Chapter 148 Visiting The Astellia's Capital (3) The Summoner's Nightmare

After arriving inside the capital of the Astellia Kingdom, Lyan immediately hits an inn to have a break drink. The one he chose is a high-class inn that highly protects the privacy of the guest's identity. Rather than an inn, it feels like he's inside a modern hotel without an elevator and other electronic features.

But even so, the difference between the service of a regular inn and the high-paying inn is clear. The food is included in the staying registration bill, and all of them are fantastically tasty foods, While the room is big and very comfortable to live in.

"Hm~ Just the inn alone and I'm already loving this place," Lyan took a sip of the glass of wine while staring at the bottle of the welcome wine given for the registration.

Another reason why he could enjoy the moment without any restraint is that right at the time he finished renting the room, the duration of Eira's summoning reached the maximum, forcing her to return to the grimoire's space.

"Hero, huh..." Lyan uttered to himself as he put his glass on the table and gazed at the ceilings as the scene where Eira asked whether he was a hero or not reappears inside his mind.

"Those who overcome the hurdles..." Lyan folded his arms and closes his eyes. The images of several figures that imprinted a deep impression on his soul appeared clearly in his mind.

If he was to find the most suitable word to describe them, he will find it too difficult to do so.

Comrades, The people he admires, Champions, Fighters, Leaders, and much more. But to wrap it in a single line, they are his most trusted comrades whom he respects with all of his soul.

For him, if he was to mention figures that worthy for him to call heroes, they will be the ones that cross his mind first. He has witnessed their godly skills, unmatched valor, and their determination to fight for the thing that is just firsthand. He has gained and learned countless things from them, and he firmly believed that the reason why he could complete his hundred years quest of defeating the evil dragon is that he met those amazing people.

As Lyan closed his eyes, he dived in into his mind.

The seat that he was sitting suddenly felt strange. The air around him feels eerie, and the temperature inside the room seems to be once again dropping even though Eira had already got unsummoned to the grimoire's space.

Then, smells of rotten flesh, the stink of blood, and the burnt skin entered his nostrils. But in face of such strange occurrences, there's no sign of panic on Lyan's face.

As he opened his eyes, he only widened his eyes for a moment, and a hint of sadness paints his eyes.

"So you've come again," (Lyan)

Suddenly, he's inside a dark space. The ceilings, the walls, and the surroundings became pitch black.

In front of him, there are standing corpses of his fallen comrades. Hundreds of people that fought together with him inside the living hell of a demon world appeared in front of him. Some have their head split, some have lost their arms with other big wounds on their body, and some even have no limbs at all.

They are standing in front of him with hollow eyes, and in the state where they lost their lives.

Noticing the hint of wetness he felt on his hand that is holding the armrest, Lyan pulled his hand and noticed blood painting his palm. With a cold glance, he took a glance below and saw that he was sitting on top of a mountain of corpses.

Of course, they are not just normal corpses. They are the corpses of the people that he manipulate, tricked, tortured, and killed in order to accomplish his goal. The number of his victims is even more than the number of his comrades. It's the number that accumulates through his long years of the quest. There are demons from various tribes, demonic monsters, and even humans among them. But as Lyan stares at them, there is not a single hint of sympathy or empathy could be seen contained inside his eyes.

But as he stare back at his comrades in front of him, a hint of guild started to appear.

"Does it worth it?" Lyan uttered to himself.

"I've killed lots of people, not just from the demon race, but other humans as well. But does it worth it?" (Lyan)

"I killed lots of people in my long journey, but does it worth it to save the human race on earth in exchange for all of the lives I've taken? Do their lives worth less than the ones that I've saved?" Lyan's voice started to become hoarse.

"Did I make the correct answer? Did my choice give the outcome that all of you had been fighting for? Did I accomplish the goal that all of you entrusted me with?" Lyan asked towards the standing corpses of his comrades before him, but in the end, he was asking towards a bunch of corpses. No matter how long he waited, there will be no reply coming from them.

*Sigh...*

As he let out a small sigh, the comrades before him and the mountain of corpses that consisted of his victims in his previous life melted and turned into a flood of blood. Slowly, he's falling deep into the sea of blood.

"an!"

A faint voice appeared from a certain place.

"yan!"

"Finally..." (Lyan)

"yan!!" The voice continues, and a single white hand reached deep into the sea, trying to reach him.

"Finally, one of you finally responded to me," Lyan uttered with a smile as he tried to grab the hand.

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(WAKE UP, YOU LITTLE SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!) (Griselda)

!!!!!

Lyan jolted as he woke up because of the ground-shattering voice inside his head. He look to the right and left, and it took several moments for him to regain his composure and senses.

"Griselda, huh... What is it?" Lyan uttered with a voice containing a hint of annoyance.

(Forgive me, master. I'm the one who requested her to shout and wake you up) (Arturia)

Hearing Arturia's apologetic words made Lyan furrow his eyebrows. He thought that it was just Griselda's other annoying whim, but it's different if it's Arturia's orders.

"What happened? Did something happen while I fell asleep?" Lyan uttered as he tried to sense if there is anything strange around the perimeter with his detection magic, but he found nothing.

(You're emitting a very dark and malicious aura just now, an unimaginably dense one) (Hestia)

"Dark and malicious aura? Did I?" (Lyan)

(Yeah. Does that has something to do with you doing the deed with Lilith?) (Griselda)

Unlike the usual, Griselda is using a serious tone and seems to be seriously wondering about the problem.

(Of course, it's not. He has magic control that is at least on par with mine if not better. I doubt that it's his dark mana that he obtained from me going berserk) (Lilith)

(That aura, it looks very dark and deep...) (Eira)

(It feels like the malice of thousands of people getting condensed into a small form of aura... How terrifying...) (Cynthia)

Inside the grimoire's space, Eira and Cynthia that seem to be very sensitive to dark and malicious aura and mana are covering themselves with defensive spells and barriers in reflex when they saw sensed the aura.

(Big bro, try looking above you) (Azelia)

"Above?" (Lyan)

Following Azelia's innocent voice, Lyan raise his head and opened his eyes wide when he saw the originally beautiful ceilings go into pitch black, but not just that.

As if it's a huge painting, the black traces are forming a picture of a glimpse of hell. In reflex, Lyan immediately cast both water and wind spell to clean and remove the stains until they got completely sparkling.

"It will be bad if I got extra charged because of it, doesn't it? Well, maybe I'm just not that used to Lilith's mana yet and it suddenly got out of control when I was too immersed in my sleep. Now, now," Lyan lightly set aside the topic and took the cloak, and wore it.

"Rather than getting too preoccupied on that thing, let's just have a tour around the capital!" (Lyan)

___________________________________________________________________________

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Mythril-ranked Mercenary

Money: 3,797,710,950 Elnes / 3797 gold 71 big silver 9 big coppers 5 coppers

Weapon: Magic Glaive, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 1 (Decent) bow

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, Breastplate, 2 Health Potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, 3 Valkyrie, Shadow Goblin Lord (Lv. 5), Papilio Slime (Lv. 45), Galewing Butterfly (Lv. 45), Rock Golem (Lv. 50), Deadlight (Lv. 63), Moonlight Butterfly (Lv. 45), Ice Golem (Lv. 50), Acid Ant Queen (Lv. 9), Magma Bear (Lv. 1), Fey Mammoth (Lv. 1), Arcane Retriever (Lv. 1)

Grimoire's Army: 6 Shadow Servants, 800 Skeleton Army