Great Sage 31 – The Queen of Darkness and the Valley of Death Part 4

August 3, 2022Zathael

I was the one who awoke first.

The beautiful woman with red hair sleeping next to me was naked so I took off my robe to cover her.

The woman glowed silvery white and seemed younger than before.

Concerned I opened the robe to confirm and found that her large chest had shrunk slightly but the springiness had increased and they pointed upwards.

“Huh?”

Should I be happy or sad I wonder.
As I was engrossed musing over medical science, the sword at my feet also began to glow silver,

“Broken child led into this world by my mother Lilianess, I am the one who observes fate, Arius”

Wearing knights clothing, a slender man appeared pompously before me.
He gave off an impression similar to the vocals for a idol group that specialised in roller skates.1

“Good morning”
I didn’t have any idea what time it was then but….. as I had just woken up, I remember hearing that such a greeting was common even if it was nighttime in the business world,

“A-Ah, morning”
Somewhat surprised, the slender man raised a hand to greet me.

It seemed he was a fairly sociable person.

I raise my hand as well and the man clears his throat with a cough before returning to his god-like story.

“That woman’s fate has once again changed. I have an interest in watching it until the end but at this rate, the two of you will lose your lives here. Boy, will you decide it’s course”

For some reason he seemed pleased,

“Bring it on”
I replied immediately

“Hmm, bring it on…..”
Somewhat troubled, the god put his fingers to his head,

“Soon your powers will flow reversed. No matter how much you assimilate with the darkness or how strong a kind heart you possess, your body is that of a human. The power you absorbed will overflow, leaving not a trace of you behind, or that woman”

He smiled at me, as if seeing through the headache and chills I was enduring,

“Now decide, will you use the power of that sword as shackles to restrain yourselves or as a tool to erase ones body”

“As shackles to restrain myself?”

“Pierce that sword through the two of you. Doing so will allow the two of you to live together, sharing the pain within your hearts”

“Then to erase ones body?”

“Pierce the sword through the one who will be removed. Doing so will disperse the negative power and save the life of the one remaining, there will be no pain from the curse that remains either”

While I was worrying over the problem, I looked at the former witch to find that she looked in her mid teens.

“Currently that girl has been freed from the pain of death and rebirth and is receiving a new life. Soon her age will stabilise and the growth regression will stop”

His words calmed me and I sighed,

“However, to utilise the mana within the land shows impressive talent. I see why my mother had her eye on you. Just as my father said, it would be a shame for such a gifted person to disappear from this world”

Leaving those words behind, the idol group vocalist like god disappeared.
I looked at the sword shining at my feet reluctantly and organise the conversation I just had in my head,

“Unnnn”

The woman wakes up and stretches…..
Noticing the irregularity in her body, her cute eyes turned round,

“Wh-wh-wh-what’s going on?”
The girl who couldn’t be seen as more than seven or eight touched her body.

Her voice and speech both regressed to match her age and her long pink hair trembled as her mouth stood wide open like an idiot.

The woman of unmatched beauty was good, but this was good too in its own way.
She was cute and it felt like you couldn’t leave her alone.

“Hey, how much do you remember?”
I spoke to the young girl,

“U-um up to the part where you proposed to me I suppose”2

It seems that becoming a young girl had caused her to become confused and she fidgeted embarrassedly as she spoke.

She shyly gripped at the tattered robe.
It was a cute gesture that I felt I could watch forever but it seemed that my body would not allow it.

The [Reverse Flow of Power] that the god had mentioned had begun.
I thought I could hide it well but the little finger on my left hand fell off and rotted away.

Well the problem of the young girl’s misunderstanding could be solved later, the problem was clearly…..
What I had talked about with the god earlier.

“Then what about idol group vocalist-san who appeared just now?”

“Eye doll group? Ah, you mean Arius….. well actually I have a suggestion”
The young girl muttered uncomfortably as she extended her hand towards the sword at my feet.

“What are you doing?”
“I’m tired of being at the mercy of the gods, and I’ve lived a long life. I was blessed to have met a fine man at the end, I have no regrets”

I tried to take the sword from her,
“You have pretty good sense and have trained well but….. you’re still far from my level. Besides you body is already beginning to be consumed, there’s no time to waste”

The girl dodged me easily and turned the sword towards her chest.
My body had already begun to collapse and wouldn’t move the way I wanted it to.

“Wait!”
I yelled but the young girl thrust the sword into her chest without hesitation.

“Dammit!”

According to that god, if we’re both pierced at the same time, the former witch’s life would be spared.
I somehow managed to get behind her and forcefully took her hand to push it in further.

“Wh-what are you doing! You were about to be free”

The sword reached my chest as I heard the girls sad cry and…..


Tangled together, our consciousness clouded.

Translator’s Notes:
1: This is a reference to Hikaru Genji, an idol group in the 90s that performed dance routines on roller skates.
2: For those interested, she refers to herself using atai (the same pronoun she uses in the present day) rather than atashi like she did in the previous parts of the flashback.