Rise of the Fallen Kingdom’s Third Prince

Cory smirked slyly. His ugly face twisted even further.

“Thank you for trusting me. As expected, Your Highness…”

“There’s no time for conversation.”

“Y-yes, yes!”

“Lead me already.”

“This way.”

Cory hurriedly ran off toward somewhere. It was in the opposite direction of the front where Cedric was.

Yuri hesitated for a moment, but soon began to follow Cory.

At that moment, someone shouted.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

Laurent appeared, staggering as he ran.

He had been said to have lost consciousness after Cedric incapacitated him, but it seemed he had come to.

He fixed his gaze on Yuri.

“You still trust that guy?”

“Si-sir Laurent…”

With an aura as if ready to cut Cory in two, Yuri stepped between them.

“Laurent. Calm down.”

“That guy can’t be trusted.”

Yuri shot back bluntly.

“And you, who stabbed me with a sword, have the right to talk?”

“That was an accident.”

“Sure, whatever you say. So calm down for now. There’s no time to argue.”

“Yuri Briol.”

Laurent grabbed Yuri by the shoulder.

“Don’t let yourself be deceived.”

“Understood, so let go.”

“You…”

From the damage he had taken from Cedric, Laurent’s body was not in normal condition.

He was squeezing the arm holding Yuri when, suddenly, he clutched his abdomen and bent over.

Yuri took the chance to brush Laurent’s arm away.

“Laurent, I’ll see you later.”

“Yuri Briol…!”

“There’s no time to waste.”

“Following that guy is a waste of time. No, it’s worse than that. Do you plan to walk straight into a trap?”

“I told you I’m not.”

Laurent glared at him.

Cory, nervously watching the two, seized a moment of silence to grab Yuri’s tunic and shake it.

“L-let’s go quickly, Your Highness.”

When Laurent tried to reach for him again, Cory squeezed his eyes shut and shoved him.

“Ugh!”

“S-sorry, Sir Laurent!”

And immediately after, he pulled Yuri.

“L-let’s go quickly.”

“All right.”

“Yuri Briol!”

“Calm down, calm down.”

The two slipped away from Laurent and ran toward the old Zveta camp.

Behind them, the groans of dying soldiers echoed.

Yuri looked back.

Cedric had probably also seen Yuri with Cory, but did nothing to stop them.

“Cedric hasn’t reacted.”

“Huh?”

“He must have seen us together, and yet let us go.”

“I-it’s because…”

Cory spoke between breaths.

“I-I tricked Cedric. He thinks I’m on his side.”

“Oh, really?”

“Y-yes…”

Yuri was about to keep questioning, but Cory shook his head firmly.

“N-not now, there’s no time. Come on, Your Highness.”

“All right.”

They passed the remains of a collapsed tower and continued on. Soon, Cory manipulated a hidden mechanism under the ground, revealing an underground entrance.

Beyond a long staircase that disappeared into darkness, nothing could be seen.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

“….”

“….”

“Aren’t you going?”

“I-it’s dark… and I don’t see well.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes…”

“Then I’ll go first.”

Yuri had already surpassed human limits, so using his mana method to pierce the darkness wasn’t difficult.

The two of them descended the stairs.

“This…”

Yuri was stunned by what he saw.

He never would have imagined such a massive space existed underground.

In the royal palace of Briol there had been a training yard for Fiore, but he had never seen a place so tall and vast.

Although they had descended a long way, it was all on a single level. From the extremely high ceiling, a mysterious light shone faintly.

“What is this place?”

“An underground palace. In the future it will be an underground city.”

The dim lighting cast shadows over Cory’s face, making it hard for Yuri to see his expression.

“Cory.”

“Yes?”

“Then, where is Cedric’s main body?”

Cory pointed in a direction.

Yuri’s gaze followed that line until he saw a fortified structure at the center of that endless space.

“First, we have to go there.”

“Understood.”

The influence of the black magic was so strong that just being in the air made his skin burn.

Yuri wrapped his body in mana to protect himself and ran alongside Cory toward the fortress.

The silence was broken only by Cory’s ragged breathing. Though there was no sun, there was an ecosystem underground.

Trees and grass grew, and sometimes birds flew.

On the ground were geometric lines that could not have formed naturally, as if someone had drawn them to mark something.

“What are those lines?”

“T-they’re for the city… Following those lines, streets will be made and buildings will be built…”

“A planned city, then?”

“Y-yes…”

Yuri smiled wryly. It seemed Cedric was quite confident in his victory.

The destination was getting closer.

Up close, the fortress was larger than any castle he had ever seen.

“Are we there?”

“Y-yes… huff… huff…”

Cory raised his hand, pointing at the gate, the structure, and higher up, the towers.

“That’s it.”

“Mm?”

“That…”

Above the fortress, something hung that illuminated the entire underground like a small sun.

Cory pointed at it.

“That’s Cedric’s main body. He’s sealed his power inside there.”

It was far too high.

Yuri looked at it, feeling a momentary heaviness.

It was as if he had been ordered to cut a star from the night sky.

“So it has to be destroyed…”

Yuri gripped Guilty tightly.

That was the very source of the underground ecosystem. The power Cedric had gathered by sacrificing countless human lives was so immense that a single person could not handle it.

But it had to be done.

Yuri took a breath and pushed his core to its limit.

Mana surged, wrapping his body with the energy of The Cut of the soul and the heart.

His vision entered a bright white world, and his senses expanded to encompass everything.

He began to release his power.

In that instant, he was literally giving everything he had.

Bathed in radiant light, Yuri looked at Cory.

“Cory.”

“Y-yes?”

Before the battle, he had something to say to him.

“That day…”

The moment Yuri opened his mouth, an overwhelming force descended on his head like lightning.

Yuri rolled across the ground.

If he hadn’t reacted instantly, he would have died on the spot. Such was the impact that it shook the very place he stood.

Yuri raised his head.

The core Cory had pointed to had attacked him. While keeping Guilty ready, he heard a voice.

[Hello, Yuri.]

Cedric, in a blurry form, descended in front of him. He wore a faint smile.

[And good job, Cory.]

The moment those words left his mouth, Yuri looked behind him.

There was Cory, his hood fallen from the impact, smiling faintly.

***

“Krgh…”

Laurent gritted his teeth as he watched Yuri and Cory move away.

“Yuri Briol…”

He recalled the past.

When he had seen Cory grotesquely transformed, Cory had smiled in satisfaction.

Only someone with a twisted heart would show such a strange reaction.

That man, who enjoyed following him even when everyone rejected him for becoming so monstrous, was naturally the type to support Cedric, who sought to destroy the world and create a new order.

And yet, Yuri Briol naively trusted Cory.

Laurent wanted to run over and grab that man by the throat right then and there. But his body had yet to fully recover and he couldn’t move as he wanted.

“Damn it!”

While he cursed and lamented, several knights controlled by Cedric approached.

Laurent swung his sword, and a stream of cutting energy lashed them like a whip. The knights fell.

But the number of enemies only kept growing. In that state, he couldn’t face them for long.

“Huff…”

He turned his gaze away.

While Yuri was gone, the front lines had fallen into great chaos.

Cedric, constantly changing position, was single-handedly destabilizing the entire Anti-Imperial Alliance.

The situation was bad.

While catching his breath with his sword in hand, Laurent sensed someone approaching from behind.

“Laurent.”

It was Jared, seemingly already recovered.

“I came to help you.”

Laurent shook his head.

“No need.”

“Among those who were controlled by Cedric, we should help each other.”

“Don’t help me—go and stop Yuri Briol.”

“His Highness?”

“That man right now…”

Laurent explained what had happened. But Jared only shrugged.

“Why are you so worried?”

“What?”

“It could be that Cory is telling the truth.”

“You trust Cory?”

“No. I trust His Highness.”

Laurent glanced at him sideways.

The two, shoulder to shoulder, kept cutting down Cedric’s controlled knights without pause.

“I don’t trust Cory, I trust His Highness who trusts Cory. If he decided to follow him, it’s because it’s the right thing to do.”

“Well, you sure trust Yuri a lot.”

“That’s right.”

“And you don’t think he could be wrong?”

“No.”

“And if that decision turns out to be a mistake?”

“Then we’ll accept it.”

Jared smiled with certainty.

“I only trust His Highness.”

***

The Zveta prisoner camp was silent.

Nothing living remained.

In the massive pit where Cedric had buried people as sacrifices, the corpses were piled in layers.

They had been offered as sacrifices to summon a god from another world, and once used, they began to rot with a blackish tint.

From time to time, the distant sounds of the battle between Cedric and the Anti-Imperial Alliance could faintly be heard.

Then, suddenly—

A hand emerged from among the corpses.

“Krgh…”

Its owner, with difficulty, pulled her body out and gasped. Forcing her way through the bodies, the Black Knight, Elizabeth, appeared.

She was in a pitiful state, but alive, crawling out from that heap of sacrificed corpses.

“Damn it…”

Her whole body hurt, and the effects of the black magic had left her in poor condition, but she had to move quickly.

She stood, leaning against the wall of the pit to try to climb out. Without mana, climbing was difficult.

At that moment, someone extended a hand to her.

“…”

Elizabeth looked up. A woman was offering her hand.

“Take my hand and climb up.”

Elizabeth hesitated for a moment, but accepted it. With help, she managed to climb to the edge of the pit.

Once out, she saw she wasn’t alone—there were quite a few people gathered there, mostly women.

Panting, she dropped to the ground and looked at the woman who had helped her.

“What the hell happened here?”

She remembered infiltrating Zveta, being discovered, and losing consciousness from some unknown force.

That was all she knew.

From what she could tell, she had been offered as a sacrifice for black magic, but she didn’t understand why she was still alive.

The woman smiled gently.

“You were offered as a sacrifice for black magic.”

“I know that. But…”

Then why were she and the others unharmed? Had Cedric made a mistake?

At that moment, Elizabeth noticed something glowing on the woman’s forehead, like a symbol or a drawing.

“Someone helped us.”

“Who?”

“I’ll explain it calmly, but first let’s get out of here. What’s your name?”

“…Elizabeth.”

“Elizabeth. Let’s go.”

The woman extended her hand again. Elizabeth took it and stood.

“I’m Jane.”