"Glansog, you've worked hard."
Some time earlier, beneath the village of Blackmoore, a black-haired girl had driven off the knights guarding the place and was now gazing up at the corpse of the Sixteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor hanging at the summit.
Her face bore no expression of sorrow or joy. There was not a trace of human emotion in this young girl—just that pure, untainted black hair.
As black as the color of the Black Wing Lord himself, her entire attire exuded a similar darkness. It was as if sunlight and moonlight, upon touching her, would dim and fade. All foreign things seemed to vanish upon contact with her.
Her name was Eltnam Brunestud—ranked ninth among the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors. A hybrid of True Ancestor and Dead Apostle, she was hailed as the Black Princess.
After the death of Crimson Moon, she refused the demands of the wounded True Ancestors. She had no desire to become a tool to resist the Church or to deal with rogue Apostles and fallen True Ancestors, the so-called "Demon Lords." Instead, she fled, leading her loyal guard—the Black and White Knights sworn to the royal lineage—and took with her a beloved companion—
"Fou."
"What is it, Cath Palug?"
At the sound of her pet's call, Eltnam looked down at it with her icy eyes. She then bent her petite frame—barely 145 centimeters tall—and extended her hand so the creature could perch on her shoulder.
"Fou, fou."
Though the white magical dog's yips sounded no different from an ordinary dog, the Princess understood it perfectly.
It had found a burnt-down church nearby with the corpse of a human priest inside. Judging by the residual magical energy, it had belonged to the Church.
"Really now? In this day and age, someone dares kill a priest and burn down a church... How curious."
The Princess spoke indifferently, and Cath Palug swiped its paw as if to say, "I could knock down everyone in the Church for you if you wanted."
"But it doesn't matter. I still don't know where the person Zelretch told me to find is hiding."
After saying that, Eltnam turned her gaze once more to the corpse of the Black Wing Lord.
Fou understood its master's tone—this topic was now meaningless and no longer worth discussing.
The runaway Princess had originally hidden herself in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. But not long ago, the Marshal of Magecraft, once grievously wounded by the Church after slaying Crimson Moon and missing from the world for a century, reappeared before her. He asked her to go to Wales and seek someone capable of defeating the Church.
If Avia knew that the Church had managed to wound the one who wielded the Second Magic—the Kaleidoscope—who had slain Crimson Moon, even she would be stunned.
After all, the Second Magic allows one to observe infinite parallel worlds and travel freely among them. Its basic requirement is infinite energy, and that's only the beginning...
How did the Church manage to injure such a being back in 300 A.D.? Likely only Zelretch himself and the Church members present at the time knew.
Theoretically, the Marshal was one of her enemies, yet Eltnam understood: if she was to oppose the Church, he and those mages were her potential allies. But... was it truly possible to defeat the Church, now in its prime?
She doubted it. In her years of wandering, she had seen many Dead Apostles mercilessly slaughtered. Not that she particularly cared for her kind, but still... there was something sorrowful in witnessing their steady march toward extinction.
"I'm not interested in this."
"Of course. You're not one to be easily persuaded. Oh well, then."
The Marshal nodded slowly, while Eltnam remained unfazed.
"He's been dead for quite some time. I have to see to the Black Wing Lord's remains—he was loyal."
After stating this plainly, the seemingly fourteen-year-old black-haired girl left Constantinople alone, without her guards. Just a girl and her dog, headed to Britain.
---
Now, back to the present—
Eltnam muttered an incantation under her breath. The air itself seemed to change. The magical hound on her shoulder began to cheer and fidget in excitement.
The Black Keys pinning the Black Wing Lord's corpse dissolved in an incomprehensible manner, swept away by a conjured black blizzard.
It felt like winter had descended in an instant. The cold cut like blades against skin. Ice clawed at the earth as though trying to drag itself into this place.
The black frost was like the breath of the dead, devouring sunlight and swallowing all in its path. The area around Eltnam and the Black Wing Lord's corpse, including the entire village, was engulfed in a veil of death. Only the whisper of the wind and the trickling of streams could be heard. No sense of life remained—it was as if all existence had vanished.
Moments later, the darkness dissipated.
When the Princess reappeared, the corpse was gone. Everyone in Blackmoore Village had fallen into unconsciousness.
"You were blessed by him. So take this—his final gift."
As Eltnam, now pale-faced, muttered these words, a golden beam of light suddenly pierced the sky in the western reaches of Wales. It struck like a divine spear from the heavens.
She froze. Even Cath Palug blinked in astonishment, mouth agape.
What was that?
Her body moved faster than her mind could process the question. Before she could think, she was already racing toward the light's origin.
And what she saw there—
The Church's Welsh branch in Brocéliande had been completely obliterated. The great cathedral at the center of the city looked like it had been scooped out by a divine hand, leaving only raw earth and deep craters.
The thick scent of blood still lingered in the air, too fresh to have faded. It had been ages since she'd smelled such rich, human blood. The Princess, who had long survived on animal blood while in hiding, couldn't help but swallow hard.
As she moved closer, she saw the broken, dazed figure of the Sword Monk Be'ze, a Black Key still plunged into his heart—likely to suppress his vampiric urges.
And in front of him sat a silver-haired human, panting heavily, cradling a gun.
"You are...?"
Eltnam tilted her head with curiosity.
"You're a Dead Apostle, right? Please... take me somewhere to rest. Thanks."
The silver-haired human didn't answer her question—he just collapsed forward in exhaustion.
Somehow, without quite knowing why, she reached out and caught him.
And then it hit her—
This smell...
Just inhaling it made her want to devour him.
For the first time since her birth, the Black Princess felt the urge...
To eat a human.
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