Chapter 61: The Empty Half

The heavy, freezing rain had not completely stopped.

It had only grown quieter, the apocalyptic fury bleeding out of the sky.

Beyond the shattered archway of the ruined Hero’s Lair, cold rainwater streamed down the broken white stone walls, gathering in dark pools across the flooded courtyard. The unnatural storm that had surrounded the fortress during Kōya’s battle with Zeref was finally losing its strength.

But the darkness of the territory remained absolute.

Kōya stood silently beneath the archway, looking out at the rain. Stormfront hung at his side, its dark blade dragging slightly against the wet stone.

The Lightning Sword felt incredibly heavy.

Not because of the physical weight of the steel.

Because of what the weapon now represented.

Yuna. The arrogant monster, Zeref. The parasitic curse. The beautiful years of her life that had been meticulously stolen. And the fragmented ancient memories that stubbornly refused to become whole in his mind.

Kōya slowly turned his head, looking back down the long corridor toward the ruined inner altar.

The massive storage crystal was still sitting exactly where he had left it.

It was visibly cracked down the center and completely darkened.

Yet, it was not entirely dead.

A faint, sickly pulse moved sluggishly through its dark interior.

Once.

Then again.

Kōya’s eyes narrowed.

He had almost walked away from the stone. Almost.

But his heightened Demonic senses realized that something was still actively moving inside the core of the crystal.

It was not a lingering memory or a fragmented voice.

It was something significantly deeper and far more dangerous.

The remnants of Zeref’s pure Demonic essence.

Kōya walked deliberately back down the ruined corridor toward the shattered altar.

His heavy boots stepped loudly through the shallow, blood-stained water covering the ancient stone floor.

As he approached, the crystal gave another weak pulse. Thick, violet-black light spread sluggishly through the deep fractures in the glass.

Kōya stopped directly in front of it.

"So, you are not quite finished."

The broken crystal answered with silence.

He raised his scarred right hand.

The volatile Demonic essence immediately responded to his superior aura.

It was faint now, nothing like the suffocating presence the Demon Peer had projected in life. There was no active consciousness remaining inside it. No arrogant personality.

There was only raw, unfiltered power.

The remnants of a legendary Demon Peer that had violently lost its owner.

Kōya placed his bare right hand flat against the cold surface of the cracked crystal.

The arcane response was instantaneous.

The remaining Demonic essence rapidly moved. Dense, violet-black energy flowed aggressively from the surrounding air and the shattered floor, gathering toward the palm of his hand.

Kōya felt the dark energy pass through his circulatory system.

It was not violent. It did not feel like an aggressive attack. It simply settled.

The ancient energy followed the exact same internal arcane pathway it had used moments before, flowing directly toward the specialized storage vessel that had once patiently carried Yuna’s accumulated Heroic Mana.

The massive crystal trembled violently on the altar.

A deep, dark glow appeared at the very bottom of its interior.

Kōya watched the arcane process carefully, tracking the volume.

The violet-black energy began rapidly collecting within the lower half of the crystal. A small, dense amount at first. Then significantly more.

The empty interior steadily filled with the dark, heavy color of concentrated Demonic Mana.

Kōya’s expression hardened into cold stone.

"So, this is exactly where you are going."

The crystal continued absorbing the remaining essence from the atmosphere.

The process took several agonizing seconds.

Then, the final fragment of Zeref’s dark power disappeared from the ruined altar room.

Absolute silence returned.

Kōya removed his hand from the glass.

The massive crystal remained securely suspended in the damaged mechanism of the altar.

But its vast interior was no longer empty.

Exactly one half of the massive vessel now contained a dense, swirling pool of violet-black Demonic Mana.

The other half remained completely clear. Untouched.

Empty.

Kōya stared at the division.

He had personally seen the entire crystal filled to the brim with Yuna’s radiant Heroic Mana. He had watched all of that pure power violently leave the vessel and enter his own body.

Now, Zeref’s remaining Demonic essence occupied the exact same arcane vessel.

Two different powers. Two violently different origins. The exact same container.

Kōya reached his hand toward the glass again, hovering just an inch away.

"Why?"

No answer came from the dark stone.

His analytical eyes moved critically across the structure of the crystal.

It was not actually Stormfront itself. The legendary Lightning Sword remained a separate entity, resting heavily in his other hand.

This object was simply a dedicated vessel. A highly advanced, ancient storage component. It had successfully carried Yuna’s accumulated holy power, and inexplicably, it could now seamlessly retain a Demon Peer’s dark essence.

That fact alone defied most known arcane theories he had studied at the Academy.

But what bothered Kōya significantly more was the empty half.

Exactly half the massive vessel contained the dense Demonic Mana. Exactly half remained completely untouched.

It was almost as if the crystal itself had been originally designed and built to hold a volume of raw power far, far greater than what the legendary Zeref had left behind.

Kōya frowned deeply.

"I do not understand what you actually are."

The crystal gave no response, simply pulsing with dark light.

He let his hand fall back to his side.

He would investigate the arcane mechanics of the vessel later.

Right now, there was something else he could clearly hear over the rain.

Voices.

Incredibly faint. Distant. Muffled by heavy stone. Coming from deeper inside the bowels of the fortress.

Kōya turned his head quickly, his combat instincts flaring.

His cold expression changed immediately.

The massive Lair had not been empty.

He had known logically there were likely human prisoners held here. The survivors in the valley camp had told him as much. But the apocalyptic battle with Zeref had entirely consumed his attention.

Now that the roaring Demon Peer was permanently gone, the sprawling fortress had become painfully quiet.

And within that new quietness, the smaller sounds of misery became impossible to ignore.

The rattling of heavy iron chains. Soft, shuffling footsteps. Terrified whispers in the dark. Muffled crying.

Kōya’s grip tightened around the hilt of Stormfront.

He immediately began walking deliberately toward the sound.

The deeper, subterranean chambers of the fortress were heavily damaged by the seismic shockwaves of the battle above. Thick stone walls had collapsed into the corridors. Massive support pillars had cracked dangerously. Large sections of the vaulted ceiling had fallen, blocking the main passages with debris.

Yet, the fortified lower holding chambers had stubbornly survived the destruction.

Kōya finally reached a massive, iron-barred door at the end of a long, dark hall.

A dozen terrified, filthy faces looked desperately through the rusted bars.

Some were clearly human. Others belonged to different subjugated races from the borderlands. Men. Women. Terrified young people. Exhausted older people.

Many were injured, bleeding from fresh lashes. Some wore little more than torn rags against the freezing dampness of the dungeons.

Almost all of them had heavy, rusted iron chains locked tightly around their bruised wrists and ankles.

Every single one of them stared at Kōya in absolute, petrified silence.

Nobody dared to speak a word to the blood-soaked figure holding the legendary Lightning Sword.

Kōya looked clinically at the heavy iron locks securing the cell. Then, he looked directly at the desperate people.

"How many others?"

Nobody answered him. The fear was too deeply ingrained.

Finally, a battered older man huddled near the back of the cell whispered, his voice cracking.

"More."

Kōya looked intensely at him. "There are more cells?"

The man nodded frantically. "Many different chambers. Further down."

Kōya’s dark eyes hardened into glacial resolve.

He stepped confidently forward.

The ancient Hero Sword strapped across his back gave off a faint, comforting golden glow. A perfectly controlled amount of pure Heroic Power flowed smoothly down his left arm.

He reached out and touched the massive iron lock.

*Crack.*

The heavy metal split apart, the internal mechanisms melting under the holy heat.

The heavy iron door groaned and swung open.

The prisoners immediately recoiled in sheer terror, pressing themselves desperately against the back wall of the cell.

Kōya took a deliberate step backward, clearing the narrow exit.

"You are free."

Absolute silence.

The simple words seemed almost meaningless to them, a concept they could no longer process.

A younger woman stared at him, her eyes wide with disbelief. "Free?"

"Yes."

She looked nervously past him toward the dark, open corridor, expecting a demonic ambush.

Nobody moved an inch toward the door.

Kōya completely understood the paralysis. Freedom was not something they were accustomed to anymore.

For some of the people in these cages, this dark, damp fortress had been their entire brutal world for years. The iron doors had always been securely locked. The cruel guards had always been standing there with whips. Someone else had always dictated exactly where they were allowed to stand. When they were allowed to eat. When they had to work until their hands bled.

They had been violently conditioned to understand exactly who they belonged to.

And now, there was simply an open, unguarded door.

Kōya looked at them, his expression softening just a fraction.

"You do not owe me anything for this."