Damn Reincarnation

e find a curse that could so thoroughly ravage the body of the greatest wizard in all of history?

Kristina withdrew her divine power.
She pressed her lips tightly as she mustered all of her concentration.
Her eyes were closed, but she could see everything around her clearly.
In particular, she could sense that Sienna’s body was rejecting the light of her divine power.
The miracle-like revitalization spell simply scattered into sparks of light without having any effect.

Watching from the side, Eugene’s eyes darkened.
Kristina hated to see such a look on him.
Even though she had so proudly declared herself a Saint, she had no choice but to look helpless at the moment when a miracle truly was needed.

Soon after they had first met, Eugene had mocked her by asking if turning crumbs into bread and water into wine really counted as miracles.
He had argued that she should at least be able to do things like reattaching severed limbs.
Now, if she really wasn’t able to properly perform a miracle when they needed one, she was sure that he would continue to mock her from now on as well….

Tching.

Kristina trembled.
Was it really impossible?

In his heart, Eugene had already resigned himself to this fact.
If it really couldn’t be done, then it couldn’t be helped.
Kristina was casting the holy spell with all her might, even as sweat beaded on her brow, but Sienna’s wounds aren't healing.

But just when he was about to reach out to her and tell her that she could stop, Kristina suddenly showed a strange reaction.

“You did your best,” Eugene comforted her, reaching out to catch her when it looked like Kristina was about to fall.

Although divine power was based on one’s faith, it wasn’t an infinite source of power.
Just like mana — if it was overused, it would eventually run out.

Bam!

His outstretched hand was suddenly knocked away by a surge of light.
Eugene’s eyes widened as he looked at Kristina.

One, two, three….
Eight wings had manifested on Kristina’s back.

The wings were made of light, and they were connected to a body of light that slowly left Kristina’s.
While half of the figure was still embedded within Kristina, it spread its eight wings and looked up at the ceiling.

It was an angel.

“…Anise?” Eugene unconsciously called out her name.

It was the same angel that he had seen back at the Black Lion Castle, while they were falling off the cliff towards Vermouth’s tomb.
There could be no mistake about it.
That hadn’t been an illusion.

The angel certainly resembled Kristina, but she was definitely a different person, and her face was exactly the same as Eugene’s recollection of Anise from three hundred years ago.

The angel lowered her head.
With shining blue eyes, she looked down at Kristina, who was still connected to her, and then she looked at what was in front of her.
There, she saw Sienna, who was covered in vines and encased in the crystal.
After staring at this sight for a few moments, the angel turned her head.

The angel was now looking at Eugene.
A smile appeared on her previously expressionless face.
The way that her eyes and lips curled up, that thin smile, it was exactly the same as the smile that Eugene — no, Hamel had seen on Anise.

“…Anise,” Eugene called out once more in a shaking voice.

Anise didn’t reply.
Her smile was indeed the same as it had been three hundred years ago, but her shining eyes and wings gave her a mysterious aura, and with how her figure was wrapped in light, she looked more benevolent and divine than she had at any time in the past, back when she was still called the Saint.

Her eight widespread wings shone with light.
The wand held in Kristina’s limp hands floated into the air, and the jewel in the center of the cross radiated bright blue light, as if it was resonating with the light of their combined divine power.

Eugene couldn’t understand what was currently happening, nor guess what was about to happen.
He had never encountered something like this in his previous life, and it was impossible for him to even begin to comprehend this even with all the magical knowledge that he had learned after being reincarnated.

However….

As the light spun around like a storm, he saw it engulf everything in their surroundings and overlay them.

“—”

A flash of light burst out, illuminating their surroundings.
Suddenly, Eugene found himself watching a scene that he had never witnessed before.

It was a view of the elven city.
All of the elves who should have been living there had left the city and had gathered in front of the World Tree.
They all had desperate looks on their faces and seemed to be shouting something, but Eugene couldn’t make out what exactly they were saying.
They seemed to be overcome with a fear that had left them with no choice but to desperately flee their homes.

The being that had driven them to gather here was floating high in the middle of the sky.
It was a man wrapped up in a black cloak.

His appearance was familiar to Eugene.
He had long, wavy hair, bright red eyes, and a twisted smile.

When the five Demon Kings had first risen up as a threat to the world, the very first race that they had fought against was the dragons.

Among the dragons, there was one who had betrayed his own race by splitting open the chest of the leader of the dragons.
A dragon who had, for the first time in the history of dragonkind, committed the crime of murdering a member of their own race and had happily allowed the very depths of his being to be corrupted by demonic power.

This was the Black Dragon Raizakia.

Floating in the sky, he looked down on the elves gathered below.
The area of sky behind him seemed to be bizarrely distorted, looking as if it had broken and was about to fall.
With his back to the sun, a cloud of darkness was spreading from Raizakia.
This expanding field of darkness transformed the sky of the elven domain from day into night.

Raizakia’s lips moved as he appeared to be saying something.
These words seemed to set the elves in an uproar.
Eugene still wasn’t able to hear anything that they were saying; however, he could clearly see the vicious twist in Raizakia’s smile.

The cloak covering Raizakia’s body fluttered as he abandoned his human form.
In a burst of black light, a huge dragon spread his wings to cover the lofty heavens.
His scales were discolored from corruption, and his huge red eyes look like they were filled with blood.
As Raizakia spread his jaws wide, a dark ray of light gathered between his sharp fangs.

This was his Dragon’s Breath.

Something like that wasn’t complicated enough to be called a spell — any dragon could use the Breath by sheer natural instinct.
However, Raizakia’s Breath couldn’t be compared to any ordinary dragon’s Breath.
Though the world did not recognize him as a Demon King, according to Eugene’s memories, Raizakia was already a monster comparable to the Demon Kings.

Raizakia released his Breath.
There was no way that the elves gathered here would be able to withstand the attack.
In other words, everyone standing below was about to perish.

Facing this descending Breath, the elves sensed their impending doom.
Everyone seemed to be prepared for the inevitable.

But the moment that the dark Breath was released, someone walked out from behind the elves.

It was Sienna.
Fortunately, blood wasn’t flowing from the open wound in her chest, but her face was deathly pale, and she looked as if a corpse had been forced into motion.

When Raizakia had let out his Breath, Sienna had been standing behind the elves.
When the Breath burst forth in an explosion of light, Sienna was already standing in front of them.

Sienna stretched out her hand, and the Breath released by Raizakia was prevented from advancing any further.
Raizakia’s huge eyes lit up with astonishment.

Having blocked the Breath, black blood was now dripping out from Sienna’s lips.

The elves screamed as they tried to support Sienna, but black blood was also flowing from their own eyes, noses, and lips.

The roots of the World Tree suddenly reached out and wrapped around Sienna and the elves.

Wrapped in these roots, Sienna tightly clenched her outstretched hand.
The entire space around Raizakia appeared to twist, and the darkness brought about by Raizakia was dissipated.

In response to this, Raizakia hurriedly spread his wings as he frantically tried to twist his body out of the way.
Tens, hundreds of magic circles suddenly appeared around him as he tried to cast a spell.
He seemed to be shouting something — no, he was screaming! Then, all the magic circles that he had summoned slowly faded away and disappeared.

With black blood still dripping from her mouth, Sienna stared at Raizakia.
Something seemed to amuse her, as she shrugged with a smile and then lightly waved her outstretched fist at him.

Then she extended a solitary middle finger.

The moment that Sienna flipped him off, Raizakia’s gigantic body was sucked into a hole in the distorted space.

Eugene watched all of this happen, in awe.

Sienna stumbled and fell.
The elves tried to catch Sienna, but they were also unable to walk more than a few steps.
One by one, they all fell down.

“Knock-knock~[1]”

Eugene’s shoulders trembled as he was startled by the sudden voice.
Until just a moment ago, he had been watching a scene that had taken place hundreds of years ago.
But what was going on now?

“Knock-knock.”

Was this an illusion? A dream? Or was the Holy Sword playing tricks on him? Could it be the angel… Anise? His mind was in turmoil.
Eugene let out a groan as he clutched his aching head.

“Knock-knock….”

What in the world was going on? Raizakia had disappeared.
What exactly had happened to him? Why had the dragon been standing in the sky of the elven domain in the first place? What about Sienna? And the elves…? What happened to them after all that…?

“…Knock-knock.”

Then there was the sight that had now appeared in front of him.

“Aren’t you going to answer me already?”

Eugene couldn’t find any words.

“Stupid, idiot, asshole.”

At the foot of the gigantic tree….

“On top of that, you’ve even turned out to be a crybaby.

Her light purple hair fluttering in the breeze….

“I never thought that you would be able to cry so much.

Eugene opened his mouth soundlessly.
“….”

“See what I mean?”

Sienna was sitting there with a smile.

“You’re crying again, Hamel.”