The Villainous Son Loves His Mother - Chapter 46

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Beyond the abyssal Nezasia Sea lies the Maristel Continent.
The base of the former Demon King’s Western Army, located at its western end, is the pitch-black fortress of Darkheim, which towers over the desolate land like a gigantic stone ghost.
Atop the fortress’s highest spire, which juts skyward as if glaring at the leaden sky, a sentry stretches languidly, bored.
Thick layers of clouds obscure the sun, allowing barely a sliver of light to penetrate.
In addition, a cold wind constantly blows in from the sea, and the chill turns into intangible needles that pierce the skin.

Yet the Beastkin sentry, with his thick fur, remains unfazed.
His watch duty is crucial.
If humans were to attack, they would likely come by sea or air. Crossing the Nezasia Sea by ship would be nearly impossible.
An aerial assault, however, remained a possibility, perhaps through magic or some other means.
Still, most days nothing happened, and boredom was the only enemy. But that day felt different.

“…That’s strange,”

The sentry muttered.
At the edge of his vision, a dark, flickering shadow appeared in the distant sky.
At first, he thought it was a bird.
But something felt off—it seemed too large.
Could it be a Demon Beast? Or something else…? Unsettling thoughts raced through his mind.

“What is that shadow… a dragon?”

The other sentry whispered.
The Western Army of the Former Demon King was primarily composed of Dragonkind.
Therefore, the sentries didn’t immediately suspect the dragon-like shadow. Their first thought was that it might be an ally.

“If it’s a dragon we recognize, it would give us a signal. But…”

Suddenly, a cold gust of wind swept through.
The shadow subtly shifted its form and slowly began to approach.

“…Something’s wrong.”

One of the sentries gasped.
The more they looked, the more they realized the shadow, though shaped like a dragon, had a distorted outline. Its wings and body were unstable, as if formed from coalescing black smoke.
A grotesque being that resembled a dragon but was not—
Such a thing had begun circling silently above the fortress.
Then—

“Rain…?”

A drop of jet-black liquid splattered on the cobblestones before them.
The sentry on the high fortress wall stared at the dark droplet for a moment, quickly realizing it wasn’t rain.
The next moment, it started to rain down in great quantities.

“Poison! Dodge it!”

Some instinctively shouted and raised their shields, but before the shields could prove useful, the black liquid crawled like a living thing, seeping through the gaps in the sentries’ armor and into their flesh.

“Ugh… uwaaaah…!”

The skin on the screaming sentry’s arm melted and slid off in a gruesome slough.
A pungent, burnt smell, as if flesh were being scorched, filled the air, accompanied by a bizarre vapor that reeked of bl00d and rendered fat.
The black liquid continued to seep into the sentry’s body, causing him to writhe in agony, slamming his body against the ground.
The same anguished screams echoed throughout the fortress.
Like a dark rain corroding the world, the liquid slowly eroded floors and walls, driving the soldiers of the Former Demon Lord’s Army into madness.

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Inside Darkheim, a messenger raced through the central corridor, shouting at the top of his lungs,

“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”

Responding to the messenger’s report, a woman sprinted through the passages of Darkheim.
Faris, the Ice Dragon, was one of the five Division Commanders.
A beautiful woman with flowing blue hair and a graceful figure, but her true nature was that of a fearsome ice dragon capable of exhaling freezing breath.
Even among the proud Full Dragons, she was an anomaly. While boasting of her “dragon heritage,” she loathed her massive, monstrous form.
Faris was well-versed in magic and usually took on a human form.
By the way, Yggdra didn’t think very highly of Faris.
But that was beside the point.

“This way, Commander Faris! Black liquid is pouring from above the outer wall!”

Throwing open the door and stepping onto the outer wall, Faris saw the horrific scene just as reported.
Faris sharply looked up at the sky.

“I don’t know who they are, but it’s clear they’re hostile to us.”

She said in a calm voice.
But in the next instant, Faris’s azure eyes began to glow faintly, and an intense aura of freezing cold magic enveloped her body.

“I’ll shatter them into pieces.”

Raising both arms to the sky, she released a shimmering, mist-like substance that spread upward.
This was a fog of magical power imbued with absolute zero ice magic. The black droplets that touched it solidified one after another.
They froze into solid chunks and shattered at Faris’s feet, or tumbled off the edge of the outer wall.
The soldiers who had been screaming moments before now stared in stunned silence at the spectacle.
Some soldiers had their arms and legs frozen by the collateral damage of the dragon’s freezing attack, but even that was preferable to having their lives melted away.

“For now, at least—”

Faris was about to breathe a sigh of relief when one of the soldiers spoke in a trembling voice.

“…What’s that?”

Faris looked up. The Black Dragon was still circling above the fortress, but no more black liquid was falling.
Yet—
—Something was coming.
As Faris heightened her vigilance, she caught a glimpse of something plummeting from the sky.

“…A person?”

A single figure had been hurled from the Black Dragon and was now descending straight down.
No, this wasn’t a gentle fall.
The figure was hurtling downward with the speed of a bullet, tearing through the air.

(Is it targeting me?!)

“Intercept!”

Before the soldier could shout the order, Faris exhaled again.
Her magic, focused into a powerful beam, pierced the air and transformed into a massive ice spear, poised to skewer the falling figure.
But—

“What do you mean?”

Faris’s eyes widened.
The figure had collided head-on with the ice spears, yet it continued its trajectory as if deflecting them effortlessly.
The moment Faris clearly saw the figure, she gasped.
It was a white-haired old man dressed in a butler’s uniform.

“Kieeeeeeii!!”

With a shrill cry resembling a monkey’s screech, the old man kicked off the air.
His momentum surged, and before Faris could react, his fist slammed into her head with full force.
The impact shattered the rooftop instantly, sending Faris and the old man plummeting from the fortress roof into its depths.

“Damn it… the Division Commander’s been taken down?!”

The remaining soldiers screamed as something black and massive crashed down beside them.
A writhing mass of Oma.

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“You’ve got a really tough head!”

The old man roared.
His gaze fell upon a mountain of rubble. Through the gaps, strands of blue hair emerged as Faris struggled to rise, groaning in pain.
Half of Faris’s face was stained with bl00d, and though she wore an expression of agony, a fierce fighting spirit still burned in her eyes.

“Who… are you?”

Faris gasped, straining to speak.

“Oh! You don’t know me! Well, I’ve gotten quite old… I’ve fought to the death with you guys many times, but! This time I’m not thinking of saving the world or anything grand!”

The old man’s voice, brimming with vigor that belied his age, echoed through the rubble-strewn corridor.

“We’ve fought before? Saving the world…? What are you talking about?”

The old man grinned.

“You know of Lord Servain, yes?”

Faris, or rather, any demon, would know.
Servain.
The name of the previous hero who had supposedly slain the Demon King in a mutual kill.

“That man was strong with the holy sword, but he was strong even without it, right? Of course, I taught him how to fight.”

“I see…”

Faris widened her eyes and looked at the old man before her anew.

“So you’re Gramman?”

The Magic Fist Gramman had traveled the world as a companion of the previous Hero, destroying many powerful Demons. However, due to his commoner origins, he was ostracized by the Emperor of the Gaines Empire at the time and disappeared from public view.

“But why would Gramman… after all this time…”

“Well, you see,” Gramman replied,

“It’s because you picked a fight with the Duke of Aster. The next head of the family has a strong resemblance to Lady Alistella. I want to support her. After all, Lady Alistella is the one I, well… well, I, I’m in love with.”

Alistella Ira Aster.
Like Gramman, she was a mage who fought alongside the hero against the Former Demon Lord’s Army.
What makes Duke Aster’s House special is that Alistella’s contributions are considered equally significant.

“You started this, didn’t you? Then I’m afraid you’ll have to pay the price. Though I can’t take everyone in this fortress—my stamina won’t hold out… But your head would certainly please the young master…”

That’s why, Gramman said, clenching his fist tightly,

—”Die.”

Faris was drenched in sweat from head to toe.