Zeke stared at the darkness on the screen and the entity whispering to him.
"A new king?"
The voice came again.
[Do not fear me. Entrust everything to me.]
The voice that burrowed into his mind carried an inexplicable sense of comfort.
Zeke felt a strong urge to let go of everything and rely on that voice, almost without realizing it.
At that moment, a message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[An untrusted external access has been detected.]
[It is confirmed that part of the user's steadfast mental defense has been breached.]
[To ensure the user's safety, the relevant access is being blocked.]
With the system message, the voice ringing in Zeke's ears vanished.
"Huh?"
Regaining his senses, Zeke realized he had been momentarily entranced by the voice from the entity on the screen.
"It broke through my mental barrier?"
Zeke's mental strength was so solid that even the Blood King Caligula and the evil god Chaos couldn't pierce it.
The fact that it had breached his defenses with just a few words allowed Zeke to infer how immense the power of the entity on the screen was.
"That thing is..."
Zeke's expression changed.
He had a hunch about the true nature of the entity submerged in the darkness.
The entity's voice rang out once more.
[O king, we shall meet again soon.]
With those words, the screen went dark, and Zeke finally opened his eyes.
"Zeke."
Lifting his head, he saw Nigel, who had awakened at some point, standing before him.
She looked at Zeke with a worried expression.
"Zeke? Are you okay?"
Zeke felt Nigel's hand gripping his arm and replied as he looked at her.
"Yes, I'm fine. Master."
Seeing Zeke respond normally, Nigel nodded as if finally relieved.
Nabu, standing beside her, also let out a sigh of relief and said.
"Phew, that's a relief. You suddenly stood there silently for a few minutes, so I thought something was wrong."
Zeke furrowed his brow at Nabu's words.
"The perceived time felt much longer, but only a few minutes have passed?"
The message left by Chronos itself wasn't particularly special.
Though the latter part was corrupted, preventing him from fully grasping what Chronos intended to convey, he understood it was a warning about the Demon King.
What lingered strongly in Zeke's mind was the entity that had interfered with Chronos's message afterward.
Though he had only faced it briefly, Zeke had felt a chilling dread unlike anything before.
He speculated about the identity of the incomprehensible being submerged in the darkness.
"Demon King."
The source of all sealed evil in the Book of the Lion, the pinnacle entity.
He had seen its form as it tempted Solomon in his past memories, but this was the first time he had faced it so directly.
Zeke recalled how his mental barrier had momentarily crumbled before the Demon King's whisper.
"Demon King... It felt different from what I imagined, but dangerous in another way." Zeke turned his head and gazed at the firmly shut door.
Shaking off the lingering image of the Demon King in his mind, he extended his hand toward the door.
Using the control authority handed over from Innocent, he opened the door.
[The highest-tier secure zone of the deep-sea city Rʼlyeh is being opened in accordance with the user's command.] Rumble!
With a deafening noise, the door swung open.
Seeing this, Nabu let out a soft exclamation.
"Whew! The door really opened."
He spat into his palm, rolled up his sleeve, and gritted his teeth.
"Now that I've recovered some strength, it's time to show those bastards what we're made of!"
Nigel clicked her tongue at Nabu.
"The ones who interfered with the Custodian's authority and even opened a secure zone. If we act rashly, we'll be the ones who get taken out."
Nabu scratched his head in embarrassment at Nigel's sharp words.
"Hmm, you're right. But there's no other way, is there? The Custodian is already in that state."
Nabu looked at the Guardian Innocent with a newfound solemnity.
Though known as a homunculus modeled after the Great Sage, the Custodian had led the Highlander for over a thousand years.
With the Highlander losing its central figure, the High Table members were bound to fall into chaos.
At that moment, Nigel turned her head toward Zeke and approached him.
"Zeke, lead us."
Zeke's face filled with bewilderment at Nigel's words.
"What do you mean, Master?"
"Exactly what I said. The Highlander has lost its Custodian. Regardless of whether his convictions were blind and distorted, the Custodian was the center holding the
Highlander together to protect the Phenomenal World. In this situation, the only one who can take his place is you, Zeke."
Nabu nodded in agreement with Nigel's words.
"That's right. You received the authority over Rʼlyeh from the Custodian, Zeke." Nabu turned to Manna and Ivan and said.
"There are only four of us High Table members left anyway. If we agree, you'll become the Custodian of the Highlander."
Zeke looked around at Nigel, Nabu, Manna, and Ivan.
Manna also nodded in agreement with Nigel and Nabu's words.
Nabu addressed Ivan, who stood silently.
"Ivan, you agree too, right? There's no other choice." Ivan slowly raised his head and looked at Zeke.
Then he slowly opened his mouth.
"Long ago, the Custodian promised to help me eliminate all magical beasts in the Phenomenal World."
Ivan had lost his family to magical beasts centuries ago.
To take revenge on them, he learned magic and mastered ways to hunt them.
He had lived with the single-minded goal of eradicating all magical beasts in the world.
He met the Custodian when, as usual, he faced death alone against magical beasts.
The Custodian proposed a contract to Ivan, and he became a High Table member, hunting magical beasts for centuries.
Ivan looked at Zeke and said.
"Zeke Draker, if you make the same promise, I will carry out your orders more faithfully than anyone."
Unlike the other independent High Table members, Ivan was the one who followed the Custodian most faithfully. Though it was their first meeting, Zeke sensed his sincerity.
Zeke looked at Ivan and slowly extended his hand.
Hum!
Light seeped into his body, and his severed arm regenerated to its original state.
Ivan stared at his regenerated arm in surprise.
Then Zeke said to Ivan.
"I will completely eradicate not only magical beasts but everything disrupting the Phenomenal World."
Ivan felt that Zeke's words were not lies.
He bowed his head toward Zeke.
"I acknowledge you as the Custodian of the Highlander and will follow you."
With Ivan's assent, all High Table members unanimously recognized Zeke as the new Custodian of the Highlander.
Zeke looked at the High Table members before him and said.
"As Master said, Baron Draker and Harvey Draker are not easy opponents." Zeke turned his head to gaze inside the opened door and continued.
"But they probably don't know I've received control authority over this place, Rʼlyeh. We need to exploit that gap."
All the High Table members, including Nigel, nodded at Zeke's words.
"I have a plan."
Zeke's eyes gleamed as he explained the plan to the High Table members.
*
Thermo Fortress, the final gateway to Rom, the capital of the Rom Empire.
The area around the fortress, which had been the site of fierce battles until recently, was now eerily quiet.
Daria, the corps commander of the garrison at Thermo Fortress, ascended to the top of the fortress walls.
She approached Leo, who stood on the walls gazing at the horizon.
"Your Highness."
At Daria's call, Leo, the prince and commander of the fortress, spoke while looking beyond the walls.
"Corps Commander."
Daria stepped beside Leo and said.
"It seems there will be no more enemy raids. I think it would be best for Your Highness to return to Rom and leave this place to us."
The undead legion that had assaulted Thermo Fortress had suddenly ceased their attacks and vanished.
This was because Zeke had allied with Beelzebub, the Lord of the Abyss, in the Demon Realm, causing the undead legion to halt.
With Narak fallen and Jupiter, occupied by Castro Pollock, liberated, the Continental Allied Forces had come to the final battleground, Thermo Fortress.
The allied forces and garrison had defended the fortress, engaging the undead legion in several battles, and soon the tide turned.
After the undead legion attacking Thermo Fortress stopped and disappeared, only remnants of the old imperial army or mercenary bands turning to banditry remained to be dealt with.
Yet despite that, Leo couldn't easily leave Thermo Fortress, standing guard daily in case other enemies appeared.
Daria could sense in him the strength of a true knight, not mere spoken justice.
Leo gazed silently at the horizon before turning to Daria.
"Does the corps commander think the war is over?" Daria shook her head at Leo's words.
"No, I don't. But the enemy forces have withdrawn, and I believe there will be no more large-scale battles."
After a moment's thought, Leo spoke.
"A few days ago, during communication with Carus, I heard something unsettling."
"Unsettling? What do you mean, Your Highness?" Leo fell silent for a moment before continuing.
"It's being hushed up in each kingdom, but... the whereabouts of the continent's Black
Knights have become mysterious." Daria was startled by Leo's words.
"The Black Knights' whereabouts are mysterious? How could that...?"
The Black Knights were beings of such immense power that they were called oneman armies.
Thus, each kingdom went to great lengths to protect and retain them.
The number of Black Knights in each kingdom and their locations were classified as top secrets, except for a few known cases.
For multiple Black Knights to vanish at once was no ordinary matter.
Leo spoke again.
"According to Carus, it's not confirmed, but the prevailing speculation is that they are being attacked and killed."
Daria wore an incredulous expression.
"Black Knights being attacked? Who could possibly do such a thing?"
Attacking a Black Knight was tantamount to facing an entire kingdom's forces.
To assassinate one, one would have to breach heavy security, deal with hundreds of knights and mages first.
Then strike the Black Knight without a trace—it was practically impossible.
Daria, having learned spearmanship from Duke Crevan de Panion, the Bright King and a Black Knight of the empire, knew full well their strength.
Thus, she couldn't easily believe Leo's words.
Leo, furrowing his brow, said.
"It's impossible. But if it's truly happening... it means something beyond our imagination is occurring on this continent."
Daria realized why Leo, despite the war essentially ending, couldn't leave Thermo Fortress.
He had instinctively sensed that the war wasn't over and that something far greater was targeting the continent.
"Those who attack the continent's Black Knights without revealing their identity. Who could possibly do such a thing?"
Daria felt a cold sweat trickle down her back unbidden.
But then.
Bwoooo!
The horn signaling an enemy raid blared.
Hearing the alert, Leo immediately leaped to the top of the fortress's watchtower.
He gripped the railing and strained his eyes.
Beyond the horizon, which had been empty moments ago, something was approaching.
"What is that?"
The enemies swarming toward Thermo Fortress were not the undead legion.
An entirely new type of foes was advancing on the fortress.
As they drew closer and their forms became clearer, Leo's eyes widened.
He shouted to the fortress soldiers.
"It's magical beasts! Not the ones we've fought before—different ones are coming!" Growl!
Thousands of outsider-species magical beasts howled ferociously as they charged toward Thermo Fortress.