ICM Chapter 153

Screams echoed from all directions. Those cut by the knights’ swords gasped their last breaths and collapsed to the ground. Drushia’s sword relentlessly severed his opponents’ limbs one after another without pause. The merciless swinging of his blade caught his enemies off guard, making them hesitate.

However, they were overwhelmingly disadvantaged against the ever-increasing number of enemies.

“Aaaahhh!”

The knight who had been guarding Drushia’s back was struck by three attackers at once and finally fell. Pelburn hurriedly filled the empty position and shouted to Drushia.

“Please retreat! We’ll hold them off somehow, no matter what….”

Thwack. An arrow flew through the air. A powerful crossbow bolt struck Pelburn’s right arm as he wielded his sword. He managed to grip his sword, but all strength drained from his hand.

Dawn was breaking. Against the blue-gray light filtering from the distance, the black silhouettes of assassins gathering at the forest’s edge became clear.

Realizing the significant difference in forces, the enemy didn’t rush in immediately. Nearly twenty enemies took positions behind the battlefield and prepared their crossbows.

Drushia gritted his teeth and swung his sword frantically. If he could kill even one more, wouldn’t that slightly increase the chances of Ashika and the baby surviving?

But it seemed impossible to stop them all. Watching another knight fall, the assassins retreated. Though he pursued the retreating figures and managed to behead them in the end, he was forced to stop before dozens of assassins.

“Fire all at once! Don’t give them any chance to escape!”

The Marquis shouted excitedly. The enemy was a rat trapped in a jar. Now it was time to truly end this.

As soon as the command was given, dozens of arrows left their bowstrings. Pelburn instantly rushed in front of Drushia, and Drushia glared at Marquis Maiheller, cursing the enemy who wouldn’t die no matter how many times he was killed.

That was the moment. Both Drushia and Pelburn turned around simultaneously.

“The baby…”

The sound that escaped softly was unmistakably a baby’s cry. Though it was so faint it could have been buried, they somehow managed to hear it.

The despair and terror Drushia felt were indescribably horrific. Rather than rejoicing at the child’s birth, the disaster that would befall Ashika and the child after his death pushed him to the cliff’s edge, making him fall.

The dozens of arrows flying through the dawn light announced the end for those remaining. In that fleeting moment, there was nothing he could do. Only to rage, yearn, and rush toward death with all his might.

The moment Drushia charged toward the rushing arrows, a sharp scream came from somewhere. Simultaneously, an unfamiliar light exploded, obscuring his vision.

“Aaaahhh!”

“Ughhh!”

The arrows flying toward him stopped in mid-air. It wasn’t just the arrows that stopped. The dozens of enemies who had been screaming froze with their mouths open.

In that eerie moment, Drushia didn’t close his eyes. He couldn’t. Through the painfully bright light filling his vision, something slowly flowed in. A strange blue-violet light flowing through the blue-gray light that had consumed the surroundings.

No, it was a pale light undulating like waves. Pale platinum hair flowed long through the air, pushing back the blue-gray dawn light as if emitting its own luminescence.

The owner of the long platinum hair had a human form. Tall as a large man with loose robes like sleeping clothes, he walked but seemed not to touch the ground.

He passed by Drushia and went straight to Marquis Maiheller. Though his movement was slow, space had stopped, so no one could stop him.

He extended his pale white hand and grasped Marquis Maiheller’s throat. The Marquis’s eyes flashed, but he couldn’t move.

He gazed down at the Marquis in his grasp. His blue-violet eyes were as emotionless as minerals. When his blue-tinged pale lips opened, for the first time, an eerie voice that wasn’t human flowed out.

[So it was you. The one who kept interfering with me.]

“Guh… urgh.”

As if his throat was blocked, the Marquis coughed and gasped. He tried to say something but couldn’t even make a sound. Though the cold gaze showed no emotion, every nerve in his body stood on edge like needle points, screaming.

It was terror. Before the overwhelming alien fear, the Marquis’s entire body trembled like an aspen tree.

[Was it so precious to you, returning what was mine?]

He slowly raised his head and looked around at the dozens of people frozen in terror.

[This should have been a prison broken long ago. From the moment you awakened me.]

The emotionless voice, like a mineral, seeped into the eerie silence. Following that voice, disaster began soundlessly.

“Guh… urgh.”

From his fingertips, Marquis Maiheller’s flesh began to burn. No, not burn, but shrivel. Like wood completely dried of moisture, life drained away and it shriveled, transforming into a dark brown mass.

No one could escape. The disaster spread from the Marquis to those nearby, then to those next to them, methodically.

Drushia watched completely frozen as dozens of people dried up like withered branches without even letting out a single scream, like mummies left in the desert for decades or centuries.

When there was nothing left to shrivel, dozens of corpses crumbled into dust. Like the dark brown dust clumps he had once seen at the Grand Duke’s castle.

It was an unimaginably cruel massacre. When finally nothing remained alive before his gaze, he turned around.

“Huh… who…”

Drushia gasped and tried to squeeze out his voice. But the other’s gaze wasn’t directed at him, but toward the rocky crevice behind him.

Instinctive fear rising from the depths. Drushia realized that the being before his eyes was the secret that had long slept in the Grand Duke’s castle.

The other moved again. With steps that flowed slowly as if swimming through water, he passed by Drushia toward the rocky crevice.

“No…”

He tried somehow to move, but his body wouldn’t obey. The being left Drushia and the knights behind and slowly entered the rocky crevice where Ashika was.

Her whole body was taut like a bowstring stretched to its limit. At the same time, she repeatedly lost strength due to inability to control it. Ashika found it difficult to know whether what she was experiencing was normal or not, or what was wrong.

Whenever her vision blurred, Jeanne approached and kept talking to her. She could hear the sounds but couldn’t understand them, so they just passed by her ears repeatedly.

“Huh… where’s Drushia?”

“He’s guarding the entrance. Don’t speak and focus on breathing.”

Cold sweat seeped out, her hair stuck to her face, and her whole body was soaked.

Why today of all days? Could they really get through this night safely? She felt sorry for the baby and sad at the same time, as if she had done something terribly wrong.

“Huuugh.”

Fear soon flew from her mind. An unprecedented agony that she had never experienced swept through her entire body. It was pain more vivid than the last death she had experienced. She thought she heard a voice calling her, but her vision went completely black.

Would she lose consciousness like this? Then what would happen to the baby? What about our baby… But if she died like this, wouldn’t the pain also disappear? She even had such thoughts.

For some time like that. Into the consciousness submerged in pitch-black darkness from pain, a faint resonance seeped in.

[…let go… of me.]

The faint resonance seeped in as if taking form and enveloped Ashika.

[…Child, child of Arkpella….]

It was a strong, sharp force that wouldn’t allow even her to lose consciousness. Her feverish body felt a chilling cold as if thrown into ice water.

[…Let go. Now give me back my power….]

The cold devoured the pain and steadily grew in size. Someone seemed to be caressing her and also squeezing her sharply.

“Young Duchess!”

Jeanne slapped Ashika’s cheek hard as she was losing consciousness. She felt no shock or pain. Only herself being tossed about senselessly.

“Get a grip. Young Duchess! If you lose strength, the baby will die!”

At Jeanne’s desperate urging, strength mechanically entered her body. But Ashika’s consciousness was half-buried somewhere.

Where she was wasn’t a cave, but a space of nothing but pitch-black darkness. A space as dark as a starless night.

There she felt a gaze directed at her. Like a crescent moon emitting a cool light, sharp eyes. Blue-violet pupils that didn’t feel human were looking down at her.

“Ahhhh!”

With a scream, Ashika’s eyes snapped open. The pale light of the luminous stone felt excessively bright as her senses stood on edge.

“Don’t lose focus. Young Duchess. It’s the baby.”

It was Jeanne’s voice. Along with the campfire smoke, a bloody burning smell vibrated. She could tell without looking. Jeanne was cutting the umbilical cord.

“Huh… ah…”

“You did well. You really did well.”

Jeanne hurriedly wrapped the small form in her hands with a cloak and held it. But Jeanne’s expression soon darkened.

“…Jeanne… why…”

She had definitely heard the baby’s cry. But the weak crying soon subsided. In the cave, only Ashika’s labored breathing and the sound of the campfire burning could be heard faintly.

“…Give me the child…”

Ashika extended her hand to Jeanne. Give me the baby, show me. But Jeanne couldn’t readily hand it over. She wasn’t certain whether the baby was alive or dead.

An ominous feeling enveloped her whole body. Ashika’s mind cleared.

“Jeanne!”

It was a cry like a scream. As if Ashika’s scream was a signal, a cold light exploded before her eyes. For a moment, she couldn’t tell whether her eyes were open or closed.

Space convulsed. The surrounding space seemed to tear apart completely, and strange light pouring through the gaps consumed the surroundings. A moment when time and space stopped.

The approaching being looked no different from a human. Pale white skin with finely drawn features and blue-tinged lips.

Only the platinum hair that rippled without wind and the blue-violet eyes that glowed like minerals gave an eerie feeling.

A powerful force bound Jeanne’s entire body so she couldn’t move even a finger. She couldn’t even close her eyes, which were wide with terror and shock. Even when the other approached right in front of her.

Before the baby, he tilted his head curiously as if looking at something strange. His naturally extended hand reached toward the baby.

The pale white hand, as pale as pure white hair, hovered around the baby’s face. He seemed to hesitate a little. When the cold light flowed out and touched the baby, the baby’s eyes, which had been cracked like hairlines, opened slightly.

Blue-violet eyes that emitted a strange light. In the baby’s face, where red blood hadn’t yet faded, jewel-like vivid blue-violet was embedded.

A change occurred in his face as he looked at the baby. His large, elongated eyes curved gently, and an expression appeared on a face that had felt lifeless.

[…My savior.]

It was sweet ecstasy spoken by a cold voice. He quietly lowered his head and bestowed a blessing kiss on the forehead of the dying baby.

The baby, who had been limp, began to struggle. Waving tiny arms and finally bursting into tears. It was a strong cry.

“Ahh…”

Ashika finally burst into tears. Busy footsteps could be heard from outside.

“Ashika!”

At Drushia’s voice, he turned around. With the same cold gaze as before.

Drushia had a sword in his hand, but he knew it wouldn’t work. In the brief moment of hesitation, Drushia’s gaze went back and forth between Ashika and the baby.

Jeanne quickly retreated, holding the baby. For a moment, both Jeanne’s and Ashika’s eyes widened. Ashika received the baby and anxiously examined it.

“Why…”

The baby that was born definitely had platinum hair and blue-violet eyes. But in that brief moment, everything had changed.

The baby, who had resembled Iben, now had black hair like Ashika’s and was slowly blinking blue eyes that exactly resembled Drushia’s.

Understanding Ashika’s confusion, he spoke again.

[Don’t worry. The child will be healthy.]

Though his expression was definitely cold, it felt like he was smiling.

Drushia slowly lowered the sword he was holding. While Drushia approached Ashika, he slowly retreated. His gaze toward the outside wandered around the air.

[Now it’s time to stop.]

While everyone’s attention was focused on Ashika and Drushia, the light that had consumed the space faded. Like the slowly disappearing light, his form also vanished somewhere.

When Drushia held the baby in his arms for the first time, the refreshing sound of rain could be heard from outside. It was the sound of a long drought ending.