not. So please, let me free you from this once and for all.”

Her voice washed out all the pain, all the anger, and all the hatred he felt.

Before he knew it, he felt like he was gently floating in the void, his mind blank. He didn’t know how long it all lasted, as he felt like he simply stopped existing.

Until he finally opened his eyes.

The world he had known, a world that always seemed like an awful nightmare, wasn’t here any more. He seemed to be lying with his back on cold grass. Hazily, he tried his best to sit up and regain his bearings.

Meanwhile, the first rays of morning sunshine began to cut through the darkness.

The devil that was hovering above the battlefield was now gone. He wasn’t sure where it went.

Meanwhile, the other devil that controlled the hive distortions was also replaced in front of him. Instead of a dreadful monster, standing before him was a breathtakingly beautiful elf, with blonde hair and azure eyes, staring at him with wide eyes.

She seemed like she was struggling to stand.

“An elf? This deep in the frontlines…?”

He felt a throbbing headache as vague fragments of his long-forgotten memories flooded back in his mind. That forced him to look down for a second as he held his head.

Shit, where the hell am I? What’s happening? I was supposed to be fighting those—

Remembering that he was supposed to be in a battle, his senses sharpened again. He looked around frantically. Yet, for some reason, there was no more fighting going on. He could see many strange creatures on the horizon, but there were no devils around them.

Still, he couldn’t be too sure. There was a civilian in front of him. He had to make sure that it was truly safe.

“...You there!” he shouted at the elf in front of him with his remaining strength. “Why are you here? The zone is off limits for civilians!”

His gaze darkened.

“Get out of here. Now.”

“I…” the elven woman muttered, frozen in shock as she stared at him for way too long. He noticed her eyes starting to moisten. “It’s really you…”

He tried to move his legs but found himself unable to do so.

He breathed in and out deeply and locked eyes with her.

“I told you, get out of here,” he repeated. “You don’t belong here. This isn’t your fight.”

Those words seemed to strike a chord in her, but instead of backing off, she suddenly hardened her gaze and curled her fist.

“No, that's not true. I have to fight this war too.”

“Stop blabbering nonsense. You’re an elf, aren’t you? You send us here to fight for you.”

“I disagree with that!”

He stopped. What did she just say?

Ah, so she’s one of those. That explains her fancy armor.

“A fool, that’s what you are,” he mocked her, the lingering anger he felt for ages momentarily lashing out. “Do you have a death wish or something? If you do, then you shouldn’t bother trying to fight at all. If you’re some noble brat trying to find glory, you won’t find it here. I doubt you even know what we’re dealing with. If we can’t beat them, then neither can you. You’ll die pathetically. So get out.”

“I said no. I’m not leaving.”

With trembling hands, she marched onward, approaching him, struggling to keep her tears at bay as she presented a courageous facade. This was strange. For what reason was she suddenly crying?

“So what if I’m not strong enough to win? So what if victory isn’t assured? So what if I don’t even know my enemy? Should I then embarrass myself by running away like a coward? If death is inevitable, should I just roll over and die?”

His eyes widened as the woman drew closer, raising her voice.

What the hell is up with her?

“I know so many people who fought for less, struggled for less, and died for less. And for what? To save someone like me, someone who stays at the back, reaping the time and comforts they bought with their lives just to keep the illusion that everything will be fine? No, I can’t let that happen anymore.”

Her gaze sharpened as she stopped. Then, raising her voice, she introduced herself.

“My name is Crown Princess Lucille Severine de la Mirenoire. As your next empress, I swear, to you and everyone else, that I will never run away from this war!”

The wind swayed the grass around him as he stared at her, speechless.

Lucille… Princess Lucille… 

That name. His mind, which was struggling to remember details of his memories, immediately grasped whose name that was.

“Princess…” he couldn’t believe it. He began to remember that girl—so precious and innocent—and how she smiled at him as she finally escaped the zone. “You’re… all grown up…”

He felt like he was staring at a ghost.

“How…?”

Now that he recognized her, Lucille stopped her speech. Immediately, she tried to force a smile, even if more of her tears came out.

“As for you, you already fought far too much. I should be the one telling you to get out of here and rest. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been. Surely, you’re a little tired now, yes?”

He avoided her gaze, looking down as he himself began to feel his emotions bubbling up, knowing that she was right. Indeed, as she said, he was tired, truly tired. After all, didn’t he die, screaming defiantly that he’ll end the black dungeon as it claimed him? Yet, there was a vague period between his ‘death’ and today. A long nightmare he couldn’t even describe. All he knew was the pain and despair it etched on him, deep in his soul.

He felt that for so long, he was aimlessly fighting for the sake of fighting, walking an endless journey through an abyss that led to nowhere. It was terrifying. He didn’t want to go through that again.

But even so…

I have to keep fighting. I doubt it’s safe here.

Then, the princess continued speaking to him, somehow knowing what was on his mind.

“But you still want to fight anyway, don’t you? When you told me to turn back, I saw you trying to stand up. Even when you can’t lift a finger, you still wish to protect someone else.”

More tears came down her cheeks, even as she proudly smiled at him.

“I knew it. You’re really my hero. At last, I caught up to you.”

“I want to see you again!” A little girl’s voice played back again in his mind as she gave him his hairpin. “My hero, let’s meet again one day, okay?”

He laughed as he buried his face in the back of his hand, trying to hide the fact that he was starting to get a bit emotional, both because it had been ages since he met anyone he knew and also because he still felt overwhelmed by the terror of his long nightmare.

Damn it all, I just woke up. Why this all of a sudden?

“This isn’t how I want our reunion to be, princess,” he said, trying to avert her gaze, ashamed that he looked more like a sniveling boy than a proper soldier. “Can you turn around for a bit? Calling me a hero when I can’t even stand on my feet… you say too much nonsense.”

“I don’t get it. You still refer to me as ‘princess.’ I remember telling you to just call me Lucille.” She tried to wipe her tears a bit while hiding her face as well. When she was done, she turned back to him. “Then again, I suppose we’re not that familiar yet. In fact, I was such a silly girl back then that I forgot to ask for your name.”

He tried his best to remain silent, the memories of their short journey replaying on the back of his mind. Then, her voice reached out to him again.

“So, uhm… this time, can you… can you please tell me your name?”

Her regal bearings truly bloomed so much that even when she was this overwhelmed, she tried her best to keep her voice steady and elegant.

…She’s not the same girl I knew back then. There’s no reason for me to act tough.

“...Alright,” he looked back at her again, even when he looked utterly pathetic, unable to even stand up, much less fight for her again. “My name is Leonardo. Leonardo Matteotti. I’m glad to see you again, Lucille.”

After hearing his name, her eyes widened as she went silent, as if her mind took a few seconds to process this. Then, she muttered his name a few times to herself, desperately memorizing it. It was almost adorable watching someone called Crown Princess—he remembered she was just ‘princess’ back then—act this way.

In the end, she placed one of her hands on her chest, finally giving him a smile filled with relief, the sunrise appearing right behind her, making her smile and face even more radiant.

“I’m glad to see you too, Leonardo.”

At last, after the pitch-black darkness of his longest night, morning was here.