Episode 162: Descent

“D-Don’t joke around! Summoning Lord Lugdura, you say!? That’s impossible…”

Ignoring Joachim’s confusion, Siegfried began drawing a magic circle on the floor with his own blood. It was completed in the blink of an eye, exuding a geometric beauty.

“Come, Joachim.”

Without a chance to resist, Joachim was grabbed by the arm and dragged into the center of the magic circle by Siegfried. Then, he was mercilessly slammed onto the floor.

“Ugh…!”

“Lugdura’s power resides within you. That means you have value as a catalyst for summoning Lugdura from the underworld. I’m glad I can give even a villain like you a proper role.”

Siegfried carelessly trampled on Joachim’s body while channeling mana into the magic circle.

“Y-You… What are you!? What do you want!?”

The one who raised his voice in a daze was—King Luverios, who had noticed he was being left out of the conversation’s flow.

Siegfried replied in a calm voice.

“I’m just summoning a boss villain suitable for wrapping up this chapter. Unfortunately, you all aren’t cut out for the role.”

“What…!”

“Ah… Don’t get me wrong, Luverios. I’m not looking down on second- or third-rate villains. They have their own charm. However—when it comes to a chapter boss, it needs a certain ‘status,’ doesn’t it?”

There wasn’t even a trace of respect for the king in his voice. It was only natural; Siegfried had never harbored such feelings to begin with. The politeness he’d shown until now was merely a performance as a scheming villain.

As if Luverios was no longer even in his field of view, Siegfried turned his gaze back to the magic circle.

“D-Don’t underestimate me…!”

Luverios muttered in a trembling voice. Far from confronting and defeating Siegfried—he wasn’t even being acknowledged as an enemy. That humiliation deeply gouged at the king’s heart.

(I’ll kill you… with my own hands!)

Driven by intense emotion, Luverios drew his sword and charged straight at Siegfried.

But the silver-haired youth looked up and spoke with a somewhat delighted expression.

“I see. You want to take the stage as a villain too, Luverios.”

Siegfried knocked the sword aside with a hand chop, grabbed Luverios’s arm, slammed him down onto Joachim—who was crawling on the floor—and then stepped on him.

“Guh…!”

“I’ll give you the role of a catalyst as well. Let’s have the three of us combine our strengths to complete this ritual. —Rival villains cooperating for a single purpose… That’s another great showcase for villainy.”

“S-Shut up! Stop it! Let go! Siegfried!”

Luverios shouted desperately, but his body wouldn’t move properly.

It was because Siegfried was channeling mana through the sole of his foot, sealing his movements.

“Now… The debut of a boss villain befitting the climax.”

The instant Siegfried muttered that lowly, Luverios and Joachim were enveloped in an bizarre pressure that felt like it was crushing their entire bodies.

From a vast distance—beyond the dimensions—‘something’ was approaching. Its presence was far too immense, radiating overwhelming power.

The magic circle pulsed with intensifying light, enveloping the entire throne room. Walls, ceiling, the world itself was being overwritten by the light—but then.

—Whoosh, the glow vanished without warning.

All that remained in the throne room was a suffocating silence and an unfathomable darkness.

(What… Was it a failure…?)

Luverios thought that only briefly.

—Crack, crack… Dry, eerie sounds echoed through the room.

“Wh-What…?”

Luverios peered into the depths of the darkness.

What he saw there was—bones sprouting en masse from across the floor. Thin, sharp, and white, they rapidly increased in number and length.

The cluster of bones continued proliferating toward the high ceiling of the throne room.

Eventually, they twisted into a spiral, intertwined, and formed a single shape.

It was—a grotesque bud woven from bones.

“Ugh…”

Instinctively terrified by its beautiful yet ominous form, Luverios slowly backed away while crawling on the floor.

And then—the bone bud opened soundlessly, as if taking a breath.

Standing at its center was a single man.

He appeared to be in his twenties or thirties.

His long hair was white. His skin was white. His handsome face and well-proportioned limbs were all white. The only exception was his eyes, black as the depths of darkness.

He was clad in a himation reminiscent of an ancient philosopher. His form could be mistaken for an intricate sculpture at first glance. But his body was made neither of stone nor metal.

From head to toe, even his clothing—it was all smooth, seamless bone.

Even so, compared to the grotesque undead Varnazahl that had appeared earlier, his appearance was far more ‘human-like.’

His height was also within normal bounds.

However, the moment he laid eyes on him—an uncontrollable nausea surged up from within Luverios.

“Urgh…!”

Unable to hold it back, he vomited the contents of his stomach.

The aura emanating from the man before him no longer belonged to the living. It was eternal death itself.

The fact that his reaction was limited to this was precisely because he was Luverios.

As someone who bore the title of king and hosted a fragment of Lugdura’s power, he was able to remain alive like this.

If it had been an ordinary human—they would have lost their life the instant their gazes met.

This man’s aura of death was that aberrant.

Without a doubt, this was the ‘Seven Great Calamities,’ ranked fourth—‘The Lord of Bone Burial,’ Lugdura.

“O… Oh…! Lord Lugdura…!”

Shaking under the oppressive presence of this embodiment of death, Joachim transformed his fear into ecstasy and approached with unsteady steps.

“T-To think I could behold you like this! This Joachim is honored beyond…”

“Disappear.”

With that single word, white flames erupted from beneath Joachim’s feet. The infernal blaze of the underworld, which incinerates life itself, engulfed his entire body.

“Ah… Aaaah~!”

One of the five great nobles and the kingdom’s chancellor. The man who had orchestrated countless conspiracies—Joachim von Kaltsart-Fernbrick. He vaporized in an instant, his life extinguished completely.

“A mere human daring to converse with me—know your place.”

Lugdura’s ‘voice’ carried an unfathomable stillness and gravity. No—it wasn’t truly a voice. It was mana infused with will, speaking directly to the target’s soul.

The throne room filled with an oppressive weight of death so thick it was hard to breathe. Yet Siegfried, unaffected by that pressure, wore a smile.

“How fortunate for you, Joachim. Summoning the Lugdura you revered, only to be killed by him—a fitting end for a fanatical villain. You must be content.”

Lugdura narrowed his pitch-black eyes and regarded Siegfried coldly.

“And what are you?”

However, as a ‘Calamity,’ he wasn’t actually seeking an answer.

Answers were things to seize with his own hands. Kill this youth, then use necromancy to extract his memories—that would suffice.

In a flash, the bone bud transformed into a massive death scythe and came crashing down toward Siegfried’s head. It wasn’t merely enormous; it was the blade of finality, wreathed in underworld flames.

But in that split second—a deep crimson slash flashed, severing the underworld scythe cleanly in two mid-air.

Amid the crumbling shards of bone blade, the silver-haired youth stared directly at the king of death.

“My name is Siegfried von Kreving. —I am a villain.”