Book 1: Chapter 34: The World Within the Dragon Knight’s Memories

Within the Dark Sanctum, the void monarch Skryme presented its final gift to the demon king Bella. This was the second time that Bella had seen Lisha, who currently seemed to be asleep with her eyes firmly closed. There weren’t any signs of wounds or injury on her body and unlike Hadias, there weren’t any tools to restrict her movement.

After seeing that Lisha had also been caught, the resistance of Lola began to falter. Not even in her dreams had she seen Lisha get defeated and captured, Lisha would always leave something up her sleeve that would be able to get her out of the toughest of situations, how did she get caught?

Seeing Bella get closer to the sleeping Lisha, Lola struggled with all strength in her body, trying to escape her bonds to stop this madness. Lisha was Felia’s sister, was Felia going to do the same things to Lisha as she had done to Lola?! Lisha was currently completely unclothed, was Felia crazy enough to set her hands on her own little sister?!

Seeing the sleeping Irene not far away, Lola was even more worried about Lisha’s fate. Felia hadn’t even spared her older sister, why would she care about Lisha’s identity as her little sister?

Lola’s struggles were to no avail, the silken threads that bonded her were those of the void monarch Yulysses, it was capable of capturing even a dragon, not to mention a human like Lola.

Bella raised her head and saw that the hostility in Lola’s eyes being replaced with a pleading look, she seemed to want Bella to spare Lisha. It was about time that this girl learned how to beg for mercy. Along from Lisha, Bella didn’t plan to this beauty assassin free either, her party had been lacking an assassin class member this whole time, it seemed that whatever existences up there had heard Bella’s wishes and granted it.

“I have to discuss some things with Lisha that should stay between sisters, I’ll come for you later. Just stay like this for now.”

Bella brought a strip of black cloth and walked up to Lola, who was furiously shaking her head. Lola was able to infer what Bella planned to do, covering her eyes so that she wouldn’t be able to see what kind of wicked deeds that Bella would be doing to Lisha.

Lola’s acts of resistance were futile, Bella was quickly able to blindfold her before taking out to pieces of a soft sponge-like material and put them into Lola’s ears. This way there would be no one able to interrupt the ‘sisterly bonding’ that would take place between Bella and Lisha.

After glancing at Lisha who was still fast asleep, Bella turned towards Skryme and looked at the void monarch with questioning eyes, seeming to be seeking an explanation. Skryme had previously told Bella that Lisha could very likely be a member of the dark side.

Skryme handed a few pieces of equipment to Bella; these should be the hero’s personal equipment or, in other words, cheat equipment. Seeing all the equipment that Skryme had taken from Lisha, Bella was a little surprised, as she had previously thought that Lisha had less cheats than Kriss, but that didn’t seem to be the case here.

There was 3 different pieces of special equipment that Lisha carried on her person, the first was a silver-white storage ring, a must have of any transmigrator. While Bella’s companion, Noesha, could also make these storage rings, she never had the chance to do so because of how rare the materials needed were.

Lisha’s storage ring needed her own blood in order to access it, but it seemed that Felia’s blood also worked, prehaps because they were sisters related by blood. At first glance, Bella noticed that the space within Lisha’s storage ring was much bigger than that of a typical storage ring.

The space within a typical storage ring was only around the size of a small room, larger ones could reach maybe that of a football field. The space within Lisha’s ring, however, made Bella feel like she had travelled to another world as the the storage space seemed to be an independent dimension without boundaries.

For as far as Bella could see, there space within the ring was scattered with various weapons of legendary quality. Quite of few of these seemed to be comparatively new, probably those that Lisha had collected in the time after she had transmigrated to this world. Apart from weapons, these was also a large platform piled high with various rare and valuable resources. On a nearby table, Bella discovered a few unfinished scrolls, which Bella was able recognize as teleportation and revival scrolls from the half finished runes inscribed on them.

There was a strange white mist within this ring’s storage space that seemed to be an invisible wall. Bella failed to find anything like an entrance after searching around for quite a while, and could only give up her plan of further exploring the space within Lisha’s storage ring.

Another one of Lisha’s treasures was a strange crystal ball, with what seemed to be an eye engraved on it. According to Skryme, this crystal ball might be the legendary ‘Eye of Treasure’, an artifact used for treasure-hunting.

The user could use the ‘Eye of Treasure’ to find where all the treasures in their world was currently hidden. This artifact was probably why Lisha was able to gather such a large amount of high-level equipment in such a short time.

Lisha’s last treasure was kind of strange, a dark-black ring. Skryme took much caution when presenting this ring, choosing to place it on a stone platform close to Bella rather than giving it straight to her.

“Master, there seems to be an extremely strong curse on this ring. It seems to be a ring that has a hidden space within. This ring can only be seen by the higher existences of the dark side, those who aren’t won’t even be able to see it, not even a god. This ring had been invisible previously and your sister shouldn’t have known that this ring had been on her hand for quite some time.”

After hearing Skryme’s simple presentation, Bella carefully picked up the ring, she was able to see this ring, probably due to her affiliation with the dark side. When she picked up the ring, Bella was immediately able to feel a strong aura of resentment being given off by the ring, she wasn’t sure of it, but Bella also seemed to hear various wretched and woeful sounds in her ears.

Bella didn’t know why Lisha would wear such a sinister ring, it conflicted too much with her identity as an hero. Bella almost threw away the ring after hearing the wretched sounds that had sent shivers down her spine, but Bella decided against it when she remembered that this ring seemed to have something to do with Lisha’s identity and past, she didn’t want to give up this rare chance to discover more about this ‘little sister’ of hers.

Bella made Skryme stand guard at the entrance of the Dark Sanctum. Although Skryme was confused as to why Bella had done so, but carried out the order nevertheless. Bella was the 【Prime King】, this ring’s curse shouldn’t have any effect on her at all.

After making sure that Skryme had left, Bella sat cross-legged on the ground, and after a brief dark haze, Bella’s true self appeared in the room beside Felia. In order to stop Lisha from waking up before Bella wanted her to, Bella took out a small bottle of liquid medication and fed it to Lisha. This medication was the same as the one that Bella had given Irene earlier, one that would make sure someone would sleep calmly for a long time.

After making all her preparations, Bella put on the cursed ring. The moment after Bella had put the ring on her hand, the scenery in front of her changed, as if Bella had put on VR gear.

As for those creepy sounds, they had all disappeared after Bella’s true form had appeared. Probably out of awe towards the aura of pure darkness that Bella gave off.

___

The scene in front of her was a rather frightening cemetery. There were tombstone for as far as Bella could see, with countless phantoms floating around. Not one of these phantoms had a completely intact body, the expression on their faces twisted beyond what was possible of a human face, all of these phantoms had most likely died an unnaturally gruesome death.

Bella followed the cemetery’s only path, heading towards its heart. She felt like she was within a illusory flashback, none of the phantoms seemed to be able to see Bella, slowly drifting past her.

In the heart of the cemetery, Bella saw a large fortress made out of the bones of countless dragons, defended by a large amount of tall demonic guards. Bella scanned her memory but was unable to recognize these evil beings, these were probably from a dimension different from Bella’s.

Each of these demonic guards were around five metres in height, a heavy dark-red armour leaving not even their eyes exposed.

“You’ve arrived, Rebecca-sama! The other demon generals have already arrived, her highness has been waiting for you, marshal-sama.”

As Bella was about to enter the fortress gates, the demonic guards guarding the gates gave her a respectful greeting. Bella was spooked for a bit, she had thought that these guards were just an illusory part of the background.

Bella carefully entered the gates, she was no longer sure if this world was real or an illusion anymore. In one of the hall’s mirrors, Bella was able to see what she currently looked like.

Contrary to Bella’s expectation, the person she saw in the mirror wasn’t her true form, nor was it Felia. It was someone that Bella had never seen before. A silver-haired demoness with bright-red eyes and a pair of blood-red demon horns that stuck out the side of her helmet.

The only disappointment that Bella had was that the demoness wore a helmet that came with a mask which covered her face, This helmet was so light that Bella hadn’t even realized that she had been wearing it this whole time. When Bella tried to take off the helmet, she found to her surprise that her body no longer listened to her commands and continued forward instead.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Lisha’s black ring was still on her hand, Bella would have thought that this was all just a dream. As there didn’t seem to be any harm in continuing forward, Bella let this body take the wheel.

Bella soon arrived at a throne room within the fortress, and saw a familiar figure sitting on the demon throne within. Even though her hair was now jet-black and her irises were a dark gold, but looking at just her figure, Bella instinctively felt that the person sitting on the throne was Lisha.

This female demon wore a set of demon king’s armour the same colour as her irises, engraved with multiple demonic dragons. A wicked looking mask covered her entire face, leaving only her eyes uncovered.

This female demon king rose from her seat and walked in the opposite direction, Bella’s current body following in her footsteps. The two of them didn’t exchange a word, it seemed that this wasn’t the first time that this had happened.

Bella seemed to understand a bit better now, her current body should be that of the demon marshal Rebecca and this should be the world of Lisha’s memory, perhaps her previous transmigration. Bella just wasn’t sure if this female demon king was the previous incarnation of Lisha.

___

Back in the Gabriel Empire’s(Swordsmen) military town of Sakerid, it was nearing midnight. Due to the triumphant return of Kriss and the others, the tense atmosphere within the town had been relieved somewhat. The girls that Bella’s party rescued had been sent to the nearby city for medical checkups and the town was, for now, in a state of peace and quiet.

In one of Sakerid’s more out-of-the-way inns, Kriss was bathing in a large wooden basin. She had never liked being as flamboyant and exuberant as the other members of the royal family. Earlier the two good-for-nothings, Leonard and Edwin had just invited her to the town’s largest and most luxurious Nasani inn, saying something about hosting a banquet to celebrate her safe return.

Kriss had naturally rejected them, she had found that she hated these good-for-nothings even more than she had before she met Bella. Susan and Ivy who had travelled with Kriss rejected the invitation as well, and the two good-for-nothings could only relinquish their hopes of spending some quality time with the beauties.

Right as Kriss was still recalling all the interesting things that she and Bella had done together, a strange sound coming from the balcony, as if someone had climbed into her room, dragged her drifting thoughts back to the present. Kriss was curious as to what kind of thief had the audacity to climb into the 3rd floor room so late at night with the Gabriel Empire’s strongest hero within.

“Woah woah, I’m a friend sister! I don’t have any ill intent, you can put down the sword? Er, how about this, do you believe me now?”

The one who had crawled into Kriss’ room at night was the same beauty magician who had blocked her way during the day, she had also carried two people with her, Susan and Ivy, who were fast asleep. Susan and Ivy seemed to have been put to sleep by magic and had been carried through the air by Ariel using magic.

Ariel had promptly raised both of her hands with palms out when she had came face to face with Kriss’ dark green blade. Kriss didn’t move her ‘Venom’s Kiss’, she didn’t quite believe someone who had crawled into her room so late in the night with her unconscious companions in tow.

“Sister, I’m the Aldrich Empire’s(Magic) 5th princess, Brittany Ariel, not some thief. These two sisters are your friends right? I saw them during the day, I brought them with me to save them.

Kriss didn’t know much about the Aldrich Empire’s 5th princess, Ariel didn’t show herself very often in public and very little was known about her in general.

According to the word street it was because the 5th princess was self-abased at her hideous looks and refused to show herself to the public. A few years ago there had been a few noble families that had wanted to secure their relationship with the royal family through a marriage, but when their young masters had seen Ariel, many of them had been scared witless and ran away, claiming that they would rather die before they took this 5th princess as their wife.

But now that Kriss had seen Ariel, she questioned the truth behind those rumours as Ariel’s beauty didn’t seem to be any less that of hers. Were all those nobles that had seen her blind? Running away from a possible marriage with such a beautiful girl, a princess too.

Kriss didn’t know, nor did she suspect, but Ariel was a transmigrator just like her. The Ariel three years ago was indeed a self-depreciating and hideous girl. But as no one came to see her in these years, no one knew that her looks had changed as well, they also didn’t know that the real Ariel had already commited suicide with poison three years ago because of the numerous nobles that she had scared away with her hideous looks.

This was similar to how the original Kriss’ looks had changed when she had transmigrated to this world, the only difference was that Kriss’ changes had been discovered while Ariel, due to how little she showed herself, her changes remained unnoticed by the Aldrich Empire’s royalty.

Her father, the Aldrich Empire’s emperor, had probably long forgotten his ‘unmarriable’ daughter and hadn’t sent anyone to visit her in the past three years. If it wasn’t for the fact that she still received living expenses every month, Ariel probably would have long forgotten that she was a member of the royalty as well.

“Ariel, you… if you want to bathe, this basin isn’t big enough… if you really want to, you can wait until…”

“Sister come help me strip your two friends! We don’t have anytime to waste, trust me!”

Ariel ignored Kriss’ questioning gaze and started to take off her own clothes. Although Kriss didn’t know why Ariel was doing this, but decided that there was nothing to hide as they were all girls anyways.

Kriss began to strip the sleeping Ivy and Susan of their clothes, and after Ariel finished stripping herself, she went and gave Kriss her assistance. It didn’t take long before the four girls in the room were left in the nude.

Right as Kriss wanted to ask why, all the clothes on the ground suddenly turned black and quickly nothing more than a black wisp of smoke. While she was astonished, she heard countess screams of terror and pleas of help.

Kriss looked out at the town of Sakerid from the room’s balcony, she saw that the entire town had fallen into a wave of terror. The peaceful town was no more, the streets were rampant with zombies attacking nearby humans who were running for their lives. Kriss felt as if she had entered the scene of one of Earth’s zombie apocalypse movies.

“In here, quickly. These zombies follow the scent on the clothes of those uninfected. We’ll hide here for now, they shouldn’t be able to find us.”

Ariel dragged Kriss into the room, the two of them then barricaded the balcony as well as the main door. This entire inn had been infected and the two of them were able to hear the footsteps of the infected walking past their room as well as the screams of those still uninfected who had the misfortune of being captured and eaten alive.

From their meeting earlier in the day, Ariel could tell that Kriss was very strong. If this was a normal case of some random necromance casting 《Undead Apocalypse》, Ariel could have easily dealt with it herself. However, this outbreak wasn’t caused by 《Undead Apocalypse》, she felt as if this outbreak was caused by a virus of some sort, like in the zombie flicks of her past life.

Right before dusk today, the scouts that Ariel had sent to the nearby villages had reported the zombifications of most of the villagers. The scene in those villages was similar to that of the town, it was just that the zombification of the town started a couple hours later than it had in the villages nearby.

Ariel’s instincts were right, the situation this time wasn’t caused by someone casting 《Undead Apocalypse》. In the air above the town hovered a ghostly red figure, a smile crept onto her face as she looked at the hellish scene breaking out in the town below her, seemingly very excited about the inevitable fate of the town.

“That’s strange, I could swear that I had just sensed two Saviours here, why did they just disappear? Nevermind then, it’s the job of the Worldbreakers to defeat Saviours, I’ll just keep having fun as a third party in the next town.”

The red shadow flew away after finishing its words. Right after the shadow had left range of sight, a strange figure shimmered into existence on a nearby roof and quickly flew in pursuit.

___

Back in the Dark Sanctum, Bella had returned to the body of Felia, she returned the cursed ring to Lisha, placing it at her side.

Bella looked with a complicated expression at the still sleeping Lisha, Skryme’s suspicions had been right. Lisha was in fact, a member of the dark side, as well as a transmigrator.